more random ramblings (part 2)

This is the third attempt at posting some more insightful and reflective comments (?)that I have made in the last few days. Every time I have written something, I either get a phone call or get called away for some reason, and when I come back, my access to the site has expired. Therefore, I should probably save more often, or perhaps I have been not fully engaged, according to Kearsley and Schniedermann. What this does mean, however, is that I have had time to polish my thoughts (and prose) a bit more. The more I do this, the more apparent it becomes to me that Blogging is a good way of encouraging people to write, and also think about what it is they are actually writing. This relates to the idea that literacy is about communicating with others, through a means that has common rules and conventions.
As I am typing this (yes, typing. It is good rehabilitation for my finger), I am constantly checking for meaning and also to be sure that I am not being offensive to anyone. In looking at this process from the point of veiw of a student, it could be seen as a way of intrinsically motivating, that is, the motivation for doing it properly comes from within. Looking a bit deeper, however, there could be seen to be extrinsic motivation at work: make it the best you can, otherwise you may look like a bit of a clown in front of your peers.

more random ramblings

I have just returned from Brisbane, where I went to see my specialist about my finger. This entailed a total of 12 hours of driving. Prior to that, I did 3 days of work, which involved a lot of mackerel trolling (and thus time to think). Therefore the comments that I am about to post have had a lot of time to stew.
Last week I spent a fair bit of time reading and watching some of the articles and videos that come with the course. Two that stuck in my mind were: the blog from America regarding the slaying of a monster, and its relationship to English; and a "YouTube" video on engaging students. For some reason I can't find them again, so I can't reference them. What did pique my interest was the fact the engagement video placed so much emphasis on students becoming disengaged and the slogans and comments that came from them to that effect. As we are a free market ecomony, this means that the students who make such comments, and don't try, will be harder to employ in the future. Who is to blame for this?
This is definately not trying to say that any means of engaging your students should not be explored, rather that if all reasonable means are explored, and there is no underlying learning difficulty, and they are still not interested, it is no one's fault but their own.
An example of this is shown with two people I know fairly well. Both were told in about grade ten that they would never amount to anything. One of them has won an Oscar for animation, and owns a large company in Sydney that produces advertisements, and has started doing feature films. (He is also fairly useful regarding emerging technologies that students of today could be using in the future.)The other came in the top fifty in the recent "Richest people in Queensland" feature in the Courier Mail. Both instances relate to the video about the person who identified the choreographer of "Cats" as a dancer. On the flip side of this, no-one will probably ever hear about the people who are identified as not going to amount to much, and then don't. This is an example of being able to adjust the statistics to suit your purpose.

But wait, there's more........

After doing this course in term two, of 2009, the problem with my hand did not allow me to finish it. The result, I'll do it again, with the benefit of having looked at a lot of of the topics before. By having previously viewed much of this, I have had plenty of opportunities to reflect on how, and whether, this interesting technology could be used in the classroom today. An important focus of this course appears to be Kearsley and Schneiderman's engagement theory, and how it relates to engaging the students of today, and the future. Being a digital immigrant myself, due to my age, a lot of the first topic describes some of the problems I have had adapting to technology, that my children, aged nine and six, will not encounter.
Whilst some of this stuff is difficult for me to learn and understand, I can see it is the way things are heading, so therefore I must learn to use it, and effectively.
The aim of this continuation, of this blog, is to demonstrate that I have, indeed, reflected deeply on the concepts and ideas that we have been shown.
Whilst I can understand and appreciate this amazing technology, my geographic location, and the facilities available in the three schools that I have so far done prac in, cause some reservations the immediate applicability of this technology. This is not to say I would not use it if the opportunity presented itself, rather that current practicalities may limit these opportunities. As time goes on, more and more classrooms will be equipped with such things as interactive whiteboards, and will have a student to computer ratio of less than 5 to 1.