[Description: Using iMovie I created a short PSA movie that would be used as an introduction video for prospective students to Cal State San Marcos. Using video clips of the campus as a basis for raw footage, I added facts about the campus and also learned how to add video effects, text, transitions between video clips, background music, and a voiceover.]
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Journal #10 (NETS-T 3): The Always-Connected Generation
Bull, Glenn [November 2010] 'The Always-Connected Generation'. Leading and Learning with Technology. http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-november.aspx
This article delves into what characterizes the generation of Americans that came of age during the turn of the new millennium (the decade of the 2000s). What makes this generation unique (aka ‘the Millennials’) is our use of technology and how that has changed the way we communicate, acquire and share information, and socialize. Three characteristics in particular are revealing in this generation’s relationship with technology: (1) 80% of all millennials have a wireless communication device with them at all times, (2) most millennials have internet access at all times, and (3) millennials use handheld devices to organize their lives and coordinate social interactions. Millennials now have low-barriers and many avenues to share information and collaborate on the internet as well as participate in social interactions with different that would have been difficult in previous generation. However, the article points out the still existing disparity between the preponderance of technology in young people’s lives and the lack of it in the classroom and education. Teachers and administrators still look at technology (especially personal-use technology) as a hindrance in the classroom and learning process, and the task for future educators is find a way to use and incorporate these young people’s knowledge of technology into their education. From my perspective as a person of this generation, the aspect of this growth of technology in our lives that has affected me the most is the ease-of-access to information in the form of text, video, or pictures that would have been difficult to acquire without computers and the internet. What this has done has broadened my understanding about world affairs and giving me a more balanced point-of-view when it comes to approaching a subject because I now get to read and hear about many different sides of a argument.
This article delves into what characterizes the generation of Americans that came of age during the turn of the new millennium (the decade of the 2000s). What makes this generation unique (aka ‘the Millennials’) is our use of technology and how that has changed the way we communicate, acquire and share information, and socialize. Three characteristics in particular are revealing in this generation’s relationship with technology: (1) 80% of all millennials have a wireless communication device with them at all times, (2) most millennials have internet access at all times, and (3) millennials use handheld devices to organize their lives and coordinate social interactions. Millennials now have low-barriers and many avenues to share information and collaborate on the internet as well as participate in social interactions with different that would have been difficult in previous generation. However, the article points out the still existing disparity between the preponderance of technology in young people’s lives and the lack of it in the classroom and education. Teachers and administrators still look at technology (especially personal-use technology) as a hindrance in the classroom and learning process, and the task for future educators is find a way to use and incorporate these young people’s knowledge of technology into their education. From my perspective as a person of this generation, the aspect of this growth of technology in our lives that has affected me the most is the ease-of-access to information in the form of text, video, or pictures that would have been difficult to acquire without computers and the internet. What this has done has broadened my understanding about world affairs and giving me a more balanced point-of-view when it comes to approaching a subject because I now get to read and hear about many different sides of a argument.
Question 1
Even though young students already know how to conduct internet searches online, and with the way students can easily find the information they need for a project, why is it important nonetheless for students to learn how to how to use the internet within the classroom?
Answer1
Although today’s technology allows students access to an abundance of content, teachers can guide students towards providing context for that content. The amount of information on the internet also means a lot of that information may be superfluous rather than scholarly and teachers can help guide students in their technology use.
Question 2
What aspect of classroom instruction/learning would students/teachers benefit the most from incorporating things such as blogs and social networking?
Answer 2
If students use blogs and social networking to connect with friends outside of class then it could also be used for connecting with classmates, especially as a means for collaboration outside of the classroom. Moreover, class blogs can be used by teachers in lieu of simple syllabuses as a more robust way of presenting the course material and as a way of opening up another way of student-teacher communication.
Journal #9 (NETS-T 4,5): Save The World With Web 2.0
This article points towards the ideas and themes of the global citizen, symbiotic relationships, practical advocacy, and more importantly role of these themes in today’s classroom. The objective of the article is to take what may seems like insurmountable global problems such as world poverty, the environmental crisis, and xenophobia/intolerance and present the issue in ways that solutions/avenues could be approached in the classroom by students. The means to accomplish is Web 2.0: online collaboration through websites, blogs, discussions boards, online advocacy groups, etc. All of the actions students and teachers should take to solve these issues are framed within the ‘five inclusive human narratives’: stewardship, spirituality, democracy, diversity, and language which help set goals for each activity they do in and outside the classroom. The idea one gets from reading the article is that it says that the classroom is no longer an exclusive atmosphere where teachers and students are only concerned with happened in their classroom, their coursework, their interactions with each other, their problems, etc.
