Devices in the classroom

By: Hallie Cordrey

Learning Targets

Describe how Ms. Grief is able to turn movies into a history lesson
List 3 different pros and 3 different cons of devices in the classroom
Explain the technology device BrainCandy and what it is used for.

How Do You Feel About Devices in the Classroom?

Devices in classrooms are just as common as whiteboards these days, however, it is still a very controversial topic among the realm of education. Some teachers have a very positive outlook on devices in their classrooms while others view the negative effects to be much greater than the positive. Some teachers, such as Ms. Greif, choose to use devices like movies to get her students interested, while others prefer to use devices like BrainCandy. The video below introduces different kinds of devices in the classroom and gives a couple pros and cons as well. While reading through this lesson, reflect on how devices have either helped or hindered your learning process while growing up.

(Oguttuh, 2017)

Using Movies to Teach History

Ms. Greif, a History teacher of over 12 years, has decided to use devices (movies, games, interactive lessons) as a big part of her teaching and thinks it is a fantastic way to teach her students about history. Her reasoning falls into the pros list according to Resilient Educator (2020). One of the main devices she uses to teach is movies. She explains how movies, even ones that do not seem to be educational, can be entertaining and educational at the same time. Two of the examples she listed were Hercules and Kung Fu Panda. She explains how Hercules can be used to help introduce Ancient Greece to the students in an exciting way. Kung Fu Panda can be used to introduce students to Ancient China and Kung Fu and can lead to a fun activity/presentation. Ms. Greif also went into some detail about how she allows the students to use different softwares and websites to create their projects. Some of the websites she went into detail about were Padlet and Thinklink. She had stated that both of which helped the students to get excited about what they were working on (M, S., 2019).

Pros and Cons

Devices in classrooms are just as common as whiteboards these days, however, it is still a very controversial topic amongst the realm of education. Some teachers have a very positive outlook on devices in their classrooms while others view the negative effects to be much greater than the positive. Some of the pros of having devices in the classroom are having instant answers to any questions the students may have, access to videos, and they help keep the students engaged. Some of the cons of using devices in the classroom are the students being distracted by the internet, powering issues, and the issue of cyberbullying (M, S., 2019). All of these pros and cons are very important topics, which is what makes it so controversial. Also, some topics can be both positive and negative, such as the idea of social learning. We have all seen or experienced how social learning has been over the past year. It can be a great thing because it allows students to still learn when they are not able to go to school, however it does require students to sit at their computers for hours on end and get little to no human interaction between them and their class (Resilient Educator, 2020).

Braincandy

BrainCandy is a specific technological device that is meant to be used by the students and teachers to help in classrooms, specifically online classrooms. This device was designed by J. Bryan Henderson and Amy Lewis and has many different features that can have a huge positive impact on the students in the classroom. One of the main features is the ability for the students to respond and answer the teachers questions in real time. The teacher can not only see the answers immediately, but they can also make it so everyone can see everyone's answers or so no one can see anyone else's answers. There is also a feature where the students can privately tell the teacher that they are confused without all the other students knowing they are confused. I love this feature because some kids might hold back from asking questions from the fear of being judged by other classmates about their questions. This website can also be used to present things and have comments come up into the presentations from the students/teachers (Henderson, et al., 2020). According to Resilient Educator (2020), they had described one of the cons of devices to be getting distracted by the internet, however with this website they would have to be more active in the lesson, which in turn would make them less likely to be doing other things on the internet.

Conclusion

Based on information I have reviewed while researching devices in the classroom, I believe that devices are a very positive form of learning/teaching. As Greif, S (2018) discussed, using devices like movies and interactive lessons greatly increases how the students react and feel towards the lessons. I love how she decided to use different entertaining movies to get her students excited for different topics like ancient Greece and ancient China. Even though my personal opinion is that devices are a positive tool in the classroom, it is still important to know the negative effects in order to work on them and try and make it better. Some of the cons I think we could work on is the distraction element of technology and the physical issues from sitting down leaned over a computer so often (M, S., 2019).

Quiz Time!

Who designed the technological device Braincandy?

A. J. Bryan Henderson

B. Ms. Greif

C. Amy Lewis

D. Both A and C

What topic could a teacher introduce to their students by showing them the movie Coco?

A. The Day of the Dead

B. The importance of family

C. Cultural differences

D. All of the above

References

Greif, S. (2018). Implementing Movies and Technology into the 21st Century Classroom. Social studies review, 57, 73–76

Henderson, J. B., & Lewis, A. (2020). Integrating Technology to Support Classroom Argumentation. Science scope, 43(8), 16–19.

M, S. (2019, April 10). The Pros and cons of electronics in school. ClassCraft.

Oguttuh, D. A. (2017, May 5). Mobile devices in the classroom. YouTube. Retrieved October 18, 2021.

Resilient Educator. (2020, December 9). Pros and cons: Debating the usage of digital devices in the classroom. ResilientEducator.com.

Quiz Answers!

1 - D

2 - D

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