1. What are the "affordances" and "constraints" of the technology? In other words, what does the technology allow us to do or prevent us from doing?
-It allows students to present a bunch of learned/researched information in their own words, and allows others to read and comment on what they learn. It also allows that student to read and comment on the research of his peers. Reading blogs in the words of the students also helps the students understand the researched item because it puts it into the voice of a child of the same age level, easily understood and easily relatable. A constraint could be that all the blog posts and their responses cannot be discussed fully in class, so the children need to read all of them to get a full understanding of the researched items of the other students.
2. What new skills do we need to teach the students?
-We'd need to teach the students how to blog, what website to use. We'd have to teach them what is appropriate, and what is not, and explain what kind of content we expect from them.
3. What will I need to do differently in terms of how I teach in the classroom? How will teaching and learning look different?
- If there is a big question that relates to a lesson, and everyone has their own special opinion about it, but there isn't enough time in class, it might be a good idea to have them blog about it. Then, they can read and respond to others, and get a better feeling and understanding about the subject they're discussing, and it might promote some interest. They will be able to learn from talking/blogging amongst themselves rather than from listening via the teacher.
4. How does the technology help me foster creativity, innovation, and some of the other 21st century skills?
-It helps foster creativity because it allows the students to freely express themselves, and to express their opinions and to speak their minds- all within a realm of propriety.
5. What are some ways I can use this technology in the classroom?
- To talk about main ideas or topics of a lesson. Or if there are multiple battles in a war, for example, the students can be assigned a battle to investigate, they can blog about it, and then read the other blogs to get a feel about what the other battles were like. Then they can discuss it a bit in class, but overall it saves a lot of time.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Gaming
1. What are the "affordances" and "constraints" of the technology? In other words, what does the technology allow us to do or prevent us from doing?
-This technology allows students to learn material in a fun and interesting way. Instead of sitting through teacher lectures, or group activities, they can play these games on the computer and while they are "fighting off a dragon" they can really be learning new multiplication skills, etc. A constraint of the technology may be that some of the learning games out there are fairly dull and lacking in the necessary motivation.
2. What new skills do we need to teach the students?
-The students would have to have a thorough knowledge of how to use computers, how to access the games, and then how to correctly play them. And sometimes, depending on the lessons being taught, there are certain games they are allowed to play and certain other ones they are not- so they'd have to know the difference.
3. What will I need to do differently in terms of how I teach in the classroom? How will teaching and learning look different?
- I almost feel like gaming can help teachers teach their lessons. I feel like teaching can be improved through not only using computer games in their classroom, but also creating games to accompany their lessons. Children learn a great deal through games because when it is fun and engaging, they are much more interested in learning the material- just as if they were the actual rules of the game.
4. How does the technology help me foster creativity, innovation, and some of the other 21st century skills?
-Well, as a lot of 21st century skills revolve around the use of computers, gaming is one step in that direction. Gaming also promotes their learning growth, and so the more they can learn from gaming, the more they can benefit at school.
5. What are some ways I can use this technology in the classroom?
- I can use it for free time! Not only is it fun for the kids, but it gets them learning, so it's an awesome tool to use when they have some free time. One of my co-ops would use it as a motivational tool, so if the kids would get their work done in a certain amount of time, they could go on the computers and play the games.
-This technology allows students to learn material in a fun and interesting way. Instead of sitting through teacher lectures, or group activities, they can play these games on the computer and while they are "fighting off a dragon" they can really be learning new multiplication skills, etc. A constraint of the technology may be that some of the learning games out there are fairly dull and lacking in the necessary motivation.
2. What new skills do we need to teach the students?
-The students would have to have a thorough knowledge of how to use computers, how to access the games, and then how to correctly play them. And sometimes, depending on the lessons being taught, there are certain games they are allowed to play and certain other ones they are not- so they'd have to know the difference.
3. What will I need to do differently in terms of how I teach in the classroom? How will teaching and learning look different?
- I almost feel like gaming can help teachers teach their lessons. I feel like teaching can be improved through not only using computer games in their classroom, but also creating games to accompany their lessons. Children learn a great deal through games because when it is fun and engaging, they are much more interested in learning the material- just as if they were the actual rules of the game.
4. How does the technology help me foster creativity, innovation, and some of the other 21st century skills?
-Well, as a lot of 21st century skills revolve around the use of computers, gaming is one step in that direction. Gaming also promotes their learning growth, and so the more they can learn from gaming, the more they can benefit at school.
