Week 5 Technology

Two websites that would be helpful in a future classroom would be Google Docs and Virtual Field trips. Google Docs would allow students to collaborate on projects as well as allow students to get more immediate feedback from me due to the quick sharing time of the program. This would also reduce the amount of paper that students have to deal with in a given day. The Virtual Field trips would work to allow me to show students places important to the class without having to worry about travel, permission slips and possibly loosing a student. This would also allow students to experience places that a high school class could never go to. This includes the Holocaust Museum and a tour of an Ancient Roman Villa (The Teachers Guide). These trips would be exceedingly hard for a a high school class to view in person. Instead of having to go only on visuals from a text book or randomized pictures on a website, virtual field trips would allow for a comprehensive "trip".

The Teacher Guide. (n.d.). Virtual Field Trips. The Teacher's Guide Virtual Field Trips . 6/292011. http://www.theteachersguide.com/virtualtours.html#Museums.

Week 5 T2P

Mind vs Brain

    Spending today working on the neural portion of educational psychology was interesting and informative but honestly a little more than I really needed. I was never big into psychology in my undergraduate work, and while this class was important to me in the context of the program and teaching, psychology would never top my list of educational interests. I have a hard time dealing with my own mind so thinking about other peoples minds is simply overload for me. 

    Learning theories are most certainly important to any pedological practice for any teacher and are an important of pre-service teacher training. These theories play an important part in a teacher developing their individual theory on the role of the teacher, student, content and context. While some people find themselves drawn to one theory and use that exclusively, I have found it impossible to pick one theory I come across will, I believe, culminate in the best learning theory for my individual strengths and weaknesses. 

A Good Teacher

"A Good Teacher..."

is hard to find and even harder to define. Good can be defined in many ways...

adjective

1. morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious: a good man.

2.satisfactory in quality, quantity, or degree: a good teacher; good health.

3. of high quality; excellent.

noun

42. profit or advantage; worth; benefit: What good will that do?We shall work for the common good.

43. excellence or merit; kindness: to do good.

44. moral righteousness; virtue

Synonyms

1.  pure, moral, conscientious, meritorious, worthy, exemplary, upright. 2.  commendable, admirable. 5.  obedient, heedful. 6.  kindly, benevolent, humane, gracious, obliging. 23.  full, adequate. 24.  profitable, useful, serviceable, beneficial. 25.  efficient, proficient, capable, able, ready, suited, suitable, dexterous, expert, adroit, apt.

(Dictionary.com)

This list of definitions even uses teacher as an example for a definition, an unsatisfactory one of “satisfactory in quality, quantity, or degree”. This definition of good is not appropriate for teachers because a satisfactory teacher makes no lasting impression on their students or their school. A good teacher knows their students, excels in their knowledge of their content area, masters of their profession and is a moral and ethical compass for their students. A good teacher should be: moral, worthy, exemplary, upright, admirable kindly, full, beneficial, efficient, capable, able, ready and expert.

If a teacher or pre-service teacher wants to be the most effective educator possible then they need to be familiar with the multitude of educational and learning theories because it helps them to understand the individual needs and strengths of their students and work towards enhancing those strengths through different applications of various learning theories. Effective teachers come in many packages, and each possesses a common ideal, that they should do anything possible to reach and effectively teach their students. 

For a good teacher it is vital to strive with their full potential to encourage, support and guide their students to realize their individual potential to become effective, successful, lifelong learners. Effective teachers realize that intrinsic motivation through autonomy, mastery and purpose is the key to fostering students that can become distinct, intellectually advanced, moral agents within their unique social and cultural position. 

EDCI 5825 Blog post 6/22

Please provide specific examples of technology/tools that you would recommend for a student with... (1) a hearing impairment, (2) low-vision, (3) a broken right arm, and (4) autism (non-communicative).

1. A student with a hearing impairment would benefit from a course Wiki as well as other visual technologies like Diigo. The use of a course Wiki would allow the student to communicate visually with classmates as well as access class resources including notes, readings and other material. The use of Diigo or other social bookmarking site would allow the student to find and use information other students or the teacher may have found without having to struggle to hear or read lips.

