Warlick - Setting the Priorities

David Warlick believes that the current priorities by which educators evaluate and teach students is incorrect. He sees a need for changing the order in which teachers prioritize the goals for their classrooms.

Currently, the question 'How well are students learning?' is first focus for educators, whereas Warlick believes it should be 'What should students learn?'

I feel that Warlick makes a good point here. The focus should not be on how well students are learning, because if the material is not appropriate to the students' needs, then the evaluation may not be based on credible information. Instead, like Warlick says, the focus should be on the needs of the students first.

The current second priority remains aligned with Warlick's, which is 'How should students learn?'

The third and final priorities are, once again, in disagreement. The current third priority is 'What should students learn?' and Warlick's is 'How well are students learning?'

Again, I follow Warlick's belief. Students should not be evaluated until the teacher has first discovered the material suitable for them, as well as seen in which ways the students will most benefit. Then, and only then, should students be assessed. Doing anything other than this pattern will result in an inaccurate representation of the students because they have not been given the opportunity to show all of their true abilities.

Teens as Consumers

The article titled "Teen Content Creators and Consumers" describes that students, especially teen girls, are fervent participants in music downloading and sharing. They are the primary target audience for companies seeking to promote their products.

This idea makes sense...teens today are brought up in a world dominated by technology, so they would be more inclined to access music files on the internet than their adult counterparts.

This is great...but when does it become out of control? As the constant worrier (and lately I feel like a pessimist with all of these topics, but hey, someone has to be the worry-wart), I feel that perhaps students need to know the "rules" along with music sharing. The idea is wonderful...students from across the globe are able to access music files and share with each other...sounds like a playground fairy tale. My fear is that students will not know how to react and act in the world outside of the internet.

Can they also share their ideas with kids their own age or other age groups if put in a person-to-person situation? Are they socialized in a way that they can be effective contributors to society off and on the computer, or are they turning into zombies that stay huddled behind their computer monitors, waiting impatiently for the next download to finish?

I am not trying to put a damper on music sharing, or any other technology sharing. But I do want to express a concern for how students are socialized...yes, they can express themselves. But in what capacity?

iweb group update

I am in the iweb group with Kaitlin, Phil, and Jo. Since most of us in the class are teachers, we thought we would do an in-depth analysis on how each of the different technology programs (podcasts, wikis, blogs, and iweb) can be used effectively in the classroom. Each of us is conquering a different topic, so we will have a layout that allows the viewer to click on each of us to find out more about how to use our topic (ie podcasts) in the classroom...this is our plan, and we think it will be helpful to future teachers. We hope you all enjoy it as well!

Will RIchardson...Web 2.0

Based on Will Richardson's vidlogs, the power of communication is rapidly expanding. His vidlogs centered around getting the world to understand that blogging is the new paper and pencil, the new form of teaching and learning. Students can explore many topics and, through blogging, can become instantly connected to anyone else with the same or differing opinions. The blogs are a sounding board for students, as well as a place to explore new ideas and express old ones.

I like the idea that Richardson brings up: teachers have a responsibility to their students to embrace new technology and help students to become more aware of self expression through artistic thought (ie blogging).

One of my concerns is that students do not participate in enough critical and analytical thinking through only blogging. Richardson says he has a "paperless classroom." While I believe blogging is helpful and certainly valuable, I also believe that paper and pencil are invaluable. There is something about writing your own words and using your own head to think that makes paper and pencil, for me, an absolute necessity in the classroom.

I will use blogs (or whatever form of blogging there will be in the next few years) in my classroom because I believe that blogging allows for creative self expression, whether through the types of posts to the layout of the blog. Students need an outlet to communicate with each other informally.

I do, though, want to stress the value of paper and pencil work. I do not want to have a paperless classroom, because I want my students to understand the difference between informal and formal writing and communication. The internet, for the most part, is informal. The conversation on the blogs are typically informal, which can be purposeful and useful, but students also need to understand that writing is a language all its own.

English can be described as having two schools (and in the future will have three): written and oral. (In the future typing will have to be included). Written English follows traditional and Standard American English rules. Oral, on the other hand, is allowed to have slang, jargon, dialect, etc. I am concerned that students will forget and opt to use more informal language on the blogs instead of also learning the style of writing.

I believe Richardson makes valid, credible, and useful points. I feel blogging is an important tool to use in the classroom, and I will use it myself. However, I do believe it is up to debate whether or not a blog is an "online journal" because it all depends on how it is used and in what capacity.

Critical Thinking Skills Needed Even With the Internet

In an article titled "Educators Warn Students: Be Wary of Web," Tom Groening highlights a real problem pervading education at all levels, from elementary to college level. Groening says that students may be savvy on the computer in today's cyber world, but they are not astute and aware of the innacuracies on the internet when researching information.

