Blog Post #5

The iSchool Initiative

The CEO and founder of the iSchool Initiative Travis Allen has discovered the solution to the budget cuts to the  educational systems found around United States.  With this iSchool Initiative he plans to open the eyes of school boards around the United States and the world to allow the digital age to envelop the mobile classroom.  As a high school senior, Travis Allen and his team that he's built since then, are spanning the country and collecting as many schools as possible to join the collaborative in this battle against budget cuts, for the ecosystem, and the emergence from the stone age.  

To put a figure on his budget cuts he says that things like paper, pencils, and other objects that you find around schools that are easily removable cost approximately 600 dollars per student.  While his initiative that promotes the use of an Apple Itouch, through it's multiple applications, would cost roughly 150 dollars per student.  For a  school with roughly 2000 children that is a very large chunk of change.  This would enable the school to hire more faculty per student and place the money in the advancement of school functions and facilities.  The International exposure that the iSchool Initiative has accrued should do much for this mobile classroom campaign, but  rebuilding the educational system cannot be done alone. So, go to ischoolinitiative.org to learn how you can embrace and spread news of the digital classroom!  Death to pencil and paper!



Virtual Choir

Logistics.  I can imagine the hardships a team must have gone through to assemble these artists, but synchronization and every other tiny detail could have thrown the entire performance into a tailspin.  I hope that the collaboration progresses into other realms of cognitive activities. A large amount of skepticism and doubt flooded my mind, but I discovered it really happened!  The use of the internet this way is exactly how Tim-Berners Lee envisioned, I am sure.  A collection of global connection at the click of the mouse!

Teaching in the 21st Century

As a student I was always told exactly how to research topics, engage in those topics, and then regurgitate the material I learned back to the teacher through 8'x11" pieces of thinly sliced tree trunks.  For decades this was the norm and is still taking place in classes today (even classes in which I am currently enrolled), even when we have this vast expansion of digital media.  Roberts puts a vivid picture in your mind that the classroom is changing; gearing towards an age where teachers may not be needed.  He goes on to give advice for the teacher to adapt and overcome this obstacle, but he still scares the crap out of me.  There is no stopping this digital train and it is headed for a collision with my classroom and if I do not get a ticket and hop on board. 

There are actually 20 of these robots teaching in Seoul.

Why I WILL use a Flipped Classroom

My first C4T assignment was coincidentally a teacher who,  facilitated towards athletics, was using a flipped classroom.  So, I had a glimpse of what the material was going to look at in Katie Gimbar's video Why I Flipped My Classroom.  To be honest I had left a comment on my C4T's blog disagreeing with this tactic, but honestly, what the heck do I know?  Watching the videos on the procedures for what exactly flipping your classroom means is actually a great way to get your point across.  I will definitely be using (if applicable) a flipped classroom as my teaching model simply because of the time I can mentally engage a student/students.  Spending 90% of my time ineffectively preaching to my class cannot be the greatest road to educating.  Allowing the student to learn at their own pace, allowing me to spend time with the "middle section" of class, and allowing effective remediation through technology are all reasons alone that flipping your classroom is a must.