In the past few weeks we have learned about content exploration tools. These are tools that can be used to explore new knowledge, review knowledge or apply knowledge. There are seven different types of content exploration tools, here is a list from the least complex to the most complex; Reference, Drill-and-Practice, Tutorial, Educational Games, Simulation, Open-Ended Tools, and Integrated Learning Systems. I will discuss a few of these tools.
First, the least complex tool is Reference tools. These have the purpose of providing information. They are usually in the format of text, images, animation, wtih no significant interaction for the person using them. The lowest tech/ no tech examples of these are text books and reference books. Also insturctional videos like Reading Rainbow. The Hi-Tech examples are things like US Census "Kids Corner." This website allows kids to learn information about the country population. Another site is Metropolitan Musuem of Art. This website is very fun because it allows kids to learn about art and do fun activites in order to learn about the musuem. YouTube videos and News Sources are also examples of resource tools. In the classroom they can be a more exciting way to present new information.
The next complex tool on the list is Drill-and-Practice tools. These serve the purpose of reinforcing concepts, while supplementing practice and feedback. Flashcards are the most common example of drill-and-practice. Other examples are multiplicatoin tables, and typing programs. Online there are websites like Aha Math and Quizlet that allow for drill-and-practice learning. Aha Math is fun becuase it turns the math problems into games, for example to do addition you count fish is a fish tank and there is an interactive boy that talks to you.
Tutorials are the next complex tool. These are a mixture of reference and drill-and-practice tools. They serve the purpose of instructing and giving practice and review. The onw downplay of a tutorial is that the student does not have room to ask question, they can only be taught what the tutorial tells them. Examples would be Rosetta Stone, to learn foriegn languages.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Lecture Monday 2/16
In the lecture on Monday we learned how to make observable objectives. This means that the objectives are ones that can be measured. It means not using verbs like; understand, appreiciate, think, know, believe and to instead use action verbs. Examples are compare, translate, create, construct, describe, measure, define and identify. The action verbs are more descriptive. A pattern you can use it "Given the _____, the student will be able to _____,based on_____." The objective should discuss the conditions, which is what you will give the students and what you have to work with. The objective should also explain ther performance, as to what the students need to do. Finally it should include the criteria, which is how you, as a teacher, will judge if the student meet the goal.
We also learned the plan, SNOWY. This stands for standards, needs, options, what and who. SNOWY is the scaffold for helping you to chose the best tools to use. Standards is first deciding what standard your lesson will cover. Next you look at your Needs. This is what you need for youe project, like materials, environment, time and students. The 3rd step is Options. This means what is the availabilty of the things you need. Then 4th comes the What. This is deciding what tools to use and how to use them, along with providing a brief decription. Finally, the last step is Why. This final step is to explain the decision and how the tools address the effectiveness and enhanment.
We also learned the plan, SNOWY. This stands for standards, needs, options, what and who. SNOWY is the scaffold for helping you to chose the best tools to use. Standards is first deciding what standard your lesson will cover. Next you look at your Needs. This is what you need for youe project, like materials, environment, time and students. The 3rd step is Options. This means what is the availabilty of the things you need. Then 4th comes the What. This is deciding what tools to use and how to use them, along with providing a brief decription. Finally, the last step is Why. This final step is to explain the decision and how the tools address the effectiveness and enhanment.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Chapter 9: Technology in English and Language Arts
2/16/09
For this week, instead of a preleture podcast, we had a reading. The reading was about how to integrate technology into language arts, and why it is important to do so. They began by discussing the changes in literature over the past couple of decades. The definition of literacy needs to be expanded. In order for us, as teachers, to expand this definition we will need to use our new resources, which include technology. This goes back to shift. Students learn in new ways know and we need to recognize this. One of the new things that we can teach them is to learn how to learn to new literacy technologies. As a teacher they need to start discovering things for themselves and this is possible through technology.
Some of the key terms that we learned in the reading were QWERTY keyboard. This is the name for the way we type of with a keyboard. Those letters are the first 6 letters on the keyboard. There is a debate as to whether we should teach keyboarding as a prerequitsite to using computers, so if they shuold learn to type through using the computers. There are diffrent views but many people take the middle ground. They do a short lesson on keyboarding and then do more practice as needed while using the computers.
Other things that we need to think about as teachers are the fact that technology always us to be very social and that we are teaching a more diverese set of students. Technology allows us to have a world wide classroom. You can communicate with people in other countries and learn many different multicultural ideas. Along with communicating across countries, we are beginning to have more diverse classrooms. There are many different nationalities, races and ethnicites. It can be difficult to teach literacy and english to these students, so there is definitaly a new challenge. You can use things like CD's and online workshops to help these students learn english.
