the student - Much of the preliminary actions the student takes for his project involve knowledge of the tools found on the internet. To make such actions possible, a teacher would need to ascertain the technology skills his/her students come to the classroom with. This student does a great job of setting the groundwork before actually doing the research, to make his research more fruitful/effective. The student makes a very important distinction between facts and opinions when he researches blogs.
the video - I love the way this video presenter explains things. I remember this style of video from 23 things and much of what it taught me stayed with me so I am excited to have more of these types of videos to learn from. I love the idea of connections being made, the challenge I encounter and is not mentioned yet in this video, is how to protect younger students (such as my third graders) from inappropriate material. I am sure 99 percent of all connectors have good intentions, but the risk of that one percent gives me great trepidation in giving them the freedom to connect.
the teacher - The teacher, in this example, acts as a facilitator (which to me seems consistent with this idea of connectivism) and allows the student to take charge of his learning. With the teacher taking a secondary role, this student does a great job of getting connected through blogs, research, websites, etc. thereby performing in the way the teacher wants him to without the teacher lecturing or doing it for him. I would like this year for my students to use mp3's for research and learning games. My third grade class has created projects that they post on a website I created for which they each have their own web page. I hope to allow them increased time to do this. However, we have COWs (computers on wheels) and are only able to get laptops once a week. I am hoping we can increase our use of technology in the classroom. This year, we got activboards and that has been a blessing as the students are able to use the board to demonstrate mastery of all different subjects as well as participate in learning games. The teacher in this example, plays a vital role in steering the student in the right direction when he gets stuck, models effective techniques and shows him how to differentiate between what is fact and what information may have a slant to it. Most importantly, she helps him love learning which he can take with him wherever he goes.
A librarian can and should play a vital role in this learning as they are responsible for important research materials, and, at our school, much of the technology used for learning is found in our library. The librarian can also help students to find different ways to demonstrate their understanding of the curriculum thereby encouraging differentiated learning.
No comments:
Post a Comment