Communication, Technology, and Environment

Education incorporates communication, technology, and environment together in order to create an atmosphere suitable for learning.

Communication is vital to interaction between people, and without it, it would be difficult for education to have full potential. Colleen and Jessica both had a strong focus on communication; they shared their knowledge about deaf communication and how it is so different from spoken language. Even though these forms of communication differ, they can both be used in order to gain knowledge. Education requires communication for discussion, expression, and sharing of ideas. Lauren’s topic ADHD focuses on involvement and responsibility in education, reiterating that communication is necessary and vital in the classroom as well as at home.

Technological advances affect education, and in particular, Joey discussed educational technology. This is extremely pertinent to daily life, because computers and tools used in the classroom are becoming increasingly common. Technology has helped shape education in the ways in which teachers are teaching and the students are learning. Greg’s explanation of geography in education showed how different subjects are taught more or less than other subjects, and how the subjects that students are not well informed about end up having an overall impact on knowledge about things as simple as knowing where a particular country is located. Technology and the invention of the Internet have definitely affected what material students learn, and what they are taught to simply look up online.

School environment really does play a role in education, as shown by Joyce’s presentation on holistic and child-centered education. People view learning from different perspectives, and when the students are taught in differing ways, their knowledge bases and view on education differ as well. Jess’s presentation about coed housing incorporated the discussion of outside factors that affect the educational experience, explaining that there are both positive and negative effects that will impact education. Lisa’s presentation about inclusion and co-teaching also relates to environment because students who have particular strengths and weaknesses are going to be affected differently by whom they are surrounded by. If the students have that extra person to help them, they may perform better in the classroom, but their social skills with their peers may suffer in effect. Maggie’s topic of disproportionality in special education also connected with the environment affecting the education that the student receives.

How do communication, technology, and environment interact in order to create educational experiences?

Subjectivity

What is education? As demonstrated by the wide breadth of topics covered through research and in class reading, education is omnipresent. It is constantly changing. It is unique, and differs dramatically between cultures.

Education is simply too broad to define correctly in a brief sentence. Education can be defined as the process of acquiring necessary skills through academic teachings. Learning, however, is not confined to the classroom, or a time of year.

Higher education is portrayed as the process in which students acquire necessary life skills. With a well rounded education and a pretty diploma, students are expected to obtain highly toted occupations and earn significant amounts of money. According to this logic, students obtain institutions of higher education in the hopes of obtaining money and power, through the completion of set requirements. As our country’s economy is currently established, those with degrees in higher education numerically earn more money than those without such honors.

There is such great value vested in a graduation certificate. It is a simple piece of paper, but it holds a greater value. It represents the integrity and tradition of its corresponding institution, and the education standards of the university. Those standards are set by the individual University, as every institution of higher education is different. Education is subjective.
Some schools require different classes or emphasis different aspects of education. A college education is unique to the individual.

Different cultures also affect the perception of education. Spanish or English, who is to say what, is correct. Language both limits and expands the cognitive skills of the student. Knowing multiple languages opens students to diverse perspectives.

Education also includes the ability to social interact and the ability to artfully express oneself. Are those that are fantastic artists, yet unable to deduce chemical formulas inferior? Education is a broad aspect that defines definition.

To better understand what education is, I believe that we must consider, “What is intelligence?”

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Redefining Education as a 'Challenge'

When I wrote my first assignment about education at the beginning of the year, I chose to define education by calling it a life-long mission because it was unavoidable and every human experiences some form of education. I never realized how vague that definition was until now – there are so many more aspects to education than what can be seen on the surface. Throughout the year we have looked into so many details that we cannot just say that it’s a life-long mission. It is more like a challenge that demands to be met with an argument and a confrontation.

This is reflected throughout all our assignments and our ongoing research projects. We continuously search for an “ongoing conversation” about education so that we can familiarize ourselves with the topic of education. This could be referred to as the stage where we are searching for the challenge. An example of this is our in-class readings, such as “Living Savage Inequalities”, where we read the article hoping to find something that will spark a conversation, or a ‘challenge’. Most of us were struck by the low quality of the inner-city schools of Chicago and the empowerment these students had to make a change in their schooling conditions. Once we have found a conversation-starter, the ‘confrontation’ between yourself and the article begins. We will never agree with everything we read, so it’s only natural to express our thoughts on something, whether negative or positive. Some of us acted negatively against the fact that the Board of Education lets this happen in schools. We develop an ‘argument’ that expresses our thoughts on paper and, by doing this, we have continued the cycle of an ongoing conversation. We have met the challenge eye-to-eye, and ‘fought’ to succeed. What marks our success is if the argument you posed created conversations from other individuals –such as feedback from our research papers – this is when you know you have succeeded!

Education could be redefined as a ‘personal challenge’ to your mind. Whatever way an individual chooses to face the challenge is up to that individual, and no individual ‘fights’ the challenge in the same way. A challenge allows for many detailed ways to ‘attack’ education. Using what I’ve said, one could research how it benefits someone to challenge/argue the normal way of thinking in education to personally enhance an individual’s way of thinking. Finding out how this works would largely benefit the field of educational studies.

Teaching to the Test

In Diane Ratvich's article, she describes the unjust regulations presented by our former and current serving Presidents for teaching to the test. Teachers are now being judged on how their students do on the tests. Bonuses, tenure, and extermination of a job are all beginning to be based on the students ability to succeed with regards to standardized testing. I for one was horrible when it came to standardized testing in elementary school. I had no idea what I was doing, and although I succeeded in the english portions, I found math extremely troubling and difficult. I would not have found it fair for my teacher's abilities to teach to be based on the fact that I just plain sucked at taking multiple choice tests. My mother is a middle school and high school teacher and I marvel at the fact that she tries on a daily basis to deal with some infuriating students who don't want to work and don't care about learning. This is not within my mother's capibilities to teach. Yes she can do her best to motivate students, but it ultimately is a decision the student has to make within themselve as to whether or not they're going to do the work necessary to succeed.

