Joi Ito made some very good points in his video. The world truly changed when the internet was invented. So as educators, why are we still doing school the same way? When he mentioned how it seems like we will one day be in a situation where we are on a mountain and have to use only a pencil to figure out what to do next, this hit a point that I have reflected on in the last year.
I have always felt that open notes are not a bad thing! Especially this year with students taking assessments at home, there is no way to guarantee that they are not looking at notes to help them with their work. In this case, this is where we had to step in as teachers and make their assessments not just about rote memorization and about actually applying and synthesizing the information. This way, they have access to the information they need, but we are able to see if learning took place because they can apply it to a new situation. The only thing I challenge about this idea is that while, yes students have endless amounts of information at their fingertips, we have to help them determine what is relevant or accurate information. This is always apparent when I have my 7th graders do research for projects and I review it and find outrageous or inaccurate information that they included only because they found it on Google. While I don’t think they should have to memorize everything, they will need the skills to determine what is accurate and hopefully instill a drive in them to WANT to learn more.
When it comes to using blended learning in the classroom, I believe that I am flexible enough to handle the changes. This is what I chose as my innovation proposal. The one concern I am is being allowed to be flexible enough to make this a reality. I do believe that my colleagues and I are committed enough to use technology. My team teacher and I have already discussed that we will remain digital even after we are allowed to go back to paper because we have grown so much in the last year and we want to continue that with our future students.
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