Saturday, December 13, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
Journal 10: Making History
Shein, Esther (2008, October). Making History. The Journal, Retrieved October 26, 2008, from
http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23394
Again, we are learning about technologies for the classroom such as creating a podcast or using a business simulation program. These 2 activities are a great choice for student learning because they are used as a collaborative project and they go beyond text book learning, which makes the knowledge more relevant and personal. I really liked the idea of creating a podcast about an event in history that didn't get much attention or any in the textbook. As they research these historic events they are also getting to sample music and personal accounts of the time period. As for the business management program it mentioned that it was a program accessible off-campus. So when a student injured herself and was out from school for a week, instead of falling behind on the group project she was able to work from home. I think that is a huge bonus and another reason for integrating technology in the classroom
Question 1:
What other collaborative programs/activities can be used in the classroom?
IMovie is an option and since so many of us go to the movies it is relevant to our lives.
International Learning Circle- High School students discuss a specified topic with 8-10 other schools from around the globe. The program is conducted in English, Spanish and French. Each classroom takes a turn to ask a question for all to answer and discuss.
Animation- using this medium, pick 2 different professions and animate "A day in the life of..."
Question 2:
How do you make students more accountable?
When you work on group projects students will feel more accountable as they don't want to let others down. Also if a student falls behind, one of their peers will be asking them to step up rather than just the teacher. An option for the classroom would be for each student to create an on-line calendar with their gmail account and every time they log on to their account they are reminded of what assignments are needed to be completed.
http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23394
Again, we are learning about technologies for the classroom such as creating a podcast or using a business simulation program. These 2 activities are a great choice for student learning because they are used as a collaborative project and they go beyond text book learning, which makes the knowledge more relevant and personal. I really liked the idea of creating a podcast about an event in history that didn't get much attention or any in the textbook. As they research these historic events they are also getting to sample music and personal accounts of the time period. As for the business management program it mentioned that it was a program accessible off-campus. So when a student injured herself and was out from school for a week, instead of falling behind on the group project she was able to work from home. I think that is a huge bonus and another reason for integrating technology in the classroom
Question 1:
What other collaborative programs/activities can be used in the classroom?
IMovie is an option and since so many of us go to the movies it is relevant to our lives.
International Learning Circle- High School students discuss a specified topic with 8-10 other schools from around the globe. The program is conducted in English, Spanish and French. Each classroom takes a turn to ask a question for all to answer and discuss.
Animation- using this medium, pick 2 different professions and animate "A day in the life of..."
Question 2:
How do you make students more accountable?
When you work on group projects students will feel more accountable as they don't want to let others down. Also if a student falls behind, one of their peers will be asking them to step up rather than just the teacher. An option for the classroom would be for each student to create an on-line calendar with their gmail account and every time they log on to their account they are reminded of what assignments are needed to be completed.
Journal 9: Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes in Using Blogs with Students
Reynard, Ruth (2008, October). Avoiding the 5 Most Common Mistakes in Using Blogs with Students. The Journal, Retrieved October 26, 2008, from http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23434
According to the article, if the blogging tool is not presented in a way that the students sees as relevant but rather just another assignment among the many then they could easily reject using this tool. There are 5 common mistakes that affect the success students have with blogging. #1 Ineffective Contextualization: There needs to be planning and structure for the most effective use of this tool. It is meant for self reflection and building on critical thinking skills along with giving the student a voice. #2 Unclear Learning Outcomes: You need to be clear on what you want the end result to be, such as "new higher level thinking skills" through analysis, synthesis, new ideas and application. #3 Misuse of the Environment: It is not meant for collaboration even though students may have the opportunity to comment on each others blog. It is an opportunity for independent thought and expression. #4 Illusive Grading Practices: There needs to be clarity on how this assignment will be graded as it is confusing. #5 Inadequate Time Allocation: If possible this assignment should be ongoing throughout the year. The more it is used, the more value the students will see in this tool and ultimately strengthen participation.
Question 1. How do you grade this ongoing project?
The article states that blogs may be evaluated on the following: Reflective statements, Commentary statements, New idea statements, and Application statements. It was really helpful to have these guidelines as I'm still getting use to the idea of blogging and have it be more meaningful than a way for people to vent or write what happened to them during the day.
Question 2. How could I use this tool in my classroom?
