Today we are inundated with stimuli - constantly reachable, accessible and in touch. We are always connected to one piece of technology or another and have become more virtually than physically active. With this revolution of technological access over the past 15 years, how are we revolutionizing our classrooms? Like it or not, we need to create changes that mirror the realities of the real world. This includes constant access to materials, out of classroom communications and integration of social programs into the classroom.
Firstly, schools are making changes to create students, teacher and parent access. Including resources such as classroom websites. One of the advantages is that it allows students to work on their own schedule, which we know can be very different than that of an adult. It also allows parents to monitor, review and access their child's work. It keeps the parents engaged and in the loop. This will limit confusion for all parties and create opportunities parents and teachers to remain informed of individual situations. Lastly, this can also allow teachers to teach students interactively. This can incorporate wikis, blogs and virtual lessons/notes.
Secondly, we can create new relationships outside of the classroom that further learning in previously non-accessible ways. One example of would be to establish connections with various educational institutions. This could be through something as simple as emails and virtual tours and as elaborate as skyping with museum curators and college professors.
Most importantly, I found the Strategies for Incorporating Reading Responses very helpful and important for a respect filled and responsible online teaching forum. These guidelines are not only for the teachers, but also for the students. It guides educators on proper responses, appropriate discussions, clear rules to include, how to engage active participation and ensure relevance for your students. By preparing discussions in this way we create a forum for intellectualizing ideas in a way that incorporates all learners. Students can also inspire other students to think in new and interesting ways, leading to learnings that even the educator may not have intended.
Questions:
1. How do we as teachers establish websites that will provide enough information/interaction for students and parents, while not overwhelming them?
2. By creating a forum that can be utilized at home, are we overwhelming our students, and predesignating them for business type futures?
3. In designing and maintaining online websites, will teachers be forced to take time away from classroom lesson design and thus create mediocre lessons?
I found your post and questions very interesting. I don't think that creating class websites to be used at home sets our students up for "business type futures" in any way. I think it is important to use class websites because it is the way of the future for all areas not just the business world. For example many artisitic people whether artists, singers, or movie directors have their own websites. It is important that students experience a variety of different web formats because no matter what field our students are going into they are going to have to access and manipulate the web.
ReplyDeleteI think that an online resource should be a place where students can go to review or preview materials for the class. This is to say that I do not feel it is appropriate to give students new materials on an online resource. This will prevent students from getting overwhelmed because they will only be on the we resource to clarify questions they might have. I do not feel that by using web resources such as forums we are setting up students for a business like future. In all avenues of life, people are using such technolgies. I feel that a student can partake in an online forum and not lose their creativity. I do agree with you that by using web tools a teacher might be forced to miss some time on classrom instruction. I do not know how to stop this problem and am interested to see what our peers have to say about it.
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