Thanksgiving Assignment

When it comes to teaching, teachers act as designers because they use creativity and planning to create lesson plans. The creativity of a teacher can be seen when teachers have to create fun lessons that engage the class quickly and efficiently. Teachers are also like designers because they are able to be unique and come up with things specific to their students and their classrooms to help their students succeed the best like decorating the classroom and creating assignments.

Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create interactive stories, animations, games, music, art, and share your creations on the web. As people create and share Scratch projects, they learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively. Scratch can be used in the classroom during PowerPoint or video presentations.

Digital Storytelling is a program that puts primary focus on integrating technology in activities with more infuses on the activity. During digital storytelling, students tell a story digitally while working with other classmates. A digital story is a 2-to-4 minute digital video clip, most often told in first person narrative, recorded with your own voice, illustrated mostly with still images, and with an optional music track to add emotional tone. In my classroom I would use digital storytelling for many purposes, but primarily for teaching technology and teaching team work within the classroom.

Methods suggested in the textbook that can help students visualize mathematical concepts include the use of graphing calculators. Graphing calculators help students simply problems because of its capability to plot graphs, solve simultaneous equations, and perform numerous other tasks with variables. The graphing calculators can help students understand math while making it easy to focus on tougher concepts.

I think that it is very possible to learn from the television alone. The majority of shows on the television nowadays have how to viewings and channels like the cooking channel and do it yourself channel. I think that, of course, without trying the techniques on the shows you may not be successful, but part of learning is making mistakes. Not all things should be learned through television, but some things can be learned, even with little to no written instruction.

Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R. M., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Week 11

Gee’s principles of probing state that learning is a cycle of probing the world and reflecting in and on this action is what you do to form a hypothesis. The top three principles I feel would be most important for education would be the Semiotic Principle, Intertextual Principle, and the Discovery Principle. The Semiotic Principle states that learning is about coming to appreciate interrelations within and across multiple sign systems like images, words, actions, symbols, artifacts. The Semiotic Principle is a complex system and it is the core to the learning experience. Intertextual Principle states that the learner understands texts as a family, or genre, of related texts and understands the text in relation to others in the family, but only after sompletely understand the text. Understanding is what helps the learner make sense of such texts. Discovery Principle states that the learner is allowed ample opportunity to experiment and make discoveries.

If I was creating a simulation for my classroom I would support the activity of discovery, because I do feel like discovery is the most important when it comes to education. Students would be able to manipulate and plan which ever way they learn best to truly find out if the student is grasping the concept being taught. I could present an open ended question and allow the students to invidually come up with an answer. This would affect the classroom is many ways from expressing individuality to creativity.

In conclusion there are various ways that state that learning is a cycle. Knowing these principles and being able to reproduce them in the classroom is vital to the students knowledge. Overall the use of simulations in the classroom makes the learning cycle and experience interesting and unique not only to the students, but to the teacher as well.

References:

Jonassen, D. Howland, J. Marra, R. M. Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Merrill Prentice Hill.

WEEK 7

I think after reading this chapter and reviewing some of the writing activities used in classrooms, I would make best use of concept mapping. I think that concept mapping is a very informative and visual tool that can both help students organize and learn the information they need to learn efficiently and effectively. I also think that using PowerPoint is another excellent way of intergrating technology in the classroom.

When creating PowerPoints in class, there are several ways you can use them without them being a classroom distraction. A PowerPoint presentation is suppose to compile important information in a neat organized space that is easy to view. Putting too many animations, distracting music,or too many words on a slide can all be very unhelpful and distracting to a viewer of the presentation. I do not think that it is very difficult to follow the correct procedures when creating an effective PowerPoint. I would personally suggest even having a peer reviewing the presentation and giving suggestions on how they think it could be better.

Overall PowerPoints and concept mapping can be very helpful in classrooms, if used appropriately and correctly. Both are great tools to help organize information in a neat and easy to reach place. When using both of these writing tools, there are certain pitfalls that you can fall in, so following the proper rules and helpful tips and techniques when creating either one is very important.

References:

Jonassen, D. Howland, J. Marra, R. M. Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Merrill Prentice Hill.

Assignment 6

Personal Digital Assistants are a small, hand-held, usually pen-based computer used as a personal organizer. They can store various amounts of information like addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. Most personal digital assistants have access to the internet. Personal Digital Assistants can be used in several different ways in the classroom. Because I am a special education major, I think that my classroom would be benefit greatly from having the use of a personal digital assistant. I think this because if a student with a disability isn’t able to read the hands on a clock, having a personal digital device to either say the time or produce the time digitally may be helpful.

