Jul
14
Favoring learning over tools
July 14, 2007 | | 2 Comments
In a recent interview published in The Buffalo News Steven Higgins, curator of film and media at the Museum of Modern Art, noted that films produced by Pixar find the right balance between rendering eye-popping digital animation and telling a compelling story.
‘What they’re really trying to get at in Pixar films is: technology is simply the tool,’ Higgins says. ‘What they’re really all about is classic storytelling.’
Those words, “technology is simply the tool,” resonated with me as I am sure it does with many teachers. We learn about blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds and want to use them with our lessons. “This will engage students,” we tell ourselves as we strive to compete with fragmented attention spans.
Sometimes, as a newbie, I get caugth up in finding ways to force the technology into my curriculum. I must remind myself often that Web 2.0 is not about the technology; it’s about the learning.
Comments
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Tony,
Your right about the tech as a tool idea – great use of pixar as an example. If we could all strike that balance, our kids would all want to watch our movies too. On that point, as teachers we all have our bag of tricks, just as we ask kids to develop skills that they are not proficient at, we as teachers must do the same. We need to be entertainers, coaches, administrators of discipline on occasion, character role models, examples of good organization, and users of technology. I am very inspired by your real use of these online collaborative tools. Your students are lucky to have someone who learns with them and is so enthusiastic about learning and technology. Although, I agree with you about niagra, nothing like nature to authentically teach and affect people.
Take care,
BG
Brian,
I blogged about this issue during the time our projects were due last year. Some folks think I get carried away with the technology, maybe I do. I just want to show students that learning is fun.