Opinion Paper 2

The article “How to teach with technology: science and math” was written by Sara Bernard in 2009. The article gives examples of high tech teaching and technology integration from teachers’ and students’ classroom experiences. Many of the people interviewed for the article talked about how the tech activities were “fun” and how paper and pencil assignments were “boring”. Activities involving technology motivate the students to actively engage in the learning process and encourage them to make meaningful decisions about their learning.

In the article “Focusing the digital brain”, Marilee Sprenger makes the statement, “Digital natives are motivated by a desire to be busy and in demand.” Although the article also states that this constant buzz of activity is not always positive, a point has been made about how to get today’s students to engage and learn. I have spent time in many meetings where the topic of conversation was how today’s students are not motivated, but have just started to explore the possibility that today’s students are just motivated in a different way.

In the book The Global Achievement Gap, Tony Wagner indentifies three new learning styles: learning through multimedia and connection to others, learning as discovery, and learning through creating. Classroom activities involving technology lend themselves to these learning styles. Using Web 2.0 applications students are now able to collaborate with others to do projects, discover new information using the web, and create new information to share with others. Wagner also talks about three reasons why people are motivated to work or to learn: transfer of habits (traditions and social norms), push (need, threat, or risk) and pull (interest, desire, and passion). Teachers must find a way to provide this pull for our “digital natives.”

Using technology in the classroom is the key to making the students feel like they are busy and in demand and to motivating students and providing them with the pull that they need in order to actively engage in the learning process.

Bernard, S. (2009, June). Kids talk tech. Edutopia, Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-lesson-ideas.

Wagner, T. (2008). The Global achievement gap. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Sprenger, M. (2009, September). Focusing the digital brain. Educational Leadership, 67(1), 34-39.