I'm old school.I prefer my CDs, LPs and even cassettes to my i-Pod.
(In fact, I only have one song on my i-Pod and I forget what that is.)
I prefer hand written letters to e-mail.
I prefer real tiddies to silicon implants.
I prefer short hair to weaves.
I prefer hard back books to web pages.
I prefer humans to the Internet.
I was raised in an era when one was stimulated through more tactile experiences.
But kids today may be hardwired differently.
Most of today's children are accustomed to devices that were thought to be the wishful thinking of science fiction movies to an earlier generation.
Many of today's children don't really know what being poor is.
When we said we were poor - we meant that we had no food in the house (Not even that nasty block of fake government cheese.).
Today's' kids mean that they have run out of Hot Pockets.
When we said we needed new shoes - we meant that our shoes "were talking" (The soles were beginning to come apart from the body of the shoe and flapped when we would walk.) or that we had worn a hole in our shoes.
Today's kids mean that they don't have a pair of shoes which exactly matches the color of the underwear poking out from the top of their sagging pants.
Many of today's kids aren't really poor - not even the poor ones.
Many of today's kids have never experienced recess or P.E or have been on a sports team.
(Many parents didn't wish to harm their children's fragile self esteem.)
Many of today's children are those who grew up in the entitlement era where some magical genie seemed to provide that which any child would wish.
Many of today's kids don't understand the work that came before the rewards which they so casually enjoy.
But this is "progress".
In this era we need a different incentive or method of teaching.
For some children, using the old outdated textbooks would be akin to us having had to use a slate and chalk in our schooling.
Since many children have more stimulation in their bedrooms than an entire family had in a an entire home a generation ago - learning through video games seems like a obvious answer.
http://www.parade.com/news/2009/12/20-can-video-games-teach-kids.html
It would be if they let the video games companies make it instead of the people at Leap Frog. The problem with most of these games is that they are so boring that they think spelling while catching balloons is going to be just as enticing as Madden.
ReplyDeleteI think we can make a story about a fighting video game and name all the people something historic. Then as they walk through their journey they learn by interacting with people. Just like that damn assassin game my nephew plays.
Then at the end they know a bunch of stuff but didn't think it was practical knowledge. I think someone can definitely do this with the Prince Machavelli book by teaching through a a Kings rights of passage.
Yeah...
ReplyDeleteMy cousins got a hint of Greek/Roman mythology from God of War.
Questioned the effects of methane gas being heated beneath the sea in (I forgot the name of the game).
And looked into Norse mythology from Valkarie Profile.
The games could cost less to produce than the millions spent on textbooks.
The games could have an avatar for each student like the Wii games.
And any history, science or math lesson could be uploaded into each game.
Even many "dumb" kids like the competition of video games.
They could even turn GTA into a game set in the IE and dealing with meth labs for science and math.
A lot can/will be done to bring the system more current.
I'm sure we aren't the first but since there isn't any money in it, it won't get done. So much of learning is through exposure like a catchy tune. How many times can someone remember all the lyrics to a song because the tune was catchy.
ReplyDeleteWe know what works repetition, exposure and phonics all wrapped in a auditory appealing format.
I'll just spank the crap out of my kids, if they ask for stuff.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I read in the paper about a boy who sued amazon because they took back all the electronic versions of The Odyssey that people had bought because they weren't licensed to sell it. He lost all his study notes when this happened. What the article really emphasised was how ephmeral books are when they are electronic and when push comes to shove the real hard copy is indispensable.
ReplyDelete