Wanna improve Education? Demolish the Classrooms

I just found this great article on facebook and I wanna share with you:

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662178/wanna-improve-education-demolish-the-classrooms

"Hopefully will become the reality of every educational institute. You know what I think? It is time for people to change their point of view. It's time for shifting paradigms. It's it time to see education in a hole new perspective manner. We need to change the way education in being offered, including it's environmental changes that support new perspectives. The biggest issue we deal today is the resistence that many educadors insiste of having, when facing the new. They were taught to follow standardized patterns and as a consequence they teach students how to be just "another brick in the wall". We all have to understand that rules sometimes need to be broken in order to ajust itself to new society needs."

My Biology Glog from Glogster

This glog was created  using glogster, prezi, camtasia, powerpoint, youtube, visme and wix. It is in portuguese once was created to help students enrolled in a distance learning programm at my work place. Feel free to enjoy it.

Oral health

Since October/2014 I have been attending several classes at the University of Lisboa (PT), in order to get my second Master's Degree on Education and Digital Technology.  One of the assignments required was a group project to creating an activity based on TACCLE 2. You may check our work by viewing these images below. Hope you like it.

Why do children need an illustrated book?

This post is about the importance of getting children in touch with illustrated books to help them understand the stories and the whole world.
Recent researches on French learning process concluded that students with higher scores were not those who read classic literature. This information, was spoken by Sophie van der Linden during the release of her new book called " Para ler o livro ilustrado", in São Paulo (Brazil), last year. In her opinion it is important to let children have access to a variety of reading style and also let them choose what they want to read because they capture the world through all these images. As they get older, they lose straight communication to the visual world as a result of poor stimulation for illustrated texts. One of the quality of illustrated books is the possibility for training the reader´s view  to understand all the artistic details they have on their hands.

The whole article is available at:
http://educarparacrescer.abril.com.br/leitura/crianca-precisa-livro-ilustrado-703684.shtml?utm_source=redes_educar&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=redes_educar

Foto: Nana Sievers

Technological Determinism

Hi Folks! 

My new post is about Technological Determinism based on an article written by Chandler, D. (2002). Technological determinism. Web essay, Media and Communications Studies, University of Aberystwyth. You may also read it from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/tecdet/tecdet.html

The technological determinist view is a technology-led theory of social change: technology is seen as 'the prime mover' in history. Technological determinists interpret technology in general and communications technologies in particular as the basis of society in the past, present and even the future.In its most extreme form, the entire form of society is seen as being determined by technology: new technologies transform society at every level, including institutions, social interaction and individuals.

Technological determinism focuses on causality - cause and effect relationships - a focus typically associated with 'scientific' explanation. Any exploration of communications technology has to recognize the difficulty of isolating 'causes' and 'effects', or even in distinguishing causes from effects. 

Reductionism: As a mono-causal explanation, technological determinism involves reductionism, which aims to reduce a complex whole to the effects of one part (or parts) upon another part (or parts). Sociological reductionism is widely criticized, but it is intimately associated with the quantitative paradigm of science. The philosophers Democritus (6th century B.C.) and Rene Descartes (1596-1650) had both taught that the way to knowledge was through separating things into component parts. It is a feature of reductionist explanation that parts are assumed to affect other parts in a linear or one-way manner, and interpretation proceeds from the parts to the whole.

Holistic: Reductionism contrasts with 'holism', which is broadly concerned with the whole phenomenon and with complex interactions within it rather than with the study of isolated parts. In holistic interpretations there are no single, independent causes. Holistic interpretation proceeds from the whole and relationships are presented as non-directional or non-linear. It is holistic to assert that the whole is more than the sum of its parts, a proposition with which it is difficult to disagree when you think of a working motor compared with the stacked parts. Sometimes holism refers more broadly to a general hostility to analysis, a hostility common in the arts: 'We murder to dissect,' wrote Wordsworth. 

