...I guess it's a way of selling out, isn't it? Especially after neglecting to update this blog for almost a year. Oh well.
Hello, followers in the EduBlogosphere! I have returned from my long hibernation (read: intense year of a master's program) to bring you a special announcement:
I have started a new blog specifically for my cartoons. On this blog, I will hopefully post a new MS Paint cartoon daily. If you are interested, please follow this link: http://baboonmuffin.blogspot.com/
Never fear, however; I will return to this blog occasionally to post thoughts on education-related topics whenever I feel the need to be (or "be") an intellectual.
Until we meet again, good friend, goodbye!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Sunday, August 15, 2010
It's August 15th!
Ahh, where has my precious August gone?
Today I responded to a blog post by Shelly Blake-Plock on edutopia.org. In this post, Blake-Plock proposes the idea of getting rid of textbooks in the classrooms. On the whole, I would agree with his logic. Textbooks generally do not inspire motivation or imagination in students, because, quoting Blake-Plock, if they were, "they'd be at the top of the New York Times' best seller list." While textbooks do make life easier for teachers, as they organize material well and help those teaching different sections of the same class stay on the same page, they do not allow students to engage in active learning. Students are force-fed the text and don't always engage in the same higher-order thinking about the material as they would if they had the option of interacting with the material in another way, like responding to a relevant blog post by the teacher or finding their own, reliable, up-to-date texts about the material on the Internet.
Here's my take on the matter (I'm sorry if I'm basically reiterating what I wrote in my comment): textbooks are BULKY. Textbooks are EXPENSIVE. Textbooks need to be REPLACED every few years. Textbooks place too much emphasis on MEMORIZATION. Now let's explore everything I just said in a little more detail:
Today I responded to a blog post by Shelly Blake-Plock on edutopia.org. In this post, Blake-Plock proposes the idea of getting rid of textbooks in the classrooms. On the whole, I would agree with his logic. Textbooks generally do not inspire motivation or imagination in students, because, quoting Blake-Plock, if they were, "they'd be at the top of the New York Times' best seller list." While textbooks do make life easier for teachers, as they organize material well and help those teaching different sections of the same class stay on the same page, they do not allow students to engage in active learning. Students are force-fed the text and don't always engage in the same higher-order thinking about the material as they would if they had the option of interacting with the material in another way, like responding to a relevant blog post by the teacher or finding their own, reliable, up-to-date texts about the material on the Internet.
Here's my take on the matter (I'm sorry if I'm basically reiterating what I wrote in my comment): textbooks are BULKY. Textbooks are EXPENSIVE. Textbooks need to be REPLACED every few years. Textbooks place too much emphasis on MEMORIZATION. Now let's explore everything I just said in a little more detail:
Textbooks are BULKY
Once upon a 2002, I was in eighth grade. I was short, thin, and not that much different looking than I am now (which I guess would mean more to you if you actually know me in person. Additionally, if you don't: hi! ) At the time, I weighed about 90 lbs. Like most kids, I had a textbook for every academic class, and I brought home every book with me every night for the sake of doing my homework.
Stephanie the camel has one hump...
I tell friends, foes, and acquaintances that I was a camel at that point in my life. Why? Because that heavy backpack of mine weighed me down tremendously. I remember my mom plopping my backpack down on a scale once that year. That darn backpack weighed almost 30 lbs., which was one third of my body weight at the time. Can you imagine what life for these poor students with heavy backpacks is like? Pre-teens have enough to worry about without being a camel thrown into the mix! But alas, with textbooks in the picture, this is a situation that can't be avoided.
