In this edutopia article by Sara Bernard, students discuss their ideas for using technology to learn core subjects. Students have thoughts for everything from video dialogues to global brainstorming using Skype. “If you want to learn about a country, why not just ask the people who live there about it?” writes one student. This article is full of ideas directly from youth voices today.
Project-based learning is in full swing at Poudre High School in Colorado. “FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is all about inspiring and motivating students to become engaged in math, science, engineering, and technology. Each year, teams of students, teachers, and professional engineers respond to the FIRST challenge by designing and building a robot,” writes Roberta Furger. Students on the team have become passionate about their creations. “‘The hands-on experience I gained from working on this project has just been absolutely phenomenal,’ says Tsai, a two-year veteran of the Poudre High Robotics Team…‘It's really neat the way the students design and fabricate the robot. It really shows you what you can do.’”
In this YouTube video, students express their profound need for a change in the way classrooms are run today. Fixated more on their Ipods, Facebook profiles, and text messaging rather than on what their professor is saying, this video demonstrates the thoughts and feelings of students while teachers think they are listening. Students want their teachers to change how the curriculum is taught to be up to date with the latest technology rather than lecturing in front of the class.
"The teachers at Don Mills Collegiate Institute are now the students," writes Kristin Rushowy, an education reporter. "Faced with teens who know more than they do about technology, the Toronto high school began an 'adopt-a-teacher' program where students teach the adults how to create blogs or interactive graphics, edit video, or even just improve their PowerPoint presentations. 'Half the school's teachers signed up for the tutoring,' says Sharron Forrest, program director of the Toronto high school's renowned CyberARTS program".
“Many young people are experts at collaborating through online technology -- the kind of tools that are powering the new global economy” and edutopia.org asked students, “what it takes to succeed”. Across the globe, students have submitted their answers via web video. Social dynamics takes the top spot, with 5th-12th grade students reporting that they would like to learn more about communication, social networking, cooperation, and presentation skills.
Seniors at High Tech High, a San Diego charter school, regularly complete projects that "mesh principles of art, physics, engineering, and other sciences. Teachers from the different disciplines co-lead this effort.” Student designers describe each science-art project in these web videos.
As Grace Rubenstein, a staff writer and multimedia producer for Edutopia, walked around a busy classroom, sophomore Maya Walden took a break from researching the root causes of genocide. Maya wondered what Grace planned to do with her recordings. Grace explained that [she] would use editing software to meld the best clips into a soundtrack for an audio slide show, to appear online. "Oh," Maya said. "We could probably do that for you." And they did. At San Diego’s High Tech High, students prepare to become “professionals in a modern world”, and every part of the textbook-free school fosters “personalized project learning with pervasive connections to the community”. To read more about High Tech High and to see the audio slideshow the students put together for Rubenstein, click on the link above.
For the first time, instead of asking the parents and teachers, the state of West Virginia asked the students what they wanted in schools, as well as their opinions of how well the schools were doing. 4,955 5th-12th grade students from across the state filled out the internet survey, and “improved technology” was the top response. In addition, advanced courses, smaller class sizes, and increased hands-on learning experiences were desired. To read the complete survey and analysis, click on the link above.
The National Findings on Science Education from Speak Up 2007, collected data from 319,223 K-12 students for this Project Tomorrow-Net Day report. In this report, Kim Farris-Berg writes, “While some of today’s students will be producers of scientific knowledge, it’s likely that the majority will be knowledge consumers.” Farris-Berg notes that most students find learning science as a means to graduate high school. However, if science was presented more as inquiry based learning and hands-on projects, instead of memorization of facts, more students would be interested in pursuing STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) careers. In addition, this report includes open-ended questions with both student and teacher responses.
“Born in the 1980s, Millennials -- some 75 million of them in the U.S. alone -- are beginning to enter the workforce and making a profound impact with their wholly different perspective on, approach to, and expectations of a professional experience. To help employers around the globe navigate the sometimes treacherous intergenerational waters, Porter Novelli undertook a comprehensive research initiative, drawing on the expertise of [1000 communication professionals] of the Porter Novelli organization, as well as interns from schools including Virginia Tech, Michigan State and the University of Florida. The paper, "Intelligent Dialogue: Millennials," is the result of that effort”, writes mobilize.org.
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