Chapters 15 & 16

Chapter 15: "Lessig argues that digital remix constitutes a contemporary form of writing that is reaching the stature of a mass everyday cultural practice."

The first thing that came to my mind when I was reading this was Meme's. I kept reading and saw that I was on the right track and was enlightened by other things I didn't think much about. I had almost forgotten about AMV's, which I use to watch all the time, and Lessing is definitely right. All the different remixes out there are a form of writing, much like writing a script is a form of writing. Something like a Meme takes a lot of thought process because one has to get a big message across in a few amount of words. This is the same way people have to deal with tweets, because they are character limited, the message has to be condensed. I remember listening to a Startalk podcast and Neil deGrasse Tyson was talking about how hard it was to condense what he wanted to say into the character limit of a tweet; it would sometimes take him hours to refine it down to what he wanted to say. So not only are these remixes technologically advanced, they take a lot of brain power to think about how to convey the message you want in a short amount of time or in a way that makes sense in the media that is used.

Chapter 16: "Rather, the point is that if it is possible to appropriate principles and procedures associated with efficacious learning from outside formal institutions in ways that enhance the efficacy of formal educational learning, other things being equal we would be silly not to."

It's like having a whole store room of lab supplies and only doing worksheets. There is so much technology available that it would be silly not to use it to our advantage and education people with it. The concept this chapter presents with the classroom seems to be familiar, because I have classes like that and because it reminds me a lot of what I do a work everyday. I use most of those tools on a daily basis and I know that I have to use Google multiple times a day just to survive. I have even put some of resources it mentions into the class I am building, but it has given me some new ideas for future assignments. There is certainly a lack of group work right now, but that may change soon. This last chapter finished off the book well and combined all the other chapters into a class that uses it all in the way we all hope to.

Chapters 13 & 14

Chapter 13: "'It' is susceptible to policing and 'moralizing' on the part of producers and other consumers alike, just as much as and in parallel manners to the literacies of physical spaces like schools--where the 'players' involved are also inclined to invoke notions of fairness, propriety, and 'getting it right.'"

I like how they connect the rating system used by eBay to how we take criticism from students about the grades that we assign. Fairness, propriety, and "getting it right" are always the go to topics. In the classroom it is hard not to make these mistakes because grade, although it shouldn't be, has a lot of opinion basis. Did the student cover enough of the question to warrant full credit? Is there enough detail in the answer? Were they right or just missing the part YOU wanted? All these factors come into play at school the same as they do in customer reviews. This is by course evaluations are so important and can help teacher find out if they are perceived as being bias or unfair. Opinions are always welcome from students and, even though they might come out a bit harsh, always take in what they are saying a reflect.

Chapter 14: "Today, however, a laptop computer, $30.00 game (e.g., The Neverwinter Nights Diamond Pack), video and audio editing software (often part of the software bundle that comes with a new computer), and some free or low cost video recording software (e.g., Fraps) comprise ample resources for creating polished animated movies."

In this chapter it goes on to mention the Red vs. Blue series by Rooster Teeth, which is on Netflix and is hilarious. This series is like a cartoon made by recording game play of Halo and doing some voice overs. This is not their only accomplishment, but is what they are most well known for. People can turn this type of thing into a full time, well paying, job. With advertisements and sponsors some teens are making more than I could even imagine. Streaming has become extremely popular with games like League of Legends, DOTA 2, Counterstrike GO, and Hearthstone. Streaming required only a computer, webcam/microphone, and access to the internet. How do we harness this power for education? Well making Machinima style videos can make for great learning tools. The students can create videos with their games that explain things like how traits are chosen during evolution with a game such as Spore. There are so many possibilities for this type of tool and it can come in handy later in life for their careers.

Analysis and Discuss

Questions:

1. Student engagement is a must for teaching, but keeping students engaged can be one of the hardest tasks they are given. What problems are there in keeping students engaged? 

2. There many ways to keep student engagement with technology. What do you think are some technologies tools that help student engagement?

3. Staying relevant by using examples of how the material will affect them in the working world is a tactic to have students see the why the material matters. Do you think using examples from current events makes material more relevant? Why or why not?

"Answer Key":

1. Some problems with keeping student engagement is finding material the students want o learn, or at least presenting it in a way that makes them want to learn the material. Students often don't see the value of what they are learning because they don't know how to apply it to their lives. When they see this factor presented, they tend to be more willing to participate in classroom activities and learning. 