Textbooks are EXPENSIVE and need to be REPLACED
You know what's great about the human race? We're always doing silly things. We can never just sit still and do nothing. The silly things we do have a name: history. Yes, the subject of history is basically the study of all our silly and never-ending shenanigans. Never-ending shenanigans, as the name implies, never end. The problem with textbooks is that the only way to add the most current information to them is to buy new ones. In a subject like history, there is always a need for updated textbooks. And English? People are always writing new and brilliant pieces of literature. Is it right to leave somebody's great work out of a curriculum because their piece wasn't published before the literature book went into print? What about science? Pluto was suddenly stripped of its planet status in 2006; too bad all those textbooks in the classrooms still had Pluto listed as a planet. It must have cost a lot of money for the schools to replace all those outdated textbooks...
Textbooks place too much emphasis on MEMORIZATION
This one is from my personal experience. I remember in fourth grade, my dad used to stress the importance of memorizing material to me, so when I studied for science quizzes, he made sure that I had every definition of every bold word in the book memorized. During a conference with my fourth grade teacher, I proudly demonstrated my knowledge of the material by spewing out definitions of every key word in the chapter. She gave me a look of great concern and asked me if I truly understood what I had just said. It was then that I first learned the difference between knowing material and understanding it.
Textbooks, in my opinion, are set up to encourage learning by memorization. Most of them have key words and concepts in bold. It is easy, then, to extract the definition of these words. A simple definition goes very well on a notecard, which can then be memorized in a short period of time. Sure, I can know that a cat is a small, furry mammal with pointy ears, a tail and whiskers, but does that mean I can point one out on the street? Sure, I know the method I am supposed to use to solve this math problem, but does that mean I can apply it to another problem? How about a real-world situation?
Textbooks are AFTER YOUR BLOOD
Okay, this one is a lie. I just wanted to see if you were still paying attention.
So...
Most of these issues can be resolved by replacing textbooks with either the Internet or some other form of technology (iBooks, anyone?) With technology, the schools don't have to throw away a lot of money to buy the most up-to-date textbooks; the Internet is constantly updated with new information for free! Also, students wouldn't have to lug textbooks around to and from school, which reduces the camel population. Plus, utilizing these new mediums encourages students to engage in a different kind of thinking with the material, especially if the teacher decides to set up a class blog or Twitter page or somewhere that allows students to engage in the material in ways other than simply reading it from a book.
This assumes, of course, that acquiring this technology is within the school's budget, but that's an issue entirely of its own.
Anyway, I'm off to move my stuff out of my current apartment. Now there's a situation in which being a camel would be useful...
Sunday, August 1, 2010
It's August 1st!
This entry is brought to you by crows.
You know, I feel pretty great right now. Not just because I've been out of classes for two days, but because a real, live edublogger responded to a comment that I wrote! I'm usually very nervous about posting comments on weblogs, especially if they belong to people I don't know in my life outside the Internet (notice how I am refraining from referring to said life as "real" life. Internet life is "real" life, too.)Basically, the Cool Cat Teacher encouraged me to start my own blog so I have it to look back upon later in my teaching career. While it's too late for me to take her advice about starting my own weblog (thanks, Jeff and Kristen!), it does encourage me to keep updating this lovely weblog of mine in the future. I'm going to try to keep it strictly related to education, which may be hard at times, knowing how much I love to go on tangents. I'll just try to make sure that the starting point of the tangents will be related to education.
I really enjoyed having former MACers as guest speakers on Friday. Each of them had interesting stories to tell about their use of technology in the classroom. The most memorable part of the presentation for me, though, was when the second speaker mentioned that when he was in school, he was a special education student. I wonder if his students know that. I feel that if they did, he would be a great encouragement to the special ed students, as he is a living example of a special education student who has grown up and accomplished many great things. What a great role model.
