Minh-Dan: January 2008 Archives
The Pea chapter really annoyed me. It brought up a lot of interesting ideas, and though I tried as hard as I could to disagree with all of them, I couldn't. I understand but resent the utilitarian notion of education (that everything students learn must be in preparation for their future careers, or practical in everyday life), which seems to be Pea's point of view. This must be the theorist in me: I enjoy education for education's sake, just as I enjoy research for research's sake. (This is why I resent the new NASA administration's focus on "Big Events" like landing on the moon and on Mars at the expense of less-publicized research projects.) I'm all about depth over breadth. I know Pea argues that this is not the intention of distributed intelligence, and that such technology can actually enable further, more in-depth study, but it's dangerous to put all your eggs in one basket (technology). What happens the day your calculator's batteries die or you forget it at home? You'll need the basic skills to do simple arithmetic. Or, as often happens with new technologies, what happens if there are bugs in its system? What if your calculator tells you 2+2=5? Will you just accept it as truth, lacking the ability to do that arithmetic yourself? Admittedly, that's a pretty extreme example, but I don't think it's too far off the mark.
Because this class is all about technology, the internet, and whatnot, I feel a little vulnerable that everyone will be able to see the times I complete (or start) assignments, which tends to be at the last minute. That being said, everyone should also be stunned and amazed at the quality of what I produce in such short times.
My name is Minh-Dan, but I started going by just Minh in college because no one could pronounce my name. You may address me by either, but if you're ever in the presence of my mother (hint: recurring theme!), you should call me Minh-Dan, because she also goes by Minh.
"Where I'm from" is an interesting question for anyone in this culture and in this day and age. I was born in New Orleans; I've lived in Allentown since I was four; my parents were born in Vietnam and are naturalized American citizens; I am American. You can see how this may get out of hand.
Anyone who has Facebook (I'm sure by the end of this week, everyone will) can take a look at my interests. If you can't tell from what I've just written, I tend to be wordy, though I like to call myself "specific." Also, if you couldn't tell, had I not been a physics major in college, my second- and third-choice majors were English and Political Science. I am in this class to get brownie points from Dr. McDonald, and also because I like to learn and do things that are "out of the box"--controversial, non-traditional, or both.
As with most people my age, I used to be addicted to the internet, but I consider myself recovered. I'm pretty comfortable with most technology, and that with which I'm not familiar I tend to learn fairly quickly. I don't approve of all technology in all situations, but you never know when something may be useful. The technical side of technology--how things work--interests me more than its social or cultural effects, though I'm not completely disinterested in the latter. Technology has definitely influenced the way we teach and learn; we do more learning outside of schools than we did before (and I don't just mean "life skills"). We're much more connected--global--than ever before. With e-mail or Google Docs, students can get almost real-time feedback on assignments. We can access information and people from other countries in an instant. Instead of learning just physics (for example), students also learn how to communicate their findings and data with others. We are more connected and globally aware; it's hard to live in a bubble on the internet.
I like the internet because I can ramble on for longer than I would be able to in a three-hour class.
