Take away message (in-class post)

Class today was very enjoyable. I really enjoyed the conversation about the credibility and usefulness of Wikipedia in the classroom. While I personally believe Wikipedia to be a (mostly) reputable source, I understand that others do not. Something Robert said sticks with me: If you don't trust Wikipedia, you are basically saying that you don't trust people. This is such a great point. Every person, website and publication has a bias; Wikipedia is not unique in this matter.

Looking into websites to distinguish credibility, I explored this one on the Illuminati to find a bad website: http://www.boogles.com/local/Illuminati/

It is obviously created by a person with a particular bias. The information is not cited and therefore cannot be trusted. Is this person a scholar? A nut job? A conspiracy theorist? We cannot tell.

Teaching Internet Literacy (chapt. 5)

Chapter 5 explores the Internet as a tool for researching and evaluating information. As an educator, it is important to see the power of the web in assisting us in our lesson construction and presentation as well as in helping our students navigate through the overwhelmingly large body of information available with only the click of a button. Search engines, something our generation has become familiar with, are an imperative resource in navigating through the web. Sites like Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and Ask, are among the most popular and widely used search engines available worldwide. From reading this chapter, I learned that Google's success in becoming the "dominant search engine in the world" came about because of more than its ability to produce relevant websites. By organizing search results by more than simply matches of keywords, and instead ranking websites' relevance by how often it is cross-referenced across the web, Google was able to create a database that acts more like a community member, familiar with reputations and applicability, than a disconnected technological tool. When I search the web, I flip flop between a few search engines: Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. While I used Yahoo! as my homepage, I often find myself pulling up Google for web searches. This makes me wonder, What is your preferred search engine? Do you use more than one? Why do you prefer one over another?

The text then discusses the importance of teaching students how to conduct effective Internet searches. Because the Internet is a massive body of information, it is likely that amongst the relevant search results, many irrelevant or inappropriate website will be yielded as well. The text notes that the Internet cannot tell who is preforming the search, and so it will produce a multitude of sites applicable for many different audiences. It then becomes our job, as teachers, to comb through these results and pick out the ones that work for our students. This can be a burdensome task, one that many teachers may not be able, or willing, to partake in. The text alludes to "smarter" search engines that are being developed to customize searches and summarize & organize that websites content materials. Is anyone familiar with any of these systems? If so, which ones? How do they work?

Lastly, I was interested in the ways plagiarism is expanding as a result of the ease in accessibility of the Internet. Students may plagiarize in a number of different ways, either explicitly searching out and handing in the work of someone else, including well-stated words or phrases they've found on the web, or simply forgetting to cite. Either way, it's still plagiarism, all the same. Sites like Turnitin.com help teachers and students alike to check their work and identify copied text. The book identifies ways to prevent plagiarism, but I am curious how you would work to combat plagiarism in your own classroom. How would you handle the work of a student who has plagiarized? What ideas do you have in preventing plagiarism? Are there any resources you are aware of that can help in this battle?

Finally, I want to include a picture of a Google search reflecting the importance of grammar. You may have seen this image before, but as a pre-service English teacher, I find it hilarious - hope you do too!

Video Project Idea

For the upcoming video project, I am thinking of focusing my topic on the Shakespeare play Romeo & Juliet. I think this is a relevant topic for a 9th or 10th grade English class, and I feel as though I could create an encapsulating video that would draw students in and get them excited for the upcoming reading. In the meantime, check out the official trailer for the 1996 movie Romeo and Juliet starring Leonardo DiCaprio:

Assesments & Learning Theories (in-class post)

This week I am walking away with a greater understanding of assessments and how they can be used effectively in our classrooms. As an educator, I feel powerful in my ability to create assessments that truly reflective the learning of my students. It seems that when creating assessments, there are far more things that can be manipulated than things that are rigidly in place. I have the power to decide how and in what form assessment will take place. However, it has been made clear that the format of the assessment is far less important than what is chosen to be assessed. Does it matter more if the assessment is paper-based or computer-based than if the assessment measures authentic learning objectives? Of course not! We must keep this in mind as we create assessments in our classrooms, for our students.

