Final Reflections

No class or program should exist in isolation, and I feel that many of my courses this term have attempted to tackle the misconception that technology and modern learning exist only through gadgets.

Overall, I feel like the field of education, at least in practice, is behind in adopting new technologies, from the actual gadgets to the organization of the system itself. Schools believe that they need computers and handheld technology, these things to advance their students. but without quality teaching, the latest and greatest tools mean nothing. An iPad or laptop for every student isn't necessary for teaching students the skills they will need to succeed in school, college, the workforce, and beyond. Would I like to see more modern technologies introduced into education? Of course; there are many good things that can be learned through various apps, software, and gadgets if only schools would embrace them more. That's not to say that schools should teach "How to Use Twitter 101". Technology is more than just teaching how to use certain programs; it's about learning skills that run through technology as a whole, and skills that reflect the innovation involved with new modes of teaching and learning. Technology shouldn't be this scary unknown, and yet it is still treated that way by many.

With that said, there are some technologies that I feel should be better explored in the education curriculum at the university level. Not every school has access to YouTube or Twitter, despite the engaging ideas and projects that could incorporate those technologies. Smartboards, grade input systems, etc. are used more widely, and equally important for the day-to-day running of the classroom. Before we start worrying about broadcasting podcasts to our students, we should make sure teachers know how to use and maximize the benefits of Smartboards (as opposed to the numerous teachers who still avoid them out of ignorance and lack of training).

Whether you have access to the latest and greatest tools as a teacher, or nothing at all, "technology" and dynamic teaching exist as ways, as methods of teaching, not gadgets. It is still possible to teach modern skills like collaboration without an iPad for every student. It simply comes down to good teaching practices.

These thoughts aren't comprehensive reflection on everything I've learned this term, they barely scratch the surface, but this does seem to be a recurring theme throughout education in general at the moment, and something I think that needs discussed more in regards to "technology" in the classroom.

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Participatory Technology & Unlearning

Lots of interesting things in this week's videos/podcasts. However, my brain is not functioning properly today, so you're getting a list (surprise, surprise; coming from the girl who makes lists of lists and puts them in her lists. It's like list-ception).

• It's the "first time we don't know what's in store for our kids' futures" -- really? Hold on, let me just imagine EVERY OTHER PERIOD IN HISTORY. I can't imagine any generation thought they knew what the future had in store for certain. This statement kind of set me off on a bad start with this guy, but I'm trying hard not to be biased and judgemental right off the bat. 
• I did find interesting, however, the contrast of viewing information as a finished product vs. raw material. Should there ever be a point of "doneness", of feeling like you've learned or heard everything you needed to know? Personally, I'm constantly seeking out new opportunities.
• Ah, the participatory World Wide Web. Have we come a long way since Geocities or what? 

The podcast intrigued me a bit more, though I still have trouble focusing on a podcast without feeling like I'm listening to a morning talkshow on B94 (clearly, I have not listened to the radio in a very, very long time)

• I've developed a strange infatuation with the concept of unlearning information as of late. Too often I think we, both as teachers and people in general, believe "learning" to be a process of addition, of learning something new where "unlearning" misconceptions and bad habits are just as important to learn, even more difficult.
• What the role of an educator in an age of overabundance? A question I think would be beneficial to mull over some more.
• Here's my favorite: I love the topic of form, especially in the world of literature and the humanities, so when David Weinberger remarked on the sense of "doneness" that a book cover, for instance, conveys - that is, a stopping point - I froze. I love that technology has aided in lifting the "covers" if you will, so that one can peruse Wikipedia, getting utterly lost for hours, for linked information, starting at one place and ending up in another. I love the way that texts interact with others and open doors (House of Leaves, I'm looking at you. First, at least).

I won't let myself get carried away on that last point. It could easily morph into a blog of its own.

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Reflection: TED Talks

Let me just preface with one thing: I love TED Talks.

I discovered them later than most, but all of the different topics that are covered and those who give them give such an insight into anything imaginable. And these two particular talks, Sir Ken Robinson's "How to Escape Education's Death Valley" and Seth Godin's "Stop Stealing Dreams" were no different. Here's a rundown on my thoughts on both:

How to Escape Education's Death Valley
As I first started watching Sir Ken Robinson's talk, I was rapidly clicking away at my keyboard, jotting down notes, and thinking to myself, "yes! That! Exactly! Go Ken, go!". Every point he made within the very first few minutes, the jokes he truthfully cracked, all are things that are either currently a hot talking point or I've noticed in the field of education myself. Then I realized my list was way too long and we all pretty much know just how our education system is failing kids. Drop out status. Obedience and conformity. Robotic, everyone's-the-same teaching ("You would never confuse [your kids]. Which one are you? Remind me." Too true, Ken, too true).

