Journal 8 - Who are Today's Learners?

The article I chose for journal eight was titled “Who are today’s learners?” written by Christine Greenhow. This article came from L&L Volume 36, Number 2. When reading the article, I was surprised, just as the author said I would be, that there is no significant difference in the technological use of those from low-income or rural areas versus those from the higher income or suburban areas.  In all the courses we take we learn that we need to know our students limitations when it comes to technology access and offer assignments accordingly. The list of questions would be a great tool to use on the first week of class to attach to the syllabus. The students could have their parents fill them out to effectively assess the class technology access and then adjust lessons to fit the needs. I also enjoyed hearing that students considered themselves to have competency in word processing and spreadsheet documents. Most teachers now may be fearful that students know more about technological tools than they do, but the thought of a technologically advanced classroom makes me happy. This makes it easier to integrate technology in the classroom since the time needed to learn the tools is cut down and because of this, more focus can be on the subject matter.

 

Question 1: What non-traditional tools can be used to engage student learning?

In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently has said that by 2010, he hopes to have all math and science textbooks digitized to save money. This will increase the usage of online book reading tools and mobile electronic books. Being able to download a book to a PDA or Smartphone will also increase the likelihood of integrating these tools into the classroom.

 

Question 2: From the students’ standpoint, why should we integrate technology in classrooms?

Students said that the thing they like best is using computers and doing internet research. If this is what they like best, we as teachers should teach to their strength. They will respond better to things they enjoy and therefore be more willing to learn. Students also have a desire to learn more technology tools for home and classroom use.

Journal Entry 7 - MySpace can be a Learning Tool Too!

I really enjoyed reading the article “Myspace can be a learning tool too” by Liz Kolb from L&L Volume 36 No. 4. I found the article layout and the way she described the subject to be very informative. The author also provided excellent, specific examples of how to use social networking sites in the classroom as well as challenges and concerns of everyone involved. I really liked the idea of having a parent education night to show parents exactly how to use this technology. This will aid in calming their fears of their students using a social networking site in the classroom. Another part of the article I enjoyed was the fact that the author stated that the parents needed to be more involved in the internet life of their students. Parents should not be upset at teachers for showing their students how to use social networking sites and the like if they aren’t monitoring the students’ online behavior in the first place. The article also provides examples of the positives of social networking sites in the classroom. Although these ideas are not great for a future math teacher to use in their classrooms, I can see how I may be able to shape some of her suggestions to utilize myspace in a math classroom.

 

Question 1: What risks are teachers taking by using MySpace in the classroom?

First and foremost, teachers are risking parental backlash if they introduce students to this tool at too young of age, or if students aren’t allowed to use it at home. Teachers also risk students being connected to predators or inappropriate sites and images. By teaching digital citizenship from the beginning, teachers may be able to avoid this pitfall.

 

Question 2: Besides those listed, what are the unseen positives of using MySpace in the classroom?

Being able to discern good from bad information is the first positive that comes to mind that no one thinks about. The other is practicing safe digital citizenship in a controlled environment. Students are not able to roam the site freely and, thus, must practice safe internet browsing.

Journal Entry 6 - Mapping Student Minds

I found the article “Mapping Student Minds” by Ariel Owen to be a very informative example of how to utilize technology in a classroom setting. The students in this class used both Palm Pilots and a casual mapping software on the internet to successfully learn about issues in ecology while simultaneously satisfying NETS-S 3 and NETS-T 2. I agree with the author that using the Palm Pilots in the field is very much more efficient (and costly!) than collecting data on paper and later entering it into an Excel spreadsheet. It also reduces the risk of data handing errors, as is stated in the passage. Casual mapping is similar to the Inspiration application which we learned about in this course. It provides a way for users to visually express relationships and cause-and-effect relationships. The casual mapping software appears to be easy enough to use for students that it doesn’t take away too much class time to learn. This, I believe, is a key factor in why teachers and students do not use technology as much as they should in the classroom. The training time involved takes away from the time learning the actual subject being taught in the course which my cause teachers to avoid technology in pursuit of lessons more easily fused into the curriculum.

