Meta-Reflection EDU 6120

 

I have really enjoyed this class. I learned a lot, but my biggest take away is that there is so much history and there is so much more to the history of education than I realized. The funny thing is, based on my 11 years in the field of education, there have been so many changes, why would I not expect that over hundreds of years there would be more history than I can even sift through in a summer class. What I appreciated about this class is that it exposed me to so many facets of history and to so much more of the details of how we got to where we are than I realized.  In fact I have often felt that classrooms today still seem so traditional that it really seems like education has not changed much at all over the last hundred years, but after all of the readings, I realize that there has been a lot of thought into how we pursue education for our children. It still does not change the fact, for me, that there seems to be the need for change in the classroom in terms of differentiating education. I do think that over the last few years there has been exponential growth in the right direction here and I am really excited looking forward in so far as how technology will begin to inundate  education. I think it took a long time and technology has taken way longer than it should have to filter into education, but it is and I think things are going to change quickly now. I am sure that there were times in the past that people felt just like that, that things were going to change quickly. In the mid 1700’s Ben Franklin along with many other like-minded people met regularly to discuss education and share knowledge. This pursuit of knowledge and finding more effective ways to educate our children is not new and I am excited to be a part of this exciting time of new technologies in education. There was even an article about Sal Khan in Costco’s magazine this month!

“Franklin also noted the value of individual correspondence as an enterprise in self-education. He engaged in extensive correspondence with knowledgeable men and women on both sides of the Atlantic, tapping into their investigations and opinions on matters relating to science, religion, politics, agriculture, and scores of other topics” (Jennings & Urban, 2008, p. 60). The engaging discussions across the world have been happening for generations and will continue in the years to come.

Wagoner Jr., Jennings L.; Wayne J. Urban (2008). American Education: A History. Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.

Observation 3- 8th Grade Math

What I See                                                                                                                                                                  What I Wonder

I came into class five minutes after it started. Two of the students are taking advanced Algebra so they are sitting right outside the classroom working independently on an assignment.The teacher is reviewing HW questions from the night before on the boardTeacher is reviewing scientific notationStudents are all facing the board, two hands go up Teacher calls on each student one after the other and answers the questions Student asks if there is another way to solve the problem, a way she sees as simpler. Teacher responds by explaining why she does it the way she does it. Teacher says the way she does it lays out all the info more clearly Transition to note taking Students are having a couple of side conversations while teacher puts notes up on board (Teacher is using a projector, computer and smart board) Students are taking out their composition books to take notes Teacher begins explaining the notes on the board as students are copying down the notes One student asks a question, the girl next to her answers it quietly The next slide has up problems; teacher gives them a few minutes to find the answer. She asks for volunteers to answer the questions She calls on students- no one is raising their hand Teacher uses smart board to write out answers Student asks for teacher to go over one of the examples again. Teacher says we saw one like this yesterday as well, and then goes to re-explain how you solve the problem and why it can be solved that way. Transition Teacher gives out an assignment for students to work on as an in-class assignment Students get to work pretty quickly A couple of clarifying questions are called out. Teacher walks over to students to answer questions 10:15-Each student takes out their books and begins. Some students seem to be working together asking questions to each other. Science teacher walks in to give Teacher some papers Student start calling out Happy bday to science teacher- this creates an eruption of conversation Teacher calls everyone to attention, it needs to be silent in here so people can work Students get back to work immediately, with small conversations. One student is asked if she needs to move seats, she says no, she can get back to work. Students are re-engaged in the work Teacher is walking around asking to see students HW from last night, to mark in her grade book 10:20-Teacher gives a reminder for students to be quiet One student keeps asking the students around him if they got the answer to various problems 10:25-Teacher gives a reminder to be quiet again, students are silent As teacher is walking around checking HW, some students have questions about the math. Teacher stops at their desks to answer their questions. Classroom is decorated with math posters and information on the walls (i.e. the Distributive property, a guide to problem solving, and a picture of Albert Einstein) 10:30- Students are working silently on the math, teacher is walking around checking work and giving feedback to students One student gets up to leave classroom and as she is walking to asks to use the restroom, teacher nods One student raises he r hand often for help Another student says he is finished and is looking for teacher attention, but she is helping a student. He asks what should he do now Student who is finished is starting a conversation with student next to him Teacher says she will give him the HW assignment to start 10:35- more conversations are starting around the classroom Teacher is writing HW assignment on the board Students are reminded to keep it down again Teacher continues to walk around the room, answering questions or giving feedback as needed Students write down the HW, student work right up to the bell and are dismissed- they are reminded to leave their things because they are coming back 4th period

Do the students know that they may be called on without having their hand up?           This teacher has had these students for math for the last three years. It is obvious they have routines and guidelines that they all know well.

