Yes, In the interest of being green and conservation and also the fact that I am inherently lazy, I have decided to utilize this recycled blog for our class this fall.
I do promise clean up and topics of relevance once I figure out what excatly that is...more to come I swear.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
tap tap tap tap tapped in
I attended the Tapped in Chat “SPECIAL! Social Studies Forum PBS NewsHour Extra” in the Social Studies Forum room. The session was attended by about a dozen teachers, educators, and students from all over the country. The purpose of the session was to familiarize the teachers with the student and educator resources for the 2008 Presidential Election that can be found on the Newshour with Jim Lehrer website. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra
The “Extra” section of the website is an area that is dedicated to teacher and student resources about the political system. It is full of stories, photos, maps, polls, and interactive features for classrooms about the 2008 elections. All features are developed by a staff associated with the PBS news show, and all stories are written at a 10th grade level, and come accompanied with reading and study guides.
I was pretty impressed by all of the material that the people from the website presented to us, but more so with their ability to share and explain the site to us. They went into great detail to show the various resources that were available to educators, and also to take suggestions from us for further changes and improvements to the website. I thought these people did a great job of putting this together.
In my experience with Tapped In, I think that I liked the setup and structure of the website best. This system reminded me of a computer file system with the various offices and rooms that can be restricted or opened based upon the users needs…actually it would not surprise me if that was the way the java software worked on the system.
I also liked the chat feature that allowed for the interaction that we saw during the sessions. All of the people within the room were able to interact with the authors in the form of asking questions and also presenting URL links to the authors as well. It was an easy to follow chat program with accessibility options to make the screen pop out, or make the text larger (which is a very nice feature after you have been working at a computer all day long.)
I believe that a site like Tapped In can be a real benefit to teachers, but I think that it might take a leap of faith for many teachers to fully realize the potential, as a site like this will most likely find most of its use after hours when teachers are at home and away from their co-workers. I didn’t see a lot of activities that were scheduled for the times when teachers in the class, or even the classes themselves could be there to use them together.
However for a college class, or group of high school students, I think this could be a great benefit. If we can make facebook or Myspace such a success- then if sold right, I think this could also be a great success because of its interactivity and group collaboration functions.
The “Extra” section of the website is an area that is dedicated to teacher and student resources about the political system. It is full of stories, photos, maps, polls, and interactive features for classrooms about the 2008 elections. All features are developed by a staff associated with the PBS news show, and all stories are written at a 10th grade level, and come accompanied with reading and study guides.
I was pretty impressed by all of the material that the people from the website presented to us, but more so with their ability to share and explain the site to us. They went into great detail to show the various resources that were available to educators, and also to take suggestions from us for further changes and improvements to the website. I thought these people did a great job of putting this together.
In my experience with Tapped In, I think that I liked the setup and structure of the website best. This system reminded me of a computer file system with the various offices and rooms that can be restricted or opened based upon the users needs…actually it would not surprise me if that was the way the java software worked on the system.
I also liked the chat feature that allowed for the interaction that we saw during the sessions. All of the people within the room were able to interact with the authors in the form of asking questions and also presenting URL links to the authors as well. It was an easy to follow chat program with accessibility options to make the screen pop out, or make the text larger (which is a very nice feature after you have been working at a computer all day long.)
I believe that a site like Tapped In can be a real benefit to teachers, but I think that it might take a leap of faith for many teachers to fully realize the potential, as a site like this will most likely find most of its use after hours when teachers are at home and away from their co-workers. I didn’t see a lot of activities that were scheduled for the times when teachers in the class, or even the classes themselves could be there to use them together.
However for a college class, or group of high school students, I think this could be a great benefit. If we can make facebook or Myspace such a success- then if sold right, I think this could also be a great success because of its interactivity and group collaboration functions.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
hey...someone put computers in my classroom
Well this weeks topic for discussion dealt with the role of the classroom once all students are connected to the internet.
