For this final discussion, I have chosen to use a blog to discuss my experiences and encounters of educational technology “in my world.” I felt most comfortable with creating and using a blog in this course, as forum discussions between classmates got to be too large and cumbersome to manage after a point. I didn’t mind using Wimba, but if I fumbled my words during the recording, I would have to re-record my thoughts which became more of a headache than it was worth. Finally, I chose not to use a Wiki for this project, simply because the ability to allow someone else to erase my thoughts and include their own is not conducive to what this project is all about- MY evaluations, examples, and thoughts on how education technologies are exemplary or not when related to our course readings.
In my profession, I use educational technologies on a daily basis, but as Hughes (2006) states, “Simply identifying the technological applications in use does not help the field think about the role(s) of technology in education” (p.1). Thus, I’ll focus on the technology that I use most, which allows me to learn from others or teach others for the purpose of my profession.
One technology that I am becoming more familiar with is UMConnect, a real-time collaboration and communication tool available through the U of M that allows me to work with colleagues on other campuses to troubleshoot information technology issues, attend meetings or presentations, share files, and chat. Working at the University’s smallest campus enables me to wear a lot of hats. There are many people on the Duluth or Twin Cities campus that perform bits and pieces of my job; rather than travel between cities to exchange ideas or learn, we use UMConnect when we need to actually see something on another colleague’s computer screen. In evaluating this technology using Hughes’s (2006) RAT framework, one can easily see how it is exemplary in that it has replaced, amplified, and transformed the way my job was done in the past and how it could be helpful to so many faculty and staff on all UM campuses who could collaborate with other colleagues at any time. However, I am not sure how many people (outside of the “techie groups”) are using UMConnect. From a critical pedagogical standpoint, my knowledge of this technology was gained through social means, through my membership to the UM IT Professionals subculture or in other words, my job classification. According to McLaren (2003), “When critical theorists claim that knowledge is socially constructed, they mean that it is the product of agreement or consent between individuals who live out particular social relations” (p.72). When using this particular technology, we as employees of the university become social members of our own culture, sometimes using language that is known only by others in the same profession. Had I not been a member of this classification, I highly doubt that I would have been invited to communicate with my colleagues using this method, even though it could be used by any UM employee. Because of this reason, this technology may not be considered an exemplary education technology for others, strictly from an intimidation standpoint. Like so many technologies, most people feel comfortable using it when they are shown how to use it or when they are immersed into a situation in which it is being used and they can see it. To move this technology toward exemplary, a reference to Hughes’s (2006) RAT framework comes into play once again. Using UMConnect as a replacement for how-to meetings on other campuses would be a “means to the same instructional end” (p.2), it could amplify learning by its ability to save presentations for viewing and learning many times afterward, and it could transform the way people teach and learn from each other, particularly in a classroom setting online or on campus.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Three Concepts and their Relation to my Place of Employment
The first concept I chose (philosophy of education) is from Orr (1991) regarding environmental education and implementing it in all facets of curriculum. All campuses of the University of Minnesota are trying to “green” their campuses while at the same time, involving students in the process to help them better understand how what they do can affect the earth, both good and bad. Students arrive on campus worried about what their roommate will be like, how good (or bad) the food might be, and for some, how they will be able to afford college. When they graduate, they will be much better-rounded, many of them participating in service learning, clubs and organizations, and even courses dedicated to some sort of environmental aspect, erasing some ignorance and replacing it with the right type of education. Upon graduation, or even long before, the educational myths that Orr talked about are long gone, and the re-thinking of education is underway. McLaren (2003) also brings up, under the concept of critical pedagogy, the “passion for ignorance that has infected our culture” (p. 92), and a teacher’s responsibility to encourage students to use what they’re learning to find their place in the world, regardless of their class or culture. Working for a university where I was once a student gives me a different prospective as to what opportunities the university provides. Not a day goes by that there’s not something being offered to students where they can learn more, particularly from our international students offering their services to teach their native language, or give more by volunteering their time to help others such as reading to children, bringing meals to senior citizens, or building a house for the needy. These and many other opportunities are staring students in the face and they cost nothing, yet I’m not sure many will realize the value of them until they are older and looking in from a parent’s or educator’s perspective. Finally, for the concept of critical technology, I chose the reading by Knight and Masselink (2008), as they too discuss the condition of ignorance and it’s appearance in communication, particularly in an email format to instructors. While I’m not an instructor, I receive emails from applicants that have email addresses like beer_me_2_nite@hotmail.com who ask questions about the status of their application, but don’t even bother to put their name in the email. First of all, if you are trying to get into college, could you at least get a new email address that reflects the wonderful student you want us to believe you are? Secondly, not signing your name is disrespectful to anyone, but particularly if you need me to get back to you and I don’t even know who you are; the worst part is, it happens all the time. We have entered the “culture of informality” (p. 1), but apparently, I was taking the time to sign my name on an email when it happened.
