podcast 2

WS500031

Chapter 2 – Students and Learning
            Digital natives, our young people are learning in such a technological changed world that the design of our educational system is no longer effective.  Students are coming into school with different expectations, skills, and access to different resources.  They are the customization generation and the classroom needs to be customized as well.  Teachers must promote other teaching methods than what has been used in the past for learning to be effective.
            Essentials to learning include immersing students in complex interactive experiences, provide personally meaningful challenges, and use analysis of different ways to approach the content.  I really liked the quote “Traditional testing- not measuring what really matters even if it will matter more in the future”!  Traditional testing really narrows the instruction to the exclusion of what is not on the test.\
          Now and in the future, students need to have skills that are less job specific and more to think, adapt, and continue learning for whatever job they may have.

 Chapter 3 – New Tools

            New tools are creating an avenue for collaboration and communication.  Given that trend, doesn’t it seem like we tend to take everything on the web to be accurate and reliable?  We need to be more analytical and questioning when it comes to researching on the web.
            Since most of the source software is free, schools and companies have less of an investment as far as cost is concerned which is a positive thing.
            There are tools readily available to use so many different functions on the web and sharing the resources in a collaborative way makes them even more valuable.

Key points from chapter 1 of “web 2.0 new tools, new schools include:

Technology is changing so quickly and is changing from static web pages to being participatory and interactive.  All of these new tools are vital to incorporate into the classroom and to weave into the development of the 21st century skills.   The skills must be taught not only in using the new technology, but to promote creativity, collaboration, and communication. 
The key points made in chapter 1 will most certainly be incorporated into any of the business education classroom in a wide variety of ways.  The interactive methods can be used from a lesson planning point of view by the teacher in addition to being taught to the students.   The trend in business education to accomplish content standards using problem solving, cirtical thinking, and more practical approaches is right in line with using the latest in technology. 
Beyond the classroom, students will be better equipped to perform their daily job.  They will not only be more familiar with the latest in technology tools, but also will be proficient at adapting to technology in general as it changes on a daily basis.