Open for Everyone- Week 4

 

 

 

Spirit of Openness

 

 

In our classrooms today, our children face different influences from many different media around them. Our Student's parents and grandparents were mainly influenced by books and television, but kids today have much more to filter though. For us as educators, we need to know how to help our students make the must out of the connections they make both in their everyday lives and the ones they make on the internet. Teaching our students to be apart of a participatory cultural rather than a consumer society is a key to their future. 

 

 

I would assist my students to find their own identity and independence in digital world in many different ways. I would have them make an online portfolio of all the work they do in my class so they are able to look at their work at the end of the year and feel as though they contributed to the cyber world. I would also have a tweeter account where my students could go on and talk back and forth, where they can bounce ideas off each other, and where they can share ideas of others that they find interesting.   

 

 

Open access is a beautiful thought to education. It means being able to share rich literature with our students even if we, as teachers, don't have the means to buy physical books. At some point during my teaching career I can see textbook becoming obsolete. Open access means that all someone needs to access a large amount of information is an internet connection and a computer or tablet. When you step back and think about how amazing that truly is we realize how much we take the internet for granted.  

 

 

With video chatting becoming more and more advanced it is easy to think this trend will only continue to explode in the coming years. There will be many more classes held online so boarders and oceans cant even stop the network from happening. People from China can collaborate with people in Akron, OH to find a cure for cancer and beyond.

 

 

As technology increases  our responsibilities to do great and innovated things with that technology also increases. New technology also makes things possible that seemed impossible and affordable that seemed unreachable for anyone. The internet is making learning possible for everyone everywhere.