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Dynamic Learning Communities

2009-11-18T15:58:00.000-08:00

When I first started reading about Dynamic Learning Communities (DLC) I immediately started thinking about the Socratic seminar teaching method that was taught during one of our classes. When DLC was described as the community being in charge and all the members discuss all ideas. I found this to be an extremely interesting idea because I really enjoyed the demonstration of the Socratic seminar teaching method. I love the idea because everyone’s input is important because it could change the way the entire group looks at the given topic.

As the article discussed, it is always tough to implement new things into an established classroom especially when the article wants the classroom to be more open which is against the conventional classroom setting. I think DLC can be best implemented as part of the varying teaching methods used within the classroom. I would like to see a real world example of DLC because it is tough for me to picture the implementation in different subject areas. I think this style is defiantly geared for the high school level which is why I am having a hard time picturing my fifth and sixth grade students participating in this learning style.

Media and Attention, Cognition, and School Achievement.

2009-11-09T17:51:00.001-08:00

I found that a lot of the information presented in this article was “common” knowledge. I think most people assume that watching TV could be beneficial for students learning languages. I also think people know that if you students watch too much TV it could have a negative effect on their school work. Do I really need to be told that some students learn better from watching a demonstration instead of reading? Now the article did provide some numbers to back up these obvious statements, but for the most part I was not overly impressed with most of this article. I also thought it was interesting that the paper used Atari research, ATARI?!? Atari is from the 80’s and I know all data is data but really can we get some more current data since a lot has changed since Atari was popular.
I agree with the authors when they say there are some benefits to video games. I think the problem solving aspects of video games are often overlooked.
I don’t know how I really feel about the section talking about television watching and ADHD. My first thought is how can you test if ADHD is caused by more television watching? I then read the section and realized they just wanted to compare media watching with kids who have been diagnosed with ADHD. It makes complete sense to me that ADHD students will watch more TV because it can capture their attention.
I really enjoyed the number about the internet at school and home. How in 9 years schools with internet access went from 35% to 100%. I found the stat about parents using internet filtering surprising. The article said that 50% of parents use some type of internet filter, I thought the number would be lower.

Laptops in the classroom

2009-11-04T18:48:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed this article but I keep thinking to myself that this article was written seven years ago and when we are talking about technology in almost any fashion, seven years is a very long time. One of my biggest questions is the implementation of student laptops. If they get to take them home and bring them to school, what type of security settings do you put on there? I would think you would need an excellent IT department that knew what they were doing so that kids don’t figure out ways around security features. I also wonder about power cords and the number of outlets required to charge the student’s laptops such as in Julia’s example.
One of my favorite ideas behind the Woodvale situation is the idea of how much communication goes on between teachers, parents and students over email. I have wondered for several years why we send so much paper home with the kids when we should have email addresses for everyone and send out a mass email with the papers attached.
Being in a computer lab every day my students always have a laptop in front of them at all times. That being said it is hard to compare my class to a regular education classroom that would always have computers in front of them. One of the first drawbacks of computers always being in front of the students is the students want to play with the mouse and on the desktop. Unless you have them close the screen down it is very hard to keep their attention. I also teach my keyboarding classes in a different computer lab that have desktop computers with full size keyboards which are hooked up to 17 inch lcd monitors. In this other lab you cannot have the student close down a screen and the students can almost hide behind the monitors because in 5th grade the students just are not that tall. They constantly play with the mouse and with the icons on the desktop just because it is in front of them. Based on my scenario I would prefer the laptops over the desktop computers.

Learning Anytime, Anywhere

2009-10-28T16:33:00.000-07:00

I think Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) is a wonderful idea. ADL is access of materials, video clips, animations, audio clips and more whenever the student may need them. I really like the idea of the teaching guiding the student in their learning instead of shoving information at them telling them to memorize it. I truly feel everyone learns better by doing and ADL would defiantly allow for this type of learning.

