reading questions week 6 edci 5825

I think the 10 Big Shifts in Education are important because they provide students easy access to information and they allow learning to happen at any place, at any time. Learning is not just limited to a classroom anymore. In Big Shift 2, teachers can collaborate with each other through the Internet and experts on subjects such as William Faulkner or marine biology can be reached at any time by students (Richardson, 2010). I think it is important for students to talk to others around the world; they can form connections with what they are learning to real-world examples. Alan November gives the example of students learning about the conflict in Israel, so they spoke to an Israeli citizen online (2010). They asked the person when peace would come to the region, much to the disappointment of the students, the person began talking about water rights and access to water (November, 2010). Students need to know how to ask the right questions and then they can truly gain perspective on the world around them. This relates to Big Shift 3, where learning is truly social; students collaborate with other students and experts to gain a wider understanding of the greater world outside the classroom.

Big Shift 8 could pose the most difficulty to me as a teacher. This shift is “writing is no longer limited to text” (Richardson, 2010). Richardson writes that students can communicate through music, digital photographs, video, and more and then use the Internet to publish it to a wider audience (2010). As an English teacher, my students will write essays, creative pieces, reflections, or simply jotting down notes. Since English is so writing-oriented, I will have difficulty incorporating other forms of communication in my classroom. However, I could have the students create a video about a book or play they are reading. I will have to think of other ways to expand my students’ literacy beyond just text. I think I will have an easier time implement Big Shift 6 “Readers are no longer readers.” As an English teacher, my job is to have students critically analyze texts for the meaning and purpose. Students already have these skills so they it will be easy for them to apply the same skills to determine the purpose and author of a website. Even books have a bias or sometimes are not factual, so it is important to be a critical reader of all media. I feel the critical thinking skills than English students require are similar to the ones that informational literate individuals possess.

November, A. (2010). Empowering students with technology. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin.