Sorry I'm late with this, busy weekend as usual.
I was very pleasantly surprised by this class. I was more-than-a-little expecting a class on how to create Powerpoint presentations and use MS Word. What I got was an immersive experience in Web 2.0 applications and their use in the classroom. The tools and resources I am taking away from this class will be of tremendous help as I begin my career in education. The class blog, filled with links to amazing, free resources, was worth the price of admission itself.
Perhaps the only things I would consider changing are these: 1) I would suggest having a collaborative project of some sort, as this forces us to work together with our fellow students and to network, which can be invaluable as we begin or enhance our careers. 2) I would contact the students before class starts and give them some sort of pre-class assignment. With only 8 class sessions (sometimes even less than that!) it's important to get a head start. By the time you've met in that first class, it's almost like you're already behind. Along that vein, I would suggest giving the students a couple of (small) assignments per week -- perhaps, to keep the subject fresh, it should be understood that a new assignment (maybe even just a reading) will be posted mid-week, to encourage the students to check the blog regularly.
Thank you for the class. It was really enjoyable and worthwhile.
Showing posts with label Grade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grade. Show all posts
Podcast Final Submission
Here is the podcast I wish to submit for my class project. I hope you enjoy it, as well.
Podcast to help you remember the Quadratic Formula.
Podcast to help you remember the Quadratic Formula.
Final Video Project Submission
My final video project submission for the class. This YouTube version (the original is 50 megabytes) is not the best because the compression required caused the image to become a little jumpy and the audio to add what sounds like a lisp to my voice, but otherwise I think it came out pretty good. I hope you agree.
No picture of Mr. Langhorst this time. It's late and I'm tired.
No picture of Mr. Langhorst this time. It's late and I'm tired.
Week 7 Writing Prompt
Grants and Grant Writing
For the high school math classes I plan to teach, there are a variety of grants for which I could apply. Most of them would be technology grants, such as the one listed on our class blog from Best Buy. The equipment I would buy would consist of teaching aids such as projectors, smartboards, and Interwrite pads. One of my biggest goals as a teacher, however, is going to be to extend learning opportunities to beyond the classroom. If I were suddenly handed $2,500 to increase/augment the technology in my classroom, the first purchases I would make would be a copy of Adobe Flash software ($699 from cdw.com, though education discounts are usually available), a camcorder, and a lapel microphone, so I could record and annotate video presentations of my lessons for students to download. These video lessons could help students who miss class or need a boost on the concepts presented. Ultimately, the content created could be used to populate an online class, such as those offered through the Lawrence, Kansas public schools to Kansas students. With the remaining money, I'd buy a couple of portable video players, so those lessons could be made available even to students who don't have internet access at home.
Week 6 Writing Prompt
Teachers and CopyrightWhat a minefield! It is beyond unfortunate that our society has created this "perfect storm" of circumstances: 1) music and video are "free" in people's minds because they are offered free and unfettered through radio, TV, and now the internet. 2) Computer and networking power now makes sharing high-quality content worldwide as easy as a mouse click. 3) Web 2.0 tools make everyone an author. 4) The original content creators are now suing the ground out from under ordinary people, in an effort to make examples of them.
Where does that leave us ordinary educators? It leaves us navigating the minefield of evolving copyright law, trying to exploit Web 2.0 tools but still protect our livelihoods! In my opinion, since education is state-regulated and the state Boards of Education have at least a little bit of legal resources at their disposal, each of the state Boards should be publishing a clear, easily interpreted "Guide to Fair Use" for the educators in their state. It should clearly spell out what the teacher's rights are in that state. I know I have seen similar documents floating around, but they really should come, in my humble opinion, directly from the regulating agency, to eliminate any confusion or guesswork. Simultaneously, the agencies should be lobbying their respective legislators to liberalize the fair use laws and enact protections for individuals against recording industry thugs, as a service to the educators they represent.
Note: the picture is a decidedly bad Simpsonizing of Mr. Langhorst's picture. Perhaps I should have spent a little more time on it. http://www.simpsonizeme.com
Week 5 Writing Prompt
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Google, as a "toolset," may just go down in history as the most important invention since food. A stroll through Google's list of applications is like a list of "everything you might ever need to do with a computer." However, one man's diversified is another man's monopolized. If Google is doing it all and doing it for free, what's to stop them from eventually taking over the world? Since they're famous for exploiting data, what's to keep them from exploiting you through your data?
