cartoon analysis

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WebQuest Question

What can you do to prevent obesity in your own life?

The Best Web Quest

Which two of example WebQuests listed below are the best ones? Why? As a group, we decided that the two best WebQuests were Foreign Country presentation and the Shakespeare Presentations were the best. On these, most of the links worked, the efficiency expert thought the expectations were brief, clear, and to the point.  Which two are the worst? Why? The worst WebQuests were the Gorillas and the Waves and Sounds presentation. As a group, we did not think that these would be able to hold students attention or encourage them to complete the assignments.  What do best and worst mean to you? Best, to me, means that the Quests were well organized, students knew what they were supposed to be doing and when they were supposed to do it. It also made a big difference to me whether or not the links worked as they should. Worst meant that it was extremely unorganized and unable to hold my attention.

webquest

WebQuest	Strengths	Weaknesses
Saving the Gorillas	Easy, to the point questions. No "busy work."	Poorly written.
The World of Shakespeare	VERY organized!	Seems like quite a bit of work. I hope the students have a few weeks to complete it.
Become an Anti-Earthquake Designer	Seems interesting.	May not hold student's attention
Foreign Country Presentation	Some projects would be very interesting	Not enough clear information
Waves and Sound	Very clear as to what is expected.	Process is too long.

Efficiency Expert

Double Journal 11

1. In writing, things get lost. We lose that personal connection.
2. It is very hard, if not impossible, for teachers to keep up with technology.
3. There are constant wars between what subject matter is important. (science and math, phonics vs. whole language)

* I was also surprised by how he addressed all of the different roles teachers are expected to play.

scratch about me

Please click the pictures to learn more about me.
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I used Move to a Beat and Say Something.

Double Journal 10

Even students who perform well in school are often unprepared for the challenges that they encounter after graduation, in their work lives as well as their personal lives. Many students learn to solve specific types of problems, but they are unable to adapt and improvise in response to the unexpected situations that inevitably arise in today’s fast-changing world.

"The study looked at students at nearly 400 high schools nationwide who took the ACT last year and found that high school graduates who took the basic core curriculum college prep courses—four years of English and three each of math, science, and social studies—were unprepared for college...not only do high school courses need to be more rigorous, but states need to specify the number and kinds of courses that students need to take—and those courses need to be aligned with state standards that are driven by the requirements of postsecondary schools and the workplace"

I completely agree with this. I took several college courses through my high school, but once I got to college I was severely unprepared. I think this is because my high school's main focus was high stakes testing (Stanford 9, WESTEST, ACT, etc.) My high school never taught us study skills. Never once did I study for a test in high school and once I got to college I wrongly expected to do the same. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Whelan, D.L., Study says fewer than 25 percent of high school kids will succeed in entry-level college courses. School Library Journal. 6/1/2007.

 

Scratch | Project | scratch tutorial

Scratch | Project | scratch tutorial

Gardens of Time

Gardens of Time will assist students in problem solving, trial and error, following directions, exploration, and the ability to work with others.

scratch

Learn more about this project

double journal 9

" If a certain action or hypothesis fails, the player is compelled to re-evaluate the situation, and create a new hypothesis on how to solve the problem."

This quote was found under "Risk Taking", but I would also catagorize it under problem solving. For example, in a word problem from a book the student may get frustrated and give up when they come up with the incorrect answer. In a video game, I think the student would be more likely to try again. Also, video games give the child a chance to try again until they get it right. A problem on paper will just be counted wrong, not giving the students time to correct the answer and find out how they did it wrong.

59% of teachers would consider using video games in schools

When searching for an artifact to relate to the reading I came across an article that really surprised me. This article explains how teachers believe video games will help engage and motivate their pupils.

Orry, J. (2006, january 13). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.videogamer.com/news/59_of_teachers_would_consider_using_video_games_in_schools.html

Admin. (2012, January 20). 10 things schools can learn from video games. Retrieved from http://www.learningingaming.com/10-things-schools-can-learn-from-video-games/

iPad Review

As a future physical education and health teacher my search for apps was maily focused on fitness and health. I found two great apps that I will be downloading myself for my phone.

The first, made by SparkPeople, is a Diet and Fitness Tracker. You begin the app by entering your gender, current weight, goal weight, height, birthdate (it appears you must be 17 years of age to use). You have the option of setting a wieght management plan where you can lose up to 2 pounds per week or simply maintail your current weight. The app includs a food list with over 1 million foods in it's database, optional meal plans, a fitness tracer with exercise demos, and a weigh-in that graphs your progress. A favorite part of this app is the water drinking guide. It allows you to enter how much water you have drank and how much you have left. In my future class room I will likely use the app only for students to see how what/how much they eat and exercise affects their body. I think older students, high school age, will enjoy tracking their progress.