2. Picking the right technology tool for student engagement is a trial and error method most of the time. What works for some students might not work for others, so having options on how to complete an assignment is a great idea. Since there are varying degrees of technology proficiency among students offering a variety helps no one feel like they are too "stupid" to do the assignment well. It depends on the assignment to which type of technology top pick, but one of the most engaging technology tools I have used is scratch, because it can be used for almost any assignment, is easy to use, and allows to students a lot of self-expression. This tool has programming built in, but with an easy drag and drop method. It has far exceeded my expectations and allows for a lot of creativity. 

3. Relating material to current events and everyday life is one of the most important parts of teaching. It lets students see why they would want to learn the material and even shows them how to use the material. Students all have varying interests, but it is possible to cover a lot of different interests in one lesson. If it is a lesson on bio-molecules, then bring in how we use them everyday. This can be anything from how they affect us to how they can help a student raise and more healthy animal on their farm. Covering how it will affect them personally and possibly their interests. 

Chapters 11 & 12

Chapter 11: "Not every jacket owner/wearer will be able to use it successfully as a means to gain and sustain real attention. Moreover, the jacket itself (or any similar device) cannot be the medium for sustained attention unless its wearer can claim a 'space' to which others 'return' in order to see what she or he is up to today."

This is the whole thing about engaging students, the teacher has to make the students come back to see what's new in the class. When using digital media tools and planning lessons, the tools that are used have t be used in a way that engages the students and makes them ant to come back to the classroom to see what fun way they can learn material. In other words, the have to enjoy coming to class. Using technology in this engaging way can be difficult and the teacher will not get it perfect with every tool, especially the first time it is used, but the students can generally tell what was being aimed for and will give the teacher notes on what caused the downfall. This is also why professional development comes into play. Learning how to use these tools in an engaging way is key because it helps the teacher see how it is meant to be used and does not have to dream up some way that it might work. Let your classroom be the "space" to which students "return" to see what the teacher is up to.

Chapter 12: "The role of education in relation to personal development has been massively complicated during the past two decades."

I'm going to start this response off by saying, no one uses Zines anymore. I know there has been a chapter about this already, but I finally remembered where I had heard the term before. There was a show on Nickelodeon called Rocket Power where one of the characters put out a Zine that she spread around town. This show aired in 1999, now this might not seem like a long time ago, but that was 17 years ago and typical teenager has moved far beyond that; just think about how much technology has changed in that amount of time. The concepts in this chapter are still good because they deal with the personal development of students and how the can express themselves. Even today Blogs are not the most popular way that teens write about their feelings and problems, though there definitely still a lot that do. The main venue for personal development these days is, unfortunately, Facebook. It is public and nearly everyone has it, it is like a blog that you and your few hundred or thousand friends tell each other your opinions. Back to the quote, the state of education and personal development has been thwarted a bit because of Facebook being the main source of it for teens. It makes most of the other methods not as enticing as they once were. If we decide to use Facebook it can end in disaster, there are so many cases of cyber bullying through Facebook and it can be fatal for some students. Personal development in education is a complicated thing and there is no clear answer to the best way to handle it. Maybe it is blogging along with some private journaling that only the teacher can see. Maybe it is creating a heavily monitored Facebook group, or maybe it's something else. In any of these cases, students need a way to express themselves with digital media and it is a tough lock to pick.

Are you excited yet?!?!

At Fairmont State University we have a diverse population for the area, but are predominately white middle-class. While developing an online Introduction to Oceanography class, title of the class is still tentative, we have had a white female go through the modules and complete the assignments to give us feedback for improvement. The course integrates a variety of technology to keep the content from being repetitive and to take advantage of the technologies available. There is now an "escalating dependence of work and other daily tasks and processes on computer-mediated texts is associated with prominent references to technological literacy and technologized curricula in education reform pronouncements, Indeed, according to Aronowitz and Giroux (193: 63), 'The whole task set by contemporary education policy is to keep up with rapidly shifting developments in technology.'" Which leads us to wanting to use more current and also useful tools that the student can use in the future.

