So when I first started reading this book, I was complaining to almost anyone that would listen about how I was reading a book about the history of the telegraph and how silly it was. At first I did not understand why this related to education let alone my personal experience. Later after reading the assignment, it made sense haha. I learned not only will people be people by taking advantage, being greedy, and looking for the next best thing. I also learned that people will be people by trying to abuse, misuse and find loop holes whenever possible.
While I agree that technology plays a huge role in our lives, I learned from the in class pickto chart activity that technology comes with a huge pool of problems of its own. Technology is a great tool when used in partnership with PICKLE. Evening discussing troubleshoots and things that may go wrong while using the technology provides as extra step that will save you your sanity when the same pop up window to download flash player comes up! There is only one teacher (two if your lucky) and teaching the class to PICKLE through troubleshoots is an option I did not think about until after this activity. I usually just run over and click a few buttons and send them on their way.
The Victorian Internet is similar to education in many ways. The educational system has many founders and builders along the way. Many people who have left their mark on education, some that still have effect on our current practice. Others, that are simply a joke or have faded away. Education is constantly changing and looking to adapt to the culture or the 21st century. Similar to the reading, people are always looking to improve and come out with the next best things, that may be more efficient, personalized and adaptive to everyday lives. On the other hand, people are always finding the silver linings or "crime" to the education system. One size fits all lesson plans, print and go, no prep, all the work is done for you just buy and go- just a few of the taunting time saving slogans. All though it may seem to benefit the teacher, it does more crime to the student when they grow up and go into the work with out PICKLE skills to back up their education. I am very excited to get into the technology aspect and discover more gadgets to use in the class!
I didn't really spend a lot of time making the telegraph connection to our educational system, but it's very true that many people have added to the system, some for the better and some, not as much. I'm picturing our students writing their resumes in the future, adding PICKLE to their "Skills" section! I'm looking forward to working with more technology, too! Not sure I'm excited about the affordances that go along with it, but we'll figure this out!
ReplyDeleteI like that you said even the flashplayer pop-up can be a teachable moment. I find that some of my students totally freeze when something pops up that I didn't prepare them for, and they start to think they've done something wrong or they can't possibly carry on. To heavy internet users, those pop-ups are just annoying, but for new device users, they're obstacles!
ReplyDeleteIt seems likely that as we start exploring new technologies in class, we'll definitely help our students to be the meaningful users instead of abusers!
I agree that the Victorian Internet is similar to education in many ways. I hadn’t considered all of the “fad” educational practices when I first read the book as a comparison. I feel that both teachers and the county have found ways to embrace educational fads at times. The ever changing reading program and attempted switch into PBL (not all “fads” are bad) but it creates confusion as to how to integrate them all or use them all effectively. We have so many resources in the county I get overwhelmed and tend to stick with the ones I know the best but that doesn’t mean I’m always picking the best resources. I got the opportunity to sit in on interviews last year for an opening on the 3rd grade team and I learned so much from it. I found out about a new(to me) app - EPIC reading - and I immediately was able to create free accounts for all of my students and it was amazing the spark in reading this created at the end of March. The kids literally beg to read in this program, there is a large variety of books - fiction as well as many content related books.
ReplyDeleteI related to your flash player pop up window teachable moment. My kinders are getting ready to take the iReady this week and we learned that if they plug their headphones in and then don't allow them to work through a pop up allow box they won't work for the whole test. So for the last two weeks I would purposefully take out my audio jack and plug it back in in the middle of a smart board lesson and ask them what to do "Press the blue button!" "Press enter!". Fingers crossed that it works.
ReplyDeleteNot all fads are bad, you are right Rachel, but when too many come in at a time or one after the other it can be overwhelming and then there are all the trainings that come with it. When I used to teach in another district they were on a new fad every year and they never stuck with any one program to see if it truly worked. They gave it a year max and then jumped to the next new thing. I am looking forward to what this program has to offer because I know it is still being used by a colleague of mine who took the program 7 years ago so it’s not just another fad.