Week 12 - Blog 16: Self-directed Learning using Feedly

Blog 16: Self-directed Learning using Feedly

One of the Blogs that I follow is GettingSmart and the post that I recently read was “Blended Learning Engagement: Are the Students Paying Attention?” In this post it talks about how in blended learning, the teachers combine traditional classroom and online instruction to enhance the learning. It talks about blended learning utilizing videos and interactive activities as a part of the digital curriculum. The instruction is either to the entire class or to groups of students, therefore providing a personalized learning to student, whom are more engaged with the lessons. Teachers have the challenge of ensuring that students are taking advantage of the resources that are available to them with the Web 2.0 tools. The teacher should be familiar with the many ways of studies on the effectiveness of blended learning in the classroom. Although there are many positive reviews of the methodology of study, the teacher needs to keep the students engaged with the lesson and the digital content. Student engagement may vary from student to student, but the teacher should know how to keep the motivation in every student. Some learning platforms are easier than others, but the teacher should make use of outside resources. Learning Management Systems have to be seamless in integrations, by using different avenues, such as short engaging videos, and other online activities. http://gettingsmart.com/2016/10/blended-learning-engagement-are-the-students-paying-attention/

 Another Blog that I really enjoyed reading was Edudemic’s post titled “A Teacher’s New Best Friend: Amazon Inspire”. This post talks about how education has fully embraced the digital era and how educational technology has allowed techers to create classes that are innovative, therefore giving students easier access to educational material that is readily available to them at any time. The post talks about Amazon now competing with Apple, Google, and Microsoft, which provide millions of devices to many primary and secondary schools. Amazon has created “Amazon Inspire”, which is a new platform that has a marketplace of free resources for teachers and educational institutions. This platform enables teachers to make their classroom more innovative with digital learning. Educators can upload, download, and edit digital educational materials for their classroom such as lesson plans, other teaching modules, and worksheets. Amazon Inspire will help transform learning by allowing teachers to share and discover new materials. With Amazon Inspire and its open access approach, teachers will no longer have to struggle with time and budget constraints to provide their students with high-quality education.