the media window

The focus of this inspirational presentation by Sylvia Martinez was on the student and how we as educators need to enlist and include them in their own learning. We need to stop seeing the obstacles and start looking for the opportunities to do this. Teachers and students can be allies and mentors in their own buildings, and as it is natural to have students who want to help, it makes sense to extend that inclination and make it happen in more ways. Her feeling is that we educators, who have discovered and embraced the Web 2.0 concepts can understand students better from our rediscovery of our own passion for learning. So, in the spirit of Web 2.0 we need to enhance and encourage the collaboration concept and extend it to including our students. Her idea is that students are capable of doing many things in the school setting that we take on ourselves, and that we need to provide more opportunities for them to “advocate,evangelize, maintain, support and enforce”. I really am rephrasing what I think is the essence of the presentation, and I’m not sure that I can do it justice in a few words, as I found it very thought provoking.
I also agreed with her thoughts on digital natives (students who have only known the digital world) and digital immigrants (those who remember when there was no television, or microwave ovens or …well you get my drift) as she strongly suggest that no matter what, the students still need teachers to make sense of their digital world. The fundamental needs of students are still there, but the ways the needs are met may have changed. Simply put, instead of journals, book reports, posters and such we also need to give students other avenues such as blogs and wikis to show their learning and express themselves in ways that are meaningful to them.
I really enjoyed this presentation as I found it to be inspiring and also done in an entertaining way.

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