Thursday, October 30, 2008
Extraneous matters: outsourcing and creativity
OUTSOURCING VIDEOS
1.) ABC News Report On Outsourcing To India (Negative aspects)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwwgXCOEYks
2.) ABC News : 20/20 : Myth : Outsourcing Bad for America (Positive aspects with John Stossel)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2IRrfcvVCg
HOW GENETICALLY PRE-DETERINED TRAITS CONTRIBUTE TO HUMAN CREATIVITY
He mumbles, so I couldn't understanding what Noam Chomsky (linguist and political activist) meant when he said that pre-determined traits contribute is what allow us to be creative. It would be great for me to understand what he meant.
3.) The Ideas of Chomsky-BBC interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EksuA4IAQIk
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Pink's Ideas: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play, Meaning
Pink started out by explaining to us the importance of being creative, and how we have gotten less creative as we grew older. Kids usually describe themselves as artists, but as they grew older, they are less likely to see themselves as one.
The importance of a good design cannot be stressed enough in a world that is gaining steam in terms of heading toward the creative works of the right-brain. Design is really everywhere and we all design something. For instance, most of us can distinguish the different types of font that we use for our computer writing. Design is important to businesses since a design that does not have a significant cannot attract buyers. Finally, design can really affect our future, since a faulty design can affect the infrastructure of our sociopolitical matters, such as during the 2000 Election.
In Chapter 5, Pink explained to us the eminence of a story in its ability to connect the teller with the listener. Fact-finding is readily an easy task, but assimilating those facts in the correct context is what actually will create an emotional impact.
Pink said that business leaders are beginning to pay attention to the value of a story in gaining attention. Business leaders are paying a lot of money just to attend a seminar by a screenwriter, Robert McKee, in order to understand its underlying structures.
Critique
I think that Pink was right to say that a story is important when it comes to creating an impact on the listener. But even the most effective story teller cannot always move the audience. For instance, when comparing political leaders, most people (and news networks) would say that John Edwards has better skills in delivering a story than either Hillary Clinton or Barrack Obama. He always uses emotionally charged stories, much more than the other two candidates. Even with Edward’s skills, he wasn’t able to get the democratic nomination.
In Chapter 6, Pink explained the importance of using both our left and our right brains at the same time, which he compares it to the ability to create a musical symphony. He said that the importance of “seeing the big picture” is immeasurable; for instance, it is important to understand relationships such as the ability to utilize the concept of negatives space in drawing a picture.
Pink said that many excellent workers are those who can utilize all parts of their brains; as such they are boundary crossers. They are people who can see things metaphorically and literally. They possess knowledge in the humanities and in the technical subjects.
In Chapter 7, Pink explained the idea of empathy. He said that empathy is an act of instinct rather than a deliberate act (I guess I need to learn this). A few interesting facts in regard to empathy includes (1) computers are autistic when it comes to their ability to empathize (2) autistic people are what the author described as a highly developed male brain and (3) women have more empathy than men.
In the following chapter, Pink said that play has its roots in our ancestors. As such, many people are beginning to realize the importance of play in our daily lives. There are numerous laughing clubs around the country, and companies have in the past incorporated some notion of play in a worker’s day-to-day activities. I addition, many universities, such as Carnegie Mellon, have created degrees such as a masters degree in entertainment technology.
Pink described happiness and joyfulness by saying that the latter is unconditional. As a kid, we can be carefree and just joyfully exist, and he believes that this part of our previous past cannot be neglected.
In the last chapter, Pink described the notion of meaning in life. He said that so far several universities such as MIT have taken spirituality as something that shares a relationship with science. MIT has invited the Dali Lama for a cross analysis between science and religion/spirituality. Nowadays, universities are beginning to offer courses that allow students to study some aspects of life’s meaning.
Critique
In this chapter, I have found that it is Pink’s weakest support. He relies on several researches that reaffirm what we have already known, such as meditation can reduce a person’s heart pressure. But moreover, he gave some data, such as that “72 percent of American would welcome a conversation with their physicians about faith.” But this is not so much as that the data suggest Americans are beginning to understand the value of faith in medicine, but it only tell me that Americans are interested in holding religion as part of the fabric of our society, in general. Secondly, I have found it a little bit hard to understand his writing when he tried to explain how science would explain certain intangible aspects of life, such as meaning or happiness.
