On January 22nd, we had Dr. Alex Couros speak to our class about a variety of different topics. For the most part the presentation was about learning by connecting with people. He stresses that the box in front of us makes it a whole lot easier to communicate and share with today's society. Through this constant connection with complete strangers, we could grow as educators and people, as we learn from each other.
Dr. Couras pointed out early in his presentation that the average starting age of children using the Internet is 11 years old. As educators, we must show the children proper ways to us the Internet and how to connect and communicate with others properly. Also, similar to what Dean mentioned last week, he mentioned that their is an endless amount of opportunities to communicate out there, so we must embrace it and take advantage of the opportunities we have to become better teachers. *Connect as much as possible with different people because you never know what you can learn from them.
Dr. Couras seemed to be very knowledgeable throughout his discussion and gave us numerous ideas for us to think about for the future.
Anyways, I am beginning to enjoy blogging, it is neat to see what other students have to say about the guest speakers and their own thoughts towards the speakers ideas.
That is all for now...
Good point about connecting with as many people as possible. We all have different experiences, and we all something different to share and add to the table. Somewhere out there is someone who has either dealt with the same teaching problem that you may be going through, or has reached the students in the way you are wanting to. It is just a matter of getting out there and finding that person, and the internet is the most effective way to do so.
ReplyDeleteCommunicating and connecting in today's world is so much easier than the past thanks to technology. Being able to share ideas and resources over the internet gives us the advantage over teachers of the past as they would not have been able to share with anyone anywhere in the world, just those that were local to them. And since kids are starting their adventures with technology at such young ages now, it is important that we know how to take full advantage of everything that is at our fingertips to stay that one step ahead of them.
ReplyDeleteIt is especially important for us (future) educators to make connections in order to keep ourselves in a constant state of learning and growing. It can feel overwhelming, especially as a student trying to study, write papers, plan presentations, complete tech tasks (MIke), etc. I just have to keep reminding myself that I can't learn and do everything all at once; it is a process.
ReplyDeleteI also enjoy reading and learning from other people's blogs.The differing perspectives are interesting and I find that I am learning as much reading the blogs as I am from the guest presenters.
I'm also enjoying the ability to connect within our #I4Ed class. Reading what has been important to everyone has added depth to my knowledge and wouldn't have been possible if we were not connected.
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