Key Values

As I prepare to watch the video, Digital Nation, I thought of some key values we, as inhabitants of this earth, should possess in order to function as societies. I am interested to see what insight this video gives me into my suspicions, and whether or not I am just a naive person with pipe dream ideals.

Some thoughts as I watch:

Sherry Turkle, the director of MIT, used the term drinking the Kool-Aid. I wonder if any of these kids in our cohort even know what she's referring to.

The student at Stanford U (or was it MIT?) who said that professors just need to accept the fact that the kids multitask and they are very good at it, yet one professor had just said that the mean score for a test he had given, that should have been 100%, was 75%. Hmmm. A little discrepancy.

Rewired says we need to give in to the "we want it all and we want it now" mentality of our youth. When you look at what's happening in South Korea, where they fully embraced that 10 years before the making of this video, a whole lot of good that did them. Now they have Internet Addiction camps???

Love the Netiquette song. :)

Hey, I was a nanny in Chatham NJ!

Instant Gratification Education

The Dumbest Generation. Isn't someone in our class reading that?

The learning stays the same; it's the teaching that needs to change.

I've never thought about the effects of when print replaced telling. We lost memory.

Must be before the iPhone. Lots of the people mention their Blackberry. I used to have one of those :)

Feed Me Bubbe I love it! They both look VERY Jewish :) LOVE the plastic on the chair! I love that Bubbe has totally embraced the tech that her grandson introduced her to. So fun!

Ugh, WOW. My son wasted too many years of his life, and plenty of money on subscriptions, to play that stupid game, holed up in his room. Dark time in our lives.

I loved Phillip Rosedale, the creator of Second Life, saying, "Imagine a world as good as you can imagine it. Then remember: God has imagined it better than you."

I think it is a fantastic idea that soldiers flying the drones must wear their uniforms to work, though they are 7500 miles from the war. It helps them remember that they are actually dealing with real people, real lives. It's NOT a video game.

Todd Oppenheimer, author of The Flickering Mind, said it well, "Schools are the only institutions we have left where we can have a real conversation...We have to protect that."

Horses to cars, letters to telephones. Not all bad. What will we hold onto? and what will we leave behind?

Technology isn't good or bad. And it's complicated. (Turkle).

honesty - All research on this needs to be presented openly and honestly to give us real hard facts.

faith - We need to have faith in each other, and in the way that we feel is appropriate to use technology,           and respect other's opinions about it, too.

trust - Kids need to trust parents, and parents need to trust their kids.

accomplishment - Our kids have the opportunity for great accomplishments, whether they have an                   abundance of tech offered to them or not.

commitment - We all need to be committed to the children who are our future leaders.

compassion - whatever you choose, have compassion for those around you who may not have what                 you have.

conviction - Have conviction in your beliefs and goals

fairness - Is it fair that some schools have an abundance of tech, and some have nearly none?

family - After it's all said and one, our family is what we have left. Treat them well whether you agree             with them or not.

freedom - We are blessed to have the freedom to educate our children in the way we think is best.

hopefulness - Without hope, what else is there?

kindness - Well, that one goes without saying.

knowledge - Gain as much knowledge as possible about all this tech, and embrace what you can.

order - We need to keep order to this whole thing. Let's not go over board, as S. Korea has shown it's               probably not a good idea.

power - We have the power to change things, so let's do it. But carefully.

pride - Take pride in the things you know and do.  But don't be prideful.

learning - Keep learning as you go.

These things may not make sense to others, but I know exactly what they mean to me. What's right and what's wrong? Can we find a balance? 

Rewired?

June 16, 2014

I finally got my book!!! 'Bout time. Sheesh! 

After reading the first two chapters of Rewired, I am a bit disappointed in the content. The author seems to think that teachers 1) live in the dark ages; 2) should become computer gurus over night; and 3) he believes whole heartedly in the ability to multitask and absorb it all. Now, I admit I am a bit behind in the technology department for sure. However, I absolutely disagree with Mr. Rosen's ideologies. First of all, my students do NOT hate coming to school. They may not thoroughly enjoy taking notes in science, but they LOVE the experiments that we do every other day. They may not enjoy math homework (who does?), but when they leave my class, they know exactly how to work through problems and apply them. Yes, it would be ideal if I could just whip up a program that allowed them to interact with others as they do their homework, could get instantaneous feed back from a virtual teacher, and have their work adapted as they go. Unfortunately, the reality is that some of my students, while they may have cell phones, don't have internet access at home. So a whole lot of good that would do.