5. What are some ways I can use this technology in the classroom?
- I can use it for free time! Not only is it fun for the kids, but it gets them learning, so it's an awesome tool to use when they have some free time. One of my co-ops would use it as a motivational tool, so if the kids would get their work done in a certain amount of time, they could go on the computers and play the games.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Creative Commons
1. What are the "affordances" and "constraints of the technology? In other words, what does the technology allow us to do or prevent us from doing?
-This technology allows someone to acquire a license for a creative work of theirs and to share their work with a bunch of other people. Unlike a copyright license, Creative Commons allows a person's work to be copied, shared, distributed, and blogged about without the author's permission on grounds that it is not for commercial profit. This is fabulous as it allows that person's work to travel from person to person, and it can gain popularity, which can lead to deals that turn into a profit for the author of the creative work. This is beneficial to students and teachers because they can pull these creative commons dubbed works and use them in projects, speeches, or homework and not have to worry about copyright infringements.
2. What new skills do we need to teach the students?
-What we would need to teach the students is the difference between copyright and creative commons, so that they understand what they can pull from the internet into their projects and what they cannot. They still have to give reference to the author of the work, but they don't have to ask the author's permission for their personal usage of it.
3. What will I need to do differently in terms of how I teach in the classroom? How will teaching and learning look different?
- I don't believe it really effects how a teacher teaches, or how a student learns inside a classroom. It basically just allows the student to understand differences of copyright and creative commons, and then to know what kind of articles/videos/etc can be pulled from the internet and used in their blogs without their getting in trouble.
4. How does the technology help me foster creativity, innovation, and some of the other 21st century skills?
- It allows for a certain level of creativity and innovation as the students pull creative commons works and interweave them into something or some project of their own design. It also allows students to make their own videos, etc, and obtain a license ensuring their ownership of the video, but at the same time allows them to share their video world wide for the benefit or entertainment of others, without the fear of anyone stealing their work.
5. What are some ways I can use this technology in the classroom?
- It's not exactly a tool to be used in the classroom, its more of a prop students and teachers can use to gather articles, videos, etc for a specific lesson or project.
-This technology allows someone to acquire a license for a creative work of theirs and to share their work with a bunch of other people. Unlike a copyright license, Creative Commons allows a person's work to be copied, shared, distributed, and blogged about without the author's permission on grounds that it is not for commercial profit. This is fabulous as it allows that person's work to travel from person to person, and it can gain popularity, which can lead to deals that turn into a profit for the author of the creative work. This is beneficial to students and teachers because they can pull these creative commons dubbed works and use them in projects, speeches, or homework and not have to worry about copyright infringements.
2. What new skills do we need to teach the students?
-What we would need to teach the students is the difference between copyright and creative commons, so that they understand what they can pull from the internet into their projects and what they cannot. They still have to give reference to the author of the work, but they don't have to ask the author's permission for their personal usage of it.
3. What will I need to do differently in terms of how I teach in the classroom? How will teaching and learning look different?
- I don't believe it really effects how a teacher teaches, or how a student learns inside a classroom. It basically just allows the student to understand differences of copyright and creative commons, and then to know what kind of articles/videos/etc can be pulled from the internet and used in their blogs without their getting in trouble.
4. How does the technology help me foster creativity, innovation, and some of the other 21st century skills?
- It allows for a certain level of creativity and innovation as the students pull creative commons works and interweave them into something or some project of their own design. It also allows students to make their own videos, etc, and obtain a license ensuring their ownership of the video, but at the same time allows them to share their video world wide for the benefit or entertainment of others, without the fear of anyone stealing their work.
5. What are some ways I can use this technology in the classroom?
- It's not exactly a tool to be used in the classroom, its more of a prop students and teachers can use to gather articles, videos, etc for a specific lesson or project.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
The Prezi Tool
My partner and I are researching the Prezi tool. I had some experience with this tool last semester when someone did a project in my class using it. After watching several slideshows, one slide after another after another, with people reading them to you verbatim and then clicking links to show you their corresponding videos, the Prezi's presentation was an eye opener, and a wake-up call to those of us who had mentally fallen asleep.