Question 1: Why is casual mapping software great for in the classroom?

In the article, the author says that students should work in pairs when working with the software. This creates a dialog between the students requiring them to analyze others thoughts and take in their point of view before throwing down their ideas. In essence, it requires collaboration between students to form a common goal. In addition, as stated before, it is fairly straightforward to use, not requiring much training and thus can more easily be integrated into any lesson plan.

Question 2: What are some of the problems involved in casual mapping?

When using casual mapping, the problems arise among different age groups and skill levels. For example, a fifth grader who does not yet know how to fully convey their thoughts may create a spider web effect with their map, making it nearly impossible to understand. On the other hand, for a high school senior may have an abundance of information and throw it all down on the page, attempting to fit it all in the space they have been provided. The same blackout mapping effect will occur, just in a different setting. Students must be able to discern relevant from irrelevant information for use on their map.

Journal 5 - Can You Hear Me Now?

I found the article from Forbes.com entitled Can You Hear Me Now? By Sherri Turkle to be very informative and at times humorous. The way she talks about technology’s good and bad aspects are a refreshing change from the typical 'this is good/this is bad' articles we see so much of these days. What I found particularly interesting was how she used the extended metaphor of us being tethered to the daily grind by our technology. This is a fascinating perspective as it holds a negative connotation while emphasizing the necessity for it. For example, if one was accustomed to doing business on their smart phone all hours of the day, every day, they may feel like this is necessary to survive. They define themselves in this way and do not know any other. Depending on how you look at it, the negative of this is that we pass this way of life on to our children. Students have multiple identities, as she states in the article. They have their everyday “real life” identity and their technology identity. The world is able to create a separate identity, whether real or not, online and through the technological advances. But at what expense? As the world loses out on more and more alone time as well as face-to-face contact with others, are we losing who we really are? The article reflects on this thought and I believe that we are. Being someone who is guilty of losing some of their person-to-person skills due to the advances of technology, I feel like it is time to require more interpersonal relationships without the use of technology.

 

Question 1: How has technology inhibited student networking and relationships?

Students are constantly on their phones, computers, and other technological devices. While this has provided many positives, such as the ability to get to know those from all over the world, it also takes students away from talking to others in person. Instead of walking to classes having a discussion about current topics, students are texting someone from outside of school planning their next video game session. Students are losing out on time to build relationships, and as educators we are able to gain some of that time back in the classrooms.

 

Question 2: How does tethering our children negatively affect their upbringing?

As Mrs. Turkle describes in her article, tethering our children slows areas of the learning process. Giving our students cell phones provides them with a comfort zone of knowing their parents are simply a phone call away. This does not allow them to gain independence as fast as in previous generations, nor does it allow them to experience and cope with the wide range of emotions we, as adults need to address. It also does not provide children with the means to analyze their thoughts and themselves as a whole picture, focusing more on instantaneous sharing of feelings.

Journal Entry 4 - Moderating Ethics for the Classroom Instructional Blogs

In her essay, Mrs. Deubel confesses that she is a “digital immigrant” who is not very web-savvy. Then she reflects on her thoughts on using blogs in classroom settings. She touches on the fact that, in education, ethics must be taught prior to the use of blogs. While this is true, it seems like for her, teaching this in addition to how to properly use a blog, something in which she seems to not fully understand, may be difficult to do. For someone like me, who is very confident in their technology skills, digital tools such as blogs will be an integral part of my classroom. As she says in her essay, I will also require the use of the blogs on continuous basis. In my setting, mathematics, I have ideas running through my head of using blogs as a student-to-student and teacher-to-student homework helper as well as a way for parents and the community to get involved in the learning process. As I have implied before, the importance of parental involvement in learning cannot be overstated and any way to assist and encourage parent involvement is welcomed in my classroom. The guidelines Mrs. Deubel uses in her essay are all things that I have already considered when contemplating techniques to utilize technology in the classroom. I feel that the use of classroom blogs will greatly enhance the learning curve of students in a mathematics classroom.

Question 1: What are the concerns of using blogs in a classroom?

