I maintain that I was thinking and according to DesCartes that means I exist, but Google disagreed. Oh well, we found me and life can continue. (I know everyone was very worried about my (and Leping's) temporary lack of existence.)
The difficulties of logging in to Google Docs aside there were some interesting things tonight. As I wrote in my blog about the reading for today I was interested in the idea of Digital Immigrants/Natives. At some point Esther said she believed it might be more of a continuum than the extremes set out by Prensky. This makes sense to me. I typically prefer to read on paper over on the screen, but I actually kind of like to read the shorter articles on line. The longer (denser) articles are easier for me to read in print because I mark things on them and can keep track of my place. This doesn't work on the computer, when I scroll the highlighted items don't match...maybe I shouldn't use a highlighter. ;)
Just in reading I was feeling a little of the combination Native/Immigrant. Sometimes I copy and paste bits in a document when I read online, and print out those ideas later (to carry in my notes), sometimes I jot them down on paper. Both are effective.
Esther also asked us about writing. Do I always write by hand before typing? NO!!! Sometimes, I do write by hand. I do this when I've been taking notes from books, or happen to be somewhere else when the perfect beginning strikes me. Because the handwrite, then type philosophy was so drilled into me as I went through elementary and high school it is hard to escape. I feel a little guilty that I don't want to write a perfect outline with color coded note cards everytime. And there is something a little soothing about the feel of a good pen (or pencil) going across the paper.
However, I often grab my notes and sit down to write. I type much faster than I write and can edit very swiftly. I've never been afraid to just set my words down on the screen. I don't feel very Immigranty about writing, I feel very native.
Having taught writing at the 7th grade through 12th grade levels I must confess to a desire to edit/correct student papers by hand. It is easier for me to talk through the changes with a student when we have the paper in front of us rather than the computer screen. The other advantage is that a piece of paper does not block the view of the other students while a computer may do just that. So in the proofing of paper I feel like I'd probably be more immigrant than native.
I realize we talked about a lot of other things today, but that darn Prensky article was the one that tripped my inner dialogue.
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5 comments:
Funny (re. highlighting and scrolling)! Although I suspect it's possible nowadays. We'll talk more about that in class (please remind me).
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by the computer blocking the view of the student during editing. I do a lot of reviewing of student papers online, primarily through Track Changes in Word, although I do a good number of reviewing on paper to, normally just to rest my eyes.
Oh, and I suspect that a lot of us type faster than we write, although I suspect that voice-based technology will become much more popular in the immediate future.
It's good we experienced the accacident of non exixtance so that we can understand our future students' feelings when the similar situation happens and also be more prepared of lesson planning
I completely agree that it's easier to grade and edit essays when they're in the form of a hard copy and right in front of me. This week I decided to print off the articles so that I could mark them up. I feel like I retained a lot more information than I would have if I wouldn't have printed them off. But then maybe it's all in my head because I did print them off.
I had difficulties in finding and adding you to bloglines, I don't know the exact reason yet, maybe it has to do with browsers, but the gadget to put in your page helped me a lot to keep track of what you are writing.
And talking about writing, you mentioned at the end of your post that you rather edit/correct students papers by using paper and pencil. Well I do that too just because I can carry those papers with me and work on them as I'm having lunch. But personally I like to use the computer better. I do this only in word documents and there is a feature that keeps track of the changes you make in their papers. It uses a red color and allows you to insert comments, I really recommend it, besides you save the file and in that way you or your students create a history of the editing process.
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