Monday, July 30, 2007
Lesson 11: School 2.0
There were many positive things I viewed from the School 2.0 model. For example I love the idea of having more online assessment and evaluation. This would provide educators with such important data to help us better know what our students' needs our and what our next course of action should be. It shouldn't take until fifth or sixth grade for a student to be brought up to an IST meeting. I also like the differentiation and flexible exploration it provided students with. We all know that students learn differently and at different rates. With that being said, I had some concerns that maybe it was too much of a shift. For example, on the map it stated that textbook money would need to be shifted to digital resources. Again, I have to put my reading teacher hat on and say that this is frightening to me. I know that there are several wonderful sites where you can listen and read books online, but that experience is not the same as buddy reading with a peer, hearing your teacher read a picture book by your favorite author, or participating in a small guided reading group. We want our children to grow up to be competitive in an ever changing world, but we don't want to sacrifice the positive learning experiences that are already in place. Also I am still confused about who was making these major decisions? What I can agree upon is that we need great teachers integrating great tools of technology.
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4 comments:
It is like Dr. Zhoa said in reference to we need to harmonize what teachers are good at with what computers are good at. It doesn't have to be a competition, it can be a harmony. Everything in moderation.
Thanks for putting your reading teacher hat on. This course is more valuable due the variety of experiences people bring to the discussion. The dynamics of a personal, face-to-face experience buddy reading or classmates in a course is vastly different from blogging and chatting. I agree with you & Diane, there can be harmony, and a balanced variety. I hope it is the teacher who will still have the academic freedom to make the decisions about what high tech and low tech (human) tools and methods to use.
I agree with all the comments here about balance and more than one way to do things, especially reading.
Lorie, you said, "For example, on the map it stated that textbook money would need to be shifted to digital resources. Again, I have to put my reading teacher hat on and say that this is frightening to me. I know that there are several wonderful sites where you can listen and read books online, but that experience is not the same as buddy reading with a peer, hearing your teacher read a picture book by your favorite author, or participating in a small guided reading group."
I noticed that the type of reading that you are talking about isn't from textbooks. Maybe we could agree to get rid of textbooks and use digital information in that realm while still keeping trade books. Just a thought. :-)
There is something to be said for human touch, human contact. Computers can't give that, they can't give the love or excitemetn for reading like the voice of a teacher or peer. Hilton does offer great opportunities for technological advances. Hopefully the future of school 2.0 will offer that harmony you are looking for.
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