Mr. Garza's Blog @mrgarzablog - Tumblr Blog

A Hoax website I created for a Graduate course I am in

Coding Club 2024-2025 School Year

Information and Credentials

Before the new age of technology (and still today) people are given their credentials by established accredited organizations that attest to your knowledge of a specific subject tor topic. These people are called experts. Today, new knowledge is so consistently and quickly introduced that this process cannot keep up with and create enough, or sometimes any, experts before information is being traded amongst people. Because of this, people have to rely on their own knowledge and negotiate their understanding with others as they come to a common consensus which may be imperfect before an expert is produced and gives their input.

There have been efforts to introduce "badges" similar to scout badges which would be used to help people identify themselves as being knowledgeable or skilled in x y and z. This was primarily for the use of employers in an effort to reduce time vetting applicants. While it seems like a good idea, it still misses the point of the time consumption of producing an actual expert in a field.

The act of rewarding skills and knowledge is called by some "gamifying" where the reward of the badge is the goal, not necessarily the knowledge or skill. It is a dangerous practice because when something is gamified, some people will look to exploit the system to achieve the badge in the quickest lowest effort manner possible. It takes away from learning and puts the focus on abusing the system.

A similar topic is assessment. Assessments are used to determine how close to a goal a student is and what they still need to learn or have already mastered. An assessment, though, does not always account for the inequality in education that the students have received through their life experiences or from past education, sometimes from different schools. I find the best way to avoid penalizing not having privilege is to not make the assessments part of their grade. Instead, have them create something to demonstrate their learning. it could be a report, a poster, a video, an image or anything that can be presented to show that progress was made in their learning.

Information and technology continues to bound forward while we do our best to keep up...

Reading...

I tell my fiancé that I have undiagnosed ADHD because IDK how I manage to absorb information like this:

I read something digitally any time that I can. I use a text-to-speech at like 4 times speed so I can digest it quickly because if I read it myself I get distracted so I listen instead. If it is too slow I get impatient and try yo read it myself. I use music to make the computerized voice less annoying. And finally if necessary I have a second window with a google docs open for taking notes as I listen. Kind of like a lecture.

#ADHD #Reading #Productivity

108 Beat maker

Cool little website I was introduced to

A minimal beat machine played in the browser.

Network Learning

The internet has made us infinitely more connected than we were before its conception. We as learners now have the ability to explore topics and learn new things at any moment that we want.

There is a phenomenon called co-learning where multiple individuals take on learning a specific topic or subject. It might be taking an art class, learning a coding language or learning how to play a new game. You can build off of each other's ideas and discoveries in an effort to reach the same goal.

The internet has made co-learning much more accessible as you can find forums, discord servers, wiki pages, YouTube videos and much more all about any topic and many of these websites and resources are living, in the sense that users are still actively conversing and adding information to there space. This is what is called an affinity space.

In these affinity spaces people can join and add based on the rules that the group using the space has set. The people in charge of making sure order is maintained are called moderators, or mods for short. The users now all become co-learners, network learners. They are connected through a digital medium through various devices and software or access points. This makes the access of and increase in knowledge larger than ever before.

It is hard to imagine what the next step in access to knowledge will be. As a kid, I remember a show depicting school and learning in the "future" as wearing a headset for a few hours and "downloading" all the knowledge of mankind and being done. I wonder if that would be as fulfilling or useful as the way we learn today...

Open Pedagogy

When I think of "open" I imagine the open sign on a business, the that lights with neon lights that tells people they are welcome to join or enter. Open to the public, anyone is able to enter and exit as they please.

Pedagogy is the teaching practice. How is information given to learners?

"Open Pedagogy" is then giving learners (the public) access to how they want to receive information, how or what do they want to learn. What kind of sources do they want to explore? What skills do they want to master? What knowledge do they want to gain?

While I see this ideology working very well in students who can advocate for themselves, like in university and high school education, I am not so trusting of the process in elementary schools. Simply because of the fact that they do not know what they do not know. There is no harm in letting them explore information so that we are not ripping what interests them from their hands. But I think it is important to maintain a grip on the steering wheel as it is possible that they do not yet know how to drive through their education yet. So then perhaps the next step is teaching them how to do so, with topics they choose but also following you as a model.