This particular speaker also talked about how he makes technology wish lists. Oh man, that sounds so exciting. I hope I get to do that when I'm a teacher! It sounds a lot like writing Christmas wish lists for Santa back in the day, only instead of asking for a pony or an Easy Bake Oven, I can ask for computer programs that can help me create electronic ponies and bake electronic food for my students. These things can totally help me enhance my teaching, if I use them correctly, by which I mean creatively. I wonder if writing these technology wish lists in crayon and delivering them to the technology person at my school with a cup of hot chocolate and a plate of cookies will increase the likelihood of me getting the pieces of technology I desire. I mean, it worked on Santa all of those years... Also, do technology people have elves that slave away all year making electronics? If yes, where are they hiding? Also, can I keep one as a pet? Man, I am going to have so many questions to ask the technology person at my school in the fall. I think I'm going to need to start making a list.
This concludes my reflection of Friday's class. Now run to freedom; the whole month of August lies ahead of you.
Also, on your way out, please enjoy my angry crow wallpaper inspired by the lovely piece of art at the beginning of this entry (one of my friends is actually using this as his desktop background):
Enjoy your time off, everybody! I'll update this blog periodically when inspiration strikes, so check back from time to time.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
All the Lonely People...
...where do they all come from? Well, Beatles, not from Generation M!
Before I start with my thoughts about this week's reading, I feel the need to express that I am slightly nervous right now. You know, since my audience this week has increased exponentially due to an email Pat sent to the entire program. (Thanks, Monte!) If you're here for the first time, welcome. Feel free to stay awhile. I won't charge for restroom usage, and I also won't criticize your horrid choice of music. Moving on...
As one of the younger SMACers, I went to middle, high school, and undergrad with fellow Generation M'ers. My classmates built relationships both in person and via IM, email, text messages, social networking sites, and all those other gizmos and gadgets that were popular between 1999 and May 2010 (which I guess could be simplified to "now." Or "now enough.") While I rarely used my cell phone (to this day, I hate text messaging with a passion), I did utilize IM programs and social networking sites. While I see their value in maintaining relationships, since they allow me to keep in frequent contact with friends I may not get to see on a daily basis, I honestly much prefer to talk to people face-to-face. I love voices. I love facial expressions. I love the third dimension!
I never understood how some people prefer to IM friends who are only across the street or make small talk with friends for hours via text messaging when a phone call would have made that conversation move at a much faster pace. To me, IMing and texting makes friends seem almost mechanical. These forms of communication rob them of their voice, their facial expressions, and their third dimension! My friends are people, not machines! (Note: I have yet to pour buckets of water on my friends to test this theory.)
I also feel that the overuse of modern technology makes people in this generation unfriendly. Gone are the days when people randomly initiated conversations with strangers, as these days, everybody is too occupied with their iPods/phones/personal gaming systems/laptops to give strangers a second glance. It's sad; that was one of my favorite parts about summer camp back in middle school. Or how about when you're talking to somebody in person and they are simultaneously texting somebody else? Although the article says that most people in Generation M would not find such a behavior rude, most of the people around my age that I know, including me, would say otherwise. The odd thing is that, to me, such a behavior is perfectly fine when I'm sitting in the same room as somebody else and both of us have laptops and are supposedly doing homework. Hmm...
Can you imagine how this abundance of technology will carry over into the next generation? Fifteen-year-old girls will be writing in their public weblogs about their first kiss that took place via a webcam with a boy 800 miles away and texting her eight best friends about it immediately afterward. I don't know about you, but that just doesn't sound romantic to me. Especially the thought of cleaning the spit off of the camera afterward.
What about the abundance of personal information that members of Generation M choose to share online? It's true, we do have a lot of resources at our disposal that make the sharing of this information easy. Just about anybody can have access to the Internet and therefore social networking sites. Most people have a digital camera for taking pictures, which frequently end up shared on social networking sites, and recording movies, which can easily be uploaded to public video-sharing sites like YouTube. Most computers even come with a movie-editing program of some sort, which makes creating movies easy and fun. (Not that I've had experiences making silly movies with friends and putting them on YouTube...)
