Complaints about Technology

"Any teacher who can be replaced by technology can't be because students and administrators don't usually know how to use technology, and because technology is not dependable enough, yet" - Mark Johnson 12/18/2011

I have made a large number of movies and uploaded them to vimeo and to YouTube. ASometimes, I find an error in my upload and I go back to my Moviemaker file to edit the movie so that I can upload the corrected version. But, windows movie maker often looses some of the video files. then, I need to reload them. This does not always work. It happens often with movies that are highly edited with splits and that are longer than 10 minutes. I need to find a better movie making editor to download because I can't depend on Windows Movie Maker anymore. The problem might be with my bran new, shiny latest version of computer. I called for support to Dell and they said there are few techys available to fix my new version of windows, etc. I know, I should have bought a Mac, I suppose. Now, I need to experiment with a Mac to find out. Oh well, now I'll need another bedroom in my house too.

Last Class

To teach Ella, I would have a class WIKI and she would at least be co-manager. I would ask Ella to link games appropriate for each content area. Ella would be presentation coach and teach other students how to make presentations using a variety of presentation platforms that she would use and showcase as president of technology club. I will be faculty sponsor of the technology Club. Ella would prepare scripts for my television presentations, and cohost our TV production. Why not?

What did I learn during this semester? I learned that there are a lot of digtital tools that can be adapterd to engage students with content. these include presentation programs,movie making programs, cartoon making programs and web page programs like Google Sites, Wikispaces and pbworks. I learned that for the most part neither students nor teachers generally know how to use or adapt technology for use in their classroom teaching. I learned that I can figuire out how to usae most programs on my own hook, get help from the programs help desks and adapt programs to my own teaching style. I learned that I want to teach by distance education and by Internet. I also learned that I want to hit a lot of kids in schools, amd I would like to really wack them ahrd and fast like my cat does her kittens. I learned that the suystem is so broken that it wastes tax doillars to the max. I learned that I want judges to substitute teach. I learned that my classmates could really get into the work once they had the time and that was really cool. I learned how to use technology to wow people during an interview.

Exit Slip Games

I didn't realize there were so many educational games on the Internet. i ahve never played any myself except for the types that were were assigned to review in social studies classes where I substituted.

I haven't had the time to do much searching for games and maybe I will do more of this over Christmas.

IRLO Reflection:Scratch Scratch, Maybe.

I enjoyed learning Scratch from MIT.edu. I used the answer until correct function to develop the interactive part. This function might be great for mathematics or chemistry problems. But, I question it for ecology where correct answers are often more complex than single words and where multiple answers can be correct when given in any order. I think that multiple answer questions will frustrate students. I often found that I could not get the correct answer because I typed in the correct answer as a plural rather than a singular noun. Also, answers that included multiple nouns did not often work evewn when typed in correctly. I even found in one example that my correct answer had an extra space between words that caused incorrect answers everytime I thought I was correct. It was very hard to see the extra space. Another prtoblem is that long, multiple scripts using controllers often skipped questions,arts odd questions or sprites. But, this did not happen everytime. But, it did happen most of the time with the clam; not everytime.

The way I would use scratch in biology is to have students use it to demonstrate their learning. I would gelp them and we would interact whil;e learning both Scratch and academic content. I simply don't trust a lengthy scratch project to operate effectively in a biology classroom without significant support. I do think that students wouild like learning it and making presentations just as I did. So, in interactive F2F computer lab sessions, I think it will be outstanding. But used alone for independant use by students, I think it is standing out in the rain until mit.edu improves upon the way controllers connect, and the reliability and flexibility of the answer until correct operators/controllers. See the screencast of my project below.

Screencast of an Old Blog

Or, is this a blog of a sceencast of an old blog.  Maybe it is.  Whatever.  It's hard to find something that is buried in a cyberbucket under a bunch of other cyberstuff.

http://www.screencast.com/users/mjohn631/folders/Jing/media/1790335b-f208-48e1-aca0-b17d6377379c   and, I am trying to embed the screencast.com file and while that works it embeds larger than this blog page.  I am not certain that I can make it smaller.  I will try.  I found that the links I point to all do work fine.  The Gobi Desert video that I made a screencast of would now be embedded since you taught me how to do that.  I tried to do it in an  e-mail but that doesn't work.

I guess I have to buy a different version of screencast in order to change the screencast size of an embedded video. So, I can use the flip cam to video the screencast and then upload it to vimeo if I have any space left. Then I can embed that here. Ok, I try.

Gambling OnLine PSA

I had previously made a video with moviemaker.  So, This project was relatively easy for me.  Initially, I spent a few days thinking about different subjects and trying to relate them to different themes of digital citizenship.  At first, I wanted to tackle "Occupy Wallstreet".  My passion was colored by past experiences with civil rights demonstrations and demonstrations against the government that got us out of Viet Nahm.  This violence changed the U.S.A.  I would not be surprised if "occupy wallstreet" ultimately has similar success.  It begann after social media was used to revolutionize northern Africa.  I suspected this to happen here too.  I was also enjoying a 25th anniversary of Les Miserable and thinking about The French Revolution and the fact that the Poor executed so many of the wealthy French who controlled the government there.  The very idea that it could not happen here does not exist in my mind.  Prevention of revolution is why the government forces children to recite the Pledge every day.  I believe that the brainwashing of children is the greater crime.  I say, "Off with their heads!"

Then, I considered the e-commerce theme and realized that I had participated in Western Union transfers of money and remember being threatened with prison if I failed to report people who either sent and received money by wire when it concerned gambling.  The federal government has standing to prosecute anyone who might send an e-mail across state lines because that is interstate communication and related e-commerce is interstate trade.  So, even when no state law is violated a citizen can be prosecuted for a non-crime in federal court.  Interesting, don't you think?  Big brother is watching you, after all.

So, I e-mailed my idea and got one fellow (not really a fellow) student response to join in the effort.  I was never able to contact the student again.  So, I proceeded on my own using volunteeers.  I had previously written a brief script and identified the punch line to use up front, "You can't win!"  Of course, you can't.  You can gamble over the Internet, but because you can not legally transfer money associated with gambling in that manner, you can't win!

I spent about 2 hours making a series of video clips and about another 2 hours making and uploading the video to Vimeo.  Now, I am using 1-2 hours more to write this memoir and to embed the finished PSA into the blog.  I just learned to embed and I like it very much. 

I enjoy making the movies and as a result, I will use this a lot in class to have students construct their own learning.  I will enjoy helping them.  Maybe, other students will ask me for help when they try to do the EDUC 331 assignment during the last minute.  I will be happy to help them.  I think the hardest part for everybody will be identifying a message and coming up with a script.

One question is whether the PSA is appropriate for K-12 learners.  Except for my last statement, it is because online gambling is where under age children could get away with it.  There is no way to enforce the age limit really.  My last staement could have been something like, "So, if you plan to gamble on line because you are not yet 21, forget it because You Can't Win; You can't get paid".  The truth is that nobody really enforces the law.  How would a Western Union agent know that a person is getting or paying money from gambling?  In one case, I found out because I asked why the customer was coming in so often and getting so much money.  He told me.  He shouldn't have told me.  Now, he does his transfers at a different Westeern Union operation.

My volunteers liked participating too and the movie making program is so much fun that I will buy my own little, sneaky camera that I can keep in my pocket.  Then, when I catch people doing things they shouldn't, I can show them how they looked.  I think that I will also heve students film, edit and criticize some of my class performances.  I bet that assignment will be a big hit.

