4 2.0 Web Resources

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcT1pBWPT6g

Student Producers

To move students from being consumers to producers, we, as teachers need to encourage higher level critical thinking skills. Instead of just hand feeding students information and expecting them to understand, they need to be able to take this knowledge and apply it to real world situations. Students must be able to compare and differentiate ideas and make choices or judgement on criteria and standards. Classrooms need to be student driven and as teachers we need to guide the students in developing these critical and creative thinking skills.

Flipped Teaching

With flipped teaching there are some pros and cons. Here are some pros of flipped teaching: 1. Students are engaging with materials predetermined by the teacher, so the teacher maintains a certain level of control. 2. Students are thinking critically. 3. Students get to vocalize what they’re not understanding, which gives them a sense of choice or involvement in mapping out how their learning is proceeding. 4. Students will come to class prepared with questions that they might not have understood while listening to the lecture the night before.

                Some cons would be: 1.Not all students may have access to computers at home/outside of school. 2. Small group assignments require a certain level of monitoring and engagement to make sure they don’t derail, which could be tricky on a class-by-class basis. Students might not stay on task and start talking about unrelated topics. 3. Teachers will need to develop ways to keep their video lessons/lectures engaging, otherwise students could get bored.

                While I think flipped teaching can work and does, I don’t feel that it enhances the learning for all students. Some students will learn better from the traditional way of teaching and some will learn better from the flipped point of view. Every student is different and I don’t think there is one way that is concrete to enhance learning for all students. Maybe using both approaches in the classroom could be the best way. The main issue I have with flipped teaching is some students might not have access to a computer outside of the school.

                I believe flipped teaching can create a global learning environment because anything that gets posted on the web can be seen by anyone. Videos/lectures could be posted on the internet and thousands of students could watch/listen to these to help them learn.

Discussion Questions:

1. What are some risks to having students blog publicly?

Making sure not to have students post personal information online is extremely important as internet stalking and identity theft has become more prevalent. Also, students are young and may not realize what they post online will be there forever! What they posted 5-10 years ago might affect them as they go to college and graduate and try to find a job. Also, a student may blog something, for example on religion, and a group of religious people may take offense to that and it could turn violent.

2. I think this statement is saying that students will work harder and try to do better if they know fellow students, family members, or friends are going to read their work then they would if just the teacher is reading it. Most students don't want to look dumb to their fellow classmates and friends. If they know just the teacher is reading their material they won't try as hard because the teacher is the only one that's going to see it. I do somewhat agree with this statement but also think there are many kids out there that want to do their best no matter who is reading the material.

3. The use of student blogs helps create a global classroom by connecting the students in the class to other students around the world. How cool is it that someone here in tiny Fort Dodge can post something and interact daily with someone in Japan. I remember being in 2nd grade and having a pen pal in California where I would write a letter to him and would have to wait 6 weeks to hear something back. Now it's just the click of a button away. Students can learn so much from each other across the world and learn about different cultures. One web 2.0 resource I found that could help create a learning environment is the website epals.com. The ePals approach provides an effective way to instruct and reach today's technology savvy students and teachers. ePals provides digital content designed for collaboration and self-paced, self-directed learning as well as a safe platform to share work globally.

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