I looked for the resource on Web 2.0 in our class site, but I wasn't given a very clear definition of what it was there. So I did what any Generation M internet user would do, I Googled it! Interestingly enough, Web 2.0 is a term that applies to internet applications that facilitate communication, sharing, collaboration and are user-centric. Needless to say, that definition gave me a fast list of Web 2.0 applications. Each of which has merit in education, finding ways to use them will be the fun part.
One blog that I've begun following that speaks to Web 2.0 tools is http://kerryhawk02.blogspot.com/ Kerry is a History teacher on the East Coast who blogs about teaching with technology. It seems that she's taking the summer off for the most part, but her latest blog is about a conference she went to about Building Learning Communities. The blog entry is mostly a chronicle of the conference itself, which contains useful information about ways to incorporate technology. If you're struggling with ways to use it in your content areas, I recommend taking a look at it.
More on life later,
~Ren
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Technological Immersion 2.0
After reading the Wired article for this week's class, I fixated on Internet privacy for several hours. There are stories everywhere about security breaches and leaks of private information. The recent iPad e-mail list springs to mind.
So with supposedly secure information getting out, it doesn't really surprise me that Generation M is less concerned about their privacy. The attitude is one of "the information is out there anyway." Frightening stuff.
Focusing solely on user provided information, teens need to be more aware of what they put out there and how it is used by both targeting advertisers and future employers. This past year when I worked for a publication division of a marketing and fundraising corporation, our department hired 25 interns, and everyone helped interview. When we looked at applications, we got their names and looked for them on Facebook. While we brought people in to interview regardless of their Facebook profiles, we did make notes about their public information and no doubt subconsciously considered those notes during the interview process. Other companies might not be so circumspect, and throw applications out when the profile picture is one of an underage kid drinking straight from a vodka bottle. Granted, that example is rather extreme, but that's exactly what we saw in some cases.
Generation M's tendency to be constantly connected presents problems as well in the gossip department. Rumors already diffuse quickly in large groups of teens, the internet has made this process much more deadly. The information, true or not, is stamped digitally and impossible to fully erase. Reminding students that they have a responsibility to keep themselves safe online will hopefully increase their likelihood to be careful about what information they provide.
More on life later,
~Ren
So with supposedly secure information getting out, it doesn't really surprise me that Generation M is less concerned about their privacy. The attitude is one of "the information is out there anyway." Frightening stuff.
Focusing solely on user provided information, teens need to be more aware of what they put out there and how it is used by both targeting advertisers and future employers. This past year when I worked for a publication division of a marketing and fundraising corporation, our department hired 25 interns, and everyone helped interview. When we looked at applications, we got their names and looked for them on Facebook. While we brought people in to interview regardless of their Facebook profiles, we did make notes about their public information and no doubt subconsciously considered those notes during the interview process. Other companies might not be so circumspect, and throw applications out when the profile picture is one of an underage kid drinking straight from a vodka bottle. Granted, that example is rather extreme, but that's exactly what we saw in some cases.
Generation M's tendency to be constantly connected presents problems as well in the gossip department. Rumors already diffuse quickly in large groups of teens, the internet has made this process much more deadly. The information, true or not, is stamped digitally and impossible to fully erase. Reminding students that they have a responsibility to keep themselves safe online will hopefully increase their likelihood to be careful about what information they provide.
More on life later,
~Ren
Monday, July 26, 2010
Podcasting could easily become addictive, but is it useful?
So for our podcasting exercise, I worked with Erin and both of us had some technical difficulties with the software. We were using Aviary, and admittedly it was pretty funny that we hit record without authorizing the software so talked for about thirty seconds before realizing nothing was recording. We were running short on time once we got it all in order, so the intro and exit music does not match with the feel of the piece, oh well. Anyone who goes through and listens to each of the podcasts will forgive us I'm sure.