The problem is when a student does not see the same vision with the technology as the instructor, or doesn't know how to use the technology at all. I provided, what I thought were clear, instructions for how to turn a PowerPoint into a video that they could then voice over and post onto YouTube. The assignment was the create a public service announcement (PSA) to educate the general public on Tsunami's and what to do if one is headed their way. I recommended that they filmed themselves like a news caster, but gave the option for just a voice over if they were camera shy. What I ran into the first time she sent in the assignment was that she could not figure out how to voice over the video. PowerPoint does have a built-in system to do this, but I am assuming she could not figure out how to use it properly. I then gave her detailed instructions on how to use windows movie maker and sent her links to videos and documents on how to complete this task. Though this pushed back the due date, I was still happy to see the final version sent in.

The finished product got the job done, but was BORING! It was like listening to Siri read me the powerpoint slides. Where is the enthusiasm? What makes me want to finish this video? Why don't I just read it myself if you're going to just read what is on the slide? I wonder if giving more detailed guidelines to what I want would be enough. Even though I could tell them not to read exactly what is on the slide, have a word limit per slide, or have them put in videos; what will give them the drive to want to do more than the minimum? These are technologies I thought were current and could definitely be used in the work setting. I thought this would be fun and I know when I had to do a similar assignment I had a ton of fun with it. So what can I do to push the students? What can I do to make them care and see the relevance of the technologies they're using?

At the end of the day I think I might just need to have more examples of what a good PSA is and how the student can make it more than just reading a PowerPoint. I am still unsure of how to instill this craving for an exciting PSA video, but examples is probably my best shot. I wonder if showing them my PSA video would make the students feel more comfortable knowing their instructor has already fully embarrassed themselves. My goal is to use new and exciting tools for learning, but maybe I'm just not using the right one.

Chapter 9 & 10

Chapter 9: "That is, effective teachers will always go beyond the standards and benchmarks to enact meaningful and richly conceived literacies in their classrooms."

Though teachers are, at this time, forced to teach towards the standards and benchmarks, effective teachers do go above and beyond for their students. Finding new ways to reach out to their students is how we get students to do more than what they think they can. In this case study there was a students that needed that extra step to relate the content to their life. Being able to embed the content was vital to this students learning. Standards and benchmarks are important, but they are by no means the final say in a students achievement level.

Chapter 10: "Engaging in critique of new literacies should also be taken as an invitation to examine our own mindset as much as an invitation to judge a practice."

I am reminded of how we look at different scientific practices. It is a way to help the person being critiqued and the person performing the critique. We can critique what the other person is doing by making suggestions on how to do things differently, but we take away what they did well and we might use that in our own experiment. Do this enough times and eventually we have a refined process. At the end of the day it is jut another type of collaboration and is important to any type of research.

Chapter 7 & 8

Chapter 7: "Escalating dependence of work and other daily tasks and processes on computer-mediated texts is associated with prominent references to technological literacy and technologized curricula in education reform pronouncements, Indeed, according to Aronowitz and Giroux (193: 63), 'The whole task set by contemporary education policy is to keep up with rapidly shifting developments in technology.'"

This has become more clear to me as my career has progressed. I have noticed that many students are not as technologically advanced as I had presumed. I had always thought they would have more knowledge in this area than I do, but it does turn out that they lack in the areas of technology tools that can help them with day to day tasks and organization. Things like Google Drive, Dropbox, and even email are not in they're sights and if a teacher doesn't show them the benefits of these tools they won't have the advantage that is almost a standard in the working world. Staying current is important for the teacher to show the students current methods that they can then utilize.

Chapter 8: "As with the issue of access, however, this does not mean holding back on demands for more and better professional development and inservice teacher education -- or, for that matter, preservice teacher education."

Now I am not in the public school system, but I often wonder if this is what is holding some teachers back from not participating in technology professional development or if it is just them not being comfortable with the technology. Having this training and information can help teachers find ways to get these new technologies into the classroom and many times the technology is free. Putting more efforts into applying for grants and helping teachers get these technologies is just as important and training them. I think having a more well rounded professional development for all teachers is what is needed.

Chapters 5 & 6

Chapter 5 – “Not surprisingly, critical media literacy is being heralded as a counterforce to this postmodern logic that, like the growing emphases on network relations, presents serious challenges to maintaining and reconstructing Discourses of active and informed political and civic involvement.”

