Week Six: Generation IM

Article: Generation IM

I think the part about Wikipedia was pretty funny. We used to use encyclopedias to do our research, now we start with Wikipedia, do some more research, and come back to Wikipedia to add or change the content that we started with. That's an amazing ability and function. Not only are our young people able to access a vast array of information, but they also are able to become "experts," or at least those with knowledge, in the subject area.

"In a digital age, we simply cannot measure a child’s knowledge through an isolated, fact-driven standardized test." We don't need to know things the way we used to. We used to need to know facts to be able to function. Easy things like math, to calculate the new price after a sale; or (from a Christian school grad) Scriptures; or measurements, to figure distances or make a double batch of cookies; or where a state or country is located geographically; or even how to spell. Now, if we didn't store that in our minds somewhere, we carry devices that can look it up and tell us in moments. Our students are learning differently than ever before. They are being taught that they don't need "useless" information, and so are not storing it. Now, we're teaching our students how to critically analyze information that they look up or find. Not how to store what we give them as absolute in their own minds.

“We need kids to think about problems in innovative and creative ways. We need to change the emphasis of education to focus on higher-order kinds of thinking." I think that this is a powerful, true, statement. Lately, it seems that all I hear is how poorly our students are doing educationally; but perhaps that's because of how we're teaching them, and what we're teaching them. Maybe if we taught them how to deal with the world that they will face, not the one we used to face or wish we could face, we would all be better off. But then we run into the fact that there's simply not enough time for teachers to learn about the ways to use and incorporate technology and teach the subject matter effectively. Teachers simply cannot do everything.

I really liked their tips for incorporating technology into the classroom, so here are my notes on that.

Seven Ways to Bring Technology into Your Classroom:

1. Have your students blog

• Easier than a webpage
• Send work to grandparents
• Authentic audience
• Edublogs (free!)
• - Classroom blog site
• Classblogmeister (free!)
• - Classroom blog site

2. Create a social network

• Connect over shared interests
• Respect
• Elgg (free!)
• - Create your own social network (your own class FB)
• Ning (free!)
• - Create your own social network

3. Podcast

• Share research
• Audacity (free!)
• - Edit digital sound files that students record
• Mac users: Garage Band
• - Editing software
• Gabcast (free!)
• - Create a podcast via a phone call to an 800 number

4. Use wikis for big projects

• Better than a blog for separating lots of info into different pages
• Collaborative projects made easy
• Wikispaces (free for now)
• - Easy to create and manage webpages

5. Try social bookmarking

• Share online resources
• Students, teachers, parents, etc.
• Delicious (free!)
• - Bookmarking site

6. Post video

• Video discussions
• Can link to all parents!
• Animoto (free or subscription)
• - Video editing
• TeacherTube (free!)
• - Online video storage
• Avidemux (free!)
• - Video editing
• VirtualDub (free???)
• - Video editing

7. Explore with google maps

• Track Odysseus's journey
• Find major buildings for Beijing Olympics and create models using SketchUp
• SketchUp (free!)
• - Architecture program