POST 10 Chapter 10 What It All Means October 27, 2011

In this last chapter, Richardson writes: “Although….being able to read and write… [those core abilities] are still central to learning; they are no longer enough to ensure understanding.” (148) What he means is that students, additionally, will need to know how accomplish these in collaborative environments. With that, I entirely agree….

However, that had not seemed to me to be the author’s primary premise previously. While reading,  I found difficulty with Richardson’s “in the background” notion  or suggestion that students already have the basic skills of reading and writing and are developmentally ready to handle the collaborative environments with which they are faced on a daily basis, K-12. That I do not believe, at least not for most students, although there are exceptions.  

Perhaps because I am a teacher of students with special needs, or perhaps because I am, above all, a realist (with an idealistic spark), I reject the notion that student's basic skills take a back seat to ANYTHING.  I reject the notion that our primary job is to teach technological skills above all else; instead I place priorities in a different order. In so far as technology enhances learning, and in so far as these are excellent tools leading to higher order learning, starting at basic learning, I applaud the role of technological advances in making teachers’ roles more effective and relevant. But just assuming the basic skills will emerge out of efforts at collaboration does not appear logical. If students are not taught step by step and developmentally, real and steady progress may not be the end result, no matter how ardently desirable that end is.

I can see that that a seamless integration of the elements noted above would be ideal, as long as attention to basics is not forfeited, and I am willing to work hard toward that end, despite the fact that I myself am an immigrant to the land of digitized learning, rather than a native. I am happy to accept the idea that I have the capability to become fully naturalized, but believe that the process will take lots of energy and time Even so, my fluency, so to “speak,” may not ever be as smooth as the digital native teachers who are very quickly becoming the teachers of today and certainly will be a majority tomorrow.

              If the vision of the seamlessly digitized classroom is to become real without aborting any efforts to bolster our students’ basic skills, it must also be the “stuff” that current and future teachers must take on from the start. Certainly I see many young teachers with these natural propensities, but I also see teachers, just as young, fresh, and smart, whose training and bent are not yet equivalent in this regard.

                           Richardson himself indicates that the new shifts he sees the new environment for teaching and learning– or rather for collaborating will indeed be a long time in coming. Again, I concur. IN principal, I agree that collaboration will play a very large role in education, and certainly teachers who do not use the newest technologies adequately in the near future will not be teachers at all. What I believe however is that real collaboration  that truly adds to the new knowledge in the world will not usually come from those engaged in grades K-12, just as new knowledge now comes from higher levels , so too will be the course of the future.  This does not mean us at the primary and secondary levels do not have responsibility for ensuring that our students are prepared and able to take on these responsibilities in postsecondary education and beyond; indeed we will have those responsibilities more than ever. But total collaboration on all fronts may notbe the sole answer. As humans , we always have managed a  balancing act, an actof s collaboration assuredly and of communication, but also of singular  individual achievement.  In sum,  individual achievement . Without each person’s ability to think for him/her self and to communicate cogently, ensuring that thinking levels are ready for the kind of ultimate collaborative problem solving discussed, without first and foremost gaining personal expertise –along with not instead of collaborations – no such harmonious efforts toward mastery as the author suggests will be reached.

                           If this discussion or my comments have taken on an aura of the abstract I apologize. I want to be current in my practices and to ensure that old-fangled ways of doing things do not get in our ay. At the same time, as many have learned from past efforts, teaching without each student being personally accountable , teaching without thought to each student's particular strengths and challenges, teaching without focusing on basics before complexities, does not led to better learning; yes, the digital age gives us ever more opportunities to teach students using their strengths and preferred modalities.  but just like the role of parent and offspring, the role of teacher and student should not become that of equals. Rather all students just as all children should be treated respectfully and loved for who they are. Nonetheless as developing human beings, students should be trained by those who have already developed and have a yearning to offer what they have learned with new generations, without giving up their responsibilities to model, correct, reteach, and expect appropriate individual results.

                           The author mentions the role of teachers being more like coaches. That is nothing new however, as the  best teaching has always been that way. Certainly a coach must care about team endeavor, but a good one never forgets where and how the individual team member must contribute to that effort and learn his or her own part not just well but expertly; indeed individual talent born of effort has always been prerequisite when it comes to team sports, when it comes to deciding who is given the chance to collaborate or in more precise and mundane terms “make the team.”  Without a core of individual expertise, students K-12 will not be given the chance to become important collaborators in the future… even if I admit book reading may be on the wane, I believe that an individuals’ critical thinking skills and communicative expertise must be better than ever, not worse and certainly not ignored in deference to anything else, so that each can achieve in whatever world may be in store, be it a more collaborative one or not. My hope is that in the new world of collaboration, it will not be only the elite who get to collaborate. If we ignore basic skills in any way, I fear, that will indeed be the case.

