Blog Assignment 10

What is wrong with institutional education?  Why is our society passing by this style of education?  Here's a comment I left on An Open Letter To Educators.
 
Hey, I'm an EMD310 student and I totally agree with you.  There is no need for teachers to be holders of information.  The teachers are being used as if they are the only one who are able to hold an instruction manual, and it is their job to throw facts at us from this manual.  Since all the facts are in the public domain via the Internet, why do we need this style of education?  I really like your post and Dan Brown's response to this question.
 
I feel like my college experience relates to Morgan Bayda's experience (the girl who wrote the post).  In most all of my classes, my learning experience is very impersonal.  The teacher doesn't know me.  We aren't encouraged to discuss with the teacher or other students.  It's actually not much of an experience, and that maybe why we have a hard time doing the one thing we are demanded to do...focus.

I do have a slight counter opinion with one genre of classes (i.e. Chemistry).  I'm in my third inorganic chemistry class and I actually use my book!  (Maybe the fact that I actually use my book in ONE of my classes speaks truths about institutional education failing.)  Anyway, I use the book because it follows the lectures and has may topic specific problems for me to practice.  To me, chemistry is a skill that I have to constantly practice; use it or lose it.  It's just like practicing free throws in basketball, and how well you perform in the game depends on the practice you put into it.

Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home

This is a great way to use a blog.  Combining fictional characters in historic situations to discuss modern conflicts.  It's brilliant!  I've had some of these same "pencil" thoughts last week while thinking of iPad use in school.  Will kids think of iPads as a toy?  How do you get parents and others on board with a new concept?  Can this technology really be used for education?

Yes!  As Tom Johnson said, "Don't hold the kids accountable.  Try and find projects that keep them interested.  But if they choose to play Hang Man or go on the pen pal networks, be okay with it. There's probably some learning that's taking place that we don't realize."  I love this mentality.  Give the students the possibility to learn, without holding any doubt over their heads.

Two Questions That Can Change Your Life  

What is your sentence?  

A great man is a sentence.  A sentence that drives us.  One to sum us up and for us to take with us where ever we may go.  A second sentence goes hand-in-hand to motivate us and develop us.

Are you better today than you were yesterday?

Okay, this is probably the most difficult post yet.  I write this keeping in mind that I hold the right to change it as I learn more about me, my purpose in life, and what motivates me.  So, here it goes.

Josh King is a man that strives to learn in every situation and tries to motivate others to do the same.