Life is Now

"I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living."

Dewey, 1897

I wish I would have written this right after class rather than 2 days later.
I am grateful, however, that I wrote some notes so I could attempt to remember what I learned.

I was a bit nervous about the length of class on Friday -- what are we going to talk about for 5 HOURS. But, the time ended up passing rather quickly and I was engaged in each of our three locations.

The first part of class I spent with Kristin, and actually learned some pretty valuable things. Ctrl + F? What? That is incredible, how did I not know that.  Furthermore, how did I successfully make it through undergrad without it. (dramatic? maybe.) I also didnt know all of the features of Google - wonderwheel, timeline, etc. I think these new 'gems' will be valuable in my life from here on out. Plus, wonderwheel is just fun.

Time with Jeff I felt was  insightful, both from personal reflection and group dialogue.  I especially liked the Dewey quote above, and had noted it in my reading.  I mentioned in class that I resonated with this quote strongly because I have gone through this process for the past year; I came home from a summer internship (that changed my life in many ways, but had little to do with future career advancement) and thought to myself, "ok, once I get a job and a salary and health care, life can start." It was through the experiences of trial and error, taking minimum wage jobs that I didnt want, and struggling to rejoice in the successes/jobs of my friends while I continued to try and figure my plan out that I realized that life wasnt going to start when I landed a job -- life is NOW.

Something i noted from the discussion in Jeff's half of class was making a connection between life in the classroom and life outside of the classroom for students.  Is their real, authentic, most connected life maintained within the walls of the school, outside in the parameters of their community, or is there  a way to connect these two worlds? This I think is true for adults, as well (home life vs work life).  this is a dichotomy I wish wasnt as prevalent as I perceive it is -- that life could somehow be singular and made of different elements, but maintain the same personality and persona in both places.  I think, though, that it is more common for lives to be put on and taken off with a nametag or suit then to be kept on like skin. Kiwi's comment that in high school he was "assembling identity and figuring out who I was" was intriguing to me, because I have never really been able to articulate how I have understood who I was, or the path of getting there.  How do we progress toward realizing fully who we are -- and do we ever actually reach that point? I dont have an answer.

And then came the afternoon.  In our group (social studies) I think I pissed some people off because I kept asking throughout our lesson planning, "so what?'  While i felt the ideas that we were communicating on what we wanted students to take away, the practicality of it was a neceessary factor for me. It is extremely valuable for students to know how to differentiate between primary, secondary, etc documents, but the idea of asking them to identify examples of each with no future plan for what to DO with the results left me asking.... so what? That spurred some brainstorming that I felt was extremely fruitful and our end (...ish...) result was something I was proud of.  I think its a process taht I didnt realize was so time and thought consuming, and I am interested to see how my question "so what" takes on different importance and meaning in my various future lesson plans.  For this class, our result was a true colaboration of everyone's ideas, and something that I think could actually be used well in the classroom. It was enlightening for our content group, I think, to think of our subject in a practical way, and interesting to work on our first lesson plan AND our first wiki with 10 other people.  A challenge, but one that yielded a positive result.

grace&peace,
emily

PS I cant deprive you of a clip. In the spirit of looking to fix BP's epic flub, here is the second installment of Oscar Rogers, Financial Consultant (skip ahead to 5:02). I think the suggestion Oscar offers can transcend to the oil spill.

Dewey.... Decimal?

DISCLAIMER: i didnt realize how long this was going to be until after i posted it. at least i included pictures, links, and videos? interactive points, yo. in any case - sorry so long and congrats if you make it through.

Dewey + "Ed Tech" was an interesting read for me since I had already glanced at Farrah's blog about it, but decided not to read all of her imagined conversation with Dewey until after I was done reading. In the end, this reflection of Dewey provided a middle ground for me to stand on and agree with after reading for EDUC Foundations yesterday the "Roots of Education". In that reading, I found myself not fully relating to any particular philosophy of education. Here, I really like Dewey's connection of experience and the role of the student in their own active learning, but also the essential role the teacher plays in "monitoring student experience and step in where their knowledge is lacking." I think this resonated with me because I think it is ridiculous (or, as Dewey said, stupid) to think that providing a student with tools and resources is enough for them to learn. A teacher can be a facilitator, a guide in learning, but whatever role they play, a teacher is essential.

It was interesting for me to then read Dewey's Pedagogical Creed and see more flushed out his view points and philosophies. Some of the things that stood out to me were:

• the idea of preparing a child for future life -- not with specific knowledge necessarily, but with "command of himself."
• I think this is the biggest part of progressive educational theory that I resonate with -- the idea that you aren't simply feeding a student facts and formulas but rather teaching them how to use tools and resources by applying them to different situations in life
• that school should "exemplify current social living"
• This is important because I think it engages students with the outside world and shows them a little more of a glimpse of the reality that the world is not their small little bubble of school, home and friends, but rather that there is much more going on and they have a place in it all
• the role of the teacher is to select the influences that a child will receive, not to form the child's habits (and assist them in properly responding to influences)
• While I believe it is important for a teacher to shape some habits and techniques in students, its an interesting approach to consider that a teacher is "selecting influences" rather than just training habits or "banking" knowledge
• education is a continually reconstructive experience
• Education changes all the time, and the tennates and realities of what the curriculum is based on is ever changing... techniques change, best practices shift, and the education system continues to mold and shift to adapt to new developments, technologies, and information  
 
 

 <-- Do you know who that is? Its ok, most people wouldnt by a picture. And they also wouldn't know his name right off the bat (unless, perhaps, they just read this article.) It is Larry Page, aka the co-founder of Google, aka my 2009 commencement speaker.  I am not ashamed to say that when my homegirl Mary Sue announced in FEBRUARY he was going to be our commencement speaker, I was ticked.  (I felt like she could have spent a bit more time getting someone on-par with who my friends had at their 2007 commencement) It wasnt until I went to commencement in 2010 that I really felt the selection of Mr. Page was a miserable failure.  I found out in March that who did Mary Sue get for 2010? This guy.

