Sunday, November 08, 2009
Post
Data driven decision making,acuity,
Smart board, prometh, activsoftware inspire edition,polyvision eno,learning.com(aha!sciencewhiteboardedition),interactive desktops,averpen interactive collaborative learning solution,
Delicious (my account)
Prezi
Lesson planning (curriki)
Synchroneyes
Jing
Skype
Online teacher discussion board
CoPs
What is web 2.0?
Internet safety: www.wenetok.com
Fuelourfuturenow.com
www.4029tv.com/video/18712497/index.html
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed
Smart board, prometh, activsoftware inspire edition,polyvision eno,learning.com(aha!sciencewhiteboardedition),interactive desktops,averpen interactive collaborative learning solution,
Delicious (my account)
Prezi
Lesson planning (curriki)
Synchroneyes
Jing
Skype
Online teacher discussion board
CoPs
What is web 2.0?
Internet safety: www.wenetok.com
Fuelourfuturenow.com
www.4029tv.com/video/18712497/index.html
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed
Data driven decision making,acuity,
Smartboard, prometh, activsoftware inspire edition,polyvision eno,learning.com(aha!sciencewhiteboardedition),interactive des
Smartboard, prometh, activsoftware inspire edition,polyvision eno,learning.com(aha!sciencewhiteboardedition),interactive des
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Example Content Exploration Blog Post
I reviewed BrainPop, specifically for English education. I plan to teach English as a Second Language. BrainPop is a fun and easy way to get the content across to students with limited language capabilities. The visualizations help students understand the context of what they are talking about thus enhancing the students' understanding of the content, even if they don't necessarily understand all of the words. In addition, BrainPop has recently created a BrainPop ESL version.
In particular, I could use this to help my students understand blogs. This video provides information on what is a blog, how to set it up, and the history of blogs. It also includes some helpful hints.
Other teachers have used this resource to inspire students to explore their own content by creating their own Tim and Moby adventures.
Although it primarily presents information, and thus would be considered a reference tool, there are quizzes available so it could also be considered a tutorial.
Monday, September 28, 2009
NCTM Illuminations
A long-time favorite of mine when it comes to tech tools is the set of "Illuminations" from the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Illuminations are manipulatable java applets that bring abstract mathematical concepts to life. The catalog of tools is available at http://illuminations.nctm.org/, with lessons and all.
Illuminations benefit teachers in students in countless ways. From a teacher's standpoint, these are fantastic, ready made tools and lessons that save you tons of time. Creating manipulative-based lessons, as we all know, can really take forever. The benefits for efficiency here are huge.
But illuminations don't just save time- they offer bang for the buck. They make concrete concepts that have never been concrete before, allowing students an unprecedented learning experience. Students have a lesson truly enhanced by technology, able to do thing as never before and understand them in new and great ways.
Illuminations benefit teachers in students in countless ways. From a teacher's standpoint, these are fantastic, ready made tools and lessons that save you tons of time. Creating manipulative-based lessons, as we all know, can really take forever. The benefits for efficiency here are huge.
But illuminations don't just save time- they offer bang for the buck. They make concrete concepts that have never been concrete before, allowing students an unprecedented learning experience. Students have a lesson truly enhanced by technology, able to do thing as never before and understand them in new and great ways.
Prezi
A great new tool I just discovered is a presentation tool called "Prezi" (www.prezi.com) that puts PowerPoint to shame. Prezi lets you make dymanic presentations that viewers can follow while still maintaining an idea of the "big picture." Watch a demonstration of Prezi here. Once you've been wowed by the demo, click here for a tutorial on how to make your own.
Prezi would make for a highly effective teaching tool. Typical presentation tools like PowerPoint only allow you to create linear presentations, but not all topics are linear! Students especially often lose track of "where they are" in a long presentation; they can't figure out how the current slide fits into the whole of the topic. They lose perspective. A presentation made with Prezi, that kept students perspective on the whole instead of the parts, would be effective in promoting retention of presented information.