Question 1
What is the biggest difference in the way traditional and web 2.0 classrooms approach teaching?
Answer 1
Traditional classrooms and teaching were primarily concerned with knowledge-based learning and instilling facts and figures-type content into their students that did not necessarily have practical application in their lives. Web 2.0 classrooms focus more on learning by problem-solving, collaboration and exploration.
Question 2
How is this type of learning more beneficial to students from a personal perspective?
Answer 2
Another important quality of the Web 2.0 classroom is the fact students engage in activities—such as advocacy and cultural exchange/awareness—that focus more on the selfless qualities within the ‘five inclusive human narratives’: students engage in activities that focus on other’s situations rather than their own academics. As a result, students learn and gain more about themselves as person’s in this learning process because they engage in activities that forces them to act in situations and towards issues rather than simply retaining information.
Another important quality of the Web 2.0 classroom is the fact students engage in activities—such as advocacy and cultural exchange/awareness—that focus more on the selfless qualities within the ‘five inclusive human narratives’: students engage in activities that focus on other’s situations rather than their own academics. As a result, students learn and gain more about themselves as person’s in this learning process because they engage in activities that forces them to act in situations and towards issues rather than simply retaining information.
Journal #8 (NETS-T 3): Is It Time to Switch to Digital Textbooks?
Griffin, M, & Cady, M. (2010). Is it time to switch to digital textbooks?. Learning and Leading with Technology, 38(3), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-november.aspx
Two teachers provide differing views on the question of switching from paper textbooks to digital textbooks. For the pro-side of the argument, digital textbooks fit in with the myriad other digital such as cell-phones, ipods, and digital cameras that young people are more accustomed to using in their everyday lives that would therefore not only lower the technology barrier for digital textbooks but also get students more engaged with textbooks because of their digital qualities. Moreover, technology would enhance student understanding of the text by tools within digital textbooks that deal with pronunciation, language translation, and up-to-date information to make student interaction with the text more efficient. The counter-argument against digital textbooks is not against this innovation per se but against textbooks in general, as the teacher who points out that teaching from textbooks might not be the best (and only) way to teach subject matter and that for the majority of students this is true. Focusing more on teaching methods and other online resources is preferable to textbooks in general regardless of what form they come in. From my perspective, I agree with the pro-side of the argument that digital textbooks offer a number of possibilities with student engagement when paired with technology. However, the counter-argument is a more radical step away from textbooks in general that I agree with more. A boring textbook is a boring textbook regardless if it’s digital or not and although reading is important, students should also learn material through other means such as projects, collaboration, teaching methods, etc. The counter-argument makes a more convincing point because it seeks to reform the learning process in general.
Two teachers provide differing views on the question of switching from paper textbooks to digital textbooks. For the pro-side of the argument, digital textbooks fit in with the myriad other digital such as cell-phones, ipods, and digital cameras that young people are more accustomed to using in their everyday lives that would therefore not only lower the technology barrier for digital textbooks but also get students more engaged with textbooks because of their digital qualities. Moreover, technology would enhance student understanding of the text by tools within digital textbooks that deal with pronunciation, language translation, and up-to-date information to make student interaction with the text more efficient. The counter-argument against digital textbooks is not against this innovation per se but against textbooks in general, as the teacher who points out that teaching from textbooks might not be the best (and only) way to teach subject matter and that for the majority of students this is true. Focusing more on teaching methods and other online resources is preferable to textbooks in general regardless of what form they come in. From my perspective, I agree with the pro-side of the argument that digital textbooks offer a number of possibilities with student engagement when paired with technology. However, the counter-argument is a more radical step away from textbooks in general that I agree with more. A boring textbook is a boring textbook regardless if it’s digital or not and although reading is important, students should also learn material through other means such as projects, collaboration, teaching methods, etc. The counter-argument makes a more convincing point because it seeks to reform the learning process in general.
Question 1
What is the main flaw with the idea that classrooms should use digital-textbooks because they allow for more efficient reading/understanding of the text?
Answer 1
Digital textbooks with the vocabulary and language contained therein, that are advertised in the article, is not a giant leap from using other online resources in conjunction with reading a textbook. Other online resources such as scholarly websites and online translation tools can be used without making it seem that switching to digital textbooks that contains these advantages are necessary.
Question 2
How might digital textbooks be a negative for teaching?
