Blog Post #13

Back to the Future

Back to the Future is a video of Brian presenting a project he did with his fourth grade classroom. First of all, the majority of Mr. Crosby's students speak another language besides English. English is there secondary language. Most of these students don't even what country they live in at the beginning of the school year. Brian knew that itself would be a challenge. He knew that his teaching had to be extremely engaging to help these students out. Each student in Mr. Crosby's classroom has their own laptop for using blog assignments. He also required his students to set goals.

He explains that each assignments are connected like the "High Hopes Balloon Project". The students used history, science, language arts, and also technology with this project. He conducted a hot air balloon experiment with his students. The classmates then recorded and posted about their progress with this project. This brought attention from all over the world. Mr. Crosby's poverty students began to be active learners through technology. An experiment like this empowered the students to learn on their own and also help break the language barrier. Like Brian says, if students have an audience that they know is reading what they write, there is more motivation to do a good job. This was very inspirational to me. This form of learning is a lot more valuable in the long run instead on learning the content to just pass a test. I believe that all children deserve the best education that will prepare them for a successful future.

A Vision of Students Today

A Vision of Students Today is a video about the realities of attending college in today's world. This video has no words just text. This video covered topics ranging from spending hundreds of dollars on textbooks that will never be open to professors never even knowing your name. This assignment was very clear to view this video from a teachers prospective not a students. Some of the things that were highlighted in the video were how students will be in extreme debt by the time they graduate. Also the fear of not been able to find a job after graduating because the job doesn't exist anymore.

As an educator you cannot waste a student's time. Instructors need to think of the needs of the student. This video really connects to me because I am a student myself in college. I have some of the same feelings as the students in the video. Many of these ideas presented in this video are very true. There have been plenty of times in class I seen students do everything besides school related things on their laptops. Looking at things from a teachers point of view, I can see that technology can make classes run a lot smoother. This video should be a wake up call to college professors.I believe more classes should be web based because it forces a student to have power over their own work.