By this timew in the semester, I have also found that it is nearly impossible to connect with other students in the class.  They don't know me in the first place.  Because of my age, I travel to the beat of a different drum in the second place.  My motivations are different, I think.  It will be interesting to see the proportion of students who do the A contract.  I wonder why they don't have enough time.  My PLC group has done nothing that I kn ow of on the book study or on the wondering.  Why?  I know that one of them is really pressed for time, and has told me she will probably not do the A.  I know that she can do it.  We'll see.  In the third place, it must be pretty damn intimidating to have a grandfather figure who is a university professor for a classmate.  Is it a generation gap thing, or arte they just afraid of not measuring up?  Nothing to be afraid of, really.  We are all neophytes in EDU.  Maybe F2F is too much.  Would Internet interaction with out ever knowing anything elso make a difference?  That would be a very neat Ph.D project for EDU.  Maybe I shoiuld do that.  Where can I do that?

Rethinking 10

"In some sense, the divorce of schooling and learning may take us back to an era where individuals negotiate their own learning experiences , often with strong guidance from their parents." Page 129

So, what kid listens to their parents?  Home schooled kids do , I think.  Don't you think that the authors are pretty presumptive by claiming that children don't learn anything in schools anymore?  I have to think more about this one.

"The current school system does not help students develop intrinsic motivation to learn.      One report found that 50% of high school students are bored every day in classes; another found 82% of California 9th and 10th graders reported their school experiences as "boring and irrelevant.""  Page 131

I agree with this set of statements.  I find that students are bored in every school that I am in.  But, they are not bored in every class.  They like band, choir, shop and certain classes where they are constructing things such as the video/TV production studio, Art and sometimes their web design classes in schools that have that.  This should tell us something.  Maybe we need to design teaching so that students are doing something physically active to learn academic content.  I used to take all of my upper level wildlife classes hunting and fishing on weekend field trips.  I had a mini physics class where certain students signed up for "special studies" where a retired physicist and Marine taught us to reload ammunition, tune rifles and how to shoot well.  Students seemed to like those "special studies", especially girls.

"As a society we need to understand how to balance the need to use schools as engines of economic committment..............."  Page 144-145

Yes, this is my complaint.  We should be training students for the work force.  But then, we might need to stop the practice of hiring foreigners who pay no taxes, take the money home and who pay no social security taxes.  A lot of business owners would not like this because for every one they hire, they save the 7.5% soc sec match.

Rethinking 9

"For the first time in history , children are more comfortable, knowledgable and literate than their parents." Page 122

I would have agreed with this 2 months ago.  It might be true but I don't think it is a valid generalization.  Now that I have examined David Grabski's 7th and 8th grade classes, and have spent numerous sessions in computer labs with high school students, I see that students can't do as much as people think they can.  Some do, but most don't.  They primarily know how to text and play video games.  Do you know that a lot of students who regularly text can't send an e-mail?  Did you know that most students are not very good at choosing key words or phrases for information searches.  Most students have never used spread sheets like Excell or Access.  Most students don't know how to do a budget.  Most students (just like me) have not thought much about how the technology available to them can be used.  We teachers keep making these broad assumptions about how technologically literate and savvy kids are, and our understandings are skewed by a few good students who have learned a lot.  We still need to teach most students how to use the technology to advance their own interests.

"Pick up a controller and take Madden 2005 or Pokemon for a ride; let your children teach you how to play , and raise critical questions about strategies and the purpose of the game play."  Page123

I do this all of the time in high school computer lab.  I have yet to see a game where their is any real strategy that challenges my imagination.  I guess the one where students kill their teacher in a lot of different ways is fun.  But cutting off teachers head or stabbing him in the guts to watch cyber blood squirting all over the place doesn't inspire critical thinking does it?  I don't have Madden 2005 or Pokemon.  Therefore, I can't comment on these games.  I see from Wikipedia that there are more to them than there is to the games I normally see.  We can'y play these in schools over Internet connections.  I encourage students to do all sorts of other things.  A substitute can't get much response.  However, as a regular teacher, I bet I could get students to look at bettter ways to use technology.

On page 125 the authors ask, "How has technology changed kids' social lives and learning?"

But, then they don't really address this in their dialogue.  They do explain that by the 1960's millionss of teens primarily went to school to socialize with friends rather than to get an education.  Ok, fine.  But, that has nothing to do with technology.  It has more to do with a rapidly growing technology, I think.  Is the cart before the horse here?  Kids are more social than before because they go to school regularly.  They go to school regularly because their parents can afford for them to do that, and because the government says they must.  Technology did not make kids more social; technology created an economy that made kids go to school where they became more social.  That's what I think, anyway.

Rethinking 8

"How can schools cope with the new technologies?"

I try to relate this title with the chapter content.  Later on page 119, the authors say, "
Commercial video games can also be adapted to meet content standards in schools."

I wonder whether the authors are really writing about the problem of students playing games all the time rather than using the technology to do academic things.  Of course games can be adapted just like scratch can be.  Teachers need to keep students busy doing fun things that they can be successful doing.  But, who will modify the games?  Are you going to pay the owners to do that?  You aren't going to do it.  Why didn't the authors post an online portion of the book and demonstrate some of their ideas?  It's easy to do, I think.  Maybe it's because the authors are college professors like myself who don't know how to teach?  Or, what?  Well, I can see War Games being used to demonstrate historical battles.  And, I can see students simulating alternatives like, "What if General Custer had never gone to subdue the Sioux?  Would we still have casinos in Wisconsin?"  Maybe students could use games to operate on dead bodies anmd create Frankenstein monsters.  Or, what if students could modify the actions of Romeo and Juliet?  That reminds me that I accidentally went to a movie that I thought was Romeo and Juliet but turned out to be "The Secret Sex Lives of Romeo and Juliet".  It turned out to be a comedy.  I didn't stay long because I was afraid it was something more.  Maybe it was.  I'll never know.  If there is too much content in these so called games, will students still have fun playing them?

"Performance-Based Assessment"  Page 113

During this year I have become increasingly interested in the idea of performance based assessments.  Show me what you can do?  During the interview last week, the new auto shop teacher who will soon start at Adams-Friendship was taken into the auto shop by the vice principal (former principal) and asked to show (proove) that he knew how to use the equipment and machines there.  I thought that the vice principal was quite wise for doing that. 

If students can show me that they can do something and I can record video of their performances, why do I need to give them written tests?  This seems so very logical.  I feel that this idea has to be considered any time I develop an assessment.  Can they find the information?  Can a student show me how to reeconstruct a skeleton?  Can a student construct a concept map of the biosphere?  Can a student construct a food web of plants and animals that are sympatric on the shortgrass prairie in eastern Colorado?  Can a student cut down a tree and make it fall on a specific target?  Can forestry students identify the types of wood in a series of samples.  Can forestry students measure the volume of wood in a stand of trees?  Can a forestry student scale (measure it and esrtimate the board feet of lumber it has) an individual tree?  Sometimes the score would be pass/fail.  They can do it, or not.  When they can perform enough specific tasks, they pass because they are qualified for the job.  I like the idea.  Gee, it sounds like vocational education. 


"Students would create a portfolio of credentials for purposes of employment or college applications.......................Developing a performance-based certification system would also force educators to be more careful about defining what they expect students to know and to do." Page 116

Didn't I just say this?  Why should it take a threat from technology to make schools do this?  Shouldn't schools be doing this regardless of technology?  Is the problem expressed in the saying, "Those who can do; those who can't teach"?  Is it any wonder that Neil Simon would write lyrics like, "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school.........."?    

