Through the use of digital tools, it is easier for students to share their wok and exchange ideas with diverse audiences, such as family members, peers, local community members, and the rest of the world. Students are able to reach an authentic audience through technology. It motivates them because they know others will be reading, watching, listening, and commenting on their work. Technology allows students to communicate with fellow learners-from the classroom down the hallway or around the globe. They will also be able to connect with the experts in their field of study to gain important information and specific responses from valuable people in their desired subject.
The EAST Initiative Model includes four different aspects: 1. Student-driven learning: students need to be responsible for their own learning; 2. Authentic project-based learning: Students should be engaged in solving real problems in their communities; 3. Technology as tools: Students need access to the relevant technologies that professionals use to solve real problems; lastly, collaboration: when students collaborate in teams to pursue authentic projects, they accomplish more than any one person can do in isolation.
By letting students “lead” their projects, they are able to express what topics and subject(s) they are interested in. They also become deeply engaged in working on solutions, as they see how their projects will help create a better future. Students will take more pride in their work, as well and teaches them how to find their own information without being spoon-fed the information. The things they learn from their experts will aid in more engaging conversation inside the classroom, improving their overall understanding of the subject(s) main points.
This chapter highlighted a few main points that related to my group’s topic: 1. communicating with students and classrooms around the world, increase conversation inside the classroom, and blogging to create confident and competent writers. In our Virtual Penpal project, our students communicated with other classrooms in the US to discuss the similarities and differences between the environment on their school grounds and the school grounds in other school/state areas. We also blog, clearly, and that does help me feel more confident in my ability to write more persuasively and show my comprehension of the given section.
I also agree that having students collaborate while using digital tools is a very useful skill for both their current social interaction with their peers and their future interactions. If students are able to use digital tools but unable to work together, then they will be lacking in many areas in their future.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that through the use of digital tools it makes it much easier for students to share what they are working on. there is so much technology out there for the students to use while working on a project. It is great for students to be able to communicate with others about their projects. They can use things like skype to chat with people that may not be able to make it to the classroom, or other classrooms.
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