I have never been one for class debates. I am not someone who confronts people or argues for fun. The stressful atmosphere and the high tension is not my cup of tea. Not because I do not care about the topic, or do not have strong opinions, I just am not the type of person to speak them aloud as I am a pretty reserved person. This debate though may have changed my opinion on debates in general in a good way, as not all debates have to be aggressive and hostile, like I would see in my political science classes. This debate, went much better, as all students were respectful of others opinions, and truly listened to the other side.
The side I chose was FOR : “Due to the digital nature of society in the 21st century, all citizens should be provided access to the internet-especially students, who will need to be prepared for productive citizenship”. I was one of the first to logon to moodle and select topics, so this is exactly the topic I wanted. From working with my team in this debate, I realized that a lot of us had the same opinion, but we all expressed it differently. For example, with the students on the other side, we all wanted kids to have access to technology, because who doesn’t deserve it? But the question is how do we provide this for students? Is it even feasible? These were all things discussed during the debate, which made me reflect.
http://theconversation.com/why-schools-should-provide-one-laptop-per-child-58696
According to the article above with the one-to-one laptop initiative, “We found students’ test scores in science, writing, math and English language arts improved significantly.And the benefits were not limited to test scores”. This proved our sides point in it is important and necessary for all students to be able to access the internet as it only aids in learning. For me, I want to be able to provide all students with access to laptops and computers, because I feel it would be a detriment to their learning and grades without. I know for me personally in college, I would not be able to do 95% of my assignments.
For my students, I would do my best to make sure they all have access to laptops for all assignments. For this debate we even needed our laptop to all share the google doc, and how could a student be expected to contribute to the debate if they do not have access to google doc? It would only be fair as a teacher to provide a way for my classroom to do this. An example would be going to the schools media room or library and give the class time to complete the assignments.
For the debate side of this assignment, before, I was not fond of debates but now I like the critical discussion side of it. From the debates I participated in in my high school classes, they were always so tense. But from this one, I could tell that the sides were not debating to win. They were debating to educate. This was unlike any debate I had seen. Everyone in our classroom was activity engaged through Twitter, which I believe was an important element in this debate because it allowed the quieter students like myself to still voice their opinion, and read what their classmates were thinking since not everyone could talk at once.
In my future classroom, I plan on implementing classroom discussions. Of course, they will not be as formal. But a topic such as “should kids have a longer recess?” would be a good discussion topic. By making kids form opinions and back them up, it is teaching them viable research skills and teaching them how to think for themselves. I would also make my kids listen to opposing opinions and write one thing they agree with to teach them how to think for the other side, and not be so persistent about their own opinions. By teaching kids to have open minds, it allows them to be better listeners and learners. Debates involve critical thinking skills, and provide an engaging learning activity rather than passive listening, encourages teamwork, and helps students organize thoughts. These are all crucial skills for higher levels of learning and would be beneficial for students to begin learning at a young age.
https://www.qatardebate.org/en/page/benefits-of-debating
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