Online survey tools are used for various reasons, but the most common reason they are used is to gather a group of information about an individual in one easy to find location. I think that online survey tools could be used in the classroom in many ways like trying to find out information about what the students are learning and what they want to know without taking up too much class time. Two good rules when writing good surveys are never make them too long and make them interesting.

These days I do not feel that any educator has an excuse when teaching a classroom. There are so many tools both electronically and digitally that can aid a teacher in so many ways. After reading this chapter I have learned a lot about personal digital assistants and online surveys and how the teacher can use them both to benefit her classroom. Overall it is good to know that technology keeps changing and growing, so keeping updated once I am a teacher is probably the number one thing I will always make sure I do.

References:

Jonassen, D. Howland, J. Marra, R. M. Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Merrill Prentice Hill.

Spreadsheet Blog

Spreadsheet Blog

After using Spreadsheet to create a gradebook and a material aid I think that it can be very useful and helpful in many different situations. The gradebook can be helpful in the classroom because Excel averages the grades, which allows extra time for the teacher to do something else. I would use the Spreadsheet in my classroom because it is easily acessible and it isn’t extremely time consuming.

As a teacher Spreadsheet would be used for several different reasons. The Spreadsheet could be used to organize information and data in an easily readible chart or graph. It could also be used as a graphic organizer when teaching information in class. The advantage of using the calculator in Spreadsheet would be the inconsistency of errors in grades.

The three primary functions of the Spreadsheet are storing, calculating, and presenting information. I do think that the primary functions of Spreadsheets are effective. I think that it would effective to add different guides for studying and worksheets for the students to learn the information in the curriculum.

CITATION:

Jonassen, D. Howland, J. Marra, R. M. Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Merrill Prentice Hill.

INSPIRATION BLOG

Inspiration seems like a very interesting program because of the many ways you can make it fit into any classroom. I think that the different diagrams and charts available for selection allow this program to be highly flexible and diverse from other programs available. The cross-curricular templates really interest me because I would be able to not only use it for presentations, but also as a tool for organization. I could and would definitely use this program because it has many aspects that could used through any curriculum and it looks neat. It also seems very compatible with Microsoft Office and I love the fact that you can personalize the themes.


Some writing activities that would make the best use of technology in my classroom could be outlines or research papers especially using Inspiration. It is very true that writing is an activity that benefits from multiple revisions and high-quality feedback. Students could help each other during writing by using Inspiration because it keeps everything organized and easily accessible. The students could easily make changes, when necessary, and the students can see exactly where they need to correct errors or mistakes. I would use Inspiration to support peer feedback because it does keep the students’ work and feedback both in a neat and accessible place. I do believe that it is important to teach a topic or skill to truly understand how it works. Teaching someone something or showing someone something definitely helps you see things that you may not have noticed before. Knowing exactly how to show someone how something works also gives you a sense of confidence and knowledge.

Overall from reading the textbook, looking through the site, and learning about Inspiration, I do feel like I have a better sense of knowledge about how technology can tie into the curriculum in a helpful and beneficial way for the students. I do believe that peer teaching is a great and necessary method when teaching the curriculum because some students learn best from their peers. Only the students know what they struggle with when learning new topics, so by having another student teach them, they may be able to comprehend it quicker than a teacher lecturing able it. I also think the electronic graphic organizers, diagrams, and outlines are very beneficial for the students to help them become organized and neat.

SOURCES:

Jonassen, D. Howland, J. Marra, R. M. Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning With Technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Merrill Prentice Hill.

Inspiration Software. (2010). Inspiration Videos and Webcasts for Using Visual Learning In Your Classroom. http://www.inspiration.com/videos/Inspiration

My thoughts on blogs

What do you think about using blogs?


I think blogs are a great way to both communicate and connect with other individuals around the world through the internet. I think it is a great way of both expression and learning.

What and how do you think blogs would be useful for education?

I think blogs could be useful for educational purposes because you can view other people’s ideas and thoughts and easily comment and share your responses. It is a great way to learn and view other people’s thought processes.

Some people think using blogs in classrooms is a waste of students’ time. How would you respond?

I do not think that the use of blogs is a waste of time. I think that it is a great way of documenting students’ thoughts in an easily reachable and organized place.

What are some ways that you could use the technology ideas in Chapter 6 to support your curriculum and student learners?

I think I could use some of the technology ideas in chapter 6 to support my curriculum and student learners by always connecting the technology with the textbook. I believe technology is just another approach to innovative teaching. The use of technology in my classroom will be both useful and fun to keep my students interacted in learning.