Ruby’s Blog

I just watched a clip on teacherTube called “Pay Attention”. I thought it was such a powerful clip which sent out a fantastic message! It talked about students being different kinds of learner, such as kinesthetic, linguistic, spatial, interpersonal, etc but mainly about then being digital learners. The message was basically that teachers need to recognise that students are digital learners and utilise the technology that our students are used to. This is how we can create meaningful learning and understanding.

The clip was great! It actually inspired me to want to know more about how to use these technologies so that I can incorporate them into my own teaching practices. Realistically things like mobile phones and ipods are always going to be carried into classrooms, so why not use this to our and their advantage?! Use them as a teaching and learning tool! If used properly I’m sure we can create meaningful learning and understanding, not just for exam purposes, but for future use as well.  

I just read this article, “Digital Natives In The Classroom” by Michael Culliganthat talks about generation X being ‘digital natives’. It talks about technology being a driving force in the way students think and learn. They use technolgy in almost every aspect of their lives. The article also mentions ’digital immigrants’ that do not understand technolgy and therefore fear it. Teachers today need to familiarise themselves with the learning styles of their students and develop strategies that relate to them.

http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/digitalnatives/index.htm

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I just read this article “The New Literacy” by Sara Armstrong and David Warlick, and I think it’s absolutely crucial that we, as teachers tailor our teaching strategies around this ‘new literacy’. Most of the students in our classrooms are from the information age and as the article mentions “the best thing we can teach them is how to teach themselves”. We need to do this by preparing them for the future. By future, I mean the one that requires them to utilise technology for learning, more so than the traditional, text books, newspapers, etc.

The article talks about educating our students in a range of skills which are more than just finding and understanding information. Due to the fact that students today have access to such a vast amount of information, they need to learn to filter that information and pull out what is relevant to them and their learning. They also need to be familiar with all types of media and technology and be able to effectively express their ideas through a range of mediums. Overall I think this article is a great wake up call for teachers today if they want to create a classroom environment that promotes and nurtures meaningful learning among students.    

http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=47102021

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