Blog Post #2; 21st Century Teaching

Social Dance section 24

In the video,Mr. Dancealot, this is a prime example of PowerPoint gone bad. How does Professor Dancealot expect the students to learn different styles of dances? He provides a PowerPoint of these different styles of dancing. Even while he was showing the motions of the steps, he was hidden behind his desk. Does that show that Professor Dancealot expects a lot out of his students? I would have to say no. How can you expect students to put effort into a class when the educator does not.Throughout the time of the course the number of students are slowing declining. Where is the engagement from the professor? I feel the main point the author is trying to display is students need to feel engaged with the class. The teacher is there to provide guidance, but how can you correct mistakes of a dance if the teacher never allows the students to actually do the dance.

Changing Centuries

In the 21st Century, it has become clear that our teaching styles has to vastly change to keep up with the times. Now-a-days children younger and younger are advancing into the knowledge of technology. The creator, Kevin Roberts, demonstrates in the video, Teaching in the 21st Century, that educators are know becoming the "filters of the technology." What are the teachers filtering? They are filtering content, websites, wiki, and etc. I understand that a lot of things are becoming technology based such as, games on a tablet for children to learn or quickly typing in a question in Google for the answer. But at the same time, teachers are the foundation to inspiration, to excitement for learning, to generate that one on one learning specifying to each individual student. For example, during high school my favorite teacher was Mr. Pierce. Mr. Pierce was the chemistry teacher, which was a subject a lot of students don't like, but for our school everyone wanted to be in his class. Mr. Pierce taught with so much passion and truly cared to see is students exceed. From him I learned my high school chemistry and went on into college to take college chemistry. Well for college chemistry I took it online basically learning through videos and PowerPoints. Still not understanding the material, I started to looking online, the information still didn't click until I made an appointment with my professor for that one on one time. After receiving the help from my professor I was able to actually understand the material. Teachers are still needed to do more than just "filter." Educators are the life support of the class.

Student Networking

With the video, The Networked Student, the creator breaks down what connectivism is. Connectivism is basically having an individual student connecting with other students, professors and anything else educational online. The student is self-taught. I see how this could work on a high school or college level, but not so well on a elementary to middle school level. Even at the high school to college level, I would have a little bit of hesitation. The big question is, why do we even need teachers? That question kind of breaks my heart. My only question to that is, how far are we going to stray away from human interaction? That one-on-one that unique factors that connect is the ability to have and share inspiration and knowledge.

Digital Smarts

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts, in this video the teacher has really provided a new outlook for her community. This program she is accomplishing for her students adheres to their strengths, making them want to grow as a thinker. She is guiding them for higher level of thinking. One thing that I agree on is that not all students learn the same way, so she is not focusing just on one way. It is an encouraging thing when the student finds empowerment through learning for themselves.

Flipping Out For Education

Flipping the Classroom, this video breaks down how "flipping" a classroom is. The concept of this method is when a student watches a video the night before. This helps the teacher jump right on in with lesson the next day and answer any question the students have. I see the possibility of me trying to integrate this into my classroom if given a higher level grade such as, 3rd through 5th. My only hesitation would be that the child or children who did not watch the video the night before would become more and more behind in the classroom. Other than that one concern, this method is very positive and a simple integration of technology into the classroom and home-learning.