Rethinking how we educate people.

This video is a call to action for educators and individuals choosing how they want to education themselves and their children. The words spoken remind me of social theorist Jurgen Habermas who describes education as needing to go beyond the political and the financial, to find ways of educating humans to become a new kind of individual as global citizen. This starts at the connecting point between individual human interests and knowledge while developing “dispositions, values and attitudes necessary for lifelong learning with a view to developing ongoing communicative action” (Crick and Joldserma, abstract). People are given the opportunity to participate in their own education, one which “focuses on the quality of dialogue and discourse, student voice, contextual knowledge and [its] relevance to students’ lives and narratives” (Crick and Joldserma, 87). Engaging in an education that “uses transformative, dialogical and participatory pedagogies” puts students in the position of becoming a co-creator in the education of both self and other -- teacher to student, student to student, culture to culture (Crick and Joldserma 87). It asks educators to look beyond the simplicity of accountability and mundane citizenship, to instead, a transformative experience that is central to the human lifeworld, one that moves away from the current educational paradigm that has created citizens “indifferent to culture, society and personality”(Crick and Joldersma 87).

Web 2.0

The technology and videos I've seen so far about Web 2.0  have been very enlightening. I use youtube a lot and now understand that it is Web 2.0 technology. I am very interested in the various uses of Web 2.0 for long distance education with real time video. I heard about the Granny Cloud in a TED video some time ago, and even though I'm not quite a granny yet, I would love to volunteer in this kind of endeavor although I have no idea how to get involved. Any suggestions?

In this unit, I have learned I like the instructions to be clear and correct. I find it very frustrating that they often are difficult to work with and don't include the version I use, even though it is the most up to date. I have not celebrated any triumphs with this course yet. I didn't understand the spreadsheet directions, and the open office upload is missing from the upload page. At the moment I am frustrated and let down with this course and will be using some of the online resources when I can to learn.

"Technology has been hailed as a mechanism to promote learning and facilitate the free flow of information around the world." Reflecting on this statement, technology has aided my personal learning in significant ways, the first being through the portability of education. Being able to participate in classes, in a disembodied form -- first on interactive television, and now, in online classrooms, has profoundly supported me as a non-traditional adult learner. For instance, I am writing this blog post while sitting in a dentist's office while my daughter gets a cavity filled. The flexibility and opportunity found in the non-traditional time management of online classes, is a perfect match for the non-traditional student, promoting overall success.

A second way technology has supported my academic pursuits, is through the ease of word processing. During my first attempt at university shortly after high school, I found writing on a typewriter eternally frustrating. With the onset of technology in education, easy to use templates combined with the delete key supports "writing out loud" and just writing in general. Technology also efficiently helps me research, organize and write long, often complicated papers.  

I am unable to think of any ways technology has hindered me academically. Technology, is a significant promoter of quality outcomes in education. 

first post

Technology played a small role in my early life. There was a television with tubes that occasionally needed to be replaced, a transistor radio on the kitchen counter and eventually a stereo system in the dining room. It wasn't until the early '90s when someone gave me their unwanted word processor, one that used cassette tapes, that I owned my first "computer". When the first iMac came on the scene, I bought it and was on dial-up internet for the first time. I learned from my iMac to never buy a "first generation" electronic product -- only because the upgrade the following year had many more cool features. I've been on a Mac since -- a Mini, and now a very functional Macbook with 'Intel inside'.

My first few university courses were done on interactive television when I lived in rural BC. This  served as an inspiration for ways that I now use technology for teaching. At that time, I learned Interactive TV was used by scientists carrying out studies in the very far north. Of most interest to me was that the scientific institutions invited violin teachers to teach over Interactive TV or ITV to enhance cultural pursuits and life in the far north. I found remarkable video of  Innu playing from their virtual lessons. When SKYPE came on the scene, I copied this idea and began to teach my violin/viola students as they traveled or moved around the world. I also use SKYPE at home when someone just can't make it to my studio, or has lice ;-) There are limitations with this technology, however, the idea of the Age of Communication is now a part of my everyday life.