Morgan Bayda posted this video and I learned some awesome things watching it!
http://morgbayda.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/an-open-letter-to-educators/
This video that was posted on Morgan Bayda's wall was about how education has changed and is continuing to change so much! Education used to be completely institutionalized. If you wanted to be "educated" you went to college. If you couldn't pay for it, then you simply weren't educated! You missed out because you couldn't afford it! Universities was the main source of all information and information was limited to the ones who attended college. The internet has completely changed this! Education is now free! Not only speaking in monetary terms, but is also liberated! Students are wasting their time and money in classrooms in which they only learn facts. They are tested on these facts and how many of them they can actually memorize. This isn't learning! Students are also wasting money on books they never even open because all that they need to know can be found online! This is such a good video of how technology is changing our world for the better! It's also cheaper this way! This video was very helpful and simply explained the way things are evolving.
This post by Mr. Spencer was a very humorous way of describing the way students use the tools we give them.
http://pencilintegration.blogspot.com/2010/07/dont-let-them-take-pencils-home.html?showComment=1301445176471#c244689617062055029
This was a very entertaining post. Instead of finding a solution to the problem, we are all too often focused on the actual problem. This gets us nowhere! We can only guide them as much as possible and hope that they use the tools we give them in the most beneficial way. However, if they want to play hangman, that's not in our control! Kids are constantly learning and, believe it or not, kids can teach themselves a thing or two! The same goes with computers and students. We cannot go home with the students and make sure they don't play any online games or visit any "uneducational" websites but we can't keep them from such a useful tool just because of our fears! This was such a lesson to me as a future educator! I hope I keep this lesson in mind as I start my own classroom.
"Students are wasting their time and money in classrooms in which they only learn facts." You've got that right!
ReplyDeleteYou got the connection that Johnson (aka John Spencer) was making between pencils - the metaphor. Only 6 of 129 students identified the post as a metaphor in which pencils were computers. Well done!
Great summary of the blog and the video, Sorry to say I was amongst the students who didn't get the metaphor of the pencils being computers.The subject matter of those who can't afford college gets left behind is a very harsh fact,but a fact none the less. Which is really sort of an understatement too,because I know plenty of people who are very book smart and makes lots of money and never even stepped foot in college.
ReplyDeleteAshley your post was very well written!