Class reflections and closing comments

Friday's class was very interesting. I really appreciated having the MAC alumni come in and speak with us. It was refreshing to hear their first-hand experience with teaching, particularly the technological aspect of it. It was nice to hear the effective ways the teachers were able to implement technology into their class. I particularly am interested in the Moodle site the teachers found so handy.

It was nice to hear that technology they introduced into the classroom went over well with their students, and that other teachers were interested and wanted to incorporate some technology into their classroom as well. I thought the one teachers' idea to use facebook as a way to hold "office hours" was very clever. In doing this it makes the teacher more accessible to the students without having to physically spend extra time at the school. Allowing students to access the teacher after school hours, perhaps later at night when they may be struggling with a problem on their homework, is a great idea. Students can have their questions answered before class the next day, so they can come prepared and with a better understanding of the homework before having to turn it in. This also allows the students to feel better connected to the teacher, and feel that the teacher is their "ally" in their pursuit of education. This will also encourage the students to do their homework before the teacher's facebook office hours, so they can have their questions answered as they won't have an excuse the next day to not know how to solve a problem. I think this is a very clever idea, and one that I will try to implement in my future classrooms.

It was also really great to talk with Lauren in New York, as well as her students. I enjoyed hearing her take on cell phones in the classroom. While I think that there can be some benefits to having students put their cell phones to good use- like looking up information when other computers are not available- I also think that there would be a lot of distraction caused by them.

I was encouraged to see how engaged her students appeared to be in her class. They both seemed to enjoy being in her classroom and learning English from her. It was great that we were able to ask them questions about their take on technology in the classroom. In the discussion concerning the role of technology in class, and where that balance is, we have to remember to keep the students' perspectives and opinions in mind. The girls seemed to acknowledge that there are concerns the teachers have about allowing the students to keep the phones in class, and appear to be respectful of that, which is encouraging.

In bringing this summer course to a close, I really appreciated our discussion in class about our thoughts and concerns that we have about technology, now that we have studied the varying views and studies on this topic. While I still have some reservations concerning technology and while I still don't like the way it is establishing its' ever-presence in society, I do indeed see the potential benefits and place that it can hold in a classroom. I think that it is very important to help kids see the connection between education and society, and it is impossible to ignore the role technology holds in society today. From here begins my quest for finding the fine balance between a technologically based classroom and a paper, textbook and pencil based classroom. Let the search begin...

Generation M and Seeking

I found the article on Gen M very intriguing. I found it interesting how the authors wrote that in this generation it is not considered rude or violating any rules of etiquette for two friends who are sitting together, to be texting other people at the same time. They state that it is not rude, or uncommon, for kids to do this nowadays without thinking about it, because everyone does it. I find myself asking, doesn't this distract from the conversation the two could be having in real life? They are both, in essence, multi-tasking, and juggling a bunch of different conversations at the same time. How could they be really present with one another and have a good conversation? What is the definition of a good conversation to them anymore, really?

I also found the aspect of privacy an interesting topic. Nowadays, teenagers post pretty much everything they think online. They don't really think twice about putting photos up of themselves, but could this have repercussions later down the road? Nowadays people in power are being put in the media spotlight when someone finds a photo of them, or an email they sent, or a twitter post (Oh if I was an Oscar Mayer...) that questioned their character. Now, all this social networking came about not too long ago, and I'm guessing that many of the older and not so old politicians of today don't have an extensive internet history, and still things are surfacing online that can throw them out of office. Now, fast forward 15 years, and think about all the teenagers now who will have an extensive internet history by the time they turn 30. How easy will it be for someone to find a bad photo of them from when they were 18 or 19? They may not worry about maintaining their privacy now, but when they get older, will their social networking past come back to haunt them?

I believe that there is a time and a place for technology, but that time and place has overstepped its boundaries, and has permeated too much of our society. The fact that people are spending more and more time on their computers, their cell phones, their iphones, and other gadgets, and less and less time having meaningful conversations is detrimental to our society. I think we miss out on moments where we could be completely present with a family member or friend, because we're instead focused on our technological device at hand. I believe that people need to realize that while there are some good things about the internet and the information we can so readily receive, there are also dangers that come along with that.

