Technology Adds Competition

In the teaching world today, there is both positive and negative views on adding competition to the classroom. Competition can be very motivating and be the drive for some students need to accomplish the grades they desire. Competition can also be over whelming to students and cause them to be discouraged. If students are competing against each other within the same classroom, it can make students less likely to help each other and become overly afraid of having wrong answers. Obviously, a classroom should be a place were students feel safe. A student should feel that he or she could ask a peer or the teacher any question. When used correctly, competition can motivate students and unite them. How is this? I was observing a teacher earlier this semester, and she was able to accomplish this through technology. After teaching a math lesson, the teacher rewarded the students by letting them go to the computer lab. Before the students were able to play the "fast math" game they enjoy, she required that they write in their classroom blog. On the school website, each class has their own page and has a chance to post answers to given problems on the class blog. After the students completed their blog, the teacher pulled up blogs from other schools in Knox county. She was able to show her students blogs from other schools in the area because the writers remain anonymous. Some blog entries were well written, but most of the blog entries shown were terrible. The teacher used this to say how proud she was of her class for having such good writing skills. The class as a whole felt they all did a good job on their blog. It was great seeing the whole class be excited about the work that they completed. Also, the teacher did not create competition among her students, but she promoted competition again children from others schools. Only through technology was her class able to complete an online blog, and compare their work to students' from other schools. See this, I would recommend for teachers to participate in classroom blogs, especially if it is a county wide activity. Comparing work among students across schools can be a power tool!