I really enjoyed the following quote from the article: “As with most technological developments, we may begin with an analogy based on current practice but finish with something entirely new and unexpected” this is so true in so many ways. Whether we are discussing technology/computers or education, nobody knows what the future holds and all you can do is try to get educated on a given subject and make an educated hypothesis. I think the idea behind ADL is a wonderful idea but how willing will the US education system will welcome change. From my experience the education systems will accept certain changes, especially anything for special education, but will they accept something like ADL for regular education classes. The other major concern is cost, how expensive is this new idea going to cost. Paying for the digital media rights and storage in order to be accessed 24/7 sounds like it might have a hefty price tag. I know that my school currently is using some e-textbooks along with subscriptions to United Streaming and other online websites, which I believe is the beginning stages of ADL.

I will be very curious to see how this idea evolves over time.

Politics of Curriculum: Origins, Controversies, and Significance of Critical Perspectives

2009-10-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

I know that education and schools are very political. I don’t think they have always been that way and as a teacher I was we could go back to the old days of education. Teachers have to avoid touchy subjects so that the administration doesn’t receive any complaints about what was taught at school. This makes me wonder why the government doesn’t regulate even more when it comes to what we teach at schools (NCLB was a bad attempt but I guess a start). I find it very sad that we as educated teachers can’t teach whatever we want, because we teach to a test. We have to teach to a test to make sure our school gets funding. If we don’t get funding then special programs and classes will likely get cut and then teachers will lose their job. I could be wrong but I don’t think teachers taught to a test 40 years ago and the vast majority of students turned out just fine. I am not saying that standards and tests are a bad thing but I think there is way too much emphasis placed on them. I love the idea of developing the curriculum involving the students. I know the ideas presented in this articles are just ideas or principles but the concept behind them is very strong and I would like to see them implemented in a real life classroom and see what happens.

AT and UDL

2009-10-14T16:43:00.000-07:00

This article discussed the assistive technology and the universal design for learners. My only experience with Assistive Technology has come with my present job at Hadley Middle School. I have seen many of our special needs students, especially if they are placed within the intensive needs classroom. These students have small computers that they can use for talking, or for better understanding of class work. I feel our school does an excellent job of addressing our special needs students.

As far as the concept of universal design for learners (UDL), this is a new concept for me. I have learned about the Americans with Disability Act in school before but never about this UDL. The whole idea behind UDL is a very simple but important idea. UDL is basically reducing barriers and increasing opportunities for the widest range of users. I believe that my building is very friendly and accessible to all students. My building is one story tall, with wide hallways. I have seen our administration and special education department work together in multiple cases to make sure all students are getting the best possible education.

Most schools are faced with budgets constraints and cuts however I believe special education is the one area where funding is fairly abundant and that is very important. Even though technology has become very visible and abundant in schools the devices that special education students use are still very expensive. That makes funding even more important because any benefits assistive technology can provide needs to be taken advantage of for the students benefits.

Designing Educatice Curriculum Materials to Promote Teacher Learning

2009-10-07T17:44:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed reading this article due to its appreciation for the teacher. The authors seem to understand that teaching is not easy and the materials provided to teachers probably does not help the teacher teach the subject.

Since I am not a classroom teacher who deals with classroom materials such as books, I felt I was a little disconnected from some of the information within this article. However, when I student taught high school health and used textbooks I saw what the authors were talking about when they stated one of the key phrases within this article states the curriculum “guides” and “might support teacher learning”. I think most teachers instinctively teach their subject to the best of their ability and are almost always open to new ideas. However those new ideas don’t come around too often because the information usually doesn’t change from year to year so therefore neither does the practices. I was happy to see the author mention that the material would have to be different for different teachers based on experience (beginning vs. experienced).

I like the ideas about how these curriculum materials would make relating subjects throughout the year easier and how it would help “support teachers’ learning of a subject matter”. I am a bit skeptical about the whole idea but I am willing to give anything a couple chances to see if it can help. I completely agree that “professional development is more effective than any one source”. Personally I have always learned more by watching a demonstration then trying to learn from reading about how to do something.

All in all, I enjoyed this article and the ideas it presented. I would be very curious to hear the feedback of some classroom teachers since my perspective is a little skewed by not being a classroom core subject teacher that uses books.

Curriculum and Society: Rethinking the Link

2009-09-30T15:14:00.000-07:00

Curriculum and Society: Rethinking the Link Author(s): Alicia de Alba Source: International Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft / Revue Internationale de l'Education, Vol. 45, No. 5/6, Education, Equity and Transformation (Nov., 1999), pp. 479-490

First off, I don’t understand how people type papers like this one. This research is nothing but $500 words that lose me half way through a paragraph. I wish there were cliff notes for articles like this because I need this information in laymen’s terms. I read this entire article and the following is what I got out of it and how I feel about what I think I read.

