Blog Post 6

The Networked Student 

 

This was a very interesting video. I love how it captured the steps of how to be a networked student. This is a true example of connectivism. The student in the video uses a wide range of resources to build his learning network. Not only does he use websites and blogs to learn more about American Psychology he also listens to educational podcast on his Ipod. This helps him have a range of educational tools. With no book in the class, he is able to expand his knowledge and become responsible for the things he needs to learn. Being a networked student will help him in the long run and he will be able to survive living in a world where everything is based on technology.
Does the networked student really need a teacher? I think yes! Like the video said, she is the backbone to what he has become. Without the help and support of a teacher, a student will not know how to fully reach the potential to becoming a networked student. A teacher can help by showing a student what to do, how to fix a problem, how to communicate properly, and more; but without a teacher the student will not know this. I feel like I am prepared to be a teacher of a networked student. It will be difficult but I believe that EDM has helped me learn more about the internet and how to use it effectively. With this, I can help a student learn more about technology and how to use it in the classroom. If I don't know something then I will research it until I do.
Wendy Drexler is very brave for wanting to try this with her middle school students. I don't know if I would be able to do that. Its hard, I think, because they are still at that immature age where they are not going to be responsible. But I do believe that if she does it right and makes it fun, then they might enjoy it and like being able to work on things on their own. It could honestly go both ways.

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment

This student has her Personal Learning Environment(PLE)down. I was amazed by how it had so many sources and she is getting as much out of the internet that she can. Her teacher has given her a lot of leniency when it came to doing her work on her own. The student took this oppurtunity to work with different resources so that she learned everything she could about a particular subject. While doing this, she had fun and learned about responsibility. I also love how it makes the class almost paperless. It helps save the planet but also saves the teacher money because most schools today don't have the money for printing and paper so it comes out of the teachers pocket.
Her PLE makes my PLN look horrible. She has a lot more resources than I have on mine. After watching her video, I thought of other things I can start adding to mine though.

Smartboards

Michael Stanton writes a blog post about how smartboards are the least cost effective way to improve learning. He said that two of the main reasons he believes this is: 1)they don't change the model that is broken, they just make it more expensive and 2)smartboards are an administrative cop out. He doesn't believe that the smartboard will do anything to help because you still have to teach the students things they don't want to learn and it doesn't reduce a teachers workload. They are an administrative cop out because administrators use them to write proposals and use money to make the classroom look better but it doesn't change the actual learning of the classroom.

Bill Ferriter writes a blog about why he believes interactive whiteboards are useless. He said that he used his for about a year to conclude this information. He said he crafter three nifty assignments out of it but overall it didn't make his curriculum any easier. He believes it takes too much money to help teachers learn how to use it and that it doesn't make the kids learn any more effectively.
I found a useful blog post that a lady named Angie wrote about tools on a smartboard that are effective to use in the classroom. This is a contrast to what the other two authors wrote about smartboards. She has found a way to use her smartboard to help her students learn and to help interact them in the process. To check out her post about smartboards Click here