Blog Post #2

Part 1 Group Post (Professor Dancealot)

Mr. Dancealot Phillip Hall

After watching the Professor Dancealot video, it made me ask myself, “What will teaching in the 21st century be like?” In this video the professor didn’t align instruction with assessment . The first thing I noticed was the classroom setting, which was not a dance studio.. It was just a regular classroom. To me, a dance teacher will always be more effective teaching in a dance studio. Not being in the right teaching environment restricted his class from learning the material he was trying to teach. Professor Dancealot taught from behind his desk using a slideshow, which seems ridiculous due to the subject matter. Professor Dancealot should have been modeling strategies he wanted to teach his students; he should have not been behind his desk. Professor Dancealot stressed the burp-back method of teaching. He wanted his students to memorize the slideshow presentation and spit the material back out for the final. To answer the question , “What will teaching in the 21st century be like?” I hope I teach my students meaningful strategies that will be with them for life, not just for a test. I hope the 21st Century method of teaching will be so effective, that twenty years later, information learned will still be used. I truly believe Dr. Strange is using this method in his classes. In this lesson, Dr. Strange is teaching us to get rid of the burp-back method of teaching.

Duane Nelson-In my opinion of the film "Mr. Dancealot", Mr. Dancealot’s technique of teaching was ineffective and confusing for the students ability to learn the different dances. The reason why I believe this is because the teacher preferred to the technique of note taking and lecture instead of allowing the students to participate in hands-on learning. The technique Mr. Dancealot used made the students very bored and the attendance level of the class reduce over time. The students in the class would have performed better on the final if he had the allowed them to practice with one another instead of forcing them to learn by writing it down on paper. This film is a great example of how lecture courses can make students lose interest over time and not retain the information that was taught to them. In Dr. Strange's EDM 310 class forces the students to learn by hands-on activities and projects. In these types of courses it is hard for the students to lose interest in the class because they are constantly participating in hands-on assignments.

Krista- In this film the goals and objective do not match up with the class style. Mr. Dancealot is teaching different dances through a slide show of the different steps. Also, he is demonstrating the steps and positions while behind a huge desk and teachers’ station. None of the students can see what needs to be done or how it should be done. Then for the final Mr. Dancealot expects the students to be able to perform these dances on their own with no prior practice or hands on teaching. I believe that in a classroom the students should be the doers and the teacher walk around and adjust them to the correct method. In this process the students get a chance to try it out on their own and figure it out in their own ways.

Victoria Williams-

After watching the YouTube, video "Mr.Dancealot" I quickly began to ponder on what teaching would be like in the 21st century. Throughout the video, it showed the perception of what most educators consider as the "burp back method.” This method is currently how the majority of our schools are teaching our fellow students. The "burp back method" can easily be described as memorizing something for a test, taking the test, and quickly forgetting it. In the 21st century, educators should be choosing to perform a different teaching method. Many educators are working towards making learning more project - based in order to end the burp back method. "Mr.Dancealot" painted a perfect picture of how most classrooms are ran. This is by not providing the students with a hand- on -experience but rather forcing the students to memorize the necessities for the test and getting the grade to push the student through the course. I have all intentions of ending this method of teaching for my students, and plan to help create ways for other educators to end the boring “burp back method” as well.

Part 2 Dissenting Group Post-None

Part 3 Individual Post-Phillip Hall

Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts
This video is about two teachers, Vicki Davis & Julie Lindsey, who incorporate innovative techniques such as wikis, blog, pod-casts, and virtual worlds to connect their students in rural Georgia to the world. Mrs Davis starts out by saying a very catching statement,"You don't have to know everything before you can teach it." At first, I didn't quite agree with her theory; as the video played out, her statement made more sense to me. Davis and Lindsey founded the Global Collaborative Digi Teen. Digi Teen is a wiki that connects students from around the world. Students study digital citizenship by researching, writing, and posting their work through two digital portals. Digi Teen allows students to collaborate on assigned projects and figure things out on there own, with little help from their teachers. The students basically teach themselves with help from other students around the world; while the teacher is the facilitator

While working in the digital world, the students learn how to change avatars and terraform. It took the students three days to change avatars and terraform. The students did this without being instructed on how to do so. Terraforming is something I've never heard of until I watched the video. The meaning of terraform is to transform a planet to resemble Earth. Without instruction from their teacher, the students taught Mrs Davis to terraform!

