Week 8

• How might technology be used to enhance cognition?

For our last blog I will revert back to our first lesson on cognition.  I will forever think differently about thinking because of one little word... neurons.  Which sounds an awful lot like nerdons.  Which would be a cool word for a group of smart people coming together into communities and exchanging information.  Oh wait, that's called a Star Trek Convention and I'm proud to say that I would go to a Star Trek convention but I haven't yet.  I'm a proud nerdon.  

Anyway.  I bring up neurons because every time we experience or think our brain develops or strengthens those neurons.  They form together, making connections, and shape our mind.  Our mind, however, is flexible and can reshape itself through new thinking.  How then can technology enhance cognition?  It can through several thought out lessons that take higher order thinking skills.  In this digital age, technology will be used to enhance the school and work place.  It's unavoidable.  Through its use we can cause our minds to solve complex problems, situations, and lessons with various technologies.  Anytime we use higher order thinking skills, we are enhancing our cognition.  

So long as our frontal lobe is engaged through the process of learning, the technology we implement with it will enhance cognition.  

Week #7

How do public policies impact the use of technology.

Please allow me to get into my zen mode for a moment before addressing the complexity of this question...
...humming birds... ...meditation... ...peacefulness...  ha ha.  Okay, can you tell I am getting much more relaxed with my writing.  I want to speak from my own experience.  Which, I am completely calm about. Although I can get frustrated at times with policies for a variety of reasons.  One of the biggest complexities with policies is getting them out and understood.  Policies in technology are constantly changing.  Not only that, there are gray areas in these policies and so it becomes unclear.

In my professional experience I have been a stickler with policy.  I have worked with co-workers who say, if I don't know, it can't hurt me.  Yet, this is very risky and dangerous.  Accidental misuse of policy could cause someone to lose their job.  I realized the complexity of policy when it came to showing the movie my class was reading.  My boss had to get a movie license, then we had to purchase the video with educational funds, keep it at the school, and finally get parent permission.  I then had to tie the video into the curriculum so it very specifically had educational purposes.  I understand why we have policies, they are important.  Yet, can we relax a little now.

I have gotten to the point where I am almost scared to use anything because I could be copyrighting without realizing it.  I have attempted to understand the Fair Use Act of education but still find it complex to.  The interesting thing about copyright is that if you go to YouTube its all over the place, but do you see anyone doing anything about it? No. Companies would be wasting time and money.  The big copyright issues tend to be when someone is making big money off another's work without permission.  It seems like for the most part the copyright issue is labeled gray and circumstantial.  In fact it is so complex that not even the government can put a definitive label.  Not to long ago a woman was asked to take down a home video from YouTube because it had a song in the background.  Yet, look at the millions of videos with songs and no permission.  Why just pick on her?  

The fact is, it's very complex, which makes policies complex and all of this confusing.  Although, I believe understanding it is very important so that policy is still being followed.  I have most certainly given one hundred percent attention to this.  

By the way... Now this is copyrighted.  That's the policy. I'm glad I have protection of rights, but the internet is also a free exchange of information.  The truth is, once something is online, it's out of your hands.  

(Week 6) Blooms Taxonomy

• What types of skills and thought processes are considered higher-order?

This last week in class we began to discuss what type of higher-order thinking skills happen when dealing with technology.  

We discussed many types of thoughts on this.  One of my favorites was Blooms Taxonomy.  Blooms taxonomy deals with steps.  There are six steps, they are: 

1. Remembering  
2. Understanding  
3. Applying  
4. Analyzing  
5. Evaluating  
6. Creating

In each of these categories we begin to find ways in which technology plays a role within each verb.  If we look at remembering we can use several means to help kids remember facts.  For example, in creating, we may ask them to create a video or PowerPoint about their favorite book.  We may have them type up a compare and contrast or even create one on Google docs for all to share.  Each stage helps us to step up the challenges we give to students.  

What I really like about it was that it reminded me of the activities we learned in my ESL endorsement courses this previous year.  Each stage of Blooms Taxonomy matched a stage for teaching a lesson to ESL students.  I thought it would be great to look at those old lessons and now introduce technology into them.  

Week 5

How might technology be used to encourage students of all ages to explore identity?

In class we reviewed Erik Erikson's 8 stages of human development.  We created projects on how students can explore their identity in a technological way.  I remember exploring my identity a lot through high school by playing, "The Sims," video game.  The Sims video game was an opportunity to create relationships through a virtual reality storyline.  I loved to create these fun cities and friendships that I could deal with simple to complex situations.  I can't really remember learning anything from the game about life, mostly I discovered possibilities of life and relationships in a make believe way.  Most secondary students are discovering this identity and exploring what it means to be them.  The challenge is when a teenager feels out of place in reality.  This often leads to many outlets of expression.  Some are healthy, some can become unhealthy.  I found it healthy for me to play 'The Sims,' because it was an outlet of creativity and exploration in a fun way.  Again, I don't think that it made my life or relationships in reality better or worse, but it was an outlet of discovery and entertainment. 

There are a lot of technological tools now for kids to express themselves.  Even something as simple as PowerPoint could be a tool of creation.  Students can create educational or personal narratives to express themselves.  They could explore some of their identity through podcasts, creating slideshows, movies, or recording music.  Technology has many tools that foster creativity and talent.  The sky is not the limits in technology.