This week, we in the ITDML cohort are looking at our learning hubs and either tweaking them or completing an overhaul of epic proportions for our final course project. I've decided that even though I LOVE Weebly and am so happy with how easy it's been to use up until this point, I'm going to give Wix a shot. There are more template options, more embed-able tools, and mobile version editing. Initially, my site map for my new website looked like this: I began working in Wix and found that the navigation was relatively intuitive. I also spoke with my personal consultant (my husband), who runs the website for People's United Bank, and got some input. Based on his suggestions about navigation, clarity of content, etc, my homepage currently looks like this: It looks pretty professional...but after some feedback from my peers, I realize that there is nothing in there that is 'me.' This could be anyone's design. While I don't think I will start from scratch, I will move forward looking at ways I can get more of 'me' to shine through.
0 Comments
My philosophy of education finds its basis in the belief that every child is unique, and that each child brings with him or her a unique set of experiences that influence all aspects of learning. When we, as educators, draw upon our students' individual and collective experiences, students become more active learners, capable of finding success in all traditional subject matters. John Dewey guides us with the idea that we must, "abandon the notion of subject-matter as something fixed and ready-made in itself, outside the child's experience... It is continuous reconstruction, moving from the child's present experience out into that represented by the organized bodies of truth that we call studies," (The Child and the Curriculum, 1902).
This belief, put into practice, creates some tension in the modern day traditional public education system. With more and more testing, more and more demands placed upon teachers to adhere to measurable, quantifiable units and lessons that produce data for analysis and reports, we must be mindful of Dewey's words. We are challenged to fulfill our responsibilities as public school employees while at the same time fulfilling our duties to our students to help them become successful, lifelong learners who can develop passions and delve into their interests. Collaborative learning, content creation, using students' experiences to build on learning and integration of 21st century skills will lead to increased student engagement and deeper learning, thus bridging the ideas Dewey presented with modern educational systems. Adaptability and agility in students' (and teachers') approaches to learning should be a top priority. We know that specific tools and trendy devices come into and fall out of fashion, yet it is how we apply and adapt the skills we have acquired to be able to use them that make us successful. We must foster the same adaptability and agility in our students, and provide more authentic opportunities for this as time moves forward. |
Archives
July 2015
Categories
All
. . .
. . .
![]() This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. |