As Emily Yoffe says in her article entitled, “Seeking”, we have brains that are more easily stimulated than satisfied. I can easily get on the computer to check one thing, and then an hour has gone by and I’m left feeling dissatisfied and wondering where the time went and why I haven’t gained any real knowledge about anything. Yoffe says that we humans are seeking machines, and the internet is a perfect device for us to seek endlessly. But where does this seeking get us? The people in the US aren’t getting any smarter. The argument has been made that the internet can in fact be hindering our intelligence as people no longer feel the need to retain any information they find, as it is always at their fingertips. There is no need for memorizing facts as they can be found at the click of a button.

I would contest that technology can in fact be harmful to children. Children who grow up spending hours staring at their computer screen or tv screen playing games are constantly having their minds over stimulated. Therefore, kids are finding it harder and harder to concentrate in school without stimulation. When they are used to their minds being stimulated all day by technology, it is harder for them to focus without it.

Technology is permeating society, and while there are some positive aspects of technology (such as keeping in touch with friends and family for example) there are many negatives. I think that technology is taking people out of living in the here and now. I find that I am not able to be fully present in conversations when I am searching on my computer, or fiddling with my phone. People are constantly seeking to be entertained by their stimulating techonological device, and forget the importance of simplicity, and learning how to deal and cope with sometimes being bored. Kids are spending less time exercising their bodies by running around outside and more time sitting motionless in front of a computer screen. How can this be good for society? I believe that the US needs to take their focus off of technology and put it back onto the real world. The outdoors, the face-to-face conversations with actual people, and perhaps we will stop the seeking cycle we have perpetuated, and learn to enjoy and be content with real life, apart from technology.

Class reflections

Class on Friday was very interesting and enjoyable. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed both Kristin and Jeff's section of the class. As an avid podcast listener, I was both excited and nervous to create my own. However, once I got going on it, I was more excited than nervous. The program Aviary is amazing, and I look forward to using it more in the future. It was really nice that we were able to share our podcasts on the wiki page with one another, as it was fun listening to what everyone had to say, and to be able to hear about the various edubloggers out there that people are enjoying.

Another application I learned about from Kristin was Evernote. I downloaded it and have been using it to keep organized. It's a great application as I'm able to put webpages in it, web links, youtube videos, really anything, and it keeps it all in storage. As I sometimes having a difficult time remembering all the different websites and information pages we are shown in class, Evernote has shown to be really helpful in that aspect.

I thought Jeff's section of the class was fantastic. I really enjoyed the activity where we had to decipher the "code" on the sheet of paper. I think it is a great exercise for teachers to go through as it puts us in the shoes of struggling students. It made me realize how frustrating it can be to not understand something and how it's important to be sensitive to that. While Jeff, the teacher, was able to understand it all, we, the students, were pretty much lost and confused. He had to be patient and help us through it step by step, which was very helpful, until we were able to figure out what this code really meant. It was a great lesson in the importance of patience, both as a teacher and a student. It also showed the importance of teamwork. For example, my partner was able to understand some of the signs that I didn't, and I was able to understand some signs that she didn't. By putting what we both knew together, we were better able to guess at what the surrounding signs meant. Without each other, we would have been stuck from the beginning.

The code sheet is definitely something I will use again in the future as I believe that it has many lessons it can teach both students and teachers. I look forward to doing future podcasts, and plan on one day incorporating those into my classroom. Podcasts are a fun and interesting way for students to do reports, interviews, and much more. It is a good method for assessing students as well. Perhaps I could somehow combine a secret code activity with a podcast. Hmmm... the possibilities are endless.

Call me old fashion, but...

Online games, nintendo games, computer games, any type of game in which someone is sitting down, staring in front of a screen, has long since been a turn off to me. I grew up playing board games, card games, hide and seek, and tag. My parents never let me get a nintendo or a game boy, even though I begged for one for a number of years. Now that I'm older, I'm so grateful they didn't give in to my pleads. I feel that I would have wasted a lot of time which I instead spent on playing other games which engaged my imagination, developed real life relationships, and was physically good for my body- such as building forts with my sisters, reading books or playing "kick the can" with my neighborhood friends.

It saddens me to hear how kids today spend so much time in front of a screen playing these games. Wouldn't that time be better spent playing games with actual people (as opposed to onscreen "teammates" or "friends") and actively engaging their imagination? Nowadays, kids are spending less and less time reading and more and more time with technology. I would be hard pressed to find someone who can prove that a kid reaps more benefits from playing an online game for an hour than reading a book for an hour.

