Blog Post # 2

Mr. Dancealot

In the video Mr. Dancealot the central message from this video is that a student can’t learn unless he or she practices what they learn. The author proves this case when making the male sit down instead of practicing what the students are learning. If you don’t practice what you learn, or what you are told, then you will not understand what to do. The class would have learned the dance steps if they were able to do the steps as the professor taught them.

Teaching in the 21st Century

From the video Teaching in the 21^st century, it tells us that teaching isn’t the same as it used to be. Technology is now used more than ever and is constantly getting remade and becoming even better that before. Students get so much information from the Internet and we are responsible for showing them ways to use it and not abuse it. He also mentions that we should engage the students and not entertain them. I think this is mostly true. The students should definitely be engaged but they should be entertained through their engagement or they will see some things being given to them as busy work.

The Networked Student

The video,The Networked Student, tells us that students today rely on the Internet and social media to learn. It also gives us some ideas of what teachers want students to take away from the classroom. It also asks if we really need teachers if we have all of this access to technology. I believe teachers teach more to kids than just subjects. Teachers teach students how to be successful in life. In my eyes, technology is like watching a movie instead of reading a book. While reading a book you are pushing yourself and getting more complex pictures of what is happening. When you watch a movie, its quick, easy, and painless. Reading a book is like learning from a teacher. You are learning everything with much more emphasis and details. While a teacher may be teaching a history lesson, she or he may turn the lesson into a life lesson by the time it is over. Watching a movie is like learning from the Internet. We get the information easily by using Google or looking something up and just reading. We only learn how to go through life from people who have already experienced it. Without this, who would teach us?

Harness Your Students Digital Smarts

In the video, Your Students Digital Smarts, I do like this teacher’s approach in the classroom. I like the way she leaves her mind open to learn as well as pushing the students to learn and explore themselves. Technology can be fun and exciting for the students to learn with as long as they don’t abuse it. Technology in the classroom is a good thing because it gives the students all an equal opportunity to engage. If a student cannot afford a computer than he or she will feel less about themselves and ashamed, and this could cause a problem.

Who's Ahead In The Learning Race

From watching the video Who’s Ahead in the Learning Race and looking at the facts that we were given, we can see that Elementary students are ahead in the learning race. This is a shame to me as a student that some people my age do not know how to do some of these things. I believe that some students in today’s society are just too lazy to learn and search for the right answer. On another hand, I believe that these children have grown up with more technology than students my age, which gives them an advantage.

Flipping The Classroom

Before watching Flipping The Classroom I haven’t ever heard of “Flipping The Classroom”. This is a very new method to me. This gives the students homework to do during the night so that they can have a jump-start on class as well as give the student more time to practice what he or she learns. I think this method would be effective but we also have to take into consideration the children’s life at home. What if he or she has to work to help pay bills? We can’t expect children to be overloaded at home with so much work to do that they get behind. The fact that the teacher will let the students that don’t have access to computers watch the material in class that morning helps a lot.