Technology: Meta-reflection

I have truly enjoyed this technology class. I feel like each of the assignments have led me to be able to “practice the integration of appropriate technology with instruction”, which is one of the Principles of HOPE at SPU. At the beginning of this course my feelings toward technology, were accepting, but cautious. Too cautious. For this class we read two books, The Shallows by Nicholas Carr and Brain Gain by Marc Prensky. When I first started reading these books, I thought, “how was I going to get through reading these two books, on a topic that can’t possibly be that interesting, and to top it off I would be reading it on my computer?! At the very least, couldn’t I just go buy the book? Then we were asked to join G+, which is similar to Facebook, in that it is a social networking site, but we were going to use it as a way to share websites and resources about current technology. I was wary of this medium of sharing information as well, but as time went on I began to see the value in each of the class’ assignments. The books even began to grow on me. In fact I learned to like reading a text book on the computer because I was able to so easily highlight my work, take screenshots and put them directly into my blog. Using G+, learning about hash tags, and becoming better at searching the web for resources has also been valuable to me. All of these skills lead back to the standards stated above, “practice the integration of appropriate technology with instruction” .

Becoming more comfortable myself with technology and being shown so many resources by my classmates has made me more familiar with the technology that is available for me to integrate into my classroom. The books we read also have really enlightened me. I feel like they were a perfect balance of the different feelings or arguments people may have when struggling with the idea of technology. It seems to me that we are really not given any time to process the technology; it is happening so fast! It is reasonable for people to be wary. This class has helped me past the hump of wariness.

I, in fact, thought I was incorporating a lot of technology in my classes over the years. I have used websites to show videos, websites for students to do HW on; I have made web search assignments. But somehow, I realize now that there is SO much more I can be doing to incorporate technology into my classroom. I may have even realized this before, but I was never quite comfortable enough with technology to really delve into it.

Now not only do I have so many more resources from my classmates and teachers, but I am more comfortable being authoritative about technology. This has given me more confidence to not only integrate it more into my classroom (I am doing a flip class with Khan Academy for my 6^th grade math!), but with other teachers as well!

” Memories light the corners of my mind…” Barbra Streisand

In this chapter of The Shallows Carr once again wows with his historical connections. This chapter goes deep into the inner workings of the brain. He references several different researchers over the last few hundred years that have spent time studying the brain and how it works. He specifically targets research on memory. He then connects this research to the Net and attempts to prove why the Net gets in the way of us forming new memories and has made our memories more inept.

Carr begins his chapter by referencing Socrates, who he had previously quoted as being skeptical of the written word.

Carr credits Socrates’ idea, but says it was not the written word that ended up causing this ruin, but the Net. He quotes an Italian novelist and scholar, Umberto Eco, “Books provide a supplement to memory, but they also, as Eco puts it, ‘challenge and improve memory; they do not narcotize it.’” (Carr 2010).

He concludes that the written word and books, have been good for our brain, and he attempts to prove whey the Net is not.

Throughout the readings I have felt a stronger connection to Carr’s cautiousness regarding the internet. However, in this chapter I feel like he is being overly critical. I am not saying that he does not make good points. His research seems sound, but I wonder if it is worth dwelling on the negatives of the Net and how it negatively affects our brain or if instead he should try to find ways to use the Net to our advantage. Whether that means figuring out, through research, how to get our brain to make the memory connections that we may be losing out on from relying on the Net for memory, or if there are other connection we can make in our brain to make up for the ones we may be losing out on? It seems Carr’s answer to this question would be no, and he may be right, but since the internet is here to stay, it seems that his focus on the downfall the Net may bring to our brain, may not be worth his time and effort.

