chapter 31 - what is neat?

First I have to say that I did not understand alot of what this chapter is talking about. The computer language is foriegn to me. However, I reconized the ETJ's as the Army uses CAT cards and readers for the soldiers to log into their AKO (Army Knowlege Online) accounts. I suppose it is more secure than login ID's and passwords but like credit cards I think these cards could still be hijacked.

AI and Cybernetic and Nanotecnology are the thats neat moment for me but they are also some of the most scary. I think of the Will Smith movie and how the computer took over and decided what was right and wrong for everyone or how what we now have that is computer controled and how easy it is to break down and how hard and expensive it is to fix. Then there is the movie The Matrix. When I saw it I thought WOW I wish I could plug into something and learn whatever I wanted to in just minutes! However, when you think about it, after you are plugged in what if something goes wrong or someone hijacks your brain!!!! Here is where you SCREAM!

Oh well, I suppose the future of technology will continue to produce both good and bad and K12 education will still be the last to have access!

As for what I enjoyed most? Gee do I have to pick one? I love knowing about social bookmarking and believe it will help my students in future research to learn about this tool. I also like the blog although I am not sure if I will keep up with it or not now. I have always wanted to know how to set up a web page and at least I have the basics now though I still am not really good at it as some of you are. The wiki page was interesting although could become expensive. There is just so much that I have learned that I truly enjoyed. I can not say that any one was better than another.

Week 12 - On-line media and chapter 30

I liked Google Documents. It seems easy to use and free is always nice. I may use it in connection with my website and the lessons I intend to post there. The other sites wanted me to download other things to use them. I am always concerned about that type of thing.



I checked out each of the picture sites also and found Picknic to be the easiest to use. The grafics and instructions were clear and easy to understand. At 50 I am not as interested in enhancing my pictures as young people would be but being able to whiten teeth, get rid of red eye, and go black and white or gray scale is useful. Of course if I was keeping an on-line scrapbook for a class the boarders and text would come in handy.



As for the reading in Chapter 30, the first take away is the "surface features vs. functional features of visuals." I found it interesting that there was no significant difference in leaning between still visuals and animation. And that line drawings with arrows was effective as a video version. As I develope other presentations I will remember that it is "not the surface features of a visual" but rather the "functional features" and "how well it conveys the intended message."

The second take away is "minimize unnecessary visuals and text." I believe I may be guilty of including "seductive text and visuals" in my presentations. Sometimes there is so much information one can loose sight of the orginal intended instruction. Rather than giving students a boost with the information, according to the text, even the intended information lost out. I will try to remember the "extra" information is for another lesson another time.

My Website

This is the address of my google site: https://sites.google.com/site/teachergradstudententrepreneur/

I intend to use this site for two purposes: teaching and business. As I build lessons and come across material, I am going to include it on this site under the teaching section. I included a link to ELIC's (English Language Institute China) web page because I think many would enjoy this experience.

I am also learning an internet business, processing rebates, and intend to do some of that business here also. Eventually there will be ads for the companies I am processing rebates for on this site along with information on how my business is progressing and links to where others can start a business of their own.

Chapter 27 reflection

I believe my strength is "I am teachable and willing to learn." To develop any competency one must be these things.

Reviewing the listed competencies in chapter 27, I can see where it would benefit me and any organization that I work for to develop more fully all of the competencies listed. However, I chose the following three as the ones that need the most development or that I feel are the most important:

1. Conduct needs assessment. Technically, I have not done this to any extent and as a teacher will need to be able to do this for each class I teach to better reach every student.

2. Dicuss research and theory. Please!! This just about did me in during my undergraduate classes. This is extremely difficult for me and requires reviewing before each and every discussion.

3. Communicate effectively in visual, oral, and written forms. This is extemely important to any profession one is engaged in including education. I have to communicate with parents, students, co-workers, administration, volunteers, and the community.

Of course one competency they did not mention is organization. To do all of the others one would need to be organized. This is something I definitely need to develop in all areas of my life.

teaching in china presentation

Okay, 4th try (or is it 5th or 6th, I have lost count). Boy I hope this time works.

I would use this in a social studies lesson comparing and contrasting Chinese culture with American culture. I admit I might use different narraration and maybe more pictures. I am not sure. I will be happy if this just works.