The first concept I chose (philosophy of education) is from Orr (1991) regarding environmental education and implementing it in all facets of curriculum. All campuses of the University of Minnesota are trying to “green” their campuses while at the same time, involving students in the process to help them better understand how what they do can affect the earth, both good and bad. Students arrive on campus worried about what their roommate will be like, how good (or bad) the food might be, and for some, how they will be able to afford college. When they graduate, they will be much better-rounded, many of them participating in service learning, clubs and organizations, and even courses dedicated to some sort of environmental aspect, erasing some ignorance and replacing it with the right type of education. Upon graduation, or even long before, the educational myths that Orr talked about are long gone, and the re-thinking of education is underway. McLaren (2003) also brings up, under the concept of critical pedagogy, the “passion for ignorance that has infected our culture” (p. 92), and a teacher’s responsibility to encourage students to use what they’re learning to find their place in the world, regardless of their class or culture. Working for a university where I was once a student gives me a different prospective as to what opportunities the university provides. Not a day goes by that there’s not something being offered to students where they can learn more, particularly from our international students offering their services to teach their native language, or give more by volunteering their time to help others such as reading to children, bringing meals to senior citizens, or building a house for the needy. These and many other opportunities are staring students in the face and they cost nothing, yet I’m not sure many will realize the value of them until they are older and looking in from a parent’s or educator’s perspective. Finally, for the concept of critical technology, I chose the reading by Knight and Masselink (2008), as they too discuss the condition of ignorance and it’s appearance in communication, particularly in an email format to instructors. While I’m not an instructor, I receive emails from applicants that have email addresses like beer_me_2_nite@hotmail.com who ask questions about the status of their application, but don’t even bother to put their name in the email. First of all, if you are trying to get into college, could you at least get a new email address that reflects the wonderful student you want us to believe you are? Secondly, not signing your name is disrespectful to anyone, but particularly if you need me to get back to you and I don’t even know who you are; the worst part is, it happens all the time. We have entered the “culture of informality” (p. 1), but apparently, I was taking the time to sign my name on an email when it happened.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Favorite 3 Course Concepts
Philosophy of Education- What is Education For? By David Orr (1991)
Orr (1991) greets us with the possibility that our future health and prosperity are uncertain because climate stability, our natural systems, biological diversity, and nature's beauty are in jeopardy (p.1). These issues are largely due to over-education rather than ignorance; Orr (1991) points out, "education is no guarantee of decency, prudence, or wisdom" (p.2). Through works of literature, we have been introduced to characters who use knowledge to dominate nature, laying educational foundations "enshrined in myths" (p.2). Such myths include: the idea that ignorance can be solved, that planet Earth can be managed, human goodness is increasing due to knowledge, we can fix what is broken through education, education is a means to upward mobility and success, and finally the myth that our culture represents the highest point in human triumph (p.2-4). Orr (1991) offers six principles in which we may choose to rethink education in order for continued human survival: all education is environmental education- regardless of the subject being taught, each lesson can be related to the natural world; each lesson is a tool to master ourselves; with knowledge comes the responsibility to use it wisely and that it cannot be truly understood until we realize its effects on others and the world; teach through leading by example; and finally the process of learning is just as important as the lesson content (p.4-6). Orr (1991) finishes with encouragement for campuses to focus on graduating "planetary citizens", examine resource usage, direct endowments toward sustainable efforts, and add "ecological literacy" into all curriculum.
