PLN4

Dear Mr. Karl Fisch –
After your article “The CSAP is Dead. Long Live the CSAP (err, TCAP)” I began to think deeply about standardized tests and my true feelings about them. My decision? Standardized testing is a completely necessary part of schooling. My reasoning for this is that colleges need to compare applicants side by side. GPA’s do not tell nearly as much because an A in a class could reflect a student’s knowledge, but also could reflect an easy class. Also, I felt like Will Richardson’s quote was not very well thought out and I disagree with his views. I agree on the fact that students need to be able to handle “real problems” and “the ability to make sense of the world as they experience it” but these things can be achieved just by living, and schools should never have to teach students this and therefore would have no reason to test students on it. Also, I think that instilling a “love for learning” in students is just flat out unreasonable and will most likely never be achieved. In the future, I would hope to see standardize tests used more for decision making on class placement and college applications.

PLN 3

Dear Mr. Will Richardson –
In your article “And What Do YOU Mean by Learning?” I feel that learning to ME is acquiring information in a way that it will be retained. For schools this means no spelling lists in English class, and only a few important dates to memorize in history. I also believe that these types of memorizations be replaced by hands on visual activities to help kids visually learn. An example of this would be in a World War II unit, coloring a world map with different colors for the allied and axis powers, this way kids would visually remember the country’s on both sides of the conflict without memorizing before the test, and then forgetting after the test. I also believe that if schools provide hands on learning that kids will be much more focused and would understand and retain the information they learn leaving them much better off in the long run. In the future, I would hope to see more of this teaching/learning style happening around the country and because of it, see kids retaining and enjoying the things they are learning.

PLN 2

Dear Mr. Karl Fisch –
In your article “The Learning Studio”, I feel that the idea of allowing students to have hands on training with real world situations such as the University of Virginia’s learning studio is a great idea, and certainly an immense improvement from the 1910 learning style mentioned in your post. As a student, I can whole heartedly agree that the “study then test method” does not allow students to learn information, only to memorize it for a short period of time the forget it. Also, as mentioned in your post, in a learning studio students work in groups which I feel is very beneficial because not only can students bounce ideas off each other, but because in the real world, when students are working at a hospital, they will need to socialize and help their coworkers. In the future, I hope to see this change made to medical colleges around the country.

PLN1

Dear Mr. Karl Fisch –

In your article “Dear Denver Post: No More Horoscopes”, I strongly agree with your negative feelings towards the horoscopes in the Denver Post news paper, and I support your idea for replacing this portion of the paper with science articles. Your statistic about one fourth of Americans actually believing in Astrology shocked me and made it even more evident to me that horoscopes need to be replaced by articles that are logical and supported by science. Isn’t the purpose of the paper to educate readers? I could care less if people looked at horoscopes, but to take away newspaper reader’s source of knowledge and replacing it with garbage makes me slightly angry. If people know more about America’s and the world’s problems, then people would be more knowledgeable about the issues and more inclined to help fix the problems. In the future, I hope to see this change made to not only improve the newspaper but also enhance the knowledge of its readers.

PLN 20

The ideas and concepts in the article South Korea: Free School Meals Debate Sweeps the Nation by Lee Yoo Eun matter to me, education, and the world. In the article Eun talks about a free meal system in schools that is being put into action in Korea. The article does not necessarily matter to me since my school allows off campus and I do not eat at school it does matter to other kids though who cannot afford expensive school lunches and would be greatly appreciative of free school lunches. The ideas in the article matter to education because they would need more education funding to afford to by school lunch for all the students. This matters to the world because free lunches will help to decrease poverty and help to get poor people out of there bad situations. The article South Korea: Free School Meals Debate Sweeps the Nation by Lee Yoo Eun matters to me, education, and the world.

PLN17

In the article What if? by Karl Fisch, Fisch discusses how the use of cell phones and iPods during class has been banned at Arapahoe High School and he disagrees with this rule because he feels these devises can be used as tools to better kids learning. The ideas and concepts in the article matter to me, education, and the world. The ideas in the article matter to me because as a student of Arapahoe I have these rules imposed upon me. I know that these devises can be used inappropriately during school, but I also believe that with the consent of the teacher in question students should be allowed to use their devises to schedule homework and use tools on their phone such as a calculator. The ideas in the article matter to education because schools need to accept that cell phones and other mechanical devises can be used in educational and positive ways and then make their rules accordingly. The concepts in the article matter to the world because mechanical devices such as cell phones are becoming more widely and more frequently used. Therefore businesses, schools, and people will have to adapt and incorporate new technologies. The ideas and concepts in the article What if? by Karl Fisch matter to me, education, and the world.

PLN19

In the article Lost in Electronica by George Will, Will states that because of modern technologies keeping kids stimulated at all times, kids are becoming bored with nothing to do for thirty seconds. The concepts and ideas in the article matter to me, education, and the world. The ideas discussed in the article matter to me because I constantly need some form of entertainment in order to not get bored; accordingly I need to bring my iPod or some other form of entertainment with me at all times to avoid boredom. This article matters to education; this is because teachers, and schools in general, will have to have activities, problems and other work to keep students occupied at all times. This matters to the world because people need twenty-four hour entertainment so portable entertainment is in high demand; therefore industries such as MP3 players and laptops are succeeding. The concepts and ideas in the article Lost in Electronica by George Will matter to me, education, and the world.