Almost all of the information that the students in this video shared were things that I either thought about while I was in college or have pondered over since. I was happy to see a video commenting on education at the college level. Maybe this is just because of my profession, but I feel like we more often hear what needs to be changed at lower levels of education and rarely hear about the ineffectiveness of the college level of education.
As an undergraduate studying education, I barely had any teachers that I would have considered good role models for the type of teacher I wanted to be. You would think that the teachers teaching future teachers how to teach would actually showcase best practices, but that was rarely the case.
These students have laptops that they can bring to class and which could be used to enhance instruction and engagement. Yet, they are merely used as tools to take notes on. That is extremely puzzling to me.
As far as the end of the video where it says technology could save us, I am not really sure what to think about that. Of course I think that technology has numerous benefits. However, isn't it possible that too much technology may end up making many of the world's current problems worse?
I may be a little old fashion, but I still see an inherent value in attending classes and having face to face discussions with your peers and teachers. However, there is an obvious need for educators in todays society to integrate technology into their classrooms on a regular basis. I no longer think it is acceptable for a teacher to simply lecture from a textbook and have his or her students take notes. Students must be exposed to new multimedia tools and research tools on the internet in order to be prepared to enter an always changing workplace.
There are certainly a lot of issues for college students to think about today. Schools are becoming more and more expensive and jobs are becoming harder and harder to get. Therefore, it is essential that students are getting as much value out of their education as they possibly can.
I have viewed a YouTube video that was similar to this one called "A Vision of K-12 Students Today." I agree with the statements in the video and I question the way our educational system is currently set up. I do not feel that our 21st century learners are being prepared for their futures. I tend to refer people to another YouTube video that I also agree with, it's called "Changing the Educational Paradigm" by Sir Ken Robinson. Sir Ken Robinson brings up many valid points about our education system and our expectations from our students. We as educators should be encouraging thinking, creating and doing. Chalkboards and textbooks can be used occasionally within lessons, but I do not believe that they should be the only two resources that a teacher uses to teach. It is the teacher’s job to incorporate different pieces of technology as well as current social medias. Students today need to be exposed to current forms of technology as well as encouraged to create and think while using the technology. I do believe that our world is flat and if we do not altar how we are educating our students, our students will fall behind other countries that are also competing for our jobs.
The second graders in my classroom were born into this world knowing what an "app" is. They know and understand how to browse the World Wide Web. There is an understanding that information can be retrieved within seconds and often from a mobile device. I feel obligated as their teacher to stream videos and sound clips throughout my lessons. I also encourage my students to question and research using the Internet. I try to model technology use in my lessons as often as possible and I encourage my students to play independently or within groups. I believe that students learn by doing and thinking, and it is my job to guide my students while they are doing and thinking. -Chera
@Heather I agree with your statement about the video touching upon the college level classroom. You brought up a great point about college professors and their lack of leadership and being a role model. I also noticed that the students had computers with them, and I found it humorous that the instructor was still using a chalkboard. I see many advantages to typing versus printing, however, I agree with you. The computers could be utilized during the class for research purposes, assignments, or just hands on exploring.
@Mark I love your statement regarding colleges being expensive and jobs being hard to acquire. I completely agree that students need to get as much as they can out of their education. I think it's interesting that you value a traditional classroom face to face experience. I tend to feel that it's necessary in the elementary stages, but I begin to question the need as students get older. I think personal preference for traditional classrooms over online courses comes down to experiences. I have had very positive experiences taking online courses and I have had very boring traditional class experiences. I do not recall most of my undergrad experience which was spent entirely in a classroom with a professor lecturing in the front of the classroom. However, I am finding that I am recalling information that I have been exposed to through my online course work. I tend to retain something I have actually done and I feel that many students have the same tendencies.
@Mark You definitely hit on an important challenge for students presently at the college level. College is getting more and more expensive while jobs and money are becoming harder and harder to come by. I fear that high school students may then see no reason to go 20,000 dollars in debt just to sit through useless classes and wind up with no job in the end anyway. I hope changes are made in the way colleges are run, so that students will continue to see the benefits and the value of a college education.
@Chera I am responding to both your post and your reply to Mark.
Since you mentioned the world is flat, I am wondering if you have read the book The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. If you haven't then you definitely should. I agree with you that it is extremely important for teachers to ensure that students are learning how to use current technologies critically and thoughtfully because the reality of their future is that these will be essential skills. As teachers, it becomes our responsibility because preparing them for the real world is exactly what our job is about. Teachers that are still solely using chalkboards and textbooks need to ask themselves: How are these teaching methods preparing my students with skills they will need in the future?
