Month: January 2018

Entertainment vs. Enlightenment

If your professor stood in front of your class and said “my purpose during the course of this semester is to set your mind on fire,” what would you envision the semester looking like in that moment?  An enlightening and motivational speech every day in the classroom?  A fiery debate in every class?  Or maybe your grades going up in flames?…

Whatever you imagined, it may or may not have been what the professor intended.  What I think Mark Carnes intended when he wrote “Setting Students Minds on Fire” was that he wants his class to be driven by the students and the students to be passionate about the topic.  He began his article by saying that a high percentage (perhaps close to 50%) of students who enroll in college do not finish.  Some attribute the cause to lack of funds, but Carnes argues that it is lack of motivation… basically, classes are boring.  If the experiences that students have in the classroom lead to motivation and passion for their education, then they will likely find a way to finish.

Now please bear with me while I interject a brief comment here on the distinction between classes that are “entertaining” and classes that are “enlightening” or “motivational.”  If you think that college is meant to be 100% entertaining, then you will be sorely disappointed.  College is not meant to be that way.  As with every other thing we commit to in life, even our dream jobs, there is always a bit of drudgery that we have to get through to get to the good stuff we enjoy.

However, I think we can certainly deliver classes that are enlightening and motivational on a regular basis.  As Carnes discusses in his article, we can involve students in quests or games that involve their problem-solving skills.  We can provide context and deep meaning to what they are learning so that they will apply those concepts to their own lives.  Think about what you could do in your own classrooms and in your disciplines that could genuinely interest the students in the material.

While you are doing that: remember to carefully tread the line between entertaining and enlightening.  I think some of you will agree that you have had professors give lectures in which they were obviously trying to merely entertain you and keep you awake during the class.  Did you leave those classes feeling motivated?  Feeling excited about the things you are learning?  Feeling like you couldn’t wait to talk to your roommate about what you were discovering during that class?  Probably not.  But maybe a few of you have been in classes that really got you thinking about the material and how it applied to your life.  How did that class make you feel?  How did it affect the rest of your semester/career/life?  How would you describe your experience?  I know how I might describe a few of those rare experiences:

My mind was set on fire.

Are lectures beneficial to student learning?

The idea of a lecture-oriented classroom was the only type of classroom that most students know prior to starting college and made up about 90 percent of my undergraduate classes with only a few being discussion-based. So, starting graduate school, not having really any lecture-oriented classes was a unique experience that I wasn’t completely ready for or fully expecting. I typically don’t choose to share much during class during discussions as I like to think over my thoughts more thoroughly before sharing.

Talbert started his post originally stating he typically extremely dislikes lecture-oriented, yet did think there were some positives including: modeling thought processes, sharing cognitive structures, giving context, and telling stories. I would definitely agree that all four of these are positives related to this type of class style, but I don’t think they are the only positives that can come from lectures.

While, he does present those four positive components, I appreciated how he acknowledges that he doesn’t believe that information transfer is a positive, but in fact it is more effective at “covering material.” Talbert also introduced an interesting shift of thinking for me, in that a lecture can be inspiring, yet still may not actually learn anything so it ultimately isn’t effective. I would challenge Talbert’s comment on this as I know several people who are able to retain information, most of the time myself, and are able to truly learn from some of these experiences in lecture-oriented classrooms. Many people gather the incorrect or incomplete information as there are many terrible lecture experiences, but there are some instructors who can make lectures interesting enough or can present the material in a way that allows for easier/better cognition and understanding of the material. I say all of this identifying that I might be slightly biased because of my positive experiences and great professors. My opinion has been changing slightly recently since I have been in more discussion-based classes recently, but I believe there are still pros/cons to both types of classroom styles as certain classes/majors require different things from their classes.

With all of that said, I do think something that Carnes mentioned in his article is important to acknowledge as there are many students that just go “through the motions” which could cause some of the negativity surrounding lectures. In order to improve globally, something in U.S. education needs to change, but I don’t know if it is necessary lectures that are causing this problem.

Blogging is free, but…

When I first started blogging, I was feeling extremely uncomfortable and weird. And yes, weird is the right word for that situation because I loved writing to a paper and do not like technology so much, unfortunately.

