"It’s a chaotic time for television, now that Internet video has arrived. Moving swiftly up the media food chain -- from text to images to audio and now video -- broadband distribution has made TV on your PC a reality."When introducing teachers to resources to use with LCD projectors in creating a multimedia classroom, I created a wiki to point to a variety of digital video sources including the Future Channel, a place where teachers can connect learning to real world applications of math and science using problem solving approaches. This summer, while on a trip to Hershey, to get the baby to sleep, I took my 2 older children and sat them on the floor outside the room...My son's idea..."Mom, can we bring your computer so we can watch those magic school bus movies?" We use unitedstreaming all of the time at my house for learn. Watching something online is a very common event for them. Resources like teachertube allow educators and their students to post content they have created. Splashcast and now schooltube enable entire "tv channels" to create and play this content.
Learning, creating in bits and bytes...engaging, yes...knowledge building, can't help but wonder, what is going to happen to commercial content...and might some folks be tempted to take it so far to the extreme that we lose some kids in the digital void like in Chris Van Allsburg's The Wretched Stone.I battle this with my own kids...always to turn to TV2.0 vs other ways to find information. I am asking as a parent and an educator, how do you strike a balance?
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Balancing...hmmm. Tough question. I like my daughter to use the computer to find information, get entertained, communicate with friends. I feel I am preparing her, better than her school is, to be part of our global world. Although she is only 11 and her world consists of her school friends, it is a start. And I get to model me communicating and collaborating with teachers from around the world.
ReplyDeleteSo don't worry so much about balance. Take your children to the library once a week, turn off to read everyone now and then, go for a walk in the woods or play tennis. But remember, your children will have a leg up on those children whose parents said, "No computer until the weekend!" You are teaching them how to use the technology that is inevitable for the future. And that's important, too.