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

The Student as a Tutorial Desginer

 

As an educator, I believe students would take the role of tutorial designers in lessons such as science experiments for their peers to watch the steps and results of the experiments, or they could create story maps about a book they read and discuss their thought processes and how they developed their story map, students may also work out a couple of math problems and show the steps they used to solve it. When students are working on something that is for more than themselves, and more than a grade, they will see more purpose in it. A lot of students will be stressed about having to "teach" their peers, however, some stress is beneficial because it breaks the student out of their shells. If students are able to create something to help their peers, they are more likely to be motivated to do the work. They will put more effort into creating a tutorial because they want the approval of their work from their peers and to help them succeed as well. Benefits of students becoming the tutorial designer are; a better understanding of the material because they need to know the information to discuss it, better work production, students are more engaged in learning through/with their peers, students create something permanent that they could go back to, students are being more creative and motivated. 

Mind Mapping

 

I chose to map out my goals for this mind map. I think using this kind of digital tool is effective for memory and organization. It is easy and quick to use, and it’s aesthetically pleasing. I started by choosing my topic, which was my goal. I know that writing down your goals is effective to have success, so I thought I would use it for this project. All I did was add some goals and branched off of those goals and put how I could achieve them. This mind map was not very detailed, but it doesn’t need to be because they are long term tasks that may change, so there is not a lot to discuss, however, I can still see this tool being really helpful in other areas like projects, presentations, studying, organization, or just for fun. I think students will be engaged in this tool which will help them see the information in one place. They can collaborate with this tool and add information to the mind map together as well. When creating my mind map, I only really struggled with figuring out how to add an image to one of my branches. I ended up linking a video however that I can look back to at any time through my mind map. I like this tool best for students to create a study guide. I would group students together, or they may want to work individually, to create a study guide and use it to memorize material. I would recommend this tool to teachers when they need students to remember a lot of information that can be connected through one subject. For example, The Civil War has many stories and facts involved that could easily be organized into a mind map.

Standing On Our Shoulders

 

Would you expect resistance from students as you ask them to make more of a contribution to the benefit of the class? I was expecting my answer to be yes, there will be a lot of resistance from students. Simply because, through observation, it is hard to get students to complete assignments and get them to do something that does not benefit them alone. However, after reading through the chapter I realized there wouldn't be a lot of resistance, at least once the students are motivated and understand the purpose of what they're doing, there would be a lot less resistance. I think a teacher's role shifts to more of a guide and motivator with this style of education. Parents may not understand this idea and may have comments such as "well why do I send them to school if they're doing everything on their own?" or "How can they learn if you (the teacher) won't give them material to study?". My explanation to these parents would be about how it will benefit them more in the long run not only as students but as citizens who contribute to their communities and make it a better world around them. Parents who do understand this idea will, in my opinion, enjoy the shift and maybe see a difference in their student's behavior and motivation to go to school. When students are able to collaborate and learn more from their peers they will learn more. 

As an educator, I would promote more independence in students' learning. One goal of mine would be to get the students to want to learn and are happy to gain new information. I would also promote collaboration in the classroom. For example, sharing notes, creating projects, and doing big group projects as a class (planting a garden or painting a mural). These are things students are not graded on but benefit from by sharing their thoughts and putting effort into something that is not only for themselves. I would communicate with parents and help them understand the goals for the classroom and how we are creating better citizens in the classroom. Providing roles for students to contribute to the classroom is another method of teaching responsibility to students. 

Google Classroom as a Digital Learning Tool

  Google Classroom is a free digital learning tool that allows students, teachers, and even parents to collaborate. Instructors are able to post assignments, announcements, and even discussion topics for students to view and complete work. Students are able to log in and see which of their peers are also working in the classroom and they are able to work together on some assignments. For example, using google docs (which is associated with google classroom), students are able to work on the same document at the same time. This is great because students are able to share their thoughts and add information to group projects which deepens their understanding of the material being learned. Instructors could also post helpful material for students to study or use on their assignments. There is also a feature that allows students to message each other and discuss their work.

What is Digital Learning?

 My definition of digital learning would be the use of technology to meet the educational needs of students and provide students with access to learning at any time. The use of technology in education has many benefits for not only students but educators as well. For example, an educator could produce their lesson using an online tool, such as moodle or google classroom, where students can not only view it but watch it however many times they may need. Technology also gives a lot of opportunities for students, teachers, and even parents to collaborate, not only in the classroom but around the world as well. Technology helps reach the educational, diverse, collaborative, and social needs of all students and educators. 

Who Am I?

 Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog!! My name is Alyssa Smith, I am a college student majoring in elementary education in hopes to become an educator. There have been a lot of ups and downs throughout my college experience, but it has all been worth the journey. I am continuously learning new information and ideas, and have had a couple of opportunities to work in public schools. Working with students and contributing to the world of education is my biggest goal for my career. I also play soccer for my school and have taken an interest in weight lifting in my free time. I enjoy spending time with my partner and my doggo, Casey. My intentions for this blog are to build my understanding of digital learning and share what I have been learning as well. I hope you enjoy it! :)