Post 9 Chapter 9 Social Networks October 25, 2011

The author has said it all, himself, whether he knows it or not;  he has given us good reason  NOT to  take some of the actions  he proposes, (for example become an active participant  in Facebook and interact as such even with our student or encourage their participation with-- in my mind--some questionable others ), Early in the chapter he cites the fact that "the fastest growing segment of Facebook... is the over 55 set.... ( Of course  means that Facebook will soon be [sic] anathema to all of our students -- we can only guess where they will go next."  ( 131)

So, if Mr. Richardson is right about the above, then  teachers in great numbers  joining Facebook, ostensibly to be able to understand the difficulties posed therein and to "teach students all sorts of important lessons about digital citizenship, safety, information literacy, and more,"
 (133) will have failed from the start. As our students  flock elsewhere to interact as they wish, they will do so as we linger on Facebook, and they will have strayed far from our watchful eyes, strayed from our sight. 

I overtly reject the notion that teachers must participate or simply be 'no nothings.'  To me that seems akin to  proposing that to understand what goes on in this country's most dangerous prisons, we as "moral members “of society should somehow find our way into the cloistered calls and witness firsthand what is really going on. Or, put another way, perhaps  each of us must somehow  find out way  onto an unpeopled island to live with the boys of Golding's  Lord of the Flies just to learn what that experience is really like.  That ,obviously is bluntly absurd, as adults and adolescents alike have doing just fine--and form some times-- learning the searing lessons of that tome by reading about it!

xx

Post 7 Chapter 7 Fun With FlickR October 25, 2011

My first question: How is FlickR substantially different  in purpose than say a blog or WIKI? In addition: How, especially one that has the capacity to publish many photos and/or videos to demonstrate class activities and the like? I've already noted , I think, that any that any picture published in the public domain, and especially ones that can be identified and tagged seem  to pose a potential to those pictured--retrieved by who knows? Maybe I've been watching too many Crime Dramas on TV (most probably) but nonetheless, if I were a young man or woman, a child or adolescent in particular whose identity , location, and activities could easily be accessed by thousand (or more) I believe I'd be far  more risk averse than the current population seems to be--even if these risks are less sensational than I can imagine, and I can imagine some very sensational and potentially dangerous and eerie in in terms of outcome.

After all isn't possible that a published photo could easily be tagged in a manner that poses extreme  risk to the person   pictured. Or, is it possible to Photoshop—or otherwise somehow change the activities or "sense/context” et cetera of the photo and thus cause damage thus, again, to those pictured? 

With or without the  most extreme possibilities, isn't it possible that such image posting  can be the cause of bullying or other demeaning or criminal/targeting/bullying activities? In most school  there are often strict rules against taking pictures in school, with the real problem being the publishing of those pictures without permission. Protecting one’s likeness falls squarely in the realm of the right to privacy.  So how wise is it to make one’s image available (along with the capability for those one does not know to link this to all key information about  the person pictured including name, age, address… likes, dislikes… the list can go on and on but you get the idea). Why is the potential for foul play or any type, bullying, or even mere embarrassment brought on oneself so poorly understood?

Post 6 Chapter 6 The Social Media

Post 6 Chapter 6 The Social Media AKA I feel blue…

Although this chapter focuses on “Learning together” and other related issues about which the author has  commented somewhat before,  from the start, I could not get past the author’s incredibly poor use of the English language; Then, early in this section – this usage got so bad, it earned the following (POST). To boot, while figuratively making contortions with the English language, he simultaneously reminds us that he was/is an English teacher!  Please STOP!  Author Richardson you hit a nerve (figuratively).  So I digress in this particular post in order to ask a question to all who read this book: Should we his advice figuratively with a grain of salt, or more literally with drink in our hand? 

On page 85, Mr. Richardson writes that people connections in the social web/ ways in which people online connect online are literally exploding. “OMG,” my pet peeve – as an actual teacher of English… literally exploding? I doubt it. In fact I’ve just about had enough, Mr. Richardson. Aren’t you supposed to be encouraging clear and reasoned thinking? Instead you have singlehandedly managed to promote murky, incorrect thinking and writing in one fell swoop here. All that aside, you’ve negated key lessons teachers of English and of reading comprehension are striving to impress upon their students to promote keener thinking and closer reading.  One of those key lessons is learning the difference between that which is literal and that which is figurative.