In the reading there were three technology integration strategies. The first was in Language Skills Development. This means decoding words and phonics; acutally learning to spell and read.There are many websites online that can benifit children. They make learning into fun and games. The reading listed some acclaimed sites such as GameGoo: Learning That Sticks. These are very motivational for students and allows them to practice outside of the classroom. Electronic dictionaries, thesaureses and Talking Word Processors can also be used to help with language development. The second strategy was Literacy Development. This is reading and comprehending. There are things like interactive storybooks that allow children to read a book online, that will talk back and allows them to choose different endings and paths. Also tracking system like Accelerated Reader and Blogs are very benifical All of these things allow students to share thier ideas about what they learned or be tested to see if they truely understand. The final strategy is the Process Approach to Writing. The techonology of a Word Processor has been such a help with the writing process. It allow students to fix errors during the revision process very easily. It also gives students the ability to use things such as spell check, grammar check and word choice helpers. There are also technolgies to help students prewrite, by making diagrams and outlines.
Overall technology is a very useful and helpful resource in the Language Arts area. All teachers should begin to integrate it and to realize it is a very substantial part of the new students of this ear. There are so many resources to take advantage of. It may be hard work but it will be worth it.
For this week, instead of a preleture podcast, we had a reading. The reading was about how to integrate technology into language arts, and why it is important to do so. They began by discussing the changes in literature over the past couple of decades. The definition of literacy needs to be expanded. In order for us, as teachers, to expand this definition we will need to use our new resources, which include technology. This goes back to shift. Students learn in new ways know and we need to recognize this. One of the new things that we can teach them is to learn how to learn to new literacy technologies. As a teacher they need to start discovering things for themselves and this is possible through technology.
Some of the key terms that we learned in the reading were QWERTY keyboard. This is the name for the way we type of with a keyboard. Those letters are the first 6 letters on the keyboard. There is a debate as to whether we should teach keyboarding as a prerequitsite to using computers, so if they shuold learn to type through using the computers. There are diffrent views but many people take the middle ground. They do a short lesson on keyboarding and then do more practice as needed while using the computers.
Other things that we need to think about as teachers are the fact that technology always us to be very social and that we are teaching a more diverese set of students. Technology allows us to have a world wide classroom. You can communicate with people in other countries and learn many different multicultural ideas. Along with communicating across countries, we are beginning to have more diverse classrooms. There are many different nationalities, races and ethnicites. It can be difficult to teach literacy and english to these students, so there is definitaly a new challenge. You can use things like CD's and online workshops to help these students learn english.
In the reading there were three technology integration strategies. The first was in Language Skills Development. This means decoding words and phonics; acutally learning to spell and read.There are many websites online that can benifit children. They make learning into fun and games. The reading listed some acclaimed sites such as GameGoo: Learning That Sticks. These are very motivational for students and allows them to practice outside of the classroom. Electronic dictionaries, thesaureses and Talking Word Processors can also be used to help with language development. The second strategy was Literacy Development. This is reading and comprehending. There are things like interactive storybooks that allow children to read a book online, that will talk back and allows them to choose different endings and paths. Also tracking system like Accelerated Reader and Blogs are very benifical All of these things allow students to share thier ideas about what they learned or be tested to see if they truely understand. The final strategy is the Process Approach to Writing. The techonology of a Word Processor has been such a help with the writing process. It allow students to fix errors during the revision process very easily. It also gives students the ability to use things such as spell check, grammar check and word choice helpers. There are also technolgies to help students prewrite, by making diagrams and outlines.
Overall technology is a very useful and helpful resource in the Language Arts area. All teachers should begin to integrate it and to realize it is a very substantial part of the new students of this ear. There are so many resources to take advantage of. It may be hard work but it will be worth it.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Pre-Lecture 2/09/02
In this pre-lecuture podcast we discussed many things. First we reviewed what we have done so far. Basically what we have covered has been there to convince us that techonology is imortant and we should take advantage of it when we are teachers. Also that we need to change the way we teach to better fit these new type of learners.
Then we began talking about how to actually use techonology. The first way was for assesment. Using it for assesment mean checking for learning and also what is missing to make things better. Examples comoon assesment techniques are test, quizes, projets, journals, presentations and simply asking questions. The podcast gave us three ways that we can use technology. The first was Easy Test Maker which is there to help with efficiency. This is a website that you can use as a resource to make quick and easy tests. The next example was Quia, which helps with effectiveness. On this website you can search through mutliple subject to find activites, quizes and fun games to help your teaching process. Finally to enhance your students learning you can use Wrtie to Learn. This is a website that can give students immediate feedback to thier writing and reading comprehesion skills. This is a tool that allows us to do something that we never could have without technology.
