Chapter 9 Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts

                Chapter 9 focused on ways to include social networks into the classroom. The chapter defined two different ways youth use social networks, friendship based use and interest based use. In the interest-based kids are using networks to find more information that they are unable to share at school, or in their local community. When using social networks for interest based activity students are engaging in “self-directed, peer-based learning” that differs from their experiences in the classroom. The author mentions that teachers should explore the potential of this interest-based learning in schools because of the numerous possibilities. When bringing up the most popular social networking site, Facebook, the author mentioned that as teachers we are responsible to investigate what all the fuss is about because it is such an integral part of our student’s lives. I think this is something all future teachers should think about. In my future teaching career there will be so many more technological advances coming out that students will be interested in. If I am able to keep up with these popular advances and integrate them into my classroom, hopefully it will be beneficial to all of my students. The book talks about teachers having a Facebook profile so we are able to “model our experiences there in appropriate ways so kids at an early age have some context for what the expectations and roles are that await them there.” A few pages later the book advises against adding students as friends on Facebook. How could we be a role model for students on the internet when they are not able to see our profile? As a current Facebook user I was unaware that a group can be monitored as far as “closed” where everything is open only to users (except cover page) or “secret” if a group does not want to have anyone see anything about their classroom. I think this is a great idea especially for high school students because the wide majority of them already have a Facebook page and are on Facebook most of the time they are not in school. I know had I had course material on Facebook it would have been easy to contribute to discussions or anything else. At the same time that I think using Facebook in the classroom is great, I think many students would start their homework on Facebook and then play around instead of doing homework not available online. From past experience I have found Facebook to be very distracting when trying to do homework.

                In the chapter Ning is also brought up as an additional social website to use in classrooms. I had never heard of Ning prior to this reading and thought it sounded like a good alternative to Facebook. When visiting their website however, there is a fee of $3 per month to use the website. I did like that once you prove to Ning that your pages are used for educational purposes only, the site removes the ads seen on your site. I thought the quote by Kevin Honeycutt on page 145 was a great way to address poor behavior shown by students on the web. He says “Some people feel that even one negative event on a network is a reason to shut it down, but I would offer that when kids cross behavioral lines in schools, we don’t shut them down, we address the issue and try to learn from the experience.” I think that behavioral lines are frequently crossed in classrooms and in front of other students. When students break rules on the web they would be dealt with in the same manner. I thought this would be an explanation to give to anyone who thought a social network should not be used because of inappropriate comments made online.

Exit Slip 10-28-10

Today in class we started off by reviewing our midsemester evaluations of the class and Professor Boyer. I appreciate the fact that he showed us the results and explained some methods of his thinking. We talked about our Delicious accounts and what the expectations are for this point in the smemester.  Using a Google survey in my classroom would be a great way to find out information from my students. I liked the  way the group presenting today set up the discussion where we were all across from someone with the opposing viewpoints.  We talked about how taking initiative for grants is important especially if your school does not have the funding to integrate the technological tools that you want to use in your class. I have been thinking about funding for all these technology applications so I was appreciative that we discussed this in class.

We talked about a synchronized program called “Elluminate” which allows our whole class to interact with one another. When Professor Boyer was talking about the program it was a little distracting that everyone was playing around with the application, but it was so entertaining. After playing with Elluminate we discussed our podcast assignment and how it has to focus on an issue directly for K-12 age students. Finding an article with be simple but finding one that is appropriate that we can discuss with be more time consuming. We talked about the importance of having a script before beginning our podcasts. We need to have a summary of an issue, find an article, and give our opinions and reflection about the issue. Professor Boyer stressed that the most important part of the podcast is how we feel about the issue. We need to develop an engaging script. The most important item for the week is the Cool Tools Screencast.

Rethinking Education Chapter 7 Reflection

In Chapter 7 the author discusses the pros and cons of including technology in education and an education community without technology. In the chapter the author says that modern media sources “have had a very strong homogenizing effect on the population, which ensures a common culture without depending on schools to produce one.” I do agree with this statement, but would it be the school’s duty to create a common culture had the media not provided one? I am worried that if different groups take over the education of children that the minority students and those living in poverty will suffer greatly. When technology is incorporated into my classroom I will make sure that each my students will be able to access it. In all classrooms there is a wide range of living situations and students should not feel unfortunate because they do not have different technology tools in the classroom. I am disturbed by the fact that parents are paying for educational services for their students more and more frequently, because those without the finances to do so will only expand the ranges of learning levels in the schools. Technology is causing a greater inequality amongst students rather than decreasing it.