2. A student with low or diminished vision could benefit from an E-reader to allow for text to be read to the student. This application is found on most E-readers, as well as the ability to increase the size of the text displayed on the screen (Wikibooks, 2011c). This technology eliminates the issues vision-impaired students have with getting assigned texts in audio-book versions. This technology is also valuable for students with learning disabilities that impair their ability to read, including dyslexia etc. While these E-readers allow students to “read” assigned texts, they have an unfortunate issue with accessibility, in that the current E-readers do not have the ability to articulate the menus of the readers (Wikibooks, 2011c), requiring vision impaired students to rely on someone else to navigate the reader before they can listen to the book. These readers accommodate headphones so their use would not be disruptive to class. (Wikibooks, 2011c)

    These same individuals could also benefit from the DAISY technology that allows an individual to turn any text, including word documents, into an audio file (Wikibooks, 2009). This would be extremely important for vision-impaired students to access notes and presentation that other students would have easy access to. This technology would allow a teacher to convert class notes, tests, or other materials into a resource a visually impaired student could use with ease.

3. For any student with a disability, temporary or permanent that would affect their ability to write, speech recognition software would be the most effective tool. This technology allows a computer to take spoken words and transcribe them as text on a computer (Wikibooks, 2011a). This can be relatively inexpensive software to allow a student to continue their studies with minimal need for assistance. There are different software’s available to work with different operating systems, allowing the teacher to provide assistance to students.

4. Technology that would help a non-commutative autistic student could include speech recognition software as well as a variety of Alternative and Augmentative Communication systems, ranging from a laminated sheet with Velcro to hold pictures in place to an electronic device with an Alternative and Augmentative Communication program installed (Wikibooks 2011b). This technology allows the student to communicate through images instead of spoken or written words. This is often successful with autistic people and has become readily available in many handheld electronic devices.

Wikibooks. (2009). Assistive Technology in Education/DAISY. Retrieved from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Assistive_Technology_in_Education/DAISY.

Wikibooks. (2011a). Assistive Technology in Education/Speech Recognition Software. Retrieved from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Assistive_Technology_in_Education/Speech_Recognition_Software.

Wikibooks. (2011b). Assistive Technology in Education/Autistic. Retrieved from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Assistive_Technology_in_Education/Autistic.

Wikibooks. (2011c), Assistive Technology in Education/eBook. Retrieved from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Assistive_Technology_in_Education/eBook

Week 4 T2P

Week 4 T2P 1: Revisited T2P  
     If students are presented with a complicated, trying task then it is important to provide an opportunity for collaboration and discussion in small groups because often it is other views and other ideas that may be foreign to individuals that provides the most interesting answers. With a plan of the day calling for various groupings of students, this approach allows people to practice transmitting information as well as mixing the views of different content areas together. Its always a shock to hear how people, without the same skills and background in History that I have, explain theories to me from their own views with connections that I would not have made. That kind of collaboration is always different, but in-keeping with an Gardner's theory of teaching, working with different learning styles. This type of planning also incorporates an central idea of Vygotsky's about the importance of dialogue in learning. Allowing students the opportunity to collaborate gives them the ability to dialogue with other individuals with differing ideas and experiences, as well as building confidence in their own abilities in a small group, rather than the intimidating collection of the whole class.


If, Then, Because, Evidence, Context, Moral/Ethical, Instructional event




Week 4 T2P 2: Case Study
If a teacher desires for their students to posses the Big Three criteria from the Self-Determination Theory, Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness, then the teacher must be willing and able to foster these ideals as allow the students to pursue them on their own. Fostering these three ideals of the SDT allows students to have more control and involvement in their learning than standard practices in Education. Its impossible to "teach" autonomy, if you could then the word would have a different meaning entirely. Vicki Davis's pedagogical practices that help to foster and improve the Big Three in her classroom include allowing students the opportunity to experiment with learning styles and find the best style(s) for them (Autonomy) and having students instruct their peers on different topics of the class (Competence). By fostering and pushing students to gain the three concepts at the basis of the SDT, teachers can increase their students intrinsic motivation and help develop content mastery more throughly.

If, Then, Because, Evidence, Context, Moral/Ethical, Instructional event


T2P 3

If a teacher or pre-service teacher wants to be the most effective educator possible then they need to be familiar with the multitude of educational and learning theories because it helps them to understand the individual needs and strengths of their students and working towards enhancing those strengths through different applications of various learning theories. Effective teachers come in many packages, and each possesses a common ideal, that they should do anything possible to reach and effectively teach their students. 

Excel: Theorists

Voki test

EDCI 5825 Blog post 6/16

What are some ways that you can create authentic collaborative projects in your current/future classroom?

History is a subject that lends itself easily to the use of technology in the classroom, from powerpoint presentations and visual aids to projects connecting different classrooms, schools and even countries. To create authentic, collaborative projects in a future classroom, it would be important to assess the abilities of my students and even their general interests. There are many people who have great ideas for projects or lessons with technology and find themselves at a loss when their ideas don't work. It may be that they have a great idea, but implement it with students that are not familiar with the technology or simply do not have the mastery necessary to utilize it.

