Student Motivation
“If our students appear flat, uninterested, if they don’t seem to care about grades, or if they don’t appear motivated to challenge themselves or able to think critically, we as teachers have not found the way to reach those particular students. Shoveling on more of the same teaching approach—teacher talk and question-answer dialogue that seeks “right” answers much like an oral quiz—may not be the way to stir your students’ interest. We need to discover what their frames of reference are and relate our subject to that, and we need to find methods of actively engaging our students with what we know is valuable in our subject area so that the students experience the value for themselves, rather than listen to our claims and take our word for it. In other words, we need to use our intelligence and imagination in fresh ways.”
Can technology, effectively integrated into a lesson, be one of those fresh ways? Sure. But we need to make certain that we don’t use technology in a superficial way, much like in the quote above where teachers look for “right” answers. Technology not only can be used to help students find and discover information about a subject, but it can be used to help them develop, organize and create representations of what they understand. Through the Internet, software like Inspiration, web design tools, and good questions from teachers, student interest can be sparked and a rich learning experience can be offered to our students.
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