Listening to Dr. Yong was interesting. My opinion of his thoughts kept wavering back and forth on agreeing with him and not. In his first segment, I am on the fence, I think we have come a long way with technology but at the same time, there is so much out there we have not touched on or taught our children. I do agree that we do look on the past a lot and need to break free from that. I think the NCLB act is holding us back a bit as is the focus on test scores. We need to look to the future and how we can build for a better tomorrow .
I like how the second podcast involved the concept of children working to learn. I don't think kids today realize how important hard work is to learning. We do however need to "revamp" our structure of learning to better ourselves first and then that will lead to bettering the education of the students. A collaborative effort (students and teachers learning and growing together)would be an interesting concept as well. The people making the "rules" however haven't been in the classroom in a while and doubtfully have been outside their own state much less the US.
The concept of video games has changed drastically since I was a kid. It is so much more intense and engaging not to mention you can play people around the world vs. the kid sitting next to you. Kids now are so into gaming that if it were a part of the education world in terms of being right in the schools I think we would be more successful. We are working toward improving our technological skills but there is so much out there we have not even touched on. This course is a great step but we can do better. Educational gaming sounds very powerful and successful.
Dr. Yong has many things to say and has challenged my thinking. I am a risk taker and would love to see more technological advances in the classroom...my own included. Some people are just not as open which presents the challenge of change. We are all control freaks in our own little ways, allowing more of a student ownership on things could prove to be a lesson not only for them but for us as well. I think to grow, we all need to step out of the box a bit.
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You said, "We are all control freaks in our own little ways, allowing more of a student ownership on things could prove to be a lesson not only for them but for us as well. I think to grow, we all need to step out of the box a bit." I think you hit the nail right on the head. The biggest challenge for teachers sometimes is stepping back and surrendering some of that control to their students. Lately I've had the opportunity to hear several student panels talking about what they would like to see in the school of the future and they all allude to the same thing. Give us more control over our own learning. I also heard a panelist from Microsoft speak. She was involved with the creation of a "school of the future today" in Philadelphia. She said one of the key components of getting that school started was that the entire staff needed to "agree to be comfortable with not knowing." Somehow I think our students are not intimidated by the thought that they don't have all the answers but can learn to figure things out. But for some teachers, that's a very uncomfortable place to be.
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