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I play with code to understand comprehension as I have no way to comprehend code.

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Do Something - Blog Post Week 2

3 min read

Blog 1: I attended my Vietnamese church service this past Sunday. Last week, I was informed that we would be combining our church service with the New York church. However, that plan fell through because not enough members can make the drive up to New York. Therefore, we will just have our annual program back in CT as usual. I am still participating in a skit. However, the interesting part of this skit is that we are playing parts to a song. Each line is a different character who is broken, later “fixed” by Jesus. 

 

Blog 2: The teenagers and children are still singing “Do You Hear What I Hear?”. We are going with my idea of the kids sing the first stanza, the teens sing the second, and we all sing the third together. We had trouble singing on time and the children kept forgetting which parts they sang on their own and which parts they don’t. 

 

Blog 3: In my Philosophy class, we’ve been doing panel of discussions and presenting informative slides on different topics. One of my friends presented the “social trends” of 2019. It was very fun and interesting to look back at the year. These trends included the “Number Neighbor” where you text someone with the same number as you except for the last digit, the instagram egg which is the most liked photo on instagram, and the bird box challenge where you blindfold yourself and do daily things. I found the presentation to be very entertaining but also informative. 

 

When Learning and Assessment Diverge:

  • Too often we do not know who we are assessing when we assess students today 
  • A student is not just a data point - rather a student is a complex body of experience gain over long periods of time
  • We need to see that we should be assessing bodies of experience and judging how students can be used now and in the future for better learning and development in order to render assessments fairly, usefully, and meaningfully
  • Target Assessments tell us how many people out of a designated population have a hit a certain target
  • Some target assessments just tell us how many people not only can hit the target, but understand what the target means and why it works the way it does 
  • People learn well only when they are motivated or care about what they are learning 
  • People over time use concrete experience to find patters and sub-patterns 
  • Too often, schools take reading texts as the main focus of experience necessary for learning 

(I double dipped by making my last blog about the third reading) 

Do Something - Blog Post Week 1

3 min read

Blog 1: 

This past Sunday, I was able to attend my Vietnamese church and catch up on what activities they were planning. I found out that this year, we are combining our church with the Vietnamese church in New York - something we haven’t done in a while. I am also now participating in the children/youth Christmas choir and doing a teen skit. We are still in the process of deciding what the skit is and how we can best send the Christmas message to the audience 

Blog 2: 

I had a few ideas for the song we are singing, “Do You Hear What I hear?”. Since the age ranges from 5 to 18, I thought it would be a good idea to emphasize the different aspects our group brings. I suggested that the kids sing the first stanza, the teens sing the second, and we all sing the third together. Everyone agreed because it switches things up and adds texture to the song. 

 

Dave’s Educational Blog 

  • Social constructivist and connectionist pedagogies, etc, are centered on the process of negotiation as a learning process
    • There is an assumption in both theories that the learning process should happen organically 
  • In the rhizomatic view, knowledge can only be negotiated
  • Horton and Freire (1990) argue, "If the act of knowing has historicity, then today’s knowledge about something is not necessarily the same tomorrow.
  • Knowledge is changed to the extent that reality also moves and changes
  • Information is the foundation of knowledge
  • The rhizomatic viewpoint suggests that a distributed negotiation of knowledge can allow a community of people to legitimize the work they are doing among themselves and for each member of the group
  • Knowledge can be judged by the old standards of “I can” and “I recognize” 
  • If a bit of info is recognized as useful to the community or proves itself able to do something, it can be counted as knowledge 
    • The community then has the power to create knowledge within a given context and leave the knowledge as a new node connected to the rest of the network 
  • Through involvement in multiple communities where new info is being assimilated and tested, educators can begin to apprehend the moving target that knowledge in the modern learning environment 

 

Unwelcome Innovation: 

  • To better communicate the value and variety of people’s skills to employers so that its easier to connect with and improve job outcomes 
  • The conception, theory, and adoption of badge-based alternative credentialing initiatives starts back from 2011 
  • In 5 years, much has been written and even more time spent developing the theory and practice of alternative credentialing via badges 
  • The premise behind all of the badge and alternative credential projects is the same: that if only there were a new, unified way to quantify, describe and give evidence of student learning inside the classroom and out, employers would be able to value those skills and illuminate a path to job outcomes 
  • Badge adherents aim to address the “value” and portability of badges by attaching proof of skills to the badges themselves
    • Same idea behind the e-portfolios 
  • Connecting students’ skills and ambitions to the pathways to a career is a big deal

 

(I double dipped by making 2 of my blogs of this week about the readings) 

Teach something

2 min read

Connected Learning: PLNs

  • Howard starts using social media in the classroom and wanted to learn from more experienced educators 
  • Online webinar - 150 educators and librarians from the worldwide come together on twitter 
  • Settling on a time for regular twitter chats can grow into an open, voluntary, shifting, and growing community that uses the same media they are teaching their students
  • These people (Edchatters) are among the first to evaluate and maybe adopt new media that show educational potential  
  • Passionate learning networks (PLNs) is defined as the people you choose to connect with and learn from 
  • Shelly: A Global Netweaver, curator, PLN builder 
  • Shelly has a must of resources for educators who want to use Skype and videoskype to go global with their classrooms 
  • Shelly maintains a wiki of social media and resources for educators, and published a screencast about how to build your PLN using twitter
  • Students can build their PLNs by starting with blogs to show them how to participate by commenting 
  • If teachers share their experiences, they’ll begin to appreciate the power of the PLN when other people thank them and tell them how their students were enriched by it 
  • PLNs are about open conversations - as long as you’re listening and contributing, the conversation continues 
  •  