A collaborative project that is easily used in history or social studies would be groups of students working together to create a webpage for a historical person, place or event. This project would encourage collaboration and organization among students. A wiki page would be an easy framework for this type of project, as mentioned in Schrum and Levin (2009, p. 50).

Another project that could be engaging and informative could involve students corresponding with other classes, in neighboring schools or even further away about similar work they are doing or working on a collaborative project. This could even be useful in classes about geography and culture by allowing students the opportunity to correspond with students and others from foreign lands, learning from them directly.

Creating authentic collaborative projects is more of adapting others work to your own classes and students, because as much time as we think on it, someone will probably have already done what we come up with. Its really about making the project better, implementing it best for your students and making it enjoyable.

Levin, B. B. & Schrum, L. (2009) Leading 21st Century Schools: Harnessing technology for engagment and acheivement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

EDCI 5065 in-class assignment

aka, stump your classmates

1. Explain in your own words what egocentrism is, what stage(s) in Piaget’s theory it can be found and why.

A. Comprehension

B. Egocentrism in Piaget’s theory is contained in the Sensorimotor and Preoperational stages. They do not have the mental ability to understand that other people may have different opinions and beliefs from themselves. These stages contain egocentrism because the child has not yet conceptualized that others have differing views.

2. Explain the difference between development learning theory and social learning theory.

A. Comprehension

B. The development learning theory states that learning involves changes in cognitive process and abilities. In Piaget's view, early cognitive development involves processes based upon actions and later progresses into changes in mental operations.

The social learning theory states that learning occurs through interaction between individuals, often on with more knowledge in a particular area. This theory requires large amounts of contact with these “experts” for intellectual as well as cultural learning

3. Invent a new “teaching machine” that differs from skinner’s model + the internet; what does it entail.

A. Synthesis

B.  A new teaching machine that could be used in contemporary classrooms that differs from Skinner’s model and the internet entails an intranet in the classroom where the teacher is connected to computers directly, and can submit questions onto the screens of the students. The students then submit answers and get feedback from the teacher instantaneously. More instant feedback could be achieved with images or symbols (smilies etc) that express the teachers general feeling on the assessment.  

EDCI 5065 T2P Week 3

Adventures with a Swede, a Russian and an American 
T2P

Observations on the Human Guinea Pigs in Group 1

Taking risks with lessons and units is an essential part of learning how to become a "successful" teacher (someone who enjoys the success of students as an affirmation for their work). The days class in Week 3 was certainly new to all of us a pre-service teachers as well as an experiment by GNA Garcia. While it was slightly hectic, it did show all of us that chaos and plans breaking down can create something new and important. While the real guinea pig of the lesson were in class Monday, the refined experiment today helped to show all of us the importance of change and the risks and rewards. As witnessed by the class in another class, Jigsaw groups are good tools for teachers to use and can create interesting results.

With the plan of the day calling for various groupings of students, it allowed people to practice transmitting information as well as mixing different content areas together. Its always a shock to hear how people without the same skills and background in History that I have explain theories to me. That kind of collaboration is always different, but in-keeping with an important theory of teaching, working with different learning styles (Gardner etc).

Big if....


Following todays class I was concerned with my ability to come up with a cause-effect statement that would be comprehendible to me, much less others, but when in doubt, shoot from the hip.

If students are presented with a complicated, trying task then it is important to provide an opportunity for collaboration and discussion because often it is other views and other ideas that may be foreign to individuals that provides the most interesting answers.

Teaching new lessons and trying new approaches is similar to trying to pose 10 puppies for a picture, you end up with not exactly what you wanted, but it can turn out alright.

EDCI5825 Blog 1

All of the four instructional models use the Internet as a major tool in the learning of the students. Internet workshops and Internet inquiries involve students independently accessing information and working, then after gathering the information sharing it with peers and the instructor. These methods allow students the practice to access information independently, while still allowing the instructor to guide the student. Using bookmarks is important because as Leu (2002) says it “limits random surfing and exploration of sites unrelated to your unit, an important child safety issue, especially in the younger grade levels.”

The Internet project model is more under the control of the instructor, as is the WebQuest. These models allow the instructor to guide the learning more hands on. These models can allow the students practice working in groups, both large and small. For some of the projects mentioned by Leu in his videos, it would be possible to break the class into small groups, while other projects would require or be easier with the whole class working in unison.