Websites like wikipedia.com allow students to access a myriad of links on various types of information. However, many students do not know how to discriminate between credible information and discredible information.

Librarians, today also known as Media Specialists, work with students and teachers to show ways in which to decide what web sites to use. Librarians want their students to come away with credible, valuable information. Their worst nightmare is "to send people away without the information they want."

Students use web sites like google to look up information on any type of topic, but when they receive the list of hits, they are bombarded with web sites that are used only as propaganda as well as credible sites.

How do they distinguish good from bad?

Some schools, such as one in Maine, presents a "primer on using the Web to every student," similar to the Dick and Jane reader students received years ago. Teachers and staff are trying to keep up-to-date with the growing technology trends, but they must also be wary of the harmful effects of biased and incorrect information.

The upside to this all?

Students at the college level are more aware of plagiarism.

Technology is rapidly changing in this cyber-based world we live in now, and we must pay crucial attention to the positive and negative attributes. As future educators, we cannot ignore technology. We must learn how to be effective with the new material, because if we are more efficient at technology than our students (or at least at their level), then we can help them to ameliorate detrimental parts of it.

Source: http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=145465&zoneid=500 (from NCTE inbox)

Oy Vey...Technological Glitches!

I do not consider myself great with computers, but I can usually "finagel" around with things and figure out what I need to do. Blogger has been giving me some frustrations lately. I could not log onto this class blog via blogger.com, so I ended up making a new blog from scratch (which was not a big deal at all). However, even this did not work. So I ended up making three new blogs from scratch, all in a time span of 5 minutes. I realized that I might need to make a new account, like I did in class Wednesday. So I tried this idea, made a new blog, and viola! I was able to access everything. Blogger converted all of my blogs to a new google account, and then I was able to delete the extraneous blogs.

I am relieved to now enter blogger.com and be able to instantly access my webpage. Every time I go onto blogger.com, I fear that my blog will be lost once again...but alas, my blog is secure. Has anyone else had any issues with blogger? I find that blogger is a very sensitive program. I hope everyone is having luck on their side!

MoSoSo -- The Cellular Revolution

As the globalized world expands, so do the possibilities of engaging in mutliple technological tasks at once (cell phone, PDA, ipods, etc). Many people, especially those who are in the under 25 year old age range, are the primary target for the technology businesses.

But not all technology comes with positive effects. For example, as a future English teacher and English Language Arts devotee, I believe that technology can do as much harm as it can good for my students and society outside of the classroom.

While students may be interested and highly able-minded to do many things at once in the new technology age, many of their tasks are not challenging their minds enough. Chatting, clicking...not rocket-science, let alone mildly difficult computation.

I want my students to be mutlitaskers, but I do not want them to be sucked into an oblivion where their world revolves around an unknown "cyber" world. The world is in front of them, and they need to learn how to deal with the problems that lay right in front of them: poverty, racism, etc.

Technology can be a wonderful tool if the students are carefully monitored and they have a goal in mind that allows them to grow intellectually and emotionally. Not as robots.

Meeting the Standards

Based on the standards set by NCATE/NCTE, my role as an educator will be drastically different than the role of my educators when I was in elementary through high school. In today's generation, my role is to enhance my students' abilities to communicate not only effectively but multidimensionally.

One of the most important standards that I feel will make my job as an educator prolific is "Help students compose and respond to film, video, graphic, photographic, audio, and multimedia texts and use current technology to enhance their own learning and reflection on teaching. " I believe that students truly need to understand material before they can utilize it. By "composing", or making their own, material the students will gain independence from the latches of the teacher's grasp.

In addition, I feel that reflection, in terms of Bloom's Taxonomy, is the most important element of learning. A student that can comprehend and then reflect on herself and society allows a person to become intrinsically motivated toward becoming an effective citizen.

Welcome!

Hi fellow bloggers. Let me begin with a little introduction. I am Staci and I currently attend SUNY Cortland as an undergraduate in the Adolescent Education: English program. My plan is to be a high school English teacher, with the possibility of graduating into administration. This blog will serve as a gateway into the mind of a student, scholar, wonderer, and educator. I hope to share with my readers my experiences as I mold myself into the educator I want to be. As a future teacher, I want to get as much experience with the positive and negative aspects of being an educator. My goal for my future students is to educate them in order for them to be more aware of their roles in society, understand social justice, become comfortable with using communication to achieve their own goals, and to become effective citizens.

Feel free to leave me feedback...critical criticism is always welcome (but please use kind words!).