"....., its a wonder I can think at all!"

Rethinking 7

"The danger is that public schools may be left with uninterested students, while parents who want to give their children a good education avail themselves of home schooling, private schools and learning centers." Page 106

After Lyndon Johnson got schools integrated during the 1960's this has been goiung on in the South ever since.  But, public schools did not end up with disinterested students.  A student body is a social dynamic that does not depend on racism or income class.  That's why I am not inclined to think the authors concerns have much merit.  However, I know a couple in central Wisconsin who are both graduates of Colorado State University.  Their 3 children are all home scooled, work in the family business and behave more like young adults than any students I encounter in public schools. Based on this comparison, public schools fail because I rarely feel respected by the students.  This is true of all 4 districts I work in.  There must be a way to get discipline back so that education can improve.  All of this talk about how the Koreans and Chinese are so far ahead of us and there is no talk about how they compare in discipline.

"Education will be directed more toward what people want to learn, and hence, will be more excited and drawn to learning."

I agree if the authors are talking about video games.  But, if they are talking about academic content, I say, "Dream on, Jack".  For adults after war, yes.  For spoiled children, no.  Maybe this will be true when the children have to suffer without food and stuff.  But, our kids are so naive regarding the realities they will face in the future that they have no vision for it.  How do we make them wonder how they will eat when their parents either kick them out or die?

 "But people are not going to learn much unless they take responsibility for their own learning." Page 111

 After WW II and Korea, people came back to civilian life and entered educational institutions with personal missions to learn so that they could develop their careers.  There was a general belief that education was the way to get there.  It was.  They did it with a vengance.  They became the new leaders of major political and educational institutions.  They had military discipline and military styles.  I worked for those people and when they retired and/or died my job became less by a magnitude.  Those who replaced them couldn't come close.  Col. Tom Hansbrough flew corsairs in the south Pacific and helicopters in Korea.  He would never speak of Korea.  Col Hansbrough met Jimmy Doolittle once.  His kidneys failed about 2 years ago.  Paul Burns fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He still calls and e-mails me.  Paul is 90 and still plays tennis usually beating the 80 year olds in competition.  I can't remember where Dr. Efferson served but we named a building after him at Louisiana State University.  These men came out of the Great Depression and wanted the education they had earned by their military service.  Those administrators who replaced them couldn't shine their shoes and my job satisfaction went south. Do we need to take the welfare safety net away to make education respected by today's students?  The students who ask me for a little money or to play catch with them are the needy who never seem to be disruptive or disrespectful.  Interesting thought.

This was a short chapter and getting toward the end of the book.  I felt that the authors were searching for something to say and were suffering from writing fatique.  Chapter 8 is similar but has a couple of thought provoking ideas.

Rethinking 6

"Perhaps the most revolutionary idea advanced by Horace Mann and his colleaugues was for the state to take over responsibility for educating children from their parents." Page 91

When I was a teen, all we ever heard was how the Russians would instill kids with propaganda and that good Russian word became a bad word for us.  But, "This often led to children developing attitudes and values that their parents did not share." Page 92  And, to insure that parents did not interfere, kids were physically removed from their parents' homes to live in a state dormitory.  Then, they would be assessed as to aptitude and trained to be a professional in that area.  So, we ended up with serious controversies regarding whether Russian olympians were amatures or really professionals.  Who would have thought that we were doing much the same thing just in another way.

"When the student completes the problem, the computer might review the procedure with the student, pointing out the criticakl steps to solve the problem and the general ideas that the problem encompassed." page 97

In the question of computer learning without a teacher, I don't see that it could be effective for young students.  My opinion is colored by an experience I had learning algebra from TMAC in 8th or 9th grade.  I was given a book to work through problems at my own pace.  Once I learned a section, I could test out and go to the next.  I did well but never really learned algebra.  So, I really struggled in trigonomettry and calculus courses later.  I always knew that I had never really learned algebra by that method and have never made it up by taking a real algebra course.  Maybe, I can learn online regarding those things I want to learn, but will children learn core subjects by that method without guidance?  In addition, would it be easier to brainwash kids with just a computer?  I suspect that it would.  I think it takes a human teacher who kids interact with to ensure thast they can actually think critically about things. I pledge allegiance to the ..............

"..........what will happen to learners who are unwilling or unable to take advantage of the technologies the diverse lifelong-learning environment?"  Page 104

At the end rthe authors ask this question.  I don't know the answer but maybe schools will have fewer students to concentrate their efforts on.  Maybe all schools will be privatized and only available to those who can pay.  Maybe students will see education as more relevant and valuable then.  Maybe education will be more relevant and valuable then.  I think teachers should charge more money for their services.  Right now, public education is obviously not worth much.  Maybe we should sell education insurance?  We really ought to be selling prison insurance also in high schools.  This is actually justified because more people will go to prison than will be in a serious car accident.

Rethinking 5

"Home schooling has been burgeoning in America over the last 25 years.   Children who are schooled at home score significantly better on standardized tests in every subject area.  Page 67

So, home schooling is the way to go because the public schools are failing.  Everybody wants to blame the teachers, and teachers want to blame the parents.  I blame the judges who won't allow me to smack the kids who should be smacked.  I think it would help a lot if schools worked with police and judges regarding discipline in schools.  I think that innovations are needed to help teachers keep order in schools.  On the other hand, maybe kids who refuse to respect others should just stay home.  Won't the average student perform better if a certain few are left at home?  I think so.  It just isn't fair to make teachers be police without authority and to make average students suffer from lack of excellent instruction.  The authors explain on page 101 of the next chapter that parents are trying to protect their kids from learning the wrong things from peers in schools.

"In about 10% of families that do home schooling the mother works outside the home." Page 69

So, some adult who cares about the kids stays home in most home schooling families to maintain discipline. Is this evidence we should pay attention to?  I think so.  Maybe there will be more home schooling as the job market gets increasingly worse.  Parents and sudents might really start to value education again.  Public schools will become places to house the bad kids and all of the good kids will stay at home.  When I was a child few mothers worked outside of home.  Discipline was higher in schools generally and punishment was both swift and harsh.  We still had bad kids in schools but there was less tolerance of disruptive behaviors.  However, some teachers literally pounded on kids with behavioral disabilities.  We did not understand these then.  And, as I remember, corporal punishnment did not work for the 22 year old students who were still in junior high.

"Workplace learning has been rapidly expanding over the last 25 years........."  Page 71

As schools dropped a lot of the applied disciplines like shop classes, junior colleges and technical schools started to fill some of these roles.  My brother has a header and dye shop in Rockford, Il.  He complains that it is hard to find trained workers and that training a person to really be competent takes 3 years.  So, I suspect that he trains people to do individual functions.  He gives very limited benfits and blows lots of money in Casinos that he could use for employee incentives.  This would not be my way.  I have told him.  He has a lake cottage about a mile from my home that he uses on week ends.  I saw him once 2 years ago. he still owes me $100 from when O'bama got elected.  That's what family is all about, right?

