Podcast

Check out my podcast on how people of different ages understand (or don't understand) the internet!

http://rapidshare.com/files/397890729/Meyers_CEP_800_Podcast.mp3.html

or

http://rapidshare.com/files/397890729/Meyers_CEP_800_Podcast.mp3 9693 KB
Please choose "free user" and download.

From doing this assignment, I learned a lot about using some new technologies including Audacity, Rapidshare, and Blogspot. In terms of looking at my subjects' understanding, I learned that being fluent in a process, such as searching or social networking, doesn't mean you understand it. Two of my subjects said they regularly used the internet for research, yet neither could articulate how to search, as in the steps they completed, or what was happening within their computer or the internet as they searched.

Of course, this problem of "doing" without understanding can be carried over to school subjects as well. In studying multiplication, my students who learn at home before we begin in class can often answer the question 2 x 3, but cannot draw a picture to explain or convert the problem into an addition sentence. Though I commend their parents for looking ahead into the curriculum and preparing their students, they have used rote memorization to teach multiplication. The student does not know what multiplying is, or how it works, just like my subjects could use the internet, but not explain it. Their understanding was a working knowledge, not an expert one.