Comments for Mrs. Vance Goes To School

Comment on NECC - Creating Live TV by MrsVance

MrsVance — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 01:17:57 +0000

Hi Tim,

It was a good session. A copy can be found at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/weblogg-ed-tv . Good luck with your efforts.

Kim Vance

Comment on NECC - Creating Live TV by Tim

Tim — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:30:45 +0000

Thanks for sharing about this session with us. Do you know if the audio or video of the session is available?

I’ve just begun to use ustream to stream classes for online students. You can read about my first adventure here:
http://www.timothymckean.com

If you have ideas or suggestions I would love to hear back.

Tim

Comment on The Google Apps - Edublogger Breakout Session by Kevin Jarrett

Kevin Jarrett — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 02:17:22 +0000

Hello! Thanks for attending my session! Here is the wiki with a recording of the UStream and lots of other resources!

http://tinyurl.com/3tafob

Enjoy the rest of the conference!

-kj-

Comment on Joy Vampires by MrsVance

MrsVance — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:50:35 +0000

Jamie,
That is a really interesting perspective. I had never thought of rote memorization as a possible motivator. But it makes sense in your example.

There are some students for whom rote memorization is going to work well. At least I think there will be some, based on the fact that this was a very successful teaching methodology for many many years. And there are some topics that seem to lend themselves to this methodology. Math facts come to mind…

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Comment on Joy Vampires by Jamie

Jamie — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:07:29 +0000

I think I agree with you — I teach college and have a slightly different perspective perhaps. My students often come to class waiting to be told what to know. They see knowledge as a consumer sees a product: they pay for it, get it, bank it, spend it on the test. I spend 2-3 weeks trying to unteach them that, because at this level, they need to learn that learning only happens when we want to know something, learn how to ask the right questions, learn how to discover some answers, and engage with others in making their own ideas. At a younger age, I can see where rote learning can be helpful. As a poor student, school was not a value in my home, and it wasn’t until I started doing well in spelling bees at school that I started getting good attention. So, in that sense, memorization boosted my confidence to want to do better and learn more. But I probably still need to look words up that I might have been able to memorize then; meaning the knowledge wasn’t very valuable, but the experience was — ? I use a question mark because I’m thinking through this. Perhaps teachers need to be more focused on the skill than the product at times. That is certainly true at my level — first-year college writing. I think this may even be true early on. Do we learn anything at school besides how to be good students? Knowledge comes outside school, when we are excited about materials presented in school, perhaps. And maybe rote learning can give kids a love of learning that will spill over to tackling other skills, like critical thinking.

Comment on Memorization: Lost Art or Useless Skill? by Kaj Rietberg

Kaj Rietberg — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:08:33 +0000

Information is every where and very easy accessible. So remembering won’t be necessary. But knowing where to find the information and the skill of seeing the good from the bad and knowing how to find other sources so that the information that is found can be checked if it i good information.

Comment on Memorization: Lost Art or Useless Skill? by Ben Hazzard

Ben Hazzard — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:09:08 +0000

Mrs. Vance,

This question reminds me of some recent reading that I’ve done. Howard Gardner’s recent book, Five Minds for the Future, discusses the needs for disciplined, creative, and synthesizing information. Interesting remembering information isn’t amoung the items needed for the future according to Gardner.

Just a quick comment
Ben

Comment on Studio-like Classrooms by MrsVance

MrsVance — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 12:40:11 +0000

For some reason I did not think of the studio classroom as being undirected. But that certainly could be a feature. And I can see where some students would struggle with that. My sons would not have done well in that sort of environment.

Comment on Studio-like Classrooms by lindiop

lindiop — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 10:38:15 +0000

Studio-like classrooms, perhaps like an atelier? I have a friend who works in an interesting school in Germany that takes this approach. Some students thrive, others struggle with the lack of direction & can’t cope.

Comment on Studio-like Classrooms by AllanahK

AllanahK — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 09:28:21 +0000

Thanks for following me in Twitter- we have the same blog template- we show the same good taste.

Good luck with the blogging.

Allanah