After looking at all of the options given to us this week and playing around with a couple of them I have decided I would recommend a couple from the Office Suites and One from the Image Editing section. I have possessed a Michigan Residential Builders License for 16 years. In the summer and any free time I have I run a small residential building company. If I were to use something from this group I would definitely recommend the Zoho site. This would be an outstanding site for a small business because of the links given and tools available through the site. There is a very nice introductory video that explains what they are all about on the site. They talk about creating a monster and having so many different soft wares and trying to run them or getting them to work together, and rarely are they all compatible. This is what you would call the one stop shop. This site has everything from online planners, chat spaces, web-conferencing, spreadsheets, Zoho wiki, and everything in between. This can all be accessed through your Zoho site, saved, anything you would need to run a small business, and as stated in the video it is all free.
If I were going to use one of these sites from a teaching standpoint, I would have to go with the ThinkFree. I think we have created a small monster with everything we have used so far this semester, but certainly a good monster. I really like the Thinkfree because of the handy links right there for you to use, such as converting documents, embedding, sharing documents, uploading, and searches. There are some links that I don’t think I would use, but that again is something you need to clean up as you use. You would use only those that are important to you.
From the Image Editing section I liked PicNic and FotoFlexer the best and I would chose FotoFlexer over PicNic if I had to. I think the photo editing options on FotoFlexer were easier to use, because I could find options that wanted easier. These two are very similar and I would think PicNic has these options as well, but I played with FotoFlexer more. The great thing about this is you can fetch photos from where you store them. I don’t have many photos on Facebook or MySpace, but I have many on my computer that send to my school computer. I really liked that option with both of these, but again I played with FotoFlexer more, therefore I would chose this one. After reading some of the posts from class, it appears many have used these types of devices and enjoy them. I have never used them, so I am curious to see what some of the other suggestions are.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Web site information and purpose
This would be a classroom web-site that I would use to keep students informed of progress and information about units we have covered to date. If I were to start this at the beginning of the year we would have multiple units entered. I would have a calender for the year and for each unit we were covering, but as things change and situations change, we would alter these calenders throughout the year.
Here is the website address: https://sites.google.com/site/mrgardnersscience/home
Here is the website address: https://sites.google.com/site/mrgardnersscience/home
Friday, March 26, 2010
Screencast
With this video I would want students to find the three main types of faults found in the United States. The posted video has divergent and convergent boundaries. Also the posted image for the screencast has definitions they will need to apply to a work sheet that deals with their unit on plate tectonics. I did bring a microphone from school to use, so I could talk the viewer through what is expected. There is no sound for either, so I have a computer problem or the microphone I have is not in working order. http://www.screencast.com/users/ScottGardner/folders/Jing/media/c435fcc7-415e-4193-8232-6c0236225f8a
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Science lesson using Google maps
I would like to use the Google map for a lesson on plate tectonics. I think the map creating for Google is a great tool. In an Earth Science setting you could create so many informative maps on geologic time, plate tectonics, geologic features and formations, etc.
Here I have created a map of some of the major earth quakes that have been recorded in the United States. I would like students to view the map and review the quakes listed. They will then explain to me if they thought the quakes happened where they expected or if there were some strange locations for some of these. Most middle and high school students only think of California as an area where quakes occur. This is a great way for students to see how plates and zones have a great effect on where quakes occur. I will have them pick a quake from 4 different areas of the United States and explain why they are occuring here. I will be looking for terms like Transform faults, Subduction zones, converging, and diverging as ways to explain what they find.
View Earth Quakes in the United States in a larger map
Here I have created a map of some of the major earth quakes that have been recorded in the United States. I would like students to view the map and review the quakes listed. They will then explain to me if they thought the quakes happened where they expected or if there were some strange locations for some of these. Most middle and high school students only think of California as an area where quakes occur. This is a great way for students to see how plates and zones have a great effect on where quakes occur. I will have them pick a quake from 4 different areas of the United States and explain why they are occuring here. I will be looking for terms like Transform faults, Subduction zones, converging, and diverging as ways to explain what they find.
View Earth Quakes in the United States in a larger map
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Scott's Science podcast
This is an Earth Science podcast. I really like it because the readings are only 1-2 minutes long and I think it would hold the attention of middle school students. Also, there are a number of options to choose from for the category on the page.
