Podcast Complete 2 Learning Lounge(Margaret, Laney, Trinity, Laney)

The podcast hosts discuss their experiences with technology in their elementary school classrooms. They mention limited access to computers and iPads, with technology use being more of a special treat rather than a daily occurrence. They also discuss the introduction of smart boards and iPads in later grades. The hosts express concerns about the overuse of technology in classrooms, particularly for reading, as they believe physical books offer unique benefits. They discuss the potential benefits of technology for personalized learning in subjects like math, but emphasize the importance of using technology with clear intention and not as a substitute for play-based learning and social interaction. They also mention the impact of COVID-19 on increased technology use in schools. Hi everyone, welcome to our podcast. In this episode we are going to talk about how as early childhood education majors our concerns about being able to incorporate technology into our classrooms in developmentally appropriate ways. We are also reflecting on our experiences using technology in elementary school compared to how technology is used now. I'm Margaret, I'm Fiona, I'm Lainey, and I'm Trinity. Growing up in our personal experiences technology was a lot different than it is now in the classrooms. In my personal experience I never used technology in a classroom until I was in fourth grade when we had our first smart board. I agree. My experience with technology in elementary school was fairly limited. We never had class sets of computers or class sets of iPads, we would have like carts that would roll from different classrooms and like one computer lab and you'd go occasionally. But we never used technology daily, like probably maybe once a week and we never got like computers to ourselves until middle school. Yeah, I went to a private school and I don't think I saw any screens in the classroom. I didn't even have the technology lab until I was in sixth grade and we took a typing class and we all had our own Chromebooks. Yeah, I had the same thing as you Margaret. I had probably technology once a week. I had the computer lab but that was for like when we did specials and stuff. But besides that I remember smart boards coming in around like third grade whenever they had like the projector and stuff but besides that I really, there wasn't really a whole lot of technology in the classroom. When I was in fifth grade, not fifth grade, when I was in fourth grade a fifth grade teacher won the lottery and bought iPads for her whole class but it was only that class and the whole school went wild over it. They were so excited and even that was like a special treat. Then I had that teacher when I got to fifth grade and she ended up donating them to the library so we didn't actually get to use them until we got to the library and that still wasn't an everyday thing. It was like a special treat and we maybe spent like a few minutes on the iPads but not the whole special. That's so funny. I'm going to be honest, I don't think that's how I'd spend my library money but like nowadays you wouldn't even have to because like every single class you walk into has a class set of computers or iPads depending on like how old the kids are. But we only used it, like we would use certain apps like typing pal was a big one, that's how I learned like how to type and then we would like use it for math games like IXL which I think like everybody used and then there was this one monster math game but I just can't remember what it's called but that was like a treat like you had to finish your other work to go on the monster math game. Not monster math, I remember I mean this wasn't like really math games but like cool math games. Oh yeah. There was some stuff on there that was like accepted but then other stuff was like not really. That was forbidden in my school. We got that taken away. Yeah. That was weird. So people like didn't use it, that was like also before I don't like once we got to middle and high school and they gave us computers we would have like GoGuardian, I don't know if you guys had that but it was like through Google Chrome like you the teachers could watch your screens to see what you were doing so like if you were taking a test or if you were supposed to be like looking something up and you weren't on the right tab like they would they could close your tabs for you so that like if we had that when we were in elementary school they would have been closing our tabs all the time. So I think nowadays kindergartners are using iPads for example one of my cousin's teachers at a school and she was telling me about how in her class she does kindergarten first and second grade and instead of like reading books physically in the library they have an app on their iPads so the librarian will talk for a few minutes and then they'll read books on their iPads but the more they read the more like badges they get for reading so it's a good use to like help you read but I also don't agree that these students should be using the iPads in a library class. Yeah I feel like there's some good ways to use technology in classes that can track their development throughout all of elementary school and see where they place compared to others. I feel like reading off of them is a little much because there's so many amazing books in the library I feel like that's a little unnecessary to have it on a screen. Yeah like they're sitting there on their iPads when they're surrounded by hundreds of books yet they're reading on their iPads with like blue light getting in their eyes and like all of that not getting in their eyes but all of that. Yeah I agree I think that like there's some benefits especially when they can track your learning but with regards to reading there's also so many like benefits to holding a book and like fine motor skills and teaching you how to like you know pinch the pages and get there or like being able to track your reading like I know that was a big thing like using your finger to be able to track your reading and be