The importance of a good design cannot be stressed enough in a world that is gaining steam in terms of heading toward the creative works of the right-brain. Design is really everywhere and we all design something. For instance, most of us can distinguish the different types of font that we use for our computer writing. Design is important to businesses since a design that does not have a significant cannot attract buyers. Finally, design can really affect our future, since a faulty design can affect the infrastructure of our sociopolitical matters, such as during the 2000 Election.
In Chapter 5, Pink explained to us the eminence of a story in its ability to connect the teller with the listener. Fact-finding is readily an easy task, but assimilating those facts in the correct context is what actually will create an emotional impact.
Pink said that business leaders are beginning to pay attention to the value of a story in gaining attention. Business leaders are paying a lot of money just to attend a seminar by a screenwriter, Robert McKee, in order to understand its underlying structures.
Critique
I think that Pink was right to say that a story is important when it comes to creating an impact on the listener. But even the most effective story teller cannot always move the audience. For instance, when comparing political leaders, most people (and news networks) would say that John Edwards has better skills in delivering a story than either Hillary Clinton or Barrack Obama. He always uses emotionally charged stories, much more than the other two candidates. Even with Edward’s skills, he wasn’t able to get the democratic nomination.
In Chapter 6, Pink explained the importance of using both our left and our right brains at the same time, which he compares it to the ability to create a musical symphony. He said that the importance of “seeing the big picture” is immeasurable; for instance, it is important to understand relationships such as the ability to utilize the concept of negatives space in drawing a picture.
Pink said that many excellent workers are those who can utilize all parts of their brains; as such they are boundary crossers. They are people who can see things metaphorically and literally. They possess knowledge in the humanities and in the technical subjects.
In Chapter 7, Pink explained the idea of empathy. He said that empathy is an act of instinct rather than a deliberate act (I guess I need to learn this). A few interesting facts in regard to empathy includes (1) computers are autistic when it comes to their ability to empathize (2) autistic people are what the author described as a highly developed male brain and (3) women have more empathy than men.
In the following chapter, Pink said that play has its roots in our ancestors. As such, many people are beginning to realize the importance of play in our daily lives. There are numerous laughing clubs around the country, and companies have in the past incorporated some notion of play in a worker’s day-to-day activities. I addition, many universities, such as Carnegie Mellon, have created degrees such as a masters degree in entertainment technology.
Pink described happiness and joyfulness by saying that the latter is unconditional. As a kid, we can be carefree and just joyfully exist, and he believes that this part of our previous past cannot be neglected.
In the last chapter, Pink described the notion of meaning in life. He said that so far several universities such as MIT have taken spirituality as something that shares a relationship with science. MIT has invited the Dali Lama for a cross analysis between science and religion/spirituality. Nowadays, universities are beginning to offer courses that allow students to study some aspects of life’s meaning.
Critique
In this chapter, I have found that it is Pink’s weakest support. He relies on several researches that reaffirm what we have already known, such as meditation can reduce a person’s heart pressure. But moreover, he gave some data, such as that “72 percent of American would welcome a conversation with their physicians about faith.” But this is not so much as that the data suggest Americans are beginning to understand the value of faith in medicine, but it only tell me that Americans are interested in holding religion as part of the fabric of our society, in general. Secondly, I have found it a little bit hard to understand his writing when he tried to explain how science would explain certain intangible aspects of life, such as meaning or happiness.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
October 23, 2008 Meeting
During our October 23, 2008 meeting, we listened to Eugene’s speech on the usage of technology in a workplace. He started out by providing us with a description of how a regular conversation between him and another person can turn into a big business deal, due to his twitting of his day-to-day activities. I like his idea that within a circle of workers, there are only a few connectors, and it is wise to establish good relationship with them, since they will help us get what we want. He also explained to us how hard it is to pay attention since there are so many things. He suggested that we should pay attention to something that is most relevant. If we overlooked something important, then our social networks will tell us what it is.
We also listened Craig’s presentation of Mashups. He said that it is possible to incorporate information from Facebook onto a personal website, but I also wonder whether it is easy to put information from a personal website onto Facebook
We also listened Craig’s presentation of Mashups. He said that it is possible to incorporate information from Facebook onto a personal website, but I also wonder whether it is easy to put information from a personal website onto Facebook
Friday, October 24, 2008
Collaborative Learning
The importance of choosing the right technologies to fit into the pedagogy is very important when it comes to teaching adults, since they are not as adept as younger students when it comes to navigating across different mediums on the web. For instance, many adults are not familiar with bloggings, even though it is well known by younger students.