I was fascinated by all of the inner workings of our brain that Carr explains; it brought me back to my college days of studying biology. I had some of the memory sparks that Carr describes when reading a lot of the descriptions of how the brain works in fact! Much of the research Carr gives over is about how the brain forms new anatomical, not just chemical, connections when making memories and moving them between short term and long term memory.

He holds that if we are not using the parts of our brain for our memory we are then losing out on the creation of these new synapses, which will ultimately be detrimental to our overall memory capabilities,

One point Carr does make that stands out to me and relates back to Artificial Intelligence is that AI cannot replicate the kind of memory we have. Yes, AI can remember everything we need it to, but what makes us unique is that our memories change with our experiences and we continue to process information and use it when having subsequent experiences.

This is interesting because before I thought the biggest distinction between AI and humans was our emotional capabilities, but here is something else, our memories and the plasticity of our brain that might be a much bigger difference that Prensky and Singularity movement do not seem to give credit to.

I think my favorite metaphor, or historical perspective that Carr quotes is by the Roman Seneca. I think it culminates Carr’s point well, that the brain is ever changing, but I also think it is a really beautiful description of how our memories work and affect us. 

I just wonder if Carr has become too cynical of the Net. He acknowledges the Webs ability to seemingly pull off the connections our brain makes, and store the material that our brain can. But he holds strongly to the idea that our brain, being a living organic entity is capable of much more, but needs the memory making ability to stay intact.

In Carr’s digression at the end of chapter nine he does admit that although he harbors much skepticism and negativity- he may not be able to live without the Web! And I don’t think that there would be too many people who could disagree with that sentiment either.

Carr, N. G. (2010). The shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains. New York: W.W. Norton.(Kindle)

~I have found that I do like reading for an assignment like this on the computer. Although it is still a little harder on my eyes and I find that I have to dim the screen. However, it is really nice to be able to highlight text and take notes all in one place. It makes it so easy to turn my thoughts into a post.

I do however miss a book. I feel like it took me a while to get a general sense of what the book is really about. Whereas when I have an actual book in my hand to flip through and hold, I feel like I have a better sense of what I will be reading. I just really like the feeling of holding a book and reading it and I like to see my progress through a book as well. The visual of seeing your progress through book does not really translate well to books on a computer.

 

TELA Project- P4

P4 – Practice the integration of appropriate technology with instruction.

Teacher-candidates use technology that is effectively integrated to create technologically proficient learners.

We live in the 21^st century and the classroom does not look the same anymore. We need to move forward with our students. We live in a time where technology is advancing so quickly and if we are not providing students with opportunities to use technology and modeling the use of technology then we are doing our students a disservice. This can look different for different teachers. It can even look like students working alongside teachers. I have found that children these days have loads of information about how to use technology. Students are interested in technology and are often teaching themselves in ways that we may not know how. Engaging them as teachers in your classroom can be another way to incorporate technology and help them learn as well as yourself!

KhanAcedemy.com

For my TELA project I am using KhanAcademy.com in my 6^th grade math class. I started the year using a regular math book and following a traditional classroom style of lecturing while the students took notes, then they had a few minutes to start their HW. They would then go home and the next day we would review some of the HW they had questions on then we would move on to the next topic. It became apparent pretty quickly that this format was not going to work for my class. In trying to find an alternative way to reach these students, I was reminded of Khan Academy. I have used it in the past and several teachers in my school use it casually, but I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try a flipped classroom.

Khan Academy is a website that has thousands of videos on an array of topics across different subject matters. The videos are pretty short; they are clear and articulate. Over the years several features have been added that make Khan Academy more user friendly and perfect for a flip classroom setting. After each video there are a series of practice problems the students can do. Here is the cool part, as the teacher you can have the students choose you as a coach and then you (the teacher) can monitor their work. There are several different ways to view their progress as well. You can view it as an overview like this, where it shows you quickly using colors how all the students are doing:

Or you can view individual progress (this can be seen in more than one way, here is one example):

This is a cool way to view it because it shows you each night what they are doing. This way you can track that they are keeping up with their work and it gives you data on how they are doing. There are also incentives for the students to win badges and such- they seem to get excited about that!

