LIBE 477

As soon as I heard this week’s topic in Aaron Mueller’s Sunday Video, I knew what I wanted to write about. I remember reading about a tribe in the Amazon rainforest that uses generators, solar panels, laptops, and satellite internet to create their own self-directed “universities”. They learn what they choose, whether literacy skills or hands-on techniques, such as carpentry and metalwork. I thought the idea had a lot of merit.    So-called “developing nations” need not go through the same path that the Global West took to get to where we are (as if that’s so great). A pre-industrial culture can learn from a post-industrial culture, and in fact, might leapfrog to points beyond the post-industrial culture’s imagination. One need not learn how to use a wooden hammer before a metal hammer, for example.    As for the rest of the world, as our traditions become institutions, it may be valuable to interact with outsiders who can bring new ideas to the table. Moreover, ever...

What strategies, resources, tools, and networks will I use to continue to develop my information/communication technology skills and pedagogy throughout my career? I suppose that I will increase my ICT knowledge, skills, and pedagogy the same way that I have done any of my own professional development in the last ten years. My school district doesn’t present required or recommended professional development. This is left up to our union members to devise on an individual basis. It’s usually the same handful of teachers who repeatedly host yoga, sports, outdoor school, or SOGI-related pro-D events. Occasionally, a speaker will be brought in from the community, but expert speakers, conferences, and keynotes are almost completely absent from the pro-d options in my rural district. Moreover, I work in a less-populated area of the district, and very few organized options are available without an hour or more drive each way. All this is to say, I’ve been largely on my own in my profession...

"But have you tried making your lessons fun?" This is one of the all-time top-five worst things you can say to a teacher. It also happens to be the first, and often only advice that non-teachers (including administrators) give to frustrated teachers. Well, I have found the reading-skills equivalent, thanks to Annie Holmquist from the Foundation for Economic Education website, who unironically writes: " Maybe if we let them read for pleasure once in a while they wouldn't hate doing it .”   (Holmquist) Holmquist is a researcher, not a teacher (nor a parent). But she still thinks that she has an important and overlooked opinion about whether teachers are doing their work correctly. She admittedly bases this blog article on a single interaction with a parent who believes his kid’s teachers are “killing his child’s interest in reading.” (Holmquist) So, let’s pretend that teachers don’t know their own work, and that this armchair expert is correct: that teachers are ...

Reading Part C – Annotated Bibliography Topic: Flattening English standardization – improving accessibility, communication, code-switching in the internet age Al-Kadi, Abdu M. Talib and Rashad Ali Ahmed. "Evolution of English in the Internet Age."             A holistic approach to English language evolution, citing historical language shifts, 20 th -century English imperialism. Differentiation between internetese and textese (internet English and text English, respectively). Broad-scope summary of major research in the field, rather than new information. Suleman, Nazia. "Impact of SMS Speak on the Formal Writings of the Students."             A study of Pakistani faculty and students who use English as L2. Concludes that SMS English use leads to degeneration of standard English on academic work. Notably, the disappearance of the ‘absent author’ that characterizes f...