Week Eight...oh, how I thought I would be so happy to hear those two words! Yet, I'm not..really. I am a little sad that this is my last 'Educational Technology' blog. Maybe because this is my first masters class and I'm feeling a little like when the first child leaves the house. A little melancholy it's really over! Who knows....all I know is that I'm not quite as happy as I may have thought that day I had to set up a first time blog!
It's interesting we are ending the course with a lesson on viruses and worms and other miscreant's projects! For indeed, me, the 'never get tricked by a phishing email' or 'I've told you over and over not to open attached files' - was indeed, stupid! Yes...in a haste in doing my technology explorations, I downloaded programs and then accepted toolbars, etc.. that added so much adware to my computer that the hard drive crashed. Yes - you heard me right - it was the TECHNOLOGY class that did me in!
What have I learned?!? Be very, very careful when RUNNING a downloadable program. So many of them now aren't really asking permission to run the program, but are asking permission to run some toolbar option that latches on to your browser and adds a ton of adware. When you download, be careful to look at the URL - is it really the official site? When I tried to download Java - it was only later I realized it wasn't the Oracle site - but some software site that had other programs attached to it. Be careful - it's a real pain in the @$$ (the netiquette guide said it was okay to put that) to fix it!
I was lucky. I used this computer for my class and had I not had another computer, the class would not have had access to the Smartboard for 3 weeks. If kids are not careful with school computers, it could be a very expensive fix. Our school has a 'filter' and it probably prevents downloads (I've never had them try to download anything) - but it would be wise to educate the students on these perils. Learning the hard way is NO FUN!
Regarding the 'netiquette' article, I guess I am busted. RULE 5 states, 'Know what you're talking about and make sense.' I'm not sure I have followed that rule at any time in writing my blog. I hope you all will forgive me - we should have been told this on Day 1! :)
Rule 1 says to REMEMBER THE HUMAN. With that said, it is my hope that anyone who has ventured to this blog finds only things that can help them. I'm not sure there is anything truly worthy of praise or inspiration, but at heart, it is written from a human heart!
It is with a little knot in my throat that I say cheers to you all and may your search for technology be successful and engaging!
BLESSINGS!
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Monday, April 21, 2014
Week Seven
And so Week 7 begins! We studied Web 2.0 tools this week. Discovery Education states that 'Web 2.0 is about revolutionary new ways of creating, collaborating,
editing and sharing user-generated content online. It's also about ease
of use. There's no need to download, and teachers and students can
master many of these tools in minutes. Technology has never been easier
or more accessible to all. These tools include: Presentation Tools,Video Tools, Mobile Tools, and Community Tools.'
I work at a school that is modeled by Classical Education. This model does not allow for a lot of the Web 2.0 tools that we're discussing. What I've encouraged my students to use are the Google Doc tools. They require no software to be downloaded and they are on a server, so they can be easily shared. The Google Calendar is also another great tool to use for collaboration because of its ease, cloud-based platform, and ability to color-code by class, teacher, etc.
Last year I approached my administration about using Edmodo as a teacher platform to add homework, grades, instructions, notes, etc. It is a great tool to be used to communicate between teacher and student. However, because it would require the entire staff to learn it and everyone needed to be using the same platform, I was not given permission to use it.
I know that the preference is to discuss how we are using the Web 2.0 in the classroom, but I am going to have to talk about a software program that I use instead due to the restrictions I face at my school. Let me add that although I love the idea of incorporating these tools into my classroom, I have not seen any academic achievement suffer because we do not. On the contrary, as you will read in a bit, the Classical model actually works very well with the brain development, which correlates to our unit as well.
Back to the software... I use this great software program called Kuta software. Specifically, I am using the Algebra I and Algebra II programs. These programs allow me to create student-specific worksheets, unit reviews, general worksheets, and tests for my Alg I, Alg II, Precal classes. The price for the program is very affordable, especially for what you get. I can go into the program and go to specific standards that we are working on and develop targeted worksheets for my students. I use them for formative and summative assessments and my students love it. The really diligent students love them because they can come to me and say, 'Mrs. Kehrt, can you make me a worksheet that has 20 problems on solving for system of equations by using elimination and combination?' and then PRESTO....in about 1 minute, I have their sheet ready to go. I can print it out with or without answers so that they can check their work. I can use it to develop custom questions and it's so much easier than trying to use Word with the math template because most of the math functions are built in.
