My vision of the future, for learning in the 21st Century, evolved as a result of EDES 501 and EDES 545. In EDES 501 my eyes were opened to all the collaborative web 2.0 tools available to engage students in learning. I had so much fun learning about new technologies for learning, that I couldn't resist taking EDES 545.
This course began with an engaging reading of Joyce Valenza's powerful and thought provoking Manifesto and from there we delved into the Schoolwide Library Issue, where we explored current research and ideas of the emerging Library 2.0. This course challenged some of my preconceived notions as we discussed and debated many topics and issues including:
1. Teaching Digital Natives
2. Filtering
3. The Digital Divide
4. Intellectual Freedom
5. Privacy
6. Technology Integration
7. Technology Professional Development
As I began to form my vision of the future, I decided to take pictures of different parts of the school and pictures of students using technology. As I took pictures of students engaged in their learning, I heard a voice whisper:
They are the future and the future is now.
What would learning in the future look like to me? I started looking at where we are and exploring possibilities based on what I have learned in this course and EDES 501. I added quotes from the readings, especially from Valenza's inspiring Manifesto. I felt these quotes summarized my vision of what teaching and learning with technology could and should look like. I found that animoto was not a program for adding quotes, as it only allows so many characters in a text box. I found a way around that, but animoto animates the slides and sometimes words are not shown. I wanted to make sure you can see where the quotes came from.
Here are the quotes in my vision:
“The changes during the 21st Century calls for teachers and teacher-librarians to guide students to learn from a variety of sources of information" (Kuhlthau, 2007).
Students need to learn how to construct meaning in technology charged, technology rich environments (Kuhlthau, 2007).
“Evaluate to triangulate information in all media formats” (Valenza, 2009).
"Consider new ways to promote reading" (Valenza).
“Make careful, informed decisions” (Valenza, 2009).
"Embrace the multi-model, media rich learning environments" (Valenza, 2009).
Construct meaning in technology rich environments; Learning exploration and active meaning making;
Information Spaces for all learners; The learner is a consumer and producer (Valenza, 2009).
“The choice of technology should be based on how well the tools serve classroom learning, teaching needs and student needs” (Wang et al, 2008).
“Effective technology integration can help achieve higher level goals more effectively” (Chen, 2008).
“The digital divide is closing” and “the comparison is now between the “haves”, “have more” and “have less” groups” (Sciadas, 2002).
Essential pedagogical principles:
- Active learning
- Mediation
- Collaboration
- Interactivity
(Jaffer in Gorder, 2008).
I also tried to make the images capture the concepts of teaching and learning with technology that we learned about in this course. My intention is to present this video to the staff at my school, with hopes of sparking discussion of teaching and learning in the 21st Century. That would give me an opportunity to share what I have learned in this course.
Here are some images that I hope would start discussions among other teachers:
I made a collage of pictures and word to tell the importance of teaching students the 21st century skills. We need to teach students about privacy and protocol, as well as marketing and how digital footprints last forever! I also added a headline titled "Study: Overzealous Filters Hinder Search." I learned in this course that while many schools have filters to protect the children, the filters are making it difficult to find information as they tend to block lots of appropriate sites. W e need to teach students how to search and how to be safe on the internet.
This picture of a Grade One students' original work followed the picture of a google search for penguin pictures. This is a great opportunity to teach primary students about respecting intellectual property and how we respect intellectual property.
In my vision, effective technology professional development will help bridge the digital divide. The divide is not only between those that have access to more technology, but is also those that have more knowledge about technology integration. We need to "have more" effective professional development, so we can know more about how to integrate technology into the classroom.
I ended the video with a picture of my students' hands holding the world together. The future starts now and these students hold the possibilities of their future in their hands and as teachers we need to continue to teach these students all the knowledge, skills and attributes for learning in the 21st century.
What will you do to transform your classroom for learning in the 21st Century?
