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What is the importance of information literacy
What is the importance of information literacy
Computers in elementary education
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Introduction
With the increasing need for technology proficient students, educational computing needs to start at an early age. Computing should be involved in each level of education from K-12 to higher education. This essay will cover the issues, challenges, and conclusions of computing education methods in different educational levels, internet in education, using “edutainment” within curriculum, and teaching information literacy.
Background Literature
Learning can be described as a process of interaction of student-to-professor, student-to-student, student-to-material, and student-to-expert/practitioner. Traditionally, a students learning is limited to class lectures, face-to-face discussions, office visits, quizzes, and tests (Wang, 2007, p280). Wang states that student learning quality can be improved by increasing these basic interactions. According to Wang, the Internet can improve the quality of these interactions when integrated into the classroom setting. The Internet improves the interaction of student-to-professor, student-to-student,
student-to-material, and student-to-expert/practitioner (Wang, 2007, p 281). According to Wang, traditional classroom learning has extreme limitations. Most information is dispensed in lecture, especially in a college setting, and assessed with a test. Students have very little time to reflect and to express their thoughts and feelings about what is taking place. They have very little time to communicate to the professor what they are learning or having difficulty learning after each class session. Often students misconceive what they read and what they hear in a lecture setting. These misconceptions are carried through into an examination and are seldom resolved
(Wang, 2007, p 281).
Mary Green and Mary Nell McNeese believe that video games are an untapped resource in education. They refer to games that could be educational as “edutainment.” The main purpose of edutainment is to promote student learning through exploration, interactivity, trial and error, and repetition in such a way that students get so lost in the fun, that they don’t realize they are learning at the same time. By playing digital games, students exercise various skills such as strategizing, and problem solving to conquer the enemy, save the princess, or find the hidden treasure (Green, 2007, p 6).
In our modern age there is a constant need to point fingers and call something evil that was only made to better people’s lives. It happened with the television, it happened with the internet, and now this epidemic has set its sights on videogames. This media has been unfairly criticized, mainly by parents, since its release. They claim it causes violence and isolation but more over, in their arrogance, claim it is nothing more than a blatant waste of time. What these people don’t see is the true nature and potential for videogames and those who partake in the experiences they have to offer. Videogames provide a person with not only the opportunity to enhance their social and analytical skills, but also offer them the potential for tangential learning.
With the rapid growth of technology in America’s society today, the use of computers in school classrooms has increased tremendously—an action that certainly has become beneficial to students, educators, and parents. The use of computers has positively skyrocketed over the past ten years. Not only are computers utilized daily in large companies across the world, but the everyday use in classrooms has also become prevalent. Using modern technology to assist school instructors with his or her daily lessons should definitely be regarded as a positive, acceptable method of instruction and not definitely does not prohibit students from understanding or critical thinking.
David Gelernter author of the essay, “Unplugged: The Myth of Computers in the Classroom,” used some rhetorical appeals but not many in his essay, whilst trying to logically persuade his audience that computers could be utilized in the classroom, but under certain stipulations. Gelernter has great credibility for speaking on education and technology, as he is a professor of computer science at Yale University, so he more than anyone should know the outcomes of using a computer as a tool while teaching. However, when it comes to technology a lot of older generations usually are pretty biased when discussing technologies advancements, Gelernter still had some very good points! Using computers while teaching our young children can be useful but with strict moderations; when, where, and why, because if not heavily monitored, computers could be extremely detrimental to the learning experience and processes for many students.
"You can't get much more conventional than the conventional wisdom that kids today would be better off spending more time reading books, and less time zoning out in front of their video games." (Johnson, 27) But Johnson argues that people shouldn't try to determine the value and potential benefits of playing video games by comparing them to reading books, or by using the same criteria they would use to evaluate books, because the two are different mediums, and have their own advantages and limitations. Reading has enormous benefits and should be encouraged more, especially in children, but most people will also engage in other forms of media, which have their own rewards, even if those benefits don't surpass the advantages of reading. "Novels may activate our imagination, and music may conjure up powerful emotions, but games force you to decide, to choose, to prioritize.
