Blog Post 2

What Will Teaching in the 21st Century be Like?

In the Mr. Dancealot, the central message is that you cannot always expect students to learn just because you put a powerpoint presentation with all the notes on it in front of them and expect the to just learn. For example, in the video the professor is trying to teach a dance class by showing them notes and diagrams without letting them actually dance to learn. In fact, he actually tells a student to sit down when he attempts to get up and practice it in class. In some classrooms and with some students you can put up a slideshow with outlines, notes, and diagrams and the students will learn something. With classes that involve hands on learning and teaching like a dance or any kind of activity-based class, slideshows will not teach them like the students need to be taught. Showing people who want to learn how to dance cannot learn by sitting in a classroom all day and looking at diagrams with no practice and no demonstrations. You see this proven when the professor makes the students dance for the final and they do not know how to dance because Mr. Dancealot never showed them. I definitely agree with the central message and what they are trying to say about teaching techniques.

While watching Teaching in the 21st Century by Kevin Roberts, you see that he finds it very important to engage the students in teaching them how to use their every day technological abilities for educational purposes so they can actually learn instead of being temporarily entertained. You can see this in the following arguments he makes John Strange version of this video:
The roles we have in the lives of our students becomes obsolete if all we can do for them is provide...
- Facts
- Content
- Theories
- Formulas
- Research
- Stories
- Theories
Teachers become filters instead the main source of knowledge because students now endless sources of information.
- Social Media
- Search engines like Google
- Youtube
- Simply access to smart phones, iPods, iPads, and computers
Our main purposes in being educators has changed in the 21st century.
- Teach them to handle these resources
- Change our focus from facts to skills
- Teach them to remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create
In the classroom, we need to rethink the tools we use and the types of problems we ask students to solve.
How do we manage laptops, cellphones, and iPods at school?
- The tools provide temptation, but they are not the source of bad behavior
- All lessons need to be relevant, challenging, engaging and not entertaining
Engagement starts with the educators.
- See what is out there
- Start small
- Collaborate
- Take a risk
- Remember the big picture, what does it mean to teach in the 21st century?
I agree with basically all the points that Roberts made. I believe that it has become more and more important for us to teach students how to make today's technology still relevant and engaging now that students have access to so many resources. we need to make it one of our main objectives to teach students that these resources are not just there for entertainment, but can be used in many ways in learning.

The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler points out many positives to be a networked student, but here's the question now, does the networked student even need a teacher? My answer to this question is an absolute yes. Teachers are there to teach these students how to network successfully. The teacher is also there to help him along the way in case he hits a roadblock in his researching, to help in deciding what is a good source to share and which is not, and to get excited for him and encourage him when he has reached success. I find that it is very important for teachers to encourage their students to be a networked student, but to, also, stay relevant throughout the course and be there for the student.

Vicki Davis's video Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts definitely shows you how beneficial technology can be in a classroom. The methods she uses allows her students to become engaged with other students in their class and with other people around the world. It definitely creates many opportunities for her students. One part that stood out to me is how she emphasized that she allows her students to also teach her. She expects her students to look up things they do not know or understand instead of her always spoon-feeding them the information. In doing that, the students end up teaching her things as well, which I think is very important for educators to do in the classroom.

Who's Ahead in the Learning Race? After watching this video, I definitely see that elementary students are ahead in the learning race. If look back at my third grade experience 14 years ago, I can not even imagine learning what these kids are learning. I am currently in my fifth year of college and I'm having a hard time learning how to use all of these resources. If I had to place myself in this race, I do not think I would be that close to the top. I would probably be closer to the bottom half than top half.

When watching the video Flipping The Classroom, I found that much of the information being presented sounded somewhat familiar in a way. I never had that kind of opportunity in fourth grade like she was discussing, but I did have a few things similar to flipping the classroom in my later years of schools and definitely in college. The concept is not new to me, but the idea of using that in elementary schools is and I see that idea as a positive change for younger students. Flipping the classroom will allow the students to have more time with their teacher to discus what they did not understand in class which will definitely be beneficial for the student. I think this will be very useful to me as a teacher in some ways. I plan on teaching history to high schoolers and by flipping the classroom, I will be able to give them a full lecture the night before. In doing that, class time will consist of me being to emphasize the most important details of the lecture and leaving more time for discussion and questioning.