Onto the use of the technology. I enjoyed podcasting. I think I'd enjoy longer bursts than two minutes and could potentially talk for long stretches of time about topics that interest me. Educational or otherwise. I can easily see the use of the technology in an elementary classroom, mostly because my elementary school career, which was at a different school for each grade, included some recordings of my learning. In my fourth grade classroom in the UK for example, each week groups of four kids were taken aside to read simple stories aloud into a tape recorder, like a radio-play. At the end of the exercise, the entire class would listen to the tape. It was designed to improve sight-reading and to generate pride in literate ability, after all, who doesn't like to hear themselves talk? I always loved the exercise because I was in the advanced reader group and I knew it. (Difficult pronunciation was given a "do over" and recorded over so nobody sounded foolish on the finished tape.)
There you see, is the elementary application of the technology. I think it could be an interesting project to include for secondary education in creating non-traditional research projects. I think many secondary students would get behind a "radio show" exercise where they would get to interview a character from the books we read in English or a historical figure we've covered in Social Studies.
I would like to use the podcasting technology in my classroom in the future. Definitely more likely to use it than Twitter, but only time will tell.
More on life later,
~Ren
Onto the use of the technology. I enjoyed podcasting. I think I'd enjoy longer bursts than two minutes and could potentially talk for long stretches of time about topics that interest me. Educational or otherwise. I can easily see the use of the technology in an elementary classroom, mostly because my elementary school career, which was at a different school for each grade, included some recordings of my learning. In my fourth grade classroom in the UK for example, each week groups of four kids were taken aside to read simple stories aloud into a tape recorder, like a radio-play. At the end of the exercise, the entire class would listen to the tape. It was designed to improve sight-reading and to generate pride in literate ability, after all, who doesn't like to hear themselves talk? I always loved the exercise because I was in the advanced reader group and I knew it. (Difficult pronunciation was given a "do over" and recorded over so nobody sounded foolish on the finished tape.)
There you see, is the elementary application of the technology. I think it could be an interesting project to include for secondary education in creating non-traditional research projects. I think many secondary students would get behind a "radio show" exercise where they would get to interview a character from the books we read in English or a historical figure we've covered in Social Studies.
I would like to use the podcasting technology in my classroom in the future. Definitely more likely to use it than Twitter, but only time will tell.
More on life later,
~Ren
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Video Games as a form of assessment
James Paul Gee's article on video games and his clip on Edutopia were interesting to me for a number of reasons. The point he made about video games constantly assessing the player really hit home for me and it made me think a lot about the types of video games that people play.
I want to start doing some research about the types of games that people play and how they assess their players. The ways in which these games apply inside knowledge as well as how they might require the use of external knowledge. As my experience with games has been relatively limited to puzzle solving, SNES and Zelda, I'll probably start with those. If it means I get to play Street Fighter II Turbo or WordTris for hours on end, I can't say I'll be complaining!
While I see the entertainment value and learning intrinsic to video games, I still have difficulty seeing how they can be applied to classroom teaching. Maybe having a WoW playing student read some WoW Science Fiction novels then comparing them to some classic Sci-Fi that might relate, like Tolkein. It's easiest for me to relate my topic of English to video games through ways of improving literacy, maybe incorporating discussions about how reading can be integral to game functions would surprise my gamer students enough to get them to assess themselves differently. I know too many self-professed gamers who claim to hate reading then go to their game shop to pick up several magazines and game play manuals; something they claim they aren't really "reading," implying that employing reading as a skill does not count as exercising their literacy.
History would be the simplest thing to employ video games into. There are plenty of empire building games and historically set, though inaccurate, games. Having students design games around their understanding of historical events would be a really fun activity to employ towards the end of the year when students are beginning to get antsy and whine for summer. Also as a way to relax from exam pressure and practice their knowledge.
I think incorporating games into my classroom would be interesting, but I remain cautious about it. It certainly is a way to engage students who might otherwise be bored.
More on life later,
~Ren
I want to start doing some research about the types of games that people play and how they assess their players. The ways in which these games apply inside knowledge as well as how they might require the use of external knowledge. As my experience with games has been relatively limited to puzzle solving, SNES and Zelda, I'll probably start with those. If it means I get to play Street Fighter II Turbo or WordTris for hours on end, I can't say I'll be complaining!
