Better safe than sorry!

Digiteen Project was a look into our future and the digital world. With new websites like myspace and facebook we have to be careful of what our children are publishing on there pages. The video shows us ways to take digital images add sound or voiceover and address serious topics such as, texting while driving. Think about how easy it is to find people on the web today. Then think about how many people you know that have picture and personal information that can be compromised. This is a serious problem that our future generation is facing. It can only benefits us as teachers to teach our children to be able to distinguish between fake and real websites. In school I was always taught that anything the has edu or org on the end of it is a reliable source. The problem today with that is that people are hacking into things and changing them. In this video the teachers chose to allow the students to teach about online safety. This approach worked well for the students. Most of the students said that they learned more about the topic because they were doing the researching and then forming the projects to teach others. Almost all classrooms are getting computers in them today. Even if it is two computers and not one for every student. The problem with this is that if the teacher steps aways from the desk her information could be compromised. Also we need to know where are children are going on the web. If we are turning to all this technology I think it is very important we know how to operate it.

Learning Things We Love.

The video project learning an overview is all about the children learning not by a classroom setting but by a hands on approach. Today teachers are finding that children would much rather be active doing things they want to learn about rather than what they are told they have to do. This makes sense to me because I feel some students are learning things they will never again use in their lives. We should be allowing them to learn information they will be able to put to use. There are many ways for kids to express the things they use through power points, orally, and even written. As said in the video the children are becoming the directors of their own learning. Eventually when I make it to my own classroom I would love to allow my students to be able to learn what they want. This isn't always possible in classrooms because of the certain curriculum we have to have and also all the testing. But even just doing something as simple as asking the children their top five things they want to study could help. This shows that you are interested in what they like and it allows them to be active. Then maybe I could work it into my lessons somewhere. Also I really don't want my children to be stuck reading text books all the time. I think that works well for some children but not all. Overall the video was a great look at allowing children to explore and learn more.

Two weeks down!

Two weeks down and many more to come. At first things were a little overwhelming. I know this class is going to be a challenge for me. I am excited to take away lot's of new teaching tools that I can use someday in my future classrooms. I have found it fascinating watching these videos in class and seeing all these young children that can do more with technology than I can. Wes is a great instructor. I really feel like he is here to not only teach but to help in any way that he can. I have enjoyed reading several of our classroom posts. I left two comments on both Rachel's blog and Witney's blogs. I look forward to having fun in this class this semester and learning more with you all.

Links to Learning

New Zealand teacher Kiwi shares her learning techniques of classroom 9. In this video six year old children are being taught reading, spelling, physical education, music, and even math using tools such as learning hubs, blogging, and white boards. The teacher has found things like emails and YouTube to be useful in teaching many lessons. The video discusses the objectives the teacher has for each child. The children will become more independent and also active learners. Many of the children become motivated to find new easy ways to learn. One benefit I find is that as a teacher you can introduce a topic but in many different ways. Another benefit the video discusses is the fact that it makes things go much faster and they are very organized. An example of this is when the teachers showed us the learning hub. This is where the children have all the links they will ever need for that class. It's fast and simple to find what they are looking for. Because the classroom only had three computers this encouraged students to work mainly in groups. Often times the classroom would interact with other classrooms. Laying out all the different possibilities teachers have with using technology is becoming more and more of a hot topic among professional teachers, schools, parents, and everyone involved in the education classroom.

To Blog Or Not To Blog

Some might say bringing blogging into the classroom may have both it's benefits and draw backs. In the video Blogging Buddies, children express both their likes and dislikes of the use of blogging in their classroom. The system is set up similar to a pin pal relationship only there is a younger child who acts as the blogger and a pre service teacher who acts as the blogger mentor. The objective of the teachers was to increase the children's ability to write, spell, punctuate, and form proper sentences using technology such as a blogging website. Most of the students interviewed in the video had nothing bad to say about the blogging program. The teachers found that it was not only helpful for the children but for the teachers as well. The teachers were learning how to give positive constructivism. The teachers were also focusing in on the good in the children's writing which gave the children the motivation to write more and better. Both teachers agreed that if anything could be changed it would be to have the teachers make shorter comments. Overall this program was found to be very affective in the progression of the students learning, reading, and writing.

Taking on the Virtual World

The video Digital Youth Portrait: Nafiza is an excellent take on introducing new technologies to children through the use of things such as virtual world video games. Nafiza, a New York student, is a member of the Global Kids organization. This organization has not only taught her new leadership skills but it has allowed her and other students a way of exploring tools they need to understand new findings in computer programs, cell phones, film making and much more. Year after year things are changing. Our society is becoming more advanced. Teachers are having to find new ways to teach and students are finding new ways to learn.

Cameron Video

This video was very interesting to me. Cameron the young boy takes the use of technology to another level for me. The important message I took from this was that technology is being utilized more and more by teachers, parents, and even students. Cameron found something to make learning fun for himself and that was technology. This can work on many different levels if you think about it. This also showed that Cameron was an active learner, he was very hands on. Another important thing I picked up on in this video was when the child knew more than the adults but the adults allowed Cameron to show them the way. As teachers and as parents we can't always be right and sometimes we even have to be shown the right way. This world is changing day after day and technology is becoming a more popular tool and way of teaching our youth.