While I do tend to agree with Mark about the value of traditional classroom meetings and face to face interaction, I have also noticed recently that I tend to retain more from the online classes I have taken because I am forced to do rather than just listen. However, I think being able to communicate thoughts and ideas verbally to people is a skill that many children now tend to be lacking. They are so used to texting, blogging, writing on facebook walls, etc that there seems to be no time for actual face to face interaction anymore!
@ Heather The idea that a revamped educational vision employed at the university level is something that I know many of my co-workers speak about often.
The notion that technology integration is something that new teachers will 'just figure out' continues to baffle me. Too often, new teachers walk into classrooms, classrooms equipped with interactive white boards and ELMOs, and these nascent educators have never been exposed to these tools during their pre-service education.
I hope that undergraduate programs add a more rigorous, timely, and relevant technology program, but my concern is that most institutions would view the technology education as "not our concern". Instead, pre-service education programs will continue to mandate the composition of snazzy objective statements.
@ Mark This video shows college-age students, but I'm willing to presume that the message embedded in the video is one that suggests a re-tooled approach to technology is needed in primary and secondary levels.
Additionally, teachers who continue to educate in a fashion they experienced as students only exacerbates the very real problem of parity; that is, two grade level teachers employing new tools for teaching and learning while one other teacher in that grade level does not.
I speak from first-hand experience only one-week into the 2011-2012 school year.
My son, Mark, is in first grade, and his teacher is the only one without a SMART board. Whether by intent or budget constraint, I take exception with what is now an obvious lack of available resources for 22 students. I doubt parents would sit idly by if, instead of an interactive white board, a set of Everyday Math books were not in the class.
@ Susan So students in college spend their time on Facebook during class? Hmmm, sounds like high school. This amuses me, this notion of access, or more specifically, the type of access a school provides versus the level of access kids possess when they come to school with their smart phones.
At Springfield, we block Facebook...for educational purposes. But at Springfield, I'm certain the students are on Facebook all day.
This leads me to question an issue of technology integration that is often over-looked: the responsible use of said tools. Who is responsible for teaching our students how to manage their access during the school day? Certainly, I want my students engaged in my lessons, and most assuredly, I do not want them surreptitiously posting FB messages during lessons. But who teaches them these "manners", these "ethics of digital citizenship"? And at what age/grade level?
Excellent Sir Ken Robinson reference! We'll view one of his TED talks this week. Good times for one and all!
True to your point, my first grade and kindergarten aged-children know 'apps'. But what's missing from them is the ability to research (read: find), and subsequently choose appropriate apps which best meet their needs.
That said, I know that my first-grade son is not in a position where he has to critically evaluaGte information, but what is currently occurring at the higher levels is a population of learners who can go beyond Google, but they are unable to find information on their own.
So they may use JSTOR and EBSCO, but they want both to, as I believe they think, both to do "what Google does"; that is, "find" the 'right' information for them.
I think it is amazing how much young students (like your second graders) can understand and properly use technology these days. I am not the most technologically advanced person and I often find myself asking my high school students how to do certain things on my IPOD, cell phone, or the internet.
I think that you are doing a very smart thing by using different forms of technology to enhance your classroom instruction. This will not only keep your kids attention, but it will better prepare your students for their future classrooms and eventually a very challenging workplace.
@Susan, I feel the same way about smaller class sizes. I took one course in undergrad that was in a larger auditorium, it was a bio lecture with a lot of people in it. I did not enjoy it and I found myself very distracted. It was much harder to pay attention. -Chera
@Ken, I do agree with your statement regarding many students inability to research and find information that best suits their needs. I am guilty of this at times and I notice my frustration coming out when I am looking for something online or via EBSCO. If google does not produce an immediate suggestion for me, I have become discouraged and I have often asked my husband to help me search. He's a google master, I had to learn not to be so literal with my searches. :) -Chera
@Chera The same thing happens to me. I can be searching for something for awhile with no success, so I turn the computer over to my boyfriend and he can always find what I am looking for! I do my best to teach my students to be good researchers, although I think becoming a good researcher is mostly just a skill that takes experience and trial and error.
Almost all of the information that the students in this video shared were things that I either thought about while I was in college or have pondered over since. I was happy to see a video commenting on education at the college level. Maybe this is just because of my profession, but I feel like we more often hear what needs to be changed at lower levels of education and rarely hear about the ineffectiveness of the college level of education.
