Education, Technology, and Society: Altering Environments

Hello All,

After all discussions held passionately in class about the potential racism reflected in books and movies, I think our discussions has gone way too far. The Hunger Games might not be the perfect example for us to examine the racist ideologies but due to its popularity among the teens, we take it as an entering point. As Alice pointed out that what we had got from the book was far beyond the book's orignial intentions and I think we should not put that much effort on the content, per se. 

http://thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_title&task=view_title&metaproductid=1532

Hello All,

In my quest to better understand the hunger games as a tool for learning in the classroom, I have found this article written by a student at another university:

http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1310&context=srhonorsprog&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Dliterary%2520criticism%2520of%2520hunger%2520games%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D1%26ved%3D0CDAQFjAA%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fdigitalcommons.uri.edu%252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%253Farticle%253D1310%2526context%253Dsrhonorsprog%26ei%3DVJ-pUOShO6vh0wG_yICgDQ%26usg%3DAFQjCNHfffVw8aicP2Vul5K0ROcKdU-LFQ#search=%22literary%20criticism%20hunger%20games%22

This persepctive compares themes found in the hunger games to classical themes found in other classical, well know books that are typically used in classrooms. This further leads me to thinking that our classmate Kelsey had the right idea, by using the hunger games alongside another text to highlight certain themes and ideas that could relate to real world historical events. This could both engage the student, while teaching history in a new and innovative way. Please let me know what you all think!

-Besan

What? When we are outside at recess, this one little girl comes up to me at least 10 times each minute and says “Teacher Abby! Watch me! I want to show you something” and then does some sort of swinging motion on the monkey bards for me to watch. I come over and watch every time, but the action itself rarely changes. Eventually, I try to go to a different area of the playground, but she follows me insisting that I watch her “do this” and “do that.” Every time, I feel the need to say “Good job!”

Sadly, there is not much to add to my field notes from last week. constructing writing and creating videos to teach students about basic ways to use technology. E.g. How to create an event in their google calendar. therefore, i haven't really interacted with how students at my placement school use technology, or how teachers use technology to interact with their students. I have however devoloped insight into the basic technology gap that is present amongst the teachers. 

Although I'm in a journalism class, the teacher, Mr. A, also has most of the students in his ninth grade English class as well. Today, if the students had already finished their articles, he told them to use a website called NoRedInk.com, a website that runs grammer drills. To make it more appealing to students, when they sign up for the website they can pick a few of their favorite things, the NFL, country musicians, Modern Family, etc, and it uses those topics in the sentances. There are around 50 different grammar exercises they can work on, and because they sign up through a class code, Mr. A can check and see how they did on each exercise, plus how many attempts they made to get the correct answer. 

Mr. A explained that he really liked this program, even if the favorite things aspect is a little silly. He likes that it cuts down on paper use, it instantly grades their responses, and students can work on it whenever they have downtime. 

This is the first time I've seen them use this program, so I'm curious as to how much they learn from it, and whether Mr. A will address the students that make multiple attempts to figure out the right answer. Overall though, it seems pretty effective and perhaps this version of gaming appeals to some of the students. 

After yesterday's discussion about Hunger Games, I do not think I have been convinced by the inclusion of Hunger Games into the curriculum. While KCHarris made a fantastic suggestion of putting Hunger Games in conversation with another text, I'm still not sure that I would consider the text to be of great value to a classroom -- it just seems that there are other books out there that might address some of the things that we discussed.

1. I felt that a lot of the emotions surrounding the inclusion of The Hunger Games revolved around how it would motivate students to "read". But what do we mean by "reading"? Do we mean (as N. Katherine Hayles talks about in her essay, "How We Read") hyperreading, close reading....? What about the motivations for reading? To be able to think about how The Hunger Games would really affect the ability/love of reading, I think that these are important questions to consider.

2. I do see the point that some of our classmates made passionately about tailoring books to fit in with student's backgrounds. While I didn't take the comment about not being taken seriously in certain contexts personally, I do urge the consideration of how well these students will be prepared to enter college. (Since this seems to be the path that MGuerrero mentioned as being the "model") Would The Hunger Games prepare students to do the type of analysis/close reading required by freshman seminars? I can't speak generally, but probably not at Bryn Mawr.

Complexity -- not evident to neophyte

Skilled players add complexity!

Content v process, skills

self-directed -- or what kind of display board is their interest?

How diff people use the same tool

value of hearing what people are passionate about

confident in speaking

They learn tangible things

tools but do things for themselves

games link to scholarship -- an asset

creativity -- what you can create is limitless

pedagogical community around it

large variety of skill sets -- how provide access to all

incorrect information -- worry about type of information - guiding you towards failure

Notes on small groups:

learning the tech vs. using the tech.  Where do students get the computer skills they need?

Role of computer classes in education field

changing job of teachers (both computer sci and other subjects)?

What is educational?  "Since you are on Justin Bieber.com" -- get points on math site

personal choice of students

personalizing their computers (not just school logo) -- ownership

Idea of not being up to date with technology . . . 

if it's not broken, don't fix it -- time to learn about it and its full functionality  . . . 

quantity vs. quality

portfolio of computer skills -- basic competencies