Futuring

How would you “grade” or assess Fox Becomes a Better Person, and School Train?

I would assess both assignments in two contexts, one with how the lesson was covered and the other with the presentation. I would first give a grade on whether the students followed the guidelines for the lesson. If they needed to show understanding of a certain concept they would first and foremost need to show such an understanding. I would assess the content by establishing the different levels of understanding of the topic. Next I would assess the delivery of the materials. What is it that they are trying to say? Is the message clear? Is the topic being covered? How does the assignment look and sound? Is the story original? Since this is a presentation assignment I would also assess the presentation skills used. Are the presenters speaking clear and loud enough? Is everyone getting a chance to speak/participate? Is there eye contact? How is the presenter’s body language? These are the things that I would look for if I was grading these two assignments.

What impacts could the developments portrayed in epic2015 have on your classroom, particularly with respect to things like podcasting?

The developments portrayed in epic 2015 could have a large impact on the way that students would view the world. Especially, with respects to how connected they would be with the world. This is not to far off from what we have now, the Internet connects billions of people everyday. The thing that I find most interesting about epic2015 is the fact that they have everyone reaching out to see the world and get a bigger picture, then they bring it back and people go more local with the technology. It continues to get more and more specific and personalized. This has started to happen in the present with websites like my.yahoo.com and other personalized web pages. As technology gets to be more and more personalized through podcasts and personal “communicators” (for lack of a better word) it will make the classroom more and more personal to the student. I think that it would allow students to roam more freely and decide their own path of education. The Internet and podcasts would be right at their fingertips. Not only could they access facts from credible websites and podcasts, but they could access opinions from millions of people around the world. It would further connect everyone to everyone changing the way that students learn, and thus changing the way that teachers teach.