Unit 2 Assignment- Building a Learning Community

I enjoyed reading the articles and watching the videos for this week’s assignment.  I think it’s interesting to learn about how much education has changed over the years.  Education needs to change because our students change. The way our students learn change over the years for several reasons, but the main reason is technology. Technology is constantly changing and improving there for it is our job as educators to keep up with technology so we are teaching our students in a way they understand and we can teach them about all this technology that is available to them.

I especially liked watching the first video A Vision of Students Today. I thought it was a neat way to show how students are learning and their cultural today. It really gave the viewer an opportunity to see how student view education and what their properties are today. It was a view point that sometimes teachers fail to see and how much technology plays into their daily lives and how much importance they put on technology.

A concept that showed up in the two articles and the video, 7 Skills Students Need for the Future was the necessity of students have critical thinking skills. In the article The New Literacy the author discusses the need for students to have critical thinking skills along with their use of technology in their lives. The author shares his ideas on way to ensure that we are teaching our students the technology but in that not losing their ability to problem solve and communicate. I thought it was interesting when the author went on to explain the 4 E’s and their importance. I liked the ideas behind “expressing ideas compellingly” because it does relate so much to how education has changed. In today’s technology world students have so many resources available to them they are able to use that to enhance their work. In writing or completing projects student are now able to use technology to show images, add video, and or audio. I believe this use of technology allows students to get creative and think outside the box of the normal assignment. In today’s technology world I think the last E; “Ethics on the Internet” is the most important.  The idea that so much information is available to our students today is a gift that comes with responsibility.  The author points out that his students are taught to respect the information they are using but also take ownership of the work they put out there.  I defiantly agree that students need to be taught that technology comes with a great responsibly.

The article IDEO’s Ten Tips for Creating a 21^st- Century Classroom Experience  was an interesting read for me because it not only talked about technology but education in the classroom in general.  I believe that I try to add as many of these tips into my classroom daily. I find these ideas and tips useful in creating an environment of open communication. It is important for students to take responsibility for their learning and I believe implementing these tips gives students a chance to do that. The author shares that creating your lessons based on relevance in relation to their lives is a great teaching tactic. If the information is relevant to the students are they are more likely to be engaged and being active learners. I love the tip about allowing variation. I find this especially necessary in the elementary classroom. In teaching young children it is so important that you differentiate your instruction based on your student’s needs.  I liked this article because it was a great refresher on creating an effective classroom.

The last video, 7 Skills Students Need for the Future was probably my favorite assignment to look at. I felt like the speaker gave a different perspective to education today and its changes than I normally would have thought about. I completely agreed with his comments about how we must teach our students brain skills. In the past students were taught how to use their hands for the jobs they would be looking for after graduation.  Dr. Wagner than shared the “7 skills to get a job”. I found this very information and useful in teaching today’s students. All the skills the author shared I believe are things we should be teaching our students every day and give them as many opportunities as possible to work on their skills.  To teach successful students teachers need to give students an opportunity to learn these skills and work on these skills as much as possible. I thought it was also interesting to learn about all the skills students are learning on their own using technology every day. Dr. Tony Wagner also shared that students are becoming exploratory learners, extending friendships, they are being self-directed, and they are using the internet as a tool for self-expression.  I found this interesting to hear because our students are already working on these important skills but it is important as educator s to direct them in right direction and give them the tools to further their skills.