Tuesday, April 10, 2007
My Blog My Vision 4/3 Part1
As I read the text and other blogs and see people talking about television and computers being used early in their education all I can think of is its absence in mine. We were lucky to have an occasional film played in class and even then the teacher usually had problems getting the TV and VCR to work. Computers were nonexistent in the classrooms. The only place I recall having computers was in the computer classroom where we were taught the basics of word, excel, and PowerPoint (I need to point out the book taught us as the teacher was fairly clueless). The most ironic thing about this is that I graduated high school in 2000. So my high school was 96-00 and my school district was considered to be one of the most technologically advanced for the area!! SO I can definitely understand where the expectations for technology fell FAR short of the realities. I think one main problem was the inability and apprehension of the teachers. Most of my teachers were a little older and had not grown up with computers and were fearful of trying to learn how to use them.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
My Blog My Vision 3/27
Perceptions
1. “All human activity is driven by information; the more demanding the activity- the greater the need for information. Thus information can be termed the fuel that powers the teaching-learning process.”
1. “All human activity is driven by information; the more demanding the activity- the greater the need for information. Thus information can be termed the fuel that powers the teaching-learning process.”
I find in many cases someone tells you they “want to learn more about…” Whether they have this urge or you the teacher have to give them this urge, it boils down to this perception that information drives learning. As a teacher it is our responsibility to provide this tidbit of information that “hooks” the student into wanting to learn everything there is to know about the subject.
2. “At a fundamental level, it can be assumed that all learning is initiated by information perceived by the senses: specifically, what you see, hear, taste, smell, and feel.”
While some students can learn just fine from a book, most students will learn better with hands on learning. This is the basis behind laboratories in science and agricultural classes. The visual learning doesn’t have to be limited to labs. Current technology allows for more classroom visuals and pc-based learning.
3. “The master teachers of the Information Age are those who develop the capacity to navigate the worldwide oceans of information and selectively retrieve that which can provide and enriched experience for their learners.”
Many times finding accurate relevant information is like finding a needle in a haystack especially for those unfamiliar with technology. It is the teacher’s responsibility to assist students in finding the information. Giving various links to relevant information will help students greatly without having to hand deliver the information. This is also an area to allow students to explore and learn beyond the lecture. If we are briefly covering a topic and a student is interested in more details they can follow the suggested links and learn on their own.
4. “How teaches manage information has a major impact on the outcome of the teacher-learning process. Technology facilitates and amplifies the teacher’s capacity to provide learners with information of higher fidelity in an individualized, interactive mode. Thompson said that the successful teacher primarily manager information, not students.”
There is never one sure way to teach or to communicate with students. Depending on subject, individual students, facilities, and many other factors the teaching will change and vary. I think any teaching method where the students’ benefit is a good one. Romano broke teaching down into four necessary tasks: planning, communication, guidance, and evaluation. You must plan your teaching methods, communicate the information, guide students in their learning, and evaluate their performance and progress.
5. “A verbal description alone of anything that can be seen must be considered a compromise; a compromise made every day in classrooms in an age when technology makes it unnecessary.”
The technology exists to allow teachers to show students rather than simply tell them. And yet many teachers continue to simply tell. Romano put this very simply in saying that when doing such we are compromising.
6. “In great part, the effectiveness of the communications phase of the teaching-learning process determines the outcome. Additionally, there are three critical factors that determine how well learners assimilate the information made available: fidelity, relevancy, and accessibility.”
In order to maximize each of these three factors options must be given to the student. Using the snake example from the book the teacher could provide internet links to pictures and videos of snakes, tell the students where they can see live snakes, and have a 3D model in the classroom. These different options will help students with all three factors. Information will be accessible at will at a later date, repeatable as many times as desired, many different levels of fidelity are offered including the real thing, and most student learning methods should be covered by the multiple options. It is now the student’s responsibility to take advantage of the choices and information offered to them.
This class has been great for me so far. I have been terrified of going into the teaching field and being a plain Jane boring teacher who doesn’t know how to integrate technology into her classroom and falls short of my own expectations not to mention my students’ expectations. With each chapter of the book, class session, and journal article critique, I am becoming more and more sure of myself and less fearful.