I guess that education is really more of a cultural thing than a fixed ideal. That being said it makes it much harder to say what kind of education is better. I think people tend to look at statistics and test scores when trying to evaluate education way to much. However I personally can't think of a better way than a test to measure how much someone has learned. I think that education epitomizes the culture of the people learning. It shows you how they think because how else do you teach someone than to cater to how they learn best? Yet this does present some problems because everyone is different and people can fall through the cracks in our current education system. I believe that the European system of education has won out predominately around the world. Looking at the reasons for this system winning out is explanation enough for why it won. The Europeans went out and explored the world, taking anything new back with them and then focused on teaching those things to one another. Not many other cultures ventured out and stayed spread out for that long to really create a global community. So in the end we have to ask ourselves. If a country has the best education system in the world, will that make it a future world power?

Logic and Reason

When I think of education, I don't think of textbooks or desks or even the traditional classrooms. I've learned a lot over the past 13 years of my education and most of this information I will never need to use outside of the classroom. To me, that's not education. In the article "Living Savage Inequalities" underpriveledged children were given a chance to make a difference in their community. I believe that this is what education should be about. Learning shouldn't just be about equations and definitions, it should be about taking the information you learn in school and using it in your day to day activities. I think this really defines whether or not you actually learned something in school. Equations might be useful for a math test, but when you're faced with a problem outside of school, you're not going to stop and solve it using an equation. You're going to use logic and reasoning which I believe are the two most important qulatities you can achieve in school. If you don't attain these qualities during your time in the classroom, your teachers have failed you.

I have heard a lot of people say, you either have street smarts or book smarts and I've come to find that this statement is very true. This however, is unfortunate. I think that people should be allowed to have both. if teachers started handing out more application problems and less memorization problems, maybe book smarts could turn into street smarts. Education, to me, should provide you with book smarts as well as common sense smarts. I don't want to graduate college feeling scared of the world. I want to feel prepared and confident that I can solve any problem that comes my way. My schooling should prepare me for this next step in my life.

The image that I selected shows a person taking a problem and using their logic and reasoning to solve it. I believe over the course of your education, you should be learning these important life skills. i always hated when I would ask a teacher how I was going to use this information later on and they would yell at me for being a smart ass. At the time, I probably was, but now thinking back, I'm starting to realize that the teacher probably didn't have an answer to my question and that's not right. I understand that some information is required to be taught but I think every teacher should at least try to come up with a useful life skill from this information.

To me, this is what education should be about.

Endless Definition

At the beginning of the semester, I must admit that I had a narrow minded and typical definition of what education is. Still, I cannot fully define what education is because there are so many aspects to cover. I do, though, have a much greater understanding to what education is.

I came from a small town Elkhorn, WI and before that I lived in Milwaukee, WI. I did have experience with smaller and bigger schools, but that does not mean I could fully grasp all the differences in education. Reflecting on past articles and the presentations throughout the semester of English 100, there is so much more to education than what I had been exposed to. Education is not just merely going to school 5 days a week, sitting in class and learning, trying to get good grades, and having goals of going to college.

Education really can differ from one person to the next, especially if one has a disability or is considered a minority. The ways people learn have to be accomodated for in our education system. Education changes all the time like in the article "Floating Foundations..." when Hurricane Katrina hit. The curriculum and ways of teaching had to change with the changes of the environment and peoples' lives. In the article "Living in Savage Inqualities..." (I believe that's the correct title), students show their passion for wanting better education and to have better schools. It's sad to realize that not everyone receives the same equality in the education they receive and their facilities. It's even more upsetting because one of the articles discussed higher education as a natural resource, expressing that education is crucial and expected especially in our nation. If young children do not receive the education they should, how should they succeed in a nation that demands for people with higher education?

Though there is much more I didn't mention that we have learned throughout the semester, bottom line is that education is such a broad term. I don't believe it can be simply defined in one sentence. I mean, we took a whole semester to scope out the different aspects of education. But here, I'll try my best to define what I think education is. Education is individual to the person who receives it; it's the way they learn, what they want to take out of the education they receive. Education is broad in the respect that there are so many possibilites and options and broad in the respect that education really differs from place to place. Education is not defined by the grades one receives but the knowledge and tools for their future, like the children who fought for better schools. Their education was not necessarily curriculum based, but they learned to make goals and how to achieve them. Education is a natural resource that is renewable; it's a resource that we should not worry about if it will ever run out. The definition is simply endless.

One research question that I think is important to look into relates to some of the later articles we read about the quality of higher education. Colleges should not be just based on numbers, but we do need to look at the qualitative data to judge the quality of colleges and universities. Though the articles say that it is a very expensive process, I think the money is well worth it to evaluate whether or not these colleges are actually "good".

Education: It's Tricky Business

Throughout this course, many different aspects of education have been discussed and argued, whether in the articles we've read or the essays we've written. Education has so many elements to consider when one is presents with the task of defining it. In the classroom, education is meant to have a solid base that students will need to have in order to move on to higher education. However, this solid base should be flexible to allow for changing times, such as incorporating advances in technology. Joey's presentation on technology in the classroom and the article "Floating Foundations" support this argument.
Also, education does not mean taking notes, memorizing dates or formulas, and taking tests on the information thrown at students. Education should allow for growth in the subject which comes from critical thinking and what information is retained by the students. Students should be able to interact with teachers during their schooling. Education is experience. One learns from what one experiences; so, by interaction and the use of critical thinking to question and relate different topics in the classroom will allow students to be exposed. "Living Savage Inequalities" depicts this interaction with the 5th grade class and how they learned to think critically about their school's present state and were able to write to higher powers about their ideas and concerns.
Education is such a complicated topic. No wonder it's a difficult thing to achieve.

Research Question: How would one plan to engage and involve their student body in the classroom? (Teacher's ideas and tactics to engage students to allow for critical thinking.)

