EDLD+5364



After reading the selections for this week, I am struck by the very good explanation of Constructivism and Connectivism. I have known about the teaching style for years, and have used it longer without having a name for it. The readings and videos this week really made the styles clear and easy to explain to interested teachers.

I am not as impressed with the Cyborg information. My husband does nerve conduction studies and this technology is useful for prostheses. However expecting education to be imputed into the brain is a little too sci-fi for me. It seems to me that we would be taking away what makes that person an individual which is what we should be celebrating. I teach at a performing and visual arts high school and while we encourage independence and self expression, the students must also budget their time for academic learning as well. The Cyborg method seems to me that someone else could determine what a person should know and download that material. Very Matrix-like if you ask me. I am not interested.

I thought using social networking in education was intriguing and I have in fact planned to use blogging as a part of my Algebra 2 course in the spring. This is a validation of those things I considered useful.

One thing I have found disturbing in much of our reading the past nine months is how the authors of the articles assume teachers are using teaching methods that are cause for ridicule. Many teachers still use some of the methods they discuss but teachers are reading their articles thus many of us are not using these older methods or at least not exclusively. It is almost insulting that some of the authors insinuate we are not teaching students if we do not use what they think is best. Technology has a very prominent place in education but not to the exclusion of everything else.