The main drawback, besides my dependency on it, is that not every topic is covered. Not only I, but my students, get used to being able to have a review sheet 'johnny on the spot' - and when we have to use a different method to review, it can throw everyone off a bit. It is a little cumbersome creating custom questions - especially those where the trigonometric functions do not want to format correctly. However, with that said, I would not trade this program for any other that I have seen so far. It is a wonderful math software program.
The other interesting element that was discussed this week was the brain. The information on the Dana Foundation was so thought-provoking. As I was looking through the site to find our assigned reading, I became fascinated with the brain study on gender difference. I found it intriguing that the brain has always been considered 'unisex'. That is so crazy when we know that men and women are not created the same, that the development of the brain has not been considered to be different.
As mentioned earlier, I teach at a Classical school which embraces the trivium of learning. The trivium is based on the development of the brain. The first phase is the grammar phase - which emphasizes the rote since the brain synapsis during this time frame (K-4 typically) is at its highest. The 2nd phase is the logic phase and the third is the rhetoric phase. Again, all of these 'phases' are based on the development of the brain and material is introduced at levels that the brain can work most efficiently at that point of development. Obviously, there are overlapping time frames because not everyone develops the same at the same time.
As a Classical school, we put a lot of emphasis on the fine arts. Even from a young age, the students spend equal time in music and art and are exposed to string instruments if they wish. They memorize poetry and verses. They begin participating in plays. As they get into middle school, the music program is further developed as well as arts. Students are introduced to Latin in 5th grade. They participate in Shakespearean plays. In high school, they present and defend a thesis. All of this, again, based on the brain's development. I found it encouraging to see how effective the arts play into the brain's development. Our education system today places such emphasis on 'technology', yet this research shows a much great importance of the arts to the development of the brain.
As I end this week's lesson, where I began a little frustrated at the lack of technology my school incorporates, I actually left filling affirmed in the education and the education model that we use. At the end of the process, I do believe our students are being developed to have a 'well-trained mind.'
I am left to wonder if human interaction will always be more beneficial than artificial interaction. I am sure that we'll see more brain research on the brain development of children who are exposed to technology compared to the brain development of those who are in music and art. It will be interesting, indeed.
The technology explorations have also come to an end. Although they were a bit time-consuming, I was really glad to have to muddle through them all. Some were great and I would never have been exposed to them had I not been assigned the task.
TECHNOLOGY EXPLORATIONS
/a>
I work at a school that is modeled by Classical Education. This model does not allow for a lot of the Web 2.0 tools that we're discussing. What I've encouraged my students to use are the Google Doc tools. They require no software to be downloaded and they are on a server, so they can be easily shared. The Google Calendar is also another great tool to use for collaboration because of its ease, cloud-based platform, and ability to color-code by class, teacher, etc.
Last year I approached my administration about using Edmodo as a teacher platform to add homework, grades, instructions, notes, etc. It is a great tool to be used to communicate between teacher and student. However, because it would require the entire staff to learn it and everyone needed to be using the same platform, I was not given permission to use it.
I know that the preference is to discuss how we are using the Web 2.0 in the classroom, but I am going to have to talk about a software program that I use instead due to the restrictions I face at my school. Let me add that although I love the idea of incorporating these tools into my classroom, I have not seen any academic achievement suffer because we do not. On the contrary, as you will read in a bit, the Classical model actually works very well with the brain development, which correlates to our unit as well.
