We started today’s class learning about something called QR codes. I had no idea what they were, but now realize that they are everywhere. I recall seeing them at Tim Horton’s, in magazines and even on the side of a bus! QR codes are small representations of a lot of information, and this can be a great tool for the classroom. A teacher could create a QR code from a website, article, or even a series of things, and all the student has to do to access the information is scan the code! Easy as 1-2-3! Follow the link below for a "How to" generate, scan and use QR Codes!
A very interesting question was asked in class today: Should parents be required to purchase technology for their children to use in school, or should the School Board provide children with the newest technologies? One of my classmates was frustrated when her son came home and asked for a IPOD because they were using them in class. Not every family has the money to purchase this type of technology, and if the teachers are using them in the classroom, the technology should be available to the students. We did not dive into this debate today, so stay tuned for the debate in a later post!
We spent the latter part of the class doing a reading task analysis. I found this task difficult. We were asked to read a passage from a journal, and analyze what we were doing at every point of the process. My initial thoughts were that you have to look at the passage, so sight would be the first component to reading. From there, we need to recognize letters, know which sounds match each letter, and be able to string a series of sounds together to create words, sentences and paragraphs. After working on this with a partner, we started discussing as a group, and it made me realize the complexity that is involved with the reading process.
Before a student even looks at a page to start reading, environmental factors must be considered: getting comfortable, noise, distractions, self-regulation. There are also emotional factors to consider, as well as nutritional components. In short, the students must be able to attend to the task because in the words of Barb Welsford, “Attention is the gateway to learning”. Our long term memory reminds us to start reading from the top left hand corner of the page, and move left to right, top to bottom. We have etched these patterns in our brains. Recognizing that we are looking at letters, and they are mapped to sounds are all part of our long term memory. Memory plays a major role in the reading process; it all comes back to brain processing.
So, what does all of this mean for our students? What if a student can memorize words, so teachers think he is a good reader, but as soon as he is presented with an unfamiliar word, he is unable to decode it? Many times, students fall through the cracks. Children that can memorize well instead of learning to decode can sometimes trick us, and we don’t realize the skills they are using to read. What happens if a student has difficulty reading? If a student has a difficult time extracting information because he can’t decode the information, as teachers, we have to be able to allow him access to information in another way; this is where Assistive Technology comes in to play.
New learning requires selective attention and the recall of information that relies on the electronic activity of neurons. We have to give our students the tools to be successful! We can't expect that they are all going to learn in the same way, so we need to treat them as individuals. I would love to be the monkey...
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