July 26, 2006: Dr. Bette Gray

This was the final day of classes and it was good that the final speaker brought "hot" topics to the table. Dr. Bette Gray posed a lot of questions making us think about what integration of technology into education should look like and also why it is not happening. There were a number of thought provoking issues that were brought up. One that stands out to me is how history tells a story, but are we listening? Meaning, in history, new thoughts, processes or technologies have come up but have been resisted. Things like when Socrates thought that oral tradition was "better" than the new written way. Then when the Guttenburg press came along, how some thought that the written way was "better" than the new press. How much are these things present today? Comments that I know I have made are: "Face to face is better than technology"... Am I not listening to history?
Integration of technology into education, how does it happen? Why isn't it happening? These are great questions and the Polo parable is a great illustration of what often happens. Banks have seem to integrate why can't education? Education is considered different and it is. I would certainly argue that banks have more ability to change, because they have more "power" to implement and motivate the change. Meaning, if you don't want to change with the bank, you would be let go. It seems that integration of technology is advancing in many areas due to both need and push but is very lacking in education. I would love to leave with this question: Why is there not more preparation at the pre-service level?

July 25, 2006: Dr. Tom Keenan & Dr. Stan Ruecker

It was good to be back with the cohort after a very trying weekend. The morning started off with a talk from Dr. Tom Keenan. It was quite the experience on a number of levels. It was quite interesting to be involved in my first ever video conferencing session. The audio was great and it was neat to be able to see Dr. Keenan so clearly on the screen. Dr. Keenan talked a lot about being careful on the internet. His talk had to do with internet security and protection. After hearing him speak, I realized how I have not taken seriously the safety of the internet. With everything that had gone on in my life over the past couple of days, I felt quite frightened.
A few statements that Dr. Keenan made really resonated with me: “Always think about the uses you didn’t think about” as well as “we can’t take it back”. Meaning once the information is put out there, it is out there to stay. This made me very aware, that I need to be more careful when e-mailing and or teaching my children about the safety of the internet. Dr. Keenan’s favorite phrase was: Volitional Cecity, which basically means “lead us not into temptation”. Be careful, be aware and be wise when putting information on the internet. I enjoyed his talk and appreciated the concrete examples that he gave.

In the afternoon, we had Dr. Stan Ruecker come and talk to us about data mining and in particular all the new research that is being done in these areas. As Dr. Ruecker went through his presentation on all the new visual ways being created to search, I was somewhat overwhelmed. How could things change this much? Being a visual learner, I find the potential of this research to be very exciting. Finally, perhaps this textual world will be “adjusted” to meet the needs of those that learn differently. I look forward to following his research.

July 21, 2006: Mr. Trevor Doerksen

Entering into day two of the humanities course, I have to admit that I have really been enjoying the use of guest speakers to address different issues. Not just them addressing these issues but the platforms that have been used. Today, we listened to Trevor Doerksen and the one main thing that jumped out to me was a statement: "Life if about relationships". There is an amazing amount of technology and development happening with students engaged in many different types. The real reason they venture down this road is becuase they want to, they need to communicate. The students do want to talk and they use a number of different platforms to do this. I know that sometimes as an older person, I can look at these technologies (cell phones, msn etc.) as distractions, whereas it is just a different way, a new way to communicate. Learning and communication are directly related. It is through communication that we learn, not the passing on of information. Trevor also offers a number of virtual field trips, which certainly sound like a great resource to bring students into environments which they may not otherwise get the opportunity. It's interactive way, promotes communication and learning. One other underlying theme that seemed to be present in Trevor's presentation is the thought that we often jump into "expensive" things without thought or perhaps patience. One example given was the SuperNet, which cost millions of dollars and now we hae Ipods that can do a better job in the classroom. All in all I enjoyed the talk, but was looking forward to Matt and Trevor getting into a rather active debate...

July 20, 2006: Ray Kurzweil and Charmaine Brooks

The first day of humanities brought a number of surprises. Being able to listen in on a presentation by Ray Kurzweil was a great opportunity. His talk was interesting to say the least. His discussion about the exponential growth of technology and the fact that the paradigm shift rate doubles every decade produced mixed emotions in me. It's exciting to talk about all the amazing advancements of technology and how it affects our lives, but it certainly also brought up a bunch of concerns for me as well. The mention of cell phones being to translate into other languages in real time was very intriguing and sounded very practical. But, when Ray started to talk about the human body and the brain and how some day we will be able to upload information into the brain and perhaps even replace ourselves with something more complex, he lost me. This reasoning was great, except it assumes that there is nothing else, but the body. There is no soul and no God. I will not ramble on about why I would disagree with Ray, but, I will say that I believe he is a brilliant man who knows a lot and his research is very neat, but lacking in it's acceptance of other possibilities.
It was also a privelege to have Charmaine with us to present. I did find it interesting to discuss the direction of the Province and to understand more how it works, as some day I would love to be able to start a school out in the country for behavioural youth. All in all, a good first day.