Power

It didn't take Stephen Downes long to say something that would inspire this writing. Early in his presentation to our class he questioned, "How do you teach if you no longer have power over students"? According to Rebore (2001), there are six types of power:

1. Inspirational – Influence of a person based on other people’s admiration and desire to model themselves after him or her.

2. Charismatic – Influence attributed to one’s personal characteristics.

3. Expert – Influence based on special skills or knowledge.

4. Persuasive – Power derived from a person’s ability to allocate and manipulate rewards.

5. Knowledge – Power derived from a person’s ability to control unique and valuable information.

6. Coercive – Power based on fear.

The first three types of power utilize influence rather than control while the last three utilize control rather than influence.

I would like to think that teachers that make a meaningful connection to students will always have power. The power to inspire and make a difference. Most of those teachers also accept that they have a shared expertise with their students. Even though the teacher may be the subject expert, they are still willing to learn from their students. I have never taught a class where I have not learned something from my students. These sentiments are echoed in Kelly C's last blog post (title Effective and Progressive) where he did some informal research with his students.

Unfortunately for education we still have teachers that do not want to put the time and effort into this great profession to build the necessary skills and relationships to become experts of their craft and inspirations to their students. They would rather use the controlling power that they have that comes with the job and pass on they problems that they create to their administrators to solve. This type of philosophical conflict is very challenging for administrators to resolve.

To borrow from Dennis Miller - That's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?

Mathman33

Major Digital Project

Quick links to my major project videos

1. The one with Animoto
2. The one with VoiceThread
3. The one about Networking
4. The one about Reflections of the class

Yes, I know I am ripping off Friends with the title but I think it is appropriate in this case. As I create more videos for my project, I will continue to update this post. That's all for now.

Mathman33

Affluence

There have been a few ideas tossing around in the back of my brain for the last week as the material from both of my classes collides like the sea on rocks. The first concept that jumped out at me was that of social affluence. We really are privileged to be living in a society where the majority of people can retrieve whatever information they need in a matter of minutes. The more connected and knowledgeable people are, the quicker the information will arrive.

Clarence Fisher mentioned that teachers should be network administrators and be responsible for hooking kids up with information. I believe that most teachers think that that is what they are doing. However, as we all are becoming acutely aware, what we believed as a solid method of delivering knowledge and how we can deliver a truly authentic learning experience are quite different. I think back to how Clarence connected with the African community and his students truly learned about race, poverty, AIDS and a number of other social situations by walking a mile in the other person's shoes and not just reading about it in a book or listening to a lecture on the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

We are living in a country and province that has the ability to turn every classroom into a global communications center. The only questions are whether we, as teachers, will give up the notion that we have to be the experts instead of collaborators and can we convince the technology people at central offices to allow us to have full access to the internet so that we may hear the stories of other people and cultures?

Mathman33

Meme: Passion Quilt

I would like to thank kwhobbes for tagging me for the passion quilt. It has been many years since I actually have taken a photo so I had to resort to finding an image from the internet.

I believe that there are a number of factors that influence the success of any student. Similar to how there are a number of different factors that influence the success of any particular golf swing. When the pieces come together, it is a beautiful thing - whether it is the perfect shot in golf or that light bulb moment of learning when everything makes sense and you feel like you can conquer the world. However, we have all had our days when we feel that we will never understand what is happening. Regardless of whether we are talking about education or golf, there is only one thing that will make us better - PRACTICE!

So the next time your students are writing an exam or you have called upon a student to answer a question, ask yourself what thoughts and doubts are going through their mind as they try and put together the answer they perceive that you want.

Now I have to choose five people from my twitter/social network to continue on the quilt. I will apologize in advance but I will select Corey Terry, Dean Miezianko, Todd Volk, Tammy Sillers, and Luis. The rules are below.

The meme works as follows: The rules are simple.
1. Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.
2. Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
3. Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
4. Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

Mathman33

Video is now working

Sorry to those who were really quick at checking my post. I had a couple of technical glitches with my video but it should be working now.

Mathman33

Major Project Started

Hello again,

Well I have started my major project. I am creating a series of videos that will educate teachers on how to use some of the programs that we are exploring in this class. My first video is on Animoto. If you would like to see the first episode please follow the link to my Animoto lesson. I created the video using Camtasia (the 30 day free trial version - not the $300 version). I would appreciate any feedback that you have, but please keep in mind that I am a rookie using the software (sorry for the breathing - you'll hear what I mean). Thanks.

Mathman33

I think I'm starting to get it

My mind seems to be full again so I need to get some stuff out before I go to bed (or more likely play my Xbox 360 until I wake my wife up and then I will pay dearly tomorrow). So, in no particular order, here is what I am thinking tonight:

1. My first principal (Bill Sherven) always used to say, "Work smarter, not harder". Well if that did not come back to me during our last class as one of the primary reasons for social networking. Teachers are always trying to find more time in their day to accomplish the many tasks that are required of them yet the one thing that we don't do is use our time to find contacts who may have already done the tasks for us!

2. Until now I have been very reserved about commenting on other peoples blogs. I thought that these blogs were primarily for our own thoughts and reflections and I did not want to seem too judgmental about what others were experiencing or feeling through our learning process. That changed when I listened to our last class. I appreciated the comments from Dean S. and the others in the chat room that emphasized that the primary purpose of commenting was to expand our social networks and develop the relationships that start by reading blog posts. So, thanks to all that read this and I pledge to do a better job on commenting to other blogs.

3. If you haven't checked out Kelly Christopherson's blog titled Educational Discourse, you really need to do yourself a favour and subscribe. I don't know how he finds time to write but most of his stuff is very thought provoking.

4. I am going to try making my first podcast this weekend for the start of my major project. Wish me luck and if anyone has any tips or pieces of advice I would gladly welcome them.

Ciao for now!
Mathman33