Concept Brainstorming

After we brainstormed in class about education, Joseph and me narrowed down our interest. We ended up with 2 ideas. One dealt with how to maintain long term memory with students and cater different teaching methods to different learning styles. The other one was what we went with and it dealt with how can we teach students extracurricular activities (dancing, music, etc.) using unconventional teaching tools like YouTube. So far, this is what we have came up with.

What programs do they usually cut down on in schools?

·      Performance art: dance, drama, music, etc.

·      Fine art: writing, painting, photo, etc.

Physical boundaries: languages, dress, ritual, etc.

·      Majority English speaking countries but open to people with no knowledge of English (why can’t arts defy speaking?)

·      Different cultures

·      Loose clothing, nothing too fashionable, “art kid”

·      Goes to school but then play after school?

·      More after school activity like

Involves what:

·      Videos

·      Tutorials

·      Chat forums

·      Advice section?

·      Local chapters? State chapters? Chapters in general?

·      How to section?

Involves who:

·      Students

·      Professionals

·      Middle aged people who want to just learn a new hobby

·      Teachers

·      Learners

Equipment needs:

·      Body

·      Computer

·      Video camera/sound recorder

·      Necessary props

Demographics:

·      Aim towards high school to college

·      13 to 18 years olds

·      Not limited to just that age range

·      Parents/grandparents included

Wants and needs of individual:

·      Learn a new hobby

·      Do something that they always wanted to do but had no resource or motivation

·      Bucket list check off

·      Dabble in an interest

·      Testing waters

Wants and needs of community:

·      Sharing and communicating

·      Forums

·      Chapter get together

·      Meeting new people who share same interest

·      Cross culture learning/teaching

Symbols:

·      Pen/pencil/writing utensil

·      Musical symbols

·      Paper of sorts

Motivation for participating:

·      To learn

·      To teach

·      To get involved

·      To do/try something out of the ordinary

·      To dabble into things not available at school

·      To go at your own pace learning what you want

·      Free will

Resources:

·      Flash mobs

o   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLKEvAduzT4

o   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k

·      Ted talks

o   YouTube dancers

o   Math teacher program thing

·      Funding cuts

·      Personal experience

Community Reading

"Sense of Community is a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members' needs will be met through their commitment to be together."

Community, in my opinion, is a heavy word. I feel like it encompasses so many aspects of life and it's so complicated and hard to find one that you belong in, that very few people ever feel that welcoming warmth. With that being said, the way the McMillan & Chavis sums up what a community incorporates, is fairly accurate. Communities do rely on connecting and memberships. It relies on needs being met and influences between members. When building a community, we need to keep these ideals in mind. It's important to consider each individual when designing for them. How can one design fit for all? Not saying that it has to target everyone, but it should be broad and open enough to give "outsiders" a sense of community. Basically, how can we create a community that everyone feel welcomed in, incorporating all of McMillan & Chavis's ideas?

Responses: Videos and Web 2.0

To me, the videos work with one another. They offer a deeper insight to one another. In general, they talked about how each student learns differently. I totally agree with this idea. I know that I am a different learner, especially starting school with no knowledge of English. The way I was taught was very book oriented, like most people probably were. When I watched the video on how kids learn to navigate the multimedia world and I saw how elementary kids are learning how to make animation and use very hands on techniques, I was slightly jealous. I wish I could've done that when I was younger since I feel like I'm more of the visual learner. This shows how much technology has changed and how it can influence how a child learns. I keep thinking about how learning English would be different if I had all of this new technology to use. Would I be learning it faster? Would my English be better? Would I have stopped learning English at a lower grade and spent more time in middle school and high school doing something more meaningful? What would have changed for me? I feel like not much would, but I would enjoy learning English greatly. I remember in elementary school, I would spend about an hour everyday in a special ESL class and every Friday, if we were good during the week, we got to play a board game instead of "learn". I loved those Fridays and always looked forward to them. So this made me think, if I learned with games all week, would that have affected me?

The education system right now is apparently flawed. Growing up, I never felt like it was but now, it is to me. Like the RSA video we watched, schools have quite a rigid set up based on hundreds of years ago. Kids have to learn this at this age with this method. There is no room to teach each student individually. What if technology can be used to teach students in a broader sense. How can one idea reach different learners differently. In the Seven Types of Intelligence, Howard Gardner listed seven learning types of children. Is there a way to develop some type of concept to address each learner individually? I remember I had a friend through out elementary school that had trouble learning with the class. Great kid but he was slower than the other students and he would get frustrated when he couldn't grasp the idea as quick as everyone. In third grade, I would sit with him and spend time helping him learn instead of doing my own assignments. At the end of the year, all the teachers told me how thankful they were for my help and how much his grades has improved. This made me think, can technology make some kind of one on one teacher to student ratio when the teacher themselves aren't available to help everyone? Through out all the videos and reading, it  comes down to the question of how technology can improve learning for children. We can create that change. We are using the technology and the technology is us.

"Web 2.0 is all about harnessing collective intelligence." It is crazy. It is mind-blowing. It is us. Web 2.0 enables so much interaction and change in the world. The whole article is about what Web 2.0 can do, which is basically everything. Is there anything that hasn't been thought of yet? You can now travel with the web. You can touch, feel, see the web. You can track where you are and where your friends have been. You can communicate with people from across the world and be able to see them. What can't you do with the web now? It opens up so many doors to educate people. How can we use all of that technology to design an experience, an idea, that could help so many students. With all the new technologies being developed too, anything seems possible. At the same time, can it be too much? Can we use social media to teach? What happens if we integrate a traditional media into an iPad? Can we make it the same experience? Web 2.0 allows us to create so many changes, it's just up to us and how we use it to our benefit.