Ask Miller!

From the The Educational Technology: ICT in Education website
Articles on e-learning and information & communication technology containing practical advice

Using & Teaching Educational Technology
Ask Miller!
By Terry Freedman
Tue, 9 Jun 2009, 06:55

Miller (left) is a teenager living in the USA. It's always interesting to hear what young people think about educational technology, so I was delighted when Miller agreed to have a go at answering questions about it.

The questions below are all genuine, ie they have been submitted by real people, not just made up by me (although I can assure that I am a real person!).

Equally, Miller's answers are genuine too, which is to say she didn't receive any prompting or assistance from either her teacher, Vicki Davis, or me.

Today, Miller answers these questions:

Do you do think that technology in teaching is better than face-to-face teaching?
Do you ever use virtual worlds to socialize, like ‘Second Life’?
What mobile devices are students in America using, and what are they used for?

This feature on the ICT in Education website has run as an experiment run only for just a few weeks. If you have any feedback, whether about the idea itself or Miller's answers, please let me know by leaving a comment here.

Do you think that technology in teaching is better than face-to-face teaching?

Miller replies:

Hello Reader,

I believe that in teaching with technology, students can get a hands-on grasp at what they are doing. As a student, I can honestly say that I learn better by doing than just listening. It is hard to concentrate while your teacher is sitting at the front of the room lecturing to the students (no offense to any teacher that does) to really grasp what they are saying and let the knowledge sink in.

One way that we taught through technology was through virtual worlds, which I have explained in more detail in my answer to the next question. That way, students learn by doing. They learn by enjoying themselves in the cool virtual rooms that we created. I promise you, you learn much better when you are having fun.

Do you ever use virtual Worlds to socialize, like "Second Life"?

Miller replies:

Dear Reader,

I love virtual worlds. As a matter of fact, my ninth grade class(14 and 15 year olds) started using virtual worlds back during November of 2008 to teach seventh graders(12 and 13 year olds) at our school about digital citizenship. We started using Google Lively. Lively was a great place to take the seventh graders into, so that they may learn. They loved it! We continued to have two more lessons in Lively before Google announced that they would be shutting it down in December.

After hearing the news, we decided to protest to Google. We became the Digiteen Dream Team. We set up a blog on which we would post daily posts giving Google reasons to keep Lively. We gained much support for our cause, but in the end, Google shut Lively down. We were so upset because our precious virtual world had been shut down.

In defeat, we also found victory. A very generous supporter of our cause heard that we wanted to continue our lessons in a virtual world. He was gracious enough to give us our own island in Reaction Grid. We named it Digiteen Island.

We decided to take a new approach with our teaching. We decided to try object teaching. Object teaching is when you place objects in a virtual world that incorporate facts about the topic that you wish to teach. We decided to do the same with digital citizenship. We divided the nine aspects of digital citizenship:access, communication, literacy, security and safety, netiquette, rights and responsibilities, commerce, law, and health and wellness, among the 23 people in our class. We each put a couple of objects that we thought incorporated our aspects of digital citizenship. Our teachings were a huge success! We gave people from around the world tours of our virtual worlds. Virtual worlds are great. They allow you to have fun as well as learn.

Do you communicate using AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) as much as you used to? Would you use AIM with a teacher to help with homework?

Miller replies:

Dear Reader,

I do not use AIM or any other kind of instant messenger. When I communicate over the internet, I send people emails. My email account is through Google. I love all of the services that Google offers. Through Google's email services, which is called Gmail , you can chat as well. I can't say that I have tried Google's chat, but I am sure that it is similar to AIM.

A great communicating tool that I love to use is Skype . Skype is a free service that allows you to call people over the computer. As long as the person that you are calling has a Skype account and is online, the calls will go through. You can also chat over Skype. I love chatting over Skype.

In my opinion, Skype offers a lot more options than Google or AIM with chatting. Not only can you talk to someone over Skype, but also have video chats with other people. When Mr. Terry interviewed me for the podcast, we used Skype. Skype allows gives you so many options while chatting.

