I thought I would take the opportunity to use this first blog midterm entry to voice the connection I've noticed between my intended career as a high school English teacher and my current educational coursework here at Post. This is my last semester of classroom instruction before student teaching in the spring. I am taking many methods courses and as I engage in the research and assignments required for them, I notice that a major focus of education is technology; specifically, the incorporation of technology into the lessons that teachers plan to teach their students - every lesson. This is so much the case that technology is even included in the NYS Standards for each content area of instruction i.e. English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Art, Music, and the like.
I recently reviewed a lesson on Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre that set out to teach students about and help them explore the limitations and expectations placed on Victorian women during that time in history.What impressed me most about this lesson with regard to it’s incorporation of media is the fact that it manages to successfully employ media into every aspect of the three class period lesson plan. For example, the full e-text of Jane Eyre is available via the EdSitement-reviewed University of Virginia Electronic Text Center. This makes it easily accessible for the students and minimizes potential problems when reading /teaching a novel like leaving the book at home or not being able to procure a copy from the library. Also, a really fun part of the lesson is the “Victorian Women’s Rights” online game. The game is played by knocking on the proverbial doors of Victorian opportunity in an effort to answer questions about the lifestyles and expectations of Victorian women i.e. When did women win the right to a university education? When could they keep their earnings for themselves? This could be used as an introductory/motivational activity that serves a dual purpose of assessing students’ prior knowledge of the subject matter being presented.
The two examples mentioned above are just two of approximately ten websites utilized in this lesson as a means of bringing technology into the classroom and using it to assist in making the information presented clear, interesting, and hopefully relevant to the students to whom it is being taught. The use of technological supplements to a lesson, when done properly, has the overwhelming potential to improve hands on learning and increase experiential learning activities. It was impossible that the development and the wide usage of technology in our daily life wouldn’t affect the educational system. Since the beginning of 90’s, where the first personal computers appeared in schools, many other technologies have penetrated the education, and teachers have gained experience on using technology. As the technical skills of instructors increase, so do their ideas; technical departments are increasingly pressed to provide solutions. One of the most recent solutions on that area is what is called Media rich learning. “Media-rich” can be defined as incorporating the use of high-quality video, audio and animation as part of the learner’s experience. When used in the right environment, media-rich learning methods improve skills dramatically. They help boost retention and improve learner satisfaction, while decreasing learning costs and time.
Technologies make possible new approaches to learning/teaching, new contexts for learning/teaching, new tools to support learning/teaching, and new ideas of what can be learned/taught. I believe the websites used in this lesson plan achieve all of these proposals. It has, much to the credit of the integration of technology, taken what could be initially viewed by students as an old and boring novel and transform it into a piece of literature that stretches the minds of those who read it, irrespective of culture, class, or time in history.
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