When he first turned to his presentation, it wasn't very remarkable. Although I knew it wasn't another slideshow- I figured it was another version of a slide to slide presentation. He was also an older student, he had a few kids and a wife so I briefly wondered if he didn't know how to use a powerpoint or if he even knew what it was, since he was using something else. So aside from knowing it wasn't another slideshow, it wasn't very remarkable at first, all we could see were the words READING DISABILITIES and then a few smaller words and pictures around the side of those words. But then he clicked for the next slide, because of course we were expecting another slide, but when instead of going to another slide the screen dove straight into the circle of the R, I was like WOAH BABY. There were tiny little letters inside that R's circle! It was like the information was hidden, but we found it- it was really cool! Then the font that he was using made the capitol I look like a lowercase i, so after we dove into the circle of the R, we jumped out and landed on top of the little dot above the i, which had some more information on it. We, as students, were entranced. It didn't move around so much that it made us dizzy, but it was somewhat exciting to wonder where the screen was going to leap off to next. Another great thing about the Prezi is that you don't have to post video or music links that direct you off the page, as they do in powerpoints. You can post them right in your Prezi, and when the screen zooms in or out to your video, all you have to do is press play, and it's there!
I feel that this is a wonderful tool to use inside a classroom when students are taking notes, etc, because its a good way to keep them focused instead of using slide-turning powerpoints. I believe they might get redundant if used over and over again excessively, and too many turns can easily make a student dizzy, but if used for introducing a week's lesson, and created to be entertaining & instructional and not (literally) mind boggling, it can be a very effective tool, and I highly recommend it.
When he first turned to his presentation, it wasn't very remarkable. Although I knew it wasn't another slideshow- I figured it was another version of a slide to slide presentation. He was also an older student, he had a few kids and a wife so I briefly wondered if he didn't know how to use a powerpoint or if he even knew what it was, since he was using something else. So aside from knowing it wasn't another slideshow, it wasn't very remarkable at first, all we could see were the words READING DISABILITIES and then a few smaller words and pictures around the side of those words. But then he clicked for the next slide, because of course we were expecting another slide, but when instead of going to another slide the screen dove straight into the circle of the R, I was like WOAH BABY. There were tiny little letters inside that R's circle! It was like the information was hidden, but we found it- it was really cool! Then the font that he was using made the capitol I look like a lowercase i, so after we dove into the circle of the R, we jumped out and landed on top of the little dot above the i, which had some more information on it. We, as students, were entranced. It didn't move around so much that it made us dizzy, but it was somewhat exciting to wonder where the screen was going to leap off to next. Another great thing about the Prezi is that you don't have to post video or music links that direct you off the page, as they do in powerpoints. You can post them right in your Prezi, and when the screen zooms in or out to your video, all you have to do is press play, and it's there!
I feel that this is a wonderful tool to use inside a classroom when students are taking notes, etc, because its a good way to keep them focused instead of using slide-turning powerpoints. I believe they might get redundant if used over and over again excessively, and too many turns can easily make a student dizzy, but if used for introducing a week's lesson, and created to be entertaining & instructional and not (literally) mind boggling, it can be a very effective tool, and I highly recommend it.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Class Post #2
How do people learn in the real world outside of school?
I think people mostly learn in the real world by doing the things they want to learn, physically doing them. Whether it's walking, learning to make food, or learning how to tumble in gymnastics, the person learns to do them physically, not by reading chapters in a book. Some teachers do incorporate physical activities for the students to learn their material, but another big thing about learning outside of school, is that the person learning is intrinsically motivated. When you are a baby you see everyone else walking around you, and you want to learn to walk too. When you're a little older you want to be Miss Independent and learn how to prepare your own food. When I was in cheerleading, seeing a bunch of girls running around doing tucks and layouts made me want to learn how to do them too. It is different in school. It is much harder to be intrinsically motivated in a subject which does not appeal to you, and it's hard for teachers to give you that sort of motivation. People in the real world learn things because they want to learn them, and they will spend time practicing what they want to learn until they do.
How do people learn from and through technology in the real world?
Technology makes obtaining information easier. A student can hear about some topic or other in one of their classes, and they can come home and google it, and from multiple cites they can learn a bunch of different information on a topic. There are not only document or article based information, but images as well. The student could have a history class and they could be talking about the different battle gear and weapons used in war, and the student can go online and look at a picture of exactly what this was supposed to look like. If you have a friend who lives on the other side of the world, you can use the internet to communicate back and forth and learn what is going on on that side of the world. Television is also another form of technology that transports a bunch of information to a million television screens. Movies are awesome because they can teach you about things you might never have thought about before in an entertaining way. They can inspire new ideas and evoke new opinions about certain things that are not as easily grasped in a classroom.
