Blog Assignment #2

Professor Dancealot- Rachel Hinton, Calah Reynolds, and Elizabeth Johnson The Professor Dancealot video was very interesting, unique, and eye-opening. Most people who watch this video would have to agree that his teaching methods were extreme. Professor Dancealot expects his students to come to his “dance” class and sit down while he lectures on how to dance, but he never actually lets the students participate. At the end of the semester, he wants them to perform the dances for their final. How can you expect someone to learn how to dance without actually physically teaching them? To teach dance, you should start off in the ballroom on the first day and learn basic dance steps, not watch a powerpoint and take notes on it. None of his students learned anything about dance whatsoever. All Professor Dancealot did was show powerpoints, he wouldn’t even let the students watch his footwork while he danced. His teaching method seems impractical and ineffective. This form of teaching appeared to be very boring to the students. They were falling asleep, talking, or not paying attention to anything that was being taught. The students were not engaged in the lesson. This is like many teachers today. They teach their students things by lectures, but never give them anything interesting to do to actually remember what was taught. Things like this lead to the “burp back” education that we all want to avoid. The students try to cram all the information in at the last minute because they find it boring, and not worth really knowing. So, the Professor Dancealot video was definitely an interesting video to watch. It was a great example of the wrong way to teach.

The Networked Student- Rachel Hinton The networked student gives us a very good idea of what our role as teachers will be in twenty first century teaching. As teachers we need to show our students how to use the resources we are given. In today’s world there are so many great things at our students’ fingertips. The internet and computers give them such a wide range of teaching and learning that we should take and use to our advantage. The video shows us that we not only should teach our students, we should let them discover things for themselves. They should not be told step by step everything to do. We should allow them to explore the resources they are given and find out for themselves. If we teach our students how to efficiently use the resources they have access to, it will not only broaden their ways of thinking but also help them when advancing in life to college or even a job. According to The Networked Student, a teacher’s responsibilities in twenty first century learning includes teaching students how to build their network, guiding them when they cannot find their way, teaching them how to respectfully communicate with their teachers and others, and sorting through information and organizing it in an understandable way. As teachers if we can master these things our students will be well prepared for a world of technology.

Teaching in the 21st Century- Calah Reynolds When you teach in the 21st century, it is a lot harder to get your students engaged in the classroom. They are too involved in social media and communicating with each other and not enough in their school work. A lot of teachers nowadays simply tell their students to ‘google it’ or look it up on the computer instead of merely teaching it themselves. The teachers and the students have gotten lazy since it is easier for the student to just ‘google it’. I think that Roberts thinks it means that people rely too much on the internet and that whatever teachers teach, students can just look it up anywhere at anytime. Roberts is saying that although students CAN look up information, the internet doesn’t teach you how to use skills. Teachers can bring internet into their classrooms to make it more enjoyable for the students, such as blogs and other programs online. If Roberts theory is correct, it will affect me as an educator because the majority of the classes will eventually be all online. It is coming to the point where a lot of classes are already incorporating internet, such as class blogs, sakai, and edmodo. As the years advance, so does the technology.

Edutopia- Elizabeth Johnson The video “Harness Your Students’ Digital Smarts” features a teacher named Vicki Davis from Westwoods Schools in a rural town in Georgia. She uses all different kinds of technology to help her students learn more about all that technology has to offer. She believes that all students have the ability to learn. However, if they only learn using pencil and paper, only certain students will be able to succeed properly. She does not like to be up in front of the class to strictly lecture the entire time. She prefers to walk around, instruct, and help students while they explore technology. She teaches students about different forms of software, blogging, Wiki, collaborating, and other forms of technology. She believes in allowing students to look up things for themselves and not have every definition spoon fed to them. She also likes to let students teach the class. It helps them to learn more and also teaches Vicki things she does not know. The Edutopia site offers great tools and teaching materials for educators. Visitors to the site can browse resources for the classroom by grade levels, which is great when a teacher is looking for a grade-appropriate activities and strategies for the students. Teachers can also search for specific programs, topics, strategies, and schools. The site features different blogs that visitors can read, as well. So this site is a great tool for teachers and educators of all kinds. There are great resources that are easily accessible.