Take a look!
http://www.learnoutloud.com/podcaststream/listen.php?url=http://webcast.berkeley.edu/rss/course-archive.php?seriesid=1906978356&all=1&title=19704
Take a look!
http://www.learnoutloud.com/podcaststream/listen.php?url=http://webcast.berkeley.edu/rss/course-archive.php?seriesid=1906978356&all=1&title=19704
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Week 5 Reflection
Reflection Week #5
I think using photo sharing in my classes would be very easy. As an Earth Science teacher I could have loaded many pictures dealing with geology, astronomy, rocks, minerals, land formations, you name it. Michigan is a great state for viewing these, but I would not have enough photos to get a class that interested. I think in some classes or situations this could be a good tool. I don’t think I would really use it that much, because I think I can do the same think on other links for my classes. On my web page itself, you could/should find those photos, but as I stated I don’t have enough to build a great file, YET. I don’t know what you would do for Math, or Language Arts, but I’m sure some energetic, technology geek has some great uses for these and the class is much better for it. I personally will just not use technology because it is there. I want to be comfortable with it and really see what my students are getting from it, from a Science standpoint. If they want to improve their science technology skills, then I am probably not the teacher for them.
One concern I would have with letting students play with these sites, is exactly that, PLAY. I think you are asking for much more of your time to monitor these sites as well as other things you need to focus on. An Art class, a Photography class, a Technology class, I think that would be great, but be prepared for a lot more time to monitor actions. I just don’t think it would be for me, and I’m not saying it is a bad thing to use. Some, I am sure love it.
Family things, classroom comparisons, or teacher comparisons I think would be great, I just stress the fact that you MUST find the right thing and make sure it works for you. Have a purpose for using it, other than the fact that it is more technology and it is cool. I think it needs to be beneficial for the right reasons, and you need to make sure it is meeting your goals.
I have to refer to the videos Dr. Horvitz mentioned on the discussion page, I am pretty open on gaining more technology skills, but they really make you think about “HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH”. I have enjoyed the things we have looked at so far, I have heard of most, but have not tried most either. I will use them in the future, but I will also delete some from memory, because I believe they do crossover in some aspects. I had a really negative feeling about technology after I watched the videos.
I think, or hope most unit plans and lessons are delivered and derived as the authors, discussed in the ADDIE activities. If you follow the 6 steps mentioned in the characteristics of instructional design you should have a very successful classroom. I mean this in an academic way, your students should be getting all the information they need, because you have spent the time improving, adding, deleting things that are or are not relevant to the concepts you are trying to get across. When I am working on designing a unit plan, I want to analyze what we will be working on, design activities that relate to this concept, develop plans to follow, implement strategies that help us reach our goals for this unit. After I have had a run through of the entire unit, I always try to tweak it for better production or evaluate how this went. I think this same holds true on many of the large scale construction projects I have worked on as well. In the commercial field, there are so many people involved you really need to follow a specific plan or the projects rarely run smooth.
I think using photo sharing in my classes would be very easy. As an Earth Science teacher I could have loaded many pictures dealing with geology, astronomy, rocks, minerals, land formations, you name it. Michigan is a great state for viewing these, but I would not have enough photos to get a class that interested. I think in some classes or situations this could be a good tool. I don’t think I would really use it that much, because I think I can do the same think on other links for my classes. On my web page itself, you could/should find those photos, but as I stated I don’t have enough to build a great file, YET. I don’t know what you would do for Math, or Language Arts, but I’m sure some energetic, technology geek has some great uses for these and the class is much better for it. I personally will just not use technology because it is there. I want to be comfortable with it and really see what my students are getting from it, from a Science standpoint. If they want to improve their science technology skills, then I am probably not the teacher for them.
One concern I would have with letting students play with these sites, is exactly that, PLAY. I think you are asking for much more of your time to monitor these sites as well as other things you need to focus on. An Art class, a Photography class, a Technology class, I think that would be great, but be prepared for a lot more time to monitor actions. I just don’t think it would be for me, and I’m not saying it is a bad thing to use. Some, I am sure love it.
Family things, classroom comparisons, or teacher comparisons I think would be great, I just stress the fact that you MUST find the right thing and make sure it works for you. Have a purpose for using it, other than the fact that it is more technology and it is cool. I think it needs to be beneficial for the right reasons, and you need to make sure it is meeting your goals.
