In Travis Allen’s videos The iSchool Initiative and ZeitgeistYoungMind's Entry, Travis is trying to show how technology can help cut costs in school, and help children learn. He pointed out that the school would be able to lock things on the iSchool and the Internet would be limited access.
I can see how this would be helpful, but we cannot completely get ride of pencil and paper in schools. Like I said in previous posts I will not believe that technology is the only way to go. Not everyone learns the same way. Yes, I believe that it is helpful, but I refuse to believe it should be the only thing we use to teach our students.
Virtual Choir
Jennifer Chamber’s posted Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir. I find it very neat that this is possible. I have seen things like this before like a virtual band. My question is what happens when someone’s Internet connection fails? We all know it happens. Mine does it every day.
Teaching in the 21st Century
In this video there is so much information and questioning. What it comes down to is: what do we, as teachers, need to teach these students to be successful in whatever they want to become? We need to get our students engaged and hungry to learn. We need to teach them not only facts but skills they will need throughout their lives. Even though it is easy to look it up, I do believe some facts are important to know, but skills are essential to life: how to cook, how to drive, how to write, and etc. Watching this video really makes you think about what you have been taught and how.
In Katie Gimbar’s Flipped classroom videos she talks about how she has completely changed how she teaches. Here is a link to videos of questions people have asked her. Dr. Lodge McCammon’s video Dr. Lodge McCammon's FIZZ - Flipping the Classroom shows the same type of process Katie Gimbar uses I’m almost positive she got the process from him. Ms. Munafo, Flipping the Classroom - 4th Grade STEM, has also flipped her classroom.
Katie Gimbar posts a video about what is going on in the classroom for the students to watch for homework. Then, they apply what they learn on the video in the classroom. Through doing this the students can watch the video how ever many times they need to, to understand the material.
I find this process very interesting and possible to apply in my future classroom. I feel that it is very instructional for the students, and they can learn at home and apply the material in the classroom. That way if they have questions while doing their problems they can ask right then. I am very interested in trying this method in the future.
Lyndsie,
ReplyDeleteI agree that we cannot completely get rid of paper and pencil because it is a skill that should not be lost. As you have said, computers do fail us sometimes so if we no longer taught how to write, these students would be lost. I noticed you wondered about Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir as well. I did too when I took EDM 310. If you look it up online, they actually did not record the video clips simultaneously. Instead, each singer sent in their video and someone compiled them all together to make it appear as if they were all meeting through Skype. It is still very cool, but not quite as mind boggling!