This document discusses how teachers can help middle school students effectively use technology and media. It emphasizes verifying information online, building a personal learning network to gain knowledge from others, and encouraging students to create, communicate and collaborate using digital tools. Teachers are encouraged to participate in online networks themselves to better understand how to guide students.
Fostering Friendships - Enhancing Social Bonds in the Classroom
MLE Session 2: Getting the Most Out of Your Students in the Networked World
1. Middle Level Essentials Session 2 Creation, Collaboration, and Communication: Getting the Most Out of Your Students in the Networked World http://www.sharetabs.com/?mle2
27. You don’t learn to swim by sitting beside the pool You can’t learn about networks without diving in, either. “CU Swimming and Diving 15” licensed through creative commons
Many of my thoughts on the topics in this session have been influenced by these books:Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky…discusses the “tectonic shift” that has made organization online ridiculously easyBlogs, Wikis, Podcasts by Will Richardson…talks about using online tools in the classroom to build community
Rethinking Education in the Age of Tech. by Allan Collins and Richard Halverson…discusses the changes that are taking place in our educational environment today and makes some recommendations for the directions we go on the futureWeb Literacy for Educators by Alan November…discusses how teachers need to understand the information that is on the web and how to verify whether or not that information is good and valid for their students.
Prenksy…Either/OrAge based…if you are an Immigrant you never lose your “accent”…Calling to ask “did you get my email”Natives default to technology…Immigrants can get there with practice…
Refugees refuse to believe such things exist or just don’t know about them…Voyeurs have a knowledge of things like Facebook and Twitter, but don’t actively use themBridges help us get between worldsImmigrants are participating in the technology, using it or dabbling in it…Natives live it and can’t imagine life without it…
First we looked at Title and AuthorSometimes Publisher would helpResources/BibliographyRecommendationsCopyright…Age of Information
What about the world of instant access and updates…How about the world where anything and everything can be Googled?A world where 24 hours of information is uploaded to YouTube every minute?
With the invention of the printing press, publishing became very important. But just because we had the printing press it didn’t mean everything was publishable. High costs meant that someone had to determine what was publishable…the content that was seeking publication was filtered by someone who said it was worth publishing because the cost of failure was very high.With the advent of the Internet, and specifically the Web 2.0 movement, a computer became as powerful as a printing press. The cost of failure was dropped to nearly zero. Anyone could publish anything, and sometimes it became worthwhile. A software program could bring the music industry to its knees, a website could change the way we communicate with the people we know, and another one could change the way we communicate with people we don’t know. We have to become our own content filters. Think about YouTube…there is a ton of content out there, probably upwards of 90% of that content is “junk”…but 10% of 140 million videos is still a huge number of videos.As this movement progresses, we have now reached a stage where not only is content published first and by anyone…but the culture is becoming a remix culture. Content can be uploaded by anyone, remixed by anyone else, and the further remixed…Here’s a perfect example…
So there you go…this rag tag band of 21st Century Thieves at their most disgraceful…While some view this creative power as the best of the web, others fear that the amount of misinformation out there on the Internet is dangerous to our students…Is this vast amount of “unfiltered” information dangerous to our students?There’s just SO much information out there…I feel like I’m on Information Overload all the time…And the absolute KINGS of Information Overload are Google…Have you guys seen the newest problems they’re having with Google Maps?
In the case of Google Maps, it appears so…People have been putting so many Google Placemarks out there it’s getting to be impossible to drive safely…
There’s always been Information Overload…there is far more information out there, than you can take in…The problem is when you are unable to filter out the necessary information you need…Part of our job as educators is to 1) learn how to filter information ourselves, and 2) help our students become the filters of information they need to be…
Oh no…here he goes…Wikipedia is one of the biggest educational battlegrounds of the 21st Century…“Anyone can edit it? Oh dear Lord…I’ve taught more than a few “anyones” and the thought of them providing information to the public scares the bejeebies out of me!!”
What would you call the material pictured in the photo?If you were to write the Wikipedia entry on asphalt, what would you say?
Three parts of all Wikipedia entriesMain article – most of our kids never get past this pageHistory – where you can see the development of an idea over timeDiscussion – where you can watch knowledge form within the group interested in the articleImagine the power of your students creating the entry on Wikipedia about your school…finding Primary source documents, interviewing staff members and school board members, creating sports histories…What better way to discuss research?
I know nothing…And I can prove it, mathematically…I have a finite amount of knowledge…if you’ve ever seen me try to dance, you’ll understand that I don’t know everything…The amount of things that are out there to know and learn is approaching infinity…Where are my math teachers? Ask these folks for help later…If we take a finite number and divide it by a number approaching infinity the result gets closer and closer to…
Is nothing…The same goes for each of you in this room…In fact, unless you’ve learned something from what I’ve said, you now know less than when I started talking…Now if you add what I know, to what you know, to what others in the room know, suddenly, we start to make a dent in the amount of knowledge there is out there…And we form a learning network
We are moving back toward an apprenticeship model…For 150 years, learning has taken place in a factory model…show up on time, stay in one spot, learn from the teacher/do your work, move on to the next level/grade…Learning is no longer limited to the classroom/schoolIt happens anytime, any place…I have the ability to find people out there who can teach me things I want to know…I learn from them, and move on to others to learn from…this is like the apprenticeship model of olden days…
I currently have a network of over 300 people who I am learning from and over 900 who are learning from me…At any moment when I post something to Twitter, there are 900 others out there who are reading what I’m saying or asking, and ready to respond with help…My network is my go to spot for information on a variety of topics, mostly educational…
On the left you will see the PLN tools we have always (or so it seems) had as teachers…these are the classic ways in which teachers have connected with others around the topics that interested themToday the walls have been torn down and you no longer have to live or meet in physical space. It is possible to build a learning network with people you have never met in real life.
Why do I need to do this? Isn’t all this stuff just a fad? I’ve been in teaching for a long time and have seen things come and go…I’ll just wait until all this technology stuff dies down and then get back to really teaching the way I always have…
As Will Richardson said, Our students are ALREADY learning in networks…or at least building them. There are lots of middle school students who already have networks of 500+ people on Facebook. If you don’t understand what that means, it’s difficult to explain to them why it might not be a good thing…Build your own learning network…find other teachers in your subject area, grade level, interest group, and let them help you find new and better ways to work with your students…
Don’t get benched…Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach The truth is that technology will never replace teachers, however teachers who know how to use technology effectively to help their students connect and collaborate together online will replace those who do not.The Internet allows students to do 3 things more effectively than they have been able to in the past…
Find and talk to other people about what is important to them…
Work together with their peers in order to solve REAL world problems…These three things, when done, well, and intelligently, allow students to create their own Digital Footprint…