I agree with Klapperstuck and Kearns that most teens post these things on the Internet because they believe that only their friends will see them. I mean, there are so many movies on YouTube and so many blogs and personal profiles on the Internet, why would a stranger be specifically interested in yours? To these teens, I say this: there are some very bored and very perverted strangers out there. And also consider the possibility of other people you know seeing this information. Would you want your parents seeing what you're posting on the Internet? What about your teachers (if you think they don't Google their names to find out what students are saying about them, you are sadly mistaken)? If your answer to either of these questions is "no," that information probably shouldn't be on a public site.
I'm sorry that I have no cartoon for you today. I know my entry from last time and Pat's email probably got your hopes up, but I feel that a cartoon does not suit this entry as well as it did last week. Never fear! You can write out your frustrations in an email and send it to me. Maybe Shari will let that count as your reform project.
Before I start with my thoughts about this week's reading, I feel the need to express that I am slightly nervous right now. You know, since my audience this week has increased exponentially due to an email Pat sent to the entire program. (Thanks, Monte!) If you're here for the first time, welcome. Feel free to stay awhile. I won't charge for restroom usage, and I also won't criticize your horrid choice of music. Moving on...
As one of the younger SMACers, I went to middle, high school, and undergrad with fellow Generation M'ers. My classmates built relationships both in person and via IM, email, text messages, social networking sites, and all those other gizmos and gadgets that were popular between 1999 and May 2010 (which I guess could be simplified to "now." Or "now enough.") While I rarely used my cell phone (to this day, I hate text messaging with a passion), I did utilize IM programs and social networking sites. While I see their value in maintaining relationships, since they allow me to keep in frequent contact with friends I may not get to see on a daily basis, I honestly much prefer to talk to people face-to-face. I love voices. I love facial expressions. I love the third dimension!
I never understood how some people prefer to IM friends who are only across the street or make small talk with friends for hours via text messaging when a phone call would have made that conversation move at a much faster pace. To me, IMing and texting makes friends seem almost mechanical. These forms of communication rob them of their voice, their facial expressions, and their third dimension! My friends are people, not machines! (Note: I have yet to pour buckets of water on my friends to test this theory.)
I also feel that the overuse of modern technology makes people in this generation unfriendly. Gone are the days when people randomly initiated conversations with strangers, as these days, everybody is too occupied with their iPods/phones/personal gaming systems/laptops to give strangers a second glance. It's sad; that was one of my favorite parts about summer camp back in middle school. Or how about when you're talking to somebody in person and they are simultaneously texting somebody else? Although the article says that most people in Generation M would not find such a behavior rude, most of the people around my age that I know, including me, would say otherwise. The odd thing is that, to me, such a behavior is perfectly fine when I'm sitting in the same room as somebody else and both of us have laptops and are supposedly doing homework. Hmm...
Can you imagine how this abundance of technology will carry over into the next generation? Fifteen-year-old girls will be writing in their public weblogs about their first kiss that took place via a webcam with a boy 800 miles away and texting her eight best friends about it immediately afterward. I don't know about you, but that just doesn't sound romantic to me. Especially the thought of cleaning the spit off of the camera afterward.
What about the abundance of personal information that members of Generation M choose to share online? It's true, we do have a lot of resources at our disposal that make the sharing of this information easy. Just about anybody can have access to the Internet and therefore social networking sites. Most people have a digital camera for taking pictures, which frequently end up shared on social networking sites, and recording movies, which can easily be uploaded to public video-sharing sites like YouTube. Most computers even come with a movie-editing program of some sort, which makes creating movies easy and fun. (Not that I've had experiences making silly movies with friends and putting them on YouTube...)
I agree with Klapperstuck and Kearns that most teens post these things on the Internet because they believe that only their friends will see them. I mean, there are so many movies on YouTube and so many blogs and personal profiles on the Internet, why would a stranger be specifically interested in yours? To these teens, I say this: there are some very bored and very perverted strangers out there. And also consider the possibility of other people you know seeing this information. Would you want your parents seeing what you're posting on the Internet? What about your teachers (if you think they don't Google their names to find out what students are saying about them, you are sadly mistaken)? If your answer to either of these questions is "no," that information probably shouldn't be on a public site.
