The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler

The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler movie gave me a lot of interesting topics to ponder. The video is about a high school student that uses connectivism as a way of learning. The student does not have a text book and his teacher rarely gives lectures he learns via Internet. The student sets up his personal learning network before he begins his research. As the student searches scholarly web-sites and finds information he posts it on social bookmarking sites.The student then searches blogs to review other people opinions about his topic. The student also subscribes to iTunes U and downloads lectures from the best professors in the world to further his knowledge on his topic.

At the end of the movie it posed the question "Why does the networked student even need a teacher?" The teacher is no longer in the class room to teach facts but to teach skills. The teacher " offers guidance when he gets stuck, shows him how to communicate properly and ask help from expert, how to differentiate good information and propaganda, how to vet a resource, how to turn research into a scavenger hunt and to get excited to find that pearl on content."Ms. Drexler is going to begin conducting her class this in this manner.

I have got to admit although this all sounds amazing it kind of scares me. Teachers are becoming obsolete in higher forms of education. Imagine if students in the fifth grade were taught to learn new ways to use the internet for educational projects. By the time those students reached eighth grade he or she would no longer need a full time teacher. Teachers will be cut because all they would need was an advisor for questions every now and then. High school would become more like college. I believe this is a good program but it seems it could be a little too much. If students didn't have to come to class then they will never gain those much needed social skills. I feel the obesity levels will rise as well because people will be spending all their time in front of a computer screen instead of being active. This makes me think of the Disney movie WALL-E. I also believe this method of teaching is not for everyone. There are many distractions on the internet that could lure the students away from their academic purposes. The internet is also over whelming for lots of people even though they may be focused they are easily confused. Also not all students have access to a home computer, internet, or and ipod. If that is the way the board of education suggest we teach our students then they should supply the student with the technology they need. I believe this method can be very benificial for certain students under the guidance of a good teacher such as Ms. Drexler.