One of the first phrases out of Lisa Rigoni Reeves' mouth when we sat down to chat with her was, roughly, "I'm not afraid of technology, and you shouldn't be either."
This phrase, so early on in our course, seemed to ring in my ears. Of course, being from a generation where "technology," as it is more often than not defined right now, has been around and we are considered natives creates a different mindset. I would never think of telling someone my age or younger to not be afraid of technology. That seems like an antithesis to what we have been raised to believe - you wouldn't be afraid of the puppy that has grown up alongside you. But still, this quick little phrase that Lisa spoke seemed to be a very strong point she was making. I just sat and thought about why that might be, which was quite interesting.
I would guess that the average age in our class was around 25 or 26, only because of the few outlying ages in such a small sample, but for the most part all of us were in our very early 20s. It might be wrong of me to assume that we all come from a strong background in using computers in school and home to help us with our work. I remember in second grade using the Encarta Encyclopedia program on our computer, which required the disc to be in the disc drive to browse. I used that program to search for the definitions to my Word of the Days. This was such a cool thing for a second grader to be doing, I got to use the computer and be hands on with an encyclopedia and I was learning! Even my brother, Alex, who is two years older, could use this and has since as early as his 4th grade year. To have this kind of technology at home, being able to eliminate the paper of an encyclopedia set as well as the price tag that goes along with it, was something I just may have taken for granted. Thinking in a lens of others in our class, not having home access to computers until being out of high school, leads me to wonder just how intimidating is this technology? When that concept could fully gel in my mind, it becomes much easier to see where Lisa was coming from in saying to not be afraid, to take things head on and not worry about making a mistake or breaking something.
The main idea of Malcom Gladwell's book, Blink, is the power of snap judgments and how unwilling we are to move from that initial judgment. When we encounter a new situation, we uncontrollably make assumptions - whether they be good or bad. However, our mind is not so willing to make a change to these first-glance decisions and judgments. Because of this, there may be a hostility that older generations might show towards technology and the implementation of it in the always-changing society they live in. Is this the same idea that Lisa eluded to in saying she wasn't afraid? Does having this snap-judgment change our willingness to adapt to society?
Having a mindset that you are unwilling to bend or break can be one of the most dangerous things in life. ZeFrank, a premiere video-blogger albeit quirky, conceptualizes what Lisa was talking about and calls it "Busting the Cycle". According to Ze, busting your cycle is where you "take one aspect of your life that's more or less constant and you purposely bust it. By temporarily breaking a routine, you can often experience the world in a very different way." When we apply this idea of busting the cycle of being weary of technological advances we can see that taking the chance, and surrounding ourselves in what we aren't comfortable with, we can have a new experience that we may find enjoyable. Ze also says that, "If you bust the right cycle, this shift in perspective can often lead to elation and a sense of possibility." This elation from a new perspective, I can say firsthand, is a fantastic feeling. I would imagine that Lisa has felt a similar change in perspective from when she first encountered technology and her current state of being in charge of UMD's Knowledge Management Center and pioneer for the GradPlanner system.
Not being afraid to new technology is something I think is undeniably important for myself, as both a teacher and member of this globalized world. Being able to understand that there will always be a stepping stone to a greater and bigger picture is a value that I hope employers see in me and feel is a great strength I can bring to the table in their facility.
So when my children are sitting in the position I am now, what will they be natives in? What will I be be afraid to adapt to, or what will I embrace without fear as Lisa does technology? Only time can tell, and I am looking forward to what it brings.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Uploading: the new Eddie Veder?
In Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat," he outlines ten flatteners that have helped in leveling the global playing field. Of these ten, the one intrigued me the most was his number four - Uploading.
Briefly put, uploading deals with the idea of web 2.0 where everyone has the ability to voice their opinion and collaborate to create an open source of information. Friedman says that this flattener is "the most disruptive force of all" in the global flattening. The internet has opened the door to a vast expanse of knowledge and information, but in the recent years, being able to voice an opinion and post those thoughts for the world to see has become a new and inventive way to broaden the spectrum that you see and others recieve. Sites such as YouTube, FaceBook, MySpace, Wikipedia, and even this Blogger have greatly impacted the voice of those with access to a keyboard or video camera.
