I think this is a great class. I learned a lot from the videos as well as the readings. I am happy that I can share these new technologies with my students this week when we discussed the educational resources. They love the Machine is us/ing us on YouTube. It helps them think of technology integration in a different way compared to powerpoint slides, excel, and the word processor. It helps because it is sometimes hard for them to connect the technologies they use daily to the things at school. (That is why education hasn't done a good job on integrating the technology in schools. ) We had a nice discussion today and I was very happy to get them excited about this new trend in education.
This is my notes from R685 class:
1. Questions about blended learning-
*my question- what are the trends of blended learning in the k-12 ? Any strategies/ ways/ concerns different from blended learning in the higher education?
One idea: digital divide -- some students might not have Internet access at home. You have to do everything at school if you're using the Internet.
other ideas from class-
learning styles- edu psy people don't believe learning styles because there is no research evidence to support it.
2. Connectivism (George Siemens)
We watched the four interview video clips:
clip1: learning becomes the network people created
internal - cognitive learning in individual minds
external - how does individuals' knowledge connect to other learners'
"stay current" social technology tools
stay in touch with other individuals
create a new node and connect to another node; increase the whole network
what we know today is not as important as how we keep information current today & tomorrow.
*is it really something new? can it count as a new theory? (from Doug)
clip2: formal vs informal learnings
extend learning to other different methods or contexts, such as conversations, emails, and others
clip3
social software- blogging; myspace and facebook, wikis, Flickr,
social software created people's ability to share and connect to each other
express self ; externalize the knowledge
more human-enjoy the conversations
he makes comment that education hasn't done a good job on it
clip4
externalize our thoughts (through symbols, words...)
finding a way to value the way to express themselves
dialog w/ experts and see the power of the social software
other ideas from class: webs create cognitive assistance not learning
maybe we need to look at not only psychology and instruction, we need to look at sociology
3. video: the machine is us/ing us (YouTube)
He has his students create videos as a project
Show Web2.0 is different.
Flickr maps (community)
Web 2.0 is linking people (not only content or information)
we all need to rethink ....learning/ family/ copyright/ love.... (i like this part a lot)
4. share the facts/ principles, themes, ideas/ questions from the articles
The question I have - in the Stephen Downes's article, he mentions that if you attempt to use blogs to facilitate discussions or writing for your students, and you assign certain topics or tasks you would like them to post on their blogs, they will lose the enthusiasm to write and discuss. They will become controlled and passive learners. However, if the instructor doesn't have a clear direction, your students are likely to post trivial things on their blogs. This is controversial. My question is: How to facilitate students' discussion without assigning a specific topic on blogs? or other strategies or cases that work well?
They Built a System to See Everything. But It Can’t See You.
51 seconds ago
1 comment:
How lucky your students are!!! They have a instructor learning the newest knowledge (or I should say "technology"), and shareing with them immediately-->stay current. Excellent!!! One of my concern is: education is really trying to do its job. However, the support system may be just in her puberty. First, we all agree: technology requires a lot of money. As we were discussing in our group, we cannot assume that everybody got a computer and the Internet. Second, what motivate teachers to learn about technology and use it in classroom? Can they teach without technology and still teach well? Definitely, a yes. Therefore, I would focus on the ways to introduce technology by meeting teachers' needs and enhancing the efficiency of teaching, rather than evaluate how many jobs have been done. Just like you said: makeing connection among teachnology, teaching and learning for both teachers and students.
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