After reading Chapter 14, a few concepts really stuck out at me. First, was a passage from the chapter that just I found to be interesting and almost funny, in a way. After studying education at the graduate level for a number of years, I find can definitely find humor in a line like “another fad in the long list of miracle cures we have all seen roar into our busy work environments, disrupt out routines, offer incredible promises, only to fade away like broken dreams into mists of organizational forgetfulness”. Mists of organizational forgetfulness! How awesome is that!
I’ve seen A LOT of programs and ideas at my school die out and float away into that “mist”. I’m sure we can all relate to the types of “miracle cures” the author is taking about.
Aside from my simple observations about the authors writing style, I really did actually find a few interesting concepts throughout the chapter. I really like the idea of “Human Capital”. It applies nicely to education. After all, we are in the business of preparing students to be productive members of society. I guess you might say our “capital” is “humans”.
Later in the chapter the author details a number of principles that “focus on performance”. I especially like the idea of “valued accomplishment” and how it is necessary to produce great performance, thereby reinforcing the ideals of hard work, great knowledge, and motivation. As teachers, this is key to educating our students. They need to know that how they perform and what they do in the classroom is valued. They need genuine feedback on authentic assessment. If I assign some lame busy work assignment, give them all “A” grades and then dump the pile of papers in the trash, I’m not really providing much of an education to my students.
As for our technology assignment for the week, I searched around itunes, and found some really great art/art education podcasts. The site I posted on my blog is called EWArt. It’s a site that provides information on art and art history and has a number of short, video podcasts available on a number of art related subjects. I specifically posted a video podcast about The Mona Lisa. I am DEFINITELY going to start using this in my classroom. So many great possibilities! I also thought I might mention itunes U. It’s a really cool section of itunes that has thousands of podcast lectures on numerous content areas.
We’ve been using podcasts at our school for the last couple of years. One of the main reasons our district switch to Macbooks was the creative educational possibilities the iLife suite is able to provide. Many of my colleagues have been designing lessons that require students to create podcasts using Garage Band. It’s a really fun and exciting way for students to present information to their classmates. A few of my colleagues have even started compiling podcasts of lessons for when they are absent from the classroom. I myself have a podcast lesson planned for next trimester.
I’ve been involved in some extensive Apple/Macbook training this year, and part of that training revolved around the many uses for podcasts in the classroom. Not only have we discussed the technology use, but also the design of a specific podcast lessons. Often times introducing new technology in the classroom can be unsuccessful if students are just thrown into using it without any guidance. We’ve discussed planning a podcast lesson and how to guide students through the process, including topic research, scripting, effective recording techniques, and rubrics for assessment.
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