My all boys’ class has been writing up a storm this semesterwith our work on PLNs. We have moved from the first 6 weeks of each writingtheir own response on a selected post/ blog:
Tony Wagner’s “RigorRedefined” portrays how the youth of the twenty first century is notprepared for the largely evolving work place. Throughout his article he asksCEOs about the youth they hire and how efficient they are. They all explainedthat the youth they hire are great at the bases of their job, however as theyincreased into the higher level requirements and more detailed work they justcouldn’t process it. This makes me wonder, is the job marketplace evolving toofast for the schools and colleges to keep up. If you ask me, I believe thatschools are not improving what they teach simply because the leaders ofeducation are lazy. They don’t want to respond to change. However if a smallgroup of teachers tried to push that change into action I believe that my generationwould be much more prepared for the future. In the world the younger peoplethat are trying to get jobs are having a hard time because employers are nolonger looking for the blunt man or woman that can do the same thing all daylong. They are looking for the person that thinks at a different level ofthinking, a much higher one that can ask questions and be focused on a broadtopic. It explains in his article that people are working as teams to finishgoals but those people don’t even know each other or even work in the samecountry. People are being brought together through a global conferences andconnections online. But those people aren’t the young ones that have just beenemployed it’s the veteran that knows what he or she is doing. I believe thatbetween now and my generation graduating from college there will be enough timeto improve on education as a whole and complete the goal of preparing us forthe jobs they may not exist. However there is also time for the jobmarketplaces to grow even more and exceed a milestone that was never thoughtpossible. But as time goes on its hard to depict what will happen in thefuture. Many of the CEOs said that the main problem with their young employeeswas that they couldn’t focus or bring their ideas to a conclusion. Which bringsme to ask like Nicholas Carr’s “IsGoogle Making Us Stupid?” has the internet made our attention spanmuch lower? In the case with the employees not being able to focusthat problem is only found in the younger employees rather than the older ones.The problem with them not being able to focus may be because of the youngergeneration’s deeper connection to the internet. As we move forward into adifferent type of work ethic; do you believe that changing the goals we learnin school will make us more prosperous in the work place? I believe it wouldmake the next generations to come much more ready to succeed and be ableunderstand what they are doing. So as we move forward into the future I justhope that schools and colleges can catch back up to where the workplacesadvanced to.
Then we moved towards writing on others’ blogs:
Mr. Stager:
I was intrigued andentertained by your article and Silvia’s videos but I disagree with some of thepoints you made. I watched Silvia’s videos and was very impressed as I couldnot see my self, a ninth grader at Arapahoe High School doing something thateducational or high quality for a school project let alone in my free time. Iam usually worried about a hockey game the next weekend or the cheerleader inmy science lab, not learning how to use an Arduino or a new computer program todo something productive. This sentence from your article really struck me“While you bathe in the warmth of your PLN with self-congratulatory tweets,Sylvia is sharing serious expertise with the world.” The fact that I amcurrently doing a PLN(Personal Learning Network) for my english class makes methink if you are calling out my teacher. PLNs are the first time I have beenexposed to blogs and all of the blog posts we have had to summarize are sendingthe same general message of improving education with technology.
I respect Silvia’s devotion and love for whatshe is doing but she is one of few in our current education system. I, likemany others in my class have just started to understand the art of blogging andpersonally I am pretty proud and then there are the kids like Sylvia who areclearly a level head and shoulders above kids like me when it comes to lust forknowledge. There has always been people like Sylvia who are fortunate enough tocome form such supportive parents and has a love for learning and we call peoplelike that over achievers or active learners. Its not meant to be an insult infact the opposite but it helps show there is another side of the scale. Kidswho come from divorced parents living off lower wages who cant afford homecomputers and struggle in school and life in general. We have to give both anequal opportunity for an education. Should we send them to different schools,or should take away Sylvia’s opportunities and give the challenged kids thesame attention Sylvia needs or vis versa.
And to the blogger responding:
Jake,
Greetings from SouthKorea!
Thanks for reading mywork and for taking the time to write. My article is indeed an indictment ofmany educators who fail to seize the remarkable capacity of children and helpthem go farther than they could have gone on their own. It’s not an attack onspecific teachers, nor does it negate the value of blogging, although bloggingis just a new place to write.
I don’t understand whyyou think that all kids could not profit from the experiences afforded Sylvia?Is it fair to blame kids for their parental involvement? Is that reallydeterminative of a kid’s educational aptitude or achievement? As I said in thearticle (above), the reason we have school is to democratize such experiencesand let more children benefit from them.
Few parents arechemists or conductors or sculptors or authors. School assembles people with avariety of expertise and makes them available to more kids.
Best,
Gary
Each Friday, 6 boys presenton one selected PLN to the entire class. The presentations work on usinggood speaking skills:
- Stand in the front of the class with your blog projected on the screen behind you
- Present your blog entries
- Talk about what you are reading, what matters from it, how does it connect to what we are doing in class, and how does it relate to the world around us?
- Presentation must be organized- Use an organizational strategy to keep your presentation on track without reading from notes or the screen.
- Make eye contact with audience
- Must be creative and interesting: use attention getting opening and conclusion to tie ideas all together
- You are not allowed to miss on your assigned presentation day!
- Stand up straight
- No fidgeting: keep arms and hands in good speaker positions
- Referenced blog postings- connect similar blog postings under one thematic idea
- Asked question of audience at end of presentation
During the presenter’s presentation, the classmates aregiving feedback on the presenter’s individual blog. Once the question has been asked at the endof the presentation, the gentlemen answer the presenter’s question while thepresenter facilitates a group conversation. We have conducted about 6 weeks of presentations.
This week began a new venture for the PLN presentations onFriday. We Ustreamed out thepresentations for the presenter to be able to self-assess and for others towatch what we are doing.
The gentlemen had trepidations today knowing that otherswere going to watch what we were doing, but I think for our first go around,they did a good job. We will see how therest of the semester goes and carrying over this idea into secondsemester. Here are some samples fromtoday:
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