Constructivist+Theory

Upon reading the literature for this week I had much of the same theory on how things really appear in most schools in the first example of the Sprague article. Most principals seem to want more of the quiet, working classroom than the explosive constructivist classroom. While that seems to be the case in other places I've worked that is not the case here at Clear Lake. Many of our AP and Pre-AP classes actually use the constructivist theory. I also believe we have students that need that theory as many students do. Because this high school is a very affluent suburb of a large metropolitan area our kids have had access to tons of technology since their formative years. Traditional styles of teaching bore them to tears. I think many of today's students are the same way. I have actually tried to find better ways to use this type of technology with my football team. I issue CD's each week with specific things for each position group to concentrate on and they are to report back to me a few special questions I have asked from the video. I'm sure this is not quite constructivism but I am willing to investigate this even further to see what else I can try to help educate these students.

The defintion Web 2.0 nows makes more sense to me after this weeks readings. The interactive part seems to separate the new web from the old web. I tend to work both sides of the fence at this juncture. We experienced Second Life in our last class, and where I can see it used as a classroom much like we are using now, I don't see were it s much different than any other classroom. I also tend to think that virtual relationships can keep children, and adults, from important social skills developed through actual face to face contact. Web 2.0 allows people to share their experience and talents in creativity to a world wide audience. The audience is greater but also less "formal". I like that the new tools allows students to use their own experiences and build from their own knowledgde, "scaffolding", to create new projects with a much greater affect than the poster boards of my youth. My biggest fear is, as stated in our readings, teachers are relunctant to turn over their classrooms in the face of principals with little understanidng of the subject or from pressure to follow the TEKS because of the stress of standarsized testing.