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Responses to Merrill
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Responses to Merrill
Wordle Response to Classroom Managment 3
After viewing Mr. Merrill's video on instruction and hearing his point of view I found that I agree with him on many of the items he mentions. For example I agree that it is imperative that we not only tell students what to do, but show them how to do it and let them know that what they learned is critical.
ReplyDeleteI also agreed with Mr. Merrill that substance must come along with motivation. If you have students who are very motivated to learn and you as an instructor challenge them very little, you are doing them and yourself a diservice by being a teacher.
I also agreed with Mr. Merrill on his closing points that we need to demonstrate what we teach, have the students apply it, and also show how what we taught has real world application.
One aspect of Mr. Merrill's presentation that I disagree with is the fact that the internet has to a certain extent made instruction less effective. As an instructional technology minor I can say that the internet, when used correctly, can be one of the greatest resources we as teachers possess. However, I feel the key in using the internet and any technology for that matter must be done so in a way that is interactive and keeps students highly engaged in what they are doing.
It was very interesting to hear an exert's point of view on the changes of learning, and how he thinks it has become less effective. To some extent, I believe I agree with him. Alot of teachers are not sure how to appropriately incorporate the internet into their lessons, yet they are told my administrators that they must, so they slop some webpage together, and call it good. If the website doesn't facilitate learning, it is not helping the children.
ReplyDeleteThis being said, I do not think that ALL internet learning is bad. Alot of teachers who had a sound instructional base in technology are very good at incorporating the internet and new multimedias into the classroom. I think it is all about the planning. If a teacher really takes his or her time, it is possible to be successful with teaching using the internet. It just has to be done correctly.
I think his three essential ideas are very accurate for children. They are to demonsrate, to have the children apply what they learned, and to relate them to real world problems. I think if a teacher can do this using the internet as a helper, then it could be very successful in the classroom, but if they cannot, then they should stick to traditional teaching. If it is doen ineffectively, it can do more harm then help to the children.
After watching this video, I feel like a mostly agree with what he is saying. I do think that motivation is sometimes confused with "games and fun" and the focus is taken away from actual learning. I also feel like his thoughts on instruction were useful. It gave me some insight into what a teacher who has been practicing for quite some time thinks about the newer technologies.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I disagreed with was his comment about the internet making instruction less effective. I think if used in the correct context, the internet can be a very useful learning tool. The internet usually adds to lessons and learning more than it detracts.
After watching Merrill’s video on instructional design I thought he made some very good points. Now that the educational system has moved on to computer based instruction, Merrill points out that if we are moving in this direction that it needs to be effective. So far not many of the educational sites have been very productive with this design by that it doesn’t have the ability to have students apply what they are learning, the ability to show by demonstrating and not by telling, and it doesn’t have the ability to motivate.
ReplyDeleteBeing able to apply learning is important because students need to be able to practice. Students aren’t going to efficiently learn a skill if they can’t be involved or carry out a procedure. I find this to be true because in order for myself to be able to learn I have to practice what I’m learning over and over again until it becomes natural, for example in math class when I have to work on similar problems over and over until I automatically know how to complete the problem.
It’s important for students to be shown how to do a skill in order to make sure they are doing it correctly. It is the teacher’s job to demonstrate what is learned and to put it in a real world situation so the students can relate to the demonstration. I find it really helps when teachers demonstrate what is being learned so I know what is being expected of myself.
And finally it’s important to motivate students, which is something that can not happen over the internet or computer. The most important motivation comes from the student and having the ability to do something that they’ve never done before and to use that motivation to continue on with the learning.
I agree with Mr. Merrill on several points. Teachers need to demonstrate their expectations instead of simply stating them. A majority of students are visual learners, so if teachers do more talking than showing, those teachers are going to lose most of their students in the process.
ReplyDeleteAttention-getters and motivation do seem to get confused too often. A game might be a great way to capture student interest at the beginning of a new lesson, but a fun activity is not going to help intrinsically motivate students.
Students need to understand that what they are learning is meaningful by seeing real-world connections. If students don't see the connection, they are going to find the material worthless, which means their interest level will drop dramatically.
Finally, I somewhat disagree with Mr. Merrill's view on the Internet. I believe if both teachers and students are knowledgeable about how to find appropriate educational sites, both parties can benefit. For example, teachers should not be promoting Wikipedia as a resource. Instead, teachers should teach students to look for sites that are in the nature of .edu or .org sites as those sites are more likely to be reliable than .com or .net sites.
Good comments on Dr. Merrill's discussion. I like that most of you are talking about being teachers that will demonstrate what you are asking students to do and then will work to apply them to real world problems. Keep thinking this way. Teaching is NOT easy and if we can do what we say we all will be better off.
ReplyDeleteMr. Nielsen
I agree with Dr. Merrill for the most part. I especially agree when he says that the effectiveness of our instruction may have gone down even with the advent of all the new technology. It's important that no matter what medium you use to instruct, it still needs to have substance. While not all internet sites are information "dumping grounds" there has been a unchecked publication of information on all topics under the sun. It's important to both teach our students the importance of finding credible interent sources, as well as using them ourselves.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with his three main points:
1. Demonstrate (show) information, don't tell it
2. Give students a chance to practice what they know/have learned
3. Motivate them in terms of applying the information to the context of real world problems.
However, I do find a challenge when I think about how to do this with U.S. History. It seems like a lot of history is memorization and cause-and-effect relationships. It seems it may be challenging for me to follow his guidelines in the future when I am teaching this subject.
After viewing the video of Dr. Merrill, I find that I have the same point of view has Dr. Merrill. Its important to have technology in are room to keep are studnets involed in the lesson, but I feel that power points are becoming the new lecture. Power points are becoming over used and still do not engage the students learning. I feel that schools need to train teacher how to use technology effectively in the classroom. One of the biggest things that I got from the video was that to many teacher demonstrate what they expectation from their studnets, most teacher just state what they expect and never really show the class. One of the main points that I have learned in level two is that I need to give clear direction with an example. This will help me have a more on task classroom
ReplyDeleteI think Dr. Merrill was right on in his ideas of instructional design. In my experiences as both a student and a future teacher, I have found all of his points to be true. Students learn best when they can demonstrate their learning, apply what they're learning, and when they know the real-world application of what they are learning.
ReplyDeleteI agree with him in that it seems that in many classrooms, teachers know that these techniques work, yet they neglect to use them for instruction.
Although I hate to admit it, I think he does have a point in that students don't learn as well with online classes. In my experiences, online classes are more convenient (especially during the summer), but aren't good at teaching real in-depth subject matter. I suppose this is because the responsibility of learning is put on the student, rather than the teacher. Most students either neglect this responsibility, or don't fully understand the work that goes into learning a concept. I'm always surprised at the amount of people who don't know their multiple intelligences, or even the ways in which they learn best!
To be honest, this information isn't going to stop me from taking online classes. During the summer, they are my only chance at getting credits in because of my work/travel schedule. However, I definitely will think twice before choosing a hard class, because I know I will most likely do best in a classroom setting rather than on the internet.
I thought this video was interesting. Dr. Merrill made some great points, but when he said that teaching with internet has become less affective, it was kind of disappointing.
ReplyDeleteHaving students apply skills, demonstrate skills and use them in the real world is a very important task to conduct in the classroom. Your students will get so much more out of a lesson if you use these skills at least once in awhile.
As for the internet thing, I think teachers need to be pointed in the correct direction for what kind of websites to use, and if so possibly examine them thoroughly to make sure the content is correct. I think using the computers and internet are a very important skill students need to aquire so just making sure everything is safe and correct should make your students learning experience good.