Answer 2
Although the advantages mentioned in the article might help students read digital textbooks more efficiently, teachers might use and rely too much on technology to teach their students without helping them directly. Therefore, teachers might forgo developing other methods that might help engage students with the subject matter outside of text.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Journal #6 (NETS-T 5): Change Agent
Rebora, A. [11 October, 2010]. Change agent. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01richardson.h04.html?cmp=clp-edweek&intc=bs&sms_ss=delicious&at_xt=4cb7dc75d0303b73,0
This interview with Will Richardson on how we should bring the classroom in-line with 21st century technology coalesces under two main themes: (1) making teachers more comfortable with building an online presence in order to share and collaborate with their peers and students and (2) to focus on learning rather than on knowledge within the context of using IT to channel how information can be utilized in a relevant way. Richardson argues that what is needed is not a technology course added to a school’s curriculum but a shift in the mindset and culture within education that is still in a traditional framework. We must rethink the way teaching and learning is done within the context of today’s technology. For teachers, being connected and searchable with others is paramount in their use of IT and it goes hand-in-hand with both breaking away from the closed-off mentality concerning the way their handle their classroom and the way a teacher can model the use of technology for their students. For student’s, incorporating technology into the classroom is beneficial in that since they are already familiar with technology outside of the classroom, but use it mainly for casual/social purposes, learning how to use it in the classroom with make their use of it more efficiently and for incorporation of the learning process. Technology can enhance qualities in students that focus on the learning process such as collaboration with other students online, creativity using computer programs, and critical thinking skills.
Question 1
How might “G-portfolios” and Personal Learning Networks be useful especially for first-year teachers?
Answer 1
One of the biggest reasons why most new teachers quit the profession within the first few years is because of a lack of support and collaboration from other teachers and administrators at their school. Creating strong connections with other teachers at a school might take time to develop especially if those teachers are more closed-off in terms of the things they want to share, but since there is a low-barrier to entry with PLNs and they are connecting with people who are already ready to share their knowledge, PLNs for new teachers are a good tool for finding support where it is absent in their school.
Question 2
In what ways are PLNs important within the context of teacher development and today’s budget crisis in education?
Answer 2
PLNs have been growing along with social media sites and the fact that more and more teachers are creating them also dispels the myth about teaching that once you get a bachelors degree in your specific subject and once you’re a credentialed teacher that you have nothing left to learn about teaching once you enter the classroom. So if students learn in classrooms, PLNs are a way for teachers to continue learning. PLNs are really important especially today when there are huge budget cuts in school funding across the board, a lot of schools can’t afford to give additional training and development programs to teachers to get them to a higher standard that the school needs them to be in. So in this case PLNs are important for development and training because they connect you with people who might be in a position to help, especially if they‘re teachers who have been in the profession for a long time.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Journal #7: My Personal Learning Network (NETS-T 5)
[Description: For this assignment I learned about Personal Learning Networks and how they are constructed. The three main tools I used to create my PLN are Delicious, Twitter, and Classroom 2.0. From each of these sources I was able to discover how to connect with other people and find educational technology resources. Afterwords, I reflected on the usefulness of my PLN through a journal post.]
1. My personal learning network is divided into two categories: mircobloggers (Twitter) who focus on incorporating technology into the classroom and websites found through the social bookmaking tool Delicious that focus more on resources specifically for history/social studies teachers. I think these two categories work well together especially for history teachers because History is seen as one of the more traditional classes that functions without the use of up-to-date technology, unlike science or computer classes. But because history classes focuses on subject matter from the past and material that many students see as irrelevant or not interesting, technology with help in presenting the material in new and creative ways.
2. My network of 6 people on Twitter consists of 5 teachers (Scott Mcleod, Kelly Smith, Kimberly from EdTech UNconference, Jeffery Heil, and Shelly Terrell) and one collaborative community—EdTech Talk. I chose these people to follow on Twitter after checking their personal blogs and found that they have a lot of good resources and blogposts about incorporating technology into the classroom, tech tools, tutorials on how use certain tools such as Smartboard and how to motivate students using technology.