While I see the entertainment value and learning intrinsic to video games, I still have difficulty seeing how they can be applied to classroom teaching. Maybe having a WoW playing student read some WoW Science Fiction novels then comparing them to some classic Sci-Fi that might relate, like Tolkein. It's easiest for me to relate my topic of English to video games through ways of improving literacy, maybe incorporating discussions about how reading can be integral to game functions would surprise my gamer students enough to get them to assess themselves differently. I know too many self-professed gamers who claim to hate reading then go to their game shop to pick up several magazines and game play manuals; something they claim they aren't really "reading," implying that employing reading as a skill does not count as exercising their literacy.
History would be the simplest thing to employ video games into. There are plenty of empire building games and historically set, though inaccurate, games. Having students design games around their understanding of historical events would be a really fun activity to employ towards the end of the year when students are beginning to get antsy and whine for summer. Also as a way to relax from exam pressure and practice their knowledge.
I think incorporating games into my classroom would be interesting, but I remain cautious about it. It certainly is a way to engage students who might otherwise be bored.
More on life later,
~Ren
For lack of a title, I went with this.
After listening to James Paul Gee, I must admit to one pair of words that jumped out at me and completely derailed my thoughts for awhile, fan fiction.
I'll freely admit to my share of geeky fan fiction. I never ever posted it anywhere and more often than not was writing it with friends as a way to pass the time between races at track meets or at lunch in middle school. We had a whole five subject notebook simply for the purpose of fan fiction, and two three inch floppies we swapped each weekend until they were nearly full. I currently have one in my possession but no reader so I can only relate what I remember.
We started the fan fiction notebook during a lull in the flow of Gundam Wing tapes (later DVDs) from Japan. My friend Sarah was obsessed and as she was the provider of the media we watched a lot of it. When we finished whatever set we had and there wasn't one to move on to, to give Sarah her fix, we started writing our own episodes.
At the time, I wanted to be a writer. I had no alternative career path and was one hundred percent convinced of my brilliance. I used the fan fics as a way to experiment with characterization and writing styles. The girls complained that my stuff deviated too much from Gundam so I started my own non-anime story that was entirely fiction. This evolved into a second notebook with just one other friend that turned into a set of six of a YA story. One of at least five that I wrote to the middle and didn't have the heart to finish.
While I no longer believe I'll be able to live by my writing, in fact I don't write fiction or even poetry much anymore, I do still believe that I am a good writer. It was the years spent filling those fan fiction notebooks and collaboration with my friends that aided me on that score. We edited each other's entries; grammar, punctuation, spelling, story-lines, you name it. We were precocious and snotty, but by the time we dropped the activity in high school, our language arts skills were considerably more advanced than our peers. In my case, it was commented on by teachers and they indulged my fiction writing habit by letting me write during DEAR wednesdays.
James Paul Gee's video clip on Edutopia brought me right back to that middle school self, braids and braces, using red pen and smugly correcting Kat's entries. It took me about fifteen minutes to come back to the video and think about what else he had to say. Which will be addressed in a more serious blog entry to follow.
More on life in about thirty seconds,
~Ren
I'll freely admit to my share of geeky fan fiction. I never ever posted it anywhere and more often than not was writing it with friends as a way to pass the time between races at track meets or at lunch in middle school. We had a whole five subject notebook simply for the purpose of fan fiction, and two three inch floppies we swapped each weekend until they were nearly full. I currently have one in my possession but no reader so I can only relate what I remember.
We started the fan fiction notebook during a lull in the flow of Gundam Wing tapes (later DVDs) from Japan. My friend Sarah was obsessed and as she was the provider of the media we watched a lot of it. When we finished whatever set we had and there wasn't one to move on to, to give Sarah her fix, we started writing our own episodes.
At the time, I wanted to be a writer. I had no alternative career path and was one hundred percent convinced of my brilliance. I used the fan fics as a way to experiment with characterization and writing styles. The girls complained that my stuff deviated too much from Gundam so I started my own non-anime story that was entirely fiction. This evolved into a second notebook with just one other friend that turned into a set of six of a YA story. One of at least five that I wrote to the middle and didn't have the heart to finish.
While I no longer believe I'll be able to live by my writing, in fact I don't write fiction or even poetry much anymore, I do still believe that I am a good writer. It was the years spent filling those fan fiction notebooks and collaboration with my friends that aided me on that score. We edited each other's entries; grammar, punctuation, spelling, story-lines, you name it. We were precocious and snotty, but by the time we dropped the activity in high school, our language arts skills were considerably more advanced than our peers. In my case, it was commented on by teachers and they indulged my fiction writing habit by letting me write during DEAR wednesdays.