They are already brazenly demonstrating that your data is their data, and that if you want to touch their tools, you have to give up some privacy to do it. As an example, just today I E-mailed a friend through Gmail asking about his lingering knee pain. His response, saying that he's all better now, was accompanied by text links to a knee-pain medication, a physical therapy practice, and a knee-replacement system. The message was disconcerting: "Yes, it's a private message, but that doesn't mean we're not watching you."
Here are the two reasons why I'm not worried -- yet. 1) We don't need the internet to live. I can still live, and breathe, and eat, and make enough money to buy beer totally without the benefit of the internet, if I have to. And 2) while it may be difficult, there's nothing stopping someone from coming along and making a better Google. I'm quite confident that in the next seven years or so, we'll be writing reaction papers talking about the company that replaced Google as the next potential evil empire.
In the meantime, I protect myself from the onerous data-hoarding tactics of Google by creating so much banal nonsense online that single-handedly, I am statistically invalidating the data they have gathered on thousands of my "peers." You're welcome.
...but it rocks absolutely, too!
Week 4 Writing Prompt
YouTube is a remarkable tool, even by the standards of the tool-laden Web 2.0 universe. There are two avenues in which it can be used. The first is as a source of information to present to students. Many, many useful things can be found there. In my own subject area, mathematics, there are both lectures as presented by math experts and examples of "real-world" events and situations, which the teacher can use to illustrate the abstract concepts being taught -- for example, Powers of Ten, explaining the scale of things in the universe. The teacher must be very careful, however, to ensure that the material used is both 1) appropriate for the students and 2) correct! Just like Wikipedia or any other non-professionally edited source, it is subject to the inaccuracies of the common submitter.The second avenue in which YouTube or its sister websites can be used is for the teacher to present information himself to the students. One possibility I would love to try would be to place a webcam toward me and the board and to record my entire lectures from start to finish, then upload them to the web. The first benefit of such a system would be that students who miss class or who fail to "get it" the first time around can easily review the material. The second would be that parents could easily check up on my teaching and see what their child should be learning. As a person who usually has nothing to hide, I don't have any worries about being exposed in this way. The third benefit, and the most controversial feature of such a system, would be that student behavior would be recorded and made available without explicit permission. Even if the camera did not show the students, their behavior would be apparent to anyone watching, through sound and through watching my reactions. While this may benefit me, especially if some contentious situation arose and the video could spare me a "he said, she said" controversy, I can easily see parents and especially students having a problem with such a system. They will say that there is too much surveillance as it is. And they may be right.
In summary, YouTube is a fabulous tool. I'm glad I live in the time that it's available. But the issues that arise from its use cause the teacher to have one more thing to tread carefully around.
Writing Prompt Week 3
Article #1 - Students Leave Technology At Home from Education Week
This article touches on the disconnect that many students face in that they often have better access to technology at home than they do at school. The students are what Marc Prensky calls "digital natives," while all too often the teachers and administrators are unfamiliar with even the technology available to them, let alone the universe of "Web 2.0, in which everyday users don't just access information, they create it." It behooves teachers and schools today to establish clear technology policies, enact aggressive training programs, and work to stay relevant in the minds of the students. I would make a suggestion: tech coordinators and assistants at schools should work more closely with teachers to fully utilize Web 2.0 tools in every classroom, promoting their role from one of "tech support" to "tech facilitation," as appropriate for each class, each subject, each school, and each culture.
Article #2 - Teachers Use You Tube in the Classroom
Focusing strictly on the online video segment of Web 2.0, this article describes the exploding use of student- and teacher-created video content in enlightened classrooms. Systems like Schooltube and Teachertube allow teachers to tap into the power of video media for information sharing and to avoid having to reinvent the wheel. I can easily see the value of having a downloadable lesson to reinforce the classroom lesson I've already presented. If I don't have to produce and distribute it myself, more's the better. However, a legitimate complaint about such systems is that they are unreviewed. The article mentions the Wikipedia model, claiming that Wikipedia.org articles are reviewed by professionals before publication. While Wikipedia may have professionals to review articles, the vast majority of articles on Wikipedia have been written or edited by people no more expert than you or me. Perhaps there is a market for an Education-Tube type site consisting only of vetted and expert-reviewed content. For now, though, in the infancy of Web 2.0, what we have will have to do.
