Lecture Monday 4/27

In class on Monday we read an article by Richard Worzel about what he thought education would be like in the next 100 years. I agree with some of his ideas but not with all of them. We thinks that technology is going go become way more important and used more often in schools. I agree with that statement. You can already see the increase in technology use today, so imagine how much we will use in 100 years. I don't know if I believe what he says about computers reading your brain waves. Even is this is possible, I don't think it would be a useful tool in everyday schools. It seems odd and unaturaly for a computer to know what you are thinking and to know the level of how you understand something. I also don't agree that distance education will take over and there will be no physical classroom. I think that the world knows how important human contact is and how important one-on-one conversations are. Even if we can use techonlogy more we still need human contact and relationships. Teachers will still serve a purpose in 100 years, i believe.

Lecture Monday 4/20

In class on monday we had a guest speaker from PATINS Project. PATINS stands for Promoting Achievment through Technology Instruction for all Students. Their goal is to provide students with the techonology needed for them to learn and participate to thier full potential. In class we learned what assisitive technology actually is. She defined it as any item or piece of equipment or product used to imporce the functional capabilites of children with disabilities; the key word being any. They can be simple things like a pencil grip or a calculator or more high tech things like voice recognition and word prediction software. We then learned the 4 primary uses of assisitve technology. The first is communication; these tools help students communicate with others. Examples are the board with pictures on it that you can pick the picture and it says the word or phrase. There are also things like M3dynamic display, which allows you to type in a message and then it says it out loud. The second use it Manipulation, which allows the student to do simple tasks and use everyday appliances. To cover this category different students use differnet switchs to do different things. There are many different types of switchs, head, touch, mouth and many other options. The third use is Posistioning and Mobility. This is often not covered by PATINS, becuase physical therapist deal with this. It has to do with wheel chairs and other mobility stystems. The fourth use is Learning, and things like adaptive computer access. There are things like alternative mouses for computers and one handed key boards. ZoomText allows someone to make things larger so that they can read them. There are also things like talking calculators and Operation Frog, which allows you to virtually disect a frog. After learning the 4 uses we watched a few videos of students how utilize assitive technology. For more information on PATINS you can go to , www://PatinsProject.com/in.htm

Lecture Monday 4/13

In class on Monday we learned about legal issues and ethical issues. Examples of academic dishonesty are plagiarism, fabrication, deception, cheating, sabotage and professional misconduct. All of these things are examples of things that are illegal or wrong in the academic world. These things become difficult for teachers to police. There is a controversy as whether or not to enforce the rules to stop cheating or to try and deter them. I personally think that they go hand in hand. We should try and stop it before it happens, but also enforce rules and consequences when the rules are broken. A statistic says that 21% of teachers have ignored at least 1 clear cute case of cheating. It is a personal decision as to how strict you will be as a teacher with cheating. I personally think that you should not be tolerant with cheating. I do think that you should listen to the students, because sometimes things happen on accident or without the student’s knowledge. If this is true they should get a warning and be punished the next time.
Another issue is Facebook; we watched a movie about a teacher that was fired for the pictures and comments that she had put on Facebook. We discussed in class if we thought it was right for the teacher to be fired. I think that it is okay for a teacher to have a Facebook, I think that they should be careful about what they put on it. I don’t think the comments and picture she put where appropriate, but I don’t think that she should have been fired. I think that she should have been given a warning. I do understand thought that parents might have been uncomfortable. Finally we discussed copyright issues. It is a difficult thing to work around, but as a teacher you need to make sure you are not copying things and passing them out to your class without being legal.

Lecture Monday 4/6

In class this week we discussed an article titled, "At Chater School, Higher Teacher Pay" by Elissa Gootman. This article talked about a charter school that is opening that is going to pay teachers a salary of $125,000 plus a potential bonus based on performance. The idea behind the school is that the higher pay will bring in the best and most qualified teachers, leading to higher success for the students. In order to accomidate for the high salaries, the teachers will work londer days, years and assume more responsibilites. They will be attendance coordinators and discipline deans. The school will also scrimp on other things for the building and classrooms.

This article is very controversial. There are many people that support the idea and are up for trying new things, while others think it is a bad decision. The people that disagree think that you are going to have overworked teachers. They will be getting more pay but will be doing so much work that they will get burnt out. They also believe that the students willl be missing out by not haveing extracurricular options and have different electives to chose from. The question is also raised, as to how do you decide who these wonderful teachers are. What makes them the best? In the end I feel that it is worth trying. Why no give it a shot? I am not sure that is will neccesarily succed, but if they have enough people backing the idea, and families and students who are willing to be a part of it, I don't think we are doing any harm by attempting something new.