Developing Lessons with Technology (chapt. 3)

This chapter was quite interesting. It made me consider, in more depth, what we had discussed during our last class session. As a 21st century educator, I am faced with the challenge of creating lessons that consider not only academic content, but also pedagogical considerations (how I will deliver this content knowledge), as well as in what ways I will add technology into my lessons. This CK-PK-TK model is discussed further, in a slightly different context in chapter 3. The authors see lesson development as a 3 part construct: academic content (what to teach), teaching goals, methods and procedure (how to teach), and learning assessments (how to know what students have learned). This model, included on page 62 of the text, is illustrated below:

Figure 3.1: Elements of Lesson Development

The text suggests that technology can be used within each facet of lesson development. Additional content knowledge can be gained from internet searches, electronic databases, blogs, and wikis. In my own classroom, I would definitely want to utilize the web in this aspect of learning. Whether for my own knowledge in the content area-searching the web to help me in researching information as I prepare my lesson plans, or while directing students to build their knowledge on a topic for a research paper or other assignment, the web is a tool with a vast knowledge base. It would be silly not to utilize it here whenever appropriate.

While figuring out how to teach this content material, technology can act as an important tool as well. The text cites its usage in presentation software, web based diagram- and flowchart-making software, teacher developed websites, WebQuests, and movie-making software, to name a few. Certain sites and materials that I am familiar with come to mind here. The first is Prezi. This site allows teachers and students alike to create presentations in a new and original way. Information is not deliver linearly, but rather encapsulated in the context of an image. Check one out here and see what you think: http://prezi.com/ftfsnhhbvyfr/a-year-at-mission-hill-reimagining-public-education/. Another tool that came to mind is the KhanAcademy website. Here, videos are provided to aid students in their comprehension of content knowledge. This teacher developed website is useful for learning or reinforcing knowledge. Check one out here: http://www.khanacademy.org/math/algebra/systems-of-eq-and-ineq/systems-with-substitution/v/solving-systems-by-substitution-1. Lastly, WebQuests and Curriculum Webs can be used by educators to teach a topic to students through the use of a self-created comprehensive and interactive website. A single lesson or an entire unit can be delivered to students through this medium. In another technology class I took in a prior semester we created one; check mine out here: http://samanthaaccurso.weebly.com.

Additionally, technology can be used in creating and delivering learning assessment in an attempt to uncover what students have learned as a result of the lesson. These assessments can be delivered in three ways: summatively, formatively, or diagnostically. In order to create truly effective lessons, all three forms of assessment should be used to assess student knowledge. These assessment can be done by administering electronic tests or quizzes, by having students create digital portfolios, through online survey software, and by creating online evaluation rubrics. If you explore my Weebly in depth, you will see all three of these assessment techniques.

This leaves me with three questions for consideration:

(1) In what ways is technology advancing student learning? Is technology hindering student learning in any way?

(2) While our classrooms grow more technological and our lesson developments engage technology more comprehensively in every aspect of their development, why are our standardized tests not following suit? Is it fair to students to assess them in ways completely different that the ways the state and federal government are evaluating their grasping of knowledge and performance? Do you foresee this dichotomy ever shifting to becoming more aligned?

(3) What will be your preferred method of assessment for students in your own classroom? Through test assessments or performance assessments? Through norm-referrenced tests, criterion-referrenced tests, or through standards-bassed assessments? Electronic-based or traditionally? Why? How is this beneficial for your students?

Take away message (in-class post)

Instructional Design:

1. who are you you designing for?
2. what are you designing?
3. what is the final product?

As a teacher envisioning myself in the role of a designer, I am designing my curriculum and the way I deliver these learning objectives and learning activities predominantly for my students. However, I must also keep in mind other key "customers;" the administration, my colleagues, parents of the students, and for myself (in terms of future students)

I am designing thinking patterns, problem solving techniques, memory building skills, comprehension skills.