But the one thing that stood out from his talk is something that I've heard before, but not nearly enough. To be honest, I don't recall where I first heard the topic being discussed - I think in a Youtube video for a class on education in undergrad - but it stirred my feelings yet again. We are using an outdated model. It's an Industrial system of education, both in the sense that it's a mechanical system as opposed to a human one; and also in the fact that it's no longer the 1900's - our values have changed, our technologies have changed, our world has changed. Obedience is not quite the same as it once was (yes, you should still listen to and respect your parents, but just think how much the family unit and social norms involving the family have changed and relaxed over the past hundred years). So why are we preparing kids for a machine-industry using mechanized methods when it's 2013?

It's a new age, thinking and approaches have changed, and yet education remains stagnant. I've always been a bit biased towards education's lack of progress; fields like science and technology are always adapting, and yet here's education, nowhere near the cutting edge of anything (or so it seems). The change doesn't need to be radical. We don't need to abolish school entirely, give everyone giraffes instead of grades, or replace biology with bungee-cord art 202 But if we keep doing what we're doing, our results are going to remain the same - crappy (I generalize, but you get the idea).

Miscellaneous Thoughts

• I like how we, as a country, spend the most money on education, yet we'er still not doing so hot in the grand scheme of things. Just goes to show that you can throw all of the money in the world at something, and if you don't know what you're doing and your system has major kinks, it's not going to produce the results you want.
• I loved Robinson's comment about art speaking to the things within kids that would otherwise go unnoticed, unattended. If I didn't have music and art and expression - all of those "artsy fartsy" subjects or activities that seem to be getting pushed out of schools these days - I would've been an even moodier teenager. How unfeeling we would all be!
• Low-grade clerical work. I snorted when I heard that, but how true it is. I complain at my own job when I get saddled with menial tasks that I know exist for the sole purpose of being tedious. Just as in school, we knew when the teacher was assigning us an activity that was meant to keep us occupied while she caught up on other things - it's not brain surgery to know when you're being shorted. To hear the parallel made to "low-grade clerical" work really brought this whole idea into a new light for me. Wow.

Stop Stealing Dreams
And for me, Godin's talk builds off of my "need to change the system" rant. He poses the question, "What is school for"? And that's a tough question. The follow-up - "What did school used to be for?" hits on that notion of obedience, productivity, and industrialism. But I've talked about that enough. Let's talk about how hard it is to get an adult to do something creative with no constraints or guidance other than "make something interesting".

I can't even make something interesting! Trying to decide on a unit theme for our curriculum classes, where they can literally be about ANYTHING is impossible for me. Had you asked when I was 8, I probably would've said dinosaurs wearing jetpacks or something. I don't like having free reign (Linda knows my pain). I feel like I've been taught all this time that there's no need for creativity and open choice.

And that's where the problem with schools comes in. What are we teaching kids? Certainly not how to think. Again, I generalize; I'm sure there are schools and teachers out there who are excellent at teaching creative thinking and resourcefulness. But everything our school system is designed for as a whole is not aimed at creativity or divergent thinking - it's aimed at sameness. Standardized tests, I'm looking largely at you. We're very good at collecting things, and not so much at connecting them, and in the process we teach kids that it doesn't matter what you can do with that knowledge. You have it, and that's good enough. Psht, who needs to apply things, anyway?

Special mentions:

• Memorizing is not important. THANK YOU! Someone said it. I'm a firm believer that resourcefulness trumps everything; I may not know the answer, but I know how to find out, and to me that is much more valuable than having memorized how to spell "jodhpurs". If you're typing it on a computer and don't have the discipline to find out what you don't know, there are many more issues we're going to have than you failing your spelling test (like work ethic, laziness, and learning how to use technology in a competitive world).
• Lectures on subjects that are interesting, that are free and everyone has access to? I see what you're doing there, TED Talks.
• "Good" as a construct (i.e. a "good" college). I love ruminating on social constructs, and really, aren't most things? What makes such and such "good"? What is "good"? As a society, we assign things arbitrary value and they become the norm, just 'cause.

In writing this, I've also realized how much more seriously I take writing a blog post than a discussion board post, even though they're essentially the exact same thing. Interesting...

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Visions & Revisions

Vision and Revisions is a teaching blog for Chatham University's Masters Program, in conjunction with class EDU618.

The name for this blog comes from T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". As an English major and member of Chatham's Secondary English MAT program, I couldn't pass up a beloved poem's comments on time, and all that can be accomplished. As I embark on this journey in teaching, I think of those hundred visions and revisions I will have, and look forward to making them most of them.

( source )

"Time for you and time for me, 

And time yet for a hundred indecisions, 

And for a hundred visions and revisions, 

Before the taking of a toast and tea."

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