Posts Tagged ‘image’
History lesson
Posted on: October 24, 2020
I created an image quote from this tweet. It explains why history repeats itself.
If we bother to study our yesterdays before making judgements about our todays and tomorrows, we might break the pattern that holds us back.
Of bums and faces
Posted on: July 24, 2020
I recreated (image above) an older version of an image quote I made in 2015 (below). It was based on something that Donald Clark wrote about in 2013.
After watching this video on the claims of a startup wanting to get kids to Zoom in the era of COVID-19, I realised that the quote needs to be updated.
With classrooms and lecture halls, the administrative measurement of learning is attendance, i.e., bums-in-seats. Online the measure is also attendance, but it is now faces-on-camera.
Now I get that attendance and attention can be the first step in getting student to learn. But that is the low hanging fruit. Learning does not happen just because students are present and accounted for.
Most teachers get that and will use strategies to engage and empower their students. But technologies like the one featured in the video appeal to administrators and to teachers who can only think inside the classroom box.
Learning that is a result of enforced attendance is likely to be fleeting or superficial. Why? The learner does not want to be there and the class does not connect with the student.
Solutions do not lie in forcing attendance even though this might be important administratively, financially, or for policy. They lie in better teacher-student relationships, more progressive teaching strategies, and heightened expectations of the learner.
One change that incorporates all three is well-designed asynchronous learning — they are trust-building exercises, they focus on the teacher meeting the students where they are at, and require students to be more independent.
If we do not change the way we teach or the shift the expectations of what it means to learn, we will not change the way we use technology.
High ground
Posted on: June 20, 2020
I was reminded of a saying by someone I follow on Twitter:
So I created this image quote as a tribute.
The wisdom of the quote is that we should not give up our high ground to gratify a short term urge. The high ground could be moral or ethical. It could also be content expertise or the mastery of skill.
But first it is important to be certain that we actually have the high ground. How do we know? Our qualifications and character are fundamental. But what matters in the long run is our reputational capital, the backing of rigorous research, critical and reflective practice, and the humility to keep learning.
High ground is obvious to us and those who observe us. A bubble is obvious only to you.
Remarkable
Posted on: May 12, 2020
I have not made an image quote in a while, so here is one that is particularly relevant today. It is from author Douglas Adams.
Adams’ observation holds true when you consider how some governments seemed to not learn from the mistakes of others when dealing with SARS-COV-2.
The same could be said about how some in schooling and education choose not to learn from the experience of more informed others. They would rather make the same mistakes or invent new ones.
I would be tempted to say that learning from one’s mistakes is a powerful way to learn. The problem is some refuse to learn and others suffer as a result.
Myth busted
Posted on: February 26, 2020
I like a good joke as much as the next person.
For me, a good joke is a turn of phrase that is smart, observant, and above all, true to life. So I laughed at what one local satirist shared on Twitter.
But I stopped chuckling almost as soon as I started. The image was not hashtagged as satire and was meant to simulate a serious message from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
To be clear, the graphic is fake. It does not originate from the WHO, which has actual images busting myths about COVID-19.
I know that some will get the joke, but there are others who might propagate the image out of context and without checking for a source.
We do not need to add a “joke” to the existing dump of misinformation and disinformation. All these spread faster than COVID-19 and infect our capacity to think critically. But there is an inoculation — myth busting fuelled by skepticism.
Unhealthy practice
Posted on: December 13, 2019
Depending on your browser, you may or may not see the image that leads the story. So here is a screen capture.
The headline sounds serious, does it not?
I am not going to ask why the WHO guideline is “one hour of moderate-to-vigorous activity every day”. I found out what counts as moderate to vigorous activity, but I think that traditional hunting and gathering, and roofing or thatching do not apply in our context.
I wonder why the people behind the paper chose to feature Pokémon Go given how the game requires players to walk in order to play. (BTW, I clock between 50-60km per week playing the game.) Might it have been too mean or inaccurate to feature a couch potato?
Perhaps those in mainstream media still look for opportunities to put down anything they see as a threat (mobiles and gaming). Maybe focusing on worries and bad news gets more attention.
But I question why such an article does not explore reasons why we have this statistic, the role of physical education in schools, or solutions to such issues.
Perhaps dishing out what others have already said is easier than actual work. You know, like how it is easier to be a couch potato than to actively play Pokémon Go.
Still true
Posted on: April 29, 2019
I was not the first to point this out. Unfortunately, I will not be the last.
I cannot remember when I first started using this phrase: We have 21st century learners taught by 20th century teachers in 19th century classrooms. I can point to one of my keynote slides that someone put on Pinterest.
Searching my Google Presentations, I found a keynote slide in 2016, another keynote slide in 2014, and a presentation for a Google event in 2012.
I will stop saying this the day it no longer is true. In the mean time, I offer a slightly different quote.
Unlearning before learning
Posted on: January 25, 2019
I read this recent tweet and decided to make an image quote out of some of it.
Unlearning is hard. With older learners, unlearning is often prerequisite to learning. Old habits die hard, if at all. You must break before you can make.
In edu-speak, we might point out the importance of deconstructing before constructing. If we encourage learners to build on the wrong foundations or with questionable materials, we are at fault for rushing with the building instead of starting with the tedious work of deconstructing.
Image quote revisited 10
Posted on: December 18, 2018
This is the same quote on the new background (above) and the old one (below).
If the message holds true, why change the background (other than to update it with CC information)?
The old image juxtaposed a typewriter with what is now a really old iPhone. We would not judge mobile-ness with a ten-year-old phone, so why should we evaluate the outcomes of education any differently?
If your reply is that schooling and education change much more slowly, then you might be part of the problem.
Image quote revisited 9
Posted on: December 17, 2018
Whether the quote is in its new form…
… or its old one…
… my guess is that most teachers would agree with the sentiment. But easier said than done.
Most teachers are taught to provide answers and thus tell students what to see. The problem with doing this is not just providing answers when there are no questions. It is not being comfortable with generating questions and facing questions with no clear answers.
We are accustomed to the pedagogy of answers, but not to the pedagogy of questions.