I'm sorry that I have no cartoon for you today. I know my entry from last time and Pat's email probably got your hopes up, but I feel that a cartoon does not suit this entry as well as it did last week. Never fear! You can write out your frustrations in an email and send it to me. Maybe Shari will let that count as your reform project.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Hello, Children...
Hopefully at least one of these works...
Stephanie Blog Voice.egg on Aviary.
Or, if that doesn't work:
http://aviary.com/artists/smigglezz/creations/stephanie_blog_voice
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Cartoony Loony
Before I watched James Paul Gee's video interview, I never considered that the mastery of mindless video games closely parallels the process of learning in a school environment. Trying to make a connection between the two never crossed my mind, for, as childish as this may sound, I've always associated video games with free time and fun and learning with...sweating in a stuffy classroom that lacks air conditioning and being forced to do tasks that I probably wouldn't do by choice.
Gee points out, however, that video games can, in fact, function as a learning tool. In a video game, a player starts out with a small set of skills. The player must learn to use these skills effectively in order to complete a small number of tasks. Once a player completes these tasks, he must test his ability to use his skills in a battle against a boss. After he defeats the boss, he can advance to the next level.
Similarly, when a student enters a classroom, he brings a set of cognitive skills with him. The teacher assigns him homework and projects as a means for him to utilize these skills. If he finds success in using these skills on homework and projects, he is also likely to find success on an assessment (ie: BIG TEST!), where he is asked to once again demonstrate to the teacher ("BIG BOSS") that he is ready to advance to the next step of his academic journey.
Okay, so the parallels between video games and classroom learning exist. But why are video games still generally more enjoyable to students than going to class? Why would I rather role play as a blue hedgehog and run around in loops trying to collect golden rings when I could just be myself and do my homework and hopefully feel the same sense of accomplishment?
Let's say that my life was a video game.
For our purposes today, this is me.
In order for this game to have a purpose, I need a task to perform.
Okay, we've got our task. Now let's carry it out by using my amazing set of questioning skills to find my quantitative article.
Hmm...no success.
Hey, look at him!
He has a mustasche. Therefore, he MUST be a quantitative article. (Please don't ask me to explain my logic on this one.)
Good. Now the next challenge is getting him to go to class with me so I can turn him in for a Participation Assignment.
He doesn't want to go willingly, so I have to turn on my charm and make him a deal he can't refuse.
Oh hey, now we're facing the Big Boss. Hopefully my quantitative-article-finding skills are worthy enough to advance me to the next level!
AHHH! NOOO! I have to do that again?!
I think if I had to play this video game, this is the point where I would turn it off, throw it in the fire place, and ask my parents why they got me such a terrible Christmas present. What makes this game of my life so dull? Why would I much rather spend hours of my life lost in a foreign land as Sonic the Hedgehog or even as Pac Man, trapped in an endless loop of mazes? It's the fantasy factor, in my humble opinion. Sure, I have skills as a normal human. I can draw well, I can read, and I write - but what fun are those ordinary skills if I could be somebody else for a while who can shoot lasers out of her eyes or run at the speed of light or snack on others in order to attain their super powers (Kirby, anyone?)
Gee brings up a good point about one of the advantages of learning via a video game: those who play video games seem more encouraged to try failed tasks again. Video games come with extra lives, which serve as built-in tool to encourage gamers to go back and fix mistakes. Students do not always feel as encouraged to try again when they make mistakes in the classroom. Ordinarily, when a student makes a mistake, it sometimes takes a larger push to get that student to attempt the task again, especially if his failure to accomplish the task the first time took a toll on his self esteem.