Davis and Lindsey also founded the Flat Classroom Conference. The Flat Classroom Conference encourages students to study and experience trends in information technology, by collaboratively writing reports with other students and creating videos. The video and the Edutopia website in this assignment was very insightful. It was also full of modern techniques to help students collaborate and learn without having to burp back the assigned material. This type of learning would definitely be considered meaningful learning.

Part 4 Individual posts by other group members

Flipping the Classroom - 4th Grade STEM (Victoria)

While watching a video on YouTube called "Flipping the Classroom- 4th Grade STEM", I started to take mental notes on what a great tool this could be in my own classroom. "Flipping" the classroom is an innovative approach to classroom instructions. This program is a new tool which some schools have begun to use in mathematics. It also allows students to use technology both at school and at home. Students begin the new math lesson at home, by watching a video of the lesson and attempting a few practice problems. This method gives students the time to come up with questions and concerns regarding the lesson for the next day. This process in return, saves the teacher time and presents the students with a facilitator to help the students understand the lesson more. This is due to the fact that the teacher is now able to help the students more versus spending time in front of the classroom with instructions. This program allows students to expand their knowledge more and it creates a higher level of thinking. I believe this tool is an excellent way to give students an advantage of learning, and also help teachers to have better time management to insure each child's future in learning. I will use this tool in my own classroom. I hope to have the opportunity to engage in this program in not only mathematics but other subjects as well.

(Duane)



After watching the film by Kevin Roberts shows many different opportunities and possibilities of using tools of the internet for future teachers to use for a more productive and educational classroom. To teach in the 21st century Roberts thinks we should use more media devices such as cell phones, IPods, and laptops instead of just lecturing and taking notes. In this style of teaching Roberts believes a student is capable of learning anything, at any time, or anywhere. I agree completely with Roberts position that he expressed in the video of using the countless tools that are available on the internet to better the education in the classroom. By incorporating Roberts’ ideas into my future classroom it would open the door for endless opportunities and for all students to have a better learning experience. These countless tools that I could use my class would be Twitter, Blogs, Facebook, Skype, YouTube, Google, and many more. The only thing that concerns me is that a student could possibly abuse the tools in a negative behavior but the video addressed this concern by stating “Tools provide temptation but are not a source of negative behavior”. Overall I feel like this is a great idea by Roberts and should be incorporated in all future classrooms.

Writing A Quality Blog Post. (Krista)

After watching The Networked Student (5:10) by Wendy Drexler, I found many connection to the current EDM 310 class. Drexier presented the material in an abstract skit manner. The skit was about a student who aided his learning while using social media and internet sites. He had weekly classes but also had class on the computer each week. He used many different social media site to connect to other students and scholars in the field of study. The student also used sites to connect to the best known professors. Skype was used to have a professional on the subject to enter the class and speak on the topic. Drexier used this small video to introduce the viewers to all the different methods a student can gear up his own learning.

I believe this is a fantastic way of teaching and learning. It teaches the students to become independent learners and to find the material for their selves. It also allows the students to connect with their peers to see what problems they may have encountered in the past that can possibly be avoided by talking and learning from them. Drexier’s video is definitely the future to our learning and teaching styles.

This video is a great learning tool for new and old teachers. This can be a building block for teachers to learn from and add to as they become independent learners in the field of teaching. It gives teachers tools they can use for their selves as well as pass down to their students. I absolutely loved this video. I will definitely be revisiting this once i begin my teaching career to share with my students and fellow teachers.