For a younger age group, I chose a game app entitled Eat this, Not that! You begin buy choosing a catagory: Breakfast, Lunch, Snacks, Dinner, Desserts, or Drinks.There is a casual and a speed round. The chld is then provided with a picture of two similar foods with the calories, fat, saturated fat, and sodium. They are to choose the Healthier of the two before their time runs out. After the answer is chosen, there is a breif description as to why one is healthier than the other. Maybe there is a "paid" edition of this game that would provide a longer gaming experience that would make this app a little better, but I think children grades 3-7 would enjoy playing against their classmates while learning to make healthier choices.

wikipedia research

How a Ragtag Band Created Wikipedia
I did not know that Wikipedia was only funded by public donations and I was surprised when the speaker said that it really didn't take much money to run
I was also surprised that only 1/3 of the traffic on Wikipedia is English.
They are in the top 50 websites and more popular than the New York Times.
Wikipedia has only one employee, who is the lead software developer.
I didn't know there was a delete/keep page.
I don't like how he talks about his friend Angela who could write anything she wanted and get away with it just because she's regarded so highly. I am sure there are others like this.
I like that the owners of Wikipedia are more concerned with the widespread, easily accessable knowledge, than huge profits.
I also like that the speaker knows that there has to be a certain extent of monarchy involved

Wikipedia Acurate but Hard to Read
I wouldn't say that I was surprised by the article, only because I have had the same issue when searching medical and technological terms like the example of cancer. I had never heard of the PDQ site that they were talking about, but I looked up both websites and used cancer as the search term and it's true. The PDQ listed term I could understand while wikipedia has several terms and examples that I couldn't even begin to comprehend.

4 ways to Use Wikipedia and Never Site IT
I ALWAYS use Wikipedia in all four of those ways when writing my research papers. I first begin by getting a good idea for what I'm writing about by searching the exact term such as psychology. Then I look for other key terms to take a look at like the different areas of psychology. I then look for the links that lead me to more credible websites and attempt to find the exact sources that were used in the Wikipedia article.

Double Journal 8

a. What is Wikipedia? "Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based encyclopedia project, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organization". In short, it is an online, peer-edited encyclopedia with over 2,000,000 article an in more than 280 languages. b. How would you answer the question posed in this piece “How reliable can a source be when anyone can edit it?”? I would say that it isn't. There is a good chance it is reliable, based upon "the wisdom of the crowds," but I would never use Wikipedia as a reliable source. c. Who do the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in when it comes to weeding out misinformation? The visitors of their website will correct errors and vandalism.  d. Why did founder Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia? He left and created another site because he thought that the experts should have more authority. e. What would abuse or vandalism look like on a Wikipedia page? Self-editing by government agencies and prominent business overs to some-what advertise is an example of vandalism and abuse. f. What do the statistics quoted in the third paragraph of this piece reveal? People rely on Wikipedia for a large amount of the information they are searching for.  g. Why do you think Wikipedia is so successful? Wikipedia is a fast, easy way to gather some basic background information on the subject being searched. Google aids in that success by placing Wikipedia entries in an easily accessible. h. Why might Wikipedia’s creators not want to accept advertising? Since they already have an operating budget of around $3million by just accepting donations from visitors and others, I don't see why they would want to flood their pages with advertisements and pop-ups. i. How does Wikiscanner help increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries? Wikiscanner allows IP addresses to be easily check anonymous sources for credibility.

ThinkAloud

website validation

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website evaluation

www.prettythin.com

The world's largest eating disorder community and forum.

WHO:
When attempting to find the author/administrator of this site, I had to dig a little bit. A link eventually sent me to his private facebook page, but it is hard for me to believe that his identity is real. The first thing I notice about James Watson's personal facebook page is that his photo is not a clear view of him. I then see several pictures of picketers at rallies brandishing signs with all sorts of controversial topics such as abortion, toxic waste, and mining.

WHAT:
This site does clearly state (several times) that it is not a website about how to lose weight, but one that supports anorexics and bulimics on their journey. That sounds quite controversial to me. They're not assisting in weight loss, but they're supporting people who starve themselves?
The site is very much "to the point" adn doesn't use loaded language to pursuade the reader to join.
This web-site IS copyright protected '06-2012.



