Last night I had my first experience Skyping into one of the doctoral classes. I have to say, I am pretty disappointed that the faculty voted not to let me do this for all of the core courses because I thought it went really well. Granted, there were only 8 students in the class, but I could see and hear everything and was able to participate in their discussion of the Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The teacher, who is my advisor and the one really helping and supporting my distance education participation in the program, also showed a video clip and I was able to watch that without any technical difficulties! The only real challenge was piping into the group discussion because I wasn't sure if there was any sort of delay and I was worried I would be interrupting, but at several points, the teacher specifically asked me if I had any comments and then I was able to chime in.
I can't get over how cool technology is!
Here I was sitting at home in Germany, magically transported to a classroom in Portland that I spent many hours in throughout my master's program. I could see out the window to the familiar street corner on campus. It made me nostalgic for home, but at the same time, how COOL is that?!
I am going to Skype into my advisor's Multicultural & Urban Education course tomorrow at 6:15 to watch some presentations that the students are doing based on case studies from the text. I have been doing a TON of reading for this course including chapters in the text Affirming Diversity, Other People's Children, and Lies My Teacher Told Me. I have over 150 pages left to read for tomorrow in Lies My Teacher Told Me which is about how social studies texts/curriculums leave out a lot of true information in order to glorify and heroize certain figures from our history such as Columbus. It outlines many particular instances of where the information typically taught to students is a far cry from the reality of what really occurred. Pretty interesting stuff, yet it's similar to reading a social studies text, so it is slow going!
I also just got this book called Black Ants and Buddhists which I have only read a small part of, but I can already tell I am in love with it. It is about "thinking critically and teaching differently in primary grades" and is written by a first/second grade teacher who has done an amazing job teaching in a way that really values cultural differences and teaches children to be accepting of and knowledgeable about differences. It is one of those books that is both inspiring and frustrating to read because you think, of course I want to teach like that, but I am constrained within researched based curriculum mandated by the district! I still come away with ideas and ideals and hope for changes in our educational system that will allow all teachers to be as creative as the author is.
All of those books are on my little Shelfari Bookshelf on the top right of the page if you want to take a look or get more deets.
4 comments:
That really is the coolest thing! Have you heard the relatively new Brad Paisley song about how crazy our world is with technology- watching tv in the car, having video games on our phones etc. It's amazing what we can do. Even thinking back 5 years ago when I was in Australia my parents learned how to IM with me, but now they are skyping with my brother who is away at school. Wish I had skype while I was there!
Very neat!! I would be worried I looked funny and everyone was staring at me..good for you!
I love the book, "Lies my Teacher Told me." Very good and inspiring!
Technology is absolutely amazing! How neat that you have a professor willing to try this new technology! Hopefully he can encourage other professors to get on board and you will be apart of this new and advanced way to "attend" classes!!
So very cool!! You continually amaze me!!
That is really amazing and extremely cool! I'm sorry you aren't able to do it for more classes!
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