Foot: Firestone Experience

First, I would like to say that standardized testing is stupid, but as future teachers, I believe that most of us agree with that. The student I worked with was really motivated to learn, but I found her only wanting to know if the answer she chose was right. I would try to work with her on how she got to the conclusions she made, but when I asked her, she would guess a different answer to see if I reacted differently to that one and if it was right. Most students are in school to get the right answers. They are not there to learn to think freely and come up with their own answers, but to pass the test, and get on with their life.

Okay, now that that's out of the way....

My student (We'll call her Sarah) had quite a few strengths: She wanted to do well on her OGTs, she worked hard looking for the right answers, and she would stay as long as she could without taking breaks so she could get through as much material as possible. But, while she had these strengths, Sarah had a lot of weaknesses too. A big problem she had was that she lacked having developed critical thinking. When asked simple critical thinking questions, she often guessed on the answer. For example, during the fall semester she encountered a question asking what invention had led to the increased population in suburbs. Instead of choosing automobiles, she chose airplanes. During the fall semester, we went over the critical thinking involved with this question and she finally chose automobiles. When I met with her again during the spring semester, we encountered this question again, and she once again chose airplanes. This shows that Sarah still needed to work on her critical thinking skills. The biggest weakness I encountered with her was her reading comprehension. This really affected her test taking skills because she not only misunderstood the reading portions, but she had a really hard time comprehending what the questions were asking her. When I noticed this I would ask her, “What are they asking you?” before she went on to answer the questions. Most of the time, she would pick out the biggest words in the question, and string them together in a non-understandable sentence.

I thought of a couple ways to make studying for the OGTs more Multi-Modal friendly for Sarah. I think it would be really cool to send out a mass text message (Much like our FLASHalerts) with an OGT multiple choice question everyday. The students could reply with a simple "A,B,C, or D" and practice for the OGT. This, however, is a really passive way of preparing them because if the student get the answer right, they could just shrug it off instead of actively trying to figure out why they missed the question. I think that if students had an incentive to work towards, like the student with the most answers correct by the end of the year winning a prize, they would try harder to get their questions right. By answering these daily questions, I think they would also be developing their critical thinking skills and comprehension skills just through practice.

Another thing I saw in a lot of different blogs was the use of music in the classroom. I love this idea, but worry about copyright laws. If there were no issues with the laws, or with parents complaining about music being used, I think this would be a great way to introduce poetry to the classroom. There's a song by the Band Perry called "You Lie" that has a lot of good imagery and figurative language.



Even if students don't like country music, I could print the lyrics out and they could read it as they would a poem, but by pairing the song with the poem, it gives them a rhythm to show how poetry is in their everyday lives through the music they listen to.

I think the easiest way to integrate technology/ multi-modalness into the classroom is simply by watching a movie along with the book you're reading. I never quite understood Midnight Summer's Dream until I saw the movie, but after that I reread the play and completely understood it. I know a lot of people think that showing a movie is just an easy way out of planning an actual class, but I can see how it can help students learn too.

Even by using this blog, we're using different modes of learning. I love the idea of using a blog in the classroom if the teacher effectively tells the students how to blog. If you lay down specific instructions, yet still leave room for creativity, the students will start to use their blog to better their understanding of texts just through writing about them. This strategy would actually help Sarah a lot with her comprehension. 

While all these strategies can help over time in the classroom, some won't work as well with test preparation. I really feel that schools need to do away with these tests because if anything, it is decreasing the amount of actual learning going on in schools. The more advanced students are wasting their time being taught how to take a test, and the students that need help are just being taught how to get through a test. I was one of the advanced students and I have always tested well. (In fact I sneaked into a class one time with my best friend and took an exam with her because I was bored. We found out that even though I wasn't in the class and hardly knew the subject, I still did pretty well!) My short high school career was spent preparing for the OGTs. I remember learning more how to take tests than learning about actual literature. Even our foreign language classes would lighten the load of work because they knew that OGTs were coming up and we needed time to "study." However, I feel that there is no way to study for the OGTs. Since these tests cover a huge array of material you never know what is going to be on them, and it usually covers things you've learned over your entire school career.

While standardized testing is a huge part of our school system, I think that it's hard to integrate multi-modal teaching into studying for them. However, Overall, I think it's important to integrate different modes of teaching into your classroom, either through movies, text messages, facebook groups, among other things.

Foot: Video Games in the Classroom

Playing video games as a part of learning is a great idea. The word “games” it probably what makes this type of learning a hard sell. If we look at a game as Salen sees it, “ as a “designed experience” in which a participant is motivated to achieve a goal while operating inside a prescribed system of boundaries and rules;” then I think we would be more open minded about using games in the classroom. How many times have we said, or heard, that school is boring. As stated in the article, “a 2006 study financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation set out to examine the reasons that almost a third of American public-high-school students fail to graduate with their class. Researchers surveyed high-school dropouts in 25 cities, suburbs and small towns across the country, where they were told again and again that school was boring. The final report recommended, among other things, that educators take steps to “make school more relevant and engaging.” Motivating students is a high priority in teaching them. If using video games (video teaching) motivates students to learn then who can argue is using the games.

