Blog #4 Responding to Changes

Wow, I have learned so much from this lesson.  Technology is changing the way we as teachers can teach our students. 

Free online instructional videos for k-12

 I love what Kahn Academy is doing for Education.  I especially love the idea of the flipped classroom that they talk about in the Kahn Academy video:  The future of education?  I think the flipped classroom where you go over the concept at home, and then do the homework in class is a great idea.  Kahn Academy is not just teaching a concept, they are assessing the student on how well they learn and what they need help with.  In the article UVA to offer free online courses it discusses that just because they take online courses does not mean that they are educated.  You have to be able assess their learning which is what Kahn Academy does.

 Free online university classes and MOCs

I was really impressed by all the free online courses you could take that the MOOC List had described.  These kinds of classes could help students like me, a non-traditional student who does not remember English and writing essays.  For example, they had a course for college writing, and principles of written English that may not give you a college credit, but it can get you ready to go back to school and take College English course.

Plans for free online degrees

I love the idea of free online degrees.  Online degrees would help people who have to work while they go back to school and raise a family.  On the ted talks about free education for the world they claim that offering free online courses not only teaches the content, but it gives ways to research how people learn.  This gives the student a more hands on technique with their own learning.

New writers/sources of textbooks

In states like California they are already implementing using technology instead of textbooks.  Online open text is free to students.  This alone would save college students tremendously.  They also claim in the 5 Sources Of Open-Source Textbook, that it could also help your back.  I think it is better to go to digital textbooks now before we are mandated to.  Digital textbooks are a great tool for the teacher to be able to download context that is usable and get rid of what is not.  I plan to use digital tools like the ipad to aid in student learning in my classroom.  I know that students need diverse ways of learning, and I believe that digital textbooks can offer that.