Ramblings

I was going through my car and cleaning all of the stuff ou that had accumulated – with 5 kids we tend to live in that car carting everyone to practices, work, school activities etc. – and came across Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture.  I thought how appropriate that that book resurface when in essence, for this semester, this is the last lecture!

Having the semester recapped last week reminded em of how far I actually have come in understanding how people learn on more than just an intuitive level.  Being able to put names and apply studies to it makes a big difference in the way in which I approach a presentation or other topic.  I think I knew that everyone learned differently, but did not have the understanding which led to a lack of patience in dealing with complex topics.  I truly enjoyed looking deeper into the reasons why and how teaching has evolved over the years.

Of course the cameraderie of the class was great as well and I will miss those who I may not take classes with in the future.  It is not often I have found a group of such diverse people that were able to have such open discussions on some very tough issues.  I really want to thank everyone for that honesty!

So closing out this semester’s blog, I just have to say thanks to Dr. Muth for guiding us through the very painful APA and blogging process and Happy Holidays to everyone – see you next semester!

Oh dear..  how time flies.  I never realized how hard blogging or journaling could be.  I guess not being used to making the time to keep up is a big key in this.  Also working on computers all day precludes me from wanting to be on one at night – obviously an issue I need to overcome.

So – Educating Rita was quite interesting from an Adult Learner perspective.  This definitely was an advertisement for self directed learning as Rita was unwilling to take no for an answer during her first tutorial session.  It amazed me that she was able to keep herself motivated when her husband was so non-supportive.  My thought was that he was scared that she would surpass him in knowledge and possibly as the breadwinner.  So my thoughts drifted to is that as much of an issue today?  I know in my family I make more money but it is not an issue for us.  I have other friends where the husband is a house-husband and the wife works and that seems to work well for them.  So I question whether that stiga applies anymore.

I have been continuing work on my paper and am having a rough time with the concept of first draft.  I have never been very good at formalized drafts and so this is testing my resolve to get as much of this paper done a few weeks before the due date as possible…  it is a good practice to have – but as my children often do when they are told they have to do something – I am plugging away at it to have at least some semblance of a paper!!

I have never really thought about feminism and choices that we make as women and men.  I guess I just assumed that everyone makes those educated choices every day and never thought of it having the label feminism.  I do realize though that it there are still stereotypes that bring the word feminist to the forefront when you do not follow them.

While we were doing our class exercise with the picture, I realized that I just assume that women are often treated the same as men.  But it made me think as that very next day my daughters asked if they could play football.  My reaction was absolutely NOT!!  While my youngest would be ok because they just play flag and not tackle, my oldest would be in the midst of 10 and 11 year old boys who were at least a head taller and much stronger and they would be TACKLING!  So I told them no – they could keep cheerleading.  That girls do not play football.  Then it hit me…  how archaic is that?  I let them play soccer – coed mind you – where my oldest was the only girl on the team.  Thinking back to that I realize that although she was seen as one of the players – during one game she was hurt by an opponent who slide tackled her and the boys first response was “I saw who did it – want me to beat them up for you?”  very sweet and caring but obviously not feminist.

So this whole feminist idea has me thinking – is there a line we have to draw?  When do we need to be gender blind and are there times when we should not?  I have ideas on when we should be gender blind – for instance – a firefighter – whether male or female should be held to the same standards because inevitably someone’s life is going to depend on them and gender bias is not an excuse.  Where else do we see this?  Is it really needed?

I know that I am late posting this week, but I had notes of what I wanted to write - I just ran out of week before logging in.  Technology does so many things for us that we tend to get dependant on it and I have noticed that the mood fluctuates as to whether that technology is working properly or not.  The last thing I wanted to do this week is deal with a computer at home as my work computer caught a helluva virus.  It was so bad that we had to replace the laptop…  Very frustrating especially because I had everything where I liked it on my desktop, all of my links worked and I was comfortable with how that computer ran.  Silly I know but it dawned on me that there is a learning curve involved here…  if only I could thnk of how it applied to class…

So after contemplating this some, I realized that comfortability affects how we as adults learn and hwo we can or cannot apply ourselves to new tools when they are presented to us.  Applying this even further – I looked around my work and see that there is a huge shift occuring and much nervousness and apprehension that goes along with it.  Then beyond the walls of my company, I realized that a the economy continues to fluctuate, people ar vying for jobs and new skill sets are needed requiring much adult learning and new ways to teach skills to those who are not quite sure that this is what they really want to do, but knowing that they have to do it to put food on the table and a roof over their head.   This learning through necessity makes me wonder what kind of learning this is…  social cognitive?  constructive?  maybe behaviorist – if that is how you were raised.

So back to the notes that I made as we were discussing things this week in class…  the main thing that struck me was our discussion of locus of control…  specifically it was the talk about being lucky or not.  I tend to have the philosophy that things happen in life for a reason – so listening to everyone talk about luck and that tact was very interesting.  I think that luck does play a part in some of our life’s development, but I also think that you can take the things that happen and turn them negative or positive depending on where your locus of control lies.  I have known people who have been scheduled to be on a flight where they get bumped for no apparant reason, only to have the flight develop mechanical issues or crash.  Was that luck? or chance?  What further purpose does that person have in life?  Taking an external locus

I always feel like I am running behind on everything and while I have the best of intentions to sit down and do my blog the night of or the day after calss, life interupts that schedule!

Luckily I do remember some of what I wanted to put down.  It is interesting as we have started looking at the different teaching theories to try to place where you fit and why that is.  I realized after turning in my biography that it is harder to look really deep into why you learn the way that you do and that there has to be a reason why you developed habits they way you have.  I always assumed that working hard and being independant are facts of life, but I see after discussing with classmates and coworkers, that there are reasons behind everything.  After delving into the why of how I approached my education, I realize that everything I have done has been as the responsible person.  I was the oldest sibling, so coming home as a latch-key kid left me the one in charge.  There was an unspoken expectation in my house that you worked hard and did well no matter what you did.  I rarely if ever broke the rules and as I got older shose work over beach week or goofing off at the pool over school vacations.  The plus side of that was coming out of undergrad with very few student loans.

I also see where all of the theories can be used at different stages of life and within adult life in particular.  You have certain jobs and responsibilities that require behaviorist or constuctivist techniques were tasks are specific and build upon one another.  I can also see that the social aspect comes into play when you move into those positions that require and certain saavy of the business or of “the game”. 

After many attempts I think I have figured out how to post on the site..  so we shall see how it goes.

After class last week I started wondering if I had any teachers who followed the three methods we talked about.  I know that I had many who combined them, but was there anyone who subscribed to just one theory.  I think I have to say that I had some professors in college who had that style.  As I was a science major, there are many theories and names that just are.  Well I guess that is not fair – there probably is a reason why we call benzene benzene, but it was not explained rather presented as this is the way it is now remember it.  Thinking back, I probably would have remembered more had a practical approach been given.