All of the models have uses, but the WedQuest is something that would be useful for factual learning or assessments, but not for understanding. This could be used in lower grades to teach broad facts or ideas, but it is hard to see this model providing students with deep understanding.

The Internet project is something engaging and different for students, but I can’t see it being something useful for teaching major concepts or even really being useful in higher levels of education.

An Internet workshop would be a good tool to use with younger students while an Internet inquiry would be useful for older students, due to the need for more research on the part of the student. An Internet inquiry also allows for more freedom of choice, an important part of engaging older students.

Leu, D.J., Jr. (2002, February). Internet Workshop: Making time for literacy [Exploring Literacy on the Internet department]. The Reading Teacher, 55(5). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/electronic/RT/2-02_column/

EDCI5065 T2P Week 2

    While dissecting the various sources and cases to uncover the how the author or "source" thinks that people learn and how the develop competency, it is inevitable that a preservice teacher would find ideas that they agree with, or ideas and practices that they despise. To come up with an individual idea of how people learn and how they develop competency in the subject area, a preservice teacher must reflect on how they learn, as well as how others learn, and what would provide them with assurance that their learners had become competent in the area. This combination of methodology and assessment allows a teacher to ensure that students are learning factual information, as well as formulating their own ideas and theories, which is important in a "good teacher".
    If an educator has positive, "correct" ideas on how people learn, that apply to the general population of learners, then it is possible to educate learners and have them develop competency in the specific area, as well as skills that can cross disciplines.


If a teacher employs a wide variety of learning activities throughout the daily lesson, then students will become engaged and involved in the lesson because by varying the activities, the teacher can access different methods of learning and be more effective in imparting information to the students.

EDCI5065 T2P Week 1

    To pack a day of instruction with many theories and methods of learning, especially the first day, is important for a teacher as well as the learners. By using various methods, non-standard assessments and other tools, a teacher can get a feel for their learners and find out where they are with the content and hopefully comprehend which theories and ideas work generally for the learners.
    It is important to try the various methods of learning early in class to prevent learners who might not respond to the dominant method employed by the teacher from falling through the cracks. Recognizing learners with different needs or strengths is important to ensuring each individual gets the most possible out of the course.

EDCI5065 Classwork Week 2

Beliefs about how people learn:

Use students to teach the class, individual exploration of topic, “fishing”. Guides the conversation, but allows the students to discover the answers. Structures class to allow for controlled conversation, with freedom for students to develop ideas on their own.

Develop Competency:

Students should have an understanding of the content area in large terms, and be able to explain the major issues at the heart of the subject. Dialog and reflection are also important in developing competency. By having the students understand the basic ideas of the content area, they will have a deeper understanding of further study, and how the issue that science is messy and subjective will effect further lessons.

Hypothesis 

If students have mutual trust and respect with the teacher and structure in the classroom then they will be able to develop competency in the subject area because they will individually explore the content and have a passion and desire to learn more about the subject.

EDCI5065 Homework Week 2

http://reegnum.co.cc/civil-war-timeline-1468.html
How people learn
This resource would be useful in teaching about the Civil War due to the layout and style of the resource. This would be more effective to visual learners to show a timeline of major battles of the war.
How "good teachers" teach
I think that this resource shows how “good teachers” cater to different styles of learning in their students. This resource allows students to see names and dates, as well as a visual representation.
How students develop competency in your content area.
Students develop competency in History/Social Studies by developing an understanding of the broad over views of history. If I were to use this in a class, I would also add the location of the battles to show the importance location can have history.

http://ofcn.org/cyber.serv/academy/ace/soc/cecsst/cecsst002.html
How people learn
This resource, a lesson plan about the experience of Americans before and after the Civil War is a good way to allow students to physically express the issues that occurred in antebellum and post war periods. This type of resource includes students in the lesson and engage in class.
How "good teachers" teach
This resource shows how “good teachers” engage their students, and use various types of lesson plans to encourage students to think critically and explore their own ideas.
How students develop competency in your content area.
This resource would help students understand that history isn’t just facts, dates and names, but the story of people and their lives. This exercise helps students think about history in a more personal way.

http://www.convergemag.com/edtech/Is-Education-Ready-For-YouTube.html
How people learn
This resource shows that new technology that people associate with pranks, stunts and self promotion can be used for education. Youtube can be used to give add ons to lessons, or allow students to review presentations from previous days.
How "good teachers" teach
Using a resource like Youtube shows how “good teachers” can adapt to new technology and use it to enhance their students learning.
How students develop competency in your content area.
The use of a resource like Youtube can help students gain different perspectives in the content area. Youtube can allow students to access information that would be difficult for a teacher to produce.

Introduction video