Challenge Based Learning

Challenge Based Learning (CBL) provides an excellent template for students to provide solutions to big problems that they care about. When thinking about big ideas such as air, water, democracy, or animal life, students can be overwhelmed about how to make a beneficial impact in these areas. CBL provides students with a way to break down the topic and find a way that they can make an impact. I think this could be very beneficial in the classroom. Teachers will be able to help guide students through the process, but the ideas and the work come primarily from the students. This is also a great way to use Web 2.0 apps, such as Google Drive, where students can collaborate any time of the day or night.

I like that this promotes student activism in the classroom and shows students that even kids can make a difference in the world if they work together. What makes CBL truly beneficial for students is its structure. Starting them off with a big idea that they find interesting and then having them create guiding questions to narrow down their interests. I also enjoyed that in Apple's article regarding CBL, they have students develop a few different solutions to their problems and test them out with small groups. I like this, because students are able to see which ideas are effective and which are not. This way they are moving forward with an idea that they feel will work.

This is a great way for students to learn about topics that interest them, but also apply the knowledge they learned to a project that they care about.

Combining iPads and Literacy in the Classroom

I found these articles incredibly informative, and helpful. I have always seen teachers using ipads in their classrooms, but have been a little wary of how useful they can be. Reading these articles showed me that ipads can be not only very educational but also very reinforcing for students. Students are excited to use the ipad, even if the activity they are doing on it is reading. The article did a great job showing a variety of ipad apps and going into decent detail on how effective they are in the classroom. I was interested in the iBooks app and the ability to pre-load the ipad with books the students can read. This would be a very effective tool in any classroom, because it can accommodate students who may need larger text.

I liked the connection to transliteracy as well. When educating children today we need to make sure they are not just able to read, but able to effectively use technology in an educational or work setting. Having ipads in the classroom is a great way to reach both learning standards and technology standards. One important take-away I gained from this article is to carefully monitor what the students are doing with the ipads. Even though they are using educational apps, the teacher must make sure that the apps are at the students' level. Ipads can be a great way for teachers to combine multiple standards at once, but should also be actively monitoring and assessing their students to make sure they are actually reaching those standards.

Keeping Students Safe Online: What Works

My first thoughts when reading this article were about teaching internet safety by instilling fear.I agree with the article that this is not an effective way of teaching internet safety, or really the  best way to teach anything.  Many people in this country try to teach about drug and alcohol safety, and sex education by instilling fear in the students they are teaching. This seems to actually backfire when working with students. It is more important to be honest with students and tell them the actual information that will benefit them. A possible result of trying to instill fear in children is having them think we were lying to them once they start to gain their own experiences.

Cyber bullying is something that needs to be taught a lot more. This is an area where the law has not been able to adapt yet. Students should know how much they can hurt others by being mean online. I remember when I was in high school, I had a live journal account. There was a point where someone started anonymously leaving really mean comments on all of my posts. This really hurt me and really made me doubt myself as well as the validity of my thoughts and feelings. This was a pretty long time ago and I have recovered from this experience, but I do not wish for others to go through it. Especially at a point in their lives where they are so unsure about themselves.

The only way to actively change how internet safety is taught is to come up with innovative new curricula  The truth is that many students are more tech savvy than their teachers. Teachers must be educated themselves about the internet and its realities.

Transliteracy: New Library Lingo and What it Means For Instruction

This article got me thinking about my own reading habits. I love to read books, but I spend much more of my time reading on the internet than I do reading a book. That is where I get all of my current news, media, and sometimes just funny pictures. I am guilty of many things that this article points out. I will skim an article for two minutes and decide if it is worthwhile or not. It is important for me to remember to occasionally slow down and read articles thoroughly before I decide if I can use them or not.

In the past I have thought that it is important to read things in print. Overtime I have been shown that this is less important than I once thought. With the invention of pdf readers, such as the Kindle, you can now easily read books on electronic devices. Most scholarly journals are now archived online, so it is not necessary to actually read the print copy. In order to help students become transliterate we as teachers must embrace technology and show students how to use it correctly for research. We must teach students to question things they read on the internet, to see if it is a valid source.

In the science education classes we discuss inquiry based teaching. Students are taught to ask and answer their own questions. Students learn to find answers on their own, either by working through the problem or researching an answer. Inquiry based learning will help students question the validity of sources and find articles or books that will give them a good answer to their question. It is important for us as teachers to embrace technology and teach our students how to use it effectively, not only in their educational careers, but in their every day lives as well.

I Can’t Think!

I found this article to be incredibly informative. I was surprised at how bad our brains are at processing lots of information. When I then looked back at decisions I have made in the past that contained large amounts of data, I remember having trouble processing it and making a decision. My natural inclination is to stop looking at it when I feel overwhelmed and take a break. If it is late at night I will usually just go to bed, in order to make the decision in the morning. I have found that I will process the problem in the early morning when I am half awake and half asleep. I will wake up with either a decision or a good idea of how to come up with one. According to the article this would make me a 'sufficer', being able to say, "enough is enough".

The article concludes that it is better to go with your 'gut' instinct, or first idea. This process takes into account emotions. If emotions are left out there is a possibility to over think the problem and come to an incorrect conclusion. For this I liked the example of people rating various strawberry jams. First, just by trying them and saying which they thought tasted the best. Then, they were given specific criteria to rate the jam. People ended up giving great ratings to jams they did not like and bad ratings to jams they really enjoyed. This is a prime example of peoples ability to over think problems and come up with a solution they do not actually agree with.

The best piece of advice that I received from this article is to break up the amount of email I read. I receive emails for work and school almost constantly on a daily basis. In order to make better decisions when responding to them I should read them in groupings. I should not read too many at once and not read them the second I get them throughout the day. A good idea would be to sit down a few times a day and respond to a few emails at a time. Something I should do is not check my email constantly on my smart phone. This article has really helped me reconsider the way that I make decisions and process information.