WHEN:
All of the links that I have clicked are current and in working order. The copyright date goes through 2012, and the most current time stamp I have found so far is February 27, 2012.

WHERE:
Prettythin is the domain name. The site uses .COM for several of its pages, but I have seem a few with .HTM

HOW:
I do not this that much of this information is credible and without bias. The members of this site are allowed to create blogs, journals, upload pictures of themselves or others, and are also allowed to take part in editing information on the main site.

double entry 7

How might technology be used to support students in your future classroom who have learning differences like Dyslexia? There are several new technological advances that could aid in the teaching of students with learning disabilities. One of the first devices that comes to mind is a tablet. Tablets can range from the LeapFrog LeapPad, InnoTab Interactive, all the way up to Kindles and iPads. Children's books and reading applications are available on all of these devices. The LeapFrog LeapPad comes with a stylus that allows the reader to highlight a word to be read aloud. I think that schools should invest in these types of tables for the simple fact that they can be used for a wide range of of activities. Students would enjoy using the digital technology while learning at the same time. In the article by Philip Schultz, Words Failed, Then Saved Me, he described how he taught himself to read by reenacting the words his mother read to him from the comic books.

"I’d lie in bed silently imitating the words my mother read, imagining the taste, heft and ring of each sound as if it were coming out of my mouth. I imagined being able to sound out the words by putting the letters together into units of rhythmic sound and the words into sentences that made sense."

Using the stylus to highlight a word to be sounded out by the tablet may help the learning disabled child to get the feel for the word. Since there is interaction from the reading material itself, the child may be less likely to get frustrated.LeapFrog LeapPad


Schultz, P. (2011, September 03). Words failed, then saved me. The New York Times. Retrieved from   http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/opinion/sunday/with-dyslexia-words-failed-me-and-then-saved-me.html?_r=2


Rock, A. (2012). LeapFrog LeapPad explorer review. A Learning Tablet Designed with Children in Mind. About.com. http://preschoolers.about.com/od/technologyentertainment/fr/Leapfrog-Leappad-Explorer-Tablet-Review.htm

teacher of the year

voki2

voki

unnecessary words

That 2- removed 2
Really 0
Just - 0

1. What is the difference between Media in Education vs Media Literacy Education
2. What social bargain is at the heart of Fair use?
3. Why is Fair Use more important today? Fair use is more important today because more technology is being used in the classroom for educational purposes than before. Digital media is more acceptable to us than it has ever been.
4. What are the two key questions judges use to determine Fair Use? Does is change the content? Is it for an educational use?
5. A teacher shows a movie of The Lion King and asks student to notice how the animals in the movie reflect racial stereotypes? Is this Fair Use? Why? Yes, because this is being used to teach children. They are using something they are interrested in to relate to a lesson they are learning.
6. Which principle relates most strongly to the digital story you created in class? Explain. Fair use. We are using the potentially copyrighted music and photos to tell an educational story.
7. Are there limitations to the amount of pictures, length of music, or video that can be used in a multimedia project? It is to be a small portion.
8. Do you need to request permission from the original creator in order to use copyrighted material in multimedia project for school related assignment? You should not have to if it fits in the confines of Fair Use.
9. Should educators try to change the policies in their school in they are not in line with Fair Use doctrine? Yes, the students and teachers deserve to be able to use all the technological advances that they can. If administrators educated themselves on the laws, they should have no problem in letting the educator teach a lesson as long as it complies with Fair Use.
10. What common myth about Fair Use surprised you the most? I did not know that you were allowed to use copyrighted material as long as it was for educational use. I thought that it was just always off limits with out permission, no matter what.

PhotoStory12

Double Journal #4

"If digital stories are going to survive in education, they need to be tied to the curriculum and used to strengthen students' critcal thinking, report writing, and media literacy skills."

I LOVE that this instructor is using technology, via digital stories, to enhance her students' literacy along with so many other critical skills. He makes it a point to say that he is not using these digital media narratives to replace the skills needed for the traditional pen and paper report, but to ultimately make the student a better writer. He makes it a point in his classroom to make sure that the story is the main focus of the digital narrative, not the flashy, loud, distracting techonology. His goal is to enhance the story by adding a digital element, not distract from it. Students are to use critical thinking to engage not only the audience, but the writers themselves.

Digital Storytelling in the Classroom

Ohler, J. "The world of digital storytelling." Educational Leadership. Volume 63 No 4. December 2005/January 2006.