This is a perfect time to bring this quote up since we are currently in an election year. Critical media literacy does play a large role in how informed the public is about candidates. It allows people to look beyond what a candidate says and for them to see what they are actually doing. Being able to look back on what a candidate has said in the past and compare it to what they are now saying in a matter of minutes. Critical media literacy is a new driving force for education and for the public to use as a tool to educate themselves.

Chapter 6 – “Practicing a powerful literacy, so defined, can provide the bases for reconstituting our selves/identities and resituating ourselves within society.”

I think this quote speaks volumes because it eludes to how we, as a civilization, are reconstituting our selves/identities. Powerful literacy is not more accessible and affects everyone because we all have access to the literate. Resituating ourselves within society means that we are able to better ourselves and bring ourselves to a higher level within the society, once again being able to achieve the American dream that has been seldom heard of in recent years. 

Making the Connection

How might your case reflect/illustrate/or counter the ways in which working class people have responded to attempts at making them "improperly literate".

In my case I am also attempting to make the students (working class people) become "improperly literate" to the information and concepts in the modules. I too have to adjust the wording and level of readings in the module and on directions so that the students can understand the importance of the topics and why they should even care at all about them.

How might your case reflect/illustrate/or counter the ways in which teachers are complicit in creating "improperly literate" students.

The subject of the modules in the course are directed towards Oceanography and how humans have impacted the oceans. This starts the bias by giving students the ideas that we are causing climate change and not everyone on this planet believes that (though it is pretty safe to say that we are). So the assignments assess how the students take in an process the information that we give them and how they respond to our questions about the situation. Since we give them all this it is safe to say that we are steering them to agree with our bias, but in the modules I develop I always leave the assignments open-ended. This was the student may rebuttal what they have read and as long as they give good sound reasoning against what is the typical answer they will receive full credit. This is a hard concept to convey because students often just try to give the teacher what they think the teacher wants to hear so they can get a good grade. When they move to authentic response they can go past the "improperly literate" stage because when they are at the "improperly literate" stage they are more or less regurgitating what they have heard from their teacher and they do not need to develop the literacy themselves.

Consider anything you damn well please.

Everyone has a bias, and by that I mean everyone has their own opinion. No matter what the socioeconomic status of the person they have their own opinion. Cobbett knew this and his goal was for people to see his opinion as the correct one. Isn't that what we are all trying to do? Make our opinion of something be the right one. We throw ideas at each other until most of us can agree on an idea. So if this makes our society opinion driven, why is it teacher must be neutral and be the ones who do not seem to have an opinion? I guess that's because we are suppose to be the one's who give students the knowledge to form their own opinions instead of insisting they choose ours. How to decide the content that is taught so that students can best form their own opinion? That is decided based on the opinion of a whole group of people. This rant seems pointless, but all in all we appear to just be a culture that is based on a opinions and we just want our to be heard. Whom ever has the loudest opinion, is the one we look to and call our leader. (Not sure if a random rant was what we were suppose to do for this part, but there it is.)

We've got a case!

Fairmont State University is a school with a diverse population in a low to middle income area. The classroom is online and there is one student and the professor that is working with me on developing the course. It is titled Physical Geography and focuses mostly on oceanography on Blackboard. The student is given modules to complete on different oceanography concepts and current events. Te class is self paced so it has a relaxed environment with readings, videos, experiments, and application assignments.

The problems comes in with directions and phrasing the application assignments. Since what the student reads is the only thing they have to go on it needs to be extremely clear. The way questions and directions are phrased can become confusing and if a student is having trouble understanding what they need to do they are likely just to abandon the assignment all together. If the student has to send a message to the educator to clarify it takes away valuable time that student had planned to use completing the assignment.The professor I am working with also needs to understand what is needs to be done so that know how the lesson flows and connects the content. This has been plaguing me because it is hard to keep directions at the level required for the college level while also making the objective easily understood. 

The only way I could figure how to do this is that we are having a preliminary run of the course with the student who keeps a journal of what they think of the assignments and if they understand how to complete the assignment. From these journal entries I am able to adjust the directions until they are easily understood. The student is a current university student so they would be the type of person who would take this course. Of course I had a lot of help with this from the professor I am working with. They have expertise in this area from teaching at this level for a long time and can help with suggestions on how to improve the wording. 