Rethinking 4

"Until the 19th century, education was largely the responsibility of the parents.   ...........This was an apprenticeship system where individual children were taught all they needed to know by those close to them".  - page 50

I think of an apprenticeship system to be more of an individual training of a youth by a master to do a specific job.  Regardless, I was reminded of the many times I realized that many employers train their new employees to do exactly what the employer wants.  I have often wondered what the real value of public schooling was in those cases.  An extreme case would be that of Woodward Governor which was headquartered in Rockford, Il.  When I was in high school, some students were selected to work during summers for that company.  If they were good workers the company recruited them for full time work after graduation.  They were specially trained and socialized to be company loyal.  The had doctors on staff  as well as dentists and barbers.  Everything was conformity.  The company provided all.  The company even provided Christmas presents for all children of employees by sex and age.  It still does.  My father used to say it was a communist company.  The company also pays only some of the wages monthly.  The remainder is saved to be awarded as a Christmas bonus.  So, many employees get as much as half of their wages once per year at Christmas.  If a person works for a company like that, then there is no need of further education.  It is not really desirable either because ignorance is bliss.  Why should we make a person dissatisfied by allowing him to become aware of other ways?  Sounds sort of religious doesn't it?  Let's get to the next quote.

On page 52, the authors write "Maris Vinovskis sees the enactment of these early school laws as a reflection of the attempts to promulgate correct religious views...........", and on page 54; " Horace Mann.............  He was particularly concerned about preparing the many new immigrants with the values and skills needed by the new republic".  One function of public schools is to socialize students politically so that they will not revolt against the government.  It is taboo in our country to talk about how our military kills innocents by the tens of thousands so that we can have oil, other resources and political power.  I often ask students what they think about saying the pledge of allegiance every day in school.  Such brainwashing of innocent children makes me disgusted.  I believe that it would be better to teach children to think and question the government.  But then, they might need to kill me.  After all, for hundreds of years it has been the practice of WASPS to control the world by making all of its peoples believe in the same things that they believed in or it would be OK to kill  the infidel.  In fact, when I attended federal law enforcement school during 1986, we were told that our targets were any persons who did not believe in main stream American values.  Our job was to destroy all of those people and any methods were acceptable.  Under Reagan laws were changed so that all federal agents could and still can operate with total impunity for any otherwise illegal act against a target.  For example, a federal agent can not be prosecuted for lying or for planting false evidence against a target. 

On page 61, the authors write, "Compulsory attendance was the main thrust of universal schooling"
They go on to make idealistic claims that seem childish and unreal to me.  I think the government wanted people to make the correct political decisions and not "wise" political decisions.  In other words, we brainwash them before we give them the vote.  There is another side of this.  I bet the authors do not know that Mississippi did not enact compulsory education of children until 1981.  Some people thought education was not necessary for rural farmers?  Some people thought that education was not necessary for blacks?  What were they thinking?  What do you think?  Even JFK failed to change this.  It is not as simple as what you are thinking, really.  Does education really empower people?  And, based on what happened in North Africa recently, is our government spooked by the power of social media?  Or, did our government use social media to expidite its own political agenda in the region?  According to a recent interview on PBS radio, we do study and plan for this.  We scan social media constantly looking for information in other countries.  Are we afraid of our own citizenry?  I don't know but I wonder.  I do believe that our government tends toward being a control freak.  I suspect that social media can help maintain and restore freedom.  Should we teach children how to use it more effectively?

Rethinking 3

What do the skeptics say?  I wonder whether the authors have really looked in the schools or are they really writing from the college level perspective?  On page 37 the authors say, ......... cost is still a serious barrier to these technologies becoming central to schooling".  Every school I have worked in has a lot of computers and nearly enough technicians.  So, I look at how those resources are being used.  Students word process and do Internet searches for information.  About half and even more of their time is spent playing games or getting around blocks to forbidden sites.  The problem that I see to be most important is managing students on computers.  I think to do this effectivcely and consistently, schools might need a computer policeman who automatically and consistently supervises students when they are on computers.  I know how to use Vision to block students but as a substitute, I can't stop students from constantly going back to the forbidden pages.  If I shut their computers down, I risk physical violence in the room with many of the student populations I supervise in some schools.  Keeping order is my top priority in those situations.

On page 40 the authors say, "The innovative instruction that drives many computer applications also makes the teacher's job more difficult."  I agree but would like to add also more fun.  I know that David Grabski works 70 -80 hours per week with Jeff Milsna at PJ Jacobs Junior High School in Stevens Point.  They work together to incorporate computer literacy into their classes.  And, it does create extra work.  One problem is that beginning teachers work about 60 hrs per week and earn about $8/hr (no time and a half).  Using the technology effectively reduces this to about $5/hr.  People often think it inappropriate to talk about teacher salaries but the reality is that Wisconsin teachers have created problems for themselves because they have not done so.  I see this aspect evolving so that teachers have more and more technical assistance for incorporating technology.  My thinking is that it will be something like the evolution of having teacher's aids.  It is significant also to mention here that Grabski and Milsna have not deeply incorporated technology in their teaching.  What they have really done is to  train students to use the Internet for Moodle and for information searches.  Their young students are not collaborating with people outside of class and when they collaborate with each other it is F2F.  Their web applications encourage and even demand more parental involvement but not a great deal more.

On page 41 the autrhors say, "Computers act to dilute the authority that teachers have in classrooms ..............Teachers like to share their expertise.  were they to use computers extensively, they would have to give up center stage".  A teacher who really knows the content can not be intimidated by Internet sources and center stage might now include things like demonstrating computer expertise.  These complaints are the arguements of those without courage or confidence.  These teachers hide behind the ignorance of others and might be exposed by computer resources.  To make learning relevant, teachers should expose students to real world experts.  This will also encourage students to think about careers for themselves and just maybe students will desire information beyond games. 

Rethinking 2

On page 9 the authors say, "Enthusiasts predict that the sweeping technological changes experienced in the worlds of business and entertainment must also take place in schools".  I think that they are behind the 8 ball on this.  It already happened.  We call it vocational education or junior college on the one hand and computer games in schools that can't be blocked on the ohther.

The authors also say on page 9 that, "Reading , writing, and thinking are what education is all about."  We call that bone head english and bonew head math.  There is nothing wrong with using he old tools.  I think that they may be superior to the new technologies.  I would like to see strudents getting fundamental skills before thsey are cut loose on the Internet.

And, "The notion of just-in-time learning is that whenever you need to learn something to accomplish a task, you can find out what you need to know."  I think that this is an interesting idea that I embrace partly but also question.  It can be a dangerous ides because it flies in the face of the concept of "expert".  A neophyyte will most likely make mistakes because they do not know enough of the ins and outs of a subject.  I can't accept the notion that "just-in-time learning will ever adequately replace "expertise".  Let's see what the skeptics think.

Rethinking 1

I have been reading this book a little at a time for some time and did underline certain specific sentences.  Bur, now that I know the assignment, I can try harder to be faecetious.   There are some real thought provoking ideas presented in this really biased book.  And, as a former associate editor of scientific journals, I feel confident about saying that the authors are biased and I must ask whether they ever really had their work edited professionally.  First, on page xiii they say, "The revolution is advancing globally, but America appears to be at the leading edge, just as it was during the democracy revolution.  We, Ugly Americans" are so full of it.  First, America includes all of the countries north and south of the U. S.  Second, there is no data to support their presumption.  Third, people make too much of a new tool.  It reminds me of traveling through Mexico (an American country) with cheap socket sets to wow local Mexican mechanics who had only open end wrenches.  Our new technologies are only new tools.  There is no so called  "revolution".  I see a movement promoted by relatively few.  My experience has been that most teachers and most students do not know how to use the new tools.  Students are less capable than we are often told.  I think I have been told that students are so far ahead of their teachers by teachers (and authors) who don't know what the students can really do, and/or who don't know how to do much themselves.  In the latter circumstance, teachers are misled because they don't take the time to watch what students really do on computers.

