Journal 10

This is the first blog that I get to connect with what I have learned in this program with my job as an ABA Tutor! Yay so exciting! Dewey talks about the General Learning Method and Mastery. Dewey states that mastery is accomplished by the learner through becoming a master of shared experiences. Learning how to become a successful ABA Tutor has everything to do with shared experiences! Of course I was hired to work with children with autism because of my background in Psychology, but I also had to go through a few weeks of training to become a master of ABA therapy. I was given so much specific information to read on autism and how ABA therapy works. I observed the ABA supervisor, and joined in when asked. Even though I could now talk the talk and I understood the concepts, it was time for me to walk the walk. The only reason I now have a full understanding in what I am doing is because of my shared experiences with my supervisors and my kids! I would run an entire session by myself with the support from the supervisor if needed. I learned what triggered behaviors by experimenting with different techniques with the kids. That way I learned what to do and not to do after failing he first time if I caused the child to have behaviors. I learned how to use extinction not only be observing what to do with the supervisor, but actually having to deal with the behaviors without the supervisor. I learned how to take data more efficiently by readjusting my organization due to the child's reaction, or suggestions from the supervisor. I learned the most when it was just my child and I. Without all of the shared experiences with the children and the supervisor I would be able to tell you how to handle autistic behaviors, but if I was thrown into the action I would not do as well. Learning by failing, or doing something wrong has also increased my ability of doing my job well.

Journal 9

Ok so I have been thinking about generalized self expression on the internet and I have mixed feelings about it. Generalized self expression was mentioned in Wenger's book, and Shirky's by a way of publishing as a form of acting. I completely agree that expressing your opinions on the internet and making a fb page about it can definitely make change and cause actions through coordination, but I it is kind of annoying at the same time depending on the rant/cause. For example the guy in the first chapter of the Shirky book that made a huge fuss about his friends phone and got a bunch of bandwagon followers to help him "hate" (yes I just used slang) on that 16 year old girl for a phone that was left in a cab until he got it back... ridiculous and annoying. Just let the phone go dude! Is giving people this type of voice making them feel entitled to make others feel humiliated or angry?  This kind of thing happens on fb all the time! It drives me crazy if you cannot tell. If someone uses Facebook as a soap box and someone who reads it does not agree apparently when hiding behind a computer people feel entitled to be as rude, harsh, or just plain mean.

Don't get me wrong I believe there is so many great things that come out of being able to have a voice on the internet, but I wish it was more positive on specific social media like Facebook. Will having blogs and other types of social media soap box bring people together, or tear nations and cultures a part? You can argue both sides, but I think it is a question that needs to be asked.

Journal 8

So I probably should have blogged about dewey before Shirky, but better late than never right?! I love Dewey's points about active learning verses passive learning. Active learning has to be something you comprehend, which means there have had to be a reflection on what you have analyzed. Teachers giving out notes and having students memorize them is not an active way to learn because the students cannot reflect on what they have memorized. All they know is that blank happened because of blank, or this war happened and this time, but unless you really understand why something happened, or works you aren't learning anything. You can learn more by asking yourself why? Without reflection, there is only memorizing, not comprehending. This was my biggest problem in school. I am a fantastic memorizer, and I definitely used that to my advantage! All of my tests were mostly multiple choice due to the amount of people in my class. I could memorize everything in 2 days and pass with flying colors. If you asked me to retake the test a few weeks later without revisiting my notes... I most likely would do worse, which meant I didn't learn anything. When you reflect and comprehend something, forgetting does not happen. Now my memorizing talent got a little shoo-kin up when it came to science classes like physiology because you needed to really understand how one part worked in order to understand how the next part was going to work. Even in my Anatomy class though a lot of it was memorization. There was so much memorization packed into the class in a semester that passing the class with full understanding of the human body definitely did not happen. I believe that when reflecting you also come up with things that you were unaware that you understand, or learned.

 In conclusion, active learning > passive learning. Reflection is key to comprehending which is the key to learning.

Journal 7

Reverting back to "Here Comes Everybody" by Clay Shirky, and continuing to talk about the recent effect that media, specifically social media is changing the way the world receives knowledge and the way that actions are being taken due to the received knowledge. Clay talks about how media is also a site for coordination. One of his examples for this was a bank in offered UK graduates interest free rate checking. When the students went on summer break the bank decided to start charging them a bunch of money instead of sticking to their free interest rate. Some of there student customers changed banks after this, but one was extremely angry and set up a Facebook page to stop the bank from ripping the students off and to give back the free rate that was promised. This caused students to come together even though they were dispersed in different areas of the world. The Facebook page created social coordination between the students. Some of the students shared easy tips on how to change bank accounts, and some started protesting. This led to more media attention and more protesting. In the end the bank decided to reinstate the original promise of interest free checking because of all the bad media and protesting that occurred.

