David Warlick on Wikipedia

[Before I begin my response, I have to admit that this was really hard to watch and hear.  I am a very visual person, and the sound quality was not great.  Add that to the extremely poor picture and this was really overwhelming to view.  I had to rewatch this a couple of times, so I hope that I understood everything correctly. If my comments seem off base, please comment and let me know!]

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/912227

The first time I heard the word Wikipedia, I thought to myself,  Oh, another website I don't care about.  My professor was explaining to us that Wikipedia would never be appropriate to use in a legitimate works cited (this was in 2008). I next heard Wikipedia when another professor was asking our opinions of the website.  Our class determined that Wikipedia is like the free market of information, and as more people access and update the information it would become more and more accurate.  But again I thought to myself, I'm still not sure, better to just stay away.  And I did.  I didn't use the website for a while, until a friend of mine told me that Wikipedia is a great tool for finding information - check out the references at the bottom of the website.  This is my relationship with Wikipedia. 

My professor who thought that Wikipedia wasn't credible had a sincere fear of her students being misinformed.  In 2008 this made sense, but over the years Wikipedia has made improvements.  Now Wikipedia alerts users that this article contradicts itself.  As David Warlick pointed out, our text books do not do this!  We have to begin thinking outside of the box when we think about where we get our credible resources.  When we read resources, it is important to ask questions; who is the author, who published the text, when was it written.  We should always be questioning things, and when we do we can learn about the resource that we're using, whether it is online at a site like Wikipedia or a biology text book that was published in 1999 prior to the human genome project being complete.

As I watched the video, I had a memory of middle school and elementary school.  Some of my friends had encyclopedias at home.  They could access solid information whenever they wanted.  I was so jealous!  I wanted to have this information at my fingertips.  But could you imagine buying an encyclopedia today?  By the time your books ship, they will probably be outdated.  Sites like Wikipedia makes encyclopedia seem archaic. 

Warlick pointed out that Wikipedia enables students to be published authors.  How amazing to be seventeen years old and have your work published online.  This allows you to get feedback from people all over the world.  Warlick also made the point that most of their teachers are not published.   In 1968 Andy Warhol said, "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." (Yes, I got the exact quote and year from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_minutes_of_fame) Warhol was right, today everyone has an opportunity to experience fame. 

Selfishly, I was glad to see his assignment example had to do with a secondary English class.  The teacher asked her students to help her get future students interested in Othello by creating movie trailers.  In the past, I remember making movies for class but with sites like Youtube, we can share and save the our information easily.  I liked the way the teacher presented the idea to the students, using a video! 

As a new tool, Wikipedia was scary to many people, but as it has evolved Wikipedia is the new way to access the most up to date information.  In my blogs, comments, and responses I continually say that it is important to ask questions.  I never trust information when I first hear it.  I love to look up the back story, find out who is funding this information and why it is being presented in this way.  Warlick suggests that while life long learning is nice, we have to create a lifestyle of learning, and I agree.  

Rething Literacy

I liked David Warlick's take on education today and into the future (admittedly, I didn't love him as much as Sir Ted Robinson).  The concept of redefining literacy is imperative; students no longer sit passively while teachers drown on about Reading, Riting, and Rithmatic.  Students are now taught to engage, ask questions, and interact with the material that they are learning.  Because educators don't know what the future has in store for all of us, we have to prepare our students to be courage enough to try new things. 

Warlick's attention to ethics, regarding to the technology and everywhere in the classroom, was interesting as well.  It is easy to forget that most of our students will have no working memory of the 20th century (because they will have been born post Y2K!!).  Because they do not know what it is like to live in a world where you cannot share everything at every moment, it's important to include how to ethically use and apply this information in the classroom and everywhere in their lives.  I am sit on a fine line of growing up with technology.  My first computer I remember was a laptop that had Candyland.  Candyland was on a B drive disk (a disk that was actually floppy).  When I was older, we had the Muppet's Printing Program.  All of our signs were printed with Muppet character's heads as pictures, but the printer was a crank wheel with sheets of paper that had to be torn apart.  And I was a freshman when facebook was introduced to the world.  I have reservations about sharing my every thought with the whole world, but my students probably won't.  Mostly likely blogging about how great last weekend was will be a normal occurrence for them.  My experience with technology is so outdated now, it's making me laugh out loud as I type this (should I have used LOL??)

Inaugural Post: Response to Sir Ken Robinson

I am constantly thinking about what is wrong with education today, and how would I fix it if I were given ultimate power.  I am typically stumped.  There seem to be so many bad things (and bad publicity) going on with public education today, I cringe when I admit to people that I am going to school to become a teacher.  The admission is often followed by a negative comment, groan, even a comment about unions.  This is bizarre to me because I would never decide on an occupation with the intention to be crappy, but I also wouldn't attack some one's occupational choice. 

I am so happy that I was introduced to Sir Ken Robinson.  He is not condemning the education system, as too many people do.  He is pointing out problems and mistakes we're making today, and giving realistic solutions.  So few people are brave enough to give a solution, that often we just hear complaints. "All kids have talent and we squander them," a quote from Robinson.  I shutter at this truth.

After watching all three videos, I mostly agree with Robinson.  We need to support our students not condemn them for thinking outside of the box of education.  Students are not all intended to be University Professors, as Robinson says.  The story of Gillian Lynne exemplifies this truth.  I wonder, how many students have been passed over because they did not fit into the particular view of the mind?  I want to be the teacher that can look into each student's eyes and see their potential and their talents.  I work hard to be a positive influence in the environment I live.  I do this by assuming the best of the people I encounter during the day; when someone cuts me off in traffic I assume that they are late for a very important meeting.  Surely they didn't just give me the finger because I was driving 25 mph down Murray Ave...  I plan to do this with my students.  The child in the class who doodles constantly may not be interested in Shakespeare, but that does not qualify him as someone who will never succeed.  He may one day be a famous graphic designer...

I believe that students are not products produced by a school.  They are individual humans that have the right to have unique interests.  As a teacher, I want to encourage their interests (I believe we're happier doing the things that we love).  I hope to keep Robinson in my mind, and continue to visit his website, and be part of the education revolution that benefits our children, not our product.