Monday, March 12, 2007
My Blog My Vision 3/6/07-Fears and Hopes
1. How will you overcome these fears and use technology for empowerment?
I think the demand for instant response and instant gratification is one that has been developed in our society in the past decade or two and isn’t something we can change overnight. However, we can calmly circumvent it. Laying out timelines and making sure students know and understand the anticipated pace should help. If an email necessitates a delayed response we could send a quick emailing letting the student know we received their question and are working on a quality answer. The worst part of email is being left hanging and wondering if the message was even received.
Feeling of socially isolated and less active as well as loss of caring and sense of community can happen and as we have talked about already do in many of the current web classes. This can easily be fixed with chats, discussion forums, group activities, and blogs. The teacher has to actively create a sense of community and encourage/demand interactions.
Being I am in Biology I do not anticipate dependence on technology of loss of reality. Since biology is based on and dependent on wildlife, plants, animals, etc, the likelihood of being dependent on technology is slim. I am not saying it can’t happen, but only that with minimal effort it can be avoided. Class outings, use of hands on materials for learning, in field activities, and many others are ways to keep from being dependent.
The last fear listed is actually not a fear for me even though it would eliminate my desired career. Colleges becoming obsolete. Would this be that bad? If we could teach students enough material at younger ages as well as teach them how to teach themselves and have them want the information enough to actually go learn on their own without school would it be that horrible of an idea? There are many adults out there that would love to learn new things but don’t know where to find the information or are terrified of the idea of taking a college class. If we had the readily available resources to learn on our own imagine how smart our society would become and the advances that could be made in every field.
2. What barriers do you identify with as outlined on page 22 of the Romano text?
Let’s face it. A vast majority of the educators teaching today are very old school and at best know how to check their email, use the basic of Microsoft word, complete their grade book, and some can make a basic PowerPoint presentation. The teachers that do know how to use more technology are usually the younger teachers or the few who have braved learning new stuff. And most of the younger teachers have not been taught how to integrate technology into the classroom. Many of the barriers Romano listed tie into these sad facts. I personally feel I have a fairly good grasp on technology and after the first half of this class know more skills that would work great in the classroom. However prior to starting this class I had almost no clue how to use technology in my classroom. I believe the main barriers that must be overcome are awareness of what are out there, workshops to teach educators, and not allowing teachers to throw the towel in after one failed attempt.
3. How have the skills you've learned in this class contributed to realizing your fears and/or hopes?
Since I am not teaching yet I haven’t been able to realize any of my fears or hopes yet. They have changed since the start of the class. Put simply I am less fearful about crashing and burning. I feel I can apply more technology into my classroom than a simple PowerPoint presentation now. Blogs, websites, skype, interaction with parents, distant connections, and hopefully after this week interactive PowerPoint presentations. All of these things and more are easing some of my fears and increasing my hopes.
4. What changes will you make regarding shifting control, mentoring, collegiality and collaboration?
I have never wanted to be a teacher who simply lectures and then hands out assignments. I took this course in the hopes of avoiding this dull fate. I believe I have tools now to avoid it and to develop a lesson plan that allows for shifting of control and mentoring and collaboration.
I think the demand for instant response and instant gratification is one that has been developed in our society in the past decade or two and isn’t something we can change overnight. However, we can calmly circumvent it. Laying out timelines and making sure students know and understand the anticipated pace should help. If an email necessitates a delayed response we could send a quick emailing letting the student know we received their question and are working on a quality answer. The worst part of email is being left hanging and wondering if the message was even received.
Feeling of socially isolated and less active as well as loss of caring and sense of community can happen and as we have talked about already do in many of the current web classes. This can easily be fixed with chats, discussion forums, group activities, and blogs. The teacher has to actively create a sense of community and encourage/demand interactions.
Being I am in Biology I do not anticipate dependence on technology of loss of reality. Since biology is based on and dependent on wildlife, plants, animals, etc, the likelihood of being dependent on technology is slim. I am not saying it can’t happen, but only that with minimal effort it can be avoided. Class outings, use of hands on materials for learning, in field activities, and many others are ways to keep from being dependent.
The last fear listed is actually not a fear for me even though it would eliminate my desired career. Colleges becoming obsolete. Would this be that bad? If we could teach students enough material at younger ages as well as teach them how to teach themselves and have them want the information enough to actually go learn on their own without school would it be that horrible of an idea? There are many adults out there that would love to learn new things but don’t know where to find the information or are terrified of the idea of taking a college class. If we had the readily available resources to learn on our own imagine how smart our society would become and the advances that could be made in every field.
