Well, that was fun! Julye, you were missed. Hope you are better soon!
To see my my TED again, click here. Will be back later.
March 27
Still working on this post. Right now, I'm preoccupied with getting my tax information ready for ultimate processing. However, in response to Denis's class summary e-mail, I figured to at least post this. Denis asked to post Ma & Pa Kettle. It is accessible from the link to my TED, but it's also below for your convenience.
In his summary e-mail, I like what Denis said about Ma & Pa. I inserted that clip more as a hee-haw wrap-up, but also to remind us of 1) how our students can make mistakes and how sensitive we need to be in debugging their thinking, and 2) to illustrate how one culture may represent math vs another. It's a good LO for both pre- and in-service math teachers (and others, as Denis has pointed out the possibility of incorrectly applying technology). As Denis said, Ma's & Pa's answers were wrong. True, but only if judged against what we consider to be right. Their logic was apparently ok. How do we get a student, maybe in grade two who makes some creative but consistent mistakes, and who maybe presents a legitimate understanding issue, to learn the "right way?" There is more than one idea/technique, I know. At a cultural level, I think Ma & Pa remind us again of the relativism card. Given that, and this is actually part of a title of a course offered by the faculty, is education all about cultural practice? Consider ICT, it certainly is a major part of our culture. Anyway, have to go. I'll be back again a later (again). See Mike N's post for a Ma & Pa equivalent video.
Ma & Pa Kettle Video
March 27 (cont'd)
Well, I'm back again, this time to finish. Just to let you know, it's Saturday night and I have my slide rule handy to help make sure my post is properly calculated! As I go back to culture and technology, I want to say one last thing about Ma & Pa Kettle. When I chose the video, I truly did not think about the technology angle the way Denis did, how Ma’s & Pa’s doing math is similar to the way educators today try to make the old paradigm of education fit into the reality of current social conditions. That analysis of Ma & Pa was very insightful. Thanks, Denis! By-the-way, doesn't Ma & Pa remind a bit about the Beverley Hillbillys?
The TED mash was capped nicely with the Jap Zero. If the film embodied the best of education practice of the time, what would a film representing the best of today's techniques look like? Could film be made about how to collaborate globally using a PLN? Of course! The same idea applies for the older technologies of scrapbooks (portfolio is today's buzz word) and slide rules. LOs would be easy to do, but the holograph? There I ask, is it necessary? I'm still wrestling with that one (not literally!). In a nutshell, I think the TEDs gave us a snapshot of the best of educational technology as our culture has evolved. I'll be reading some material over the next week and will post separate entries. I may say more about Thursday then. For now, I'll leave by citing a quote from one article. I think it speaks volumes about the cultural transformation taking place today. The paper is by renound sociologist Manuel Castels, Toward a Sociology of the Network Society:
We are just at the beginning of a most extraordinary cultural transformation that is reversing the course of thought that has prevailed among the world's dominant groups since the Enlightenment.Given that, can we expect much more from the field of education as it is now evolving?