Mechanistic Models: Reductionism, like technological determinism in general, is a mechanistic mode of explanation associated with positivism: a philosophical stance based strictly on the scientific method. Machines offer tidy models of phenomena for mechanistic theorists. It is common among social theorists to refer to 'mechanisms of change'. Machines serve a designated function and operate strictly according to cause and effect. Within the context of their mechanisms, causes are explicit and intentional and consequences are predictable

Reification: To reify is to 'thingify': to treat an abstraction as a material thing. Reifying 'Technology' involves treating it as if it were a single material thing with a homogeneous, undifferentiated character. This notion can be seen as a kind of 'essentialism'. In common and academic usage, the word 'technology' is variously used to refer to tools, instruments, machines, organizations, media, methods, techniques and systems. Reification is involved when we divide human experience into 'spheres' variously tagged as 'social', 'cultural', 'educational', 'political', 'ideological', 'philosophical', 'religious', 'legal', 'industrial', 'economic', 'scientific' or 'technological'.

Technological autonomy: Rather than as a product of society and an integral part of it, technology is presented as an independent, self-controlling, self-determining, self-generating, self- propelling, self-perpetuating and self-expanding force. It is seen as out of human control, changing under its own momentum and 'blindly' shaping society. This perspective may owe something to the apparent autonomy of mechanisms such as clockwork. But even texts are autonomous of their authors once they leave their hands: as published works they are subject to interpretation by readers, and beyond the direct control of their authors. 

Technological imperative: Some critics who use the term 'technological determinism' equate it simply with this notion of inevitability, which is also referred to as 'The technological imperative'. The doctrine of the technological imperative is that because a particular technology means that we can do something (it is technically possible) then this action either ought to (as a moral imperative), must (as an operational requirement) or inevitably will (in time) be taken.

Technology as neutral or non-neutral: Some theorists who posit technological autonomy are also amongst the wider group of those who have insisted on the non-neutrality of technology, arguing that we cannot merely 'use' technology without also, to some extent, being influenced or 'used by' it. Many deterministic commentators on the 'non-neutrality' of tools argue that the tools we use determine our view of the world. Abraham Maslow, the psychologist, once said that to someone who has only a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail. And Neil Postman adds that 'to a man with a pencil, everything looks like a list. To a man with a camera, everything looks like an image. To a man with a computer, everything looks like data.

Universalism: Another feature of technological determinism is universalism: a particular technology (such as writing, print or electronic media) - or its absence - is seen as universally linked to the same basic social pattern. Universalism is 'asocial' and 'ahistorical': presented as outside the framework of any specific socio-cultural and historical context.

Techno-evolution as 'progress': Also associated with technological determinism is techno-evolutionism. This involves a linear evolutionary view of universal social change through a fixed sequence of different technological stages. It is a kind of developmental or historical determinism. Evolutionary theorists interpret change in terms of 'progress' (an improved state of affairs) and usually regard progress as inevitable.

Theoretical stances: 

• Strong (or hard ) technological determinism is the extreme stance that a particular communication technology is either a sufficient condition (sole cause) determining social organization and development, or at least a necessary condition (requiring additional preconditions). Either way, certain consequences are seen as inevitable or at least highly probable. 

• Weak (or soft) technological determinism, more widely accepted by scholars, claims that the presence of a particular communication technology is an enabling or facilitating factor leading to potential opportunities which may or may not be taken up in particular societies or periods (or that its absence is a constraint) 

Technology is one of a number of mediating factors in human behaviour and social change, which both acts on and is acted on by other phenomena. Being critical of technological determinism is not to discount the importance of the fact that the technical features of different communication technologies facilitate different kinds of use, though the potential applications of technologies are not necessarily realized.

