Stupid Teachers Allergic to Productivity and Technology

The vid examines how MP3 players are a productivity tool that should be utilized by teachers and students.

** Part of Draft Script **

I have often said public school teachers are idiots, so I get criticized by those who rant, All you do is whine, complain, and point fingers but have nothing constructive to say. Although I disagree, I am taking that criticism to heart. In this video, I will be breaking it down to a more concrete level so that even a conceptually-challenged pragmatic educrat can follow along.
I recently bought myself an MP3 Player. Nothing special, it is just a 2 GB Creative Zen Mozaic, which I got for about $50. Previously, I have bought four IPods for the girls, but none for me.
Consider what would happen if I was a student and took it to a high school, and for this discussion I am focusing on the secondary education level. Teachers hate electronic toys so mine would probably end up confiscated and added to the teachers collection of booty.
How is it that teachers do not love such a productivity tool? I submit that it is because the teachers are too stupid to know how to use them. It is not an issue of manipulating the device, but of extracting the productivity lift that the device offers.
I have had my player for a few weeks. So far I have listened to about 60 hours of lectures, interviews, and conversations on topics including science, literature, politics, art, philosophy, history, and business. At the moment, my player is full of several years of expert lectures provided by the Stanford Business School. Currently, I am listening to an interview about entrepreneurship with the founder of Facebook, who was a Harvard student when he started his business.
My inventory of recent podcasts from the University of Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, MIT, and University of Virginia is such that I have yet to crack the thousands of book titles available for download checkout from my local library.
When I was in school, I would supplement each of my classes with two to five recorded books. Sometimes in preparing for an upcoming semester, I would have already consumed, via audio, texts that would be assigned for the class.
All of this productivity increase was from multi-tasking less productive time like commuting or shopping. At the store, I do not complain about waiting for the girls to pick whatever, if I can add value to that time by having Leonard Peikoff in my ear explaining an application of philosophy.
An idiot teacher might say, Kids wont do that. Given the option of listening to Shakespeare on the bus ride to and from school instead of reading him at home, kids will not do the former? The same kids who would rather watch the movie than read the play? Really?
Imagine if teachers podcasted their lectures. Sick kids would not miss out. Students could replay the material later for better understanding. [Think back to all those kids that wanted to record the lectures back in the day.] Classroom notes could be validated as needed when studying for the exam. Parents could listen to the podcasts so that they could better help the kids with their homework. Students might actually learn more, with the big assumption that there was anything of value in the lecture.
An idiot teacher might say, But my little monsters would not do that. First, that teacher should examine what is wrong with them. Second, additional sources of information could be leveraged to bring students requiring remediation up to speed. Third, this provides opportunities for teachers to supplement the learning of their best students to help them get even further ahead. While the class plods through Hamlet, some can supplement by listening to additional plays either by Shakespeare or subsequent writers exploring similar themes.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• teachers
• education
• reform
• pragmatism
• objective
• progressive
• induction
• deduction
• Obama
• MP3
• ITunes
• podcast
• ODEO

[cassidyteufel]

Destruction is the simplest form of creation

[jwoodswce]

@cassidyteufel

That is a horrifically nihilistic opinion.

[warbread]

I also have to add that I don't quite like the "teachers are idiots" angle. I understand that you're frustrated with the school system, and for good reasons, but your language is unnecessarily abusive. There are plenty of bad teachers, but even the good ones can be burdened by inadequate department funding, asinine state and federal standards and large classes filled with students beaten down by aimless busy work to care about class. Anger means you care, but change begins with compassion.

[jwoodswce]

@warbread

The "teachers are idiots" angle is a theme associated with a series of video. That angle correlates with statistics that demonstrate that the worst students enter education school, graduate from them, and then persist as public employees.

I am not frustrated with the system; however, I do possess moral outrage against public school teachers.

[jwoodswce]

cont....

Far from my language being abrasive, public school teachers merit worse including their identification as being corrupt and evil; however, I don't have statistical studies to support that generalization so my judgment remains a hypothesis.

Change begin with selfishness, when individual parents refuse to sacrifice their own children upon the altar of the public good.

[kiele21]

Anyone here read Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich? Anyone?...

[kiele21]

@sylbeaucerock I wonder if that confidence is rightly placed. I find myself three quarters of the time at work bored out of my mind. I'm sure most school children would also agree they spend about three quarters of their time in class bored out of their minds. I know I did. If you labor under the delusion that the primary objective of the educational system is to prepare students for working life, then I find it perfectly reasonable to assume that the schools are doing a fantastic job.

[dkwroot]

I agree that all teachers/professors should podcast their lectures and provide notes online. Too much time is wasted in classes taking notes and listening to lectures and not enough time is spent interacting in class and actually applying knowledge.

[sylbeaucerock]

Hi!

I am a public school teacher and I think your unsupportive attitude may cause more harm than good because kids need to feel secure and a guy like you bashing , using a 8 year old kind of voice will bring 'em to doubt and may destroy confidence they have toward school. Also, high school is there for learning but also for socializing, Real investment and a desire to go further will come when they reach 17-18 years old. So at college (cegep) in Quebec, students will get more deeply involved.

[iluminatr462]

i'm baffled as to how someone so completely out of touch with society and education could think they know how to run an educational system. spend some time working in the schools and dealing with the culture and social problems the kids and teachers are dealing with for a few years then come and spout off. all objectivist morons think they can solve problems sitting by themselves in a room hypothesizing. quit your childish pontificating and go do something relevant in the world.

[duronski]

DUMB FUCK. THE REASON WHY TEACHERS DON'T USE THESE FORMS OF TECHNOLOGIES AS LEARNING TOOLS IS BECAUSE THERE IS WAY TOO MUCH EMPHASIS ON STANDARDIZED TESTING.

[jwoodswce]

@socializard1

1) Do you always start with an insult? How am I a troll on my own video?

2) I did not say to give students hardware, but to give them assignments leveraging their own technology.

3) Subsequent to my making this vid, I have found instances of some of these ideas being acted upon to improve instruction.