Week 10 reflection

There are three similarities in the readings that stick out to me. One is each venue, business, P12, and higher education start out with a team. This takes teamwork. One person can not go it alone. The teams are different depending on which venue you look at but all have one. The second similarity I see is the complex process. This is a very envolved, time consuming effort. The planning, designing, and implementation occurs in each venue and is the same process for all three with the only difference being the size of the project. And last is the ever expanding or changing of technology and the needs it creates. I could be wrong, but it seems to me there is a trickle down theory going on here. I am in P-12 education which seems to be the last to get the technology or material that works on said technology. Businesses and the military seem to come up with designs first, then the higher education starts using them, possibaly teaching them, and then high school and finally elementary school begins to receive it. Schools need to at least keep up with what is going on in technology and begin to teach the application of it way before college, but definitly in college. I had a technology class as part of my teaching degree but it mainly taught power point and word. It should have covered educational equipment such as smartboards and covered some of the things we are learning here. That could only enhance our teaching ability and better prepare our students for a future in a technological world.

Follow St. Patrick in Ireland

I could use this map in both ways, already completed by me to use with a unit on St. Patrick, or as a double teaching opportunity: teaching and researching St. Patrick's travel and creating a map in Google Maps. I did not know this existed much less how to use it. However, my oldest son and I want to tour Ireland and this would be an interesting tool to help plan that trip!
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week 9 reflection

During my student teaching the school district I was in decided to implement a district wide behavior program called Positive Behavior Support. I do not know for sure but I do not believe any teachers or parents were included in the initial "leadership team." It seemed to me that only after it had been decided that they were going to implement this program was it brought to the individual schools where every teacher and aide was required to sign up on one of the different committees to implement the change. The district brought in trainers to show how it was to be completed and then it was up to the school personnel to do it. Needless to say, anytime there is change there will be resistance. It is human nature. But that resistance seems more profound to me when everyone who will be effected by the change does not have a voice representing them in the initial planning. It is hard for this type of change to be successful particularly in the first year or so because of the resistance and resentment that comes with not being involved in the planning process. To me NCLB is one of those systematic changes that did not go well and is now being "piecemilled" in many places.

Ths small charter school where I am teaching this year implemented a reading program last year that was supposed to be a systematic change. However, it ended up being piecemilled in some classrooms and ignored in others. When this school year started, the teachers were told in no uncertain terms that they would implement this reading program, and implement it completely and correctly, or else.

Is there any wonder that there is resistance to change?

possible tainted milk powder from China in Holloween candy here in US

Week 8, chapter 18 reflection, and overall course reflection

I believe on-line training for businesses is one note worthy way Instructional Design/Technology has been used and is already making an impact in my professional career. I would not be enrolled in a Master's program right now if not for on-line classes. Particularly since technology has evolved to the point of linking documents, videos, etc. so that students do not have to go to the university library to get video tapes! I am too exhausted from straight classes for the last four years to register at a near by college and drive there every day and sit in class then have homework - projects, readings, papers.

Industries' globalization of training is another note worthy way IT is being used. I am not sure if, or how much, this is being used in education, but I hope to see this idea spread through out our education system, not only with schools within a district, but all schools in a state to schools across the US on to link us globally to each other in more ways than just sharing lesson plans. I would like to see us teleconferencing in training sessions on a variety of subjects, our classes joining classes from another country via ITD, possiblly even observing other teachers in real time from other countries.

I have totally enjoyed this class so far. I did not know how to use any of the tools we have worked with, some I did not even know I could use, and some I did not even know existed. Yes, some of the tasks have been challenging and I need much more time to play with each of them, but overall I have learned alot. I like being able to have the experience of each of my classmates in writing to go back to when they tell about a tool or how they accomplised something. I hope my classmates will not discard the posts they have placed on their blogs so that the resource these reflections have become will not be lost.

podcasts and human performance technology

Again, something I knew nothing about - podcasting. Sure I know you can listen to sermons recorded and posted on websites but I guess I did not know what to call it nor did I know there was such a variety of subject matter out there to listen to. I actually subscribed to two different podcast on my rss but I had trouble finding the feed codes I needed to add it to my blog as a "gadget." How do I link my rss feeds to my blog so I do not have to go to two different places? Any way, I did get NPR Education linked to my blog so I will profile it. This podcast is on different topics in education such as "Thriving with ADHD" and they also had special podcasts highlighting the presidental candiates views on the different education topics. Podcasts would be a benefit to me but I do not think my students would sit still and listen to one of them - no visuals! Sometimes they can't even sit through an educational video.

