Blog Post #6

The Networked Student

In the video, The networked student by Wendy Drexler, Wendy addresses the concept of connectivism. She defines connectivism as the theory that learning occurs as a social network of many diverse connections and ties. I honestly have never heard of terms such as “connectivism” or “ networked student” until now. Connectivism connects teachers and students around the world. With this way of teaching the teacher never lectures nor is there a textbook. The student in this video discovered Google Scholar and created his own book marking site. After discovering these items the student proceeded to create his own blog to discover networking for himself.
Everything about our society links back to technology. That is why we all must be up to date on the latest. Networking is very important to everyone. When teachers use Networking apps with students it allows an opportunity for students and teachers to have a closer relationship. Teachers also can meet with parents as often as needed using networking, which to me is really important because I think a teacher and the parents should update weekly or monthly to each other just to make sure everything is going smoothly and it also builds a relationship between the parents and teachers which is always important.
In the video they ask the question, why does a student of connectivism need a teacher? A student needs a teacher so they have guidance because without a teacher there wouldn’t be any guidance. Teachers are there to steer them in the right direction, answer questions, model, ect. Teachers are role models for students and show their students how to communicate properly and respectfully. Teachers can only hope that their students will leave their classroom fully aware of how to navigate all that she or he has taught them so that they can apply it to something or someone one day.

A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment

In this video, A 7th Grader’s Personal Learning Environment, a 7th grader shares how her science class is taught not using any paper just using networking. She tells how her PLE is all placed together on her computer so she can easily access whatever information she needs. I think a class that is all networking instead of using paper helps students be more creative and responsible. I also think it makes students more independent and the more the technology advances the more independent students will get which is a great thing because it will help them realize what it is going to be like once their older and out of school.