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3 Biggies:

#1: "Our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language."

#2: Digital Immigrants vs Digital Natives. Who are they? Well, it is easier to understand than you may think. Those who are referred to as immigrants are the generations who did not grow up with technology such as video games, computers, and the internet. Meaning that those who are referred to as natives are the newer generations who know nothing outside of having technology.

#3: Technology is advancing, but schools are staying the same. Classrooms are the same, and the way lessons are taught is staying the same. It is much easier for a digital immigrant to move forward and advance than it is for a digital native to go backwards and learn ways they never new.

2 Sides:

#1: I think this article brings out some really good points about how technology is changing and how students' minds are growing differently from those who did not grow up in a technology-based life.

#2: The downside to this article is the way they talk about immigrants just changing all their ways for the new generations. Although they make it sound easy to do, I believe it can be hard to teach outside of your ways. To invent a way that you do not know. And switching everything over to a more updated way of teaching could potentially drive the older generations away from wanting to teach at all.

1 Question:

How do we as a society help, those who need it, switch over to a more updated way of teaching?

References:

Digital Natives, digital immigrants - Marc Prensky. (n.d.). https://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky - Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants - Part1.pdf

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3 Biggies -

1. "We have our wisdom to share with them, but this requires us to be 'walking' change, not just 'talking'"

2. Educators should be continuing their education and learning alongside them. Including technology.

3. Teachers Must Teach To The Whole Mind, meaning that instead of focusing on what the top students can do, you want to look at the bottom of the class. Here you will see what has truly been taught.

2 Sides-

1. I agree that we need to let our students collaborate. This is a huge thing for students to learn at a young age of how to talk and problem solve on their own and with other peers.

2. I also agree with this article talking about how we evaluate students. Instead of memorization tests, we need to stay thinking in a way that will truly mark what these kids know. To truly test their knowledge, they need lots of modeling, coaching, and mentoring to

establish a sense of what quality and success look like.

Question - How do we go about changing our classroom environments as a society or group to include these changes?

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3 Biggies:

#1 "Freeing students from the confines of the school day, the walls of the classroom, the sole expertise of the teacher, and the pace of the rest of the class."

#2 Blended learning is a step towards something greater - a step towards giving students agency over their own learning

#3 Digitized, teacher-driven learning is not blended learning, but it is a step in the right direction

2 Sides:

#1 True blended learning affords students not only the opportunity to gain both content and instruction but also an element of authority over this process.

#2 Educators do not give students agency through choice, technology, or even blended learning. Instead, students acquire it when teachers “create the conditions under which agency can flourish.”

1 Question:

Does K-12 blended learning create a new definition of what qualifies as “good”?

References:

https://www.edutopia.org/article/are-we-innovating-or-just-digitizing-traditional-teaching-beth-holland

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Blended learning has the potential to transform the way teachers teach and students learn-if we take advantage of all that it offers.

A few months ago, I noticed an increased amount of discussion around the notion of blended learning. Many of these conversations started on a similar note: "We're blended-all of our teachers use Google Classroom" (or Edmodo, Schoology, Canvas, Moodle, etc.). However, in probing further, I often discovered that these tools had merely digitized existing content and classroom procedures.

Instead of filling an inbox on the teacher's desk with packets and worksheets, students now completed the exact same procedures online. Rather than write homework assignments on the board, teachers posted them to the students' digital news feeds. While blended learning brings with it the promise of innovation, there is the peril that it will perpetuate and replicate existing practices with newer, more expensive tools.

The Peril

The dissemination of digitized, teacher-driven content is not full blended learning. Though this can be viewed as a first step toward new models of learning, the peril lies in complacency. When blended learning is equated with digital workflow, students remain consumers of teacher-directed content instead of becoming creators of knowledge within a context that they can actively control.

The Promise

True blended learning affords students not only the opportunity to gain both content and instruction via online as well as traditional classroom means, but also an element of authority over this process. Freeing students from the confines of the school day, the walls of the classroom, the sole expertise of the teacher, and the pace of the rest of the class, blended learning could fundamentally change the system and structure of school, and provide students with a more personalized, active learning experience.