Critical Pedagogy- Critical Pedagogy: A Look at the Major Concepts by Peter McLaren (2003)
McLaren (2003) examines critical pedagogy and the major ideas that surround its framework. Critical Pedagogy inquires "how and why knowledge gets constructed the way it does, how and why some constructions of reality are legitmated and celebrated by the dominant cultures why others are not, and asks how our everyday commonsense understandings get produced and lived out" (p.72). McLaren questions the social functions and power of various forms of knowledge and its impact on class and culture and asks how educators can respond to the "passion for ignorance that has infected our culture" (p.92). Students need encouragement from teachers to use what they are being taught as well as their personal experiences to facilitate their ability of self-reflection to adjust the way they want to see and be seen in this world (p.92-93).
Critical Technology- “I Don’t Mean to Bother U But”: Student Email and a Call for Netiquette by Denise D. Knight and Noralyn Masselink (2008)
According to Knight and Masselink (2008), since the early 90's, email has been the choice communication method for students and their professors, and face-to-face meetings are occurring less frequently. Students are choosing the email medium to air assignment issues as well as their personal problems to their professors whenever they feel like it without realizing its level of inappropriateness. Knight and Massleink (2008) note that we have entered "the culture of informality" by allowing the ease of email communication to blur the accessibility boundary lines that once separated students and faculty (p.1). In addition to providing examples of unacceptable student composed emails to their professors, the authors offer advice to these professors to help them convey to students the importance of limits on the quantity and content of emails.
Orr (1991) greets us with the possibility that our future health and prosperity are uncertain because climate stability, our natural systems, biological diversity, and nature's beauty are in jeopardy (p.1). These issues are largely due to over-education rather than ignorance; Orr (1991) points out, "education is no guarantee of decency, prudence, or wisdom" (p.2). Through works of literature, we have been introduced to characters who use knowledge to dominate nature, laying educational foundations "enshrined in myths" (p.2). Such myths include: the idea that ignorance can be solved, that planet Earth can be managed, human goodness is increasing due to knowledge, we can fix what is broken through education, education is a means to upward mobility and success, and finally the myth that our culture represents the highest point in human triumph (p.2-4). Orr (1991) offers six principles in which we may choose to rethink education in order for continued human survival: all education is environmental education- regardless of the subject being taught, each lesson can be related to the natural world; each lesson is a tool to master ourselves; with knowledge comes the responsibility to use it wisely and that it cannot be truly understood until we realize its effects on others and the world; teach through leading by example; and finally the process of learning is just as important as the lesson content (p.4-6). Orr (1991) finishes with encouragement for campuses to focus on graduating "planetary citizens", examine resource usage, direct endowments toward sustainable efforts, and add "ecological literacy" into all curriculum.
Critical Pedagogy- Critical Pedagogy: A Look at the Major Concepts by Peter McLaren (2003)
McLaren (2003) examines critical pedagogy and the major ideas that surround its framework. Critical Pedagogy inquires "how and why knowledge gets constructed the way it does, how and why some constructions of reality are legitmated and celebrated by the dominant cultures why others are not, and asks how our everyday commonsense understandings get produced and lived out" (p.72). McLaren questions the social functions and power of various forms of knowledge and its impact on class and culture and asks how educators can respond to the "passion for ignorance that has infected our culture" (p.92). Students need encouragement from teachers to use what they are being taught as well as their personal experiences to facilitate their ability of self-reflection to adjust the way they want to see and be seen in this world (p.92-93).
Critical Technology- “I Don’t Mean to Bother U But”: Student Email and a Call for Netiquette by Denise D. Knight and Noralyn Masselink (2008)
According to Knight and Masselink (2008), since the early 90's, email has been the choice communication method for students and their professors, and face-to-face meetings are occurring less frequently. Students are choosing the email medium to air assignment issues as well as their personal problems to their professors whenever they feel like it without realizing its level of inappropriateness. Knight and Massleink (2008) note that we have entered "the culture of informality" by allowing the ease of email communication to blur the accessibility boundary lines that once separated students and faculty (p.1). In addition to providing examples of unacceptable student composed emails to their professors, the authors offer advice to these professors to help them convey to students the importance of limits on the quantity and content of emails.
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