Most of these educational technologies get plenty of respect within the educational world. (Well, maybe not the pencil sharpeners.) Whole conferences are organized around these technologies and how they can help teachers do a better job of preparing students for the 21st century [Q: At what point will we start saying "preparing students for the 22nd century"?]. BUT there is one technology that is sadly overlooked. It is the Rodney Dangerfield of the educational technology world. I refer, of course, to the lowly DVD player. Not the DVD; the player.
"How did you know so quickly that 8 + 8 was 16?" I asked a first grade girl earlier this week. (If this question sounds familiar, it's probably because you read the previous entry in this blog.)
"Well," she said, "we have this DVD player at home and it has arrows. And if you want to speed through the movie it says 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and then it goes back to 2 again. And I know that 2+2 is 4 and that 4+4 is 8, so 8+8 must be 16, and I guess that 16+16 would be 32. But then the pattern stops because it goes back to 2 and 32+32 is...something, but it isn't 2."
What can I say? Clearly, we should as a nation reduce our spending on old-boring-and-ineffective technologies such as computers, projectors, smart boards, and digital cameras, and load up classrooms instead with DVD players. Who's with me?
--Actually, this is a really good example of a child not only noticing but using math in everyday life. No one taught her that 8 + 8 was 16. She was struck by a sequence of numbers that appeared in her environment, and spent time and energy deciphering the pattern--learning, and evidently mastering, the fact that 8+8=16 along the way. This is the kind of thinking we always want to see in our students. As our report form puts it, one of our goals for children is that they "recognize and construct mathematics in daily life." It's lovely to see such a clear example.
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