 

One major argument would be the costs. It is difficult for cash strapped schools to acquire the video/computer equipment needed. However, the idea is slowly converting some of those who oppose to those who support. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor introduced a web site called iCivics that teaches civics. When government can be convinced that it is a good idea, the money will follow.

 

 I used to play the game Sim City where you build a city complete with buildings, businesses, fire stations, hospitals and everything below. The water system, the power system and the means of getting the power and the water to the city, basically everything you need to run a city. Though it was not used as a teaching tool for me, I learned a lot from playing the game on how a city is built. I can only imagine the mountains of knowledge we could learn by a video game while not getting bored with school.

Foot: Publish or Perish

Technology is everywhere and I feel publishers need to get on the boat. It seems that publishers are stuck in the old way. They need to advance with technology, not hold technology back. I agree with Grandinetti, “The real competition here is not, in our view, between the hardcover book and the e-book … we are all competing for people’s valuable time.” I feel that some publishers want to make people buy the book in hardcover rather than on e-books simply because they, the publishers, want a bigger bite of the pie.

If publishers are so afraid of losing their jobs and their percent of the book then I agree with Carolyn Reidy. She says, “In the digital world, it is possible for authors to publish without publishers. It is therefore incumbent on us to prove our worth to authors every day.” Publishers should take note that the world is moving in different directions and if they want to be a part of the book industry, they need to learn along with the rest of us. Technology is today…publishers need to learn to sell technology.

My mom met a publisher a couple weeks ago and he was complaining to her how ebooks are taking away clients and there won't be any need for him anymore. As my mother so eloquently put it, "He needed to sit his ass down and get with the times." I laughed at her for saying this, but it was true. If publishers don't want to lose their jobs, then they should really work towards making their jobs more technologically adaptable. 

On another note- I just found out my new phone has Amazon Kindle on it, and I can read books ON MY PHONE! ITS AWESOME!  

Foot: I Heart Novels

After reading "I heart Novels" I was amazed. An entire novel made through a cell phone? I can hardly write a 10 page paper on my computer! Honestly, I had never heard of anyone doing this until I read this article, but I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before. In conjunction with the last post from "I'm So Totally, Digitally Close to You", I wondered if someone could take all of their tweets or Facebook status updates and somehow make them into a novel? Just like the cell phone novel, the information would be raw and be exactly what the author intended.

I actually just got a smart phone, and with all the access I have to different websites, I could see writing a novel through it. (Even though I'm still getting used to the touchscreen keyboard) I actually have my own blog with my personal non-school writings in it, that contains my own raw reactions and opinions.

I have one small problem with cell phone books though: I feel like we may lose the credibility of literature if anyone can just write a novel from their cell phone. I'm fine with these books being written, but if we as teachers try to teach these books, will others appreciate that someone wrote their novel from a cell phone?

I do like the idea of using this in a classroom though. If I student has an easier time using their cellphone to write assignments, then I think I would let them have that option.

Foot: You're Leaving a Digital Trail

Leaving a digital trail is somewhat disturbing to me; however, in some cases I agree that it could be a huge benefit. For example, the “Personal Environmental Impact Report” discussed in the article is a great tool for those who live in the Los Angeles area. My dad grew up in Redlands, California where he was a member of the swim team. They had practice after school in the afternoons when the air quality was terrible. He has told me that there were times after practice that he found it hard to breath. Rather than simply looking into the sky to see if it was full of smog, the coach could access the web service “Personal Environmental Impact Report” to decide just how bad the air quality is and possibly change the team’s workout.

I believe using digital trails of individuals is a more complex situation. As Dr. Estrin points out in the article, “the project still faced a host of challenges, both with the accuracy of tiny sensors and with the researchers’ ability to be certain that personal information remains private.” Individual privacy is a huge problem today and I think it should be carefully monitored so that the individual remains undisclosed. Using digital trails for research is one thing but I do not agree with tracking an individual person’s habits without their consent.

This article reminded me a lot of "Little Brother" and how technology was used to heavily to track the kids in that book. Like I said, it's really disturbing to think that all this information can be used to track us and know the intimate details of our lives, but it can also somewhat come in handy.

Foot: I'm so Totally, Digitally Close to You!

My favorite quote from this article was, "For students, it was now like being at a giant, open party filled with everyone you know, able to eavesdrop on what everyone else was saying, all the time." I thought this was so true, but hardly ever realized it. I'm usually really careful about what I post online, but when I'm on my facebook, I see so many of my friends posting things that shock me! I have one friend on facebook that actually posted her positive pregnancy test. I was actually a little disgusted at that, but thought to myself, "since when has it become okay to share this much information with people that you don't see on a weekly basis?"  However, like the article said, I have become aware of my friend's emotions, and every little change in their behavior is somewhat noted in my head.

I just started watching a TV series that really kind of sucks, but it's about a lady that gets pregnant and her VERY young baby daddy moves in with her. At one point, the relationships in the show were getting super complicated and she said, "I better update my facebook status." It made me laugh, but it also made me kind of sad. Has it come down to getting to know people through technology? I have always liked in-person interactions so much more because you can tell the tone of voice someone is using and how their body looks. It's just weird to think that the way we get "close" to people is digitally. I wonder what technological advances are to come to make "face time" even less probably...