Childhood in the digital age week 2

 

Surprisingly for myself, I didn’t get the positive response to using technology in the classroom from parents. I specifically spoke to a group of mums who all had children in a year 6 class and I found that they were actually concerned at the amount of technology in the classroom. Although all the parents I spoke to understand the importance of exposing children to the technology around us they felt that often it was too much.  Palfrey, (2008: 186) states that ‘Every year the amount of digital information grows even more rapidly than the year before’. This statement links in with some of the parents comments, who feel that because technology is moving so quickly, it may take precedence over other subjects, though on the other hand they express how much the children enjoy using new technologies in the classroom. In current classroom cultures, writing is seen as the “currency of success” which, in Dean’s (2010) point of view is why it needs to be a main focus. On the other hand, Harrett and Benjamin (2009) express the opinion that maybe educators are asking children to write too much within the classroom even though writing is the main form of assessment.

 

I also spoke to them about using popular culture to interest and inspire children in the classroom. This, they seemed to be more positive towards. A lot of them felt that using popular culture made it more enjoyable for the children to learn and gave learning a real context. They agreed that as long as the popular culture aspect used was in context with the teaching than there was only positive outcomes of this, for example using character such as ‘Dora the Explorer’ in a geography lesson or ‘horrible history’ episodes in a history lesson. Though there are concerns for using popular culture, within the classroom, such as consumerism and other obstacles such as different beliefs and views. Arthur (2005) voices some of these issues as well as brings up the motion of gender within consumer culture. The group of parents I spoke to raised some of these concerns but also said that it was down to the discretion of the teacher of how it was used and portrayed.

 

Arthur, L. (2005) ‘Popular Culture: views of parents and educators’ in Marsh, J. (ed) (2005) Popular Culture, New Media and Digital Literacy in Early Childhood. Oxon: RoutledgeFalmer

 

Dean, G. (2010) ‘Rethinking Literacy’ in Bazalgette, C. (ed) (2010) Teaching Media in Primary Classrooms. London: Sage

 

Palfrey, J. and Gasser, U. (2008) Born Digital: understanding the first generation of digital natives. Basics Books. New York