Blog Assignment #2

1)      Mr. Dancealot

What a video!? The central message for this video is teachers must be active in their instruction and students should be allowed to interact in the classroom. Mr. Dancealot only wanted to use power points to teach. He only demonstrated closed position with his body, but he expected everyone to know what to do. When he was teaching about foot placement, no one could tell what he was doing because the counter was covering his feet. The students never got the chance to interact with the dances; they all sat there either taking notes or almost falling asleep. The author’s conclusion is made extremely well. He depicts this with the very end of the video. The students are lost at the final exam because they were never really introduced to actually dancing a fox trot or the rumba. Sure they have notes on it, but they were not given the chance to do anything hands on.

2)      Teaching in the 21stCentury 

I.                    Students can find anything, anywhere, anytime.

a.      Ex) Blogs, Google, Wikipedia

b.      Ex) Facebook and Twitter

c.       Ex) Cell Phones, Computer, IPads

II.                  How do we teach students to handle these resources?

a.      Validate, Synthesize, Leverage

b.      Communicate, Collaborate, Problem Solve

III.                Ask your students to ….

a.      Understand, Remember, Apply

b.      Analyze, Evaluate, Create

IV.                Creating means….

a.      Blog posting, pod cashing, animating

b.      Planning, recoding, designing, programming

V.                  Tech Skills needed to be taught to students

a.      Paraphrasing, Attributing, Subscribing

b.      Editing, twittering, experimenting

c.       Etc.

VI.                Who will teach students?

a.      Responsibility, Reliability, Integrity

b.      Professionalism

i.                    Pirating, Plagiarism, Slander, Copyright, Crowdsourcing, Confidentiality

VII.              Classrooms should be focused on…

a.      Discussing data via different types of media

b.      Using reliable resources

c.       Evaluating work using different ways

d.      Collaborating with skype or other

e.      How struggling students will benefit

f.        E portfolios

VIII.            Engaging versus Entertaining

a.      Active vs. Passive

b.      Learning vs. Enjoyment

c.       Long term vs. Short lived

d.      Meaningful vs. No relevance

e.      Solving problems vs. Escaping problems

           I feel like Robert hit the nail on the hammer about teaching changing. Students can so easily look up anything on the internet with their computers or even their phones. So what are teachers supposed to do? We are here to guide students. We are here to teach students those things that cannot be found on the internet. We are here to teach students how to use new technology. Hopefully, all of the things described in the video will be used in my classroom one day. Teaching in the 21^st century will be a challenge for not only the students but also the educators. As an educator, I will have to be able to keep up with the new ways of doing things. Things seem to always be changing.

3)      The Networked Student

            The Networked Student is a very different type of video. I have never heard of Connectivism until I watched the video. It is an interesting concept. I think networking and creating a database with lots of knowledge, being able to communicate with others, and knowing how to use the internet properly for school is extremely important. But when they started talking about why the teacher is there, they completely lost me. Teachers are there for several different reasons. In my opinion, teachers are supposed to be the ones teaching the course material AND all of those other things. I feel like with this approach, there is way too much lead way for the students. Students will need structure, they will need someone to tell them when things are due and what happens to be a good source. If not, student will either not do the work or study wrong material.

4)      Harness Your Students’ Digital Smarts

            Vicki Davis’s video totally screams “Teaching in the 21^st Century” at you. She says pen and paper are not the only way to learn. Some students will naturally learn differently. She has integrated so many different types of programs into her classroom. I like that she is incorporating world travels into her class. Davis’s students are able to contact students from all over the world. I love her concepts of almost everything digital. I think she brings a new learning style to the forefront. I thought it was interesting when she said you don’t have to know everything about a subject to teach it. Vicki Davis’s video was the first time I had ever seen “digital everything” done positively.

5)      Who’s Ahead in the Learning Race?

            It clearly seems like all of the students at Gulf Shores Elementary are ahead of either undergraduates of graduate students at the University of South Alabama. I think it is great that all students are exposed to technology at a young age. And that technology not being a single computer in the room, but their very own IPad or MacBook. I understand the students in elementary school are ahead in the race because they are exposed at such a young age. Students retain more at a young age because so many other things are not distracting them. Like Dr. Strange said, one of his graduate students was having problems using her MacBook. Integrating technology this early is what teaching in the 21^st century is all about. Paper, pencils and textbooks are not the only way to neither teach nor learn anymore.

6)      Flipping the Classroom

            Flipping is a completely new thing to me. I think it is a fun and different way of teaching/learning. I think the flipping approach will be useful to me because I like to try new things. I am a firm believer in all students do things differently.  I like how there will be more time for discussion in the classrooms. Teachers are definitely facilitators; we should be guiding discussions and walking around the classroom as the students are learning and possibly teaching other students. I’m glad that there is something out there that allows the teacher to do less lecturing during classroom hours and more of seeing what her students can do. I think flipping could be incorporated in all grades because it’ll give a sense of responsibility to students. Students must watch the videos to be prepared for class the next day.

7)      Bringing the Locker Room into the Classroom

            When reading Bringing the Locker Room into the Classroom, the words “problem solving” kept jumping out at me. Problem solving is very important in either the classroom or in the locker room. It is a lifelong skill that needs to be taught at a young age. When I become an educator, I’d like to use discussion in my class. I don’t really want my students to always look at me for the answers. I think working with their peers will be beneficial in developing proper problem solving skills.