If it seemed like my last post ended abruptly and mid thought... it did. A little tidbit about me is that I am a male, that has to "service" (in a non perverted way!) a group of 7 familial females. It takes it's toll, not only on my mental state, but also on my time and ability to accomplish what I want to accomplish. Couple that with the fact that my 11 year old daughter is recently, though not permanently, in a wheelchair having suffered the pain and related surgery for Slipped capital femoral epiphysis (I chose the Wikipedia link for the cool pix!). This ties into the fact that I am the only male in that I'm the only one that can lift her effectively and without further damage! So you see, I sometimes am called away to do this and that (rearrange furniture, TVs, cable connections, doors, shower curtains, etc.) at a moments notice, no matter where I am in the thought process on my blog or even if I'm doing a little biological downloading! My last post actually sat for 2 days from it's initial conception, as I was tied up dealing with my "manly duties" and was unable to complete it. So, when the moment arose that afforded me the opportunity (it's early in the morning and they are all still asleep!), I fashioned a weak closing statement on it and published it. Now I'm not complaining... okay, maybe on some level I am complaining. I have been know to do this, but on the surface, the place where I'm wanting you to look, I'm just stating the facts of my situation.
Now that we have all that cleared up, let's move on to some more random thoughts, shall we?
The thing that really has my innards and mind tied in proverbial knots is this governmental retraining program that I'm in. It's great, don't get me wrong, but it's a poorly adhered patch on the tire that is unemployment in this country. First, it requires that you burn through all of your state level benefits, BEFORE, you actually get in to the Federal funds. While on the surface this seems like a good idea to use up your local support before leaning on the entity that caused the manufacturing jobs that you once relied on to provide for your family to be exported to a country who's mass exodus is already putting a burden on the local job market (NAFTA!!), before you get funding from them. Okay I get that... kind of. The problem with this set up is this, when you do finish your retraining and the Federal monies are quickly and abruptly cut off... you then have no means by which to support yourself and /or your family while you go and try and utilize your new career skills. On top of that, you are doing a mass dump of newly trained people into a narrower job market, than when they were first forced into it, with no financial support! Let's simplify this a little... you have, we'll say, 500 people lose their jobs due to treaties that overall only benefit the cosigners of them and not the initiators. So you, as the governing body, create a program to retrain these folks with newer more marketable job skills. You set aside the funding for each person, but require them to use their local benefits, beyond the actual cost of the training, to support themselves through the training process, BEFORE you break loose with the funds to support them yourself. These 500 folks graciously accept these terms and move forward with hopes and dreams of a better life on the other side of their retraining. First, you have overlooked the fact that if there had been sufficient jobs for these re-trainees, they wouldn't be retraining! Another aspect is that you have only approved the re-trainees to retrain for jobs that already exist and are unavailable, then after they jump through all the hoops and come to the abrupt end of support... you have 500 people trained for jobs that don't exist at the levels for which they are trained and no further local support to get them into positions to move forward. You've trained 500 people for the four jobs that were available at the time they started and now you have 500 people, trained and less available jobs, than when they started their training with all that bullshit... I mean those high hopes, that you fed them in the beginning! Wouldn't it make a whole helluva lot more sense, to fund the retraining, solely from the Federal funds (which have been sitting idly in an account earmarked for each person as their burn through their local benefits!!), then allow them their local benefits as a cushion to provide for their families while they try to find a job that actually does exist and they now have 499 competitors for? It does to me, but I'm just a person in need of retraining, because my government thought it was a good idea to let companies have incentives to move my job to a country that it seems everyone is leaving anyway. Am I off on my thinking, here, folks? I don't know, but stay tuned for more specific and random updates as time allows me.
Just sayin
Hmmm... wonder if someone would actually pay me to sit around and bitch about all the things I see wrong... yeah... probably not.