As far as Human Performance Technology in education, this has been going on for a while particularly with the deaf and hard of hearing, the blind, and other special ed. students. There are many devices being used that "achieve, through people, increasingly successful accomplishments that are valued by all organizational stakeholders . . . ." With out some of this technology many students could not function in a regular classroom and many could not show improved performance in an EC classroom. However, everyday as I plan instruction I am considering, maybe unknowingly, I am planning improveed human performance by all the ways I try to differeniate my instruction - computers, videos, manipulatives, etc. I guess that is why Winston Salem State University calls their education department the School of Education and Human Performance. After all, at least in America, every day in every thing we do, we are looking to improve human performance.

Week 6 - Chapter 3

In my area, the Internet and the World Wide Web has made a nominal impact on K-12 education. Sure teachers use it for research more than going to the library, but as far as use in the classroom with the students, not much change. Higher education is using it for distance learning and administration, and college students rather use the web for research instead of the library even though some of the sites are not good sources for research. Adult education has probablly been impacted the most so far, particularly the military and business training. For the education areas to be impacted in a significant way, more technology classes are going to have to be taught and cover a broader area than just Micro Soft Office. Teachers can not teach their students to use the web when they themselves do not really know how to utilize it. As of right now, the Internet and the WWW is not a major influence on the way instruction is presented to learniers in K-12 education, and only in a limited way in higher education. I would like to see this change; that is one of the reasons I registered for this degree.

Photo Sharing and Chapter 2 Reflection

If I used photo sharing at school it would be only me and possibly parents or administrators doing the sharing. Pictures of field trips or projects in each stage of completion could be posted and shared with parents and the rest of the school. My first and second graders are too young for this by themselves.

The process desctibed in Chapter 2 of the Trends and Issues book follow exactly how I was taught to develop a lesson plan. What do you want to teach, what outcome do you desire, what learning styles are you addressing, what differentiation are you facing, write measureable objectives, how are you going to assess, select instructional materials, plan the lesson, evaluate the students and self reflect, revise. Nothing surprising, usefull - yes, however, very time consuming, particularly for me. I get caught up in the details.

flicker site

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31167854@N05/

I live in a small town next to Elkin called Jonesville. The Yadkin River separates us. I have been a part of Elkin all my life.

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social bookmarking and definitions for ETD

I found the social bookmarking tool extremely useful. It saves me time when researching for lesson plans and activities. Although I can see where it will be important for me to use appropriate tags, tags others might use, to link my interests with others. I can see how I could also use it to help my students in research. I could bookmark sites that I find acceptable for their research which if left to them might not include scholarly articles. This will also help parents who are trying to help their children. Teachers and administrators can also share new information with each other about theory and practices, interesting articles, professonial development sites, grant opportunities, etc.

I have to admit that the reason I registered for this program was to learn about the "media . . . which can be used for instructional purposes alongside the teacher, textbook, and blackboard." That was my definition of educational technology. However, after reading the definitions in Trends and Issues, I find myself realizing "instructional technology goes beyond any particular medium or device." A device or piece of software or hardware in and of itself does not guarantee learning which is the goal of education. I should have been able to think about this more clearly after fifteen years in fast food management and employee training which include videos. Also, having just granduated with my BS in Elementary Education where I was taught about learning styles, differentiation, evaluating, reflective learning, objectives, and research. Although the definition has become more technical, at least to me, I find the two 70's definitions, "a systematic way of designing, carrying out, and evaluating the whole process of learning and teaching in terms of specific objectives, based on research on human learning and communication, and employing a combination of human and nonhuman resources to bring about more effective instruction" and "a complex, integrated process involving people, procedures, ideas, devices, and organization, for analyzing problems and devising, implementing, evaluation, and managing solutions to those problems, involved in all aspects of human learning," to be the most clearly stated and reflective of what I agree with. As a teacher, I can not just be looking for software and devices to use but must be aware of my objectives and my learners needs with the goal of facilitating learning.

delicious

http://delicious.com/tsimmons12

I imported all of the teaching web sites I had bookmarked on my internet explorer and started adding tags. Some of the ones I have tagged already show over 1500 other tags!

I did it!!

I said in my post that there should be a way to link one page to the next. Well there is and it is sooooo easy. I guess I was blind, deaf, and dumb not to have seen it before. I went back this morning determined to figure out tags because I was sure that had something to do with it. Nope. Still do not understand what the tags are for but I stumbled into the very plain instruction "link to another page." So I went to our groups first page and linked it to our next page so you can navigate straight to it without going back to the beginning. Now I know the rest of you probably figured that out right away. Don't crucify me for being slooow!

