It is amazing to me that in the technological advanced world we live in that students of today don’t want to take all online classes and use total online learning. Being at the end of Generation X, I have actually only taken 1 online class in my college career. It was one of the first classes offered at the institution that was online. I found not the content to be hard, but the actual class itself to be difficult. It was a class offered on Blackboard and there were very little instructions on how to use the program. I can totally see how students today can get frustrated with the used or lack of use of technology in the classroom. They may know how to figure out texting or a new computer game, but when given an online class with a classroom management program without any instructions, it becomes a difficult task for the student to take the time to figure out how to even get in and work on the site for the online class without even getting into the subject matter.
Students today don’t pay much attention to instructions. They learn by doing especially when it comes to technology. They would rather play with a new cell phone, computer or Ipod to figure out how to get it to work then to sit and read an instructional booklet. Students today and so used to using multi tech gadgets at once that they don’t even think twice about it. Instant messaging and texting becomes second nature to them so it is surprising to me that they still want the face to face instruction from teachers. Maybe they feel that they will get more out of the class using the face to face instructions rather than taking an online test while instant messaging with someone across campus.
What is most surprising to me is that students today who have completely grown up around technology have issues or do not prefer to use course management programs. I think just like the Blackboard course I took years ago, there is not a lot of instruction from institution on these programs. Students can figure out the basics of the course managements, but I am sure there are lots of extras that are available on these programs that students never learn to take advantage of because of a lack of instruction and proper use. There are a lot of advantages that students have today with using these programs such as grades being available from online access so you can stay on top of your academics. Since most faculty for higher learning institutions are not of the net gen, they don’t get the instant response and access that students want today. Students expect from the use of technology for teachers to respond in a fairly fast time because they are so used to having information and the answer at their fingertips. Today’s faculty uses technology as a different means of communication with a student, but may not respond in the time frame that student’s feel is legit. Until there are more net generation students entering the workforce, there will probably always be a technological gap between the faculty and their students. I think course management and using technology in the classroom with explode once the Net Generation is the ones that are instructing because they will know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to technology and education.
The Google Docs program I used for my lesson plan project ended up being a very frustrating task for me. Once I was copy and pasting in my lesson plans, I had issues with the curser not falling where it was actually typing and this made for a very difficult time. I did however like the idea of the google docs and being able to access the document from any computer to work on the project rather than only being able to use word. I think when used correctly this can be a very beneficial tool for the classroom. Students can write papers and send them easily to the teacher for editing and comments without having to worry about using the same system that the student/teacher is using. It could also be great for group projects for students adding information for various locations into one document.
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