Instructional Apps of the Internet - June 28

Today I caught up on discussion board postings for the course.  I hadn't realize until now that there were discussions that I was expected to be posting in.  When I looked in the discussion boards I noticed that my peers had been actively discussing away!  Oops!

Blogging

I participated in the discussion for blogging today.  The main question was whether blogging as an educational tool is valuable because the blogger (student, we assume) takes more care into what they are typing because they know that it will be viewed by others (the instructor, classmates and even others!) and therefore is more involved in their thinking, understanding and learning, which leads to a greater level of understanding.  I agree with these theories.  Any time that a learner has the chance to discuss or summarize their thinking is beneficial, but when it takes place in a way that more people that just the teacher & the student can see, the need for quality postings (and therefore increased learning) increases.

I do believe that, like any instructional tool, blogging can be useless if not used effectively by the instructor.  If the instructor doesn't do something to guide the blogs, such as listing the topics for the weeks of the course and telling the students that those should be the primary sources of blogging, the blog can just become a worthless account of what the student is doing--not thinking.  For example, look back to my first paragraph.  Does it have any educational value for me (the poster) or you (the reader)?  What about the second paragraph?

WebQuests

I also participated in the discussions available on WebQuests, although I'm not sure if it was a required part of the course.  Regardless, some interesting and thought-provoking comments and resources were posted by my classmates that helped me understand WebQuests and develop thoughts on the finalization of my WebQuest for the assignment.

I see the value of WebQuests, at least the examples that I have seen thus far, as an organizational tool for doing projects that are similar to those that are already done in some classes.  It almost acts as a course management system for a certain unit or project, rather than an entire class.  I see this in the way that it contains steps for what is to be done and directions such as

• Visit this site and answer these 3 questions.
  
• Find the answer to this question on the internet.
• Visit this site and complete the included crossword puzzle.
• Write a paragraph explaining this concept.  Below are some websites that may be helpful.

In many ways these instructions are things that some teachers already have their students do, but the WebQuest presents the opportunity for an engaging, organized center for activities, tasks and assignments about a certain topic.

Instructional Applications of the Internet - June 22

Today I began working on getting caught up in my Instructional Applications of the Internet course.  I had not received an email introducing the course (NOTE: this turns out to have been due to my mistake...) and did not know what to get to work on.  Upon searching about the Vista site, I realized that I needed to get cracking on a WebQuest Proposal!

I decided to do my WebQuest on the different graphical representations that 8th Grade Math students (my students in particular!) need to be familiar with.  The students need to see uses of the graphs, need to know what graph is best for what circumstances and need to be able to derive conclusions and create arguments based on the graphs.  I felt that the best resource for these graphs would be the World Wide Web!  So, I will design a WebQuest that will give them the opportunity to find different types of graphs on the internet, explain why it is the appropriate type of graph for the situation and explain a conclusion that could be arrived at from the graph.

Issue #8 - Choose Your Own Issue

At first glance, I was worried about the ambiguity of the Issue #8 assignment.  However, once I decided upon a topic I really got into it and it seemed like I flew through it.  I hope that doesn't turn out to be a bad thing when it gets graded!

The topic that I selected was the difference between teachers that want to see technology funds spent on presentation tools (projectors, smartboards, elmo's, etc) and those that want to see them spent on student-use technolgies (laptops, digital cameras, hand-held computers, iPods, etc.). 

This topic really interested me because I feel the two factions at work in my own mind.  I teach every day using a smartboard hooked to an LCD projector hooked to a laptop.  My students very rarely get to use technology in my classroom.  I know better though.  Unfortunately, I am a slave to my 8th Grade math content standards and can't find time to dedicate time to letting the students use the technologies to learn.  I know it is possible and see it's potential, but don't have the time or patience to implement it now.

I also see this struggle regularly with colleagues.  Years ago, I went to a training on SmartBoards.  After seeing them at work--I had never seen them--I contacted my district's Technology Director (she has since retired) to ask what I'd have to do to get one in my classroom.  She argued that, while she could see it improving my instruction, she saw more value in things that the students can actually use to learn.  She said she could buy two laptops for kids to use instead of 1 smartboard for me to teach on.  She was right on all counts, but I didn't know it then.  I found another way to get a smartboard and am glad I did.  I can see her point though.  I'm not sure that it mattered in that situation--what are 2 computers going to do for a school system of 6,000 students?--but when faced with the decision between projectors in each room and equivalent worth of laptops, which would I choose?  That's my Issue #8 topic . . . 