The article talks about social influence and we should change the way we approach and teach given subjects. Society and the media play a big role in what schools teach I think.I have never seen the phrase “Curricular Overdetermination” but I really like it. It makes me think about schools teaching to a test. Beliefs, opinions and ideas are thrown out the window and what is proven and tested is what is taught. As teachers we have to avoid ‘touchy’ subjects or emotional subjects. We have to take the pledge of allegiance out of school, we better not talk about any ‘powers to be in the sky’ and we also should never say we get two weeks off for Christmas because it is winter break.

I think schools are dumbed down in order to get the most students through as quickly and painlessly as possibly. I think society plays too much into the decisions made in schools. I think the school systems, curriculums and practices worked just fine in my parents and grandparents generations, but the direction that schools have gone is scary. I don’t know if anyone has the answer to fix the problems but I am open for suggestions.

Curriculum Integration

2009-09-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

When I see the topic “Curriculum Integration” my first thought is multidisciplinary education. This was one of the main things I remember from my college education. I studied Computers, Health and Physical Education in college. Due to the subjects I majored in I had to be conscious of incorporating my subject with the core subjects.

I know teach four fifth keyboarding classes and eight sixth grade technology classes. I have been lucky enough in my school to develop my own curriculum for my technology classes. My goal has been to use technology to teach my students new ways to use technology to be creative and develop new skills that could help them in the future.

When I read this article I struggled with the math and physics section. I felt this was a tough connection for me to understand. Most of this section felt like a foreign language to me until they stated their examples into laymen’s terms (i.e. if an object is red vs. hot or cold). I understood the author’s writing and points of view better when they discussed History and sociology. I completed agree with some of the obvious statements made by the author such as; “Integration of knowledge…is a normal feature of the pursuit of knowledge”. I believe that integration between subjects is an absolute essential when it comes to education, the problems lie in seamlessly incorporating the subjects. I think if I were a classroom teacher that taught multiple subjects or taught a core subject I would better understand and appreciate the implementation of curriculum integration as discussed in this article.

Introduction and Technology Integration

2009-09-17T14:38:00.001-07:00

I work at Hadley Middle School in Homer Glen, IL. Hadley Middle School is a fifth and sixth grade building with about 800 students. Our district serves about 3,500 students in five different schools ranging from Kindergarten to eighth grade. I work for an outstanding district due in part to the great co-workers and administration, but also due to loving parents and a helpful community. Homer Glen is an expensive community to live in, which allows our school to have the money to spend on education. Homer Glen is situated in the Southwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. It is located between Orland Park to the east and Lockport to the west.

My job title at Hadley is Technology teacher. I have been in the district for two years. I teach four classes of keyboarding (typing) each semester along with four technology classes. The keyboarding classes are for fifth grade students only and it is my job to teach and show them how to become an effective typist. My technology classes are open to all sixth grade students who are not enrolled into our remedial reading class. The students will take my class every other day for one semester.

Within my technology class I have eight sixth grade classes each semester. My classroom has 30 IBM laptops which are all wired and wireless to the Internet and our network. I have one color laser printer in my room, along with a projector and a scanner. The software on the laptops is where I believe our school is lacking. We have all the Microsoft programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, FrontPage, Publisher, Movie Maker, Photo Story) and a couple other select programs (Google Earth, Oregon trail, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing).

I am very interesting is exploring and learning about new technology whether it relates to education or personal enjoyment. I enjoy reading e-newletters and magazines related to computers and techonlogy. The ever changing and evolving tools greatly interests me. Outside of school and technology related information I enjoy golfing and bowling.

By our class definition technology integration is seamlessly incorporating multimedia tools and other innovative tools to enhance the teaching and learning of subject matter. Within my classroom I try to incorporate and use any "innovative" tools that are avaliable; which sometimes is limted. We do have flip video recorders, elmos, tablet computers, and iTouch at our disposal however we have a very limited software suite.