Wiki Wonder

I almost forgot to post this!! I have been so caught up in working on the Wiki. I have not yet tryed to set up my own but I think I will using the education challenge they offer that Kendra told me about. I truly dreaded trying to figure this out. The first video I watched was awesome!! It really got down on my level (preschool, haha). Then I watched one of the archived webcast on using a wiki and I began to feel like I could really do this. There are still many things that I am not sure how to do but I am no longer hesitant about trying them. I am truly enjoying each of these ventures. I would not have known about them on my own. I mean you can spend years on the internet and never find your way out!!! One of the things I must not know how to do is navigate from page to page. We had all those pages out there and I had to go back to the beginning each time to choose a new page. Should you not have some way to move from the page you are on to the next page without having to go all the way back?

When I set up a wiki for my class, I wil use it as an information resource for parents and teach the students how to use one. With first and second graders, low income families, and not every student with access to a computer, I believe my students would benifit more from technology instruction and would need it to participate in a wiki.

week 2

I had never heard of RSS feeds or readers so I had no idea what they would do. I found setting mine up to be too easy. I expected it to be complicated I guess. As soon as I created my account, Google Reader pulled in all of the blogs from class. I just sat there wondering how it knew to do that? I then subscribed to my local TV channel and a couple of the bundled feeds Google offered. I find having all this come to one spot more efficient but not less information to wade through. Setting up the blog was also easy but I found it time consuming to follow every one else's until they were all pulled into my reader account.Both the Blog and RSS lend themselves to the top tiers of Dale's Cone. Maybe I should say using them would be in the top tiers. If the students were having to set them up like we did then each tool could fit in all tiers.I agree with Siegel that it is "how we use technologies to achieve learning" rather than the technologies themselves. However, I find myself on the side of not knowing how to use available technologies imaginatively. Hince I am in this class. I need to experiment with both the blog and RSS more before I can give an "imaginative" educational use for each or offer suggestions on how my second grade students might use these tools. I am reading each reflection posted to see how vetern teachers think they could be used. In all honesty, I feel like I giving a lecture on open heart surgery. I know about as much about it as I do about using these technologies.

technology transformation versus Luddites

As I began to read the Postman article, I could not help but nod my head in agreement to a lot of the things Postman says starting with the statement “[technologies] have nothing to do with the fundamental problems we have to solve in schooling our young.” He and I were on the same wave length as he goes on to talk about the principal function of schools being to teach children how to behave in groups and that “the great problems of education are of a social and moral nature and have nothing to do with dazzling new technologies.” Our next wave length came together over technologies diverting “the intelligence and energy of talented people from addressing the issues we need most to confront.” Students today seem more interested in the newest video game than what is going on in the real world. A lot of them do not seem capable of distinguishing between fantasy and real life. As for his statement, “[Technology giveth and it taketh away,” I have experienced this first hand where students can not complete simple mathematical processes with out a calculator, or the cashiers who have worked for me over the years that could not count change back correctly if they punched the amount tendered into the cash register incorrectly. However, we all know nothing is ever completely black and white.

Then I read the Reigeluth & Joseph article and found myself agreeing with most of what they said and thinking what a wonderful thing technology transformation would be if it were accomplished. Although there have been some changes in our educational system since Reigeluth completed his synthesis of the key markers of the industrial age and the information age, I feel that it still reflects most of the industrial age markers. The No Child Left Behind law has been instrumental in stopping the change needed. NCLB promotes standardization, compliance, conformity, bureaucratic organization, centralized control, autocratic decision-making, and boss (EOGs) as king. Our current paradigm of education is still not designed for learning, just testing. I agree that “we should hold achievement constant at a mastery level,” which seems to have been the original purpose of NCLB; however, this same law does not allow “children as much time as they need to reach those standards.” Having a “learning-focused education system” that offers “customization rather than standardization” is contradictory to NCLB and let’s all laugh together at the policy-makers investing more resources! I work for a charter school whose vision is to accomplish the entire list of principles Reigeluth & Joseph give for a learning-focused paradigm of education. Our greatest challenge is the question they pose, “how can a teacher help 30 children to all learn different things at different rates and in different ways utilizing authentic tasks?” Of course the answer is technology. No, we should not dismiss all of the other agents needed such as parents, community, organizations, and our natural resources but technology will play a “large role.” This is the very thing I want out of my Masters degree.

I desire to teach my students how to master key concepts with out using technology such as calculators and cash registers, but I also want to teach my students to live, function, and be productive participates in the new information age. To do this is like living life – a balancing act.

Learn somthing everyday

Well this is a first for me! My sons are avid 'My Space' users!