YouTube has been such a fascinating tool to watch grow and develop over time, as it was only started in 2005. As I type this, over 24 hours of content has been uploaded to YouTube. These videos may be a bootleg from a Hold Steady concert, a vlog (video log) from a 14-year-old girl who just saw the new Twilight movie, or a keynote speech from the TED conference on learning disabilities. The possibilities are endless. These videos can be used for entertainment purposes, as educational tools, and as a means of social networking. Google recognized the impact that YouTube could have on the community and quickly purchased the company in October of 2006 for $1.65 billion. Since that time, YouTube has been able to monetize by selling advertisement space and paying select YouTube "partners" to post content that will be widely viewed. This may speak of an evil in our advancement of technology, but the undeniable truth here is that websites like this have truly greatly flattened our world.
One video that I personally stumbled upon that is a wonderful example of using YouTube as an outreach tool is by a young man named Dan Brown and is dealing with the state of education. He posts a video entitled "An Open Letter to Educators". If you take the time to watch, you'll see that he poses his viewpoint and opens up the discussion for anyone with a YouTube account to take part in. There are many responses via video and even more textual comments. Dan even goes as far as to rebuttal several times in the form of video. But what makes this kid so special? Why is he the voice of this? Who is he to be arguing? He isn't a teacher, just a student from Nebraska who dropped out from college to further pursue YouTube as a career choice. Dan had his idea and mentality ready and just felt so strongly about this subject that he started discussing this through a medium that is free to him and everyone else. I love that this kind of discussion can happen through a website that many teachers may be intimidated by. I think that is truly a great aspect of this fourth flattener that Friedman writes about, and is exactly why it is has that disruptive force to our globalizing world.
..not to mention that you can find videos of Minnesota hip-hop artist covering Pearl Jam songs!
Briefly put, uploading deals with the idea of web 2.0 where everyone has the ability to voice their opinion and collaborate to create an open source of information. Friedman says that this flattener is "the most disruptive force of all" in the global flattening. The internet has opened the door to a vast expanse of knowledge and information, but in the recent years, being able to voice an opinion and post those thoughts for the world to see has become a new and inventive way to broaden the spectrum that you see and others recieve. Sites such as YouTube, FaceBook, MySpace, Wikipedia, and even this Blogger have greatly impacted the voice of those with access to a keyboard or video camera.
YouTube has been such a fascinating tool to watch grow and develop over time, as it was only started in 2005. As I type this, over 24 hours of content has been uploaded to YouTube. These videos may be a bootleg from a Hold Steady concert, a vlog (video log) from a 14-year-old girl who just saw the new Twilight movie, or a keynote speech from the TED conference on learning disabilities. The possibilities are endless. These videos can be used for entertainment purposes, as educational tools, and as a means of social networking. Google recognized the impact that YouTube could have on the community and quickly purchased the company in October of 2006 for $1.65 billion. Since that time, YouTube has been able to monetize by selling advertisement space and paying select YouTube "partners" to post content that will be widely viewed. This may speak of an evil in our advancement of technology, but the undeniable truth here is that websites like this have truly greatly flattened our world.
One video that I personally stumbled upon that is a wonderful example of using YouTube as an outreach tool is by a young man named Dan Brown and is dealing with the state of education. He posts a video entitled "An Open Letter to Educators". If you take the time to watch, you'll see that he poses his viewpoint and opens up the discussion for anyone with a YouTube account to take part in. There are many responses via video and even more textual comments. Dan even goes as far as to rebuttal several times in the form of video. But what makes this kid so special? Why is he the voice of this? Who is he to be arguing? He isn't a teacher, just a student from Nebraska who dropped out from college to further pursue YouTube as a career choice. Dan had his idea and mentality ready and just felt so strongly about this subject that he started discussing this through a medium that is free to him and everyone else. I love that this kind of discussion can happen through a website that many teachers may be intimidated by. I think that is truly a great aspect of this fourth flattener that Friedman writes about, and is exactly why it is has that disruptive force to our globalizing world.
..not to mention that you can find videos of Minnesota hip-hop artist covering Pearl Jam songs!
Building a Building
During our tour of the new Civil Engineering facility on campus, I was amazed at just how much forethought was put in to the entire process. This was just one building of a full-fledged campus of departments and inner-working systems, yet they seemed to have a very firm grasp on just what it was that they intended to use the facility for, as well as what they needed it to offer it's inhabitants. Listening to Jason Davis speak to our class about all of the many components in the building, both technological and not, It became apparent that planning for the future is one of the most important aspects of integrating technology in to our current society and just as well, a new building in general.
