We as teachers, can do everything in our power to sustain the status quo, but the reality is that our students are going to check out mentally. Some questions need to be considered when creating new pedagogy and curriculum. The most important is to ask whether or not technology, the type that our students are familiar with, can be used as a teaching tool to learn the content. Why can’t Shakespear, or the Declaration of Independence be taught using MySpace or a cellphone? The students just might be able to learn the content better if they are able to connect with the material in their own way. That way is through technology.

After reading Pflaums book The Technology Fix, I thought a lot about the experiences he had at other high schools and compared them to my old school. All schools, except for a very few, have major budget issues. So far the trade’s classes have all but been eliminated and it won’t be long before computer classes are gone too. The computers at my school were antiquated. They worked just fine, thanks to a great on-site technology coordinator, but they were over six years old. A six year old computer is very old based on technology standards. The software that was being created could not be installed on our old machines. That element alone puts our students at a disadvantage to become hirable or college bound after the graduate. There is no money in sight for any sort of new or upgraded computers. We (just about all schools) have to make the best of the situation.

If I took over a school today and had to make an on-site technology plan for the next three years, knowing there will be no money for new computers, here are some of the things I would implement.

1. Before students use the computers for research based projects, the teacher needs to set very clear rules and expectations about how to complete the process correctly. The students need to know how to find information, summarize it, and then cite it correctly. The computer is a great tool for information, but without the correct training and expectations, the students learn nothing more than how to steal, clip and paste questionable material into a program like Word, or PowerPoint.
2. Any time the students use the computers make sure the directions are super clear and they reflect what they have done on each step in a writing assignment. Forcing the students to write about their experience on each step of a computer based assignment forces them to do it correctly and analyze the process. Otherwise the students will skip steps, do them incorrectly, and most importantly will not learn anything because they are acting without thinking.
3. Team up with local businesses and community leaders to create a list of digital technology skills that they would like the upcoming graduates to acquire. Once this list has been analyzed the teachers and administrators should make up curriculum that addresses these needed skills.
4. Technology training for teachers is crucial. Workshops and teacher in-service days should be provided for teachers to learn about new ideas and software that could be used in the classroom. Then the teachers need to be comfortable enough with those new tools so that they can teach it themselves. Training is a major missing element that must be addressed.
5. Use the resources that have been provided to you. The most important and most effective resource that is often overlooked is the actual students themselves. Most large high schools have at least 10-20 viable experts in computer technology. These students often know programming and web designing better than any of the teachers on campus. Use them to direct lessons, help create better programs, build websites, or any other task that you need help with. They are often very excited to help out a teacher. Reliability is often a large problem though.

I visited two Education Blogs today. I was pretty impressed with what I saw. Neither of them seemed pretentious or self-centered like most Blogs I have visited in the field of education.

History Is Elementary

This was the first site that I visited. This website is a wonderful collection of history factoids that is presented in a way that encourages social studied teachers to use the information in their own class. The website takes seemingly straightforward historical events, typically in the area of U.S. History, and then bends it to give the reader a new perspective. This blog also includes interesting current events by adding quotations, pictures and commentary in a short and concise way. As an educator, I would ask others to try and determine why this blog is so different from the rest of the Education blogs listed on http://oedb.org/library/features/top-100-education-blogs Top 100 Education blogs. Other than the content, how is this information and design more engaging?

Cool Cat Teacher Blog

The second blog that I visited was a breath of fresh air. This blog was so different than all the other blogs found on http://oedb.org/library/features/top-100-education-blogs because of it’s layout and design. The author is not interested in writing entries that take a half an hour to read each day. This is the type of blog where you can find new ideas and links in super short, very fun examples and links with a little bit of commentary scattered throughout. The content comprises of educational news, and happenings for the majority of the blog, but other fun links are added to break up the monotony. With a focus on technology and current events, this blog tries to convince teachers that real life news and technology can be used, discussed and played with in any classroom. I ask that all teachers compare this blog with almost every other blog found in Education. What links and ideas does this website promote than other education blogs do not? 

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=365

 I listened to a wonderful podcast today. This American Life and Radio Lab are two amazing podcasts that I have used in my classroom in the past. Theses podcasts are informative and very entertaining. They both use very high production methods. They both use interesting sounds and songs to break up otherwise simple stories that teaches the audience something new. The topics can be about anything and they use their sounds and words to paint wonderful pictures.

This is a perfect time for a high school economics class. The economics of white collar crime can be unbelievably complex and irrational. The drive for money and power which can boil down to basic greed will make once pure hearted men and women turn into irrational beasts. Our economy is based on basic capitalistic principles. After the Great Depression the powers that be realized the “Pure Capitalism” can create havoc and despair. The fundamental concept of pure capitalism is that there will be winners and losers. The winners will ultimately take all, and it only takes playing a couple games of the popular board game “Monopoly” to understand this concept. The post Depression leaders made some changes to the system and instituted some Socialist policies that would regulate the private sector. Once government intervention was introduced into the private sector a new game started. The game turned into a complex strategy of cat and mouse. Who ever could understand the new government laws and rules best and then bend them in their favor would become the new winner. All the while the public was idling sitting by, trusting that the new government entities were doing their job to make sure the greedy capitalists were not able to repeat their tricks that brought the economy to a halt the first time. Over the years the tricks and rule bending became more and more complex. The government was doing their best to keep the laws up with the 21^st century digital age, but to no avail. White collar capitalists became more and more careless with their investments. Junk bonds, Hedge funds, Sub-prime Mortgage Loans were the quickest way to get rich. While the public had some clue about the dangers of these types of high risk investments, they had no idea about the true economy killer, Credit Default Swaps.

