Chapter 7 Reflection

Chapter 7 deals with Web 2.0 and especially its influence and contributions to English language learners.  Beyond the more direct benefits of having more visual and graphical aspects with web 2.0 options lie the access to it in extracurricular times giving students better chances of exposure.  Further, it can improve verbal acquisition of the language from interactions with blogs and so forth.  The author promotes the concept that the key to using the technology is to focus on teaching critical consumption of information by the students.  The author takes the guidelines and goals of TESOL and gives examples of how Web 2.0 techniques can achieve the desired effect.  Finally, the author talks about maintaining proper safety protocols for web technology in schools.  For the most it is something decided upon by each school to get the best practice for their style.  Recommendations include limiting access to some sites or teaching students how to navigate sites to avoid inappropriate material.  Further, safety concerns of personal information are briefly discussed.
This is a hard one to connect to my personal experiences.  I have not done much with Web 2.0 materials nor ELL students.  I was aware of the benefits of the more graphical and interactive portions of Web material for ELL, but had not fully considered the boosts it could provide with English language assimilation.  Thus far we have erred on the side of anonymity for any students involved with our programs for safety concerns.  It is nice to see the additional information on the negative effects of technopanics as well.

Chapter 5 Reflection

Chapter 5 deals with reshaping our outlook on media and its possible uses in education.  We need to update our view of what literacy, learning, and knowledge look like in the modern classroom.  I was very pleased that the response was there is no easy answer and it is complicated.  We should be turning from the old “one right answer” viewpoint.  Expanding on that the author explores aspects of new media and how students interact with it.  Of particular note was the exploration of texting and the implications on student development that are associated.  It was nice to see a look of understanding the broader social implications of texting as opposed to seeing it as a degradation of English (as the usual conclusion).  Further the author advises against the common approach of prohibiting new media (i.e. cell phones) and instead trying to adapt to employ them.  These techniques promote peer based learning.  I am not entirely convinced that “geek out” is as mainstream accepted as the author states, but the underlying sentiment is certainly correct.
The usage of new media as opposed to focusing on it as a distraction was of particular note to me.  I know I have tried to incorporate new media and tech into educational activities including video games, tablet devices, and mp3 players.  Further, a recommendation from a high school science teacher sticks with me that when the class needs to record time (usually with stopwatches) to allow the students to use smart phones or the like instead.  This is done on the condition that it is used when appropriate only of course.

Chapter 4 Reflection

Chapter 4 looks deeper into involvement, motivation, and development in new approaches to education.  Initially the author recommends having students introduce teachers to new technology, a clever and effective suggestion.  The author goes one to discuss the relevance and importance of collaboration between educators and parents with suggestions like websites and video projects as a means of facilitating this.  Further, the author expresses the importance of real world connections of lessons to life.  One example was using Skype to advance a lesson on globalization.  In addition, the author talks about using these real world connections to help motivate students.  Having the high school freshman generate a police report based on raw data from law enforcement and their own calculations was a novel recommendation for engagement.
I see some overlap between the recommendations and my personal experience.  The collaboration is actually something we are currently focusing on with the educational outreach I do.  We are setting up the website, lesson plans and other documents, and generating demonstration videos to aid other educators interested in using our activities.  I have also been looking over many similar videos and sites that have been set up by others to augment what we currently have.
I was also interested in the line on page 68 about technology requiring human input to operate.  In my undergraduate education a professor described computers as devices that can do work a million times faster than humans, but only with the right input.  If you use the wrong information the computer becomes a device that makes mistakes a million times faster than humans.  I found it refreshing to see the sentiment in the chapter.

Chapter 2 Reflection

The focus of chapter 2 is on the set up of schools and how it reflects the approach to learning.  The chapter points out that the rate of innovation has accelerated and thus the old understanding of designing schools for many decades worth of use without need of modification is not applicable.  The author advises that a better approach is to mimic the adaptations of business (for example) to new technology.  Focus on infrastructure that can be changed and is not taken for granted.  Allow for physical restructuring of schools based on perceived needs and keeping things adaptive.  Examples are given of renting many types of rooms (i.e. classrooms or auditoriums) while only investing heavily on rooms that will likely be needed for a decent period (i.e. science labs or vocational labs).
The chapter also provides statistics verifying that the current approach is not working as effectively as it should.  Further, the author points out that many of the detractors of the new approaches are often motivated by their comfort zones and their reliance on the older methods pedagogy.  The author stresses the needs of adapting the school environment to more modern approaches.
Connecting this approach is harder for me having not really been in a school itself as a teacher.  I can see arguments provided and while I do not disagree, I am wary about how much of it is phrased and presented.  Clearly thought needs to be used in investing in what is useful and not getting oneself caught in poor options.  Many computer labs may be rendered obsolete with wifi and tablet computers.  I can see the important messages within.  However, I am wary of the denouncing of much of the old technique as well.  Modern children have many more options and are exposed to much more, but the underlying mental faculties and techniques are likely little different.  We are the same species after all.  Old techniques need to be modified and adapted for newer versatility certainly, but saying that it’s the 21st century now and showing an exponential graph is hardly evidence that old ideas do not apply.  There is certainly good material here, but it seems overly emphatic for what evidence it provides.

Chapter 1 Reflection

The focus of chapter 1 of the text is laying out the general aspects of partnering.  This is an approach that replaces the older lecture style approach to education with more student driven learning methods.  The author describes education of students less as trains on a track and more as rockets with open ended trajectories.  The key becomes in providing the students with the skills and background they need to progress in their own path.  Further the chapter details the individual responsibilities of both teacher and student while also giving some information on peers, administrators, and parents and how they fit in a well executed partnering approach.
Initially, I was put off by identifying the material as inquiry based as opposed to partnering.  It was nice about half way through to have it better explained the connections.  That made it easier for me to understand the chapter.  I have been trying to use more inquiry based approaches in my approach to educational outings and my interactions with other students.  It was nice to see that this was not just relabeling another idea and representing as something entirely new.
Another thing that struck me was reference to using a NASA program in the authors university work that then later was used in education by a much younger group.  One of my favorite outings in my work utilized a NASA airfoil simulation designed for undergraduates in aerospace engineering.  We stream lined it a little and had 3-4th graders using it.  We then had them play a game with it, and ‘tested’ their resulting knowledge of wings and how they work by making real airfoils with paper to test in a wind tunnel.  It was nice to see something so similar that happened to others and to have the memory brought up again.