I know I've linked to it previously, but you really should check out the comments (74 as of this writing) on this post on the Learning and Laptops blog. Our students continue to have an amazing discussion with thoughtful and impassioned insights into their views on laptops and education in general.
But what I think I like the most is how they are listening and responding to each other. Here's just one example of many. First, Ayla posts a comment where she uses the word 'insinuating." Later on Joanne disagrees with Ayla, but also indicates she thinks Ayla used 'insinuating' incorrectly. Ben then chimes in with some definitions of insinuate that seem to support the way Ayla used it. Joanne comes back with other definitions of insinuate that support her view. But then Joanne comes back one more time and says she spent some more time thinking about the word "insinuating" and agrees that Ayla used it correctly and apologizes to Ayla. Note that she still disagrees with what Ayla said, but she is taking the time to both revise her thinking on one aspect of her argument and to be civil and respectful.
As election season approaches, I only wish our political candidates would conduct themselves in a similar manner.
My goodness! I almost didn't want to post because the discussion had gone on so long! I think we need more non-laptop people to join in, and like Will said, more teachers who both have laptops and who don't have laptops.
ReplyDeleteThat was making my head spin! I guess i am the mixed bag with having laptops in some classes and not in the other. For one, I think the hard part is the uncertaininty of the laptops. I have 3 sections of western civ, two of them have access to the laptops. One of my issues is creating a different prep for the 2 sections that have the laptops. I have only used the laptops 2 times this semester and when i used them they were great. However, I guess my biggest issue is taking the lesson plans/ideas that i have and changing them so that they can work both with laptops or without, or what I have decided to do is have the 3rd class go to the lab. Hearing from the students i get a lot of positive feedback. One of the best things that I have noticed from using the laptops is teaching students to problem solve with computers. Its been a great lesson that I did not think about but many of the students have had some creative ideas when the technology fails, well not completly fails but falters.
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