The educational chat I participated in Twitter was for social studies/history teachers (#sschat) and I chose it because of my aspiration to become a history teacher. The topic of discussion for the chat was who should we, as history/social studies teachers, consider to be important historical figures to include into our curriculums? This topic question was really interesting because who teachers include to focus on in their classrooms is a good reflection of where the teaching of history is today and the personal interests of teachers. Should teachers focus on major figures? Or stories of people who previously had no voice such as women, minorities, the poor and oppressed? Most of the people who participated in the chat were teachers sharing what they were currently doing in their classrooms. The chat lasted an hour and the three main themes that emerged from everyone’s tweets were on (1) revealing interesting and sometimes funny aspects of well-known historical figures in order to make them more interesting for the students to learn about, (2) presenting the more controversial aspects of a historical figure in order make the student determine for themselves whether the person was good or bad and (3) focusing the curriculum on the more unknown segments of a population in history. I had made the comment on the chat that ‘all history is revisionist history and history today is the process of including in the stories of ordinary people and people who did not have control of history and therefore were left out in official record books.' The main revelation in this chat for me was the fact that teachers today have more creativity and autonomy in the historical figures they focus on and they do not necessarily have to focus on teaching only the core historical figures that are taught in traditional history textbooks.3. The two main tags that I was looking for on Delicious were 'resources' and 'history' and I put people into my network that had a lot of sites that had these tags. Four of the websites I tagged as PLN had content that is relevant for history teachers and courses. Since writing and research is a main component of history courses I found a search engine that automatically determines if a text is plagiarized since plagiarism is a concern in these courses. I also tagged an essay called 'How to create non-readers' since reading is also a large part that makes up history courses. The third history specific site I tagged PLN is a site called Eyewitness to History and if focuses on telling important historical events through the eyes of ordinary people which is good for presenting a different side to the more traditional ways of presenting an event to a class. The last site I tagged for history is a site called Making Sense of Evidence that helps students and teachers how to determine the authenticity of sources such as books, pictures, movies, etc. which is good tool for doing research. The other site I tagged dealt with either finding tech tools for use in the classroom and tutorials on how to use them (such as Atomic Learning).
4.The article I read from Classroom 2.0 was titled "Wikipedia is NOT Wicked!" by Gwyneth Jones. The main argument of the article is to convey the idea teachers have the wrong impression when they look down upon using Wikipedia as a resource/research. Attached to the blogpost is an article which talks about a study done by a Nature journal where they compared the accuracy of Wikipedia to Encyclopedia Britannica. It found that Wikipedia was only slightly less accurate as Britannica (per article) and that certain high profile cases of deliberate misinformation put on the site were the exception to the rule. The blogpost argues that teaches can't ignore Wikipedia because of how pervasive it is as a source of information. However, it is argued that Wikipedia best left for getting background information, looking up key words, and terms rather for heavy or serious research. Wikipedia should provide context and focus to a student's research in order to cut down on reading unnecessary or redundant information. I agreed with the article's argument saying that is should only be used as a starting point for gathering information. What was really surprising to find out was how accurate Wikipedia was compared to other sources that were seen as more credible, although every time I would use it for research I rarely encountered information that was clearly out-of-place. Teachers I think are hesitant to accept Wikipedia as a legitimate source even if there are references provided for the information because of how easy it is to access the information, unlike sifting through scholarly journals or books and the fact that it doesn't go into heavy detail--although the article makes the point that it shouldn't be intended for that purpose, and just like Britannica is only used for general information.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Journal 4 (NETS-T 3 ): Computing In The Clouds
Citation: Johnson, Doug. (December 2009). Computing In The Clouds. Learning and Leading. Retrieved October 16, 2010, Retrieved from: http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition- december-janruary-2009-2010.aspx
The myriad difficulties associated with implementing computer technology in schools in a comprehensive fashion and in the home are seemingly ameliorated with the growing popularity of ‘cloud computing’ which refers to the use of applications and file storage that exist on a network rather than on a traditional computer storage drive. The article asserts that common problems with computers in education, such as the costs for programs and applications, and the sometimes inefficient manner in which files and stored and transferred—and lost in the process—are easily solved with such as Google Docs which allow for the free use of web space in which students can store and share information, papers, and projects with one another. The author of the article gives evidence of the ease-of-use and efficient manner in which the different daily function such as email, word processing, photo-editing, etc. can easily be accomplished using cloud computing with free programs offered online in the section entitled ‘Living in the Cloud’. All the difficulties, expenses and different the accounts and memberships one uses can all be done for free in one space. However, as with any new applications, cloud computing is not without some concerns. The main issue being privacy; considering that one put information on a network rather than on the personal storage space of a computer hard drive. However, the article champions the effect that cloud computing will have on the greater availability and use of computers in a student’s education. The advent of netbook computers compliments cloud computing it that the latter eliminates the need for bulky and expensive laptops that preference storage space and instead focuses on basic applications that students use in their everyday classes. As a result of this, the relationship between cloud computing and netbooks will make netbooks as ubiquitous in the classroom as calculators.
Question 1
How will netbooks and cloud computing be implemented on a more practical, everyday basis in my classroom?
