Week 5 Tech Ed Questions (In Progress)

1. Should all teachers be encouraged to create online activities for students within traditional classrooms? Please explain.

I think that teachers should absolutely be encouraged to create online activities for students within the traditional classrooms. First, the internet is a huge resource, and as the internet is expanding every day, so is the need for all people to be computer literate. I think that students should be encouraged to do online activities so that they can become familiar with the internet, and it's advantages and limitations. Second, traditional classrooms are not ideal environments for all students to excel in learning. Some students do better in an online environment because of the autonomy and self-responsibility that it brings. For instance, In a classroom, students may have to finish a project within a constrained timeframe, whereas for an online activity, the students could work on it in their own time and at their own pace (November, 2010). Additionally, a classroom is very public, and not all students are not comfortable with sharing their work, thoughts, and ideas in front of their peers in such a public manner, whereas they might be more comforable sharing their work online, where they would not have to see their peers' reaction to their work. Additionally, with online activities, students have more time to think about their work, and to articulate their thoughts, whereas in a traditional classroom, students may not have the time to do so. Further, A traditional classroom that incorporates online activities could possibly address the needs of students who are not exceling in the traditional classroom because they are not comforable with the setting. By providing online activities, teachers could also identify students that might be better suited for online classes rather than traditional classrooms, and they could then create more online activities for those students to improve their cognitive development, or they could recommend the students to take online classes.

One thing about online classes that I never thought of that was mentioned in the November (2010) reading was that online classes can be efficient for high school students for AP classes. AP classes are not always available for certain subject within a school district if there is not a high demand for that class. Online classes could allow students from different schools interested in take the same AP classes to take them, when traditionally they wouldn't be given the opportunity.



2. Envision the role of social networking in 21st century learning environments. Write a brief description of this vision.

Wow, what a great question! Well, from what I've read, social networking is being used today, but is in limited use. Teachers have students sign up for the social networks and set up sorts of "home pages" for students to post information on, answer questions for the teachers, and post interest sites or videos they've found. The sites can be set up as public or private. Private sites are viewed only by the class, whereas public sites can be viewed by anyone, for other classes in the future to view and use the resources that your class has used.

In the future, I see social networking as a way for multiple classrooms to collaborate simultaneously during class, with the use of live video streaming. Schools will be within classroom walls, but students will be more autonomous, and would be able to access their classroom by live video from anywhere in the world. I think that a subject (for me physics) will have its own community for classes to log in to. For each class that students go to, they will simply log in to their subject's social network. Classes will communicate with each other in person, but will often collaborate with other classes via live feeds or videos that other classes have posted. Really, at this point though, the possibilities are endless! Within the last 10 years, the internet has grown so much and have provided so many learning and teaching opportunities, and so many teachers are utilizing the internet to expand learning in such a short period of time, that who knows - maybe we will have virtual classrooms or somehting crazy like that!