What are schools not doing?

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/podcasts/2008/2008-06-12-speedofcreativity.mp3 it is a long podcast under what schools aren’t doing.

Are schools fine do they need tinkering,  or they are broken or are they obsolete? I always perceived schools to be fine just need tinkering, however an interesting podcast by Steve Wycoff was given it was based on natural learning and what schools aren’t doing, and this made me perceive that schools are broken and they need fixing.

Schools are based on traditional texts, these include written texts, explaining, lecturing and written texts and we as teachers expect these students to understand, however this makes children say school is boring. So the point of this podcast was schools need to change, but what is change and what exactly are we changing. Schools are teaching children things they may not need to know, I think the content that children are learning is important it is how we teach it so it is not the content that we are changing; it is the method of how we teach that we need to change.

Children do not learn by sitting in a classroom and being spoken to and then taking a test, they may get the grades but they do not learn. True learning takes place when children do when they create and when they collaborate. Children set goals they have expectations and when their expectations fail it is then that learning takes place.

This relates back to technology, children are able to drive their own learning they are able to do they can create and by doing things they are able to clarify, and understand what they are doing.

The podcast brings an interesting point; we are supposed to be teaching children skills and knowledge and we are not teaching them skills by sitting them down and explaining things to them, businesses want children who have problem solving skills, they want people who are able to reflect. And this is what teaching with technology does students are able to problem solve, they are able to put their skills into practice and they are able to reflect on skills and what they have learnt. The have the opportunity to grow with what they are doing, they have the opportunity to share what they know with the world, they are able to collaborate and share their opinions.

So why aren’t schools teaching through doing, possibly because it costs a lot and it is too time consuming, however blogging, podcasting, digital media and so forth have cheap if not free software all we need is a computer, a microphone and the software I believe the only problem we are facing is the lack of computers.

In coming back to the main point of the podcast, change needs to occur and that change lies in with how we teach. If we want children to be the best they can be in life after school, if we want them to be pro active, problem solvers and have the skill of reflection we need to start teaching through doing. I guess it is just another way technology is being integrated into our lives.

Digital Education Revolution

The Austalian Government is bringing into place a digital education revolution to improve Australia’s education, this program will spand over 5 years with funding of $1.2 billion dollars to provide schools with new or upgraded information and communication technology, online curriculum tools. The aim of this is to better educate children and prepare them for life after school.

Personally i believe that this is a great idea, most teachers given the chance would want to teach with technology however the problem lies in that its not there. This funding will hopefully encourage more teachers in using technology. Not only will children be able to access information via the interent they will now be able to share their work with the world and be apart of a generation that is motivated through technology.

My podcast

podcastelearning 

The information for my podcast was taken from  http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=7d48c8d19762b88c32c3

In response to Veronica!!

Not only is Veronicas blog amazing it also very thought provoking and Digital Classroom was no exception. Veronica talks about having a built- in chat system AIM which is alot easier than recieving email alerts. I think children gathering together after school and sharing what they learnt or talking about assignments is alot easier than waiting for an email reply, i still think it is amazing how technology links everyone anywhere, isn’t it great how learning is not only confind to the classroom?

And i completly agree with Veronica if i was at school already i would rather do face to face communication, call me old fashioned but it is the best way, but if you weren’t at school or wanted to extend discussion outside of school i can not think of a better way than chatting.

Children turn to the net.

I found an interesting post by Erica, which is true  the more we think about children do go to the interent more than books to do their homework, why? because it is easier, its faster and you don’t have to shift through pages and pages of books to find a small paragraph, however most people see it as the lazy way but as Erica points out this form of literacy requires new skills, it teaches to recognise bias, reliability and validity of sources all important skills which children will take with them when they leave school. Teaching children to have a critical eye and helping them to understand what is content and what is advertisment is so important. Erica points out quite an interesting stastic that being that a recent study of sources used in a random collection of 500 assignments found 27% were considered realiable sources. People are complaining that websites aren’t realiable that isn’t true we have a wealth out there avaliable at a click, the trick is recognising what is relaible and what isn’t and teaching this to children. Childen have the opportunity to cross check information this develops their research skills. It is all about moderation we need to teach children that the interent does not replace books they rather compliment eachother and they need to be taught properly.

Elgg?

My Space? Bebo? Facebook? Collaborative learning tools that teachers are saying no to, because they are seen as a distraction and now Elgg? Elgg is an open source social networking with academic success in mind.

Now I can understand why schools will say no to myspace or facebook as they do provide quite a distraction, however they are collaborative constructionist tools that drive learning.  Students, and also teachers can each get a profile page, a blog, photo sharing and friends lists, and they can create and join on-site discussion communities. Some of these features might cause tutors to be scared, but Elgg’s creators say the collaborative, conversational exchanges in which today’s students have become so fluent outside class are the best way to deliver learning inside it.

Broadly, Elgg represents a shift from aging, top-down classroom technologies like Blackboard  to what e-learning practitioners call personl learning spaces– they include spaces comprising del.icio.us feeds, blog posts, podcast widgets.

Elgg is freely downloadable and being used in 50 schools around the world, it may be no match for sites like Myspace or facebook but Elgg is definitely merging it allows teachers and students to share their work and communicate. Even if it does act as another social networking tool in an academic sense it gives children the opportunity to collaborate with each other and the their teacher outside the walls of the classroom.

