Blog Assignment 6

The Networked Student

This sounds just like our class :) From a student’s point of view, being a networked student seems like it could be time consuming and risky. Is the information I’m finding useful? Pertinent? What I’m going to be tested on? From an educator’s point of view, educating networked students is definitely important because it teaches higher level thinking and gives our students the tools they will need in the future. We have already seen how much technology is advancing, and it’s important for students to be educated on how to use this technology.

I really like that the video acknowledged the fact that teachers and instructors are still needed to guide networked students. However, it is made very clear that the teachers are guiding and not simply hand-feeding material to the students. Teachers are there to teach students the skills they need to find and organize the information that is available to them. It’s the teacher’s responsibility to familiarize the student with on-line tools, teach them how to communicate effectively, and especially differentiate between reliable and unreliable information.

I think it’s probably challenging to be a teacher of a networked student, but I’m up for the challenge. My concerns come from the strict guidelines for learning objectives that we will all probably be faced with. To me, it seems challenging to ensure that every student is gathering the correct information to meet the learning objective to the state’s satisfaction. Of course, it’s tempting to lecture directly from the standards, but I definitely believe that networked students learn valuable lessons from the higher-level thinking.

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment

This is a good video of a seventh grader who enjoys the benefits of being a networked student. She describes her PLE from her class, which is very similar to my PLN. The main reason they are similar is because of the fact that we are both relying on being connected to learn. It’s also essentially the same thing because of the sense of responsibility for our own work that is naturally created through the amount of freedom we are given. To learn everything possible about a certain topic, it is necessary to do previous research and collaborate, which is done in both this girl’s PLE and in my PLN. Also, an emphasis is put on blogs for both reflection and presentation.

Michael Staton's Negative Critique of Smartboards
Bill Ferriter's Negative Critique of Smartboards
Positive Critique of Smartboards

These three articles only had a few things in common. Basically, there is a general belief that technology has positive benefits for the educational environment. Also, it cannot be argued that interactive whiteboards have no effect on the ease of lecturing and delivery methods. They obviously greatly affect the lecturing styles and this is where the two opposing sides differ.

Those who oppose Smartboards claim that it’s not benefiting our children because they allow traditional teaching styles, such as the lecturing, to be easier for teachers. This is a drawback to some because simple lecturing is frowned upon. Those who oppose also claim that Smartboards are just PR moves from the schools that are given money to use for technology. They are supposedly an easy way for schools to spend their technology funds and have something concrete and tangible to prove. Also, those who oppose claim that Smartboards don’t allow for adaptive learning environments, differentiated learning, or collaboration.

Those who support Smartboards have much different claims and believe that Smartboards are very beneficial to students. Interactive whiteboards can appeal to different learning styles by providing short bursts of different types of media and allowing students to get involved. Also, it allows for teachers to save and retrieve materials easily and provides valuable hard copies. These hard copies can be especially useful in a collaboration project when it is necessary to see which students contributed