Pay Attention

I am a Bachelor of Arts student, so I have to do this course as part of the core courses which make up the Bachelor of Arts. I do not want to be a teacher, and so have found relating to this course very hard and tiresome as it does not directly relate to me. I still have no idea why this course is part of the core courses for a Bachelor of Arts, but I am trying to get through it by pretending that I am going into teaching. I"m pretending I'm going to be a Primary School Teacher and so all of my blogs and responses will be in response to this pretence.

I was personally bemused by the video entitled "Pay Attention", which explained that if we incorporate technology into teaching more, students would be more interested in learning. The mere suggestion of allowing students to text durning class for academic purposes is adsurd for example. Allowing students to bring their mobiles and iPods into class and expect them to pay attention to what you are saying is like putting a piece of steak in front of a dog and trying to get them to stay four feet away from it and do tricks. Only the most disciplined of dogs could pull it off and the same goes for students. The theory in itself is interesting, but I would love to see how long it takes before Mary is texting while Mrs. Smith is trying to explain the difference between a cyclone and a tornado, and Garry is listening to music on his iPod while he should be watching the educational video about the mirgration of buffalos. And at the end of the day, Garry probably doesn't need to know about the migration of buffalos, and Mary doesn't need to know about the difference between a cyclone and a tornado - they will probably never use that information outside a game of Trivial Pursuit unless they become teachers, meterologists or zoologists respectively.

I loved school, I love learning, and I even once wanted to be a teacher. But mixing technology with education is a very slippery slope. I think this video has not only fallen down that slope, but has started an avalanche behind it which is picking up speed and is going to wipe out the town nestled below.