Tools of the Trade

Why do teachers integrate digital media, mass media, and popular culture into the classroom?

How do teachers incorporate digital technologies and children’s popular culture into their teaching practices?

I will do my best to answer these two questions posed by our teacher in a Master's level Digital Learning course. First, teachers do their best to appeal to students' interest. Whether we realize it or not, everyone is short on information in the topics where they are not interested. That's just the way the human brain works. We specialize. I have been watching a few history of skateboarding documentaries lately, and those guys were intensely interested in riding a skateboard. The competition aspect became a factor eventually, but they learned because they wanted to. The converse begs to be answered, however. What do we do for students that aren't interested in what we are presenting? 

One approach in the last 25 or so years has been to implement dazzling technologies to entice learners. I'm sure this has worked in maybe half of the times it was implemented. But kids today are "into it" and "over it" more quickly. I believe we are tasked now with finding real technology tools that will last. I'm continually impressed with basic tools like the hammer, wrench, and drill. These tools are mainstays of construction. I believe we need to give children the technology equivalent. Programs like Photoshop and Illustrator are now the way that everyone creates professional and amateur graphics, alike. They are becoming the hammer and wrench of computing. But open-source programs, such as GIMP and Inkscape, are hot on their heels in giving everyone free access to be able to create high-quality graphics and designs. I'm eager to see where technology takes us, but we have to always be open to learning the tools of the trade if we want to enable students to create.