Monday November 27, 2006
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Monday November 27, 2006
ECI 511: GPS UNITS
Description:
Geocaching is a high-tech, worldwide treasure hunt where a person hides a cache for other to find (Lary, 2004). The longitude and latitude coordinates to find the cache are placed into a GPS unit in order to determine location.
Findings:
Prior to reading the article I was completely lost as to what geocaching was and what I was to do with a GPS unit other than use it to find my way from work to the new mall opened in Timbuktu! As an instructional tool the GPS unit can be quite impressive and fun for student use. In the article Lary describes how he used the GPS unit with some students finding various landmarks on the schools campus. Lary also detailed how students became extremely engaged because the GPS unit was similar to that of a game boy! In order to correctly use the GPS unit Lary stated that it was necessary to discuss coordinates and longitude and latitude, so that students entered the coordinates into the unit correctly. He also explained how he put students into groups in order to figure out how to find their cache (the mysterious landmarks). The one downside I see to using this unit would be once again, like most hardware devices, cost. Although a fun tool to use, I don?t think it would lend itself very easily to all content areas and there would be potential for damage.
Reflection:
Being an ELA teacher most tools, concepts, and strategies lend themselves to my content area. I must say with this particular hardware I did find it a bit difficult to figure out how I could incorporate a GPS location system into my poetry unit. After long thought, I thought, a may be a long shot, but if given the opportunity my students could use lines, rhythmic beats and pentameter to find a certain cache that I have hidden. So, for instance if my students could successfully figure out the beats and meter of a poem then enter those coordinates into the GPS, they would be successful in finding the cache. An alternative could be the Travel Bugs program that was discussed in our online posts. Travel Bugs would use the same concept as the handheld GPS unit minus the actual unit. Students would still get the opportunity to utilize a tracking system to find a specific items or goal, whatever you decided to attach to the travel bug. The bug would keep a journal of its travels that students would check as they pick up the travel bug from various areas. All content areas could utilize this program at this same time maintaining the same concept used by the handheld GPS units.
Posted at 11:14PM Nov 27, 2006 by RODRIGUEZ, CHRISTINE in General | Comments[0]
ECI 511: BLOGS
Description:
Weblogs also known as blogs, are used to post information on just about anything you can imagine via the Internet. Blogs can be used for educational, political, and or social platforms, just to a name a few. Anyone can post a blog and just about anyone can respond to it. Blogs are simply an easy way to publish your ideas.
Findings:
After reading the article by Richardson on read and write files, I was a bit more informed on the concept of blogging. In our new age of the information super highway I had heard about the concept but had never actually engaged in blogging. I was surprised to find that blogs were not just forms of nonsense written on the new crave webpage called myspace, but that many companies and political organization use blogs to disseminate and discuss information, topics, and issues. What has really contributed to the craze of blogs is that fact that they are rather simple and easy to create and use. For the most part creating a blog is just as simple as signing up for an email account and typing text into a box and clicking ?post?. As the article mentions, in order to preserve some safety and security there are websites that you can subscribe to and join that will maintain your blog usage and make sure that order is being maintained.
Reflection:
Richardson made a point about using blogs to ?draw out critical thinking and reading skills? in our students. Beyond that I believe that using blogs can foster a creative environment where students can exchange ideas. I have opted to utilize blogs in my classroom in the ways listed above. I plan on creating a blog on classroom culture and climate and also creating a blog where students can exchange ideas on specific project and activities. Often times it is the case in my classroom that my students lose their creative juices and cannot find a way to complete an assignment other than the pencil/paper fashion that they are used to. My hopes with the classroom climate/culture blog would be to offer a platform for students to be vocal about their likes and dislikes in the classroom. Often times as teachers we get so focused in creating a classroom that becomes ?teacher-land? that we forget there are students who have to live in the same land that we have created, and as a result they deserve to have input on how the land is operated. Some students are more vocal than others and I hope to bring out the ideas and comments from my less vocal students.
My hopes with the exchange of ideas blog would be, that I can blog a few ideas on how to complete a project and that my students can add to the blog listing ways to make the ideas even better. I have found that when in a collaborative environment students are much more likely to develop ideas, than when they are alone and asked to work independently. I must selfishly say I also like the fact that the students can collaborate and maintain themselves quiet on a computer! As a teacher you get the best of both worlds!
