Blog Post # 6

Networked Student


After watching the video by Wendy Drexler I realized that being a teacher isn't just telling someone knowledge and going on to the next subject. It's so much more than cramming something that your students didn't know before. By giving the young people in your class the direction to help themselves learn and let them expand in their own learning style is much more effective and rewarding than empressing a certain style that isn't as fluent as their own may be. It also gives the students as individuals the ability to explore other students and professionals work to add to their learning from outside of the classroom.

There are many different learning styles that people have. Some individuals can read through a chapter one time and have everything they need to know about the topic, whereas some may have to go back and reread it multiple times to have an understanding. It can be difficult to identify which students are which and to tailor a single classroom's environment to all of them. Letting the students take the technology that is out there today and learn the same information that the rest of the class is but in their own way is in my opinion more effective. So why have a teacher? To provide guidance and answers for questions that still may not be clear to an unexperienced individual. As a teacher we are the expert of the subject matter and we are the ones molding future experts of whichever craft they so choose.

The perfect example of why a classroom that learns through networks yet still needs a teacher is our class that we are in now, EDM310. We all have questions as we explore on further into the world of technology and familiarize ourselves with the various programs, websites, etc. We have a teacher who provides us with a vessel and we are the drivers. We are all traveling at our own speeds and at our own route, like a road trip. Some of us may go straight through on a direct line from point "A" to point "B" and some of us may get distracted and take a detour. When we get lost on our trip (learning experience) we look at a map, GPS, or call On Star (Dr. Strange). We put in the effort to get the reward and as a teacher we give them something much more gratifying then a grade. They have the schematics of problem solving and can now  navigate for themselves on how to get from where they were to where they are now. I'm not prepared to teach a networked class right now but I am starting to gain the tools to be able to effectively do so one day.

Welcome To My PLE


I have to say this before I begin the relevant part of what I'm going to comment on about "A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment (or PLN)". I'm jealous of how much more experience kids now get in their education then I did growing up. I would have loved going to school if I would have had the learning curriculum that this particular 7th grader had. With that being said I feel that I do have this type of learning environment in EDM310. There are two comparisons that I would like make in order to convey my complete point. The first comparison is between a class like EDM310 and the rest of the courses I'm in this semester. We are given a syllabus on the first day to let us know what is expected of us. We show up to class listen to a lecture, study some before an exam, and hope for the best. We are just going from station to station and going through the motions. EDM310 is like a living syllabus where we are given what we need to do but actually have to actually elaborate on what we are doing a discover further.

The 7th grader in the video has a similar environment to ours in EDM310 but that is for her to enjoy the entire learning year. I have a fraction of that for one semester then go back to the traditional learning environment. She is years ahead of me as far as gaining learning concepts that will help her significantly when she arrives at the academic level that I am now. My only hope is that as she progresses into a collegiate education environment that the university that she attends will also progress and transform it's way that education is provided to their students.