Final Project

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Presentation

5-min. presentation idea/resources

I think I am going to do my presentation on the importance of recycling and how we can "go green".

google images has some really nice pictures I can use in my presentation


This website is full of tips to "go green"

Thoughts on blogging

I really enjoyed blogging with the students from Fairview Middle School. I think blogging is a great way to get kids involved with technology at a young age. It's simple enough for them to understand and use, and they get to experience appropriate socializing in a supervised arena. I was amazed at the dynamic abilities of the students. Some were very capable of expressing their thoughts in full, complete sentences using correct grammar. Others used abbreviations and more "online lingo" which I think is acceptable in this situation if used properly. What disheartened me was seeing very poor spelling and incorrect usage of wording. These students are in the 5th grade and some of their posts were complete run-on sentences. Teaching correct punctuation when using online technologies is important. My main concern with using blogging as a future educator is circumstances that might require use of a computer outside of a classroom. I'm hesitant to use blogging much more than right in my own classroom in fear that some students might be a low SES or unable to complete assignments due to lack of internet or computers. I also did not like the blogging program that was used. There has to be a better blogging site that allows immediate display of information that can still be monitored and controlled by the teacher.

Overall, I think this activity served as a learning tool for both the middle school students, as well as myself and my college classmates. I would most definitely encourage the use of this activity in any classroom, including my own.

Scratch Project

Scratch to modify

content standard that this scratch project can meet:
Science, 6th grade SC.O.6.2.2-use pictures to show cyclical processes in nature (e.g., nitrogen cycle, carbon cycle, or water cycle).

The three things I chose to modify in the project (they might be hard to notice unless you are watching the original and revised projects simultaneously):

1)the color of the sky
2)the length of time between the words presented
3)the motion of one of the clouds

To check out the new scratch project click here

Scratch

After looking through several different projects in the Elementary Education section, I found a project that helps beginners with addition. To view this project click here. This project uses simple keyboarding skills (up and down arrows) to compute math problems using addition. The project uses bright colors, a talking dog (who will add interest to the activity to keep kids excited about the "game"), and animation/sounds to engage the students. This project is nicely done, but could encorporate other types of math problems such as subtraction and even multiplication/division for more advanced students. Creating a project similar to this one would be useful in a future classroom.

Convergence Culture

Convergence Culture, as Dr. Henry Jenkins explains, is a connection of every medium through ideas presented. It is not a replacement of old media with new, but rather an integration of the ideas presented in the old medium into the new--creating a type of symbiotic relationship. Dr. Jenkins claims that this process should not be considered purely technological. That is, the process should not be considered simply the combination of a telephone, television, and camera into one instrument, but rather a new medium serving as a catalyst to enhance the idea presented by an old medium. One example was presented in the video that helps visualize this process. Television produces shows that can be viewed on a TV set. If someone misses this episode, TV corporations have realized that they can use other sources of media, i.e. the internet/ipods to reach more viewers. Consumers can still get the intended product of a television show, but through different media device. This media of an ipod or internet site does not replace a TV, but allows further viewing of the same product--making entertainment easier and more convenient which is an ideal of our culture.

Convergence culture is very pertinent to education and classrooms. A variety of information can be accessed by numerous sources. The convergence of media allows teachers to enhance lessons with technology in countless ways. The potential for technology in classrooms seems limitless, but this requires some education of media literacy. This might shift the focus of required skills from those such as the three r's to include media skills and technological literacy. There is what Dr. Jenkins called a "participation gap" which limits children who do not get the chance to participate as much as other students with technology because they do not have access to it at home. Teachers need to be aware of this gap and attempt to bridge it by incorporating participation into daily lesson plans.

Schools are most definitely limiting students' access to digital tools for several reasons. Cell phones and ipods, however helpful and resourceful they may be, lead to distractions during instruction time and can be a great nuisance to a teacher trying to do their job. The same can be said for online sites such as youtube, facebook, and other social networks. While these sites can prove to be very useful in instruction time, they cause great distraction and are therefore restricted in many school networking systems. I agree that there needs to be some monitoring when using these forms of media in the classroom, but the advantages of they provide seem to outshine the negatives associated with them. There do need to be restrictions at certain times during certain situations, but these resources should not neglected. It would be doing students a disservice if they were not encouraged in a classroom setting.

Think Aloud

here is my "Think Aloud" I created to model online reading strategies.

Website Validation

I examined Dog Island. While the website initially looks like an organized vacation spot for your pet, it is anything but. This website describes a free and happy life for your dog at Dog Island. They take dogs for free and separate them into size categories and put them on different islands. It lists statistics on the side as well as including rate, company, facility, FAQ, and Photos tabs. All of this looks very real and organized. It isn't until you start reading that you notice that everything the website says is complete nonsense!