Hearing Jason talk about all of the hurdles he had to jump when planning a classroom in the Civil Engineering building had my mind jumping around to the similarities that my mother, a home economics teacher, was "screaming" about over the past year in her new building. A little bit of background first; My mother is a teacher in Farmington - my hometown. The Farmington school district just finished building the largest (in square feet) high school in Minnesota. In this school, my mother teaches in two different rooms; the foods room and more general classroom. In the foods room, there are 8 kitchen modules for student use. However, these modules are not set up in a manner that my mother feels is appropriate for learning and functionality of her classroom. One of the largest complaints she had was the absence of a sink at each module. Instead of this option, there is a large three-tub washing basin, like you might see at a restaurant. There are more design flaws that my mom would point out, such as the oven placement and overall placement of the modules in relation to the "teaching area" of the classroom. These flaws, are something that I wish would have been more well thought out than they were. In hindsight, the use of an individual who would act as Jason Davis did in the CivEng building would be quite beneficial to this new high school that Farmington spent a great deal of money on.
So what exactly does this all have to do with our technology in an administrative position? I think, in general, that this brought out the emerging themes of both "do your research" and "Plan for the future" respectively.
I'd like to write on the later for now. As Thomas Friedman has the ideals of a "flattened world" beginning in the early 21st century, the concept of globalization becomes a tremendous player in the ballgame that is technology. With information being so easily accessed, largely in thanks to web 2.0, there is a rapid growth of ideas and technology seems to speed up to a point where it is near impossible to keep up. This creates a need to always plan ahead for new emerging technologies and build your infrastructure around this rapid expansion.
To speak towards this, Jason Davis had said that there was a teacher at UMD who wanted to "shut off the wifi in her classroom". This seems to be a step back from where we are with our wifi technology. It was once a dream that WiFi be accessible in all rooms, and within not that short of a time, this was made possible. For an individual to want to limit that access, it is currently more of a hassle for the ITSS staff, but who knows - in the coming years, the technology to be able to easily switch off a hot-spot may exist and be a laughable hurdle to jump. Also, in this line of thought, the incredibly thoughtful implementation of modular flooring was a forethought that lends itself to future wiring and the constant changing technologies that may or may not occur during that buildings lifespan at UMD.
From this emerging theme comes the question of just how far in advance do we have to plan for? One question that I remember being posed to Sean Dean at Citon was "just how much do we hold out for? When do we simply buy what is current and plan on getting the time through?" Sean responded by saying that it is truly up to the user, but to be mindful of the constant changes as you use that machine to the capabilities it possesses. I feel that this was a really broad answer to a specific question, but had I been in his shoes, would have said almost an identical statement. This also is mirroring our conversation about the iPod's first few generations - or the "brick" phase. Without that technology to spring from, our minuscule touch-pad iPods wouldn't be anywhere near what they are today.
So without those mistakes in the foods room, or even with the modular flooring in the Civil Engineering building, just how ready are these buildings for the technology of tomorrow? Will they posses the means to housing what is to come?
Hearing Jason talk about all of the hurdles he had to jump when planning a classroom in the Civil Engineering building had my mind jumping around to the similarities that my mother, a home economics teacher, was "screaming" about over the past year in her new building. A little bit of background first; My mother is a teacher in Farmington - my hometown. The Farmington school district just finished building the largest (in square feet) high school in Minnesota. In this school, my mother teaches in two different rooms; the foods room and more general classroom. In the foods room, there are 8 kitchen modules for student use. However, these modules are not set up in a manner that my mother feels is appropriate for learning and functionality of her classroom. One of the largest complaints she had was the absence of a sink at each module. Instead of this option, there is a large three-tub washing basin, like you might see at a restaurant. There are more design flaws that my mom would point out, such as the oven placement and overall placement of the modules in relation to the "teaching area" of the classroom. These flaws, are something that I wish would have been more well thought out than they were. In hindsight, the use of an individual who would act as Jason Davis did in the CivEng building would be quite beneficial to this new high school that Farmington spent a great deal of money on.
So what exactly does this all have to do with our technology in an administrative position? I think, in general, that this brought out the emerging themes of both "do your research" and "Plan for the future" respectively.
