Blooming Questions Activity

1.The basis for 21st approaches to education lies in creating. The assignment required our group to begin with a level of understanding of teaching and learning. We then used this information to analyze exactly what some of the issues in education are and how we could address them through professional development. The next step required our group to take the first two steps and create an effective and necessary professional development plan for our staff.
There were no cut and dry answers that we could could use to develop these questions. The questions were developed based on understanding, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. Another aspect is the sharing of ideas and thoughts in order to teach and learn from each other. Gaining some perspective on the other students points of view.

2. The most interesting thing about this activity was getting input from group members with different levels of experience. I was intriguing to see how the four of us shared our ideas because two group members are experienced teachers while the other two have yet to begin their careers. The insight given by all of the group members spanned across the board even though much of the information shared was similar in content.
I was impressed by the suggestions for improvement made by the other group when they revised our questions using Bloom's Cognitive Taxonomy. They were very effective in taking our question and turning it into one that incorporated language from the new taxonomy map.

3. The value of exploring ideas about public education in the future is one that will determine what kind of educational leader I will be. Am i going to be an administrator who is reactive or proactive? Am i gonna see the changes coming and implement strategies prior to the movement or react to them after the movement? I am beginning to learn that if you cannot anticipate the direction of education early enough, I'll be behind in the game. If you're not early, you're late. Education in New Jersey is going through changes as we speak. I teach in a charter school that does some things differently than traditional public schools. We have an 11 month school year, two teachers in the classroom, active boards in each classroom, and instruction that flows through the use of technology. We have been doing many of these things for years now so it is somewhat amusing to start reading articles in the paper or seeing reports on the news about technology in classrooms and lengthening the school year. Something my colleagues and I have talked about for years is the notion that eventually districts would begin to make changes to improve their schools. Changes that we've already incorporated. So, when I think about public education and the future,I know thatits my job to make sure I'm ahead of the change.

5. This question is basically an add-on to what i expressed in question 3. Change is not something that is universally excepted in schools. It usually is met with resistance. The first step is identifying what it is that needs to be changed. The next step is a plan for the change. This is followed by the implementation or infusion of that plan. The final step is the consistency to stick to the plan, review, analyze, and revise if necessary. So what is the connection? The connection is the activity required us to think about a PD idea for our staff and incorporate 21st century skills. In order to do this, our group needed to to think about areas that we realize many schools are lacking in, mainly ours. Once identified, we needed to address the area of weakness with some worthwhile PD that could encourage teachers to create through collaboration. What I mean by this is for teachers to create a climate that is conducive learning that is based on structuring, experimenting, exploring, and construction whether it be generated by teacher to student creativity or student to student creativity.

Assigment 3

I will add to this post once I receive the book and read the other two documents. I can however, comment on the video by Sugata Mitra. Mitra highlights some very interesting points about the teacher motivation and teacher migration based on where they teach. He uncovers that over 60% of teachers in India who teach in remote areas would prefer to teach in more urban or suburban areas. Mitra suggests that this could have an effect on teacher motivation which could be linked to a deficiency in student learning. This whole idea of low student performance and low teacher motivation prompted a study by Mitra to gain a better understanding of student abilities in these remote areas as well student motivation.
He began this study by placing a computer in a slum and observing how the people in the area reacted to it. His observations included a child experimenting with it without any prior knowledge of computers. Within a short period of time, this child was showing and teaching other children how the computer worked. Mitra duplicated this experiment in other remote areas and experienced similar results.
What conclusions could be drawn from this?
What really stands out to me is not so much the interest in the computer. I believe technology is fascinating to most people. I am not surprised by the children's interest as much as I'm surprised at how civil they were in taking turns using it as well as the patience necessary to watch other children use the computer while they waited their turn.
I do agree that children can teach themselves as well as each other. This is especially true when dealing with a topic of high interest. I still do not believe it could replace a classroom setting with a teacher. There is more to a classroom then information. A classroom and involves the hidden curriculum and social curriculum. on the other hand, if Mitra is saying that they are not getting this anyway in the classroom, then it makes more sense.
My school does try to incorporate technology more and more each year. We understand the importance and significance of technology.

assignment 1

The Long Tail

1.        As I began reading the article it began to sound all too familiar.  It seems a though it is natural for people to crave more knowledge about something that peeks their interest.  In this case, a book written about mountain climber and a harrowing account of his near death experience received good reviews but it was soon forgotten.  Then, a decade later, another book about a mountain-climbing tragedy became a publishing sensation.  As a result of this, the original book began to sell again to the point that it out sold the later one.  Amazon’s plan to track buying trends and make suggestions based on that data was critical in this development.  They were able to tap into the market of a “hit-driven culture”.

2.       How do the local movie theater markets predict which films they think will be a hit?    

3.       I disagree to the point about the author suggesting that the problem is we live in a physical world.  Technology has improved our lives in so many ways however, at the exponential rate in which technology is developing, we will soon be at the point where the human brain will no longer be able to comprehend and keep up with the demand of technological systems.  I believe that’s the problem.

Assignment 2

Why video games are such a force in learning, civics, and innovations-
http://vimeo.com/22671352

This video addresses how higher order thinking skills are developed through the use of video gaming. Kurt Squire, a video game designer, explains how playing certain video games elicits higher order thinking such as applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. For example, he explains how you don't get very far in a game if you think about one sort of solution to a problem. The only way to be successful in achieving the goal of the game is to step back and think of all possibilities. Another example of gaming eliciting higher order thinking skills is in the the game Citizen Science. In this game, the students learn that the lakes are endangered and the are presented with the challenge of developing a solution. They do this through a process of learning about lakes, understanding what is happening, analyze the situation, and create a solution to improve the situation. Squire also brings up some interesting points about challenging students by pairing them with other students with different interests and learning levels.

Paul Gee on Video Games, Learning, and Literacy
http://vimeo.com/16430819

Paul Gee discusses the authenticity of learning in video games as compared to a subject such as Algebra. He makes a comparison to assessment in our current school system and a video game such as Halo. He makes an excellent point about how we trust the programing involved in the game Halo so much so that there is no assessment necessary following the completion of the game. The completion of the game is the assessment. The completion of the games is a true demonstration of higher order thinking. A demonstration that the person who completed the game remembered, understood, applied, analyzed, evaluated, and created. The evidence in this is in the final product. His question is, and its a good one, why don't we assess this way in our school system? Why is it determined by an assessment that is developed by people who may or may not even live in the same state? Gee makes a comparison to our current school school system virtual school curricula. The reference to "skill and drill" is example of how we limiting our children to memorization which is a lower order thinking skill and is usually forgotten because its not authentic in understanding.