ReplyDeleteAs an undergraduate studying education, I barely had any teachers that I would have considered good role models for the type of teacher I wanted to be. You would think that the teachers teaching future teachers how to teach would actually showcase best practices, but that was rarely the case.
These students have laptops that they can bring to class and which could be used to enhance instruction and engagement. Yet, they are merely used as tools to take notes on. That is extremely puzzling to me.
As far as the end of the video where it says technology could save us, I am not really sure what to think about that. Of course I think that technology has numerous benefits. However, isn't it possible that too much technology may end up making many of the world's current problems worse?
~Heather
I may be a little old fashion, but I still see an inherent value in attending classes and having face to face discussions with your peers and teachers. However, there is an obvious need for educators in todays society to integrate technology into their classrooms on a regular basis. I no longer think it is acceptable for a teacher to simply lecture from a textbook and have his or her students take notes. Students must be exposed to new multimedia tools and research tools on the internet in order to be prepared to enter an always changing workplace.
ReplyDeleteThere are certainly a lot of issues for college students to think about today. Schools are becoming more and more expensive and jobs are becoming harder and harder to get. Therefore, it is essential that students are getting as much value out of their education as they possibly can.
-Mark
I have viewed a YouTube video that was similar to this one called "A Vision of K-12 Students Today." I agree with the statements in the video and I question the way our educational system is currently set up. I do not feel that our 21st century learners are being prepared for their futures. I tend to refer people to another YouTube video that I also agree with, it's called "Changing the Educational Paradigm" by Sir Ken Robinson. Sir Ken Robinson brings up many valid points about our education system and our expectations from our students. We as educators should be encouraging thinking, creating and doing. Chalkboards and textbooks can be used occasionally within lessons, but I do not believe that they should be the only two resources that a teacher uses to teach. It is the teacher’s job to incorporate different pieces of technology as well as current social medias. Students today need to be exposed to current forms of technology as well as encouraged to create and think while using the technology. I do believe that our world is flat and if we do not altar how we are educating our students, our students will fall behind other countries that are also competing for our jobs.
ReplyDeleteThe second graders in my classroom were born into this world knowing what an "app" is. They know and understand how to browse the World Wide Web. There is an understanding that information can be retrieved within seconds and often from a mobile device. I feel obligated as their teacher to stream videos and sound clips throughout my lessons. I also encourage my students to question and research using the Internet. I try to model technology use in my lessons as often as possible and I encourage my students to play independently or within groups. I believe that students learn by doing and thinking, and it is my job to guide my students while they are doing and thinking. -Chera
@Heather I agree with your statement about the video touching upon the college level classroom. You brought up a great point about college professors and their lack of leadership and being a role model. I also noticed that the students had computers with them, and I found it humorous that the instructor was still using a chalkboard. I see many advantages to typing versus printing, however, I agree with you. The computers could be utilized during the class for research purposes, assignments, or just hands on exploring.
ReplyDelete-Chera
@Mark I love your statement regarding colleges being expensive and jobs being hard to acquire. I completely agree that students need to get as much as they can out of their education. I think it's interesting that you value a traditional classroom face to face experience. I tend to feel that it's necessary in the elementary stages, but I begin to question the need as students get older. I think personal preference for traditional classrooms over online courses comes down to experiences. I have had very positive experiences taking online courses and I have had very boring traditional class experiences. I do not recall most of my undergrad experience which was spent entirely in a classroom with a professor lecturing in the front of the classroom. However, I am finding that I am recalling information that I have been exposed to through my online course work. I tend to retain something I have actually done and I feel that many students have the same tendencies.
ReplyDelete@Mark
ReplyDeleteYou definitely hit on an important challenge for students presently at the college level. College is getting more and more expensive while jobs and money are becoming harder and harder to come by. I fear that high school students may then see no reason to go 20,000 dollars in debt just to sit through useless classes and wind up with no job in the end anyway. I hope changes are made in the way colleges are run, so that students will continue to see the benefits and the value of a college education.
~Heather
@Chera
ReplyDeleteI am responding to both your post and your reply to Mark.
Since you mentioned the world is flat, I am wondering if you have read the book The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. If you haven't then you definitely should. I agree with you that it is extremely important for teachers to ensure that students are learning how to use current technologies critically and thoughtfully because the reality of their future is that these will be essential skills. As teachers, it becomes our responsibility because preparing them for the real world is exactly what our job is about. Teachers that are still solely using chalkboards and textbooks need to ask themselves: How are these teaching methods preparing my students with skills they will need in the future?
