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I would like to think, as Kristine says,  that Powerpoint’s days are numbered but alas I think it is here for a while yet. For a fast way to get views across, it still is the mode of choice for a lot of educators. Though it is such an instructionist approach! The ideas are in YOUR head (the speaker) not the students. What you might think is perfectly clear may seem completely obscure to your students.

I agree it only teaches students to think in dot point form, but what is the alternative when introducing a topic? Many students absolutely loathe powerpoint and having stood at the back of a class during a particularly long boring Powerpoint lecture, I can understand their views. How to change this? Provide a topic point and ask students to build on it using a class wiki or blog – students take turns writing up what they know on a topic? At least its interactive! Thanks for bringing this up Kristine, agree powerpoint just has to go!

This report entitled ‘Writing, Technology and Teens from the US, showed that 86% of teens believe that good writing is important to success in life! So, whilst we as parents and educators might be wringing our hands thinking they have forgotten how to write, in fact 93% of teens write for themselves! more prolifically than we ever did!

These teens are not impressed by just being online, they want to collaborate with others, have their voices (writing) heard, receive regular feedback and write about things that are relevant to them.  As a beginning teacher, I find this information heartening.   We need to create the environment where they can challenge themselves, share their work with others in the classroom and further afield, and to foster that collaboration  – which is what they are already doing (constantly) outside of school.  Or else, we lose them and school becomes irrelevant.

In Jonassen’s article on computers as mindtools, he argues that technologies should not support learning by trying to instruct the learners.  But rather should be used as knowledge construction tools that students learn with, not from.  He goes on to say that computers most effectively support meaningful learning when they are used as reflection tools or to apply knowledge, build something with what you know.  This has clarified mindtools for me quite a lot – I can now see how effectively they could be used.

In my KLA of business studies, commerce and economics I can think of an example – after going through a topic area, ask students to write a journal, produce a spreadsheet, develop a mindmap to show what they learned.  How they put these together will show what they actually know and most importantly, can they apply what they know to build something meaningful.  These could be used as study notes for the class to share or even as a form of assessment.  It has merit I think.

Alexander’s article on web 2.0 software shows just how fast and how far technology has permeated our lives.  Social networking, collaboration, bookmarking – it all made just a little more sense to me how this could be used in an educational environment.  Also from an ease of use point of view, at least these bookmarks provide a type of index or order – there is an awful lot of rubbish out there and being able to sort out what is relevant saves a lot of frustration and time.  I’m all for it!

Even if these open social networks begin as simply a tool to get students writing, that is a beginning!  In business studies, commerce and economics – students must be able to write!  Entering into a dialogue online re a case study, business problem, making up their very own business – might be more appealing and useful in an online networking environment.  Especially for peer review and collaboration.  Has anyone seen this done well? The biggest issue for me is finding examples – i would like to see how it might look – and build on that.  Is that being very non-creative?

After visiting Miriam’s blog and listening to Sue Water’s podcast on blogging (it is a little long, I didn’t get to hear all of it) but I am just a little closer to understanding the fascination for blogging.  It was heartening to hear Sue say that she at first “didn’t get” and  it took some time to understand its usefulness. Sue Waters – for those of you who don’t know is THE Edubloggers blogger – it is her on the home page when you visit Edublogs.  So she has come a long way for someone who didn’t start blogging until 2006.

I want to ‘get’ blogging so that I can be truly enthusiastic when using it for my students, but I am not there yet.  As Sue points out, it means more when you get a dialogue happening with other people’s comments.  It also seems this is what students love, the instant feedback or reply.

I would love to hear from someone who has blogged outside of Edublogs and found it rewarding – comments please?

the you tube clip on Ying’s blog showed how inspiring it can be for students to create.  It made me realise that this needs to be a part of every lesson, not just sometimes.  The number of teachers providing virtually no digital learning (ie. have never used wikis, blogs, podcasts) was astounding.  As new teachers, we need to do better, we simply must do better or students will switch off and drop out.

Having just read Miriam’s blog on google docs plus watching the video, I am looking for ideas on how to use these for our business studies/commerce/economics students?  The collaborative nature of google docs does invite ideas such as In class work – building a business plan or marketing plan.  Students could be divided into groups and asked to submit online one part of the plan.  The rest of the class reviews and refines it and so on until the whole plan is complete.

Does this sound workable?  Open to any other ideas out there?

I really liked the site Studiyo mentioned in Gillian’s blog.  It gives students the opportunity to show what they know by writing and designing their own quiz on the PC at the end of a particular unit of work.  Working collaboratively, students could then share their work with others in the class to celebrate their work.  Also there could be prizes for who gets the highest score!  A simple task but one that will test what they actually know, as they have to design the questions themselves.  Constructing their own learning!

Oblinger’s states that teenagers (our students) will not pay attention if the class is “too slow, not interactive and not engaging”.  They like to receive information at a rapid pace but lose interest when it is not interactive.  He then goes on “how do we encourage them to stop experiencing and spend some time reflecting.”

As new teachers, one idea may be to make reflection a part of every class, to model this as an important part of every lesson where the students and teacher reflect on the learning  possibly into a journal (also means they do some writing every day!).  Anyone have any other ideas?

hi kristine, Rainie’s article gives all of us digital immigrants pause for thought. As you mentioned, are written instructions not what they are tuned into to? There needs to be a mix of information sources in education for this millenial generation – but writing and reading still need to be there, just not as the ONLY source of information or they will (do) quickly switch off!

Yes I think it does interrelate with Prensky’s view – visual instructions, not written. Being realistic though, not all schools are going to have the means to accommodate this. We will have to be very creative indeed. Hoping for some great ideas to share!

Leanne