Back to the software... I use this great software program called Kuta software. Specifically, I am using the Algebra I and Algebra II programs. These programs allow me to create student-specific worksheets, unit reviews, general worksheets, and tests for my Alg I, Alg II, Precal classes. The price for the program is very affordable, especially for what you get. I can go into the program and go to specific standards that we are working on and develop targeted worksheets for my students. I use them for formative and summative assessments and my students love it. The really diligent students love them because they can come to me and say, 'Mrs. Kehrt, can you make me a worksheet that has 20 problems on solving for system of equations by using elimination and combination?' and then PRESTO....in about 1 minute, I have their sheet ready to go. I can print it out with or without answers so that they can check their work. I can use it to develop custom questions and it's so much easier than trying to use Word with the math template because most of the math functions are built in.
The main drawback, besides my dependency on it, is that not every topic is covered. Not only I, but my students, get used to being able to have a review sheet 'johnny on the spot' - and when we have to use a different method to review, it can throw everyone off a bit. It is a little cumbersome creating custom questions - especially those where the trigonometric functions do not want to format correctly. However, with that said, I would not trade this program for any other that I have seen so far. It is a wonderful math software program.
The other interesting element that was discussed this week was the brain. The information on the Dana Foundation was so thought-provoking. As I was looking through the site to find our assigned reading, I became fascinated with the brain study on gender difference. I found it intriguing that the brain has always been considered 'unisex'. That is so crazy when we know that men and women are not created the same, that the development of the brain has not been considered to be different.
As mentioned earlier, I teach at a Classical school which embraces the trivium of learning. The trivium is based on the development of the brain. The first phase is the grammar phase - which emphasizes the rote since the brain synapsis during this time frame (K-4 typically) is at its highest. The 2nd phase is the logic phase and the third is the rhetoric phase. Again, all of these 'phases' are based on the development of the brain and material is introduced at levels that the brain can work most efficiently at that point of development. Obviously, there are overlapping time frames because not everyone develops the same at the same time.
As a Classical school, we put a lot of emphasis on the fine arts. Even from a young age, the students spend equal time in music and art and are exposed to string instruments if they wish. They memorize poetry and verses. They begin participating in plays. As they get into middle school, the music program is further developed as well as arts. Students are introduced to Latin in 5th grade. They participate in Shakespearean plays. In high school, they present and defend a thesis. All of this, again, based on the brain's development. I found it encouraging to see how effective the arts play into the brain's development. Our education system today places such emphasis on 'technology', yet this research shows a much great importance of the arts to the development of the brain.
As I end this week's lesson, where I began a little frustrated at the lack of technology my school incorporates, I actually left filling affirmed in the education and the education model that we use. At the end of the process, I do believe our students are being developed to have a 'well-trained mind.'
I am left to wonder if human interaction will always be more beneficial than artificial interaction. I am sure that we'll see more brain research on the brain development of children who are exposed to technology compared to the brain development of those who are in music and art. It will be interesting, indeed.
The technology explorations have also come to an end. Although they were a bit time-consuming, I was really glad to have to muddle through them all. Some were great and I would never have been exposed to them had I not been assigned the task.
TECHNOLOGY EXPLORATIONS
Tech Ed 19a – https://delicious.com/
1.
|
Describe
what you learned from exploring this resource. Be
thorough in your response.
|
Delicious
looks like a site that is similar to Pinterest. It allows you to save all links you like
and organize them by interest or however you wish. You can then create your own personal
search engine to find information later.
|
|
2.
|
How
could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field
or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in
educational settings.
|
This
would be good for me to use if I were looking for online
information/activities to use with my class.
I could not only save them (bookmark), but I could organize them and
then search for them much easier.
|
|
3.
|
Would
you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use,
fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?
|
I might recommend. I have not gone in and personally set up an
account, but it does look like something that could be useful – especially
for all of the SmartExchange lessons that I have used.
|
Tech Ed 19b – http://www.historypin.com
1.
|
Describe
what you learned from exploring this resource. Be
thorough in your response.
|
Historypin
is a non-profit site that lets you make or add to collections with visual
arts in historical terms. You can add
slides by event or by topic and others can search these topics and add to
them.
|
|
2.
|
How
could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field
or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in
educational settings.
|
I’m
not sure I could use it for math, but I love the concept for history and for
helping my own children as they learn.