#Open Pedagogy

Does your kid want to know how to draw a monster? Download this simple PDF instructions, also help us name him.

Doing a challenge of drawing something without lifting the pencil. I present: A roller coaster!!

#art #Drawing #one-line

One of my favorite things. Also, one of the first things my fiance gave me as a present when we first started dating. Its Kirby on a cloud :D

In an age where connectivity is at its highest and people can converse freely without the obstacle of distance, it becomes easy to use the tools that are given to us to do this. But at the same time because we use these tools we also have to abide by its rules. Most things we post are made public but at the same time their is an expected level of privacy, even if you do not take advantage of the privacy settings given by the platform. With newer generations growing up, there may be a fundamental misunderstanding of how their data may be used whether they knowingly consent or not. You could reasonably expect that someone outside of your friend group isn't to go snooping around your profile, especially if you are not making your presence known, but at the same time it is not impossible for someone to stumble upon it and snoop anyways. Others take a more open-profile approach where everything is on display and they understand the risks. If anything it is probably more calculated and scrutinized before posting because they know lots of eyeballs are going to be on it. Take for example a standard social media influencer. Their profiles are specifically open, but at the same time, they do not give anything personal, so is it truly public, or is it giving the unimportant bit so that they can maintain that privacy?

#privacy #Public #social media

I looked at the familiar door with both happiness and an emptiness that I had not know for a while. It brought back a lot of mixed emotions, but there was something important inside. I open the door and the abandoned warehouse, that me and a few of my childhood friends used to hang out, greeted me with its usual silence and darkness. I turned on my flashlight to get a better look at the windowless interior of this long forgotten building. I pointed the flashlight at our corner that still had some remaining trash, some beaten up chairs, and an old oil drum that we used to burn things in. I walked past it to the stairs that led to what I think used to be some manager office. I climbed the stairs to the room that overlooked the warehouse floor. The door was off it's hinges and split in half on the ground from when Danny decided to kick it in for fun. I entered the room and looked out the cracked and broken one way glass that oversaw the whole warehouse. It was pretty much a dark abyss. I walked to the back of the office and opened the file cabinet that still had a functioning lock. And luckily I still had the key. I unlocked the cabinet and found what I was looking for. I opened the old photo album of me and my friends. I flipped through the memories and reminisced about when we still were young and how stupid we were. I wish I had remembered about this book sooner. It would have been nice to be able to share in these memories with them.

#writing prompt

Inspired by Grant Snyder (@grantdraws) Impossible dog breeds

#st. bernard #dog breeds #parody

Just a little something about technology...

#technology #Tradition #Comic

The Future of learning...

Technology has become an essential part of our life. In recent memory, similar to how cars have become almost necessary (at least in the US) so has internet access, and a smart phone become necessary to be apart of and participate in today's society.

Many see technology as a shortcut to learning, a crutch even, but technology has given access of learning to many people. Technology has given us access to information that we may never have known otherwise.

Do we cling to the old ways, or do we embrace the new? I read an interesting idea from a textbook about educational research by Craig A. Mertler, "While it may have been effective for [students] in the past, it may not be appropriately meeting their academic needs now." We cannot allow something that worked previously to block something that may work even better now in the future.

My hope, and goal, is to find the the better way, to revise our current practices, to improve the education and futures that we give our children in our classrooms. My greatest fear is holding my students back because of something I had done, and preventing them from spreading their wings...

#Teaching #Future of teaching #Technology

If I could add some advise. Or rather a preface, not every piece of advice will work for you. All our lives are largely unique but also intertwined and similar. While the context of our problems might be different, the essence of it might be the same. While we all start at zero, each generation has the benefit of learning from the generations before them. We propel each other up, to newer heights, so while some of the advice you receive throughout your life might be antiquated or down right non-sense, remember that they also have lived full lives, do not make the same mistakes...

#Life

Heh heh heh, was introduced to a generator for those signs for warnings you might see in buildings or on the street.

My hand looks like an earth bender which I would like! The ability to make structures and use the earth itself as a tool would be cool. I feel like it has a lot of practical uses for the betterment of society, the show does a great job of showing its utility. I personally would've liked air bending but anyone of this skills offers a unique way to interact with the world.

I wonder how the creator of this image decided on what hand type would be related to which ability.

#Avatar #AirBender

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Mr. Garza's Blog