I have to refer to the videos Dr. Horvitz mentioned on the discussion page, I am pretty open on gaining more technology skills, but they really make you think about “HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH”. I have enjoyed the things we have looked at so far, I have heard of most, but have not tried most either. I will use them in the future, but I will also delete some from memory, because I believe they do crossover in some aspects. I had a really negative feeling about technology after I watched the videos.
I think, or hope most unit plans and lessons are delivered and derived as the authors, discussed in the ADDIE activities. If you follow the 6 steps mentioned in the characteristics of instructional design you should have a very successful classroom. I mean this in an academic way, your students should be getting all the information they need, because you have spent the time improving, adding, deleting things that are or are not relevant to the concepts you are trying to get across. When I am working on designing a unit plan, I want to analyze what we will be working on, design activities that relate to this concept, develop plans to follow, implement strategies that help us reach our goals for this unit. After I have had a run through of the entire unit, I always try to tweak it for better production or evaluate how this went. I think this same holds true on many of the large scale construction projects I have worked on as well. In the commercial field, there are so many people involved you really need to follow a specific plan or the projects rarely run smooth.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Week #4 Reflection
Week #4 Reflection
I would first like to start off with a comparison with something we are discussing in another of my graduate classes I am currently taking. This is a Special Education class that deals with student behaviors and how to manage these behaviors. A term we are using a great deal right now is maintenance. If you are not reviewing and using these behavioral changing ideas, then your information or gain in your intervention will be lost.
I feel that to be the same with the things we have used in this class. I know this sounds a bit negative, however I do not want you to think of it like that. I really like using my blog space for communication, and I believe I will use it often, so I should not have any maintenance issues with my blog or anything attached to it. I also really like the idea of social bookmarking, especially as seen from a teachers perspective. I mentioned in an earlier reflection of mine that I have spent hours reviewing websites that were of little use to me, but still countless hours had gone into this. Social bookmarking should take all this away if I can get some of the teachers I share websites with to use the bookmarking techniques. In a very simple form we do use social networking, but none of has yet spent the time to follow through with our site as in “delicious”, and this is just do to plain laziness on our parts. Setting up the delicious account is simple, free and really a no brainer for educators. Any educator that has a link on a district website should have a blog or link where students, parents, other faculty can log on and look at what is going on in class. With social bookmarking, your students and viewers can easily gain relevant information from your class. This should be a great tool. One thing that really jumped out at me from the reading was, “WHAT ARE THE DOWNSIDES?” I would fit right into this description, because my tags would be poor. As I look at some of the others and how they are organized I will do my part to help everyone have clear and relevant searches on my site. As stated in the video…searching for the sites now becomes organized chaos, which I think is an outstanding term. I was quite surprise while reading the first chapter of the Trends and Issues text. When Dr. Horvitz stated it was as fundamental as you can get, I was thinking along a little different line I guess. I was shocked at the time spent in really defining and naming the field. I was also thinking of a very basic chapter explaining how computers and curriculum had crossed paths, or something simple like that. Truthfully, Monday night is the first time I have even picked up the book since its purchase in late December. As the authors stated at one point from an earlier definition, “it does not separated teachers from media, and it focuses on the improvement of learning as the goal of the field, with instruction being viewed as a means to the end. I couldn’t agree more. Take full advantage of the technology, use what is good for you, but don’t waste time on something that might not be helping you or your students reach the goals you have set. Sometimes technology tools are just used as filler and really are not helping or improving your teaching, or helping the students learn the content any better
I would first like to start off with a comparison with something we are discussing in another of my graduate classes I am currently taking. This is a Special Education class that deals with student behaviors and how to manage these behaviors. A term we are using a great deal right now is maintenance. If you are not reviewing and using these behavioral changing ideas, then your information or gain in your intervention will be lost.