The "new" Definition of Education

Throughout this class, I believe we've considered so many aspects of education that I had never previously look at for answers on the topic. For example, "The Peublo Indians Perspective" really opened my eyes to what keeps a community grounded in its educational roots. Theses people learn through speech. How many towns, communities, or citys can say that the roots of their foundation are grounded in verbal stories and communication. I for one attended school but spent much of my time reading, writing, and spelling. The teacher would speak on subjects but I feel that I learned and remember much more from my readings then from anything my teacher told me. I honestly can't really remember anything my teacher "talked" about with the class. Through the presentations in class, I've learned so much about the deaf culture that I had never reflected on before. Deaf culture, in my opinion, has so much to do with "The Peublo Indians Perspective". Sign language is the way deaf people verbally communicate and the way they communicate says a lot about team work and community. I played volleyball against the state school for the deaf in Minnesota. The girls we played against were amazingly good, and had hand signals and screams or yells that we couldn't understand, making it very difficult to plan our attack. I'm pretty sure that in three years we never beat them or tied even once. That to me says a lot about the culture and community of people who value tradition and community. It keeps verbal stories and conversations going in a way that communities who don't stop to consider its value do. I guess now I would define education as something undefinable. There really isn't a way for me to encompass what I've learned in life. Much of it has been in a classroom, but a great deal of what I know comes from my friends, family, and peers. I suppose if I had to define education though, I would say it's an endless journey of scholastic learning intertwined with pain and love and that is how you learn about what life really is. If I had to choose one research question that is important in the field of educational studies, I would reflect on "why the economy in the U.S. makes the cost of higher education so steep when in France, for example, College is essentially free?".

Education is the Branch to a Different World

To me, education is the branch to a different world. No matter what form of education, it creates a new life. Through all the presentations given, I realized that education can be linked to anything whether it be through sports, foriegn relations, or even animals. Everyone demonstrated how people are affected by education and what resulted in it. Most of our essays in the beginning of the year were about the different enviornments of education. For example "Living Savage Inequalities." This essay discussed the living enviornment for young kids recieving an education and how motivated they were in doing so. This in fact proves that education surrounds us and much like the oxygen from trees, we feed off of it. Each branch defines a form of education. Yet, learning can also be subconscious. Learning is like breathing, we do it without having to say "Okay, I think I'll breathe now." When people learn from their mistakes it shows a different form of education even though you may not realize it. I believe that recognizing the ability to learn is essential to life. It redefines how that individual will make of his/herelf.

How does education define the individual throughout life?

Education as Communication

Upon reading back through the blogs about our presentations in class, I found that even though we have a wide range of topics, they can still be related with one another with education and with emphasis on communication. Whether someone is talking about having schools specifically for the deaf, genocide in Darfur, special needs education or therapy, or technology in education, it requires that people educate one another and use communication in order to both create goals and obtain them. So, reflecting again on what I think education means, I believe my definition should include the social aspects of learning which many people either forget or ignore. "Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective" talked about how important spoken language can be. "The Lesson" used different means to educate children in a different style of communication. Even the hurricane Katrina article we read used pieces of writing from different individuals in order to portray information to the readers. With the idea of communication and socialization in mind, I think a really important research question would be how different means of communication affect education and learning. This doesn't simply include talking, but also the way teachers use excersizes in class, what projects they choose, how they convey pieces of information (in what kind of mannor), and what individual teachers highlight as important to know and learn. This is really important when discussing education because learning often depends on how effectively information gets across from one person to another. As far as communication in education goes, teachers need to be precise and be able to hit their goals everytime in order to get students to learn.

Final

Defining "education" is not an easy task. Education is extremely complex. There is traditional education, education in a classroom, in addition to all of the learning that takes place outside of it. Education is about furthering knowledge, pushing boundaries, overcoming obstacles, and solving problems. Many of our research projects fall into these categories: furthering knowledge about technology and the genocide in Darfur, pushing boundaries of university housing, overcoming obstacles posed by ADHD, autism, and deafness, and solving problems within the educational system.

My thoughts about education at the beginning of the semester I think still hold true, that education is like learning to ski. You start out with the basics, getting the right equipment, learning how to make turns and stop. When you've got that down, move to the green slopes where the beginner skiiers are. They move a little faster and are a little more comfortable on their own. They might get out of control at times, but are constantly trying new things. They are eager and curious about the little bumps on the side of the slope and what's through those trees. Kids in kindergarten and elementary school follow this outline. They start out completely supervised and don't really know what is going on. They listen to stories, but can't really read them independently. They're making friends, learning to share, and building basic social skills.

Once those first few milestones have been passed, it's on to the blue runs. These ones are a little harder; people of all ages going down steeper and narrower slopes. The skiers are in control of their own speed and movement and have a little more wiggle room. In the last year or so of elementary school and middle school, students are given more responsibilities and more freedom. They decide how much time to put into homework, who their friends are, and what their attitude is like towards school.

Once you're very comfortable on the blue runs, you challenge yourself to the blacks. The blacks have skiiers who have been skiing for years. They are confident in their abilities and are pretty good at what they do. They are in complete control of their body movements and are curious about what's around the next corner. In high school, students are in control of a lot of things. They are responsible for going to class, doing homework, housework, and their social lives. In each phase of education, the responsibility is increased along with freedom. High school is harder because students are in charge of a lot of components of their lives and the way they handle and control them is up to themselves.

The double blacks are the highest you can go, but you never really master them. There are many ways to tackle a double black run, and there is never a point when skiiers can say they have learned all they need to know. There is always something you could do better, even olympic athletes have not learned all they can know. The same goes for education. Even after graduation from college, that is not where the learning stops. Learning is continuous and you can never get to the top of the education ladder. There is no top.

One research question I believe is important for the field of education is: What is the best way to change the educational system to better fit our changing society?
I think politicians and certain organizations are trying to reform education, but there are still A LOT of problems within our system. There are many ideas about how to change education to accomodate learning disabilities and change athletic department regulations and education in Africa, but how do we accomplish that. How do we take it from something on paper to a reality?