2. What barriers do you identify with as outlined on page 22 of the Romano text?
Let’s face it. A vast majority of the educators teaching today are very old school and at best know how to check their email, use the basic of Microsoft word, complete their grade book, and some can make a basic PowerPoint presentation. The teachers that do know how to use more technology are usually the younger teachers or the few who have braved learning new stuff. And most of the younger teachers have not been taught how to integrate technology into the classroom. Many of the barriers Romano listed tie into these sad facts. I personally feel I have a fairly good grasp on technology and after the first half of this class know more skills that would work great in the classroom. However prior to starting this class I had almost no clue how to use technology in my classroom. I believe the main barriers that must be overcome are awareness of what are out there, workshops to teach educators, and not allowing teachers to throw the towel in after one failed attempt.
3. How have the skills you've learned in this class contributed to realizing your fears and/or hopes?
Since I am not teaching yet I haven’t been able to realize any of my fears or hopes yet. They have changed since the start of the class. Put simply I am less fearful about crashing and burning. I feel I can apply more technology into my classroom than a simple PowerPoint presentation now. Blogs, websites, skype, interaction with parents, distant connections, and hopefully after this week interactive PowerPoint presentations. All of these things and more are easing some of my fears and increasing my hopes.
4. What changes will you make regarding shifting control, mentoring, collegiality and collaboration?
I have never wanted to be a teacher who simply lectures and then hands out assignments. I took this course in the hopes of avoiding this dull fate. I believe I have tools now to avoid it and to develop a lesson plan that allows for shifting of control and mentoring and collaboration.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Other online resources
After we played around with dreamweaver the first day I started looking for what I felt was the best free website hosting service. This week in class Charlie shared with us www.envy.nu. If you have your pages already designed using a program such as Dreamweaver this seems to be a very nice service to use. If you are not looking for complete control and like using templates then you might want to consider the service I have found.
It is Microsoft Office Live. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/default.aspx
It was free a week ago, but I see they are now doing a promo where you get $50 advertising credit when you sign up and there is a new account fee of $5. This is still very cheap and here is why. You get your own domain name free of charge. My website is www.thunderstruckkennel.com and I did not pay a dime! You also get custom email free! and you can create more than one email as well. So my email is clara@thunderstruckkennel.com.
Now there are a few limitations. I do not think you can upload your own pages. I do believe you have to use their builder. but they have a great variety of templates and color choices, etc, etc, etc. And they offer some additional services with an upgraded account.
If you are just creating a website for the sake of this class and your portfolio then the $5 may not be worth it to you, but if you want to create a website for school, personal, home business, etc then you should check it out. However for those of us who do not have daily access to dreamweaver or even want the hassle of the more complicated programs, but still want a professional looking result it does the job.
Oh and I forgot to mention: NO ADS!!!! (or pop-ups). The only add is a small logo for Microsoft office on the very bottom of the pages. check my site and and see what you think. But pardon the mess I barely had time to get it started and have many incomplete pages.
It is Microsoft Office Live. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/default.aspx
It was free a week ago, but I see they are now doing a promo where you get $50 advertising credit when you sign up and there is a new account fee of $5. This is still very cheap and here is why. You get your own domain name free of charge. My website is www.thunderstruckkennel.com and I did not pay a dime! You also get custom email free! and you can create more than one email as well. So my email is clara@thunderstruckkennel.com.
Now there are a few limitations. I do not think you can upload your own pages. I do believe you have to use their builder. but they have a great variety of templates and color choices, etc, etc, etc. And they offer some additional services with an upgraded account.
If you are just creating a website for the sake of this class and your portfolio then the $5 may not be worth it to you, but if you want to create a website for school, personal, home business, etc then you should check it out. However for those of us who do not have daily access to dreamweaver or even want the hassle of the more complicated programs, but still want a professional looking result it does the job.
Oh and I forgot to mention: NO ADS!!!! (or pop-ups). The only add is a small logo for Microsoft office on the very bottom of the pages. check my site and and see what you think. But pardon the mess I barely had time to get it started and have many incomplete pages.
