A Learner is like a Honeybee

Honeybees live in a social hive, which is their network. Just like honeybees, students live in an increasingly social society, where people are connected to each other at all times. In Siemens’ video on connectivism he states that learning is the “network that learners create”. In other words, students learn from many sources that are included in their network, such as teachers, parents, friends, computers, and other non-human devices. Like honeybees, students learn and gain knowledge from their social network. Siemens also states that “knowledge is really about the distribution that occurs across an entire network”, both internally and externally. Honeybees distribute their knowledge by hunting out pollen and then communicating this new knowledge to their network through dance. Similarly, students discover new knowledge and then can share it with their network. Furthermore, honeybees do not only learn from each other, but they learn from the environment and its changes. Likewise, students learn from other non-human devices that are part of their network, like the Internet. Both honeybees and students create a network to gain and distribute knowledge.

Honeybees and students live in a world that is constantly changing. Therefore, “our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today.” Due to this changing world connectivism places an “emphasis on knowledge that is rapidly evolving and how to stay current”(Siemens, 2005). Honeybees are foragers. They are always seeking out new sources of pollen in the constantly changing environment. Students need to be foragers who seek out knowledge. Not only do they need to develop knowledge through their network, but student also need the skills to stay current.

Therefore, a learner is like a honeybee. Both live in social communities in which they gain and share new knowledge and both live in a changing world, where they must learn the skills to stay current.

How can we engage the digital learner?

From Google to Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, technology is rapidly growing. The change in technology leads to many questions about the effectiveness of our school models and teaching.  Videos like, "Pay Attention,"  contain fascinating statistics that make it easy to see the gap between our education system and the growing world of technology.

Although technology is changing rapidly our schools are not. Instead we use the same school model that dates back more than 150 years to a time when families worked their farms. Short class periods do not lend themselves to engaging technology lessons. Students have little time to discover and explore during these short instructional periods. Furthermore, we usually teach subjects separate from each other. In real-life we all know math problems and history do not arise independently, rather we might have to solve a situation based on prior history of a company or stock. Perhaps the school model with short subject based periods is out of date and needs to be overhauled. 

While the school model has not changed, school standards continue to change. More and more standards are added to each grade or pushed to earlier grades, but is this the answer? Does adding more standards help up keep up with the times? With standards based education there seems to be little time for thought provoking problems or discovery. Instead we are forced to teacher procedures that seem irrelevant to real-life.  Maybe instead of high stakes standardized test, we should require students to perform authentic tasks that make them use higher level thinking skills.

Overall, I feel that our schools and teaching need to change. However, my question is how? How do we incorporate technology in a meaningful way? How can we incorporate technology with tight time constraints and increasing standards? When and how can we shift from procedural based standards to authentic and engaging problem solving tasks?

I feel teachers want a shift in teaching, but there are many factors still working against this change. We try our best to incorporate the technology we do have, but are still faced with time constraints and high stakes tests. So I ask… How?

Internet Safety

Internet safety is a huge issue in schools and homes. As Internet uses keep changing there are more worries about safety that arise.

Schools attempt to do their part in protecting students. At our school parents must give consent for their children to use the Internet. Our school has numerous acceptable use polices and filters to block sites. The blog “Filter Fun” vents some frustration that filters cause and I agree that filters can be problematic. Until recently teachers, at my school, had full access to all sites, but have since been blocked like the students. This makes it difficult to search for engaging videos or websites to use in class. However, ask any student and they can usually tell you how to get around the filters. The Internet and kids move faster than teachers and firewalls. So if filters can’t keep our students safe, how can we?

First, I really liked the side bar on the media awareness network site. It provides teachers with “safe passages” for students, which is a starting point for student safety.

Although we can provide safe pathways for students to follow in school, I think it is very important to make students aware of the risks of revealing too much on the Internet even when they are not in school. The Center for Missing and Exploited Children is a great resource on Internet safety that has eye-opening presentations for teachers, parents, and students. I have gone to their presentations directed for teachers and parents, as well as student presentations. In their presentations, they show you how the Internet can be a scary place, but also how to protect yourself. Their website also contains great information and videos on Internet safety.

Another site to help teachers is Facebook for educators. Facebook can be a new source to continue school drama and students do not always understand the need for privacy. This link can help teachers further educate their students on safety.

As educators we must remain informed about the technology our students are using and the risks they carry. We should inform students and parents of the dangers that are on the Internet and how to stay safe.

3 Ways to Integrate Blogs into Math Class

I have not used blogs in my teaching yet and I find it difficult to come up with math blog ideas. I often feel that our curriculum is too procedural based, but blogging could be a useful way of developing a deeper connection with the concepts.

My first idea for using blogs in a math classroom is to have the students capture their encounters with mathematics in their everyday lives (MST standard 3, 6, and 7). Students could write their experience, show pictures, or use videos to share their real-world math experiences. The article, “From Toy to Tool: Audio Blogging with Cell Phones”, by Liz Kolb, describes how students can use cell phones with blogs to capture interviews, pictures, and videos. This would be a great tool that most students have on hand to help them with the assignment. Also the blog would allow other students to comment on the encounters and share similar experiences. This would be a great way to help students see that math really is everywhere.

       Article: "From Toy to Tool: Audio Blogging with Cell Phones", by Liz Kolb

Another topic students could blog about is the graphing calculator (MST standard 5 and 6). There are many ways to find solutions on the graphing calculator so it might be interesting to have students discuss how they found the answer to a certain problem. For example, to find the solution(s) of a parabola and a line there are many ways to calculate the coordinate solution point(s). Students could suggest looking at the table, calculating the intersection, or estimating the intersection. Students would have the opportunity to try the different processes and also discuss which method they feel is the most efficient.

Finally, students could share links with each other (MST Standard 5). Students could research certain topics for review activities, re-teach sites, and more. Through the blog students could create a library of resources with a short description of each link. These links would provide excellent study help.