Showing posts with label students. Show all posts
Showing posts with label students. Show all posts
18 April 2011
Randomosity
Where to start? It's always my biggest problem when I'm trying to write these. I have so much bouncing around in my head that it is generally hard to focus in on one key point, except when something REALLY gets under my skin. Lately so many things have tweaked me that I couldn't really dial it in on one in particular, so I'm just going to drop them all in one post and see how it goes.
My mind is diverse. My problems, both actual and perceived, are diverse. So here's a small sampling of what's been brewing in my head and, I reckon, a small hashing out of it: School budget cuts, unemployment, the economy, my kids, the Monster at the top of the stairs (which is my Mother-in-Law, for those that might be interested), advancing technology, the lack of technology, and money. I guess I'll address them in this order, so here goes.
With all the obvious governmental waste that is readily prevalent, why the fuck are we trimming educational budgets?! My wife, who happens to be an educator, passed on a statistic recently revealed to her... about 70% of the adults in the US do NOT have school aged children.70%!!! That leaves the other 30% to fight for a decent education for our children. The statistic seems almost surreal, but I have flushed it out and it's probably accurate. How's this, you might ask? Well, folks are living longer and the "Baby Boomers", being the largest generation (No, I didn't fact check this. This blog is my perspective and should in no way be considered fact, unless I do cite it as such!) in US history are still out there. Their children, a much smaller generational group, being around and in their 40's. This generation (X, Y, whatever the sociologists have branded us) including myself, who is knocking on mid-life crisis' door, are the also starting to age into their empty nests. My kids (overlapping topics... get past it!) are younger as I spent my "reproductive years", this would be one's early 20's which are traditionally the years in which one starts a family, serving my country and sewing my wild oats, so to speak. I was 28 when my first child was born. So to dial it back on course, My Grandmother, 86 and my Mom, 65 are still alive. That's two generations of adults without school aged children. My darling, younger sister, has no children, yet another adult, in just my family, that has no "real" stake in education. So of the adults on JUST my side of the family, 75% of them are without school aged children. So you see how this all would scale up to make the 70% make not such a large and disproportional number. STILL... The children are our future. Not just the future of our family lineage, but the future of our country. Do they not deserve some sort of priority over fancy sports arenas and Presidential golfing trips?! Personally I would want the smartest person possible managing the purse strings in my waning years! If they "trim" the educational budgets much more, around here at least, we're going to be back to the ole one-room school house era, as there won't be enough educators to properly educate the kids, or actual facilities to accommodate them. I guess this is fine, if we WANT to drive the US from it's barely held position (which some, including myself, could argue is no longer true!) at the top of the civilized world! While admittedly spreading the topic base beyond it's scope, The growing lack of a technologically competent work force, is pushing this country even further down. It also seems that the first thing to get "trimmed" from budgets is the technology education and resources. I stand by the knowledge, that lack of manufacturing in this country is spurring the continual growth and maintenance of high unemployment rates, but failure to expose our children to present and future technologies in the educational environment will only serve to progress this problem! Being privy to some of the technological implementations within the school systems and their lack of use, training for usage, and funding, only helps sharpen the focus on what I see as a problem. The days of readin, writin, and 'rethmatic on a chalkboard, no matter the size, should be a thing of the past. If you ask me, the days of cutting down acres of forests to make textbooks, is also antiquated. Personally, I like a "hard" copy of my study text, because that is what I am conditioned to want. My 11 year old, who has had some of the finest, both technologically and motivationally, teachers, in this country (my opinion! Like it or not!), would rather sit at her rapidly antiquating iMac and type up her homework in Pages or whip up a wicked Keynote presentation, than use a pencil and paper!
I reckon what I'm trying to get at with all this is, that cutting the funding and the subsequent job and technology loss is detrimental to not only the future of our children, but the future of this country!
My mind is diverse. My problems, both actual and perceived, are diverse. So here's a small sampling of what's been brewing in my head and, I reckon, a small hashing out of it: School budget cuts, unemployment, the economy, my kids, the Monster at the top of the stairs (which is my Mother-in-Law, for those that might be interested), advancing technology, the lack of technology, and money. I guess I'll address them in this order, so here goes.
