Learning communities are important no matter what stage of education you are in. How many of you have ever attended an SI, or the tutoring center, or even just worked in groups? That's waht a learning community is. Now with new technologies you don't even have to leave the comfort of your home to have a learning community. Say school was snowed out (even though that NEVER happens) but you still really need to study with other people. With Wikis, blogs, and chatrooms can let you communicate with others and share information that otherwise might not have been available.
The next article I read was a reader's response about whether or not schools should regulate student's offsite online behavior. As a student I feel very torn about this. I feel that if I am not at school, or using a school computer, than the school should have no say as to what I do. The arguments made were that of cyberbulling and how it's become a huge factor in schools today. If a student was harassing another student from his/her home computer, doesn't that fall into the realm of the parents' job? When did schools become the third parent? If schools were to regulate offsite online behavior when is the line drawn? Will they have the ability to tell a student, no you cannot go with you friends tonight because you have a test tomorrow?
The last article focused on how people best learn how to use new technology. People fall into one of three catagories: coached, nutured, or nudged. People who fall into the coached catagory are already to use technology but needs advice everynow and then from someone they trust and respect. The nutured catagory consists of people mostly like us. They are learning about technology and are ok, but not comfortable enough with it to incorporate it into lesson plans and to teach other people how to use it. The last, nudge, includes individuals who want nothing to due with techonolgy. They are happy with the way things are and have no desire to change.
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I have attended SI, and i must say, SI is my favorite thing ever!! I absolutely adore SI. And i love the math center. Working in groups can be incredibly helpful because people are able to pass along information that someone else may not yet know. And, though it may seem like it NEVER happens, we actually did miss school because of snow! :] It was nice, but i'm glad to be back.
ReplyDeleteThe internet helped us stay connected, well, most of us. I was one whose internet connection went down. It was not fun!
About the student bullying, I'm rather torn about it too. I think bullying will always be a problem if parents do not teach their children the correct way to behave. Blaming bullying on the internet is not going to fix a problem. They will bully through anything. We need to go to the root of the problem if we ever want to fix anything.
I Think SI only works if you have the right person doing it. I love the math center. But i had SI for my history class and the lady that was supposed to help us quit on us. The people in the math center are amazing. I didnt understand a lot last semester but they helped me. But i like how you took this from a personal perspective. It makes me understand it better. :]
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