The “Networked Student” includes representation on a range of tools students would apply to research, collaborate, learn and communicate ideas. There are so many valuable tools for students, such as Google Scholar, Social Bookmarking, Blogs, Google Reader and Podcasts.
The instructor must be, as the video points out, “learning architect, modeler, learner concierge, change agent, network Sherpa and connected learning incubator (Drexler, 2008).” This is a lot to ask an instructor to take on especially if the students are far more digital savvy than the instructor.
Google Scholar is an excellent resource for finding constructive resources for research. Another element of Google of which I am just getting using is Google Reader. So far, the ability to add my peers’ blogs into it is handy. I don’t have to go into each blog separately and check back daily to each one individually just to see if they’ve posted something new. In Google Reader I can subscribe to their blogs and easily see who has posted recently and read their posts within Google Reader.
In perusing the items in Google Reader, I had subscribed to “TED” through a peer’s blog. I chose to watch a video from “TED”, Peter Molyneux demos Milo, the virtual boy (© TED Conferences, LLC, 2010) . This is truly intriguing, the idea of interacting with a computer animated person who grows with us individually. His experiences are in direct reflection of how we decide to teach him about life and relationships. Imagine the potential of this technology. This technology could be used for new parents; helping them to interact with a child to teach them better parenting skills. Another helpful use is for companies to teach management skills to current or prospective managers; the best practices and approaches to good management. The possibilities are just endless.
Works Cited
© TED Conferences, LLC. (2010, August). Peter Molyneux demos Milo, the virtual boy. Peter Molyneux demos Milo, the virtual boy.
Drexler, W. (2008, November 26). The Networked Student.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Searching for Educationally Relevant Materials
My experiences with searching for educationally relevant materials have been particularly easy. Through my past experiences, courses and current course with textbook link references various websites regarding education have been at my fingertips.
For example, one site, which offers helpful information, is Teacher Tips on Kelly Bear, http://www.kellybear.com/TeacherTips.html. The “Links of Interest” provides not only useful information regarding resources for teachers in academia but also links for personal growth, family, parenting and more.
Another handy website is Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) which assists users/students in finding journal articles, books, research syntheses, technical reports and more. This website is invaluable as it can be cumbersome finding papers which are appropriate for researching to write an informative paper for a course project.
Fore example, I ran a search for “Internet” which pulled data for two journals; one of which was Internet and Higher Education (Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC)). This gave me the journal title, ISSN, Publisher, brief description and even let me know that it was a peer-reviewed journal. This is beneficial as many of papers written in higher level graduate courses require that they include peer-reviewed material.
The websites I find productive I choose to save directly in my browser, Firefox, on my laptop as bookmarks. This method is easiest for me as I use my laptop for homework, it’s portable thus goes everywhere with me and I don’t have to log into yet another website to maintain information.
I find using so many websites as tools to maintain documents and the like extremely cumbersome. This type of practice can become overwhelming and confusing at times as well. For instance, in previous classes I’ve been required to visit several websites, use the tools and then find myself in later classes asking myself “now which website did I save all that information in?” or “what is my password for that site again?” Although I keep a spreadsheet and detailed records of my websites and passwords, so many websites is overload. I find three simple things to benefit me greatly in maintaining websites and organization: (1) a protected workbook with visited sites & passwords (which I keep in dropbox) (2) bookmarks in my browser (which can easily be exported and imported to any other computer I choose) and (3) Dropbox.
Dropbox is a wonderful application, which I use for personal, work and educational purposes. I can access my files via the web or simply open the Dropbox folder on my computer. Dropbox has an application in which a user downloads, it automatically puts an icon on the top bar of my computer(s) and I can get my files quickly and easily no matter where I am. It’s great! It also maintains the latest version of all my documentation.
Dropbox features (Dropbox, 2010):
• File sync with 2GB of online free storage and up to 100GB for a fee
• Compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux computers
• Automatically syncs when new files or changes are detected
• Work on files in your Dropbox even if you're offline
• File sharing in which I can share any folder or file I choose with whomever I choose
• Automatic backup of your files, undelete files and folders, restore previous versions of your files
• Access files via the web on Dropbox's secure servers
• Access my files on my iPhone or iPad with the free Dropbox app
• And more…
References
For example, one site, which offers helpful information, is Teacher Tips on Kelly Bear, http://www.kellybear.com/TeacherTips.html. The “Links of Interest” provides not only useful information regarding resources for teachers in academia but also links for personal growth, family, parenting and more.
Another handy website is Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) which assists users/students in finding journal articles, books, research syntheses, technical reports and more. This website is invaluable as it can be cumbersome finding papers which are appropriate for researching to write an informative paper for a course project.
Fore example, I ran a search for “Internet” which pulled data for two journals; one of which was Internet and Higher Education (Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC)). This gave me the journal title, ISSN, Publisher, brief description and even let me know that it was a peer-reviewed journal. This is beneficial as many of papers written in higher level graduate courses require that they include peer-reviewed material.