This case is always open because this is the type of  thing that can always be improved in a course. There is always someone who may interpret the directions different from others. As I have adjusted the diction the student has had an easier time understanding what they need to do to complete the assignment. I would like to think that I am satisfied with how the directions are, but I always feel like there is a way I could tweak them to be more clear. I would definitely recommend doing a trial run of any lesson or online course so that when it is delivered it will be at the best it can be. This method of course does have a name, formative evaluation, and is used largely for testing museum exhibits, but works wonders for online courses and lessons.

I would say that functional literacy comes more into play here because that is what a student needs to use to figure out how to complete the assignments. "Rather, it is acknowledged that the symbols--words, texts, primers--employed in teaching and learning communicate ideological values to the learner that very process of their becoming literate." I view the reading of directions to be the learning of symbols to communicate ideological values of what the assignment needs for completion. 

Functional vs Authentic Literacy

Preface - "As a person's circumstances change, so it is likely that the arguments they follow and the places they follow them to will change."

This statement makes me think about the arguments that I have followed through my life. As I got older and my interested started to focus in more towards education, it seemed to be the area where I cared the most about the arguments be had. If anyone has been following HB 4014, it has been my main argument focus for the past couple of weeks. I think the reason for the focus is because it seems to be a threat, to my livelihood and to what I care about most. Sure there were a lot of things in that bill to care about, but of course I focused in on the education portion of the bill because that's where I am in my life. This is a very powerful quote indeed.

Chapter 1 - "The most likely consequence of this is that the focus of their self-evaluation will then shift to these other (material) considerations, where they are objectively 'inferior.'"

Self-esteem plays such a huge role in a persons life that can even keep them from doing things they want to do. If someone does not think they are smart enough to be literal and are constantly put down it can make it to where they never want to even try. In this age people can feel this inferiority when they see someone with more material things than them. This is not how it should be, but in this world that is how intelligence and wealth because of that intelligence is shown. Even though a lot of people with the material objects are not deserving of them when it comes to intelligence, but because they have them they get a self-esteem boost to make them believe in themselves more. If the person who thinks they are inferior was put in a position like that I am sure they would perform as well or better than the person who is in that position.

Chapter 2 - "Rather, it is acknowledged that the symbols--words, texts, primers--employed in teaching and learning communicate ideological values to the learner that very process of their becoming literate."

This quote gets me thinking about words, texts, and primers and what they truly stand for. It's like how some languages don't have words for what another language is taking about. It is a value or feeling that is unique to the culture and language. A way to describe something that only they can truly understand because that is where it was born.

Chapter 6: Writing Cases From Your Own Experience

What would you have done if you were in Sandra's shoes?

So overall I would say that Sandra was right for what she did. I do think that her words may have been sort of matter-of-factly instead of calming. I think the only thing she would have done better is to state that it wasn't her fault and that this is a learning experience. Not every lesson goes perfectly the first time, actually almost none of them go right the first time. Explaining this and letting her know that she is not in the wrong would help. Sandra seems to be more aggressive and protective of her students than she probably needs to be in this situation.

Who do you think was at fault?

I think Sandra was at fault because of the way she responded to the student teacher. She could settle down the kids, but was unable to settle down the student teacher. It is her responsibility to help the student teacher through this experience instead of making the student teacher feel worse about the situation.

What do you think teachers can learn from Sandra's case?

I think teachers need can learn that they need to make sure that their student teacher knows they are not trying to impede their learning, but letting them have another chance to revamp their lesson and do better the net time around. To learn from what happened that day and build on it so that they can perform a good lesson. Give them helpful hints on how to make the lesson better. 

I'm on the Case!

Kaboom, Kaput: 

In this case it looks at how the student teacher reacted when the classroom starts to descend into chaos. When disorder settles in, what do you do? In this case study the host teacher swoops in to save the, but there won't always be someone help to help when things start to get out of hand.

This is what I think of when I think of this case study. Of course the disorder does not reach this magnitude, but it could happen at any moment.

Surfing into a Science Research Quandry:

Not as much a case study, but more of a look into how studying science teaching is beneficial. Reflecting on experiences to learn more than what the theories talk about. Real life application is the name of this game.

Imagine watching a recording of yourself doing a lesson and seeing how many mistakes you make during the recording. Things that you know you should have done differently and how you can now noticed different things happening during the lesson to improve. 

