EDET 677 Mech App Week 11 Blog

EDET 677 Mechanical Applications

Week 11 Blog

Essential Question: How have you, and will you continue to “Learn the 21st Century” and allow your students this experience in your classroom?

            At this moment, I have been learning the 21^st century through experiences. I am close to the age of my students and I am interested in similar things that are interested in. I grew up in the 21^st century with computers, robots, etc. There are technologies that I haven’t experienced until I was an adult but I always end up finding out about interesting and new technologies, issues that are important at this time, and challenges that my students and I face as a generation. Most of the information I learn about living in the 21^st century is from the same sources that my students are learning, social media. Another way that I have been learning about technologies and mindsets found in the 21^st is by taking courses like this one. I want to be fresh in my knowledge of teaching and of students by constantly taking classes formally or informally.

            I find it very important to keep continuing on my path of learning about the world around me and how it is evolving. This better than the alternate which is to only embrace what I know now and what I am comfortable with now. A way that I can keep learning is through participating in innovative and collaborative projects with others like they do at a conference called Constructing Modern Knowledge. “CMK is our attempt to create a non-coercive constructionist learning experience for educators of all subjects and grade levels.” (Martinez & Stager, 2013) If the 21^st century requires my students to be innovative, creative, and problem-solvers, then I need to put myself in that situation so that I can grow along side of my students and the world.

            For my students to experience the 21^st century in school, I will begin using more technologies that force students to create, think, and truly experience learning. For example, play around with coding more with the Arduino or play a youtube video that shows a new concept or technology like Xtopher creates (2017). Maybe I can challenge students for them to find the newest and coolest technology and they can share with the class. All I know is that I need to focus on collaboration and innovation of technology.

Resources:

Constructing Modern Knowledge. Retrieved from http://constructingmodernknowledge.com/?cat=4

Martinez, S. L., & Stager, G (2013). Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom. Torrence, CA: Construction Modern Knowledge Press.

Xtopher (2017). Friday Product Post: Raspberry Pi Zero W. Sparkfun Start Something. Retrieved from https://www.sparkfun.com/news/2432