The websites I find productive I choose to save directly in my browser, Firefox, on my laptop as bookmarks. This method is easiest for me as I use my laptop for homework, it’s portable thus goes everywhere with me and I don’t have to log into yet another website to maintain information.
I find using so many websites as tools to maintain documents and the like extremely cumbersome. This type of practice can become overwhelming and confusing at times as well. For instance, in previous classes I’ve been required to visit several websites, use the tools and then find myself in later classes asking myself “now which website did I save all that information in?” or “what is my password for that site again?” Although I keep a spreadsheet and detailed records of my websites and passwords, so many websites is overload. I find three simple things to benefit me greatly in maintaining websites and organization: (1) a protected workbook with visited sites & passwords (which I keep in dropbox) (2) bookmarks in my browser (which can easily be exported and imported to any other computer I choose) and (3) Dropbox.
Dropbox is a wonderful application, which I use for personal, work and educational purposes. I can access my files via the web or simply open the Dropbox folder on my computer. Dropbox has an application in which a user downloads, it automatically puts an icon on the top bar of my computer(s) and I can get my files quickly and easily no matter where I am. It’s great! It also maintains the latest version of all my documentation.
Dropbox features (Dropbox, 2010):
• File sync with 2GB of online free storage and up to 100GB for a fee
• Compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux computers
• Automatically syncs when new files or changes are detected
• Work on files in your Dropbox even if you're offline
• File sharing in which I can share any folder or file I choose with whomever I choose
• Automatic backup of your files, undelete files and folders, restore previous versions of your files
• Access files via the web on Dropbox's secure servers
• Access my files on my iPhone or iPad with the free Dropbox app
• And more…
References
Dropbox. (2010). Dropbox Features. Retrieved November 14, 2009, from Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/features
Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC). (n.d.). Journals Indexed in ERIC. Retrieved September 06, 2010, from Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC): http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/journalList/journalList.jsp
Are we doing what is best for our students?
For digital natives, the students in high schools, middle schools and even elementary schools, the use of technology is second nature. Digital natives need face-paced visual and auditory stimulation to peak their interest and allow learning to seep into their brain.
Digital natives have a short attention span, as digital immigrants often believe. They are used to multi-tasking and receiving information quickly. Digital immigrants tend to teach things in a step-by-step basis which digital natives from boring.
One article that stands out is Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky (Prensky, 2001) copyright 2001. I found it interesting that digital immigrants tend to teach using ordered tasks, written instructions and learning objectives whereas digital natives would learn better with a computer game that was fast-paced and had allowed random access.
Prensky discussed in his article that many if not all subjects could be geared toward successfully teaching digital natives with a little work and a willingness to change our way of teaching methodologies.
The textbook points out that digital natives’ parents are realizing the importance of utilizing emerging technologies in the classrooms and insisting that teachers incorporate technology into their curriculum. (Shelly, Gunter, & Gunter, 2010) They are seeing the need for their children to have the best exposure to technology in school because it will help them succeed in their future. If we think technology is all around us now image what will be available in our elementary schools’ children when they are our age. The possibilities are endless.
We, as digital immigrants must not only get onboard with using technology in our curriculum but we must find a way to become captains of technology in the classroom. This is not just for our students but also for us; we need to find it important to continue our learning as well. The price we pay for convenience could be too high.
Digital natives have a short attention span, as digital immigrants often believe. They are used to multi-tasking and receiving information quickly. Digital immigrants tend to teach things in a step-by-step basis which digital natives from boring.
One article that stands out is Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky (Prensky, 2001) copyright 2001. I found it interesting that digital immigrants tend to teach using ordered tasks, written instructions and learning objectives whereas digital natives would learn better with a computer game that was fast-paced and had allowed random access.
Prensky discussed in his article that many if not all subjects could be geared toward successfully teaching digital natives with a little work and a willingness to change our way of teaching methodologies.
The textbook points out that digital natives’ parents are realizing the importance of utilizing emerging technologies in the classrooms and insisting that teachers incorporate technology into their curriculum. (Shelly, Gunter, & Gunter, 2010) They are seeing the need for their children to have the best exposure to technology in school because it will help them succeed in their future. If we think technology is all around us now image what will be available in our elementary schools’ children when they are our age. The possibilities are endless.
We, as digital immigrants must not only get onboard with using technology in our curriculum but we must find a way to become captains of technology in the classroom. This is not just for our students but also for us; we need to find it important to continue our learning as well. The price we pay for convenience could be too high.
Works Cited
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon , 9 (5).
Shelly, G. B., Gunter, G. A., & Gunter, R. E. (2010). Teachers Discovering Computers Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom. In G. B. Shelly, G. A. Gunter, R. E. Gunter, & P. Conrad (Ed.), Teachers Discovering Computers Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom. Boston, MA, 02210.
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