While I do tend to agree with Mark about the value of traditional classroom meetings and face to face interaction, I have also noticed recently that I tend to retain more from the online classes I have taken because I am forced to do rather than just listen. However, I think being able to communicate thoughts and ideas verbally to people is a skill that many children now tend to be lacking. They are so used to texting, blogging, writing on facebook walls, etc that there seems to be no time for actual face to face interaction anymore!
@Heather, I have read the book The World is Flat. I did enjoy it, it really made me think about things. :)
ReplyDelete-Chera
@ Heather The idea that a revamped educational vision employed at the university level is something that I know many of my co-workers speak about often.
ReplyDeleteThe notion that technology integration is something that new teachers will 'just figure out' continues to baffle me. Too often, new teachers walk into classrooms, classrooms equipped with interactive white boards and ELMOs, and these nascent educators have never been exposed to these tools during their pre-service education.
I hope that undergraduate programs add a more rigorous, timely, and relevant technology program, but my concern is that most institutions would view the technology education as "not our concern". Instead, pre-service education programs will continue to mandate the composition of snazzy objective statements.
@ Mark This video shows college-age students, but I'm willing to presume that the message embedded in the video is one that suggests a re-tooled approach to technology is needed in primary and secondary levels.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, teachers who continue to educate in a fashion they experienced as students only exacerbates the very real problem of parity; that is, two grade level teachers employing new tools for teaching and learning while one other teacher in that grade level does not.
I speak from first-hand experience only one-week into the 2011-2012 school year.
My son, Mark, is in first grade, and his teacher is the only one without a SMART board. Whether by intent or budget constraint, I take exception with what is now an obvious lack of available resources for 22 students. I doubt parents would sit idly by if, instead of an interactive white board, a set of Everyday Math books were not in the class.
@ Susan So students in college spend their time on Facebook during class? Hmmm, sounds like high school. This amuses me, this notion of access, or more specifically, the type of access a school provides versus the level of access kids possess when they come to school with their smart phones.
ReplyDeleteAt Springfield, we block Facebook...for educational purposes. But at Springfield, I'm certain the students are on Facebook all day.
This leads me to question an issue of technology integration that is often over-looked: the responsible use of said tools. Who is responsible for teaching our students how to manage their access during the school day? Certainly, I want my students engaged in my lessons, and most assuredly, I do not want them surreptitiously posting FB messages during lessons. But who teaches them these "manners", these "ethics of digital citizenship"? And at what age/grade level?
@ Chera
ReplyDeleteExcellent Sir Ken Robinson reference! We'll view one of his TED talks this week. Good times for one and all!
True to your point, my first grade and kindergarten aged-children know 'apps'. But what's missing from them is the ability to research (read: find), and subsequently choose appropriate apps which best meet their needs.
That said, I know that my first-grade son is not in a position where he has to critically evaluaGte information, but what is currently occurring at the higher levels is a population of learners who can go beyond Google, but they are unable to find information on their own.
So they may use JSTOR and EBSCO, but they want both to, as I believe they think, both to do "what Google does"; that is, "find" the 'right' information for them.
And that never happens.
@ Chera
ReplyDeleteI think it is amazing how much young students (like your second graders) can understand and properly use technology these days. I am not the most technologically advanced person and I often find myself asking my high school students how to do certain things on my IPOD, cell phone, or the internet.
I think that you are doing a very smart thing by using different forms of technology to enhance your classroom instruction. This will not only keep your kids attention, but it will better prepare your students for their future classrooms and eventually a very challenging workplace.
@Susan, I feel the same way about smaller class sizes. I took one course in undergrad that was in a larger auditorium, it was a bio lecture with a lot of people in it. I did not enjoy it and I found myself very distracted. It was much harder to pay attention.
ReplyDelete-Chera
@Ken, I do agree with your statement regarding many students inability to research and find information that best suits their needs. I am guilty of this at times and I notice my frustration coming out when I am looking for something online or via EBSCO. If google does not produce an immediate suggestion for me, I have become discouraged and I have often asked my husband to help me search. He's a google master, I had to learn not to be so literal with my searches. :)
ReplyDelete-Chera
@Chera
ReplyDeleteThe same thing happens to me. I can be searching for something for awhile with no success, so I turn the computer over to my boyfriend and he can always find what I am looking for! I do my best to teach my students to be good researchers, although I think becoming a good researcher is mostly just a skill that takes experience and trial and error.
~Heather