Now that I have been giving this for HW, we have been able to do the assignments in class. This has allowed me to be able to sit down with each student and work with them. Find out where they are struggling, what is easy for them, and where they just need more practice. It has allowed me to give more individual time to each student. I also have been able to incorporate a project every couple of weeks that encompasses a few topics, since we have more class time. I still spend some class time going over the video, or sharing other strategies with students, but this has given me more time in class with the students and they enjoy the Khan Academy for HW and the students feel like they are getting more out of it.

Unfortunately, there is not a video for every topic we cover, so my classroom is not a fully flipped classroom, but the students like using this as their HW and like working on assignments in class. This gives students the opportunity to use technology at least a few times a week. Lately I have been thinking a lot about how I can take this to the next level. I thought a great way to end the year would be to have the students get into pairs, choose a math topic from the year, and create their own videos and assignments on that topic! This way the students can integrate a math topic they have learned with the technology they have been exposed to. I plan on enlisting the help of the technology coordinator at my school to work with me and the students in creating these videos. I think this would be a great culmination of the flipped classroom, and maybe I would even be able to use these videos with future classes!

NETP Goals:

2.0 Assessment: Measure What Matters
Our education system at all levels will leverage the power of technology to measure what
matters and use assessment data for continuous improvement.

3.0 Teaching: Prepare and Connect
Professional educators will be supported individually and in teams by technology that
connects them to data, content, resources, expertise, and learning experiences that enable
and inspire more effective teaching for all learners

H.G Wells, Jules Verne, Scott Westerfeld, maybe these authors were really onto something…

This week Carr once again starts off with a historical perspective and seamlessly brings home his point by using stories from the past. The difference in this chapter is that the story he tells us is from not so long ago, but from about 20 years ago- the start of Google. He goes on to describe who began Google, the intent, the journey and evolution up till today. Larry Page, one of the founders of Google said:

Google is working on getting closer and closer to that to AI, but is not so close. Carr’s purpose in taking us through the evolution of Google was to bring us to his point:

That not only are we not near creating AI that mimics humans, but that we may never get there.

The beginning of Prensky’s chapter this week starts with the opposite sentiments! He refers to the term “singularity” which in this case means, “an event where there is no turning back” (Prensky 2012).

He then goes on to describe that this “singularity” is the point in time where the technology will be even stronger than the human brain; in other words, Artificial Intelligence.

Prensky refers to Ray Kurzweil as the leader in the Singularity movement. Kurzweil has written two books,

Kurzweil describes the way technology has advanced as exponential rather than linear. He ascertains that we are inclined to think linearly and that is why it is so difficult for us as humans to fathom the idea of AI actually happening. But that exponential progress, which is what is happening with technology, moves so quickly, we will have AI, as Kurzweil predicts, by 2045. That is not so far off…

In Carr’s book, he references how we are far off from truly understanding the brain, so to we are far off from creating technology that is AI, BUT according Kurzweil, we are at a place deep into understanding the brain, so with exponential growth, AI will be a reality.

Prensky does note that there are many who disagree with Kurzweil, however, he maintains we should be taking Kurzweil seriously and that it is digital wisdom to know that what Kurzweil claims, singularity, will happen.

I am going to interject a personal note here. I am an avid reader of young adult dystopian books. And technology is of course, a huge basis for several of these stories. In so many of these books the technology is viewed as bad, or it took human kind in a destructive direction. What makes these books so good is that there is an antagonist, technology, and that the situation is something the we can sort of imagine actually happening, but not really, so we are safe. We are made to feel somewhat scared of technology, but also intrigued by it.  This is the view we are inundated with in movies too. That furthering our technology is somehow bad, but it captures our attention because, maybe it could happen.  Prensky points out though that Kurzweil sees singularity differently, more optimistically.

Prensky then goes onto to say that he believes what Kurzweil and his followers are really looking for is the digital wisdom that Prensky says is about understanding technology and using it in a positive way.

Presnky refers to how we as humans are even evolving from homo sapiens to homo evolutis- a human who shapes their own evolution rather than letting things happen to them ( an example is gene therapy). All these points make me wonder now if science fiction and dystopian writers are really predictors of the future! Maybe H.G Wells really did use his time machine!

