What I took from class today

Google documents appears to be awesome. Survey monkey is another option for conducting anaylsis in the classroom.  Having the class come up with the key ideas at the end of the discussion was a good way to bring it all together.  Today we were introduce to illuminate, my first impression is that it was very cool. It seems like it has a lot of options for use in my future teaching. In the contemporary issues podcast make sure that it deals with PK-12 learners. The big issue should be clearly identified, there should be a summary of the source, and the rest should incorporate a conmmentary on the issue.

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts Reflection Chapter 9

Some new thinking I took about technology in education after reading this chapter on social networking was that I was surprised to see the encouragement of using Facebook in the classroom setting. The author made several good points as to why it could be affective that I agreed with. One point I thought was not completely obvious before reading was that students seem to like to use Facebook in the classroom, I would think that most would not like to mix school with their social lives in anyway, but the students from the catholic school example really got into using it. I guess that may be a difference in frame of mind that I may have compared to my future students. One thing that I do like about the idea of using Facebook is the ease of sharing with people outside the classroom. I know for example that the school district that I grew up with has a district wide Facebook page to share with community things that have been happening in the school. I myself have joined that group and occasionally join in discussions when they ask for community and alumni input on issues facing the school. I can see many of the concerns of using Facebook in schools though. As a first year teacher I think that it may be hard to convince administrators to allow the site to be unblocked unless a completely solid plan was laid out that covered why it will be useful and how to address student safety. Another thing that I agree with the chapter that using social networks would be good for is teaching internet safety and etiquette to students. This could be done by example in how you present yourself and by having lessons and having students actively police each other after a group has been created. I think that Ning may be a better option to try out at first due to the fact it could be policed a bit better than Facebook. Again it was neat to see a tool that can connect students with experts and community members together to bring the classroom into the real world.

Though I am not sure I would use Facebook starting out right away as new teacher, I may experiment with the idea of using Ning. I would want to try it out more and maybe do an experimental group with peers before implementing it into the classroom. I may integrate Facebook later, but would want to do a lot of research into other teachers’ use of it before trying it myself. I think it would be great to hear firsthand from a teacher that has used it successfully and could explain some of the finer points of its use and struggles to get clearance to use it.

Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology Chapter 7 Reflection

This chapter was pretty brief, but it really boiled down many of the issues that have been discussed throughout the entire book so far. In the section regarding what could be lost I think one piece that I really agree with that isn’t necessarily new thinking is the loss of interaction with differing viewpoints in American education. To a certain extent one major point of view is always being expressed in American schools, depending on your community and its diversity schools tend to reflect the majority of leaning of the community putting their values and ideals forward whether it occurs through set district guidelines or just by who happens to teach in that community. So in a way some exposure to different points of view has been lost in American education. However, to go with the extreme of pulling students out of that environment, can fully shelter them from ideas that they might not be exposed to normally and I think that is a shame. By losing that I think there is a loss of powerful learning tool. By people having their beliefs, viewpoints, etc. challenged they may gain a new way of thinking or at very least can understand their own point of view better. Also I agreed with the fact that pulling out of that common education already does add to the increased polarization of American culture. I am not sure how much could be lost in terms of interpersonal relationships however. I think even if people are using more individualized forms of learning people still have to interact with each other. What may change is more so how people interact with each other. There may be less face to face contact, but to go to the extreme of it being completely lacking I think is an overstatement. In the area of what can be gained, the idea of tailoring education to what people want to learn is a great concept. People are always more engaged when they are learning something that they feel is important to them. One way I think that new education in traditional schools could be modeled is by allowing more student choice. To a certain degree there is some choice in schools particularly at the upper levels, but really there is a need for greater choice. Technology seems to be able to help that. Distance education is something that I feel needs to be more utilized in schools to meet the needs of more learners. It really expands the options of what a student can learn in terms of courses.  I think one of the key ideas that was presented in this section was that in order for more individualized learning to occur, students have to want to learn. That may be the biggest challenge in all of this, motivation and I think with that there will always be a need for teachers and the fear of not needing educators with increased use of technology is unfounded.

How I think this will change my future teaching is that as a major focus regardless if it is the old system or the new system motivation of students will be the biggest challenge. I foresee that will be the biggest area for what I will have to concentrate on as an educator. Using technology tools may be a way to get students more in to content,  but I think building relationships with students and learning how to motivate them will be the area I have to work on the most.

