Processes I have Experienced

My experience with the Socratic approach is that I have mixed feelings. Whereas it is a good approach, it also has some negative consequences and this depends on how it is applied and to whom. Students who are timid may find it oppressive whereas those who are given to asserting themselves may find it a challenge and may enjoy it. In this approach a student is pushed to think and come up with various answers from various view points, and is made aware of the fact that there is no one correct and absolute answer. And that if a student thinks they have achieved the answer to a question they are actually deluding themselves because one answer opens up a string of questions and this is an endless process. This has given me something to ponder about and think of new ways I can get my students to think by themselves. I need to have questions that can get them to do things on their own. I am not saying that I have not been giving them questions but this new way of using questions to push the children to think could come in handy for most aspects of literature.

Some of the issues the Socratic process seeks to respond to include clarification, probing assumptions, probing rationale, questioning view points, probing consequences and questions on the question. These aspects lead the learner to think about thinking, learn how to think by themselves and even learn to do it well in order to do powerful things. Some of these things we take for granted were first thought of by the people who made it possible for us to live easy lives.

In the same lesson I have been rudely awakened to the fact that technology is also harmful to our minds. From experience this is true. I no longer read like I used to and even when I read I have to struggle to recall all that I have read. The television with its soaps and series of movies also cut off people's hospitality and interaction.  I am keeping my bank codes and account numbers on my Smartphone for easy access; I do not need to bother myself to remember them. Gosh! What hasn’t technology done? It gives you the good as well as the bad. What can I say! Dr. Alexis Carrel says

         "Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and sculptor"

Everything has a cost. Even technology has its shortcomings.
I have had a challenge with creating an infographic, oh my God! I had to eventually give up in despair after spending over five frustrated hours working on it. I first tried the sites given in the course and failed, so I resorted to creating one manually. Each time I would set, create or add a shape it would somehow disappear or would overlap and I would not be in position to decipher the wording myself. To make matters worse, I had other parts of the lesson to do in order to beat the deadline.  Any way just as we have already seen in this course, we have different multiple intelligence mix and I think this is where I draw the line.  Unless I am given an entire week free of other activities, I don’t think I am in position to achieve this task. I actually feel very bad that I have failed but I also hope that somewhere somehow I will eventually get it right. Otherwise I have enjoyed the other bits of creativity.