Article #3 - $50 Computer Being Tested in Schools
The "Teachermate." It's like a Game Boy with nothing but educational software. I think this is a great idea. One commenter to the site didn't agree, saying "In my classroom kids learn to read because I'm the teacher and I expect it." I have a feeling this teacher will soon be discovering that his students find him irrelevant, and an obstacle to their growth. Don't get me wrong; I don't think the Teachermate will be revolutionizing classrooms across the country anytime soon. The main reason for this is because something newer and much more powerful will come out at a similar price point and drive it from the market. I do think that handheld, personalized, digital interactive devices will be standard issue in classrooms throughout the U.S. in less than a decade, and the commenter/teacher mentioned above had better get on the bandwagon soon. Our challenge as teachers will be to find and support the best solutions available and help them grow as useful tools.
Article #4 - Online Speech Pits Students Against Teachers
This last article touches on an area of law that is still in its youth: the free speech rights of students when it comes to the online arena. The courts have long established that students have virtually no First Amendment protections when it comes to communication channels such as school newspapers or video-class presentations. However, blog posts or other online content created on personal time using personal computers is another matter. As a die-hard liberal, I can find no realistic justification to limit students' free-speech rights when that speech is made outside of the school realm, unless the speech has a clear and present impact on the educational mission. To seek further control than this is, in my opinion, not conscionable. Again, it's my opinion alone, but I think the best response to student content that is objectionable but not illegal is to 1) respond as quickly as possible to explain the inappropriateness of the content to the author and other viewers, 2) ignore the content until it goes away (it usually will), and 3) try not to do things that would inspire students to mock you in the first place.
This article touches on the disconnect that many students face in that they often have better access to technology at home than they do at school. The students are what Marc Prensky calls "digital natives," while all too often the teachers and administrators are unfamiliar with even the technology available to them, let alone the universe of "Web 2.0, in which everyday users don't just access information, they create it." It behooves teachers and schools today to establish clear technology policies, enact aggressive training programs, and work to stay relevant in the minds of the students. I would make a suggestion: tech coordinators and assistants at schools should work more closely with teachers to fully utilize Web 2.0 tools in every classroom, promoting their role from one of "tech support" to "tech facilitation," as appropriate for each class, each subject, each school, and each culture.
Article #2 - Teachers Use You Tube in the Classroom
Focusing strictly on the online video segment of Web 2.0, this article describes the exploding use of student- and teacher-created video content in enlightened classrooms. Systems like Schooltube and Teachertube allow teachers to tap into the power of video media for information sharing and to avoid having to reinvent the wheel. I can easily see the value of having a downloadable lesson to reinforce the classroom lesson I've already presented. If I don't have to produce and distribute it myself, more's the better. However, a legitimate complaint about such systems is that they are unreviewed. The article mentions the Wikipedia model, claiming that Wikipedia.org articles are reviewed by professionals before publication. While Wikipedia may have professionals to review articles, the vast majority of articles on Wikipedia have been written or edited by people no more expert than you or me. Perhaps there is a market for an Education-Tube type site consisting only of vetted and expert-reviewed content. For now, though, in the infancy of Web 2.0, what we have will have to do.
Article #3 - $50 Computer Being Tested in Schools
The "Teachermate." It's like a Game Boy with nothing but educational software. I think this is a great idea. One commenter to the site didn't agree, saying "In my classroom kids learn to read because I'm the teacher and I expect it." I have a feeling this teacher will soon be discovering that his students find him irrelevant, and an obstacle to their growth. Don't get me wrong; I don't think the Teachermate will be revolutionizing classrooms across the country anytime soon. The main reason for this is because something newer and much more powerful will come out at a similar price point and drive it from the market. I do think that handheld, personalized, digital interactive devices will be standard issue in classrooms throughout the U.S. in less than a decade, and the commenter/teacher mentioned above had better get on the bandwagon soon. Our challenge as teachers will be to find and support the best solutions available and help them grow as useful tools.
Article #4 - Online Speech Pits Students Against Teachers
This last article touches on an area of law that is still in its youth: the free speech rights of students when it comes to the online arena. The courts have long established that students have virtually no First Amendment protections when it comes to communication channels such as school newspapers or video-class presentations. However, blog posts or other online content created on personal time using personal computers is another matter. As a die-hard liberal, I can find no realistic justification to limit students' free-speech rights when that speech is made outside of the school realm, unless the speech has a clear and present impact on the educational mission. To seek further control than this is, in my opinion, not conscionable. Again, it's my opinion alone, but I think the best response to student content that is objectionable but not illegal is to 1) respond as quickly as possible to explain the inappropriateness of the content to the author and other viewers, 2) ignore the content until it goes away (it usually will), and 3) try not to do things that would inspire students to mock you in the first place.