Presently, video games aren’t merely toys that negatively influence the youth. They have become an alternative means for people to learn and train for work. Games teach values and essential information, and motivate its players to achieve goals. Soldiers and doctors benefit from video games as well. The collaboration of game developers and educators helps improve the quality of educational games. At present, as technology progresses, one can truly see that video games have become an important factor in learning.
Video games are no longer the uprising form of media that ill informed parents and scientists used to fear; video games are now an established form of entertainment that is just as universally accepted as film or literature. The difference between videogames and mediums like film and literature is that they do not have the higher value that books have in exercising the mind and communicating information, nor do they have the value that films have to intellectually challenge an audience and to make people think. This is the general argument that can be heard voiced by leading intellectuals in various field as well as parents who are rising young children; both claim that videogames
There have been several studies conducted on learning and serious games, for example, a recent study by the Office of Naval Research found that video game players performed ten to twenty percent better in perceptual and cognitive ability than non-game players, and that video games helped adults process information faster(Steinberg,2012). Another study by the Federation of American Scientists found that students re...
Most of the time the Internet makes learning fun, unlike the plain fashion of the "almighty" textbook. Computers and other technology can also heighten the learning process by actively engaging students in the task of exploring data. Some students may be tempted to simply download information from the Internet that does not have anything to do with a particular subject that they were asked to research. This shows that the Internet may have a greater impact to education than to learn that information from a typical textbook. Since computers and the Internet have expanded the way with which
In less than a decade, computer use progressed from programming classes for a few of the better students, to literacy classes for all students, to the integration of computers and technology into the curriculum. Now, there is a goal for educators to use technology as a tool in efforts to teach more effectively by using a variety of strategies to meet different needs in a diverse classroom. This will take training and commitment to keep up in an area that changes quickly, but the benefits to teachers and students are greater that the effort it will take to stay informed; computers increase productivity of students and make learning a fun experience. They help students become better problem-solvers instead of just rote learners.
There are several negative stereotypes associated with video games and those who play them; some of these may often hold true. However, there are plenty of learning opportunities in video games. While the direct purpose of some games is to educate or train, other games that do not directly have this purpose can still become a learning experience for the player. As Ntiedo Etuk, president of the educational video game company Tabula Digital said, “The traditional view of video games has been that they are distractions from the task of learning” (Electronic Education Report 1). Video games are an effective tool for learning and retaining skills both inside and outside the classroom environment. The basic cycle of game play--the introduction to the game, game play, collaboration, improvement of these between each round, and evaluation at the end of the game (Klievink and Janssen 159)--are nearly parallel to the traditional classroom learning cycle of reading a textbook or listening to a lecture, taking a quiz, studying, focusing on items missed on the quiz, and taking a test or exam. Within this cycle, there are many opportunities to develop and perfect both educational, life, and occupational skills.
The concept of “edutainment”- the hybrid of education and entertainment has existed almost as long as video games have. Evidence of this is The Oregon Trail, a game about the colo...
In total the Internet has not only increased the amount of learning possibilities in the classroom but it has created infinite amounts of learning opportunities for students and teachers.
Schools need to incorporate technology education into all areas of curriculum. Students need to be able to understand not only the how-to of computers, but they need to understand when to use it, where to use it, and why it should be used. Many students only have a basic working knowledge of computer...
their dorm room or apartment is sit down at their computer and go online. They proceed to either, read their e-mail, check their online courses for new assignments, or go on one of the many communication websites or programs that are available currently to this generation. None of this would be possible without the readily available Internet access that we often take for granted. The Internet has proven not only useful for entertainment purposes, but has also dramatically changed the educational approach, for both students and educators, and the way knowledge is being obtained.
Children growing up in this generation are experiencing a greater impact from computers than in the past. In the past, children and adult, could make a life without a computer, as it wasn’t a necessity or found to be all that useful from time to time. A higher level of dependency on these computers has been established, and society only has more to come in the future. The technology that comes with these complex machines is becoming more developed and is making everyday tasks simpler for most. Computers have changed our nation in many ways, from the way we operate to the accessibility of worldwide resources such as the Internet we use frequently today. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the fluctuation of the influence of computers on a child’s education in their early years, as it has been in the past, how it is in the present, and how it might be in the future.