With all the obvious governmental waste that is readily prevalent, why the fuck are we trimming educational budgets?! My wife, who happens to be an educator, passed on a statistic recently revealed to her... about 70% of the adults in the US do NOT have school aged children.70%!!! That leaves the other 30% to fight for a decent education for our children. The statistic seems almost surreal, but I have flushed it out and it's probably accurate. How's this, you might ask? Well, folks are living longer and the "Baby Boomers", being the largest generation (No, I didn't fact check this. This blog is my perspective and should in no way be considered fact, unless I do cite it as such!) in US history are still out there. Their children, a much smaller generational group, being around and in their 40's. This generation (X, Y, whatever the sociologists have branded us) including myself, who is knocking on mid-life crisis' door, are the also starting to age into their empty nests. My kids (overlapping topics... get past it!) are younger as I spent my "reproductive years", this would be one's early 20's which are traditionally the years in which one starts a family, serving my country and sewing my wild oats, so to speak. I was 28 when my first child was born. So to dial it back on course, My Grandmother, 86 and my Mom, 65 are still alive. That's two generations of adults without school aged children. My darling, younger sister, has no children, yet another adult, in just my family, that has no "real" stake in education. So of the adults on JUST my side of the family, 75% of them are without school aged children. So you see how this all would scale up to make the 70% make not such a large and disproportional number. STILL... The children are our future. Not just the future of our family lineage, but the future of our country. Do they not deserve some sort of priority over fancy sports arenas and Presidential golfing trips?! Personally I would want the smartest person possible managing the purse strings in my waning years! If they "trim" the educational budgets much more, around here at least, we're going to be back to the ole one-room school house era, as there won't be enough educators to properly educate the kids, or actual facilities to accommodate them. I guess this is fine, if we WANT to drive the US from it's barely held position (which some, including myself, could argue is no longer true!) at the top of the civilized world! While admittedly spreading the topic base beyond it's scope, The growing lack of a technologically competent work force, is pushing this country even further down. It also seems that the first thing to get "trimmed" from budgets is the technology education and resources. I stand by the knowledge, that lack of manufacturing in this country is spurring the continual growth and maintenance of high unemployment rates, but failure to expose our children to present and future technologies in the educational environment will only serve to progress this problem! Being privy to some of the technological implementations within the school systems and their lack of use, training for usage, and funding, only helps sharpen the focus on what I see as a problem. The days of readin, writin, and 'rethmatic on a chalkboard, no matter the size, should be a thing of the past. If you ask me, the days of cutting down acres of forests to make textbooks, is also antiquated. Personally, I like a "hard" copy of my study text, because that is what I am conditioned to want. My 11 year old, who has had some of the finest, both technologically and motivationally, teachers, in this country (my opinion! Like it or not!), would rather sit at her rapidly antiquating iMac and type up her homework in Pages or whip up a wicked Keynote presentation, than use a pencil and paper!
I reckon what I'm trying to get at with all this is, that cutting the funding and the subsequent job and technology loss is detrimental to not only the future of our children, but the future of this country!
