This week we were introduced to a handful of websites dedicated to providing activities and interactive games that are education-based. As I reviewed these websites, in my mind I also recalled a discussion held in our Learning Theories class about an artistic prodigy who is home schooled and only studies subjects that interest her. I started to wonder about what the world look like if each person was able to study a subject through a lens of what interested him/her? How much more motivated would our students be to learn? What would the risks be? Who would benefit?
Personal Study
The most valuable opportunities for person-directed learning are currently on-line. Want to learn Spanish? Try Livemocha. Want to see what the differences are between Iceland and Greenland? Go to Google Earth or use a search engine to find virtual tours and information sites. Never before has so much information (and misinformation) been publicly available at no or minimum expense. This benefits everyone: learners, educators, and retailers.
Using Web 2.0 for Communication
The possibilities for facilitating communication has never be greater. Web 2.0 tools such as wikis, blogs, and podcasts provide teachers the opportunity to bring the idea of "transparency" into the classroom. Schools can use websites of various design to inform parents and students of school activities and events. Classrooms can use blogs and wikis to help students keep track of homework assignments, discuss topics of interest, and conduct paperless assessments. By having these forms of communication, parents will be able to keep themselves informed of what is being learned in the classroom, assessment dates, and project due dates. Collaboration between parents and the teacher is an essential piece to keeping students on track and identifying students who are having trouble before misunderstandings have consequences (such as a bad grade on a unit assessment test). At the school administration level, having a blog or wiki facilitates communication so that parents can be informed about current issues facing the school district. Having better informed parents can lead to more effective collaborative efforts, which are more likely to successfully address issues and problems (Schrum, 2011)
Need to be Savvy
Which brings up the risks of using the internet for acquiring information. Students need to develop Information Communications and Technology Literacy (NET-S). Students need to be educated in order to critically evaluate the reliability of a website and the information presented therein. Any website will have a purpose and a bias. It is important that students be trained to recognize these and consider them when referencing or using a site. Also, many of these education-based sites require log-in accounts. This means that somewhere there is compiling data about the sites one uses and subjects one explores. It's a reality of our time, but students need to be reminded of it because the ads that pop up on these sites will become tailored to their interests over time, making them more attractive. (ISTE, 2011)
Need to be Careful
According to many learning theorist (Mitra, Vygotsky, Noddin, Siemens) a person learns best in a nurturing, social environment in which he/she is able to express his/her ideas and receive feedback that leads to deeper understanding. Web-Quests and Quest Atlantis have successfully demonstrated that inter-classroom and international cooperative activities can provide great opportunities for collaborative learning. But just because some sites successfully lead to collaborative learning, does not mean all sites of this nature will lead to collaborative learning. I am not impressed with River City, it seems like a lot of down time to chat up other avatars and it wasn't clear whether I could create a separate world in which only my students could interact. Similarly, Second Life seems more a social site to anonymously chat up other avatars, who could be any manner of child predator. I see little educational value in social sites and great opportunities for harm (psychologically - because the avatars are beautiful and many teenagers can be meaner or cooler on-line than in person) and danger (teenagers too often believe people are who they say they are online and put themselves into danger when they agree to meet people in person).
Conclusion
The Internet provides a plethora of resources and learning opportunities. When designing my unit plan for Methods of Instruction I searched the web for online games and activities that would allow my students to manipulate vectors. The activity I found should be interesting to them, emphasizing visual and kinesthetic learning (which benefits most students). I included an Internet-inquiry project to encourage internet research skills. I also included a few YouTube videos because it is now my belief that one can learn almost anything via YouTube videos. The wiki developed for this class will be the foundation for the wiki I intend to use when I teach. I will additionally take responsibility for arming my students with methods for evaluating the validity and safety of the web sites they use.
References:
Livemocha. retrieved from http://www.livemocha.com
Google Earth. retrieved from http://www.google.com/earth/index.html
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). (2007). National education technology standards for students. retrieved from http://www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students.aspx
Schrum, L. & Levin, B. (2011). Leading 21st Century Schools.
Quest Atlantis. retrieved from http://atlantis.crlt.indiana.edu
River City. retrieved from http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/
Second Life. retrieved from http://secondlife.com/
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