Help! How can I teach without supplies: 

This case looks at a science lab in a small town that has trouble getting enough supplies for the students to do labs. The science lab teachers decides to turn to grant writing and fund raising to get money for supplies and it pays off. Another problem arises thought when other teachers want to use their supplies. This caused problems because they were not coming back in the same condition they were originally. To let them borrow or not? She worked hard to get the materials so why should she share if they tear up her hard earned materials.

This is a picture from the movie The Borrowers and I could definitely seeing the other teachers being the borrowers.

Spider! Creating an Interdisciplinary Web Support Science Inquiry :

Weaving multiple disciples into one lesson can be a challenging task, but it is much more rewarding for the students. In this case study the teacher combines multiple disciplines by using different centers that are all on the same theme of spiders. She runs into the problem of taking more time to cover material, but for the students it is much more meaningful.

This collage is a lot of different pictures that comes together to form one picture. This is just like taking a lot different disciples and using them to form on lesson.

Chapter 1

1. Give examples from your experience of problems or issues that were mainly (a) structural, (b) involving human relations, (c) political, and (d) symbolic.

The main structural problems I have had are rules that pertain to the use of cell phones in the classroom. Now not every teacher follows the schools policy on cell phones, but it is hindering at times because they make such a great tool for students to use when they are faced with questions that don't have a direct answer. Human relations comes in when trying to get the students engaged in activities. Sometimes it is hard to keep the students interested when teaching certain topics in science, but I try to relate it back to things they are interested in. Then again, not all students have the same interests so keeping everyone happy is a challenging task. I have not dealt a lot with the political part of the classroom, but when it does arise I try to resolve the problem much like a counselor would. It is hard to do this during class so I would often do this during group activities or after class when all the other students were busy. There was one time when one of my students had a dispute with me and we resolved it in the hallway. Sleeping in class I take as a symbolic issue because it says to me that they are not interested in the lesson and that it is so boring that it put them to sleep. The whole issue with hats honestly bugs me because I don't think the students in this age even know that wear a hat in the classroom is symbolic for being defiant in the traditional sense, but only because it is against the rules. I personally don't have a problem with them wearing a hat.

2. Draw a concept map of your overall concept of yourself as a science teacher.

3. Give an example from your life of learning something important from a story or narrative. Choose something that you could not or would not have known if you had not heard of read the story.

Something that I felt was influential that I read was a children's bible with picture stories. It helped give a moral compass. The stories show that being kind to others and doing all we can to help our fellow human being is the most important in life. This being said, I am not an active Christian or pretend to be. I do believe in the possibility, but the stories and the lessons they teach are crucial. Every religion has these stories and it is to help people develop a good moral compass and it strives to bring about peace to mankind. If I did not read these stories I am not sure I would have turned out the way I am and I think that no matter what you believe in, stories in any religious teaching are good for people to hear or read because of their value as a literary document.

4. Describe an incident or event from your own school days that made a lasting impression on you. Members of a group can share their stories.

One story I can tell if when I was in the school chorus and during a rehearsal the boy next to me was playing with some metal object and distracting other students. I decided to take action and swiftly take the item from him to stop the distractions because we were suppose to be singing for our parents.  I then was given in school suspension for my own distraction and was not allowed to go to the mall with the chorus. This was a big deal to me at the time because it was what every kid in 5th grade looked forward to doing. I asked myself if I in fact had done the right thing and why after explaining the situation to my teacher she did not understand it was for the better of the group. It made me question if it is simply better to take a backseat in these situations because the only reward is punishment. As my adult self I agree with what I did then and decided that even though it may cause more trouble for me, that it is better to help others than to be selfish. Getting myself in trouble is better than having more in trouble and the show ruined by some else's misdeeds.

5. Do you feel more excited or more apprehensive about teaching science? Discuss this with a classmate or group to share your feelings.

Well since I teach science already I feel about the same as I did. Having taught it in the middle school, high school, and TA'ed at the college level, I think I can say that I am still excited about teaching science.

The Fourth Way

"Everything should change, it seems, except the increasingly unholy trinity of markets, testing, and accountability. Tough choices, indeed! The new globalized economy, it seems, is going to be driven by less-than-happy band of Puritans!"

