The early evidence suggests, that digital immersion may alter Net Geners’ visual systems, especially the speed of their visual reflexes. It may also alter the way they like to take in information and what they remember. But does it also affect the way they think?
(p. 106, Tapscott. Grown up Digital)
In English today I taught literary appreciation and analysis, and ceased the opportunity to use Alasdair Gray’s The Star (Amazon link). The students are working on Lord of the Flies, but I figured it would be nice with a break and something different, yet something dealing with literary terms such as imagery and metaphors. I used Prezi as a presentation tool as it enables me as teacher to be flexible in terms of what tasks I want to use. I inserted most of the tasks suggested in our hand-outs.
The students enjoy the interface of Prezi on the Smartboard and it works as an attention grabber and you have the visual overview of the tasks ahead. My wobbly hand-drawn red star stirred some giggles and curiosity was aroused. I want to mention the student’s responses as I asked them afterwards to give me some feedback on how they found this way to approach a literary work. Some comments:
- Made us think.
- We had to discuss and not only listen or write all the time.
- We had to use our own experiences.
- I like the Smartboard.
- Something different.
Technically it was rather easy to set up, although students are not involved in the digital material. They could however have been interactive with the Smartboard themselves and challenge each other when working on some of the tasks.
Please feel free to use the Prezi as it is licensed for educational use.