What better way to ‘see’ historical times than through visual presentations/photos. If I taught history, foreign language,
music, etc.. I could use this database to show photos relating to time
periods, events, locations, cultures, etc.
|
|
3.
|
Would
you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use,
fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?
|
I will definitely recommend. I think this would be a great site and I
have colleagues that would find this very useful.
|
Tech Ed 19c – https://www.diigo.com/
1.
|
Describe
what you learned from exploring this resource. Be
thorough in your response.
|
Diigo
is a cloud-based information management tool.
It allows you to save bookmarks, highlight, make sticky notes, and
more and add them to your cloud-based library so that they can be accessed on
any computer. It also has droid and
iphone apps that give you the capability of adding information from your
phone (pics, etc.) to the library as well.
|
|
2.
|
How
could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field
or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in
educational settings.
|
I
really liked this. It could be used personally
to help keep you organized with your own information as well as mark up
visuals to be used with your class.
|
|
3.
|
Would
you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use,
fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?
|
I will definitely recommend. I think it is a very versatile and I love
that it is cloud-based. The
versatility is amazing and it’s free!
|
Tech Ed 19d – http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/math-games/calculator/
1.
|
Describe
what you learned from exploring this resource. Be
thorough in your response.
|
This
is a talking calculator. As you put in
a number, it states the number audibly.
It also states any function.
When you press enter, it states the solution.
|
|
2.
|
How
could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field
or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in
educational settings.
|
Initially,
I thought it looked pretty cool.
However, upon playing with it, I did not like it. When clicked on the numbers, it could not
keep up with the clicks, It also gave
wrong numbers if you clicked fast.
When it gave an answer with a non-ending decimal, I could not get it
to quit talking and it became annoying.
|
|
3.
|
Would
you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use,
fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?
|
Probably not.
It might be good with a slower learner and I will try with my
children, but for older students, I did not like.
|
1.
|
Describe
what you learned from exploring this resource. Be
thorough in your response.
|
This
looks like a downloadable program that will add a big talking calculator as a
program file. I tried to download, but
it was always taking me to another program that was not the calculator. This is how you get a virus or phishing or
spamware or adware on your computer. I
do not like this link.
|
|
2.
|
How
could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field
or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in
educational settings.
|
If
it worked, it might be nice for those who are auditory learners. But since I did not download (see above), I
don’t know for sure.
|
|
3.
|
Would
you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use,
fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?
|
Probably not.
When you get links that are misleading, I do not trust the site.
|
Tech Ed 20a– http://2write4math.pbworks.com/w/page/882022/Multi-Media%20Math
1.
|
Describe
what you learned from exploring this resource. Be
thorough in your response.
|
I
was excited about this link because I thought it might be great for me since
I teach math. It looks like it gives a
lot of resources for math. However,
like I’ve experienced with other wikis or webquests, a lot of the links are
broken and I end up wasting a lot of time.
|
|
2.
|
How
could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field
or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in
educational settings.
|
If
it worked, it would be great. It looks
like it gives links for elementary, high school, and various topics which are
all math related. However, the links I
tried were broken and I quickly quit trying.
|
|
3.
|
Would
you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use,
fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?
|
Probably not.
If the links I try don’t work – I figure the website is not maintained
very well.
|
Tech Ed 20b– http://www.piclits.com
1.
|
Describe
what you learned from exploring this resource. Be
thorough in your response.
|
This
is a site that combines visual literacy with writing. The top of the site scrolls through
pictures and you can choose a picture and then add words to it. You can create your own writing about one
picture. You can then share the
picture by emailing or use it on blogs or save it in your own library.
|
|
2.
|
How
could you use this resource in a school setting? It does not matter if it is in your field
or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in
educational settings.
|
I
really liked this site. I especially
liked it because it had so many pictures to choose from and it made me really
have to be creative in description. It
could be used for blogs, for student handouts, for parent information.
|
|
3.
|
Would
you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use,
fee or not, and so forth. Why or Why not?
|
I will definitely recommend. It is very functional, easy to use, and
fun.
|
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)