Everything Shimmers

It became obvious through the breadth of research topics our class presented that education is a broad term. Education encompasses everything from the many way to learn, the settings for learning, and the things to learn. We can conclude that everyone learns something or another. Not every single person can have the same knowledge as another because of what they've learned will have differed from another, or where they learn, or, how they've learned. Home life, schooling, friends, interests all effect what knowledge one acquires. What and how the teachers of Tulane learned in "Floating Foundations" differs greatly from that of the main character of "The Lesson." Although Colleen and Jessica's research papers both deal with the same demographic, the deaf community, both papers maintain completely unique point of views and theses. Additionally, it became evident through the presentations - most people researched things they've dealt with before or have seen and wanted to build their knowledge off. Furthermore, I firmly believe we will forever learn more outside the classroom than inside it. That's exactly what education is, it's the drawing and reflection upon experiences to create one's own outlook or understanding about something. Something is always valuable to someone. So, if this is true, how can we as a society measure intelligence?

Education: A Tree We Need To Help Grow

Education can be described by using a metaphore of a tree. Its s solid structure that slowly changes over time, evolving to new times and supporitng any new dilemas that come along the way. It stands firm through rain or shine, to help people solve problems when they need more information, or need motivation to change their future. You can always count on the fact that it is going to be there, because education is everywhere, and anybody who wants it can find it. It has many branches that illustrate the different aspects of education, and in class these branches are what we have studied. When listening to presenatations and reading the essays assigned, it is clear that education as many different forms, and even with its unique branches, each branch helps people learn and grow in one way or another. For example, we read about the Pueblo cultur. Culture can teach us many things, allowing us to become less ignorant of other people and the world around us. Cultures have different forms of communication, teaching styles and traditions. We also have learned that education can come in many forms whether it be a classroom, online, using difffernt tools such as animals, or as mentioned previously technology.It might even be just living in the real world and learning through experience. Its clear then that all education is is a tool that will help us with problems and questions in the future. Its a tool that is reliable and will help people thrive in their endevors. It will help us appreciate what we have and what needs to be fixed. The branches on this tree of education will always be there for us when we need it. We just need to make sure that we nurture it, and take care of it, and help it grow because if we dont, we will miss out on a great opportunity to learn from it.

Reaserch question: Why is it that some people dont find it necassasry to take advantage of this "tree of education" in their lives, and struggle with things that would be easy to solve if they just would took the time to get a better education? What are the turnoffs of education?

photo link : https://www.nsu.edu/elementaryeducation/images/tree.jpg

Education Defined

Over the course of this semester, we have read many articles and held numerous discussions about different aspects of education, and what education really meant. Articles such as "The Lesson" the Kaplan advertisements gave us the impression that education was everywhere, and that you don't have to be in a classroom to learn. On the other hand, some pieces that we read about higher education made education seem to be a system of politics, driven by money and pride. Lisa Delpit's article argued that education led to power, and that are inequalities in school stopping students from obtaining that power.

All of the topics that we discuss go into defining education. It is a complex word that means much more than what we traditionally associate with it; going to school, reading books, computing math problems, and so on and so forth. Education is all around us. We are constantly learning new things, in and outside of a classroom, and applying them to our lives. By gaining new knowledge and actually using it, we make ourselves more powerful and more valuable.

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Education Definition

From the beginning of the semester, whether or not we chose to or not, we have all critically contemplated some part of education. Education itself is a very broad topic, but I feel at some point or another the readings and writings we have done this semester have impelled us to think about a specific point in our lives or maybe even in the life of someone else.

For me, I could relate a lot of the readings back to my major. With our education system changing to incorporate more and more technology every year it is only natural that we have focused on it more than once. From the first day in class we knew we would have to sign up for this very blog post. Then, with readings such as "In the Basement of the Ivory Tower" and "The Lesson" we see underprivileged schools and children. These situations have always been a problem, but in our modern world today we see that gap between being able to afford conventional education tools or not widening because those education tools are becoming more expensive with this technological school system. If I didn't have technology I had in high school I would never want to be a computer scientist today. This is why we need to better monitor our schools budgeting in this up-incoming education system.

I see that a lot of other people in their class chose their research paper topic not for personal reasons. This shows that the class has got us not only thinking about our own education or our own field, but it has us wanting to better education for everyone. For example, Colleen's paper will never affect her education, yet she as well as everyone else in the classroom after listening became very interested in learning about the inflections and grammar of sign language. If this is true in classrooms across the nation then I see so much potential for not only what our nation's students can do for themselves but also for how they can benefit everyone else as well. Those who aren't as privileged will still have to work harder for the things they want and I believe they have and will continue to, for example what "Living Savage Inequalities".

Education has a literal meaning, and it has a personal meaning for everyone too. I believe education ultimately has to do with the goals people want to achieve in their life and the things people learn to achieve those goals.

I believe the most important question we can ask in educational studies is:
How can we continue to better our always changing, never finishing educational system?

Education for everyone

Education is present in everyone's life all over the world. Not just in schools, but in everyday experiences. People learn from there, culture, community and everything around them. Through all of the articles we have read in this course, we can see that education spans an entire lifetime, and occurs in many different places. Education also changes overtime and must adapt to current situations. If I had to come up with my own definition of education after reflecting upon these articles I would say, education is a opportunity throughout your entire life to gain knowledge, experience, and life lessons while enteracting with others and growing as a person.
Education is an incredibly broad topic. It is hard to sum it up in one sentence when it is present in everything we do. Since education is everywhere, everday I think it is important to see how it can be equal and easily accessible to everyone. Many of the research topics covered in class involved a learning disability or another type barrier to equal education. That being said, I think that equaily in the education system is crucial for the generations to come.
Research question-
How can we eliminate the achievement gaps among the learning disabled, minority students, and any similar group to develop an equally opportunisic educational system?

Education is Everywhere

Education encompasses every aspect in life. Education can't just be defined by the classroom but rather portrays experiences, knowledge, higher education, and much more. Throughout this semester this idea has been shown in our research projects. In my opinion, education can be defined as experiences in any part of like that teach one valuable lessons to carry them through life. Education can range from in the classroom, like Joyce's presentation, to other aspects of education entirely like Brittany's presentation on Autism.

In our first short assignment, I wrote about education being within the human brain. We are the ones who define our own education and therefore are responsible for what we learn and know. The brain serves as the center point of education within every person because it is what allows us to ultimately function. Our brain allows us to process and understand new experiences which in turn lead to education.