Adults tend to have different expectations when it comes to learning. A few assumptions about adult learners include:
1.) They need to know what they are learning
2.) They need to see that learning provides them with relevant knowledge that is applicable to their own personal or professional life.
3) Adults want to apply their knowledge to something practical
4.) They need motivation to learn
E-learning is pretty cost effective for companies, but it also allow adult learners to develop their skills at their own time, rather than being hassled to complete their work.
When it comes to adult learners, cooperation and collaboration are also important. Cooperation refers to people working together, usually under the direction of an instructor. Collaboration refers to interaction between students that foster the development of meta-cognition, knowledge-building, interpersonal skills, etc. The latter emphasizes on processes whereas the former emphasizes on the end products. Fostering collaborative works requires understanding of grouping (group formation tends to break up into smaller group as the size increases), community building (that is, a sense of belonging), blending, and tool/technologies applicable toward learning.
The article mentioned a story of Bonnie who participated in an online learning environment in which the primary tools were asynchronous forum and a wiki. Bonnie is a part of a group of educators that ranges from those with great experiences in using technologies to those without much experience in using technology. Their job is to create a learning module that “addresses a particular issue of New Media as well a New Media artifact.”
According to Bonnie, her group wasn’t able to determine how the work should be carried out due to the fact that there are people in the group with very strong ideas, and they refuse to yield. The less assertive members of the group did not want to challenge the opinionated individuals with strong ideas.
Yet there were successes once the group switched to synchronous WebCT’s integrated chat function. Things went on smoothly from then on. Bonnie thought that if they had defined the roles of each person at the beginning then things would have had worked out better.
Critique:
I think that the case of Bonnie is particularly interesting for an online learning situation. The reason is that this example deals with people who are already educated, who can articulate themselves. Online learning for a group of non-English speakers would be drastically different, and so I would say that the collaboration between non-English speakers would also be different. I hate to see situations in which a few students, who are more assertive, take charge of the whole group.
Adults tend to have different expectations when it comes to learning. A few assumptions about adult learners include:
1.) They need to know what they are learning
2.) They need to see that learning provides them with relevant knowledge that is applicable to their own personal or professional life.
3) Adults want to apply their knowledge to something practical
4.) They need motivation to learn
E-learning is pretty cost effective for companies, but it also allow adult learners to develop their skills at their own time, rather than being hassled to complete their work.
When it comes to adult learners, cooperation and collaboration are also important. Cooperation refers to people working together, usually under the direction of an instructor. Collaboration refers to interaction between students that foster the development of meta-cognition, knowledge-building, interpersonal skills, etc. The latter emphasizes on processes whereas the former emphasizes on the end products. Fostering collaborative works requires understanding of grouping (group formation tends to break up into smaller group as the size increases), community building (that is, a sense of belonging), blending, and tool/technologies applicable toward learning.
The article mentioned a story of Bonnie who participated in an online learning environment in which the primary tools were asynchronous forum and a wiki. Bonnie is a part of a group of educators that ranges from those with great experiences in using technologies to those without much experience in using technology. Their job is to create a learning module that “addresses a particular issue of New Media as well a New Media artifact.”
According to Bonnie, her group wasn’t able to determine how the work should be carried out due to the fact that there are people in the group with very strong ideas, and they refuse to yield. The less assertive members of the group did not want to challenge the opinionated individuals with strong ideas.
Yet there were successes once the group switched to synchronous WebCT’s integrated chat function. Things went on smoothly from then on. Bonnie thought that if they had defined the roles of each person at the beginning then things would have had worked out better.
Critique:
I think that the case of Bonnie is particularly interesting for an online learning situation. The reason is that this example deals with people who are already educated, who can articulate themselves. Online learning for a group of non-English speakers would be drastically different, and so I would say that the collaboration between non-English speakers would also be different. I hate to see situations in which a few students, who are more assertive, take charge of the whole group.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
My Mother's Shanandoah
I am applying Pink's idea of empathy in my video. Guess what it is about before reading the rest....