James Paul Gee's video clip on Edutopia brought me right back to that middle school self, braids and braces, using red pen and smugly correcting Kat's entries. It took me about fifteen minutes to come back to the video and think about what else he had to say. Which will be addressed in a more serious blog entry to follow.
More on life in about thirty seconds,
~Ren
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Webinar could use some tweaking
I think it will take me awhile to shift from my concept of twitter as a social networking site solely for stalking my favorite celebrities. I can see the value of being able to communicate with people in the same field looking for information in different venues, collaborative work can be done through social networking. Makes me wonder what would've happened between Newton and Leibniz if social media was as fast then as it is now. Did they both discover calculus? Did one copy the other? The world may speculate indefinitely. (I take more interest in the personal stories of these men then in either of their accomplishments as mathematicians; and so I remember their story from my FST class. Do I remember everything about it? Nope.)
The exercise of the webinar was not particularly successful in my view, I have several reasons for my opinion. The "backdoor" conversation on Twitter for one. The technical difficulties for another. I believe that the webinar would've been much more successful if it'd been on our own time, the way that we did the informational webinar last spring. I liked the ideas of Buffy and Sue's Media 21 project, and am interested to know more, but the format of the webinar did not work for me. I would be better suited to direct e-mails or following the blog, that way I have text to refer to later. The technical difficulties were the most problematic for me. I found the extra squeaks and white noise so distracting that by the time they were finally eliminated, I had completely lost the verbal thread of the conversation and had to rely on the chat window. Which did hold some interesting points, but I feel that I missed a lot. The recording's sound is perfect on my computer so I think the issue was isolated to Kristin's computer and I hope she gets that sorted out before she needs to do another one.
If I were to hold a webinar of this type with my high school class, it would be limited to one person having control of the keyboard and nobody else being on a computer. Any questions could be asked by asking the facilitator to type in the questions. This would cut back on extra conversations, though it'd have the same issues that any other viewing activity would have in a high school.
I have not found or read my picks for the Edubloggers yet, I intend to write another blog when I find the ones that I want to follow. For now, I'm gonna finish up my research for the wiki project and get that squared away. Plus it'll give me time to cool off about twitter. Still not 100% on board with it.
More on life later,
~Ren
The exercise of the webinar was not particularly successful in my view, I have several reasons for my opinion. The "backdoor" conversation on Twitter for one. The technical difficulties for another. I believe that the webinar would've been much more successful if it'd been on our own time, the way that we did the informational webinar last spring. I liked the ideas of Buffy and Sue's Media 21 project, and am interested to know more, but the format of the webinar did not work for me. I would be better suited to direct e-mails or following the blog, that way I have text to refer to later. The technical difficulties were the most problematic for me. I found the extra squeaks and white noise so distracting that by the time they were finally eliminated, I had completely lost the verbal thread of the conversation and had to rely on the chat window. Which did hold some interesting points, but I feel that I missed a lot. The recording's sound is perfect on my computer so I think the issue was isolated to Kristin's computer and I hope she gets that sorted out before she needs to do another one.
If I were to hold a webinar of this type with my high school class, it would be limited to one person having control of the keyboard and nobody else being on a computer. Any questions could be asked by asking the facilitator to type in the questions. This would cut back on extra conversations, though it'd have the same issues that any other viewing activity would have in a high school.
I have not found or read my picks for the Edubloggers yet, I intend to write another blog when I find the ones that I want to follow. For now, I'm gonna finish up my research for the wiki project and get that squared away. Plus it'll give me time to cool off about twitter. Still not 100% on board with it.
More on life later,
~Ren
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Twitter? As a resource?
Having finished the reading for today, I must say I found the cheating blog very interesting. I remember the issues that my professors had with cheating on multiple choice tests and the crazy lengths they went to in order to prevent it. (Three separate versions, sitting at least two seats apart front to back and sideways and multiple testing dates.) The personal account of the Media 21 project was very cool, I would definitely be on board with a similar class experiment to draw out reluctant researchers and inspire kids to use non-traditional methods to find information. Viewing the internet and technology as a resource instead of as entertainment is such an underused concept, I look forward to encouraging students to explore the utility of new technology.
