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.