Access, Adequacy, and Equity in Educational Technology

2008-06-15T11:24:00.000-07:00

After reading the article I agree that most schools are behind on technology. Whether it is the physical equipment or the software, most schools districts including mine, need some further improvement. Technology can have a huge impact on education if the teachers are educated correctly and given the right tools.

As far as I know our school district does very little educating when it comes to technology. They will send out an email that says we have purchased something and if you are curious how to use it then email us back and somebody will come teach you how to use it. We have a technology coordinator, two very good technology people and one guy who knows nothing except what is taught to him by the two good tech people. These three people service our entire school district which is five schools and about 3500 students. I think our district should do more with technology by using staff development and/or School improvement days. We as teachers have no input to what would be better for our classrooms.

My school district provides one laptop for every teacher, and provides laptops on carts for our schools. The entire district is wireless which is important because my school has eight carts of 30 laptops to divide up between 30 classrooms. There are also two computer labs, one computer lab has a scheduled class all eight periods and my lab has a scheduled class four of the eight periods. Each lab has 30 computers, however one has 30 brand new desktop computers, and my lab gets updated each year with laptops that are being taken off the carts and replaced by new laptops. The lab with 30 desktop computers has four classes of keyboarding/typing classes. And four classes of computer applications (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint). This last year I opened up my classroom for period’s one through four for the classroom teachers to come and use my room. This went over very well; teachers enjoyed not having to hand out laptops, and using my projector which is displayed on my eight foot screen. I also have a color laser printer in my room which the teachers also really enjoyed, the only other color printer in the building is in the office.

When I look at my classroom situation, I feel fortunate for the equipment my classroom has, however I am still always looking for software and or ideas to help expand my curriculum. My technology classes have no set curriculum, or guidelines. Since there is another computer teacher who teaches all sixth graders Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, I have struggled to come up with two completely different curriculums for my fifth and sixth grade classes that don’t overlap what is already taught. I am looking into doing more with audio and video projects in the future, currently we only have movie maker, and my students love using that. I am looking into possibly implementing a class blog, some type of podcasting, or other AV project.

Overall, if I had to grade my district on the job they do in relation to technology I would give them a B. I think they do a great job with internet access, repairs, and they do all they can to provide access to computers. I feel they lack in areas concerning staff development, listening to the needs of teachers and use of money in certain areas.

!? WHITEBOARDS !?

2008-05-26T08:06:00.000-07:00

How can we help motivate our students to participate and be more involved in class? One of the easiest, yet more expensive ways is to purchase an interactive whiteboard for your classroom. As classrooms become more up to date with technology, teachers need to make sure they stay on top of this technology. Our students are very comfortable using all the new toys, computers, video games, ect…. because they have grown up with them. As teachers we need to do all we can to stay ‘hip’ with the ever changing technologies.

First off let me start by saying I have never had access to a whiteboard previous to our class. During the entire time we were using the whiteboard for our game of Pictionary, I was trying to think of ways that I needed this in my classroom. I never came up with a reason that I HAD to have a whiteboard in my classroom. Now, in saying the previous statement, I thought of a couple ways that might make the whiteboard nice but not a necessity in my classroom.

In my classroom, I have a 8 foot wide screen and a projector on a cart. The cart is the first problem of a whiteboard, my school doesn’t mount any of our projectors to the ceiling, instead they place all projectors on carts. Adjusting the boundaries of the whiteboard would be a constant struggle with the projector on a cart. The second problem for my classroom would be the entire lab would have to be turned around in order for a whiteboard to work in my classroom. There is a shelf in my classroom that would make it difficult for students to reach parts of the whiteboard. A third reason that I had concerns about a whiteboard would be, if I let all my students use this whiteboard, what about my students in wheelchairs who couldn’t reach most of the board. I would not want them left out in the participation of the whiteboard. There might be products already made to help special circumstances like students in wheelchairs, I am just not aware of them.

In any lesson, using the whiteboard would get the students involved and letting them come up to the board would definitely increase their motivation. Coming up with five lesson ideas was a lot more challenging then one would think, but here are my ideas for how a interactive whiteboard would help my in my classroom.

1. When teaching my students Microsoft Publisher, using a whiteboard would be nice because I would not have to sit at the computer and demo what each of the tools in a toolbar does, I could stand in the front of the room and just click the buttons with my finger or the pointing tool.

