C4T #4

Remember This…

         For this C4T I was assigned to Will Richardson at his blog, Read. Write. Connect. Learn. Richardson is a parent, educator, speaker, author, 12-year blogger. He is trying to answer the question, “What happens to schools and classrooms and learning in a 2.0 world?" In his blog post Remember This…, Richard tells how students are not remembering what they learn because they were forced to learn it. Richardson said “Social, voluntary learning is more powerful than institutional learning,” and now the potentials for social, voluntary learning have expanded, thanks to the Web. He says that we need to figure out a way to make the students become motivated learners. He finally asked, “How are we helping kids develop into the powerful, connected learners they need to be, to solve any problem and create meaningful, beautiful, important work that lives in the world and changes the world for the better?” he said the hint was: not worksheets.

My reply:

         Hello! My name is Linda Check and I am a student at the University of South Alabama in EDM310. EDM is an educational media class that shows us how to use technology to enhance our classrooms. I have learned more in this class than I have with any other class, because it lets us practice our tools we learn. Usually, I am just taking notes and never putting what I learn to use, but that is not the case here. When you said the answer is not worksheets, you hit the nail on the head. Teaching about subjects that hits close to home with the students, and letting them interact with others is an awesome way for students to become connected learners.

The Limitations of the iPad

         This week on Will Richardson’s blog, Read. Write. Connect. Learn, I read a blog post called, The Limitations of the iPad. In this blog post he tells us how some people think the limitations of iPads are numerous. Richardson shows use a quote from a man named Justin Reich, who says, “If you believe that learning to code is a vital skill for young people, then the iPad is not the device for you. The block programming languages basically don’t work. There is no Terminal or Putty or iPython Notebook. To teach kids to code, they need a real computer.” Richardson says for most, the iPad is about earning style points with the parents and lighting up students backpacks. He says that it frustrating because the people who invest money into the iPads are unwilling to invest time in the technologies they expect their students to use. This then sets a low bar for the use of the iPads in the first place.

My reply:

         It is very unfortunate that schools spend so much money on technologies that they do not care to spend time learning about. I have spent this last semester in a classroom observing a teacher who has three iPads in her class. She told me when they first received the iPads, they had a class they went to, to learn how to work the iPads. She said that everything she uses on the iPad, she has discovered herself by spending her personal time researching different tools to enhance learning in the classroom. The limitations are still many, but if a person is willing to spend extra time learning about technologies they expect the students to use, then maybe it won’t be just lighting up the student’s backpack.