My Blog My Vision 2/20/07
At times I am a complete airhead. I didn't even read the guidelines for this week's blog. Crazy me. Well better late than never.
1. Since my goal is to teach Biology on the college level, I am not going to be able to apply the things I learn as quickly as some of my fellow students who are teaching at this moment. However I see great possibilities for many of the concepts these chapters discuss in the classes I could potentially be teaching. Many college students live far from home and their families have almost no idea what is going on in their classes. Having a website and discussion forum would be a great way for the parents to learn along with the students. I know my mother was constantly asking me questions because she was as interested if not more than I was. Video conferencing with other schools that have similar classes or with experts in the field we are studying is another possibility. Although most of the text this week was directed at K-12 education, most of the ideas are readily adaptable to the college level.
2. Since I am not teaching yet I don’t really have a current plan for technology. I took this course to help develop a plan. I think I have learned that more than ever its not just about having the technology but knowing how to use and integrate it into the classroom in a meaningful manner. In my personal experience many time the school and classroom had sufficient technology to do more than we did, but the teacher did not know how to use it or what to do about applying it. So before adding any new type of technology I will make sure I understand how to use it and apply it instead of just “winging” it.
3. The main message I received from both of these chapters is that it is about quality and not quantity. I covered this a little bit already. For example: It doesn’t matter how many tractors show up to the tractor pull if none of them can move the weight sled (FYI truck/tractor pulls are a blast. Lol). Back on track. It doesn’t matter how much technology we can cram into a classroom if it isn't applied properly the students are not going to gain anything extra out of the experience. They may even get frustrated and gain less from the whole experience.
1. Since my goal is to teach Biology on the college level, I am not going to be able to apply the things I learn as quickly as some of my fellow students who are teaching at this moment. However I see great possibilities for many of the concepts these chapters discuss in the classes I could potentially be teaching. Many college students live far from home and their families have almost no idea what is going on in their classes. Having a website and discussion forum would be a great way for the parents to learn along with the students. I know my mother was constantly asking me questions because she was as interested if not more than I was. Video conferencing with other schools that have similar classes or with experts in the field we are studying is another possibility. Although most of the text this week was directed at K-12 education, most of the ideas are readily adaptable to the college level.
2. Since I am not teaching yet I don’t really have a current plan for technology. I took this course to help develop a plan. I think I have learned that more than ever its not just about having the technology but knowing how to use and integrate it into the classroom in a meaningful manner. In my personal experience many time the school and classroom had sufficient technology to do more than we did, but the teacher did not know how to use it or what to do about applying it. So before adding any new type of technology I will make sure I understand how to use it and apply it instead of just “winging” it.
3. The main message I received from both of these chapters is that it is about quality and not quantity. I covered this a little bit already. For example: It doesn’t matter how many tractors show up to the tractor pull if none of them can move the weight sled (FYI truck/tractor pulls are a blast. Lol). Back on track. It doesn’t matter how much technology we can cram into a classroom if it isn't applied properly the students are not going to gain anything extra out of the experience. They may even get frustrated and gain less from the whole experience.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Class 2/20/07
As usual I learned something new during class this week.
Unfortunately, I was a little bored with the first half of class and the continued use of Microsoft Publisher. I missed class on 2/13 and spent quite a bit of time during the week exploring and learning about Publisher in an attempt to catch up on what I missed. When I read the information on the 2/20 class and saw it said continuing with Publisher I assumed (I know I know never assume) we would be given instruction on some additional features. If I had realized we would be having free time with Publisher in class I probably would not have used it as much during the week.
On the topic of Publisher itself I am very happy to have this program. In my past versions of office I did not have Publisher, and when I changed to Office 2003 I did not notice its addition. Now that I know its here I plan to use it all the time both for myself and my husband's business. To me it seems similar to using Word and templates in Word but much much easier and without some of those weird quirky problems that Word can have.
The basics we learned of Dreamweaver were nice. I have built a website before using the tools that Earthlink provides its members. It was a very basic cookie cutter style builder. Dreamweaver so far appears to have all the options of simply using HTML but designed so you don't have to know the HTML in order to get the same effects. I look forward to using this program and wish it was cheaper so I could buy it for myself. It would be nice if we received a discount through the school on programs. Main TAMU has an agreement with some large software companies to allow students major discounts when buying various programs. I wonder if we can take advantage of this since we are a TAMU owned school.
