EDLD+5364+-+Week+5

media type="custom" key="5063529" align="left" What an interesting week this has been! From Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works – by Howard Pitler Chapter 8 opens with the following: “People attribute success to different sources: to their own innate abilities, to the assistance of others, to luck and to effort. Of these possible attributions, the fourth, **//effort//**//,// is the wisest choice for someone who intends to achieve success or maintain it, as it is the only one within an individual’s control”. Imagine that!! Someone has actually had the nerve to state that effort is the wisest choice! In this new world of no personal responsibility where we have taught our children that it is always someone else’s fault it is very refreshing to see someone advocating for a little bit of effort. While in high school I had the fortune of studying with two very bright ladies. One was brilliant, the other was average. Where testing and getting straight A’s for the first was always easy, it was not so for the second. Today they are both doctors. The second one put her best effort and today she is a gifted surgeon. Hum! Imagine that!  We examined ways to use a variety of technology activities to motivate and guide students. In the videos, we explored what others had to say about what they believe the direction of education and technology will be in the future. In the video “Big Thinkers: James Paul Gee on Grading with Games” Gee states that "Next will be schooling that stresses the ability to solve problems, but not just to solve problems, but to be able to do it collaboratively so that you can work in a group where the group is smarter than the smartest person in the group, and also where you can innovate with the tools you've learned and not just do standard solutions to problems." Finding the solution to the Scenario involved working as a group where each individual brought strength to the mix. It would have been near impossible to complete without the help of the others. We learned by doing and we learned more than we could have by sitting with a textbook following step-by-step directions.

In the video: “ A Vision for 21st Century Learning” they mention that our world today is all about d igital technology, instant gratification, constant networking, and global connectiveness - different stimuli than previous generations. Then they go on to say that our education system was built because of mass standardization in response to the industrial revolution at the turn of the 20th century. The teaching style is still to cram the students full of facts without context, having them sitting passively and reading textbooks. These same students had their first exposure to video games during or before K. We have to move forward to an education system that is based on 21st century needs! Our children need it, our future demands it.

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