I have always found it hard to understand my mother's perception of rural Vietnam, since I grew up in the U.S. She has a lot of nostagia when it comes to her homeland. As I later realize, her notion is quite similar to those (not necessarily mine) who came from the rural areas of the United States, which I can grasp more readily.
I have always found it hard to understand my mother's perception of rural Vietnam, since I grew up in the U.S. She has a lot of nostagia when it comes to her homeland. As I later realize, her notion is quite similar to those (not necessarily mine) who came from the rural areas of the United States, which I can grasp more readily.
Friday, October 17, 2008
October 17, 2008 class meeting
On our October 17, 2008 class meeting, we discussed Daniel Pink’s idea of outsourcing. One of the critiques of Pink’s ideas includes his assumption that only left-brain knowledge can be outsourced, as right-brain knowledge (once we begin to value it) remains in the U.S. According to one classmate, this assumption is base on the fact that left-brain knowledge is easier to outsource than right-brain knowledge since the latter is harder to transport; right-brain skills, such as creativity, can only be developed in a person rather than through automation. I might be wrong, but I think that the author might have some validity to the notion that right-brain knowledge would stay in the U.S. quite some time due to the reason mentioned above, and that it takes quite awhile for a society to transition from one type of economy to another type.
One of the criticisms from my classmates was that the book placed high emphasis on the author’s values rather than providing us with a more practical understanding on the importance of our left-brain, and equanimously, the right-brain. This culture has only begun to value the right-brain because of our excess in commodities.
Near the end of the class, a few students discussed the ways in which schools have begun to incorporate right brain activities into the teaching, and the social/economic/political factors associated with this development.
At the end, we listened to several presentations, including Podcasting/iTunes, Second Life, Mobile Technology.
One of the criticisms from my classmates was that the book placed high emphasis on the author’s values rather than providing us with a more practical understanding on the importance of our left-brain, and equanimously, the right-brain. This culture has only begun to value the right-brain because of our excess in commodities.
Near the end of the class, a few students discussed the ways in which schools have begun to incorporate right brain activities into the teaching, and the social/economic/political factors associated with this development.
At the end, we listened to several presentations, including Podcasting/iTunes, Second Life, Mobile Technology.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Is the right brain better than the left brain?
Summary:
In Chapter 1-3 of A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink explained the complexities of our brain and how our brain response to fMRI scans. He then went over the misconceptions that has pervaded over the years, and revealed the truth, mainly: (1) each side of our brain controls the opposite part of our body (2) the left hemisphere operates sequentially (3) the right hemisphere operates through context (4) the right hemisphere works holistically, whereas the left hemisphere pay attention to detail.
According to Pink, our society has a tradition of valuing left-brain thinkers, but the current trend is favoring those who can synthesize information with their right brain. He said that as our society evolves economically (from agricultural, to manufacturing, to industrial, and finally to informational), we have also created more abundance in resources. As a result, emphasis on material need becomes less important as people are seeking for spiritual, emotional, and artistic beauty, hence diminishing the values of left-brain activities. In addition to abundance, Pink said that automation and outsourcing of technical/engineering jobs devalued the need for left-brain thinkers.
Moreover, as we undergo a transformation from a society that relies on knowledge-based working sector and into a society that relies on creators and empathizers, our values also undergo changes. This change is toward people who can be creative, who have large emotional quotient over intellectual quotient, and those who have MFA rather than MBA.
Critique:
As I was reading Pink’s book, I have noticed that he simplified the brain by saying that they are literally two separate things. However, even if they are separate, they still have to function together in order for us to make any sense of our world. Perhaps, it might be more proper to say that each person has a mind that functions differently – which allow them to excel in their career choices– rather than that they are either left-brain thinkers or right-brain thinkers.
Summary:
In an audio of Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight, Jill started out by providing a personal account of how her brother’s schizophrenia led her to a career as a cognitive scientist, and then how a massive stroke shut down her own brain functions.
An interesting idea that she presented was that the left brain hemisphere is only about the past and about the future, and it thinks in language. But when she entountered a personal tragedy in which her left brain shuts off, she get to experience what it feels like for her left brain to shut off as she went in a journey to "lala land."
In the end she said that we have a choice of choosing whether to live in a world created by the left hemisphere or one created by the right hemisphere. For her, she would choose a world controlled by the right hemisphere since it is a more peaceful one. People would realize that they are not just individuals, but part of a collection of atoms wandering about the universe.
