The Farewell Blog

I'm looking forward to the video TTT. When I saw that a team was going to discuss videos, my first thought was along the lines of we're way past VHS... Of course I was wrong to think in such terms. Instead, it looks like there will be lots of creative possibilities I know very little about. I have made very, very few videos in my time and about 99.9% of them would only ever be interesting to me and those who have to feign interest because they love me.

Digital crafting for education. Sort of.

Speaking of crafting and project-ing... Does anyone know of an Athens stitch-n-bitch situation? I am interested.

Struggling to write

It sounds like all of us slacked on our blogs. Just a little. Many of us said (and I agree) that I wasn't sure what to write. I know Team! might read the blog, but I don't know much about them as an audience. Anyway, for me, the problem isn't so much that I don't know what to write for this weekly blog about technology; it's more than I do can't seem to write at all this semester. It's a problem every day in every class.

Just last night, my partner who is currently a Spanish teacher was speaking wistfully of hid days of writing paper and of the pleasant, buzzing mental fatigue that comes from writing energetically and critically - when the inches of text seem to spring from the page and edits are just as exciting as the original writing and before you know it, you have produced something. Something imperfect, yes, but something of which you are (hopefully) proud.
"I never have that experience anymore," he said. "Do you?"
And I kind of went off.
Yes, I know that feeling well - it's great. But more often these days I have the feeling of knowing I have to write something but having absolutely no ideas for writing anything let alone the thousands of words per week I have to write. Instead of springing from my fingertips, it's more like each word is located at the tip of the root of my tooth and must be slowly, painfully extracted.
And it's kind of a lot of words:

1. Blog for this class
2. 1000-2000 words (alternate weeks)
3. 400-600
4. 800-1000

And that does not include any papers, summaries, presentations, digests, or critiques for the classes or my adviser. I know it's very standard for a semester of grad school, but I can't figure out why I am so uninspired when it comes to writing. I like my classes. I just can't seem to write for them.

I've tried exercising. Changing my routine. Establishing a routine (though it's admittedly not really possible to do both of those things very well in seven weeks). Writing at home. Writing some where else. Outlines. Graphic organizers. Freewrites. Voice recording. And lots of mindless kitten videos and pinning pretty and delicious things.

Anyone else have ideas for how to generate ideas when none seem to come?

Synchronous Teaching

I thought that Ashley did a great job addressing us via skype. Actually, I thought the whole group did a great job of introducing Skype and being good presenters. I don't think I would be so confident at addressing the class. How are the rules of presenting different for an online class? It seems that many are the same - eye contact (even if eye contact via webcam is more of an approximation than actual eye contacts), fluid movement, clear transitions, and well-projected voice. Lots of work to do!

Facilitating

Facillitating in a flipped classroom.

While we were leading the discussion, I kept feeling like I was forgetting something. Since we had not had the initial micro-lecture or shared experience of viewing something together, I felt as though I couldn't be sure that anyone knew what I was talking about. Perhaps if we had initiated the class with some sort of question about the viewing experience or something like that, rather than leading somewhat cold with "write one sentence on your blog..."

Overall, I think it went well. I think that undergrads, in my experience, resist reading to a ridiculous degree. I agree with Nick that it is important to practice critical reading. The only way to become adept at critical reading is to work at it. At the same time, it seems like we could meet the students half way by letting them watch videos of the topic as some of their home work or to spark discussion in class.

Pinterest and Performative Femininity

Ever since Sherry mentioned that Dr. Domizi (sp?) has used Pinterest as part of her women's studies classes. I joined Pinterest to look for wedding ideas and as I browsed, I was amazed at how many images and ideas served to reinforce traditional notions of femininity (I'm working on a new board devoted to it now). Because it is so visual, it's easy to give a cursory assessment and then examine the ideas more deeply. It's also a social bookmarking site that many people are already using, so it has the added benefit of already being part of some students' lives and routine. I could see it being useful in women's and gender studies, but also in fashion merchandising, marketing, photography, elementary ed, pop culture, sociology - all sorts of things.

A downside is that since it's not in chronological order, it would be tough to arrange suggested links in sequence with the semester, but I suppose that could be mitigated by labeling different boards with the week or month when you want the students to explore it.

Another downside might be that pinterest encourages wandering. But at the same time, the whole internet is a wonderland and it's usually kind of tough to stay on task - for example, for this post, I spent a good 15 minutes looking for the perfect example of negative gender stereotypes before giving up and going back to writing this missive.  

Parenthetical Praise

Technology in education is a big deal. Why? Shiny gadgets are awesome and seem to evince panacean auras that, to some, promise glittering fixes to the complicated intractable problems that plague public education. Yes, this is an oversimplification.

Many things are made easier, better, or out and out  possible with technology (thank you wikipedia, padmapper, and all the other technologies involved in allowing my partner and me to select a rental house in a desirable location based on advice from locals, sign and pay for it,  get directions, and ultimately arrive here without ever having been to Georgia or knowing anyone here). 

That said. Doing something faster or louder or even more interactively isn't necessarily better if the thing you are doing isn't better in the first place. I'm thinking of (among other things) flipping the classroom and some of the critiques leveled against  it, but my awesome teammates and I will give more on that in a few weeks.  It seems that for technology to be truly worth the effort of earning something new, convincing others to learn something new, and expending the patience (not always a renewable resource) to play with it, that thing should do something at the very least better and ideally something that isn't possible with the current method of doing things. 

For example. I have a professor who loves to ask us to do activities such as think-pair- share and carousel by sharing our brainstorming and conversations via comments on the wiki rather than using the white board or giant sticky notes. In some ways, in that privileged context (all of us have laptops or tablets, we're all there by choice, etc.) that technology saves s the step of sharing pens, squinting at others' handwriting, and allows us to return to the conversation days or years after the class period is over. The technology augments the central, social tenants of the dialogic classroom. It allows us to share what we know, learn from others, and return to it should we need to. It also allows a space where we can bring the outside world into our discussions thereby expanding the dialogue beyond the boundaries of our shared reading. 

This is part of why I like blogs. Blogs allow students to reflect and articulate thoughts about the topic, while allowing students to link to content of interest, and to share that interest with others. It has the potential to create a multiplicitous conversational space instead of the typical Initiation-Response-Evaluation so common in many classrooms.

Technology (or lack thereof) in my teaching

Suggested Prompt: 
Make your first post on your blog. You might talk about your reasons for taking EDHI9040, experiences teaching or learning with technology, or your preconceptions of blogging. 

I wanted to take EDHI 9040 because I don't feel particularly adroit when it comes to using technology, never mind leveraging it for creative classroom purposes. I feel like I could do more with what's available. 

Last semester I taught a class for pre-service elementary school teachers. For that class, the most "tech-savvy" things I did were to make a wiki and to invite a guest speaker via Skype. That's it. Toward the end of the semester I tried to incorporate a topic-related video each day because even though I thought the readings were dynamic and thought-provoking enough on their own, my students clearly did not agree with me. 

I'm also taking EDHI9040 because I'm concurrently taking an online TESOL methods course. My adviser told me that part of the reason that instructor was hired was because she is so creative when it comes to teaching online. I think it will be very helpful to take this class while taking an online class so that I can observe firsthand how someone in my field incorporates technology.