Issues and Advances in Technology Week 8 November 24, 2009

I thought the reading for this week The Horizon Report 2009, was a good one.  It was long, but it included great information such as time lines, relevant technologies, and examples of those technologies and even links and instances of those technologies being used.  This is definitely one site I will have to bookmark.  The report addressed one of my biggest issues with integration of technology into the classroom,  equity of access to computers and the internet.  We had students fill out forms at the beginning of the year about access to computers and the internet.  Most students have a computer at home as we would expect but there were those that didn’t.   So in terms of assigning and doing collaborative projects such as wikis or making groups pages how can we make it equitable?  Those without home computers are most likely disadvantaged in other ways then just lack of a computer or internet access.  Now these students have to find a computer to use meaning they have to stay after school and have their parents come pick them up or they have to find the nearest public library and try to get time on one of those machines while their peers can sit and work from the comfort of their own homes.  Perhaps there will be a time in the near future when everyone has a computer in their home, but I know that time isn’t quite here.  I am curious how mobile devices are going to be introduced.  The site gives some cool examples.  Again the issue is access to these tools.  No doubt these devices will continue to come down in price however, even with that there is going to be those who can not afford or don’t want or need the latest and greatest mobile device.  Despite my grumbling, I think there is some great ideas out there and I definitely want to keep an open mind about them.

 

Issues and Advances in Technology Week 7 Productivity November 17, 2009

There many articles addressing productivity and Web 2.0 in the work place.  When many people think of Web 2.0 they usually think of the social networking tools such as Facebook and Myspace.  Actually most people would say “what’s web 2.0?”

“Web 2.0 is social, it’s open (or at least it should be), it’s letting go of control over your data, it’s mixing the global with the local. Web 2.0 is about new interfaces – new ways of searching and accessing Web content. And last but not least, Web 2.0 is a platform – and not just for developers to create web applications like Gmail and Flickr. The Web is a platform to build on for educators, media, politics, community, for virtually everyone in fact!”(MacManus 2005)

Web 2.0 has an ever increasing potential for use in the classroom.  Mind mapping software, educational blogs, social networking, wikis, the list can go on.  As our students become more and more tech savvy we as teachers will have opportunities to use these new tools not just as novelties in the classroom but as legitimate learning aids.

MacManus, R. (2005, Sept. 7th)  What is Web 2.0.  Retrieved Nov. 15th 2009, from ZDNet News and Blogs website: http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=5

Reflection for week Nov.9th-13th November 15, 2009

This was quite the disruptive week in terms of instruction.  Monday started off with a trip to the computer lab.  Students were doing some research on wind turbines getting ready for an up coming end of unit project in the form of a wind turbine building competition.  Tuesday the students finished the second part of their unit final exam.  Ideally this would have been finished on Monday but Monday was the only day we could get into the computer lab.  Wednesday was a holiday as we all know.  I must say I enjoyed mine.   Then Thursday and Friday our students had a “Choices” program.  This was a 2 day program where speakers came in and conducted talks and activities showing students the potential consequences poor choices made in school can have on the rest of their lives. I think it was a good program but I question the need for 2 days of it.  By the second day the novelty had worn off a bit.  As a side note, science class seems to be the class of choice to disrupt.  It was chosen for this program, meaning we, and the other 8th grade science teacher, lost two days of instruction.  Science class was also chosen as the class for school picture day.  So we lost another quarter to have a day there.

An interesting activity for me was a lesson study meeting on Thursday.  All the science teachers had subs and we met together in the library. The goal was to plan out a lesson together, have someone teach it, then critique it afterward.  The interesting part for me was seeing the interactions of all the teachers as they tried to plan the lesson.  We have all these smart people with different styles trying to plan a lesson together.  It took most of the day and the frustration levels ran high pretty often.  Long story short, I added my two cents where I could and mostly observed the different teachers get frustrated with each other.  In the end the end my mentor teacher said ” this is what happens every time.”  There was a consensus reached in the end and no one seemed upset after it was all over.

Issues and Advances in Technology Week 6 Copyright and Online Safety November 10, 2009

This week’s topics, copyrights and online safety, have taken on a whole new light in today’s world of social sites, portable electronic devices, and ever expanding online content.

