Blog Post Assignment 6

The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler
I think this video was very informative, and it did a good job of showing how effectively a student can learn independently. There are so many online research tools a student can use to their advantage these days, learning possibilities are endless. The teacher of a networked student can indeed assist in helping to student learn more ways to use the internet for school. A networked student will always need a teacher to help distinguish between what information to use when they do find it.
 Using the internet for school can help make learning seem more fun and less like work because people use the internet for so many things in daily life, searching for things on the internet, or using the computer for school work atuomatically seems less like a hassle. I feel as though all teachers will need to be prepared to be the teacher of a networked student because the standards for how technology contributes to teaching will raise. In the future teachers will most likely have to incorporate a certain amount of technology in the classroom.
I love the concept of a networked student because this will not only train students at a young age to be independent learners, but they will have access to many different types of people, including other students and teachers. And how cool is the idea of watching a lecture from a Stanford, or Harvard professor! That would get high school students so excited about going to college, I know it would have that effect on me!


A 7th Graders Personal Learning Envornment(or PLN)
I love this girls PLE! The home page at the beginning where she kept all of her things organized was really cool I would really like to have one! Both of our PLN's are kind of the same because we both can keep our thoughts organzied on one page. We both can connect with people around the world, and on our blogs we both get to share our thoughts on things, which I feel is really important because by writing on these blogs, and participating in bigger discussions, one starts to feel as though their voice is finally being heard.

The Machine is Changing Us
Michael Wesch pointed out that our society is always seeking recognition and self fufillment, and I agree. All we ever want to do is find ourselves and who we are as people. Through things like reality television, we see all the time how people want to be recognized as the person they are, in a society as Wesch says, that doesn't normally give recognition easily. I feel that my genertation is very self aborbed. We live in a time where everyone is trying to better themselves, and we do most things for our own self fufillment. In todays world everything is all about me, and what I can to do better myself. Its pretty cool in the end when hes talking about speaking video beautifully and artisitcally. I would love to speak video like he is talking about! We as people all need to work together towards not only bettering ourselves, but society as well. This concept of "whatever" Esch speaks of makes you wonder why people generally associate "whatever" with doing what they want, and not "I'll do whatever it takes".