able to break it down and then even using like skills like how to learn how to find a book in the library and find titles like those are all skills that teach you more than just how to sit and read a book but how to like I don't know it's just it's just sad that like you don't get to read like the book and I think it is good like you guys were saying if you need to like not like test your students but like to be able to have like a benchmark of where each student is and like that can be done a lot easier if they're doing it on a website than if you have to like meet with every single one of them but it's also good too to hear them speak out loud to you and if they're only talking if they're only reading a book and they're just like seeing it and not speaking out loud too that's that could affect like their language and speaking skills. Yeah from my personal experience working at a preschool I'm a teacher assistant but the main teacher has like a little library in his classroom and he requires the kids to like read like pick out a book and like obviously they don't know how to read yet but it really helps them and like flipping the pages and like going through the books and like I think that'll really help them but then once they get to elementary school that might be ruined with like reading on iPads or computers and they might forget like how to do that. Yeah I feel like growing up I remember doing like having like little reading logs and we had like books that our teacher would give us but she would also track like our reading like in second really second grade like as you started getting into like bigger books like more chapter books you would start going from like I guess harder reading levels that your teacher would keep track of so she would send you home with harder books for you to read throughout the week but she like had kind of the same ones but would rotate them with everyone so everyone kind of read the same thing but you also were able to like talk about it but also develop like that but I definitely feel like being able to track it the other way is a lot easier and you have a lot more options being on the internet but I still feel like using technology in the classrooms too much still have a lot of negatives through like like you said like their eyes like seeing too much blue light all the time I know like me staring at a computer for hours yeah it like really strange your eyes and especially at such a young age too I feel like they should not be exposed to that much technology I feel like if teachers want to integrate the technology into the classroom there should be a lot more limits than there are right now yeah definitely yeah there's definitely a time and place to have technology like reading books obviously if you have books around you there's really no need to have them on technology yeah I agree I think that's something that we talked about a lot in our in this integrating technology in teaching class is to utilize technology with a clear intention because I think technology in the classroom has a lot of benefits like we're talking about it can kind of it's good that it can kind of track students learnings and like especially like with regards to math too if each student has their own individual account on some sort of math platform and then their learning is specific to what they need help with rather than that's better than giving all students the same worksheet where some students are going to find that too easy and some students are going to find that too difficult but again that the intention behind that is beneficial because you're doing that with your students in mind but to just like hand them a computer or hand them an iPad for like free time like there's so many benefits to to communicating with others and play-based learning like physical touching things to that I think you just have to be very cautious of the intention behind it and I think that's important too because we're all planning on teaching early childhood we're like our students aren't going to be using computers to type a paper yeah I had a teacher tell me one time that you'll never learn from someone that you don't like and I feel like if students are kind of constantly you know on the computer not really doing anything very engaging that they enjoy they're not really going to want to have the desire or like like coming to school in the first place so I don't feel like that's very beneficial and if you're you know not learning something that you like in a way that you like I also feel like COVID has a big part in why schools are using more technology now I feel like because during COVID everything was online some teachers just don't know how to not use technology in the classroom now but I think honestly taking a step back from that would be a lot more beneficial for students learning and I think a lot of it too isn't even just the teachers it's the school districts and the people who aren't even in the classrooms that are making these decisions and kind of like forcing teachers to use all these new platforms and things that they might not even know how to use because that's what people are telling them and what like the state's standards are and stuff like that so I think again it just comes back to like being able to identify why you're using the technology versus why you wouldn't be because same thing if you're giving them a piece of paper to do a worksheet on there should be an intention behind that too so everything that you give to students and everything that you introduce them to should have an intention and should benefit and support their learning in some way I agree I agree I also think like with technology it is really helpful like for class but I know I definitely learn best when I write stuff out like if I'm studying for a test I know I have to sit down and actually write it out with pen and paper like typing it down I don't understand like really process what I'm doing I'm kind of just typing out the words but when I'm writing it down I actually like think about what I'm writing down right okay thank you everyone for listening bye