Wiki. (2012). http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=digital storytelling in the classroom&view=detail&id=664217b0237e9423889fa24b1a509e3c4b403b00

A cooperative grouping strategy

In this activity, fifth graders are using global positioning devices (GPS) to analyze Lewis and Clark's journey. In the first part of the assignment, the students used the web to look up old maps, diary entires, and texts to help them understand the journey. The teacher, Cal Washburn, decided that the web just wasn't enough. He wanted the students to go on their own Lewis and Clark expedition. He found a map of archeologist's findings and turned the school's campus into that land. He placed his own artifacts int he same places that others were found from the Lewis and Clark era.

I think this strategy of "geo-caching" works because what kid wouldnt' want to go on a treasure hunt? Fifth graders are old enough to do much of the work on their own, but still young enough to have that little hint of imagination left to make their journey worth while. I'd love to try something like this with students in my own future class.

Learning styles and preferences

Do learning styles exist?

"Thus, learning styles are not really concerned with what learners learn, but rather how they prefer to learn."

I think the above statement tells us that, yes learning styles do in fact exist, but that we may have the incorrect perception of what they are.

 

 

 

Are they useful for classroom instruction?

"..it is far more important to match the presentation with the nature of the subject, such as providing correct learning methods, strategies, and context; rather than matching individual preferences" (Coffield, et. al., 2004).

 

Coffield believes that it si less important to cater to a student's learning style than to effectivly teach the subject at hand. I think this means that instead of teaching a lesson, such as volcanos, three different ways, the educator should provide the information to the best of her abilities to get the information out to all students instead of just one group at a time.

 

What is the best philosophy for using learning styles?

"Perhaps David Merrill (2000) has the best philosophy for using learning styles—instructional strategies should first be determined on the basis of the type of content to be taught or the goals of the instruction (the content-by-strategy interactions) and secondarily, learner styles and preferences are then used to adjust or fine-tune these fundamental learning strategies. Finally, content-by-strategy interactions take precedence over learning-style-by-strategy interactions regardless of the instructional style or philosophy of the instructional situation."

I think that Merrill is just telling us that people can learn in just about any method of teaching. The reason learning styles exist is because people may learn better one way than another. Learning styles are not exactly requirements, but preferences instead.

Double Entry 3

Quote:
"In a study of college students' text messaging, my colleague Rich Ling and I found a few more lexical shortenings; yet the grand total of clear abbreviations was only 47 out of 1,473 words, which is hardly overwhelming." (Baron 2009)

Response:
I was able to relate to this excerpt. I almost always use proper grammar and punctuation in text messages, however, with only being allowed the allotted amount of 150 characters per text message sometimes it is tough to get all you need to say in just one. If I'm really crunched for space, I admit I will sometimes convert a "you" to a "u" or a "to" to a "2." However, I kind of wonder who thinks that text messages should be in the form of a term-paper. (And why?) If it gets the point across, what's the big deal? I mean, I would never, ever turn in a report to a professor with the abbreviation "u."

Quote:
" He added that there is very little that is new about most of the abbreviations and lexical shortenings that make texting so maddening to so many. In fact, he said, with the exception of a few recent coinages like LOL, “virtually all the commonly used ones can be found in English a century ago.” For example, bn (been), btwn (between) and wd (would) can all be found in a 1942 dictionary of abbreviations." (Shea 2010)
Response:
I thought this was an awesome fact! I was so surprised when reading it, that I actually looked for the dictionary of abbreviations. All I found were a couple of card catalogue entries, but I did come across this website that has several of today's SMS abbreviations and how they were derived.

Shea, A. (2010, January 22). The keypad solution. The New York Times, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/magazine/24FOB-onlanguage-t.html

Baron, N. (2009). Are digital media changing language?. Educational Leadership, 66(6), 42-46. Retrieved from https://online.fairmontstate.edu/webct/urw/lc15057011.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct

Jampard, J. (2010, November 8). Ok, so the more things change the more they stay the same. Dissociated, Retrieved from http://www.disassociated.com/tag/abbreviations/

comic

Technology can support me as a visual learner.

1. Firstly, love to use different colors and highlight tools in Microsoft word to type up notes. It helps me stay on task.

2. My calendar on my Kindle Fire is a life saver. It pops up with pictures of my activities for the day and keeps me organized.

