Two videos above use very vivid pictures to show us the need of K-12 students today and what teachers can teach to fulfill students' needs.
I thought that A Vision of K-12 Students Today may represent the need of K-12 Students today about how they need teachers to use technology tools to teach them. However, after watching the videos, I have been lost in thought. At the beginning of this video, different young students use numeral information to prove how they need technology in their daily life. For instance, "I game 3.5 hours a week","5.5 hours homework on computer", "I listened to 5 hours of Harry Potter on my ipod this week". That is the difference place of 21 century students. Every aspect of our life is more likely rely on technology, even the test modality transfers from PBT (Paper Based Test) to IBT (Internet Based Test). I thought this data mentioned by those students must lead to a topic of how to teach with technology tools. However, for the next turn, students start to represent a kind of unexpected appeals. For example, "We expect to be able to create", "We expect to share information with others", "76% of my teachers have never used blog", "63% of teachers have never asked me to create something new with technology". Then students start to posting questions about the teaching methodology such as "What kind of education would you want me to have?" At last, students ask teachers to teach them to think, to create, to analyze, to evaluate, to apply, to tell story digitally. They hope teachers can engage them with technology. But students' goal is far beyond using technology tools. What they want is to be creative learners via the use of digital tools. It impressed me a lot. It also reminds me again the learning outcome of this course. It is not just showing some interesting international tools. Through the study of this course, we should realize that we are talents who can jump out of the traditional teaching box and solve problems in new ways.
The second video Networked Student gives brief introduction of several networked tools which are very useful for study. Such as what we have already learned--blog. The most interesting tool I learned from this video is the use of iTunes. I used to listen to music or watch movies through iTunes. But I do not know that I can download university courses by iTunes for free. Many of these open courses are conducted by top universities such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford. These courses cover multiple disciplines from sociology to scientific knowledge. Even you do not go to these universities, you can have a chance to listen to world best professors' courses. This is one of most amazing thing the internet can fulfill -- sharing. Maybe sharing information is the first step to teach students how to think and create.
Sugar, I can't agree more with your idea. I also think that thinking and creating are the ultimate goals for students' learning. Those are also the things which Chinese students did not enough in. Through reading your article, I also immersed myself in thought.
ReplyDeleteAs you have pointed out, "Every aspect of our life is more likely rely on technology" in the 21st century. We are living at an exciting time since we can become not only consumers of new things but creators as well.
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