Parents have always believed that they know what is best for their children, and in most cases this is true. However there comes a day when every parent realizes that they cannot control everything their child sees, hears, tastes, and does every moment of every day, and this is a scary thought. Teachers have the same conflict in their classrooms as for the most part when they first meet their students they have no idea what those students have already seen, heard, or done. When I was in fifth grade i had watched Child's Play behind my parents back and had night mares for a week. Now this is a common occurance and most children will find a way to try and do something that is considered an "adult activity." I then went into my fifth grade classroom and began to tell each of my fellow peers every gory detail of the movie, (and i had a very good memory for detail). This is also a common thing to find in children as most children want to share everything they experience with one another.
We live in a new age in which children are forced to mature at an alarming rate, where 12 year olds are talking about sex and where 13 year olds want to get tatoos, piecings, drink, smoke and all other activities that they have seen on television, in movies, or even in their own homes with older siblings and adults who do it. We are fighting a battle with the media, one in which everyday we are losing our footing. 
In an article we read for class entitled "Lights, Camera, Learning" written by Glen Bull and Lynn bell they state that "in the past 6 months, individuals posted more than a million hours of original video on you-tube alone." This would be an amazing resource to use in the classroom, to have over a million hours of footage right at their fingertips to help them learn any subject imaginable, the only problem is that you cannot rely on anything you get from the site. Like wikipedia.org it is a site composed of others thoughts, opinions, and ideas. So it is hard to let students use the site especially in the classroom when with each word they type in a million videos will pop up that could be raunchy, violent, inaccurate, or completly inappropriate for the classroom.
the same could even be said for using television in the classroom as with each channel you switch to there could be a whole number on unwanted scenes shown. It is impossible to watch one news program that does not have the titles "murder" "rape" "robbery" "war" or "gun" in the title. And for an elementary school class these things should not be discussed by a teacher. We must constantly be on the lookout for the appropriateness of materials being used in our classroom and this includes certain technologies and the effects they will have on our students.
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Its pretty sad how the media can manipulate young people. As a result, I think that we need to try to keep pop culture out of the classroom as much as possible. Each student comes from a different environment, and its just not necessary to bring in the media to the learning process.
ReplyDeleteRebecca Neville
Media can have a positive a negative effect on learning depending on how it is used. I feel that as teachers we have control over what are students are exposed to while in the classroom. With this, I feel that teachers need to be aware of every aspect that incorporating the media can entail.
ReplyDeleteThe primary purpose of most TV programs is profit. Except a few, they are not intended to be "educational." What do you expect kids to learn from TV?
ReplyDelete