Jane McGonigal talks about how the average kid will have spent 10,000 hours online by the age of 21- the same amount of time as in school. She doesn't see this as a problem?! She claims that gamers are getting "extraordinarily good at something". What is it? Where is the evidence of this? I have never read of or heard of someone claiming that they were successful at accomplishing something (real and tangible, not virtual) due to their skills they acquired playing an online game.

McGonigal lists four benefits one can reap from being an online gamer. These are:

1. Urgent optimism- desire to act immediately and tackle an obstacle.

2. Weaving a tight social network.

3. When playing a game, players are working hard. Gamers are willing to work hard.

4. Epic meaning. Attached to awe inspiring missions.

According to McGonigal these all add up to: gamers are super empowered, individually capable of changing the world.

I'm sorry, but I find this utterly ridiculous. I cannot argue that the above list displays wonderful attributes for someone to possess. However, I do not think that these are attributes that someone who plays an online game is going to acquire and incorporate into their life apart from the game. Sure, someone playing the game may feel optimistic about the fact that he/she just passed level 4, but this is an optimism they are correlating to this game, their success in this game, not on something they actually did in real life. This is similar to a kid who scores a goal in soccer feeling like he was able to overcome an obstacle. Sure, he's going to feel optimistic for a while, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to change his whole perspective in life because of that goal.

McGonigal claims that online gaming is beneficial in that it creates a tight social network, built on trust and bonds. How much of a social network can you really create with people you never see or meet in person? You may be able to speak with them in the game, but that's it, and all you're talking about is the game and the logistics of the game. Virtual relationships cannot replace real relationships with physical human presence and contact. By spending more time online talking with other people you know very little about, you are taking away from time that could be spent building and working on "real" relationships with family and friends. Granted, I understand that nowadays many things are done through the internet, and sometimes social networking can be beneficial for business or work. However, social networking is beneficial when things applicable to real life are discussed, as opposed to discussing which person (which isn't even a real person) to target next in "Halo". What real world knowledge does someone take away with them from their interactions with their gaming network?

McGonigal claims that online players are willing to work hard in order to succeed. I would argue that this "work" isn't real work. I think it's a stretch to say that online gamers continue playing because they want to work harder and harder. I know that when I have played games online, it is not because I want to work hard, but because I want to put off my actual work. I know friends who have problems with procrastination and spending too much time playing games, thereby not getting work done. It is easier in these games to "work hard" and keep going on, because you can never die. You can get killed over and over and start again. In real life this isn't possible, so people are less willing to take so many risks in order to "succeed".

Lastly, McGonigal claims that through gaming, people find epic meaning. I can see that they find meaning in being able to accomplish the game. But, what happens after the game? What applicable skills have they learned and are able to take away with them? How does pursuing this meaning in defeating the game benefit society? How does it benefit your intelligence? I would argue that it doesn't. Studies have found that playing violent video/computer games leads to an increase in violent behavior in kids. ("Studies have shown that pathological involvement with computer or video games is related to excessive gaming binges and aggressive behavior". From the Journal of Youth and Adolescence; v40 n1 p38-47 Jan 2011).

Many computer games encourage violence. It is easy to kill someone on a computer game because it isn't "real", it doesn't mean anything. Kids become de-sensitized to violence, and find it easier to perform violence in real life. In addition, kids who spend a large amount of time online playing games, spend less time developing relationships with friends and family in real life. Playing games is isolating, and takes away from meaningful relationships that need to be developed. Do we really want a generation of kids finding epic meaning in a computer game, or epic meaning in real world events. Wouldn't it be better for a kid to find meaning in helping to feed the homeless in their neighborhood? Which would in actuality benefit society and bring about a sense of belonging?

Both McGonigal and James Gee feel that online gaming allows people to develop skills that can be applied to real life. However, I would argue that real life is a whole different ball game. Life in the virtual, online world is not REAL. There are no politics, if you die you get another life, and the people in the game are one dimensional. McGonigal claims that people get caught up in playing to escape real world suffering. Is this a good thing? She says that people can learn to solve real world problems through games: make the future, imagine the best case scenario outcome, imagine epic wins and then give people the means to create epic wins. I think this is good in theory, but so far, this has not been the case. People have not taken what they've learned from playing an online game, and from that made significant, beneficial changes to society. People play online games to escape the real world for a while, not learn how to solve world issues whilst shooting the bad guys.

