Looking Back to Help Us Look Forward

The Unique Contribution and Project Discovery were enjoyable and interesting films to watch.  They reinforced that there is value in educational films and that when properly made and prepared the use of films can be of great value to learning.  I have felt at times that many people view films as a way to take up time and to give the teacher a break.  The most authentic learning happens through direct experiences, but at times with the limitation of the classroom, geography and group size make providing these experiences impossible.  What a teacher must be careful of is to find and use films or movies that are appropriate for the students and the learning objectives.  Another important component in using films is to teach students how to get the most out of films and to teach them that it is not a break and a time to turn off.  It is very easy in the present times to search and find material that is relevant but of low quality.  The story of the the student who fainted during the anti-bullying video is a perfect example of how the quick access to material can cause misunderstanding and potential problems.  This also relates to the fact that if a teacher does not take the time to preview and introduce material no matter how high quality the film is the message will be lost for many.  Film Tactics has reinforced that lesson.  

What also struck me about The Unique Contribution and Project Discovery was that if you replaced the word film with iPad and some of the other technical term such as photomicography with app, animation with virtual reality these films could have been used by the St. James School Division to promote their new iPad program that was in the news.  I hope that St. James has thought as thoroughly about the iPad program as it appear Encyclopedia Britanica had thought about the positive ways for film to impact student learning.  

Looking back at old films and the introduction to media archeology has shown that looking back at where we have come from in relation to technology is a valuable practice.  For some reason studying the history of technology seems counterintuitive to some, but looking back at the history of communities and cultures is a very normal and accepted practice.  Maybe if we were taught to look back more at technology and see that there have been many great ideas over the years and that many of the ideas and next greatest things are just new versions of the something from the past, some of the novelty and hype that often surrounds the next new technology could be dispelled and people could be more critical consumers of technology.

Guiding Students Through the Maelstrom in a Library

To hear the University of Manitoba no longer offers a master in library education is maybe not all that surprising if you look around schools today.  There are few librarians left and learning how to use the Dewey Decimal System and the card catalog might not be seen as relevant to learning in today's world.  What seems more surprising to me is that there has been no replacement or metamorphose of the librarian into a media specialist.  At one time there was some importance placed upon the expertise of a librarian as a person who held a specific and important set of knowledge and skills.  To think now that in today's information overloaded society that there should not be a specialist in schools with skills relating to research, searching skills, media and online ethics and responsibilities, and how to judge the information that is so abundant and available seems almost irresponsible to me.  I think this may be another example of how the speed of technology can blur the thinking of the education system.  It is like teachers and students are traveling on a high speed train and beside them only a few feet from the tracks is the billboard extolling the benefit and wonders of technology.  Everyone knows it there is a message on the billboards, but the train is moving to fast to make sense of it.  

Some people said the library is a dying place because in the online world there is no need to have a central location for information and knowledge.  This view doesn't take into account that the internet can be a lonely and misleading place.  In our world of information overload I think a library or gathering place is more important than ever.  It may create a place of sober second thought (Sir John A. Macdonald's not Mike Duffy's) for people publishing content on the internet as well a place to collaborate and share ideas and knowledge.  There is no way for one person to get a handle on technology and information and use it effectively in an isolated setting.  I think libraries should and may go through a resurgence if educators stop and think about the possibilities. 

"... Nature becomes a gigantic gasoline station, an energy source for modern technology and industry."

Heidegger has touched on a nerve for me with the above quote.  This attitude that everything can be used as a resource or monetized has changed the way we view our world and how we treat it.  Everyone is well aware of the damage being done to our planet by our ravenous appetite for resources.  Richard Sennett states, "...one million, for instance, represents the number of years Nature took to create the amount of fossil fuel now consumed in a single year."   It is obvious that something and everything needs to change.  I recently attended a Sustainable Energy Conference where a speaker spoke of the "silver bullet" that everyone thinks technology will provide and will save the world without us having to give up our current conveniences and comforts.  When I had sometime to reflect on that statement I came to the conclusion that we must all believe in the "silver bullet" or we would all be doing a lot more.  Our blind faith in technology will only lead to self destruction unless we can change our assumptions and and find a way to open our eyes to the essence of technology.

The person I heard speaking did not believe or have any hope that the silver bullet will ever exist.  


iPads in St. James

My biggest question that was not addressed in the CBC and Winnipeg Free Press articles that I read is, What sort of training are the teachers getting about using iPads?  They told parents to to monitor students on their iPads at home and to set up the iPads with accounts.  I hope there are opportunities for parent training sessions as well.

As a teacher I would be quite excited about a program like this but I wonder if the technology will  be introduced before the knowledge how to use effectively is in place.

I wonder if Denis' dysfunctional model of technology innovation may be relevant in June 2014?  Lets hope not.

EXTRAVAGANT CLAIMS, MASS PURCHASING, NON-TRAINING, MISUSE, NON-USE, REJECTION

May 22, 2013

What struck me about McLuhan was that he was not caught up in to media even though he was always in it.  His primary focus and goal appears to be to get his message and ultimately, the laws of media out there for people to access and use to figure out the world around them.   The creation of tetrads as a way for people to have a way to look critically at technology shows that he was a teacher at heart.  Most people do not associate the mainstream media as teaching tool, but I think that McLuhan must of seen the irony in using modern media as a teaching tool on this subject.  At times he was difficult to understand which is not the hallmark of a good teacher but at the same time his messages were profound and important and not to be overlooked.  I think the motive behind his work was to teach people how to save themselves from the maelstrom of technology.

