PDP: Lessons Learned

My thoughts, concerns, and what I learned from the readings, videos, and web sites:

Technology is such a major part of our students' lives, and we can use that to our benefit in the classroom. Teens can often feel like there is a disconnect between their academic experience and their social/real-world experience. One example in this is in writing; they don't consider blogging, texting, emailing, etc as real writing. If we can incorporate these "outside school" activities into our classrooms (using technology, of course), students may be able to more easily identify the similarities between what they learn in school and how it is applicable to their lives. Social networking can increase their technology skills, creativity, generate different perspectives, and improve communication skills. Rather than have to try to compete with this outside technology that can lead to distractions, why not use it to encourage active engagement, group work and collaboration, interaction and feedback, and communication with real-world experts.

Media mobility creates so many opportunities for learning, networking, efficiency, and convenience. In one clip, a students defined media mobility as "accessible anywhere at anytime with no limitations." This means that high-tech learning can occur anywhere, anytime, if we make the effort to help our students utilize that. Not only should we provide the resources, but also facilitate the learning process. Technology has helped education through online and distance learning, virtual labs, e-books, and more. Technology has grown so much- it's exciting to predict what further technology advancement will take place and help the education process even more. It truly can help us become life-long learners.