21st Century Classrooms, Digtal Natives and Copyright Laws

In my previous blog i described how I believe that the most important change that needs to take place in schools is the shift from teacher lectures to teacher facilitation. In the article 21st Century Skills, that author(s) mention that kids today need to be provided with more hands on experiences in order to aquire the skills needed to survive in the workplace. These skills include being able to use the latest technology, be ing adaptable to change, taking risks, mastering higher order thinking, communicating with others and planning ahead. Society must recognize that the present way of teaching is out of date and students need to be actively engaged and provided with meaningful work.

One way to engage students is to use technology in the classroom; videos, podcasts, powerpoints, the internet etc. In class we discussed the difference between digital natives and digital immigrants. Its important that all educators and parents become digital natives in order to keep up with students and understand their language. To engage means we must no what our students like and dislike, if we know this then it will be easy to find the materials needed to help increase student intrest. Digital natives also seem to be great at multitaking so teachers should not be afraid to play music while students are working or watching movies/television episodes to teach a lesson.

With the increased use of technology and outside recources in the classroom, copy right law will be important for making lesson plans and planning activities. Copy right laws restrict the use of origional works at the hands of the creator. Before using any sources that are not my own, i must insure that i am aloud to use/repoduce copies of the work in my classroom. Otherwise i will need to find another source or contact the author and ask permission. The fair use policy that is designed to help a person decide if they are able to use the work will help me from spending too much time checking on every outside source. This policy scares me because it can be challenged by the copyright holders. In the beginning of my career i think i will have to take precautions to be sure that i am not doing anything illegal. As time passes i think i will understand the copy right laws better and be able to judge what i can and cannot use. This also may not be such an issue since many teachers are granted access to sources to use in the classroom.