Answer 1
The use of netbooks will create a more collaborative environment in my classroom by making group projects more fluid and interaction between students, especially outside the classroom, easier. Coupling this with the cloud computing applications that allow student to manipulate and present information according to their own tastes and strengths, student will invest more creativity into their work. Moreover, if every student in my class has a netbook at their desk—which I would make sure would allow them access to class materials that I would post online—it would completely eliminated the need of what I think is the most useless waste of time during class: copying notes from the board. Students with netbooks would have instant access to notes about the subject matter.
Question 2
How can netbooks and cloud computing tackle the issue of inequality in education?
Answer 2
One of the hot button topics in schools today is the availability of computers in every classroom and the disparity of the amount of computers between rich school districts that can afford then and poorer school districts that cannot. If trends with the use of cloud computing and the lower costs of netbooks continue, one can easily envision in 20 years the proliferation of computers in school districts that cannot afford them today. Students in these schools will then be able to utilize all of the benefits of computer technology in their education.
The myriad difficulties associated with implementing computer technology in schools in a comprehensive fashion and in the home are seemingly ameliorated with the growing popularity of ‘cloud computing’ which refers to the use of applications and file storage that exist on a network rather than on a traditional computer storage drive. The article asserts that common problems with computers in education, such as the costs for programs and applications, and the sometimes inefficient manner in which files and stored and transferred—and lost in the process—are easily solved with such as Google Docs which allow for the free use of web space in which students can store and share information, papers, and projects with one another. The author of the article gives evidence of the ease-of-use and efficient manner in which the different daily function such as email, word processing, photo-editing, etc. can easily be accomplished using cloud computing with free programs offered online in the section entitled ‘Living in the Cloud’. All the difficulties, expenses and different the accounts and memberships one uses can all be done for free in one space. However, as with any new applications, cloud computing is not without some concerns. The main issue being privacy; considering that one put information on a network rather than on the personal storage space of a computer hard drive. However, the article champions the effect that cloud computing will have on the greater availability and use of computers in a student’s education. The advent of netbook computers compliments cloud computing it that the latter eliminates the need for bulky and expensive laptops that preference storage space and instead focuses on basic applications that students use in their everyday classes. As a result of this, the relationship between cloud computing and netbooks will make netbooks as ubiquitous in the classroom as calculators.
Question 1
How will netbooks and cloud computing be implemented on a more practical, everyday basis in my classroom?
Answer 1
The use of netbooks will create a more collaborative environment in my classroom by making group projects more fluid and interaction between students, especially outside the classroom, easier. Coupling this with the cloud computing applications that allow student to manipulate and present information according to their own tastes and strengths, student will invest more creativity into their work. Moreover, if every student in my class has a netbook at their desk—which I would make sure would allow them access to class materials that I would post online—it would completely eliminated the need of what I think is the most useless waste of time during class: copying notes from the board. Students with netbooks would have instant access to notes about the subject matter.
Question 2
How can netbooks and cloud computing tackle the issue of inequality in education?
Answer 2
One of the hot button topics in schools today is the availability of computers in every classroom and the disparity of the amount of computers between rich school districts that can afford then and poorer school districts that cannot. If trends with the use of cloud computing and the lower costs of netbooks continue, one can easily envision in 20 years the proliferation of computers in school districts that cannot afford them today. Students in these schools will then be able to utilize all of the benefits of computer technology in their education.
Journal 3 (NETS-T 1): Bring The World Into Your Classroom
Citation: McDermon , Linda. (2010). Bring the world into your classroom . Learning and Leading with Technology, 38(2), Retrieved from: http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100910#pg1
The opportunity for students in one classroom environment to interact with educators, scientists, and students potentially from the other side of the world is the premise behind the implementation of video-conferencing technology in the classroom. In a world that is becoming increasingly inter-connected by the internet, social media, and other communication technology, the article would argue for the importance of a means to share and present information, ideas, and activities in a manner that would be both exciting for the students and constructive for their education in sharpening their presentations and getting feedback and interaction with students who would give a different socio-cultural assessment of their projects. Moreover, the article points out that video-conferencing technology could potentially make traditional (and costly) field trips to educational settings such museums obsolete by bringing that environment to the classroom through interaction with educators via video-conferencing. Two programs in particular ‘Read Around the Planet’ where students share what they are reading with students in other schools, and ‘Megaconference Jr.’ where students can present information and leave it in a forum for other students to access are cultivating valuable presentation skills to students in the classroom.
Question 1
How can this technology be beneficial for student’s view of other people around the world and diversity?
