Week 4 PBS Video

Week 4 Post #1

PBS Video- Digital Media New Learners of the 21^st Century

This video gave me a lot to think about and made me ask myself a lot of questions.  One of the first quotes in the video was from John Dewey, “If we teach today’s kids the way we taught them yesterday then we rob them of tomorrow.”  If I think back over my twenty years of teaching, my teaching has changed but has it changed enough to prepare students for the world they will be entering.  As I watch these videos most of the examples show middle and high school students and the projects they are involved in.  How do I back that up to second grade to give these young students what they need to be ready for those middle and high school projects?

In the video, Henry Jenkins talked about how society views hours spent on video games as an addiction rather than as problem solving and practicing skills.  John Gee discussed the importance of play and tinkering for learners.  How does that translate to second grade?  I do use some online resources to engage my students.  CarrotSticks is online math practice.  Students can create an Avatar and then complete math tasks.  They can also see who else is online and challenge them.  They can also use IXL for math.  They work to earn rewards.  The kids sometimes use these at home.  I also have them set up on Spelling City to practice their spelling.  Are these a good start toward those middle school students who were creating video games?

The video also stressed the importance of having kids create collaboratively.  The museum scavenger hunt and community project were both very interesting.  We visit the Remick Farm Museum as part of our study of early American life.  We visit four stations during our day.  Each team of students visits every station but is responsible for taking pictures and becoming an expert at one of them.  They use the pictures to create a PowerPoint slide when we return to school.  We put all the slides together to share during our school wide monthly meeting.  This gives them an audience for their work.  This project is closer to the type of project I would like to have them involved in but then time constraints begin to enter in.  These projects are time consuming so how often can they be done?  What is a good tool for the project?  What projects fit with curriculum?  Which tools and projects are appropriate for the grade level?  Questions, questions, questions!