Copyrights often apply more to teachers in schools than to students.  Teachers are more likely to make improper copies of material they need.  So as a teacher I need to be aware that when I make copies of materials that I could be violating copyright law.  Aside from graduate students,  student work is unlikely to be made available to or scrutinized by the greater public.  That as it may students should still be made aware that original works they create are their property and no one has the right to use it without permission.

Online safety is a particularly troublesome subject today.  It used to be parents only had to worry about their kids and strangers when they were out of the house walking somewhere or playing.  Any other time, they were in the house safe from strangers.  With the advent of email, personal cell phones, and now online social sites, our kids can be communicating with a friend from school or a child molester in the next town, all while sitting 10 feet from us in the comfort of our home.  The shadier side of humanity has embraced these new technologies as fast as the legitimate users.    Our children and students need to be aware that not everything they see online is as it seems.  Anyone can be anyone in the world of Facebook and other online social sites.  Those students who may not be so popular in school are particularly at risk.  They may find a sympathetic ear online and develop a friendship and not really know who is on the other end of the connection.  This is particularly dangerous when someone wants to meet in person.  Who knows who will be meeting your child online.  Falling prey to predators is only one aspect of online safety children and students need to be aware of.  Everyone, students young and old and parent, needs to be aware that what they put online is out there for everyone to see.  Anything that is written and any pictures posted maybe seen by anyone and everyone.  Everyone has seen a You Tube video of someone making a fool of themselves.   Everyone need to think about who they want to see their information when they post it.   A good rule is, if you don’t want it to be seen by everyone then don’t put it online.  Does your future boss need to see the drunk pictures of you at a college party?  Do you want your new boyfriend/girlfriend to see the racy pictures of you with your last boyfriend/girlfriend?  We as teachers are often left with the responsibility to teach children life skills their parents are unaware of or are unable to teach their own children.

Reflection for week Nov. 2nd-6th November 8, 2009

I had a few things happen this week worth noting.  The first two are disciplinary in nature.  First is regarding one young gentleman who is easily distracted by other students and wants to pay attention to anything other than what we are talking about.  He is in the front of the class at the moment which means most of his time is spent turned around talking or looking at his buddies.  I talked to him after one class and gave him the choice  of coming in for lunch to help with some room cleaning or contacting his parents.  He quickly chose to come in for lunch.  We got a chance to talk about his behavior and also about him in general.  I learned he loves playing baseball which I did too in school.  After he was done cleaning I told him simply that he chose to come in and clean this time so next time it will automatically be contacting home.  He indicated he understood.  Later that day, in class, he was better.  Not perfect like I would have expected for at least one day, but better.  We have several students in that 6th period who need attention.  Ms. Anex has talked to some of them and I have talked to others.  I think I will be getting plenty of practice with disciplining chatter in that class.  My other issue was one of disrespect.  One young lady and gentleman thought they could leave even though I had not dismissed them.  So the next class I tried to inform them that they could give me an extra minute after class or come in for an entire lunch.  The guy quickly said he would stay the extra minute.  The girl, however, has a history of problem with authority.  As soon as I approached her she quickly saw me as a threat, so when I offered her the options she didn’t even listen and said she had something to do after class so she would come in for lunch.  I knew she didn’t really listen so I said ok at the time.  After class, as the students were leaving i called her over again and asked if she was sure and she confirmed that she would come in for lunch.  I told her to talk to the guy who was staying and he explained it to her and she seemed surprised and quickly sat down to give me the extra minute.  I asked her if she even listened to me when I gave her the options and she looked a little guilty.  Both Ms. Anex and I have had issues with her before.

My last issue is one of engagement.  I witnessed first hand the effects of uninteresting lessons.  Ms. Anex is taking classes also this year, so she is often busy.  We relied a couple of days on the science kit curriculum which included 2 activities whic were kind of weak.  Ms. Anex said she didn’t use them last year because they were not that interesting but she had been busy that weekend and hadn’t taken the time to get other things ready.  This isn’t a knock on Ms. Anex, she is a great teacher and mentor, it is more of an observation of the effects of not so great classroom activities.  It was hard to get the students motivated for the lessons when neither of us were that excited about them.   Needless the say, the students had a hard time staying focused.

