Week 10 Readings

"Authentic Learning for the 21st Century"

This overview introduces the reader to how the Internet can help students and teachers create authentic learning in the classroom. The internet provides any number of options for the classroom, but the authors pointed out that the most important are communication, visualization, and simulation. This is because learning is a social and cognitive construct and the Internet helps us achieve both.
When authentic learning is taking place, student and teachers are engaging in real-life problem solving. The solution isn't easy to find because it is an ill-defined problem and it takes time to investigate the issues and the problems. Therefore, the Internet can help students utilize inquiry based learning because there is a mountain of information for students to access. The authors point out that, "expert thinking is the ability to identify and solve problems to which there is no routine solution." This is certainly where I hope I can help my students because if I can get them to realize that there is no one correct answer, I've lead them in a direction many hadn't considered.

Jonassen "Visualizing with Technologies"

Computers and the Internet provide the perfect tools for us to interpret and represent visual ideas. There are any number of options that teachers can use in the classroom but there are a few specific ones that the authors included, like Geographic Information Systems and digital cameras.
Why would teachers include visualization software and hardware? This is where I learned so much about why it is important to use computers in the classroom. The authors explained the importance of vision and how it is the most complex sensory system we have as humans. Vision helps us make sense of what is around us shows us how to make meaning out of it.
That is is why expressive visuals are extremely important and I will try to incorporate them as much as possible. If we use vision on a daily basis for our own sense of understanding, imagine how much more important it is for students who are in a formal learning setting. Obviously it will help students make sense of what they are seeing in the book, the white board, and the classroom itself. But expressive visuals will also help them convey their own meaning of what they've learned through the digital camera, Power Point, or video.