Some people say drill and practice is really "drill and kill." What can teachers do to make sure this kind of use doesn't happen and drill and practice can serve a useful function?
There are two things a teacher needs to do when they’re evaluating a drill and practice situation. The first is to assess whether or not this is the best way to learn the skill, and the second is to find an appropriate software program. Certain skills, especially ones that require automaticity, work especially well for drill and practice (think typing, grammar, multiplication tables). The best thing a teacher can do is to sit down with various software options and use them or test them on a few students for a short period of time to see if they fulfill the promise of skill mastery. The software must be interesting enough that students will stay interested in it, but not overly complicated or too stimulating.
Another thing to keep in mind is the age of the children and their normal attention span. Expecting children in kinder to work at such a program for more than about 10 or 15 minutes would be inappropriate, even though they may zone out in front of television or video games at home for much longer. In order to be a true learning experience, a developmentally appropriate time-frame needs to be addressed.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Discussion - Week 11
Some educators feel that distance technologies will greatly improve education; some feel education will suffer if they are overused. What are factors you can cite in support of each of these positions?
If I lived in a small town or a rural community, the idea of distance education would be very exciting to me, as it would give me opportunities that I wouldn't otherwise have. I grew up in Kansas, and there are so many small, rural schools that can't afford to have AP programs in many subjects, and I think distance education would be a great thing for them. I also have friends who travel for a living and educate their children on the road. Going from traditional correspondence courses to online courses has really made a difference in the types of activities that the kids can learn and also their participation in different types of classes. A lot of them are still using video-type courses, but as reliable mobile Internet services become easier to acquire, I think that will become the dominant form of distance education. Distance education allows these special home-schoolers to have opportunities that their parents can't provide and may also help them work in special learning communities for group work that they wouldn't otherwise learn so easily.
In terms of disadvantages, I think the opportunity for cheating has to be at the top of the list. In the "old days," people would have others take their tests and things like that at large universities, so it only stands to reason that people with enough money could pay someone to get the degree on line for them, too. I know at least 3 people who have gotten degrees completely online, and while I think in these cases they all did all of the work themselves, I don't think that everyone has that same motivation and honesty. In a program that is completely online, anyone can be sitting at the terminal taking the test. I also think that casual interaction with your peers, colleagues and professors can sometimes be almost as beneficial as the course content, and while I know that these programs have a lot of group activities, I don't feel like the bonds that these people have forged on line are as strong as when people meet face to face. In most careers, networking is a huge part of moving up, and if the people you network with all live in different places, it won't help much unless you are able to be very mobile with your career.
If I lived in a small town or a rural community, the idea of distance education would be very exciting to me, as it would give me opportunities that I wouldn't otherwise have. I grew up in Kansas, and there are so many small, rural schools that can't afford to have AP programs in many subjects, and I think distance education would be a great thing for them. I also have friends who travel for a living and educate their children on the road. Going from traditional correspondence courses to online courses has really made a difference in the types of activities that the kids can learn and also their participation in different types of classes. A lot of them are still using video-type courses, but as reliable mobile Internet services become easier to acquire, I think that will become the dominant form of distance education. Distance education allows these special home-schoolers to have opportunities that their parents can't provide and may also help them work in special learning communities for group work that they wouldn't otherwise learn so easily.
In terms of disadvantages, I think the opportunity for cheating has to be at the top of the list. In the "old days," people would have others take their tests and things like that at large universities, so it only stands to reason that people with enough money could pay someone to get the degree on line for them, too. I know at least 3 people who have gotten degrees completely online, and while I think in these cases they all did all of the work themselves, I don't think that everyone has that same motivation and honesty. In a program that is completely online, anyone can be sitting at the terminal taking the test. I also think that casual interaction with your peers, colleagues and professors can sometimes be almost as beneficial as the course content, and while I know that these programs have a lot of group activities, I don't feel like the bonds that these people have forged on line are as strong as when people meet face to face. In most careers, networking is a huge part of moving up, and if the people you network with all live in different places, it won't help much unless you are able to be very mobile with your career.
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