We talked about some of the negative impact of technology in schools and how students use it, and the lack of judgement that seems ever more apparent in the Web 2.0 era.  I don't think we should be surprised, unfortunately.  I cannot think of another powerful force such as technology that has been unrolled so quickly and with so very little background knowledge for teachers and parents to grasp onto.  It is an incredibly hard job to stay at the forefront of technology when it changes so quickly.  There are no other core subjects that I could equate to technology use when we are talking about the social implications for students.  I think in many educational settings technology is viewed purely through the lens of a gadget or tool and not as a social force as well.  The education faculties and provincial curricula need to shift their focus away from only integrating technology into other subjects areas, but also need to start to explore technology as a area to be studied in social studies and the humanities.

May 13 & 15

The number of parallels that can be drawn from Poe’s, “The Descent into the Maelstorm,” and technology are many and varied.  When you view the story through the repurposed idea that we have been discussing in our class a very different version of the story comes to life.

The story starts on “Helseggen, the Cloudy” which can represent the cloudy view and thoughts that people in our age often have of the use of technology.  McLuhan’s, “The media is the message.” explains further our cloudy view of technology and what it can do for us.  Most people today see media as a liberating and boundary breaking innovation.  That is the message we are lead to believe by tech giants and their advertising departments, which leads many people not to question new technology, but to accept it and use it whether it results have positive or negative repercussions.  

The islands of Vurrgh, Moske, Ambarren, Iflesen, Hoeyholm, and so forth represent Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Google, Yahoo, HP, Dell and so on.  The sea that is described around these islands is a confusion of currents and waves coming from all directions and having no order.  I think that this represents the constant and unrelenting barrage of advertisements and messages about using technology or being left behind.  Poe uses the phrase, “monstrous velocity” to describe the current.  This phrase could also be used to describe the rapid pace of development of new technologies both positive and negative.

The uncontrollable force of the maelstrom can be viewed as the numerous negative effects that have come from technology use.  In recent times the consequences of texting and driving, and user created content in the web 2.0 frenzy that can shatter careers and lead to cyber bullying may be experienced by people who feel they have been sucked into the maelstrom of technology.

When the main character realizes his fate that he will be swallowed by the maelstrom and be killed, is the turning point that makes him realizes his arrogance, that he thought he could beat such a force of nature.  When he feels all his life will be lost is the first time that he starts to watch and think about what is going on around him, which in the end ultimately saves his life.   I wrote down the quote, “escape come from observation,” which I think is an important message when thinking about technology and how we use it.  I think the word observation could also be replace with reflection, which of course we have touch on in the Ellen Rose article.

I am starting to feel that reflection on technology is difficult because of the, “monstrous velocity” at which it is changing but at the same time, make the need for reflection all the more critical.


Lock in

Jaron Lanier introduced the idea of “lock in” in “You Are Not a Gadget” which is an idea that is not explored very often in media.  He relates it mostly to software design in chapter 1 but the idea of lock in can be applied to almost everything that we do.  The automotive industry is a perfect example of lock in.  We are tied to the internal combustion engine for many reasons but most people recognize the huge downside of this technology yet only the most superficial efforts to change this technology have appeared.  When I take time to look at some of the technology around me I find all sorts of locked in devices.  Many of the locked in devices around come from one company who is intentionally trying to lock me into their layers of devices that are interdependent to get the full value of them.  Lock in can happen unintentionally over time but I feel it can be very intentional by the creators and purveyors of technology and we should be wary of the companies that push the next greatest  life changing technology.
 

2.1.3.

I am currently teaching 2 grade 1 classes, math, science and social studies in Altona MB.  My reason for becoming a teacher were very practical to start.  When I was in the faculty of education at Brandon University very few teachers were getting jobs right out of university and I realized that being a male teacher in early elementary might give me an advantage in finding a job.  I now realize that the beginning of the education process is vital in producing life-long learners.
I have continued teaching early elementary students because they are fun and energetic and produce many new and interesting challenges.  My goal is to help kids realize themselves as learners and to keep them excited about the world around them.  I would like to see the kids who leave my class as more independent and curious about the world and to have bettered some of the basic skills needed to communicate and ask questions of the people and world around them.

In “On Reflection” in the 1600’s  the definition of reflection is, “...to turn one’s thought to something.”   In today’s fast paced, outcome driven society the idea of slowing down and making time to turn one’s thoughts on to a topic is not something generally valued.  The education system has instilled Dewey’s action driven reflection into everything that we do. I find that instead of looking in a mirror we are trained to view ideas and thoughts through a magnifying glass, that is instead of reflecting back, the light passes through the glass and is focused on a specific goal or outcome.  Ellen Rose’s view of reflection is difficult for myself to grasp and practice.  The question that leaves me with is; how do we instill the process of reflection with the qualities of care and attentiveness on a new generation that has since an early age always been asked to make sure that all they do is purposeful and has an outcome that has been clearly stated for them?

Educational technology seems to be evolving into an ever more complex and large topic in schools.  The definition that, “...educational technology as a thing, a gadget or a tool.” has been the primary focus of many educators.  The ideal that, “Educational technology is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources.”, is slowly gaining ground but has not been embraced by the majority because of a breakdown in the system of implementing technology in schools.  In many situations the idea that if the devices are in the schools they will be used is a misconception that is played out often.  There seems to be a disconnect with the amount of money and resources spent on hardware and the level of professional development and continued support that is required for educational technology to have the later and more meaningful definition.