Blog Post # 6

The Networked Student  by: Wendy Drexler

The network student is based on connectivism. Connectivism is a theory that presumes learning occurs as a part of social network of many diverse connections and ties. This network is made possible through various tools of technology. A teacher of connectivism empowers students to take control of their learning and make new connections with others to strengthen the learning process. The question "why does the network student even need a teacher?" came up in the video. The answer to that question is simply this a network student still needs a teacher to show them how to build this network and take advance of learning opportunities. The teacher offers guidance when the student needs help, show the students how to communicate properly, how to distinguish between good information and bad information, and help the student to organize a lot of information.

I think the "network student" idea is good to use in the classroom for the upper grade levels. This idea will help students to understand and use the power of the internet. It will also help them to know how to properly search information. Its a great tool to use to learn how to connect with others and share information.

Am I ready to teach a "network student"? I am ready to teach a network student, this will be a great experience for the student as well as myself. It will be good to see what information the students come up with and how they use and connect the information with others.

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment

This video a 7th grader gives a tour of her personal learning environment, PLE or PLN. She shows how all of her classwork tabs are together and all her personal tabs are together. She also has all of her tabs color-coded so that she knows where to look for what she needs. This student talked about how she had to do a research on a box jellyfish. She opened one of her tabs and showed how she had all of her information on the box jellyfish together. As a part of this research she had to e-mail a specialist on the jellyfish. One specialist didn't e-mail her back so she found another one, but that one hasn't e-mailed her back so she is still waiting for the response. Some students have used skype to talk to their specialist.