In another statement on page xiv, the authorts say, "Education is a life long enterprise, while schooling for most people encompasses only the years between 5 and 18 or 21".  What does that mean?  What about college?  Further, do the authors really believe that most people stop learning after high school?  I think they are looking down on people who have less formal education than they.  That seems so very scandanavian of them.  And, it demonstrates the problem that southern gentlemen call the "Yankee Attitude".

On page 3, the authors say, " People around the world are taking their education out of school into homes, libraries, Internet cafes, and workplaces, where they decide what they want to learn, when they want to learn, and how they want to learn.  So what is knew about this?  People have been conversing in taverns for centuries, serving apprenticeships and even reading books.  The Amish store in Westfield has this nice looking bottle of elixer for sale that has lots of health benefits, or so they (the Amish) say.  I think Cher sang about it and called it Dr, Good.  This nice thing about the electronic tool is that people don't have to look at, smell or directly talk to each other anymore.  Wow, what an advancement! 

On pager 8, the authors (YES, I CAN COUNT; THIS IS 4) say, "In this book, we appear neither as advocates nor opponents of the new technologies".  I say, "Look in the mirror; Ollie and Leana are laughing at you.  

Interactive White Board Lesson

I can't think of another lesson that reminded me more of the blind leading the blind.  None of us really knew how to design a lesson for a IWB before we started and I'm not certain that we do now.  There are several reasons as to why I feel this way.  First, we did not interact F2F.  So, we had no real discussion of ideas that were really developed discussions.  Second, I have been designing a science unit and it is only 2/3 finished, but is already 70 pages long.  This makes me feel like we developed some IWB activities but I question whether they should be identified as lessons.  Maybe they should.  Significant parts of our activities were no different than power point informational slides so that the actual interactives were relatively small portions of the lessons.  I realize that this all depends on how we use the activities with the students.  In mine, some of the interactives were intended primarily as warm ups with the main activities being development of food webs.  After considering the initial draft, I added a blank page so that students could discuss and develop other food webs for other biomes.  I wanted students to associate trophic levels reasonably well with the proper habitats so that they could demonstrate their understanding of ecosystems.  I also wanted students to think seriously about the complexity of food webs and move beyond simplistic views of herbivores and carnivores.  I want them to think about whether there really are pure carnivores by researching some primary literature on food habits.  They will find that almost all so called carnivores are really omnivores witrh some exceptions.  they will also find that they never really thought about what some animals ate previously.  For example, why are there so many skunks around pastures and places where cattle and horses are kept?  Think about it.

 So, I'm thinking that one of the objectives is to think about those things.  How do we use the technology appropriately?  How do we actually accomplish the learning goals that we have identified?  Obviously, it was not a learning goal for us to become IWB lesson plan experts.  We are all far from that. 

The other problem is that like it is with so many other computer programs, there are no directions.  There are examples but a majority of those are poor examples, actually.  So, some teacher posts a couple of interactive slides on smart exchange that are not accompanied with an explanation or lesson plan.  So what?  That leads me to the final topic which is the amount of time I spent on this.

Amount of Time?

I don't know.  I do know that I spent hours trying to make something work (one little thing and then another).  I spent time trying to find the introductory slide.  I sent messages but finally found it on my own in the gallery.  I spent time trying to make an interactive response slide.  I asked experts in the schools.  They couldn't do it either.  I luckily spent time contacting smart help and one of them sent me a link that fixed the program I had downloaded.  Apparantly, one of their auto updates failed to install the response part of the program.  Lucky me that I got that fixed.  I would still be trying to fugure it out, otherwise.  I spent another large block of time click, click, click, clicking on my food web figures and their sounds attempting to select both so that I could group layers together.  None of the experts could tell me specifically how to do that either.  I spend one whole 8 hr stretch trying to get that one.  Every so often it would work.  Then, I realized that I must have done something different when it did work.  I discovered that I could right click on the top layer while holding down the ctrl, and then left click on the bottom layer to select it.  Then when both were selected, I could select group from the drop down on either of the selected boxes. It worked nicely and I edited that slide in about 10 minutes (marvelous).  So, I posted that on the discussion in D2L hoping to help somebody else.  Frustration?  Yes!  I was remined of the old days when you would get an assignment in a computer class and had to spend countless frustrating hours trying to figure out how to program some function without help. 

So, does all of this frustration create better learning?  I don't think so.  How much more could I learn if I had not wasted so much time with a few details?  That's a question worth considering, especially with assignments that I might give students.  I am involved in a shop class where students were given a mouse trap and some supplies.  They were told to make cars that will travel a certain distance and then cut loose to work on their own in teams.  I have video of the results.  I will link to it after I edit it, if I find time.  Tomorrow we finish with the mouse trap cars.  Some groups succeeded although poorly.  Others broke all their stuff and threw it all over the room.  What if they and I had been given additional instruction?  I know the answer to that.  Dr. Cook shared with us a theory that if you give kids some stuff to play with, they eventually will come up with the correct solution or product.  Maybe that's true for some kids, but not for all, and not for the majority of those who I encounter.  Most people need and appreciate a good set of directions when they are putting together.  Yes, I do feel accomplished, but tired.

Exit Slip IV

I learned that we might not need to drive cross country to attend class.  We can meet online if the weather is bad or if we want to.  We should do it actually just for the experience.

Exit Slip III

Class is more than sitting in a room for a couple of hours.  It iincludes woring on assignments and interactions even if only in the cloud.  At the same time there are experiences out of class in the real weorld that relate to class.  Everyone's content in a class is unique because each of our perceptions is related to past experiences.  I often think about how my classes relate to my present and past experiences.  My reflection reminded me of a John Wayne quote, "You can't help being who you are any more than I can help being me".   I was also reminded of a recent statement by my neighbor who said, It is really hard to be Wayne" (his name is Wayne; not a John Wayne thing).  Here is my thought.  I have never felt more out of place than I feel as a student at UWSP (Central Wisconsin Teacher's College?).

GoAnimate Service Learning Project

Service Learning Project: GoAnimate at Adams-Friendship High School

            Home of the Green Devils       

My service learning project started one way and then it split and doubled down.  Initially, I was able to get Marsha Roelke, biology teacher, to agree to help me teach her 10^th grade biology students to use GoAnimate to make cartoons with their class content which was biomes of North America.  I obtained permission from the principal who was familiar with the cartoon making program.  Then, I taught Marsha the program and she loved it.  So, naturally, she wanted to do it in both of her biology blocks.  I agreed.  The, we had a complication. 

The assistant principal called and asked if I would substitute long-term for an auto shop teacher who had walked out because he had too many students with bad behaviors.  He was primarily concerned with safety, I think.  I agreed to do it on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  Nick Darnick agreed to do it on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  He was fired last year as the teacher of ALIVE, a program for impossible kids, so that another person who had more political clout could have the job.   We worked out a coordination scheme with Mr. Nofzinger and Mr. Eichman who would feed us stuff to do in the classes.  Mr. Eichman in the wood shop guy and Nofzinger is the long-term substitute for the auto shop who was transferred to the metals shop for the new metals shop teacher who replaced Nofzinger when he moved to Minnesota because his bride wanted to move in with her mother who lived there.  So, when the new metals teacher went to hospital to deliver her baby, Nofzinger took over that job and the administration was not able to staff the auto shop with a certified substitute.  So, the students got mad and rebelled because they wanted to be in the shop.  That’s when I, expendable super sub, was called in.

