WEEK 13

When and how do teachers act as designers?

Teachers in my opinon become designers when they are creating lesson plans for their students. Lesson plans fall under curriculums, and that is basically the scope that they design. Now within the frame of lesson plans they must create ways to attract their students attention. They must also find  or design ways to get the students to retain the info being taught from the lesson as best as possible.

Select one of the followings and explain what it is and how it can be used in classroom:

I chose the IStopmotion, it is basically a product that deals with animation, you need a mac to use it, you can stop and start and filter out all types of different animations. I feel that this can be used in a classroom through it being very easy to use and very fun and appealing for the students. Now it can be used in a few ways to help them learn which is most important, it teaches structural thinking, teamwork, and really can be used in the science curriculum as far as making certain proceses in science more understandable to students by slowing them down.

 Explain "Digital Storytelling by Kate Kemker:

Digital Storytelling is basically about students being creative as far as their storytelling abilities, they have to create a story that goes along with the story that the camera is telling. They will have to use a computer to edit everything, it seems pretty fun and easy to use. I am also sure that it is appealing to the students.
 the editing is most important as it really depends on the students imagination.

What do you think it would work in your classroom?

 

I honestly do, due to the fact that students especially younger ones are exposed to a lot of stories. As a kid I would have loved to use one of these. This really makes the students more imaginative and better at creative thinking, we all know grammar, arithematics, and science are important, but creative thinking and imagination get over looked at times. This is the perfect thing to bring it out.

 

Mathematics is one of the most abstract subject-matter domains. Helping students to visualize mathematical concepts is very useful in helping students make math real. What other methods suggested in the textbook will also help make math more real to students?

Math is very abstract and speaking from personal it can be very confusing, the book has suggested a few ways in that it can be more beneficial to the student in terms of making them understand better. I feel the math lab helped me the most so thats what i would go with, when dealing with computers it always makes things difficult seem easier to deal with, especially when they breakdown the steps to difficult problems.

Is it possible to learn from TV alone?--that is, learn how to do something merely from watching TV instruction? 

This depends on what type of learner you are, me personally i am a hands on/visual learner so it might work. They have yotutbe tutorials that I have learned from so I dont see how tv could be any different. Some people might even earn more from watching tv just becasue it captures your attention more than the regular teacher talking.






Crismond, D., Howland, J., Jonassens, D., Marra, R. M. (2008).  Meaningful learning with technology. Columbus: Pearson, Merrill Prentice Hall

WEEK 12 VOICE THREAD

About Voicethread?
Voicethread is a site where you can share diffrent multimedia info with other people across the wolrd at one time with no extra software needed. I found it very interesting on how innovative it was in my opinion. It can be used to do many things, a lot of its capababilities dont really have anything to do with school or lesson plans, although you can use it for that.

What I use Voice thread for a Lesson Plan?
I have mixed feelings about using this, as it is very complex and might be confusing and I am not the most technology sound person at all. Im sure soemone who is more computer savvy could really be more beneficial to using this in his or her lesson plan than I. As I said it is an amazing website and there are many things it can be capable of doing. I dont need it in my lesson plan, Im all about CPUs in the classroom but this is a bit much.

Would I use it in the Classroom?
Again great features, amazing website, and all. But i do not see the need to involve all of this in my classroom. I am an advocate of technology in the classroom, but this is crazy too me. I want my students being focused on the task at hand in my opion this could bring distractions and thats the last thing I need in my classroom. As long as technology is straight to the point and not too crazy Im all for it.

Conclusion:
Great site amazing features, didnt know anything about this website. It seems pretty cool. I dont believe that it is suitable for the classroom in my opinion. With all the MP3 stuff and etc students wont be able to focus on the lesson and the task at hand in my opinion. At the end of the day great site but not classroom worthy, at least not in mines.






REFERENCE: http://voicethread.com/

WEEK 11 POSTING

Gee's Principles

Out of all of these principles of learning, I chose three principles that I thought will be very effective in the development of the students learning process. The first principle is called the Discovery Principle, this is basically the most important one in my opinion. I feel this way because when you are able to find out how something works and why it does what it does, it helps you understand how things are the way they are. Someone just telling you the end result isnt helpful because if you dont fully understand why it is, you wont people to remember the result in my opinion.