The next way we learned to us technology is for administrative tasks. These tasks are the annoying, but important stuff that the teachers have to do when they are not teaching. For example planning, tracking and deciding on things. To help plan the podcast offerend a website called Curriki. This is a place to learn about new lesson plans, to share lesson plans and to get an overview of how other teachers are teaching thier subjects. It becomes a way to get new ideas quickly and efficiently. Next they showed us PDA software to help tracking and managing. These are like handheld computers that can track attendance, students schedules and give emergency updates. Many business men and doctors use them and some schools are starting to incorporate them.
The final thing we talked about was classroom managment. Having all this technology is a great things but it come with a great risk. As a teacher you have to deal with some techonolgies not functioning. You have to handle the problems and offer new solutions. Also technology may be a way of distracting the kids, but it also could keep them more focused becuase they are enjoying what they are doing. You, as a techer, have to find that medium where you use technology to help keep them focused instead of distracting them.
Then we began talking about how to actually use techonology. The first way was for assesment. Using it for assesment mean checking for learning and also what is missing to make things better. Examples comoon assesment techniques are test, quizes, projets, journals, presentations and simply asking questions. The podcast gave us three ways that we can use technology. The first was Easy Test Maker which is there to help with efficiency. This is a website that you can use as a resource to make quick and easy tests. The next example was Quia, which helps with effectiveness. On this website you can search through mutliple subject to find activites, quizes and fun games to help your teaching process. Finally to enhance your students learning you can use Wrtie to Learn. This is a website that can give students immediate feedback to thier writing and reading comprehesion skills. This is a tool that allows us to do something that we never could have without technology.
The next way we learned to us technology is for administrative tasks. These tasks are the annoying, but important stuff that the teachers have to do when they are not teaching. For example planning, tracking and deciding on things. To help plan the podcast offerend a website called Curriki. This is a place to learn about new lesson plans, to share lesson plans and to get an overview of how other teachers are teaching thier subjects. It becomes a way to get new ideas quickly and efficiently. Next they showed us PDA software to help tracking and managing. These are like handheld computers that can track attendance, students schedules and give emergency updates. Many business men and doctors use them and some schools are starting to incorporate them.
The final thing we talked about was classroom managment. Having all this technology is a great things but it come with a great risk. As a teacher you have to deal with some techonolgies not functioning. You have to handle the problems and offer new solutions. Also technology may be a way of distracting the kids, but it also could keep them more focused becuase they are enjoying what they are doing. You, as a techer, have to find that medium where you use technology to help keep them focused instead of distracting them.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
2/1/09 Lecture 2.5
In lecture 2.5 we discussed a few things. First of we continued to discuss teaching standards. We looked at the difference between the Indiana Teaching Standards and the NET-T standards. In general they both promote teaching creativity and allowing the students to grow and learn as much as possible. The Indiana standards go a little more into depth on the actual content that you need to teach whereas the NETS-T standards talk more about how you can do so; saying to integrate technology and to use different approaches to teach different contents.
Next, we talked about professional development. Professional development is how we keep up with the shift. They discussed how we will continually need to learn and grow all throughout our careers; there will always be new problems in front of us that we will need to tackle. There are 2 types of professional development. The first is formal. These are more official things that are documented, like renewing your teaching license, taking college courses and going to seminars and conferences. These are things that are required to keep your job as a teacher. The second type of professional development is informal. This is development that is not documented or required. These are things like reading periodicals, new papers and new books. Technology is a great resource for informal development. We learned about things like RSS feeds. This is were you have one site that had all the new things from your favorite sites sent to it. Therefore you can keep up on the new news, without having to search a million sites.
The last thing we learned about was our E-portfolios. We learned why we are making them. We are making them to show our progress toward learning the professionals standards, it also presents and organizes our examples of our capabilities. Finally it gives us a way to reflect on our own work.
The lecture was very helpful and taught me some new things and ideas.
Next, we talked about professional development. Professional development is how we keep up with the shift. They discussed how we will continually need to learn and grow all throughout our careers; there will always be new problems in front of us that we will need to tackle. There are 2 types of professional development. The first is formal. These are more official things that are documented, like renewing your teaching license, taking college courses and going to seminars and conferences. These are things that are required to keep your job as a teacher. The second type of professional development is informal. This is development that is not documented or required. These are things like reading periodicals, new papers and new books. Technology is a great resource for informal development. We learned about things like RSS feeds. This is were you have one site that had all the new things from your favorite sites sent to it. Therefore you can keep up on the new news, without having to search a million sites.
The last thing we learned about was our E-portfolios. We learned why we are making them. We are making them to show our progress toward learning the professionals standards, it also presents and organizes our examples of our capabilities. Finally it gives us a way to reflect on our own work.
The lecture was very helpful and taught me some new things and ideas.
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