Oceans Video

In the video that we watched today, high school students were given the opportunity to teach topics related to the ocean. They each created a hands-on science activity. The high school students then set up their centers in a school library and had groups of first and fifth graders visit. It appeared to be a great opportunity for the high school students to learn about teaching. It is also provides great opportunities for the students to reach a higher level of learning. It is a common belief that individuals learn the information better if they teach it. These students were able to reach that higher level of learning through their teaching experience.

Web Quest

Today we watched a video of students using a Web quest based activity to learn about the solar system. The students learned not only about the solar system but also about how to find information on the Internet and draw conclusions from that information. It was a good example of how to get students activity thinking about what they were reading rather than just putting the time in that was necessary. I think one of the most effective parts of this teacher’s class time was the small group discussion. It forced the students to find quality information online, formulate an opinion, and then defend that opinion.

Students' View of Technology

We just watched the video “A Vision of Students Today.” The college students in this video declared that what they are learning in school is not applicable to their lives or to the world today. They pointed out that there are so many needs and challenges in the world and our college education system largely ignores them. They also talked about how much of their time they spend with technology of different types, especially as compared with how much time they spend doing course work. I was left with questions after watching the video. The students declared that technology could solve all of the problems that the world faces. I was left thinking, “maybe, but you have to prove to me how?”

The video “A Vision of K-12 Students Today” shows K-12 students talking about how they would like to see technology used in the classroom. They were very clear that they use a lot of technology in their everyday lives—that it makes up a big part of who they are. They said that they wanted to be able to use technology in the classroom to learn. I felt that the biggest statement throughout the video was “We learn digitally.” The student declared that in order to really learn and to learn things that they would be able to use in the future they needed to be able to learn by doing through technology.

These two videos, while filmed in the same style were quite different. The first video focused on college students, and to me it seemed as though they were simply complaining. They did offer solutions to the problems in education or the world that they saw. I think that this is a problem, especially at that age. During college it is time for students to see problems and discover solutions rather than just complain. Furthermore, they did not offer suggestions or facts of how technology helped them learn or how it helped. On the other hand, the K-12 students at least offered suggestions of how they could learn through technology.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is the social networking aspect of the Internet. The Internet has become a means of communication and connection, across the whole world. The communication stems more from the ability to communicate across continents and oceans instantly than from what people often think of as social networking websites. Web 2.0 is a description for the ability to share information and collaborate over the Internet. It has changed our lives and how we function. In the realm of education, it has opened up amazing opportunities for educators to collaborate, share ideas, and learn from each other. Students benefit when their teachers take these opportunities. Students can also benefit by interacting with people from other experiences and cultures. Educators should continue to look for ways to incorporate Web 2.0 in their careers and classrooms.

A Use for Technology in the Classroom

Technology can have many different uses within the classroom. One example that we saw in class today was the business class of a high school teacher. He used a computer simulator/game to allow the students to create their own corporations and gain an understanding of business in a capitalistic society. Allowing students to make decisions and see the results enabled them to gain an authentic understanding of how businesses run. With the right tools this could be done in many other subjects as well.

Thoughts on “The Poor Scholar’s Soliloquy” by Stephen M. Corey

Corey writes as a young boy who hates school. The article tells his story and his reasons for hating school.

If you were a teacher observing this boy in the situation and had a chance to read his “soliloquy,” what would you say is his main problem?

The main problem is not the boy’s but rather the teacher’s and the education system’s. I see the problem being that the school system is trying to force an exceptional child into a set mold. It is very clear that that this young man is very intelligent and eager to learn. School is supposed to be about learning; why then is this young man saying that he is no good at school? Because the learning that that school was trying to support was trivial. History is not about the memorization of facts; it is about the effects of happenings. Writing is about communicating, not about simply putting words on paper. From the sounds of this story the school supported no connections or authentic assignments. In fact, the boy’s teacher at times would not allow him to make a connection between what they were learning in science and an authentic example, even though the connection was very real. Now that is a problem!!

Learning styles....fact or fiction?

In class we watched a video about learning styles. The video was asking if it is possible that learning styles don’t really exist. Do learners really have preprogrammed learning styles such as visual, auditory, or kinesthetic? Do people really learn better if they are presented with information in one way rather than another? These are the questions posed by the cognitive psychologist who produced the video.
He said that different information is stored differently. Such as the shape of a certain object—that some information must be stored visually. A person who has a good auditory memory still needs to be able to see the shape of that object to be able to remember it; you would not try to describe the shape of the object with just words. The psychologist’s most important statement was that learning is meaning based. In other words for a task like learning vocabulary words, the learning does not take place through a visual picture. Research was shown that indicated that there was not a difference between the learning of a person labeled as an auditory learner and a person labeled as a visual learner depending on how the information was presented to them. I am not sure that I understand or agree with everything that was suggested in the video though a number of the ideas made sense. This is a good topic for further research.
His final comment—good teaching is good teaching. I definitely agree with that statement; good teaching involves presenting information in different ways, regardless of learning styles.

A teacher as a facilitator vs. the traditional teacher role?

How does the role of the teacher as facilitator differ from more traditional teacher roles?
The traditional role of a teacher in a classroom is a teacher-centered classroom. The teacher is the possessor of knowledge and teaching centers around what the teacher has to say. Traditionally a teacher is supposed to have all of the answers. A teacher who acts as a facilitator prompts the students in certain directions and lets the students discover things. Questions are asked by the teacher and room is given for student ideas.

Why are students not actively involved with the technology that is already in schools?

In discussions with high school students I have encountered a number of different approaches to technology in my local high school, especially as it relates to computer use during school. For many students computer class is boring because the teacher is unable to share much beyond the students’ current knowledge. Oftentimes new technology is dumped on the teachers with no training, and the teachers are afraid to do anything with it. The students did not feel like they were learning anything, and they found many other things to do on the computer that that they found more interesting than class work. Other students told me that they were able to go beyond the safeguards and walls set up within the technology at the school, whether that means Facebook or another non school related site.