In our class readings, education has taken on a more literal sense like higher education but that doesn't mean our readings didn't encompass the theme of education being in every aspect of life. Some readings that apply to my definition is Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective and Floating Foundations. In Floating Foundations, the writing directors used Hurricane Katrina as a way to focus on education and to learn something from the disaster that struck. Education also has to be flexible and always changing to new times. Floating Foundations showed the students using information from outside the classroom to learn. In Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective, Leslie Silko describes education within her culture. Education is not just textbooks, exams, and lectures, but it includes cultures and language.

My research question would be how does education outside of the classroom affect children's abilities within the classroom setting? This is an important question because at a young age children are learning tremendous amounts of information inside and outside the classroom. It would be interesting to know how students are affected by both types of education.

Education: The All Encompassing

Education is an ever changing idea that encompasses a variety of things, one could even argue that it encompasses everything. It's represented in many different ways and means many different things to different people. To some its a place, physical, like a library, or ideal/virtual, like online blogs or classes. To others it is a process, building upon skills that one has, and developing on ideas that they've come to believe in whether this be formal or informal is not important. And to most, its a system, the system that we've come to rely on to teach ourselves and our children. But in defining education many people focus on the how, instead of the what, i.e. How we define/categorize education. This leaves the question open to many different interpretations instead of asking 'What is it?'.


As we can see from the variety of research topics that our class has chosen, education can be defined as a broad array of all its facets. Almost all things can be related back to it, if one takes the time to stop and consider what goes into a topic. Again, this is visible in the wide range of topics. Students linked education to sports, genocide/war times, geography, disabilities, finances, and technologies. Education links easily back to all of these topic and more because it is so all encompassing and ingrained in the way that we as individuals, and as a society, structure our lives. We live our lives to learn. I have a friend who claims that a day without learning something new, is a day wasted. He believes it to be true and strives to learn something every day, in this sense he is bolstering his own education (if only everyone was so driven), but looking at him, a college dropout construction worker, you'd never expect it.


Whether education is self driven or forced, its present and intrepid. Its been the constant in all of our lives since we were born and will continue to be present until the day that we die. Knowing that this definition of education is so broad, for the focus of a research question, I'll narrow down the topic to the institutions of education. I think its vital that there are people probing for new technologies and new methodologies that can be utilized and implemented in the future. That is where those who research education should focus. They should draw upon things that have happening in the past, programs and systems that have succeeded and format new ways of promoting and ingraining education into the lives of all people, whether they be rich or poor, learning disabled or enabled, Asian, black, white, or multiracial. Where will education take us in the future? By what means will learning be implemented? Will our systems withhold through technological changes, and adapt enough where the face of education will not change as much as some think?

Response to April 28th's Oral Presentations

Collen's topic was very interesting. She really made it her own by researching something I had never thought of when it came to sign language; inflection. I though sign language was English grammar just with movements, but as it turns out it is a lot more difficult than that. It's an entirely different language. You don't even have any cognates to go off of (unless you count if some actions look like the words their representing).

Maggie's topic was interesting as well. Something I would suggest would be to describe the topic more, and maybe even make it more laymen's terms, because I did not understand everything that was said at first. Also the changing the language hypothetical scenario was very interesting.

Debates about Education

I really enjoyed everyone's presentations. Your research papers are engaging with very important conversations about education, education policy, and the learning process. Here are links to three additional debates about education.

The first link is from "Bridging Differences" - a blog written by Diane Ratvich and Deborah Meier. This post discusses whether student test scores measure teacher performance.

The second link is from "Education Policy Blog" - a blog written by a group of contributors interested in educational policy. This post considers the 'hard' questions of education and provides a great model of effective research questions.

The last link is a review of Diane Ratvich's most recent book from the The New York Review of Books. Considering Ratvich's arguments about educational reform, the author summarizes and reflects on the ongoing debates about reform.

Again, I thought the presenatations yesterday were really good. All were well organized and well preapred. I liked the presentation that looked at the athletic apsect of education, it was something that hasnt been covered yet and was a new perspective about college. I also like the fun facts that were used in the deaf learning presentation. They helped to keep the class engaged in the presenation. Finally, i connected well with the presnetation about special education becuase it meshed well with my topic. Her slides were well placed and had good flow. Overall, the presentatins were really good and interesting!

April 28th Presentations

NCAA Athletes:
I thought that all of your information was really interesting. Although from what you presented, it does seem like you have a lot of information. Was 6 pages really enough to cover all that you discussed in class, or did you leave some of that out. As I said in class, I really liked how you compared athletics to music and the arts and how people with those majors are 'professionally trained' but can sell their works for profit, but student athletes cannot.

Hearing Impaired:
I really like that you're including a contrast between hearing and non hearing educations. I think that it will make your points stronger.

Special Education:
I actually had no idea that there was such a disparity in regards to minorities and special education, but thinking back to my school I remembered that in our school (of roughly 1700 students) DEFINITELY under 100 were minority, probably under 50. But most, if not all of those kids were also included in the programs that our school offered as additional assistance to 'supplement' classroom learning. It really makes me wonder where there is such a disparity and what really accounts for it. I think reading/researching the topics for your paper would be really interesting.

Oral Presentations 4.28.10

I had never really considered the aspects of disproportional special education until the presentations on Wednesday. I found the quote, "you cannot have a disability on your own", intriguing because it is basically definable by judgement in terms of disability. A disability doesn't exist until a student is recognized for it, because how is the student to know that they are different unless someone tells them so? Deaf communication and expression was also an interesting topic. The functioning of the human brain has so much to do with how anyone lives their life, whether they have a disability or not. This presentation made it clear that deaf people start life by learning hand signals in similar ways to hearing children. I found the presentation on the treatment of student athletes to be interesting as well. I didn't realize that the only programs to generate money are men's basketball and football. I also had never considered the treatment of athletes in comparison to art, dance, and music students on scholarship. I found the analogy of an art student being paid for selling their paintings in a gallery compared with a football player not earning anything for a tournament (for example) to be intriguing. All and all, our oral presentations went quite well and I enjoyed hearing everyone's topics!