Answer 1
With direct interaction with students from a culture and country that might be foreign to domestic students, students will speak directly to foreign students with background different from their own and gain an understanding of different cultures and regions of the world. Moreover, rather than learning about groups of people from the media, who often present an entire population in a stereotypical way, students will hear directly from the mouths of those people and form their own opinions of them. By exposing students to people who act and talk differently from themselves, video-conferencing technology will foster the acceptance of diversity.
Question 2
What other possible applications could video-conferencing technology have in the classroom?
Answer 2
For teachers, and much like in the business world, video-conferencing will allow for another avenue for the exchange of ideas between teachers. Instead of transporting teachers from around the country to a single place to discuss their profession and its issues, video-conference will eliminate the hassle of distance. Furthermore, it will allow teachers to view how other teachers, especially from different countries, operate in their classrooms and they will see first-hand the methods they use.
The opportunity for students in one classroom environment to interact with educators, scientists, and students potentially from the other side of the world is the premise behind the implementation of video-conferencing technology in the classroom. In a world that is becoming increasingly inter-connected by the internet, social media, and other communication technology, the article would argue for the importance of a means to share and present information, ideas, and activities in a manner that would be both exciting for the students and constructive for their education in sharpening their presentations and getting feedback and interaction with students who would give a different socio-cultural assessment of their projects. Moreover, the article points out that video-conferencing technology could potentially make traditional (and costly) field trips to educational settings such museums obsolete by bringing that environment to the classroom through interaction with educators via video-conferencing. Two programs in particular ‘Read Around the Planet’ where students share what they are reading with students in other schools, and ‘Megaconference Jr.’ where students can present information and leave it in a forum for other students to access are cultivating valuable presentation skills to students in the classroom.
Question 1
How can this technology be beneficial for student’s view of other people around the world and diversity?
Answer 1
With direct interaction with students from a culture and country that might be foreign to domestic students, students will speak directly to foreign students with background different from their own and gain an understanding of different cultures and regions of the world. Moreover, rather than learning about groups of people from the media, who often present an entire population in a stereotypical way, students will hear directly from the mouths of those people and form their own opinions of them. By exposing students to people who act and talk differently from themselves, video-conferencing technology will foster the acceptance of diversity.
Question 2
What other possible applications could video-conferencing technology have in the classroom?
Answer 2
For teachers, and much like in the business world, video-conferencing will allow for another avenue for the exchange of ideas between teachers. Instead of transporting teachers from around the country to a single place to discuss their profession and its issues, video-conference will eliminate the hassle of distance. Furthermore, it will allow teachers to view how other teachers, especially from different countries, operate in their classrooms and they will see first-hand the methods they use.
Journal 2 (NETS-T 5): Join The Flock and Enhance Your Twitter Experiance
Citations: Ferguson, Hadley. (2010). Join the flock. Learning & Leading with Technology, Retrieved from: http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100607?pg=14&search_term=join%20the%20flock&search_term=join%20the%20flock#pg14
McClintock Miller, Shannon. (2010). Enhance your twitter experience. Learning & Leading with Technology, Retrieved from: http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100607?pg=14&search_term=join%20the%20flock&search_term=join%20the%20flock#pg16
These two articles give a good, brief summary of the benefits of having a Twitter account, the strategies one uses in order to connect with people of similar interests and the reasons why educators and teachers should join twitter as a way of enhancing one’s understanding of the professions and teaching methods and techniques. What the articles highlight are professional learning networks (PLN) which are communities of individuals who share similar interests. As a novice to using twitter, ‘Join the flock’ describes the process of following someone on twitter, re-tweeting, and eventually tweeting one’s own messages. The article uses the analogy of trying to join a conversation at a party as a metaphor for the way twitter eliminates the hesitancy one can in real life of exposing one’s ideas to others and also the difficultly one can have in real life in finding people who have similar interests without a guide. “Enhance Your Twitter Experience” delves more specifically into how one with a twitter account can find specific topics on is interesting by using techniques such as the use of hashmarks (#) that target specific topics of conversation. For educators—and just as with any group of people with similar interests—twitter connects teachers with educators from around the world in order to share their knowledge of the profession.
Question 1
How could twitter be used by my students in conjunction with what they are learning?
Answer 1
Twitter is not only for following celebrities and friends; news organizations, influential people in education, business, etc. and other media outlets also have Twitter accounts. And in an effort to get my class more knowledgeable of the world around them and what important events are happening, having Twitter accounts will provide another avenue, other than television and the internet, to stay updated on events which we will discuss on a daily basis in my classroom.
Question 2
In what ways is Twitter better than face-to-face collaboration with other teachers in my school?
