Week Three

We were asked: 'Why are visual images important?" and  'How have you used them in the past or now?'

Visual images are important because they can create a more permanent memory of a concept or idea that is presented than just mere words.

When I taught 4th grade, I used visuals every day that I taught Bible because the pictures the children saw as I was telling the story made both the story come to life as well as created a visual image in their minds that helped them remember the story and its information.  I also used them when I taught science because it helped the students understand exactly what I meant when we would be discussing certain phenomena.  I used visuals in history so that the students could picture what places and culture may have looked like in different time periods.  I now teach high school math - and finding visual images is much more difficult.

Now...onto our other discussion.....

Handouts?  I hand out a lot of math worksheets to high school students – and that’s about all I hand out.  My math worksheets are not very heavy on anything other than the equations that need to be solved, manipulated, or simplified.  Adding graphics to these might actually be a distraction.  However, I do think that I could add graphics to word problems and make those less ominous.

What kid likes math word problems?  Most of them have already decided they are undecipherable before they read the first word.  If I can add graphics and soften the ‘look’ of the word problem, then maybe I will give the student a reprieve from the instantaneous thought of doom.

Here is my typical math word problem:

   

Here is my new math word problem with graphics.

 

Doesn’t it look much softer and less frightening?  Great suggestion!

In reading this week’s articles on desktop publishing and word processing, I tried to think of how I could apply this to my current job situation.  Being a math teacher to high schoolers limits my opportunities to use DTP.  I use a program that writes my math tests – so I would classify that as a word processing program.  It puts in all the math symbols which cannot be easily accomplished in Word.

I also teach a personal finance class.  When I started thinking about integrating DTP into the classroom, this is an area I thought I could actually put it to good use.  The students love this class and are telling me all the time about the things they are going to put into practice as they begin making money.  Along that line, I thought it might be fun for them to create a newsletter for their peers (and maybe even their parents) that could like financial statistics and advice about personal finance.  I am thinking of putting them into two groups and have each group create their own newsletter.  Once they are created, they can grade each others’ work and then collaborate as one team and put together the best of both papers.  This benefits not only the student, but it shares great information with the rest of the class.

The other thought I had while reading this information was how much better our younger children would be if they could use word processing software to write their more involved papers.  My son struggles with neat handwriting.  He spends a lot of time erasing and going back and rewriting.  If his assignment is designed around developing better handwriting, then there is no need for word processing.  However, if he is trying to put ideas on paper, using a word processing program would be very helpful to him.  It would allow him to think without being interrupted to correct handwriting and spelling errors.  It would allow him to quickly go back and edit.  It also allows him an easier read of his paper since the writing is not in bad penmanship.  I am going to search for an app that might allow both of my younger sons to create word documents electronically.  I think the earlier they are exposed to creating like this, the more creative they will become and they will have more confidence in their abilities to write well.  I am concerned that we let young children to use word processors with no regard to teaching spelling, so I think there has to be a happy medium in that regard.

Technology Explorations:

Tech Ed 7a - www.gpat.org  

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	This is a website that lists various types of assistive technologies available for different types of learning disabilities or impairments.
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 a good resource to use if you had a student who was tested and qualified for assistive technologies.  For math, it listed various devices that could be used to assist the learner.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	Yes – although I am not familiar enough with who would qualify to use these types of assistance.  The website is not very intuitive, but it did have a good resource list.

Tech Ed 7b - http://www.zoho.com  

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	This is a website that sells application software for business, collaboration, and productivity.
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 I were to need an app set up for those who needed assistive learning, this might be the place to go.  It looks like you can design any type of app you might need, so you could design something for hearing impaired, for those who cannot write, 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’m not sure.  It looks like it’s expensive and I am not sure how much technological experience you would need to develop the app.

 

Tech Ed 8a – 4teachers.org/quizstar

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	“QuizStar is a Web-based quiz maker that enables you to create, administer and automatically grade your quizzes online. With QuizStar you can - Manage classes and quizzes - Attach multimedia files to questions - Make quizzes in multiple languages - Access from any Internet-connected computer - Allow students to complete and review”
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 did not sign up because the last time I downloaded a free trial, my computer became infected with adware.  So, by looking at what it could do, I looks great!  It appears you can make quizzes online and have your students take them at home or do them at school.  Great assessment tool.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	Yes – this is something I think could be very useful in the classroom.

Tech Ed 8b – 4teachers.org/track star

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Track Star allows you to view thousands of online lessons or quickly create your own.
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 viewed several of the sites that have already been created.  They are kind of like WIKIS in that you can create a lot of links within the site to take you to other cited information.  For instance, there was one of the American Revolution – so a teacher doing a unit on this could create their own page with links to various resources.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	Maybe.  It looks like something that could be beneficial – but I am not sure if it’s more beneficial than some of the wikis we looked at earlier.

 

Tech Ed 8c – 4teachers.org/assign a day

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Assign-A-Day is a free tool designed to enhance teacher and student communication through an online teacher-managed calendar. Teachers create a calendar for each of their classes and add assignments for the students to view. Students view their teachers' calendars in order to see assignments for classes they might have missed, or to get an overview of the class.  You can also create assignments that span multiple dates, make shared calendar to work collaboratively with other educators, and duplicate and edit your calendars
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 think the nicest thing about this for me would be to use it to collaborate with other teachers.  Our school is currently using an antiquated means of a putting out a ‘master’ calendar and it makes scheduling tedious.  This looks like it may be an easier means of doing this.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	Maybe.  I would have to get into it and see if it really produces an easier-to-use calendar than what we currently have.  Google Calendar also works pretty well – so I would want to see which might be better.

Tech Ed 8d – Dimio

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	It is a program that is able to to read aloud the written text and choose the sentences to be pronounced based upon the vocal answers of the user.
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 think this program would be great for those who struggle reading.  It can help them with read aloud to follow along with the words.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	Since the program was not downloadable – I’m not sure.  If it works like the description, it would be worth trying out.

 

Tech Ed 9 – Full measure

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	This is a free program that will turn power point presentations into narrated versions of the presentation.
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 could be good for students who have trouble reading, have limited sight, or dyslexia.  The presentations are read aloud.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	Yes.  This is a free open-source program.  I am not sure how easy it is to use, but I would recommend trying it to someone who is need of finding a program that can assist in visually impaired learners.

 

Tech Ed 10a – WebQuest

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web
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 works, you could use it to find lessons that correlate to what you are teaching and have students go to this site to do online work and learn.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	No.  It was not easy to use.  When I tried to look up Web Quests, none of my searches resulted in any files.  When I went to Garden Quest, the links that were available were not very useful.  I do not believe I would waste my time on this one.

Tech Ed 10b – Read The Words

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	This website offers a program that will convert words to text.
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 useful to students who are visually impaired.
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’m not sure.  When I listened to some of the recordings – they were awful.  Sounded like a robot.  But, if you cannot read or see, this is a better alternative than Braille.  I’m not sure what other programs are out there quality-wise, but it does seem like this one works – even if it does sound boring.