HW #5

Well, it took me way longer than I thought it would.  In an attempt to keep things, I thought, simple for the purposes of this assignment, I decided to have students watch the 5 minute-long YouTube video we watched on Connectivism.  But, before I assigned that, I had them journal on the following:  "Can you envision a time when students will learn virtually, in other words, from a teacher who can only be accessed through a computer?  What are your thoughts about this future possibility?  Would you as a student prefer that?  Detail why you think it's a good idea and or a not-so-good idea."

I previewed it twice.  On round two, I wrote down vocabulary that I anticipated my students would need to know ahead of time.  So, I had them do a scavenger hunt on the following terms using Google Scholar: connectivism, network, professional journals, abstracts, research studies, articles, peer-reviewed articles, social bookmarking, blog, reader, itunes u, documentary, virtual textbook, culmination, voice thread, Wikispaces, Skype, information management, and learning network.  Students were required to write down, on binder paper, definitions for the above terms and turn them in.  This took almost one class period.

Students went back a second day, to actually watch the 5-minute-long Connectivism video clip.  After watching it, I had them pair/share, where they got a partner and verbally expressed their thoughts on the video.  After both sharing and listening, they were ideally to blog about it, but I could not get it together, so they typed their thoughts about this new information.

I am not sure if having given them so many terms really helped their understanding.  Some said yes while others said not so much.  I also felt a sense of irony having them take old-fashioned notes for this class and considering the content of the video.  This I learned after our large group reflection.

Overall though, I think this could be a worthwhile assignment if in fact I can create some kind of social/academic network for them.  Perhaps another teacher and I could collaborate on this.  Then, I believe meaning will be attributable to this particular assignment.