I'd like to write on the later for now. As Thomas Friedman has the ideals of a "flattened world" beginning in the early 21st century, the concept of globalization becomes a tremendous player in the ballgame that is technology. With information being so easily accessed, largely in thanks to web 2.0, there is a rapid growth of ideas and technology seems to speed up to a point where it is near impossible to keep up. This creates a need to always plan ahead for new emerging technologies and build your infrastructure around this rapid expansion.
To speak towards this, Jason Davis had said that there was a teacher at UMD who wanted to "shut off the wifi in her classroom". This seems to be a step back from where we are with our wifi technology. It was once a dream that WiFi be accessible in all rooms, and within not that short of a time, this was made possible. For an individual to want to limit that access, it is currently more of a hassle for the ITSS staff, but who knows - in the coming years, the technology to be able to easily switch off a hot-spot may exist and be a laughable hurdle to jump. Also, in this line of thought, the incredibly thoughtful implementation of modular flooring was a forethought that lends itself to future wiring and the constant changing technologies that may or may not occur during that buildings lifespan at UMD.
From this emerging theme comes the question of just how far in advance do we have to plan for? One question that I remember being posed to Sean Dean at Citon was "just how much do we hold out for? When do we simply buy what is current and plan on getting the time through?" Sean responded by saying that it is truly up to the user, but to be mindful of the constant changes as you use that machine to the capabilities it possesses. I feel that this was a really broad answer to a specific question, but had I been in his shoes, would have said almost an identical statement. This also is mirroring our conversation about the iPod's first few generations - or the "brick" phase. Without that technology to spring from, our minuscule touch-pad iPods wouldn't be anywhere near what they are today.
So without those mistakes in the foods room, or even with the modular flooring in the Civil Engineering building, just how ready are these buildings for the technology of tomorrow? Will they posses the means to housing what is to come?
Defining Knowledge
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." - Albert Einstein
This quote from Einstein is by far one of my favorite quotes of all time. When I tell this to people, they usually ask me why I aspire to be a teacher if I don't believe that knowledge is important. To that I say, "You must not understand the quote in it's entirety." Einstein does not rule out the importance of knowledge, but rather states that imagination is simply more important.
As an individual who will soon be in a teaching position, I must evaluate what is most important for me to teach. Obviously, as I would think, learning is about gaining knowledge in some facet. So how do I have students obtain the information and skills they need to become more learned individuals. Do I simply regurgitate facts to a crowd of wide-eyed 10-year-olds or do I promote an environment where the students will explore learning to gain that knowledge? I would hope the later to be true in my own classroom; where students can have a wealth of knowledge and are not limited in their imagination which creates an expansive and beautiful world for them to live in. Yet still I feel that knowledge need be defined more if I am to stand by the word of Einstein.
One definition of knowledge, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is "the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association." This, right here, is a perfect example of why I love education and learning. Watching the spark of a new experience on anyone is a fantastic feeling as it is, let alone, a child, someone who has a vast amount to learn and experience, is such a delight and wondrous thing to behold. Imagine, if you can, the first time you tasted your favorite food. That moment was such a happy and delightful thing to you, so much that you placed a GIGANTIC smiley-face sticker on it and filed it away as "favorite". Now, as a teacher, seeing that happen in a sense of greater understanding of the world around to the student, there has to be such a feeling of elation and self-worth, providing that experience for the young mind at hand. In the past two weeks, I definitely hope that there were obvious sparks you could see in both myself and my fellow classmates. I was constantly learning, through our lectures, speakers, readings, and field trips. There is now more in my pool of experience and association that I can pull from with familiarity and confidence that I do possess that skill, ability, or information. Simply put, I have more knowledge than previously.
As Einstein puts it, "knowledge is limited." But where does that knowledge end? I would highly doubt anyone has ever traveled to the end of the rainbow and seen a pot of knowledge sitting there, consumed the rest of that knowledge, and then become all-knowing. Or better yet, fallen off a suspended bridge of knowledge, as there was nothing else to learn. That doesn't seem quite probable, at least not in this lifetime. Humans are capable of having unique and amazing abilities to recall facts and images. Take Stephen Wiltshire for example. He is an individual with autism, who, after one 20-minute helicopter ride over New York City, drew an 18 foot picture of the city from memory. That is an incredible feat for a man of flesh and bone. He has, essentially, the same mind as nearly 7 billion other humans, but there are less than a handful of those 7 billion who can do anything even remotely close to what Stephen has accomplished. One might say his knowledge is far greater than mine, but still not at 100% of what he could know.