I feel that to be the same with the things we have used in this class. I know this sounds a bit negative, however I do not want you to think of it like that. I really like using my blog space for communication, and I believe I will use it often, so I should not have any maintenance issues with my blog or anything attached to it. I also really like the idea of social bookmarking, especially as seen from a teachers perspective. I mentioned in an earlier reflection of mine that I have spent hours reviewing websites that were of little use to me, but still countless hours had gone into this. Social bookmarking should take all this away if I can get some of the teachers I share websites with to use the bookmarking techniques. In a very simple form we do use social networking, but none of has yet spent the time to follow through with our site as in “delicious”, and this is just do to plain laziness on our parts. Setting up the delicious account is simple, free and really a no brainer for educators. Any educator that has a link on a district website should have a blog or link where students, parents, other faculty can log on and look at what is going on in class. With social bookmarking, your students and viewers can easily gain relevant information from your class. This should be a great tool. One thing that really jumped out at me from the reading was, “WHAT ARE THE DOWNSIDES?” I would fit right into this description, because my tags would be poor. As I look at some of the others and how they are organized I will do my part to help everyone have clear and relevant searches on my site. As stated in the video…searching for the sites now becomes organized chaos, which I think is an outstanding term. I was quite surprise while reading the first chapter of the Trends and Issues text. When Dr. Horvitz stated it was as fundamental as you can get, I was thinking along a little different line I guess. I was shocked at the time spent in really defining and naming the field. I was also thinking of a very basic chapter explaining how computers and curriculum had crossed paths, or something simple like that. Truthfully, Monday night is the first time I have even picked up the book since its purchase in late December. As the authors stated at one point from an earlier definition, “it does not separated teachers from media, and it focuses on the improvement of learning as the goal of the field, with instruction being viewed as a means to the end. I couldn’t agree more. Take full advantage of the technology, use what is good for you, but don’t waste time on something that might not be helping you or your students reach the goals you have set. Sometimes technology tools are just used as filler and really are not helping or improving your teaching, or helping the students learn the content any better
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wiki information
Greetings,
You will need to go to my wiki page to view my other comments on this week's article. Once there just follow the directions from the front page, to the other page I have created. I have added links through comments, hoping that you can comment on that particular site. Thanks
You will need to go to my wiki page to view my other comments on this week's article. Once there just follow the directions from the front page, to the other page I have created. I have added links through comments, hoping that you can comment on that particular site. Thanks
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
O'Reilly article and use of a wiki
Week #3 Reflection
As with the RSS reader and the blog, I believe the wiki would be a really good tool. I think each of these things has their own place. I as a teacher would need to be much more comfortable using any of the three before I spring this on any class. These are all great communication tools, and much better than the e-mail or texting idea of communicating.
In my teaching I think the wiki could be used as a research tool for group projects. If you have 4-5 students per group and have assigned topics for them to work on together I think this would be a fantastic way to combine their research efforts. I like the way you can attach the links with your writing or just attach a link for someone else to review and give feedback. If you are going to monitor this work and each student has a wiki page then you can keep track of who has completed what. So many times 1 or 2 in the group do all of the work and the others that are a bit intimidated by the technology part of the project are left our or never really get involved in the project. I can also see using the wiki as an entire class discussion page as well. I would just need more time to use my own to come up with pertinent reasons for using this. If I were to use the wiki in class I really need to tie it to curriculum and GLEC’s, and I think Science would be the easiest class to do that. I am sure many teachers have some great ideas of how to use these in any other core area as well.
I used to be in the construction management field and I think the wiki would have been a great resource for communicating about project scheduling, tracking of materials, and researching new technologies in the construction field. It is a great way to pass on information to others that is at their finger tips, once they are on your wiki page. This really eliminates wasted time for others, so they don’t have to spend time researching things you may already have located for them. The only problem I see with a wiki in this setting is, so many of the people I worked with had limited computer access. I think we would have lost information. If I were able to get everyone on board using the wiki then you’ve got something concrete.
As stated earlier, I think the wiki is a great way to pass along research and communicate at the same time. It would be like having your computer hooked up with the person you have on the other end of your phone conversation, less a great deal of confusion and interruptions. I will enjoy working with them as long as I keep using them, that is usually the problem with technology based things and myself. However, if I like it and it works for me I will always come back to them.
As with the RSS reader and the blog, I believe the wiki would be a really good tool. I think each of these things has their own place. I as a teacher would need to be much more comfortable using any of the three before I spring this on any class. These are all great communication tools, and much better than the e-mail or texting idea of communicating.
