Peanuts: Are ghosts real?

Peanuts: Are ghosts real?

Just for fun... but not entirely.

Sometimes I discuss some of the programmes on TV with my pupils, some of them are really scared because they've watched "Åndenes makt" (The power of the spirits(?)) on TV.
"Of course it's real, the door handle was moving!"

We watched it on TV, so there can be no doubts about it. I sometimes wonder what I can do in order to teach my pupils, and my own children, how to look at things around us with a pair of critic goggles. Is it true just because we watch it on tv, or read about it in the newspaper, or on the Internet?

The power of visual media is great, and the things we read or watch needs to be filtered through our critic senses. In fact, I think we need to have focus on the flow of information, and ask ourselves if it all can be true. I regularly get e-mails from people who, in good meaning I guess, forward e-mails with content that upsets the recipiants. One of the e-mails was containing pictures of a boy who, allegedly, got his arm driven over by a car for stealing food. It upset me, most of all because the content of the e-mail was alienating Islam. And it upset me because it wasn't true. I googled some of the content, and I found the pictures in a newspaper. Acctually, I found one more picture than I got in the e-mail. The last picture of a boy who triumphing was showing that his arm was ok. He was in fact, a part of a street show. Then somebody had taken the pictures from somewhere, deliberately or not, and posted it as a warning against Islamic violence. This is also posted on Youtube as a fact.

Do you forward such e-mails? I never do. Maybe I did some time ago, I honestly can't remember. But I never do anymore. I will not be a part of alienating other people, other cultures. I will demand hard evidence if I'm going to have an opinion in these matters. It's way too easy to criticize what we don't understand, and what we know too little of.

Are ghosts real?

Just for fun...

Children see..... children do.

How do children learn today?

How do children learn today compared to how they learned when I was younger? Is there any difference at all? I think there is a difference. Children of today are using TV, computers, games and a lot of visual medias. It wasn't like this when I was a child. We had to read books in order to give our brains input. All the pictures and movies was all in our head, our inner eye was in constant work. In my opinion, children of today is missing some of the great stories, just because they can't sit still and read a book.

There's a program on the radio today. (Verdt å Vite. 12.30. NRK P2.) The topic is; What happens in the brain of young (?) people who are more social on the Internet than in real life? According to a specialist on this subject, the human brain changes physically, and endanger our ability to form our own identity, understand consequenses and to understand our fellow human beings.

 Do any of you have any thoughts about this? Feel free to comment! :)

Rørfoss- a look into the Information society, cultural dimensions.

This picture I took using an infrared filter, and I'm satisfied with the result. Actually, this is maybe the one picture I like the most. I haven't been out taking pictures lately, but maybe I'll try to take more pics when I get some spare time. (Which is not likely to happen very soon....) 

The culture of the information society today is kind of overwhelming I think. When I think back to the mid 90's, I remember my first computer. Inside it there were a whole new world, and this world just expanded as I started to explore it. The first time I connected my computer to the Internet, I remember the screen started to change, from the top, slowly to the bottom, as the site was loaded. The colours were great! Today, the Hotbot-site is rather boring, but back then it was the gateway to the world.

Now we live our lives on the computers, well, maybe not all our lives, but a bigger part of it at least. We communicate by using e-mail, messenger (Yahoo or MSN), ICQ, chat-sites, and so on. We share our lives on Facebook, blogs, Myspace or Youtube. We read our papers, watch TV and movies, go banking, and much more, online. We share our pictures on Pbase or similar sites, we promote our music like this on Facebook, or like this on Youtube.

In my work as a teacher, I use my computer in the classroom almost all the time. Earlier, when a student asked me a question I needed some time to figure out a good answer to, I had to write down the question, or remember it until I could find time to look it up. Now I use Google, Caplex, Wikipedia and more to find the answer right away. I'm able to take (almost) every question straight on, and make a rewarding discussion in the classroom. The answers are not always conclusive, and this gives me a good oportunity to train both my own, as well as my students, critical sense.

But, I need to ask this question: I all this a good thing, or is it bad? Some of you will maybe say it's good, and some of you will say it's bad. Maybe I'll just say it's ok? At the end of the day I think it can be a little of each. First of all, I need to have given my students some guidance lines in order to know how to find information, and how to develop a critical sense. We have talked about ethics and law, and how this may tell us what we can use or do on the Internet. You can read more of this here. It may be easy to be "thrown off course" if I allow us to discuss all kinds of questions that may arise in the classrom. Good or bad? This depends, I think, on the content of the matter, and on how the students involve themselves in the discussion. It also depends on my ability to draw lines from the actual topic in the classroom to the matter discussed at the moment. If I'm not able to do this, and the students get the experience that we're just having fun, then I clearly need to get us back on track asap!

I think, just to try to sum all this up in a brief conclusion, that we need to realize that for many young people today, books are not an option in order to learn or relax. I try to take pictures, like the one on the top of this page, to promote the place where I live. Or I use some of my pictures in my classroom, trying to make an entrance to a certain subject. To create and obtain a good learning environment today, I think it's vital for us teachers to develop good skills on how to meet the students at their own arena. The digital arena.

My first blog.

This is my first attempt to create my own blog, and the reason I'm blogging is mainly because I'm studying information and communication technology at Nesna University College. I also work as a teacher. I live in a little community in Nord-Trøndelag, a place called Røyrvik. At the moment, I don't know what I'm going to write in my blog, but I guess it will be a little of everything, and sometimes about nothing at all. Time will show.
My interests in life? Well, it's life in general I suppose. Family, friends, art, reading, music, photography, computers... I'm curious in general I think, and the reason for blogging in English is that my course is international. Maybe some of my blogs will be in Norwegian as well, or maybe only in Norwegian. I can't tell at the moment. I'll probably be jumping back and fourth, with no particular subjects, but I will publish some of my photographs.
Anyway, now I wonder how my blog looks like, so I'll have a break now and try publishing what I've written so far.
See you around.....