 I thought the study referred to in the chapter on home computer users who had begun using the internet seemed to be unsettling. When I thought about it more, I remember when I first started using the internet. I thought it was the neatest thing ever and wanted to be online all day long. After the first week however, I got sick of sitting at the computer so I started using it less often. I know some people have issues with computer usage and lack of socialization, but that’s why in the classroom it is important to allow socialization, when appropriate, into school.

On the side of what may be gained from technology the main point is that it is engaging. Education can be focused on what students are interested in so they will be more interested in learning. Technology can help customize education and give support to students in areas that they need extra help. The students also feel as though they have power in their education which is important as well.

Chapter 8 Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts

                When beginning to read this chapter about podcasting and other types of casting I was not even sure what the words meant. I found out that podcasting is creating radio sessions. I think that podcasting would be efficient for college classes in particular because most of them consist of mainly lecturing. I am not opposed to using podcasting for my own personal use to hear about education topics and apply them so I can better my classroom. I did appreciate that the users can use an iPod or mp3 player, but if they do not have either they can have the same connection using the internet. Having students that are unable to afford a personal music device is likely so I think it’s great that there is another option available. I like the idea of the student’s radio show, but if it were to be an on running show I think it would fit best as an extracurricular. I loved the idea of the “Coleycasts” by Brent Coley where students create podcasts with slides relevant to what they are learning. I think it would be fun to create different podcasts to help future classes learn about a topic, or even another class that hasn’t been taught the information yet.  I liked that the chapter included information about the Audacity tool because it seems that it would really be useful if using podcasts. 

                The chapter also talked about different video tools that can be used. I love using YouTube because you can almost always find what you’re looking for.  I do not necessarily agree with YouTube being blocked in schools because I think that it offers many opportunities to be used in education. I agree with the author’s point that we should prepare our students to deal with content because when they get home and go onto the internet there is usually no limitations on what they can see. I am undecided about the video uploads because I know there would be concern with parents having their children on video. Using podcasts or screencasts would be more acceptable and less likely to be questioned.

                I think screencasting is something I would include into my classroom.  It would be perfect for showing how something is done on the computer. I am excited about the idea of having students narrate their own work as it is shown on screen. Some students may be anxious about speaking in front of the class, but using a screencast could help them ease into it. Screencasts are something that would excite students while letting them feel less pressured when developing it.

Book Presentation for Chapter 6 Reflection

    I felt that my group put forth a large amount of effort for this presentation. We met together more than once to develop and practice our presentation. I thought that everyone did a great job at splitting up the work evenly and doing their parts. I made sure I had prompts on notecards that I could use to promote discussions when my peers where in groups. I think its valuable to present to our peers because that is something we are going to be doing daily when teaching, only to our students rather than our peers. It's likely that we will be presenting to our fellow collegues at times too when we come up with creative teaching practices we want to share. I was extremely nervous prior to this presentation, but once we got it started I felt more comfortable. When discussing our pluses and deltas in class I thought we had a positive reaction from the class. One of our negatives was not being loud enough. Professor Boyer also mentioned different discussion strategies that we could have used during our presentation, but since we did not know these methods we weren't able to implement them.

Exit Post 10-21-10

       After presenting our Chapter 6, we talked about ways that we can improve our interactive whiteboard lessons.  We talked about locking things in place so students won't accidently (or intentionally) move items around on the board. Another tool that I thought was useful for us to know is the infinite cloner tool. An object can just keep being dragged out an infinite number of times. We also discussed color choices on the background and text. In my lesson I just kept things in black and white which may seem boring, but I wanted to keep things simple and not create any visual complications. We talked about how the text involvement can hurt your lesson because of the grade level. My lesson is for a first grade classroom so I should review how much text I am using and make any changes necessary. The smallest we should go is 24 size font, but 36+ is the best usage. We talked about rule of thumb when teaching a lesson of 6 x 6 is ideal for a presentation. Professor Boyer also went over how we could use Skype when contacting him for office hours, which I thought would be a good idea for students who live far from campus. I personally with not be doing that because I would feel uncomfortable talking to a professor when I was in my house. I need a division between school and home. There are so many different things going on in this class that sometimes I get overwhelmed and concerned about what I need to be doing. Although I am stressed, I am learning so much.

