Critical Reflection 5

In my last couple reflections I have focused on the banking model and the traditional methods that dominate modern schooling, there was a lot of focus on their limitations and many criticisms of their use, therefore I feel it's important to have a focus on alternative methods because it's easy to say that one idea is problematic and demand it be removed, but harder to offer an alternative method that could supercede and yield success. With that in mind, Ozlem Sensoy's study “Picturing Oppression: Seventh Graders' photo essays on racism, classism, and sexism” provides some empirical evidence highlighting the use and effectiveness of a critical pedagogical approach which engages students critically with class curriculum and allows them to apply it to their own experiences. The study was done at Poppy Elementary, situated in the metro Vancouver area which Sensoy (2011) describes as a “economically depressed area” (p.324) where nearly half the residents speak a language other than English (as their primary language) and nearly half are “visible minorities”. Sensoy (2011) describes the purpose of his study as “to understand the relationship between students’ lived experiences and their experiences in the classroom working with a critical pedagogue, and whether the critical work in

the classroom coupled with their own experiences allowed them to go beyond mainstream discourses of diversity around them” (p.339), this method or approach was a relatively successful one. The project that yielded good results in relation to this approach was a photo essay where the students were given camera's to take pictures of people, places and so on that relate to either racism, classism,

Critical Reflection 4

For me, one of the most interesting aspects of the study of education is discipline and the concepts that surround it, for that reason I have chosen to look into “Michele Foucault on education: a preliminary theoretical overview” by Roger Deacon. Deacon organizes ideas, theories and concepts from many of Foucault's writings and puts them into three themes/ categories: an historical or 'technico-political' account of the rise of the school, from its negatively oriented seventeenth century
origins to its more positively conceived nineteenth century entrenchment and expansion; an explication of the everyday mechanics of schooling as a disciplinary technology or 'moral orthopedics'; and lastly, the implications for contemporary educational institutions and practices of a model of education as a 'block of capacity–communication–power'. The second theme that Deacon points out based on Foucault's material is referred to as “Schooling as moral orthopedics” (2006) which is a look into the everyday mechanics of schooling as a disciplinary technology. What Foucault means by “Schooling as moral orthopedics” is schooling as being the back-bone or spine, or perhaps the fix or cure to spinal problems, that establishes morals, discipline, and control of the members of society through the socialization process. It is the shift from negative to positive features of discipline that was “of primary importance in the establishment of schooling as a society-wide disciplinary technology” (Deacon, 2006, p.181) which led to modern day educational procedures. Along with this came new procedures, such as apportionment of time (becoming increasingly reinforced every day), development of new teaching methodologies,

Review: Portal 2 as a learning tool

 You can put down your lame sodoku puzzles because there is now something much more brilliant, stimulating, and interesting out there.

I noticed that a couple people posted reviews on their blogs about video games as a learning process and video games as a potential interactive learning tool in school, one review is here http://socofedufaubert.blogspot.ca/ . I find this to be quite interesting so I did a little research (by that I mean I googled it) on a specific game that I found to be beneficial as it had a lot of critical thinking involved. This game of course is Portal 2 and I was not the only person to believe this game was an educational tool, CLICK HERE for a link to an article that does a small analysis of the game and here are a few more: LINK 1  LINK2  LINK3.

Portal 2 won many awards and is critically acclaimed for its very original story, gameplay and of course the dry humour. Behind the amazing story is a revolutionary puzzle game that will stimulate your mind for hours, resulting in a feeling that you have truly benefited from a video game. The game throws you into numerous complex situations driven by the plot where you have to think your way out with the portal gun and your environment. As you progress, and you really feel like your