Digital Edge Project

The digital edge project is an online library that highlights a collection of articles, videos, and podcasts created and posted by certified teachers.

The lesson I picked is called "Baby Signs for Pre-K Children." This lesson comes from a Pre-K Special Education teacher from Florida. This teacher created a lesson that incorporated the use of Babysigns, a program that "uses gestures that preverbal babies use to communicate wants and needs," in hopes to stimulate her non-verbal students to use words/gestures to communicate. For each student she concentrated on their individuals needs and her desired outcomes based off of their IEP goals.
To get started she assessed each student to see which words and gestrues they already knew, and which words/gestures she wanted them to learn. For each gesture/action she demonstrated them by the use of a videotape shots. To get the students familarized with the process of the videotaping she videotaped them for a few days doing various activities. Many of her students have some kind of verbal delay, so she she used these tactics with many students. Each of her two nonverbal students had a targeted vocabulary checklist for each language lesson. She compared the checklists after every lesson to evalutate the effectivness of these lessons and students progress. After a year of using these lessons with the two students she was very impressed with their progress. These modifications and new teaching strategies she implemented proved to increase these students vocbulary and their what was a very limited forms of communication.

I really liked this lesson because it was simple and fun. This teacher reflected on the videotaping aspect and said her students loved interacting with the videotaps and loved beging recorded and watching themselves on tv. This lesson make learning vocabulary fun because its and interactive process. From the article it didnt seem like it took too much prep time, however, preparing for the lesson seemed to be the most important part of this lesson. Assessing students current vocabulary and where you want them to be when they are done with the lessons was a very crucial aspect of this language learning process. I think i would liek to try this lesson in my classroom, however, the teacher who initially implemented this lesson said when she did these lessons it took her entire attention. This means using a startegy like this in a classroom is only realistic if you have at least one para educator with you, like this teacher did. If a lesson is going to take your entire attention you need to ensure that your other students are in good hands with another qualfied professional.

Mitchel Resnick: Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age

The focus of this article is taking advantage of new technologies and using them in a more productive and meaningful way to create a "learning revolution" in education. Mitchel Resnick the author of this article states that the problem holding back this revolution is the approaches teaching and learning have remotely changed.

Resnick encourages computer users to change the way they view and use computers. To not look at computers as a tool to view and obtain information but tool to help create things of importance. He explains, touching upon Jean Piaget's theory that learning is an interactive process "in which people construct new understandings of the world around
them through active exploration, experimentation, discussion, and reflection." Therefore to take full adavantage of technoloy, computer users should not just use computers as a tool to access information but a tool in which they can create things and express themselves. Another reason Resnick states that attributes to the nonoccurence of this "learning revelution" is the fact computers users remain non-fluet with modern day technology. Resnick hints to the fact that the majority of users only become familiar with the computer tools they use, and even then are not fluent in the usage of teh tool/application. Resnick emphasizes the fact that it is not only important to know how to use the computer and other technologies, but how to use them to create things of significance.

Towards the end of the article Resnick introduces the idea of Computer Clubhouses; a technology center that gives people access to new technology such as the computer. The purpose of these clubhouses is to experiment with this new learning approach and let students "learn to express themselves and gain confidence in themselves as learners." This type of environment is said to be beneficial because it “strickes a balance between freedom and structure in learning process."

Resnick then ends with re-emphasizing the fact that we all should be digitally fluent, because we are now living in the digital age, where technology and learning is not only done in schools but outside in the communities, workplaces, and homes.

I thought this was a very interesting article. I agreed with much of what Mitchel said. I really liked the idea of digital fluency. I think it IS very important that todays society becomes not just familiar with computers in away to complete simple daily tasks but a way to express and create. That statement makes a lot of sense, because not only will digital fluency help you in education and the learning process but will help you succeed in other places like the workplace too. I also liked the concept of learning being a lifelong experience. People seem to have stuck in their heads that the only learnign going on is in the schools. Well the truth is we are constantly learning and you just dont stop once you are out of school. I have never heard of Computer Clubhouses before but I think it is a great concept. I think its fantastic that Intel helped create these club houses because it allows people who may not be able to afford or access a computer a change to be apart of this "digital age." I also think this type of center will allow students to naturally improve and become advance in their computer skills by just the mere interaction with a computer. Resnick had some very good ideas and I think that these ideas are not unrealistic. Introducing technology into the lives of our youth and encouraging them to be digitally fluet will be beneficial to all in the long run.