Sunday, January 24, 2010

Second post

Michael Wesch: A Vision of Students Today
The video had some very good points. I like that it pointed out that only 18% of a girl's teachers knew her by name, and there were over 100 people in each class she had. This is not very surprising because now days colleges are trying to put more and more students into a room to gain some money instead of choosing a more one-on-one approach. I like when the professor knows your name and can recognize you outside of class. This makes asking questions much easier when you can actually talk to your professor as a mentor instead of a speaker that you listen to twice a week.
To make the video better, I think that some of the students should of elaborated on their fact that they were holding on to. I think this would have a stronger effect on the fact. For example, one of the last girls held up a sign that said "I did not create the problems, but they are my problems." I really didn't understand what she was talking about but I think it was referring to all the problems that the other students were holding up.


"It's Not About the Technology" by Kelly Hines
I would have to agree with Kelly Hines about the different things that we, as future educators, need to be doing to be the best teachers as we can. The first thing she listed was the teachers also need to continue to be learners. I believe this is very important because if the teacher stops learning, what good is she to the students of the next generation? As time goes by, more and more knowledge is gained. Some knowledge will change, some will improve and some will prove to be insufficient. If the teachers learn what is going on in the present, they will have more of an impact on the students.
Another one of her points that I really enjoyed was that teaching and learning are not the same thing. We, as teachers, need to make it a point in our career to make the students learn what they need to know. If some child cannot learn like all the other students, then we may need to change the way the child interprets what we are saying. For example, a child may not understand the lesson by hearing it over and over; but, maybe if you sing the lesson to that particular child, it will click. I have heard of this working before and I think educators need to be aware of how to handle different learning styles.


Gary Hayes Social Media Count
It is really astonishing how much the world wide web is growing so much daily! To see the rates of Youtube, twitter, and facebook growing in such an exponential rate! When I was growing up, I was basically learning how to get on the internet all by myself. I explored what all was offered over the computer all alone, when I was about 12. My parents were the learners and I was teaching them how to set up an e-mail account and how to log onto the computer. It is crazy to think that the children younger than me are still learning more than me. (Maybe I've lost my curiosity...or the time to explore?)
Anyway, I think that social networking sites are a great way for the community to know what is going on and keeping in touch. I also believe that social networks are a way for educators to reach out to their students. Since so many people have a facebook and check it as much as the Media Count says, it should be easy to keep an open line of communication to the students.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Devin!! I really enjoyed your post on "It's Not About the Technology"!! I agree that as teachers we have to be willing to keep learning throughout our career!! I also loved your idea about changing your teaching curriculum to help kids that may fall behind. The singing is really cute. Great post!!

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