I also read blog entries from the Cool Cat Teacher Blog. A particularly striking entry involved the questioning of why we, as people, don't always take a stand whenever something bad is happening around us. We commonly assume that somebody else is going to take action, and in many situations, nothing is done. That brings me back to a story I saw on the news a couple years ago. An elderly man was at the gas station and two younger men started to beat him up. Meanwhile, a large crowd of people stood and watched, nobody bothering to step in and do anything. What are we so afraid of? Responsibility? Embarassment? Are we just in shock that these situations can and do happen?
Something of a similar nature happened in Shari's class today. While our class was in the midst of "circle time," I heard a scream coming from outside. Nobody, including me, bothered looking out the window to see where it came from. Realistically, the scream probably came from a kid who was playing with another kid. But what if that wasn't the case? What if the scream was emitted by a kid who was being kidnapped? None of us would ever know, since none of us looked out the window. Therefore, nothing would have been done about it. Things like this make me sad. What makes me even sadder is knowing that I am part of the problem.
Anyway, to end on a lighter note: I did complete the quantitative article collection stage of my EDUC 695 video game and have advanced to the qualitative article stage. Wish me luck!!
Gee points out, however, that video games can, in fact, function as a learning tool. In a video game, a player starts out with a small set of skills. The player must learn to use these skills effectively in order to complete a small number of tasks. Once a player completes these tasks, he must test his ability to use his skills in a battle against a boss. After he defeats the boss, he can advance to the next level.
Similarly, when a student enters a classroom, he brings a set of cognitive skills with him. The teacher assigns him homework and projects as a means for him to utilize these skills. If he finds success in using these skills on homework and projects, he is also likely to find success on an assessment (ie: BIG TEST!), where he is asked to once again demonstrate to the teacher ("BIG BOSS") that he is ready to advance to the next step of his academic journey.
Okay, so the parallels between video games and classroom learning exist. But why are video games still generally more enjoyable to students than going to class? Why would I rather role play as a blue hedgehog and run around in loops trying to collect golden rings when I could just be myself and do my homework and hopefully feel the same sense of accomplishment?
Let's say that my life was a video game.
For our purposes today, this is me.
In order for this game to have a purpose, I need a task to perform.
Okay, we've got our task. Now let's carry it out by using my amazing set of questioning skills to find my quantitative article.
Hmm...no success.
Hey, look at him!
He has a mustasche. Therefore, he MUST be a quantitative article. (Please don't ask me to explain my logic on this one.)
Good. Now the next challenge is getting him to go to class with me so I can turn him in for a Participation Assignment.
He doesn't want to go willingly, so I have to turn on my charm and make him a deal he can't refuse.
Oh hey, now we're facing the Big Boss. Hopefully my quantitative-article-finding skills are worthy enough to advance me to the next level!
AHHH! NOOO! I have to do that again?!
I think if I had to play this video game, this is the point where I would turn it off, throw it in the fire place, and ask my parents why they got me such a terrible Christmas present. What makes this game of my life so dull? Why would I much rather spend hours of my life lost in a foreign land as Sonic the Hedgehog or even as Pac Man, trapped in an endless loop of mazes? It's the fantasy factor, in my humble opinion. Sure, I have skills as a normal human. I can draw well, I can read, and I write - but what fun are those ordinary skills if I could be somebody else for a while who can shoot lasers out of her eyes or run at the speed of light or snack on others in order to attain their super powers (Kirby, anyone?)
Gee brings up a good point about one of the advantages of learning via a video game: those who play video games seem more encouraged to try failed tasks again. Video games come with extra lives, which serve as built-in tool to encourage gamers to go back and fix mistakes. Students do not always feel as encouraged to try again when they make mistakes in the classroom. Ordinarily, when a student makes a mistake, it sometimes takes a larger push to get that student to attempt the task again, especially if his failure to accomplish the task the first time took a toll on his self esteem.
