Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Blog Assignment 7

The Networked Student
In today's age it is very important for students to start their networking at an early age.  They need to build up contacts and resources for their learning careers as students then for later in life as adults.  I think it's very important to know how to surf the internet.  There are so many websites out there that you cannot trust.  Google Scholar is a good search engine that gives trustworthy results.
Networking

The video we watched this week, The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler, gives a glimpse of what a student can do by creating a personal learning network.  The "student" in the video was able to contact professors from top notch universities and listen to their lectures via podcast.  This allows students to learn from professors that they may not be able to originally.  Many resources were mentioned in the video which helps the students, but in the end why do we still need teachers if there is so much information out there for students to access?

Teachers are still going to be needed!  They are there to help the student build up their network and to take advantage of all of the learning opportunities available on the web.  I think it's very important to be there to help the student find contacts.  Hopefully, as I build my PLN I will be able to find contacts and resources for my future students.  We still need teachers to show the students how there are many untrustworthy websites out there.  We need to teach them how to navigate through sites to find ones that they can trust.  I want to leave a positive impact on my students and hopefully allowing them to created their own personal PLN, they will be successful throughout their time as students and then in their future.

A 7th Grader's PLE (or PLN)
Personal Learning Network
In this short video, a 7th grade girl is explaining her Personal Learning Environment (PLE).  She uses it for her science class, but she also uses it for social networking like Facebook.  I was shocked at how much she knew and she's only in the 7th grade! I hope to by the end of this semester have a good knowledge about how to create an in depth PLN.  It's a great way to continue and explore the vast information of the internet.

2 comments:

  1. "There are so many websites out there that you cannot trust." What determines whether you can "trust" a website, a radio commentator, a TV news anchor, a magazine article, a professor, a politician?

    "I was shocked at how much she knew and she's only in the 7th grade!" Just wait until you have your own class! Shocked will be a mild version of what you find out about today's students.

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  2. Erika,
    I think you made several very important points in your blog post. I also think it is important for students to understand that everything online is not safe. However, as educators we can show our students how to properly do this.
    I also agree with your comment stating why teachers will still be needed. The PLE video shocked me as well because the student was so young. She knew more about the PLE than I know.However, she did help me to make my PLN better by viewing hers.
    I enjoyed reading your blog post!
    Ashley

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