Thursday, January 30, 2014

EDET 543- Blog #3

I definitely enjoyed this week’s reading. I think the real life examples were important to share and really gave me a picture of what can be done in a networked classroom. The advantages to a networked classroom are numerous, but there are a few that stand out to me. First, I believe collaboration is one of the best things that comes out of a networked classroom. Students need to know how to work together. When I was in school group projects usually meant everyone went and did their own thing and then we tried to piece it together at the end, which was difficult and caused most people to dislike group projects. Collaboration is completely different. Technology has made collaborative work much more practical and natural for students to do. Students today also have the opportunity to share ideas not only with other children in the class, but students around the world. Communication skills are also used and developed constantly in a networked classroom. I think the combination of collaboration and communication is going to give students great advantages throughout their entire life. This style of classroom also forces teachers to constantly update their teaching and prevents them from falling into a rut, doing the same things every year.

Right now I do not have my own classroom and can do little more than offer ideas and suggestions to the lead teacher in my room; however I think I can still lay a foundation and plan for when I am on my own. I have the opportunity to network myself and get connected with other educators which will be even more useful when I have my own class.


A networked classroom can benefit all learners regardless of their individual needs. The main thing that has stuck out to me so far is the resources you have with your network. When faced with any need that a student may have, you have an immediate place to go to get help, ideas, advice, etc. It is also easy in a networked classroom to alter lessons to fit individual students. 

2 comments:

  1. Stephanie,

    I think you make a great point, being able to go to your personal network and instantly get resources and ideas is awesome. As a media specialist, I want kids to have exposure to different collaborative resources and teach them how to evaluate reliability. Even if your students may not be old enough to establish their own network we can still model for them how to use the resources available to us.

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  2. Jennifer-
    I love that you mentioned that a networked classroom can benefit learners regardless of needs. That's something that many people tend to forget. I also experienced the same thing when working on group projects in school. I hope that is a thing of the past and that collaboration is key. We have to get all teachers on board to understand the importance of networking. I have presented a few times at my staff meetings on different technological components to try and get those hard-nosed teachers to understand the importance of technology integration. Hopefully I've been able to turn a few of them! :)

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