As someone who is interested in history, I really enjoyed reading this book. I think it is human nature to want and need to communicate. We know that from the beginning of time, humans kept documents of news- either on walls or scrolls- but how they could deliver news from one place to another changed incredibly within a 50 year time frame. Their were two basic themes I got from viewing the documentary and reading the book. The first was the human need to communicate. The second theme was that technology develops at such a fast rate that it changes human nature and the way society behaves. In our society today, these two concepts are combined in the way that we use social media, find information, and keep in touch with what is going on in the world.
As a teacher, it will be a large task to help my students be respectful users of technology and to help them discover positive and reliable ways to gain information. Having background on how influential technology can be on a society has been helpful to me in recognizing the importance of guiding learners in the appropriate use of technology when introducing it as a tool in learning.
Monday, September 30, 2019
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Vygotsky
"Learning is more than the acquisition of the ability to think; it is the acquisition of many specialized abilities for thinking about a variety of things." Mind in Society by Vygotsky.
What we learn and how we learn and how we learned it affects us continually for our whole lives. As humans we are continually adapting to our environment and learning through so many means and ways. We learn things every single day even though we many not be cognizant of it.
As educators I believe it is important to provide as many opportunities for learning content as possible. Our students come from so many different cultures , backgrounds and experiences and what has meaning for one, does not have meaning for another. Designing our lessons in a way that allows students freedom in the way they find answers is key. Students can then use these skills/tools as they adapt to other learning environments throughout their life.
Vygotsky believes that we learn through play and that our environment has everything to do with our development. This is right up my alley as a PE teacher since so much of what and how I teach revolves around 'play', especially at the elementary school level.
What we learn and how we learn and how we learned it affects us continually for our whole lives. As humans we are continually adapting to our environment and learning through so many means and ways. We learn things every single day even though we many not be cognizant of it.
As educators I believe it is important to provide as many opportunities for learning content as possible. Our students come from so many different cultures , backgrounds and experiences and what has meaning for one, does not have meaning for another. Designing our lessons in a way that allows students freedom in the way they find answers is key. Students can then use these skills/tools as they adapt to other learning environments throughout their life.
Vygotsky believes that we learn through play and that our environment has everything to do with our development. This is right up my alley as a PE teacher since so much of what and how I teach revolves around 'play', especially at the elementary school level.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
The Culture of Learning
" Learning methods that are embedded in authentic situations are not merely useful; they are essential." This quote from the article Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning by Brown, Collins and Duguid sums up the entire article for me. It is so very important that educators start thinking about how they present their topics to their learners in order for it to be authentic and meaningful to the student. Introducing topics that are required and then asking students how it is relevant to them is one way to spark interest and get a "buy-in" from them. This article gives many examples of how learners use previously learned knowledge relating to their environment to solve problems. Hands on experience is how most people learn the best. I like the term of "apprentice" when thinking about how to view my students. In addition, experiences in real-life situations help learners relate one problem to another. And in this day and age of shortened attention spans, it is important to not only make learning fast paced and interesting, but to give the students meaningful opportunities to discover the process of learning and how best they can achieve a variety of solutions to a problem.
In my teaching experience teaching Physical Education, it is not about learning skills- although that is a bonus- it is about the process of learning the skills. ( how can I do this better, what works for me, how might I use these skills later, etc.) Students use previously learned knowledge to play a game, sport, or demonstrate some other fitness skill, and I simply add to that and try to help them see how it will benefit them later in life. What I find most beneficial to my students is relating teamwork and positive attitudes to the life skills that will benefit them in the workforce and social and family situations.
When teaching Health and Family Life Education, I am very much limited in how I disperse this sensitive information. We are actually given manuscripts on what exactly to say. I find this extremely limiting and so outdated. It does not take in to consideration any individuality of the students.
Overall, it is clear that educators must see the relevance in designing their lessons and simply not putting information out there for the students to regurgitate. Unfortunately, until the SATs and ACTs stop becoming such an important university acceptance issue, and SOLs continue to be a graduation requirement, teachers will need continue to teach to the test.