I also read blog entries from the Cool Cat Teacher Blog. A particularly striking entry involved the questioning of why we, as people, don't always take a stand whenever something bad is happening around us. We commonly assume that somebody else is going to take action, and in many situations, nothing is done. That brings me back to a story I saw on the news a couple years ago. An elderly man was at the gas station and two younger men started to beat him up. Meanwhile, a large crowd of people stood and watched, nobody bothering to step in and do anything. What are we so afraid of? Responsibility? Embarassment? Are we just in shock that these situations can and do happen?
Something of a similar nature happened in Shari's class today. While our class was in the midst of "circle time," I heard a scream coming from outside. Nobody, including me, bothered looking out the window to see where it came from. Realistically, the scream probably came from a kid who was playing with another kid. But what if that wasn't the case? What if the scream was emitted by a kid who was being kidnapped? None of us would ever know, since none of us looked out the window. Therefore, nothing would have been done about it. Things like this make me sad. What makes me even sadder is knowing that I am part of the problem.
Anyway, to end on a lighter note: I did complete the quantitative article collection stage of my EDUC 695 video game and have advanced to the qualitative article stage. Wish me luck!!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Just call me Smigglezz.
So I think the DIA is missing a valuable piece of art...
Taken from the Community Whiteboard in Friday's Webinar.
During class on Friday, I learned to Tweet. Yes, with a "big" T, not a little one. I already knew how to tweet (LOWER CASE) beforehand. I mean, maybe nobody would've actually mistaken me for a bird, but I sure as heck could articulate the "t" and the "weet" together...
So yeah, Tweeting with the big T. I set up my own professional Twitter account. I then professionally named myself Smigglezz Goop and professionally Tweeted that the Smigglezz had landed. Then I professionally located most of the Twitter accounts of my classmates and professionally followed them. In the second half of class, my classmates and I professionally used our computers to professionally engage in a professional webinar where there were professional technical difficulties that we professionally solved. What a day! Basically, I've got this professional thing in the bag.
I took a lesson out of Friday's class that I wasn't sure was the intended lesson. In the duration of the webinar, I found myself a bit distracted by Twitter. I just had this urge to constantly (and professionally!) refresh my Twitter page every couple of minutes to see if my classmates had posted any new Tweets. My mind just wasn't completely in the webinar, and the distractions only continued as the sound kept failing. Now, I would like to assume that I am more mature than many, if not most, fifteen year olds. Assuming that is true, if the technology surrounding me distracts me from paying attention to what's going on in class, how am I going to expect most fifteen year olds to focus in a class I am teaching if they are surrounded by the same technology? Basically, this class period taught me why it's important to not utilize Twitter in the classroom.
I can understand using Twitter outside the classroom. It can be used as a forum for sharing information. Shy students would probably feel more comfortable asking questions or sharing thoughts that they perhaps were too intimidated to bring up in class. Yes, there are benefits to websites like Twitter, but as for using the site in the classroom while class is going on...I'm going to say no on that one (in the most professional way possible, of course!) If I couldn't concentrate, I doubt the students would.
My favorite part of class was actually our class discussion about the readings. It was pretty incredible watching my fellow MACers take charge of a classroom, just like we'll be doing in the fall. I was just in awe at how comfortable everybody who took charge of the class seemed. Leading a classroom discussion just came so naturally to them. You all intimidate me greatly. Are you sure none of you have ever taught a class before? How am I supposed to be sure that you guys aren't all teachers who've achieved tenure and are sulking about U of M disguised as graduate students? Maybe this whole grad school thing is a joke on me, and you're all going to laugh at me when I'm confused as to why I'm miles behind the rest of you in my teaching skill level. If this is all a joke, you guys are good actors. You should all star in a hit movie. Or a "reality" TV show (those are all staged anyway.) What if this joke on me is actually a reality TV show? HEY, MOMMY, I'M LOOKING FOOLISH ON TV! I told you it would happen some day...
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