When using technology in the classroom, it is important to
take into consideration students’ cultural experiences in order to provide
students opportunities to excel. As an online Sociology teacher, the discussion
board is one application of technology that proves useful to incorporate students’
cultural experiences. My students come from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds.
I have students of different ethnicities, religions, careers, and
socio-economics. Some have been homeless, in prison, abusive relationships, and
striving to get out of minimum-wage jobs. They live all over the United States.
Many are immigrants that came to this country from different parts of the world
at different periods of their lives. I have found that the use of discussion
boards is a powerful learning tool that pushes students to excel in their
learning and have more cultural respect for others. I find discussion boards to
be a middle ground as they make learning relevant. Students get to share their
socio-cultural backgrounds and experiences. Hardaker, Dockery and Sabki (2010)
have helped me to understand that cognition is shaped by socio-cultural
factors. I feel that discussion boards are an example of an equitable learning
environment. Ryoo, Margolis, Lee, Sadoval, and Goode (2013) also discuss that
pedagogy should be culturally relevant and equity-oriented. They further state
that to ensure equitable, culturally relevant pedagogy, teachers should value
what students already know as a classroom resource. This involves taking into
account students’ diversity of life stories, cultural backgrounds and native
languages. Again, I feel that discussion boards are a technology that values
what students know and are a resource for other students. Moreover,
Ladson-Billings (2013) suggests that we need to understand and share the
responsibility for the causes of inequity and offer pragmatic solutions to
these problems. Again, discussion boards fit well towards this end as both
teachers and students learn from each other. The teacher can facilitate student
discussions to share their unique perspectives on inequity and come up with
practical solutions and understanding of root causes. To illustrate this point,
I wish to share the power of discussion boards through a comment from one of my
former students in their end of class reflection post. This student is a Muslim
immigrant with limited English proficiency. These are her words:
What I learned in sociology
class was the capacity to investigate and comprehend the significance of
bigotry, abuse, disgrace, generalizations, and what makes a self-satisfying
prediction. We discussed a lot of interesting topics and everyone of us had
their own point of view on the topic. Sociology prepares us for our life and
how to be ready to deal with situations. This class helped me understand
other people's thoughts and believes from different culture, race, and
religion, and respect their thoughts and believes because in the end we are all
human. Sociology has brought another feeling of mindfulness with respect
to my standpoint towards life. I now look more unbiasedly at the
general public in which we live. Seeing how to connect with individuals from
different foundations and childhoods has profited me. It has opened my eyes to
the numerous different encounters of individuals inside of my own group, and
everywhere throughout the world, that I never truly considered. Having the
capacity to recognize an individual level and societal level in humanism sets
me up for change. It changed my perspective on the world and in ways I
used to look at things. This class gave me the chance to read others
discussions and see their point of view in the topic we were assigned. It was a
great class and I learned a lot from it.
References
Hardaker, G., Dockery,
R., & Sabki, A. A. (2010). Cognitive learning styles and digital equity:
Searching for the middle way. International
Journal of Inclusive Education, 14, 777–794. doi:
10.1080/13603110802680786
Ladson-Billings, G.
(2013). “Stakes is high”: Educating new century students. The Journal of Negro Education, 82(2), 105–110.
Ryoo, J. J., Margolis,
J., Lee, C. H., Sandoval, C. D. M., & Goode, J. (2013). Democratizing
computer science knowledge: Transforming the face of computer science through
public high school education. Learning,
Media and Technology, 38(2), 161–181. doi: 10.1080/ 17439884.2013.756514
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