First reaction, no textbooks, with the Texas legislature still out and arguing about what is going to be in future books, will they just replace all books with laptops and let the students just research what is out there? and if so, what about the state tests that want us to cover some basic material. --and those thoughts take me to the newspapers that are struggling to stay alive. How will it be in the future if you are not hiring the reporters to do their job for a paper, but are just blogging on line or--- Will you have to pay for every different site you hit on whether or not it has valid material?
Second reaction, the old plagiarism one. Will this type of gathering data provide more or less temptation for not doing your own work and just finding something out there that looks good. Some people I know have put power points on their web pages that others created and they are not giving them any credit for the work involved.
Third reaction, more material. In planning the upcoming Polish Adventure I have enjoyed using the Internet and upon occasion using the translator provided here to make sense of various documents that originally appeared in Polish on this machine.
Now to go back to the initial question, of the student, the video, the teacher and her role.
This past year I had a student not research what I wanted him to do, but something else he found interesting on the Internet. He found more stuff out there once he got started, but then you could do that with reading books. The student ( if he really applied himself and got good stuff) could really make a good site.
The video, cute with the heads coming and going. It looked a little like Bart Simpson. How long would something like this take to finish and if the students did not have a computer at the house with good speed,--
The teacher and her role, well, she has got a whole lot more to be following with her molding of the project. She seems to be guiding a bit more than with a tradition research project of the student taking notes and turning in the note cards for her to check that things are happening in the right order. Here different students might be at different places along the way, so she cannot do an over all modeling of something and hope it applies to all. She can guide, but then she has to keep reading and doing a bit more verification of material and stuff. I can just see the teachers that like to do the same thing year in and out having to read and keep updated with their subject matter that the students are accessing. Wow.
Too much rambling this evening, but I do want to get started on this before any more brush fires happen with the family that I have to put out before I leave town.
It is nice to be back on line with a blog again. Born to Travel has returned.
Born to Travel has her passport out and is ready to get it stamped several more times!!!
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1 comment:
the switch from the traditional to the 'new" isn't going to be easy...particularly on those who insist the old is best (simply because they have stopped learning, methinks!) Not concerned that is you!
as more students are allowed to learn this way, as with anything we have done in education, it will get "easier" in one sense...a lot less predictable in others!
have a grand time...hope you will be able to make brief internet stops and let us share a little in the adventure...can't wait to hear all about it at the end.
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