Critical Thinking and Distance Education

Why should we work on developing a Critical Thinking? I decided to write something about Critical Thinking for a couple of reasons. First, on almost every article about Distance Education I have read so far, they spent at least one paragraph to talk about Critical Thinking. Second, I have been taking an excellent online course at www.udemy.com (Critical Thinker Academy, Kevin deLaplante) about Critical Thinking that are leading me to realize the importance of developing a Critical Thinking basis, which are well described and discussed during the course. I want to share my opinion on this issue and also a little bit of what have been taught in this course. Perhaps you will desire, just like me, to learn and think about this philosophical topic too. The reasons for us to develop a Critical thinking, according to Kevin deLaplante in his online course (Critical Thinker Academy – www.udemy.com) are: 1. Self-defense. When thinking of self-defense instantly what comes up in our minds is defending ourselves from someone or something using physical actions, but what happens when you have to choose between believing or not in someone´s argumentation or influence? When you have to discriminate good and bad arguments? When you are in the position of receiving an argument that have the power to influence your believes, your values and actions? To give you an example of the art of influence how about thinking of politics or advertisements? Do you think that their care about your well-being just because they are “good guys”? What they care about is convincing you that their product is your best choice, so they can sell more and more, or to keep their political power. In other words, for them, people are instruments to meeting their goals. That is where Critical Thinking releases its power by sensitizing us against bad arguments, manipulation and non-arguments and also immunizing us from their influence. 2. Empowerment. This is the other side of the situation, when you are in the position of persuading, giving the arguments. Critical Thinking is frequently separated by common view into two opposite statements, considering it purpose (for good or bad use): a. Logic and good argumentation, usually seen as good tool b. Rhetorical technics and psychological strategies, usually related to bad purposes as persuasive advertisements. Actually, those statements are only “tools” for Critical thinking and rhetoric technics and psychological strategies have their positive aspects when used for good purposes. A good argument is not only based on good logic but also on good psychological and social factors. For instance, every argumentation has to consider the context in which the argument will be given, who will be persuaded, their background, believes and values. As it said deLaplante: “If you can’t see the issues through their eyes and tap into what they care about...Then you will never persuade them to accept your point of view.” After all, a good argument is all about organizing our ideas in a logic way and give the audience strongest reasons to accept our conclusions. 3. Civic Duty. Every citizen has civic duty. They need to be able to critically evaluate laws and policies to identify injustice. Critical thinking is an essential tool for that. The State shouldn’t impose any particular concept of the good life on its citizens, they are free to pursue their own conception of good life. Critical thinking will not eliminate oppressive policies by just raising questions, but it sure works as obstacles for injustice to gain foothold in a democratic society. 4. Wisdom. There are many definitions for wisdom but basically it can be defined as the acquisition of knowledge about what is reality and what is worth pursuing for one’s own sake. Philosophical wisdom is achieved by rational argumentation and together with critical thinking are the center elements of wisdom. Hope you had a great time reading this. Feel free to share your point of view!

Distance Learning and Brazilian Higher Educational System

The needs of our new society organization are leading to new paradigms and, therefore to a new educational model. This new model of education seeks to give more value to education and less focus on job. This kind of social structure, also known as Information Society or Web Society differs itself from the social structure of Industrial Age. In this last one, all pedagogical approach was focus on technical development, where the students were prepared to play specific roles on their jobs, accumulate knowledge, values and rules that didn´t have much relation to their ways of living. This type of educational system actually turns the whole process of education into a frustrated process and in a very poor stimulating environment. Talking about the web society, the new pedagogical approaches are facing towards cognitive acquisition process, where the students are protagonists of their learning process and the teacher plays an important role as mediator through this process of learning. The principles of significant learning try to establish a relationship between relevant informations and pre-existing concepts of knowledge that have influence on learning and on the meaning given to these new acquirements. Therefore, to this new educational paradigm, knowledge represent one´s action on its reality as a protagonist of its on learning process and also acting on a cooperative manner to its peers. This new educational model have the following characteristics: • Skills development • Perception that everyone has its own rhythm to learn • Building of Learning Communities • Network. With the arising of distance education, the need of deep educational changes became more evident. As BEHAR et al., 2007 stated, “It is in this environment that distance learning helps to solve Brazilian higher educational problems and to find ways for digital inclusion. Thereby, this type of learning based on communication and technology have important tools that are able to change Brazilian educational system. It is believed that, without extensive use of technology, Brazilian Universities will not have conditions to reach the top of higher education. BEHAR, P. A; PASSERINO, L; BERNARDI, M. Modelos Pedagógicos para Educação a Distância: pressupostos teóricos para a construção de objetos de aprendizagem. Revista Renote, v. 3, n. 2, dez. 2007.