Critique:
I think that it is biased to say that the right half of the brain is more conducive to a peaceful world because it allows us to “experience” nervana. I am sure that there are those whose vision of the world through the right brain is as potent as it can be. On the other hand, I think that there are also left brain thinkers whose vision is that of a utopian world made up of logical, duty-orieted set of behaviors. Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative, for instance, is based on logic.
In Chapter 1-3 of A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink explained the complexities of our brain and how our brain response to fMRI scans. He then went over the misconceptions that has pervaded over the years, and revealed the truth, mainly: (1) each side of our brain controls the opposite part of our body (2) the left hemisphere operates sequentially (3) the right hemisphere operates through context (4) the right hemisphere works holistically, whereas the left hemisphere pay attention to detail.
According to Pink, our society has a tradition of valuing left-brain thinkers, but the current trend is favoring those who can synthesize information with their right brain. He said that as our society evolves economically (from agricultural, to manufacturing, to industrial, and finally to informational), we have also created more abundance in resources. As a result, emphasis on material need becomes less important as people are seeking for spiritual, emotional, and artistic beauty, hence diminishing the values of left-brain activities. In addition to abundance, Pink said that automation and outsourcing of technical/engineering jobs devalued the need for left-brain thinkers.
Moreover, as we undergo a transformation from a society that relies on knowledge-based working sector and into a society that relies on creators and empathizers, our values also undergo changes. This change is toward people who can be creative, who have large emotional quotient over intellectual quotient, and those who have MFA rather than MBA.
Critique:
As I was reading Pink’s book, I have noticed that he simplified the brain by saying that they are literally two separate things. However, even if they are separate, they still have to function together in order for us to make any sense of our world. Perhaps, it might be more proper to say that each person has a mind that functions differently – which allow them to excel in their career choices– rather than that they are either left-brain thinkers or right-brain thinkers.
Summary:
In an audio of Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight, Jill started out by providing a personal account of how her brother’s schizophrenia led her to a career as a cognitive scientist, and then how a massive stroke shut down her own brain functions.
An interesting idea that she presented was that the left brain hemisphere is only about the past and about the future, and it thinks in language. But when she entountered a personal tragedy in which her left brain shuts off, she get to experience what it feels like for her left brain to shut off as she went in a journey to "lala land."
In the end she said that we have a choice of choosing whether to live in a world created by the left hemisphere or one created by the right hemisphere. For her, she would choose a world controlled by the right hemisphere since it is a more peaceful one. People would realize that they are not just individuals, but part of a collection of atoms wandering about the universe.
Critique:
I think that it is biased to say that the right half of the brain is more conducive to a peaceful world because it allows us to “experience” nervana. I am sure that there are those whose vision of the world through the right brain is as potent as it can be. On the other hand, I think that there are also left brain thinkers whose vision is that of a utopian world made up of logical, duty-orieted set of behaviors. Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative, for instance, is based on logic.
October 09, 2008 class meeting
During the October 09, 2008 class meeting, we listened to Leslie Rule from KQED. She explained how mobile technologies has changed the way we live by asking how many people in the room has a cell phone.
She also explained to us that digital storytelling started out with a mission to heal an individual from abnormal psychological experiences. The stories heal the individual who created the project, but can also help the audience with similar problems. There were concerns, of course, with the usage of digital storytelling, such as when the teller lies about certain things.
One of the issues that my classmate raised is whether the next generation of technologies, especially locomotive media, will change the way we create digital stories. Wouldn’t digital storytelling be less personal and less effective, he asked? Leslie said that digital storytelling will provide many people with the ability to participate in the process. Instead of one person providing information at a very deep level, we have many people providing a broad range of information that are also very deep. Storytelling has changed from a personal to a participatory activity. But the idea that a group of people can produce materials that are therapeutic and truly personally meaningful is a little bit unconvincing to me.
One of the things that intrigued me was Leslie’s description of authentic learning. According to her, authentic learning only happens when we can apply what we learn to create change within our society. Though I wish she had given us her scientific description of authentic learning, it was nevertheless a good vision for developers of educationally related materials.
At the end, we listened to a presentation on the new Chrome browser.
She also explained to us that digital storytelling started out with a mission to heal an individual from abnormal psychological experiences. The stories heal the individual who created the project, but can also help the audience with similar problems. There were concerns, of course, with the usage of digital storytelling, such as when the teller lies about certain things.
