Today's World and Putting Students First

I thoroughly enjoyed the article How to Bring Technology into the Classroom Without the Gadgets by Mary Moss Brown and Alisa Berger.  I felt all the points brought up in the article were interesting and I agree with all of them.

                One point I enjoyed was putting the focus on the student and the community.  I agree that as educators we need to think about what students really need to learn.  As stated, times have changed and are every changing, so rather than focusing on the past and what was always learned, it would be beneficial for us to focus on the students now and what they need to know.  Hands on experience with material that they need to know will not only help them learn the material, but it will be beneficial for them later in life, as they have already had that experience and they are now allowed to expand their knowledge on previously learned material.  

                This article also brings up the flipped classroom that was discussed last week.  As I have said, I love the idea of a flipped classroom.  I think it is beneficial to students and they are able to have more time in class with hands on experiences.  This article brings up another good point about a flipped classroom, which is the ability to utilize class time to collaborate with other students.  This does not only help build relationships and help students work together to solve problems, but it will benefit the students later in life.  As you move on through high school, college and jobs, collaboration between people happens every single day.  In my opinion, collaborating with others is not always easy, especially if it is done later in life, when a person is more or less set in their ways.  I believe that if collaboration was brought into the classroom at an early age, then as students get older it will be easy for them to collaborate in the adult world.  They will already have the experience and will know how to work with others to solve problems.

                The last sentence of the article really sums up the piece.  It states, “When schools become more willing to question-to ask “why” and “what if”—and to innovate around the challenges of educating every child for the 21^st century world, then they can truly leverage technology to its full potential”.  I believe that we really need to look at the world today and base lessons and material that is being taught around what will truly benefit the students in today’s world.