Embracing Change

After reading the articles for week 2, the theme is definitely that change is constant and as educators we must embrace it. I couldn’t agree more.

McVerry, Zawilinski and O’Byrne present their argument in the article, “Navigating the C's of Change.” Since change is constant, the authors stress the need to develop what they define as the C’s:  creativity, communication, critical thinking, and comprehension. In terms of applying their theories to teaching, the plan for Internet Reciprocal Teaching is concrete and immediately relevant to the classroom. I look forward to implementing a form of their inquiry based instruction in my classroom. I have utilized parts of the plan, but after reading the article I will spend more time on the “Basics of Navigation” described in Phase I. Students are often not as technologically adept as we might assume. I believe that the area where my students need the most instruction in is the Phase II level. I plan to spend more time working with students on evaluating websites for “usefulness and truthfulness.” The authors mention Google News as a site to obtain a variety of sources on a topic. I have also found “Room for Debate” in the Opinion section of the New York Times to be very helpful in providing students with multiple articles on a topic which they can then evaluate for bias and reliability. Finally, I think the inquiry project described “How Do I Make the World A Better Place?” is excellent. As far as implementation, I plan to modify some of the research projects my students do to focus on inquiry rather than research. I would like the work to be more student-centered, which is what the authors describe. I have always believed that when students have some choice in what they do, they become more engaged and productive.

Along the same lines, the John Seely Brown video on “Motivating Learners” supports the idea that we must embrace change. Using surfing and gaming analogies, Brown makes the point that when people develop a passion for something, they collaborate, analyze, evaluate and revise to achieve. More and more I am realizing that these are skills we must develop in our students.  I especially liked Brown’s belief that we need students to become invested in their own learning so that they can scaffold to higher levels as specific skills will quickly becoming outdated. Best of all, I agree that we can’t underestimate the power of play and also, as mentioned in the McVerry article, “Cornerstone of a New Literacies Curriculum,” the power of persistence. Too often, kids want results quickly. As educators, we need to make them realize that the process is as important as the result. Serious learning and quality work takes time!