In looking at the article by Gee, he states that a benefit of video games is that they help to put new words into context by giving verbal information either "just in time" or "on demand". He says that textbooks are inefficient as they do not put words into context. I would like to know how much vocabulary is really used in an online game? I would very strongly argue that a kid learns much more vocabulary from reading a book. Reading a book engages both the child's imagination (which virtual images doesn't allow for in video games) as well as brain development, memory, increases tranquility, analytical thinking, improves writing skills, and much more. There is not a doubt in my mind that an hour spent reading is much more beneficial for a child than an hour spent online playing a game. I also believe that a child will learn many more words, in context, through reading a book than listening to an automated voice say a word or two every so often.

While I will definitely not be an advocate for playing more online games- in fact, I am a strong advocate for spending much less time online- I think that if people are going to continue playing such games, ones that can be applied in a beneficial way to real life are the best option. The oil game McGonigal presents shows that players learned how to conserve in real life and have kept up the habits they created for this game. I think the game "Evoke" is good as it brings the virtual world into the real world. McGonigal claims that "games are a powerful platform for change". While I think that they do have the potential to be, because so many people participate in them. I think that there are much better and more efficient ways to bring about change in todays' world, and we should start in the context of the "real" world.

Librarians for everyone!

Monday's class in 504 was quite interesting. I was excited for this class for 2 reasons. 1) We were able to meet in the Brandon Center. Now, I didn't know anything about the Brandon Center except for the fact that it had an awesome sign above the door which changed colors...that was enough to make me excited (I am quite easily impressed). 2) We finally got to work on creating a lesson plan! This is now our fifth week of classes and we haven't made any lesson plans thus far, so finally dealing with creating one felt like we were taking one step closer to becoming actual teachers.

I came to class with a great idea in mind for a lesson concerning the Tsunami. I was going to approach it from an English literature teacher's point of view, as I figured that is the angle I would take on it. However, I realized that I was put in a group with a Chemistry and Math teacher. Seeing as how I am a Biology minor, I realized quickly that my plan for having the students write a first person narrative from the perspective of a Tsunami survivor was out the window. I supposed this would be a good opportunity for me to come at this lesson from a different angle, seeing as how I may choose to teach Biology.

My group decided to sit in the green booth, for reasons we do not really know, except that the booths looked nice and cozy, and we could pretend we were at a restaurant. We set to work on creating the lesson. Because there was a Chemistry major, a Physics major and a Biology minor in the group, we all decided to plan the lesson for a Physics classroom. I had to dust out some of the cobwebs in my brain, but I was able to remember some of the basic principles.

Sarah, our librarian, taught me a lot of great information and showed us some wonderful resources to use when planning lessons. One of which was the Michigan content standards, which helped us to form our lesson in order to meet criteria. It really helped to see what criteria we needed to meet in a lesson as it gave us a starting point of an end goal (working backwards in our planning). We then were able to find information that fit with meeting this goal, which helped us decide fairly quickly if an article would work or not.

Another piece of information Sarah bestowed upon us, was the computer program which allowed text to be read aloud. I didn't know that almost all new computers could do this! (once again this is proof of me being easily impressed) I was amazed. I realized that this could help a lot in the classroom as it would allow students who perhaps struggle with reading a way to stay on the same "playing field" with the other students who don't struggle so much. By playing the audio of someone reading the text the students have in front of them, it allows students to read along and hopefully develop their reading skills over time. This also helps to avoid embarrassment by those who struggle with reading and comprehension.

Sarah also introduced us to the website "Todaysmeet.com". It is a great site were groups can discuss and have a live feed. Through this site we were able to send each other links to articles we found, which is so much easier than trying to tell each other how to get to the website, just click and your there! I can see how this would be a very useful tool for group discussions when the group members are not physically in the same location. I can see myself using this in the future, perhaps to have students share information with other members of their group when working on a project.

Overall, I felt that I learned a lot from class on Monday. Working in a group was fantastic. It really helps to have other people to bounce ideas off of, and to share ideas with. I found that we were able to combine a lot of our ideas together to come up with a plan that I'm sure turned out much better than if I had made it on my own. It is really good to get other people's opinions about an idea I may have, and to hear ways in which to improve upon it.

I found the Brandon Center to be a wonderful place to work. The environment of it is cozy and very study-friendly as well as group work friendly. The bright colors of the place keep your senses alert and the available technology is fantastic. I hope to spend more time in there when it opens officially. Overall, it was a wonderful day of learning!