Alright, so I was all set and onboard with Google and Wikipedia being used as educational resources, but Twitter? I'm not sure I'm willing to cross that bridge yet. I'll stare into the chasm of social media for a bit longer if you don't mind. (Next they'll be telling us there's merit in MySpace.)
Perhaps it's a mark of my own experiences with Twitter, which I do in fact use, but I find it difficult to fathom its uses in education. It took me about a year after finding out about it to get onto Twitter and my account was suspended immediately because several accounts were created from the same ISP on that day and Twitter suspected spamming. So for a month after the day I created it, I wasn't able to use my account. Needless to say, I found this irritating and once they reactivated me I still didn't use it for a little while out of spite.
Honestly, I tend to use Twitter to say mundane things that I find funny. Rarely do I use it for profundity, and not enough people follow me for me to want to make it worthwhile. It's a whole lot of SOCs on the screen. (Stream of consciousness) The only time that I feel I used it well was when I went on vacation and used my phone to upload pictures to Twitter as I took them. That way I didn't have to share my pics with anyone when I got back or post them into a Facebook album, they were already available online.
The other thing I use Twitter for is to keep up on my favorite geek celebrities and authors who often post exclusive updates about when and where they'll be touring. I get reminders from artists I follow that they're going to be at local conventions or releasing new work, like Randy Milholland being in Troy, MI last May and Felicia Day's "Guild behind the scenes" notes. (If you don't know who they are, that's okay, I probably don't know who some of your celebrities are either.)
So in this assessment of what and why I use Twitter myself, I realize that I've never once considered the serious applications of Twitter. I know it is used as a marketing tool because I get spammed by bots and advertisers about things I don't care about. I can see it being useful for educators to follow their favorite edublogger or researcher, but I still have difficulty seeing how it can be used in the classroom itself.
More on life later,
~Ren
Alright, so I was all set and onboard with Google and Wikipedia being used as educational resources, but Twitter? I'm not sure I'm willing to cross that bridge yet. I'll stare into the chasm of social media for a bit longer if you don't mind. (Next they'll be telling us there's merit in MySpace.)
Perhaps it's a mark of my own experiences with Twitter, which I do in fact use, but I find it difficult to fathom its uses in education. It took me about a year after finding out about it to get onto Twitter and my account was suspended immediately because several accounts were created from the same ISP on that day and Twitter suspected spamming. So for a month after the day I created it, I wasn't able to use my account. Needless to say, I found this irritating and once they reactivated me I still didn't use it for a little while out of spite.
Honestly, I tend to use Twitter to say mundane things that I find funny. Rarely do I use it for profundity, and not enough people follow me for me to want to make it worthwhile. It's a whole lot of SOCs on the screen. (Stream of consciousness) The only time that I feel I used it well was when I went on vacation and used my phone to upload pictures to Twitter as I took them. That way I didn't have to share my pics with anyone when I got back or post them into a Facebook album, they were already available online.
The other thing I use Twitter for is to keep up on my favorite geek celebrities and authors who often post exclusive updates about when and where they'll be touring. I get reminders from artists I follow that they're going to be at local conventions or releasing new work, like Randy Milholland being in Troy, MI last May and Felicia Day's "Guild behind the scenes" notes. (If you don't know who they are, that's okay, I probably don't know who some of your celebrities are either.)
So in this assessment of what and why I use Twitter myself, I realize that I've never once considered the serious applications of Twitter. I know it is used as a marketing tool because I get spammed by bots and advertisers about things I don't care about. I can see it being useful for educators to follow their favorite edublogger or researcher, but I still have difficulty seeing how it can be used in the classroom itself.
More on life later,
~Ren
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Ado by Connie Willis
So I was taking a mental break from the homework for this class and in my current reading I found a short story that everyone can appreciate. Ado by Connie Willis. It's a story with the premise that Political Correctness has gotten so out of hand that the entirety of Hamlet is pared down to two lines in order not to offend anyone. It's a humorous take on how out of hand PC censorship of language and literature can become. Unfortunately, it made me sad more than it made me laugh.
