Qatar World Summit For Education

Hi There.. forgot to tell you why I have pictures of Qatar.
They will be having a World Summit For Education in November 2009.
It will be held in Doha from the 16 - 18th... Keep an eye on the Qatar Education Foundation website.. link is in list below.. Qatar has some "different" rules for conduct in public... so be sure to check on that if you plan on attending.

There are different RULES.. everywhere!!

Welcome to My Blog

As you can see I have varied interests from computer training to keeping in contact with old friends and their families.to letting you know about health issues. The Usedom blog, is by a long time friend of mine. She mentions State College,PA where we met in high school! Her niece Miranda lives in Africa and I highly recommend the Gerson Institute for anyone with health problems. I hope you enjoy the other links provided as they are a good range of where to find information on the web. Enjoy!

And here's something for you to have fun with....
I came across thes videos and they are really neat. It just goes to show how people will change their behavior if they can be happy about it. Makes one think more about how to do things with humor...! This is an interesting study...! I'm all for Fun anyway! The study was sponsored by Volkswagen, espousing the value of fun in influencing user behavior: copy this URL into your address bar and click on Go!
http://www.rolighetsteorin.se/en/

Teaching Philosophy

My Teaching Philosophy
For me, Enthusiasm, Flexibility and Change, have come to be the cornerstones of my teaching philosophy. Not sure I have them all down pat yet, but as with most things it’s an evolving process.

I believe that one’s philosophy, whether it be for teaching - or for life, has to involve a good portion of these essential elements. Especially in today’s world it is even more evident that the “essentials” of the information we learn today, may not be the “correct” information of tomorrow. Therefore an educator has to be flexible and open to changes and adjust their curriculum and presentation accordingly. Guess that’s why I’m taking this class!

Of course this is coming from someone who’s lived and worked in over 40 locations so far, and I’m still eager to add to that number. I love finding out how and why people learn and do things the way they do!

I’ve had the great delight in teaching the gamut of students from Kindergarten, thru to college students and adults and while they may have a number of learning traits in common quite often it is their differences that stand out and to which I have tried to respond to as a teacher or facilitator.

I remember reading somewhere, that someone said that education would one day evolve into more of being able to find the WHERE of the information, rather than the actual accumulation of the information. That always intrigued me. With today’s ever changing technology advances it looks like we are headed there and yet … helping the student to learn the skills to then “deal with “ the information once they find it. That’s where we come in!

Therefore, I also enjoy the challenge of fostering the critical thinking skills needed to use the information presented to the student while helping the student find that “one thing” that is ultimately important to them, that helps the “light bulb” moment happen. The finding process, the readjusting of what I do and how I do it for each class, especially when the social dynamics of the classes change, is learning process for me also.

Having a student actually “enjoy” the learning process I think is for most of us one of the most satisfying aspects of teaching. Quite often for them to do this, the teacher has to somehow show their own enthusiasm for the subject while also providing the students with the tools they will need to learn more on their own when a teacher isn’t around. I wish I had found Karl Menninger’s quote years ago – he said, “What the teacher is, is more important that what he teaches.” I think I would have been less rigid in my early days.

Having completed a course recently in learning new technologies, my views on the actual teaching philosopy haven't changed much, other than to stress how confusing all the technologies can be for anyone and the high need to really explain things in a clean consise way up front. Not only the "how to" instructions but the "why" and how it relates to other things. I'm fairly computer savy and even I had trouble trying to see how one thing was going to be connected to the other at times. I can totally sympathize with new users trying to play the "catch up" game!

For Those of You Interested in Satori

Satori is a Japanese Buddhist term for "enlightenment." The word literally means "understanding." "Satori" translates as a flash of sudden awareness, or individual enlightenment. Practitioners of Zen Buddhism attain satori through personal experience. Here's a poem written about it:

A thunderclap under the clear blue sky
All beings on earth open their eyes;
Everything under heaven bows together;
Mount Sumeru leaps up and dances.

Final Reflection on Class

“WOW”, - seems like I’ve been continually saying that for the past 7-8 weeks! I think my “reflections” are very similar to so many others. Talk about huge mental and technology leaps! I knew there was a lot I didn’t know… now I’ve been assured of that! Luckily the instructions were well done, even if I had to listen to them a number of times to get the steps right!

This exposure to all these new (to me) technologies and the explanation of Web 2.0, has been almost what could be considered… Satori (enlightenment!) Even with some of my confusion and “whinging”, I have acquired new views on the technologies and an amazing set of ideas and skills to carry me into the future!

For instance, I now can see /view the benefits of “blogging”, especially in the educational arena, in a totally different light and have changed my perception of what I had “thought” a blog was, and could be used for.

I liked the spread of the topics that were covered. I have great expectations for the Podcasting and Jing in my training and business, and can see all sorts of opportunities for their use. I’m still looking at ways to use the Blogs and Wikis. I have a great IDEA for the Wiki - but since a lot of my students are very basic beginners, who can’t even click the mouse or type yet, I’m having to rethink how I can use it. Also, I will want to incorporate the Photosharing information with students… so still working that one out too.

It’s been interesting to see how “easy” it is to create some of these very “professional” outputs.
NOW, I know how the other people did it! I used to see the results when surfing the web and wondered how I could accomplish the same thing. Now I KNOW! Thanks !!.

And, yes, I along with some others were wondering at times if I’d make it to the end but as usual we all rise to the challenge and have learned an amazing amount of skills I’m sure we will all put to good use!