Thursday, August 29, 2013

Blog Post #2: The 21st Century Student

BLOG POST #2
The 21st Century Student




Collaborated Group Post - Lauren Bradley, Sarah Barnett, Malary Booker:

Mr. Dancelot:

We believed what this video is trying to say, you can’t teach dance class in a lecture hall. You cannot teach a this type of subject matter by standing behind a table with your Power Point remote. Just like you shouldn't teach a traditional class in today’s technologically advancing world.

Also, the students were never even able to act out their dances before the exam. Chances are the students did not pass the test and it is their Professor's fault. This shows us that professors play a significant role in the classroom and help guide their students to build new skills in technology. Changing times call for classroom that are technology friendly to enhance the learning experience of the students.


Personal Post:

The world’s technology is accelerating at an amazing rate, and so is the classroom. The 21st century classroom is discovering new ways to manipulate this technology to further improve the education experience. With the classroom, comes the 21st century student. But what does it really mean to be a 21st century student? It means someone who is literate in technology, someone who blends their technological knowledge with their everyday life skills, someone who wants to progress, to evolve. With these changing times comes new opportunities to connect to other teachers, students, educators, fellow educators basically anywhere in the World. It comes with new ways to share information with a click of a button and it comes with making a personal connection to people like you.


Think back to when you were in elementary school, middle school, even high school. I’m not sure how old everyone who reads this will be, but coming from a twenty-one year old, my classroom experiences were nothing like they are now. I hadn't even seen a SMART Board before my senior year of high school. I remember hearing teachers dreaming and discussing the amazing device. My sophomore high school geometry teacher would tell us that one day she would have a projector that didn’t use slides and smudge when she wrote.


I watched a particular YouTube video titled Mr. Dancealot. This is an ironic film that starts out with college students taking a dance class that takes place in a lecture hall, that has little to no space for dancing. Already you are wondering why a dance class would be taken in a lecture hall. After that, the teacher lectures the students on dancing using vague instructions off a power point, and performing the dances behind the desk. When the students stood to also practice dancing they were told to sit down and be quiet. When the time came for the exam, he told the class it was “open book, open notes”, and he left the room while the exam was being recorded.

Now lets focus more on the characteristics of the 21st century student. I watched a particular video on YouTube entitled The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler. This movie is exactly what you think it is about. It describes the 21st century student. A student who has mainly online classes, barley uses textbooks, at whose teacher believes in Connectivism. Through Connectivism, she creates a network that is made possible through technology. Dr. Drexler believes the tools are not as important as the connections made possible through them.
The teacher empowers the student and strengthens the learning process.

The video then proceeds to describe more about the student. He is someone who finds information on networks and posts them for more to see. He has a place to share all his bookmarked sites, and he finds other’s favorite sites. He searches for information within more blogs and connects with people around the world. He builds a knowledge base to create his own blog and share and reflect on what he has learned. He shares his educational information and his organization with anyone in the world.


The last part of the video discusses the various applications a 21st student uses; Blogger, Google scholar - where you can get articles written and revised by scholars like you. iTunes U - which has podcasts of teacher’s lectures from places like UC Berkeley.  But now a days, students are never without an iPod, a tablet, a smartphone ...so with all this ease of discovering information, why do you need a teacher? The teacher is the one that guides you to build our networks and take advantage of new opportunities to learn. The teacher is there when you need guidance, shows you how to communicate properly. The teacher is a Learning Architect, a modeler, connected learning incubator, synthesizer, change agent, and network sherpa.





3 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The previous comment has been replaced by this post to correct several typos.

    This comment applies to the collaborative part of this post.

    "We believed that this video was trying to say is, you can’t teach dance class in a lecture hall." Omit is and the , or replace the comma with a colon. The first suggestion is the better one.

    "remote.Just like you" You need a space before Just.

    "Just like you can’t teach a traditional class in today’s technologically advancing world. " Oh yes you can! It is done every day. Maybe that is not a good way to teach. But it can and is done.

    "Dance and art classes are being taken out of school because it is so hard to teach these things purely through new technologies." The use of technology is not causing dance and art classes to be removed from the curricula of schools. They are the first to go when money is short. Technology can and is useful in both of these subject matters.

    "This shows us that professors play a significant role in the classroom and helping guide their students to build new skills in technology. " Now let me remove a few excess words from this sentence: This shows us professors ... helping ... their students ... build new skills in technology. Two points I would like to make: a) I disagree with your conclusion; b) excessive words hide the meaning of what you write.

    "Changing times call for an educators that truly want their students to become technologically literate and succeed in the modern day world." Remove an in front of educators. I don't disagree with your statement but the video certainly does not address this question.

    Unacceptable.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment applies to your individual post:

    "It means someone who is literate technology..." technologically literate, not literate literate

    "...blends the their technological..." Omit the

    "With these changing times, comes new opportunities..." Omit the comma

    "I watched a particular video on YouTube watch The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler." Replace watch with a colon. Or replace watch with entitled.

    "...she creates a network that is made possible through technology in various tools,and expresses that the tools themselves were not as important as the connections made possible through them." Omit in various tools. End the sentence with technology. Start the next sentence this way: Dr. Drexler believes the tools are not as important as the connections... (Change to the present tense. Replace she with the author of the video. Omit themselves. Here is my rewrite: ...she creates a network that is made possible through technology. Dr. Drexler believes the tools are not as important as the connections made possible through them.

    "...uses; blogger, Google..." Blogger, not blogger

    "But now a days, students are never seen..." Now students are never... would be much better.

    "...why do would you need a teacher? " do would? Choose one or the other. Do not use both.

    Thoughtful. Thorough. If you would only proofread!






    ReplyDelete