All the World is a stage!

All the worlds a stage! Blogs are turning the classroom around.

These personal online journals are cheap, they give an audience to individual reflection and they are giving classrooms a way to face the world.

The purpose of having a blog is quite vital as they can be used for several things, a teacher might maintain a blog to post thoughts on each days works, parents are able to keep up to date with what is going on in the classroom, it also serves as a purpose for those children who are struggling or need to catch up, but what about those homes without a computer?

Richardson used this blogging tool to give his students an outside audience. When he taught journalism and English to 11^th and 12^th graders, he had them use their blogs to monitor a group of 4^th and 5^th graders in Georgia.

Anne Davis the grade-schoolers teacher stated that” they were scared at first because their writing wouldn’t be good enough but having an outside audience really made a difference to them. They couldn’t believe someone cared what they wrote’ I think this part really struck me because children’s work becomes visible to the world, anyone can read and anyone can comment which really means the whole world is a stage. Imagine all the collaborative learning that can take place, children will be able to learn so much from other peoples views and they can even express their own views.

I like how the article states you just can not tell the children to blog, and that is true it completely diminishes the point of blogging. Davis has her students stroll though a list of current events and asks them to blog on something that interests them and has to be different each week. I believe this is a fantastic idea it allows children to explore things that interest them and they are also able to share their views with the world.

It is a great way to encourage children to start writing and sharing their views, it also helps the shy child to break out and not be afraid to share what they believe, it links everyone together. I also like the way that blogs can be used to share work with parents and the wider community, this drives students to want to do their best and gives them a sense of ownership.

http://www.edutopia.org/all-worlds-stage

Handheld technologies

Handheld technologies- Mobile phones are being used for a range of different purposes, from teaching to learning to administration, to widening access to digital resources. And at the same time educational researchers are beginning to generate a body of research evidence to indicate the potential for these technologies to support new approaches to teaching and learning.

People are taking interest in these handheld devices and it easy to see why these technologies can aid learning in a number of ways:

·         First there is personalization of learning and enhancing learner responsibility

·         Second is organizational and logistic

·         Finally there is the links between children’s experiences of learning across different sites and across home, school and community.

Handheld technologies could enable schools to address these issues; they act as tools that are available to the individual learner. They are portable and support access to information in all lessons.

Finally there is the issue of cost. These handheld devices are a lot cheaper to purchase than laptops and this is one of the main encouragements to invest in these handheld devices in the classroom.

These handheld technologies can provide insights into the future, being a lot cheaper makes it quite attractive, but allowing information to be accessible everywhere is such a motivator, it is interactive and enhances learner responsibility which is everything education is driven for. This is certainly education taken to a new level.

2020 Summit!

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So here is a link to an overview of the summit..I was really really dissapointed when i was listening to this. Education didn’t get as much mention as it deserved. ” One National Curriculum” Now don’t get me wrong it sounds great and eventually will come and when it does it will make it easier for alot of people, but the reason was to save money! The mention of the saved money will go to other areas but in the scheme of things i can see alot more important things. In Kevin Rudds election campaign he talked about buying all students a computer, that is great but if education isn’t getting a mention now. How could this possibly be true?

If we look at Australia’s condition, homeless those who are drug addicts these things need attention. We are so concerened with a National Curriculum that schools need things such as technology, rescources, teachers that a National Curriculum shouldn’t even be considered until we have these things under control.

Virtual Learning it is the future

Call it virtual, distance or online education, the question isn’t whether or not to try it, it is a question of when.

I have read a lot about technology in the classroom and how to use but what about technology that sole purpose is to teach that being for distance students.

As you read this a student is learning a language online, and a student who doesn’t really understand math is uploading their questions. All the while a teacher is multitasking via IM, and Twitter and checking Moodle for responses to the latest class inquiry.

E-learning is filling other educational needs, there are those students who dropped out of school for whatever reason and now they are reading to finish school at home. And then there are those who simply can not fit another thing in their busy lives. Distance Education and Virtual Education really are booming and it is time that there benefits are recognized.

Collaboration can take place at all times, children and adults are able to finish their education whether it is schooling or university and more importantly children can extend their knowledge. This certainly shows that unconstrained by place and time, students are learning and teachers are teaching, virtually and rigorously.

With all the benefits that do come with virtual learning it does meet its challenges if prior learning experiences include a traditional classroom, its expectations, its pacing and its teacher over sight, these virtual learners now work at a different pace, set most of their own goals and expectations. Some children may welcome this new learning and others may fall behind. However with motivation and a teacher who is nothing but a click away children and adults certainly do feel as though they can achieve.

Virtual learning allows children to be ready for the future, they communicate through a computer they learn vital communication skills which see them through the workplace.

This article shares teacher’s quotes about the benefits of online learning and also why they do it, it shows the why and the how. Most people believe that when you drop out of a traditional school, well that is it; unless you go back to a traditional school you can not finish your education or gain a university degree. This article certainly proves that this is not true, these virtual classrooms are becoming more popular and anyone can do it. There are at least 147 virtual charter schools operating in the U.S this figure shows that they are out there and they are definitely coming around, the same point can be seen through universities offering distance education courses. As our lives are getting much more busier education seems to be forgotten about, but with this virtual learning hopefully the importance of education will be brought back.

Reference http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=196605231&page=1 accessed 15/06/08