24 March 2011
Learning Inventory
So I'm in college... at just shy of 40... I don't like it! Sure the scenery is great (This is where I like to point out to my 11 year old, that just because I'm married... doesn't mean I'm dead!)! I never really liked school, even way back in the day when I was forced to go by the State. Well... in order for me to maintain some symbolic version of an income... I am once again forced to go. Don't get me wrong, I love to learn new stuff and have a voracious appetite for technological information and know-how. I just don't like the traditional set-up of the collegiate educational system. Here's how I like it... Don't give me a bunch of theory and reading to do then throw some assignments at me based on those theories. Walk me through the task that you want accomplished... inject the basics of the theory in the walk-thru and then let me have it. Monkey see, monkey do. Guess that fits if you want to break it down that simply. It basically boils down to the same thing I kept asking in high school... what practical application for my future life does this have. I don't like books, therefore, the chances of me actually sitting down and reading one are slim, even if you present it in a cool ass new digital format. On the flip side to this don't just give me a bunch of assignments with no support to back it up. Most people that I encounter that are studying the same or similar fields to what I am in school for, are visual learners. The kinda folks that like to go in and play with things until they break, then try and fix them. This is how I learned to fix computers. Present things as the end result, walking through the steps to get there and then be available for questions in the event I get in a bind. What I have noted with a lot of my classmates, is, what boils down to cheating. One person figures it out or actually is able to function in the read it/do it environment and then the work get passed around and to their clique. Seeing as I rarely fall into any clique, I tend to be an outside observer struggling to figure it all out on my own and while learning it better (tests have proved this!!), I tend to not do as well in keeping up with the busy work. Of course that would be a lot easier if it was routinely handed to me. I have learned most of my past jobs by OJT, on the job training. You go and do the job and then someone in charge, informs you of the mistakes you made and generally offers an alternate solution to the way in which you did it. So I learned. I developed my skills in repairing bicycles, cars, electrical circuits, helicopters and many other things in this manner and have been successful at it. Then I end up in college and am asked to "learn" by reading a bunch of theories and applying them. Not that theories aren't important, but it seems to me that getting to the finished product would be immensely more important then how/why the theories are implemented. Yes, the theories are important, but if you know how to get from a to b, then you should figure out the theories behind how/why it works. If you never figure out the reasoning behind it... if you know how to make it work... wasn't that the point? Guess this is just a rant that stems from the fact that I don't like school... learning, yes, but not school. Plus I don't feel like those folks, that usually make higher grades than I, that go around getting their classwork from the others in the class are actually learning the work. Companies need to base their employment decisions less on what a person's grades are and more on the practical application of the job skills that are required for the job... not everyone learns as much as their grades might indicate. My last job, from which I was laid off, required at the time I was hired, that you take a basic skills test that encompassed what was needed to know to properly perform the job. As they phased out the testing, quality suffered, not only with the personnel, but the end product and thus sales. I reckon what I'm trying to say with all this is... a piece of paper (diploma, certification, etc.) DOES NOT quantify a person's skill level, but is merely a measure of whether they learn in a traditional way or not. My opinion... Just sayin
06 March 2011
Why I need a job! (Read it before you dismiss it's content!)
I'm unemployed. Hence, I need a job. Yes, for all the traditional I-have-a-mortgage, I-have-kids-to-feed type reasons, but to me it runs a little deeper, if not sideways (by others' standards!) from that. I'm on the verge of letting my child fall behind technology-wise! Yes, you could break it down to, I want a new computer... but not for me! My eldest daughter has set the standard high for technological competency among her classmates, and my inability to find feasible employment is putting that edge at risk. As a parent it is my job to give my children, I have two, the best educational and social advantages that I possibly can. After two years of not being able to find decent work as compared to the government benefits that I am receiving as a victim of NAFTA, her already older equipment is being pushed to the point of antiquity. I'm doing the child a dis-service, if I can't even keep my technology on par with an already lagging educational system! It, at times, makes me feel I am not doing my job as her Father. I know that it seems odd, that putting food on the table and providing health care would take a backseat to technology. Look at it like this, the better a fighting chance she has beyond her time in the required schooling, the better off she will be as an adult and hopefully a parent. I see technological competency as a cornerstone for her success in the future! Can you deny this? Any advantage I can give her today, towards being competitive in the workforce, I want to do. Let's face it... computers aren't going away and just having the skills to navigate facebook aren't going to cut it in the work force of this century! I know I'm going to have the basics covered for her, but I want her to never have to deal with the situation that I find myself in. As a parent, it's my job to future proof my children as much as I feasibly can. Unemployment benefits... just aren't going to cut it!
Just sayin
Just sayin
20 January 2011
I don't get it!
