Empowering Course Concept

The most valuable piece of knowledge I take away from this course is something that echos my own opinion but in better words. On the final day of the course, we talked about lesson design with regard to technology and our instructor, Steve Katz, offered three questions that he asks when deciding whether or not to use technology in some form or another, in his lesson.

• Will this improve student learning? 
• Will this make the class more efficient? 
• Will it help students be more organized?

If you can answer "yes" to at least one of these questions, then that particular piece of technology adds value to your lesson. As educators, we can at times get over-excited by a new lesson idea, teaching concept, or piece of technology that we think will be a "hit" without taking the time to evaluate its merits. Steve's examples from his trials and tribulations with his own classes provided valuable insight on the uses of technology in the classroom.

For myself and my classes, I think these three questions are a succinct method for determining the worth of not just the implementation of some form of technology in my lessons, but other teaching practices as well. 

PSA Video Project

This is a lesson that I completed with my partner Zak Latif. This is a public service announcements that students will complete as a class project. Check out the materials below.

Rubric

Surfing on the Web

Check out the site I built for my class here: Class Site

Q & A - Audio Opinions of a Conversation Class

This is a lesson I put together that I want to try with my students during the vacation period since the classes are smaller and are perfect for beta testing new ideas. I will post a recording of a question or statement that students will respond to in turn with their own recording via SoundCloud. Students will then have to comment on each other's recordings and rate them on voice clarity and how easy it is to understand their speaking. The recordings themselves are relatively simple but I think the student commenting component and the sustainability of the lesson during a semester give it merit.

Materials: Q & A - Audio Opinions of a Conversation Class

Standardized Tests for Non-standardized Humans

Why do we test? Is it to measure how much we know? To differentiate ability among a group of students? To assess the quality of educational institution? Perhaps all of the above? While I believe testing has its place, it shouldn't be the sole focus of education. Too often than not, teachers feel pressure to teach their students what they need to know to pass the test, not necessarily what they need to fully master the task. This has the negative consequence of creating excellent test-takers but not always the most educated students. Performing well on a standardized English language test does not automatically mean that a person can speak well. Experience has taught me that. 

Emphasis needs to shift from testing of subjects in this manner to the mastery of subjects. When students are free to learn and experiment without fear of failure, they are more likely to have an easier time at learning and retain more ability over the long-term. Reading the Stanford News article How the Finnish school system outshines U.S. education I can see the positive effects of such an approach to education. A number of factors are at play in Finland to account for this success, but one of them is the lack of testing. Children are not measured at all until six years into their education and only have one standardized test when they are 16 years old according to an article in the Business Insider. Rather, they are "focused on critical thinking and problem solving, project-based learning, and learning to learn" according to Linda Darling-Hammond, in the aforementioned Stanford News article. Such a skill-set would enable someone to excel in almost any environment.  

Leaning to learn... what a powerful tool to actually give to students. 

Remix Recipe: Copy. Transform. Combine.

Video 4 of Everything is a Remix raises some interesting points. Evolution of life, culture, knowledge and so forth operates by what Kirby Ferguson says is copying, transforming, and combining. Whether it be ideas or genes, this is how change and innovation occurs. I agree with this statement. As much as people talk about having a eureka moment, it's not quite like they suddenly have a great idea from out of the blue. Ideas coalesce from other ideas, knowledge, and experiences that we've absorbed through study, life, and the like. Copy. Transform. Combine. This is progress.

Protecting ideas behind iron curtains stifle further innovation and lead to stagnation. When people and organizations are more concerned with protecting what is theirs rather than furthering understanding, we all lose. I think countries with highly developed patent and copyright laws stand to lose significantly when countries with more lax laws have few qualms over using these protected ideas. As Ferguson quips, the United States was flatly opposed to patent laws and protecting foreign works when it was a developing nation 200 years ago. The same could be said of countries like China and India today. 

Ideas need to be free so that we can improve upon them and better our world. It is alarming to think of the power that large corporations wield in the area of patent law. They can squash or intimidate the upstart innovators so as to maintain their dominance. This, at the expense of furthering understanding, creativity, and the natural progression of ideas. 

Screencast - Dropbox Link and QR Code

Here is a quick tutorial for creating a Dropbox link so that you can share files with people who don't have Dropbox. People with this link can only view or download content that you share, not later it. Embedding the link in a QR code is an easy and convenient way to share information.