Answer 2
Although it is always a good idea to work with the teachers at one’s school, Twitter provides connection to teachers and educators from different educational backgrounds and environments. Some teaching methods and techniques could have been developed as a result of the particular educational environment at a particular school. And considering that a teacher is limited to one teaching environment, twitter expose teachers to those techniques that would otherwise not been possible in a certain environment had a teacher only looked at their immediate environment. Moreover, because of the ease-of-use of having conversations with other educators, Twitter can motivate teachers to continuously shape and update their teaching styles because of the way it exposes one to resources through the people one meets through Twitter.
McClintock Miller, Shannon. (2010). Enhance your twitter experience. Learning & Leading with Technology, Retrieved from: http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100607?pg=14&search_term=join%20the%20flock&search_term=join%20the%20flock#pg16
These two articles give a good, brief summary of the benefits of having a Twitter account, the strategies one uses in order to connect with people of similar interests and the reasons why educators and teachers should join twitter as a way of enhancing one’s understanding of the professions and teaching methods and techniques. What the articles highlight are professional learning networks (PLN) which are communities of individuals who share similar interests. As a novice to using twitter, ‘Join the flock’ describes the process of following someone on twitter, re-tweeting, and eventually tweeting one’s own messages. The article uses the analogy of trying to join a conversation at a party as a metaphor for the way twitter eliminates the hesitancy one can in real life of exposing one’s ideas to others and also the difficultly one can have in real life in finding people who have similar interests without a guide. “Enhance Your Twitter Experience” delves more specifically into how one with a twitter account can find specific topics on is interesting by using techniques such as the use of hashmarks (#) that target specific topics of conversation. For educators—and just as with any group of people with similar interests—twitter connects teachers with educators from around the world in order to share their knowledge of the profession.
Question 1
How could twitter be used by my students in conjunction with what they are learning?
Answer 1
Twitter is not only for following celebrities and friends; news organizations, influential people in education, business, etc. and other media outlets also have Twitter accounts. And in an effort to get my class more knowledgeable of the world around them and what important events are happening, having Twitter accounts will provide another avenue, other than television and the internet, to stay updated on events which we will discuss on a daily basis in my classroom.
Question 2
In what ways is Twitter better than face-to-face collaboration with other teachers in my school?
Answer 2
Although it is always a good idea to work with the teachers at one’s school, Twitter provides connection to teachers and educators from different educational backgrounds and environments. Some teaching methods and techniques could have been developed as a result of the particular educational environment at a particular school. And considering that a teacher is limited to one teaching environment, twitter expose teachers to those techniques that would otherwise not been possible in a certain environment had a teacher only looked at their immediate environment. Moreover, because of the ease-of-use of having conversations with other educators, Twitter can motivate teachers to continuously shape and update their teaching styles because of the way it exposes one to resources through the people one meets through Twitter.
Journal 1 (NETS-T 2): Taking Laptops Schoolwide
Citation: Green, Tim, Donovan, and Loretta, & Bass, Kim. (August 2010). Taking laptops school-wide: a professional learning community approach. International Society for Technology in Education, Retrieved from: https://acrobat.com/#d=7rIs4heRCXPhOZp7l-otEg
The presence of laptop technology into early education is an issue that is addressed in the article primarily within the context of integrating its use within the curriculum and the need for teacher-teacher and teacher-student collaboration in order to fully use the hardware and software in an efficient manner. Collaboration is paramount not only because using laptops changes the way students learn and therefore changes the way teachers teach but also because these devices allow for a greater degree of access to resources are available to them online. The concept of the Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a manifestation of the need for collaboration, where teachers come together to share data on students and to set out lesson planning. Overall, the article focused more on the necessary environment for laptops to flourish in the classroom but did not adequately address two key issues such as (1) do the benefits for laptops in early education outweigh the costs (especially during a time of a budget crisis in education) and (2) in what ways will the use of laptops improve the students’ capacity to learn and absorb information.
Question 1
How will the use of laptops in the classroom encourage teacher collaboration?
Answer 1
Any change in teaching methods will naturally be difficult and a period of trial and error will ensue. In order for laptops to be implemented effectively otherwise, more, teachers provides an easier avenue for teachers to share information not only about resources they find online, but information of how some teachers are more effective than others by looking at how they set up their curriculum.
Question 2
What other pre-conditions are needed, other than the ones mentioned, for laptops to be implemented effectively in classrooms?
Answer 2
The most obvious pre-condition for laptops in classrooms is their affordability, especially in poorer school districts. The article simplifies the solution to the problem of integrating laptops without mentioning more mundane problems such as funding; while some school districts can afford to have one computer for every child in a particular classroom that thus, one could argue, by sheer numbers alone, laptops are already better integrated in the classroom compared to a classroom that can only afford a handful to be used by several dozen students.
