While I was watching “Caine’s Arcade” I was astonished by how creative Caine was when it came to creating arcade games out of cardboard. Caine was inspired by a visit to Shakey’s when he earned a basketball hoop as a prize after playing arcade games. He told his father that he wanted to build his own arcade and his father did not tell him that it was a silly idea, but rather supported him and encouraged Caine to move forward with his idea. We as educators need to analyze this video and acknowledge that our students can be extremely creative. However, if we ignore their ideas students may become unmotivated. Caine’s father enabled Caine to let his imagination run wild and he built an amazing arcade by simply using cardboard. Caine was not having success with his arcade initially and he went awhile without having any customers. However, one day Nirvan walked by Caine’s arcade and noticed that Caine was an extremely talented and intelligent kid with an enormous imagination. Nirvan noticed the lack of success that Caine was having and wanted to help him. Nirvan made a Facebook event page to promote Caine’s arcade to people in Los Angeles. After making the Facebook page and utilizing other social media sites, Caine’s Arcade went virial. This shows the power of social media and how it can be used to develop and grow an idea.
After watching the video “From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-able” by Michael Wesch I understand the difference between making our students knowledgeable versus knowledge-able. Wesch argues that in today’s society we educators are good at making our students knowledgeable but that we do not always allow room for them to become knowledge-able. Being knowledge-able requires a different kind of thinking than knowledgeable. Students today are required to sit at their seats, listen to the instructor, and absorb as much information as they can during the lecture. We as educators need to facilitate their thinking but allow them to venture out on their own so that students can contribute original ideas. Knowledge-able means that students are able to consume information, analyze it, develop an opinion, and argue their point. In order to allow students room to become knowledge-able we must stop implying that the source of all knowledge is at the front of the classroom and help students to feel that they are a source of knowledge for themselves and others. This will in turn require our students to learn how to think critically because information and resources will not be spoon-fed to them. I strongly agree with Wesch that we as educators need to assist our students with the challenges that life outside of school will present to them.
Before I began watching the video by Dave White called "Visitors and Residents" I thought that it was going to be talking about people in society that have explored the Internet/social media and left and those whose lives are fully emerged in the Internet/social media. However, Dave White defined a visitor and a resident much differently than I initially thought. White defined a visitor as an individual that is goal orientated, private, authoritative, and uses the Internet as source of tools. In other words, a visitor has goals and uses the Internet as a resource to achieve that goal without any desire of making an impact on the media. White defined a resident as an individual that uses the Internet as a space, is visible, and part of their lives is on the Internet. In other words, a resident lives and breathes the Internet/social media. After reflecting on these definitions I would say that I am right in the middle, but leaning a little more toward the visitor side. In the past, during my undergraduate days, I would have defined myself as a visitor because I only used the Internet to achieve my goals and I would never have been caught using Twitter or any other social media. As I have grown as an educator I have seen the value in being a resident. Not only can one find ways to collaborate with others, but there is support and resources that are accessible to everyone. Therefore, I have changed my view of the Internet from a tool in a toolbox to an ongoing source of information and resources, such as Twitter.
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Edgar AyalaI love mathematics and how everything in mathematics can be proven going back to simple axioms. I am a mathematics educator at heart and I hope to make learning mathematics fun for all my students and hope to instill the value of education in all my students. Archives
April 2015
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