Oh man.. I'm a gamer...

Finally, some technology I can sink my teeth into. I absolutely love video games. The mindless ones where there is tons of blood, rockets, grenades, and aliens to blow up. I also enjoy the classics where overweight plumbers are in search of toadstools and princesses. I feel that this type of video game is in an entertainment category and is in a totally different world when compared to educational games. The one that vividly comes to mind is Reader Rabbit. In elementary school I played Reader Rabbit, and gradually worked my way up through the ranks. It helped develop my vocabulary, grammar, and most of all, my love for all games of the video variety. I remember getting to play Oregon Trail after learning about the Trail of Tears and Manifest Destiny. I can honestly say that if I had not played that game, I doubt I would have remembered anything about it. When playing a game, video or otherwise, it engages visual, auditory, tactile, and verbal types of learning. That two times the reinforcement versus just reading. My mother in law has rows of computers set up with educational video games to reinforce everything from math, science, to Spanish vocabulary.

As far as messaging goes... It depends. I think that for distance learning, its a great tool. For a middle school class, not so much.

As for the podcast... I feel I have a great deal to say for this in the positive light. You see, my wife is a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) with Dallas ISD. A few years back, she was chosen to be part of a study dealing with ipods, and podcast. Once a language disorder has been diagnosed, it is dealt with by therapy. There, the student learns techniques to practice to rid themselves of an articulation disorder, ways to deal with and overcome stuttering, etc. In order to assist the children and their parents with at home practice, they were lent ipods. On these ipods, were exercises/homework for the children to do. In addition to that, there were also instructions to show the parents how to properly assist their children in these exercises. You see, this couldn't have been done by just sending home some words on paper because all this usually involves movements of the mouth/tongue. So in order to show these exercises, it would have to involve the visual aspect of a podcast or video. It was a groundbreaking use of technology and the program directors actually presented the data at the TSHA (Texas Speech-Language Hearing Association) convention. Way to go Dallas! I think that this just goes to show that there are innovative ways to use technology that we can not even fathom. All it takes is a creative spark.

Some may argue that video games have nothing to do with the classroom. I think more and more, technology is blurring the lines of what belongs where. Most of these educational learning games are only available as software on computers, but the release of Brain Age for Nintendo DS brought educational video games to the mass market. Every time that there is a new Brain Age, there is pre-ordering and selling out. Many (my parents included) feel that video games are of no value. That the only skills one can attribute to them are fine motor skills of the digits and eye hand coordination. The parents even go to say that they made me dangerously antisocial. Whatever, I don't know anyone who still talks to all their high school friends. For some, that may be, but for me, I can say that I had a virtual world to study and practice the physics of a car. I say this because the Gran Turismo racing series has been given the title of most realistic racing simulator. It is indeed a race simulator. I without a doubt in my mind have avoided several crashes because of the countless hours I've spent playing this game. Just one example- I was driving home one day after school. I was new to driving at the time, being only 17. I was in a 2003 Chevy Cavalier. It is a 2.2 in-line four, front wheel drive with approx. 135 horsepower/155 ft/lb torque. I know what all this means because of that game. I was driving down a gradual hill, when it started to rain. In the slickness of the fresh rain and washed up road deposits, my back end started to slide out. Brakes would be an initial reaction, but I knew because of that game, that would disrupt my weight distribution, cause me and my car to veer out of control and off the side of that hillside. A steady increase in the accelerator to get the front wheels to pull the car out of the turn, a slight over correction of the steering wheel. Bam, I regain control.

Time... Oh sweet time...

Heard a song a few days ago by my best friend. His song was an expansion of a new found philosophy on life... that life is about the things you take the time to do. He came about this one day shaving. Now mind you, we don't shave using your typical wire covered, 9 blade, double aloe strip bullshit razors. We are gentlemen (or at least we shave like them). A double edge safety razor by Merkur for myself and a straight edge from Germany for Ray. It takes a solid 15 minuets to get a great shave... at least. Mind you I said a great shave, not an OK shave, not a quick shave, a GREAT shave. Now see, that is the point. It takes time. Not half minded, 6 am, mind on autopilot kind of time, but total focus and dedication. Not too many men know in what direction every hair on their face grows, but I can guarantee you that anyone who uses a real razor, does.

