Random Quote
I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
---- Albert Einstein
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
---- Isaac Asimov
"It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.'"
---- Sam Levenson
This may be the most interesting blog theme I've ever seen. http://eflgeek.com/index.php Definitely in my top 5 at least.
---- Steve Dembo
Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man.
---- J. Robert Oppenheimer
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
---- George Orwell
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
---- Albert Einstein
Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
---- Terry Pratchett
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
---- Edward Abbey
To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
---- Robert Copeland
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
---- Malcom Forbes
Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.”
---- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 -1832)
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.
---- Pablo Picasso
Technology will not replace teachers...teachers who use technology will
probably replace teachers who do not.
---- Ray Clifford
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells
Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
---- Arnold Lobel
To have another language is to possess a second soul.
---- Charlemagne
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
---- John Ciardi
Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation.
---- Kin Hubbard
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.
---- Fred Allen
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
---- Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818)
Drink coffee! Do stupid things faster!
---- unknown
If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
---- Doug Larson
The voodoo priest and all his powders were as nothing compared to espresso, cappuccino, and mocha, which are stronger than all the religions of the world combined, and perhaps stronger than the human soul itself.
---- Mark Helprin, Memoir from Antproof Case, 1995
Tech in the Classroom
Gord has a long post about using Tech in the Classroom that is well worth the read. Gord’s post talks about how some things are used primarily for flash and impress, but in my opinion students will know when something is being done to impress them versus actually impressing with a pedagogical purpose.
Gord also talks about the various uses of the internet that are available. Everything that Gord says is spot on. I would like to do more such as using Second Life (what’s the point you ask?) and more online tasks with my students but due to contextual constraints I can’t. Last semester I did have the opportunity to teach English education majors a course on “How to teach English through the internet” that I got to explore a lot of these opportunities with web 2.0 applications and second language learners. Unfortunately at the time my PC was not powerful enough to run Second Life so I could explore in advance of class and was forced to leave it off of the activities though I did suggest my students explore it on their own.
In any case as Gord says below, all of this will be second nature to the next generation and if teachers and institutions want to engage future students on any sort of meaningful level, they need to start adapting now. This means change now and continuous change in the future as technology is not static - teaching in the future will require a constant change and professional development through the internet - using the tools you teach your students with will lead to greater professional development and ability to connect with students.
The next generation of students? All this will be their natural language, all this and more. (Actually, I think this will be to them like “lisp” or “BASIC” is to those of us who know what lisp and BASIC were. So far in the background or foundation of their natural language that if that’s all we grasp, we’re going to look very, very silly.) If teachers are going to find a way to be relevant to those students-to-come, it’s going to have to be through inventive use of these kinds of technologies in ways that actually facilitate the learning that goes on outside the classroom. This will make both students and teachers alike happier campers.
