Students Distracted by Screens? The #1 Antidote - from Tom Daccord on Edudemic - 0 views
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David Boxer on 23 Jun 14"More importantly, it happens in K-12 classrooms all the time. I know because when teachers relate stories of engaged students using technology, their students all ask the same question: "Can I have more time to work on it?" The ingredients for cooking up engaging activities vary, but certain elements are constant. For one, the activities are challenging and expectations high. There's no "click-along-with-me-and-do-what-I-do-kids" passiveness in these classrooms. Instead, it's more like: "This is hard. And I'm not going to show you how to do it. But I expect what you create will be excellent." There's also an authentic audience. Tell students you're going to present their work at a conference, or submit it to a state publication, and then watch the heightened focus in their eyes. Yet, the audience doesn't necessarily need to be outside the school walls. Just tell them you're going to show their work to other classes and teachers. As one teacher noted: "I didn't realize how little I mattered, until I told my students that I was going to publish all their work to an audience." And great teachers figure out other ways to make kids care. They personalize the content - drawing connections to kids' lives - and help students understand why what they're doing is important."