Issue #7 - Future Technologies

In Issue #7 we had a choice as to what Scenario we would be writing about.

While all of the scenarios interested me at some level, the one that I found the most interesting--though maybe not realistic (no pun intended)--was the one about Virtual Reality.

I can see great potential in the thought of Virtual Reality used within the classroom to motivate and engage students as well as to actively involve them in their learning.  It is hard for a person with knowledge of the Constructivist Theory and other theories of learning and teaching to discount the potential value of Virtual Reality.

With that said, I don't see Virtual Reality having much of a future in education, regardless of whether it's worthy of it.  I am technologically-motivated, but can't see myself ever finding the time to plan or implement the use of Virtual Reality.  I am sure that the same is true of most other teachers that are interested in it.  Then, the teachers that remain, the majority of teachers I presume, would not consider the use of the tool.

I suppose in terms of education it will always be virtual, but will probably never be reality.

Issue #6: Professional Development Needs Assessment

As due dates fall in my rearview and Thanksgiving looms in the near future, I finally finished Issue #6.  

This issue was about Professional Development - something that I am very interested in, because I know how difficult teachers can be to work with and how much professional development is needed.  This Catch-22--a need for more technology training with a lack of training time and cooperation--has interested me in my recent years as a teacher.

Unfortunately, this assignment did not interest me as much (sorry!).  The idea of writing a Needs Assessment was not only not interesting, but brought back dreadful memories of late nights spent working on my ID project a few years ago.  With that said, I completely agree with the rationale of a Needs Assessment and the necessity of, well, assessing the need for particular teaching & training.  On the other hand, I also completely agree with the rationale of root canals and taxes.

I was a bit confused as to what was meant to be done.  Were we to actually perform a needs assessment?  How would one go about assessing the needs of a make believe staff of teachers?  After some discussion with Dr. Ingram in Palace, I got a better grip on what was expected for this assignment and was able to proceed.

Once I started working on the assignment, I did find it interesting to consider where the levels of our teachers really were.  I assume that some are technological luddites, but what can and can't they do?  In the position of a technology director, it's obvious that there is a need to assess where one must begin to bring all teachers up to level.

This project helped me realize what a daunting task training a staff of teachers with varying ages, varying levels of technological experience and varying levels of motivation could be.

Current Issues - Week 8 - Part 3

Today, I finally completed my Issue #5 assignment and, with it, Week 8 of Current Issues.  I wrote about CMCs.  I found it to be a rather time consuming project, to research and write about which format should be used and then to research and write about a plan for designing and implementing the particular CMC.

I ended up selecting a wiki.  I really feel like wikis are a great thing and are very useful and will be beneficial for any businesses or classrooms that adopt them.  They are capable of enabling so much learning and production.

In the process of reading about wikis I also came across an article about Google Docs, something that I had not looked into or learned about yet--despite hearing it mentioned often.  I was very impressed and excited about the potential of this tool.  I plan to suggest that our school's math teachers use Google Docs for things that we are creating together, like assessments or lessons.  What a great resource!

Current Issues - Week 8 - Part 2

Chapter 14 is about digital developments, television and video in particular.  As a child of the 80's video and television has been a constant part of my life & a nearly constant part of my education.  So, I don't view TV and video to be as big of a current issue in instructional technologies as others, though I am excited by the advanced that we've made.

As the text discusses, there have been numerous improvements in quality (color, HD, DTV), improved abilities to transport the signal (antenna, cable, fiber optic cable--I have this through AT&T UVerse now) and improvements in our ability to preserve television content (VCRs, DVDs, TiVo's, DVRs).  It also has become far easier to create video--just about anyone can do it now and the equipment is cheaper, more accessible and easier to use than ever before.  The advances in editing--iMovie for Apple-ites like myself--have improved the ability for any of us to make near-professional quality video.  All of these improvements have led to teachers' ability to utilize television and video as a form of presentation/instruction and our ability to archive those videos.

