Life Long Learning in the 21st Century
John Dewey, an educational reformer and American philosopher, was born in 1859, he emphasized that education should begin with and remain closely
tied to the actual experience and concerns of students, our teaching pedagogies need to adapt and grow accordingly. We are living in the 21st century, it is a digital century. One of the teaching challenges of the 21st century is to keep our students creatively engaged, forming them to be critical problem solvers ready and able to globally communicate and collaboratively work with diverse populations.
The teaching paradrigm is shifting from the teacher being the only source of useful information to every student becoming a valued contributor to their education. This class have given us, as teachers, many useful ideas to do just this. Reflecting on the information aquired in this class, at times it seems that we are to do away with the tradtional ways of learning which were used to educate very successful people in lieu of implementing all this new technology. It makes me feel that we are in a revolution to do away with the old because the new is going to be the magical answer to reach all students. In my Prezi presentation, I included a video from 1969 of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, his voice was heard globally, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind!", I included this to prove that the 21st century skills of collaboration, creativity, communication, and crtical thinking are not really necessarily new. These skills have been advancing society. We need to realize that the new technologies are new tools to attain the same purpose. To form productive members of society who will use their God given gifts and talents to make our world a better place.
This class did introduce me to many new ways in which I will implenent into my instruction, I will work hard to find the balance between traditional (every student should know their multiplicaiton facts, etc) and the new. I did use Glogster where the students created digital posters rather than the tradition posterboard posters. The students today do need to be taught how to access the appropriate, valid information on the Internet. There is so much out there that they need to know how to determine what is valid and what is not. Just like they were taugth how to physically talk to their peers properly, we need to teach them how to talk to their peers properly online.
Another point that was really empahsized in this class was digtial access, right now there is a soci-economic factor dividing those who do have access to all these new technologies which enhance our educational experiences and those who do not have access. One way we could help close this divide is to offer after school access of computer labs to students who do not have access typically.
Technology is a wonderful tool, which if used properly can open a student's mind to innovation which may lead our society into the future with endless possibilities.
~ Claire
tied to the actual experience and concerns of students, our teaching pedagogies need to adapt and grow accordingly. We are living in the 21st century, it is a digital century. One of the teaching challenges of the 21st century is to keep our students creatively engaged, forming them to be critical problem solvers ready and able to globally communicate and collaboratively work with diverse populations.
The teaching paradrigm is shifting from the teacher being the only source of useful information to every student becoming a valued contributor to their education. This class have given us, as teachers, many useful ideas to do just this. Reflecting on the information aquired in this class, at times it seems that we are to do away with the tradtional ways of learning which were used to educate very successful people in lieu of implementing all this new technology. It makes me feel that we are in a revolution to do away with the old because the new is going to be the magical answer to reach all students. In my Prezi presentation, I included a video from 1969 of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, his voice was heard globally, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind!", I included this to prove that the 21st century skills of collaboration, creativity, communication, and crtical thinking are not really necessarily new. These skills have been advancing society. We need to realize that the new technologies are new tools to attain the same purpose. To form productive members of society who will use their God given gifts and talents to make our world a better place.
This class did introduce me to many new ways in which I will implenent into my instruction, I will work hard to find the balance between traditional (every student should know their multiplicaiton facts, etc) and the new. I did use Glogster where the students created digital posters rather than the tradition posterboard posters. The students today do need to be taught how to access the appropriate, valid information on the Internet. There is so much out there that they need to know how to determine what is valid and what is not. Just like they were taugth how to physically talk to their peers properly, we need to teach them how to talk to their peers properly online.
Another point that was really empahsized in this class was digtial access, right now there is a soci-economic factor dividing those who do have access to all these new technologies which enhance our educational experiences and those who do not have access. One way we could help close this divide is to offer after school access of computer labs to students who do not have access typically.
Technology is a wonderful tool, which if used properly can open a student's mind to innovation which may lead our society into the future with endless possibilities.
~ Claire