Dynamic Learning Communities

Compared to some of the other article we read during class, I think this article does a good job of opening up the idea of dynamic learning communities on both positive and negative aspects of this topic. The real world examples also help the connection to what is defined as a DLC. We all want our students to take more control over there learning and dynamic learning communities many be a good place to start. However, the lack of control that the teacher has may discourage teachers at the elementary and middle school levels. As I was reading the article many questions did come to mind and I kept my classroom in the back of my mind. Currently there are so many restrictions with teachers and meeting test scores, so where does the time come in to explore these options. Because you are taking control of your own learning, where is the teachers’ role come into play? Does a facilitator constitute having too much control? So many students are learning in controlled environments were the teachers designed the lessons and what they want the students to learn. I wonder how the student would react to having equal control as the teacher. I don’t know if some of these students would know where to start and some would show there natural leadership. As an adult learner, you are motivated and willing to try new things, but the question comes to mind as to why then would we pay money to earn credit on something that you may not learn from a designed instruction from a teacher but a DLC. If DLCs were to be implemented in schools, I think they would need to discover how to solve problems that may arise with the limited control and the best way to assess the learning.

Media and Attention

There are many myths and truths about media and technology and its influences on academics. The most obvious point of this article that everyone should understand is no matter what media or technology you use the “What matters are the ways in which teachers choose to use, present, and teach with the technology” . In educational situation, the students use of technology in the school or home setting is only “good as the instruction they receive in how to use it”. How the teachers or parents choose to use technology will determine how it will “enhance student learning”.

As Marshall McLuhan famously said, "The medium is the message." I really don’t think that the number of hours you watch TV, or play on the computer or watch movies correlates to the how successful you are in school, but what they should be concentrating on is the content and skills they are using or gaining from watching or playing these programs. There are many things on TV that children should not be watching, especially with the rise of reality TV. However there are some interesting TV programs that have educational value, it just depends on how you incorporate and use it in your lessons. There are some issue with parents, administration and even teachers about watching movies and TV at school, because they want to know how it’s being used in the curriculum. I know some people feel that it’s just a “movie day”, and yes sometimes teachers do use movies as free time, but when movies or TV are used for educational value thing go in a uproar. I know that the Social Studies curriculum was questioned for watching the movie Glory in 8th after learning about the Civil War. Personally when, I found out about that I was shocked because that was a movie I remember watching and discussing when I was in 8th grade. Some parents are arguing that the movie is too violent, but I have to take a look at what kind of movies the students are watching now. Even though this “violent act” is what happened during the war, the movie was edited and these “violent” parts were taken out. These parents still think there is no educational value of watching this movie and the teachers need to prove why this movie has an educational value in their curriculum.

With the rise in new technologies and media some adults are scared because in the “traditional” sense, by using these technologies in school the students are not learning. Playing, being interactive, engaged, and having fun, can’t be considered learning, can it? It just depends how these are being used to “enhance student learning.”

UDL to unlock the potential

UDL is what we as teachers should be strive for in and outside of our classrooms. It always should be about the students and how we can reach them in the designs of the curriculum and supplemental materials given to the students. Implementing something such as universal designs on the materials we create for our students will help us as teacher manage our time we spend on trying to recreate these materials we may want to use again at a later time. This article provided several charts and examples to try to implement the universal designs on teacher created supplemental materials, such as study guides and test.

The example provided in the article about study guides, was a good example of how easily supplemental materials can be universally design to meet the needs of all students. Sometimes I find that teachers try to squeeze as much information onto a study guide or use the one provide by the book. These materials may include too much information for the student to know what to study for and therefore the student may become frustrated with trying to study because they don’t know what to concentrate on. Once you have created some kind of template for study guides, you can then apply these rules and applications to other material you create. It’s so much easier to spend your time making things that are valuable to your students rather than making something that the students would get frustrated with in addition to the frustration that will continue because of the assessment results. These design principles, such as properly using the size of font, placement, spacing, color, bullets, etc. may help the student focus their attention to the content that is most important for the lesson or unit.

Considering a graphic designer was brought in to aid with the universal design workshop at the middle school mentioned in the article, I think it would be important for teachers to take design workshops. Being an art teacher and already have basic knowledge of design principles it is important to all teachers to use in their classroom on any material used for the students. Many teachers don’t think about these design elements as part of “art” but they really are. With the advances in technology there are many avenues teachers can take to make universal designs for learning easily and assessable to other teachers.