So, I'm in college, yet again. Don't get me wrong, I'm diggin the scenery, but I still find I have issues with people. The one that is weighing on me at the moment is people's incessant need to prove that they know more, have more, or are better at things than others. There's a dude in a couple (yes I have to put up with him several times a week) of my classes that has this immensely irritating need to steer the class topic off course to something that would, in his mind, prove he knows more than others! While I'm pretty abreast on the subject matter we are covering, there are things that I could learn or learn how to do more efficiently, hence the reason I attend and pay attention in class. This guy, seems like he might be a pretty decent dude, just continually feels the need to loudly interject a completely irrelevant topic into the discussion. I reckon this wouldn't be all that bad of an action IF, he actually was interjecting reliable and correct content! I don't claim to know everything! Really wouldn't want to, too much responsibility in omniscience! I will own up to the fact that certain topics I do have an extensive knowledge base for or at least enough of one to call bullshit on someone who just seems to need to be the smartest or most knowledgeable one in the room. I tend to only apply what I know to the topic at hand and under direct inquisition. Now I'll help someone out if they ask or it's readily apparent that they are frustrated and need/want help. In my mind, this is how it should be. I feel no need to stand out among the masses, intellectually anyway. I reckon what this all boils down to is it irritates to the point of fucking pissing me off to have to sit in a class that costs money and could reinforce/expand my knowledge base and have to listen to some jackass spout off an unending line of bullshit at a volume well above the generally accepted "inside voice" level.
So, anyway... Just trying to vent away the growing urge to beat the dude about the head and ears with an ax handle! Of course this could just be a waste of a perfectly good ax handle... Hope it doesn't come to finding out!
So, anyway... Just trying to vent away the growing urge to beat the dude about the head and ears with an ax handle! Of course this could just be a waste of a perfectly good ax handle... Hope it doesn't come to finding out!
08 February 2010
Game changing vs. Feminine hyigene
iPad... first thing that came to my mind... WTF where they thinking when they named this game changing piece if hardware? iPad congers up images of a "sanitary" napkin with a moisture sensor attached to a "hi-tech" pair of grungies with a twitter account that tweets the fact that the "Aunt Flow" has arrived! Now you see why this is an "explicit" blog! :-p
On a more serious note, I DO believe that this product will be a game changer. I've heard a lot of the detractions about it, but even my 10 year old can see where it fills a need. I predict that the iPad, provided the price comes down a little (knock $200 off the price and you'll sell the shit out of them, Steve!), will be the "textbook" of the future! It has what a student needs to fit perfectly into this small, but essential niche! No, it doesn't have Flash... No it doesn't multi-task... BUT, it does have the needed power and abilities to replace hard copy books and paper in the classroom! The larger form factor, ebook store, and the addition of iWork(Apple's version of Microsoft Office), lends it perfectly to this application. Built in WiFi allows it to connect and interact with the active and smart boards that are so prevalent in the modern classroom. Picture this... a student arrives a school, goes to their desk, grabs their iPad and checks the in room email for that day's assignments and then uploads their homework and then proceeds to watch the interactive video that their teacher made and uploaded to YouTube giving them a list of links and information about their upcoming digital presentation on the different aspects of government. The child has a question, so they email the teacher asking for additional info and resources! The class is getting kind of unruly, so suddenly it pushes up on everyone's iPad... a pop quiz on last nights homework. Li'l Johnny failed to do his homework, so the teacher remotely screen captures his "my dog ate my homework" excuse and forwards the image to her personal account and his parents via email. After lunch, via the ceiling mounted webcam and DLP projector the whole class does a group chat, via iChat, with a class of similar age in Japan, for the intercontinental, cross-cultural project that they are working on together. Suzy, the more advanced student in the class, having finished all the days assignments, pulls up one of the iTunesU videos that the teacher emailed her to help keep her engaged and learning. After the students have gone home, the teacher grades the day's work and and uploads the grades to the class' website for everyone's parents to see their child's progress. Realizing the he needs some additional help, Li'l Freddie pops up on the teacher's iChat and asks her for a little additional tutoring on that night's assignments.
