Challenge Based Learning

After talking about it in class and reading about it I think I am starting to get a good understanding of what Challenge Based Learning entails. This is not something that I have personally seen used in the classroom but it is something that I think would be very beneficial for students to interact with. It is another way for students to learn other than simply taking notes or listening to a lecture-it allows students to put their thoughts into action and to explore something that they are passionate about.

Challenge Based Learning is definitely something I would like to use in my future classroom even though I want to work with young students. I think that you can introduce this idea to students at any age-getting students to think about things on a deeper level and teaching students how to ask questions about things. I think challenge based learning allows students to experience things and to think about things that maybe they would not normally. It gets them passionate about something, and gets students to think about solutions to problems that they want to see changed. I think it is important for every student to interact with challenge based learning at least once during their academic schooling. It can put learning into action and can allow students to express themselves in a way they normally cannot in the school setting.

Ipads in the Classroom

I have personally seen an ipad being used in the classroom and I loved how interactive it was. During first block the teacher had an ipad in her classroom and the students would "play games" that would help them to learn how to write words, trace letters, identify letters, etc. This is one of the reasons I decided to purchase an ipad myself-because of all of the awesome things that a teacher can use it for.

I really  liked how this article talked about how the ipad can be a tool for students to learn with even if they are not sitting in the classroom being taught by a teacher. It is a tool that engages students and that most students get excited about using. It can teach concepts to students in a fun way or it can reiterate things that have already been taught in the classroom-allowing students to practice during free time or even at home. Many of the education apps are on the expensive side but there are also many that are very cheap making them easily accessible to more people. There are even some that you can get for free if you look for them. 
Another thing I love about the ipad is the ability to record audio, add pictures, or enter in your own things. You can type on an iPad (making it similar to a computer) for older students or younger student can use it to be taught about reading, writing, math, and many other things. There are books that you can read on the ipad, interactive reading activities, math games, and even games/apps that allow students to practice writing. The app that I saw being used with my preschool students was one where the students had to trace different shapes that were a part of a picture and a little mouse would congratulate them when they did this correctly. The app also had them trace letters and short words to give them practice with that.

I absolutely would love to use an ipad in my classroom. I want to teach younger students and I think it can be a fun, interactive way to learn for students. It is a way to engage students in their learning and it will also teach them how to use technology which allows them to learn outside of the classroom.

Keeping Students Safe Online

I was very intrigued by this article- and one of the first things that caught my attention was the section that talked about how instilling fear does not work as a way to keep our students safe. I have to say that I agree with this 100%. Often times trying to "scare" someone into not doing something makes them even more curious about it. I feel like this is why we need to teach students to be safe and to know how to look through a lens where they can separate what is good and what is not. How do we do this? By giving students the proper skills, not by punishing or scaring our students.
The statistics about cybersafety and cybersecurity curriculum really bothered me. Teachers not teaching about this in the last 12 months? Thats an entire year! As educators it is our responsibility to teach our students the content that they need to know and to keep them safe. I find it appalling that teachers are not teaching their students about how to be safe online when students are using the internet everyday-often times for school assignments. I know when I was in school I was never told about safety online...I learned about safety online from my parents. I think it is a shame that this is not something that is being incorporated into the curriculum in our schools more. This needs to be something that starts being taught at a young age, because students as young as preschool are using computers for different tasks.

I think another huge issue is cyber bullying. I have seen this being talked about in some schools when they do units on bullying but I think it is not talked about enough as it directly relates to safety online. I think the worst part of cyber bullying is the anonymity of it...students need to know that bullying online is never ok and if they are being bullied online they need to know what to do about it. This is something that is very serious and can be detrimental to many students-even pushing some to suicide. As teachers we can give our students the information about how to deal with things like this if they ever happen, and we can teach students how to get out of a situation like this. I do like the idea of teaching students to cooperate with each other and how to defend someone who is being bullied. I think that this is something that can help the students with understanding bullies better and when they are at school we can be there to watch our students. When they get home and go online though we are not there to watch and make sure that everyone is behaving- this is why teaching students safety online is so crucial...for their safety and for the safety of others.

Transliteracy

I found this article very interesting and I definitely enjoyed reading it. I think that transliteracy is an extremely important and necessary skill for everyone to have. I think that not having this skill is something that could definitely inhibit one's learning. The following quote really caught my attention: "Doug Ackerman suggests that teachers may be "less literate than their students" as students are able to adapt more readily to new transliteracy models"(pg. 44). This is an important realization for all teachers and future teachers to have-that right now there are students who are more literate than their teachers. When I become a teacher this fact will be even more true. Knowing this definitely inspires me to become transliterate, and to be able to take in information from all areas. This also inspires me to get to know about all of the different medias that are out there- because ink and paper is not the main form of communication anymore. Knowing all of these different medias will be beneficial as a teacher because I can use these forms to communicate with my students in a way that interests them and because as the teacher I will be as literate as my students are.

I also think that because students are becoming transliterate and learning communication through all of these different medias, teaching safety is an important idea. I think that as a teacher it will be my job to learn about all of these medias and to then teach students how to properly use them. The article talks about teaching students how to analyze for accuracy and credibility on an electronic platform. This is something that I think is of high importance because students are always using technology whether in school or at home, and they need to learn early on how to use technology in a beneficial and safe way. 

I Can't Think!

Wow I definitely feel a bit overwhelmed after reading all of the information presented in that blog. It was all good information-just a lot to take in. One of the sections of the article that I found particularly interesting is the section that talks about how "recency trumps quality". So basically our brains are wired to notice a change which means that whatever has changed more recently is what will stick in our brain. In today's society where we are constantly getting texts, tweets, facebook posts, etc this is particularly interesting to me. You could get up to 30 facebook messages in an hour but the one that sticks with you the most will be the post that you last saw, not necessarily what was most important.

This gets me thinking about how we can decide which information is important and which information is not important. If we are constantly being bombarded with all of this information (good and bad) and our brain is wired to remember the information that we last saw/heard, then it will take a conscious effort to decipher between good and bad and true and false. Wow that thought alone is overwhelming to me!

The last paragraph asks the question that I am left with right now...How can you protect yourself from having your decisions warped by excess information? I like the idea of taking things in in batches and prioritizing the things that you read and take in. This way you are getting less information at once so you will be able to process and remember more information. I definitely think it is true that some people are better and ignoring "extra" or unnecessary information-but I am going to have to take the path prioritizing and taking things in batches because that is not me. I feel completely overwhelmed by all of the emails in my inbox, and all of the constant information that is coming to me. I think this article did help to address this issue though and give a few tips to help those who feel the same way (even if it means turning your phone off).