The Information Diet

The Information Diet by Clay Johnson takes the concept of a food diet and makes an analogy to an information diet.  They are both based on consumption, and choice is the key to it being a healthy or unhealthy diet.  

This analogy really made sense to me.  As for a food diet, for the most part, I have learned what is good and bad.  Although what I eat is not super healthy, I know what I’m doing and I’m making educated choices.  As for information, I was not aware of some of the implications and was consuming information with ignorance.  After reading the book, I understand that I was consuming information for affirmation and not taking the source into consideration.  I did not know that my belief and seeking affirmation were a barrier to broader information.  It is said that no matter how many facts are presented to me, I would not budge on my stance.  Now, that I know this, I will really try to be open minded.  For every piece of affirming information, I will seek broader information and take sources into greater consideration.

Students as Designers

The final principle, Student as Designers, happens when we design lessons with the first 5 principles in mind.  

1. Teachers as Designers take into consideration the principles, processes, patterns, and paraphernalia and create lessons using AeCTS.
2. Prepare our students to meet community needs by linking living and learning to the PICKLE.
3. Analyze the content for structures, processes, and discourse
4. Include authentic activities, background building activities, constructing activities, and sharing activities
5. Conduct an Affordance Analysis

Designing a lesson with these first 5 principles will allow for the 6th principle, Students as Designers with the clear outcome exit experience.

In this last class session, we were students as designers to show our understanding of the 6 design principles.  My group created a Cooking Show Video.  Priscilla went through all the principles to design the course for us.  As I look back and understand the process, it is not always sequential.  She used the design process for each principle we learned in each session, as well.  I can see how we were designers at the end of each session when we created the Burma Shaves and poems.  In retrospect, the learning was relevant to me and I am now, able to apply what I learned in my own practice.  

I will never forget when my group and I were creating the cooking video and there were other GMU students in the area.  One of them commented, “I wish our class was that much fun.”  And it was that much fun while we are learning.  

The Means Principle

Good learning designs reflect technologies chosen after mindful consideration of the cognitive and societal consequences as well as a clear and appropriate connection with content and learning activities.

When I read the article on Affordance Analysis, I was so confused and I didn’t understand why.  After the discussion in class, I understood that I was confused because the concept of affordance analysis is the process that we logically use as educators everyday when we pick and plan for our students.  Affordance Analysis is simply the process of when the feature of a tool and the goal are a good fit.  I do this everyday, all day long as an educator, without really thinking about it.  It comes natural to teachers.  So, having a fancy name, Affordance Analysis, and a 15 page article that basically explains analyzing using pros and cons was confusing to me.  

Affordance Analysis is much more formal than I realized.  Using the graphic organizer will make my thinking more concrete to prove my decisions on technology for my classrooms and school.

The Victorian Internet

The Victorian Internet is a story of the Telegraph and it’s pioneers.  In class we discussed technology and it’s positive and negative consequences.  As we internalize technology, it promotes thinking and logic with the spread of information.  It also expands interaction and the world gets bigger in the sense that we are able to interact with people further and further away.  This is true of the telegraph.  People could now reach distances across the oceans and communicate easier with cultures and societies on other continents.  But with this also comes social and cognitive consequences.  Human nature remains human nature no matter what the technology is.  Good people use technology and bad people use technology.  Also, the slow nature of social change does not keep up with the quick changing nature of technology and this causes negative consequences.  This is a cycle that happens over and over again through the ages as technology replaces technology.

In the big picture, it easy to recognize this cycle.  But living in the midst of it, I don’t always recognize it.  There are times when I am resistant with my own children when they are on their devices.  My logic tells me that moderation and balance are good but I fail to see that my perception of moderation and balance is “old fashioned” compared to what it is today.  Also, in my classroom, why can’t my students use a calculator to multiply or divide large numbers?  That’s what I do in real life.  Or, why can’t my students go on the internet to look up a definition of a word they don’t know?  That’s what I do.  Priscilla mentioned that when we are the experts, we bring along all the consequences associated with new technology.  I can’t hold children back because of my perceptions.  I need to keep them up with the change.  Technology solves problems but brings on problems, too.  I need to stay conscious of that and always remember and teach students to remember the ETHICAL when keeping up with technology.