In calss we also talked breifly about learning tasks and professional tasks. Learning task are; content exploration tasks, production tasks, communication tasks, data collection and analyse tasks, and productivity tasks. Professional tasks are things that cover assesment, administration and classroom managment. The professional tasks are the things that the teacher needs to deal with themselves. They are not tasks given to the students.

Lecture Monday 3/23

Data Collection/ Analysis Tools

Data collection and analysis tools are tools that allow students to learn using technology to gather information and synthesize it. These tools help to keep information organized and enhance the learning that can be taken place when collecting date. Some examples are Polleverywhere.com. This webiste allows the teacher to place a question then the students text in what they think the answer is. You would have to get permission to use cell phones in class, but if you could it is a way to ge the kids invovled and motivating, using a technology that they are familiar with, thier cell phones. Another example is Go Motion. This could be used in science or math. It is a device that sensors a persons motion and graphs it. It then can tell you the speed and other information about that moment in time. It is a new and exciting way to learn about physics idead. Another interesting tool is Timeliner. This is a resource to help a student put togehter a timeline. It allows you to add graphics, movies and text and also link to websites or word documents. On timeliner you can do actual research, while not havig to switch from page to page. I think that these tools are very fun and interesting. They will greatly increase the motivation and attention of the students. It is a more fun way to learn than sitting taking notes, listening to the teacher.

Podcast and Lecture for March 30th

Productivity Tools:
We learned about productivity tools in class this week. A productivity tool is something that helps you be more effiecient by saving time or by imporving the quality without adding time. A calculator is a good example of a productivity tools. These tools either make something better while lasting the same amount of time, or they make something take less time. Overall these are very helpful becuase the less time you spend doing on one thing, the more time you have for another. The tools can be useful for both teachers and students.

In class they seperated the productivity tools into four groups: Document Production, Time Managment, Research, and Instructional Panning and Managment. Each groups helps increase effieciency in its own way. First document production tools are things such as Word Processor. They help you correct spelling and grammar mistakes, make text changes, and allow you to share and collaborate on a project through technology. There are other tools that do the same thing as word processor such as, Zoho Writer and Open Office. Zoho Writer allows you to access the processor through the internet and Open Office is a free version of Microsoft. There are also more complex tools such as SmartDraw.com and Inspiration. These tools help you enchance your production, using graphics and other resources. The next group is Time Managment. This is very important for students; they need ot keep track of due dates, tasks and other responsibilities. By using these toold they are developing metacognitive skills. An example of a time managment tool is I-Pod to do list. It works on iphones and itouchs and is basically a high tech calander system. There are also things like Outlook, todalist, and Google Calander. Research is the next category. These tools allow you to find information faster and to find more reliable, crediable information. They also give you access to a wider range of resources. Examples are Google Notebook, Delicious Accounts, Think Quest and Google Scholar. One of the most interesting tools, i thought, was Zotero. This a tool that you can download that makes a workscited for you. It collects the data needed and stores your resources. It would be very helpful when doing research and writing a paper. The final category is Instructional Planning and Materials. This tool is based more towards the teachers instead of the students. It allows the teachers to stay on task and get more things done. I really enjoyed the 100 classroom freebies website. This was 100 resources that teachers could use for free. It is very helpful and saves the teacher time in having to find the reasources, download them and pay for them. Microsoft Template and Office are also examples.

In the end I think that utilizing the production tools that are out there is a very important thing to do. In this era there is so much that can be done and everything is moving at such a fast pace that we need to take advantage of increasing effieciency if we can. I will remember alot of these tools when I become a teacher.

Communication Tools- March 9th Lecture

In this lecture we learned about Communication tools and how we can use them in the classroom. We first discuess the different ways that we as people can communicate. There is one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many. An example of one-to-one commuincation would be a phone call, it is one person talking to one other person. One-to-many is like a teacher leacturing to a classroom of students. Many-to-many is the most difficult and can be confusing, but an example would be like a chat room, where many people can add thier thoughts at any time. There are also two other, different, types of communication; asynchoronous and synchronous. Asynchornous means that the people are communicating and different times; for example sending an email is asynchronous communictaion. The person recieving the information does not have to be present when the other person sends the information. On the other hand synchronous communication is when people are thier at the same time. This is like a chat room, or a phone call. YOu have to be present to recieve the information.

Having a way for students to communicate with each other and with you as a teacher is very important. There are many technological resources that can be used to enhance this idea. You need to decide what works best for you, maybe set up a wiki, or have a seperate email just for school. Yack Pack, is also a interesting technology that allows students to actually speack to each other and leave messages. Also when dealing with communication tools it is important to make sure that they are safe for the students to use and outside people can not get into them.