ISTE Community Leaders: Expert webinars
8 hours ago
9.27.2009
Ning-ing
The Ning group that I just joined, French Teachers in the 21st Century, seems like a great resource for me as a French teacher. As I was scanning the webpage, I noticed that there was already a ton of great ideas being discussed and new technology resources to incorporate into foreign language curriculum. As a result, I am hoping to use this website as a place to dialogue with others who are in my professional field and to brainstorm new ways of introducing technology into the classroom.
A learner is like a chameleon . . .
A learner is like a chameleon because he/she must change and adapt to his/her environment in order to survive.
While watching Siemens' video, The Impact of Social Software on Learning, I was again reminded of the importance of adaptibility as a learner. Siemens stressed the importance of social networking as a tool to success in the field of education and expressed the essence of blogs and wikis when he said, "Blogs and wikis developed in order to enable individuals in a quickly changing knowledge field to continue to stay current and to continue to learn from each other." Besides placing an emphasis on the ability to adapt to an ever-changing environment, Siemens suggests that the only way that learners can succeed is through social networking. Experiences in life are very much connected to how we learn and what we learn and we have the unique opportunity to learn from others whose experiences we have not yet shared. Social networking allows us this unique opportunity to gain new knowledge about experiences and to dialogue with others in order to build meaning and understanding.
Like chameleons, learners must adapt to their changing environments, but unlike chameleons, our chance of survival rests in our ability to work together.
In today's digital age, the ability to access and utilize knowledge is crucial to one's success in education, in one's profession, and in life. George Siemens mentions this critical element to success in his article, Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age, when he states that a significant trend in learning is that the "know-how and know-what is being supplemented with know-where (the understanding of where to find knowledge needed)". Once a learner understands this crucial element and begins to utilize it, he/she begins to make changes to his/her understanding and begins to evolve into a new learner. I used the analogy of a chameleon because I see today's learner as someone who must make changes to his/her way of learning and accessing information in order to adapt to an ever-changing environment. A chameleon will change colors to adapt to his/her environment and will therefore survive in any environment by applying his/her survival skills.
Siemens reflects on this aspect of the learner nicely when he quotes Driscoll as defining learning as "a persisting change in human performance or performance potential which must come about as a result of experiences and interactions with content or other people."
While watching Siemens' video, The Impact of Social Software on Learning, I was again reminded of the importance of adaptibility as a learner. Siemens stressed the importance of social networking as a tool to success in the field of education and expressed the essence of blogs and wikis when he said, "Blogs and wikis developed in order to enable individuals in a quickly changing knowledge field to continue to stay current and to continue to learn from each other." Besides placing an emphasis on the ability to adapt to an ever-changing environment, Siemens suggests that the only way that learners can succeed is through social networking. Experiences in life are very much connected to how we learn and what we learn and we have the unique opportunity to learn from others whose experiences we have not yet shared. Social networking allows us this unique opportunity to gain new knowledge about experiences and to dialogue with others in order to build meaning and understanding.
Like chameleons, learners must adapt to their changing environments, but unlike chameleons, our chance of survival rests in our ability to work together.
9.20.2009
Did You Know?
Choosing from a list of video titles found on YouTube, my interest was peaked immediately when I saw the title, "Did You Know?", so I selected that one to watch. However, several seconds into it, I realized that this same video was used during one of my staff development courses and therefore I had already seen it. I watched it again though with a new perspective of technology practice in my mind and a fresh question, "How does this connect to Blogging?" I then decided to watch the video "Why Let Our Students Blog?" to see if there were any correlations to the first video. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a direct correlation.
The first video emphasizes the characteristics of the 21st century learner - what does he/she do, how does he/she think?, etc. It also reveals how there is so much job fluctuation in the world right now. Our students will most likely have between 10-14 jobs before they reach the age of 38. With all of these shifting changes, we, as educators, have one important question to answer, "How do we prepare our students for technology and situations that don't even exist yet?" In the end, we discover that it's more than just teaching them our content area. We have to teach them skills that will be vital to their success in later years. We need to teach them how to analyze, reflect, create, collaborate, evaluate, and communicate. As educators, we already have a crucial responsibility to our students, but in this day and age our responsibilities have slightly shifted and we need to emphasize these skills in our classrooms, in our curriculums, and in our methods of teaching.