 I told the assistant principal that he had to cover for me on the day that I planned to be in Marsia’s class doing my service project.  He said OK and then during my first sub day in auto shop, he told me he would not cover for me.  So, I had to punt.  Marcia’s room has several computer stations where her students work in pairs.  The room is next to the computer lab in the commons area.  Luckily, I signed up my classes in auto shop for the same times we had planned the service project.  Marcia agreed to help cover mine when I was instructing hers.  I also signed mine up for the proceeding class day so that I could teach them the GoAnimate program before I had to teach hers.  That worked out.  So, I taught the cartoon making program and assisted students to use it for content presentations during several class periods.  We did both of Marcia’s for 2 days and I did 3 blocks of mine for 3 days for a total of 13 hours.

What I DID

I started by explaining to the auto shop students that they would learn to make cartoons using the auto shop content that Nofzinger had taught them from the text book.  Some of them thought it might be fun and others threw empty plastic bottles at me.  I thought they might like to learn a little about technology tools so I set up poll anywhere and asked them to use their cell phones to text me a message consisting of the key plus their name.  They started to do this and thought it was fun.  Then I received 25 racist and pornographic messages that I deleted before closing the browser that was being displayed on the IWB.  I used the IWB on he first day to show the shop students how to sign up and start using GoAnimate when they got to the computer lab the next period.  One student took the IWB projector remote from mje and Announced that they would do the class their way.  I threw him out sending him straight to Nofzinger.  Class was over.  During the next 2 class periods which were a Friday and Monday, we spent the time in the computer lab where I monitored their work with GoAnimate and provided individual help while walking around.  During their first session, some students made pornographic and racist cartoons.  I was using Vision and shut them down.  At the end of the 4^th Block on Friday several of the students tried to leave early and started horsing around.  I raised my voice to shut them down.  They ignored me and other teachers ran out of their rooms screaming at the students to help me.  Saved by the bell!

Monday was better because the students had experience and could actually start making cartoon movies.  Students were told to bring ear phones.  Some did and some shared.  Marcia borrowed some from the technology teacher, Mrs. Kuchta. (Her husband was the former vice principal whose arm a student dislocated at the shoulder and then snapped like a stick.  He is no longer at the high school and has had several surgeries to repair his broken arm and shoulder.  Mr. Kuchta is larger than I am and younger.  Teaching can be hazardous to your health.)    In addition, Marcia was there to help me when I was in her room where I taught the program to her students.  During second block when I had my best students and Marcia had her most challenging students, Sherman Anderson, an EEN teacher, helped in Marcia’s room with some of his labeled students.  He really liked GoAnimate and his help was really good.  My kids started making cartoons and finding neat effects that I did not know about.  They made videos of cars having accidents, running over people and other things.  The biggest problem was finding cars to insert but there were several available in the templates that were free.  Some of the videos were quite good although short.  Students often got in a hurry and clicked on skits which wasted some time because the skits buttons do not take students to the movie making studio.  This simply showed that students had not paid close attention to my instruction, or that my instruction was lacking.  However, it is easy to understand how distracting the GoAnimate site is.  As the students worked I walked around helping them individually and filming their activities to provide evidence for my final report and for my electronic portfolio.  The lessons actually went very well except for a moment when I stepped into Marcia’s room before she made it to my computer lab.  Suddenly Mr. Norton ran over screaming at me not to leave the students alone.  The students felt bad for me and that helped me.  Of course I wanted to smack Mr. Norton.  He could have offered to help because he was on his prep period after all.   The students did not misbehave during this block in any way.   I know Mr. Norton was not wrong for correcting me, but under the circumstances I had little choice if I were to do justice to my service project.  There were no bad students in this block and I only left momentarily expecting Marcia to rotate with me.  She just was not fast enough.  Nuts!   Anyway, some of the student videos are highlighted in the video linked and/or attached at the end of this report.

What I Learned

GoAnimate

The GoAnimate program contained Many more options than I had found in my brief experience with it.  I learned that it is fun, user friendly and relatively easy to use.  However, it takes some practice with settings to get characters to speak clearly.  The program does not recognize technical jargon as well as more common words.  For example,  it is hard to understand he stick figures when they Are talking about the “e” vironment and so forth.  Students did not realize that they had options of setting the rates of speech so that voices would sound more normal.  Generally, students rapidly improved when using the program.  Marcia’s students produced better products than the auto shop students.  It is harder for a sub to keep students on task, especially when they know their grades are not in jeopardy.  Finally, I learned that when I compress the videos that I made for transferring, I lost audio quality more than video quality.

Learner Capabilities

There were differences among learners, of course.  My observations suggest that about half of the students regardless of which class could rapidly read the directions in the program and progress independently.  Others needed a little help from their friends to find things and that was mostly due to impatience.  On the other hand, a few really needed help and were confused while they were trying to use the program.  These kids had no e-mail addresses, no computers at home and little experience surfing computer turf on their own.   Most of their experiences boiled down to watching over peer shoulders in classes.  This I see as a real problem.  Before tech can really come into classrooms, students need to be trained to use it.  There is a learning curve.  I know from my own experience that I can learn new programs faster now because my subconscious has a feel for the formats and computing language that I did not have before.

What I Learned About teaching

I learned that technology has some problem with leaving some children behind increasing the gap between rich and poor.   I either read or wrote that computers serve as society’s equalizer like the six gun of the last century.  It can be wonderful but it can be a problem too.  I learned that HS students can rebel when teaching lacks relevance.  I learned that few teachers are technology literate.  I learned that teachers have a hard time finding the time to become literate and to develop new skills.  I learned that teachers and administrators are not always your friends but expect you to be theirs.  But, I learned that students who are engaged often use the opportunity to construct their own learning and classroom management is better when students understand the relevance of lessons and have something to keep them physically busy.  I was also reminded that students who a teacher connects with behave better.  I should have spent more time in the beginning doing connection exercises.  That was my mistake.

What I Will Do Differently as a Result

I will try to slow down and get to know the students first.  I will establish classroom rules first.  I will spend more time teaching the why before I teach the how to.  I will treat substitutes with more regard and have real, relevant lesson plans ready for them. 

Maybe most importantly, I keep thinking that I fit the best in middle school teaching.  I find that the disruptive high school students can be the toughest on me and the most dangerous.

This is really a hard question to answer because I must wonder how I can do something differently that I have never done.  Of course, I have done it for 25 years.  My problem was always learning the students’ names when classes were large and I was never a strict disciplinarian.  I did not need to be because I was teaching adults.    If I learned one thing in this project it was to make clear instructions that students can easily follow one step at a time.  These need to be printed for each student so that each person can work at their own pace.  A good analogy is the way computer lessons are presented on Lynda.  They are slow, deliberate and cover only one or two points at a time.  I tend to go to fast and forget that it is easy to lose students who have less background than I have.  Good examples of this are on our class discussions.  Some students are having more trouble than others.  The question is why.  Did some procrastinate?  Do some have little computing experience?  Are some more timid than others?  Here is an interesting thought to reflect on.  I am a retired professor.  So, why do I tend to intimidate young university students (unintentionally, of course, but I feel that I often do) versus why am I often intimidated by high school students?  I will be a teacher when I can answer this question.  Or, maybe I’ll just be a philosopher.

