PLN 31

In the article “If I was a Petulant Child” by David Warlick, the author talks about a presentation he was giving to teachers, and that he was doing it without internet. He says it wasn’t a problem for him, but pictured a likely reaction of a twelve year old.
No Internet? Wait a minute. You want me to talk about how my generation thinks, how we interact with each other, how we play – and work – and learn, what we care about and where we do it — and you want me to do it without the Internet?
I think that this is very true. Our entire generation almost revolves around the internet, if not most of the world. Shouldn’t there be a push to get internet in all school districts in the U.S., at least? This is what matters to me in David Warlick’s “If I was a Petulant Child.”

PLN 30

In the article “Rethinking How Students Learn” by Will Richardson, the author talks about a book that he started reading and shares part of a chapter from it. In the chapter he gave, it talks about how schools have stayed almost the same for over one hundred years. This matters to me because I go to school. I am learning almost the same way people did over one hundred years ago, but our world hasn’t stayed the same for that long. Why is school staying the same when everything else is changing? This is what matters to me in Will Richardson’s “Rethinking How Students Learn”.

PLN 29

In “2txt? Or N2txt?” by Garrison Kellor, the author talks about how texting may be causing young men to lose social interaction skills. Texting removes 98% of nuances in face to face conversations. I think that this may not be true. Plenty of people at my school will just approach and say hi, without really knowing me. This does sound very possible though. I am somewhat like what the author described, but I have been like that for most of my life. This is what matters to me in Garrison Kellor’s “2txt? Or N2txt?”

PLN 28

In “Our boys are falling behind in education” by Dottie Lamm, the author talks about the problem of boys doing badly in school. She says that one problem about this is that most people don’t know or don’t pay attention to this because no studies have been released on it and the fight for women’s rights is still ongoing. I think that in general, this is true. I often times have a hard time writing, with some exceptions. Why is it that no studies have been done on a gender gap, but on almost every other possible type of gap? I would think that gender gap studies would be one of the more prevalent studies. This is what matters to me in Dottie Lamm’s “Our boys are falling behind in education.”

PLN 27

In the article “Being a “Learner” is being Responsible” by David Warlick, the author talks about once in a chat with some people, they started talking about Wikipedia. One participant pointed out Wikipedia has resources on the topic, but no one usually clicks on them. The author points out that most people don’t feel compelled to do so for one reason or another. The author then connects this to video games, how the point is to find a way to make it work, not just following instructions. I believe this is a great point. Most people don’t need to look for more information; they just need to find what works. This is what matters to me in David Warlick’s “Being a “Learner” is being Responsible.”

PLN 26

In the article “Is This Creativity?” by David Warlick, the author talks about a discussion he had about creativity, leading to the question, “What does Ken Robinson say about creativity?” followed by its answer, Creativity is “the process of having original ideas which have value. Then, the author follows up with another piece I found interesting,

As Robinson says later in his TED talk,
“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you won’t come up with anything original.”
What we do not want our students saying, is what I friend of mine’s daughter said recently
when ask about the purpose of school. She said,
School is the place where you do not want to get caught being wrong

I have thought this on and off throughout my schooling, though not specifically like this. It does surprise me somewhat, while I realize this is very likely true. For example, in one of my classes, almost all of what we do is reading off a sheet and copying it back onto a computer, then turn it in to see how close you got to the instructions. Although, I don’t believe this applies to all classes. A project in another of my classes recently was to write a story with few guidelines. The biggest guideline was that it needed to have an object from now that didn’t or won’t exist in another time and what that object could be. This is what matters to me in David Warlick’s “Is This Creativity?”

PLN 25

In the article “An Open Mind (In Higher Ed at Least)” by Will Richardson, the author talks about an article he read that talked about the impact on educational resources from the advent of MIT OpenCourseWare. One of the things that I noticed is that Will describes the article as a balanced read, which don’t seem to appear very often, no matter what the article is about. Another part of the article interviews one of the founders of Peer 2 Peer University, Neeru Paharia, who says “Having a degree is a signal. It is a signal to employers that you’ve passed a certain bar.” The article also says, “Ms. Paharia doesn’t think degrees are necessary. P2PU is working to come up with alternative signals that indicate to potential employers that an individual is a good thinker and has the skills he or she claims to have — maybe a written report or an online portfolio.” I think that this would be a great way for people to get the jobs they want (or at least put them on the road to them) even if they don’t have the money to go college. This is what matters to me in Will Richardson’s “An Open Mind (In Higher Ed at Least)”.

PLN 24

In “What Should we be Imitating?” by David Warlick, the author talks about the iPad being integrated into several universities, some of which are handing out free iPads to students. The author then lists some benefits of having iPads in the classroom:

• Faculty will be able to use more of a variety of textbooks, since digital versions will be less expensive.
Even though Apple has yet to announce any deals with textbook publishers (only popular ebooks), a third-party company currently offers 10,000 e-textbooks, which include titles from the five biggest textbook publishers. A subscription-based service, registered students can access the e-textbooks of their choice for a limited amount of time. The company has already announced an iPad app.
• The iPad will likely not have the limitations that disappointed students who were involved in an e-textbook pilot at Princeton, using the Amazon Kindle DX.

But I think that it is somewhat ridicules to remove textbooks, only to replace them with digital textbooks. Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of having iPads, if they are just used as textbooks? This is what matters to me in David Warlick’s “What Should we be Imitating?”

