Emily's Learning Log

End of Semester Reflection

emrhs — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:02:19 +0000

I came into this course thinking I would learn about PowerPoint and SmartBoards but ended up discovering how some of the most entertaining and social Web sites and technologies can be educational. I think the fact that the educational technologies I’ve learned about are so entertaining and social capture the essence of why teachers and students need to use them. I also said early on that I didn’t think most of my schooling growing up captured my attention enough or inspired me enough to retain or appreciate what I learned. School was often painfully boring and stressful. But using tools that clearly already do capture young people’s attention is brillant and connects what young people learn in the classroom with so many aspects of the world outside the classroom.

Over all, I think the activities in this course were extremely helpful in providing insight into, not only educational technology, but education in general. I thought the text book was a little repetitive on concepts I and others had already learned about, but perhaps a better approach would be having groups present on a selected chapters as a lesson plan. This would cut some of the dry reading (there was enough interesting reading to make up for it) and be a nice review to start out the class. Maybe we could of have used one less lesson plan. The presentations where we talked about course concepts didn’t give me much new or interesting, except for ones on a couple of the more complicated concepts (ex: RSS). I liked the social software presentations, though. Also, I think the learning artifact should be assigned at the end of the semester and that the grading/project updating process should be more clearly outlined.

For future students, I would let them know that they will be learning about way cooler technologies than they probably think they will. Although, perhaps you did tell us that. I can’t remember. I would also tell them that even though some projects might seem overwheming, they turn out to be mostly painless, fun and helpful.

Video Game Design Response

emrhs — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:24:25 +0000

Effective video game design for educational purposes includes strategizing, hypothesis testing and problem-solving. A first-person perspective, 3-D representations of space, interaction and collaboration increases user control and stimulates mutliple senses. Having goals, rules, narrative and intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, especially with adventure and strategy games, provides motivation.

Learning outcomes from effective video game design include research and thoughtful design, construction of knowledge through experience and personal creation and 21st century skills, such as attention, concentration, problem-solving, decision-making, collaborative work and creativity. Game-like environments employ deductive reasoning, hypothesis testing, abstract thought, comprehending complex systems and visual and spatial processing.

Gender has no effect on amount or agressiveness of play. Access, prior gaming experience and pace are less for girls. Girls may also prefer a wider view of the game.

Feedback: Shirky’s book talk

emrhs — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:12:32 +0000

According to Shirky, what has the Internet allowed us to do that we couldn’t do before it?

As Internet has allowed for easier group formation, sharing, conversation, colloboration and collective action has increased. First amendment freedoms have come together as one. We’ve moved beyond the techonology of the Internet and onto connecting with each other. The way we go about things has changed, for instance sharing often comes before group coordination. Change and learning new things are accelerated.

Why is this important and what impact could it or will it have on your career as an educator?

The most important thing I took away from this talk was that change and learning is accelerated. I would find clever ways to get people to come together for a cause. As students complete activities and quizzes, I would found ways to use that to connect them with other classmates.

Visual Literacy

emrhs — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:00:01 +0000

Read and watch the resources linked here and respond to the following questions in your learning log

Why is visual literacy important? Visual literacy is important because it helps us understand what is being communicated by various images we see as we go about our daily lives. Drivers need to understand road signs before hitting the road. Vl helps us locate restrooms, stores and other places in large part represented by images or logos. Vl also helps us to understand that not everything we see in the world is accurately represented. Many images have bias of the artist or photographer.
Should visual literacy be a focus in education? Why or why not? Vl should be a component of education as needed. If a certain area of study involves the use of images in one way of another, it is important that students understand them not only for what they represent but for possible shortcomings the artist/photographer may have brought into them.
In terms of visual representations, are there double standards for women and men? Explain your answer. There are certainly double standards in visual representation of men. Men aren’t usually portrayed in sexy, object-like or submissive ways. If you pick up men’s magazines (Maxim or FHM) with the exception of some, you’re far more likely to see lightly-clothed woman portrayed object-like, than you are to see lightly-clothed men portrayed object-like in women’s magazines. Also, perhaps men aren’t photoshopped as much.

Feedback: Want Schools to Work? Meet the Parents

emrhs — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 03:04:30 +0000

Tsing Loh is upset that the groups making major decisions about school programs and funding don’t include parents, and that the groups put money into programs Tsing Loh views as unproductive or unnecessary, while cutting those that are. While she points out how parents are picking up the slack already, she advocates that politicians and school-board authorities consult with parents in decision making, or at least fund parent groups at schools so they can continue picking up the slack.

If I were a teacher, I would get parents involved by giving them a packet at open house and sending packets home with students whose parents couldn’t attend. The packet would include an outline of what students would be learning, perhaps a full-blown syllabus, and links to the class blog and wiki, which parents could check to monitor class assignments, their sons or daughters’ involvement and my own feedback. I would create a parents section of the wiki that includes a discussion board for their feedback.

While Tsing Loh comes off rather strong, which takes away somewhat from her argument, I definitely agree that parents should have a greater say in their children’s learning. I know that when I have kids, I will be extremely involved in their lives, not in a helicopter parent way, but in a caring, enriching way. I wouldn’t mind putting in effort to better my kids’ schools, but I would certainly expect that proper funding for the proper programs was in place. And I would definitely expect my voice to be heard.

12th-grade Language Arts Essay Memo Assignment

emrhs — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:40:57 +0000

Assignment:

Pick an election issue you feel most passionate about, and write a 500-word informative essay in the form of a memo. The essay memo may end up in a packet to be handed out at the high school’s upcoming “Election and You” evening event. At the event, students will discuss political issues in preparation for “mock voting” during lunch period on election day.

