tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7029419017923677229.post7685013754157572390..comments2023-10-26T04:38:06.297-04:00Comments on TeachPaperless: The Boy Who Cried TechAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14091328599818819777noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7029419017923677229.post-90041181635823950202009-10-18T09:28:08.851-04:002009-10-18T09:28:08.851-04:00Andrew
I believe I see your point but must agree t...Andrew<br />I believe I see your point but must agree to disagree with your assessment on Leonardo. I could understand da Vinci's father recognizing a potential or gift and exploring that with a master of the time. It is my opinion his education was indeed "balancing". From the start his environment was perfectly balanced with a lawyer father and well grounded mother. Also consider the fact Leonardo was "connected" as we would expect with a father of means. Leoardo would have been in the group that traveled abroad. <br /><br />AnthonyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7029419017923677229.post-33399191393595771112009-07-28T13:13:50.313-04:002009-07-28T13:13:50.313-04:00Anthony writes that he tries to evaluate his stude...Anthony writes that he tries to evaluate his students to determine what will make them more balanced, and he adjusts his goals to wahat he thinks the kids in front of him are capable of doing.<br /><br />The Renaissance goal was the exact opposite: play to a child's strengths. As a boy, Leonardo da Vinci scribbled drawings on everything, so his father apprenticed him to a painter right away. Math, science, engineering... everything, in fact that Leonardo did later... grew out of that early, highly unbalanced training.<br /><br />Meanwhile, our responses as modern teachers is the exact opposite: "oh, well, kids are good at pushing buttons and finding shortcuts through these technologies, rather than 'really learning' the material... we'd better make them learn something else."<br /><br />If we built educational games with elaborate graphics of the pyramids, and clues written in ancient Egyptian on temple walls... kids would learn hieroglyphics to read them. And Greek.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7029419017923677229.post-25716503422030349502009-07-27T13:08:38.601-04:002009-07-27T13:08:38.601-04:00I recently completed a four-day edtech workshop an...I recently completed a four-day edtech workshop and encountered a similar frustration. Rather than thinking about how we can use technology to change things in our rather broken school system, we're taking the technology that we already know about and asking ourselves how we can "fit it" into our curricula. We're working backwards!Aaron Fowleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15484837814983601259noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7029419017923677229.post-79730910626812534472009-07-27T11:56:35.198-04:002009-07-27T11:56:35.198-04:00I appreciate your comment, and I think I understan...I appreciate your comment, and I think I understand your concern, but I see it as exactly the reason we need to teach teachers and students how to fully integrate social technology into their classrooms.<br /><br />This isn't about kids -- or teachers for that matter -- "knowing about computers". It's about kids and teachers understanding how to best use the network that exists all around them to facilitate deeper understanding and engaged active learning.<br /><br />It's not about "pushing buttons", it's about making connections and being engaged in the world in the ways that the 21st century offers.<br /><br />best,<br />ShellyAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14091328599818819777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7029419017923677229.post-75222993085537460902009-07-27T10:09:00.313-04:002009-07-27T10:09:00.313-04:00Many teachers, myself included, teach to a filtere...Many teachers, myself included, teach to a filtered subset of students. I try to evaluate the subset sitting before me and adjust my goals. I try to determine what would make them a balanced individual and attempt to open there minds to things that have been limited by their environment. Pushing buttons is not new to them, it’s all they do.<br />Students today have tricked their parents into believing they are good at math and science because they know how to use computers. So many parents brag how their kids and grandkids “know all about computers”, they don’t. They only understand short-cuts and will always gravitate to the short-cut.<br />Education to me is teaching the student something they do not know, no sense going through all the effort to get them into class and then hand them short-cut tools. <br />They only appear to look educated to their parents because they stand on the shoulders of the giants before them…..Microsoft, IBM, Dell, HP, etc. Other experiences of their lives, if there is not a computer involved, will fall flat. Now maybe not the subset that spends their summers abroad, but many, many, many.<br />So maybe there are teachers that realize the last thing their students need is more virtual anything.Anthonyhttp://www.ed-man.comnoreply@blogger.com