http://voicethread.com/share/3194917/Voicethread Reflection and philosophical musings about the common man in the 21st Century
TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM
I've realized that Blogs have huge potential as teaching tools. For the past few years teachers have been using Blogs, but the majority of them follow the old educational model of teacher as dispenser of wisdom and students as passive recipients of knowledge from the great master. It occurred to me a few months ago that the best learning takes place when students are teachers and teachers are students in an ongoing dialogue. My idea with this site is that students will participate in the learning experience by sharing their thoughts with their Circle of Friends in Google+ through their own Blogs which will form a web or sorts with all of the other students in their class. Blogger.com takes Blogging to a new level with Google+ because all followers of a Blog can, by means of a simple click of a button, share the things that they find interesting--share them on Facebook, share them on Twitter, email, and Google+ groups. Through Google+ students can then go to Google Docs that the teacher sets up and they can work on collaborative Wiki's defining terms, revising essays, or simply developing an idea, such as an interpretation of a passage from a novel. And because all of the students in these "circles of friends" have their own Blogs, the learning process can grow organically as various students set up their own discussions and collaborative works and share their digital projects.
Many of the seminal ideas for this blog came from two books I read this year:
Cognitive Surplus--How Technology Makes Consumers into Collaborators ,by Clay Shirky,
and Born Digital, Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives, by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser.
Both books say that the Internet has completely changed not only the way we do things but also the ways that we think of things and the very ways that we see ourselves as human beings. One thing is certain: the students I'm teaching are truly different, and to teach them effectively, I'm going to need to meet them on their turf, which is sometimes in Cyberspace.
I teach sophomores, and it occured to me earlier this year that old ways of teaching weren't working for my students who were raised after the Digital Revolution had begun. This year all of my students (16 year-olds) are Digital Natives, born at the dawn of the Digital Age. Some people put the beginning of the era a bit earlier than 1995, but as I see it, we weren't really in the Digital Age until the majority of people started sharing their ideas and creations with one another, and all of that started when my students started 1st grade. My students were born in 1995, and that means that when they started 1st grade, they were able to use Wikipedia, which was launched in 2001. In theory, they could have been contributors to that same Wiki, sharing their ideas with the world as so many others were. When my students headed into middle school at the age of 12, the digital world exploded with 5 earth-shattering events taking place over approximately 18 months. 2005 is the year everyone (almost literally) started texting; 2005 is the year Wikipedia became the number one online source for information; 2004 was the year Facebook was launched and it was wildly popular by 2005; 2006 was the year YouTube use exloded; and the summer before these students started 6th grade, the first iPhone was released. By the time these students finished 8th grade, the vast majority of them were spending (according to the results of a poll I conducted) 3-4 hours per day doing things that teenagers had never done before.
But it wasn't as if they simply turned their attention to things that teenagers didn't know about before 2005. These students starting thinking and acting in new ways, ways that can be used to help them learn and to make it possible for them to help others learn as well. What happened was that people were finally given the means and opportunity (Shirkey's wording) to become the Creators, Innovators, and Activists that they had always wanted to be. In the next few days I'll be exploring what these two authors have to say about these three new roles that today's students are so willing to fulfill.
******************************************************************
Bibliography:
Cognitive Surplus--How Technology Makes Consumers into Collaborators ,by Clay Shirky,
and Born Digital, Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives, by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser.
How Do Your Studnts Learn?
“Digital technology brings richness to learning” (Bill Gates)
“I have to power down when I come to school”
Mostly they’re digital learners. As of 2003, 68% of kids under 2 use screen media over 2 hours per day. And why? “Richness,” according to Bill Gates.
“These teens were born into a digital world where they expect to be able to create, consure, remix, and share material with each other” (Lee Rainie, Director of Pew Internet and American Life Project).
Does my curriculum provide this richness?
Students crave it, but our schools are barren and students feel that to be “smart” they have to learn to play the game, to “play school.”
“I’m not attention deficit—I’m just not listening”
Rethinking Learning: the 21st Century Learner—MacArthur Foundation
“The most important thing for kids growing up today is the love of embracing change”
“If I ain’t learning, it ain’t fun” (surprising statement of the hard core gamer)
Using technology isn’t just about preparing students for the new and ever-changing workplace. It’s used to teach kids creativity and civic involvement
Technology Mediated Learning—Student Perspective
“It’s different by the fact that there’s more interaction”
Salman Khan on his Khan Academy (Stanford University
Using Technology to Rethink How We Teach and Learn
Simply posting youtube videos to tutor his cousin, the academy was born because people found these videos and recommended them to countless other people.
“Profound realization . . . they prefer something that is zero incremental cost and that’s scalable to something that’s resource-intensive and expensive” (Sal Khan)
“on your own time, at your own pace, remediate as you see fit”
He wanted to do it because he knew that his philanthropic efforts would have lasting impact because they’re digital—“people might be using these in 300 years”
Students learn by doing and creating with digital technology
“I will have 14 jobs before I’m 38 years-old. Over half of those jobs do not exist today”
“www Whatever, Wherever, Whenever”
Netbooks as a tool to make learning relevant and real
“It’s perfect for my statistics class. We’ve contacted people in the field all over the country and will be collaborating with other schools as we study for the AP test”
Interactive White Boards
“Students shared the ideas, I just led the discussions”
Shocking Facts you didn’t Know One Minute Ago
The smartest 25% of people in India exceeds the total population of the United States (therefore there are more honors students in India than there are students in the U.S. )