First of all, at the very bottom of the page there is a disclaimer. I first looked at this and read the disclaimer that said this:
DISCLAIMER:
This site (TheDogIsland.com) was made in jest, for fun for love of dogs and for love of life.
You are to take NO actions, make NO decisions based on the content of this website.
In other words, we are not responsible for ANYTHING you do. If I could make this any clearer to you, I would. You can't blame us for ANYTHING. You can't be mad at us for ANYTHING. The only point for you on this website is to enjoy yourself. And if you don't enjoy yourself, you absolutely canNOT blame us for this lack of enjoyment - it is completely your fault.
We are selling nothing, we want nothing from you, not your personal information, not your credit card, not your dog, not your money... NOTHING. We have asked you for nothing, we will continue to ask you for nothing, so please, make sure to NOT GIVE IT TO US, as we will not accept it.
To all friendly, kind, loving people, who don't find a need to blame other people for any and everything, thank you for your time, sorry if you read this and felt unloved - WE LOVE YOU !!! :::))))

I don't need to go much further to prove how credible this website is. It is spelled out clearly in the disclaimer. However, if the disclaimer was not included, there are other hints.

For example, the copyright date of the website is fairly old. Also, no author is stated directly. The domain name is a .com, so that most definitely lessens the credibility in my mind. The website provides email links, but when you click on them it directs you to another page--not an email window. The page does not include any sources or other contact information. The "background" of this Dog Island included names of the founders, however when you search the names in Google, the only place they come up is on this specific website.

This particular website was very easy to notice how inaccurate and discrediting it was. It's important to remember that not all website are as easy to pick out as inaccurate, and we need to look for signs to see how credible the information is. Sometimes websites that look extremely accurate turn out to be very quite the opposite.

Teacher of the Year Magazine

Form

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Web 2.0 bookmark

The Web 2.0 resource I chose from delicious is called Classroom 2.0.

This website is a social networking site for teachers interested in web 2.0 technologies. A teacher can become a member of the network and participate in forums/discussions about web 2.0 technology. Each teacher can post ideas or ask questions. The website also has Hosts that can help with specific questions. Topics are listed at the side according to the type of technology you are interested in learning more about.

This social network would be a huge asset for any beginning teacher who is looking for ways to encorporate technology into their classroom. There are even live "webinars" that can be watched by teachers all over the country.

This website provides tons of resources and interaction with other teachers that can help you in teaching web 2.0 technology.

Student Artifact

This is an example of what my students will make when finishing the WebQuest. It's a TV advertisment for their specific geological time period. Each student is to pair up with another student and persuade the class with their advertisment to take a trip with them to their geological time period.

Would Socrates Approve of WebQuests?

After reading the article "What Would Socrates Say", it is obvious that the reader believes that Socrates would whole-heartedly support the ever increasing technology as a viable learning experience for children. I must say I have to agree with the author of this article. In this article, there are several points of proof for this. First, Socrates believed beyond any other thing that questioning was the key to advancing intelect. Webquests undoubtedly support questioning. If a Webquest is constructed correctly, a student must not simply search the web for facts, but critically think and question the matter at hand. Socrates was also an emperical thinker--he supported scientific reasoning behind natural phenomena. Facts and science are keys to discovering answers and Webquests request that kind of reasoning. A final reason Socrates would support Webquests is that his most advanced teaching tool of his time was communication--especially in groups. Webquests require group communication and questioning/debate that results in higher level thinking. Socrates would support any means by which a being could enhance their learning and questioning. Answers are always leading to more questions, and by that thought technology is always leading to more technology. Socrates would encourage an embracing of this learning source.


My Webquest requires students to perform the "persuasive task" described in the Webquest Taxonomy. The students use the information they learn to persuade "clients" to take a trip to their geological time period. Students must show an understanding for the characteristics of their specific time period and use creativity and presentation skills to persuade others.

Here is a link to my final Webquest!

WebQuest Rough Draft

You can view my webquest by clicking here!
Please feel free to make comments with improvements and/or suggestions!

Webquest Changes

Web Quest to be used for changes: Time Before Time Travel Agency

This webquest is already very organized and set up in a student friendly manner. There some changes I would make. They will be organized according to section:

Overall Asthetics:
navigation/flow: I might try to find a way to link the pages without having to click on the sides. this will add more easy to navigating the webquest as a whole.

Introduction:

motivational effectiveness: the intro. is not very lengthy. I will probably add a little bit of creative encouragement to try to captivate the students' interest better with the initial paragraph.

cognitive effectiveness: the introduction does not particularly build upon students' prior knowledge. It somewhat gives an overview of what they will be encountering with this project, but I think that could be explained in slightly more detail so they will have a better understanding.

resources: some of the resources seem very advanced or repeat the same information. i might reduce the number of links to that the students are not overwhelmed with facts, and yet still have enough information to create their project.