I also totally disagree with Rosen's opinion that today's students hate to read books. He says it takes up too much of their time and they can only "unitask" while doing it, therefore they aren't able to "stay connected" while reading a book. Excuse me? Every year the MAJORITY of my students prefer to read books. They beg me to give them time in class because after school they have too many activities, ie., soccer, baseball, dance, football, you name it, practice, sometimes two in one afternoon; plus family and church activities, and homework. I have watched my own children and they multitask, but they admit they aren't wholly involved in any of the activities they are engaging in, and know when they need to put the phone away and turn off chat on FB. Plus, they love to read, just for reading sake.

I know that I need to jump on the technology bandwagon and incorporate more into my lessons. But do they need to move at the speed of sound to keep the children entertained? And if I somehow got my hands on a smart board, is it just swapping the "chalkboard" for the computer screen?

I hope that as I get further into this book, things will rectify themselves and I will have more respect for this man's opinions.

June 10-12

Cognition: the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.

A result of this; a perception, sensation, notion, or intuition. (As defined by Google)

My Experience With Technology

As I learn more and more about cognition, particularly where technology is involved, I am beginning to understand myself more. Growing up in a very poor family, we didn't have the opportunities many of my peers had. Most of my friends were of the "haves" group, where I was in the "have nots" group, with a few others. The most technology we had, besides a VCR, was a late 70s Atari System. Being married to a "techie," my children have always had handhelds, iPods, phones (at appropriate ages, WITH LIMITS), game systems, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and so forth. My 3 boys have been very adept to all those things. My daughter, however, was not very interested in any of the gaming things. And she was, and still is, a bit behind her brothers on the technology, but still way better than me. (All my kids are grown now, ages 19-26.)

I have never been one to be particularly inclined toward technology; I never really cared for the game systems my friends had. I was never really interested in playing at the video arcades. I would rather talk or read a book. In algebra, as part of our curriculum, we got 4 1/2 weeks on the computers. (You know, the early 1980s gigantic pre-mouse things.) And I was totally lost the entire 23 days. To this day, learning something new on my computer/iPhone/iPad puts me into a panic at varying degrees, depending on whether it is somehow connected or related to any background knowledge I may already possess. (Panic is a daily occurrence these days.:))

So, the question is, Was I not interested in technology because I had such limited exposure and was already behind my peers? Or is that just the way my brain is wired? And can it be rewired to catch up, at least to some degree? It seems, from what I've observed, that had we not had all this technology in our home, my daughter would have been more like me, and perhaps lag behind her peers. So maybe it IS the way my brain works. Maybe some kids are not necessarily going to be "techno-savvy" just because they have unlimited exposure. However, I have noticed that the kids in my class, no matter how much exposure to technology they may have, are not afraid to explore and figure things out, where as I freeze if I can't recall specific steps (something I am really working on!). Oh, this technology strand is stretching me!

June 3-5

How do we think? I have noticed in my own life that "we" think very differently. For example: when I need to think, I clean something, or I go for a walk, or I go outside and pull weeds. My husband, however, is exactly opposite: he sits and stares into space. But he does a lot of very deep thinking that way. So, the way we go about it is very personal.

How do we learn? Again, very personal. I have to mirror something to learn, and then repeat it several more times. If someone shows me, and I don't mirror it back to them, I will forget in a very short amount of time. I've noticed with my own children they learn very differently from each other: Lane, my oldest, has to do everything "hands on," and I mean everything. Justin is a thinker, like his dad. He sees, he thinks, then he does. Alexa has to be shown several different ways to find the one that works best for her. Some things are hands on, some are watching and mirroring, some things she needs to do along with someone, and some things she needs to think about. Jake, however, just does. He hears it, he does it. Done. I've seen all these same behaviors, and more, in my students.

How do we remember? I think the best way to remember is by using multiple steps. My science lessons generally consist of 3 steps: lecture/note taking; doing an activity and applying; and reflecting. Lecture/note taking can be boring, so we keep that part short, and then follow up with an experiment or activity to drive home real life application. Then we regroup and discuss our findings/experiences. I have found that when I use all three of these steps, my students remember the most.