Comments for teachrdan

Comment on Oh, Codecademy, You’re Getting There by Teachrdan

Teachrdan — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:52:04 +0000

It’s a point we’ll taken that programming is a good job. I was just trying to make the point here that Codecademy is awkwardly trying to both promote coding as a job skill and as a way to understand our world. They’re basically trying to offer vocational training and something like a liberal arts education.

Comment on Oh, Codecademy, You’re Getting There by Ian Steffy

Ian Steffy — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 04:09:17 +0000

Also don’t forget that a lot of companies treat programmers like gold, giving them awesome work space, free food, and even free goodies like free massages and whatnot. On top of that they make a TON of money. I’ll take that over the Garden Weasel thank you very much.

Comment on Oh, Codecademy, You’re Getting There by Ian Steffy

Ian Steffy — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 04:06:38 +0000

I think what codecademy is saying in that quote is that in a damaged economy where a lot of professions are struggling, there will always be a high demand for coders because most people rely on technology that requires programming every day.

Comment on On getting bored and staying interested. by Three Lessons Teachers Can Learn from Scientology | teachrdan

Three Lessons Teachers Can Learn from Scientology | teachrdan — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 21:34:06 +0000

[...] are less fun than wasting time in class.) Teachers also need to be more comfortable with students getting bored and frustrated in the service of learning something important. Students come to class to pursue the kind of [...]

Comment on Book Promotion by http://google.com

http://google.com — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 11:21:36 +0000

Comment on “What is Education?” In the top ten-hundred words…. by Teachrdan

Teachrdan — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 02:48:07 +0000

Jeff, Plato is clearly referring to that old idea (no surprise!) that education should be about character development first. I actually don’t disagree, although I’d put “learning to learn” in that category.

Teaching character is obviously deemphasized these days – by public schools and online universities alike. It’s why I believe in a college education; colleges at least recognize that growing as a person is as important as getting a job, even if the execution is uneven.

Anyone else out there agree that building character is an important part of education?

Comment on “What is Education?” In the top ten-hundred words…. by Jeff McNeill (@jeffmcneill)

Jeff McNeill (@jeffmcneill) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 03:07:54 +0000

Education itself is a strange abstraction already (and an institution in modern society). In order to escape from this modern concept, I think a good starting place is with Plato and his definition of an educated man, with education being recognized in behaviors:

* Those who control unpleasant situations, instead of being controlled by them
* Those who treat all events with bravery and good old common sense
* Those who are honest in all their dealings
* Those who face unpleasant situations and are calm even when mistreated by people who dislike them
* Those who can control their pleasures
* Those who were not defeated by their misfortunes and failures
* And Those who do not become arrogant and corrupt by their success and glory

http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-definition-of-educated-man.html

This means that some of my best students (I taught university courses for 7 years), who performed quite well conceptually and academically, at least up until now remain largely uneducated.

Comment on “What is Education?” In the top ten-hundred words…. by Teachrdan

Teachrdan — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 00:28:37 +0000

True! However, I hope this captures the essence of what education is, while obeying the (arbitrary) rules of the site. Knowing these ten-hundred words don’t come from a real corpus, what’s your definition of education?

Comment on “What is Education?” In the top ten-hundred words…. by Jeff McNeill (@jeffmcneill)

Jeff McNeill (@jeffmcneill) — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 00:21:45 +0000

Clearly the list of “ten hundred” words is flawed, and based on analysis of a large corpus of written language. The word “teach” isn’t even in this list. That is why a definition becomes “helping learn”, which is a small part of what a teacher does, and indeed is what a tutor, a parent, and a notebook also does.

Comment on Resources by Teachrdan

Teachrdan — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 01:24:01 +0000

You got me. I do have a list of amazing adult ed books, which I synposized in “How to Teach Adults,” which I plan to post here. Thanks for the reminder!