I see it as a tool for self expression like a form of journaling and so I would like to have students begin using it to write what they learned in class and what they liked and didn't like with what was presented to them. Another activity would be for the student to choose one day a week to reflect on the days events, the people they interacted with and what they would have changed or what worked well for them. Lastly, it would be great to have each student choose 2-3 different places to volunteer (total of 10 hours per semester) and the blog would be a space for each student to document and reflect on their experience (using the above evaluation criteria).
According to the article, if the blogging tool is not presented in a way that the students sees as relevant but rather just another assignment among the many then they could easily reject using this tool. There are 5 common mistakes that affect the success students have with blogging. #1 Ineffective Contextualization: There needs to be planning and structure for the most effective use of this tool. It is meant for self reflection and building on critical thinking skills along with giving the student a voice. #2 Unclear Learning Outcomes: You need to be clear on what you want the end result to be, such as "new higher level thinking skills" through analysis, synthesis, new ideas and application. #3 Misuse of the Environment: It is not meant for collaboration even though students may have the opportunity to comment on each others blog. It is an opportunity for independent thought and expression. #4 Illusive Grading Practices: There needs to be clarity on how this assignment will be graded as it is confusing. #5 Inadequate Time Allocation: If possible this assignment should be ongoing throughout the year. The more it is used, the more value the students will see in this tool and ultimately strengthen participation.
Question 1. How do you grade this ongoing project?
The article states that blogs may be evaluated on the following: Reflective statements, Commentary statements, New idea statements, and Application statements. It was really helpful to have these guidelines as I'm still getting use to the idea of blogging and have it be more meaningful than a way for people to vent or write what happened to them during the day.
Question 2. How could I use this tool in my classroom?
I see it as a tool for self expression like a form of journaling and so I would like to have students begin using it to write what they learned in class and what they liked and didn't like with what was presented to them. Another activity would be for the student to choose one day a week to reflect on the days events, the people they interacted with and what they would have changed or what worked well for them. Lastly, it would be great to have each student choose 2-3 different places to volunteer (total of 10 hours per semester) and the blog would be a space for each student to document and reflect on their experience (using the above evaluation criteria).
Journal 8: A "Fantastic Super" Use of Technology: Closing the Digital Divide
Curtis, Diane (2002, November, 1). A "Fantastic Super" Use of Technology: Closing the Digital Divide. Edutopia, Retrieved October 26, 2008, from
http://www.edutopia.org/fantastic-super-use-technology
This article shows how technology was implemented in an elementary school in North Carolina and the positive effects it had on the students, teachers and parents. This was a new school with a Superintendent that supported a new program. The technology that was available to this school was the Internet, wireless laptops, computers in all the classrooms, lots of software programs, closed-circuit school television news, internet devices for low-income families, and teacher offices with phones and computers which was supported with a large grant from a large corporation. Besides all this technology, the school environment was supportive to the staff through a team effort approach. Time was provided for teachers to get together to plan and share ideas and new teachers were paired up with veteran teachers as mentors. The school was also supportive to the childrens' families which encouraged parental involvement. For me, this article describes what an ideal school looks like and it becomes more clear how beneficial technology can be.
Question 1. What could I do if there was lack of technology in my school?
Grants from the community and large businesses can make a huge difference in our schools. The first thing I would need to do is learn how to write a grant. I know it is a time consuming project that takes some skill to be done correctly. Instead of me getting the funds I could also turn it into a class project where we learn how to create a budget, write a proposal and solicit for funding. This is when it can be really helpful to have good relationships with the parents and community.
Question 2. How do you get parents more involved?
I really liked that each teacher had their own website where the daily learning was posted so parents knew what went on and could ask their children better questions and be more involved in their learning process. This would be a good tool to use for posting what is needed for the classroom and when extra help is needed in the class. This could a place for them to sign up to be a part of the classroom for the day. I like the idea of posting weekly questions that students would need to discuss with their parents and then posting on a blog called, What I learned from my Parents.
http://www.edutopia.org/fantastic-super-use-technology
This article shows how technology was implemented in an elementary school in North Carolina and the positive effects it had on the students, teachers and parents. This was a new school with a Superintendent that supported a new program. The technology that was available to this school was the Internet, wireless laptops, computers in all the classrooms, lots of software programs, closed-circuit school television news, internet devices for low-income families, and teacher offices with phones and computers which was supported with a large grant from a large corporation. Besides all this technology, the school environment was supportive to the staff through a team effort approach. Time was provided for teachers to get together to plan and share ideas and new teachers were paired up with veteran teachers as mentors. The school was also supportive to the childrens' families which encouraged parental involvement. For me, this article describes what an ideal school looks like and it becomes more clear how beneficial technology can be.
