Teaching The iGeneration

For today's blog post I took the time to review another chapter in a different book besides our text book for the class. I looked at chapter three of Teaching the iGeneration written by William M. Ferriter and Adam Garry. Though the book focuses heavily on integrating technology into all areas of teaching, chapter three stood out to me as it involves working with learning by seeing. Many students in today's classroom learn by being more auditory or being more visual in their learner response. This chapter focuses on the ways teachers can make teaching come alive through digital storytelling and the proper use of technology as aides for visuals.

At this point in my Graduate Career, I do not feel it necessary to embellish anymore on digital story telling as I have spent two weeks learning about it in another one of my graduate classes. Thus I simply glanced over that section of the chapter. Do not get me wrong, that part of the chapter is beneficial but for me, I do not need to keep beating a dead horse. What really impressed me about this chapter was the five reasons that the authors mentioned as to how and why stories stick with students. This is impart connected to what the students see, but also impart to what the content of the story holds. The five reasons the authors listed as to why stories are made to stick include the following:

• Simplicity: don't over load a student with too many ideas, it ends up being that a student learned nothing as they have to much to focus on. 

• Unexpectedness: appeal to the student's curiosity; do not bore them to death. 

• Concreteness: appeal to the sense or the tangible concepts; don't go all crazy and ambiguous on the students. 

• Credibility: tell and create ideas that are approachable and ready to test. 

• Emotion: makes students feel, rather than just think; it helps with their ability to remember.

These five reasons on how to make stories stick, when aided with technology that helps promote visual learning promote a road to success in teaching with almost any age level. The reason mentioned seem to be practical and common knowledge, especially with all the training we have in teacher preparation. I agree with all the reasons the authors listed and think that it takes some intentional planning on the teachers end to make a lesson be successful using these five methods. I also think they can be stretched from not just using stories and visuals but to all areas to teaching. They make a nice foundation for a "rock solid" lesson plan. 

Also in the chapter, the authors discussed different avenues teachers could take in order to use technology to promote visuals in the classroom. The sources mentioned are more linked to video sources, thus the chapter is about digital story telling. The authors suggest that teachers use youtube or hulu. After all those two online services are the cause of such a digital explosion on the world wive web. The mine point emphasized from the authors about using online services to engage students in visual learning is that those students of the iGeneration need visuals that are stimulating and engaging. The book mentions that most students today spend time playing video games or participating in online video games or virtual worlds. The teacher, with the five reasons of making stories stick in mind, needs to find a way to bridge the students interest in video games or online communities to that of the classroom. 

Using Chapter three of Teaching the iGeneration provides a good starting point. It provides several different avenues for teachers to travel down as they incorporate more and more visual technology int eh classroom. I do believe there are other sources out there and simple sources that can be used. Not all school are going to have access to the top of the line technology. Teachers can use PowerPoint to engage their students in classroom learning, just as long its not the sole source of visual technology used. With all this said, teachers will have to be creative when thinking about their students and meeting their needs and all their learning styles. This chapter focused mainly on the visuals, but I am sure it does not stop there. I would recommend this book as a resource more so than a good read. Its a little wordy and somewhat a repeat for all of us on the graduate program now. It really does not teach us many new things, well at least this chapter did not.