Giving our students the unique opportunity to use technology in the classroom is one way in which we can promote and foster these skills necessary to the 21st century learner. The second video focuses on the advantages that come with blogging. Through blogging we give our students the opportunity to communicate, to develop their literacy skills, to collaborate with others - in and outside of the classroom environment, to share their ideas, to create, and to actively reflect. We also provide them with an audience and the chance to share their voice.
Blogging is an engaging and motivating tool in education and we as educators need to begin to utilize technology in such a way that we provide our students (21st century learners) with necessary skills for the future.
The first video emphasizes the characteristics of the 21st century learner - what does he/she do, how does he/she think?, etc. It also reveals how there is so much job fluctuation in the world right now. Our students will most likely have between 10-14 jobs before they reach the age of 38. With all of these shifting changes, we, as educators, have one important question to answer, "How do we prepare our students for technology and situations that don't even exist yet?" In the end, we discover that it's more than just teaching them our content area. We have to teach them skills that will be vital to their success in later years. We need to teach them how to analyze, reflect, create, collaborate, evaluate, and communicate. As educators, we already have a crucial responsibility to our students, but in this day and age our responsibilities have slightly shifted and we need to emphasize these skills in our classrooms, in our curriculums, and in our methods of teaching.
Giving our students the unique opportunity to use technology in the classroom is one way in which we can promote and foster these skills necessary to the 21st century learner. The second video focuses on the advantages that come with blogging. Through blogging we give our students the opportunity to communicate, to develop their literacy skills, to collaborate with others - in and outside of the classroom environment, to share their ideas, to create, and to actively reflect. We also provide them with an audience and the chance to share their voice.
Blogging is an engaging and motivating tool in education and we as educators need to begin to utilize technology in such a way that we provide our students (21st century learners) with necessary skills for the future.
9.12.2009
Safety Blogging Tips
Some things to remember about safe blogging:
- Keep students' identities private. (You can do this by either assigning students a new name or a number that they can use to post.)
- If students post pictures, they should not include any names of people in the picture.
- Make parents aware of the Blog. (Send a letter home to inform parents of their child's involvement with the Blog, the purpose of the Blog, and to seek permission from them in regards to their child's involvement with the Blog.)
- Comment should only be approved by the teacher. (This can be set up through Blog settings.)
9.10.2009
Blogs as Resources
Top 3 ways Blogs could be used in my French class:
1) As a supplement to Cultural topics discussed in class.
Since NYS is a Regents-based state where test scores are considered extremely important, cultural topics are oftentimes skimmed over in order to provide more time for grammar and other topics pertinent to students' success on the LOTE Regents. A Blog could provide links where students could find additional information related to cultural topics discussed in class.
2) Communication between American students and French students
My school has a foreign exchange program in which students and teachers from a French school come to stay for a week with American teachers and students who are taking French as a foreign language. This Blog could allow students a safe place to communicate with students that may be coming to stay with them or it could be used as a pre-discussion/post-discussion forum for questions that students may raise before or after the program happens.
3) Photo Blog
Providing students an opportunity to post pictures of different trips that they took, photos related to material we are covering in class (impressionist paintings, French art, etc.), or pictures from their French exchange program experience, would be a unique and exciting way for students to communicate with other students (French/American) and their classmates. This would also provide students an opportunity to comment on their experiences and thoughts regarding different photos.
1) As a supplement to Cultural topics discussed in class.
Since NYS is a Regents-based state where test scores are considered extremely important, cultural topics are oftentimes skimmed over in order to provide more time for grammar and other topics pertinent to students' success on the LOTE Regents. A Blog could provide links where students could find additional information related to cultural topics discussed in class.
2) Communication between American students and French students
My school has a foreign exchange program in which students and teachers from a French school come to stay for a week with American teachers and students who are taking French as a foreign language. This Blog could allow students a safe place to communicate with students that may be coming to stay with them or it could be used as a pre-discussion/post-discussion forum for questions that students may raise before or after the program happens.
3) Photo Blog
Providing students an opportunity to post pictures of different trips that they took, photos related to material we are covering in class (impressionist paintings, French art, etc.), or pictures from their French exchange program experience, would be a unique and exciting way for students to communicate with other students (French/American) and their classmates. This would also provide students an opportunity to comment on their experiences and thoughts regarding different photos.
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