Week 4 - Social Bookmarking

https://delicious.com/annettewoj/ 
 

Social bookmarking might be my new favorite thing on the internet.  It is a great space to store all of those links you come across when searching for activities for your classroom.   I think this is a great tool to use with students, coworkers, and parents.  Every year I send out a note with important and useful websites my students and parents can use at home.  It is so much easier and more convenient to share a link to a social bookmarking website like delicious.  This tool would also be a great thing to use with students when working on research projects.  This way their time can be spent on browsing the websites related to their topic that someone has bookmarked instead of wasting time looking for new material!  There are several ways I could use this tool inside the classroom and I am very excited to share it with my coworkers.   

As far as the reading goes, I think that the old definitions make a lot of sense when you consider the way that instructional technology used to be used in the classroom. Back then, they would just show a movie and talk about it afterward. However, it has evolved so much over time; it is hard to see how someone could have ever considered the 1920s view of instructional technology as just “media”. The modern definition sees it as something that people don’t just use once, but continue to learn from over time. This is similar to the way I view instructional technology, because I see it as a tool that I can integrate into various parts of the learning process. We use technology to instruct, to evaluate, or to assess and it plays a large part in each of those steps. Teachers like me see huge benefits from including some forms of instructional technology in the classroom. Modern uses of technology let us see the interaction that students have with the material, and that allows us to evaluate their comprehension of the material in ways that written assessments do not.

Week 3 - Reflection

Unfortunately, for me I think that a wiki doesn’t have a use in a second grade classroom like mine. It requires a little more technical skill and knowledge than my students may have. They know how to use a computer, but there are rules and constraint necessary for effective classroom use of a wiki, and I don’t think my students would be able to do it. I like the idea of a wiki, but it seemed like it would be a difficult thing to get going. It may take a lot of work to get all of the content into the pages that you need.

I could think of a few different ways to use a wiki in the classroom. The first idea I had was a classroom powered collection of notes for the class. Everyone could contribute a little bit of their notes so that the class is able to come up with a sort of “master” set of notes that everyone could refer to and find the information that they need. The downside of this is that some members may do more work than others, and it may cause some students to not pull their own weight.

The next idea I had was very similar to the note idea, but would instead be a study guide that the classroom puts together. I could provide them with the study questions, and they could work together to answer all of the questions thoroughly. Often, you will find that some students are strong with some areas of the content and weak in others, and this would give them the ability to build on each other’s knowledge.

The last idea I had would only work for an upper-elementary class, possibly in the 4-6^th grade range. I would start a story for the class, and everyone can add a few lines. They add their own creativity and personality to the story. Sometimes, if the student is under pressure in class, they may hit a writer’s block and may not produce the same quality of work compared to having the time and space to sit down at home and write their part of the story.

I think that wikis have a lot of potential for many classroom situations, it is just that you have to find a group of students who are willing and able to contribute to the project.

Week 2 - Reflection

I enjoy using a blog and reading blogs.  This past summer I got into the “blog world” and started reading several different blogs.  I got so into it I created my own personal blog.  I use it to share craft ideas, recipes, and other random things I find interesting.  I was excited to see that blogging was going to be one of our projects in this course because I would like to learn new ways in which I can use a blog in my classroom.  The RSS Reader is very convenient because you can go to one spot and read everything.  Before I discovered the RSS Reader I would have five to ten windows open with different blogs trying to keep updated with all of the new posts.  Now all I have to do is open one window and everything I need is right there. 

Another educational technology I would like to use in my classroom would be a blog.  I think it would be a great tool for students to share their work with other students and for them to find resources they can use in the classroom.   These resources would give them opportunities to find more information on a given subject or to interact with information in other ways.  I feel this would fall under the demonstration portion of the cone because students have to demonstrate their knowledge of the subject in order to communicate it on the blog.  The weakness of using a blog in the classroom would be that some students may have a hard time communicating their knowledge through words even if they fully understand the subject.     

RSS feeds would be more similar to the top and middle parts of the cone. It would apply to both for different reasons. It would fall toward the middle because it can deliver iconic experiences, such as serialized content like television or motion pictures. It can also deliver recordings, radio and still pictures similar to more traditional means such as newspapers. It could also apply to the symbolic section of the cone because it can be used to communicate visual symbols and verbal symbols to a wider audience.

An imaginative use of both a blog and RSS feeds could be to let teachers share information and lesson ideas quickly. While teachers may be teaching the same material across the country, they are rarely in touch with each other. They know the other teachers at their school teaching the material, but that is usually the only group they know with the material, so they only have a few points of view about it. Books and lesson plans can be distributed to assume some level of standardization, this is still fairly impersonal. The ability of a blog post to share information from one person to many is something that could never have been done with traditional means of communication. The teacher with the ideas could easily compose a blog post to share the idea, and the other teachers, who are subscribed to the blog through an RSS reader, will be able to see that tip, as well as any other tip from additional teaching blogs that they may have subscribed to. This answers the problem of teachers being able to connect with each other and exchange plans at a fast-paced rate, without the need for an intermediate body such as a publisher.

Week 1 - Reading Reflection

The classroom I teach in is for the novice-level students, and there are two teachers in it. This classroom is built on the information age systems mentioned in the Reigeluth & Joseph article. You will find many of the systems such as customization, initiative, diversity, team-based organization, autonomy, cooperation, and total quality. We also follow a learning-focused paradigm, and gear our lessons to the student’s needs. We also teach to mastery of the topic by following personal learning plans, allowing every member of the class to work at their own pace. We are also able to monitor their progress through performance-based assessment and encourage them to develop their skills through peer-assisted learning. The way that we are able to do this successfully is because there are two teachers and we work in small groups. We are able to pull aside groups of students so we can coach them through the material, and give them opportunities to guide each other to comprehension of the material. It would be beneficial to find ways that technology can work into this system. Because of the wide variety of available technology and the educational level of the students, it is important to find the right types of technology to make sure that it meets our learning goals.

Technology is not taking over or replacing the teaching that we are doing, but it is enhancing it with the use of technology. The Postman article argues that technology in learning is solving problems that do not actually exist. He uses the example of power windows in a car as an analogy for technology in learning. With this example, it seems like he is ignoring the fact that some technology actually finds ways to make things easier for students or teachers so that their learning goals may be accomplished. For example, we teach students to use technology so that they may take ownership over their own learning, or so that they can assist other students in learning. Technology lowers the barriers for helping others and gaining assistance from others, and if students are able to communicate their ideas to each other, they can demonstrate their mastery of the topic. This also benefits the teachers, since it easier for them to monitor the students and interact with their material through technological means. For example, if a student did some form of formative assessment on the computer, and their grade appeared in the gradebook instantly, I could see that grade and discuss with them why they got that grade and what they wanted to improve or clarify instantly while it was still fresh in their mind. Alternatively, we could interact with the students in real time through the internet, and it could provide a more media-rich experience than simply just telling them to use their imagination. Technology is not solving problems that don’t exist, it is solving real problems and creating new avenues for teachers and students to connect with each other and enhance their learning experience.