M3: Blog Post 3- Leveraging Tools, Texts, and Talk in My Teaching Context

I've already said a few times that plagiarism is a big risk for students. My opinion is that it inhibits a student's critical thinking skills, and they become too reliant on artificial intelligence to answer questions. When we rely too much on artificial intelligence, "...we miss opportunities to gather real-time, analog cues from our senses" (Garcia, 2017). Artificial intelligence can't replace the feeling of planting seeds in moist soil, or a calf's "sandpaper tongue" as it licks your hand. For that reason, I think that as teachers we need to focus on how technology can enhance our lessons but not replace human or nature connections. 

My school district's strategic plan involves student-centered learning, and to align with this goal I polled my students last year to gauge what their interests in agriculture were. There was an overwhelming interest in animals and in technology. I had hoped to introduce an agriculture technology class this year, but we did not have funding for the supplies. Instead, my courses are dominated by animals. I teach middle school animal science, high school animal science, and a vet science class. I just taught a unit about parasites, and I think it has many possibilities to incorporate both digital and analog components. The analog aspects are the hands-on activities: checking vitals like body temperature, observing fecal samples under a microscope, checking eyelid color for anemia, and observing animal feeding habits. These tasks are just examples of how "...analog literacies remind us to consider the sensory nature of how we make meaning of our surrounding world" (Garcia, 2017). The digital components that I used in this unit were using credible resources to learn about parasite life cycles. Each student was assigned a parasite and it was their job to create a poster on Canva about their parasite. When all posters were complete, we conducted a gallery walk and gave anonymous feedback on the posters. The combination of digital and analog in the parasite unit allows students to act as veterinarians to solve problems in cats, dogs, and livestock. 

The tension that I have with using Canva is how easy it is for students to use the magic write feature or copy and paste from Google AI. My district has a subscription to a browser add-on called Brisk, and I like the feature that allows teachers to review written work for plagiarism. It can tell you how long a student took to type their writing assignment, and shows you where they copy and pasted. This allows me to check my students' work and have conversations with them about improper use of technology.  

My Vet Science class is very terminology heavy. When I was in my first school placement in undergrad, I remember working with a population of numerous Spanish speaking students. My cooperating teacher would make copies of all of the assignments in Spanish, but I couldn't help but think of how those students were absorbing the vocabulary. The sciences are often difficult for kids because of the unfamiliar jargon, and I think it would be amazing to have an app designed to help students retain the vocabulary. In my classroom I bounce back and forth between Quizizz (now called Wayground), Blooket, and Gimkit to aid in repetition of that unfamiliar vocabulary. A tool that gives feedback like the one mentioned in Customized Tech would be ideal (Bowden, 2017).

Another tension with technology is relying on students to come to class with a charged device each day. It's ironic that students come to school every day with their phones charged, AirPods & apple watched charged, but somehow always forget to charge their chromebook. It was becoming a problem in my middle school classes, and some kids were choosing to show up without their folders or chromebooks at all. I started using a strategy called a "materials check" where once a week at random they are given a 5 point participation grade. They get one point for coming prepared with a chromebook, another point for the chromebook being charged 50%+ or having their charger with them, a point for having their agriculture folder, a point for a writing utensil, and then the last point is given to those who are seated and working on their bellwork. I learned this from my cooperating teacher when I student taught, and I do think it helps with building responsibility in students and helping reinforce that they need to be prepared with materials each day since they don't know which day I will choose to conduct a materials check. Students are addicted to technology of their phones, but like the example of not wanting to complete homework on school-issued phones, they can't be bothered to complete homework on their chromebooks (Philip & Garcia, 2013). How do we, as teachers, increase the motivation to use their school-issued technology? Additionally, what alternative assignments should students without their devices be expected to complete?

References:

Bowden, M. (2017). CUSTOMIZED TECH. Literacy Today, 35(3), 26-27. https://sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Ftrade-journals%2Fcustomized-tech%2Fdocview%2F1966005922%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8067 

Garcia, A. (2017). NONDIGITAL SKILLS. Literacy Today, 35(3), 24-25. https://sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Ftrade-journals%2Fnondigital-skills%2Fdocview%2F1966005428%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8067

Philip, T. M., & Garcia, A. D. (2013). The Importance of Still Teaching the iGeneration: New Technologies and the Centrality of Pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 83(2), 300-319,400-401. https://sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Fimportance-still-teaching-igeneration-new%2Fdocview%2F1399327199%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8067