Blog Assignment 6

1. The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler
At the end of the video the question, "why does the networked student even need a teacher?" was asked. Throughout the video this is exactly what I was thinking. Why would a student that can get any information necessary online and watch podcast from some of the most successful professors, need me? I have taken a few online classes before and they were very confusing. Without the teacher I would have been completely lost. When reading instructions to an assignment online I would always wonder if I was doing everything correctly.
No matter what the classroom situation may be you need a source person, this being the teacher. There has to be someone there to answer your questions and help you with your concerns. In the video if there weren't a teacher then the student wouldn't be familiar with all of the possibilities that are available online. The video also mentioned that the teacher would help the student with organization and how to properly write to other professors.

2. A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment (or PLN)
This particular 7th graders is incredibly organized and prepared. My brother is in the 7th grade and he comes home with several binders and books with pages falling out everywhere. If he had the knowledge that this 7th grader has he would be much more organized. This makes everything so convenient. To have everything in one place make everything so much easier.

For this class, EDM310, I have everything on my lap top and ready to go. This makes doing the assignments required so much easier. I am able to just grab my lap top and take it to work, school or to my parents and know that I have everything that I need to complete my work. Since everything is online then that means that anyone can see your work, this makes you really want to do your best and make everything look nice. In the video she mentions that everything looks nice since it is done on the computer. This is true. I really enjoy doing these projects because they look so great once you are finished. I believe that these are great tools that need to be implemented in our school systems.

3. Tech and Learning is an article that I found that discusses some of the useful tools that can be used in a classroom with a SMART Board. Amber Price, the author of "Ten Ways to Get Smart With SMART board", writes about many different ways to be interactive with the classroom with a SMART board. She explains that she plays games with her classroom and does interactive worksheets. I was in a history classroom that had a SMART board and the teacher used it for powerpoint presentation. It seemed useful with all of the pictures and interactive websites that she incorporated into the powerpoint.
In Why Smartboards are a Dumb Initiative, by Michael Staton, he expresses that he believes that SMART boards are a waste of money. I can see where he is coming from. It does seem as if the SMART board is just a more expensive white board. I really believe that this depends on what sort of classroom you have. I think a SMART board is a great way to get students interacting and allowing them to play educational games as a class. Also, if you are using certain web pages to educate students the SMART board could be very useful for displaying the web pages and using the web page in front of the class.