No a days we live, breathe, and eat social media because it gives everyone a voice. It creates ways to coordinate globally and make things known, which causes actions, which cause change. Social media has become increasingly dangerous for the government (in my opinion) and awesome for the bringing problems and solutions to problems to the people. As discussed before in clay's book, it is crazy to see how social media has become a place where social injustice to one person can all of a sudden become social injustice problem all over the world. If you really want to make a change it seems like social media is the way to do it.

Journal 6

The book Digital Habitats by Wenger starts off talking about communities of practice, which in my opinion is the same thing as a club for all ages, especially involving adults. Wenger puts a community of practice (coP) as a group that has a shared interest in a certain area, there is shared basic knowledge, teaching new comers, communication among members, building understanding in the group, if there is a known leader, and if there are any references to outside sources for creating their standards of practice. When you think about it, there are so many standing communities of practice! While deciding what to do my project on I had so many ideas, but then would hesitate because it seemed too easy! I thought about doing a soccer team that belonged to a specific soccer club, or fantasy football because my friends are obsessed with it, but there wasn't a lot of teaching the new comers how to pick a draft, so I chose Camp Pendleton Marine Base. I work at the base twice a week, so it was a perfect choice. Even a school is a community of practice, or a church. It is almost hard to think of something that may not be considered a coP.

Something that stood out to me later on in the Wenger readings was the realization of our class being a community of practice. We all have shared interests in education,  there is a shared basic knowledge of education and technology, we all look to Paul, Valerie, and Bill for our masters of knowledge, we are teaching each other about different perspectives on books and teaching new technologies to some. Brian helped me understand some basic knowledge of adobe pro, and Simon unknowingly introduced me to keynote where I was able to add my voice to a power point. Using the knowledge of the people around you may be your "richest resource" is what Wenger says.

Journal 5

I have been slacking on blogging for the past two weeks so I have to get all caught up! We have been reading Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky. The first incident he writes about in his book is how a man named Evan went above and beyond using social media to retrieve his friends phone that was left in a cab. His friend ended up getting a new phone and somehow pictures of the person who found the phone in the cab and was now using it for her own benefit, showed up on the new phone. When Evan reached out to the finder of the phone she was no way about to give it back to Evan's friend. In response to not getting the phone back, Evan kept trying to convince the young girl to give the phone back and when she was reluctant he started a website about what was going on. The site talked about the injustice of how this young girl would not give the phone back and people started to jump on the bandwagon and overreact. People were able to find the girl's myspace page and started posting photos of her to the site and writing about how horrible she was for not returning the phone. Evan got so upset that he saw justice was not being served he tried to get the NYPD involved and when there wasn't really anything they could do the followers of Evans website started to take this incident personally. In the end, Evan's justice was served and the NYPD retrieved the phone.

This whole story really bothered me and I could probably blog about how psychologically ridiculous Evan took this whole fiasco as well as the community that he had built revolving the incident. Luckily for you, this is not a psych class, so I won't get too much into it. The crazy thing that I believe Shirky was saying was how technology, the internet, and more specifically social media can bring groups together. Shirky says that "When we change the way we communicate, we change society." It is crazy how the people that followed Evan's site took what happened so personally and wanted justice to be sought out even though they did not know Evan, or his friend. Social media has give the world an opportunity to come together by communication. People can come together and get in arguments with each other, which unfortunately I see on Facebook everyday, or they can come together and fight for a cause. One thing that was brought to mind while thinking about the internet though is the struggle the world is having/going to have to maintain separate cultures. I am worried that soon cultures are going to start blending together and some will be lost forever.

Journal 4

My coworkers and I were talking about how we did not learn enough of what to do in real life situations, such as how to pay your taxes, how to fill out a DW2 form, or understanding of different types of insurance. I always hate filling out DW2 forms because it is never clear to me when to put which number. This also reminded me of when I was a student athlete because eighteen year olds are given scholarship checks, and are not given the tools to learn how to properly balance their money. The fact that an eighteen year old is entrusted with a hefty check every month or so, and is expected to use ti wisely boggles my mind. The only real life issue I remember learning about how to deal with was learning how to write checks in 3rd grade, which has stuck with me my entire life probably because it was related to adult life and was exciting!

In Dewey's book he talks about how it is the teachers responsibility to have the children retain useful data that they will need rather than useless data they will never use. I saw this meme the other day that said "and another day has gone by and I have not used the quantum theory once... If a student knows they need to learn something that will be useful to their future it will interest them. 

Another concept that I agree with is that sometimes work does not coincide enough with play, which causes work to only get done as a reward, or to avoid punishment. This leads to half as work. Learning through experience is a way to make work and play come together. For example I have reentry been learning how to make videos on adobe premier pro, and although it is a lot of work figure out how to make certain things happen, it is really fun for me. I am pleased with my work after my video is done! I am excited that I know how to make an even better video than my last one, and it causes me to want to make more. I take the learning into my own hands by searching for instruction, or accidentally learning something from messing around with the tools. Dewey's main focus on learning seems to be learning through experience and allowing the students to fail and to learn things that apply to their world.