Thursday, October 21, 2010

Media and Education

I am happy that we are covering this topic in class. We live in a completely different world and it's frightening to see how rapidly its changing. The media is reflecting this change and it's important that we learn more about it.
 Interestingly, print changed the world by creating a forum in which people could share ideas. The invention of the printing press revolutionized the world by spreading information. Similarly, technology is changing the world by revolutionizing the media. If we look at our world, it is now not only possible to consume ideas and knowledge; we can also contribute our knowledge to the world. The great of us has access to this. This site is an example of it. We can come here and post our feelings and points of view. We can also share ideas and information. Since this access has been facilitated to us, it is only natural that technology and media is going to play a great role in our live and education. As a prospective teacher, I feel this is knowledge I need to gain in order to connect with students. Being illiterate nowadays does not exclude technology. Being illiterate means not being able to analyze and understand information in all its formats. Teachers need to learn this in order to help prepare their students for a rapidly changing world.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Working on a Lesson!

Working on this lesson was a lot of fun! I enjoyed coming up with ideas and, I liked the fact that I was pushed to get a little creative with this. However, I also learned some things I hadn't considered. I never stopped to consider the labor and time it takes to come up with a good lesson for a class. I also never thought that it would mean confronting some obstacles along the way. Another thing I learned about giving a lesson is the importance of time.
First of all, working on a presentation and making a powerpoint was fun. However, it also became a travail. I encountered some many problems in trying to create a unique powerpoint presentation. I was having trouble inserting a clip, inserting sound, and saving it to my computer. Technology was a big headache during this process. Yet, I can see how helpful it can be to have a firm knowledge of technology becasue we are definately in the 21st century and, technology is playing an important role in classrooms today. Therefore, as I was complaining with my computer, I also wished I could take a good class that would sharpen my skills in technology. I can see how limiting it can be for a teacher not to have a firm grasp of this.
Time is something else we didnt consider. We only have 30 minutes to present and it doesnt seem like enough. Consequently, I found myself trying to think of ways to get creative in such a short time period. This is something teachers have to confront on a daily basis. This whole exercise has ben enlightening in certain respects. I am learning from it.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Poetry Reading

I must say that listening to all those poems some of my fellow classmates wrote was a good experience. The poems were great and a lot of them were deeply meaningful and inspiring. Poetry is a hard thing to work with. The process of choosing the write words that can express feelings and thoughts and that can trigger in a cathartic feeling in the listener/reader is not easy. Because poetry is more restrictive, the creative process is pushed to the limit. However, reading the poems of many of my classmates makes me appreciate the talent they have.
I wasn't one of the people who volunteered to read poetry. I am not going to lie. Standing up in front of an audience and reading something that carries so much of your feelings and thoughts can be intimidating. Poetry, to a certain extent, is a pesonal experience and, I guess this is what made me hesitate in sharing it with the rest of the class. Somehow, I didn't want my feelings and creativity judged in front of everyone. Yet, although poetry is something personal, when shared with the world, it transforms itself into something vast and harder to grasp because it becomes whatever the reader sees. I guess it would have been interesting to see that transformation with one of my poems.