Okay well I know it has been a while since my last post, but I have been busy with conferences, teaching, etc. Still no excuses when I could have been sharing alot of that with you. At any rate, I wanted to go on a bit of rant about education. There are sooo many things about education to rant about, but I wanted to speak to teacher pay and Government funding failures, or state government failures. I think it is incredibly ridiculous that some state governments have frozen pay and hiring. I understand that given the economy that there is a need to cut back, but when a locality decides to use teacher funding to support their transportation budget, I have a huge problem with that.
Additionally, I hate the fact that because of the cutbacks, some teachers are working harder, don't get lunch breaks, and don't get raises from their local school boards despite the increases coming from the Government. What's wrong with these people? Don't they know there are laws and that these teachers could effectively sue, and likely win, the school board for not paying for overtime and not abiding by the law?!?
What's needed? Well there are probably tons of solutions, but that is not this type of post. I just think that teachers are already overworked and have tons of expectations placed upon them. Not to mention the money factor. Some want to fund excellent teachers or incentivize teachers based on their performance. Well why not just pay them for the work they are already doing!?!
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Critically REthinking Education!!!
I have been involved in education for a long time now. As I work ever closer to my final degree and think about what I want to study more, I am enthralled with the work of Dr. Wesch at Kansas State University. He is an anthropologist and is using technology in exciting ways and challenging the status quo of traditional educational models. He has given several talks over the past few years to different groups on the topic of social media and how it is changing education. This video shows what I am talking about.
I think that many people only see social media and the internet for entertainment, but I think that is quickly changing. I think it is important in the new technological environment that we utilize these tools to do exactly as Dr. Wesch points out, Create Knowledge-able students. Students that can use resources to critically think about the issues before them and to act in a more meaningful way.
My question(s) for you are why isn't education or instructors utilizing tools to create an engaging classroom? Is it fear? Time involvement? or lack of ability/resources? I understand that it may be all of these and more, but we have got to try better. If we truly want to promote positive change, we need to utilize our resources and opportunities to do so. Let me know what you think and comment below.
SO THIS was a post I wrote several months ago on another blog of mine and now as I embark on a new semester, and my FIRST time teaching, I am thinking of how to use technology and social media in the classroom. I am teaching a communications class and I plan on incorporating a lot of YouTube videos to demonstrate communication skills and patterns. The book will be a valuable resource for students, but I am augmenting these materials with a guest speaker. Matt Hodson is actively invovled in social media and writes about using social media for marketing and in buisiness in general over on his blog. He has over 500 followers on twitter and constantly participates in many twitter chats. I think having some of his insight on how students can use social media effectively will enhance this class greatly.
What do you think? Is there anything else a basic communications course should entail? Let me know in the comments.
I think that many people only see social media and the internet for entertainment, but I think that is quickly changing. I think it is important in the new technological environment that we utilize these tools to do exactly as Dr. Wesch points out, Create Knowledge-able students. Students that can use resources to critically think about the issues before them and to act in a more meaningful way.
My question(s) for you are why isn't education or instructors utilizing tools to create an engaging classroom? Is it fear? Time involvement? or lack of ability/resources? I understand that it may be all of these and more, but we have got to try better. If we truly want to promote positive change, we need to utilize our resources and opportunities to do so. Let me know what you think and comment below.
SO THIS was a post I wrote several months ago on another blog of mine and now as I embark on a new semester, and my FIRST time teaching, I am thinking of how to use technology and social media in the classroom. I am teaching a communications class and I plan on incorporating a lot of YouTube videos to demonstrate communication skills and patterns. The book will be a valuable resource for students, but I am augmenting these materials with a guest speaker. Matt Hodson is actively invovled in social media and writes about using social media for marketing and in buisiness in general over on his blog. He has over 500 followers on twitter and constantly participates in many twitter chats. I think having some of his insight on how students can use social media effectively will enhance this class greatly.
What do you think? Is there anything else a basic communications course should entail? Let me know in the comments.
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