Blog #2

What Will Teaching in the 21st Century Be Like?

 

 

 

This week, we were asked (among of ton of other things, haha!) to watch a couple of clips from YouTube, and I must say that the clips were quite insightful as well as creative!

 

The video called Mr. Dancealot significantly fascinated me. It started off as a regular professor walking into his classroom, and introducing himself as Professor Dancelot! He is a professor of dance, and he even demonstrates each dance move, but unfortunately he does it behind his desk where the students can't see, and it seems that he won't let the students try out the dances in class themselves! At the end, for their exam, the students had to demonstrate each dance to him as a test grade, but because the students couldn't try the dances in class, they were lost and didn't know what to do!! I feel like the central message of this video is that hands-on and demonstrative approaches to teaching yields better results. The author justified that message when at the end, the students didn't know what to do when the music started. I fully agree with this because I am a hands-on learner, and I remember things more easily when I am asked to demonstrate something.

Next, we were asked to watch the video Teaching in the 21st Century. My impression when I watched it was that the author Kevin Roberts thinks that teaching is rapidly changing and that we should do everything we can as teachers to teach with the most updated media. He listed every type of social media that exists in our world, and how each of them will affect students and teachers. Yes, I agree somewhat on why we should keep up with things, but using old methods works just as well too!

The Networked Student was next on our list of videos to watch. When the question was asked "Why does the networked student even need a teacher?", I almost immediately knew the answer. The teacher is the one that pretty much teaches the student how to think and look things up for themselves, but offers guidance in anyway if a student becomes stuck. Honestly, I like the way the author portrays the teacher, and I feel like the method used by students to navigate their way to get answers themselves is an important step in adulthood, academic life, and even in career life!

I'll be totally open and honest about this next video we had to watch. Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts. Davis' thesis was to use technology to teach a class, your students will reciprocate that information and you as well will learn from it. There was a few statements that the teacher mentioned about different teaching methods that raised my eyebrows. Of course, the focus on this video, as well as the class, is how to integrate technology with classrooms! But I feel like technology is not the only form of learning. When I was growing up, we were very limited on the amount of technology available to us. So, we had to learn with pencil and paper alone. She stated in the video that only certain kids can pass with using pencil and a paper alone. I must say that I mastered school with just pencil and paper! Kids can use both modes of learning, but not to say one method is better than the other! Yes, technology is a relatively new thing, but it shouldn't only be used...    

Last, but definitely not least, we watched Flipping the Classroom. I actually THOUROUGHLY enjoyed this presentation! I've never heard of it before, but after the lecture, I got really excited! I feel like every student should at least know what the next day in class will bring so they can be prepared. Posting a blog setting instructions on what to do and be prepared for is a borderline genius plan for every teacher and student!