Prezi would make for a highly effective teaching tool. Typical presentation tools like PowerPoint only allow you to create linear presentations, but not all topics are linear! Students especially often lose track of "where they are" in a long presentation; they can't figure out how the current slide fits into the whole of the topic. They lose perspective. A presentation made with Prezi, that kept students perspective on the whole instead of the parts, would be effective in promoting retention of presented information.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Week 5, Technology Integration Decisions
Overall, today went well. I felt like there was good interaction with the students. They were able to answer questions and interact with me and each other. All the lecture worksheets questions were designed to deliver in groups. This seemed to promote good student interaction. I will try to incorporate more group questions. I'm not sure that individual questions every really worked well.
Interestingly enough, I can hear students complaining about the readings and how they had no clue where the readings were before. However, they think that with the test review, everything should be OK. We shall see. The more I see about their knowledge of applying standards and objectives, the more nervous I get. We need to make sure that we have multiple copies of the standards. I like this, but we need to have WAY more explanation about this. I'm almost thinking about dropping the objectives section.
We definitely need to have a good/bad objective slides. Games that ask students to select what they would do, what's wrong, etc...
I spent too much time on the students slide. Also, I think we should eliminate objectives and stick with students and environment. The first one,
The video from YouTube is terrible. It had a dirty name for the intro. I missed this. But it provided a laugh.
Perhaps we need a whole section on the objectives. Or at least a tutorial. We will need to talk about how critical this actually is.
Interestingly enough, I can hear students complaining about the readings and how they had no clue where the readings were before. However, they think that with the test review, everything should be OK. We shall see. The more I see about their knowledge of applying standards and objectives, the more nervous I get. We need to make sure that we have multiple copies of the standards. I like this, but we need to have WAY more explanation about this. I'm almost thinking about dropping the objectives section.
We definitely need to have a good/bad objective slides. Games that ask students to select what they would do, what's wrong, etc...
I spent too much time on the students slide. Also, I think we should eliminate objectives and stick with students and environment. The first one,
The video from YouTube is terrible. It had a dirty name for the intro. I missed this. But it provided a laugh.
Perhaps we need a whole section on the objectives. Or at least a tutorial. We will need to talk about how critical this actually is.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Things to add
Podcast study sessions
Edited versions of the PD principal movie with Principal Ottenbreit
Watching other people do the same lecture or review the same content as you gives you some great ideas. As I'm watching Doug present, I really liked a couple of things he did. First of all, he posted a fun article for students to read as they came into class. This gave students something to look at during those few minutes before class. Great idea. I'm planning on doing this in the rest of my lectures. Perhaps even using videos that way. Also, I liked how he drew on specific points from the video. I actually wanted to pause the first video to make comments - but I'm not sure how halting this would be and how much it would disrupt the flow.
Monday, September 08, 2008
Week2 Lecture, Introduction to the Course
Today went well. I started with an introduction to the course. The Simponize characters went over well. After a brief review of the course, I had students get into groups based on their content areas. It took me some time to reorganize them once they were in the correct spots. The TAL learners kind of mixed things up in the 1st lecture and so now all the TAL folks are up at the top in one small corner. I will try to move them a little. They had a mission to create a collage of their pictures and names. I didn't care how they did it, but they needed to get this to me by Monday at 8:00. I already have one team that sent theirs to me. A little more time was dedicated to this assignment since they all seemed so energized about it. I will try to give them more problems to solve. I really liked this approach and it seemed to energize them.
Next I discussed some aspects of globalization and the flat world and how it's impacting our students. I think this gave them more of an appreciation of how our world is expanding. However, some of the stories and short quips need to be worked on. I think perhaps watching Thomas Friedman's MIT video and then finding a PPT or video on how this concept applies to K-12 education would be helpful. That's my note on professional development.
I had some good videos, but unfortunately, the sound didn't work too well on the students' description of why to use technology. These should be deleted or checked back on to see if the audio is audible next semester.
Overall, I felt like there was a good energy in the room and students really talked to one another about the questions. I think the first two questions are a little drull, but probably need to be asked (about globalization). Perhaps there is a way to spice this up. The second two questions were interesting, but I need to find a way to make students expand on the questions and to get more excited or engaging with the content. By changing the content area to the group section, they could circle it there and have more space to write. Or perhaps I make these all 2 sided or have all the questions at the top and have them number their responses below.
