Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts

After watching a video on Harness Your Students' Digital Smarts, I see that technology is increasing not only outside the classrooms, but inside classrooms all over the country! I love how Vicki Davis does not focus on just textbooks, but on computers instead because if you only have pen and paper only certain types of children will succeed! She thinks that teachers do not have to know the material to teach it because it allows the students to empower themselves to figure things out independently. Allow them to believe that they are capable individuals. It is important for them to discover things on their own or they will always depend on someone for help or to do it for them.

Not only do students learn from teachers, but teachers learn from students as well! If you stop learning, you stop growing. I believe each child has the ability to learn, but it takes a good teacher like Mrs. Vicki Davis to bring it out of them. Allowing students to learn on their own enables them to express their own opinions, and lets their voices be heard. This lets students show their digital smarts and to take a different approach in the classroom. From what I have seen, Mrs. Davis provided her students with the necessary skills and knowledge they need to work on their own, and she set a positive and friendly environment in the class, where everyone gets along no matter what.

Since I am a P-4 major, I won’t be making my students do assignments like these, but I do plan on having them to assignments/projects with technology. For example, if we are learning about the states, I can allow each student to pick a state (no child will be doing the same state), require them to do research about their state, make a poster cut-out of the state, and present their project to the class.