Rage against the Machine!

"Teaching will become a job, not a profession. Young people will typically spend a year or two as teachers, then move on to other, more rewarding careers. Federal and state policy will promote online learning, and computers will replace teaches. Online class sizes will reach 1:100, even 1:200; the job of monitoring the screens will be outsourced, creating large economies for state budgets."

I have some fundamental disagreements with this passage above, most notably, the idea that young people will move on to more rewarding careers.  I disagree because personally there aren’t too many careers out there that would/will give me more fulfillment than teaching.  It is the main reason I’ve worked so hard to become a teacher.  I graduated college without an education degree and worked several years in different fields.  I left bigger paychecks because I enjoy working with students and helping others.  I have an appreciation for learning and sharing with others and frankly, I’d be hard pressed to find a better career than this one. 

            Now don’t get me wrong, technology is here to stay I know that and I’m okay with it.  I know that technology will shift our roles in education, but I find it hard to believe that we the teachers will be replaced.  I do agree we could see the day where online learning becomes big and some classes are into the hundreds of students with one professor in charge.  That being said, where I find this hitting the hardest is beyond secondary level education. I still believe most of our kindergarten through 12^th grade schools and classrooms will have teachers working in them.  However, let me elaborate on a statement I mentioned earlier, that our roles as teachers will change. 

Just as our world is changing so too are our classrooms.  Gone are the days when a teacher can stand in front of twenty students and talk at them for fifty minutes.  Schools are being asked to do just as much, if not more, with less.  Challenging schools to do better is not a bad thing.  Making standardized test scores the end all bench marks, is.  And turning education into a competitive corporate dog eat dog world doesn’t end well.  At least not for the lesser half (and let’s be honest when I say lesser half I mean 60+% of the population).  We’ve got to change this trend.  Our founding fathers told the mother country we wanted to have this country stand on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  The pursuit of happiness starts with an education.  There is too much knowledge at our finger tips anymore for us not to bring it into the classrooms.  The technology boom of the internet has helped make our standard core subjects come to life.  There are so many media outlets for students to learn, create, and share with that the 21^st century classrooms have changed from a teacher centered set up to a student centered class.  I hear it said “teachers are becoming more like classroom managers as appose to classroom dictators like they had been.”  And so we as teachers will work with the new tools of the 21^st century and help the next generation find their way.

          Teach

            verb (used with object)

          1. to impart knowledge of or skill in; give instruction in: She        teaches mathematics.

          2. to impart knowledge or skill to; give instruction to: He teaches            a large class.

Please note that even with the latest and greatest technological gadgets without someone to help give instructions on how to use them or what to use them for, we do not learn.  You can’t get to higher education or even higher level critical thinking without learning basic knowledge and understanding.  But even beyond the obvious, let me make a simple truth I stand by; people need people.  I believe that it is imperative to human health, both mentally and physically to have social interaction.  Teachers do so much more than teach skills.  A teacher provides advice on both educational and personal matters; they monitor and mediate peer interaction, and teach life skills such as conflict resolution.  Technological devices are great tools or aids but there is no need for any of them if there isn’t anyone to share them with.  I know our educational system is changing with technology as it should, but if we think we can take personal/human connection out of it, our education will not be preparing our students for the world they live in. 

Why we teach.

When Gamers Learn!

Sim City is what some call an oldie but a goodie.  I spent Saturday on a journey back into my childhood playing what is now called Sim City Classic.  As the name of the game suggests, players build and design a city.  As you may know there have been multiple new additions and even cross-reference games, however I prefer to stick to the original.  The player can build a town with several zones such as residential, commercial, and industrial.  One can change the tax rate, build a power plant, build transportation systems (auto or train) and take many other actions, in order to enhance the city.  The game can take a long time to play.  I forgot how intricate the game can be, and found it much harder to sit and play like I use to. 

I choose Sim City because this game is a great example and was discussed multiple times in the module readings.  Even at school this week I found Sim City is familiar to even the current school age children (of course, they play the newer versions).  I had no idea my students today would love playing it even though it’s almost thirty years old. 

One of the main reasons I picked Sim City is because it really brings many mathematic concepts to life for the students.  The spacing and visual understandings of how to make sure there is enough room for buildings and roads.  Seeing the implications of working with a budget, taxes, and cost of creating new (in this case shopping, homes, and factories), how the player working with math to calculate what can be done and how to better society while doing it. 

The aspect I have really noticed, not only this week, but throughout this whole semester is how much this generation of students really thrives with new media.  I totally understand why we would name them digital natives because it’s almost like they are wired to be more attracted to or pay closer attention to a video screen than the person standing right in front of them.  So it’s become very apparent we as educators need to do two things.  First, we need to make sure our lesson plans are top notch, engaging, and meaningful.  Second, we need to find ways to work game-based learning into our curriculum or school day.  One of the best ways to use game-based learning is during RTI or homeroom.  Allowing students to play games gives them a break yet if you pick the right games their minds continue to work.  

A guide for 5th and 6th grade Math gamers

My first ever playlist on Mentor Mob!

Pencil Me In

I must admit, the cover of Pencil Me In kind of threw me off.  I was not expecting to be reading an early 1900’s fictional story.  The cover looks so modern and clean.  Spencer did a good job of a metaphorical parallel, how teachers might have felt during the educational transition of the early 20^th century technologies being introduced and where we are today, with moving into modern technology of computers and personal hand-held devices.  I was questioning a few times during my read as to how realistically philosophical, not only the main character was, but also some of the random people he would run into and have conversations with.  That being said, I appreciated Spencer’s parallel implying that technology can be a good thing but it’s not a replacement of teachers or their lessons.  What I enjoyed most from this story was the different personal reactions/interactions of his characters and their dealings with the new technology and working with through it.

Obviously the pen pal curriculums were the 1900’s version of social media.  The problem I had with this parallel to today’s Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube is how different these two types of media are.  Pen pals have the educational advantage of time, making this form much more educational friendly.  Teachers can edit over letters and make sure their student’s spelling, punctuation, and grammar are correct.  The problem with our modern day social media is that it started outside of education as a fun less formal activity, for the most part.  New text language has been created for the digital age, and unless we as educators are willing to start accepting; LOL, CUL8R, BRB, etc. these formats are fighting an uphill battle in our classrooms.  Where I see Spencer’s comparison of computers to pencils and feel some of his characters frustrations, I see my own struggle with some of our game-based learning tools to teacher lead instructions.  Some of our students catch on with games so well yet they miss the next level thinking with them.  So while they might score better on their tests and exams they struggle with understanding how step one connects to step two and so on.  These students find enjoyment in learning “on their own” so I guess I’m noticing there needs to be more development with some of the educational game-based learning software.  But, this is a topic for a different day.

By the end of the book I saw a man that was struggling, in the character Tom Johnson.  He wanted technology and at the same time, by the end he wanted his one room school house with his Aristotle like teacher.  He had been able to reflect on the good, the bad, and the ugly of modern technology.  I personally enjoyed the read if for no other reason than it made me feel normal.  I felt I wasn’t the only one struggling with all this new technology yet wanting so badly to be a good educator.  I think if I were to recommend this book to others it would be for the teachers or administrators who are in the in-between of wanting the newest technological aid and yet not sure how to handle it.  That being said, I think it helped me stay interested in new technology realizing that it’s not an easy thing for everyone to master.