Channel One, a service that I experienced as a high school student in the 90's and now as a teacher in the 00's has provided a welcome source of televisions and student-engaging current events broadcasting.  It also provides the opportunity to easily access PBS educational videos.

Current Issues - Week 8

This week we are discussing an overview of digital technologies.  The first of which is hypermedia (along with hypertexts & hyperlinks).

In the Chapter 13 of the textbook I discovered some things about hypermedia.  First off, hyper means better (just tell that to the parent or teacher of a particularly hyper child).  Secondly, I learned about hypermedia's strong relations to certain learning theories.  I never thought of those little links in this way, but now it's so obvious how strongly it relates to constructivism and associated learning.  As the book says, hypermedia "provides a multiplicity of potential learning paths, rather than just one."  This seemed to pose such exciting possibilities for learning with hyperlinks, until I read further.  I then realized that hypermedia can have negative effects, especially with students with lower cognitive maturities (either by age or intellect or both) and students with attention problems, namely ADD or AD/HD.  It also can be detrimental when the links are poor.  They may link to poorly designed websites, websites of questionable accuracy or no longer existant sites.

This topic reminded me of a program that I learned to use in high school--HyperStudio.  It was a new program at the time and only a few students were enrolled in a class in which we learned how to use it.  I found it to be very fun, but years later felt that PowerPoint was a much better resource.  Now I realized that while HyperStudio was not as visually appealing as PowerPoint at that time, it's ability to work in a nonlinear by limited space was not to be underestimated.

This chapter also reminded me of a learning tool that I have never used, but should consider implementing in the future - an advance organizer.  The idea of having these materials ready at the beginning of every math unit is a wonderful and exciting idea.  It is something that I will surely keep in mind in the future.

Current Issues - Week 7

This week's topic for discussion, our assignment and reading was Fair Use & Copyright.

I selected to do my Issue 4 assignment about Fair Use, as I found it more relevant to my job (in comparison to the interesting situation about the college professor's "Hoaxocaust" website).  I have barely taken copyright laws into consideration when preparing materials for teaching my students.  In the past, I have asked for certain books to be purchased so that I could use them in my lessons.  However, if one copy of the book was purchased, I may have used multiple copies of its contents and if no copies had been purchased, that did not necessarily stop me from using the contents.

For most teachers, it all comes back to two things:

• Time - As the book discusses, teachers don't have the time to figure out what constitutes fair use and if payment should be made or permission should be obtained, how this is to be done.  The situation is like the one in the book pertaining to the video of the KSU shootings.
• Teachable Moments - Most teachers would rather risk the unlikely punishment for copyright infringement in order to obtain those teachable moments.

The continuing developments in technology in recent years are certainly changing the scenario for "fair use."  Last year, I had a student that had moved to America from China just days before starting in my classroom.  He spoke very little English.  His ESL (English as a Second Language) Tutor  had copies of Rosetta Stone--a program that you probably often see advertised when watching late night television--for use in the library.  Unfortunately, the student was often unable to participate in classes because of the language barrier, so his teachers wanted to find some way to help him, without taking instructional time away from the other students.  I won't say what I did or did not do, but . . . Would it be (copy)right or (copy)wrong to copy the Rosetta Stone software CD so that it could be used in the student's classrooms?

Current Issues - Week 5

Well, I wish I was in bed now!  Unfortunately I'm trying to keep up with my coursework rather than my sleep!    My responsibilities at school are starting to wear on me, especially in the time constraints that they are imposing.  Because of this, it is hard to concentrate on my work for this course, but I am doing my best!

This week's issue is Computers in Education.  This is a definite "Current Issue in Educational Technology!"  I selected the Lab or Classroom  topic for my Issue.  In this scenario, I had to write a proposal to my district's (in the scenario) technology committee as to how I feel that 20 new computers should be used in our elementary school, which currently has no computers.  When I first read the scenario, I considered creating a computer lab to be the obvious best choice.  With more thought and consideration, I realized that this school had no computers in any classrooms, nor did the teachers have computer of their own, unlike my real school.  When I realized this, I decided that it was obvious that computers were necessary in the classrooms, even if they were used solely by the teachers for research and instruction.  They would hopefully also be used for student investigation and differentiation.  This is especially relevant in an elementary school classroom where the students stay all day, unlike my middle school classroom where the students are only in the room for 50 minutes at a time.