I thought that Colleen's presentation was very interesting, especially the ways that deaf children's brains develop compared to hearing children. Developmental and learning processes were my favorite sections in AP Psych, so I really enjoyed learning about them and how they are different in deaf culture.

Eric's topic about the unfairness of NCAA rules was interesting because I've never thought about them before. Maybe getting some students' perspectives about these problems would strengthen yourhis
I've really enjoyed the presentations about special education because there are so many arguments concerning it. I had never thought about disproportionality of minority students in special education. This focus is very unique and I wish Maggie luck with her final paper.

Great job everyone!

Wednesday, April 28 Presentations

I thought Maggie's presentation about disproportionality in special education was very well done. She definitely included a lot of information that helped explain all aspects of her topic. I thought it was especially helpful that she explained why disproportionality is a problem and the solutions that can help to solve it. I think that she should keep the information about the history of segregation and inequality in school systems to help her lead into the rest of her paper.
Colleen's presentation was interesting in that she included various facts that provided a good overview of deaf communication and expression. Her focus on natural gestures, learned gestures, and brain functioning provide the main focuses of the body of her paper. I thought it was really cool when she told us that signing requires flipping images 180 degrees. I would have never realized that had she not told us. It is really unique that she is relating her topic to education through her explanation of the different learning process that takes place in individuals who are deaf.
I thought Eric talked about a lot of facts and statistics pertaining to regulations for student athletes that he could use in his paper to help him strengthen his arguement. As far as "fairness" goes, I think he should define what he means by the term "fair" in his paper, since I feel that something being "fair" or not is more of an opinion than a fact. In his paper he could also explain why it isn't "fair" that student athletes aren't paid for their athletic abilities. He could also explain more about the scholarships that they do recieve, and back up his arguement that they should also get paid for their ability besides receiving money toward their education. He could also include something at the end of his paper about future plans or suggestions to make the regulations of student athletes more "fair." Eric seemed very passionate about his topic and it showed in his presentation.

The presentations were once again nicely done. Everyone had an interesting aspect of education to present today. Colleen had strong evidence supporting her argument, and it was interesting to learn the differences between learning for a deaf child and a hearing child. That information is important to have within the paper because it gives readers a background while also being very intriguing. Maggie's topic was also interesting since not only is special education a problem but also the minorities that are over-represented within this sector. There are many factors that go into this problem including class, race, gender and more. I find this topic related to my sociology class where we talk about social institutions and how that affects other people. Finally Eric's topic is quite a debate among many people. It was interesting to note that musicians and artists can receive money and not lose their scholarships unlike athletes. In my opinion, college athletes shouldn't be paid. Sports is a big part of universities and create much school spirit. They are receiving a full ride usually so that seems like plenty of money and they should be grateful for that opportunity. I think though, that the universities should focus on having their athletes finish school and do well.

April 28

I thought Eric's views on college athletes was really interesting. It's something that I've never really thought about. I think it would be helpful to include the women's sports as well to help back up your main argument. It might also be useful to interview some football or basketball players here to get their take on things.
I'm majoring in psychology so Colleen's presentation on the biological effects of deaf communication really fascinated me. I was in AP Psych last year so we focused a lot on learning and communication for children. I think you should definitely focus a big part of your paper on the biological effects. It will really make your paper unique.

Wednesday, April 28th Presentations

I'd like to congratulate each and every one of you on your work so far. It's not very easy to start a research paper and generate a topic.

First of all, Colleen's presentation on Deaf communication and Expression is a lot like Jessica's topic but should not be compared to her's. I also found it interesting that communication for deaf people varies depending on your age, like how children 4 to 6 do not act differently than children that can hear. I'd love to know how this affects children in schooling. If you are looking for more advice in your second draft, based on what you told us in class, you can express in your paper how you argue these findings. You told us a lot of information but I never learned what this did for deaf children's levels of communication versus children that can hear. If you haven't written about this, I believe it will help validate your paper.
Maggie's presentation was worth the wait. Yay, technology! Whether or not disproportionality in education is a socially-created phenomenon is something I have an answer for, but someone else may answer differently. Because of that, I believe you have a great conversation and argument going! I don't really have much advice for you, but you can always expand on your research and validate your ideas with other resources to get an extremely accurate sense of your topic. Great job!
Lastly, Eric's topic of the student athletes possibly being treated unfairly by not making money directly in their sport is a great topic to start a conversation with. Stating that, I would definitely suggest looking into the student's perspective since you personally are knowledgeable on how the system works. I would also be interested in how these lack of earnings affect their school success. There are a lot of questions to ask and answer, though, since you are engaging in a large conversation. Nevertheless, I was very impressed by your use of statistics and background knowledge on the subject.
I hope my advice has helped, and I wish you all the best of luck on your finals!

4/28/10

I think it’s really interesting that two people in out class are doing their projects on deaf students. Colleen and Jessica’s projects really interest me because I don’t have any exposure to deaf culture. Jessica has had exposure to it all her life, which helps her paper out because she knows first hand what it is like to be in that culture and everything that goes with it. Colleen on the other hand, has a different perspective because I’m assuming her family is all hearing. I bet she brings in new perspectives and they have different ideas because of the difference in experience. This could be very positive for Colleen, that she has an unbiased opinion and maybe focuses on different aspects of the deaf culture.

Maggie’s presentation is interesting because it does seem like a lot of special education students are minorities, so in a sense they are the majority of the special ed. world. I think it’s interesting that students in the mainstream system do better, and that is consistent I believe with the presentations on autism and ADHD. It is more beneficial to the students to be with other “average” kids than to just be with other special education students.