If anyone is interested, it's in the collection "The Winds of Marble Arch." All Connie Willis stories, she's a fairly well known Science Fiction author.
More on life later!
~Ren
If anyone is interested, it's in the collection "The Winds of Marble Arch." All Connie Willis stories, she's a fairly well known Science Fiction author.
More on life later!
~Ren
OMG we employed the taxonomy (accidentally)
Given two and a half days to mull it over, I've come up with a few things I wanted to share from the class we had last Friday.
I must say, I've been twiddling my thumbs a bit this last two weeks as the information we've been getting from all of our classes seems bewildering and not yet applicable to our actual teaching. The Ed Tech class activity of creating a lesson plan however tied that all together. Having no formal training in lesson plan creation, we already had the tools necessary to do it. We figured out what we wanted to teach in our units, we analyzed which information would be most beneficial and we created activities based on our decisions. It took me a day to realize it, but we actually hit on several aspects of the taxonomy. SCARY!
(If we'd been told to create the lesson plan based on the taxonomy however I'm not sure things would've gone so well, but that's my own opinion.)
That being said, meeting with my fellow English Majors, I was reminded of how much literature I still have not even heard of that I want to cover before I start teaching. I've never read a specific environmentally geared novel, and with the current events of the decade I feel that it would be an excellent genre to become familiar with.
The practice on the wiki was useful and will come in handy in the next hour or so as I add to my group's wiki for Shari's class. While I have read wikis before and am familiar with the concepts, I've never made one until now. The multiple people using the site at the same time and potentially saving over each other's work makes me extremely nervous; something that's caused me to save everything in Word first just in case it gets overwritten.
On that note, I've got the explanations for my taxonomy assignment left to work on and some brief notes for my Teacher Quality wiki.
More on life later!
~Ren
I must say, I've been twiddling my thumbs a bit this last two weeks as the information we've been getting from all of our classes seems bewildering and not yet applicable to our actual teaching. The Ed Tech class activity of creating a lesson plan however tied that all together. Having no formal training in lesson plan creation, we already had the tools necessary to do it. We figured out what we wanted to teach in our units, we analyzed which information would be most beneficial and we created activities based on our decisions. It took me a day to realize it, but we actually hit on several aspects of the taxonomy. SCARY!
(If we'd been told to create the lesson plan based on the taxonomy however I'm not sure things would've gone so well, but that's my own opinion.)
That being said, meeting with my fellow English Majors, I was reminded of how much literature I still have not even heard of that I want to cover before I start teaching. I've never read a specific environmentally geared novel, and with the current events of the decade I feel that it would be an excellent genre to become familiar with.
The practice on the wiki was useful and will come in handy in the next hour or so as I add to my group's wiki for Shari's class. While I have read wikis before and am familiar with the concepts, I've never made one until now. The multiple people using the site at the same time and potentially saving over each other's work makes me extremely nervous; something that's caused me to save everything in Word first just in case it gets overwritten.
On that note, I've got the explanations for my taxonomy assignment left to work on and some brief notes for my Teacher Quality wiki.
More on life later!
~Ren
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Google, Wikipedia, & John Dewey
This week's reading for our Ed. Tech class focused on an article discussing the uses of Google and Wikipedia as well as some information on John Dewey and his Pedagogic Creed.
My first response to the Google and Wikipedia article was a "well duh it can be useful if we're careful" knee jerk. Perhaps because I've personally come across the pit falls and errors within the search engine and content source, or perhaps because I've had professors who taught us effective uses of the two. At any rate, once I finished reading I had to sit back and think about my usage of these two internet phenomena.
It was very difficult to remember a time when Google and Wikipedia were not part of my everyday world. I don't remember the first time that I "googled" something; or even when I first heard of it. The wikipedia page that I found on the origins of Google indicate that it was first taking off when I was in middle school, so it's entirely possible, and probable, that I covered it in my 7th or 8th grade computers class. I certainly didn't use it for my research papers, I remember lengthy class periods spent dissecting the media center's layout and internal databases we could use to uncover books within the shelves. At no point were electronic resources discussed. Not until high school anyway, and there they were tentatively allowed.
