Aaron Carpenter's blog

I have to say I was looking forward to this assignment, mainly because I was interested in how everyone else gets his or her work done. Efficiency is a big deal to me so if someone has a quicker or easier way to accomplish tasks or stay on schedule I want to hear about it. […]

After reading the article by Dai and Renzulli on environmental factors and how they affect learning I would agree that their idea is composed of many good points. Simply looking at our society proves their theories. In the slums and poverty-stricken areas it is clear that opportunities to excel are rare, but more importantly a […]

Oh, the Internet. What would we do without you? This simple idea of having computers be able to talk to one another has gone from the lab to being a matter of national security.  Everything seems to have the Internet involved in one way or another and the educational world is simply the latest front […]

Last week we undertook the negative side of the argument whether or not Google and the Internet are making us stupid, as based off the article by Nicholas Carr that ran in the Atlantic Monthly in 2008. I was thankfully on the team that got to argue in favor of the Internet, which was the […]

Motivation is a fickle thing. Everyone knows what it is in a conceptual way, but when it comes to actually getting people interested, well, that’s the sticky part. The problem is that everyone is motivated in a different way, and this lack of a one-size-fits-all approach becomes readily apparent the instant one steps foot in […]

How can we use technology to remember patterns? It’s a simple question. But how do we actually remember things at all? Our readings tell us about our cortex and how our brains influence our perception and capacity for thought, all the while looking for and creating patterns. It’s these patterns that matter and help us […]

During the Elluminate session a wonderful phrase was brought up: Cognitive Offloading. It basically means we no longer bother remembering things that can be easily found in another source. As Eric brought up, you use this every day and don’t even realize it. Own a cell phone? How many of those phone numbers do you […]

We have thankfully come to realize that the Sage on the Stage is not always the best way to actually create real learning where the information is actually internalized well enough that the guiding principles can be applied to different situations. The article “Smart People or Smart Contexts” explains this concept. It challenges the old […]

Part of the problem in today’s digital age is that there is almost too much information out there for us to be able to absorb. The challenge lies in being able to filter and distill down the information that is pertinent to our long-term learning growth. The way we can do that is to create […]

6820 elearning Here is a powerpoint document for everyone that breaks down the Week 2 readings on the Philosophies related to education from Heather Kanuka. Please review the information and answer the discussion questions at the end of the document.