The next principle is the Practice Principle. This strongly relates to the discovery principle, in that you have to have repitition in learning. I feel that with proper repitition the student will be able to properly grasp the concept. The old saying practice makes perfect is very true, especially when it comes to learning. Whenever I was able to find something out on my own, and then practice the process, I was more successful in the long run. I really feel it will be beneficial to the students.

The last principle I chose was the Identity Principle Learning which includes taking on and playing with identities in a specific way that the learner is given real choices in developing the virtual identity and an opportunity to meditate on the relationship between new identities and old ones. This learning principle in my opinion deals with real life situations and I feel it will be very helpful to the students.

Simulation:

I would have my students in a setting where they would have to discover new info, and then they would have to practice what they learned, and then they what have to actually apply it to something. This would cover all of the 3 principles that I have chosen to write about Discovery, Practice, and Identity.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Gee has many helpful principles for teachers to obide by or use for their students. The three that I picked I strongly feel were the most important in my opinion. the discovery principle was very key in my life and Im sure others will greatly benefit from actually finding out why something is, instead of just hearing it is what iit is. The practice principle is also very important because of the preparing and repitition being installed in the students mind, and last was the identity principle basically having students apply what they discovered, learned, and practiced, and now putting it to actual use.


Jonassen. D Howland, J. Marra  R. M., Grismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology. Columbus: Pearson, Merrill Prentice Hall.

BLOG ASSIGNMENT WEEK 6

Personal Digital Assistants are also known as PDAs, which are basically handheld computers. They are very useful, and come in handy when it comes to educational aspects. Most PDAs are capable of connecting to the internet. They have an electronic display, which means it has a web browser. Some of the models released today even have audio capabilites, so they can be used as mobile phones and or media players. They can benefit students because it enables the student to take digital notes, so students will be able to use spell check to carefully clean up their notes. Some PDAs even come with a thesarus and dictionaries to also benefit the student when it comes to learning. I feel the most cool part is when it comes to the electronic books, also known as E-Books, where you can upload textbooks to the PDA, giving the student easy access to textbooks.

Online surveys are used as tools to determine specific interest, needs, or wants, from a particular group of people. They can be useful in education as far as asking students what would benefit them in the classroom, what they don't like, what they do like, etc. It will give the teacher a great idea of where all of his/her students are coming from, and what she needs to do to try in adapt to the students particular needs and wants to better educate the students. With this info they can try and manipulate the lesson plans to the students interest to make it more appealing to the students. A lot of times students are bored with the ordinary teaching style. So with that survey letting them express what they want, it will give them for iniative to learn. Two rules I would personally use when it comes to ma,ing surveys for surveys for students is, number one make sure your questions are clear and not confusing to the student. This is important for clarification of what the students answer is, if the student isnt sure of what you are asking then the survey wont be productive. My second rule would be to keep it short, so the student doesnt get frustrated with a billion meaningless questions. Less questions with more substance.

In conclusion, its amazing what technology is bringing to the world of education. PDAs are a big advancement in my opinion, being able to upload whole textbooks to a small handheld device is incredible, students wont even need book bags any more, it ckind of makes me wish I was born in the mid 90s, because theres no telling what is to come next for these students, these technology advances will in my opinon make the students more eager to learn. The online surveys will enlighten the teacher how how to reach her/his class so the technology is definetly playing a key part in education these days, and I truly believe that it will be mandatory one day to have PDAs as a student, it just makes life as a student much more easier.

REFERENCES; Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Mara, R. M., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning with Technology. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education. Print.

Week 2 Assignment

What do you think about using blogs? I feel that using blogs are very convenient for sharing info with others. It is a quick and speedy way to inform people on specific ideas and events.

What and how do you think blogs would be useful for education? it is useful for education becuase students and teachers and quickly communicate and relay info from one another.

Some people think using blogs in classrooms is a waste of students’ time. How would you respond? Its not a waste of time if you are able to monitor the students actions and make sure that they are staying on task and using the blog in the way that you want them to.

What are some ways that you could use he technology ideas in Chapter 6 to support your curriculum and student learners? You can post assignments online and have students post their responses on the blogs and you can quickly grade and get their work.

Intro

Hello! My name Andrew Schwapp and I am an all-level Kinesiology Major. I am a transfer student from Santa Monica College, in California, I came here on a scholarship to play football. I played here for 2 yrs, and now I am focusing on getting my degree.