In my teaching I think the wiki could be used as a research tool for group projects. If you have 4-5 students per group and have assigned topics for them to work on together I think this would be a fantastic way to combine their research efforts. I like the way you can attach the links with your writing or just attach a link for someone else to review and give feedback. If you are going to monitor this work and each student has a wiki page then you can keep track of who has completed what. So many times 1 or 2 in the group do all of the work and the others that are a bit intimidated by the technology part of the project are left our or never really get involved in the project. I can also see using the wiki as an entire class discussion page as well. I would just need more time to use my own to come up with pertinent reasons for using this. If I were to use the wiki in class I really need to tie it to curriculum and GLEC’s, and I think Science would be the easiest class to do that. I am sure many teachers have some great ideas of how to use these in any other core area as well.
I used to be in the construction management field and I think the wiki would have been a great resource for communicating about project scheduling, tracking of materials, and researching new technologies in the construction field. It is a great way to pass on information to others that is at their finger tips, once they are on your wiki page. This really eliminates wasted time for others, so they don’t have to spend time researching things you may already have located for them. The only problem I see with a wiki in this setting is, so many of the people I worked with had limited computer access. I think we would have lost information. If I were able to get everyone on board using the wiki then you’ve got something concrete.
As stated earlier, I think the wiki is a great way to pass along research and communicate at the same time. It would be like having your computer hooked up with the person you have on the other end of your phone conversation, less a great deal of confusion and interruptions. I will enjoy working with them as long as I keep using them, that is usually the problem with technology based things and myself. However, if I like it and it works for me I will always come back to them.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Week #2 Reflection Dale and Siegel
Week #2 Reflection
Scott Gardner
I hate to seem so easy going and say that I can agree with both articles again, but I see many similarities between both of these. Obviously they have different objectives that they are trying to explain, but to me they can be similar, in a way that they would like educators to have an open mind. If we as educators can realize that there are great discrepancies in the levels of our learners we can use many different sources to help our students reach academic goals. As the articles explain, there are many different ways we can help our students, as long as we understand what helps them realize or grasp the concept that is being presented.
One of my comments from last weeks’ articles was that, “Technology is really what we make of it in our teaching. Technology should be a tool to help students succeed.” Siegel has nearly the same quote early in his article when he states, “Perhaps the answer has less to do with the technologies themselves and more to do with how we use the technologies to achieve learning.” I completely agree with his ideas of online libraries being filled with boring, “I can’t wait for this to end” e-learning. I have been guilty of that in my classroom. I have found web-sites that I think would be a great asset in helping my students understand something, then after a couple of classes I am convinced that it was of little use to them at all. It really takes a great deal of researching and stumbling around numerous sites trying to find things of substance that would be of great use to me and the students.
I think both of these articles are tied into what we have been involved in with the first two weeks, which is very new to some of us. So far we have two new tools that could be used in the classroom to help with peer communicating. The blogs especially would be a great tool for students to communicate back and forth to help solve problems. The only real draw back I would see with the blogs is that you are sure students would be using this tool for the purpose you intended. If this just becomes a social tool without peer problem solving then I think you will have a great deal of wasted time. In this course alone we have 18-20 students and we only have to keep track of OUR classmates. Dr. Horvitz might have three sections and more reading and tracking then any of us would want in our daily work. The blog is a great tool in this instance and I’m sure it could be in many more, I would just have to do a great deal of communicating with peers that have used them in their work, before I attempted to use in my class.
So far for me I have enjoyed working with the blogs and the RSS reader, because it is new and I really enjoy reading the others opinions. I have already received help on questions that I have had, and have a few followers on my blog, which will be great for problem solving in this class.
I think the blogs and RSS reader touch on a couple of comparisons in Dale’s articles. If we didn’t have the first level (concrete firsthand experiences) we would not function in this class. I don’t mean the in the way he talks about the senses in this section, I am comparing this to our foundation of computer knowledge. If you didn’t have some first hand experiences with computers you wouldn’t be in this class. The section that I compare to the blog and RSS reader would be television and motion pictures. He talks about how the films can delete unimportant material and concentrate on selected key points. With our blog we find exactly what we want from a readers standpoint as well as with the RSS reader. We can just scan the titles and delete what is not important to us.