The analogy I made in class that pertains to this quote was about giving a child LEGOs. That something I'd like to touch upon a bit more. I feel that both handing a child instructions to build a castle and letting them run free with their imagination to build that same castle are equally as important of skills to have. However, as the quote from Einstein says, that knowledge is limited. You can only follow the rules to an extent, but without those limitations, there is nothing stopping the child from putting a door or window that wasn't once there in to their castle.
I guess as I look more in to it, the less limited I think knowledge actually is. I don't fully know what Einstein had intended his meaning to be, but as it is, knowledge is not completely obtainable. By this, I mean that there will always be an experience you have not yet had and even if you were to know everything, there will be more revealed in time that we, at one point, did not previously know.
This quote from Einstein is by far one of my favorite quotes of all time. When I tell this to people, they usually ask me why I aspire to be a teacher if I don't believe that knowledge is important. To that I say, "You must not understand the quote in it's entirety." Einstein does not rule out the importance of knowledge, but rather states that imagination is simply more important.
As an individual who will soon be in a teaching position, I must evaluate what is most important for me to teach. Obviously, as I would think, learning is about gaining knowledge in some facet. So how do I have students obtain the information and skills they need to become more learned individuals. Do I simply regurgitate facts to a crowd of wide-eyed 10-year-olds or do I promote an environment where the students will explore learning to gain that knowledge? I would hope the later to be true in my own classroom; where students can have a wealth of knowledge and are not limited in their imagination which creates an expansive and beautiful world for them to live in. Yet still I feel that knowledge need be defined more if I am to stand by the word of Einstein.
One definition of knowledge, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is "the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association." This, right here, is a perfect example of why I love education and learning. Watching the spark of a new experience on anyone is a fantastic feeling as it is, let alone, a child, someone who has a vast amount to learn and experience, is such a delight and wondrous thing to behold. Imagine, if you can, the first time you tasted your favorite food. That moment was such a happy and delightful thing to you, so much that you placed a GIGANTIC smiley-face sticker on it and filed it away as "favorite". Now, as a teacher, seeing that happen in a sense of greater understanding of the world around to the student, there has to be such a feeling of elation and self-worth, providing that experience for the young mind at hand. In the past two weeks, I definitely hope that there were obvious sparks you could see in both myself and my fellow classmates. I was constantly learning, through our lectures, speakers, readings, and field trips. There is now more in my pool of experience and association that I can pull from with familiarity and confidence that I do possess that skill, ability, or information. Simply put, I have more knowledge than previously.
As Einstein puts it, "knowledge is limited." But where does that knowledge end? I would highly doubt anyone has ever traveled to the end of the rainbow and seen a pot of knowledge sitting there, consumed the rest of that knowledge, and then become all-knowing. Or better yet, fallen off a suspended bridge of knowledge, as there was nothing else to learn. That doesn't seem quite probable, at least not in this lifetime. Humans are capable of having unique and amazing abilities to recall facts and images. Take Stephen Wiltshire for example. He is an individual with autism, who, after one 20-minute helicopter ride over New York City, drew an 18 foot picture of the city from memory. That is an incredible feat for a man of flesh and bone. He has, essentially, the same mind as nearly 7 billion other humans, but there are less than a handful of those 7 billion who can do anything even remotely close to what Stephen has accomplished. One might say his knowledge is far greater than mine, but still not at 100% of what he could know.
The analogy I made in class that pertains to this quote was about giving a child LEGOs. That something I'd like to touch upon a bit more. I feel that both handing a child instructions to build a castle and letting them run free with their imagination to build that same castle are equally as important of skills to have. However, as the quote from Einstein says, that knowledge is limited. You can only follow the rules to an extent, but without those limitations, there is nothing stopping the child from putting a door or window that wasn't once there in to their castle.
I guess as I look more in to it, the less limited I think knowledge actually is. I don't fully know what Einstein had intended his meaning to be, but as it is, knowledge is not completely obtainable. By this, I mean that there will always be an experience you have not yet had and even if you were to know everything, there will be more revealed in time that we, at one point, did not previously know.
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