Here is a web map of a reading of an article about 21st century skills:
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
21st Century Learning
Validity in education is an important consideration that teachers need to apply to their teachings. Students are using multimedia while multitasking, in their own social networks. Teachers can apply these tools to their practices. I am seeing an increasing amount of visual learners in my classroom but the 21st century skills go beyond visual leaning and involve hands-on, interactive lessons. These skills touch on kinesthetic learners as well as other multiple intelligences. I often hear that students cannot sit still but I noticed they can sit in front of a computer or a video game until all hours of the evening. Education needs to adapt to the learning needs and prepare our students for global communication and networking. I looked into Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers which is an instructional strategy that enhances students' abilities to retrieve, use, and organize topic information. Organizing and brainstorming software can be a helpful tool in illustrating information. It can bridge the gap of information and create topic connections. Scratch is a fun tool that might incorporate game-based learning into the classroom.
Here is a web map of a reading of an article about 21st century skills:
Here is a web map of a reading of an article about 21st century skills:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I was also thinking about the comparison between video games and instruction: when a popular new game comes out, there is always an article about the first person to beat the game. Often this person will literally play for 24-48 hours straight to accomplish this goal. Part of this has to do with competition from others, which isn't a great tool for the classroom, but a large part of it has to do with a clear idea of what objectives need to be met and possible steps that need to be taken to meet those objectives. In video games--whether action or strategy, there is generally a focusing thread that runs throughout the game that keeps you on track. The most popular games for young-uns, nowadays, allow great variability in how to take the small steps, but also make it clear that you can ultimately beat the game as a culmination of taking these steps. We can't make all instruction as media-rich as video games, but we can work on clarifying the paths students need to take on their way to meeting objectives.
Scratch is a really cool app. My daughter has been playing it since she was four and she has really learned a lot about animation, programming, and graphic design software. Now (age 6) she's moved on to working on Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Illustrator. One of the great things about homeschooling is that I can access and use these tools in her schooling as they are released. I can let her sit beside me and play to her heart's content (and not even know that she's learning). Miles' comment on having these clear objectives is very true here as well. My daughter learned because she had a reason. She wanted to make a cartoon. She wanted to give Mommy an extra eye. She wanted to draw a mermaid. She wanted her own Web site so that she could have her own portal for games and poetry. Each of these objectives kept her at it even when the tools were hard to understand. Even with great Web 2.0 tools like Twitter or Second Life, without an objective these things are not useful in learning environments. However, infused with objectives, these tools take on new meaning for the learner and become a meaningful challenge (like, for instance, this blogging assignment for class).
Post a Comment