Information vs. Knowledge

Our classrooms ARE so busy feeding our children information rather than teaching them knowledge acquisition and probably will continue to be so unless something is done to change standardized testing.  Teachers feel such pressure to cover all the material that shows up in standardized tests that less emphasis is put into teaching the skills and tools that will help them acquire, process, communicate knowledge.  Did you know that teachers must take down all posters, word walls, and written print on their walls before students take standardized tests?  All year, a teacher will make references to the print around them and teach students how to use the resources around them to discover answers to questions they have.  Then when the tests roll around, that so important skill is niched because it would be associated with "cheating".  What kind of mixed messages are we sending our children?  To make matters worse, so, so much of a child's success in the educational system is based on those exact test scores. To quote from the article "Emerging Technologies in Learning": "If the most important skills in the 21st Century are finding information and experts, engaging in complex communication skills, solving ill-defined problems, and making decisions, what are the implications for testing and assessment practices?"

Emerging Technologies In Education

This is such a great resource!  I learned a lot in the 21 pages I read and can't wait to find out more from the rest of the publication.  The Common Craft videos are very creatively done and to the point.  This could definitely be a project our students could do based on something they are studying or want to find out more about.  Some of our students recently began blogging and the "Blogging in Plain English" video would be very applicable!

Reflection on Digital Learning Session

There seems to be some hesitancy in embracing digital learning. It was interesting to see the concern come up tonight about children not learning the basics of good, well thought out, in-depth writing if all they are doing is blogging tidbits. This reminds me of when our school district adopted the whole language approach to teaching language arts and all the basics of phonics went out the window and was replaced by Writer's Workshop, Dear Time, and Literature Circles. When test scores revealed too many failing students, the district then adopted a curriculum based solely on phonics. Educators are realizing that there needs to be a balance of both and that language arts needs to be taught systemically and really scaffolded for students. This goes the same for digital learning. If technology is taught in a systemic way and learning is scaffolded for students, they should not have to give up the basics by being digital learners.

Week #3 - Learning In A Digital Age

This afternoon, during the last period of the day, a resource specialist was working with three 7th graders who needed literacy support.  They were seated next to a pod of library computers and started off their session begging to use them.  Instead, she had given them a writing prompt to write about 9/11 and they had to write about it on paper:  what they remember had happened, their feelings about it, etc.  As I walked past the group a few times, all I heard was restless and rude comments made by the students, who certainly didn't want to be there, followed by the teacher's reprimands.  In the whole hour they were working, each student had probably written 2-3 not very well thought out sentences.  How frustrating for both teacher AND students!  Here was an instance where traditional teaching and the digital learner collided.  How might the use of technology have changed the dynamics of their time together?  Maybe they could have posted their writing on a web log along with some historic photos they found on the web.  Or possibly work on their writing by emailing or IMing students from New York to ask them about their perspectives on that day.  This year, I hope to work with our staff on ways to educate and reach out to our digital learners with methods beyond the traditional ways of teaching.

Week #2 - Connectivism

"The ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital."  This rang such a bell with me!  How often have I worked with students doing research and they take any information from the internet as 100% true and important, jotting everything down enthusiastically?  Besides outright plagiarizing,  I would be doing a disservice to my students if I did not teach them how to look critically at the source of online material as well as discriminate between what's true and not, important or not.  (That is much easier said than done.) 

ITEC 830 - Web Journal #1

What a fun way to begin our class...very much like how an elementary classroom might brainstorm and share ideas to begin a unit.  I gained a lot from listening to others' definitions of what Web 2.0 means.   I've heard about many Web 2.0 tools, but have only used a few.  As tiring as it is for me to take even ONE class each semester while teaching full time, I have always learned so much from the ITEC classes and have been able to immediately put into practice what I learn.  

I am also excited to teach about Web 2.0 to my students this year.  After 4 years in the technology resource position, I'm beginning to feel a bit blah about what I've been teaching.  Sometimes it also seems so overwhelming.  I'll learn some new application to teach about and 20 new ones pop up!  Technology advances so quickly...  Just gotta keep learning!