Blog Post 14

Teacher Knows if You Have Done the E-Reading

In the article, Teacher Knows if You Have Done the E-Reading, it explains a new technology, CourseSmart. It is being tested now at Texas A&M. It gives teachers the age old dream of knowing whether students are reading their textbooks or not. CourseSmart gives teachers the ability to know when students are skipping pages, failing to highlight significant passages, not bothering to take not, or simply not opening the book at all. This can be a good thing and bad for both teachers and students.

As a teacher, I feel like I could benefit and better my students learning by using this tool. I do not like the idea of using this tool in a college setting because I feel at that stage in students lives they should be independent based learners. Yes, they should still go to leachur to enhance their learning, but having a teacher force their reading sounds much too big brotherish to me. Now as a middle school and high school teacher, I believe this could be a very useful tool. Normal secondary students do not enjoy their take home reading, and many to do read constantly. You could focus your leachurs on materials that has a low engagement index and test on reading assignments you gave. This will help enforce study habits.

As a college student, I would feel pressured to make sure I read everything since I know my teacher can tell. All though, I do not read everything as a current student. I focus more on the vocabulary and what the teacher lectures on. I do not like the idea that I could possible have to change my study habits to accommodate this new technology? I also prefer a hard copy of text because I enjoy highlighting material and underlining. The article mentions that students would try to trick the system into beleive they did the reading when they did not. I could see many of my peers attempting this and in the end that would defeat the purpose of the program. As a younger student though, I could really benefit from the obligation of the constant reading. I could get overwhelmed if multiply teachers were requiring me to read all on the same night. This program could become a bit of a hassle.

Questions to ask the teacher:
1. Will you hold students accountable if they do not constantly read?
2. Do you care how often your students are using the textbook if they are still doing well in your class?
3. Will you only confront the students who are not reading and not doing well overall in the class?

Questions to ask the students:
1. Does this program force you to actually read, or did you read before?
2. If this has forced you to start reading, has your grades improved?
3. Do you prefer to have a hard copy of the textbook or use the digital textbooks?

What Comment Would I Leave on this Article?

As a college student or teacher, I do not think I would like this technology. I do not like the responsibility it takes off higher level students to be independent learners. As a secondary level student or teacher, I feel like my students and myself as a student could really benefit from the CourseSmart. I am very interested to see the results from the test trial. I am hoping they will prove me wrong about college level.