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts Reflection Chapter 8

I think what new thinking I took from reading this section about podcasting was the ease of how it could be used in the classroom. I didn’t really know how much went into producing a podcast, but now after reading this I can see that its use would be quite feasible. I can see how it could be used to have a class follow podcasts that are applied to the content being taught, I think that could be used quite effectively. I thought the idea of using podcasts for student radio was another really good idea, it would definitely be a good way to keep costs down and still provide students with a valuable learning experience in the production of radio shows. I have always liked the idea of using video in the classroom. In my high school we had a number of very tech savvy teachers that really got into using video editing software and other technology. I think that use of video production regardless of subject area is a great way to teach lifelong skills of cooperation, problem solving, and attention to detail. I agree with the authors that by exposing the students to a larger audience by route of displaying  their work online it may help them to produce a more polished product, due to the fact that many others will be watching. I did video productions a course in high school and each week we produced a program that was displayed around the school as well as on local public access television, the knowledge of that I feel made us work harder and produce work of higher quality. I am split on the idea of live streaming from the classroom. I think that in regular instance of general classroom activities I don’t  think that it has its place. However, having exchanges with others outside the classroom, for example an expert or another classroom of students from a different school, could be an excellent teaching tool that may engage students better. Screen casting I think is  something I can sink my teeth into. I had limited experience with it before, but I really liked the idea of using it with students. I had really only thought about using it as more so a  tutorial to show students things, but I think that it would be really cool that have them to demonstrate something for class or do a slideshow for a student who maybe is not the best public speaker.

Overall, I think that there were a lot of good tools in this chapter that I think would be of great use in the classroom. I really hope to use video in my classroom, particularly with the availability of more online editing tools and the drop in price of video recording equipment I think that it will definitely be possible. I am not sure exactly how I will integrate into a science class yet, but one idea I thought of was having students teach a mini unit on a particular animal life cycle or just a concept. Screen casting or video would work equally as well I feel for that sort of project. Another idea that I had with screen casting, just to get started, would be in showing students guides around web pages or through a particular web based app that I may have them use. As I gain more comfort with it I may do more assignments utilizing it. Another thought I had is that it could be used as a partial lesson when you could not physically be in the classroom, when a substitute is in I could have presentation or something that nature all set up and have the substitute show it for the students that way even if I am not there I could still be introducing material.

What I took from class today

What I learned from the chapter discussion of class today was a creative ways of splitting people up into group is a good idea.  Think of creative ways to report not just verbally, but other ways as well. Another approach may be to use jigsawing or summary phrasing.  Some suggestions for the IWB is to lock down all objects that are not to be interacted with, also using allow move for objects that should not be edited. Grouping objects can be a way to clean up the IWB as well. Another tool is infinite cloner to get an unlimited number of certain object to interact with. With font size go no smaller than a size 24 pt font ideally 36, however.

Reflection Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology Chapter 6

After reading this chapter I think on way my thinking has changed was in some of the issues of the current education system. It was really interesting to read about how some of the qualities of the era of apprenticeship are coming back in the lifelong learner era. I think that one of the biggest areas was how each student/apprentices education is put at the correct pace by the instructor and individualized for their needs. In the apprentice era this was done by the master that was training them. In the lifelong learner era the parallel seemed to be that with technology students could choose what best fits their learning style and they are continuously monitored and guided as they learn by whatever software or tool that is being used. One of the themes that I think has been expressed over and over in this book is the moving of educators from a position of passing down knowledge to one more likened to of being a coach for a student, providing guidance and direction as it is needed. However, it is not totally moving toward just being the motivator, there is also the idea of giving the students the tools they need to engage in their own learning.

I think how I will use this new thinking in my future as an educator is that I will try to use some of the best qualities of all eras in my classroom. I won’t be able to have so few students as in the apprenticeship era, but I will try to develop some of those tight relationships with my students as to know how they learn best and how to move at a pace that is appropriate for them.

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts Chapter 7 Reflection

Before reading this chapter in Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts I have had only limited knowledge about the workings of Flickr. Previously I only thought it was another place just to share photos with families and friends and didn’t know that it was as interactive as the book described it to be. One of the cool aspects of Flickr that I liked is the tagging function. I think that definitely has use in the classroom, I could see how that could see how that could be used to either have students make comments on a photo or you could use that to direct students to an aspect that you feel it is important to learn. Another aspect that the book described that I thought was neat was using Flickr with Google Earth to look at changes over time from photos in the same spot. I think that definitely could have application in a social studies or science class. Other than those aspects I really struggle to see how I could use Flickr in the classroom. It has some really interesting features, but I am not sure how I would personally adapt for use in a class. Right now I could see using it as a resource for finding neat images to use in class to illustrate points of my lesson or I having students use it in some sort of project. I think again that this is something that I would have to play with a lot before using in a classroom and would have to get very comfortable with. I would be interested to see some additional applications of its use, especially in a science class setting to see what kind of ideas could work for my content area.

