Saturday, June 11, 2011
Learning at your own pace
"I cringe at the idea of my son in the same rooms that I used to sit in staring at the clock waiting for the bell to ring. I don't want him to do that for 12 years."
A webquest about foreign language learning
I put together a few resources about language learning in general that I enjoy and help me get in the right mindset for learning a language:
Tech Tips
I think this article really nails the best, easiest ways to use technology in classrooms right now. Using technology to break the ice and discover skills that the students possess can give the teacher and students a head start, with knowledge of their peers that they would normally have to discover as the semester goes on. I know that having the Google Presentation with all of our pictures and names in it has been a helpful way for me to remember everyone's name in this program (the Facebook group helps with that too). And knowing ahead of time which kids are able to do something, like editing video, enables you to do video projects more smoothly by sneakily putting at least one experienced kid in each group.
I think one of the best ideas this article presents is having the teacher make a website for the class. I have found that many teachers have a tendency of telling students homework assignments vaguely in class and not sticking to the syllabus, so the kids go home and freak out because they aren't sure what is expected of them. After having some college classes where teachers would post online exactly what they wanted from us, I now get a little paranoid in any class that does not have a course website, as I fear I may have forgotten to write an assignment or part of one down. As a teacher, I want to have a website with a skeleton outline for a syllabus at the beginning of the semester, and then I'll fill in the assignments for each week as we go along. I also want to have additional resources and videos up that help kids with the course material outside of class.
Apart from these more obvious ways to use technology, I liked that the article had some tips that I had never heard before. For example, the website Wordle, which can take a bunch of text and make a wordcloud out of the most frequently-used words. You could put students' papers into this individually, or even all at once, and it would likely reveal common themes, vocabulary, and transitions used by the students in their writing. This could then be used to create very interesting class discussions. I also loved how the article used the terminology "back channel" to describe the conversation that could take place outside of classroom discussion through services such as Twitter, blogs or wikis.
I think one of the best ideas this article presents is having the teacher make a website for the class. I have found that many teachers have a tendency of telling students homework assignments vaguely in class and not sticking to the syllabus, so the kids go home and freak out because they aren't sure what is expected of them. After having some college classes where teachers would post online exactly what they wanted from us, I now get a little paranoid in any class that does not have a course website, as I fear I may have forgotten to write an assignment or part of one down. As a teacher, I want to have a website with a skeleton outline for a syllabus at the beginning of the semester, and then I'll fill in the assignments for each week as we go along. I also want to have additional resources and videos up that help kids with the course material outside of class.
Apart from these more obvious ways to use technology, I liked that the article had some tips that I had never heard before. For example, the website Wordle, which can take a bunch of text and make a wordcloud out of the most frequently-used words. You could put students' papers into this individually, or even all at once, and it would likely reveal common themes, vocabulary, and transitions used by the students in their writing. This could then be used to create very interesting class discussions. I also loved how the article used the terminology "back channel" to describe the conversation that could take place outside of classroom discussion through services such as Twitter, blogs or wikis.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Making an impact in a crowded world
The article Creating a New Culture of Teaching and Learning addresses some of the biggest challenges with integrating technology in education today. One important challenge that I want to address is our trust in the internet. The article describes the misconceptions that some people have about the internet, saying "I have learned that for many kids if it’s on the Internet, it’s true. I didn’t realize until recently that it’s also the case that for a significant group of kids, if it’s not on the Internet it’s not true." The internet is intimidatingly vast. When I perform a Google search nowadays, I generally don't venture far from the first page of results, let alone the first result itself. But I am always aware of the long row of "ooooooooooo" at the bottom between "G" and "gle" informing me that there are many more pages, each filled with 10 results. Unlike a library, you can't quantify the internet. You can't see a building that contains all of the internet, or shelves lined with all of its web pages. The effect that this has on us as individuals, I believe, is it makes our knowledge and opinons feel small and unimportant. It used to mean more if you were a knowledgable person; people directed their questions at you and trusted your responses. Nowadays, any person with a smartphone in his pocket is a trivia master, capable of quickly finding you any piece of information you would likely want to know, so long as he has a good 3G or wifi signal.
There are over a billion people in the world connected to the internet, capable of quickly putting up their own webpage, blog and tweets filled with whatever information or opinons they have to offer. That's a lot of competition for our own ideas to affect people, but we need to remind kids (adults too) that it is still possible to impact the world with their mind and voice. Many times, the papers we write and theories we come up with in high school aren't that far off from what the "experts" of the world create. We should encourage students to create from an early age, assess the value of their creations, and get them out into the world if they are good. I love the author's suggestion that students learn how to create webpages early on in school. People do not usually seek information nor insightful opinions from printed five paragraph essays; so why are they the primary way we have students express themselves? When students write and print out essays for years, they have little chance to impact anyone in the world other than the teacher reading their work. So why don't we have them publish their work in more real-world ways, so they can have a real-world impact and receive useful real-world criticism? We need students to value their own opinions and the work they do more, instead of doing the bare minimum to get A's in classes.
