Visual Literacy, Media Literacy, & New Media Literacies

I have four questions for this week reflection:

1. How does efficiency influence your values of what is good, effective, and worthwhile?

Today’s day most people try to be efficient and it affects the way people think and act.  I believe that everyone is influence by efficiency in some degree or another.  It also affects the background or cultural education.  For me, efficiency goes hand to hand with time; if we use a lot of time and produce little, it is not efficient, but if we produce a lot or good quality in a short time, it is efficient.

    

2. What does Scientific Management tell us about how we should use technology in the teaching and when and how we know if it is good?

This question is related to the first one, technology in teaching is good if we are efficient in the using of it. If when we use technology in school, we make the learning easier and useful, then technology is good. 

3. Comment on the three things wrong with Laggards in Our Schools by Leonard Ayres 1909

There many things that are wrong with Laggards in Our Schools, but I find that the main wrong thing is that children, who are behind regarding their age and grade, are considered as “retards.”   He explains that if a kid misses a year of school without thinking of the cause then automatically the kid is a retard kid, and it is not worth to use the money of the taxpayers to educate this kind of children.  I also have to disagree with him in the subject of people with a second language.  Another thing wrong is that he put the school system at the same level of factories, he compares the school to a factory and he forces the schools to follow a factory model.  The third thing I could think as wrong is applying an efficiency index into the school system. 

4. Why is it called the Cult of Efficient? 

The cult of efficiency goes from democratic societies to post-industrialization.  Efficiency dominates our lives; it is a way to achieve values and productivity.  To me it is a devotion to achieve the maximum productivity with the minimum efforts.

How is technology changing our society?

I think that technology makes our lives easier in day to day situations. For example, the Internet is used to access any information we need. It’s a learning tool that allows us to search and find answers in a matter of seconds. Day to day, we are becoming more and more dependent on technology. It has gotten to the point that people take for granted the TV, the phones, the internet. Take for example the internet, as much as it is a part of our daily lives and it has improved society in a positive way, I also think that it can be manipulated in a negative way and give biased information which some people come to believe. Another way that the Internet is changing our society is in our social lives. I personally know someone who was dating over the internet and he fell into a depression when the other person (who he had never seen in real life) decided to end the relationship. In this case, technology is affecting the way we interact with each other. Technology is making our lives easier in many ways, but at the same time it is changing the way we socialize.

Technology in Education: The Efficiency Factor

My first article “Fredrick Taylor in the Classroom” by Jonathan Rees introduces Frederick Taylor as a professional who established ideas to get workers in the trade production to create more production. His ideas get implemented into the education system and standardized tests are created. I personally think that the idea of standardized test cannot really classify a student; I believe there are many factors that can alter the results of these tests. I realized that it is part of today’s education and it will stay like that, but I think teaching to get ready for an standardized test will limit wide side of learning, it will focus just on the questions to do well on the test, so the school, teacher, and child can show a high grade, but the learning is limited. This idea had a great influence in instruction and education.

My second reading is “Education & the Cult of Efficiency” by Raymond Callahan. This reading talks about business and the education system at the beginning of the 20^th century. It seems that the school system was disorganized and was not working in a productive way. At that time, Fredrick Taylor came out with idea of a new business model. In this way, education was transformed into a system where they follow a model business. I am not very sure how this work to benefit learning, but it seems to me that they used the education system as a practicing or training formula to benefit the business world.

Philosophy of Education & Theories of IT

During the second week of classes I had four reading assignments:

The first one:  “Learning Theories” by www.infed.org. This paper talks about learning, definition, how learning is achieved, understood and processed.   I agree with the idea that leaning is achieved by observation and reproducing what is observed; most children learn by imitating adults.  I also think that motivation is a great component in someone’s learning.  A person cannot learn if there is no inspiration or drive to learn.  Another important point is attention; if the person is distracted, the learning could have a negative effect. 

Second reading:  “System Theory – An Overview” by www.panarchy.org. This report is written by Ludwing von Bertalanffy who uses some parts of a book called General System Theory (1968).  It seems that the author emphasizes learning is acquired by reacting with each one’s environment.  I believe that this theory focuses in experimenting with biology. 

Third reading:  “Shannon Model Communication” by www.exploratorium.edu.  This reading talks about Claude Shannon, in the 1940s, and how he designed the communication system through the telephone.  He explains how the information is transmitted thought the telephone and if there is too much information or noise within the communication channel, the system will not be able to understand and it would result in an error.  I believe the same problems would exist in today’s technology, if we enter too much material, information or code within a system, it could easily crush.

My last reading for this week is “Shannon-Weaver Model” by www.communicationtheory.org. This article explains in details the “Shannon-Weaver model of communication”.  It explains several concepts like “information source, transmitter, Noise, channel, message, receiver, channel, information destination, encode and decode”.  I believe that by making the system simpler, it avoids the problems of a large system and the communication works well.

Philosophical Perspectives in Education

During the first week, my first reading assignment for this class was “Philosophical Perspectives in Education” by LeoNora M. Cohen, OSU - School of Education, 1999.  It focuses on four main philosophies of education: Idealism, Realism, Pragmatism and Existentialism.

It explains that idealism and realism came from the Plato and Aristotle, and pragmatism and existentialism are more modern theories. 

Idealism sees reality in spiritual way; in non-material terms.  Learning is achieved by imitation. Idealists focus learning in reading, conversation and discussion. 

Realism sees reality as an objective order.  They focus on the physical world.  Learning is attained by experimentation and observation.  Human rationality is supported to reach education.

Pragmatism, also called Experientialism, sees reality through experience.  Reality is always changing and people have to understand this idea of change by observing the environment.  Learning is achieved by solving problems by ‘hands-on’.  It concentrates in experimenting and working in groups.

Existentialism sees reality through the individual.  It focuses in the person’s purpose to attain their goal.  Each person should have their own choices.  It promotes independence, and growth of realistic human beings.  Learning is done by inquiring and seeing everyone’s purpose in life. 

From these four theories, I have confidence in two of them put together:  realism and existentialism.  With these two theories mixed, learning could be done by experimenting and learning while doing it.  Also I agree with the idea of see reality through experience and that our environment is in constant change.