I really liked Eric’s connection to music and art scholarships to sports because I had never thought about it before. I’m not sure that I agree that athletes, or anyone for that matter, should be paid extra while they are in college… I’m not really sure how it all works, but as far as student athletes go, being on a scholarship or a full ride is pretty awesome. That should be enough to compensate for their time. Tuition is a lot, and to have that paid off to play a collegiate sport seems like enough to me. Maybe if paying them meant taking away from coaches, I’d be ok with that. But I don’t want to pay more than I already do to go to games. Collegiate games are awesome and incredibly exciting, but there’s got to be a cap on how much we pay to get in.

final presentations

As I've said in previous posts, I really thought it was great how our class covered a such a wide array of specific topics within the subject of education. So, today it was great seeing how Colleen presented her topic, deaf communication, in which Jessica too was writing about. Even though they both had a specific subject, Colleen's focus completely differed from Jessica's. It's a very intriguing topic.

Maggie - your topic was so specific and well thought out, it was great. There are so many perspectives within this, so I'm sure your point of view will add great depth. It's controversial, too, you definitely gave me a lot to reflect upon and decide an opinion about while you presented. It's going to be a great paper.

Eric - I've never thought about this topic, just thought about the entertainment value of college football and basketball, but you have a really strong thesis. I can tell you're really passionate. If you find the right sources to back up your argument, your strong ideas will really show through.

april 28th presentations

This last three presentation covered great topics. The presentation on deaf education, although the second, looked at different aspects of deaf culture. It was very interesting to think about how deaf people's brains develop and work differently than hearing people's. That can be used as a very strong argument for needing different education. Disproportionality in special education is kind of related to my topic on ADHD and again, gave a new way to look at special education that I had not thought of. In my middle school and high school we had a very large, diverse student population so I never really noticed that more minorities were in special education. One point that was brought up was that minorities get the wrong help. For example, they may need to learn english better than going into a special education classroom. I think teachers should make sure every student they put in special education truly needs it. The topic of college sports and athletics fairness it definitely a topic that I can relate to. I am a huge sports fan and agree that those students that play football and basketball bring in a lot of money for the university. In my high school it seemed to be the same way, the big sports got more attention and more money. I cheered all through high school an fortunately we were able to get great support from our school but other school's programs were very weak. I can only imagine how much more the revenue differs in college. Funding for collegiate sports should be more fair somehow but I am not to sure how to figure that out.

Disproportionally, Deaf Communication, and NCAA

Just a few comments this time, generally good job everyone.

Maggie- Disproportionally- Great topic, I feel that your question is precise and will allow you to answer your question within the allotted page limit. I felt as though you understood the problems of subjective testing. Labeling is a dangerous practice, as they often follow an individual for their entire lives. Your paper should shed some light on the inequalities of the practice.

Colleen- Deaf Communication- I thought you were well composed, and gave a great presentation. No Real comments, good job.

Eric- NCAA- 50% of student athletes graduate for higher education. I would be interested to know the proportion of basketball and football players that drop out. I agree with your thoughts that student athletes should not be treated equally, but I am insure how to solve the problems posed. Interesting topic.

April 28th Presentations

I would like to say that all the presentations over the course of the last few class periods have been great. The topics are all so different and most of them personal, yet they still have some relation to one another. I was really intrigued by a lot of them!

As for today's presentations...
Maggie-I thought your topic was very interesting because special education and its arguments are very broad. Your topic was something I've never really thought of, and it was great that you brought that issue of disproportionality of minority students to the forefront. Great job!

Colleen-Seems like you found great information! Even though our focuses are different, if you have any questions about deaf people or anything, feel free to ask!

Eric-I was actually considering your topic for my paper; it's something I've had interest in learning more about. You definitely seem very knowledgable, like Greg said, on the system and how it works. As long as you have more of a structure, such as the history then leading up to current systems, then I'm sure your paper will be great!

Presentations Pt. 4

Commenting on Emma's topic, I think that depression is a really important topic. Depression can link to so many college students, and some may not even know. Something that could be added into her paper that I think would be beneficial would be some news articles of studies that were found on students with severe depression. Having the one from UW was a good example.

Presentations Response pt. III

Again, such a range in topics.

Emma - I agree, too, that depression in college is a major issue - it can be overlooked as stress so easily, but I think that it's essential to recognize its presence. This paper will be be extremely informative.

Joey - Probably a really hot topic is technology in education. It affects everyone, it's useful, it's innovative (obviously), and archaic not to utilize. Because it's so hot, I'm sure there are many arguments for and against it, you just have to know where to look. What Mary mentioned about oral culture was really interesting, and I really hope you incorporate it into your paper.

Lastly, Katherine this may be the most original idea I've heard thus far. It's extremely interesting and the topic is an audience-grabber. I'd stay clear of being too history-heavy, and try to bring out your thesis as much as possible to add a new perspective to the current arguments.

Depression, Technology, and Media Influence in Cold War

I found the topics this session to be quite thought provoking and interesting. Depression in college is a really important issue and holds true in any university setting. I found it interesting that students put more pressure on themselves at bigger universities to get the good grades because of the greater class sizes. This topic hits close to home for so many students but it is also a topic that is often swept under the rug. Technology in education is changing the face of learning. I found it incredibly intriguing that 97% of schools in the U.S. have internet access. I just hope that books don't become obsolete as we discussed in class. The media's influence on education during the cold war was a topic I had never considered until class today. Describing the influence of the television show "Leave it to Beaver" as the ideal American family to keep kids from believing in communism and doing drugs was quite interesting. Another great day of presentations!

I thought that yesterdays presentations were very informational and well organized. I liked Emma's presentation on depression in college. Its a aspect of students that i feel goes under the radar so i think its a good topic to research and educate people on. I think a good thing to do would possibly contact UHS and their counsling services and interview a psychlogist. They might have good info on treatment and general information about cases they have had.
I liked how Joey picked a topic that he is interested in, and is unique to all the other topics that we have heard about. He did a good job explaining his topic for those of use who arnt very good with technology and made his arguement very clear.
Finally, i though the historical perspective in the final presentation was an interesting twist. She also had good background infiormation and knew her topic very well. Overall, I thought all the presentations were really good!

Monday Presentations

I thought Monday's presentations went really well overall. I thought that Joey's topic on technology and education was a great topic because it is something we can all relate to. I think that focusing the topic on a certain type of school (high school, college, etc.) or a certain aspect of technology would help to narrow down the broad topic. I also thought that it was a good topic because I, personally, and not very up to date with technology and am never caught up on the newest things. I had a hard time adjusting when I got to college to how much of my homework, grades, and updates for classes were done by computer and email. Technology and education definitely become closer related as they both adapt and advance.