iRLO Reflection

          I found the iRLO project to be a valuable experience with the Scratch program. I never would have known how to develop something like this without this assignment. When completing the assignment I had many challenges. My microphone on my computer would record my voice, but would cut out every once in a while so that I was unable to put in the voice recordings that I had wanted to include. Also it was difficult for me to figure out how to include the last part of my iRLO because I wasn't sure how to connect the broadcasting Scratch tool with other tools in the lesson. I would say that I exerted significant effort on this assignment. I chose not to include mathematics in my lesson or an underwater game because I felt as though that would be something everyone would be doing.  I went to ask for help with certain things I wanted included and that proved to be a smart decision. In my final draft I would like to include another standard with a level 2 and 3 with possibly verbs and adjectives. I need to learn how to transition from one level to the next though. When designing the iRLO I found that once I figured out how to do something for one sprite I was able to duplicate it for the remainder of my sprites which was extremely helpful. With the Scratch program, once one project is done I think it will be significantly easier to do more. After doing this assignment I could easily see myself developing more activities in my classroom because with the Scratch program it is easy to tailor what you want focused on in the lesson. I think children would respond well to this activity and I am proud of what I was able to accomplish. I am curious to hear my peer's feedback and make alterations to my project to make it even better.

Chapter 7 Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts

Chapter 7 was all about digital images and how Flickr, the photo sharing website, can be used in a classroom. The chapter raves about all the possibilities using Flickr in the classroom. It would be possible to photograph pictures from daily events or field trips, guest speakers, and projects. Flickr is a free website for anyone’s use. When first beginning this chapter I was concerned about inappropriate pictures that students may run across. According to Chapter 7, Flickr’s members are responsible for sifting out the inappropriate pictures along with filters that have changeable settings. If students were to create their own accounts I am uncertain how they would be monitored easily. I would choose to create one user and have the class all share one account. I am glad that restricted access is available because that would be a huge concern for some parents if their child was in a picture. I think it’s neat that Flickr uses a tagging process similar to Delicious because I think that method is very successful when trying to locate a specific picture.

                I thought the idea of using Flickr to identify features of a model a third grader had made was great! If all students were working on a project, pictures could be taken and annotated so others could view them. I loved the idea of being able to take images and annotate them, such as the Civil War battlefield or fetal pig dissection examples in the book. The ability to take pictures and annotate them could help facilitate a lesson or even a study guide for an exam.

                I love the idea of using Flickr to connect teachers and students during the summer. My main concern with this would be if every child had access to a computer, or even a camera for that matter. I would never want to make any of my students feel incapable of completing something because they were not able to access the appropriate tools. When first coming to a new school I think it’s important to keep in mind what type of home each of them may live in and to not make assumptions that everyone owns certain items that we take for granted.

                I like that there are different tools available for use with Flickr. I already like the “Flicktion” tool because it would be fun for students to pick a random photo and use it as inspiration for a story. An activity such as this would help writing skills develop and allow students to be creative.

Exit Slip 10-14-10

     The Chapter 5 presentation was done well by the girls that presented. I liked that they seperated groups by the color squares rather than just dividing us all up by where we were sitting. The group allowed us as students to pick out the main ideas rather than just tell us what to think. My group presents next week and I hope we can do as well as the group presenting today did.
     I was relieved that we talked more about using the Scratch program and were able to learn the basic starting steps. I feel so much more comfortable using the program and am excited to get started making my iRLO. I would like to do something other than math, but I think other subjects are going to be more challenging to create a lesson for. I feel a bit overwhelmed with everything going on right now. The technology wiki, the interactive whiteboard lesson and the iRLO.

Rethinking Education Chapter 5 Reflection

Chapter 5 revolved around how technology is assisting the change of the educational system.  I found it interesting that the history of American schooling was “marked by an early flexibility” because today when thinking about the educational system flexible is one of the last words I would think of.  Home schooling has been on the rise and proves to help improve student learning. I had never realized that there was a branch of conservative homeschooling and liberal homeschooling.  I also never knew that parents do not have to be certified as teachers to home school their child. This concerns me because if a parent suddenly decides they do not want their child home schooled, I may get the student in my classroom. It would be hard to help the student adjust to regular schooling especially if they have been raised in a particular way with their family’s value integrated in their schooling. I was also surprised to know that parents only spend about 3 to 4 hours a day working with their children.

