Journal 9

"Are Schools Inhibiting 21st Century Learning?" by Dave Nagel

Despite the idea that technology in education has contributed to the growth of learning in our schools, students seem to feel that teachers and technology departments are limiting our learning with the technology that is, in essence, supposed to actually facilitate learning. Unfortunately parents, staff, and teachers are completely oblivious to the barriers to learning. In fact, in a questionnaire that surveyed nearly 400,000 parents, students, administrators, and teachers, a majority of the students felt deprived of their learning because of all the limitations that are set on their use of technology in schools, such as web filtering. On the other hand, parents, administrators, and teachers strongly believed that schools were doing a good job getting students ready for jobs and their futures in general. Although these responses were quite different, students and teachers did come to an agreement that there is definitely value in the use of electronic learning, including gaming used for educational purposes. Many students believed that educational gaming simply made it easier to learn, funner and more interesting to learn, and overall it helped students learn more. And while teachers had even more good things to say about educational gaming, only 11 percent of teachers surveyed said they were currently using educational gaming in their classrooms.

Questions:
1. How do you feel about 21st century learning?
I think the use of technology in the classroom is wonderful because it encourages student participation and student learning both at the same time. And with certain technological tools such as educational gaming, students are apt to take in more information about certain subjects, merely because the learning is formatted in such a way that students could enjoy. I am currently working with 4th graders at Central Elementary School in Escondido, and I have noticed that their eagerness and motivation to learn is strikingly high and I am almost positive that a lot of it has to do with the fact that the teacher encourages the use of technology with her students.

2. Do you think educational gaming is, in fact, educational?
I think that it really depends on the student, because for some students, educational gaming through the use of technology could serve as quite a distraction, but for others, it could provide a useful and beneficial way of learning. But overall speaking, educational gaming can be beneficial for teachers and students alike, as it provides students with a fun way of making learning easier, while also providing teachers with a way to get students to want to learn different concepts in the classroom.