Blog post #2

Mr. Dancealot
Watching Professor Dancealot try to teach his students, shows me an example of what not to do when teaching my students. He did a powerpoint that did not catch the students attention and that is the first problem when teaching students in a classroom. He then tried to show them for interactive learning, but stood behind a desk so the students could not see. Teaching the students and getting them involved is very important because it grabs their attention and makes them want to learn. As a result of Professor Dancealot teaching the students through a boring powerpoint and not being able to show them without them seeing it, would cause them to not do fair on the test. The students were confused and didn’t know what they were doing. This is where a lot of students use what is called the burp-back method. They did not retain any information and would not learn anything from the course.

Harness Your Students’ Digital Smarts



Author: Autumn Sprouse I watched “Harness Your Students’ Digital Smarts” video and thought that Vicki Davis is on the right track with teaching her students about technology and letting them learn by the internet. They are doing what most teachers are learning to do now. The students are ahead by learning with technology and soon the classrooms are going to be strictly by computers. A county in Alabama already assigns a computer to each student and that is where they access their textbooks and everything they need for class. Mobile County is moving towards that and we need more teachers who are knowledgeable in the technology area in order for this to keep moving forward. In the video, the students were playing games on the computer by teaching themselves instead of having their teacher give them everything and also using less of the burp­back information. This video was excellent to watch seeing it in the classroom and has helped me get a better understanding of what it is exactly like in the classroom and how students are learning from this.

Teaching in the 21st century

Author: Chelsea Powers What will it mean to teach in the 21st century? Kevin Roberts has a very distinct idea of what it is like. With the new innovative ways teaching has become so much more advanced. I believe what Roberts is trying to say is that everything is already right at your fingertips such as Google, Wikipedia, Google Docs etc. to learn anything you could possibly imagine. But, how do we learn to use all of these amazing resources? This is where teachers will come into play. All of these resources will have to be taught the proper way to get the right use of them. This video has got me really thinking of how it is going to be when I get to the position of teaching and how much I have to learn. There is endless information on the internet. I believe technology has already came so far it is unbelievable how children as young as kindergarten can just pick up an ipad and already know how to use them to play games. As teachers it will be our job to show them how to use them for education purposes.

A Networking Student

Author: Jessica Mose A Network Student is a wonderful insight into the future of schools. It illustrates how beneficial networking is to students, also creating independent learning. Imagine a world without a teacher and only the internet, and the only instruction students receive is “here is the internet go and learn”. This would be interesting because not every child thinks and learns the same. Some children are stronger in areas than others and some will read till they cannot read anymore and some will just watch videos because they care not to read. Why a teacher is needed is an interesting question to ask because with the advancement of technology why do we need a teacher when everything is right there in front of us. Teachers are a guide to help point us in the right direction. I think open learning is a great thing and giving students the freedom to learn what they are interested in in different ways is great, but what about the kids who are lazy and do not push themselves to learn anything? That is what a teacher is there for to help push them and make sure they are going in the right direction. The way some teachers are teaching might be outdated but the content of what they are trying to get across is still good. They are still trying to give the students beginning basic tools for them to use; now how the students use these tools is up to them. If students are to go further and use the internet to help in active learning this is great as a tool for the classroom, but just to leave the students to figure out what is good and bad is not a good tool. Boundaries need to be set and having a physical teacher who gives them these boundaries and quizzes them to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to be doing is a good thing. I think there should be a good balance between teacher interaction and independent learning/networking.