For me the computer imagination would be the blog. I feel more comfortable with the blogs we have so I read this more than the RSS. I think the blog is a perfect example for me of computer imagination because I seemed to get lost in the post others are making. So far in this experience I have found myself lost in reading others posts and information about themselves on their blogs. I do like the RSS because I have finally figured out how to connect to everyone’s blog and read from this thread. In time maybe the RSS reader will be more of a favorite.
Scott Gardner
I hate to seem so easy going and say that I can agree with both articles again, but I see many similarities between both of these. Obviously they have different objectives that they are trying to explain, but to me they can be similar, in a way that they would like educators to have an open mind. If we as educators can realize that there are great discrepancies in the levels of our learners we can use many different sources to help our students reach academic goals. As the articles explain, there are many different ways we can help our students, as long as we understand what helps them realize or grasp the concept that is being presented.
One of my comments from last weeks’ articles was that, “Technology is really what we make of it in our teaching. Technology should be a tool to help students succeed.” Siegel has nearly the same quote early in his article when he states, “Perhaps the answer has less to do with the technologies themselves and more to do with how we use the technologies to achieve learning.” I completely agree with his ideas of online libraries being filled with boring, “I can’t wait for this to end” e-learning. I have been guilty of that in my classroom. I have found web-sites that I think would be a great asset in helping my students understand something, then after a couple of classes I am convinced that it was of little use to them at all. It really takes a great deal of researching and stumbling around numerous sites trying to find things of substance that would be of great use to me and the students.
I think both of these articles are tied into what we have been involved in with the first two weeks, which is very new to some of us. So far we have two new tools that could be used in the classroom to help with peer communicating. The blogs especially would be a great tool for students to communicate back and forth to help solve problems. The only real draw back I would see with the blogs is that you are sure students would be using this tool for the purpose you intended. If this just becomes a social tool without peer problem solving then I think you will have a great deal of wasted time. In this course alone we have 18-20 students and we only have to keep track of OUR classmates. Dr. Horvitz might have three sections and more reading and tracking then any of us would want in our daily work. The blog is a great tool in this instance and I’m sure it could be in many more, I would just have to do a great deal of communicating with peers that have used them in their work, before I attempted to use in my class.
So far for me I have enjoyed working with the blogs and the RSS reader, because it is new and I really enjoy reading the others opinions. I have already received help on questions that I have had, and have a few followers on my blog, which will be great for problem solving in this class.
I think the blogs and RSS reader touch on a couple of comparisons in Dale’s articles. If we didn’t have the first level (concrete firsthand experiences) we would not function in this class. I don’t mean the in the way he talks about the senses in this section, I am comparing this to our foundation of computer knowledge. If you didn’t have some first hand experiences with computers you wouldn’t be in this class. The section that I compare to the blog and RSS reader would be television and motion pictures. He talks about how the films can delete unimportant material and concentrate on selected key points. With our blog we find exactly what we want from a readers standpoint as well as with the RSS reader. We can just scan the titles and delete what is not important to us.
For me the computer imagination would be the blog. I feel more comfortable with the blogs we have so I read this more than the RSS. I think the blog is a perfect example for me of computer imagination because I seemed to get lost in the post others are making. So far in this experience I have found myself lost in reading others posts and information about themselves on their blogs. I do like the RSS because I have finally figured out how to connect to everyone’s blog and read from this thread. In time maybe the RSS reader will be more of a favorite.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Week one reflection
Reading Reflection for week 1
Wow, Dr. Horvitz hits the nail on the head when he gives his opinion on what these two articles might offer us. While first reading the Reigeluth & Joseph essay I found myself agreeing with most of what they had to write. As I read the Postman essay, I reread a couple of the paragraphs to make sure I was getting his point, then too I found myself agreeing with much of what he had to write.
Personally I believe teaching and technology is exactly what you make of it. My experience in teaching so far have been that many teachers that have been in the classroom for many years are a bit intimidated by technology and refuse to incorporate much of it into their teaching styles. If the district you are working for does not have a mandate on what type of technology you are using in your classroom, then there really would be no reason for them to change as long as their students are mastering the GLEC’s (Grade Level Education Content Areas) or benchmarks set forth by the state and district. If teachers would use technology as an aide in attaining these goals they might find that some students really do achieve higher marks because of the assists or integration of technology.
