I agree with the beginning of chapter 5 that students need to learn skills when it comes to empathy to anyone that is not them. Students need to realize that people around the world work completely differently than them and that is perfectly fine if they don’t agree with that. Students need to realize that it is not my way or the highway when it comes to any aspect of life, work, and education. Students need to learn that being a key board warrior and anonymously attacking people on videos is not what using the internet all is about and people can think different than them and they just need to accept that not lash back. Different is good in many ways because not everyone is wired the same and thus differentiation will occur and it occurs because it works for whoever utilizes it. Once students have mastered empathy then they can begin to share with others around the world and not only on an educational level but a personal one as well. I liked the example shown for Ms. Zavon’s class that every student had a job either in front of or behind the camera and it is true most students will probably know more than their teacher when it comes to technology it is the teachers job to steer them in the right direction. Allowing student’s autonomy like Ms. Reppert’s class stops hindering students from just one type of classwork and fosters more motivation and excitement from the students, something that can be lacking in some class settings. Students need to find different perspectives and interact with them leading to a greater experience for the student who then has that experience to use later on in life. The last chapter of the book really shows how important proper use of the internet is for students because if it is done correctly the student will forever be a lifelong learner. Students need to know that they should find something they are passionate about and be a part of that section online. If a student likes to draw there are probably thousands and thousands of people on Reddit that have the same passion and will encourage each other to better work. If a student likes video editing there are probably thousands of videos on YouTube where the student can watch and learn and comment during the process. That student can then upload their video to help others out. Overall this is a great book that really hits home the ease of classroom strategies merging with technology and gives great examples so the reader knows that it may feel a bit weird at first but it has brought back tenfold in classroom motivation and student work. I really like the student scribe section because it made me think how great it would be to have one person or small group per day getting all the information down for the rest of the class. I would like to go one better and have another student deciding what the most important information was and why. All of the strategies seem to work perfectly together and slowly evolve the student to be a better collaborator, a more effective speaker/writer, and a more empathetic person that is exposed to the world. I am really excited to create a class blog but I am worried about the issue of having all that information online each year and students perhaps utilizing the previous year’s notes instead of creating their own unique notes. But with all of the examples given I think students will just be excited to make that online connection and have fun doing so. I would love to also spend a couple days in a computer lab with students giving examples of what they are not looking for when it comes to research and give them a little assignment to test their online fluency. This book should be a must for all teachers new and old to help change their classroom more based around project based learning but not going all the way there like some charter or magnet schools do. I give this book two big thumbs up!
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After continuing reading about scribing my previous fear that some students will ignore their duties as class scribe and not really put as much effort into it are null and void. Utilizing a class scribe the student chosen will know that their work will be compared to every other student in that classroom and will have examples of what is expected from them created by other students. I also like that I would have to do less reteaching of a topic because I can see what a student created and know exactly what the class or student might need more time on. Scribing sets students up to be lifelong learners because they realize their work is important and will be on their class blog forever in theory. If I knew what I had created in high school could be seen by the world and might get a comment or two from a leading researcher in that field I would have been much more motivated to do more, not only for the grade but because I wanted to make it better than any other post on the blog. Social science can be a hard place to get students motivated because some might construe it as dry or boring but if a student knew their work could be viewed by everyone that might be the one link that gets them motivated to do great work! This motivation is also a part of the student becoming a proper researcher and understanding how to find information correctly and faster than they would have previously. Asking a student a question and then allowing them to answer with technology is a better practice than handing a student a book and asking the same. I need to teach students to not just validate a print primary source they found in library but have to properly analyze an online document. So far not a single classroom I have been in has dealt with this properly with exception of one classroom advising students to use .org or .edu websites or just say “do not use Wikipedia” which yes I might not want a student using that as a source but they could use the attached sources at the bottom if they can properly vet the material. Students need to be taught that certain sites will have bias and will cover events differently and to be aware so that their research needs to be adjusted accordingly.
