CIRCL perspectives offer a window into the many different worlds of various stakeholders in the cyberlearning community–what drives their work, what they need to be successful, and what they think the community should be doing. Share your perspective.
Kip Glazer Kip Glazer is a doctoral student at Pepperdine University and Digital Media Coordinator and English Teacher at Independence High School in Bakersfield, California.
What drives your work?
Growing up in Korea, I didn’t have the benefit of free and universal education. Since I moved to the United States, I’ve been able to take advantage of many educational opportunities. I learned to speak English, became an English teacher, and am now pursuing a doctorate in Learning Technologies. Because of my experiences, I work hard try to be a catalyst for students because I believe that technology and education are two greatest equalizers for all humanity, not just the privileged few. As a mother and teacher, I always ask whether I’m being the teacher that I want my own children to have. I want to provide the best possible education to all my students. This drives my work.
What is unique about your work?
As an English teacher, I believe in the power of literature to promote STEM education. As Mary Shelley warns all us in her book Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, I believe that human hubris centered on the naive belief in the power of technology must be tempered. Although I use mathematics to teach literature, I also use literature to guide my students to become conscious lovers of all things scientific. I feel that being able to balance humanities and technology is what makes my work unique.
How would you like to see the cyberlearning community use social media?
I’d like the community to be much more active and strategic in their use of social media. The community should work on branding itself as having leading thinkers in cutting edge learning practices, involve more young people, and be hip and fast moving with up-to-the-minute tweets about exciting new discoveries, opportunities, and products. Everything it does should have the feel of innovation. The cyberlearning community needs to do a better job of communicating what it has to offer to the general public. Think about it. What would be the point of developing the best medicine if the patient doesn’t know about it or refuses to take it because of the lack of knowledge? I believe that is a bigger tragedy than not developing the medicine in the first place. A lot can be accomplished by leveraging social media.
How would you like to contribute back to the cyberlearning community?
I’d like to bring an intelligent yet pointed practitioner’s voice to the community to bridge the researcher-practitioner gap. I have met many amazing researchers with great research agendas, but many of them do not have the time nor the expertise to work with teachers to implement their ideas in real classrooms. I would love to help researchers translate their ideas into action plans.