Blog Post #2

1. Mr. Dancelot proves what can happen when teachers fail to properly instruct their pupils the steps they need to succeed in their class. Dancealot as his name implies is tasked with teaching his students several forms of dance. However rather than getting the students involved and doing all the steps in live action. He elects to sit behind his podium and read off of a boring PowerPoint presentation. All the while the kids take diligent notes on what they think will help them become better dancers. However when final exam day comes, they quickly realize that the notes they have been taking in class in no way helped further their skills. This humorous video can be applied to any subject and age level. We as teachers can not just sit behind our desk and throw a slideshow up while hoping for the best. We need to find ways to actively engage our students on an intellectual level that challenges them. Also even if we start out strong, we must not get complacent the longer we work. I would like to imagine that Dancealot was a great teacher twelve years ago when he started. Perhaps over the years he just lost his enthusiasm and thus his lessons began to suffer. So I agree with all the points being made. It serves as a warning on several different fronts and I hope we would be sagacious enough to avoid these potential pitfalls.

2. In the video Teaching in the 21stCentury Roberts really makes it clear that teachers need to stay up to date with the technology available to them. I whole heartily agree with this stance and believe that we should be current with our methods. Everyday the students we are getting ready to teach are becoming more technology proficient. We must not become walking dinosaurs in our classroom and our tech savvy consists of being able to turn the computer on. There are so many advantages for staying current and incorporating tech elements into our classrooms.

I.Information is Everywhere
A. Cellphones
B. Computers
C. Television

II. Teachers To Filter This Overload of Information
A. Validate the Information
B. Collaborate the Information
C. Communicate the Information.

III. Teaching Should be Engaging but Entertaining.
A. Make lessons that are actively engaging that holds their attention and makes them want to learn
B. Make lessons that have meaning and helps the students retain over a long term.
C. Make lessons that encourage creativity not discourage it.

3. My initial reaction to The Networked Student was that will never work. Then the he just continues to show how many different ways there are to obtain access to knowledge. He shows that the technology we use on a daily basis can also be used to help further are education. We can use our phone for more the music and texting. We can use or computers for more than Facebook and cat videos. I always fancied myself being a little tech savvy but this video exposed a lot things I have remained ignorant on. Rather than just take notes and fall asleep in class, we can connect with people all over the world to collaborate our ideas. This is a very exciting concept and I hope it continues to expand to becoming the mainstream form of education.

4.  While watching Harness Your Students' Digital Smart many cool points were made. She uses technology to help give every student an edge in ways a pencil and paper class never could. I think this is due to all of them being engaged in the concepts being taught to them. I was amazed how into the lessons the students were and the responsibilities that are entrusted to them. Did she test their knowledge by a multiple choice test they would memorize the night the before? No, she let them get in front of the class and teach how to do something. She gives them something real to apply their knowledge to and thus their productivity is greatly increased. Also that just looked like a fun class to be apart of.

5. Proven by our own Dr.Strange in his video Who's Ahead in the Learning Race elementary students seem to be well ahead of us in the learning race. Some of those responses from under grads really hit home close to me because I find Apple based products to be a little hard to use. So I guess becoming compatible with these devices could be one of my goals for EDM 310. I think the older we get we become a little to prone to shoot down new ideas and way of doing things. We can get so stuck in the way we are used to doing things and when I better solution comes up it is quickly discard the foreign idea. This is not a problem for these youngsters. They take new ideas and thrive on them. Once again this is a class I wish was a part of my early education.

6. I have never heard of Flipping the Classroom until I watched this video. It is without a doubt a interesting idea but even more importantly it is a good idea. How much time do teachers waste trying to get the students to a point where they can comfortably get into a lesson? Why not incorporate a technique that can alleviate some of this and come into the classroom ready to roll. It gives the students extra time to focus on things they may actually be having trouble with and gives the teacher the time to touch on those concerns. The students can come into a classroom ready and skip some of the required exposition time that has been a problem for many teachers over the years.