I was writing dairy when I was in high school and was sharing my opinions and thoughts with my friends and family members by speaking. Blogging is totally different than this. When you write your thoughts, nobody reads it. You are only transferring them to a paper. And, when you talk with people in person, you can see their reactions and those reactions directs your thoughts sometimes. Or, when you say something, you know that your audiences know who you are and your thoughts, character, and more. Either one makes people feel comfortable. But blogging is different. First of all, you should type it by using a keyboard. And anybody can read, comment on it, and judge you. this judgment might be about your thoughts, your language, your grammar, even sometimes about your character. Because other people do not know you, your position, your situation, and they might have some expectations when you do something public. If you open yourself to the public, your thoughts and opinions become public goods anymore. And everybody has a right to judge or do whatever they want with it after that point.

Week 3: Engaging the Imaginations of Digital Learners

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Praying Mantis on Tinker Cliffs

Now that we’ve thought about networked learning as experiential learning it’s time to think about how we learn and how the web has facilitated a shift in the way we think about different kinds of learning and learning experiences. The readings for next week develop some of the ideas we addressed in class about participatory cultures, gaming, and arc of life learning. Different people (teachers and students) respond to learning environments in their own unique way and there is no “one size fits all” approach to engaging today’s student. But most people  agree that imagination is an essential component of motivation, and next week is all about firing up the imagination for digital learners. For your posts, please read materials and write about whatever issue (or set of issues) resonates with you the most. Feel free to use Hypothes.is to engage others around specific issues in the readings (especially in the Thomas and Brown selection.) This should be an interesting session, and I am eager to read what you have to say.

Introduction- Tami

Hello,

My name is Tami Amos and I am glad to be here this evening.  I am a second year PhD student in the School of Education with a focus in Curriculum and Instruction.  Once again, I’m glad to be here and looking forward to learning lots of new things.

Pedagogy

The meaning of pedagogy for me is constantly changing as time goes on, particularly due to changing my cultural aspect and the rapid development of technology.

Pedagogy means교육학[敎育學] in Korean; 교육[敎育] can be interpreted into two meanings: education or training. I believe the education we are referring to in higher education is education rather than training. 학[學] is the word which represents a field of study.

In the Korean dictionary, 교육(education) is aiming to build one’s personality by teaching knowledge or skills. In the process of education, the important role is building one’s character/personality, which differentiates education and just training. For instance, educators play the important role not only in helping one achieve their academic goals, but also in helping the formation of one’s character. In Korean society, there is an old saying that teacher is considered as a parent. As Korea is part of the Confucian culture, the idea of Confucian 군사부일체 [君師父一體] could be a great indicator of status. It means that “the king, teacher, and father should be treated the same.” Such strong responsibilities have framed my approach in understanding of pedagogy, and now it’s being developed in global society by interacting with inspiring colleagues from different backgrounds and countries.

All this Contemporary Pedagogy… Why should I care?

As my first foray into blogging, I apologize in advance for my lack of writing skills. As someone who sits in the STEM field (Mathematics to be precise), it is critical to practice communication skills. However at first, my writing is going to suck. Watching the TEDx Talk by Wesch, I have to acknowledge that failure is a part of learning.

By taking this course in Contemporary Pedagogy, I am placing myself outside of my comfort zone. When I talk about what this course to my peers in my department, I always get a confused look. Integrals, Analysis, Computation, most of my peers only focus on the math. Blogging, group activities, portfolios, what do these have to do with a math class? Can there really be another way to teach definitions and theorems? I’m not sure. By taking this course, I hope to expand my perspectives. Perhaps there’s a way to change how we teach both math classes focused on rote exercise memorization and classes focused on definitions and theorems.

This week was labeled “Networked Learning”. Specifically, our readings focused on the power of using the internet to connect those who seek to learn. Specifically, one online tool that enhances academic research is blogging. I feel that it is pretty clear that blogging has many benefits for the humanities and the social sciences. The previous link referenced many blogs of that type. But can blogs be a useful tool for mathematicians as well? Why, yes! The creator of the ubiquitous programming language, MATLAB, has a regularly updated blog about numerical programming. It’s easy to think some practices only work well in one field or another. I say, that’s just being too lazy to figure out how to adapt practices in a novel way.

My last thoughts for this week comes from the article about networked learning. What struck me specifically was the idea that the library is one massive example of networked learning. We’ve been doing this ever since the creation of the written word. The point is though, the tools that we use to connect to each other are changing. The printing press changed the way people learned in the past. Today’s “printing press” is the internet. And so, it is so very critical to learn how to use networked learning to further our knowledge.

Again, I always try to think about how networked learning applies to my field, mathematics. This one is surprisingly easy. Stack Exchange is a huge platform for users to ask questions, and answer them as well. You see questions about first year calculus, and programming logic, all the way to graduate level information is some obscure mathematical field. Personally, it’s amazing to witness such a massive example of networked learning. Perhaps it’s not a stretch to see how Contemporary Pedagogy applies to mathematics.

Learning to ride the discussion horse

Time to get in the conversation. (Photo: TIAER and Bill Bethel, Flickr Creative Commons)

The field of animal agriculture can be a particularly controversial one. The ones who get to hold the reins of our industry’s discussion horse are the ones with the loudest emotions are the deepest pockets: namely, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), and HSUS (Humane Society of the United States). These organizations have the manpower, the time, and most importantly, the cash flow to cast their unrealistic and wildly over-dramatized propaganda against animal agriculture.

This is old news for those of us involved in agriculture. We resent these organizations for telling our story for us. We detest the inaccuracies of their testimonies of what happen on our farms. It twists our guts to watch Internet reels of their recycled footage of mistreatment on farms,  many instances which they have been found guilty of staging themselves. It hurts our heads and hearts that these groups defame and slander us without even getting to know why we are farmers and the passion we have for our work.

Several years ago, farmers and/or their significant others discovered the power of the blog. This was their way to fight back against the PETA propaganda. When these blogs really got started, I was so inspired by them. I loved how these people could open up about their livelihoods, share their triumphs and sorrows, and just be real about life on farms big and small.

As I became immersed in my college education however, notifications about these bloggers on my Facebook and Twitter pages began to annoy me. It was the same old post every time – “be an ‘agvocator,'” “I received a cease and desist letter from PETA today,” “doesn’t HSUS realize ______?” It seemed these bloggers were only talking to people like themselves: an audience that agreed with them.

Further, I aspired to be a scientist. Shouldn’t scientists be unbiased, objective, not involved with political affairs? Science is about fact, not emotion.

Perhaps this used to be true. However, not everyone is a scientist. Moreso, the work we do isn’t ultimately meant to effect others scientists, it’s meant to effect the general public. And whether we like it or not, Internet shares are the bit in the discussion horse’s mouth. We must learn how to ride.

Thanks to the Internet, our societal ideas are being re-molded at an unfathomable pace. And lucky for us – we have two hands! Many of us may be new to the craft, our hands unsteady and perhaps even unwilling to get debris underneath our fingernails. But if we don’t participate, someone else will carve our niche for us – a niche that we may find doesn’t suit us, or even one in which we don’t fit.

-J

Networked Learning = Change

When reading about Networked Learning, the first word that comes to mind is change. It is changing the way in which we share information and interact with colleagues and the public from different corners of the world. It creates an opportunity for dialogue that is missing from conferences and forums.

Incorporating blogging into school programs may change the way that students perceive the learning process. In his talk, Dr. Wesch discusses students who were basically shuffling their way through school. Only seeking information to complete an assignment and to check another class off of their plan of study. To be honest, I feel like that sometimes. I just want to be done and move on with my life.  Around me, there is so much talk about what we should be doing to secure a faculty position. Everything is about how to earn the most or publish the most — not about how to make the most impact. There are also politics and unwritten rules.

Taking classes outside of my department has introduced me to networked learning and has provided a new way for me to be actively involved in my education.  I’m not fully immersed in the concept though — I pretty much only blog when required for a class. That may change at some point because I have kind of enjoyed blogging. I’ve also opened up to tweeting.

As a TA, and maybe a future professor, I have been pondering ways to incorporate networked learning into my classes.

Networked learning also puts me in the mind of the Open movement. Open Access, Open Data, and Open Educational Resources. Scholars can share their Open information through blogging and tweeting. All of these concepts celebrate connection and openness.

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