GoAnimate Service Learning Project from Mark Johnson on Vimeo.

Internet Sites Evaluations

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

     I know that this is a bogus site because the scientific name is bogus.  When I looked up the scientific name on I, I got a Wikipedia site that told me that the web site was a hoax.  Most links to it say it's a hoax.  Doug says, "It is every bit as real as a snipe".  Of course, Doug is too ignorant to know that snipe are real birds.  He meant snipe hunt.  Anyone who reads the site "November ....." has the answer and knows the answer for  all four of these sites and more.  The site is not a dot com; it is a dot net making it more likely to be incredible compared to a dot com.

http://martinlutherking.org/

This site is obviously a hate site based on its message.  It is a dot org.  It is blocked by school web sites.  Links go to bogus sites, there is no David Duke autobiography.  Most links end up in ludicrous cyberplaces.
David Duke would be ashamed of it and I am certain he would like his name off of it.

http://www.allaboutexplorers.com/

This site is a dot com.  It has a copywrite date.  It has links to twitter and facebook that are legit.  It has a disclaimer starting the purpose of the site.  It lists credits for certain photos etc, and it has a contact link.   Links go to legitimate sites with information I know is correct and that is verifyable elsewhere such as in history text books.  The November Learning site seems to suggest that it is a "good" site.  A google search links to a lot of good information about lessons for kids to use to evaluate web sites also too.
http://www.dhmo.org/

Obviously water is water unless it is upgraded to beer (dhmo.malt).  The translation button does not work.  November Learning lists it as a bogus site.  There are links to other goofy sites.  Its contact to a federal politician page is not a legitimate site for making contact with a federal politician.  It has no referenced literature to published research.  It is a dot org, its pay pal doesn't work. Its ""translations does not work.  I was last modified recently and the copywrite is owned by Tom Way who teaches computing stuff at Villanova University.  Obviously, he is neither a chemist nor a member of the dhmo organization which doesn't exist.

Integrating Technology into the Classroom Podcast

This is where the link to my podcast was going to be, but I discovered that it is not so simple to link a podcast to a blog.  I don't have time to do it right now.  I started making my podcast at about 4:00AM and it is now afteer 21:00 hrs and I am cleaning cat hair off of my keyboard.  I did not work the whole time on it.  I stopped initially after 6 hrs and moved on to EDUC 337 Unit Plan assignment.  Then, in the middle of that I made a Zucchini based lasagna.  Then, I finished my UbD template.  Then, I went back to the podcast at about 5 PM.  By the way UbD is a trademark owned by the people who promote UbD so that they can make more money.  If they can convince teachers that it is the best teaching method, they make more money.  And, they are pretty successful because most people are sheep, afterall.  I have my own method which is work long and work hard.

Anyway, I was initially going to say that making my podcast was quick and easy, it was easy but not quick.  I was nearly done by 8:00AM but I just couldn't figure out how to split my voice track so that my gong (sound effect) wouldn't interfere with my narration.  Oh, yes I had to find and download a sound effects program and a music program.  That was quick and easy.

So, first I found and read several related articles about using technology in the classroom and developed my script using all of them.  I dfound it more interesting and easier to script when I had multiple people to interview.  First, I hand wrote the script.  Then, I typed and edited it.  I was in a hurry to make the podcast, truthfully.  Then, I opened Audacity and started.  I had downloaded it the night before along with some other programs.  Then, I first read the script.  Then, I imported 2 tracks of the music putting one at the beginning and one at the end.  Then I modified my script and re-did it to be better able to add my gong.  I added my fades in and out (no, out and in).  Later, I divided (not split) the in to an in/out because that made more sense.  Finally, I wanted to separate my voice from my gong.  I thought it would be easy.  No, it was not because I couldn't make it happen in the correct order on Audacity.   You would think that I could just grab my gong and squeeze it.  That didn't work either but it woke me up, anyway.  So, I gave up after watching about 10 YouTube videos where people tried to explain it.  One guy did a great job in less than 2 minutes but i couldn't find it a second time.  I needed rest.  Then, when I came back, it took me just a few minutes to do it.  See, it really was quick and easy, afterall.  I just opened Audacity, called up my saved project, plaed it until it got to the place, stopped it at the right palce, highlighted (selected) the part of the voice track behind the place I stopped the play, went to edit, selected "split" and the selected part of my track dropped way to the bottom of the screen in another channel.  I selected the move tool and dragged it back a little.  I did it for page 2 and page 3 of my voice recording and I was done.

Not so Fast!  I wanted to link it to my blog.  I tried and failed.  So, I watched those instructions in Lynda.  I like Lynda a lot, actually.  I discovered that I have to publish it on a web site first.  Not today, because my provider wass hosting a free feed for everybody cept me cause I forgot about it.  Gee, Maggie May was singing too.  Nuts!  She and Roger are on the road a lot these days(Maggie May).   So, we don't have as many free barn dances as we used to.  I am glad she is doing so well.  Anyway, I'm going to try and publish it because I want to find out how to get files on my provider's server.  I wonder whether I can use dreamweaver and put it on UWSPs server by getting it on my SOE portfolio.  What do you think?

Go to the page linked below and find the title low on the right side of the page. Give it a little time to get there and make sure that Quicktime loads.  Ureka!

Technology in the Classroom Podcast

Well, how about that!  And, I hope you will scroll down to How it made me feel on he same page.


These links below represent my sources of information for my podscript

Integrating Technology into the Classroom

Using Technology in Classrooms

Government Research

School Stories

Digital Nation

I’ve seen parts of this program before but really did not think much about it as I had much less interest then.  Now, as I watched the chapters, I thought there was little that was really new about the stories.  These are the same old complaints from older people about younger people.  Yes, kids are addicted to games and my sister-in-law is addicted to gambling.  My parents became addicted to the ding, ding, and ding of the Casino too after retiring.  That, I never understood.  But then, I am cynical and I think I am savvy.  I know that I am naïve sometimes.  My brother used to drive his kids to a video game store on Saturday about 9:00AM and pick them up at about 9:00PM.  I never understood that either.  However, as a teen, I played pin ball for hours on end.  So what is different?  Well, we didn’t have pinball machines in school for one thing.  I think the reason that we don’t ban games from school computers is because we want to have something to keep bad kids from driving us crazy.  So, we let them and their bad behavior win.  What choice do we have?  It’s hard to expel them, right?  There is little we can do to control them otherwise, right?  If that is so, then why is it that when bad kids are placed in alternative programs as a last chance for schooling, they generally exhibit near perfect socialization?

I think when they get to this point students experience a catharsis and finally understand the real long-term consequences of poor behaviors.  We are making terrible mistakes with kids in some schools.  We are teaching bad behaviors.  Elementary teachers work so hard to socialize little kids.  Then, when we get them to middle school, they are allowed to revert to selfish, disrespectful behavior.  Watch a cat with her kittens.  Swift, harsh correction works and is a salvation. 

An analogy of the way we wrong kids is when we drug them after making them overactive with sugar.  Kids don’t need these drugs and I believe they hurt way more than they help.

I also do not agree with the teacher interviewed in the video report who said that kids should be allowed to multitask, and that they should be trained to multitask.  Evidence to support my opinion is the following portions of the video discussing the decline in reading and writing abilities of students.  And, a quick perusal of our class blogs supports the contention that the younger generation is less able to carry on a sustained train of thought and write about it.  If I were like them, I would have finished the course last week.  How many of our class blogs can really be labeled as essays?