I think that with the new thinking from reading this chapter I will probably at least check out Flickr and see what it has to offer. I do have a friend who uses it so I could possibly have him giving me the finer points of its workings. In my future teaching, at this point, I could see myself using it as an additional resource for finding images for myself and for my students to use, but until I am more comfortable with it I am not sure how much I would use it.

What new thinking I took from class today.

Today I learned from the creative grouping is a good option in our discussion presentation, but make sure you assign where in the room to go to.  Also giving groups power in the learning; not a review, let students establish what was important, but facilitate when groups get off track. I also got a chance to look at Scratch and get a idea of what to expect about the difficulty of the IRLO assignment.

Reflection: Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology Chapter 5

What has changed on my thinking on technology in regards to education is the level of autonomy that the world is achieving away from the “brick and mortar school.” I guess I have noticed in the past the level on increased opportunities for learning outside schools, but reading this section brought it all together for me. One of the surprising aspects that I found out was that home school children tend to do better on tests overall than traditional universal schooling students. I can see how that the parents acting like a coach, as the authors describe, can be effective in getting their children to learn. However, I think that there is some limitation when it comes to working with more specialized content; I think that coaching can only go so far and there comes a time when more specialized experience is needed in the child’s education. I also agree with the fear that by having more and more students outside the universal school there is a risk of losing the shared identity in American culture. Polarization seems to be growing and I think this may increase it to some degree. Something else I didn’t realize to the degree that companies will seek to train future employees or current employees in the community to have them trained for their needs. I had heard of a number of companies in Milwaukee investing money into training students in the tech ed. and trades programs in Milwaukee schools, but I didn’t know it was a national trend. Another thing that I learned from this chapter is that since there is a growing autonomy of older students, middle school and high school, more and more may be turned off from traditional schooling or move into virtual schools. As a future secondary teacher this is definitely a concern. Unless I can make my teaching relevant and engaging my students may have the option to leave.

I think one of the ways that this new thinking will affect my future teaching is that I will definitely have to focus on making my teaching effective for students and be addressing their future needs. If students can have the option of leaving to attend a virtual school they may ask “why do I need to be here if I am not learning anything I will ever use”.  So I feel it will be an important part of my job to illustrate to them why something is important, and more importantly get them to feel the same way.

Blogs, Wikis Chapter 6 Reflection

After reading this chapter I think what has changed in my thinking about technology in teaching is the use of Twitter. Before reading this I hadn’t really thought about its uses in a school setting. Previously I thought of kind of a mix between a social network site and blogging that was really used to for people to keep track of each other, follow news, or just to find funny stuff to read about. I still have to admit I think that it is a waste of time. The collaboration ideas I hadn’t thought before how it could be used to run through ideas and get others feedback. I can see how it could be useful in the right situation to have students tweet questions to you that they may not want to ask in class. They then could get feedback not only from you, but potentially other students in the class on whatever is they ask or it could be a thought they propose perhaps on their analysis of the meaning of a passage in some literature. I had never really heard of the Diigo site until this chapter and for that matter Delicious until this fall. I have a bit of experience with Digg and I wonder if they are related in some way to each other, however with Digg you just placed comments on links or used a function similar to the like button on Facebook. Diigo seemed kind of neat in the way that you can annotate websites, in that way it is an improvement over Digg. I can see the value in that particularly if I assigned students to look at a website and I wanted them to key in on certain areas. On the other hand they could give feedback to me and the rest of the class what areas of confusion were or questions and comments they had. My experience with Delicious so far has mostly been just in the form of collecting links for the assignment, I have yet to really delve into using for retrieving from to heavily, but I can see down the road this semester and most like next it may come in handy.

I think how this has affected my future teaching is that sites like Diggo I may be able to use to clarify and guide my students while using the web. They will also be able to get feedback to me and other students on what their thoughts are. I really don’t think that reading this will change my view on the use of Twitter in the classroom yet, but with some possible convincing I may be open to changing my mind on the whole thing. The “wild west” as the book puts it still frightens me a bit in the accountability terms in regards to using it in school.

