Comments on: Identity Maintenance

By: Kim Moore

Kim Moore — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 20:26:00 +0000

Sorry for the late reply, but life gave me a small window and I am trying to take advantage…
The educational reigns seem only necessary to the point of what is considered necessary for their adult life. If we only expect adults to correspond in texting-shorthand, why bother teaching them proper grammar. With the advent of spell-check and grammar corrections, why bother with teaching spelling either. I have posed these questions to English teachers only to receive cutting glares or chastising. The same response will be received from me when one talks about using calculators to learn math. The question asked usually being, “Why force addition/subtraction/multiplication/division on students when calculators can do the work for them?” My response is similar to my lecture on the whiny student comment, “When are we ever going to use this math in ‘real’ life?” Math is not a series of processes, equations and memorization. It is a way of thinking. Each exercise is a physical exercise of the mind. It is a training in logic and mental flow. Math may be my love, but I understand the need for all content areas’ base knowledge and their progressions from novice to expert. Jumping to a topic in the ‘future’ of your post, Literacy has many faces and each content area should be defined by each generation as to what is expected of their students as they grow into adults. Mental acuity should lay at the forefront of every decision.

By: Angie Hinson

Angie Hinson — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 07:10:57 +0000

Technology certainly is changing cultures and I think that perhaps teachers could trust their students a little more to allow the students to show the teachers some tricks of the trade sometimes. I read earlier from Phaedrus about how technology is being utilized with cell phones, and while my new cell phone still awaits me to switch sim cards and dive into it, my daughter is punching away on her new BlackJack. I mean my 14 year old could teach me some stuff, if I would just ask, instead of my only comment to her about her phone regarding the bill. And as far as MySpace goes, I do think that it could be useful for educational purposes that does not just hold a central theme of socializing. I read once somewhere where a teacher suggested that the students set up a profile for George Washington as a history assignment. And Podcasts, I think, could be part of instruction for teachers. I think that the reservations to try some of these uses of technologies are because the teacher may not know how to do it, and if so, then let the teacher just ask one of the students…just to get the ball rolling. These are just my thoughts and I do realize that many schools will not encourage this type of instruction because they area too concerned with the educational rules. It will take someone to push for these types of technological based teaching strategies, if the school does not support it. I hope to walk into a classroom one day where all the kids have their headphones in and their cell phones out on their desk right next to their pencil and calculator.

By: Lexie

Lexie — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:44:20 +0000

I agree the change is too fast, at times it is almost overwhelming the amount of change that is happening. I admit that even I get overwhelmed and frustrated at the speed technology changes. I feel that as a teacher, I must at the cutting edge of what is happening, how can my students learn if I don’t have a grasp of it myself? The questions now it, how do we overcome these obstacles? How do we maintain this pace?

By: dancingnancy533

dancingnancy533 — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:16:18 +0000

The rate of change for culture in regards to technology is in deed definitely moving at “ludicrous” speed and sometimes we can barely hang on to the railing. At times, education can hardly manage what is happening within the culture. From the time I was in school to the students of today it has struggled to keep up with the new definitions and the products of those definitions. The whole question of how do we teach to the 21st century student is just now being worked on, but eight years too late. Before you know it the students of the next decade starting in 2010s will be different than the students of this decade will most likely change and culture redefined again. It is at that point we’re back to holding on to the railing for dear life.