the bare necessities

the room was easily ninety degrees. as i look around, there are three boys for everyone one girl. actually, that's an exaggeration. there are about fifty to sixty people in this room, and there are five girls total. the kids are all hunched down with their work in front of them as they pant from the sweat and heat.

what is this room?

it's not a sweat shop, and we're not in the third world. this is a testing site, and these kids are here from a regular english ten class to take the plan test. they are the ones who just don't care anymore about school because they associate it with failure and defeat. they don't care about school because they see that the school doesn't care about them. how can they think otherwise when they're sitting in a room that's over ninety degrees.

it's so strange to think of air conditioning and heating as a technology because it seems so standard to our lives now. but the reality hits home during the hotter months when the a/c frequently breaks down at belleville, and during the colder months when parts of the school don't receive heating.

but when we consider educational technology as technology that facilitates student learning, we should also consider the little things that set the environment such as the light bulbs or the running water. after all, how can student take learning seriously when they're asked to go to school under such ridiculous situations?

film technology

we've all been through high school, and we all remember LOVING movies. i remember some of my less memorable teachers would slot whole weeks to finish up a movie for a particular class. unfortunately, i don't remember anything that i was "suppose" to learn.

this isn't to bash movies or media in the classroom or anything. the issue i have is when we educators use it as a crutch. i believe such a devise should supplement a lesson. it's kind of like the seasoning that adds flavor or flare and makes everything taste a little better. but has anyone ever tried to eat a pound of salt or a kilo of pepper? you just can't eat seasoning for a main course.

as teachers, it's sooo easy to show a video. but we also much consider the quality of service we are providing our students, and the price they are paying to watch a screen.

hypothetically, let's say there was a group of 53 fifth grade students who are paying on average $35,000 a year for 40 credits to graduate from this hypothetical elementary school. now, let's say that they watched a video for the entire class period of a three credit class. how much are these students paying as a class to watch a screen? let's see.

3 credit class / 40 total credits = 0.075
$35,000 total per student * 0.075 = $2625 total for this 3 credit class
$2625 / 15 total class periods = $175 per class period per person
$175 * 53 total students = $9275 total for this period for all students

so when you begin to take the reigns of your class, which some of you may already have started doing, be mindful of how you are "spending" your class time.

first blood

i think i may be the first MACer to have total computer failure. i woke up this morning and open up my laptop. it says there are updates available for office. i click okay, and it starts to download. while this is happening, it also says there is an update for itunes available for download. i click okay. office updates fine. itunes stalls and freezes halfway through, and i'm lead with no choice but to "force quit" (the mac equivalent to pc's ctrl+alt+del). i thought this was fine, and i close my laptop and head off to a make a presentation.

and then it happened

i arrive twenty minutes early to review my notes and such and to make sure my powerpoint is working. my computer won't wake up. confused, i try pressing the buttons, i swivel my finger around on the touch pad, all to no avail. at last resort, i press the power button and force a shutdown. i wait with baited breath. i press the button again. it makes the "baaaauuum" sound for the startup, and my heart is soothed a little. but then the unthinkable happens.

the gray screen of death.

that gray screen you get at the beginning of every start up, the one that lasts for only a few seconds, it stays there. the little loading circle spins into oblivion as the computer locked in an unending cycle of booting.

so i was forced to give my presentation without notes, without a presentation, and most of all, without my shield of technology. i had to rely on actually speaking, actually moving, actually clarifying questions and blank stares. it was harsh. without my handy little clock in the top right hand corner, i had to be mindful of my pacing. without an outline in front of me, i had to actually remember my main points and connections.

oh technology, you are a fickle mistress.

i hope ron doesn't yell at me too much tomorrow...

unlikely technology

this morning, i slowly jumped out of bed at 5:50 only to realize that it was saturday. three hours later, i get out of bed again and hope in front of my computer. while checking email, i notice that ms. ruth has messaged me over gchat about our 402 reading, which she lent out to someone and hadn't gotten back. she then asks if i have a copy of mine and a scanner.

i glance around the room. no scanner.

but in my hand is the article and on my desk is my video camera. so i decided to try my hand at playing james bond, and snapped off a few pictures of the article. i felt very crime-scene-investigator-like. surprisingly, the pictures turned out quite well and the font is readable.

unfortunately, the pictures our camera takes are rather big, and would surely clog up any inbox. so, i used fugu to upload the pictures onto my afs space's public folder. from there, i sent ruth a link to where she could just download them herself. if anyone else is in the same boat as her and is missing the readings (which are not otherwise online) you may share in our digital bounty.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~larryliu/402%20Reading%20for%20Ruth/