One of the issues that my classmate raised is whether the next generation of technologies, especially locomotive media, will change the way we create digital stories. Wouldn’t digital storytelling be less personal and less effective, he asked? Leslie said that digital storytelling will provide many people with the ability to participate in the process. Instead of one person providing information at a very deep level, we have many people providing a broad range of information that are also very deep. Storytelling has changed from a personal to a participatory activity. But the idea that a group of people can produce materials that are therapeutic and truly personally meaningful is a little bit unconvincing to me.
One of the things that intrigued me was Leslie’s description of authentic learning. According to her, authentic learning only happens when we can apply what we learn to create change within our society. Though I wish she had given us her scientific description of authentic learning, it was nevertheless a good vision for developers of educationally related materials.
At the end, we listened to a presentation on the new Chrome browser.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Location-based technology and their relevancy
Summary
In the article “Mobile, wireless, connected information clouds and learning,” Mark van’t Hooft explained the need to make our technologies more mobile and connected. He said that today’s learners want flexible learning opportunities—no bells, little schedule, etc.
Mobility, according to Hooft, is the “physical movement from location to location.” Today’s learners want to be able to put their projects on the web so that they can access it at anytime they want; hence, web-based programs such as Google Earth, provides them with the storage space of their creations.
Users also want a rich experience. They want to be able to have personal control over the technology they use. They want to create new information, to customize their contents, to share what they’ve created.
One of the outcomes of this development is the ability to create our own educational/entertainment videos. Soon, the main developer of these educational/entertainment videos will not be the traditional media but it will be our friends and neighbors.
Through cloud computing, the user will be able to place his data onto a storage space available on the internet, yet still be able to access a “cloud” of computers that can hold massive amount of information, rather than simply put data onto a personal computer which has limited storage space.
Critique
Although I believe that many people are into new gadgets, I doubt that “the physical and digital worlds” are getting as blurry as the author suggested. Perhaps it is because I live with people who tend to be more traditional, more theoretical—rather than people who are into the latest gadgets. From my experience, those whom I’ve known don’t really rely on instant message or go onto Second Life to meet other people. The idea that everyone is absorbed into the digital world is a little bit exaggerated.
Summary
Revised 10/21/2008
In the article “Location-based and context-aware education: prospects and perils,” Adam Greenfield provided an account for the increasing usage of location-based and context-aware technologies. He started out by providing a background information for the roots of "ubiquitous technologies" by applying Moore's law (which says that the power of microprocessors double every 18 months) to the every increasing capabilities of our computing systems.
Ubiquitous technology might someday track every step that we make in our daily lives, besides having the capability of locating itself in space and time. However, the idea that a context-based technology can function reasonably as well as humans is far from the truth.
Although context-aware technologies can be promising, especially when it comes to application of it toward educationally-related uses, it brings up ethical and cultural concerns. For instance, the Japanese-designed program, JAPELAS, can do some context-based programming, but it uses information that take into account a person's age, social status, profession, etc. This might seem normal for a Japanese person, but gathering information about a person’s age is not an appropriate thing to do within the U.S. culture.
Critique
Near the end of the article, the author provided an application of location-based technologies toward education. He said that the application of technologies toward real events in space is a good possibility for learning, but I think that it is not as practical as it seems. Location-based technologies might allow a person with the convenience to do day-to-day activities, but one can rarely learn enough of the basics by relying on them. As one person have said, if you don't understand Heidegger, then you will not understand Heidegger no matter where you read his works, even with the help of location-based technologies that presumably help us contextualize the ideas. Location-based technologies might provide a good aid to learning, but it only allows you to "apply what you have learned" rather than “learning something new."
October 02, 2008 Meeting
During the October 2, 2008 online meeting, we looked at the knowledge students that the University of California, Berkeley gained from developing a website such as the 2007-08 Digital Media and Learning Competition. Some said that they will be able to organize their ideas well.
We discussed the core subjects that should be required to be taken by students before they finish school. We also looked at how we should structured standardized tests so that they would measure student performance in an unbiased manner. Most of the students whom I’ve chatted online believe that standardized tests cannot measure what they believe to be important skills that everyone should know. I thought that among the students in our class who teach in San Francisco, there would be some that actually support standardized testing, but then I realized that most are against it. They don’t think that it measures important 21 century skills such as the ability to communicate one another.