See how it can all work together?! A secondary spin on the benefits... the environment! Being all digital, just think of all the trees that can be saved by not publishing text books or using paper in the classroom! Just think of the landfill space that can be saved! The ever expensive ink saved! Therefore the money saved!
Yes, there is the initial expense and logistics of deployment and professional development training, but in the long run, the savings will far surpass the upfront funding! Face it folks, we are lagging behind in developing technology for our children. Computers are here to stay! They are integrated into EVERY aspect of our lives, whether you realize it or not!
So to bring it back around to the initial topic... While the iPad wasn't the be all end all that the fanboys and geeks were hoping for, it still carries the form factor a LONG way towards the future. Maybe Adobe and Apple will work out their differences... Maybe they won't have to (HTML5)... Maybe by the time of it's release, the iPad will have the ability to multi-task... maybe, not... This I don't know! What I do know is that, without having to hack it, the iPad has pushed the ebook reader well beyond being just that!
On a more serious note, I DO believe that this product will be a game changer. I've heard a lot of the detractions about it, but even my 10 year old can see where it fills a need. I predict that the iPad, provided the price comes down a little (knock $200 off the price and you'll sell the shit out of them, Steve!), will be the "textbook" of the future! It has what a student needs to fit perfectly into this small, but essential niche! No, it doesn't have Flash... No it doesn't multi-task... BUT, it does have the needed power and abilities to replace hard copy books and paper in the classroom! The larger form factor, ebook store, and the addition of iWork(Apple's version of Microsoft Office), lends it perfectly to this application. Built in WiFi allows it to connect and interact with the active and smart boards that are so prevalent in the modern classroom. Picture this... a student arrives a school, goes to their desk, grabs their iPad and checks the in room email for that day's assignments and then uploads their homework and then proceeds to watch the interactive video that their teacher made and uploaded to YouTube giving them a list of links and information about their upcoming digital presentation on the different aspects of government. The child has a question, so they email the teacher asking for additional info and resources! The class is getting kind of unruly, so suddenly it pushes up on everyone's iPad... a pop quiz on last nights homework. Li'l Johnny failed to do his homework, so the teacher remotely screen captures his "my dog ate my homework" excuse and forwards the image to her personal account and his parents via email. After lunch, via the ceiling mounted webcam and DLP projector the whole class does a group chat, via iChat, with a class of similar age in Japan, for the intercontinental, cross-cultural project that they are working on together. Suzy, the more advanced student in the class, having finished all the days assignments, pulls up one of the iTunesU videos that the teacher emailed her to help keep her engaged and learning. After the students have gone home, the teacher grades the day's work and and uploads the grades to the class' website for everyone's parents to see their child's progress. Realizing the he needs some additional help, Li'l Freddie pops up on the teacher's iChat and asks her for a little additional tutoring on that night's assignments.
See how it can all work together?! A secondary spin on the benefits... the environment! Being all digital, just think of all the trees that can be saved by not publishing text books or using paper in the classroom! Just think of the landfill space that can be saved! The ever expensive ink saved! Therefore the money saved!
Yes, there is the initial expense and logistics of deployment and professional development training, but in the long run, the savings will far surpass the upfront funding! Face it folks, we are lagging behind in developing technology for our children. Computers are here to stay! They are integrated into EVERY aspect of our lives, whether you realize it or not!
So to bring it back around to the initial topic... While the iPad wasn't the be all end all that the fanboys and geeks were hoping for, it still carries the form factor a LONG way towards the future. Maybe Adobe and Apple will work out their differences... Maybe they won't have to (HTML5)... Maybe by the time of it's release, the iPad will have the ability to multi-task... maybe, not... This I don't know! What I do know is that, without having to hack it, the iPad has pushed the ebook reader well beyond being just that!
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