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 *  Hello! Welcome to my Wiki Page, my name is Mallory Mielke! **



I am currently a Senior in the Education program at Eastern Washington University. I have completed a minor in Elementary Math and am finishing up my major in Elementary Reading! I am currently placed in a 2nd grade classroom in Davenport Elementary, where I am able to apply the skills I am learning to help better instruct my students. I am a strong believer in integrating technology into the classroom, as student's learning and enthusiasm is generally increased when technological tools are incorporated into the everyday classroom. I am taking as much information and resources from this class as possible, so that I will be a technology literate teacher. Someday, in my future classroom I hope to be able to ensure that each student has a pbwiki, so that we are better connected to the parents and community. As a teacher I will have my own website where I will post my lesson plans, classroom calendar and important events so that my students' parents are enabled and encouraged to be as active in their child's education as they want to be. ** Guided Questions **  1.) **To which century does our teaching/ learning belong?**     To define exactly what century our learning and teaching belongs I feel is a very difficult/ impossible task. I think that our teaching and learning styles are evolving and come from many different cultures. However, it is extremely apparent that the American teenage culture has changed drastically over the last twenty years, therefore there is going to be a large gap between the cultures of the students and the teachers. This has been happening forever throughout the education system, but is largely evident recently due to technologies. In order for our students to be prepared to go on to higher education, according to Jukes and Macdonald, they must be fluent in the 21st century, which is what century our teaching and learning should belong.      2.) **What does it mean to be fluent in the 21st Century? What are 21st century skills and/ or fluencies? Give examples specific to our classroom.** To be fluent in the 21st century means that you are not only literate but fluent, meaning you are able to perform skills unconsciously in nine categories according to Jukes and Macdonald. The nine categories that students and teachers must understand in order to be fluent in the 21st century are as follows: speaking and listening skills, reading and writing skills, information skills, technical skills, media skills, personal skills, group/team/partner skills, professional skills, and lastly teacher skills. In my experiences observing in the classroom I have found that our class and teacher are definitely working hard to be fluent in the 21st century. Only being in the second grade it is hard to qualify them as fluent because they still have not, and won’t be introduced for quite a time many of the skills required to earn the title 21st century fluent. However, it is extremely evident that many of these skills listed by Jukes and Macdonald are integrated into the everyday curriculum in our classroom. Right now it is my teacher’s job to help scaffold the students with skills so that they can continue building until they reach complete fluency in the 21st century. 3.) **What are the characteristics of 21st century learning environments?**   Characteristics of 21st century learning environments differ drastically than those of the 20th century. This century’s environments are very student-centered with large amounts of integrated technology. Students should be constantly engaged and active in their learning. A lot more collaborative work is done with cohesiveness, consideration and acceptance being some focal social desires. Students are expected to be innovative and creative working on a lot more projects and a lot less worksheets.    As a teacher being fluent in the 21st century you should be expected to be able to integrate technology in your classroom and provide students with engaging lessons and projects. As a teacher in this century your focus should be on catering to the learning styles of the individual students and not teaching to the whole group. This requires a lot more mini lessons, collaborative group work with a lot less “sit and get” lecture style classes with a summative exam at the end. Teachers should really take into account the process that the student goes through and not weighing all of the attention on to the product. Constructivist learning environments focus on the mastery of skills, which coincides with 21st century fluencies. This theory also focuses having the students build on their prior knowledge and past experiences (schema). In general constructivist learning models focus on a student centered environment and have the students work collaboratively to solve real life problems that are continuous throughout their education and their life. All of the characteristics that I listed above about the constructivist learning environment are conducive to the building and using of all of the 21st century fluencies at one time or the other if the learning model is implemented effectively. **5.) Identify an instructional model that describes learning as a process whereby learners engage 21st century fluencies.**      An instructional model that describes learning as a process in which students engage in 21st century fluencies is the problem based model. The problem based model has six steps: evaluating the situation, a problem analysis, a field insight, resource development, a test of the points, and a proposal.     **  6.) Are there any frameworks for analyzing and evaluating media which work particularly well with your model? **   If I were to use the problem based model I would have my students evaluate their media using Lasswell’s Model. When you are looking at a problem and controversial opinions it is important to look at the complete picture, which I feel Lasswell’s model does. ** 7.) What do we mean by Web 2.0? What are Web 2.0 tools, and what is their potential?  **    Web 2.0 tools are new, always improving tools that are available online to practically any user. Web 2.0 tools vary greatly in purpose, quality, expense and a lot of other factors. Web 2.0 tools are vast and extremely helpful for teachers and students alike. Web 2.0 tools are even more applicable when using a constructivist approach to teaching. Web 2.0 tools allow students to work easier collaboratively over blogs, podcasts, search tools, webstart pages and more.     **  8.) What makes for an effective learning tool? How does technology relate to learning tools? **   An effective learning tool is one that is easily accessible, conducive to learning and relative or applicable to the topic that is being taught. A learning tool enables students to thrive creatively and communicate more effectively through a variety of forms. The four criteria I used to evaluate the effectiveness of Web 2.0 tools are listed below ** Usability ** – How easy is it to use and navigate through the site? Is it easy for students/teachers to create?   ** Cost ** – How much does it cost to use the site? Is the site add-driven? Accessibility – Is the tool easy to access for the purpose needed?  ** Relativity to Students ** – Is this website relevant to my elementary students? Would they every use this website for anything instructional – if so, what?
 * 4.) What are the elements of constructivist learning environments, and how are they (or not) related to 21st century learning environments?  **