Then there's Wikipedia, I use it all the time. I'll even browse through Wikipedia in my spare time, following link after link until five or six hours have gone by and I only become aware of the fact from the movement of the sun; if I happen to be outside or by a window. I walk away from these sessions with snippets of facts; Lauren Bacall's real name was Betty, Quad Cities is actually a grouping of five cities in the IA-IL border (Quint didn't catch on), things that are in essence trivia that might one day answer a crossword puzzle question, maybe. While I feel that perhaps I'm spending my time more wisely than a steady diet of trash TV, it doesn't accomplish much.
True, I've used Google and Wikipedia to give me foundations in my research topics from the Nazi regime's treatment of education (this search uncovered a wealth of translated textbooks available online through Calvin University) to interpretations of Dracula through the 20th century. I am a big supporter of using Google and Wikipedia as resources to alert students to possible topics for further study, though I caution against using solely Wikipedia or just the top five results from Google.
Like any new technological advancement, Google and Wikipedia have their uses. As teachers it is very important for us to be aware of their benefits and drawbacks so that we can treat their usage evenhanded and demonstrate for our students the ways in which they are best utilized.
As for John Dewey, he had me up until "I believe that in this way the teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usherer in of the true kingdom of God." That's about when he lost me. I'm all for religious tolerance, and this last line implied to me that he wasn't. It's a part of his creed that I foresee myself pushing to the farthest corner of my long term memory to not think about it much.
That being said, I found myself drawn to his comments on learning as an inherent trait of humanity. Children learn through observation; language for example. Language is something that is picked up from those people speaking around the child, cause and effect are learned in much the same way. It does not logically follow that a child will be capable of immediate immersion into a traditional learning atmosphere, where rote memorization is key. While that style of teaching has its uses, in the lower grade levels in particular learning by experimentation and exploration is very important.
I feel that Dewey agreed with my impression that the best learning environments are ones that incorporate traditional schooling techniques with a progressive leaning towards individual child learning.
As we discussed in our foundations class today, while I am drawing my own conclusions about what type of educational philosophy I most adhere to, no single educational philosophy is completely accurate. Not all children will benefit from a traditional, progressive, existential, or post-modern method of teaching. The importance is in the blending. I feel that John Dewey understood that, and his creed indicates this at several points.
Battery is about to die here folks.
More on life later,
~Ren
My first response to the Google and Wikipedia article was a "well duh it can be useful if we're careful" knee jerk. Perhaps because I've personally come across the pit falls and errors within the search engine and content source, or perhaps because I've had professors who taught us effective uses of the two. At any rate, once I finished reading I had to sit back and think about my usage of these two internet phenomena.
It was very difficult to remember a time when Google and Wikipedia were not part of my everyday world. I don't remember the first time that I "googled" something; or even when I first heard of it. The wikipedia page that I found on the origins of Google indicate that it was first taking off when I was in middle school, so it's entirely possible, and probable, that I covered it in my 7th or 8th grade computers class. I certainly didn't use it for my research papers, I remember lengthy class periods spent dissecting the media center's layout and internal databases we could use to uncover books within the shelves. At no point were electronic resources discussed. Not until high school anyway, and there they were tentatively allowed.
Then there's Wikipedia, I use it all the time. I'll even browse through Wikipedia in my spare time, following link after link until five or six hours have gone by and I only become aware of the fact from the movement of the sun; if I happen to be outside or by a window. I walk away from these sessions with snippets of facts; Lauren Bacall's real name was Betty, Quad Cities is actually a grouping of five cities in the IA-IL border (Quint didn't catch on), things that are in essence trivia that might one day answer a crossword puzzle question, maybe. While I feel that perhaps I'm spending my time more wisely than a steady diet of trash TV, it doesn't accomplish much.
True, I've used Google and Wikipedia to give me foundations in my research topics from the Nazi regime's treatment of education (this search uncovered a wealth of translated textbooks available online through Calvin University) to interpretations of Dracula through the 20th century. I am a big supporter of using Google and Wikipedia as resources to alert students to possible topics for further study, though I caution against using solely Wikipedia or just the top five results from Google.
Like any new technological advancement, Google and Wikipedia have their uses. As teachers it is very important for us to be aware of their benefits and drawbacks so that we can treat their usage evenhanded and demonstrate for our students the ways in which they are best utilized.
