Great post Jake. Technology is actually starting to eliminate the thinking processes of people nowadays, and its only going to get worse moving forward. School needs to remain on solid foundations and use technology in ways to assist this education and not replace it with online lectures or search engines that provide immediate answers. Students need to be able to build communities through their innovative ideas – and our educational systems should enable them to do that whichever discipline they are in.
Author: Dalya Ismael
Comment on Connecting Dots in the Big Picture by Dalya Ismael
Great wrap up to all the topics we discussed.
I do believe that creativity should be a key aspect in designing our future courses, and definitely how different learning techniques should be developed.
Comment on The last GEDI, I think not! by Dalya Ismael
I like the example you provided about females failing at math because their brains are structured different than mens! It actually quite funny! I think this comes from the people’s perception that woman think about issues differently than men do, and this is where books like “Men are from Mars, Woman are from Venus” come from and become successful. I personally think all of this is not true. It all comes down to the education and cultural values every individual has. Great post!
Comment on Attention! Can I have your attention please! by Dalya Ismael
Great video! It has actually become difficult to avoid being distracted especially from using our phones. I put it away to get some work done, then I go back and find it as soon as it vibrates. Multitasking can blind you significantly from others things that need more attention.
Comment on The Attention Span of 140 Characters or Less by Dalya Ismael
Thanks for your thoughts Bret, I enjoyed reading it. Its funny how some views can be against including electronics (mobiles/laptops) in the classroom where others believe it benefits them, and each side has valid points. For example, in the college i taught in, all electronics were not allowed to be used in the classroom, and that was a college policy not my own. They believed it will be a distraction and that students will not focus on the instructors teaching, even thought this might not be the case. So, what I plan to do in my future teaching classes is to allow them to use electronics moderately, either certain times of class or certain days only.
Comment on Critical Pedagogy. by Dalya Ismael
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I liked the example you mentioned about leading students with questions and also answering them with questions. This could be implemented as a class exercise to prepare students to find answers to their own questions. I will definitely try and implement this in the next course I teach!
Comment on Features of effective teachers by Dalya Ismael
Thanks for sharing your experiences. I agree about the items on the list. I went through them myself but couldn’t tick them all off for myself. Maybe because of my major, or teaching responsibilities. I consider some of them as goals for myself to achieve throughout my teaching career.
Comment on From Cooking to Becoming a Chef by Dalya Ismael
It’s interesting how you related teaching to cooking especially for people who enjoy doing both! (the donuts look delicious!) This sentence struck me most: “A teacher should not aim feeding the students, but s/he should set an example of how to become an experienced cook”. Spoon-feeding students is one of the main challenges in teaching that I personally faced. Students keep asking questions related to the answer, and not related to the thought process behind it. This prevents them from thinking independently, which doesn’t benefit them. We need to guide students to develop their own thoughts instead of simply answering their questions.
Comment on My Teaching Voice by Dalya Ismael
Thanks for sharing your teaching voice. Those are great ideas. The picture about being approachable is actually funny. I find it challenging to meet my students outside the assigned office hours. This is especially true if I have over 100 students. I wonder how you can manage that with your work load. Showing excitement about the topics is another quality I need to develop with my ‘civil engineering’ major.
Comment on My Teaching Voice by Dalya Ismael
Thanks for sharing your teaching voice. Those are great ideas. The picture about being approachable is actually funny. I find it challenging to meet my students outside the assigned office hours. This is especially true if I have over 100 students. I wonder how you can manage that with your work load. Showing excitement about the topics is another quality I need to develop with my ‘civil engineering’ major.