In the Postman essay he gives a quote of a friend of his, stating that whatever problems a school cannot solve without a machine, they cannot solve this problem with them. I believe he is correct. If a teacher is trying to completely convert their lessons over to technology only, they would be completely missing the point of both essays. I believe technology to be only a tool to help students achieve the goals that have been set by the schools. You have a curriculum designed by the state and the district you work for and you must find the best tools to help your students become critical thinkers.
Both essays talk about students becoming critical thinkers. Postman states, “Schools are to help students think critically”, and Reigeluth & Joseph states “Each teacher should coach students to become better self-directed learners.” As I continue my education with Western Michigan I am being introduced to many different strategies in teaching. When I was completing my bachelors the terms, Inquiry based learning and GLEC’s were never mentioned. This may have been the instructors, but I believe it to be more of a shift in educating on Western’s end. I have always been and continue to be an inquiry based leaning type of teacher. I believe it helps all of the students in your classroom, no matter what level of comprehension they are at. While teaching Science I have students in learning communities all the time, and peers are usually great at getting points across in their groups. Technology has been a benefit for me, because of so many interactive things we can do in my classroom. Is it a must for me to have these things in my room to help students achieve the academic goals set? No, but is a very useful tool that benefits me as well as many of my students.
I guess I would like to say that in some ways I do agree with what Postman has to say about the actual benefits of technology. However, I really think the Reigeluth & Joseph essay is what I really lean towards when it comes to technology. I do disagree with how important they feel this really is. I think the importance of technology is truly in how you use it to benefit your students. You should be helping them become critical thinkers and technology is a very powerful tool, when used correctly, in helping them do this.
Wow, Dr. Horvitz hits the nail on the head when he gives his opinion on what these two articles might offer us. While first reading the Reigeluth & Joseph essay I found myself agreeing with most of what they had to write. As I read the Postman essay, I reread a couple of the paragraphs to make sure I was getting his point, then too I found myself agreeing with much of what he had to write.
Personally I believe teaching and technology is exactly what you make of it. My experience in teaching so far have been that many teachers that have been in the classroom for many years are a bit intimidated by technology and refuse to incorporate much of it into their teaching styles. If the district you are working for does not have a mandate on what type of technology you are using in your classroom, then there really would be no reason for them to change as long as their students are mastering the GLEC’s (Grade Level Education Content Areas) or benchmarks set forth by the state and district. If teachers would use technology as an aide in attaining these goals they might find that some students really do achieve higher marks because of the assists or integration of technology.
In the Postman essay he gives a quote of a friend of his, stating that whatever problems a school cannot solve without a machine, they cannot solve this problem with them. I believe he is correct. If a teacher is trying to completely convert their lessons over to technology only, they would be completely missing the point of both essays. I believe technology to be only a tool to help students achieve the goals that have been set by the schools. You have a curriculum designed by the state and the district you work for and you must find the best tools to help your students become critical thinkers.
Both essays talk about students becoming critical thinkers. Postman states, “Schools are to help students think critically”, and Reigeluth & Joseph states “Each teacher should coach students to become better self-directed learners.” As I continue my education with Western Michigan I am being introduced to many different strategies in teaching. When I was completing my bachelors the terms, Inquiry based learning and GLEC’s were never mentioned. This may have been the instructors, but I believe it to be more of a shift in educating on Western’s end. I have always been and continue to be an inquiry based leaning type of teacher. I believe it helps all of the students in your classroom, no matter what level of comprehension they are at. While teaching Science I have students in learning communities all the time, and peers are usually great at getting points across in their groups. Technology has been a benefit for me, because of so many interactive things we can do in my classroom. Is it a must for me to have these things in my room to help students achieve the academic goals set? No, but is a very useful tool that benefits me as well as many of my students.
I guess I would like to say that in some ways I do agree with what Postman has to say about the actual benefits of technology. However, I really think the Reigeluth & Joseph essay is what I really lean towards when it comes to technology. I do disagree with how important they feel this really is. I think the importance of technology is truly in how you use it to benefit your students. You should be helping them become critical thinkers and technology is a very powerful tool, when used correctly, in helping them do this.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Getting started
Well...this is new to me. I have never been involved with blogging, but I believe it will be very useful. Thanks for viewing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)