New Thinking From Class

Today we presented for chapter 5.  I think it went better than I expected.  I was happy that we decided to form the groups how we did with colors.  I think one downfall we did have was we should have allowed more time for the whole class to discuss.  We could have offered more in depth commentary to the pros and cons given or built on the idea that the group gave us.  I do agree that we should have talked a little more about the quote given as our final thought, but it was meant to make the class think and it actually leads into next weeks chapter. 

Talking about the iRLO and how to get started was very helpful.  The first step is to identify a standards-based content.  We then need to design a developmentally – appropriate way to address the content.  We need to take into consideration what age level we are designing the iRLO for compared to the content we are focusing on.  The audience needs to be considered.  It was very helpful that Jeff took us through the process for downloading Scratch.  The only difference is that on our home computer we should install the program.  When we were first introduced to the iRLO, I was very nervous about it but now that we went through the steps and how to actually make it, I am feeling a lot more comfortable. 

Rethinking Education- Chapter 5

After reading this chapter, I learned a lot that I didn’t know about other ways people are learning.  I never realized how many students are home schooled. I do believe that students who are home schooled score significantly better on standardized tests.  When you are home schooled, you are usually only one of a couple who may be home schooled, depending on if you have siblings who are also home schooled.  This means that you aren’t in a class with 20 or more other students and you can move at your own pace.  In middle school, I had a friend that was home schooled and she actually graduated 3 years earlier than students her same age. 

I think a lot of these new ways of learning are very important.  As adults, we should always continue to learn and keep our brains active and working.  Adult education, distance learning, and workplace learning are all a great way for adults to learn something new and something that interests them.  Schools may not be able to allow everyone to learn just what they are interested in, but these other ways of learning can allow you to do that when the timing is right for the individual.  I don't feel that these new seeds of learning will hurt public schools and their intentions, I think they are here to strengthen citizens and allow them more opportunities to learn and allow individuals to learn in a way that works best for them and what interests them. 

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts: The Social Web (Chapt 6)

Technology can be very beneficial to educators.  As discussed in this chapter, Twitter can be used to connect with other educators that you may have never met or will never meet and allows you to learn from them.  We can learn what is working in their classrooms that we may be having problems with or cool lessons that they are teaching.  Twitter is just one of the many social sites that can be used to connect to others. 

Social bookmarking is something new to me, but I really enjoy using it now.  Social bookmarking allows you to bookmark and tag sites you find useful so that you can access those sites from any computer.  Unlike the traditional bookmarks on your home computer, you can access these bookmarks anywhere.  The thing I like about this is that you can find sites with similar tags that other individuals have found helpful.  There are so many websites out there that you may never discover, until now with the help of social bookmarking. 

As a future teacher, I want to incorporate as technology into my classroom as possible.  Young children today are more attuned to technology than anything else.  They catch onto technology very quickly and enjoy being on the computer.  Social bookmarking is a great way to help your students start researching a topic.  As a class you can add links.  I really like the idea in the book where he talks about tagging links that each student may like.  So you would have a tag called “Meredith” with information you feel she would enjoy.  I think students would love to see what their teacher finds for them and have their own personal library of information and sites. 

New Thinking From Class

There are 4 main developments of American Schooling.  The first is the printing press which led to the Reformation.  During the Reformation schools were created.  The American Revolution was next, then the Industrial Revolution.   After today’s discussion, some things to keep in mind for other discussions is to encourage deeper thinking from our peers.  The presenters did a good job of restating comments for the group.  We also need to take into consideration how to group peers so everyone can be a part of their group. 

Our iRLO we will submit 2 drafts; one for our peers to review and then the final draft.  An iRLO is an interactive reusable learning object.  Interactive means it provides user control and appropriate feedback.  Many lecture classes do not allow for this, whereas video games do.  Reusable means it can be used repeatedly. Learning means users should learn new content, review previously learned content or practice a skill.  Object is a generic term, but it refers to the Scratch file that you will create. 

We were introduced to Scratch which is a program we can use to create an iRLO.  Scratch has an online community where students can access iRLO’s that you created.  They do not have to have Scratch downloaded on their computers. 