 Ok, off my complain train and onto the article. (for the record, Larry Page is a fine human and an asset to society.... which he made clear in his speech that was 90% about his career at Michigan and inventing Google and 10% about the graduates....  I am just jealous I didnt get a former or sitting president).

I enjoyed the chapter about Google and Wikipedia, as I think most people did. It was easy to read.... and it was talking about the majority of us.  I will admit I was surprised to read that Google recieves much of the same flack and Wikipedia. I was aware of the unreliable nature of Wikipedia and how it was forbidden from my life throughout school, but I didnt realize that Google was plagued by the same fate.  After reading the reasons why, I understand the arguments more, but have still never really encountered a significant problem with using Google or the resources it gives me.

Discussion of the "wisdom of the crowds" was interesting and logical to me, and seemed like probably the biggest "pro" that Wikipedia has going for it. Another things related to Wikipedia I was surprised about was that some professors  prohibit the use of encyclopedias at all -- I have never heard that before! And interesting correlation (causation?) to Wikipedia.

I think that the most important thing to remember about Google and Wikipedia, which was emphasized in the article, is that they are good places to START - but a search should likely continue on further and more deeply than either of these sources.

as another pro the authors neglected, I wanted to point you to the Wikipedia game.  You and a friend (or 4) mutually decide upon an item that you could find on Wikipedia. Anything. Then, you go to the wikipedia homepage and click "random article", each on your own computer, simultaneously.  By only clicking links, and never using the "back" button, you are to navigate to the mutually decided upon item.

Example: Larry Page.
My random article to start: David Rosen (rabbi).

My path: David Rosen --> Ireland --> Continental Europe -->United Kingdom --> United Nations Security Council -->United States --> (sub heading of social media) --> web search engines --> google search  --> Larry Page.

and it only took me 1 minute and 8 seconds.


I also find this to be a valuable outlet for the variety of youtube type clips I think are hilarious. I will do my best to relate them to class content but, that being said, perhaps they will just be an incentive for you to read and broaden your knowledge of funny or thought provoking videos, which will likely all come from SNL, Def Poetry Jam, or the Colbert Report (at least for now.)

Tuesday in 649, Kiwi made a comment during the conflict resolution exercise to the effect of "he keeps it cool." clearly, this video was what I immediately thought of.






What I learned? Obama only has one rule, and that is that he doesnt lose his temper.

Today in 695, we were discussing the V&V article and came across a reference to Zimbardo. Catherine asked if it was Philip Zimbardo (of Standford Prison Experiment fame) and I found the article cited in V&V on ERIC, and it was indeed that Philip Zimbardo. That automatically recalled to memory this hilarious video from the Colbert Report, where Colbert verbally slaps Zimbardo in their discussion of Zimbardo's book, "The Lucifer Effect."

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Philip Zimbardo
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News

What I learned? Colbert teaches Sunday School. I also think that some of what Zimbardo says is valuable (that you shouldn't conform mindlessly), but by and large, what I learned from Zimbardo is that shoe polish is not an effective hair/gotee coloring agent.

Grace & Peace,
Emily

Reflections on our First Class

I initially had an excited yet apathetic approach to this class. I know how to use a computer... am a self-proclaimed wiz at PowerPoint, and feel like the technology that I would use in the classroom would initially be limited to (a) things I already know how to do or (b) could pick up relatively quickly.

After class, I am more excited. After doing the reading and having a brief overview of the syllabus, I feel like I actually will learn how to do some different things (and realize that my initial cocky-ness was way over stated.) I am excited for the opportunities that things like a Wiki page could lend to the classroom, or even simply to my own practice.

I felt the activity we did in class with the different "stations" to discuss the Tech Standards essentially yielded the same discussions: if you can and know how to use technology; awesome. If not; you will probably still impart an education on your students. One thing that I did take out of one of the discussions that I thought was really valuable was the idea of establishing an online classroom or correspondence system with parents and students that helps to keep them informed about assignments, grades, missing work, upcoming tests/events, etc. I think this could be really valuable for parents that are unable to make it to conferences, and allows the parents that do come (and, perhaps, are a little OCD) to keep tabs on how their child is doing in my class. I think its important to have the lines of communication open and VISIBLE (having documentation is something we have talked about before in other classes) to prove why a student got a particular grade is of great value to the family and to the educator.

One thing I am confused about, though, is how to integrate different types of technology in the classroom to keep it interactive and engaging without distracting students too much, or feeling like the technology is teaching them rather than me. Additionally, I am a bit concerned about how to make the technology I integrate meaningful and purposeful, rather than just flashy and impressive.

I am also excited about for this class and the opportunity to be in class with my colleagues in Section B. I feel like there are STILL people that I dint know their names, majors, etc and I think this is going to be a great opportunity to bridge the gap that is often created between our two groups.

I don't know how long this should be but.... I feel like I'm done.

Grace & Peace,
Emily