I feel like this chapter, in Prensky in particular, but also in Carr gave me a lot to think about in terms of the future of technology and AI. I could probably ramble on about this for a while, as I mentioned early I love dystopias, and as you might have guessed science fiction, so the idea of this being a reality, at least according to Prensky is incredibly thought provoking for me. I will end with this. I don’t think the human brain can be replicated. I can’t imagine being able to actually create a being that can feel complex emotions and navigate the mind of a human, however I do believe that technology can come close in making it seem like that is what is happening. Kind of like in The Jetsons, Rosie, she was AI ,and she did show emotions, she was sort of human, but even when she did express emotion, she did not understand why she was having the feelings she was.

As usual, Carr and Prensky have vastly different opinions, and although I tend to enjoy reading Carr more and tend to agree with some of his apprehensions towards technology, I was drawn to Prensky this week because this chapter was SO thought provoking for me. Thoughts on this? I would love to hear what others think about this topic!

 

~My feeling about reading on the computer vs. a book have not really changed. I can see benefits to both, but I still prefer a book. I have noticed that my eyes seem to tire more quickly when reading on the computer.

Carr, N. G. (2010). The shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains. New York: W.W. Norton. (Kindle)

Prensky, M. (2012). Brain gain: Technology and the quest for digital wisdom. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (Kindle)

Are we there yet?

Above is a view of Prensky’s that is rather like Carr, a little more cautious about technology perhaps? I think his introduction here is not about being cautious about technology, but it comes from his desire to show that he sees “the other side”, he even refers to the book The Shallows as being one that is overly cautious of technology. He uses his ability to see the other side as a way to make sure that the reader sees he is being fair and that his conclusion is right. At least that is how I see it. His bottom line: it is about how we use technology not whether we should use it. I think he is right here. This is the first time where he seems more even keeled, than he has seemed throughout the rest of the book.

Carr spends a lot of time in this chapter sharing research and studies that were done that demonstrate some of the challenges of reading and retaining information that is read on the computer.

He also shares a metaphor that I think really helps visualize what is happening in our brain when we read on the computer, with all the “extras” vs. reading a book.

This is interesting.

I love thinking about how much more reading kids are doing than before, but it is al little disturbing to think about there being less in –depth reading. The whole idea Carr focuses on throughout the book is about how we are rewiring our brain. The real questions here are, I think, are we changing our brain for the better? How do we know?

This too is an interesting picture, especially in light of the dense history of communication through print, does it seem like we are going backwards?

Carr also counteracts with some small studies that indicate there could be some benefits to surfing the Net as well.

This particular study indicates that it may be possible to expand our working memory. That seems to me to be a huge benefit, if it is in fact accurate and would work for everyone.

SO what is the bottom line? Carr quotes the writer Sam Anderson here:

According to him, the bottom line is, we are not going back.

This might bring one to conclude we should look at the positives of the Net and move on. I do think that we should be doing this. It is not going anywhere, it would be wise,and I think Prensky would agree, for us to embrace it, BUT as Carr indicates, it is also wise to be wary. That although we may be gaining some kinds of intelligece that is different or good from the use of the NET. We are losing other types of intellegence. Is there a final answer? A single answer of what is best, or what is the most wise?

No, there is not one answer. The most wise action we can take is to educate our students with technology since they WILL be using it OFTEN in both their schooling and in their work as they get older. BUT we should also be giving them skills to work off the computer. We should make sure we are also developing their deeper level thinking skills. It seems to me that there is not much of a medium ground when you ask teachers’ their opinions on technology. People seem to feel pretty strongly for or against the use of technology in the classroom. And it seems that it is taking a long time and is a slow process getting technology in the classroom.

I know for myself, before this class, I was more on the side of the fence of people who discouraged the use of technology. That does not mean that I did not use it, or that I did not give my students assignments that they were required to use technology, but I was SO wary. After reading these books and seeing how much more there is out there for teachers than I even realized, I feel like my eyes have been opened a little bit more. I still want to make sure I am giving my students skills that develop higher level thinking, but I also feel pretty strongly about making sure that my students will be well prepared for what will be asked of them as they move through the years, which means using technology and encouraging the use of it throughout the school.

~I still prefer reading a book, but since I am savvier at reading, highlighting and taking notes now on the computer, it is not annoying and does put me a little ahead when it is time to put my post together. Since my notes are already typed, it is easier to make them into a post.

