Webinar

I was planning to attend  a webinar, but it did not work as I wished. So having listened three different webinars, I decided to give up. I know now how it works and how interesting it can be, but with the poor recordings, it was too dificult for me to understand every point perfectly.
Thank you!

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

Vicki Davis is an innovative teacher who integrates the use of digital tools in her teaching practices.  This new way of teaching arise students’ interests and motivations.  She uses many kinds of technology to open students mind to connect with the rest of the world. In her classes, she introduces new software materials such as blogs, wikis … In her video; she mentions that students “learn how to learn.” In this manner, students are responsible of their learning process. They experience several new materials that lead them to develop their autonomy.  The teacher doesn’t need and doesn’t want to define everything; she wants them to try and learn by themselves. Additionally, it enables the students and the teacher to have a good relationship between each other, since they can share ideas with the use of wikis. Students can also post their works or projects on their blog.

I think that Davis uses this approach in a brilliant way as she takes into consideration her students’ interests and try to look for the richest experiences for them.  I also think that she manages her class in an excellent manner because of the fact that she seems to give interesting classes. Also, she introduces the material intended in an effective method and with a lot of energy. Moreover, the teacher doesn’t need to be in front of the class during all the period. Finally, I think that using technology to connect with the rest of the world is interesting and meaningful for the students learning process.

Henry Jenkins

Henry Jenkins tackles the use of digital tools in school environment. He demonstrates some positive and negative aspects of its use. Unfortunately, in some part of the world, students do not have the chance to use digital tools at home which can be harmful when come the time to learn with these tools at school. Jenkins mentions that in some schools there is no possible access to YouTube which is unfortunately a good source of information. Technology gives students the opportunities to monitor themselves throughout their learning since it gives a wide range of resources and they are allow using it the way they wish to. In this manner, using digital tools can provoke for some teachers a challenge in their teaching practice since they do not have the control over their class. At times, teachers might feel scared about the use of digital tools in their teaching practice since they feel like not being the only qualified person in the class. They are scared of not saying the exact thing to students since they have the opportunity to find the same knowledge from another expert.

I do not agree with the last statement since teachers are qualified professionals. I would like to add that if teachers monitor students appropriately in their learning, teachers should not feel underestimated because this tool will only give students the opportunity to have an extra knowledge on what they had just learned. 

Howard Gardner

Howard Gardner, is a well-known professor of the University of Harvard. Gardner demonstrates his interest on the impact brought by digital media in young people’s life. For several years, Gardner worked on Good Play project. The latter is a project built to take a critical look on the several issues that young people may encounter when using digital media. Youth are confronted to their sense of identity, sense of privacy, sense of ownership and partnership and their credibility. He linger his attention on these problems because he considers that not all of the youth are aware of the importance to be ethical when they are sitting behind a computer screen. People wonder why is it so important to be ethical when using digital media. The reason is very simple because youth have to express themselves properly since they are now involved in a community. Being respectful to others is very important when being in a community. I totally agree with Gardner with the fact that youth should learn to be ethical at a young age.

Beyond Text Books

Beyond Text Books is a new internet application which aims teachers to have a huge access of information. It enables them to teach different concepts in a large number of ways due to the fact that teachers share their ideas to the other teachers which help them have a plenty of good and meaningful lesson plans. It is through this internet application also known as collaborative wiki that teachers have the opportunity to share their creations. Teachers usually use this tool to share with their school, but they also have the opportunity to share with teachers’ from all around the world.  Despite the fact that it is beneficial for teachers, it is also plausible to say that students are the first persons that can benefits from this tool since their teachers expose them to a variety and exclusive lesson plans. Therefore, students are amazed to see a variety of wonderful activities.

I think that this tool offers a great help to teachers concerning the fact that it reduces their workload. Despite this latter, it offers to students a meaningful and unique way of learning. I think that the use of collaborative wiki is a good way for teachers to improve their teaching approach.

Sze confirms that using collaborative wikis in a classroom can be very interesting since it contributes to the students’ development into a meaningful way.

Kovacic, Bubas & Zlatovic provide e-tivities that students can experience to make their learning efficient. “Various types of e-tivities could facilitate vocabulary learning, the development of writing skills, the collaboration of students, peer-to-peer learning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving.”