Blog Assignment #6

The Networked Student

Historically, this is a model that works well among motivated individuals. An example of this would be the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge chartered in the 17th century. These gentlemen networked to advance the scientific knowledge of their era.

In the video, the networked student needs the teacher as a guide, a motivator, and a resource. The teacher no longer imparts the specific knowledge, but is instead a vehicle to obtain the knowledge. Instructors need to be well versed in, and able to communicate/validate, the reliability of search and data sources that the students use. They are still responsible for ensuring that the overall learning goals and objectives are met.

The described class activities will naturally allow the more motivated individuals to spend a larger amount of time on their own and actively networking. This will naturally allow more time for the teacher to assist the students that need help and to motivate the unmotivated students.



A 7th Grader’s Personal Learning Environment (or PLN)

This was very exciting! This Science class is a perfect example in the application of the technologies that we are learning about in EDM310.

This 7th grader’s PLE is very similar to my PLN. We have learned to use the same tools for research and documentation, such as Google docs and even blogging. It demonstrates that we need to adapt to the current technology to be able to teach it.


The Machine is Changing Us

Mr. Wesch’s comments on isolation from peer groups and society doesn’t affect my personal life too much because I come from a large family, even nonrelated, who are still considered to be family. We spend a lot of time together and really enjoy it.

His comments on people more concerned with amusing themselves rather than with an intellectual application (serious reading, opinions and activism) affect me more. I don’t watch much TV because I am so busy with work and school, but when when I do, I want something “mindless”. I also do not spend time on serious reading much right now, other than what is needed in the courses I am taking.

Thinking about communication and how it is delivered makes me think about the amount of time that I communicate texting instead of face to face communication. Texting is a good way to keep in touch, but it reduces communication to the bare minimums and it does not allow you to see body language on how the message may be received.

I can use the comment Mr. Wesch’s made about technology controlling the message and how it is delivered/received when it comes to my future professional work as a teacher. This can be done by the way I deliver the technology to my students and with the way they will receive it.