Question 1. What could I do if there was lack of technology in my school?
Grants from the community and large businesses can make a huge difference in our schools. The first thing I would need to do is learn how to write a grant. I know it is a time consuming project that takes some skill to be done correctly. Instead of me getting the funds I could also turn it into a class project where we learn how to create a budget, write a proposal and solicit for funding. This is when it can be really helpful to have good relationships with the parents and community.
Question 2. How do you get parents more involved?
I really liked that each teacher had their own website where the daily learning was posted so parents knew what went on and could ask their children better questions and be more involved in their learning process. This would be a good tool to use for posting what is needed for the classroom and when extra help is needed in the class. This could a place for them to sign up to be a part of the classroom for the day. I like the idea of posting weekly questions that students would need to discuss with their parents and then posting on a blog called, What I learned from my Parents.
Journal 7: Collaborative Documents
Collaborative Documents describes applications you can use to store information and work on projects together. These documents are usually private and one is invited to be included in the group. The documents may allow for concurrent editing like google documents or not, like Wiki.
The discussions under this category were great for getting sources for many collaborative documents. The source that received the most recommendations was google documents. It is easy to use with a good interface as we have discovered through this technology course. One teacher uses it for all written papers. The documents are shared with the teacher and he can quickly respond. He no longer needs to collect paper and schlep it around instead he can be anywhere to look over the assignments. It saves paper and the students don't need to carry around flash drives. Unfortunately, google, like many mail applications is often blocked from schools so unless you can get special permission or sign up for google applications for education it may not be a feasible option for primary or secondary students. There are other applications that also need an email address to sign up for the collaborative documents and again this will be prohibitive if the school doesn't allow mail. The alternative is finding a prepared site that only requires a password, such as Niceweb.
Facebook has a new application called Study Groups where you can create a secure collaborative document. If you want to create a collaborative newspaper or brochure you can go to ReadWriteThink Printing Press. Moonedit is another site that is competitive with google documents that also allows for real-time collaboration and each user is a different color. I highly recommend the reading more on the threads to find out many more options for collaborative documents.
The discussions under this category were great for getting sources for many collaborative documents. The source that received the most recommendations was google documents. It is easy to use with a good interface as we have discovered through this technology course. One teacher uses it for all written papers. The documents are shared with the teacher and he can quickly respond. He no longer needs to collect paper and schlep it around instead he can be anywhere to look over the assignments. It saves paper and the students don't need to carry around flash drives. Unfortunately, google, like many mail applications is often blocked from schools so unless you can get special permission or sign up for google applications for education it may not be a feasible option for primary or secondary students. There are other applications that also need an email address to sign up for the collaborative documents and again this will be prohibitive if the school doesn't allow mail. The alternative is finding a prepared site that only requires a password, such as Niceweb.
Facebook has a new application called Study Groups where you can create a secure collaborative document. If you want to create a collaborative newspaper or brochure you can go to ReadWriteThink Printing Press. Moonedit is another site that is competitive with google documents that also allows for real-time collaboration and each user is a different color. I highly recommend the reading more on the threads to find out many more options for collaborative documents.
Journal 6
Review of Inspiration and IMovie
1. How I liked the program.
Inspiration is a fairly easy program to use without any prior knowledge. I know the possibilities are greater than what I created with the program but what I was able to accomplish I feel an elementary age student and above could also do the same. The images they offered were more youthful than I would have liked, however; there were quite a few choices and it was very convenient. I think students would enjoy brainstorming and linking ideas in this way. It's more interesting than just doing it on paper plus they are learning how to use technology.
IMovie is a great tool for editing small projects. I love that it links up with the other apple programs, so for example I was able to purchase a song from itunes and easily import it into my audio track for imovie. There is a lot involved with editing and it was challenging figuring out a lot of the features, particularly how to cut shorten audio, transitions and timing. However, I have worked with cool edit pro for sound editing and this program was a lot easier and less frustrating. I think students would really appreciate learning about this program. It may be tedious at times but they can create something unique that gives them a voice.