This quote had me rolling in laughter. It is a witty retort to the path of autocracy and speaks volumes towards the people who help create the rules educators must follow. They have such a large influence that it almost doesn't matter what the professionals in that field think. Whatever is the best for them is best for the educator seems to be their only policy.

"However, our rubrics taught us, we loved writing too much, so much so that we had been giving less credit to students who could write clearly but not elegantly, who had great ideas but couldn't express them perfectly, who applied evidence well but not always in the most compelling way."

I never put much thought into this because I honestly don't like writing as much as the statement says, but do seem to appreciate more elegant writing. Like this quote says we should not judge the book by it's writing style. Though some students don't know how to convey their thoughts in a manor that is pleasing to our eyes, doesn't mean heir ideas are not every bit as in depth and knowledgeable as those that can please our eyes.

"It's time to recover the missionary spirit and deep moral purpose of engaging and inspiring all our students."

The goals all educators start out with, but tend to forget as time goes by and they feel beaten down by the system. Never letting these values go and always doing what they can for every student in any way, even the non-conventional.

The path of Autocracy

This path limits technologies power to transform education by not allowing schools to use certain tools. We are limited extensively on what we are allowed to use in the classroom. It took a long time to even get YouTube in the classroom and even that is still heavily blocked. All of these barriers makes it hard to use great resources we find on our free time and want to share with the students.

The path of Technocracy

The path of technocracy makes it hard for any educator to teach away from the test. Because the tests are what determine the achievement of student they need to focus on that material so they are able to have their students score well on the tests. Now, it is possible to use technology to teach this material. It is limited because there could be other technologies that teach the concepts and the student ultimately learns more, but because they do not teach the insignificant details that the students will be tested on it is viewed as failure because they do not score well the tests.

The path of Effervescence

This path is a little harder to find the faults in, but it limits technology in that it masks the value of technology. Doing things the way we always have because it gets us by is a mentality that lingers and keeps innovation from happening. Though it is great to see that technology us is not becoming highly praised in the community.

Schools in the Cloud

What do you like about his proposition?

What I like about his proposition is that it facilitates learning instead of educators trying to force it upon students. I think that it one of the major turn offs with education today. When students feel forced to learn and told to do things it makes them not want to learn and seems to make it ultimately harder to learn. By asking a simple question and letting their own curiosity flourish, student delve deeper than they would have on with educators telling them what to learn. 

What are your concerns about his proposition?

The only real concern I have with this proposition is the problem of willingness of other educators. I think it will make them feeling threatened and unwanted. Like they have no use and will eventually be obsolete. They just need to think of it more like they are taking a more critical thinking approach. They are the one's that more or less guide and watch over the students as they learn. They come up with the questions that guide the self-learning. They are the people in the background that keep everything running smoothly.

What do you like about his vision for the future of schooling?

The future of schooling sounds sort of like a school I have heard about where the classes are all online, but the teachers are still there to help. The students are free to do their work where ever they like, but are always connected. This seems to just be a more immersed version and the students will be able to learn anywhere. It seems like a great idea because the students are not restricted and they ultimately discover things for themselves.

What is your vision for the future of schooling?

My vision for the future of schooling are classrooms with computers for each student where the educators gives PBL (project based learning) style projects to students. There is a big question and the students must use the internet and all other resources to answer the PBL question. They will start working together and helping each other understand what is going on and how all the pieces fit together. The educator can answer questions they have, but take a more backseat approach to their learning.

Technology Cartoons

I got a real kick out of this one because I honestly can't remember the answer to a lot of things without the help of Google. This is not to say that I don't know much, but things that I do not use on a regular basis get pushed further back in my mind and Google is a good way to refresh my memory on different subjects. In this day and age it is all about the application of information anyway. Not just remembering random facts, but actually knowing how to apply those facts. This applies to teaching and learning in the 21st century because students don't necessarily need to remember every single little detail about every subject. They can focus on concepts and use technology to apply those concepts to different areas and be more creative in their thinking.

Introduction Post

My name is Sean Harwell and I am originally from Nashville, TN, but my family moved to Charleston, WV when I was 5 years old. I am currently a graduate assistant for Dr. Deb Hemler at Fairmont State University and taking courses for my Digital Media, Learning, and New Literacies degree. I am taking this course to finish my last semester of my Master's program and how to learn how to apply all the knowledge I have learned through the semester.