For the first segment of “Who Owns the Learning” the first chapter gives a fantastic outline of the digital learning farm and expectations of students to collaborate and contribute to not only the classroom but the digital world in general. I am a huge fan of having students be the main part of learning in the classroom and having tutorial designers, student scribes, student researcher for the day, and having global communicators and collaborators. I do share some of the concerns that Mr. November has when it comes to bringing these ideas to the classroom. There will be students who just leach off of the notes that others have written to share instead of adding too them or expressing opinions on them in a google doc. I believe this would need to be started earlier (this would be me citing digital citizenship starting in kindergarten onward) but I do believe it is quite possible especially with all the examples given from Mr. Marcos classroom. I really like the idea of a transparent classroom that parents can become an easy part of but that being said there are two different types of transparent classroom, one being just a list of student grades and the better having all student work and classroom goals easily visible online. Moving toward students as content generators or tutorial designers I agree with Mr. November that it makes questions more approachable when it is student to student but also with every year more tutorials are posted giving a wider variety in tutorials that might make certain questions more approachable. The tools given for basic screencasting are a great starting off point for any classroom trying to become a more digital learning space. The example given of students collaborating about tutorial questions and creation were a great example of all of the pieces falling into place and allowing student to student interaction and problem solving. These examples really bolster me moving forward as an educator creating a digital space for my classroom as some items I have come across have fit the "thousand dollar pencil" motif more than a digital learning space. I am looking forward to the next chapters especially creating student scribes because that can be utilized by multiple students per class on multiple levels.
Chapter 9Quote: “Collective indwelling evolves out of the fusion of the information network and petri dish elements of learning, and it is almost entirely tacit. It both resides in and provokes the imagination. It is at once personal and collective.” (Thomas & Brown, p.113)
Question: Is there a way to allow for imaginative play and still utilize structure? Or does the structure come from the context in which the student is learning? Connection: I remember reading a study that used the same idea as online game play and compared it to real life skills. Students that played first person shooters or some third person had much higher reaction rates that students who did not play those games. Students who played adventure games were able to figure out puzzles faster due to their gaming background. I have experienced this in my personal life when playing games gave me a faster reaction time when it came to myself playing sports like soccer or tennis. Epiphany: This last chapter brought all of the previous ideas together in a succinct way allowing for myself to see the importance and application of the ideas. I realized the importance of all three steps and how they correlate and allow for full integration into lesson plans. This final chapter really linked everything together in a memorable manner.
Chapter 6Quote: “Inquiry is an extremely powerful technique for learning because it produces stockpiles of experiences. Things that result in dead ends for one particular question may wind up being unexpectedly useful later on-even, perhaps, for a completely different question.” (Thomas & Brown, p.83) I choose this quote because I think it not only defines the goals of chapter 6 but really the goals of common core.
Question: Can indwelling be synonymous with educational common sense? If it is going to be considered that the skills gained from indwelling become second nature and are thus autonomic for the learner then I would assume that educational common sense/shared experiences would be accurate. Connection: What we are teaching towards for common core is for students to utilize writing and primary sources across all topics. If we get out students to absorb good reading and writing strategies that they can apply to both science and English then they will have a much better chance getting into college. Getting students to absorb the knowledge in history is also getting them to tie together events and assess primary sources not just at who wrote them but what was happening when they were written? Was this during a revolution or war and how that would skew someone’s bias in the past? Epiphany: I realized that we are doing the same basic model in our quest to become educators. We are trying to absorb the knowledge of pedagogy and be able to create awesome lesson without focusing on every small piece of the lesson because since we have absorbed the knowledge it will be utilized automatically. UDL will be in every lesson because we have learned about how effective it is not only from text but from use in the classroom.
Chapter 3Quote: “Embracing change means looking forward to what will come next. It means viewing the future as a set of new possibilities, rather than something that forces us to adjust.” (Thomas & Brown, p.43) I think this quote really sets the reader up for the rest of the chapter and understand that most of the time change is good.
Question: Should students be able to use Wikipedia as an academic source? Now that there is more vetting I could see it as a decent background source but most teachers still don’t want it used from my observations. Connection: Over the course of the single subject program I have had to constantly change and learn new technologies and skills to become a better educator. Most of those I have learned digitally because at one point someone else had experienced my exact struggle. 10 years ago if you tried to google something in education there would be very little besides statistics, now you can go on Pinterest and find full lesson plans with educators encouraging anyone to use them. Epiphany: My aha moment was realizing how much technology has changed for the better over the last couple of years. Educators are now using technology much more efficiently and with less worry of something failing or a video not working. Web 2.0 also involves students understanding how to properly integrate technology into their learning and not miss use it. Here is a link for my storify for some reason I could not get it to embed.
https://storify.com/lonesomenomore2/twitter-chat |
Bryan AndersenJust a teacher candidate that is super excited to impact students lives Archives
May 2016
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