Saturday, November 3, 2012

Blog Post #10

Adventures in Pencil Integration
Mr. Spencer is using this cartoon to make fun of the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercials. The Papermate guy is related to the PC guy and the Ticonderoga hipster is related to the Mac guy. I think it's funny that he relates Mac users to hipsters. He's basically saying that some people only use Macs because they're "in style". It's also funny that the PC guy is pictured as a nerd.
Although the two computers can do the same basic functions, like the pencils, it's a matter of which you prefer. However, now it has turned into a popularity contest.
Why Were Your Kids Playing Games?
In this post, Mr. Spencer writes a story describing how schools nowadays are moving away from creativity and towards making high marks on standardized tests. Some schools don't understand that you can learn while having fun. Games and stimulation's are more important than you think. Students will retain more information if they're having fun. At least, that's how I feel.
I know that when I was in grade school, the things that I remember the most were the fun activities. The games that we played helped me to learn the Solar System, my Times Table, and even the Periodic Table of Elements! Making students memorize facts for the test will not help them learn. The chances of them forgetting all of the information that they memorized is very likely. When students have fun, that information is logged into their long term memory and saved forever!
7 Reasons Why I Quit Reading Your Plog
In another one of Mr. Spencer's post, he talks about why he has quit reading certain Plogs (Pencil Logging). He gives several examples of plogs that he has quit reading. He says that some people are using their plogs to promote different information sites or products. Others are using their plogs to rate about their faculty and peers. He said that he hates reading these because he himself wrote a couple of mean post about his peers and got in trouble because of it. Mr. Spencer also talks about the fact that plogs are suppose to be interactive and that the authors have gotten lazy and do not reply back to comments.
So far, I love all of the post that I have read by Mr. Spencer. He is a very humorous man. I love his sense of sarcasm and the way he uses it to express his feelings about the school system.

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?
In my opinion, I feel that Scott McLeod is taking the role of an old fashion educator at the beginning of this post. This old fashion educator is stuck in their old ways and refuses to change to meet the needs of the students. Sure, this educators method worked well at one point, but now that society has grown and changed, it's time for our schools to do the same. 
I like how McLeod dictates this situation. It really makes you think. There are still educators out there that still feel like technology is hindering our students. The old fashion educator who says, "...you know they're just going to look at porn" doesn't understand that when students are given the freedom to learn through technology, they're learning to use technology the CORRECT way. The chances of them wondering off onto bad sites are far less than when they were stuck studying with pencils and paper. Of course, there are always going to be some advantages to sticking with pencil and paper. I mean, what happens when the power is out? The point is that students need to learn about what our society is growing towards. They need to know how to use it properly. This is our job as educators. 

3 comments:

  1. Meredith,
    I really enjoyed reading your blog post. You provided a lot of great information throughout your post. I really like your opinion on the interaction with students. I also like the example about how you said you learned better by fun activities in Grade School. Your links and pictures were on point. Your post was well written and I really didn't find any mistakes. I look forward to reading your future posts.

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  2. Mr. Spencer uses satire and metaphors. Dr. Mcleod uses sarcasm. Many students miss understand the use of these writing techniques. Watch for a detailed explanation in the class blog next week.

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  3. Meredith,
    Good post, no grammatical errors. I am of the opinion if it is not broke do not fix it, technology is to enhance education, not to replace traditional learning.

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