Now, by this logic, there is no such thing as killing time anymore. You can not just be, "killing time at the bar" or "watching mindless tv". You are making a conscious effort to take the time, to be doing nothing. You know, I appreciate a drink at quite bar from time to time. The kind of bar where you don't find women hanging around, but where you can read the news with a pint of some dark stuff. Where you can have a meaningful conversation with a perfect stranger.

TV is the one that kills me. Now I enjoy The Office, Grey's Anatomy, It's Always Sunny, just to name a few... but I wait until they come out on DVD... that is stupid right? Pay 30 bucks for a season of The Office when anyone with a working television and coat hanger could view it for free... I bet you have heard this one before, NOTHING in life is FREE...If you watch a 30 min tv segment, you have just watched and average of 8 mins of commercials... and now a quote..."According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube". Out of those 4 hours, one hour and four minuets (give or take) was commercials telling you to go buy shit you don't need, food when you aren't even hungry, or that what you have isn't good enough. What is an hour of your time worth? I may buy something you could watch on Hulu for free, but for 4 hours of TV you watch, I watch 4 hours of commercial free TV... and I don't even have to fast forward the TiVo. If you do the math, over the 9 years we will likely spend in front of a tv, 2.6 years will be watching commercials... suckers...

On that note, I think I've taken enough time, wasting my time... blogging

NPR... best radio station ever

I have lived in the DFW area for about 5 years now. When I first got here, I had just started college and was deep into a, 'my music' phase. As time went on, I really started to get into the news. Then, the news was just too freaking depressing. I hated living in Dallas because on the morning news, you just got who was killed the night before and the traffic that lay ahead of you. Great way to start the day. No one (unless you are a jobless college student.. such as myself) has the luxury of sitting around drinking their coffee till 9. That's when it stops being depressing and gets to the stories of hope, inspiration, and my favorite, the cooking segment at around 945.

Like i said though, unless you are unemployed and really enjoy sitting in bed and drinking coffee has this luxury. So next chance you get to watch the news is either at lunch (still who died that night or early that morning) or at maybe 6 or so when you you get home. (who was shot earlier that day) and then on to the evening, after prime time (who was killed on their way home). So as I'm sure you can imagine, I stopped watching the news and watched the weather (15 mins after the start of the news, like clockwork) "I get all the news i need on the weather report" -Simon and Garfunkel. That was 2 or 3 years ago... As the time has slipped by me, the more I have lost touch with what is going on in the world. Things got a bit better when I acquired a blackberry and was able to read the news. Even then, my being connected with the world was a direct correlation with how much wasted time I was forced into. If I was at an appointment, stuck in standstill traffic, or just plain stuck somewhere I didn't want to be, I got the news. And a very limited version. On your phone, you have the choice of picking what to read, so you end up picking the story about how a man got his penis stuck a jacuzzi jet instead of what's going on with health care...

So now, On to National Public Radio (NPR). I had been looking for this radio station since I moved to DFW. Go look for it online my best friend suggested. Never got around to it. Instead, my battery died a few days ago and reset all my preset stations. Because of this misfortune, I found it. In the past few days I have learned about the exploration of the Labrador duck, the problems associated with international laws and treaties, god as a function, along with the local, national, and world news (and of course, weather and traffic). My life is infinitely better since i found NPR. I feel more informed, less bias, and more educated... not necessarily on topics I would have choose, but you know, education is the pursuit of knowledge... in all forms.
-More on NPR to come later...

INFP...