The final product is a collective community working collaboratively towards common learning goals.

 
Take Away Message:

The overall message I am walking away with today is that in the classroom, technology is not to be used for the sake of using technology. Rather, it must be used with purpose. When we are able to find a way to align our pedagogy, our content knowledge, and our technology instruction, we are discovering a way to truly benefit our students.

Considerations of living in a technological world (chapters 1&2)

This weeks readings were enlightening. The text explored technology from a variety of vantage points: assessing attitudes surrounding technology, possibilities of a technological world, and looking at ways technology can enhance learning. This reading, however, has left me with a few contemplations.

Page 4 states, “Students with disabilities, students from single-parent households, and students living in urban centers use computers and the Internet less than students without disabilities, students from two-parent households, and students living outside urban areas.” This statement seems a bit open-ended, and leaves me with a few questions. In what context is this lack of Internet usage measured? Is it referring to students having less access to computers and the Internet, for issues like socioeconomic status? Is it referring to the amount of time available to dedicate to computer time? Is it referring to disinterest? Is it referring to inability to use the technology, a so-called learning curve? Perhaps all of this, collectively, is at work, but I do not give this claim much credibility.

I work in a school with physically handicapped students, and although some of their disabilities inhibit full capability of computer use—such as ease in clicking and dragging, quickness in typing, or speed with multiple mouse clicks—their capacity for understanding computer software and incorporating these technologies into every aspect of their lives is not lacking. If anything, my students are more interested in computers than your average student, because they are unable to easily participate in other teenage activities. My students can’t go out and have a catch, or pick up friends and drive to the movies, or even roam the streets on weekends, but they can access the vast world of the Internet. Furthermore, I have some students who are nonverbal, and are unable to communicate their thoughts, wants, and interests with their words. Technology has been a blessing to them, allowing them to type what they wish to communicate and use apps that can speak aloud for them. These students may stand out dramatically from their non-handicapped peers in a classroom setting, but at home in a chat room or surfing the web, they are your average teen.

Reading these chapters has me contemplating whether or not Internet usage makes students more connected to others, as they can connect to people all over the world with just the click of a mouse, or more isolated as they sit alone in silence navigating through web pages. Is the Internet bringing us together or ripping us apart? As students incorporate technology more completely into their lives, their frequency of multitasking has multiplied exponentially. Kids today are having conversations with friends while simultaneously updating their Facebook statuses, while also listening to music on their iPod, while also carrying on multiple texting conversations. Social media allows us to share everything we do and think with a single click to our thousands of Internet friends. However, these actions usually take place in a solitary setting: upstairs in a bedroom with the door closed, commuting to work on the subway, in a Starbucks with a latte in hand. We are placing emphasis on utilizing all the Internet-world has to offer while neglecting much of what our reality presents right in front of us.

I find myself at an interesting crossroad, caught in the middle of two worlds. I am not quite a Digital Native, born into a world of technology, knowing nothing but a wired world, but I am submersed into technology frequently and fully enough to be comfortable with its ever-evolving devices, software, and apps. Sometimes technology is so easy for me to use, feeling almost instinctual, but other times I find myself scared to attempt to set-up and use this month’s hottest new techy item. At times I think, I don’t need any more technology; I already have more than I know what to do with. This leaves me conflicted as I begin my teaching career and consider how I will utilize technology within my classroom. Will I be able to keep up with technology and allow myself to successfully integrate it into my classroom practices? As an aspiring English teacher, I can’t quite jump on board the digital bandwagon and leave books, in-person discussions, and hands-on-experience behind. Maybe it’s because it’s how I grew up, how I learned; in fact, it’s really all I know. I understand that there are great benefits to entering the e-world, but yet I still have trepidations. This fear of what’s unfamiliar causes me hesitation, something I hope to confront and move past as a result of the handle I hope to gain on educational technologies as a result of this class.