Chapter 4: Design for Knowledge

This chapter was hard to grasp: teaching the structures and processes related to disciplinary knowledge. For most of us, we don't know the structures/processes to other content areas so it would be hard to discuss and to think about this abstractly. I appreciate the fact that the book calls the division of human knowledge somewhat artificial: humanities, social sciences, and hard sciences. I was surprised that the book didn't comment on the preferential treatment given to the hard and even social sciences compared to the humanities. Generally speaking, if you look at the amount stipend giving to a full time graduate student in each area, you will find that hard science students are compensated the best, where humanities are compensated the least. Clearly, this has to do with the perception of their relevance and usefulness to the rest of society: a doctor/pharmacist/scientist is more useful than a linguist/classicist/historian.

Chapter 8: Designs for Community

Finally, a chapter about cooperative learning. My presentation was about a new technology, Interactive White Boards and what applications I thought would be particular useful. I found that Interactive White Boards are a great tool in both have differentiated instruction, as well as in creating a cooperative learning environment or a community learners within your class. Cooperative learning can be defined as “a relationship in a group of students that requires positive interdependence (a sense of sink of swim together), individual accountability (each of us has to contribute and learn), interpersonal skills (communication, trust, leadership, decision making and conflict), face-to-face promotive interaction, and processing (reflecting on how well the team is functioning and how to function even better) (Johnson & Johnson, 1994, p. 1).” From this definition, it is clear that in cooperative learning the students facilitate their individual learning, as well the holistic learning of the class, through their joined interactions with one another. Just like I found a difference between working cooperatively and engaging in learning cooperatively, the book equally made a differentiation between cooperative learning and collaborative learning. This chapter spends time looking at the technologies that could appear in a virtual community, we, as teachers, should pay attention to these new tools as with time they will most likely start to become standard. (look at the use of Blackboard (site) over the years)

Chapter 9 Assessment

While the means of standardized assessment has changed a little, now there is Computer Adaptive Testing and many of the tests which were before online offered on paper, are now offered online, I can’t say that it has changed for the better. CAT testing is extremely difficult in that each question must be answered before moving on to the next so there is no skipping and coming back to a question. Also, you can solve problems on the test booklet anymore, you must have a separate sheet of scrap paper to work out what appears on the screen. Essays are typed instead of written. While the test does give interactive instructions on how to use the computer, for those will little exposure or familiarity this test must be that much more intimidating. Not to mention the fact that many colleges and universities are deciding that standardized test scores are not that important any more, some are even abolishing them entirely. Rubrics, portfolios and web-based assessments are what teachers are turning to in their classrooms today as new or alternative means of assessment. All three of these assessment methods are tools in helping the next generation of students to do better on the Computer Adaptive tests that they will begin to face in their futures. Perhaps, they will be better prepared….

Chapter 7: Information OverLoad

This chapter reminded me of the current commercials running for Microsoft's new decision making engine Bing! These commercials show people conversing with friend who are experience an information overload and how lost the basic ability to communicate and instead recite meaningless facts of information that are only minutely related to the initial question or comment of the person.

Check out the commercials here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jMt6saTqq4


http://www.bing.com/

As we continue to evolve into a technology-based world, our students need the skills featured in these chapter, just as we have discussed in class. It is no longer having the knowledge intimately that is valued, but being able to find, synthesize, process, apply and teach others the info that is valued. There are certain skills that must be acquired in order to do this (e.g. determine a bad website from a good one to use as a source on a paper) that teachers must begin to instill in their students. It seems that the younger people have become so infused with technology that they have lost this ability to separate themselves and to consider their actions/the information abstractly or de-contextualized. In the news, we have seen a lot of children being arrested for possession of child pornography because they sent someone else a picture of themself naked on Facebook. Or people not getting hired because they have inappropriate my space pages. There is such a thing as being too close to the technology.

Chapter 6: Literacy

Recently, I took a class on Urban Education and Reading Problems in Secondary edition. Both classes focused on literacy and particularly on cultural literacy. I am intrigued by both the literacy gap, as well as this concept of cultural literacy. In some ways, literacy actually relates to encoding, as well as code breaking. Similar to real code breaking, each code in this cultural relationship is 100% unique per individual--a representation of the memories, concepts, symbols, meanings, and associations that are important and meaningful to the person making the association. Literacy in some ways a social skills--people use literacy to relate to one another. As the gap widens and people are becoming less literate and even culturally literate, they are less able to relate to other people or even ideas/symbols in a meaningful well--and thus, less likely again to be a viable candidate in today's job market. Surprisingly, literacy based problem solving games are on the rise, just as demonstrated in the book in Figure 6.

http://jayisgames.com/archives/2009/05/llama_adventure.php



http://jayisgames.com/tag/text

Class Discussion that was Cut Short!

Designs for Problem Solving

• This chapter touched on a lot of issues we began to discuss last class period, such as the failure of primary and secondary schools in producing the kind of thinkers that can be successful in the business world

• It opens with a brief comment about Descarte and the “Ghost in the machine” gives a brief history of how we have previously thought about thinking and where we have come to today

• 3 important thinking strategies that need to be developed:
• memory,
• information extending processes (inductive encoding, combination and comparison ((access and excel)),
• and information arranging processes (deductive most used in learning things unfamiliar)

• learning in a non-linear way…..

