Assignment 2

How can students use their devices to take notes and organize their information?
We utilized Skitch by Evernote to take notes on a video that was appropriate for the age group of our students.  We chose a video on Learn360 about the importance of balanced Breakfast, Snacks, Lunch and Dinners.  In our case, we were able to add labels, draw freehand, create clocks of the suggested meal times.  For our students, ages 5-6 this would have been a very difficult taks as they are still learning how to write and specially how to coordinate their fine motor skills, which need to be quite precise for freehand drawing.  A more appropriate activity for their age group still using Skitch would be to give them the material such as a picture, and have them scribble or draw OVER it to show the most important elements or something that they would like to point out.

How can students use mobile devices to collaborate and make research more effective?
By researching with mobile devices the notes gathered and the research collected by the students becomes available to all and is easier to save and share this information with their peers.  This facilitates collaboration among the students.

Which strategies can be used by teachers to support different learning styles and levels of competency?
As teachers we could support different learning styles by introducing and adopting various note taking applications and programs.  They all cover the main purpose which is to take notes, yet, each application has its own characteristics which appeal differently to the disting learning styles of our students.

Pre-Assignment 8

Adapting Teaching Methods to Become Real 21st Century Educators

Taking into consideration both Why Mobile Learning? and Above And Beyond  videos, several ideas on how educators should adapt new teaching methods to become real 21st century educators come to my mind.

To start off, the 21st century is not the future, it is today and we have been living it for the past 12 years.  Nonetheless, with ever changing technologies and application of such technologies, it has become an even more important task to "catch up" with the 21st century teaching expectations.

The video of Why Mobile Learning? is an inspiration on how mobile devices are now closing gaps in education by proving to be essential in the development of children with special needs.  More than ever before there are tools out there that enhance the learning experience.  Ipads are now aiding students with autism to become more independent and prove to give them the tools they need to learn material that before would just have been a battle to learn.   Ipads, ipods and many mobile devices give the opportunity for mute girl to "have a voice".  Mobile learning is definitely a teaching method to adopt in every classroom as it is opening new gates of education not only in traditional education but also in development of special needs education.

On the other hand, the Above and Beyond video is not explicitly speaking of the importance of mobile devices in education but speaks of the importance of vital 21st Century educational-learning skills such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity.  It is a very simple video that sends a clear message that I could sum up with the following quote by Hodding Carter Jr: "There are two lasting bequests we can give our children.  One is roots.  The other is WINGS."  This resonates with me as it is very true that the 21st Century educator must never forget to foster skills such as the ones mentioned above.  We may teach and be guides in our students' education however the most important thing we can provide is their "wings".  This is, provide them with enough tools and skills so that they are competent to make their own judgements, create their own thoughts and ideas and be innovators.

We are living a mobile learning revolution, education teaching methods need to be re-examined and new teaching methodologies must be implemented to keep up, but more to keep WITH this revolution.  It is not only about adopting certain gadgets that will "do the trick".  It is more of a change in mindset.  It is fostering 21st Century skills and fuse them to the use of technologies to the best of our teaching-learning advantage in order to provide our students with the TRUE 21st century education they deserve.

EDC 672 - Pre-Assignment 6

Bill Rankin's Mobile Learning presentation

• In what ways did the lecture make you think about your own perspective of education in time? 
• How does his lecture change you view on mobile devices and their use in education?

Bill Rankin's Mobile Learning at ACU: Full Presentation  was an eyeopener for me.  Of course I was aware that technology and the use of it in the classroom were ever so present as they are today, however his reasoning and ideas of how it is we got to where we are today are not only interesting but also quite logical and foreseeable.  He talkes about the cycles of technological change and makes you realize how it is an ongoing circle.  Once we are at the stage where creations of new technologies threaten our existing culture there needs to be a NEW beginning of a cycle by creating technologies that become successful by SOLVING problems or cultural "threats" and thus the cycle begins again.  

I believe that the presentation was quite easy to digest and explained in simple terms.  He provided real life examples of how the use of technology has been implemented since the 3rd century with the use of scroll vs. codex vs. hand printed books vs. printing press vs. internet and beyond. How each one presented/solved a problem for society, wether it was about FINDING or ASSESSING the information each era has its challenges and there is where room for technological growth and development takes place.

We should take advantage of where we are in terms of technology in order to provide our students with the most meaningful learning experience possible.  It is an era were we as teachers are our students' mentors, we need to live and work in relationship with them.  It is not our job to FEED the information to our students as it was done in the past.  Technology and information are not replacing us as their guides.  We now need to adress informational problems of the current age meeting the reality that the students of today face and not how the previous model used to work, and we do this by providing technological tools and mobile devices that aid in the search of information, in the development of ideas, and by hands on usage of technology in real life scenarios both inside the classroom and out.