As for John Dewey, he had me up until "I believe that in this way the teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usherer in of the true kingdom of God." That's about when he lost me. I'm all for religious tolerance, and this last line implied to me that he wasn't. It's a part of his creed that I foresee myself pushing to the farthest corner of my long term memory to not think about it much.
That being said, I found myself drawn to his comments on learning as an inherent trait of humanity. Children learn through observation; language for example. Language is something that is picked up from those people speaking around the child, cause and effect are learned in much the same way. It does not logically follow that a child will be capable of immediate immersion into a traditional learning atmosphere, where rote memorization is key. While that style of teaching has its uses, in the lower grade levels in particular learning by experimentation and exploration is very important.
I feel that Dewey agreed with my impression that the best learning environments are ones that incorporate traditional schooling techniques with a progressive leaning towards individual child learning.
As we discussed in our foundations class today, while I am drawing my own conclusions about what type of educational philosophy I most adhere to, no single educational philosophy is completely accurate. Not all children will benefit from a traditional, progressive, existential, or post-modern method of teaching. The importance is in the blending. I feel that John Dewey understood that, and his creed indicates this at several points.
Battery is about to die here folks.
More on life later,
~Ren
Up up and away!
I wanted to try embedding a video. Success! And it totally counts towards my path of learning because I am still learning how to do this sort of thing. Next showcase in September if anyone's interested.
Consider this filler as I work on my reading to do the next required blog. ;)
More on life later,
~Ren
Consider this filler as I work on my reading to do the next required blog. ;)
More on life later,
~Ren
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Reflections on Teaching with Technology Class
Today was our first foray into the wild world of teaching with technology. I think that the most important thing to take away from this class is that technology is not the enemy, it is a resource. All too frequently in my experiences, teachers were on a spectrum regarding technology; they were either uneducated in its use and therefore disapproved of using it too much, or they were enthusiastic supporters who integrated it into the classroom when they could. The success rates of the latter varied and I will most likely delve into them each as we continue with the course.
For now, a quick analysis of the class from today will suffice. Don't expect too much Meta-cog, I'm still shaky on the concept ;) (Conceptual Knowledge/Understand Interpreting!!)
I thought that the exercise of comparing different concepts was useful, though the time allotted was a bit short for my liking and the fact that anyone who facilitated a table missed out on the 5th standard was problematic. This type of activity would be very useful as a short presentation format; perhaps for use on research papers. Each student gets 10 minutes to explain their topic to a group of 3 additional classmates and receive input from them on further study; this is repeated for a class period a week until each student has presented to the others. It would be best used in a collegiate setting with longer periods or in an extremely small classroom, but I feel the method is worth exploring.
Since I already had this blog (which I rarely used, as noted by the single follower!), the blog creation and upkeep was not new information to me. The survey and wikis intrigue me though and I look forward to exploring them.
As for right now, I have an antsy german shepherd begging me to go for a walk. Something that I feel must be addressed immediately.
More on life later,
~Ren
For now, a quick analysis of the class from today will suffice. Don't expect too much Meta-cog, I'm still shaky on the concept ;) (Conceptual Knowledge/Understand Interpreting!!)
I thought that the exercise of comparing different concepts was useful, though the time allotted was a bit short for my liking and the fact that anyone who facilitated a table missed out on the 5th standard was problematic. This type of activity would be very useful as a short presentation format; perhaps for use on research papers. Each student gets 10 minutes to explain their topic to a group of 3 additional classmates and receive input from them on further study; this is repeated for a class period a week until each student has presented to the others. It would be best used in a collegiate setting with longer periods or in an extremely small classroom, but I feel the method is worth exploring.
Since I already had this blog (which I rarely used, as noted by the single follower!), the blog creation and upkeep was not new information to me. The survey and wikis intrigue me though and I look forward to exploring them.
As for right now, I have an antsy german shepherd begging me to go for a walk. Something that I feel must be addressed immediately.
More on life later,
~Ren
Warble 2.0
So since I never ever plugged or let people follow, nobody will notice. But I've revamped this blog to use it for my Master's program. Which means that all 10 of my former posts are now GONE. Since I never put much thought into them or cared about what they said, I'm not too concerned.
More on life later.
~Ren
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