Overall, I'd like to think of more ways to involve them in discussions with their subject area group in the lecture. This is important because it is probably the majority of interaction they will have in their subject area. Think-Pair-Share is always a great possibility. I'll have to think of some more ways to increase interaction in a large lecture hall. I could always ask one person in each group to bring their laptop in. Hmmm.....
I would like to find more videos that show the amazing ways technology is being used. The Hamilton High video, Shift Happens, and A Vision of Students Today were all great. However, the new tech high page was dull, as was the Evansville page and perhaps even the Kokomo movie (although the later part of this movie was well done.
So for next week, I'm looking at standards, electronic portfolios, and I have less information in that presentation that I need to cover (this lecture had a LOT of videos).
Next I discussed some aspects of globalization and the flat world and how it's impacting our students. I think this gave them more of an appreciation of how our world is expanding. However, some of the stories and short quips need to be worked on. I think perhaps watching Thomas Friedman's MIT video and then finding a PPT or video on how this concept applies to K-12 education would be helpful. That's my note on professional development.
I had some good videos, but unfortunately, the sound didn't work too well on the students' description of why to use technology. These should be deleted or checked back on to see if the audio is audible next semester.
Overall, I felt like there was a good energy in the room and students really talked to one another about the questions. I think the first two questions are a little drull, but probably need to be asked (about globalization). Perhaps there is a way to spice this up. The second two questions were interesting, but I need to find a way to make students expand on the questions and to get more excited or engaging with the content. By changing the content area to the group section, they could circle it there and have more space to write. Or perhaps I make these all 2 sided or have all the questions at the top and have them number their responses below.
Overall, I'd like to think of more ways to involve them in discussions with their subject area group in the lecture. This is important because it is probably the majority of interaction they will have in their subject area. Think-Pair-Share is always a great possibility. I'll have to think of some more ways to increase interaction in a large lecture hall. I could always ask one person in each group to bring their laptop in. Hmmm.....
I would like to find more videos that show the amazing ways technology is being used. The Hamilton High video, Shift Happens, and A Vision of Students Today were all great. However, the new tech high page was dull, as was the Evansville page and perhaps even the Kokomo movie (although the later part of this movie was well done.
So for next week, I'm looking at standards, electronic portfolios, and I have less information in that presentation that I need to cover (this lecture had a LOT of videos).
Friday, April 18, 2008
Random Indiana Earthquake
So I woke up this morning to go for a run and at 5:37am, I felt a huge gust of wind shaking the house - like a washing machine off-kilter gone crazy! I thought the house was done for. This lasted for only about 5 seconds, but I could still feel a less significant shaking for about 10-15 seconds. My running buddy (who's from the West coast) called me and asked - "Did you just feel that? That was an earthquake!" I was completely shocked! An earthquake? In Indiana? But it's true. Evidently, we're on a fault line. The USGS Earthquake Hazards website keeps a record of the earthquakes recently reported in this area.
My parents (who live in the Detroit area) said they did not feel it themselves, but they were outside with their dog who ran back to the porch at that exact time like something horrible had happened. Now he won't set foot on the grass outside.
The interesting thing is I tried to fit this within my own schema. I attributed it to a strong wind, or the fact that I had taken cold medicine the night before and my head could have been a bit foggy. I never even thought of an earthquake until my friend called me. Even though I know about earthquakes from a geological perspective, it never crossed my mind as a possibility for this area. This instance shows me that we need to keep reminding ourselves to push the envelope of thinking...to look beyond the typical explainations we are comfortable with and find the truth. Hmmmm.... How does this relate to research? :)
My parents (who live in the Detroit area) said they did not feel it themselves, but they were outside with their dog who ran back to the porch at that exact time like something horrible had happened. Now he won't set foot on the grass outside.
The interesting thing is I tried to fit this within my own schema. I attributed it to a strong wind, or the fact that I had taken cold medicine the night before and my head could have been a bit foggy. I never even thought of an earthquake until my friend called me. Even though I know about earthquakes from a geological perspective, it never crossed my mind as a possibility for this area. This instance shows me that we need to keep reminding ourselves to push the envelope of thinking...to look beyond the typical explainations we are comfortable with and find the truth. Hmmmm.... How does this relate to research? :)
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