The presence of laptop technology into early education is an issue that is addressed in the article primarily within the context of integrating its use within the curriculum and the need for teacher-teacher and teacher-student collaboration in order to fully use the hardware and software in an efficient manner. Collaboration is paramount not only because using laptops changes the way students learn and therefore changes the way teachers teach but also because these devices allow for a greater degree of access to resources are available to them online. The concept of the Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a manifestation of the need for collaboration, where teachers come together to share data on students and to set out lesson planning. Overall, the article focused more on the necessary environment for laptops to flourish in the classroom but did not adequately address two key issues such as (1) do the benefits for laptops in early education outweigh the costs (especially during a time of a budget crisis in education) and (2) in what ways will the use of laptops improve the students’ capacity to learn and absorb information.
Question 1
How will the use of laptops in the classroom encourage teacher collaboration?
Answer 1
Any change in teaching methods will naturally be difficult and a period of trial and error will ensue. In order for laptops to be implemented effectively otherwise, more, teachers provides an easier avenue for teachers to share information not only about resources they find online, but information of how some teachers are more effective than others by looking at how they set up their curriculum.
Question 2
What other pre-conditions are needed, other than the ones mentioned, for laptops to be implemented effectively in classrooms?
Answer 2
The most obvious pre-condition for laptops in classrooms is their affordability, especially in poorer school districts. The article simplifies the solution to the problem of integrating laptops without mentioning more mundane problems such as funding; while some school districts can afford to have one computer for every child in a particular classroom that thus, one could argue, by sheer numbers alone, laptops are already better integrated in the classroom compared to a classroom that can only afford a handful to be used by several dozen students.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
School 2.0 Reflection Tool
Ken Robinson’s speech about creativity in our public education systems is enlightening in the way that he delves into the role of creativity in exposing the rigidity of our public school systems and in the way that they are designed only towards defining academic success and intelligence within a narrow and out-dated context. Public school systems have historically positioned subjects within a specific hierarchy in which math and science are on top and arts are on the bottom. This is because society has always viewed schools as a place where students get their education in order to get a job, and because certain careers with certain skills are more valued in society than others, students are steered away from certain courses in school such as the arts and literature and as a result, the strengths and interests of students in these areas are devalued. This stands in conflict with Ken Robinson’s position that intelligence—in the way we measure and conceptualize it now (through the three R’s of the education)—is diverse, meaning that we think and react to stimulus in different ways, and dynamic, meaning that creativity comes about through the interaction of different ways of seeing things in a classroom environment. Looking at the way schools have destroyed students’ creativity by channeling their efforts within a narrow set of subjects and instruction methods reveals the importance of the NETS standard of “Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity”; specifically the idea to “promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.” The speech gets across the basic idea that students learn in different ways and have different strengths. And if teachers do not realize this, some students will already be at a disadvantage in the classroom when we don’t take into account the advantages and strengths they do have. This kind of idea will have a substantial impact on my approach to teaching by promoting the idea of diversity; both in my method of instruction and accommodating to the way students absorb information differently. Moreover, watching the video reiterates the idea that it is often the case that students get engaged with the subject matter not because of the nature of the material per se, but the way the material is presented and the way students can manipulate and approach it in the way that best fits with their learning style.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Welcome to my world...
I’ve pretty much grown up with technology with my entire life. I got my first computer when I was 8. I got my first pager when I was 11 (Ha! remember those?), cell phone at 14, etc. For much of my teen years, I approached technology from a more expressive/artistic rather than technical standpoint because I took several digital art and media classes in High School and College that taught me how to create videos, music, web pages, works of digital art using several software programs. Recently, I’ve turned away from approaching technology in this way and more towards using it in a way that benefits me only within the context of achieving my academic goals—which is why I’ve not really caught up with the whole social networking thing yet. Although, music, which plays an important part in my life, also plays an important part in my connection with technology: I can't be without my IPOD, its with me everywhere I go, even in the shower.
The one part of the College of Education’s mission statement that attracted me the most to CSUSM’s approach to its teacher preparation and training program—and which has been reiterated in all my classes—is the word ‘diversity’. Given that we live in Southern California where many people from different backgrounds interact and the fact that teachers today face many different situations in the work environment, the need to be flexible in a myriad number of ways was reflected the most in diversity. Diversity is important in another way in that it mixes well with my academic background in Global Studies and my interests in History where I learn about different time periods and different cultures.
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