Does the I add to longevity?

No, it does not!  Any activity that keeps a body interested and happy in life extends it.  Have you known people who just gave up?  My friend, Bob Jones, died one night when he was not ill (he was 88).  But, he was lonely because all of his friends including his wife had died.  He was not particularly entertained by his children and only had one grandchild.  I drank the whiskey that he had hidden under his bed after he was hauled away and after we all came in from deer hunting.  Now, my neighbor is in her mid-80s and you would never know it because she is so active.  She knows little of the I.

Is the fantasy world new?

I really don’t think so.  As children we all had our games and other ways to escape and rest our minds from worries.  People played cards at night either at a friends house or at the club.  Others seemed addicted to soap operas on TV.  But, they were not available 24/7 like the I is today.  If there is something new, I believe that it is the extension of childlike fantasy into adult years.  Science fiction writers warned us of this in the 1950s and 1960s.  We were also told that the U.S. economy would go to hell about 2010.  See, these dire predictions never come true.

Virtual Worlds, Etc

I do not believe that video games are emotionally safe learning environments.  The video tried to convince that children really know the difference between reality and fantasy.  They do not.  Many adults do not.  If you kill somebody in a fantasy world and do it over and over, your subconscious can develop dangerous illusions.  This is a form of brainwashing and it’s successfully practiced in many forms such as TV advertising, the socialization of children in public schools and in political messages where people vacation such as the Epcot Center.  In military basic training soldiers are socialized to obey their commanders without questioning.  These examples are not all bad, certainly.  But, how many people have you killed for real?  Or, how many times have you watched people die for real?  These events are usually very sobering and virtual worlds can not simulate it accurately.  A game that did would not be fun.  During the 1960s, there was a sneak preview of a movie in which John Lennin starred playing an English soldier.  This was a very effective anti war movie which the U.S. government banned within 5 days of its release.  You can rent it today, but you can not see what I saw because the scenes that made the movie so effective have been removed.  These were scenes made from real footage of people being killed.  The cameras recorded their faces up close and very personal.  The cameras captured the light leaving their eyes and the terror.  In our society we are removed from these scenes in movies and in reality.  We live in a pseudo-reality where most of us are shielded from the horrible consequences of violent acts.  Several months ago, I watched a computer screen as some of our soldiers unleashed a barrage of 20mm cannon fire from an aircraft in Iraq disintegrating the bodies of several unsuspecting people on the ground below.  Were they guilty of something?  We’ll never know.  For me, the experience of spectator was both sobering and disturbing.  It was not virtual.  It was real!  Think about the word, sobering.  Have we been raising successive cohorts of stupefied youth who will be incapable of handling reality as adults?  Interesting, Cicero has written significant thoughts about this very subject in his letter to Terrentia.  He, as a youth, was protected from the ugly realities of evil men until his father died when he was a teen.  Then, when forced to face evil from unexpected places, he suffered emotionally in ways that he never fully recovered from according to his letter.  His recommendation to us is to teach reality and not to allow children too much fantasy.  Children must be prepared to face realities that they are certain to encounter later in life.  Embrace the good in people but beware of the evil.   

The Digital Nation video highlights and whines about several concerns regarding the use of new technologies and then misses the point.  Does the Internet give people, especially youth, a false sense of reality.  Is virtual reality, fantasy and gaming keeping youth from getting a real education regarding real issues?  

Exit Slip II

Thsi week I learned that it is what the students do that is important; not what the teachers do.  I also learned not to buy flash drive gift cards from a company whose representatives have Indian or Pakistani accents.  You can't redeem your gift cards and emails to them crash your computer email file.  And, I learned that kids need somthing to do, period or they should be split up and movesd to classes where there is somethiong to do.  If you can't hire an auto shop teacher, then disband the class.

Reflection on 5th Reading Assignment

What It All Means – Chapter 10

            I reviewed submissions to professional scientific journals for a lot of years, and I professionally edited research papers for 4 years.  One of my concerns about some writings such as Richardson’s little book is that authors start with a bang and burn out toward the end.  I think that Richardson did too based on the brevity of Chapter 10.  I believe that some of his “Big Shifts” are not really big shifts.  For example, “Teaching is Conversation, not lecture” is the way good teaching has always been and the I had nothing to do with it.  Maybe he never heard of scientific letters, edited publications and responses from readers that were published.  What the I has provided is a forum for unedited thinking similar to prepublication.  People can now be more flippant, less precise and more prone to make technical and language mistakes.  For example, people are not that’s; they are whos.  Horton learned that from Seuss, for goodness sake.

I do believe that the I is a potentially good place to collaborate, that it is a real equalizer and that it certainly is a freedom fighter as we have recently seen in North Africa.  Hopefully, we will also be able to use it to rid ourselves of our repressive government.

I am neither advocating violent revolution, nor am I advocating the Chevy Revolution.

See, it allows people to be flippant too.

I consider many issues that Richardson did not write about.  Why is his book not an online resource if he thinks so much of technology?  What about that?  Also, a printed refereed, professional journal has a defined audience.  Who is the audience for your web page?  In class it’s students, but there is no known level of probability that anyone will ever read your blog.  It might be better to publish videos to YouTube, Vimeo or some other place with a following.  If we teach students to publish to the web and nobody reads their stuff or if those who read it post bullying comments, will students commit suicide.  That might be extreme.  What if somebody posts hurtful comments and this causes students to never write and share again?  I know a professor who would not publish because he was hurt by editorial criticisms the fiorst time he submitted a manuscript.  Think about how youger, sensitive students might react.  We have to protect them from that and teach them to accept constructive critisms for what they are.

I am not trying to be dark today but Richardson reminds me of me.  He has been so positive in his promotion of technology, that he has ignored the potential evils.  He should really think more about those aspects if only to be fair.  He could do his own SWOT.

Anyway, I just agreed to do the bad kids at A-F HS for at least the next 2 weeks on M, W, and F.  I don’t know why I agreed..  Their regular teacher (a veteran of many years) left with an emotional breakdown because of the way they treated him.  He might not return.  The kids are pissed and started out the same with me.  I had to expel one in first block because he was trying to take over the class and do Issac says games instead of helping me lead the class to something of value.  Over half the class has 3 blocks of the same class.  They don’t even leave the room.  I don’t have the license to take them into the shop which is where they want to be.  And, they are mad about that. I can’t blame them but I don’t like picking up 50 or more paper airplanes and paper ball.  Eventually, I told block 4 that they were not allowed to miss the basket and I (they) used the smart board to learn GoAnimate.  They settled down with that.  The only problem was that they made a racial cartoon or I would have saved and linked it here.  I deleted it instead.

Epilogue – His and Mine

Richardson makes it sound so easy.  The ideas are and maybe all of this is easy for some teachers in some places.  In other places, there is no time to do these things, or teachers lack time management skills.  In other places faculty who send all these notes and ideas to other faculty are likely to be shunned.  In others they will be readily accepted.  Have you ever watched a teacher read e-mails?  Most often this is recreation time and not for business really.  Some teachers lack the technology that others in the same school have.  I like the technology and want to use it all of the time.  I can get away with more than the youngsters because of my age.  It must help me with teachers but I can tell you that in some situations it does not help me with the students.  Sometimes it does.  By combining my age with technology, I just might make things work.