Bitstrips

I have yet to get into the fad of using Bitstrips. I remember seeing them pop up on Facebook last semester as friends made comics of other friends doing ridiculous things that were quite relative to their actual lives. I did not expect to come across Bitstrips in my placement this semester.

My associate teacher was planning on having our grade four students make their own Bitstrip comic strips that would tell a story. It was interesting to hear about how something that went so viral could be used in an educational way that would encourage the students to know how to use technology in ways that they might not already know.

However, misbehaviour in the grade four classroom this week as a result of my associate teacher being absent, caused the punishment of not being able to do this fun project. It made me see how technology is often used as an reward and does not always have it's own necessity in education. How necessary is our use of technology in the classroom if it is not being used in ways that the learning goals could not be reached in the same way that it would if technology was not the method of instruction? Do we simply use technology as a reward factor for students or as a way to capture their attention when the learning goals could actually be reached in a more effective way? It seems as though if we are not using technology in the classroom (or in general), we're old-school and behind the times.