Resources:

Picking an issue:

YouTube Videos:

First debate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-nNIEduEOw

Second debate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaBiVJtZc00&feature=user

Issues: http://www.ontheissues.org/Issues.htm

Memo Writing:

http://www.hodu.com/memo-writing.shtml

http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~profcomm/writing/samples/memo_samp.htm

Writing Informational Essay:

http://staff.esuhsd.org/danielle/English%20Department%20LVillage/informational.html

Credible Sources:

http://www.tammypayton.net/courses/search/credible2.shtml

MLA Citations:

http://www.liu.edu/CWIS/CWP/library/workshop/citmla.htm

Feedback on Alisa Miller’s presentation

emrhs — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:35:24 +0000

In Miller’s presentation, she says we know less about our world because we mostly hear and read American-related news and when it is foreign news, it is focused on “hotspots” like Iraq. A major reason for lack of coverage is that news networks cut their numbers of foreign bureaus by two, she says. Wire stories aren’t in a relatable enough context, and news Web sites and local television news are popular sources for information, but their coverage is limited. One factor Miller points out, is that stories, such as those on celebrities, are cheaper.

Miller’s discussion was somewhat eye-opening, but I’d need many more supporting facts and statistics before running with her claim. For instance, she never mentioned what we previously knew about the world. I definitely wouldn’t assume my mom and dad knew more at my age. In fact, if anything, because it wasn’t as global or technological of a world, I’d stand to reason they knew less. Furthermore, I understand the coverage percentages are a bit startling, but we live in America, so it makes sense that we want to know about America. Besides, the survey of Americans who closely follow world news seems self-reported, so I don’t believe we can conclude that a great deal of Americans care about what’s going on around the world just based on that. Mostly, whether or not we know more about our world comes down to what we read. I’ve been reading the New York Times every day, and see plenty about the world, and specifically India, China and Russia, which Miller pointed out we don‘t hear about. I’d be curious to know what she is considering news.

If I were a teacher, I would find ways to work world events into my class discussions and assignments. I would point out how the events related to young people specifically. Perhaps I’d give current-event bonus quizzes and post world news most relevant to my students, on our class Webblog or wiki once a week.

Uses for Weblog and Wiki

emrhs — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:30:33 +0000

Three uses for Weblog:

1. Students could reflect on class, what they are most interested in, what they want to know more about, etc.

2. Students could find neat/inspiring content related to class and post it on their blogs. Perhaps the teacher would periodically share the best content with the class.

3. Students could use the blog to tell their teacher and fellow classmates a little about themselves.

Three uses for Wiki:

1. Each student could have his or her own page in the Wiki and use it to put up assignments. This would resolve the issue of editing the same page at the same time.

2. Students could pick a favorite topic in the course and elaborate on it for other students’ reference.

3. Students could constructively comment on each other’s posted work.

Potential Lesson Planning & Social Networking Web sites

emrhs — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:53:02 +0000

Discovery Education — Has lesson plans for all gradesets on various topics within each subject. The plans are very detailed and include a suggested lesson plan support, which is usually a DVD. Some other neat features of the Web page are worksheets and a puzzlemaker, which is always a cool way to make a subject more fun.

Teachnology — Includes over 28,763 lesson plans on even nontraditional subject matter. It also has rubrics and worksheets. Unfortunately, access to a lot of the material requires a membership.

Scholastic – Has lots of creative lesson plans, activities and books and author info. and ways to connect with other teachers.

A to Z Teacher Stuff — Not as extensive, but has several hundred lesson plans, articles, tips and a discussion post.

Thirteen Ed Online — Lots of really unique lesson plans and professional development suggestions for teachers.

Hot Chalk – Includes over 3,500 free lesson plans, inspirational stories about teachers and a discussion board.

Lesson Planet – Has over 150,000 lesson plans that have been reviewed and rated by credentialed K-12 teachers and a lesson-making tool.

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Digg – By allowing people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web, it surfaces the best stuff as voted on by users. Then conversation about content is promoted.

Stumble Upon – Helps you discover and share great websites matched to your personal preferences. You are shown pages bookmarked by your friends or other users with simlilar interests and vice versa.

Google Notebook — With Google Notebook, you can browse, clip, and organize information from across the web in a single online location that’s accessible from any computer.

Google Reader – Google Reader constantly checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new content.
It’s like a personalized inbox for the entire web. You can share your favorite items with your friends simply by sending them to relevant links. Click the sharing icon on any item and it will instantly appear on your public page.

Evernote — allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.

Xanga — A place to keep a blog and share photos and videos.

BookmarkSync — Provides real-time automatic bookmark synchronization between all your different browsers, computers, and operating systems. BookmarkSync lets you find what other people are bookmarking in hundreds of thousands of unique bookmark ‘Clusters’.

Goodreads – Keep track of what you’ve read and what you’d like to read. See what your friends or like-minded people are reading and get great book recommendations.

Stand-out Quote

emrhs — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:59:43 +0000

On transfer between school and everyday life:

“The transfer literature suggests that the most effective transfer may come from a balance of specific examples and general principles, not from either one alone.” (p.77)

I love this discussion because it touches on one of my biggest concerns with modern day education: its relevance to real life. Especially after reading the dicsussion before this, I do agree that students should be learning both in a practical way and a general way. We do need to learn to solve problems independently and abstractly. It helps develop parts of the brain that are important to develop. But we need to work in teams, use tools and learn contextaully/hands-on much more. The problem is that secondary education is much more general than practical. That hinders us from connecting the dots, retaining information and getting more exicted about learning. It needs to be the other way around.