EDU 782 Mid Term Blog

EDU 782

Mid Term Blog

    So far this course has been very helpful with providing different tech tools to investigate and use.  While learning about tech tools has been great, the most helpful content that I've learned was about the 4 C's of 21st Century Learning.  The 4 C's include Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and Creativity.  While the 4 C's are great to incorporate with STEAM the 4 C's can fit in with any subject and does not necessarily need to be used only with STEAM.  

    I can see myself incorporating the 4 C's of 21st Century Learning on a daily to weekly basis.  I like to use discovery lessons for students to discover the content that we are learning in class.  I can easily fit in the 4 C's into their collaborative group lessons. I've always had great engagement within my class from most students.  I believe by using the 4 C's weekly and in each of my group activities I will have even more engagement.  I try to fit in as much tech as possible when it is appropriate.  I try not to force technology and use it when it fits into the lessons. My activities always rely on communication and collaboration.  The only C that I need to fit in more is creativity.  I believe I can do this by having the students create presentations on their discovery lesson, I could use tech like a power point or old fashioned large sticky papers where the students can create a story an how they discovered the content of the day or week. By being able to fit in creativity may engage students that may be more artistically inclined than some of their peers.  An additional way to fit in creativity is to give students some choice and options on how they want to present their material.  Giving choice and options will not only allow students to be more creative but it will give a sense of ownership which will create more buy in from the students. 

    Other ways I can incorporate what I've been learning in this course is to use more of the technology presented to use.  I really liked Padlet and Popplet.  I can use Padlet in many different ways in class.  I can use it to get the students writing about what they are learning or I can use it as a place for students to self reflect about the lesson as an exit ticket.  I really like Popplet as well, the way that it starts out as a subject in the middle then branches out gives me the idea of using this to present different methods to solving the same type of math problem.  In the middle I can have an example then I can branch out with method 1, method 2, and method 3.  This is a great way to archive some some notes and just share the link with the students to they have it for their use.  They will be able to access the content when at home working on their homework when they need to look at an example.