2. How I could incorporate this software in my classroom.
Inspiration: I think this could be a fun activity to begin any project or writing assignment to show how beneficial it is to brainstorm. I think finding an image to represent their ideas helps them to further define and contemplate what they are trying to get across.
IMovie: Since most high school have cell phones I would have the students use their phones to take pictures and record things that were important in their lives which they would download into IMovie. They would also choose a song for their audio track. The final project would be a 3 minute edited video which would be shown to the whole class.
3. How I liked learning via Atomic Learning.
I did not use Atomic Learning for Inspiration as I had forgotten about it. I had not worked on it in class but I had been watching 2 of my classmates and listened when they asked questions. From that and some notes I was able to figure out what I needed to do. Of course, I had to play around with the program to get the desired effects. I wish I knew how to create nicer arrows that went from the images to the bubbled ideas so it looked more professional. In which I should go back and look at some of the Atomic Learning tutorials.
I definitely needed the Atomic Learning (AL) tutorials for IMovie beside watching Jeffery's video again. Unfortunately, I didn't know which IMovie version I had at first so when I chose AL there were about 6 different ones to choose from. I watched the newest version first, which didn't help me and when I found the correct one there was an extra feature in their HD version. I liked how the tutorials were broken down into small topics. They were quick and easy to follow. However, I would have liked for them to be a little more in depth and cover more of the features such as how to cut out music from the audio track or sound on the clip, how to make the timing work with transitions or keeping the title on the clip until the end of the clip. It would have been nice to have "common mistakes" tutorials. Overall AL lessened my aggravation with not knowing what the heck to do.
1. How I liked the program.
Inspiration is a fairly easy program to use without any prior knowledge. I know the possibilities are greater than what I created with the program but what I was able to accomplish I feel an elementary age student and above could also do the same. The images they offered were more youthful than I would have liked, however; there were quite a few choices and it was very convenient. I think students would enjoy brainstorming and linking ideas in this way. It's more interesting than just doing it on paper plus they are learning how to use technology.
IMovie is a great tool for editing small projects. I love that it links up with the other apple programs, so for example I was able to purchase a song from itunes and easily import it into my audio track for imovie. There is a lot involved with editing and it was challenging figuring out a lot of the features, particularly how to cut shorten audio, transitions and timing. However, I have worked with cool edit pro for sound editing and this program was a lot easier and less frustrating. I think students would really appreciate learning about this program. It may be tedious at times but they can create something unique that gives them a voice.
2. How I could incorporate this software in my classroom.
Inspiration: I think this could be a fun activity to begin any project or writing assignment to show how beneficial it is to brainstorm. I think finding an image to represent their ideas helps them to further define and contemplate what they are trying to get across.
IMovie: Since most high school have cell phones I would have the students use their phones to take pictures and record things that were important in their lives which they would download into IMovie. They would also choose a song for their audio track. The final project would be a 3 minute edited video which would be shown to the whole class.
3. How I liked learning via Atomic Learning.
I did not use Atomic Learning for Inspiration as I had forgotten about it. I had not worked on it in class but I had been watching 2 of my classmates and listened when they asked questions. From that and some notes I was able to figure out what I needed to do. Of course, I had to play around with the program to get the desired effects. I wish I knew how to create nicer arrows that went from the images to the bubbled ideas so it looked more professional. In which I should go back and look at some of the Atomic Learning tutorials.
I definitely needed the Atomic Learning (AL) tutorials for IMovie beside watching Jeffery's video again. Unfortunately, I didn't know which IMovie version I had at first so when I chose AL there were about 6 different ones to choose from. I watched the newest version first, which didn't help me and when I found the correct one there was an extra feature in their HD version. I liked how the tutorials were broken down into small topics. They were quick and easy to follow. However, I would have liked for them to be a little more in depth and cover more of the features such as how to cut out music from the audio track or sound on the clip, how to make the timing work with transitions or keeping the title on the clip until the end of the clip. It would have been nice to have "common mistakes" tutorials. Overall AL lessened my aggravation with not knowing what the heck to do.
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