I was invited by the teacher Mayra López from elementary school Juan Oseguera Velazquez T.M. (Colima, México) for a little talk and Interview by K-12 students. I accepted her invitation for good reasons, first one I wanted to know what the kids at age of 11-13 years old know about computers and technology?, what do they do with them? and what do they want to do with them?. Remember in México our economy is not the same as countries like USA, Canada and others more; we live in a major deficit in technology for economic and cultural problems. Education is one of the sectors that the Government of Mexico has implemented various supports to encourage the process of teaching-learning to student through technology, programs like the Enciclomedia, the technology has been brought to the classroom for the first contact with elementary students. This tool has been one of the most important for this sector, but in turn has had many problems in issues of updating and maintenance of equipment, so, I really wanted to know if elementary students learn about and through the technology . It should be noted that most children in public schools in Mexico are poor, so mostly of them just have money to buy their breakfast or lunch, so it is inferred that many do not have a computer at home.
The topic of my talk was very general, titled “Introduction to Computers”, in my presentation, I included: What are the computers?, What does a computer?, What are the types of computers?, Why are computers useful?, etc.. I tried to keep the student´s attention through a very enjoyable and participatory talk, I did’t do to much, they really were interest in know about computers. In my talk I discovered interesting things with some questions to them. My questions were:
- How many of you have used a computer?
- The answer was: ALL.
- How many of you have a computer at home?
- The answer was: 2 of 33 students.
- How many of you are going to cyber coffe to use the computer?
- The answer was: 27 of 33 students.
- Have you ever used a computer at your school?
- The answer was: None.
- Why not have used it at school?
- The answer was: Not for us, its only for teachers.
So, what important is bring technology to classrooms if the students or teachers do not use it? And most of the computers with Enciclomedia are obsolete for various reasons (viruses, broken equipment, etc.). In fact the room that I was assigned to give my talk the computer is’nt work, so we had to go to another classroom with a works computer. The percentage of children using cyber coffes was very high, so ask them, what do they do in the cyber coffes? The answers were:
- - Searching information on the internet
- - For homework
- - Chat: a boy of 12 years old have email and instant messaging?, jesus!.
- - Play videogames
If we see the computer knowledge of these students has been based to a discovery learning, a fully cognitive schema. In a slide a put a photo of students using the computer, and I asked them, What do you think that they are doing?, they immediately said the same things that they do at the cyber coffes (see photo).
After my presentation the students asked some questions , which ranged from the simple to some very interesting, one of them has to do with the Interaction Human-Computer, which was:
- Why do we must use the mouse to move things of the computer? And why not just use my finger or my hand?
Interesting question, don’t you think?, A boy of 12 years old with the same kind of question than a University researcher. Others, like: Who invented the computer?, How important are the computers?, What kind of stuff I can do with Internet?, and a lot of more.
At the end of this experience is more than clear that the efforts of the Government of Mexico to bring technology as a support of learning-teaching at the classroom is inadequate, especially in general aspects between the student and computing, and even when efforts are directed toward the student, the student does not feel part of this, so look for other alternatives, like going to a cyber coffe to take advantage of technology in their entertainment, communication and academic life.
Very interesting your presentation. It’s amazing that children master the new technologies more than adults. This may be an indication that models of teaching – learning are becoming really outdated, schools require both updated curricula and teaching methods of teachers.
Hello Enrique:
You are right!; We are living in a technology era, so most of the children interacted with it since they were born and I think for adults between 35-60 years old the interaction Human-Computer is more difficult for obvious reasons: they have done process and activities in a traditional way for a half of their life. About teaching-learning yes!,its very important has a strong infraestructure and the human capital for the succes of this kind of programs.
Greetings!