Week 2 Explore the outcomes of your teacher survey

Explore the outcomes of your parental/teacher/student teacher survey. Did any responses surprise/challenge you?

I interviewed my friend, who is a 24-year-old primary school teacher in Scotland. I met her on my self-directed placement in Tanzania, where we worked together to plan and teach lessons to primary and secondary school pupils. As technology was not available in the classroom in Africa, we had not discussed the use of these resources in schools, so I was curious to find out what her opinions were. 

I was surprised to discover that she was very much in favour of the use of technology within the classroom, and despite the fact that iPads were not used in her school, she said that she would be 'excited to use them in [her] lessons' and that her pupils would be 'excited and engaged', and that iPads could 'enhance learning experiences if used properly.' However, she did feel that by using multimedia too frequently, pupils may become 'reluctant to sit and listen in other learning activities', and that it may prevent them from stimulating themselves to work. I agree with this: although technology can encourage learning, there is also a fear that the pupils will become addicted to this way of learning. 

She also said that she often links computer games and comics into lessons in order to 'help children consolidate learning in a fun environment' and to engage pupils in reading and writing in 'new, exciting formats'.

During our seminar, we discussed as a group how we felt about popular culture and technology within the classroom; we spoke about how, to an extent, it is beneficial for children to start exploring technology from an early age, but not if it is preventing them from having a healthy and active childhood. We established the fact that reading is still a lack of exercise, nevertheless, I think that reading is highly important for childrens' education and intelligence, whereas video games are not. It could be argued that there needs to be a level of intelligence to complete these games, but if they are mostly violent then this is not good for childrens' mental heath, let alone physical health. 

I am still undecided about the use of iPads in schools as they have both great advantages and disadvantages, but I was shocked when I heard that Steve Jobs, the creator of iPads, did not allow his children to use them. Jobs (2014) stated: 'We have seen the dangers of technology firsthand. I've seen it in myself, I don't want to see that happen to my kids.' The fact that even Jobs saw them as having such a negative impact on people makes me feel very apprehensive about them being introduced in schools! 

Bibliography

Sarah Lesnar . (2014). Why Steve Jobs Didn't Let His Kids Use iPads (And Why You Shouldn't Either). Available: http://nextshark.com/why-steve-jobs-didnt-let-his-kids-use-ipads-and-why-you-shouldnt-either/. Last accessed 5th Oct 2014.