Stepping Through the Looking Glass and Into the Digital Age

I read the article titled, " 15 Characteristics of a 21st-Century Teacher ." This article was insightful on what qualities teachers that teach in the 21st century should start taking on whether they have already or not. I completely agree with all of the suggested qualities and feel that I have began the process of implementing some of them within my teacher experience as well. As I have read in this article, previous courses, and through personal professional developments, a student-centered approach to learning that includes collaboration and creativity through project-based learning is central to 21st century learning structures. This is definitely something that I agree with. Learning should be student-centered because learners are so different in regards to skill levels and interests and access to massive amounts of resources and information is at our student's fingertips; it would be a shame to see those resources that lead to engaging opportunities for our stu...

This week, I chose to explore the topic of the makerspace movement. Makerspace is another one of those education buzzwords that I have been hearing for a few years, but haven't had the chance to explore the movement further. This was the perfect opportunity to do so. Before looking into the topic of makerspaces by reviewing the sources that Nicole provided as well as researching independently, my understanding of makerspaces consisted of the fact that the movement was all about students using creativity and collaboration to produce a functioning creation of some sort or complete a certain task. I was unsure of what the true purpose of makerspaces were, though, other than allowing children the opportunity to participate in hands-on learning experiences. This video link is a great introduction to what makerspace is. While exploring the topic, a concept that seemed to be emphasized in terms of the purpose of the movement is that makerspace is designed in order to teacher studen...

The article that I chose to read for this blog post was written by Dayna Laur and Jill Ackers and titled, "Developing Natural Curiosity". You can click on this link to view the article. This article discussed the importance of embedding 21st century skills into authentic learning experiences that educators design as well as what these types of experiences should include in order to pique the natural curiosity of young students. This article's purpose connects directly to the 4C's concept we are discussing in our course as quoted by the authors, "at early ages, children’s curiosity and intrinsic motivation make them highly receptive to experiences that build creative, collaborative, critical thinking, and communication skills.” The article discusses how this link between intrinsic motivation and a learner's natural curiosity, when paired with good design strategies can, "propel the development of the problem-solvers we are all striving to foster in o...