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Welcome to our first week of
notes. I'll update the notes each week so be sure to check back
often for new information! Here
are the notes from our first week in class:
We began by having students use a koosh ball to introduce and tell
something about themselves. We have 9 students in our class. Some
of the students in our class are teachers and some are substitute
teachers. This blend of different backgrounds
will provide us with different perspectives during topical
conversations in class. The diversity will definitely enrich our
class discussions. In class,
we began an inquiry regarding the question: What is social
education? Social education is the intentional attempt to help
people gain for themselves the knowledge and skills necessary to
meet their own and others' developmental needs (Mark Smith,
Rediscovering Social Education, 1982). We
then discussed the term digital age and discussed that this
term would be more fully understood when reading the assigned text
by Mark Warschauer. One idea that I mentioned what that, as
teachers, it can be problematic to only have an information-centric
view of computers and technology. Computers can be more than
information technology. They can offer a way for people (students)
to express themselves. It will be helpful to begin to rethink the
ways you've constructed the meaning of technology. Think beyond
the use of technology as a way for teachers to provide information
to students. Look for ways that technology can be used for
students to be creative. The
following is an excerpt by Mitchel Resnick (MIT) that I used in
class: "Consider the following three things: computers,
television, finger paint. Which of these three does not
belong? For most people, the answer seems obvious: "finger
paint" doesn't fit. After all, computers and television were
both invented in the twentieth century, both involve electronic
technology, and both can deliver information to large numbers of
people. None of that is true for finger paint. But until we start
to think of computers like finger paint and less like television,
computers will not live up to their full potential. Like finger
paint (and unlike television), computers can be used for
designing and creating things". For more
information on this topic, you may want to click
here to read the Mitchel Resnick's paper that more fully
discusses this inquiry. Rethink
how students learn. Much of what children learn today in school
was designed for the pencil-and-paper environment. Times have
changed. Has our teaching? We need to update the curricula for
the digital age. What might this look like? In class, students
participated in a computer carousel where you created a table in
Microsoft Word and made two columns (pencil and paper era and
digital era) and then wrote one idea in one column. Afterward, you
moved to the next computer while someone else came and sat in your
chair and wrote another idea that could fall into one of these
columns. We continued that way until each student visited about 4
computers. Afterward, students returned to their computer to read
what others had written in their table. This structure was one way
that we can encourage techno-communication by using computers in a
computer lab environment. There
were four different websites that students visited in class to
begin to observe and think about ways that elementary students are
using technology to express what they've learned regarding
social studies content. The following websites were viewed in
class: http://pinecrestschools.com/woodlandhills/elementary/03-04projects/2presidents/presidents.htm http://www.pps.k12.or.us/schools-c/pages/buckman/timeline/kingframe.htm http://staff.harrisonburg.k12.va.us/~mwampole/0-projects/world/world-index.htm http://www.mce.k12tn.net/history/historypages.htm In
class, we also began to discuss that teachers and students can
assume two roles when using the Internet. They can be both conscientious
consumers and creative producers of information. Be thinking
about ways that you can assume BOTH of these roles throughout this
semester and beyond. Before
class ended, we reviewed the technology autobiography
assignment that will be due in two weeks. For your reference, it
is published on this website under the assignments page. That's
all for this week! Keep
reading, keep learning and keep coming to class. See you on
Tuesday! Kim |
