Is the internet e.g. Google and other tools making us stupid?

Greetings.  I am reading some of the articles/blogs, etc.. for our April 4 class and a few quick thoughts/questions occurred to me.  All these amazing wonderful tools that we now have at our disposal that can make our work/research and learning so much easier and expansive.  However, do we have the discipline to use these tools properly/correctly?? These tools are amazing and I do not think that we need to or should debunk them.  The question here is can we use them well? In the Carr piece, he quotes McLuhan: “media is not a passive channel of information — they supply stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought.” Yes, definitely, and it is up to us the “users” of these tools of information to shape our process of thought and not just to succumb (become prostrate to) these tools.  We need to be picky and discerning as to what is helpful and what is not.   We can still struggle to keep the our attention focused (use Csikezentmihalyi’s Flow concept and exercise it) and still enjoy the beauty of reading books.  It is still within our hands and within our control.  I refuse to accept surrender to the “swiftly moving stream of particles” of information which is how the internet gives us information.  So are these tools making us stupid?? it is up to us and how we use these tools.  These tools themselves are not contributing to our lack of or poor knowledge acquisition or our “stupidity” — it is all about how we use them! Thanks and welcome your comments.

Generation Y - some thoughts

Hello!  A friend sent this to me after hearing about our class and discussions, etc..

In terms of grades and motivation - we are and we will be teaching Generation Y for the coming years and this is sadly one perspective about our current/future students.  So the challenge will be how do we motivate this Generation Y??  Are the parents the first stop of culpability?  The parents are from Generation X what is often referred to as the "Me" Generation.  I know that there are lots of generalizations here but something to ponder.  Thanks! 

P.S. a problem with spelling "why" :-)

 

- People born before 1946 were called The Silent generation.. 

- People born between 1946 and 1964 are called The Baby Boomers.

- People born between 1965 and 1979 are called Generation X, . 

- And people born between 1980 and 2010 are called Generation Y , 

Why do we call the last group Generation Y? 

Y should I get a job? 

Y should I leave home and find my own place? 

Y should I get a car when I can borrow yours? 

Y should I clean my room? 

Y should I wash and iron my own clothes? 

Y should I buy any food?

Humanistic Behaviorism: Appreciative Inquiry, Actively Caring, and Self Motivation

Hi classmates,

I appreciate all of this information on appreciative inquiry!! This a wonderful humanistic perspective that the world needs more of. At Virginia Tech in Psychology, our research center shares a similar perspective and principles, but we include a behavioral perspective for integration: Humanistic Behaviorism. We call it "Actively Caring." Actively = Behavioral and Caring = Humanism.

In reference to Daniel Pink's video on self motivation, an effective way to increase self motivation is to provide supportive feedback or recognition to someone for a specific behavior. It builds competence and community. We use actively-caring wristbands to recognize caring behaviors on our VT campus, but they have spread far beyond. Since January 2011, we have nearly 1,000 AC4P stories from across the U.S. and world.

If you are interested to know more, check out this 2 minute video: http://www.unirel.vt.edu/audio_video/2011/07/07252011-activelycaring.html

I hope our individual actions build a collective community where each of us does more to appreciate each other, our fellow students, and our faculty/staff/admin for their actively-caring behaviors. Thanks again for sharing all of these articles on appreciative inquiry.

Additionally, we talked about anger and curiosity today. The model below provides interesting insight to support Dr. Fowler's claim.

Relationship between anger, curiosity and job performance

thanks,
shane

An interesting dissertation project on Appreciative Pedagogy

The following is a current dissertation project from the Taos Institute. Below is the description by Jeff Fifield of his dissertation project.

 http://www.taosinstitute.net/jeff-fifield

Jeff Fifield

Working title: Exploring Appreciative Pedagogy: Ingredients, Instances, and Practices throughout a School

What is going right? Over the last several years, I have been witness to a school that appears to be doing things in such a way that its learning community is enthused and proud. The indicators and evidence for such complimentary praise come from the students, parents, teachers and even the accreditation association. Natural curiosity prompts me to ask Why? How is this magic created and sustained? What are the real functional pieces to make it so?

