Journal #10 NETS 1, 2 and 3

Lawler, J. (2010). Let the kids do the work. L&L—Learning & Leading with Technology, (6), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org

The article, “Let the kids do the work” is about a teacher who discovers that through the access of the internet, via the program wiki, the students in his class have a more effective voice on their peer’s work than he does and are not only self taught but become teachers to the rest of the class including him. He found that because wiki is an online program which the student’s love to use, they are interested in communicating and reading one another’s assignments which allows them to critique one another more effectively. Students respect the opinion of their peers more than the opinion of their teacher and since most students are internet savvy they spend hours talking with each other more honestly about their projects.

This teacher is amazed at how quickly the student’s picked up the concepts of Wiki and he didn’t really have to teach them how to use it. One student even criticized his Wiki design and showed him how to improve its appearance. He let that student teach the class on how to design their Wiki. Another student wrote an essay posting it online and the student’s gave her negative feedback which inspired her to improve it. The teacher believes she would not have cared to develop her essay if it weren’t for the student’s opinions which she took to heart assured that his comments would have been meaningless to her and not motivating enough for her to improve upon.

This teacher goes on to say that one day he forgot to post a lesson on the class wiki for the next day and one of his student’s took the initiative to do it for him. She figured out on her own what needed to be done to post the pages with information on the wiki for the class and he never had to show her how. Another student helped hundreds of other students get their homework done by way of the wiki. This teacher realized that not only are the student’s listening more to their peers, responding to each other about school work, but they are also finding an avenue of communication through the Wiki that surpasses texting, emailing and phone calling. Wiki enables student’s, who normally would be too shy to speak out in class, have an interactive voice in cyberspace where every one carries equal weight.

Question #1: Do you think it is a good idea to let students in your classroom act as instructors? Answer: Yes, because there is much evidence that children of all ages learn best from their peers as they seem to relate to them more so are given more attention. I also think at the same time the teacher should act as the coach along with the student as they instruct a particular lesson, as in this case the child was more technologically experienced than the teacher.

Question #2: Do you think it is important to teach technology in the early grades? Yes, in my experience as a classroom observer, I saw a 3rd grade class go to the computer lab and log on to the web as they created a PowerPoint presentation. I was impressed at how efficient they were and realized that if they can do that at age 9 they can also take on more complicated technological projects and be better prepared for their futures in the work place.