Posted at 10:40PM Nov 27, 2006 by RODRIGUEZ, CHRISTINE in General | Comments[0]
ECI 511 - WebQuests
Description:
WebQuests are designed as websites or webpages that have a specific activity to be completed by the student or specific objective to be mastered.
Findings:
In the article, ?Five ways rules for writing a great WebQuest?, Dodge offers a basis for creating the best WebQuest. Dodge uses the acronym FOCUS to remind us how we should go about our journey to creating a WebQuest. The F stands for Find. Finding a good WebQuest is determined by your students level and the activity or objective that you wish to accomplish. The O stands for Orchestrate. It is necessary to set your students up before beginning a WebQuest so that they have all the knowledge to successfully complete the quest. The point is for them to utilize the site completely to master the goal and to utilize you as little as necessary. Independence is the key. The C stands for Challenge. As teachers we need to challenge our students to think while they are engaging in their WebQuest. Dodge explains how important it is to give our students the opportunity to break away from the monotony of standardized testing. Creating an exciting and clever quest, will give them just that opportunity. The U stands for Use the medium. The WebQuest is designed to offer a challenging question to students that they must figure out by engaging on this quest to receive the answer. Giving students various websites that they can utilize to help them figure out the answer to their challenging question is the key form to ?using the medium?. The more specific interesting websites we give students while on their quest, the more they may learn on their journey. The S stands for Scaffold. Although we want to challenge our students, we do not want to set them up for failure. We do not want to create quests that are so challenging that our students cannot meet the demands of completing it. Therefore, it is necessary that we give them tools that will help them be successful along their quest (i.e. how to use the resources we may provide them along the web).
Reflection:
There are many WebQuests available online for almost any subject area you can imagine! Due to the transparent nature of the internet, like Dodge mentioned, it is necessary to be very careful when picking out a pre-made webquest. When I have my students engage in WebQuests I always make sure that I have gone through the entire quest and have checked all hyperlinks to make sure that they are still current and appropriate. Although this may take a little more time and effort on the teachers part, I suggest creating your own WebQuest. There are a multitude of sites that help teachers create WebQuests and even give a template for completion. When you create your own WebQuest you can really tailor and scaffold information that your students receive the best from the objective/question you have provided.
Posted at 10:05PM Nov 27, 2006 by RODRIGUEZ, CHRISTINE in General | Comments[0]
ECI-511 - PBL Immersion Program
Description:
The PBL Immersion program is designed to specifically create a short term immersion of a virtual environment to carry out a task or solve a problem.
Findings:
The article by Mambo and McGrath discuss the use of virtual environments and an example of a successfully implemented virtual village. In the article the immersion environment or ?virtual village? is based on the French culture. The students are required to become immersed in the French culture and communicate the way the French do. All activities that are assigned are based on the French way of life; therefore, give continuous reinforcement to the content/subject that is being taught. Mambo insists that the ability to have the students immersed in what it is that they are learning in an ?authentic? manner actually keeps the student more engaged. Although the example used in the article referred to mainly foreign languages, it is pointed out that the implementation of the program can be used for most content/subject areas. During our discussions we also find that the program was quite useful because it would lend itself to higher order thinking as well as give a teacher the ability to incorporate their curriculum. The one setback that may cause a problem for some districts would be that in order to create the virtual village you must have access to computer stations with the ability to utilize programs such as quicktime and so on. Since this immersion is an audio-visual program for students to have access to the proper technological equipment. Using quicktime students could create audio projects and shows.
Reflection:
After reading the article by Mambo I was inspired to create my own virtual village in my classroom. I developed a unit titled ?Project Passport?, where all students would be given a country to focus on while working on a particular genre or theme. Using this specific country all activities and aspect of the activities would be focused around that particular culture. For instance I was executing a Drama unit, Project Passport would cover all aspects of the objectives covered in our drama unit for that specific country/region. If students had Germany as their passport country then they would be required to focus their dramatic pieces specific to Germany and the German country. Students could create broadcasts of Nazi Germany and the events that occurred during that time period. I am extremely excited about this type of program because it is ongoing and can be switched from objective to objective and unit to unit.
