The Digital Classroom Expectations - Blog #8

The concepts I have gained concerning the 21st century classroom will be immensely useful in my classes; immediately improving the way I teach. Students will be more motivated to learn because of the multi-media content I will incorporate into my syllabus. Introducing a greater use of digital devices does not come without many potential problems. The concepts of classroom expectations that I have learned must be integrated into my syllabus if I am to develop a digital classroom.

Their are many negative outcomes that could arise with the use of technology as a tool, for both the teacher and the student.  I will have to continually evaluate the use of technology in my lesson plans to insure that its use is organized and effective, and actually improving the classroom as opposed to a more conventional lesson plan without technology. The students will have to follow the classroom expectations in order to make these lesson plans effective. In my university classes it is distraction that I foresee as being the main problem of using digital tools in the class, so the students must learn what is expected of them and the consequences of not following these expectations.  Teaching the nine elements of digital citizenship will also be a major contributing factor to establish classroom expectations and the success of developing a 21st century classroom.

                                 

Movie Unit

I've finally finished my movie (after 20 laborous hours) and I'm happy about the outcome despite it's short-comings.  It was a new experience for me that I enjoyed immensely. I chose the 'how-to" video concept because I think my students can relate to this idea and be able to make a video of their own. They understand directions because I give them directions everyday, so they have become competent at this. I intend to give them a video assignment handout which includes a rubric, so they will understand what they need to do and how I will grade them. They will practice giving directions in a "how-to" video.
This has been my favorite assignment in our grad class.  I think you will find my You Tube video a step above the others in this topic; thanks to Windows Movie Maker.  Enjoy!

Website - Dave's Guitar School

Here's a link to my website. It's a sample (with the content not fully completed) for university student's to use to build a website of their own to create a small business with a hobby they enjoy.

Dave's Guitar School

Classroom Expectations

The following document will be included with my syllabus for students in a future class.

Classroom Expectations

Audio Recording Assignment + Sample

I have developed a lesson for my 3rd year university students that will require them to explain the form and use of the tenses we have studied in class. The students will be expected to submit the assignment as a Soundcloud file to my Google Drive in a file created for their class and this specific assignment.  They will be required to open a Google account and a Soundcloud account in order to do this.  They must use a personal computing device to make this digital recording of their tense explanation. I will also have the assignment instructions (which includes a rubric) in the Google Drive file for them to read and follow. I have created a Soundcloud example for the students to follow.  It may also be necessary to use screen casting to help them open the accounts,  record their assignments and upload the files to Google Drive.

A Few of My Favorite Things - Blog #7

In our grad class we have been learning the value of digital technology and learning its practical use in the classroom.  The combined use of many tools can be implemented by students and teachers to enhance education.  If I had to choose just one as my favorite I would have to pick Google Drive. Its difficult to choose just the one tool for me because using Google drive would include the use of other tools, too, like blogs for example.

It is my intention to create a paperless classroom with Google Drive. In the next semester at the university where I teach English I will make it part of my expectation of the students to learn and use this tool. It will be my pleasure to reduce my use of photocopiers and lose the stack of wasted paper on my desk, effectively lending a hand to the efforts of reducing environmental waste.

If my students are all submitting assignments in a Google Drive folder I will become much more organized. This will also eliminate the issue of handing assignments in late because there will be no excuses for missing due dates. The internet doesn't give any leeway to lateness. Students will also learn and use other digital tools to prepare their assignments.

The educators of the world could all be using Google Drive.  I can't imagine the amount of paper that would be saved if schools around the world applied a paperless classroom policy. It could also be a small step towards globalizing education as a standard tool in a global curriculum.

Collaborative Learning - Blog #6

World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others, written by Will Richardson, is an article about the cooperation between individuals, and groups of individuals sharing the wealth of information via digital technology.  What he calls, "The Collaboration Age" is about forming networks and sharing information. Students, and teachers alike, are challenged by the fact that our current school curriculum is being rendered outdated by technology and the collaboration age.

Students are working in networks, forming their own curriculum, which is in turn reread, reapplied and remixed. The video Everything is a Remix points out how the government and corporations don't accept this due to copyright restrictions but the memes of social evolution are going to evolve whether they like it or not. These memes that students acquire through blogs, Skype, and wikis that are transformed and combined to create new ideas are not copies from any individual's property, so the capitalists are just going to have to sit back and watch while the digital age of collaboration evolves. Social evolution has proved that the system of copyrights and patents has failed in regards to the common good of people and the current networking of ideas in this age of cooperation will evolve with or without their authorization.

Now, educators must develop a new way to educate which includes the collaboration of information and model this to our students in order for them to gain the correct virtual information to copy, transform and create new ideas to solve the current problems in today's physical world.