Last year, I interviewed three instructional coaches from Bellevue, Nebraska, about their 1:1 iPad initiative (where each student has an iPad) and their move to blended learning. They described efforts to provide multiple avenues for students to access content, strategies for using audio and video to scaffold independent learning, opportunities to adapt instruction based on real-time data, and the chance to engage in more meaningful face-to-face conversations. These coaches saw blended learning as providing students with control over how they learn, the pace of the learning experience, and where they might choose to learn within the classroom.

For example, Ann Feldmann (@AnnFeldmann1) described how teachers might harness the power of screencasting to read and explain content-allowing students to choose the pace of their learning as well as the mode through which they experienced the content. To prove that all students can benefit from these opportunities, Ann's colleague Jeanette Carlson (@MrsJCarlson) tweeted the image at left. These kindergartners not only learned to work independently on an analog task but also leveraged videos to help them decipher directions and comprehend the material.

At a more advanced level, Jeanette found blended learning particularly helpful in teaching challenging concepts during her business class. Through screencasting, she essentially cloned herself, creating a video to walk students through a difficult task. This blended approach freed her from the front of the room so that she could work with students on an individual basis and provide customized instruction.

Ann and Jeanette's colleague Jeffrey Bernadt (@JeffreyBernadt) elaborated on the concept and shared how he leveraged blended learning to provide his high school social studies students with multiple options for acquiring content knowledge-video, digital text, paper or e-books, or face-to-face conversation. Instead of requiring students to sit in desks and learn in lockstep, Jeffrey created an environment where his students could control the path, pace, and even place of their learning. These examples highlight how students can engage with blended learning to gain content and instruction, but the coaches also described how digital tools give students new voice and choice in demonstrating their learning.

Blended learning can mean a step forward toward something greater- giving students agency over their own learning, but that is dependent on the direction chosen by the teacher. In a recent blog post, Will Richardson raised the point that educators do not "give" agency to students through choice or technology or even blended learning. Instead, students acquire it when teachers "create the conditions under which agency can flourish."

In a 2013 Christensen Institute report, the authors pose the question: "Is K-12 blended learning disruptive?" That is, does it create a new definition of what qualifies as "good"? They argue that to be disruptive, blended learning needs to replace the existing teacher-directed orientation of school with a more student-centered model. Blended learning could create a new definition of teaching and learning (the promise), or it could become nothing more than a digital version of a traditional notion of school (the peril).

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Are We Innovating, or Just Digitizing Traditional Teaching?

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Blended learning has the potential to transform the way teachers teach and students learn-if we take advantage of all that it offers. A few months ago, I noticed an increased amount of discussion around the notion of blended learning.

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3 biggies

1. "Laptop computers and tablet devices are beneficial for students with learning disabilities because they are portable and lightweight."

2. In order to prevent the technology from being a distraction, students need to be taught how to use technology to support their learning.

3. We may not consider the default functions of word processors to be ground breaking, but for students with learning disabilities, functions such as spell check and text-to-speech can be a tremendous help when composing and decoding words.

2 sides

1. Text-to-speech software helps students to bypass the task of decoding words.

2. Teachers should become familiar with assistive technology and understand how it can be incorporated within their teaching to support an inclusive learning environment.

1 question

How do we get the needed training, support service, and funding for this technology?

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3 biggies

- “When schools ban social media in the name of con-trolling behavior, maintaining safety, and improving short-term productivity, educators are absolving themselves of the responsibility to educate students for today’s world.” We as teachers need to not be on students as much for their phones and technology. Instead we should be involved in how they are behaving and keeping them safe and accountable for their learning.

- “Students should learn how to avoid online predators or cyberbullies, understand intellectual property laws, and appreciate possible consequences of an unwanted digital footprint.” And going along with needing to teach kids on how to use technology we need to also show them how to stay away from those who are out to get them and how to properly use the internet for good.

- “Citizenship today is digital.” Today we should be encouraging kids on how to use the digital technology at hand.

2 sides

- “Digital citizenship lessons, curriculums, and programs should pull from all three visions of citizenship.”

- “Digital citizens should be able to distinguish between credible and untrustworthy news sources and sites.” Growing up in school I learned from 1 teacher what sites to not use and what sites are redeemed credible. Other than that 1 time I have not been taught what to accept and what not to accept when it comes to the web. I think it would be a great idea to get these kids educated about how to get around the internet and what is viable information. Especially now with AI all over.

1 question

- How can we educated ourselves on what is creditable information so that we can teach the new generations?