In the category of workplace learning, I thought it was interesting that workplaces are now putting employees through simulations to deal with situations that they may realistically run into in their profession. The same thing could be done in the classroom when showing students how a task should be done. If my school lacks the funds to do a science experiment with hands on tool, I would look into an online simulation that shows my students how to conduct the experiment and what would happen. I do not think that online simulations should be used all the time because of the importance of hands on learning. In regards to distance education I think it would be great to if possible Skype with another teacher from a different culture, let’s say Costa Rica, and show the different types of plants that are native there versus the types native to Wisconsin. The experience would be beneficial for both classrooms and I think students would be excited to see students their age from another country.

Online courses can be of great assistance to many people who can’t find the time or money to attend a university. A good friend of mine had back problems that prevented her from attending school in her regular classroom so she enrolled into online classes.  I hope that elementary schools will not start holding classes online because I think fewer children would be motivated to learn. Regarding the educational television and videos, I am not supportive of the idea. If kids are allowed to just sit around and be educated that’s contributing to the child obesity rate which is already much too high. I thought that the computer based software section was reaching a bit far to connect education and the Sims programs. The programs were not meant to be educational tools but are provided more for entertainment purposes. When using computer programs I think that programs that target the subject more and are suited for an education purpose would be more effective.

Chapter 6 Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts

"All roads now point to a Web where little is done in isolation and all things are collaborative and social in nature." There are so many ways to connect and socialize online. Twitter is a ttool that was introduced in 2006 and it allows mini-blogging. I personally do not have a Twitter account because I think other socialization networks provide what Twitter has to offer and more. I personally would not use Twitter in my classroom because if my students have blogs and use wikis, Twitter is just an unnecessary piece of technology. The ways Twitter can be used as stated in the book are: to communicate with parents, daily notices, links to student work, relevent articles for parents. If a blog is used in my classroom Twitter does not need to be used because all these things and more can be done in a blog. As far as social bookmarking is concerned I am a fan of the Delicious tool. It provides teachers with a spot to keep all the sites we may forget about and look at other educators accounts in order to see what sites they found useful. I find social bookmarking more of a tool for teachers rather than students. I may consider it if I had an older elementary aged group, but for the younger grades I feel as though having a classroom blog is enough work. The Diigo website seems to have more add ons to use than the Delicious site when watching the video on Diigo.com, but Delicious seems to be easier to operate. I’m glad we are using Delicious! I’m glad to be learning more about all these different types of technology in class because on my own I doubt that I would have ever know what a social bookmarking site was.  I appreciate all the knowledge about different technology tools, but in all honesty there is no way that I am going to use all of these in my classroom. It would be much too hard to keep up with everything and involve the students as well.

10-7-10 Exit Post

Today in class the discussion group for Chapter 4 presented about the development of schooling. The group did well encouraging us to all critically think about what was being discussed. After the presentation we talked about text books and the environmental and cost of them. Textbooks are always being revised and improved upon so it is impossible to keep up to date with all the subject's books without spending an obscene amount of money. The group used the SMARTboard as a presentation tool which was a nice changre from the groups that have been using Prezi. Providing specific directions for activites was noted, and is something I will keep in mind for my chapter presentation.We looked at the iRLO assignment on the Scratch program. It seems to be complicated, but Dr. Boyer assured us that it was an easy program to use. The examples we were shown were for elementary age math learners and I thought they were well done. The iRLO can help a student target a particular skill that a student may be having difficulty with. I am looking forward to experimenting with Scratch and figuring out how it works especially because I know how important it would be in my future classroom.

Rethinking Education Chapter 4 Reflection

                 Chapter 4 focused on the development of schooling over the past years. The enthusiasts think that technology is “becoming central to all of life” which I definitely agree with. They also say that “school will become less and less important as a venue for education.” I am confused as to what the authors were trying to get across. If they are trying to say that we should find other ways to educate children, I want to hear more of those options. I think that there will always be some form of schools available for education. I am not a supporter of schools online because so much valuable interaction is lost. Educators would not be able to take students outside for a lesson or let them physically experiment with chemicals and witness reactions, to name a few things. The students would lose out on vital social interaction unless they meet people on their own time when not “attending school.”

