Week+5+Reflection

There were many interesting videos and readings this week; there was a variety of topics to pique my interest. I loved the videos that talked about using video games to teach standards to students. I would much rather learn by playing a video game than reading it out of a textbook. Who wouldn't?! Sasha Barab says, "We really will miss an opportunity to transform schools." If we, as teachers, don't change they way we teach we will lose our students. It is no longer necessary for students to regurgitate facts - they have them at their fingertips with the help of any search engine. They need to apply the information to make connections to what they already know. I also read an interesting chapter on a correlation between effort and achievement; it tells how you can teach kids to assess themselves. Through a rubric, they score themselves on tasks they complete such as note-taking, study-habits, and how much they paid attention. Then, they looked at a grade from a quiz. The data could be input into the computer to produce a graph. Using their own data, they will discover that the more effort they put into their studies, the higher their scores are. This is a valuable lifelong lesson that can be taught at any grade level. The information presented this week culminates all that I have learned in this course and encourages me to keep going!

Reference:

Edutopia.org. (nd). //Big Thinkers: Sasha Barab on New-Media Engagement.// Retrieved on Oct. 5, 2009 from http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-sasha-barab-video