Michael Wesch - Passion for Teaching Statement
15.12.08
Michael Wesch - Passion for Teaching Statement
I have read and heard a great deal of advice on how to ask good questions of students, but nobody has ever told me how to get students to ask good questions. Since all good thinking begins with a good question, it strikes me that if we are ultimately trying to create "active lifelong learners" with "critical thinking skills" and an ability to "think outside the box," it might be best to start by getting students to ask better questions.
The best questions force students to challenge their taken-for-granted assumptions and see their own underlying biases. Oftentimes, the answer to a good question is irrelevant—the question is an insight in itself. The only answer to the best questions is another good question. The best questions send students on rich and meaningful lifelong quests, question after question after question.
Unfortunately, such great questions are rarely asked by students, especially in large introductory courses, such as my 400-student “Introduction to Cultural Anthropology.” Much more common are questions such as, "What do we need to know for this test?" This may be the worst question of all. It makes education into a relatively meaningless game of grades rather than a meaningful exploration of the world.
In all fairness, students are conditioned to ask it by the lecture format. This mainstay of introductory courses teaches students to sit in neat rows and to believe and defer to the teacher. Tests often measure little more than how well students can recite what they have been told.
My frustration over this led me to create a learning environment conducive to helping students ask better questions—ones that create lifelong learners. In my introductory anthropology class, students are asked to understand how the world works. But rather than me telling them how it works, students work together to design a two-hour simulation of the last 500 years of world history, using props for currencies, natural resources and other elements that recreate the world system.
A world map is superimposed onto a map of the classroom, and students are asked to imagine themselves living in the cultural and physical environment that maps onto them. Each student becomes an expert on a specific locale, such as the economic systems of the Pacific Islands or the political systems in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Questions loom over every aspect of the creation of this simulation. I am in the wonderful but awkward position of not knowing exactly what I am doing but blissfully learning along the way. My job becomes less about teaching and more about encouraging students to join me on the quest. The journey extends beyond the classroom, facilitated by a custom Web platform that fosters community and media literacy through the integration of a wiki, blogs, mobile phones and other applications.
Students record the simulation on 20 digital video cameras, and we collectively edit the material into one 20-minute world history video. During the last week of class, we watch the video together. By then, it seems as if we have the whole world and one humanity right before our eyes—filled with its cultural and economic differences, and challenges for the future. We see ourselves as its co-creators and realize that the future is up to us. It is in this environment that even the worst questions take on all the characteristics of the best: What do we need to know for this test?
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Juan Carreón
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Entre los invitados está RMS
A quien se hace referencia comúnmente por sus iniciales RMS es una figura central del movimiento del software libre. Sus mayores logros como programador incluyen el editor de texto Emacs, el compilador GCC, y el depurador GDB, bajo la rúbrica del Proyecto GNU.
Pero su influencia es mayor por el establecimiento de un marco de referencia moral, político y legal para el movimiento del software libre, como una alternativa al desarrollo y distribución de software privativo. Es también inventor del concepto de Copyleft, un método para licenciar software de tal forma que este permanezca siempre libre y su uso y modificación siempre reviertan en la comunidad.
- Avance imparable de la telefonía IP
Por: Staff High Tech Editores
Para Tomar en Cuenta
Al cierre del presente año el valor en dólares de las ventas de soluciones de redes en México crecerá respecto al 2004...90%
En telefonía IP.26%
En soluciones inalámbricas.18%
En datos.13%
En otros rubros.2%
En telefonía tradicional.* Fuente: Select.
Con un estimado de crecimiento de 90% entre el anterior y el presente año, el mercado de telefonía IP se muestra como el más dinámico en el ambiente de telecomunicaciones nacional.
De acuerdo con un análisis de Select, la adopción y madurez de la tecnología de redes privadas virtuales (VPN) seguirá incentivando el crecimiento de la telefonía IP, a grado tal que las extensiones IP participarán en la base total de 4% a 12% al cierre del 2005.
El papel que las redes inalámbricas locales pueden ocupar como soluciones para las pequeñas y medianas empresas del país permite avizorar que este tipo de infraestructura pronto será el estándar en todos los tamaños de organizaciones.
Otros aspectos que también influirán en el crecimiento de esta tendencia son: el incremento en la penetración de servicios inalámbricos de voz, lo que provoca un decremento en la demanda de servicios “tradicionales” de voz (local y de larga distancia); asimismo, los consumidores han mostrado interés en soluciones VoIP (Voz sobre IP) que permitan servicios a bajo costo, además de múltiples ventajas; se ve también una sustitución de líneas fijas tradicionales por líneas sobre banda ancha, además de que las empresas tienden a ofrecer servicios “triple-play” (voz, video y datos).
- Books by Ray
Ray Kurzweil has been described as “the restless genius” by the Wall Street Journal, and “the ultimate thinking machine” by Forbes. Inc. magazine ranked him #8 among entrepreneurs in the United States, calling him the “rightful heir to Thomas Edison,” and PBS included Ray as one of 16 “revolutionaries who made America,” along with other inventors of the past two centuries.
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El Economista, 29/8/2005
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El tipo 5 del eneagrama en TI
Dilbert en español: http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/spanish/
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European tech giants form software consortium
British Telecom, Nokia, SAP and Siemens are among a dozen or so high-tech companies lining up to support efforts to strengthen Europe's position in the global software and information technology industries. To that end, the companies launched a consortium on Wednesday called the Networked European Software and Services Initiative, or NESSI. - Futuro halagüeño para Linux, RFID, SMS: Gartner
El crecimiento de Linux y el uso de radiofrecuencia (RFID) destacan entre diez principales tecnologías con mayor presencia en el mercado durante el próximo año y las que tienen una proyección a más largo plazo, de acuerdo con Gartner.
- Icon, Steve Jobs
Abstract of the book
- IT Marketers Best Served by Being Straightforward
White papers may be the best business-to-business marketing tool for selling IT products, a new study finds. KnowledgeStorm conducted the "Define What's Valued Online" survey for the CMO Council to identify how online technology influences IT buying.
- Japonesa compraría PalmSource, creador sistema operativo 'Palm'
- Linux World México
Para considerar
- MarketingLoop.com
Small business owners, content publishers, and service professionals…
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The commonwealth of Massachusetts has proposed a plan to phase out office productivity applications from Microsoft and other providers in favor of those based on "open" standards, including the recently approved OpenDocument standard.
- Mexico ads playing up candidates
Para los extranjeros que disfrutan y padecen la Ciudad de México y además por razones profesionales tienen que seguir la guerra mediática y fuera de los medios entre Calderón y AMLO:
"The fiercest and funniest attacks have come in the form of homemade videos distributed on Internet sites like YouTube.com. In one, Barney the dinosaur and a chorus of children sing a profanity-laden ditty taunting López Obrador. Another video, this one anti-Calderón, offers a primer on 'How To Commit Electronic Vote Fraud.'" afirma Chris Hawley
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Windows was broken and Microsoft has admitted it. In an unprecedented attempt to explain its Longhorn problems and how it abandoned its traditional way of working, the normally secretive software giant has given unparalleled access to The Wall Street Journal, even revealing how Vice President Jim Allchin, personally broke the bad news to Bill Gates.
- Modelo abierto de la ciencia
La Red, la PC, Linux surgieron por individuos que trabajaron sobre lo que es la pasión y la motivación propias
Del mismo autor pueden consultarse:
http://www.tecnologiaempresarial.info/resultados.asp?buscar=juan+carre%F3n&x=9&y=10
- Neuropedia
Un wiki mexicano elaborado con wikimedia
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BusinessWeeek, Special Report
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