                The chapter addresses steps taken in the evolution process of a school system. There are certain pieces of the system that I think should stay put such as; compulsory attendance, graded schools, Carnegie units, and comprehensive high schools. Tests and textbooks do not have to be included into a classroom to make it a learning environment. Students can be evaluated in many other ways other than a paper and pencil tests, which in my experiences, causes students unnecessarily high amounts of stress and anxiety prior to the test. After tests students wipe their memories clean and forget any information that is not relevant to their lives as they see it. Textbooks are not always the best resources for information when teaching a classroom. I think that presently teachers are not following the books as much as they have in the past, and are using more hands on activities to help students learn.

                The authors included one quote that bothered me a bit. “The pervasiveness of television and other new media helped produce a youth culture that is increasingly complex and sophisticated – what might be called the ‘adultification’ of youth.” Is this really a positive thing? I want my students to get outdoors and not be sitting inside playing video games or watching television. There are so many benefits to spending more time outdoors, not to mention the obesity issue that technology has contributed to along with other factors. I am all for students using technology to help them learn, but I do think it is important to have time when technology is turned off. It’s hard to keep them in check, but it is possible.

                The educational system is constantly changing in some way or another. I think we should pressing for positive changes that benefit students, but by doing so in a gradual fashion. The changes will be more acceptable for everyone if they are not all thrown in at once.

Chapter 5 Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts Reflection

                Chapter 5 was all about RSS or Really Simple Syndication. The author said, “I think it’s the one technology that you should start using today right now, this minute.” I was surprised at this statement of RSS being so valuable because I have never heard of it. Then an RSS is explained as being a tool that lets you know when new information is put on sites of your choice. I am puzzled as to why that tool is so valuable, maybe because I think it could have been explained better in this chapter.  Personally I would think that using an RSS would only clutter everything up and make things overwhelming.  I am not opposed to teaching students about it, but I just don’t think that it will be a tool that will be useful to me. The one case when I would consider using it would be if my students were blogging, it would be perfect to be alerted when students posted new blogs. Using an RSS may also be useful when writing informational or research papers, but I wonder how much new information would be found.  The chapter provided many tips for using an RSS and steps to take for specific applications, but I still find myself confused as what it really is and how it works. As far as the author using RSS for news updates, how is that useful when the news is constantly being updated? It would just keep adding more and more notifications to an aggregator.  Then when reading the feeds its necessary to make “Pageflakes a part of your daily practice,” and what are pageflakes?  The details described in the chapter made it hard for me to follow too. I’m sure if I had more experience with this tool, or a better explanation of what it is I would be more apt to use it.

Chapter 4 Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts Reflection

                In Chapter 4 the focus was placed on using Wikis. I like the idea that every person who goes uses a wiki has the power to be the “editor in chief” because I think that that is a powerful component of the success of sites like Wikipedia. Everyone has the opportunity to alter anything on the site that is seen by the whole world. I think that students would feel more responsibility having their own wiki that they are in charge of and can update when necessary. If I did use a wiki in my classroom I would definitely use a password protected one in order to make sure my student’s work would not be interfered with by someone outside of the class. I love the idea of having a wiki for students and being able to add my input as needed. I do think that it would have to be monitored very closely because students may post inappropriate content that is unrelated to school. My biggest issue would be students using the wiki more as a social networking place rather than a tool for their education. I would also consider using a wiki to work with students globally because I know it is something that everyone could be excited about and participate in. When the author referenced a teacher from Georgia connected with a teacher in Bangladesh I became immediately interested and think it would be a valuable learning experience for my students. The level of involvement with a wiki would vary according to what grade I taught.  I do think that it can be incorporated into every age group in some way.

                When the author of the book said that Wikipedia is a “really incredible” site I was a bit surprised. All that I heard when in high school and even in college from teachers is, “No using Wikipedia because it’s not a good source of information.” I have not used Wikipedia much and have only been told about the negative aspects of the website. Now knowing that people are working on the website all the time checking the credibility of the information presented, I feel more comfortable going to Wikipedia for information.