April 26th Presentations

Depression in college:
I liked that you included the study that had unexpected results, that there was no change in the peoples grades or studies, but that those who conducted the experiment commented on it, saying that it surprised them, and they expected different results, and more testing would have to be done. It was also good to note that the schools that you mainly looked into were the effects in larger schools. I think it would be interesting to see if there is more depression in larger schools than smaller ones.

Educational Technology:
I liked that in the beginning of your presentation you defined technology. It really made the topic clear because many things can be associated with technology, so it narrowed a large topic. With that said, I still that that your topic is VERY broad and I'm a little curious as to how you shortened it enough to include all the material.

Media's influence on education during the Cold War:
I liked that your topic was SO specific and you provided a ton of background information to help us/the reader understand where you were coming from. Overall the presentation was very informative and I really found the part about 'social engineering' interesting.

presentation response from the 26th

It wouldn't surprise me that someone suffering from clinical depression would under perform in school. It's a symptom of depression to lose interest in your everyday life. Besides who really likes doing all the busy work that we're required to do in school? Combine that with low levels of dopamine and serotonin and of course your not gonna want to do your work. Sadly the only current solution is just to give people a pill that makes them like mindless drones so that they can function.
Joey had an interesting topic about how pokemon are helping classrooms learn nowadays in ways that weren't available before their creation. Oh wait, i meant to say the internet and computers, not pokemon. Its true that these inventions have affected traditional education but I'd like to know if this has any connection with ADD. I remember reading an article that talked about if television and other types of new media condition kids to only pay attention for short periods of time.
As far as the 50's being full of media propaganda by the U.S. government. If you show me enough concrete evidence to support from memos of the people in charge with some kind of agenda then I'll believe it. But the whole conspiracy propaganda thing has been so overplayed that I just don't really have any interest in it anymore.

Monday, April 26 Presentations

In Emma’s presentation, it was a good idea for her to include the symptoms and diagnosis of depression. She definitely incorporated a lot of background information about depression which was very helpful. She focused on the correlation between depression and GPA, and I would suggest she possibly look into researching information about how college students with depression interact socially with other students. That could also be a factor as to the link between depression and GPA, maybe students who are depressed interact very seldom with their peers, somehow leading to a low GPA. Additional factors besides GPA could be incorporated by evaluating other indicators of academic performance.
I thought Joey’s topic of educational technology was extremely relevant to the present, since we are surrounded by so many technologies that are being increasingly used in education and school settings. If I were him I would try to highlight both the positive and negative impacts that recent technological advances have been affecting education. It was a good idea for him to define in his paper exactly what he meant by the word technology. To further his research, he could try to make a future approach or application to educational technology by finding reasonable ways for technology and traditional education to combine in order to get the benefits from each.
Katherine’s topic of the media’s influence on education during the Cold War was very different in relation to all of the other topics in class, because it deals with events from the past that have affected education. It was good that she incorporated information on educational reform including the improved access and additional universities and research facilities. She connected power and education in a very unique way through her use of explaining hegemony and what actually happened in the Cold War. Her presentation seemed to focus a lot on the history and not quite as much as on education. I’m not sure how much history she included in her paper, but I would add some more information on education and incorporate it so that the existing information relevant to education does not get lost in the history of everything.

Monday, April 26th Presentations

I'm going to sound like a broken record, but everyone has done a great job with their research and their topic choice! I haven't been bored yet in class.
Emma's report about Depression in College and how it affects academic performance generated some pretty thoughtful responses from the class. It seems like it comes down to what the parents and schools should do to help their student. If you are still looking for a counter-argument, apply your findings and look for sources that may believe parents and schools are not a factor in causing student depression -- very hard to do, but its what the counter-argument is. You could also look into differences in the size of the school like Mary offered, but it sounds like you have looked into that also and found no correlation. Overall it sounds like you've done a great job researching.
Joey presented his topic on Educational Technology and how recent technologies have worsened or helped modern education. While it seems like a broad topic, Joey said that he has not found much information on preschool education which was what he wanted to concentrate on. However you mentioned a lot of readings in class that we did that can relate to your topic. If you want to add to your paper, you could probably use these readings as resources for your paper to generate more of a conversation or add to your argument. You could also go in depth about the teachers not wanting to adapt to the technology (or not being able to) and how schools have attempted to educate those teachers. And awesome Pokemon.
Katherine's topic concerned Media's influence on Education during the Cold War, which I felt was extremely focused and the most original topic we've had so far in class. Yes, I would stick with the historically-oriented time frame for your paper. At this point you can improve on your paper by finding more resources and finding any secure evidence that Cold-War education caused some of the rebellions in the 1960s. The media is a vast source -- use it to your advantage!
Wednesday is the final day! Make it an amazing day of presentations! Yay!

4/26/10

Emma's topic about depression in college isn't a happy one, but one that needs to be addressed. Even though college can be very overwhelming at times, it is incredibly important that every person knows that they have a support system they can count on. Whether that person be a best friend, sibling, or someone from an academic program.

Joey's project is interesting because technology is in many classes, and virtually every student does works with technology on a daily basis for schoolwork and in their personal lives. Technology is continually progressing. My initial reaction is that technology is used differently based on age group, but now after thinking about it, I'm not so sure. Overheads, email, and projectors are used pretty regularly from elementary school onward. The thing about technology is that not every teacher knows how to use it, and wastes class time trying to figure it out. It can be negative for the student as well as the teacher. One example is last semester, I was supposed to use the projector for a French project and things just didn't go as planned so we couldn't use the powerpoint that my group worked on. Sad day.

Katherine's topic is interesting, and quite honestly, most of it went over my head. Not because of her presentation, because it was very thorough, but history goes over my head sometimes. The Cold War is a very complex topic, so there are many ways she can focus her paper. It opens a lot of doors, but is also challenging because she must choose one or a few aspects to focus on.