2. Reviewing for a test. Whether reviewing using a jeopardy type game, or just having students go up to the board and explain the material we are reviewing.

3. When reviewing internet safety, when the students come up with ideas, they could write their ideas up on the whiteboard and then I could print out a review sheet based on their answers. Also, at the end of the period, we could use the notepad to review what we covered that day in the class.

4. I could use it to benefit my teaching when I am teaching keyboarding skills to my fifth graders. I would be able to have a wireless keyboard and be in the front of the room and demonstrate the Mavis Beacon program we use.

5. It would be a nice tool to use a whiteboard for my students PowerPoint presentations or when using Google Earth. During curriculum night when the parents come into my room for a summary of what I cover throughout the year it would be nice to demonstrate what their tax dollars are being spent on.

I am sure there are many other ways I would use a whiteboard, if I had one in my classroom. As long as a teacher was comfortable using a computer they would be able to use an interactive whiteboard. There would be a slight learning curve and maybe a little more work when you first start planning lessons around the whiteboard but after a little time I am sure it would pay off. I believe the biggest incentive to purchase a whiteboard is to motivate the students. As classrooms move toward the 21^st century classroom, whiteboards will definitely become more prevalent.

Million Dollar Question…

2008-05-12T17:41:00.001-07:00

How to get teachers to change with the times but still be affective, without creating more work for the teacher?

After reading the article, Designing Change, I agree with pretty much everything that was stated. I feel that it is vital to change with time and incorporate technology in order to make you a better teacher and your students more actively involved. Since I do work in a computer lab, I am totally for students being active learners instead of passive learners. But what is the best way for my fellow teachers to change with the times and technologies?

Getting fellow teachers to change their ways could be very challenging if they are not shown a way to effectively replace the lecture teaching or the “stuff and dump” teaching methods they are used to. Getting teacher to change and/or employ new ideas or teaching practices probably can’t be done without proving to that particular teacher that it will be more effective and it won’t take a lot of work. I think a lot of teachers already have a tremendous amount of planning and grading, so applying something new that will take even more time is going to be a hard sell. I believe ideally the best way to demonstrate how effective a new teaching method might be is to have two sets of students learning the same material taught in different ways. If the students took a pre-test and a post-test (written, multiple choice, or other) to compare the knowledge before hand and after the fact could be a great gauge for how effective a certain teaching style and method can be. But as the article mentions, a lot of the times teachers are forced to teach to a test’s content, so when could a study group as previously mentioned be tried? Well it would first have to be tried and shown effective in a subject area that is not going to be on a standardized test, so there is not a fear of the districts/school’s test scores being affective.

Displaying examples of the work done in the classroom could be one of the easiest ways to show fellow teachers new ideas. Since all the schools that I know of have ‘School Improvement Days’ maybe a teacher with a new idea that they learned in their Master’s program could show off their ideas and answer questions about what they just demonstrated. The drawback to that idea is getting teachers to show off what they are doing in their classroom, because maybe they don’t want to be critiqued or viewed as a brown-nose because they are presenting in front of everybody. Bottom line is, if you do something that you are proud of in your classroom, show it off, whether it is to fellow teachers, principles, or administration.

Getting to integrate more technology can be very simple if your school has good technology teachers and/or good technology facilitators. Unfortunately, not all teachers have access to good technology people, or maybe you have great technology people but the district doesn’t want to spend money on technology. This is how I somewhat feel about my district, they will spend money on certain things but I personally feel that when they when they do spend money, they don’t look into the practicality of it. For example, they buy ELMO’s for our school, but instead of buying 4 or 6, they buy one for every single projector in the building. We don’t need an ELMO for every single projector in our school, we have 20 projectors in our building. The problem in this case was our technology coordinator made this decision instead of asking teachers first. I would have told her to buy several other items for my classroom instead of an ELMO for my room.

In the end, there are plenty of factors that hinder the adoption of the 21^st Century Classroom. New technologies must be shown to be better then the previous methods. Unless teachers are fully sold on changing their ways then I don’t believe they will change. I think the person in charge of purchasing new technology should be in touch with the classroom teachers. Otherwise they might be purchasing things that will sit and collect dust. Also, the technology purchased needs to be explained how to be properly implemented, or it will just sit there and become obsolete. I totally agree that active learners will retain the information better then passive learners.