I believe that chatting with students is a great way to help with homework. By giving the students easy access to their teacher, they can get help with Math, English, Social Studies, Science, or anything that they need help with. I also believe that there should be a time frame set up so that during that particular time, the students will be able to get in touch with their teacher and come to an understanding about their homework. There are many ways that technology is changing the way that students are doing their work. Many of these changes are to the students' advantage.

What mobile devices are students in America using and what are they used for?

Miller replies:

Hello Reader,

There are tons of mobile devices that teenagers are using across America. My personal favorites are my Ipod and cell phone.

I use my cell phone to communicate with my friends and family, both by caring on a conversation with talking and with texting. Cell phones can also be used to look up things like the weather. I have an application from Garmin that allows me to look up the weather in whatever city or state that I choose. Cell phones also have the ability to download and play music, just like an Ipod.

People are amazed at what a cell phone can do. What they don't realize is that cell phones are computers. With their easy communication, applications, and fun to use ability, almost all teenagers have cell phones.

Another great piece of technology is the Ipod. The Ipod has come a long way since its last 4 years or so of being in existence. It started with the Ipod Nano and the Ipod Shuffle, which were a huge hit, and has now evolved into a technology as sophisticated as the Ipod Touch. Ipods allow you to download music from a program called Itunes , and sync it straight to your Ipod. Ipods can now be placed in car docks so that you can play your favorite songs from your Ipod through your car speakers.

Ipods are also great tools to use while running. You can now attach them to a band that you put on your arm that allows you to run while listening to your favorite songs.

Those two technologies are just some of my favorites, but there are many more devices that teenagers love to use. One of which is the laptop . Laptops are portable computers that are great tools to take on bus trips, or airplane flights. With wireless Internet compatibility, laptops are great if you don't like the bulk of a huge computer, and you want to take your computer with you. Digital cameras are also very popular among teenagers. Camera companies are know making cameras to where you can download music onto them as well as take pictures. The companies are also making the cameras different colors so that more an more people become attracted to them. These mobile devices are just a few of latest trends of teenagers. As more and more technologies enter our world, teenagers will be the first to acquire them.

Miller’s acknowledgements

I would like to say thank you to the readers that support Mr. Terry's newsletter. Thank you to Mr. Terry for giving me this opportunity to write for his wonderful newsletter. Thank you to my Computer teacher Mrs. Vicki for giving me the knowledge to be able to answer the questions that everyone has asked. Thank you to my family for supporting me and allowing me to write for this website. Thanks to everyone for their support.

Sincerely,
Miller

My acknowledgements

My thanks to Vicki Davis for introducing me to Miller in the first place, and for managing the communications between all concerned, and allowing Miller time in school to answer the questions. Thanks also to Miller’s parents for allowing and encouraging her to take part in this little experiment. And, of course, to Miller herself for taking time out of her busy schedule! Finally, thanks to the people who have sent in questions for Miller to answer: keep ‘em coming!

Disclaimer

Miller's views do not represent the views of her school, her teacher, nor any other organization which she belongs to, but are solely her own views and opinions.

Tomorrow...

Miller will answer some more questions tomorrow.

If you missed the previous sets of Miller’s answers, I will be publishing the full list of links tomorrow, so drop by then!

If you enjoyed reading Miller's views...

Then you will probably enjoy the following:

What are your kids learning while you're not looking? That was the title of a presentation that Miles Berry and I did at the BETT Show 2009. Based on original research, it made it very clear that teachers make life more difficult for themselves, and less than interesting for their students, by ignoring what their students can already do. For more information, including a link to Miles' blog on the subject and a slide show, see my article on What are your kids learning while you're not looking?
What does Miller think about digital citizenship, social networking and online safety? Listen to a discussion we had via Skype. It lasts just over 26 minutes.
Miller lives in the USA. What does Edith, an English schoolgirl of around the same age, think about the same sort of issues? Elaine and I enjoyed an interview/discussion with Edith, who without a doubt was the star of the show at a recent Teachmeet. Click this link for our interview with Edith.
Miller wrote a cracking article on the subject of social networking and digiteens for the special social networking issue of Computers in Classrooms. You can read it online. If you don't want to miss future issues of the newsletter when it comes out, sign-up for it now -- it's free!
Finally, Miller will answer more questions tomorrow. If you want to make sure you don't miss that, or any other good stuff, then subscribe to this site's RSS feed now!