What I took from class today

Something that I took from class today from the discussion was there are really many options to the current system we have in place. Overall, what I took from how to my own discussion better is to make sure groups are organized in ways that cohesive work can be done with members, and to make sure that as my group presents we should listen carefully what class members say and redirect them if they get off track in the discussion.

The key to any IRLO is the interactive portion of it. The user has control of their learning and gets feedback on their performance.  Something that I also learned about the IRLOI will be working on is that Scratch the program we will be working with, is coded in a visual coding.  

Rethinking Education the Age of Technology Reflection Chapter 4

I thought that this chapter was fairly interesting.  I found it surprising to see the journey from where we started to where we are now. Something I hadn’t really considered before reading this chapter was the reason for schooling starting up during the industrial revolution. It hadn’t occurred to me previously that one of the reasons that schooling was pushed for was a way to keep juvenile crime down after child labor laws had been implemented. I had always thought it was put forth mainly for ideological reasons for example some of what Horace Mann proposed like building cohesion in the democracy. Something that I kind of felt the authors were suggesting is that the switch from apprenticeship into universal education may have had some flaws to it. It seems like now that perhaps we all need to become apprentices in working with technology, as that future generations will be required to be increasingly fluent in it.          

I am not positive how I will use this new thinking in my future teaching. After reading this chapter I mostly took it as placing a setting on why American schools are the way that they are and will probably explain what is needed to be done to have them succeed in the future.              

Blogs, Wikis Chapter 5 Reflection

What changed in my thinking about technology after reading this chapter is basically learning what and RSS feed was. I noticed it on a lot of web pages that I would frequent for example CNN and I really never knew what it was until now. I can see how this could be a useful tool, not just as an educator but as a time saver in general for yourself. It seems kind of cool what it does bringing the information to you as it is new. I can see how this could really be helpful if you were manages blogs or wikis for a class, I was kind of wondering how to manage student blogs before reading about RSS feeds. I was kind of concerned about how you would know when students would post or if and when they posted information. Actually that was one of the reasons I thought that using blogs and wikis for classes could be very time consuming for a teacher, but with using RSS I can see that it would not be as much of a  burden on your time.

I think that in my own classroom in the future I may use RSS. I definitely want to try using it first for awhile before I make my decision on whether I like the tool or not. I think the best way to try it out is just using RSS mainly for personal use keeping track of the few websites that I frequent most days and  see how it affects my time management on the web, for example with weather, CNN, and a few other online publications I read like the Onion.  I could see myself using the RSS for keeping track of student blogs and a class wiki. Some of the other uses I am not so sure on, but in addition to keeping track of student weblogs. I think that having them set up a RSS to keep track on a certain event or subject could be a neat semester long project for them to work on. I could see how it could be incorporated into a current science events section at the beginning of every class for example.

Blogs, Wikis Chapter 4 Reflection

I think one of my views that has changed after reading this chapter was my view on how reliable the information that is found within a wiki can be. Previously I had always been told, never to use sites like Wikipedia as a source or to allow students to use at a source, but that thought has been challenged. I can see how with everyone editing, most with the intent of providing good, reliable information can be a trusted source. At the same time at any one moment the information may be wrong and has yet to be fixed, so I think that I would have to encourage my own students in the future to double check their sources or at least cross reference things that they are not sure of. Another new view I took from this chapter is some of the ways that wikis could be used. The idea of the virtual textbook put together by the class as the semester progressed I think was a novel I idea. I can see how that would be a very good way for students to practice collaborating with each other and would likely be good practice for the future. I had used a system like that for collaboration when I worked at a job that we wrote reports. We used the editor function in Microsoft Word. Three or four of us would be working on a file saved on our center database and would edit a report each of us making changes to the final report. At times we would simply edit the report or we would use the track changes tool to accept or reject changes. In a way this was similar to a wiki on a much smaller scale.

In my future teaching I would like to try to use wikis if possible in the classroom. I still may not accept Wikipedia as a source from some assignments, but for other I can see the value in a having quick access to precompiled data. Hopefully the school I work at will have sufficient computers or my students will have sufficient computers to allow me to use wikis. The virtual textbook idea is something I could sink my teeth into. It would be nice to have students using a variety of sources for their studies versus one textbook. Also I think it would be a great way to introduce students to the idea of peer review and critical thinking. These are important in science and I think to effectively prepare students they are important to be able to do.