Unfortunately, I was a little bored with the first half of class and the continued use of Microsoft Publisher. I missed class on 2/13 and spent quite a bit of time during the week exploring and learning about Publisher in an attempt to catch up on what I missed. When I read the information on the 2/20 class and saw it said continuing with Publisher I assumed (I know I know never assume) we would be given instruction on some additional features. If I had realized we would be having free time with Publisher in class I probably would not have used it as much during the week.
On the topic of Publisher itself I am very happy to have this program. In my past versions of office I did not have Publisher, and when I changed to Office 2003 I did not notice its addition. Now that I know its here I plan to use it all the time both for myself and my husband's business. To me it seems similar to using Word and templates in Word but much much easier and without some of those weird quirky problems that Word can have.
The basics we learned of Dreamweaver were nice. I have built a website before using the tools that Earthlink provides its members. It was a very basic cookie cutter style builder. Dreamweaver so far appears to have all the options of simply using HTML but designed so you don't have to know the HTML in order to get the same effects. I look forward to using this program and wish it was cheaper so I could buy it for myself. It would be nice if we received a discount through the school on programs. Main TAMU has an agreement with some large software companies to allow students major discounts when buying various programs. I wonder if we can take advantage of this since we are a TAMU owned school.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
My Blog My Vision 2/13/07
Sadly I missed class this week due to being ill, and its been a game of catchup all week for school and my personal life. At first I didn't think I had missed much material that was new to me. I have always thought I knew how to use Microsoft Word very well.
As I started going over the lesson for the week, I agreed with my initial thought. I know how to change between the different layouts, how to view and edit headers/footers, how to print (you can also press Ctrl + P to bring up the print dialog box), how to insert, draw, and edit tables, etc, etc.
Then I reached the editing and tracking changes portion of the lesson. Where has this been all my life? Is this a new feature of the newer Microsoft Word or has this been there all along? Does anyone know? How was this feature left out of my training? As I started playing around with this feature, I have fallen in love. Over my years of schooling, friends and I have edited each others papers on a regular basis. This always required printing the paper, writing changes or edits, and then going back and making approved changes on the computer. The editing and tracking feature could have changed our entire process and most likely saved time. I look forward to using this feature on a regular basis from now on.
Yet another glaring gap in my Microsoft Office education is Microsoft Publisher. I have used various purchased programs and "free with your new printer/scanner" programs to do the same thing. I have also used Microsoft Word sometimes freehand and sometimes using downloaded templates (that's a feature I didn't see covered that would be good to teach everyone. I will bring this up in class). I feel that Publisher is easier to use than Word Templates. I have created business cards for my husband using word and will be creating newer better ones using publisher in the near future. For me this program makes my life easier when creating any type of publication for print. I also wonder how it ranks as far as building websites. It has the option, but I haven't had time to play around with that feature as I was too busy exploring the publications for print it has to offer.
As I started going over the lesson for the week, I agreed with my initial thought. I know how to change between the different layouts, how to view and edit headers/footers, how to print (you can also press Ctrl + P to bring up the print dialog box), how to insert, draw, and edit tables, etc, etc.
Then I reached the editing and tracking changes portion of the lesson. Where has this been all my life? Is this a new feature of the newer Microsoft Word or has this been there all along? Does anyone know? How was this feature left out of my training? As I started playing around with this feature, I have fallen in love. Over my years of schooling, friends and I have edited each others papers on a regular basis. This always required printing the paper, writing changes or edits, and then going back and making approved changes on the computer. The editing and tracking feature could have changed our entire process and most likely saved time. I look forward to using this feature on a regular basis from now on.
Yet another glaring gap in my Microsoft Office education is Microsoft Publisher. I have used various purchased programs and "free with your new printer/scanner" programs to do the same thing. I have also used Microsoft Word sometimes freehand and sometimes using downloaded templates (that's a feature I didn't see covered that would be good to teach everyone. I will bring this up in class). I feel that Publisher is easier to use than Word Templates. I have created business cards for my husband using word and will be creating newer better ones using publisher in the near future. For me this program makes my life easier when creating any type of publication for print. I also wonder how it ranks as far as building websites. It has the option, but I haven't had time to play around with that feature as I was too busy exploring the publications for print it has to offer.
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