Any time students are able to access the internet in the classroom, concerns arise about student ethics. Teaching ethics in the classroom is something all teachers must do, no matter the subject they teach. A private network, for example, would eliminate these concerns, as teachers and administrators would be able to constantly monitor the use of the class blogs. Another concern is the lack of use, which can be controlled by including a posting requirement for a grade.

Question 2: If blogs are so great, why don't all teachers use them?

Good Question?! In my personal opinion, all teachers should use some type of technology such as blogs in their classrooms. I feel the reason that such technologies are not utilized is two-fold. First off, some teachers may not be very tech-savvy, and thus afraid of integrating something they are not confident with into their classroom. Secondly is the availability of resources. Not all students have a personal computer at home, and the computers on most public school campuses are inadequate or have limited availability. This is an unfortunate effect of having publicly funded schools.

Journal Entry 3 - Too Cool for School? No Way!

I found this article very interesting in how to utilize new, non-educational tools in the classroom. Unfortunately the article only gave two brief examples, whereas I was expecting many, or at least more in depth examples. In the introduction it mentioned Facebook, the iPhone, and Flickr, none of which were mentioned anywhere else in the article. The section on repurposing technology contained some interesting information, however basic. I feel that we as prospective teachers fully understand that technology such as those listed are not made specifically for the education realm and that we need to shape the technology in order to properly use it in the classroom. I was hoping that this article would offer more of an insight on ways that current teachers have already shaped technology for their classroom use. The idea of using a free computer based DJ tool for a math lesson was exactly what I was looking for. This was a great idea and very intuitive. I feel like the teachers of this course must have held the students’ attention for a long while with a lesson like that. I know as a high school student, if I was able to play around with software like that, all the while learning a math lesson I would be more than willing to pay attention to the teacher all day.

Question 1: How would you use microblogging in a classroom setting?
Personally I think this is a great tool which I have never thought of before. A controlled microblogging site would be great for students to assist each other on assignments while being supervised by the teacher. It would also be a great way for teachers to assist students who are unable to make it into a tutorial session or need help from the teacher on the weekend.

Question 2:How does a teacher learn to use technology tools in order to utilize them in the classroom?
According to the article, teachers should "play" with the technology to learn about it, and create ways to use it in the classroom. In addition to playing with it, attending formal classes and seminars is a great way to add ammo to your technological arsenal. Getting ideas from fellow teachers is also another good way to learn to use it. The best way I see to learn to use them is to actually use them for your everyday life. A sort of trial by fire, teachers to dive in to social networking, social bookmarking, and other technological tools are more likely to understand their ins and outs and be more able to shape them to their students.

Journal Entry 2 -Social Networking for the K-12 Set

For this journal entry I am asked to respond to the article “Social Networking for the K–12 Set” by Jim Klein. As I was going through the article, I noticed the amount of technical terms and ideas coming out of it. In contrast to the article from journal one, I feel that is article may be a little too difficult for it’s target audience to comprehend. As someone who fully understands these terms and ideas I found this article to be a much more interesting read and held my interest through out. I feel like the idea of the social networking site for classrooms, schools, and districts is a novel idea. The creators of the site discussed in the article have come up with solutions to all the common downfalls of social networking sites while highlighting and utilizing the positives. They have even created a place for RSS feeds, podcasts, and mp3s, all aspects of Web 2.0 that most students use on a daily basis without second thought. Focusing on content controls and access, teachers and administrators have the ability to decide what content is appropriate for the site without any major knowledge of technology. With training provided, I feel that this tool is the future of the classroom and will be effectively developed in the years to come.

Question 1: How does a teacher keep content appropriate for students?

When the teacher has the ultimate authority to make content accessible, content can be effectively filtered to keep out unwanted content. With social networking sites like the one discussed in the article, which are specifically created for use in the classroom, developers are able to create this level of administrator security while still maintaining functionality.

Question 2: What are the benefits of using social networks in the classroom?

Teachers who utilize social networks in the classroom are able to connect more students to each other and other teachers. In doing so, students are able to look at things from a wider variety of point of views than in traditional courses. The are also able to obtain aid from other teachers and students who they normally would not have access to.