3. Wordles are a technology that I will be keeping in mind for future projects and teaching. It helps me to see the responses in a colorful, size relation.

wordle poll

I cannot say that I was truely amazed by the most popular destinations, however I was slightly surprised by the less popular ones. I kind of figured everyone would choose faraway countries and distand lands, but quite a few people chose states here in the U.S.

Double Journal #2

QUOTE:

"Carole R. Endres, a professor of Economics in the College of Business and Administration (COBA) at Wright State University, described visual learners, on her website, in many domains (Endres, n.d.). One of these domains is the visual students in class. She mentioned that visual learners tend to underline, using different colors, and use charts, pictures, and symbols (Endres, n.d.). For example, if the visual student wants to remember what they read, it is better to use a pen to underline the important points. Also, they can use color to highlight the information. For example, they can highlight the definition in pink; the history background and dates in yellow; and the main idea of the topic or sub topics using green."

RESPONSE:

     I enjoyed reading this article. It relates to my response in the previous double entry journal assignment when I stated that every child learns differently. I chose this specific quote because I never really considered myself a visual, auditory, or a kinethetic learner until I read this. I use several of the techniques that Endres describes. For example, not long ago I made a comment to my father that I pay more attention and learn better if I use a colored pen, rather than just plain black. He thought I was crazy, but after reading this article I will have to show him just to prove him wrong. In my event planner, I use red pen for school assignments, green for my daughter's appointments because her middle name is Jade, blue for my appointments, and purple to represent my sorority's events. This helps me to stay organized. Throughout high school I thought that I might want to be a math teacher. That ambition quickly depleated when I found out it wasn't the actually math that I liked, but rather the fact that the teachers always got to use an overhead projector.

     I suppose a downside to my strength as a visual learner is the fact that I don't learn very well at all from auditory or kinethetic lessons. Also, when I prepare a lesson or presentation, I use several colors, charts, and other visual aids to enhance my project. I will need to keep in mind for future teaching experiences to try and cater to all learning styles.

(I cannot get this picture to be a link! Keeps popping up with "Error on Page")

A Frugal Life. "Bubble Planner Product Review." afrugallifeblog. Blogger. December 22, 2010. 



Web 2.0 and emerging learning technologies/learning styles. (2011, May 19). Retrieved from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Web_2.0_and_Emerging_Learning_Technologies/Learning_Styles

Private Poll

Name the city, state, or country you would most like to visit.

Name the city, state, or country you would most like to visit

Replace audience response hardware with Poll Everywhere

Double Journal #1

Quote:

"A classroom suited to today’s students should deemphasize solitary piecework. It should facilitate the kind of collaboration that helps individuals compensate for their blindnesses, instead of cultivating them. That classroom needs new ways of measuring progress, tailored to digital times — rather than to the industrial age or to some artsy utopia where everyone gets an Awesome for effort. "


Response:
  To me, this quote insinuates that students should no longer work alone on their own projects and instead, work as groups. Group work is alright on occasion, but what happens when little Jane is always stuck doing the work for her group while the other members goof off. I for one, absolutely despise group projects. I am an independent worker and a firm believer in "If you want something done right, you must do it yourself." It would be unfair  to me and the rest of my work group to have us paired all of the time. I would be stuck doing all of he work and the other children would not learn the lesson.
  If we tailor the classroom to digital times, what happens if the power goes out? A pen and paper will still work, but a computer would do nothing but make a good paperweight. Two years ago the electiricity in Fairmont went out for nearly a week in some neighborhoods. If all of their school work was in digital format, they wouldn't have gotten anything done.
  I agree that classrooms need to highten their lessons on digital learning, but that should in no way completely remove the ol' reliable, pen and paper.
  This article metions Ms. Davidson noticing that her students wrote better blogs than term papers. All students learn differently. For example, it took me all weekend to find out how to add a new entry on my blog. Whereas, I would've felt more comfortable writing a typical research paper. I hope that if and when the digital classroom imerges, there are still open options for all styles of learning.

This is what I think of when I hear about classrooms turning digital.

Resources:

Heffernan, V. (2011, August 7). Education needs a digital-age upgrade. New York Times. Retrieved from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/education-needs-a-digital-age-upgrade

sustainablelit. (Videographer) (2010). Homework excuses in the digital age [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WurRIdpTUPU&feature=player_embedded

I am from Fairmont, West Virginia. I would like to teach physical education and health at an elementary/middle school level. I thinkt aht children learn best by doing. If you can keep them engaged while learning, they are more likely to retain that infromation and remember the activities as well as the lessons. In phys. ed. class I would try to play "Horse" using different spelling words appropriate for the grade level.