Week+5+Reflection

Reflecting Upon Teaching in Technology
Loved, loved, loved, Sasha Barab's video on New-Media Engagement. I quoted him for our weekly discussion, but I have another great quote...

""I think print based literacy and textbooks as they were traditionally framed were really powerful for a long time...We are at a different time. We are at a point where its not so much about getting the information, its about using information to accomplish particular ends."

Someone asked what is wrong with memorizing facts and dates? Nothing, except is it really needed? Maybe at one point in our educational journey, we needed someone to give out information because there was nowhere else to get it. But today there is information at every turn and with each second it is getting easier to access it. We are in the midst of a educational paradigm shift. As teachers we need to get our head out of the sand and look around--we may be emphasizing the wrong skills. We need to teach our students how to find information, to critically judge information and to use information to solve everyday and not-so-everyday problems.

This course really gave a lot of examples of 2.0 tools that can really help get those students maneuvering and navigating in that digital cyber world that is fast becoming the place to be, for business, social networking, gathering information, etc. Using games that simulates real world situations and problems can get them prepared for their own real world. Using authentic assessments and allowing them to fail and tinker and trying again is a real way to prepare them for real life. Giving them tools to track their results and progress, making them master of their own learning, gives them back their dignity as learners, which will go a long way to giving these future leaders of the 21st century, the tools they need to make a better tomorrow for themselves and everyone else. Now with all that being said, do we really have time to work on memorizing facts and dates?