Morgan Bayda: An Open Letter to Educators
I understand the point that Morgan Bayda and Dan Brown are trying to get across because I, too, feel like all i do in some classes is remember facts. I do not think that I would ever drop out of college, but I could get more out of some classes than learning how to memorize information for a mid-term and final. Here at South Alabama all of my classes have been relatively small with the number of students between 20-40 students. This is one plus for South Alabama because all my professors can learn the names about most of their students.
This EDm 310 class is one of the only classes where i have really gotten a true "hands on" approach on my assignments. With the world revolving to be more technologically sound, it seems as if every other aspect is evolving with it except for education. It is time for education to evolve with technology beside the occasional Blackboard and Smartboard. When I have my own class I plan on using technology as best I can.
There are many great websites available on the Internet to assist with education. Two of the most popular ones are the Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX) website and the Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide (ACCESS). I really enjoyed browsing these websites and I can see myself using them when I become and educator.
ALEX was designed to assist teachers mainly in the state of Alabama. There are many ways for teachers around the state to communicate with each other and share their ideas. I like that you can look at the Alabama State Course of Study for any subject in any grade level. Also, you can look up lesson plans for any subject and any grade level. The feature I liked the best is ALEXville. Here you can listen to ALEX podcasts and you can watch the ALEX tech channel. The podcasts teaches the basics of creating and using podcasts in the classroom. The Tech Channel shows teachers a variety of "hands on" lessons on how to integrate technolgy in the classroom. These items will help make our classrooms better, as well as teach the students how to use technology.
I hope that more og yoir classes will be "hands-on"!
ReplyDeleteMy "canned" comment for this post:
I decided that we all need a slight bit of a "holiday" for the 4th. So you got to skip C4C Number 9; my associates got to skip comments on your post due 7/5 (Bayda, ALEX AND ACCESS); and I am doing this "group" comment for everyone who posted on time or by the "corrected” date (tonight at midnight) which means that if you get this message you were recorded as having submitted your post on time. I thought that your posts on Morgan Bayda's blog were good. Some were especially interesting and generated a personal email from me.
We are moving into the final two weeks of the term. Only one more full week exists before the week in which your final project is due. It should be a significant project that demonstrates many of the tools you have learned to use and skills you have acquired in EDM310. It must be collaborative. If you have any questions about this project we should discuss them in lab tomorrow (Thursday July 8, 2010). There are only 12 days left in which to complete your final projects!