Blog Post 12

Assignment: Watch the video Teaching Writing in a Digital Age and write a blog post detailing your thoughts on the future of writing mentioned in the video and how you could incorporate some of these methods into your future classroom.

Teaching Writing in a Digital Age is a video that was made as an appeal to a school board who was skeptical about the use of technology in the writing classroom. Many of the points the video makes can be applied to any discipline and not specifically writing, but I still thought the video brought up some good points. One of the main ideas of the video is a redefining of the word literacy. In EDM 310 we have spoken many times about technological literacy and its importance in the field of education, but this video views technological literacy as an extension of what we think of as actual literacy. The video places this shift of the definition of literacy in the near future, which may in fact be the case. This shift reminded me of a video we watched for blog post 10 called "This is How We Dream" in which a fundamental change in writing is described. These two shifts, the new definition of literacy and the new way to write, go hand in hand.

My favorite point of the entire video was made by Dr. James Paul Gee, a professor at Arizona State University, who makes the argument that the American education system seems to perform best when its back is against the wall. He gives two scenarios in which this has occurred. The first was the launch of Sputnik, which prompted a jumpstart in American education, and the second was in the 1980's when Japan seemed to be on the verge of controlling the technological sector. The first example is obvious and is absolutely correct; the second example is arguable, but he does have an interesting point. With the current state of the American education system, it seems highly likely that we are in a period where our "backs are against the wall." Our education system has become complacent, but I remain hopeful that a phenomenon, much like the one Dr. Gee describes, has begun to take hold. With more and more teachers and school districts embracing technology and collaboration in schools, we may be on the precipice of a jumpstart to the American education system.

C4K October

I commented on a wide variety of age ranges and subjects in October. The first blog I commented on was an AP Government blog post written by a student named Annelise. Her post talked about politics, but it was written in an objective way. The post was extremely well done. Its main subject was America's current two party system and how the founding fathers would be "rolling over in their grave" if they could see our current political state. I agreed with the ideas in the post and commented on how I was impressed by the ideas and the sophistication in the post.

The second post I commented on was a very short post written by a student trying to learn English. The post was a game that described a celebrity and the commenters were supposed to guess. I had no idea who the celebrity was, but I encouraged the writer to keep up the good work.

The final post I commented on was a characterization of the character Johnny from the book "The Outsiders," by a student named Alex. I enjoyed the post a great deal because "The Outsiders" was one of my favorite books when I was growing up. I commented about that fact, and talked some about the different characters of the book.

C4T 3

For C4T #3, I posted on Becky Goerend's blog. She is a fifth grade teacher from Iowa who posts about different subjects regarding education, while also discussing things that take place outside of the classroom and relating them back to education. The first post of hers that I commented on talked about her spring garden. She was discussing the new items in her garden taking the place of the old. It was during the spring time, so there was a sense of "out with the old in with the new." She then offered a question to her readers that basically said "what do you want to get rid of, and what do you want to add to your life?" I commented on how I hope to change my study habits for the better. I hope to get rid of some of my old bad habits and become a better student.

The second post I commented on dealt with writing. She was talking about how students need examples as a way to improve their writing but not just one example of a good and bad essay. They need multiple examples in order to learn what good writing is. I commented that reading novels and stories is another way to understand quality writing. Regardless of where the examples come from, students definitely need a lot of them to improve their writing.

Blog Post 11

Little Kids....Big Potential is a video posted by a first grade teacher from Saskatchewan named Kathy Cassidy that shows her students engaging with technology in many different ways. Her first grade students use blogs, Wikis, videos and even Nintendo DS in many different ways to help them learn their assignments and also learn skills that will help them in the future. The students in the video seem engaged and excited about learning in these ways. Ms. Cassidy also participated in a Skype interview with Dr. Strange and some students from EDM 310. In this interview she mentions some very interesting points about her first graders and technology. One thing that really stood out to me was when she mentioned that to a first grader technology is neither good nor bad it just is. Technology has no negative connotations to her students because it is simply another new learning experience. Most people would find it hard to believe that first grade students would be capable of using such "complicated" technology in a classroom, but these people come to this conclusion with their preconceived notions about what is difficult or challenging. Technology is almost like learning a new language for older people who have never dealt with it before, but to a first grader, it is simply learning a language. Everything is new to them. That is the main reason why I think Ms. Cassidy's work is so inspiring and important. She is able to help young kids understand the ways in which technology can be used for good, and also teach them how to avoid the pitfalls that are possible if it is used incorrectly.

Although I will be teaching in either a middle school or high school, I still enjoyed seeing the work Ms. Cassidy is doing. I hope that more teachers take the initiative as she has and begin teaching technology to students at a younger age. For one thing, it makes it much easier to implement more tools later on in the education process, and it allows secondary education teachers like myself to focus on the content of student work in blogs and other areas of technology rather than being forced to teach them how to actually blog. I hope to incorporate some type of blogging into my classroom along with other types of technology. I would at least like for students to have a weekly post of some type because I believe that having an audience is an important part of the writing process. It also allows students to receive feedback from people other than their own teachers, which is important. As a future English teacher, I think a great deal about ways to improve student writing, and I think blogging is an excellent tool to do this.

Project 11

Project 14

Blog Post 10

This comic is a play on the Mac vs. PC commercials that were on television several years ago where the PC was the older "nerdy" guy and the Mac was the young hip guy. Both Bic and Ticonderoga are types of pencils, so the comic makes a humorous connection between the two. The comic works in the context of the blog, which is a satirical take on the use of technology in schools. The blog is written by an educator named John Spencer. It supposedly takes place in a time where pencils were first introduced to schools, and the teacher meets opposition from higher ups in the school. It is basically stating that change is always met with opposition.

Why Were You Playing Games? is another post on this same blog. This post is a short fictitious scenario where a teacher is derided by his superior for "playing games" rather than working on "rote memorization." The teacher apparently had his students drawing (gasp!) and interacting with materials in a number of different ways. While the post (and the entire blog) is a humorous and satirical take on the current state of education, the problems the teacher faces are wholly based in reality. Often teachers are chided for attempting new ideas that may go against the grain. Much like the Mr. Winkle Wakes video, the blog suggests (rightfully so) that education hasn't advanced very much since 1895.

A helpful post on the basic idea of the blog can be found in the Why We Fall Behind post. This post is an allegorical tale of the issues current teachers face when trying to use new technology in the classroom. The scenario sounds very similar to what takes place in classrooms today, albeit with more handlebar mustaches.

Scott McLeod is one of the nations leading experts on K-12 technology education. He also co created the Did You Know? series of videos, which we watched earlier in EDM 310. His Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff Please blog post makes some excellent points about the resistance against technology in education. Basically his argument boils down to: No matter what "damaging" things kids may possibly come across when using technology in education, for them to not learn to use these tools would be doing them a MUCH greater disservice. Yes it is possible for technology to be used for the wrong reasons or as a distraction, but eliminating its use altogether would leave students a great deal behind their peers.