I've always been a great advocate of using technology to make our school curriculum more interesting and to prepare students for our technological society. However, two eye-opening incidents are making me think twice about teaching with too much technology as opposed to building and reviewing the basics first:
Incident 1:
My students are exploring the world of letter writing in creative ways and to enhance the appeal of their finished products, I strongly suggested they submit the letter in an envelope as if they were going to mail it. To my utter shock, at least 12 out of my 24 Gr.6/7 students came up to me in a puzzled but serious manner to ask the following question:
"What do we write on the envelope?!?"
"Uh...the address?" I replied wide-eyed with a hint of sarcasm.
"What address? Where?" They continued.
They honestly had no idea. With today's convenience of email, does no child ever write letters anymore?
Incident 2:
With the letter assignment mentioned above, I explained to the class that we show greater sincerity when we hand-write a letter to a friend or relative as long as it's not a formal business letter. As a result, we did not use the laptops to type, edit, and print like we usually do for our writing assignments. Nonetheless, I always tell my students to double space in all writing assignments, so we have enough space for editing and comments. This letter was no different. Upon hearing that we have to double space when writing the letter on lined paper, a boy frowns with his eyebrows and questions with concern in his tone...
"How do we double space with paper?"
What have I helped create?
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