Organizing Your Online Life--Google Drive

I found the task of analyzing a lesson plan and delving more into the benefits of Google Drive very interesting.  This assignment allowed me to learn more about the benefits of Google Drive and the benefits of other resources such as Evernote. I found the task of creating a lesson plan around the Google Drive set-up to be quite difficult despite my familiarity with the site. Having to patiently write out steps and make sure all important information was available was a tedious experience--but ultimately one that made me learn more about a product that I thought I already knew. This process made me think about how my lesson and curriculum planning will go once I am a teacher. While I created this lesson I had to imagine that everyone was not familiar with the site at all, I could not write the lesson based off of the knowledge that I had, I had to take others into consideration.

It was also interesting to watch others present their topics. Even though we were only presenting a two page hand out, you were able to view the different teaching styles of our classmates. This made me think more about the teaching practice, and how different teachers develop their "voice" as teachers. I found that in order to make a rather "dry topic" more interesting, classmates were relating the topic to how these sites can help us as teachers and individuals. This made think about how I will do the same with "dry" content as a teacher.

Standardized Testing, helpful or harmful?

Our 504 session on the new standardized test format that will be implemented in the year 2015-2016 was quite interesting to discuss. This new format was essentially created to make using technology easier while also supporting the uprising of technology. After reviewing the topic I found this new system to be horrible. The "settings" page which is the first page that the user is able to access was complex in itself. The formatting was ridiculous and if anything a distraction from what the user is supposed to be looking at. This format of standardized testing angers me because they are using technology as a "quick fix" to improving standardized testing. If anything we know the issue of standardized tests goes far beyond making the format look "pretty and polished".

Time and time again we see ourselfs (educators) having to live with the decisions set by non-educators who "think" they know that they are doing. I believe they justify their actions by saying how they were all once students in the school system--this is not a right way to look at the situation. There must be more educators going into policy and curriculum development, not politicians who think they are credited because they have a master's degree in Engineering, no offense Adam Zemke. But really, I do not think these new standards are being well thought out. While I was in high school we barely had 10 working computers in our library let alone internet connection. Our computers were outdated and would not have been able to support hundreds of children taking stansardized tests on them. This is my issue with these tests being mandated for all Michigan schools. Urban and rural areas might not have the proper technology to support these exams, how will that make testing fair? I believe this will make things much more stressful for admin, teachers, and students. Ultimately, if this is truly implemented our first year as teachers, I believe it will turn into a disaster.

"Super Saber"

I chose to check out the Spanish game "Super Saber". I have not played online games in years so I was excited to check out new games. I found this game to be exciting. When I first clicked on the game sites page I was impressed with the set up. I found myself rereading some of the Spanish words despite my fluency in the language--which is good when wanting a challenging game. I played a game that had the player distinguish between the usage of "V" and "B". The questions were not all super easy which I thought was good.

Although the game was intriguing, there was only a set of about 5 fill-in-the-blank sentences which I thought should have had more sentences. Overall the gaming experience was interesting and allowed me to look at technology in education differently. My educational experience was very traditional so I am still getting used to the idea of using more technology in classrooms. I hardly ever used technology in high school classrooms unless it was powerpoint or film.

Dewey-- Discussing Social and Cultural Capital

     “I believe it is also a social necessity because the home is the form of social life in which the child has been nurtured and in connection with which he has had his moral training. It is the business of the school to deepen and extend his sense of the values bound up in his home life.”—

I agree with this statement because things such as cultural capital can be affected by home life. Cultural capital—a factor that can affect social mobility within society is hugely influenced by the family structure. Cultural capital is stated in Allusions, Gaps, and Glissandos in Recent Theoretical Development as being: “operationalized as knowledge of high culture and educational attainment” (DiMaggio and Useem,1978). Sociologist’s Pierre Bourdieu, & Jean Claude Passeron continue with this topic by explaining the importance of cultural capital, stating that an “individuals’ social position and family background provide them with social and cultural resources which need to be actively invested to yield social profits.” If a child is not given the family background to provide them with the skillsets to interact with different classes/cultures a child could be excluded from particular jobs, resources, and high status groups that embark these cultural identifiers. This can make it difficult for a child from an underprivileged background to achieve social mobility. This is not to say that those who come from underprivileged backgrounds will not succeed in the classroom, but it is to say that the family background of a child can determine how this child will adjust to an environment when the majority is not their own. In the world of academia there are socially acceptable cues and institutions that must be followed in order to be accepted. Some students derive from families who teach this culture off hand, others do not.

It is a mater of “code-switching” that one must perform in order to receive the most social and cultural capital from an environment. Personally, I believe that the difficulty does not lie in the action of assimilating, but instead in the action of code switching and remembering to maintain your own previous identity. Failing to do so can result in acceptance into the majority, but exclusion from an identity you once called “home”.

“True education comes through the stimulation of the child's powers by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself.” –

I agree with Dewey’s interpretation of education in relation to social situations. Students cannot be expected to socialize and acts in ways that they are not familiar with. Often times, when students are placed into uncomfortable situations they act out, or do not participate because they are being forced to socialize in ways unfamiliar to them. I believe this is true not only in education but in other social contexts. For example, if a student moves to an affluent area for college but comes from an area with completely different social norms and cultural capital the student will have difficulty adjusting or understanding why other affluent students act or network the way they do. If you have never experienced the cultural norm, you must educate yourself to understand. This can be difficult. As discussed above, some students are more disadvantaged in the sense of receiving social and cultural mobility because of lack of capital which can result in social isolation.

“I believe that all education proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social consciousness of the race.”—

Dewey explains how the process of race framing your educational experience begins at birth and continues to develop as societal interaction occurs. I agree with this statement. I believe that I am the woman I am today because of my experiences of being Hispanic and White. My mother’s experiences of being Mexican-American also helped shape my upbringing and investment into culture and education. Although I was not raised by my father, I have interacted with that side of my family. I knew growing up that his fathers family was English-Welsh and traveled here on the Mayflower, and his mothers family came from Ireland.  My identity of being Mexican and Irish has definitely shaped by experiences and much of who I am.  Because of my race and upbringing, I am able to understand and identify with others from minority backgrounds. Not many people can do the same. This is not to say that one can never relate, but I do believe that there are experiences everyone encounters that can only be truly understood by another who has gone through the same thing. Our experiences and identity shape our biases, our perspectives, and our willingness to educate ourselves.