• memory: as muscle (FLL and math), as canvas, as library; good memorizing means that you can acquire, retain and achieve…..

• memory as a series of networks between concepts in our brains

• concept maps are a tangible activity that is a physical representation of the way in which we remember---think about main ideas, build relationships b/t these ideas, then related to previous concepts and build on it; how many of use concept maps and how do you use them?

• rather than teacher or learn center, education should be problem center

• good problem solving allows students to make a test prediction, inexpensive equipment, complex to elicit multiple problem solving, and benefits them

• bad problem solving doesn’t do those things, when there is no absolutely right way or fixed formula for solving the problem

• isn’t this the best kind? Isn’t this real problem solving? Isn’t there always more than one answer, and isn’t better to reason through the outcomes of the multiple paths or to be able to present something in three different ways rather than just in one

• Activities should be authentic, should build knowledge, constructing activities ask students to make/produce something (observable understanding of knowledge), and sharing
• I’ve definitely seen a huge shift in foreign language learning in using authentic materials/activities in the classrooms, where have you seen shifts?

• being smart in the world of info tech has less to do with knowing something and more to do with knowing how to find information, being able to synthesize the information and teach yourself and/or others, and being able to apply that knowledge in a meaningful/relevant way

• for me the smartest people that I’ve met are the people who can make the connections b/t the concepts and can extend their thoughts throughout history and relevance in a way that is transcending and also like stream of consciousness

Questions:

What is more important activities or problem-solving?

Is too much problem-solving a bad thing?

How can we design more constructed means of evaluation/assessment i.e. in terms of visible learning?

How can teachers become better problem solvers themselves? Should there be more demands on continuing education be placed?

Should we give our students more power in terms of designing their own activities?

How much technology is too much?

Blog Comments:

How can incorporate spreadsheets/access/problem solving in humanities, such as foreign language

learning or reading? Julia in your blog you said “What this course has started to do in my own thinking is reevaluate my use (or lack) of technology in the classroom as a method for designing disciplinary (history) knowledge.”

Marc said “I have found an increased resistance in students' willingness to deal with things that are de-contextualized. Perhaps it's because the internet has brought the realities of the world to students' minds on an unprecedented scale.” What are we loosing with students no longer being able to de-contexutalize? Isn’t this an inherent part of problem-solving?

“This point, I think, bears particular relevance to today's world of constant texting, Tiwttering, and status-updating. To withhold social communication in most project-based activities is in many cases pointless.” Will we ever by able to incorporate this social tools inside the classroom or should they be left outsides?

Tei says “Our life consists of continuous choices, and the choices bring about problems.” I like how Tei focuses on the choices rather than problem solving as those are a huge part of solving ill-designed problems.

Hanwool says “According to revised Bloom’s taxonomy (2001:
“Before we can understand a concept we have to remember it,
Before we can apply the concept we must understand it

Before we analyse it we must be able to apply it

Before we can evaluate its impact we must have analysed it

Before we can create we must have remembered, understood, applied, analysed, and evaluated”.” I think the learning can start with any skill among them or sometimes integrated skills. According to problems and choice of the individual, we should adjust our thinking skills flexibly. How can we teach students to do this?

Yu-Ting Yang says “For instance, in the first class, the teacher asks students to introduce themselves as if they were in a job interview. After listening to each other’s self-introduction, students can share what are their impressions to others. If other students’ impression is not the image the target student wishes to convey (there might be some misunderstanding in the communication), he can ask them why they think so (what he has said or what he has done that lead to this impression) and he can also think of another way (with different attitudes, tones, or wording) to present himself, which might lead to another impression. The final goal is to help students present themselves to create an impression that they desire in a job interview. The purpose of this class is to improve students’ communicative skills when they encounter misunderstanding in the conversation. I thought this was a great idea relevant to the working world!

Jasmine says “First teachers introduced related vocabulary of school life, such as semester, credit, drop, register, and dormitory. Then students surfed the websites, made some research of assigned schools, and used spreadsheets to list the characteristics under each aspect. Next each group had to figure out ten questions about each school which they would ask the representatives in the educational fair. Third, teachers guided student to learn communicative skills in American culture, such as how to greet, break the ice, change the topic, and end the conversation. Since students had to talk to the representatives who were native speakers of English, they felt the need to learn how to talk appropriately and politely. The next step was to go to the educational fair and have interview with the representatives. After the fair, students chose one of the five assigned schools and made power point to introduce it to other classmates. Finally all the students voted and decided on the best school for studying tour. This activity took several weeks and worked very well. By means of real interaction with native speakers, students in outer circle had opportunities to not only practice speaking but also applied what they had learned to real-life context, which made learning become more meaningful.”

Chapter 5 Problem Solving

This chapter touches on what I had expressed the previous class, about how our primary and secondary schools are doing a disservice to their students by producing graduates who can't get jobs in the real world. In a technological age, where information is literally at our fingertips, it is more important that we know how to synthesize, apply, contextualize and interpret the information. For me the smartest people I've met are the people who are able to contextualize and who see the connections on the larger fabric of the issue at hand and who can carry their concept through these connections and bring it to life for their listeners. It's not what your know or how much you know but how you connect/use/apply the info. People who are able to carry you through their connections are transcending, as our their ideas. Relation and connection are often taken for granted because our world has become so technologically connected and social, yet the ability to relate and connect ideas are still fundamentals skills for handling de-contextualized information.