Blog Post 2

Professor Dancealot

The message from this video

is that students need to actually get involved and engaged in
learning. It is very boring to sit through a lecture and just listen to the teacher explain the material. The students don't learn very little, if anything, through this method. The author of the video makes this point through showing a dance class that learns about dancing in a lecture style class. The students learned the material. They knew the steps to the dances, but when it came time for the exam, they couldn't apply what they learned. I completely agree with what the author was trying to say through this video. The typical style of teaching in today's schools leave our students with only slight knowledge. I'm currently a junior in college, and I have taken several of these lecture style classes. I can honestly say that I don't remember much from any of these classes. They don't actually teach anything. They make you remember the material for a short while, but you don't actual learn anything from them.

Teaching in the 21st Century

Roberts thinks that teaching is completely changing in the 21st century. Teachers are no longer the only source of information. Students have access to anything, anytime, anywhere. Teaching is becoming more of a filtering process. How do you use these technologies? Which sources do you trust? Where is the best place to find information on this topic? With all these new ways to gather information, should curriculum be based on facts or skills? According to Roberts, we as future educators, need to be prepared to adapt to the changing times. We need to get away from the memorization techniques used today. Students need to know how to use what they learn, not just facts.

Outline:

-Students have unlimited access to information.
They have the Internet with them all the time on a computer or a phone or an iPad.

-Students need to learn how to use this information.

-Should curriculum be focused on facts or skills?

We should teach the students things that will be useful to them later on in life like how to choose a credit card, how to fix their cars, and whether they rent or buy.

-Education goes through stages: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create.

Today creating means blogging, podcasting, animating, planning, recording, designing, and programming. Students have to use tech skills in their creations: paraphrasing, attributing, subscribing, editing, twittering, experimenting, reflecting, tagging, commenting, searching, posting, locating, linking, integrating, networking, bookmarking, mashing, and uploading.

-We have to teach our students about responsibility, realiability, and integrity.

They need to know that it's wrong to pirate, plagarize, slander, and mis-use copyrighted material. They also need to know about confidentiality and professonalism.

-Lessons need to be relevant, challenging, and engaging.

-Engaged Vs. Entertained

Entertainment is passive, for enjoyment, short-lived, doesn't require relevance, allows escape from problems, and uses others creativity.

Engagement is active, for learning, has long-term results, meaningful and applicable, solves problems, and uses your own creativity.

-For teachers to do.

See what's out there, start small, collaborate, and take risks.


I completely agree with the way Roberts sees teaching changing. There is way too much information out there for us to stick to lecture based teaching. Our technology is advancing extremely quickly. Why not use it to our advantage? These new advances in technology will greatly affect my teaching. I'm acquainted with some of the technologies that I'll have to use; however, I've never had to use most of them throughout my education. I'll be learning along with my students how to use these new programs. I may, in fact, learn more from them than they will from me.

The Networked Student

Throughout this video, I really did ask myself, "Why do we need teachers?" It seems like everything we want or need to know can be found in some way, shape, or form online. It may take a lot of time and a lot of work, but if we really want to, we can synthesize an abundant amount of information. I think of it as writing a research paper. You think about what you want to know more about, research it, and put all the information together. I've always learned way more doing research on my own than sitting in a classroom. So, why do we need teachers? Well, I thought of it like this. Think about taking an online class. You don't understand what you are supposed to do, have problems understanding the information, or need help figuring out how to use the web component. The teacher is there to answer your questions, help you gather your information, and show you how to use the programs efficiently. Teachers are more like guides. They show you how to learn and what you need to do to get the information you desire. We don't know everything, but we can show you how to access it.

Harness Your Students’ Digital Smarts

Davis believes in empowering students to make connections, learn from each other, and teach themselves. I agree with her. Getting connected with people all over the world can open so many doors for students. If someone sees the work you've been doing online and really likes it or thinks that it could be beneficial to them or a company, you could have a job opportunity in a place that you never even knew about. We learn best when we can share our ideas with others. We start a conversation, someone adds to it, someone adds to that, and before you know it, you have this beautiful discussion of meaningful ideas. Some of the most engaging and enjoyable learning experiences I have had have been in discussion based classes. Getting connected with people around the world can open your mind to new ways of thinking and new perspectives.

Who’s Ahead in the Learning Race?

I believe that the elementary students are ahead in the learning race. They are being exposed to more and more technologies at younger and younger ages. This is my first time ever blogging, but there are elementary students that know how to use HTML coding at a very proficient level. I'm using programs that I've never heard of before that they are already well acquainted with. My boyfriend's three year-old niece shows me how to use things on my phone that I didn't even know were on there. I think part of the reason my generation isn't as advanced in this area is because we didn't grow up with the technologies. We were never made to use them in classes or even knew that they existed (or they didn't exist). It's like how older generations don't know how to use computers as well as my generation does. We grew up with the technology. We learned how to use it first-hand. Then, in turn, taught our parents. The same thing is happening now. The younger generation is learning how to use the new technologies and then teaching us.

Flipping the Classroom

Flipping a classroom is new to me. I think this approach could be useful to me as a teacher. I think it would help to save instruction time. In college, you read the chapter before the class it is going to be discussed in. This prepares you for the class, allows you to write down thoughts or questions you have about things that you didn't understand, and is more efficient when it comes to time. If this was implemented in the elementary classroom, it would help get the students more engaged in learning. They have a little prior knowledge to the subject being taught and are less apprehensive about sharing their thoughts. It's also a great way to prepare them for college. When I first started at South, it was hard for me to get used to the amount of independent work. If students are introduced to this at an early age, it won't be as much of shock to them as it was to me.

Bringing the Locker Room into the Classroom

This article made me think of what I usually do with new classes. I gauge how the class is going to go within the first few weeks. I observe when the teacher gives tests or quizzes and what information they focus on. I use this to set up for the rest of the class. After I learn how the professor operates, it's easy for me to make a good grade in the class. In a sense, I learn their "system." After realizing how beneficial it is to my grades to experience how the class is set up, I realized that the same thing could be true for my students. If I let them know ahead of time exactly what is expected of them and walk them through the process, they will succeed. I look at it as learning how to learn from a source. I learn how to learn from my professors. Each one has different methods of teaching, so I have to adjust how I learn in each class. I want to teach my students this give-and-take routine so that they won't have difficulty adapting to new teaching styles.