As I have seen the school develop this spirit or identity, I believe that something special has been created. The creation has been and continues to be dynamic with the various stakeholders contributing. Now what has been the guiding set of principles or values to unify, guide and direct such a creation? As my own professional interests and curiosity lead me, I have come across Appreciative Inquiry and marvel at what I consider to be Appreciative Inquiry (as I understand it) in action at the school. What synchronicity in terms of theory and application – and it wasn’t planned that way! Subsequent thinking and reasoning then prompts the question - Might this be an appreciative school which subscribes to a set of guiding principles? And if so, what are they?

I am interested in conducting a case study to look at what might possibly be defined and coined as appreciative pedagogy through the various appreciative sets of lenses in the educational context. The lens through which I would look to examine the school would be through appreciative organizational cultures, appreciative leadership, appreciative intelligence and appreciative pedagogy as described in the current literature. In congruent constructionist fashion, I propose to do this through use of an appreciative inquiry methodology. I am hoping to be able to identify and describe a set of possible educational practices that, though they reach across various disciplines, may be integrated/connected in order to provide for a possible scheme of appreciative pedagogy which extends throughout a school rather than existing in isolated practices.

Appreciative Pedagogy: Constructing Positive Models for Learning

Here is an article that explains Appreciative Pedagogy: http://jme.sagepub.com.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu:8080/content/24/4/474#cited-by

Appreciative Pedagogy: Constructing Positive Models for Learning

Leodones Yballe and Dennis O’Connor

Author Affiliations: Le Moyne College

Abstract: 

This article describes appreciative pedagogy in the management classroom. Appreciative pedagogy rests on the values of appreciative inquiry, an organizational development framework. At its core, appreciative pedagogy focuses on peak performances and successful experiences of students and professors. It believes that inquiring into these types of experiences allows both students and professors to create positive images that energize and generate positive action. In applying this approach, our students exhibited heightened energy in the classroom and an increased sense of relevance of content to personal and professional life. 

 For the full article in pdf:

 http://jme.sagepub.com.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu:8080/content/24/4/474.full.pdf+html

 Articles citing this article

• Creating Classrooms of Preference: An Exercise in Appreciative Inquiry Journal of Management Education December 1, 2009 33: 772-792
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• Using Appreciative Inquiry and Dialogical Learning To Explore Dominant Paradigms Journal of Management Education February 1, 2008 32: 100-117
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  • Full Text (PDF)
• Maslow Revisited: Constructing a Road Map of Human Nature Journal of Management Education December 1, 2007 31: 738-756
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  • Full Text (PDF)
• Team Leadership: Critical Steps To Great Projects Journal of Management Education April 1, 2007 31: 292-312
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  • Full Text (PDF)

Stunning Examples of Appreciative Inquiry

 http://www.positivematrix.com/2010/02/20/stunning-examples-of-appreciative-inquiry-principles/

Stunning Examples of Appreciative Inquiry Principles

February 20, 2010 · 

Aimee Mullens gives such a powerful and moving TED talk.

All of the AI Principles are evident in her story.  She opens with examples of the Constructionist Principle: how words create worlds and the role we all play in co-creating our realities and defining each other.
She advocates the need to honor the wholeness, possibility and potency of ourselves and each other.  She asks us to open ourselves up to and embrace our adversities, rather than sweep them under the carpet.
She reminds us from her own story that we live up OR down to others’ image of us, and how positive imagery leads to positive outcomes.  She is such an example of nurturing the human spirit, keeping hope, seeing the beauty, valuing curiosity … and so much more.

I highly recommend this video.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/en//id/769

High tech teaching equipment vs. budgets

I wanted to share with you a comical real unfortunate story about high tech equipment for the classrooms and budget.  This took place at a high school but could take place at a university (I hope not). A certain teacher put in a purchase order (P.O.) to purchase an overhead projector for the classroom.  The teacher finds that overhead projectors are still useful for showing students certain mechanical drawings, etc... The administrator refused to process the P.O. because and to quote: "this school district does not buy overhead projectors anymore.  We only buy LCD projectors!" So the teacher proceeded to change the P.O. to request the purchase of an LCD projector realizing that there will be a need to change the teaching tools since slides would now have to be changed to be used via a computer. The teacher submitted the new P.O. and was soon told, sorry, we cannot purchase the LCD projector due to budget constraints! So let us review this scenario - this county public school would not spend the $60 to $80 for an overhead projector because it was "old technology".  The school had to buy an LCD for a few thousand dollars yet they did not have that amount of money in the budget.  So who is getting the short end of the stick in this situation? the students and the teacher? This is a true story.