Day 1 Reading

Creating Our Future: Students Speak Up about their Vision for 21st Century Learning
Project Tomorrow, 2010

Speak Up is under the umbrella of Project Tomorrow and it's purpose is to ensure that technology is an effective source in the classroom. Despite all the new findings in technology, it is possible that it might also be holding students back from their education. The surveys have found that the students are taking their own education into their own hands and Project Tomorrow has identified three essential elements affecting the new vision for American Education; Social-based learning, Un-tethered learning and Digitally-rich learning. All three encompass the ideas of online learning, mobile devices, Web 2.0 tools and digital content. I think this is really interesting because I know that some of these things apply to me as well. For example, the schools that were surveyed were mostly Title 1 schools. This past year, I could not afford text books for each of my classes so when I needed to study, I would just research everything on my own. I would take the study guide and Google everything or simply rely on the teacher uploading all the powerpoints online.

Question 1:
As a teacher, would I be able to provide the same access to my students? I would try my best to deliver information that the students already had ready. I know in elementary schools, students wouldn't need to go out and purchase their own text books so I would only test them on the material in the classroom texts or videos I would present to them.

Question 2:
How would I deal with children who do not have access to computers or internet? I understand that as a child, it is not first priority for the students to have the latest mobile devices or even just a computer. So I would make sure that if I were to share with them a video clip from YouTube, I would set aside time during class to share it with each student, as a class or individually. I think it's really cool how there are all these new technologies available. But realistically, I know that not every child has an iPad at their finger tips and as an educator, I need to adjust and accommodate to ensure that each child has the same learning opportunities.