In the video Professor Dancealot was to show the realization of how teaching can be a skewed at times. It took a simple idea of a dance class and turned it into a lecture type of environment. Dancing is something that takes practice, and repetition and can not be taught on a slideshow. By the end of semester, the students were clueless on how to do everything because they weren't "taught" how a dance class is normally taught. I agree that the ending results of a poorly taught class end in a result of poor grades by the students. There are several methods of teaching. Some things are better explained via power point, where as, some things are 100% necessary to be taught through physical explantations and not just visual.
Teaching in the 21st Century
Kevin Roberts puts into perspective how Teaching In the 21st Century is vastly different that what is was just 10 or 20 years ago. Technology has essentially taken over all aspects of life in the running world so it only makes sense that technology based learning is the way to handle some teaching aspects in a classroom setting. Roberts pointed out how even literally everyday questions can be answered on the internet. Such as "whats the best route home?" or "where should I get my car fixed?" or even "how should I vote for president?" Society now has information of all sorts at our fingertips. He states the the role of the teacher is evolving into something it wasn't seen as before. Roberts stated that they teachers are now just "filters" of information. Students can google anything (the answers are instant) and then the teachers can go more into depth on the subject matter. I agree on the fact that technology has become more second nature for the upcoming generations. However, the concepts of no pencils, papers, or books in a classroom for educating baffles me. Children know how to work an iPad better than a jig-saw puzzle! It will be intresting to see how the future tech-savy children will grow up into adulthood.
The Networked Student
After watching the video on The Networked Student I thought it was an intresting take on the "normal" learning environment. I even thought to myself if 21st Century School was a real school. The idea of it is that the student basically home-schools themselves. Through 2 online courses and one class meeting. They network their way through an online collaborative page. And share ideas and opinions on different material with other students who have tuned into to the online collaborative page. However, this student DOES have a teacher but her main purpose as his teacher is more along the lines of guideing him through networking,helping with difficult concepts, and filtering through the valid facts and figures he looks up on the web. I felt that a key part to the video at the very end where the narrator states that in the teacher's heart she hopes that her students will go on to make a difference in the world using the tools she taught him. He is right about that. I feel that (for the most part) teachers spend all of their time investing into their students lives just hoping that they will leave the classroom at the end of each day with a new thing they learned. No matter what type of teacher they are, they all want the same results.
Harness Your Students Digital Smarts
Vicky Davis is a public school computer teacher in rural Georgia.In Harness Your Students Digital Smarts it explains that her main thread of teaching ideals is individual learning. She asks her class to take it upon themselves to look up and research the questions they have. If they aren't sure of a definition of a word she said or a computer based question then the students will have to look it up themselves. She wants students to become independent learners and not necessarily rely on a teacher to spoon feed them answers. I think it is a great idea for older middle school to high school aged students. I feel that lower elementary students need a little bit more guidance on some aspects of the classroom. However, I think it is one of a teachers roles to implement technology into the younger age students so they will be prepared for the the higher computer learning classrooms.
Flipping the classroom
I think the idea of Flipping The Classroom is brilliant. I have heard of virtual classrooms before where students can watch videos of their teachers teaching lessons, but only for students that are very sick and have to take off from school. This video was the first time where I have seen it possible for all students. I honestly wish that this was used during my years in middle/high school. Especially with mathematics! Being able to watch a video of a math lesson, rewind parts, and being able to fast forward through other parts for each student would be very beneficial. Students can then work at their own pace and then ask all remaining questions necessary the following day is a win-win situation for both the student, the teacher, and the remaining classmates. The one draw back to this is if a student missed the lesson for that night then it could pose a problem. Despite that, this cuts down on classroom time for the teacher to go more into depth after the basic lesson was taught the night before. It serves as a template for making homework easier and more manageable for the student to complete it at home. A student watches the video and then the lesson is fresh in their brains to complete the homework assignment.
