Blog Post 6

The Networked Student: Wendy Drexler



This short video, directed by Wendy Drexler, an EdTech PhD at the University of Florida, discusses the idea of connectivism and the 21st century student. Connectivism, as defined in the video, is a theory that learning occurs as a part if socializing through the use of technology.

The video outlines many possible resources a 21st century student has. There are places on such as Google Scholar where a student can find reliable scholarly sources for their needs. Students have access to podcasts from teachers around the world on any topic. And students also have ways to share the gathered information with their peers.

So after all of this information was presented, I began to think that teachers are pretty useless nowadays. Why would a student need a teacher today? The video answered this question quite clearly. These days, a teacher is less of a teacher and more of a GUIDE. No one is born knowing how to approach all of these resources. The teacher can pass along their experience and knowledge to their students in regards to how to build networks and ask for help in gathering information. So perhaps the teacher isn't so useless after all.

A 7th Grader's PLE



For a 7th grader (by my "ancient" standards), this was quite impressive. She uses Symbaloo, and everything was very well organized. I like how she was able to access everything so quickly.

Honestly, I was ashamed at how I accessed my information. I simply relied on bookmarks and webpage history. Symbaloo seems like it would work miracles in my college life.

The Machine is Changing Us: Michael Wesch



Honestly, there was a lot of information in this video. It's hard to sum it all up. In the beginning, Wesch discussed a change in culture. People were being less interested in incoming information. "Whatever" and "Meh" became trending responses. In my college experience, I have seen this numerous times, especially in the case where a student is taking a class that may not directly pertain to their major. "Why should I care about this? This has nothing to do with me."As a teacher, I am sure that I will encounter the students with the "Whatever/Meh" attitude. In fact, even I might have that attitude: "Why am I teaching this? This has nothing to do with me."

Later on in the video, he discusses something that I found rather interesting, and also something I can relate to--YouTube. YouTube bloggers (especially for the first time), gain a true sense of awareness from the way they look to the way they appear and behave towards others. youTube also gives people the opportunity the "freedom to experience humanity without fear or anxiety". in other words, one would be able to see how others feel and behave without social awkwardness getting in the way. This idea is beyond evident in some of the comments one would see on YouTube, and other social networks. A certain sense of courage and confidence is developed when one is not face-to-face with another human being.