Blog Post 9: Morgan Bayda and ALEX

Morgan Bayda’s Post On Dan Brown’s Video

I agree with a lot of what Ms. Bayda says in her post about the video by Dan Brown entitled, “An Open Letter to Educators.” However, some of my experiences have been a little different. I never felt cheated by the university system as Ms. Bayda did because I learn well through lecture. I loved listening to my history professor’s lectures and they often told me things that were not in the books. Many times in class I learned little known stories that would be difficult to find through research because of the vast amount of information available on some subjects. But, I am aware that not everyone appreciates this type of learning experience. I also love collaborative and hands-on learning, though. And I know it is important to give all students lessons in a variety of ways so their individual learning style is addressed.

I often hear people complain they had to buy books they never read for their college classes, but I have not found that to be true in any of my classes (and I’ve taken quite a few). However, I am one of those people who love books and I never sell them back at the end of the semester. I actually use them for reference. I know. I’m a geek. Once I had another teacher tell me when he saw the library in my classroom, “You know they have all that on DVD now.” I know. But I love books!

I do think all classes can be enhanced by collaborative activities and in the classes I have taken in the past from history professors with unbelievable high standards it took the form of study groups. We did learn a lot from each other just from discussing the material and it was one of my favorite early college experiences. Don’t get me wrong though. I 100% agree with Dan Brown that institutional education has to adapt to the current revolution of “liberated” information. And, it is the “best thing to ever happen to society.” I always loved Einstein’s quote, “Never memorize what you can look up in books.” And now we have so much information available at our fingertips there is really little reason to memorize all the facts we are taught in school. But somebody better tell the standardized test makers and pushers that because institutionalized education is currently in a tug of war match with the people who want to cut programs to make room for more test preparation and those of us who want to teach creative, student-centered lessons.




ALEX

ALEX stands for the Alabama Learning Exchange. It is a website put together by the Alabama Department of Education that contains creative lesson plans posted by teachers. It is searchable by subject area and includes web and other technology resources. The lesson plans have icons showing if and how they relate to current Alabama standardized testing practices. They also show which Alabama state educational standard they meet. It provides a section for teachers outlining information on professional learning opportunities including technology tutorials. There is also a wonderful library of student created podcasts/videocasts on the site, which are also aligned with the state standards. Another terrific feature on the site is a professional learning community called ALEXville with several courses for professional development. It is a well-organized site with a wealth of resources for Alabama’s teachers to help them bring their classrooms to the 21st century.

I would love to have a tool like ALEX available to me when I am teaching again. Proving that your lessons meet state standards can be a time-consuming and overwhelming thing for new teachers. This site gives teachers everything they need to show they are providing learning activities that address the required standards. The professional development courses on the site are also helpful if you forget exactly how to use a technology tool. And, the podcast/videocast examples are helpful for teachers trying to implement this type of technology in their classes for the first time. I would use this site a lot if I was going to be teaching in Alabama when I finish my Collaborative Education certification. In fact, I may use it wherever I end up!