Thursday, September 4, 2014

Blog 1: 21st Century Instructional Strategies

Instructional strategies are changing for the better and it is a good thing.  The old education strategy of memorize by wrote is giving way to strategies that include all styles of learners.  The importance of this cannot be overstated.  According to authors’s of Instructional Technology and Media for Learning, Sharon E. Smaldino, Deborah L. Lowther, and James D. Russell, Teachers must be prepared to teach student who come to them learning through hand on means and desires to learn in their own way.  They go on to suggest that because information grows exponentially students must be taught how to retrieve information not memorize by wrote in order to recall later. An example of these new realities are those help student evaluate information for accuracy and bios.  Essentially student must be able to find information weigh its sources and understand motivations.  Students are now entering school with technology background that surpasses their instructors.  Lessons must change to fit these student’s needs.  Frequently they know how to use the technology but do not know how to maximize its use to their advantage. The implementation of strategies must consider this. Instead of disregarding technology as a fad, it must be put to use.  With many students familiar with social networking sites, instructors would be wise to adapt this technology to their own use.  I have already started using programs and techniques that have at their core communication.  I have incorporated the delivery of lessons via Edmodo, and use applications like Wikispaces, Blogger, and schoology. I also plan on requiring students to use online portfolio’s.  These applications offer students twenty first century mechanisms that allow for collaboration, team building, and project based learning that will be more and more important to our students during higher education and beyond.

Reference:

Smaldino S., Lowther D., and  Russell, J.(2012), Instructional Technology and Media for Learning, Allyn & Bacon by Pearson Education, Inc.  

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