Without using an LMS
In his article the author, Friensen, contends that as educators we should be wary of moving towards integrating technology into our classrooms because many of the services we use to accomplish this task are businesses. He states that they are not in the business of education and the students are not their customers; the companies that they sell advertising to are their real customers. He also contends that all the advertising is distracting our students from learning. I would have to agree with him to some extent however I think that advertising on the side of your web-browser is here to stay and it will become an important life skill to be able to utilize the web or web-based apps, stay on task, all while adds are flashing and dancing on the side. I understand that with younger students this may be too much of a distraction and that is where as a teacher we need to utilize tools like a well developed LMS, learning management system, to funnel content from the web to our students free of advertising. The LMS our district uses, Haiku, will strip away the adds from a YouTube video as well as the “if you liked this video check out these” links at the end of the video and leave the students with just the intended content void of any distractions.
Using an LMS
I do agree, that advertisements that pop-up is a distraction to students. Currently, the district I teach at took off the restriction of YouTube, so we can use it for educational purposes, but I really dislike how the advertisement pop-up since it does distract my students. I don't think the district has an LMS in place, that is something I would like to ask the computer technicians at my school site.
ReplyDeleteWe are bombarded every day with overt and subtle advertisement. Throttling that back in an academic setting is imperative. It is not the place or the time for ads. Implementation of technology in the classroom, however, has to be accomplished by an entity versed in that field - more often than not - a business. I'm not too clear on the conflict of interest - as long as the learning is not affected.
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