Screencasting 

  • Screencasting is a digital video and audio recording of what occurs on a presenter’s computer screen
  • it is an effective instructional format that can be used for tutorials, demonstrations, digital storytelling, and narrated powerpoints 
  • A screencast can include different elements, such as music, sound effects, audio, and graphics 
  • It as emerged as a prominent teaching tool on the internet; students can learn by example, seeing step by step in great detail on what to do 
  • By being able to pause, it gives students the option to move at their own pace 
  • Flipped: What can be done in a classroom can now be done at home & vice versa 

 

Week 3 : Case Study Outline

2 min read

Case study outline:

Using Deign to Cultivate Personal Skills and Serve the Community 

  • Bertie County is the poorest county in North Carolina 
  • Home to the community-focused nonprofit group Project H Design; uses the power of design and hands-on building to catalyze communities and public education from within (headed by Emily Pilloton and Matt Miller)
  • Studio H is a public high school “design/build” curriculum; it was the country’s first design, vocation, and community service program in public highschool - mission is to encourage design thinking in a classroom without resorting to being a “glorified art class” 
  • Studio H was founded as an official community college course where high school juniors earn college credits and have the opportunity to partake in a paid summer internship as well. Each semester focuses on a small number of large communist projects, which students design and build from start to finish 
  • Miller and Pilloton designed studio h’s curriculum as a specific extension of the work they had strong doing in berry county and launched in 2010 
  • Studio H borrows from Project H design’s six overall design tenets, a group of principles (6 values that they can always come back to) 
  1. There is no design without critical action
  2. We design With, not FOR
  3. We document, share, and measure
  4. We start locally and scale globally
  5. We design systems, not stuff
  6. We build

 

  • Studio H opens opportunities for students, teaching ; didn’t write this program to recruit next generation of architects, but to leave students something as they go on with life

Outline of Connected Learning/ Reflection

1 min read

  • Connected learning combines personal interests, supportive relationships, & opportunities
  • learning with access to information and social connection that embraces diverse backgrounds and interests of young people 
  • Interests: learning is motivating when it grows out of personal interest 
    • Research indicates that interest helps us pay attention, make connections, engage in deeper learning
  • Relationships: learners need support from peers and mentors to press through setbacks and challenges
  • Opportunities: Success beyond a classroom requires connections to real-world career and civic opportunities

Reflection would drive learning in a connected space because it allows us to think back and evaluate. By examining our experience with existing knowledge, we are able to come to a conclusion of what needs to be worked on. That way, we are learning from our mistakes or how to be better overall.

 

 

Week 2 Readings

2 min read

We Are All Cyborgs Now 

 

  • we are all cyborgs - every time we look at a computer screen/phone 
  • if we print out our computer, it'll be thousands of pounds 
  • we have a second self (present ourself in digital life) people are interacting with us online whether or not we are there 
  • everyone carries wormholes in their pockets (A to B immediately)
  • you can stand on one side of the world, whisper & it’ll be heard on the other side
  • kids today have an instantaneous culture 
  • machines are helping us be more human; co creating eachother all the time (things are beautiful & it’s still human connection, just done in a different way) 

Big Mother is Watching

 

  • this author is obsessed with her sleep cycle app (hovering so self-righteously over 8hrs of sleep, sends to friends, instagrams it, etc) 
  • lives by the quality percentage of her sleep (grades her day based on her sleep Ex). B+ for 88% sleeping quality) 
  • cheats bc staying up messes with the way she likes to believe/present how she lives (pretends they don’t exist in order to protect her fixed reality)
  • “actionless sleep & good sleep aren’t the same thing”
  • 2013, man convicted of man slaughter using “Strava data concerning his speed on his bike”
  • people track things centered around health, hobbies, and things they’re curious about based on the way we navigate in this world 
  • happiness is rooted in transparency; knowledge is the source of peace; life is made of data - life that is readable (changeable) is life at its most optimized 

Week 2 Reading Notes

1 min read

"We Are All Cyborgs Now"

- We are "cyborgs" becayse most of our time is spent on computers/phones

- Children revolve around technology because it's all around them

- We rely on "external brains" (technology) to communicate, not much face to face communication

- We have a second self online that we have to maintain and people interect with

- Our values and cultures are being shaped by technology (evolving us)

- Technology is not adopted because it works but because we use it

"Big Mother Is Watching You"

- In today's society everything can be tracked by technology, sleep, steps, fitness routine, location etc. 

- By 2018 there will be 60 million fitness trackers worldwide

- Technology captures data that used to be inaccessible

- Data from companies are suppose to private but they can change the privacy policy even after you've read the terms and conditions, third party companies are allowed to buy data from them

- In the future there will be more data which means employers will create more technology to tack data