PLN 23

In “The Most Important Computer-Using Educator in the World” by Gary Stager, the author talks about a friend of his who is an important educator, and very overlooked. According to the author, his friend, Stephen Costa, first started teaching 1:1 with laptops. I was wondering, if he is so important in the field of education, then why is he so overlooked? It seems that if he is the man that started 1:1 computing, he would be better known. This is what matters to me in Gary Stager’s “The Most Important Computer-Using Educator in the World.”

PLN 22

In “Transforming Learning…No, Really” by Will Richardson, the author talks about a book he read recently that talks about several ways to improve learning in schools. The authors of the book give several paths to improvement, but think that transformation should be worked toward the most. The article’s author mentions that the book’s authors give a clear vision of each form of improvement. I think that we should work toward a goal of transformation of learning in schools, so that education will be easier for everybody. This is what matters to me in Will Richardson’s “Transforming Learning…No, Really.”

PLN 21

In “Thank You Bill Maher!” by Gary Stager, the author talks about a video he saw by the political comedian Bill Maher, and how what he was saying makes sense. He was talking about how firing bad teachers is supposed to just change the system, but it doesn’t do much. I believe this form of thinking is how we got our educational system into the mess that it is in. Not that it applies to all districts, but a fairly large amount of districts don’t have good ways of running their schools and/or have bad employees. And from what I have heard, Congress has just made matters worse, if they aren’t the source of the problem. This is what matters to me in Gary Stager's “Thank You Bill Maher!”

PLN 20

In “What to Do With the Web“ by Will Richardson, the author talks about an article he read in the New York times. The article talks about all the problems that computers are causing, but the author points out that there are only problems, no solutions. I think that that type of article is pointless. What is the point of just writing an article that is just a pile of problems? We have enough problems already, what we need are solutions. This is what matters to me in Will Richardson’s “What to Do With the Web.”

PLN 19

In “Connected Teaching” by Will Richardson, the author talks about how teachers use computers is oversimplified. They are just expected to find a way to make technology fit in with their curriculums. And when the author gave several hundred workshops on how to use technology for schools, he asked the district receiving the workshops how it improved their schools they couldn’t answer. I think that school districts need to think through, or attempt to think through, how technology will actually help to improve their schools. It doesn’t help for a school to just run the same way they would without technology. This is what matters to me in Will Richardson’s “Connected Teaching”.

PLN 18

In “Some Good Tech-Transformed SD Questions” by David Warlick, the author talks about a comment he received, and his opinion of the questions that came with it. Most of the questions he either explained more clearly or altered the wording of it, but one question that really struck me was “Where is the opportunity for you to ask your students, ‘Surprise me!’” I find this question very intriguing, because I cannot think of the last time that this has happened. Most of what I need to do is clearly specified, and very few times is my task left open-ended like that. This is what matters to me in David Warlick’s “Some Good Tech-Transformed SD Questions.”

PLN 17

In “The PD Problem” by Will Richardson, the author talks about a book he is reading and gives several sections of it. The sections of the book talk about several things, including how no other counties in the world approach teaching the same way we do and that most teachers and other school executives don’t have successful strategies for getting things done. Why do our schools make it so hard for themselves? It seems as though this shouldn’t be much of a problem. And how do we know when someone does have a good strategy anyways? If we could just find the good strategies and share them with the rest of the teaching community, then this wouldn’t be a problem. This is what matters to me in Will Richardson’s “The PD Problem.”

PLN 16

In “Hey Mom! Look What I Made in College! (2007)” by Gary Stager, the author talks about the video “Vision of Students Today” and how it doesn’t do anything but bash their generation. I agree with some of what he says. I also think that the video is somewhat of a waste. There is no point in just having students hold up signs that just state information and, as Gary Stager put it, whine about it for five minutes. Why don’t they attempt to do something about it instead of just complaining about it? This is what matters to me in Gary Stager’s “Hey Mom! Look What I Made in College! (2007)”.

PLN 15

In “TedxNYED: Amazing…So What?” by Will Richardson, the author talks about his experience at a recent education conference. He goes on to ask “what will change?” I find this to be an interesting point, because I read about educators trying to come up with a way to change the school system positively, but I never hear about what actually changes. Why do people come together to discuss a problem, just to have nothing done about it? This is what matters to me in Will Richardson’s “TedxNYED: Amazing…So What?”

PLN 14

In “Never be for — or against” by David Warlick, the author basically just states a quote he heard while out and about- “If you want truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between ‘for’ and ‘against’ is the mind’s worst disease.” — Sent-ts’an. This quote struck me as very accurate. Taking sides prevents people from completely thinking something through. Because so often we take sides, the truth won’t come out, or will not be noticed. If we can clear the way for open-minded thinking, without sides, then more would get done. This is what matters to me in David Warlick’s “Never be for — or against”.

PLN 13

In “There are Always Consequences” by David Warlick, the author talks about how West Virginia is expanding Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. He goes on to talk about how just improving these are not the key to a prosperous future, and then says history teaches us that there are always consequences. I agree with the author’s idea. Every action causes change somewhere in someone’s life. An example is the two world wars. Because of how WWI ended, the stage was set for the rise of Nazism years later. This is what matters to me in David Warlick’s “There are Always Consequences.”

PLN 12

In “Google Apps for Education: Is It the Right Choice for Our Students?” by Karl Fisch, the author talks about the program Google Apps for Education and his problems for it. Like how it uses a domain, so when a student leaves a school district all their stuff is deleted, and they need to make a separate profile to do everything else on a Google account. I think that if Google added this to the profiles that are created, that it would be a good idea. Then students could take all their work anywhere there is an internet connection, which will soon be almost everywhere. This is what matters to me is Karl Fisch’s “Google Apps for Education: Is It the Right Choice for Our Students?”