We have just watched a very inspiring video featuring Ms. Vicki Davis, a teacher from rural Georgia, USA. In this video, the innovative teacher explains how she uses media tools to connect students from her classroom to the rest of the world.
She does this by maximizing the use of technologies. Her teaching methods have incorporated so many different ICT tools: Cool Cat Teacher Blog (which received the prize of #1 edu-blog in the world), Wikis, as well as other types of software. She adapts the curriculum to the group of students considering their strengths and weaknesses. According to Ms. Davis, there is only paper and only pencil, only a certain type of student will learn. She believes that the use of media tools in the classroom gives everyone a chance to succeed. Along with the curriculum, this “teacherpreneur” is also showing students to become comfortable with just about any type of technology.
Throughout the video, Ms. Davis stresses the importance of empowering the students. An example she gives is that some teachers think they need to know everything before they walk into the classroom – something Ms. Davis disagrees with. She mentions that it is the students who have taught her how to use some of the technology available. She also speaks about the importance of empowering the students to share with each other and help one another as well as how rewarding it is for students when they finally figure something out. Ms. Davis insists on the importance that students become thinkers – something I definitely support. Giving students the freedom to be independent and autonomous thinkers is capital in teaching. Empowering them to apply strategies and find their own solutions is absolutely crucial.
I believe it is important for kids to collaborate with other students across the world. The benefits are exponential. These learners will not only learn a new language, they may also learn about culture, traditions, different points of view, etc. In the video we just viewed, Ms. Davis discusses certain sites where students and teachers may also connect, such as Digiteen Wiki and Digiteen Social Network. These sites allow students from across the globe to share and connect with each other. It provides students with the opportunity to create projects together and to collaborate on research.
As an ESL teacher, I feel that media tools can be used in so many ways. Connecting students to the world is very simple with all the tools and technology available. There are a variety of ways students can discover, create, share and collaborate online. As this video has just demonstrated, incorporating media tools into the classroom and empowering students to use wikis, blog, collaborate, discover and share is extremely beneficial for the students.
“If you can empower them, you’re just going to have a better classroom.”
–Vicki Davis
I have to disagree on the fact that I don't think it is important to have our students collaborating with students across the world. As written on my "Generation Z Project" blog, I think that investing in that kind of "material" is not a must in our schools. I would invest more time on the peer-teaching then the collaborating across the world I really think that peer-teaching is the solution that must be taken. I can be the next big thing ;)
ReplyDeleteI understand what you're saying, and I do agree to some extent. However, I also believe in diversification and variation of the classroom activities to keep our student motivated and to help make learning fun. Peer-teaching is great in its own right, but there are also other methods that could be interesting for the teachers and for the students.
ReplyDeleteI first of all agree with the fact that using ICTs in the classroom gives everyone a chance to succeed. As we know, students learn differently and students are interested in different things. Therefore, using different ICTs may help students to better perform since the ICTs offer a range type of activities. It is impressive to see that students are becoming more skilled with the use of technology. Consequently, I think that teachers should have more knowledge on the topic taught than the students actually do. In this sense, I think that teachers should be able to answer all of the questions that students might have to not waste time during class. Teachers must remain open to new technologies discovered by the students. So, I think that teachers should be endowed using technology to be able to answer all possible questions and continuing to teach them new ICTs they have not discovered yet.
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