We discussed the core subjects that should be required to be taken by students before they finish school. We also looked at how we should structured standardized tests so that they would measure student performance in an unbiased manner. Most of the students whom I’ve chatted online believe that standardized tests cannot measure what they believe to be important skills that everyone should know. I thought that among the students in our class who teach in San Francisco, there would be some that actually support standardized testing, but then I realized that most are against it. They don’t think that it measures important 21 century skills such as the ability to communicate one another.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
21 Century Learning Concept Map
Wowww...this concept mapping tool is so powerful, much better than the one in Microsoft Word. I should have discovered it along time ago.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
The net generation and new ways of learning
Summary
According to Diana Oblinger, the author of “Growing up with Google,” the NET GENERATION, who grew up with Second Life and “mashups,” sees education with a different lens than those before them. Diana Oblinger said that the Net Generation thinks of education as if it should be run like a business. Learning has taken a new form due to the increasing capabilities of today’s technologies.
According to Oblinger, many students use the internet as a way in which they communicate with each other. Through the internet, they collaborate with each other on developing scholarly works (such as “The Flat World Project”). No longer are the students individually learning the materials by reading textbooks, but instead they work as a team in designing a product or solving a real life problem. Through mingling with the virtual worlds such as Second Life, students are able to interact with their peers around the world and become more educated.
Moreover, Oblinger warned of the misconceptions that we may have about the Net Generation. Not all of them know how to find trust worthy information on the web, even though they may prefer online research more than library-based research. And that not all of them have the maturity to act responsibly in regard to information they obtained over the internet.
Critique
I think that Oblinger has made a few invalid ideas in regard to the maturity of the students of the Net Generation. She said that they are less likely to reflect due to the high emphasis on experience-based learning. The problem might get worse if they are put into a learning environment (such as Second Life) where they are allowed to explore ideas without any guidance from a teacher.
To some degree, I actually think that students will reflect more in an online learning environment rather than in a classroom environment. Since the information provided through online learning programs will not be time-dependent, students can contemplate on a particular problem/situation without being distracted by extraneous noise (or their classroom friends).
Oblinger also said that students are less likely to think critically/logically. Yet I actually think that the Net Generation will be more logical thinkers than we do. The reason is that students are not required to response to questions posed by their instructors in a classroom full of people, in a short period of time. Instead, the students learn through well-organized, pre-developed instructions in which they can visualize and analyze without much distractions (and they can also press the “playback” if they later need).
According to Diana Oblinger, the author of “Growing up with Google,” the NET GENERATION, who grew up with Second Life and “mashups,” sees education with a different lens than those before them. Diana Oblinger said that the Net Generation thinks of education as if it should be run like a business. Learning has taken a new form due to the increasing capabilities of today’s technologies.
According to Oblinger, many students use the internet as a way in which they communicate with each other. Through the internet, they collaborate with each other on developing scholarly works (such as “The Flat World Project”). No longer are the students individually learning the materials by reading textbooks, but instead they work as a team in designing a product or solving a real life problem. Through mingling with the virtual worlds such as Second Life, students are able to interact with their peers around the world and become more educated.
Moreover, Oblinger warned of the misconceptions that we may have about the Net Generation. Not all of them know how to find trust worthy information on the web, even though they may prefer online research more than library-based research. And that not all of them have the maturity to act responsibly in regard to information they obtained over the internet.
Critique
I think that Oblinger has made a few invalid ideas in regard to the maturity of the students of the Net Generation. She said that they are less likely to reflect due to the high emphasis on experience-based learning. The problem might get worse if they are put into a learning environment (such as Second Life) where they are allowed to explore ideas without any guidance from a teacher.
To some degree, I actually think that students will reflect more in an online learning environment rather than in a classroom environment. Since the information provided through online learning programs will not be time-dependent, students can contemplate on a particular problem/situation without being distracted by extraneous noise (or their classroom friends).
Oblinger also said that students are less likely to think critically/logically. Yet I actually think that the Net Generation will be more logical thinkers than we do. The reason is that students are not required to response to questions posed by their instructors in a classroom full of people, in a short period of time. Instead, the students learn through well-organized, pre-developed instructions in which they can visualize and analyze without much distractions (and they can also press the “playback” if they later need).
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