Carr, N. G. (2010). The shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains. New York: W.W. Norton.(Kindle)

Prensky, M. (2012). Brain gain: Technology and the quest for digital wisdom. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (Kindle)

How long till we hear from our kids, “What?? Read a real book?”

Carr writes about how the experience of reading an eBook should be different than the experience of reading a book in print. That there should be links or other features of the computer incorporated into the reading experience. That would be cool, but I think it would take away from my experience in reading a book for pleasure. If it is a book for school, I can see advantages, but not in a book for pleasure.

There are a few features that are written about that will be incorporated into an eBook. One such feature is social networking.

Which could be engaging, to be able to know what others are reading and have real time discussions with them, but it does completely change the experience of reading a book. I think I would use both formats. It would depend what I am looking for. Back to the “getting lost in a good book” or as Isaac of Syria had put it “…as in a dream, I enter a state when my sense and thoughts are concentrated. Then when the prolonging of this silence the turmoil of memories is stilled in my heart, ceaseless waves of joy are sent me by inner thoughts, beyond expectation suddenly arising to delight my heart.” (Carr 2010). I think it would be impossible to feel this way if I was in the midst of communicating with other people while trying to read. Maybe this goes back to Prensky (2012), digitally wise or digitally clever. Is it wise to have all these features incorporated into eBooks or just clever? I think that it depends on both the person and the book that is being read. This could be especially true for students who may be struggling to understand a book. If the student had the opportunity to be connected to to others through social media it could help them, but on the other hand, the student may resort to asking for help before really trying on his/her own.

As you can probably tell I am pretty torn myself. I know that I would rather read a real book for pleasure. But I also know that a lot of my negative or skeptical opinions about technology have been changing weekly since I have been reading both The Shallows and Brain Gain. So really now I am just totally confused! I think that is a good thing though. Technology is not going anywhere and in fact it is coming faster than I think anyone imagined, so if I have gone from feeling negatively about it to being confused, it is probably a push in the right direction… no?

And let’s take this a step farther, what about what we should be doing with our students? Prensky’s focus this week is on the inevitability of our culture being so entrenched in technology that many other things we do in the “old” way will become obsolete. We are in a new age. And we need to embrace it because it is happening right now. To embrace it is digitally wise. But as Prensky points out, if we are embracing it, shouldn’t we be teaching it to our children as well? Are we not doing them a disservice if we don’t?

~Experience this week: I find it more annoying to click to the next page, when reading on my computer, than flipping a page in a book. It is better on the iPad, but I still prefer flipping pages.  I also like to lay down when I read, and I can do that when using my iPad, but not my computer.

Carr, N. G. (2010). The shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains. New York: W.W. Norton.(Kindle)

Prensky, M. (2012). Brain gain: Technology and the quest for digital wisdom. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (Kindle)

Carr gave me a lot to think about this week…

One thing Carr mentioned that stuck out to me in this week’s reading was about how people often have three screens open in front of them at once. This struck a chord with me since I have found myself in that same situation, sometime with even four screens in front of me at once. This has been especially true since I have been in Graduate School.  I imagine what it is like for our students who are growing up with this being the new normal. That having multiple screens around and being constantly surrounded by this technology is expected behavior.

According to Carr (2010), print is falling from popularity in so far as how often it is read. This includes not only newspapers and magazines, but books as well. This makes me kind of sad, no matter the benefits of reading on a screen; I don’t think I will ever prefer it, at least when reading for pleasure, over reading a book.

I wonder how Prensky would categorize reading books vs. the same book digitally? Digitally wise, or digitally clever?

This week Prensky (2012) goes into great detail over different actions that make us digitally wiser.

One example is email. This I, I think, really important to pay attention to since it seems like there are so many ways to be digitally dumb, when it comes to email. Mistakes can be made that could not be made while penning a letter, which leads to another interesting thought by Carr. About how some outdated technologies still get used, like vinyl records, but that using this outdated technology is a progressive “dead end”. It does not move us forward in developing new technologies. Letter writing still gets used, and “snail mail” is still around, but it is not progressive.

Another topic Carr (2010) mentions that I found intersting is this:

I had always looked at it from a different perspective. That being able to physically highlight in a textbook for example, is better because it involves more cognitive processes. Where Carr uses the same argument for why reading on a computer is more beneficial. Hmmm… that is something for me to ponder.

