In my first C4T Dr. Strange spoke about lectures vs Technology. I really appreciated this post by Dr. Strange. One reason is because I have never been a big fan of lectures. I barely retain the information spoken and it can get really boring. Now, I do agree that if the speaker is gifted to speak, they can mantain your attention, for the most part. It's only when they get long winded and start to rample, is when they lose their listeners. I love when Daphane Koller said, "by using technology in the service of education, we can change the world in our lifetime.” This really inspired me because you want to see and reap at least some of the efforts that you put forth, on this side of life.
Overall, I thought this was a timely and effective blog for EDM310. I'm being transformed into a better thinker through this class. It's teaching me to dare to be different, for the improvement of education. This should be the goal for every leader of education.
My Reply
This was a well thoughtout post Dr. Strange. I grew up on lectures, whether in church or even now, still in classrooms. If someone asked me, "are all lectures bad," I would definitely say no. I believe, in some areas you must lecture, like educating a child on what's right or wrong, or even sermons(in most cases). But you brought out some beautiful points in this post. For example, when Daphane Koller said, "by using technology in the service of education, we can change the world in our lifetime.” Technology is definitely needed in today's educational classes and more. It's faster and more reliable than most methods used today. Surley lectures can be boring, and like stated in your post, we don't retain but a small portion of what is spoken, but technology is fun and a nice learning tool, it is our future for education. Now, I'm sure there are many debaters of this idea, but with every great dream, their are a thousand opposers sent to kill it. But we must dreamimg on, and continue chasing our dreams, to see them come to past! Not later, but "in this lifetime," as Koller so sweetly put it.
My second C4T was in reply to Dr. Strange's post about, "Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?" This post seemed to be controversial in a way to me. Theason is because Dr. Mcleod chose to use a new method to convey his point. Mcleod wrote a post about the things we should not let our children do. It was written in a strange method, but if you read unto the end, you can see his point clearly. Most leaders are afraid of what they don't understand, so they reject it. This seems to be the case in this blog post. Mcleod said, "really 'cause I'm doing all of it with my kids can't wait to see who has a leg up in a decade or two can you?" This was a question to convey, that technology, computers, and many teaching tools that we fear the most, is becoming our future in education. Dr. Strange really challenged us as students to look deeper into a post, before we pass judgement. The reason is because he wants us to grow into the students that he can see inside of us.
Hey Dr. Strange.
The challenges, twist, and turns of this course never ceases to amaze me! I really enjoyed the post, "Don't Teach Your Kids This stuff. Please?" The thing that really grabbed my attention was the irony of the post, and the sarcasm. Now, I must say that it was not my typical style of reading, but that was the point. Dr. Mcleod dared to try something new! I believe the whole outpour of concern about this post is because we as a people, become swiftly locked into traditional ways of learning. So as teachers we must be willing to engage into the "newness" of technology and teaching innovations, or we will soon become the tradtion.