Credit Default Swaps are wagers that only a person or company with over five million dollars can wage. The way it works is a person or company can make a bet on a any company by placing the wager with a willing bank. If the company actually fails then the failing company gets a huge chunk of money from the bank and the person who made the wage wins too. Why would a bank allow a person to take a bet out on a company? Most banks saw tons of money fall into their hands knowing (or thinking) that the business was never going to go under. The bets were more like insurance policies. A person could pay 20 million dollars to insure a company for a billion dollars. Thousands of bets were being placed subsequently the bank was pulling in billions of dollars. This new money was invested and more money was be made. It is just like a thousand people who “you” dont know taking out life insurance on You! If you die, then all these people win if they bought in when you were healthy. No bank expected the large companies like Lehman Brothers to collapse. Once the collapse did occur the banks couldn’t pay the bets; too many bets had been made. Over 40 trillion dollars in bets dues were owed when in fact only about four trillion dollars of actual bet money had been placed. Remember these bets were more like insurance policies. All the banks froze their lending/credit because they weren’t sure if they were going to have any money to lend. The scary part was that banks were betting with and on other banks. All of this was totally unregulated. If banks don’t have any money to lend, then the whole economy stops. That is because almost every daily transaction happens through short term money market loans. Businesses and governments (state and local) depend on these credit lines to be open to pay for bills, payroll and capital improvements. Uh oh. You have only seen the beginning. Let’s pray for the best.

Children even as young as two years of age are playing media intensive games, and the research suggests that their brains are developing in a radically different way than generations past. These new technologies and their results on children should be considered when designing classroom lessons. Without the ability to rationally express their demands, k-12 students need a radically new classroom pedagogy that includes all types of technologies. Even if the technologies exist, often the teachers do not know how to implement it effectively to reach this “new” student.

Can the concepts that lie beneath the visual layer of videogames be extracted and studied? Can the actual philosophical design concepts be used in a classroom even without the technology? Given that information technologies (IT) like computers and cell phones are just a vehicles for information, can an entire pedagogy be created without using actual IT and used if those concepts understood? If it can be done then the following question could be asked. What makes a game addicting, fun, desirable, and most importantly educational? Some argue it is the ability to make choices and become “the best” that makes video games fun. Others argue that the best games are ones that are connected to an online community where the game gives players the ability to recreate themselves and have anonymous social connections. What if those concepts of choice, winning, and social connectivity were incorporated into a pedagogy? Every game play must learn how to play the game. Gamers might not be learning basic concepts found in State/Federal content standards, but there are large pieces of information being learned. Finally, what if you could take those concepts and combine them with Mastery Learning. What would happen if a teacher could give the choice for each student to follow their personalized path, and achieve at the highest level possible?  

Date posted: May 18, 2006
Updated: Oct 23, 2006

By Obe Hostetter
James Madison University
Department of Educational Technology
Dr. Richard Clemens

December 2002

Abstract
The new generation of children has been named the game generation. This game generation is used to a twitch speed, parallel processing, active, fantasy world. Games have changed the learners´ cognitive skills so that the game generation can process a lot of information at the same time. Video games are an excellent learning tool because the computer can adjust its difficulty according to the player´s preference or need. Video games also teach deductive reasoning, memory strategies, and eye-hand coordination. The downside of using video games is that they are very addicting but with monitoring can be used effectively in the classroom. Working together with software companies, parents, and educators, video games can facilitate children learning the required content for their level as well as make learning fun and applicable to the game generation children. As a result, educators must be willing to learn how to use educational games as a part of constructivist learning in education.

http://game-research.com/index.php/articles/video-games-the-necessity-of-incorporating-video-games-as-part-of-constructivist-learning/

September 29th, 2008 · No Comments

[What's the point of designing games? Veteran educator and designer Ernest Adams examines the concepts of fun, enjoyment, and personal fulfillment to reveal the key, uplifting tenets of game creation.]

The Japanese language uses suffixes to modify the word that precedes them. Two of these suffixes are modifying, while the -jutsu ending means “the skills (or methods, or techniques) of…”

 Consider the words jujutsu and judo.They refer to two different approaches to a particular martial art, a form of unarmed hand-to-hand combat that concentrates on grappling, pinning, and throwing. Jujutsu is the older and more brutal form, intended for lethal combat. Judo is a sport that derived from jujutsu.

When appended to the name of a martial art such as judo, the -do ending refers to a philosophy behind the art — a set of values that are intended to guide the combatant in the proper use of the jutsu, or techniques, of battle. The Japanese word do is cognate with the Chinese word tao, which also means “way” or “path”, and also connotes a mental or moral discipline rather than a purely practical collection of rules.

The world is changing so fast. The invention of the internet has created a whole generation of children that wants, needs and knows only a world where computers and technology must deliver fast, unabated information.