An Open Letter to Educators By: Morgan Bayda
Morgan's post definitely seems to speak to the minds and hearts of many students. It is heartbreaking to see that lecturing has become a world-wide epidemic among many teachers. In many cases, education has become just another obstacle for students and sadly, many do drop-out. We lecture and we lecture and we wonder why students just aren’t getting “IT”. It is because the world as we knew it has changed.
The world has become more diverse and the wheel has been reinvented. Knowledge of technology and establishing a PLN in which to collaborate and share ideas is not only “relevant” but necessary in this information age. I love Brown’s quote - information is not only “free”. It has been liberated! While taking my EDM 310 class, a hunger for knowledge has been ignited and I certainly feel liberated. You can become as educated and informed as you choose to be. There are absolutely NO LIMITS.
I am however hoping that Dan Brown did not drop out of college. In today’s society, a college degree is still a very valuable asset. As stated by Dan, a strong education isn’t just important, it is essential. In my opinion, Institutional Education is still the springboard for socioeconomic success. Perhaps Brown could become the conduit for revolutionizing institutional education in the information age. He seems to be very creative and has lots of great ideas. What would education become if Dan Brown channeled this same energy into revolutionizing institutional education?
ALABAMA LEARNING EXCHANGE
ALEX is an acronym for Alabama Learning Exchange. This interactive website provides teachers access to thousands of lesson plans created and posted by teachers for grades K-12. Parents may also access this database to help students reach and maintain school standards. ALEX Lesson plans are created in compliance with the Alabama state standards for all subject areas. However, teachers in other states can customize the lesson plans to fit their school’s standards.
The ALEX database is very user friendly. One of the features that I most liked was the web links tab. This section provided the names of several sites that would be useful to classroom teachers such as: New York Times Learning Network, The Educators Network, and Highlights’ TeacherNet. There is also a section where visitors can listen to and/or create Podcasts.
I do find ALEX to be an extremely useful tool. As a future educator, this site will become a part of my PLN. ALEX allows you to collaborate and share experiences and lesson ideas with veteran teachers across the state of Alabama. I still plan to collaborate with other educators around the world, but it is always nice to know what is going on in one’s own neighborhood.
I am delighted we are playing a part in igniting your hunger for learning. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteMy "canned" comment for this post:
I decided that we all need a slight bit of a "holiday" for the 4th. So you got to skip C4C Number 9; my associates got to skip comments on your post due 7/5 (Bayda, ALEX AND ACCESS); and I am doing this "group" comment for everyone who posted on time or by the "corrected” date (tonight at midnight) which means that if you get this message you were recorded as having submitted your post on time. I thought that your posts on Morgan Bayda's blog were good. Some were especially interesting and generated a personal email from me.
We are moving into the final two weeks of the term. Only one more full week exists before the week in which your final project is due. It should be a significant project that demonstrates many of the tools you have learned to use and skills you have acquired in EDM310. It must be collaborative. If you have any questions about this project we should discuss them in lab tomorrow (Thursday July 8, 2010). There are only 12 days left in which to complete your final projects!