Module 7 Activity 7 - Learning through social media

Social media, once used properly, can be of benefit to students in enhancing learning.  The most commonly used is Facebook and for the most part, is used for socializing.  Teachers are encouraged to use it with their students to further educational goals and to build student knowledge and capacity.

How can teachers use social media to enhance learning?  There are quite a few benefits to its use but first it calls for the will to move beyond the negatives associated with its use and to embrace the good and the potential that there is to engage our students.  Teachers need to recognize that in a given day students are at school for approximately 5 hours and after school our students will become engaged with social media for more than 4 hours bearing in mind that within the 5 school hours, there is no evidence of the use of social media for learning.  There is an inbalance here which speaks to the issue of teachers using more of what seems to be of interest to students, but  are we, or our system ready for this?  The changing dynamics of the classroom demands a change in how students are educated.

Infusing social media in and out of the classroom for learning purposes in a structured and controlled way will be beneficial to students in this era. 

Module 7- Activity 6 - Real world collaboration

Projects are used in modern classrooms to develop 21st century skills in students.  One expects that by providing the interesting stimulus will make leaning real and come alive for the students.  In order to make leaning meaningful, connecting to other subject areas means that there will be no limit to the amount of knowledge students will acquire.
In the past, teachers have been asking students to reproduce content for projects instead of having them investigate an issue which encourages knowledge building.  I have learned that by identifying an issue of importance to the community is an excellent way to use projects for knowledge building and developing 21st century skills.

Module 7 Activity 5 - Engaging 21st century learners

Teachers cannot continue to do things the way things have been done for decades.  The new thrust is to engage 21st century learners and this requires the teacher to apply the principles of relating learning to real world situations, creating an environment where learning is fun and takes place in an atmosphere of mutual respect and providing the opportunities for students to share learning/knowledge.  These principles are enhanced when teams are formed for collaboration, cooperation and communication, investigating issues, documenting and producing information in its various forms, and providing the students with opportunities to conduct peer assessment and critical thinking.

This encourages me to become involved in knowledge building and build my technical capacity in order to engage my students.  Learning to integrate ICT into my teaching learning emvironment will be necessary if I intent to meaningfully engage my students.

Module 7 Activity 4 - Knowledge Building

This activity focused me to better understand how to build knowldege in students and not to provide them with already-made knowledge.  In understaning this strategy, I must:
1. Align learning with 21st century skills (assessing and analysing information, critical thinking, problem solving, agility and adaptability, entrepreneuralism, curiosity and imagination and effective communication.
2. When students build knowledge they are engaged in interpretation, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
3. Connect all the subject areas which have similar content to be taught.  This will ensure understanding and retention of knowledge.
4. Utilize technology to enhance knowledge building and to have students collaborating and cooperating with each other and to acquire relevant information.
5. Create an environment where students have fun while learning.
6. To have students engage in knowledge building, be creative in selecting issues which are current, relevant and interesting to students, and align this to a project which can be used as a communit service project.
 

Module 7 Activity 3 - Critical Thinking

In encouraging students to become critical thinkers it causes me to become a critical thinker as well.  One notes the leading questions used to stimulate thought and in order to acquire the skill of critical thinking, there are standards which ought to be employed. These are: be clear, logical, fair, accurate and relevant.  We are living in an era where information is critically analysed for its correctness and teachers are to ensure that the students acquire the skills needed to do this and which can be achieved through further questioning.
This activity helped me to further understand how many subject areas can be incorporated and linked to one project in an interesting and collaborative way.

Module 7- Activity 2 - A vision for my subject in the 21st century

The importance of this activity was to get me thinking on the way forward to realizing the goal of ICT integration in my subject area.  I am now required to ensure that learning for 21st century students align with how they function and use technology.  It afforded me the the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues on best practices to be employed and focused me to new ways of upgrading and acquiring new skills in order to effect the required change.

Module 7 Activity 1: What is 21st century learning?

This module is quite interesting and I am becoming excited to see where it leads.  I believe that this module is timely as more and more I am realizing that the ways in which I have done things in the past are not working for the times in which we now live.  Indeed, it encourages me to change by employing today's trends as far as practicably possible.