I chose to have class today in the Quita Woodward Room because of its windows. Goodhart's glass atrium would have given us a more panoramic, uninterrupted view, but it was closed for student use because of the production. So, the Quita Reading Room it was! I'm really glad that we ended up having class there (although sorry for the short notice!)--it was warm and the wood paneling and bookshelves made it all the more cozy.

From where I was sitting, there was a large tree right in view, and Rock seemed to almost create a courtyard around it. The wind was twirling its branches all around, and it seemed to have lost quite a lot of its yellow leaves because of it. I was certainly very glad to be out of that storm! A major downfall of not being outside was the lack of noise, though. If we had been out in that windstorm, I could have heard the wind whipping through that tree. Instead, I heard myself typing notes about the view. More isolated from the outdoors than usual, I wrote instead of observing. There are quite a lot of distractions outside, but I usually give them all equal weight, instead of being more involved in note-taking than the actual class.

That being said, I was still a lot more comfortable out of the cold. Especially now that winter is coming, I'll just have to get used to observing inside, and find a balance between reflecting on my surroundings and paying attention to them.

The first half of my hour of observation felt like a very standard observation period for me. I noticed it was windier, slightly colder, how the tree’s had lost even more of their leaves (not only could I now see the Nature Trail but I could see all the way through the trains along the Haverford Road to the golf course on the other side of the R-100 line),the diminishing animal life (excluding dogs being walked), and how the nature trail was starting to resemble a trail in a forest (with all the leaves covering it) rather than one on a college campus. Sitting on the bench , and making what I saw as my rather standard observations, I began to get bored and started to wonder if I could actually observe something new. Sure unlike in the previous weeks the weather was less turbulent, and the cold and wind weren’t bothering me that much (showing that I was at least becoming more adapted to the seasonal transition) so there was that. Still wanting something more exciting to observed as well as a change of pace, I finally figured out how I was going to mix things up. I decided…. to stand up from the bench and walk around a little bit.

Complexity -- not evident to neophyte

Skilled players add complexity!

Content v process, skills

self-directed -- or what kind of display board is their interest?

How diff people use the same tool

value of hearing what people are passionate about

confident in speaking

They learn tangible things

tools but do things for themselves

games link to scholarship -- an asset

creativity -- what you can create is limitless

pedagogical community around it

large variety of skill sets -- how provide access to all

incorrect information -- worry about type of information - guiding you towards failure

Notes on small groups:

learning the tech vs. using the tech.  Where do students get the computer skills they need?

Role of computer classes in education field

changing job of teachers (both computer sci and other subjects)?

What is educational?  "Since you are on Justin Bieber.com" -- get points on math site

personal choice of students

personalizing their computers (not just school logo) -- ownership

Idea of not being up to date with technology . . . 

if it's not broken, don't fix it -- time to learn about it and its full functionality  . . . 

quantity vs. quality

portfolio of computer skills -- basic competencies