Blog Post #10

Morgan Bayda's Blog Post
Well I really enjoyed the post that Morgan Bayda but I did not care for Dan Brown's video for various reason's. First, he was talking so fast that I could hardly keep up with him and second to be quite honest he was annoying, way too upbeat for my taste. Regardless of his irritating perkiness he did make good points. For instance, something that I could definitely identify with was that as a student I spend hundreds of dollars on textbooks that I never open. This happens every semester and like Dan Brown it is not because I do not care it's because I can find better information elsewhere. Also, I agree with Dan Brown that we have lost site of what education really is but I do not think his definition is quite broad enough. However I do realize education has a different definition for everyone but for me education is not about shoving facts in kids heads so they spit back at us on a test, its about preparing them for the real world. There was a statement in his video that I did not complete agree with, he basically said the way we go about education does not need to change rather the educators themselves do. Well I agree that educators need to change their pratices and the tools they use but unless the system itself changes the educators changing is not going to make much of an impact. The government is in control of education therefore the educators have to follow as they say in order to keep there jobs. Its not educators that make the rules and unless the system changes to allow for educators to transform you would see only subtle changes. In order for a massive change to occur we have to completely revolutionize our current faulty system.
In addition to Dan Brown's video Morgan Bayda also made some good points. I can relate to Morgan's issues with her classes. For example, she stated that she is never encouraged to speak her mind in her classes I too have been in classes where we had to just sit there stare at the professor and try to stay awake. These type of classes seem pointless, because you are not learning anything. Also, she mentioned something about her edu computer class being different and I too feel like EDM is unlike any class I have ever taken. I am constantly learning in EDM, the class teach useful skills that I can actually practice and get credit for them. I wish all my classes were like EDM because I am actually productive in that class.

Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home

Well I really did not really understand this article. But one statement that I did like was, "I take issue with that research. The only measurement of learning was a drill-and-kill bubble test. How is that measuring authentic learning?" Standardized testing is pointless!!! In the real world there is never a black and white answers, life comes in shades of gray. I am completely for abloshing standardized testing. It is probably one of the worst ways to evaluate a student for many reasons. For instance, many students might do very well in class, they will participate and complete their homework correctly but come test time they will not do well because they have such bad test anxiety. This brings me to another reason children would not have such bad test anxiety if standardized testing did not exist. People put so much significance on standardized testing. Furthermore in today's time standardized testing will affect a persons whole future. If a student does not do well on their ACT/SAT's then they will not be able to get into decent college, if a student fails their EQT's there is a high chance they cannot advance to the next grade, if a student does not do well on their GRE they cannot get into a graduate program ergo changing their future. So,of course America has such bad test scores its because the kids are under way too much pressure to do well. The United States have been trying to raise their test scores for years and all they have accomplished is terrible test anxiety in our students. The American government is expecting these kids to perform miracles and they don't because their constantly second guessing themselves because they are too worried of how it will affect their future. STOP PUTTING PRESSURE ON OUR KIDS, ABOLISH STANDARDIZED TESTING!!!