WTF... I feel that these personality test don't carry any weight. It reminds me of that psychology exercise they usually do in an intro to psych class. The one where they pass around a sheet that has, 'your personality type' or 'your horoscope' and you find out at the end of it that everyone had the exact same piece of paper. It is very clever... how something can be written so that it really speaks to you... and then you come to find that you have just been had. That's why I don't put much stock in this horoscope/personality mumbo jumbo. I remember in middle school, we all took this career placement test. The results for one of the smartest in our class said that this guy should be a 'sanitation's specialist' . . . I freaking garbage man. Now don't get me wrong, its honest work, but the guy ended up as a computer programmer with Intel.

I think people learn different as a result of their learning style, not personality. (not to say that personality of a student isn't going to affect your classroom) As said before, I really don't put much stock into these tests. According to this test though, I am intuitive of other people.. so if its right, I will be able to better know my students... if its wrong, I could just listen to what they have to say.

Excel... at life.. haha

OK, so I feel that the spreadsheet we created was a very very simple one. No doubt useful though. Most classes have assignments, quizzes, tests, etc all worth different percentages. The nice thing is excel can do all that. Say you are teaching high-school or middle-school, you are more then likely going to have at least 4 classes a day... maybe even up to seven.. who knows... You can make one row of formulas, click, drag, and boom... you know have ability to just insert grades and all the calculations are done for you. If your principle wants to know how many kids are failing, you make a lovely pie chart or even see the distribution of grades as a bell curve to see if you as a teacher are doing your job.

The book says you can you use excel for presenting, storing, and calculating. I think as far as presentation goes, its good to make aids, graphs, charts, figures, etc. But I feel that the presentation is best left up to PowerPoint. You can insert your charts, graphs, etc into the presentation though. I've always thought of excel as more of a calculator/data entry/data analysis tool. The data analysis comes in great handy in regards to science. Data as numbers can be fairly difficult to draw conclusions from, but as a graph of some sorts, it is much easier to visualize trends.

inspiring

Wow... I'm taken aback. At first, the video started and after about 30 secs or so I was like, "Man, I could draw thought bubbles... I can outline the good old fashioned way... with a pen and paper." Insert thought into mouth. Wow this program is amazing. Forget about the classroom, I am really considering getting this program to help me organize the dozen or so lab reports I'm going to have to write this semester.

I really find myself thinking, " Man you sound like an old fart;" but I'm only 24. I really think that there are some things that technology is great for, and that there are some things that you have to master first, before you can move on to the fancy programs. You take driving for example; it is best to learn how to drive manual and then if you choose, buy an automatic. In many instances, technology is going to shoot us in the foot. I was in the last generation without technology in the classroom, and even I have felt the devastating effects it can have. If you have read anything I have ever written, it doesn't take you long to figure out that my grammar is terrible. If you have ever been so unfortunate as to review one of my drafts, you know that I can not spell worth dirt. I didn't have technology in the class growing up, but I did have a computer at home I was able to type on. Ruined my need to know how to spell, unless you mean 'there' instead of 'their'.

Now, Alex Donaghy had a great point as far as peer review goes. If in the event that you don't have friends or family, this SWoRD website he mentioned sounds fantastic. Apparently it is a website where you can go to have your draft reviewed and get some feedback. Great.. but call me an old man when I just think that this would be better done by someone you know. If you have access to a computer and the Internet, can't you email your dad at work or your friend who went to another university?

Now... for another foot into mouth situation. Upon further thought, I feel that peer review via blog.. would be a great use for them. It could be a way to have multiple peer reviews without taking up class time. (When I was in school it was usually done in class) It could be given as a homework assignment.. although I'm not too sure how it can be enforced... maybe a non-mandatory peer review type of deal?

I have always been of the thought that if you can teach someone something... you pretty much have mastered it. Most of the time this is true, but it really goes back to who you are teaching. If you are teaching to unmotivated, uneducated individuals, they really are not going to push you as a teacher. I had no idea that this random thought I had would come in handy, but I wrote it down (via blog). In closing read my last blog.

In order to journey beyond the frontier where understanding and abstract meet, we need to be influenced, pushed, or guided by someone or something that surpasses ourselves and our current level of knowledge.