The main reasons for these new jobs would be student ownership of their own learning and an opportunity to make a valuable contribution. While the job titles might be a little weighty, the jobs themselves could be done by students of all ages. If the job assignments rotated, kids would have a wealth of opportunities and teachers wouldn’t be subjected to listening to 25 how-to demonstrations in a single day.
Beyond classroom jobs, Alan November feels students need to be taught the grammar and syntax of Internet searching. Alan is concerned that students use the Internet thinking they know how it works when in reality they don’t which he feels is worse than if they know they don’t know. How many adults does this also describe?
Alan presented other worthwhile research and ideas in his session, but the research that stuck with me was that when one listens to an audio version of a book, the speaker’s voice will give you a different interpretation than if you read it yourself. Is this why a third of my class won’t finish their math page without me reading the directions to them? Maybe direction announcer could be a job too.
November, Alan. “Designing Rigorous and Globally Connected Assignments.” 01 July 2008. Webcast. University of Oregon. KZO Webcasting. Accessed on 06 October 2008.
2 comments:
I love the idea of a "direction announcer." I find too that even when I go over directions word by word, they are not always followed.
We spend years teaching students how to read pictures, text, context clues, etc. Why would we just expect them to know how to read something so complex as the Internet?
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