While watching Wesch's Vision of Students video, I was struck by the girl who holds up the sign, "when I graduate, I will probably have a job that doesn't exist today". Considering that these are mainly juniors and seniors in college, it speaks to how fast times can change.
I reflected back to my college days, when I was taking education classes, we really didn't have an Ed Tech class. Teaching has changed the past 17 years since I got out of college. As I ramp up and try to keep current on various methods, the way I teach is changing. I look to my younger colleagues and talk with them about how they learned, being fresh out of college. While at a Web 2.0 session at a conference, one presenter, in his second year of teaching, mentioned that using Web 2.0 is the only way he knows how to learn.
Listening to the session, Wesch seems to adapt his curriculum to the students and learning styles. He uses Project-Based Learning to teach about concepts, utilizing technology instead of the traditional sit-around-a-table-with-photocopied-articles method. For the secondary education teacher, these can be powerful tools. Use of Diigo, Google Docs, PBWorks, and Gaggle provide opportunities for the learners to interact as a community to collaborate.
One school system that has heavily integrated technology into teaching is Haywood County Schools. Canton Middle School has led the way. One social studies teacher mentioned that he was teaching skills, not content. I understand where he is coming from, but that doesn't mean I have to agree. Every once in a while, a news report will come out talking about our geographic and historical illiteracy and it is downright embarrassing.
Use of Web 2.0 also teaches students about online presence: thinking before posting, grammar, netiquette, etc. It also serves a great springboard to introduce legal issues as well. It would be nice to see a study of the relationship between online learning and cyberbullying.
No comments:
Post a Comment