The Digital Learning Farm

 file:///C:/Users/acsmi/Downloads/Final%20Presentation.pdf

'Who Owns The Learning' - Alan November 

Student Roles in the Classroom

 

I've learned there are many benefits when incorporating student jobs into the classroom. Students contribute to their community (their classroom/peers) through the jobs assigned to them. These types of roles give students responsibilities that affect more than themselves. Students will be more motivated to produce good quality work for their peers that will not only help them learn but their peers as well. In addition, students are also helping their teachers. Roles such as a student scribe, tutorial creator, student researcher, or even roles such as a student tutor, can really help the growth of all students. Students who may not understand the teacher's instruction are able to lean on their peers for support, or a student may learn how to use their resources to find the answers to their questions themselves. Students who are shy and are struggling with socializing will grow through these experiences because it encourages them to communicate, express their ideas/thoughts, and collaborate with their peers. Students will create an educational legacy by producing work that is not just to be graded. For example, student tutorials could be posted and seen globally, helping many students who may struggle with the content presented. Students will be able to come to the video as many times as they'd like and learning is available 24/7. In addition, students contribute work to the classroom that can be used by other students down the road.

The Student as the Global Communicator/Collaborator

 

Engaging students in authentic audiences around the world provides many opportunities for those students. It allows them to collaborate with other students from around the world and learn from many different perspectives. Putting yourself into someone else shoes is a difficult task and an exceptional skill to have, especially in the world we live in today. Students are able to learn new skills, ideas, cultures, backgrounds, and perspectives in the world outside the walls of a classroom. Being able to collaborate with other students globally is a great opportunity and challenge for students. I think when a person is curious about something they are more willing to learn more about it, so being able to collaborate with someone who is completely different from yourself encourages curiosity and motivates students to participate, rather than teacher-assigned work that the student expects every day. When interacting with others globally, you never know what to expect to learn, so I feel that’s what makes it so exciting. I can see there being language barriers among the students, but I think guiding students to use technology to translate would be an effective strategy to get past the language barrier. When working with others globally there is also a time difference. Students may not be able to interact using video calls or live chats often because of the time difference, however, if teachers could effectively communicate/collaborate with other teachers globally, they may be able to develop a strategy to allow the students to communicate more in this way. For example, if students were unable to video call or have a live chat, the teachers could record the students (ask the students questions, talk about themselves, where they live, etc.) and send it to the other student to view and respond with another video. Another barrier would be the lack of participation from other students globally. If a teacher planned to collaborate with a different class globally, but the other class was not as engaged in interacting, it could affect the engagement of this type of assignment for your own students

The Student Curator Project

 Google Slides Presentation Link 

Students who are curious and want to learn more about a subject will learn more through exploring on their own. Being able to efficiently browse the internet to research topics is an important skill for students, especially now in our world of technology. Technology opens many doors for unlimited learning for everyone. Teachers will not always know the answer, but they should be able to guide their students to locate their answers on their own. Researching has proven to be more effective to build students' understanding of subjects and teaches them HOW to ask, and even WHAT questions to ask to learn more. 

The Student as the Researcher

 

Before reading the chapter, I thought of many possible difficulties and benefits when implementing the role of a student researcher in the classroom. Difficulties included the lack of motivation students would have to even be a student researcher, the possibility of them providing misinformation, Students get frustrated when they're unable to find the answer for their peers or themselves, or, one of my biggest concerns would be my inability to teach them how to do effective researching online. Yes, I would say I'm comfortable using technology, but like the chapter said, I do not believe I am 100% knowledgeable about how to conduct research and efficiently use the internet to answer my own questions or to know what questions to even ask to find my answer. However, I am learning and have been learning through my educational experiences. I wonder how different it would have been to write all those research papers if I were taught how to research and use internet resources. After reading the chapter, I think having the role of the student researcher in the classroom has many benefits. A student researcher is able to contribute to the classroom, which will encourage them to provide better answers and pay attention to the information they're providing. They are able to learn about new resources and expand their research skills. Having a student researcher will encourage students to be curious and look for information that maybe even the teacher is unable to provide the answer to. I as the teacher will benefit as well because I will not always know the answer, and some questions are too good not to know the answer to. Having a student researcher will allow me to have them search for the answer, provide us with the information, and I will be able to move on with the lesson.

An assessment that is done through the use of technology would look different from that of a memorization assessment. The assessment item would most likely be a prompt question that gave some information but required the student to expand on the topic through research. Students will learn more when they are required to seek the answer instead of being told and forgotten. An example of a prompt I would use would be, "Butterflies begin their life cycle as a caterpillar and become a butterfly through metamorphosis. Research the process of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Give detailed information about the different stages." This gives the student some information including, there are stages, butterflies start as caterpillars and something about metamorphosis. although it doesn't provide them with much information, this type of prompt set them up to ask their own questions and seek information.

A Student Scribe

 Having a student scribe is a strategy used in the classroom where one student takes the role of collecting all their peer's notes, organizing, and rewriting the main points/ideas in one document for the whole class to view. 

A potential benefit of using this strategy would be that it would help students who are struggling because they are able to view their peers' thoughts and key ideas they may not have noticed themselves. More benefits include more engagement from the student scribe, better tutorial designs that we learned about in the last chapter, student scribes will take more organized and purposeful notes for their peers, and students who do not completely understand the concept can go back to the notes and build their understanding. A potential downside would be if a student was unmotivated or struggling with taking notes and has the role of a student scribe, it wouldn't be as beneficial to the other students, especially if the student scribe does not complete their task at all. More downsides include, older students wouldn't want the role as a student scribe and see it as a chore, A student scribe may work hard taking the notes and their peers don't utilize the information they've provided, and student scribes who do not understand their role or the material will not provide purposeful notes. When students are able to share new information with a global audience they are going to make their work more purposeful because they understand that people will be able to see their work permanently, and that kind of stress is beneficial because it encourages the student to provide better work. More benefits include global discussion of the student's work (people may be able to comment on their work), students take more time to work and understand the material, and they are more exposed to new information globally. 

I do think students who know their work will be exposed to a larger audience, more than their teacher, will provide more purposeful work, and will understand the material better because they're taking more time to research and study material. When students know they will only show their work to the teacher, they're less likely to care about making it purposeful because they're more worried about getting it turned in and making a grade. 

I would model the appropriate way to share knowledge globally by showing the students examples, good and bad, of work that other students from different schools have shown. I would ask students questions such as "does the work serve a purpose?" "can more than one person benefit from the work provided?" "would this confuse you and not better your understanding?" "What more could the students have provided to create better work?" Then, I would practice as a whole class and show/tell students my expectations for this role. 

Google Classroom Tutorial

This link will take you to a video of myself. It is a tutorial on how to use the digital learning tool, Google Classroom. 

 https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/c3ewVEVqFfr