Blog Assignment 6

The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler:

     This video talks about students using a personal learning network as well as other tools and resources to learn through a class. It follows a student studying American psychology who does the majority of his class work online. His teacher believes in connectivity and teaches vetting resources, finding experts, and connecting to others. His class does not even use a textbook. His teacher also rarely lectures. 

     Connectivity theory is basically learning through social connections. Whenever someone learns about a topic, they can teach someone else about this knowledge. And whenever the student finds a resource that is credible he shares it. This student also uses many other types of technologies, including search engines to find information, and mp3 players for listening to lectures and other podcasts. The student is also able to read blogs. While blogs can be more opinion based then fact base, the student will be able to discern credible information. This can also open up the door for conversing with experts and sharing opinions. 

     I see more and more college classes switching to this format. This can save time, and can save money through using less paper and less gas because students are not using as many resources in class everyday.  This is a happy medium between in-class and on-line courses. The students are still able to meet face-to-face and spend time with their instructor, yet are also able to explore many resources on-line. I think it is a great idea to teach a class like this, and it would be something worth looking into. 

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment:

     I was very interested by this personal learning environment. Symbaloo is a very interesting program, and I really enjoyed how she had set her class up. She was able to complete assignments online and talk to experts while she was doing reports. She also talked about the fact that it was easy to become distracted because of Facebook and other resources online, but also the fact that she had more freedom made her feel more responsible, which also led to her completing more coursework than she might have done otherwise. 

Critiques of Smartboards:
     The two anti-smartboard blogs that I read were "Why Smartboards Are A Dumb Initiative" by Michael Staton, and "Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards" by Bill Ferriter. According to Michael, one of the main reasons why Smartboards are dumb is because they are the least cost-effective way to try to improve learning. He says that anything you can do with a Smartboard you can do with a computer. He says that they just make the broken model more expensive, and that administrators like them because they are an easy way to spend money on technology that looks good.
     Bill Ferriter's blog made many of the same points. He said that he gave away his Smartboard and in the year he used it he only made two or three lessons using it. He claims that many teachers view them as "really expensive overhead projectors" because they do not have the time or training to use them effectively. He goes further than most of these teachers because he believes that even with training they do nothing to help classrooms. He says that they do not foster student's creativity, and that they are PR tools with no evaluation process.
     The pro-Smartboard blog that I found was The H-Blog. This person was from Scotland, and many pro-Smartboard posts on their blog, including "IWBs-the eternal battle continues...". One of the points made was that if they are provided and money has already been spent on them then teachers should learn to use them instead of abandoning them. This bloggers says that Smartboards are a great resource, and that the problems have to do with teachers not using them effectively. A good point included in this post was that if teachers are the problem then that will not change if you give them iPads, notebooks, or any other device. Teachers that do not want to learn or interact will not do so, no matter what technology is given, which means that teachers are the problem.