In the classroom, it is up to the teacher whether or not his/her students work together or individually on completing assignments. Some tasks work best when students collaborate on them and others are better if the students only use their knowledge. Either way, each working style comes with its own challenges.
Individual work challenges and limits students to contribute information that they know. If the student does not know much, then he/she can not provide must information. From a teacher's perspective, it also shows how well students know material and how much help they may need. Collaborative learning on the other hand, forces students to work together as a team to reach the goal. The scaffolds for collaborative learning are the students have to come prepared to the group, a tracker must be assigned to stay on schedule, and the students have to be sensitive to the needs of one another. Group work allows students to learn from each other rather than coming to a conclusion by themselves. Students get to see new perspectives and understandings from students of all learning levels. Both learning/working styles are effective and work better in different situations. Either way, individual and collaborative work are useful techniques in the classroom.
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Looking at the American classroom today with the mindset of one hundred, fifty, or even twenty years ago, it is surprising to see how much technology has integrated into classrooms. Times have changed tremendously and technology has become more advance. Classrooms have gone from chalk boards to white boards and now smart boards. On top of that, computers and iPads have now made it possible for students to learn individually on educational apps. Paper bound books have transformed into eBooks and reading materials from anywhere about anything can now be accessed with just a search engine and a few clicks.
My point is, technology in classrooms is the new norm for most and that is okay. Technology provides a new medium for learning and relaying information to students that coincides with the new age. For example, screencasting is a new way of reiterating a lesson to students without teachers physically standing in front of a class teaching. Screencasting allows educators to do an automated screenshot with audio and tutorials to inform students. It allows students learn at their own pace with twenty-four access and engagement. Though it is not physically interactive between the teacher and student, it does provide for the different types of learning styles of students. It also gives teachers the ability to go back and edit material as well as help learners in distant places. In the end, screencasts provide a visual aid for learners to repeatedly use at their own leisure and access information without the use of paper and pencils. They also are easy for teachers to manipulate to their liking while being active and visual at the same time. Technology is the new norm for classrooms and most likely is not going anywhere soon. With the addition of it to classrooms, new techniques and teaching mediums are there to help students further their According to dictionary.com, text is the main body of matter in a manuscript, book, newspaper, etc., as distinguished from notes, appendixes, headings, illustrations, etc. Though this definition is true, I also believe that text is the written, printed, or physical evidence of letters, numbers, words, symbols, and so forth that stand as the substance to a piece of work.
Text can be anything from one letter or number to an entire encyclopedia of ideas and facts expressed on a page. To me text is an expression of communication that expresses a language from the author. I chose the picture on the left to show what text is to me because it is not the usual form of "text" that may come to mind to some people. Many may think of text as a page out of a book or scripture of some sort. I chose to combine text from different elements to form a collage of few words. The texts highlight some jokes that I find relatable and my nickname on some sunglasses. |
BryannaFuture educator who is taking the world by one mind, heart, and story at a time. Archives
January 2017
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