Thursday, April 1, 2010

Exit Slip #9 What did I take away from class today

-Jeff looks funny in animation
-the chapter presentation gave me some great resources for my math class and future classroom.
-you can use your ipod to cheat! Why that never occured to me before I have no idea. in 7th grade my friend Lindsay would listen to the radio on her walkman by putting the headphone up the sleeve of her sweater and then leaning her head onto her hand. I bet this would be effective to listening to a podcast will all the information to a test also.
-e-mail etiquette is something that has to be covered at some point or everyone will start writing e-mails with lol's, omg's and wuts up in them.
-twiddla has a fun sandbox tool that lets us draw to one another
-live mocha is an interactive language learning website
- Inquiry question is looming over me. I need to get to work on that

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Chapter 9 Reflection

Chapter 9 "visualizing with technologies" is a presentation of five kinds of visualization tools: digital cameras and mobile phones, video productions, video modeling and feedback. I can see myself using many of these tools in my future classroom. Since i want to teach high school biology I think that programs like McSpartan would be especially beneficial for my students. This program enables learners to visualize molecules using five different representations but it is also very interactive because it also enables the student to test different bonds to create ions and new molecules. This type of program could help foster understanding of chemistry among students who many not be able to grasp it otherwise since it is such an abstract subject and idea. The chapter also discusses various ways to visualize mathematical ideas with technologies which i can imagine being very helpful for all students, not just students with difficulties in math. I was fortunate enough to have a graphing calculator in school and this allowed me to visualize the complex formulas and problems we were working with in math. I believe the fact that graphing calculators have a positive influence ons students understanding of math because i experienced this. This book has an overlaying point that any technology can become a powerful learning tool when students are critical users and producers rather than consumers. It's apparent to me that technology can function as visual protheses and I hope to foster all of the ones available to me in my classroom to their fullest extent in order to benefit my students as much as possible.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Exit Slip #8- What we did in Class today

*Feed bag- It's hard to stay up to date on the newest technology information but putting the feedbag right in our face on the course website is a great way to keep us informed. I find it's easy to get lost in blogs going from one to the other but it's a matter of getting to them to get involved.
*Sites from chapter 8- see delicious account
*Construtionism isn't a word
*Jeff can giggle like a little girl
*Symbaloo- good to present multiple links
*What might be a barrier for us may not be a barrier for others
*Senate Bill 6- they obviously don't want teachers in florida
*You need a mac to use garage band, unfortunately
*Royalty free music rocks
*when you're comparing 2 programs and 1 is uglier than the other, present the ugly one first

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Chapter 8- A reflection

Chapter 8 “designing with technologies” is about the 4 contexts where meaningful learning in traditional subject areas can be enhanced with the use of design activities that are made more effective through learning technologies. These cases of designing with technologies include: drawing design ideas with computer-aided design software, testing and designs and building mental models with simulation software, developing programming skills while designing in the media arts, and designing music with composition software. The chapter discusses a few tools such as pro desktops and sketch up that appear to be useful for design, however, I’m having trouble thinking of ways to use them in the classroom. I do think that the simulation software discussed in the chapter would be interesting for students to experiment with, especially during science instruction. These programs “help students build casual links and explanations of how the systems work and how elements within systems interact with one another”.
The chapter also has a lot of useful technology recommendations of art and music classes. I think these can be linked to math as well since math is a major part of these subjects. The program Improptu keeps a running log of children’s log of their precess of designing music so that they can participate in a “reflective practice”. I feel that this reflection process is important and helps students develop compositions that are planned and well thought out.
This chapter helped introduce me to the idea of developing composition skills and writing literacy as a mission for all subjects in school. Design is a tool that can give an added measure of meaning to work done in the classroom. The tools discussed in the chapter will help in building transferable concepts and skills and a joy of learning and creating in students.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Exit Slip #7- What did I take away from class today?

-Epals- an online asynchronous discussion board that’s free for teachers to use to communicate with other teachers and students around the world
-I don’t like in-class homework
-NCLB is also called ESEA
-Using texting to ask a teacher to repeat something or to ask a question in a class of 400 students is a GREAT idea!
-Podcasts can be varying lengths
-It stinks when you need a mac to use cool things like garage band but audacity seems like a very easy to use program and I’m looking forward to getting involved in it. Luckily I catch on to programs like this fairly easily.

Kathleen and Loren's Prentation assignment

Podcasting
+ Anyone can make one, free, supposedly easy to use
- Could have inaccurate information, be biased or inappropriate
Video Conferencing
+ Gives you access to people that you would normally not be able to communicate with because of distance
- Could be abused by students to talk to bad people
Discussion Boards
+ Allows students to communicate with other students around the world
- Could be distracting in class
Instant Messaging
+ Fast connection between people
- Students may not know proper internet manners

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Chapter 7

Chapter 6 is about ways that technology devices and internet resources can assist in the formation of collaborative work of communities. I got excited when I realized what the chapter was about because it is essentially what my inquiry question is about. It’s been obvious to me for a while now that the internet has become more than just a place to find information but rather a way to communicate with people all over the world as well as to receive information from these people and others. I have a lot of relatives and friends that insist that technology is reducing the meaning of relationships because nobody meets face to face anymore. I think the opposite of this is true though and feel that technology is facilitating the means for connecting us and increasing the opportunity for building relationships and social exchanges with one another.


As a future teacher I plan to use a lot of what this chapter discusses. I particularly liked the point the chapter made about how people often think differently. Although I feel class discussions are important and helpful in developing student learning I also think online ones would be beneficial as well. Obviously some people have a higher level of verbal intelligence than others and an online discussion would give everyone the time to reflect on an argument before carefully presenting it to others.

I spent a little bit of time going through the various technologies discussed in the chapter, some of which I was already familiar with, and especially liked the chart on page 158 about the videoconferencing ideas and examples. The list contained a lot of ideas that I had never thought of before such as town hall meetings or the idea of “a remote teacher or student role playing a historical or literary figure, sharing a special experience with a larger audience”. What a fun idea! I also look forward to creating a podcast after reading about them in the chapter. The idea of podcasting, where anyone can become an independent producer and distributor of audio and video content that can be offered worldwide, is very exciting to me because it gives teachers open access to hundreds of thousands of podcasts that they can use to help their students better learn in their classes. I have to remember to triangulate the information found in the podcasts before presenting them to the class since anyone can make one though.