This infographic seems geared for elementary and middle school grades. It starts with reminding students that the world can see what you post online and that once you post there is no taking it back. It also points out that when communicating through social media you should personally know who you are friends with and be leery of giving out personal information. Students have become so Google dependent that they will believe anything to be true that they read online. This graphic emphasizes the importance of checking your facts when conducting research. Lastly this graphic touches on Cyberbullying which is an ever growing problem in our modern world. Together this infographic is an introduction to digital citizenship that would work well with elementary and younger middle school grades.
The flipped classroom is a great concept. I can imagine that eventually all education will move to remote attendance and a flipped classroom is the beginning of developing digital resources that will accommodate the seemingly inevitable shift in education. The incorporation of flipped video lessons in your class is outstanding. I find that students respond positively to the occasional flipped lesson and they enjoy being able to revisit the lesson later on. With the available tools like edpuzzle and screen casting options, creating flipped video lessons is not as challenging as you think. The countless resources available makes flipping lessons very achievable. The issue, as noted in the Edutopia article "The Flipped Classroom Pro and Con," is that not all students have access to a computer and internet after school as well as if all teachers flipped, students would be spending countless ours out of school watching video lessons. Another issue is that subjects like math and sciences where labs and practice can be done in class are much easier to flip. I find it very challenging to flip contents like English and History. I know it can be done, but then the instructor is left wondering what can be created or practiced on a daily basis.
With those thoughts in mind even though all of my students are capable of participating in a flipped class I am not sure that a complete flip is necessary nor the best practice. What seems logical to me is creating an educational experience where students actively learn through many means. So I would have to agree with "The Flipped Class Manifest," that the flipped classroom is not the universal solution to the education system, but incorporating flipped lessons regularly will increase students engagement and achievements in their education. In this lesson on digital citizenships the overall learning objective is how to identify credible sources and links online. A teacher will need a projector and internet access minimally. Through the use of youtube videos, class discussion, and a whole class analysis of websites, student will begin to understand what makes a credible resources or link. Students will gain the ability to implement the rule of 3 and rank the reliability of websites to ensure personal safety and develop the ability to identify accurate information. This is a lesson that I can implement with my students at the beginning of the school year. I teach 6th graders who are getting their first computers for school and often have had no instruction on digital citizenship. My students do get introduced to digital citizenship in their technology class, but that is not enough. As educators internet safety is something that we all should be educating our students about to insure their safety and that they are accessing quality information from credible sources. A PLN is a group of connections or resources that are applicable to my teaching needs and continued learning. A PLN will expand over time as I gain experience and discover new technologies and resources. A PLN is a way to ensure that I am keeping up as education transitions to meet the needs of modern learners who are digital natives.
I lurked on the #CAedchat on Sunday 11/29 at 8 p.m. and the topic was coding in education. I will be honest as a first time chat viewer that the twitter feed was moving quite rapidly and it was a struggle to keep up. The topic of coding seems important, but having no experience with any type of coding I felt lost in the discussion. Due to no real understanding of the topic I am struggling to see the benefit of taking personal time to join in on this social media based on this experience. It probably does not help that I do not regularly participate in any social media on my own. I am going to lurk on #ntchat Wednesday at 5 to try and gain a better understanding of the benefits of taking part in this social media. Rather than join another curation or pin website I elected to use symbaloo as I am familiar with that website even though I do not use it regularly. As a new teacher in my second year I am finding that I do not have time to spend developing my PLN. Right now I am focused on developing my curriculum that I teach and identifying the best resources I can to incorporate into my classroom. The map of the ADHD prescriptions increasing as you move farther east is very interesting. It makes me wonder why prescription density is so much greater on the east coast and it seems troubling that this has turned into a modern epidemic. Having students with IEP's due to being diagnosed with ADD/ADHD it does seem that some of these students are being punished for being bored in class. My issue with this is that even with the incorporation of technology as my students all have macbooks, and the engagement level at my school is at a higher level than most, students are still getting distracted. With this in mind it does not seem that students are bored, but there has been a shift in kids' willingness to learn and their ability to stay focused. In regards to Sir Ken's thought about waking kids up, the focus needs to be on how can they control themselves to be effective in the learning process. The question is how can we do this without having students medicated?
In regards to the idea of letting students move through the education system at their own pace it does seem to make sense rather than batching them by age in our current system. If we were able to shift this utilitarian educational paradigm a serious issue would be how do we rearrange the education system and in what ways will it be monitored and mandated that student meet the requirements and are moving at an acceptable pace. Spiraling back to my comment above about student willingness to learn I find it hard to believe that allowing students to move at their own pace will be as effective. With those students who are immature or have ADHD, the lack of focus and potential motivation can hinder students educational outcomes even more than they already are. It is clear that there is no simply solution to the problem of modern education, but the intentions and direction that education is moving seems to be good. |
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January 2016
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