In my teaching experience teaching Physical Education, it is not about learning skills- although that is a bonus- it is about the process of learning the skills. ( how can I do this better, what works for me, how might I use these skills later, etc.) Students use previously learned knowledge to play a game, sport, or demonstrate some other fitness skill, and I simply add to that and try to help them see how it will benefit them later in life. What I find most beneficial to my students is relating teamwork and positive attitudes to the life skills that will benefit them in the workforce and social and family situations.
When teaching Health and Family Life Education, I am very much limited in how I disperse this sensitive information. We are actually given manuscripts on what exactly to say. I find this extremely limiting and so outdated. It does not take in to consideration any individuality of the students.
Overall, it is clear that educators must see the relevance in designing their lessons and simply not putting information out there for the students to regurgitate. Unfortunately, until the SATs and ACTs stop becoming such an important university acceptance issue, and SOLs continue to be a graduation requirement, teachers will need continue to teach to the test.
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Sabertooth Curriculum thoughts
I am not going to recap this book. We have all read it. Rather, I will post how it made me feel to read it and how I think it relates to education in this day and time.
First of all, I did enjoy the satire with which it was written. I found it an easy read and I was amused by the digs the author took at the educational system. I also was able to identify some of the social and political issues he addressed. I was fortunate to buy one of the used books that had some information at the end about the author and this is what really tied things together for me because it gave me more perspective on what the author was living at the time.
As I was reading, I could definitely relate to how our education system today is somewhat outdated. In my experience as a college student and that of a parent of a college student , I know that in the first two years of studying, our universities and colleges focus too much on re-learning what is already taught in high school. I do assume that if a student has achieved enough credentials to enter college, then they should not have to repeat the basic courses of math, history, science, English, etc, unless this courses are relevant to what they are trying to major in. In addition, technology has moved forward so fast, that there is so much information that would be far more useful to learn in these first years. I do also feel that many students should think about doing an apprenticeship after high school which would teach them a trade that would be useful to society. College is not for everyone and so many young people today are finding it difficult to fit in to this mold of 'high school-college-job' thing. Our society still needs good plumbers, air-conditioning techs, auto techs, etc.
I did find it interesting that the author wrote this book under a different name and found it necessary to write it as a satire rather than being direct in his message. I also found it interesting that the same problems he felt were prevalent back in 1939 are still problems ( in my opinion ) today.
First of all, I did enjoy the satire with which it was written. I found it an easy read and I was amused by the digs the author took at the educational system. I also was able to identify some of the social and political issues he addressed. I was fortunate to buy one of the used books that had some information at the end about the author and this is what really tied things together for me because it gave me more perspective on what the author was living at the time.
As I was reading, I could definitely relate to how our education system today is somewhat outdated. In my experience as a college student and that of a parent of a college student , I know that in the first two years of studying, our universities and colleges focus too much on re-learning what is already taught in high school. I do assume that if a student has achieved enough credentials to enter college, then they should not have to repeat the basic courses of math, history, science, English, etc, unless this courses are relevant to what they are trying to major in. In addition, technology has moved forward so fast, that there is so much information that would be far more useful to learn in these first years. I do also feel that many students should think about doing an apprenticeship after high school which would teach them a trade that would be useful to society. College is not for everyone and so many young people today are finding it difficult to fit in to this mold of 'high school-college-job' thing. Our society still needs good plumbers, air-conditioning techs, auto techs, etc.
I did find it interesting that the author wrote this book under a different name and found it necessary to write it as a satire rather than being direct in his message. I also found it interesting that the same problems he felt were prevalent back in 1939 are still problems ( in my opinion ) today.
Monday, September 2, 2019
Teachers as Designers
The way students learn is constantly changing. New technology affords so many new ways to access curriculum and allow students to be more in control of gaining and retaining information. The process in which students learn can also be identified as a life-time skill. As designers, we can create ways and provide options for students to learn new material. We can provide lesson outlines with options in the way students discover new information so the students can choose their personal best path of learning. Our designs should be fluid in order to adapt to the needs of our learners.
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