Blog #6

The Networked Student


The video, The Networked Student, described what the author saw as a student of the future. The student of the future is very similar to EDM 310. They said that students will begin to learn through connectivism, that is, learning through socializing and sharing information on the web through sites and sharing ideas through blogs. It would be the students own Personal Learning Network, or PLN.

After a student does research on any given subject they would post theirs ideas and thoughts of what they had found in their own blog. A teacher would no longer be needed to go over the material in a class room like setting. The teacher would now be a useful source of how to build and maintain networks for learning. Therefore, after the class is completed, the student could continue to network in order to broaden their knowledge.

While all of this sounds great in theory, I just don't believe that students today are willing to take on the responsibility for their own learning. I believe that students need test, at least early in education, to hold themselves accountable for what they learn. Furthermore, test are also a tool for parents to be able to see how their child is doing in class. I also can't help but to think about how special education children would handle this. Special education requires that children receive more attention and guidance in class. These children, particularly, may not be able to learn on their own.



7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment


I believe that the personal learning environment, or PLE, shown in this video is a great organizational tool.  I believe that when students are organized, they are more likely to succeed in what they are doing. The PLE is not only a great way for students to be organized but it's also fun for them. Once again, I find her PLE is much like our EDM 310 PLN.

The student in the video mentioned that the PLE gave her more freedom in her own education. I think it's great that she is excited about using this technology for benefiting her education but I just do not feasibly see all students as excited as she. What is going to happen when this new technology becomes old and students become bored? I feel that the education system will then have a large problem on their hands because students will have all of this freedom to do their own learning but not taking the on the initiative and responsibility. The education system will then have an even larger problem than it does now.



The Machine is Changing Us


Dr. Wesch brought about many points about how today's society is changed through technology, that is, the use of  networking and broadcasting sites. His main points were based upon that today's younger generation have been raised to be narcissistic.

Personally, I had a hard time relating to this video. While it is true that my generation probably is more self-centered than any previous generations, I do not feel that I fit into his description. Much of the video talked about the use of YouTube and people's need of recognition. Before this class (and aside from facebook) I had never really put out some of my deepest thoughts on the Internet. But, I do agree with Dr. Wesch in that people create post to feel that they are being heard, creating a deeper level of awareness.

Dr. Wesch stated that 99.9% of YouTube videos are completely irrelevant to any given person.  This statistic speaks out a couple of things to me. First of all, that people waste entirely too much time being bored on the Internet. Secondly, people are nosey. Viewers know that they can easily access nearly anything they want to know on the Internet. So, people use this to get into business of other people's lives because they are probably bored with their own. In addition, like Dr. Wesch stated in the video, people use sites such as YouTube as "deep communities... revealing things about themselves that they wouldn't normally reveal to close family and friends."