Blog Post 6

In the first video, The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler, a new type of learning strategy is being used. It is referred to as Connectivism, which essentially teaches students how to build their network and take control of their own learning. When this type of learning takes place, the teacher guides the students to help them build or design their connections. There textbook is a virtual textbook which allows students to organize different types of mediums to explore their topic or objective. This type of teaching model would allow student to be in the classroom 3 days a week and out of the classroom 2 days a week to work online. This will allow students to structure their own learning path.

Now the question is, Why does the networked student even need a teacher? The networked student will definitely need a teacher to help build their network, manage and organize information,guide the student when they need help, and they will help the students respectfully ask for information from professionals in the field of related study. Teachers will be able to help them properly communicate their ideas. Most importantly, they will help students learn how to use the information properly,being able to distinguish good information from propaganda.

I am not sure that I am ready to be a network teacher. I do not feel that I have enough background knowledge on the subject at hand. Nonetheless, I want to continue this process of learning a new way of teaching. I believe that this concept is the future of teaching, therefore, it is mandatory that I continue to grow in this field.

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment or (PLN), helped me better understand the connection of everything that I have learned in EDM 310. Network learning will be the style of learning in future classroom. Many students have a great foundation on which to build this technique. Therefore, it makes great sense to have a Personal Learning Network in order to have a successful network of learning.

I really like the information that the 7th grade student provided on her PLE. Glogster was something that looked interesting that she made reference to. She utilized video conferences, peer review, emailing professionals and experts in the subject being researched. The insightful 7th grader also gave an overview on network learning. She says network learning is not an open ended way to learn whatever you would like, it simply gives freedom on how to do it and when to do it.

Why Smartboards Are A Dumb Initiation? By Michael Stanton is an eye opening discussion on why this is the least effective way to improve learning. He complains about the high cost of the smartboard as well as they do not change the way learning takes place. Teachers are still in control of the content. Teachers stand in front of the class to present the lesson, although, the lesson may have more appeal to students, the lesson is not student directed.

The smartboard is an outrageously expense device that will captivate administrators, and school districts, however, most of the time, the smartboard is nothing more than an overhead projector. The smartboard only allows a single students to a few students to actively participate in the learning situation. Michael Stanton believes that there are more cost effective methods of improving education .

Bill Ferriter's, Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards?, conveys the same attitude toward these devices. He says without proper time and training whiteboards are nothing more than expensive overhead projectors. He says that 6 ISB's are $18,000, that is a lot of money, and they do not chance the vision of instruction. He believes that it is an example of careless decision making and wasteful spending.

In addition to being very expensive, he say schools purchase whiteboards without having a way evaluate the progress of such an expensive purchase. School systems will spend thousands of dollars, but they do not follow up to see if the desired outcome was achieved. Change cannot be bought. He believes if we turn control over learning to our students, we would see motivation and academic growth thrive. Classrooms should be a place where all students would like to be an active participant. Whiteboards do not provide an opportunity for this type of learning to take place. Overall, the cost does not justify the means.

Kevin McLaughlin states, in Better Educational Interactive Tools, occasionally, teachers are using their whiteboards as an interactive learning tool , creating content that engages their students, however, this is not the norm. Training is a cost and a time factor. It is also expense to fix or repair devices on these boards that break easily.

I thought it was extremely interesting about the responses given about these whiteboards by students. They never get to use them, boring waiting for a turn, and they are fun, but only a small group of students get to use them. They all said that if they had a choice, they would like to purchase something else.

Using the same amount of money, students would be able to get so many other useful devices for the classroom. It seems like a simple economic lesson to me. Everyone wants the most for their money. School systems all across the country are in financial crisis, therefore, it is my opinion that all school systems should carefully weight the benefits of purchasing such an expense tool for learning. Schools must use their money wisely, they must consider whether or not the purchase is the least cost effective way to educate our students. Perhaps lowering student teacher ratios in order for teachers to allow student centered instruction to take place would be more beneficial.(?)

While looking for blogs to support the use of whiteboards in the classroom, I was not very successful. I found a few great ideas for using whiteboards in the classroom, but I did not find any arguments in direct support of using whiteboards. The items that I found were useful, but I would not say, they were totally student centered.


Being a teacher of elementary school children, I think you should give young student various methods of learning. I think students should be active participants in order for them to truly engage in instruction. I also feel with younger students, teachers will play a bigger role and focus on the learning process.