Here is something else for me to think about as a special ed teacher.

Having all these distraction can be extremely detrimental to some students. So there is a fine line between making sure our students are being taught the latest and greatest technologies, but also helping them to figure out what kind of learners they are so we can teach them to sift through and find the right type of technology for them. And the flip side, some amazing things are possible for children with disabilities because of technology as well, so teaching the right tools for each individual student is part of what we should be doing as well. I think Prensky would agree, doing so, would be digitally wise.

~I was actually starting to get used to reading, highlighting and taking notes on the computer for this assignment. I finally felt like I got a system going between flipping between the screens with the books, creating screenshots and taking notes on word. THEN I needed to highlight two words on a page in order to take a screenshot. It was the first two words on a page and it was continuation of a quote, so I really needed it. I could not get it to work. It either highlighted everything on that page, but the first two words. OR when I got it to highlight those two words, the “highlight or note” screen did not come up. After about seven tries I gave up. Then a fellow classmate suggested I download the Kindle app for my computer and I was able to get the two words highlighted, but that was a frustrating experience I had this week.

 

Carr, N. G. (2010). The shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains. New York: W.W. Norton. (Kindle)

Prensky, M. (2012). Brain gain: Technology and the quest for digital wisdom. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (Kindle)

Digitally Wise or Digitally Dumb?

In the book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brain, I LOVE how Carr always gives us a historical progression of technology. I particularly found chapter 4 in the book so interesting! I love reading about how people originally wrote on anything they could scratch symbols onto and how the development of different writing mediums changed over time. What makes the chapter even more intriguing was reading specific quotes or feelings of people during the time of change when writing became easier and more personal. This quote by Isaac of Syria is AWESOME; it is exactly how I feel when I get lost in a good book.

On the flip side, as Carr progresses through describing how printing became easier and how much more accessible the written word became to people; there was a lot of “low-minded” publications that were being printed. Such as, gutter journalism, propaganda and pornography.

This for me connected to what Prensky wrote about in chapter four of his book, Brain Gain. Although he did not make the connection I am about to explicitly, I see one. Prensky refers to the idea of being digitally wise vs. being digitally dumb. He describes a criterion for being digitally wise in the screenshot below:

He describes being digitally dumb or stupid as something that most people do at some point, but we should know better to avoid that action. In the screenshot below is his explanation of digitally stupid and one example that resonated with me. In fact, he is pointing out to me that I am REALLY digitally stupid, because I had that exact same scenario where I lost all of my lesson plans and assignments etc. from 6 years of teaching, and I still have not backed up the computer I have been using for the last two years!! (And I consider myself intelligent and not among the “old” people who just don’t know better).

I also think that being digitally dumb can be compared to using technology for dumb things, like Facebook could be digitally dumb. Prensky refers to how it can be digitally benign or digitally clever, but it can also be digitally dumb. I have seen posts by people that seem so ridiculous to me that anyone would even think about posting and sharing that information. One post I saw once was by a girl who is 24 years old and she posted how she cut herself shaving so she felt like she was 13 again. Really? Who wants to read that? Those kinds of posts and shares seem to me to be a digitally dumb way to use a social networking site.

On that note though, just like when the printed word became a mass phenomenon and it is and was totally worth the “low-minded” stuff that went with it, I think that that it is worth us taking the digitally dumb in order to have the technology and become digitally wise or digitally clever. The technology does push us forward; it is a matter of how we use it and how we teach our children/students to use it.

—-I have continued using the computer to read the two books. I don’t really enjoy reading on the computer. It makes it feel too  much like I am reading because I have to, not because I want to. And I am actually enjoying the two books for class, so it is sort of disappointing to me to be reading on the computer. I also have a hard time not being able to flip through the book to see where I am in a chapter. Instead I have to scroll through the pages and then go back to where I was. Since the pages are not numbered, if I don’t remember to click on the page I am on to see the page number, I have to spend extra time reading parts of each page to find where I left off. The thing is though, if our students are introduced to reading on the computer or an iPad earlier on, they probably won’t feel a lot of the frustrations that I feel.

 

Carr, N. G. (2010). The shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains. New York: W.W. Norton. (Kindle)

Prensky, M. (2012). Brain gain: Technology and the quest for digital wisdom. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (Kindle)