 

Issues and Advances in Technology Week 5: Critical thinking and technology November 4, 2009

Critical thinking is something we are all striving for in our classrooms.  We want our kids to be able to take the knowledge and experiences they have acquired in one place, either in our classes or previously, and apply them to other problems.  The website http://www.criticalthinking.org/aboutct/define_critical_thinking.cfm defines critical thinking as: Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.(Scriven & Paul).   This is a wordy definition that can be reduced to the concepts of asking why and how does something work or do what it does?  When we think about critical thinking we are really talking about climbing Bloom’s Taxonomy pyramid.  It isn’t enough to know that warm air rises.  You need to comprehend what is happening in warm air.  You need to analyze what is happening in warm air.  How do we know warm air is rising?  What is an example of warm air rising?

The question is how can technology help with critical thinking?  An easy way that comes to mind for me is the use of mind-mapping and/or flow charts.  Sites such as Mindomo http://www.mindomo.com/ allow one to organize thoughts on a subject.  Once those thoughts are displayed you can think about the logical order of those thoughts.  As you are getting an order figured out you can reason why they are in that order.  Why does this affect that?  What makes A happen when I do B?  Other examples are online simulations in which variables can be changed.  Students can see a system and make assumptions about what will happen when to the system when one of the variables are changed.  In short we are not just looking for our students to regurgitate numbers and facts we throw at them.  We want them to be able to manipulate information they gather one day and be able to apply it to later lessons.

Taken from a presentation: 8th Annual International Conference on Critical Thinking and Education Reform, Summer 1987.  Retrieved November 2nd 2009, from The Critical Thinking Community http://www.criticalthinking.org/aboutct/define_critical_thinking.cfm

Reflection for week of 26th-30th November 2, 2009

Another good week in the classroom.  I feel fairly well settled in.  I feel comfortable talking in front of the class.  I am conducting lessons on a regular basis.  I am trying to handle discipline issues when they arise.

I was taking what I felt like was a fairly natural course in my student teaching schedule.  Starting the third week I started teaching classes.  I would watch Ms. Anex teach first period and maybe second period then I would teach 5th and 6th periods.  For the past month I have been teaching 2nd, 5th , and 6th periods almost exclusively.  During this last week’s classes we were talking about peoples experiences in their classes.  I learned that many of my fellow students hadn’t taken over classes yet or had just taken over classes.  I was somewhat surprised by this.  I took some time to re-evaluate my own progression in my classroom.  I was only doing what felt natural to me.  I am a jump in a do it learner.  I think the best way to learn is to do it and see what happens.  I worked for 4 years before entering the program as a carpenter.  I started that job with little experience but I learned a lot as I worked and when I left I felt I could accomplish most jobs with little problem.  I took the same course with my student teaching.  By the end of the second week I told Ms. Anex I wanted to give it a try.  I have also been grading papers to get some practice.  I now believe I might need to pull back on my teaching a little and focus on my SPU work.  I got a chance to talk to Jay (my coordinator) about this and he said I was probably ahead of schedule a little on my teaching but the decision was between Ms. Anex and I.  The problem is that I am a little behind in my SPU work.  I am trying to take the technology class this quarter so I am taking a full time load of  classes.  Lond story short, I need to focus on my classes because if I don’t pass the quarter then there will be no more student teaching.

My funny story for the week is halloween.  We are a middle school and maybe it is different in high schools.  We had lots of costumes, some of them really good.  Three boys named Adam came as 2 hydrogens and an oxygen.  When they were together they made H2 O.  A giant bottle of Pepto Bismol.  A sport trophy.  These were to name a few.  Needless to say, the students were pretty distracted.  Luckily we had a pretty lite day and an easy activity for them to do.  I am sure there was plenty of candy being eaten.  Several of our chatty kids in 6th period were near comatose.  We get to crack to whip on them Monday as we start a new unit.

