Reflections assignment #1 9-7-2008

Reflections of Luddites, Learning, and life. I have to admit that through my reflections about this particular article, I strongly disagree with Postman’s, pessimistic viewpoint that many essentially believe that technology must be the answer to a problem. I personally do not believe in this whole process of thinking. Within this article, I chose to mostly to reflect upon Postman’s Learning passage. It seems as though here, again Postman has centered this passage around the question “What is the problem to which the new technologies are the solution?” I don’t believe that there ever was a “problem”, but more of a continuous drive for us to use available resources to aid in the learning processes. Postman degrades schools as having principle function of teaching children how to behave in groups. I will somewhat agree that this learning is somewhat a byproduct of school, however I believe the learning process itself to be very individual. He also speaks of “Narratives” of which technology can play a major role in providing the information, delivery, classroom enrichment, etc. His belief is nearly that technology merely dismisses any enrichment of Narratives.
Reflections of Beyond Technology Integration (Charles Reigeluth and Roberto Joseph). This article really sparked my interest, as I’ve been teaching in College classrooms for several years now at the College of Aviation, WMU. As I read this article, I began to see a large connection of its ideology to a recent presentation by a colleague entitled “Engaging the Millennial generation”. The connection that I see is in the paradigm shift of both Technology integration (from the Industrial age, to the Information age), and the differences in generations as appropriately labeled (Baby Boomers, Generation X, and now the Millennial).
On a daily basis I interact with (counsel, advise, and educate) college age students in both, the classroom environment, as well as in an aircraft. Diverse Technologies and Methods, was another passage that describes a pretty big connection with my every day workings as a flight instructor at the college of Aviation. Along with the technologies that are sometimes forced on us to teach about by the industry, we are always looking for new technology to aid in the teaching and delivery process. Computer Based Training, along with the use of procedure trainers, have become a large part of how the aviation industry trains its pilots. Other methods that we currently use, include advanced simulation, crew resource management (CRM), and most importantly, scenario-based training, by the use of a learner focused curriculum, and training materials which will foster the students practical application of what they have learned. As I read this article, this passages includes many similarity of methods, and technologies that we use in the aviation industry, however it also introduces several other areas of which I am really interested in researching more.