Webquest

Two best Webquests: John Wilkes Booth & Creative Encounters

Overall, we came to the conclusion that John Wilkes Booth and Creative Encounters encorporated most of the ideals that all four roles were looking for. They were both technologically helpful and included links and resources. Both required a higher-level thinking and collaboration/teamwork. Also, both were time efficient and gave a deep understanding of the topic at hand.

Two worst Webquests: Landfills & Poetry of War

These two webquests lacked web use and researching. They also did not have much collaboration. They were very time consuming. While they are good assignments that could be used in the classroom, using webquest doesn't offer much of an advantage over a worksheet in a classroom.

Best, to us, means that the webquest met most of the criteria described in each of the 4 roles we took while reading. Worst, though they were not bad assignments, means that they did not reflect the ideals represented as a whole for the learner.

My Best Teacher

or my video can be viewed on teachertube.com

Should students be allowed to substitute multimedia projects for papers?

The topic of using multimedia projects in place of written assignments is a very debatable one. Should teachers have the right to substitute techonological literacy for written literacy? Will the use of one form hinder the development of the other? These questions are valid problems and issues that need to be considered before assigning (or refusing) multimedia projects in your classroom.

According to the article "Orchestrating the Media Collage" by Jason Ohlerat, we need to embrace the idea of multimedia projects or what he calls "digital literacy". In a world that is so technologically advanced, multimedia projects can enhance overall literacy across the board. This means that a student who is fluent in digital literacy (typing, compiling pictures into a collage and adding text, narration, movie making, etc.) will actually succeed more in the forms of written and oral literacy. I wholeheartedly agree with the author of this particular article. If teachers do not embrace the world of technology and take full advantage of the several forms of media readily available to all, then our students will not be prepared for a future that will be even more embedded in computers and multimedia.

The video "The Power of One" was assigned to a high school social studies class as a substitute for a 15 page paper that was required before graduation. They were to highlight the history of voting on an international, national, and local level and describe the importance of voting. In order to create the video, the class had to have a very good grasp on the concept of voting and its history. They had to do research and brainstorming--both of which are very important skills acquired when constructing a research paper. They also had to use collaboration and team work to complete the project--skills not necessarily gained through writting. In addition to those skills, the students had to use their knowledge of editing, sound/narration production, and publishing their multimedia project. Overall, there were numerous skills the students displayed with the completion of this particular project. They had to project their understanding of the topic and use creativity to attain their ultimate product.

As far as the ISTE-NETS are concerned, there are several standards that a teacher can meet by assigning a multimedia project such as the one described above.
1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity:
b. engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources.
c. promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes.

Both of these standards are completely met with using the project of "The Power of One". This type of project will gauge conceptual understanding, cooperation, and encourage the use of digital tools and resources.

If anything the use of multimedia projects will only help your students succeed further. Of course other forms of literacy should not be neglected. Writing, speaking, and listening are all important forms of literacy that should be attended to, but digital literacy needs to be accepted and introduced to students at a young age if they are to keep up with the ever-advancing society of our world.

The Power of One Video
Orchestrating the Media Collage by Jason Ohlerat

Resume

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Blogging Activities--Tuesday, Sept. 1

post reflects the information found at:http://technospudprojects.motime.com/

Title of blog: "What's In A Name Online Project"

This particular blog appears to be set up as a project run by Technospud--located in California, in 2003. 4th grade & up teachers could register their classrooms to be a part of this online project. The blog's author posted 'questions of the day' and allowed students/teachers from 50 schools all over the country (and Canada) to participate in responding with their own answers and additional questions or comments. All of the questions were related to their school's information i.e. origins of its name, location, population of the city, etc. While most of the responses came from the teachers themselves, some of the answers came from students. My guess is that most of the classes collaborated together through research/discussion to come up with their answers that the teacher would post to the questions.

By generating these questions, the blog allowed teachers to spark conversation in their personal classrooms and encourage researching on interesting topics . The blog also aided in learning by creating easy access to the same information of different schools all over the country. It cultivated relationships between schools and provided a new realm of communication that some students had never been exposed to.

All of the questions posted required researching. This allows instructors to discuss the different ways in which information can be found--encyclopedias, newspapers, interviews, the internet. Understanding of and utilizing all types of resources is a valuable lesson that can be learned through this online project.

Two performance indicators that would be met if I were to use this blog in my future classroom:

1. Facilitate and Inspire student learning and creativity
d. model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.

5. Engage in professional growth and leadership
c. evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning.