After having had written
down my educational philosophy, I feel that self-reflection is going to be much
easier. Now, I can actually identify the
different aspects, evaluate them, and make changes without upsetting the entire
methodology that I have defined for myself.
Not only will it make deviations from the original philosophy easier,
but it will also allow me to expand on any broad ideas and turn them into
specific practical instructional outlines.
In short, it helps to streamline my thinking and planning processes
concerning education and technology’s place within it.
Concerning Stephen Downes’
article, I believe the potential for blogging with the educational arena to b
staggering. It is very much a viable way
to tie in a teacher’s educational goals and a student’s possible interests into
a virtual format that does not diminish the poster’s benefit in relating
his/her opinions and viewpoints. Granted
many causes for concern revolve around the fact that by requiring a student to
blog about more teacher-minded subjects can reduce the benefits they would get
out of it, but a happy medium that instills an inherent interest is still
possible. On a broad scale, we have not quite
met this potential entirely. Yes, many
schools are allowing teachers to generate class website as hubs for information
trading and sharing, but the more independent reign of being able to blog has
taken hold. I personally believe that
this is simple due to a lack of awareness to the possible benefits of allowing
the students access to a blog within the realm of the school. It could also be dependent on educators wary
of letting students have some much freedom with something that could quite
possible cause negative results such as the cases of libel presented in the
article. Time will hopefully tell.
From November’s article, the
section concerning the installation of live video cameras within a classroom
stood out to me the most. My reason for
choosing this area lays with my own experiences this type of environment. Currently I work as a gymnastics coach in the
city of Richardson and I find that while my boss, the head coach, and the
parents are actively watching I find myself constantly critiquing my own
methods. I attempt to see things from
the point of view, something that is nearly impossible while safely teaching a
four year old how to flip. Now the
difference between my situation and the teacher in this new classroom is the
fact that parent can have an active part in the education of their child while
not drawing the attention of the teacher away from their lesson. It is very much like having an extra pair of invisible
hands and support for every child during a lesson. Looking past the constant judging of the
parent and perhaps other educators, I can only see this addition helping the
teacher to teach better class.
When asked to state my expectations for this class I find
that I have none. This is not because I
have no interest in the course, but because I have become so complacent with my
place in the world of technology that I no longer have any means to estimate
what I’ll get out of this class. This
fact is terribly exciting because that translates into me being able to expect
anything and everything. If the first
week is of any measure, I can only expect that this course will be involving,
interesting, and informative. What more
could one ask for?
No comments:
Post a Comment