Reflection of EDUC 6712I-1

In reflecting back on this course, I realize I have had many surprising moments. However, the most surprising element about teaching the 21st century literacy skills is the amount of time and ways of integration into my already time restraint curriculum it demands. I do agree though that teaching these skills is a necessity for our students to learn to enhance their knowledge for their future jobs. By teaching these 21st century skills, we are bringing our students closer to achieving the demands they must fulfill for their future jobs. The most startling thought for me is that I am preparing my students for some jobs that do not even exist yet. Since I am still a novice teacher (just beginning my 5th year teaching), I am still pretty current with the technologies in our world and ones that can be implemented in our classrooms. I have integrated some such as, blogs, wikis, and podcasts, into my curriculum already. In order to teach my students the 21st century literacy skills, I plan to continue integrating technologies but in a more critical way. My goal already for this school year and beyond is to integrate into my lessons the 5 new literacies: questioning, searching, evaluating, synthesizing, and communicating (Laureate Education, 2009). I believe as long as we follow by the guidelines of the 21st century literacy skills and try to strengthen those in our students, we are doing our job. I also agree with Mr. Warlick with his philosophy in we need to stop teaching our students how to be taught, but for them to know how to learn and teach themselves (Laureate Education, 2009). Our society has changed and so should teaching and how our students learn. We are a much more hands-on, constructivist society now rather than the traditional ‘being told what to do’ industrial times. Instead of our students being told what to do, we need to have our students questioning what should they do next (what is the next step)—inquiry. Just like Dr. Hartman said we need to teach our students how to develop good questions (Laureate Education, 2009). I strongly agree with this statement. If our students are always expecting someone else to tell them what to do, then we are not preparing them for their future. After this course I have made it a professional goal of mine to take advantage of more of my school district’s technology classes. I am very lucky to be a part of a school district that offers free professional development classes to teachers in all areas. First I will need to go online and register for these classes. After registering I will take my laptop to the classes so I can follow along as the instructor is teaching about the technology skill. Finally I will integrate this new technology into my classroom. Like I stated before, I have already integrated blogs, wikis, and podcasts into my curriculum, however I would like to add digital storytelling, screen casts, and more.
Resources:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009). A teacher's perspective: evaluating information online [Motion Picture] Supporting Information Literacy and Online Inquiry in the Classroom. Baltimore: Author.
21st Century Fluency Project. (2010).The digital citizen. Retrieved September 28, 2010, from http://www.21stcenturyfluency.com/fluencies.cfm
Warlick, David. (2005). The New Literacy: Reading, writing, and arithmetic no longer guarantee students a place in the workforce. A different skill set is in high demand. Retrieved September 29, 2010 http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=263

Screen Cast

Based on the instructions given, I analyzed the following website using a screen cast program, Jing. Please copy and past the following link to view and listen to the screen cast.

http://www.screencast.com/t/OxVVo7c6

Voice Thread: Social Studies Curriculum Demands

http://voicethread.com/share/1041840/

Connectivism and Social Learning in Practice

Connectivism is when learning takes place in a cooperative group using technology to enhance the relationships between individuals and the content/curriculum. A great example of connectivism and social learning was in the article, "Social Constructivism Vignette", when Mrs. Smith divided her class into groups and assigned each group one act of the play, Hamlet (Orey, 2001). After Mrs. Smith had realized for years that she had struggled teaching her students about Shakespeare's plays, she turned to social learning instructional strategies. As each student was to complete their part of the project, the end product of a modern-day puppet show was created through a social learning process. In the end, each student's mark was on the project, and they were able to feel a sense of ownership (Orey, 2001).

An instructional strategy that could be a great example of a social learning activity is a "wiki". The whole idea behind a "wiki" is for each student to to put forth their unique ability and talent to the project so the end project is a result of a "diversity of network" (Orey, 2001). I strongly believe that students can just as well learn from other students as well as the teacher. Just like Mr. Orey says a social learning project is where "the students [bring] their diverse interests and collaborated to create their finished product" (Orey, 2001). That is the true definition of a "wiki".

Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology.

Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Main_Page

Constructivism in Practice

The constructionist approach is all about the student’s process of learning is through building artifacts. Just as one of the types of constructionism, Learning by Design, says that the "emphasis is [on] the value of learning through creating, programming, or participating in other forms of designing" (Orey, M., 2001). I agree that students learn better from manipulations than from cut-and-dry class lectures. Some of the best memories I have personally as a student in school are the projects that I created and built, not worksheets that I completed. There are many activities in my classroom and other colleagues’ classrooms that exemplify the constructionist learning theory. For instance, in Social Studies during our World War I unit, students created models of a battlefield, including the trenches, “no man’s land”, and barbwire. In using technology to prepare for the building of the model, students had to research what the World War I battlefields looked like. From ETV streamline video clips to websites (www.firstworldwar.com) that we had viewed in class, students were able to picture in their minds the various elements on a battlefield. The students had so much fun with this project! In this project, and in others, the students became the learner and teacher became the facilitator or guide. This week's resources talked about generating and testing a hypothesis. When the constructivist theory is practiced, roles in the classroom change and a hypothesis can be tested. When activities and lessons are student-centered, students will have a better chance on learning and remembering—and of course that is the whole goal.

References:

Orey, M.(Ed.). (2001). Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology.
Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/

Experiment with VoiceThread

Hey Everyone,

I skipped ahead and created my account for VoiceThread. I was playing around and created this little album.

http://voicethread.com/share/1012760/

Enjoy!

-Amy