As people are quick to note, this ease of publishing content to the world requires those consuming from the internet to do so with more caution and skepticism. But I think people make too much of a big deal about how the internet is creating a need to question information and sources. Why? Because we should always question the information presented to us, and acknowledge that humans, no matter what their academic title is or how "peer reviewed" their work is, are prone to making and publishing their errors to the world. Maybe students put too much trust in what they read on the internet, but they have also been putting too much trust into what they have read in textbooks and magazines for years. Skepticism is an essential aspect of critical thinking, and students should know that textbooks are written by humans, history is written by humans, research is conducted by humans, and any given piece of information they read can by false. This article says "don’t teach children to use the Internet unless you’re willing to teach them to think and discriminate." Don't be a parent or teacher if you're not willing to teach children to think and discriminate.
There are over a billion people in the world connected to the internet, capable of quickly putting up their own webpage, blog and tweets filled with whatever information or opinons they have to offer. That's a lot of competition for our own ideas to affect people, but we need to remind kids (adults too) that it is still possible to impact the world with their mind and voice. Many times, the papers we write and theories we come up with in high school aren't that far off from what the "experts" of the world create. We should encourage students to create from an early age, assess the value of their creations, and get them out into the world if they are good. I love the author's suggestion that students learn how to create webpages early on in school. People do not usually seek information nor insightful opinions from printed five paragraph essays; so why are they the primary way we have students express themselves? When students write and print out essays for years, they have little chance to impact anyone in the world other than the teacher reading their work. So why don't we have them publish their work in more real-world ways, so they can have a real-world impact and receive useful real-world criticism? We need students to value their own opinions and the work they do more, instead of doing the bare minimum to get A's in classes.
As people are quick to note, this ease of publishing content to the world requires those consuming from the internet to do so with more caution and skepticism. But I think people make too much of a big deal about how the internet is creating a need to question information and sources. Why? Because we should always question the information presented to us, and acknowledge that humans, no matter what their academic title is or how "peer reviewed" their work is, are prone to making and publishing their errors to the world. Maybe students put too much trust in what they read on the internet, but they have also been putting too much trust into what they have read in textbooks and magazines for years. Skepticism is an essential aspect of critical thinking, and students should know that textbooks are written by humans, history is written by humans, research is conducted by humans, and any given piece of information they read can by false. This article says "don’t teach children to use the Internet unless you’re willing to teach them to think and discriminate." Don't be a parent or teacher if you're not willing to teach children to think and discriminate.
Did you know... the world is moving fast
This video, Did you know? 4.0, is proof itself that times are moving faster, as I had to pause it during certain frames to fully process all of the facts it was throwing at me. I generally try to read science and technology news every day and think about the direction tech is headed in because I find it interesting, and I feel it is the best way to keep up with the times. It can be embarrassing watching our parents or teachers struggle with technology that we have been comfortable with from a young age, and when I have my own students or children one day, I want to make sure I do not show the same signs of being old fashioned. As soon as my brother and I started playing video games, my parents felt like they couldn't relate to us anymore and the amount of quality time we spent together seriously declined. If my children are going to be playing video games, or video chatting friends, or using smartphones, I want to be able to do it with them.
As teachers, it is especially important for us to be up to date with technology, as the youth we will have in class will spend much more time than adults playing video games, and using computers and smart phones. Children will be intrinsically interested in and excited by technology, and incorporating it in the learning process will create a more fun, modern classroom experience. As we briefly discussed in class, this could involve "flipping the classroom", where students could do more of their learning through videos and other online resources at home, at their own pace, and possibly with their family and siblings. The classroom could then become more and more the place where students get together with their peers to really apply their knowledge through projects, presentations, group work, activities, and problem solving. Or it could mean finding creative ways to incorporate video games and social networking sites, things that children are drawn to, into really meaningful projects and activities.
As this video shows, technology is becoming a more prevalent part of our lives and the world at a rapid pace, and keeping up with the changes is one of the fundamental struggles of our generation.
As teachers, it is especially important for us to be up to date with technology, as the youth we will have in class will spend much more time than adults playing video games, and using computers and smart phones. Children will be intrinsically interested in and excited by technology, and incorporating it in the learning process will create a more fun, modern classroom experience. As we briefly discussed in class, this could involve "flipping the classroom", where students could do more of their learning through videos and other online resources at home, at their own pace, and possibly with their family and siblings. The classroom could then become more and more the place where students get together with their peers to really apply their knowledge through projects, presentations, group work, activities, and problem solving. Or it could mean finding creative ways to incorporate video games and social networking sites, things that children are drawn to, into really meaningful projects and activities.
As this video shows, technology is becoming a more prevalent part of our lives and the world at a rapid pace, and keeping up with the changes is one of the fundamental struggles of our generation.
Friday, June 3, 2011
First week
Somehow classes always feel just as long, whether it's an 80 minute class in high school or undergrad or a 6 hour class in grad school. I tell friends I'm taking 6 hour classes and they can hardly believe it, but they are more bearable than one would think. Like all classes, they just seem to drag on toward the 2/3 point as you become more eager to get out.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)