Blog #3: Who Will Prepare Our Students to Be Good Teachers?
This is a short but meaningful "Blogger's Beat" article by Diana Fingal on the importance of online citizenship and making sure our children or the future generations have a strong experience with it. Fingal examines a number of blogs and articles to try and answer questions of just how we should approach educating our children about online citizenship- should we be forcing a biased criteria on our children so they will exceed in a particular field? She also focuses on David Warlick's blogs as he asks whether or not the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) program has a certain slant on their agenda? He notes that these particular fields have very financially-stable backers behind them and although he approves of their vision, he really wants to know who's teaching our children about civic awareness and the ability to appreciate others and express one's self.
While I think Fingal brings out an important argument of what type of education the next generation is getting- industry-minded or self-fulfilling, I personally feel that both are just as important as one another. Some of the comments within the article ask what the importance of education is, and I agree with all of them- we do need to show children the importance of education as a personal reflection and as a way to come together with others. Education should be based on both our individual thoughts, ideas, and opinions, but it should also make us collaborate and work in groups to derive the best possible information pertaining to our studies.
I believe this type of learning focus would fall under the "communications and collaborations" section of the NETS-S profiles because it is asking students to use digital technology to create an environment to communicate among each other. It also supports individual learning that will contribute to the learning of others through groups work and collaboration.
Fingal, D. (2011). Who Will Prepare Our Students to Be Good Teachers?. Learning and Leading With Technology, 39(1), 37. Retrieved from: http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/201108#pg39
I agree with what you say in regards to what education should fulfill. You mention, “Education should be based on both our individual thoughts, ideas, and opinions, but it should also make us collaborate and work in groups to derive the best possible information pertaining to our studies.” I think it is very important to enhance each student’s intelligence, but because humans are communal animals it is just important to teach students how to work as a team. One person may have a brilliant idea, but people working together can make that idea into a reality! I think also that as we move into an ever-increasing digital age it becomes even more important to teach students how to work with others both in person and via technology such as the internet. The internet creates a kind of surreal world where some people can lose the skills of working with others, so as teachers I think it’s important for us to help maintain these skills in our society.
ReplyDelete(A. Silva)