While watching the video “The Connected Student,” I got the impression that in the 21st century we as teachers will be quickly moving towards a different kind of educating. For example, we will no longer be standing in front of the class lecturing on how to graph equations on a coordinate grid. Instead we will be giving our students the tools they need to research how to graph equations and how these equations relate to the real world. I was also thinking about how this is a lot like learning a foreign language. It is one thing for a teacher to stand in front of the room and teach you how to say all the words, but to really learn the language a student should immerse themselves in a country that speaks that language. This allows the student to take ownership of their learning and make it more memorable to them. Some may say there is no need for teachers than. But, I agree with the video when they talked about how the role of the teacher will become to facilitate learning by modeling proper etiquette for contacting and interacting with peers on the web, creating a scavenger hunt like activities to guide them, and giving them search tools to help them have a successful and positive experience when using technology.
I also visited a site called “ FAMS Math Weblog.” I found this website to be a valuable resource because I am a middle school math teacher. There were a lot of links of movies students created to explain how to do many of the middle school math concepts learned. I found myself thinking back to Bloom’s Taxonomy, where the highest level of learning is creating. How awesome was it for these middle school students to create videos showing others step by step how to do different types of math problems.
Lastly, I came across an article at school from the Weekly Reader magazine that talked about a school district in western Ohio that was no longer going to have “snow days.” Instead, the students would have to sign-on to their computers from home to do learning via the Internet. I think this is a wonderful idea that could even help school districts that don’t need snow days to save on facility bills if students had research days where they didn’t come to school and had teachers that created activities that promoted the students to research on their own from the comfort of their home.
What you bring to light about the school district in western Ohio is a whole new way of thinking and educating students. Wow, what a change from one where students think "snow" days are "play" days to "learning" days. I'm not really sure how that will work out, but I agree it is an idea worth planning and trying. Especially, with the many snow days this year you would think the students would welcome an idea like that.
ReplyDeleteIn watching "The Connected Student", i definitely agree that the teaching is changing. I guess I really don't understand how "teaching content" will ever be eliminated and that all learning will be self directed from the student. As teachers I think we will still have to teach, but perhaps more of our efforts can be put forth to meet individual needs in the classroom. For example, like you say we will not longer stand in front of the classroom and lecture on graphing equations. However, we may be there reinforcing a difficult math concept, to those individuals that need the extra help in understanding it.
Like you said, ownership creates the memories and also instills confidence and pride in a student's accomplishments. You make some valid points-ones that really make me think.
Hey Tricia!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy reading your blog. The school in Ohio that has eliminated snow days really intrigued me. Do you remember the school or the district? I'd like to read more about it. I remember sitting in my brother's bed with the radio between us listening for those magical words, "Allentown School District - CLOSED!" because it WAS a free, play day. That school brought to mind the gentleman named Joe Dockery, whom I met at FETC last week. He did a few Adobe presentations, and I was lucky enough to be a presider in his Premiere Pro workshop. He gave each of us a disk with all of his classroom lessons on it, complete with links to the Adobe site and to his enormous website that he uses in his classroom as well. Basically, he has created hundreds of instructional tutorials in which his students watch in short segments, pause the movie, and then try out the activity. Once they have done what he has instructed, the students watch another segment and do the activity. It is entirely self-paced, and he then is free to walk around the room and help each student individually. The reason that I am telling you this is because he was out of his classroom all last week, and his students have a huge project due. He said that they are working as usual this week - no time would be lost or lessons undone - because he was away. (Where are they going to get a sub in high school multimedia anyway?) I thought that was so interesting that he has created such a thorough program and has taught his students so well that they can work independently while he is away.
Which leads me to think that he is an instructor who has "Connected Students". He has taught his students how to access and use a wide variety of resources, so they can be independent learners. He showed us some video and some photos of his classroom, and he really has set up a great program for his students, using innovative help techniques and showing his students how to create great works.
Which, of course, leads me to Bloom's pyramid. Giving our students the ability to create great works of art is the best thing we can give our students.
Thanks for sharing!
Christi S