Reuse, Redistribute, Revise, Remix

• How do we capture the spirit of open, networked, and participatory communities in our learning environments?
• What does open access look like the classroom?
• What do you see as the future of education in a context where teaching and learning can happen anywhere, anytime, and with anyone?
• How does access to technology impact the use of textbooks in the classroom? Will textbooks in a traditional sense be obsolete?

The majority of people in the U.S. are in some shape or from exposed to the use of technology, especially my generation and the generations below mine. It would be almost impractical to not use it, especially in a classroom setting. I have been using technology in the classroom since I started preschool, and that was almost 15+ years ago, and it has only dramatically increased since then. After watching many videos and reading many blogs and articles about Alec Couros, I have learned an incredible amount about open, networked, and participatory communities, especially in a classroom.  ( http://educationaltechnology.ca/couros/ ) (https://youtu.be/3XaA-ORiveo ) 

There are so many ways teachers can show openness/participatory communities in a classroom. They can have students work on group projects or work in pairs, which allows them to all share their own, unique ideas as well as learn from their peers. They can also work in a group by using google docs if they wanted to incorporate technology as well, which allows both students to work at home, if needed, on the same document together. 

Open, networked, and participatory communities can also help teachers as well. If a teacher is stuck on a lesson and they are not sure the best way to present or teach it, they can easily look up blogs or youtube channels to get a better idea on how to approach it. This also goes for students, if they have a hard time understanding an idea or subject from a certain teacher, they can access a different approach online from another teacher to better understand. Making a classroom open and making it a participatory community, is only beneficial to the students, as well as educators. 

There are also benefits to allowing education and learning to happen anywhere, anytime, and with anyone. Why should learning ever be restricted?? Some people learn better by themselves, some learn better face-to-face, some function better in the morning, some at night; it allows students to do what's best for them and learn the way they want to learn. Personally, I like online classes because it allows me to work at my own pace, but I also like face-to-face for classes that may be harder to do alone, like math or history. With this class, there's really no need to go into a classroom, I have access to everything on my computer and can do it whenever I want. I believe education should have multiple options and should be customized to fit student needs. 

I do not believe textbooks will ever be completely obsolete. I would much rather have hard copies of text in my hands because I always pay more attention and follow along much better. With textbooks you can highlight, make footnotes, circle words or sentences to come back to, and you never have to worry about connecting to wifi or internet.  As for others, many enjoy an online copy not only because it's cheaper, but it's easier to carry (Because as every college student knows, textbooks weigh a lot). One good thing about online textbooks is that students can easily access them at home (if they have a computer) so they never have to worry about forgetting or misplacing them. I do believe with the technology we have today textbooks will definitely be used a lot less, but never be completely gone.