What are the implications of that for what teaching and learning could/should look like?
This would imply that learning from a teacher should be just like learning gymnastics, learning how to skateboard, or learning how to make a sandwich. A teacher should somehow inspire intrinsic motivation, and sometimes through the use of technology, a teacher can accomplish this.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Class Post #1
What do you value of your past teachers?
I think what I most value of my past teachers is there "connectedness" (for lack of a better word) to their students. I liked how a particular teacher, I'll call him Mr. D, would greet every student at his door with their name,or his nickname for the student. And he always knew what was going on in our lives. He'd ask 'Disco Dan' how his vacation to Jamaica was; he'd rattle off football scores to 'Moose,' the football jock; and he'd tease me, his 'Blonde Bombshell' about my "queer" interest in such a "repulsive" language as French. He didn't have much of a fondness for the French! Anyways... I really believe in the importance of learning who your students are as individuals rather than just learning who they are as learners. If a teacher can connect to a student on a somewhat personal level, then he/she can provide a great deal of comfort in a classroom. In a less stressed environment, students are more open to learning, to voicing their opinions, to speaking out against something they disagree with, to contributing to discussions and on assignments. The students will believe the teacher cares about them, rightfully so, and therefore the teacher will get a greater amount of respect along with fewer behavioral problems.
What is great about teaching and learning?
To me, teaching and learning are very rewarding, though on different levels. I am the sort of person who likes doing things for others rather than doing things for me, and therefore teaching is more rewarding. I have coached a competitive cheerleading squad for six years starting with tiny 1st and 2nd graders and ending with big 7th and 8th graders, and each year has been amazing. It's hard to describe the feeling I get at competitions when my girls nail a 1st place routine, but it's amazing. It makes me ridiculously proud of all my 30 some girls who, in the course of four months, have successfully learned everything I taught them. Seeing their proud faces, and receiving a million of their hugs and tears, I feel like I have done something right. I have contributed to a small piece of their lives and helped each of them believe they can reach their potentials. Years from now, when they are struggling through college, I want some memory of me, of our team, of our hard work and success, to reside in the back of their minds, continually reminding them that 'yes, they can make it through this final,' and 'yes, they can make it through this semester,' because they have the potential and they now know how to use it.
I think what I most value of my past teachers is there "connectedness" (for lack of a better word) to their students. I liked how a particular teacher, I'll call him Mr. D, would greet every student at his door with their name,or his nickname for the student. And he always knew what was going on in our lives. He'd ask 'Disco Dan' how his vacation to Jamaica was; he'd rattle off football scores to 'Moose,' the football jock; and he'd tease me, his 'Blonde Bombshell' about my "queer" interest in such a "repulsive" language as French. He didn't have much of a fondness for the French! Anyways... I really believe in the importance of learning who your students are as individuals rather than just learning who they are as learners. If a teacher can connect to a student on a somewhat personal level, then he/she can provide a great deal of comfort in a classroom. In a less stressed environment, students are more open to learning, to voicing their opinions, to speaking out against something they disagree with, to contributing to discussions and on assignments. The students will believe the teacher cares about them, rightfully so, and therefore the teacher will get a greater amount of respect along with fewer behavioral problems.
What is great about teaching and learning?
To me, teaching and learning are very rewarding, though on different levels. I am the sort of person who likes doing things for others rather than doing things for me, and therefore teaching is more rewarding. I have coached a competitive cheerleading squad for six years starting with tiny 1st and 2nd graders and ending with big 7th and 8th graders, and each year has been amazing. It's hard to describe the feeling I get at competitions when my girls nail a 1st place routine, but it's amazing. It makes me ridiculously proud of all my 30 some girls who, in the course of four months, have successfully learned everything I taught them. Seeing their proud faces, and receiving a million of their hugs and tears, I feel like I have done something right. I have contributed to a small piece of their lives and helped each of them believe they can reach their potentials. Years from now, when they are struggling through college, I want some memory of me, of our team, of our hard work and success, to reside in the back of their minds, continually reminding them that 'yes, they can make it through this final,' and 'yes, they can make it through this semester,' because they have the potential and they now know how to use it.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
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