 If the “ways” discussed are literally exploding, then they have been bombed or shot at--decimated to be sure. If they have exploded literally they are shattered. Don’t you mean exactly the opposite? You write extensively about the power of the read/write web and then, what do you do (and have done throughout your book, just not as offensively)? You make a mockery of a basic understanding of ELA. You may also have continued to confuse, obfuscate, and worse, exaggerate to the point of being ingenuous. Literal and figurative are not the same. Literal is real; please, before, you write another book, or even another blog, get an editor, or get into my special education English class and learn the very basics needed to read and write with any effectiveness at all. Please start thinking before and when you put pen in hand or keyboard under fingertips. Another piece of advice is simply: Stop writing. If you cannot do that, then stop writing about being an English teacher and or journalist (you told us both of these facts—both of which are extremely difficult to take seriously. Also, another possible bit of advice: Stick to technology and get someone else to write your work and make sure that person has or gets an editor—would you?

Does this huge “stink” make me look petty? Perhaps. But your writing has been so generally poor with dangling grammatical everythings—plus improper antecedents, and a whole host of generalizations that you do not back up with any sort of logic and certainly with little to no research…. that I feel I am justified in figuratively exploding at his blatant misuse of the English language and what it stands for: higher order thinking – conveying it and comprehending it.

Well, I‘ve made my point.  I do think though that you should take my class and learn that a blue cow can be blue (figuratively) if she is sad, but literally only if she is some kind of azure, or navy, or periwinkle, et cetera in terms of skin/coat. Last time I looked the only blue leather I could find was dyed blue long after the cow was gone; it’s in my living room where blue is the color of the leather sofas.

Oh, did you think I mean meant smurfs instead of cows? Smurfs, literally, ARE blue. Fictional, but blue.  

Post 8 Chapter 8 Multi Media for the Masses (In this post specifically Getting Started with Podcasting plus a bit on screen casting query)

Even though Getting Started with Podcasting is only one part of this chapter I chose it as the focus.

[Did I already post that all that my notes are extensive on every chapter, but because few seem to want to read that much (KJ said she would but others in this course have commented otherwise) I long ago decided to post just part of the postable notes I took when I read… so…..all my posts now have been shortened….and….. in this case, as I wrote above,  I chose to focus on the podcasting, as I have a particular set of questions:]

I have read this part several times, but I remain confused, possibly because I had originally – long ago now, it seems—been told that Apple does not use the precise MP3 format  ( MP3 having been developed/marketed  prior to iTunes/ iPod—and that Apple uses an alternate format--for all its related products and services that came out subsequently including iPod, iTouch, iPhones,  etc.). Is this truly incorrect? Or are the formats both included under a general “category or family of “MP3?”

Is my assumption  that I’d need  the g free open source  formatting program Audacity ( tinyurl.com4gx3j) to use my up-until-two-days –ago-latest iPhone to export in Mp3 format? If so this seems like an extra hurdle  I need to jump, when I learned that the standard iPhone (4) app can easily record up to 35 minutes of audio.

As far as I can tell at this point, another way for me to create a podcast might be to use Skype and then Audacity to edit and export as or to MP3 (see I am confused!).  I suppose my overall  comment here is that  I don’t quite understand  the “how to” Mr. Richardson tries hard to explain and make simple. Thus, I am relying on Miss Training to sort this all out with our class  when we get to that part of the course—and I think the same for screencasting too. It’s not that Richardson doesn’t try his best to offer the readers a “how to,”—he does. But I believe those who can follow his directions  perfectly without having a need for an actual demo and a do it yourself as happen in our class--and as we are likely to get through kj--probably do not need to take this course! I can’t wait until we get to that part, when, I am hoping, the proverbial light bulb will go off figuratively  atop my head!

 Since my fist post on this subject and our class discussion about this, I looked up the technicality that  had been so confusing for me, especially given what the Richardson book seemed to be saying–and my own understanding and conversations with those who maintained that Apple/ iPod. iPhone. iTunes do not actually use MP3 formatting. Through my research however,  I found out that Apple iProducts do support MP3’s along with many other formats. In fact the Apple audio formats are: AAC, M4A, and M4P.  I suppose that for simplicity’s sake the author Richardson has just called all of these MP3—and I cannot say that I blame him. I don’t, except that was terribly confused; that’s what happens when you have half a schema, rather than a whole one in your head!.

Specifically the information I needed resides within the site: http://ipod.about.com/od/fileformatguide/a/file_formats.htm

Chapter 10 Post October 24, 2011 - What It All Means

In this last chapter, Richardson writes: “Although….being able to read and write… [those core abilities] are still central to learning; they are no longer enough to ensure understanding.” (148) What he means is that students, additionally, will need to know how accomplish these in collaborative environments. With that, I entirely agree….