Tsunami lesson planning...backwards

Upon reading about the lesson plan we are going to create concerning the tsunami in Japan, I was excited. I think it is so important to incorporate world news into the classroom. Often it is easy to get caught up in making sure that as a teacher you get to all of the planned curriculum and stay on schedule, but sometimes it's important to change things up, and in so doing deal with something relevant to society today, something that strikes a student as interesting and applicable, while also being able to incorporate English skills into it.

The article discussing UbD: Stages of "Backward" Design was very interesting as well. I think creating a lesson plan with the end goal in mind is a useful tactic. It helps you stay focused on what it is that you want the students to take away from the lesson. When you start creating a lesson plan all the while keeping in mind the end result, the goal, of the lesson, it is much easier to stay on task throughout the lesson, and make clearer plans.

For the creation of the tsunami lesson plan, I plan on starting by thinking of the end goal, what I want the students to take away from the lesson. And that is being able to come to a better understanding of what it would be like to have been a victim of the tsunami. I think it would be interesting to have the students write an essay from the perspective of someone their age over in Japan, writing through the eyes of someone who lived through the tsunami and has to deal with the aftermath. I would set up some prompting questions for them to answer as well as read a news article at the start of class, so as to give the students some information to use as a springboard for their story. I think it would be very useful if I could find a first person account written by someone who lived through the tsunami, and read that to the class, giving them an idea of what type of writing I'm looking for.

These are just some ideas as of now, but I look forward to developing those ideas during class.

Ok...so maybe tweeting isn't JUST for the birds.

Alright, alright, so I suppose Twitter isn't so bad. In my previous post I stood on my soapbox declaring the evils of Twitter and it's societal role as a useless distraction. This is not to say that I don't think that it can be a useless distraction, because I still think it can be. However, I see it now as having the capability to play a useful role in obtaining information.

Antonia Barkley's presentation in class played a particular role in helping me to see Twitter as something other than just another way for people to post about their new haircut, or (even better) read about a celebrities new haircut. How exciting. Rather, Antonia discussed the ways in which she, as a teacher, is able to use Twitter to gain useful information concerning her lesson plans. As she showed us the list of all the different "streams" in which we could ask people a question on pretty much any topic we want information on, I began to realize that this Tweeting business may indeed prove itself useful after all.

Hearing Antonia talk about all the great information she has found, and how this information was obtained in such a fast and easy way on Twitter, made my ears perk up a bit. I found myself wanting to know how to go about finding the answers to questions I may have concerning fun ideas to try in the classroom, other people's take on what works well when presenting a specific lesson, effective ways to introduce different topics, etc. Basically, I wanted to know how to go about making use of all the information out there to help me along in my quest at becoming a good, effective teacher. I thought, "If there is information out there that would help me to teach my students more effectively than I could otherwise, why not use it?"

I decided to test this out. I joined a couple streams on my Twitter account. I joined one on education chat, and one on English chat. While I haven't actively participated in the chat itself, yet, I quickly found some topics that people were discussing particularly intriguing. Within the first 10 minutes of following the stream, I had learned the names of some great websites to find useful information on concerning teaching, as well as a great list of Creative Writing prompts to use for students. I have to say that I found myself excited about the seemingly endless amount of information and possibilities available to me through this.

As one who has struggles with knowing how to go about finding information efficiently on the internet, the ease of Twitter and the abundant amount of information available on it, is a very welcoming relief. While there is an overabundance of information constantly coming in on the Twitter stream, and I can sometimes feel overwhelmed trying to follow it all, it is better to have an excess of information to draw from than not enough. As Franz Kafka says, "Better to have, and not need, than to need, and not have." While I don't think he was talking about Twitter, the basic principle still applies.

So, while I don't see myself spending unnecessary amounts of time on Twitter, nor do I believe that it is a tool I will incorporate into my classroom by having my students Tweeting during class, I do indeed see the potential that Twitter possesses. I will definitely turn to Twitter in my quest to find new ideas for lessons, to have a question answered, or to stay informed on any new news impacting the education world. While I will continue to use the methods I've used in the past for obtaining information, I do believe that Twitter can play a role as well, filling in the information gaps I may need filled when the other methods fall through.

I will no longer see Twitter simply as a "siren call of distraction" as I stated earlier. While I do think it has the potential to be just that, I believe it has, at the same time, the potential to be a fountain of useful information. While I still don't see its' necessity in the actual classroom, I do see it as a very beneficial tool for preparations outside of the classroom. I suppose you could say that I've had a change of mind, and I suppose a small change of heart as well.