There are a mulititude of variations that can be made when creating these virtual images and I am interested in seeing any blog responses as to how educators would implement this program in their classrooms...
Posted at 09:02PM Nov 27, 2006 by RODRIGUEZ, CHRISTINE in General | Comments[0]
ECI 511:Classroom Response Systems
Description:
A classroom response system or CRS is a device used to track classroom responses/information per individual student. The device uses a handheld "clicker" which allows the student/teacher to contribute an answer via an overhead projector or a powerpoint system. The responses are collected by an infrared red beam that allows a system to calculate the number of responses given and by which individual according to his/her clicker. The reponses can be detected both anonymously and by student depending on the teacher wishes.
Findings:
I was a bit unfamiliar with the CRS hardware prior to our class discussion on this particular device. While reading the article by Judson I found that the use of such devices such as the CRS are a clever component to classroom engagement as they pose a way for students to increase there knowledge using the device because they are more likely to be on task. As we discussed the pros and cons of this particular software we found that implementation would be rather simple but due to the expensive cost most school systems may not have the means for purchase. Implementing the device would be rather simple because the projector and the clickers do most of the work. Teachers would still be able to create assessments and class activities and load them onto a computer/projector. Student engagement would be a result of the simple implemtation because you would decrease student inhibitions. Students would be able to anser a question anonymously without fear of answering the question wrongly. The system would benefit teachers in the classroom if used as a tracker for student comprehension/understanding. A teacher could very quickly get a sense of whether or not students mastered or understood an objective simply by having all students answer using the clicker.
An alternative to the extreme expense would be for school systems to purchase the hardware systems by department and rotate its use among teachers.
Reflection:
Just recently our mathematics department purchased a CRS system. The teachers boasted so much about how well the system worked and how on task students were that our ELA department decided to purchase them. After using them for several weeks I saw an increase in student response rate and a slight increase on our benchmark results from first half 9 weeks to second half.
In my classroom I would pose the intended outcome/objective at the beginning of class and have students answer several multiple choice questions pertaining to the specific objective (no more than 5 questions to start). At the end of class I would pose similar questions and see how students rated from the first set to the second to determine growth of knowledge. I found that the tool was quick and easy and offered an alternative to the standard KWL and ticket out the door/exit slip! Less paper, more time!
Posted at 08:23PM Nov 27, 2006 by RODRIGUEZ, CHRISTINE in General | Comments[0]
ECI 511- Technology Integration
Description:
During our first unit classroom technological integration was discussed. Our discussion brought to the forefromt several different models that could be used for classroom/school-wide integration. The model I am choosing to discuss is the Bloom's Taxonomy focused model. The Bloom's model aims to have educators incorporate the Blooms Taxonomy stages of higher order thinking while impementing technology that would support each level.
Findings:
After reading the assigned articles and engaging in discussion on the topic, I found that the Blooms model was the most beneficial and efficient integration model. Blooms offered teachers an opportunity to continue to utilize the basis of their standard course of study and implement activities that followed the Blooms stages(using technology that was beneficial to them). The model encourages teachers to move students from a low level of thinking to the highest level of thinking on the Blooms Level(knowledge -synthesis). The model also allows for successful integration school-wide and amongst all content areas. In addition, successful integration would be contingent upon finding technology to support room for higher order thinking and growth from what is mentioned in the article by Robin Beaver, Blooms Taxonomy allows room for just that.
Reflection:
I currently work as an English/Language Arts teacher, and I found this model to work quite conveniently with my subject matter. Following my standard course of study, I am to help my students reach their highest potential when thinking critically. With the Blooms Model I would be able to maintain curriculum and have the technology I choose supplement my teching rather than having to adapt my curriculum around the technology (perfect for a teacher!). One way that I am currently implementing the functions of the model in my classroom is as follows:
I have recently been working with my AG students on an independent assignment focused on the Holocaust. My students at the beginning were asked simple who, what, where, when, why, and how question concerning the event, and are by the end of the activity are asked to analyze the effects of a such a tragic event occuring in 2006. They are to utilize interent resources in order to support their analysis of what would happen if the holocaust had occured in our present year.
Posted at 07:37PM Nov 27, 2006 by RODRIGUEZ, CHRISTINE in General | Comments[0]