However, that had not seemed to me to be the author’s primary premise previously. While reading,  I found difficulty with Richardson’s “in the background” notion  or suggestion that students already have the basic skills of reading and writing and are developmentally ready to handle the collaborative environments with which they are faced on a daily basis, K-12. That I do not believe, at least not for most students, although there are exceptions.  

Perhaps because I am a teacher of students with special needs, or perhaps because I am, above all, a realist (with an idealistic spark), I reject the notion that student's basic skills take a back seat to ANYTHING.  I reject the notion that our primary job is to teach technological skills above all else; instead I place priorities in a different order. In so far as technology enhances learning, and in so far as these are excellent tools leading to higher order learning, starting at basic learning, I applaud the role of technological advances in making teachers’ roles more effective and relevant. But just assuming the basic skills will emerge out of efforts at collaboration does not appear logical. If students are not taught step by step and developmentally, real and steady progress may not be the end result, no matter how ardently desirable that end is.

I can see that that a seamless integration of the elements noted above would be ideal, as long as attention to basics is not forfeited, and I am willing to work hard toward that end, despite the fact that I myself am an immigrant to the land of digitized learning, rather than a native. I am happy to accept the idea that I have the capability to become fully naturalized, but believe that the process will take lots of energy and time Even so, my fluency, so to “speak,” may not ever be as smooth as the digital native teachers who are very quickly becoming the teachers of today and certainly will be a majority tomorrow.

              If the vision of the seamlessly digitized classroom is to become real without aborting any efforts to bolster our students’ basic skills, it must also be the “stuff” that current and future teachers must take on from the start. Certainly I see many young teachers with these natural propensities, but I also see teachers, just as young, fresh, and smart, whose training and bent are not yet equivalent in this regard.

                           Richardson himself indicates that the new shifts he sees the new environment for teaching and learning– or rather for collaborating will indeed be a long time in coming. Again, I concur. IN principal, I agree that collaboration will play a very large role in education, and certainly teachers who do not use the newest technologies adequately in the near future will not be teachers at all. What I believe however is that real collaboration  that truly adds to the new knowledge in the world will not usually come from those engaged in grades K-12, just as new knowledge now comes from higher levels , so too will be the course of the future.  This does not mean us at the primary and secondary levels do not have responsibility for ensuring that our students are prepared and able to take on these responsibilities in postsecondary education and beyond; indeed we will have those responsibilities more than ever. But total collaboration on all fronts may notbe the sole answer. As humans , we always have managed a  balancing act, an actof s collaboration assuredly and of communication, but also of singular  individual achievement.  In sum,  individual achievement . Without each person’s ability to think for him/her self and to communicate cogently, ensuring that thinking levels are ready for the kind of ultimate collaborative problem solving discussed, without first and foremost gaining personal expertise –along with not instead of collaborations – no such harmonious efforts toward mastery as the author suggests will be reached.

                           If this discussion or my comments have taken on an aura of the abstract I apologize. I want to be current in my practices and to ensure that old-fangled ways of doing things do not get in our ay. At the same time, as many have learned from past efforts, teaching without each student being personally accountable , teaching without thought to each student's particular strengths and challenges, teaching without focusing on basics before complexities, does not led to better learning; yes, the digital age gives us ever more opportunities to teach students using their strengths and preferred modalities.  but just like the role of parent and offspring, the role of teacher and student should not become that of equals. Rather all students just as all children should be treated respectfully and loved for who they are. Nonetheless as developing human beings, students should be trained by those who have already developed and have a yearning to offer what they have learned with new generations, without giving up their responsibilities to model, correct, reteach, and expect appropriate individual results.

                           The author mentions the role of teachers being more like coaches. That is nothing new however, as the  best teaching has always been that way. Certainly a coach must care about team endeavor, but a good one never forgets where and how the individual team member must contribute to that effort and learn his or her own part not just well but expertly; indeed individual talent born of effort has always been prerequisite when it comes to team sports, when it comes to deciding who is given the chance to collaborate or in more precise and mundane terms “make the team.”  Without a core of individual expertise, students K-12 will not be given the chance to become important collaborators in the future… even if I admit book reading may be on the wane, I believe that an individuals’ critical thinking skills and communicative expertise must be better than ever, not worse and certainly not ignored in deference to anything else, so that each can achieve in whatever world may be in store, be it a more collaborative one or not. My hope is that in the new world of collaboration, it will not be only the elite who get to collaborate. If we ignore basic skills in any way, I fear, that will indeed be the case.