Issues and Advances in Technology Week 4 October 27, 2009

As we explore more in the topic of technology and it’s use in the schools, I have come to believe more and more in it’s potential.   The topic for the week was engagement and relevancy.  We were to review the WA Tech standard 1.1

EALR 1

— INTEGRATION

Students use technology within all content areas to collaborate, communicate, generate innovative ideas, investigate and solve problems.

Essentially the starting point for integrating technology in the classroom.  There are quite a few simple tools available to start the integration process.  http://www.bubbl.us/index is a free online brainstorming program.  Google Docs:docs.google.com/ provides simple and free word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and forms that can be accessed from anywhere and anyone with the web address.  It would be interesting, with more time, to see if I could implement some of theses simple tools into a class or unit.  Perhaps next semester when I am bit less swamped by SPU work and more into the teaching side I will have time to try out a new tool.

Work cited:

Washington State Educational Technology Learning Standards K-12. (2008, December) retrieved October 26th 2009, from OSPI Washington website: http://www.k12.wa.us/edtech/pubdocs/K12EdTechStandards6-8_12-08.pdf

Reflection for week Oct 19th-23rd October 26, 2009

I got my first opportunity for to teach an entire day of classes.  Ms. Anex was at a conference so there was a sub.  I got to somewhat plan the lesson myself.  We were doing a lab that day so there was really only 15-20 minutes of discussion before we carried out the lab.  The day went well and I was happy for the most part with how the day went.  As I am sure happens with every teacher with every new lesson the classes got better as the day went on.  1st period I didn’t talk enough and left too much time for the lab.  The lab was short so many kids finished the lab and then had to much time to socialize afterwards.  The rest of the day I took more time at the start of the period discussing topics and left less time at the end of the lab for kids to talk.

I definitely got tested by some of the kids.  Fifth and sixth periods are pretty chatty and I had some of the more problem students trying to see how far they could go.  I took some opportunities for correcting kids and I also missed a few good opportunities for corrections.  For the missed opportunities i asked myself afterwards why I let it go and didn’t really have an answer.  I am sure it is a comfort and confidence issue which will get better with time.

My other issue, which is more funny than anything, was the sub.  He was obviously a “good buddy” sub.  The students who had seen him before were happy to see him.  Long story short, he was often circulating around the room engaging students in conversations unrelated to the lesson.  This was particularly annoying during 5th and 6th periods.  While I was trying to get class started and when trying to get attention later groups of students were turned around talking to the sub and not paying attention to me.  I am sure it is an issue of many subs not be used to having student teachers in the classroom.  I informed Ms. Anex and we will probably make sure he isn’t there for the next days she has scheduled for subs.

Issues and Advances in Technology week 3 October 20, 2009

The focus of week three was the use of web tools for collaborative purposes.  I like the idea of students being able to collaborate through alternate means.  For us (SPU students) in particular, we have very busy schedules at the moment so being able to work on projects without having to meet and all be in the same place can make things more convenient.  The Etherpad project was an interesting experiment.  It is nice that we can all contribute our own information to the document, but there was a downside I thought. Here I am refering mainly to what content is being sought, especially in terms of formatting.  Since this was the first attempt at using the Etherpad there was bound to be some confusion.  I think there was a little uncertainty about what exactly was being sought in the piece or even how it was to be displayed.  Maybe in some cases it was just how to start.  Like I said before, this was the first time with an assignment on Etherpad, so perhaps these assignments will get easier and better as the year continues.

Another focus was on Wikis and how they can be used as a collaborative tool.  I can see using a wiki for a class project some time in the future.  For the students to be able to contribute to a class project on their own time without having to dedicate a lot of class time to it could prove to be very useful.  Such a project would be a great learning experience for the students, and for us as teachers it could satisfy the the Washington technology education standards http://www.k12.wa.us/edtech/pubdocs/K12EdTechStandards6-8_12-08.pdf as required for us to teach.  EALR 1 ,GLE1.2.1 reads: Communicate and collaborate to learn with others. (Washington 2008) The nature of the wiki would not only allow students to add content to the piece, it would also allow the students to review, critique, and edit other students work.  The instructor would be able to review progress and and give feedback throughout the project.