Writing Prompt for Week 2
Word problems are the bane of every teenager's existence, or so they'll tell you. I took a math class recently at the local community college, and the only phrase I heard more often than "Will this be on the test?" was "I hate word problems!"
Hate them or not, word problems are here to stay. Why? Because they are how we take the abstract concepts of math and demonstrate them using real-world examples.
So why couldn't we do that with video? As a teacher, I can use video to demonstrate physical concepts in an approachable, mathematically representable way. I can also ask my students to find these same sorts of physical concepts and capture them to demonstrate to the class.
Plus, can you imagine a better way to have a student "show their work?" Set up a camera on a whiteboard and let the student demonstrate a few problems for later review.
I think video is eminently useful in the modern math classroom.
Hate them or not, word problems are here to stay. Why? Because they are how we take the abstract concepts of math and demonstrate them using real-world examples.
So why couldn't we do that with video? As a teacher, I can use video to demonstrate physical concepts in an approachable, mathematically representable way. I can also ask my students to find these same sorts of physical concepts and capture them to demonstrate to the class.
Plus, can you imagine a better way to have a student "show their work?" Set up a camera on a whiteboard and let the student demonstrate a few problems for later review.
I think video is eminently useful in the modern math classroom.
Writing Prompt Reaction for 3/27/08 class
Welcome to the new world.
I exist somewhere in the gray area between old & busted and new hotness. I use the web and computers daily. I am the "go to" person among my coworkers for any new tech tools. I blogged before it was called blogging (WWIV message boards). I E-mailed before it was called E-mailing (BITNET). I did online graphics before there was a photoshop (ANSI and Cshow). All that said, I am not what you would call an early adopter. I shun sites like Twitter or Facebook until I see whether or not they're going to "catch on." I don't invest time in a technology until it is proven valuable. I still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
Site 1
So anyway, regarding the writing prompt, I visited Cool Cat Teacher. This blog has quite a bit of good information on how Web 2.0 tools can be used in the classroom, including examples. However, like many other blogs of its kind, it's hard to get past all the linking and sharing and get to the meat. The purpose of the blog is to share these Web 2.0 resources, but to find them, I have to first weed out the offers to subscribe to feeds; the offers to search this blog and the web; the offers to visit old posts -- one of three different ways; the list of upcoming events and a chance to subscribe to those; the offer to "share" with this blogger on one of 16 other networking tools; the offer to read comments others have made on this blog; the offer to read accolades for this blogger; the offers to see slideshows created by this blogger (which are almost certainly embedded in old blog posts); the offers to see what other blogs this blogger reads (and I'll bet she doesn't really read all more-than-80 of them); the offer to see the books the blogger recommends (which, like all other similar blogs, includes Friedman's The World Is Flat); the offer of links to other sites; and the offer to read comments from other sources. I know, information is power. Could I please be just a little bit less powerful after reading your blog?
More is not necessarily better. My blog is going to be a whole lot simpler.
Site 2
I also visited Applied Math 40S. This is a blog created for a specific class session. The teacher used the blog to share resources with the students, and the students used it to share their experiences with each other. I thought this blog looked interesting and valuable to all involved. I look forward to using something similar. One note on this blog, however, is that one rotating student was assigned to be the "Scribe" each day. Sometimes, this student would record his/her observations in what I'll call "internet-speak" -- no capitalization or punctuation or attention to grammar/spelling at all (see this specific post -- the title is even misspelled!). I realize the focus of this teacher's class is math. However, is it too much to ask that the students at least make an attempt to communicate properly? Are we doing a disservice to the students and to their Comm-Arts teachers by expecting less?
Site 3
Finally, I visited Mathematics Learning. This math teacher blog from India offered a few links and reviews of Web 2.0 resources. Her reviews were a bit short of substance (basically consisting of "Use this!" recommendations) and unfortunately her skills in English are marginal at best. Her examples, however, demonstrate that the technology being invented today crosses borders and can be used to benefit students and teachers worldwide.
Information Processing in a Web 2.0 World
One of the things we have been told in the Park program is that children today process information differently than we did. For example, we were taught to reduce distractions and concentrate on the task at hand. Kids today, however, have been raised on multi-tasking, and we are being counseled to learn to respect this "new" model of learning. It makes me wonder about what it takes to learn the skill of multi-tasking and whether the skill is truly a benefit. Here is my anecdote: I read these blogs and wrote this review/posting while watching the NCAA tournament on TV and listening to my family banter in the next room after Easter dinner. And yes, maybe I'm old and busted, but I feel like my work above was really quite substandard, as a result of the distractions. Would we all benefit instead from counseling our students to reduce distractions and concentrate on the task at hand?
Maybe my comments above make me look a little behaviorist ("old school," as opposed to constructivist). To that charge I will reply: was behaviorism really so bad that it should be discarded and banned completely?
I exist somewhere in the gray area between old & busted and new hotness. I use the web and computers daily. I am the "go to" person among my coworkers for any new tech tools. I blogged before it was called blogging (WWIV message boards). I E-mailed before it was called E-mailing (BITNET). I did online graphics before there was a photoshop (ANSI and Cshow). All that said, I am not what you would call an early adopter. I shun sites like Twitter or Facebook until I see whether or not they're going to "catch on." I don't invest time in a technology until it is proven valuable. I still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
Site 1
So anyway, regarding the writing prompt, I visited Cool Cat Teacher. This blog has quite a bit of good information on how Web 2.0 tools can be used in the classroom, including examples. However, like many other blogs of its kind, it's hard to get past all the linking and sharing and get to the meat. The purpose of the blog is to share these Web 2.0 resources, but to find them, I have to first weed out the offers to subscribe to feeds; the offers to search this blog and the web; the offers to visit old posts -- one of three different ways; the list of upcoming events and a chance to subscribe to those; the offer to "share" with this blogger on one of 16 other networking tools; the offer to read comments others have made on this blog; the offer to read accolades for this blogger; the offers to see slideshows created by this blogger (which are almost certainly embedded in old blog posts); the offers to see what other blogs this blogger reads (and I'll bet she doesn't really read all more-than-80 of them); the offer to see the books the blogger recommends (which, like all other similar blogs, includes Friedman's The World Is Flat); the offer of links to other sites; and the offer to read comments from other sources. I know, information is power. Could I please be just a little bit less powerful after reading your blog?
More is not necessarily better. My blog is going to be a whole lot simpler.
Site 2
I also visited Applied Math 40S. This is a blog created for a specific class session. The teacher used the blog to share resources with the students, and the students used it to share their experiences with each other. I thought this blog looked interesting and valuable to all involved. I look forward to using something similar. One note on this blog, however, is that one rotating student was assigned to be the "Scribe" each day. Sometimes, this student would record his/her observations in what I'll call "internet-speak" -- no capitalization or punctuation or attention to grammar/spelling at all (see this specific post -- the title is even misspelled!). I realize the focus of this teacher's class is math. However, is it too much to ask that the students at least make an attempt to communicate properly? Are we doing a disservice to the students and to their Comm-Arts teachers by expecting less?
Site 3
Finally, I visited Mathematics Learning. This math teacher blog from India offered a few links and reviews of Web 2.0 resources. Her reviews were a bit short of substance (basically consisting of "Use this!" recommendations) and unfortunately her skills in English are marginal at best. Her examples, however, demonstrate that the technology being invented today crosses borders and can be used to benefit students and teachers worldwide.
Information Processing in a Web 2.0 World
One of the things we have been told in the Park program is that children today process information differently than we did. For example, we were taught to reduce distractions and concentrate on the task at hand. Kids today, however, have been raised on multi-tasking, and we are being counseled to learn to respect this "new" model of learning. It makes me wonder about what it takes to learn the skill of multi-tasking and whether the skill is truly a benefit. Here is my anecdote: I read these blogs and wrote this review/posting while watching the NCAA tournament on TV and listening to my family banter in the next room after Easter dinner. And yes, maybe I'm old and busted, but I feel like my work above was really quite substandard, as a result of the distractions. Would we all benefit instead from counseling our students to reduce distractions and concentrate on the task at hand?
Maybe my comments above make me look a little behaviorist ("old school," as opposed to constructivist). To that charge I will reply: was behaviorism really so bad that it should be discarded and banned completely?
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About Me
- Michael.Gier
- I have composed a remarkably concise description of myself, which 1,200 characters is too small to contain.