Rethinking Education- Chapter 4

On page 52, the author writes that “Taxpayers were reluctant to pay for education, and towns frequently reaffirmed parents’ responsibility for educating their children.  Yet, once schools were established, parents were quite willing to send their children to these schools, rather than teaching them at home.”  I thought this was very interesting.  It seems that even today, individuals may be reluctant for something, but once it is established and seems to be working fine, then everyone wants to jump on board and be a part of it. 

I also found it interesting that during the colonial years, when there were one room schoolhouses, most of the teachers were males.  I always thought of women as being the teachers and many years ago, it was uncommon to see males as teachers.  Gender roles put women as the teachers, but really, the earliest teachers were men. 

As I was reading the chapter, it surprised me how much of the education system is still similar to what it was when it was first created.  They talked about classes being 50-55 minutes long and that is still how most high school classes are, even most college courses are 50 minutes long. 

Before reading this chapter, I did not know much about the history of education and schools.  After reading the chapter, I understand better how school and education were created and the changes they have gone through, but also how some things have stayed the same. 

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts: RSS (Chapt 5)

Before reading this chapter, I knew nothing about RSS, or what it even stood for.  Now I know that RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and all educators should start using it ASAP and teaching their students how to use it.  An RSS will track all of the feeds that you subscribe to  and each hour will check for new feeds.  The new feeds will them be put into your aggregator and you can view them and decide what to do with them at your convenience. 

As I began reading the chapter, I wasn’t sure how I would use an RSS in my classroom. It seemed like a great way for me to keep up on new information and findings, but how could my students use this?
RSS would be a very easy way for me to keep up on my student’s blogs.  My students could create an RSS and choose something they are interested in.  They could then start getting the feeds from their RSS and write a paper using the information they received from the feed that they collected in a few weeks.  Maybe to introduce my students to RSS, as a class we could create one with a single topic in mind and see how the RSS works and what type of information we receive.  I could have each student look over the info we got for the day and determine what was worth keeping and if we should add other news sources. I think an RSS could become a great tool to first use as a group while everyone learns how to use it and then allow the students to create their own with a topic they are interested in. 

A lot of the resources we are learning about you can use through one account, such as Google.  I like that most of these are offered through Google.  As we learn about a new tool, I get nervous about how many different tools there are and each requires a different login.  As I learn that most can be accessed with one login makes me feel more comfortable with using them.

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts: Wikis (Chapt 4)

After reading chapter 4 on Wiki’s, I understand the concept of a wiki a lot better.  When I was in school, Wikipedia was just being started and we were taught to never use Wikipedia because anyone could add information and it may not be true.  After reading this chapter, I think it’s very important to teach our students about Wikipedia.  I did not know that there is a history as to what people change on a Wikipedia and if an individual deletes information, the information is not lost, it can be saved.  It was also reassuring to read that 4 out of 5 experts said the entries in their field of study were accurate, informative, comprehensive and a great resource for students.  I also like the idea that wiki’s are collaborative.  In schools and in many jobs, you are required to collaborate with others.  Wiki’s can help students understand and practice collaborating to create a wiki or add their expertise to another wiki.  There is so much you can do with wiki’s.  Students could have a wiki with another class in  another country and be able to work together to help each class learn more about where they are from. 

As a teacher, I will incorporate the use of wiki’s into my class and help students understand a wiki so they may contribute to our class wiki.  I feel that if students are a part of something and feel that they have control over the class wiki and it is their work in progress, they will be excited to keep the wiki current and keep it going.   I will also take some advice from the chapter and advise my students to use Wikipedia as a starting point to their research.  I also like the idea of using a wiki in the classroom and allowing the students to edit each other’s contributions.  I think this would be a great way for students to learn about editing and use their English skills to correct errors.  In another college courses, my group used Google Docs for a group paper.  I found this resource to be very easy to work with and allowed us to each to contribute our sections to the paper and allow each group member to edit the entire paper.  I think both a wiki and Google Docs would be an excellent way to have students peer edit papers.  If each student had a log in you could make sure another student had edited the paper and see what types of edits were done.