There have been quite a few life events that have happened over the past month, so I've been slacking on the blogging while so many others have taken on a #MTBOS30 challenge to blog for 30 days straight. To be honest, I didn't want to write about some of the things that were going on in my head. But this one? Man, it sure needs to get typed out.
My thoughts exactly, buddy
While I was in Michigan for a week, I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with my 9 year-old nephew. He's a rambunctious and fidgety young man and he loves using technology. This makes me excited, but weary at the same time. He's so quick, like so many of our kids, to grab anything with a touchable screen and get locked in for as long as mom or dad will allow it.
Sound familiar?
In one of our conversations after dinner, I asked him how his math class is going. He got shy, giggled, and said "goooooooood". Right... His mom chimed in, as parents so often do, with "oh yeah, D has a math test tomorrow, don't you D?! Maybe Uncle John can help you out!" It was clear that he was supposed to have studied for the test, had a little, but wasn't quite ready. His mom handed over her phone and D began studying.
Now I'm not laying blame on his mother, him, or any parent or student who uses technology to practice a new task. Heck, it's my job to infuse technology into learning! However, there is a limit and I think that became evident that evening. See, when he finished playing his game, I quizzed him.
"D, what's 3*5?"
"15"
"Good. What's 9*3?"
"27"
"Good. What's 7*7?"
"------------------------------"
I'm not expecting him to have his times table nailed down, but his body language was off when he got stuck. His eyes weren't looking at his fingers or the wall. They were staring off into space as if he didn't have a clue where his times table went. Now I've never taught elementary and it's been a LOOOOOOONG time since I've been a student there, but this wasn't right. Sadly enough, I've seen it many times with teenagers.
We talked through the problem, how I would get my answer, and carried on. I kept cycling back to 7*7 and would get a similar reaction, but never getting a confident (and accurate) response. He would limp in with 49, but didn't know why.
The really confusing, and frustrating, question came next:
"What's 7*4?"
"Ummmmm, 24?"
"No"
"Ummmmm, OH YEAH, 28!"
"OK, now how did you get that?"
"Well, when I was playing the monkey game on my mom's phone, I remember seeing a 24, a 28, and some other numbers, and the monkey said it was right when I pressed on 28"
Sound familiar?
In one of our conversations after dinner, I asked him how his math class is going. He got shy, giggled, and said "goooooooood". Right... His mom chimed in, as parents so often do, with "oh yeah, D has a math test tomorrow, don't you D?! Maybe Uncle John can help you out!" It was clear that he was supposed to have studied for the test, had a little, but wasn't quite ready. His mom handed over her phone and D began studying.
Now I'm not laying blame on his mother, him, or any parent or student who uses technology to practice a new task. Heck, it's my job to infuse technology into learning! However, there is a limit and I think that became evident that evening. See, when he finished playing his game, I quizzed him.
"D, what's 3*5?"
"15"
"Good. What's 9*3?"
"27"
"Good. What's 7*7?"
"------------------------------"
I'm not expecting him to have his times table nailed down, but his body language was off when he got stuck. His eyes weren't looking at his fingers or the wall. They were staring off into space as if he didn't have a clue where his times table went. Now I've never taught elementary and it's been a LOOOOOOONG time since I've been a student there, but this wasn't right. Sadly enough, I've seen it many times with teenagers.
We talked through the problem, how I would get my answer, and carried on. I kept cycling back to 7*7 and would get a similar reaction, but never getting a confident (and accurate) response. He would limp in with 49, but didn't know why.
The really confusing, and frustrating, question came next:
"What's 7*4?"
"Ummmmm, 24?"
"No"
"Ummmmm, OH YEAH, 28!"
"OK, now how did you get that?"
"Well, when I was playing the monkey game on my mom's phone, I remember seeing a 24, a 28, and some other numbers, and the monkey said it was right when I pressed on 28"
5 little monkeys jumping on the bed...
Take a step back, breathe, relax, try not to punch a hole in the walls of humanity. What have we done? The same argument could have been (and probably was) made > 30 years ago when calculators were introduced, but this is a bit different to me. We've accepted these tools into our lives that allow us to interact with content, create, collaborate, and so much more. We embrace them as a great learning tool, something that is changing education. The problem that I'm seeing is that it is changing education, but not in the way that we (or maybe just "I") want.
Once again, I don't fault my nephew or his parents, nor his teacher or the school district. What he said, though, is disturbing to me. Technology has made multiplication a magic act in a way that I can't believe it intended to. He didn't tell me that 7*4 was 28 because of adding 7 a total of 4 times, adding 4 a total of 7 times, taking 7*5 and subtracting 7, or any other mathematics-based methods.
Without overwhelming a 9 year-old with math instruction, I went into a mini lesson on how I process these multiplication facts and called it good. At some point very soon in education, we are going to have to realize that game companies, even the education ones, are in it to make money.
There's a time when tech is great. There are also times when we need to power down whatever device is being used and power up our own processing habits. Why? Because the monkey said so.
Happy Fishing
Once again, I don't fault my nephew or his parents, nor his teacher or the school district. What he said, though, is disturbing to me. Technology has made multiplication a magic act in a way that I can't believe it intended to. He didn't tell me that 7*4 was 28 because of adding 7 a total of 4 times, adding 4 a total of 7 times, taking 7*5 and subtracting 7, or any other mathematics-based methods.
Without overwhelming a 9 year-old with math instruction, I went into a mini lesson on how I process these multiplication facts and called it good. At some point very soon in education, we are going to have to realize that game companies, even the education ones, are in it to make money.
There's a time when tech is great. There are also times when we need to power down whatever device is being used and power up our own processing habits. Why? Because the monkey said so.
Happy Fishing
RSS Feed