I think that the first thing that I would do, after I picked myself up off the floor and recovered from the shock of seeing a functional and robust internet infrastructure installed in t he classroom in a public school, would be to follow the newest buzzword in the educational arena and assess the level and needs of my students with regard to their skills and abilities online.
The resources that were available for us this week pointed to the needs of what I would want to teach my class- resources like Media Awareness Network and their Web Aware site point out the obvious to children about the web...that it's not a very nice place and people are often times not what they seem. This is important for children to know, but should also be part of a general and well thought out policy on access setup and controlled by the school district IT group.
I'm more interested in the kids learning from the net...not learning to fear it.
Cyber Citizen, the Digital Divide, and Equitable access sites are also full of information that is important for the students to understand, but not a part of what i would want to make my core curriculum in the class. I want the students to get the idea of cyber crime and understand that greedy record producers could be monitoring your downloading habits with a supoena in hand. That's important to understand, but again not the focus of what I would want learned in the classroom.
I think the the "if these walls could talk" video speaks volumes about where I see the challenges of the new computerized environment coming into play.
I think that the first thing that I would do, after I picked myself up off the floor and recovered from the shock of seeing a functional and robust internet infrastructure installed in t he classroom in a public school, would be to follow the newest buzzword in the educational arena and assess the level and needs of my students with regard to their skills and abilities online.
The resources that were available for us this week pointed to the needs of what I would want to teach my class- resources like Media Awareness Network and their Web Aware site point out the obvious to children about the web...that it's not a very nice place and people are often times not what they seem. This is important for children to know, but should also be part of a general and well thought out policy on access setup and controlled by the school district IT group.
I'm more interested in the kids learning from the net...not learning to fear it.
Cyber Citizen, the Digital Divide, and Equitable access sites are also full of information that is important for the students to understand, but not a part of what i would want to make my core curriculum in the class. I want the students to get the idea of cyber crime and understand that greedy record producers could be monitoring your downloading habits with a supoena in hand. That's important to understand, but again not the focus of what I would want learned in the classroom.
I think the the "if these walls could talk" video speaks volumes about where I see the challenges of the new computerized environment coming into play.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
How you are doing and feeling about what you have learned this week? Did the group experience help or hinder your learning experience?
Well this was the week for the obligatory group project that is always a part of these online experiences. I've been in a few of these classes before, and it's always interesting to try to work with people that I have never met in person.
We got off to an interesting start- trying to schedule via email, and contacting each other via wiki and yack pakc. We had the usual hardware issues with failing microphones and questions as to the times we were to actually meet (was it 7 or 9 PM?)
We were hesitant, no one seemed to want to dominate the conversation (especially me..as I have a tendancy to do this) but we eventually agreed upon the logical definition of duties that the project laid out. We all took a question and agreed to find some information which would add to the project...the "above and beyond" factor.
Did the group have some confusion- yes. Did we operate optimally- probably not. Did we do some good work- I think so. I dont believe that I suffered or was affected by this in anyway that I was suprised by. I just wasnt suprised by the whole process at all. The only difference in my mind was that we used some different technologies- email, yack pack, wiki pages.
I think that the success or failure of any project comes down to the individuals that make up the team. If you are willing to put in the work to make your project a success, and if you have the ability to look at a group project as a reflection of yourself...than it's not a problem to tackle a group project. I think our team was perfectly postioned in this respect, and we did a pretty good job.
We got off to an interesting start- trying to schedule via email, and contacting each other via wiki and yack pakc. We had the usual hardware issues with failing microphones and questions as to the times we were to actually meet (was it 7 or 9 PM?)
We were hesitant, no one seemed to want to dominate the conversation (especially me..as I have a tendancy to do this) but we eventually agreed upon the logical definition of duties that the project laid out. We all took a question and agreed to find some information which would add to the project...the "above and beyond" factor.
Did the group have some confusion- yes. Did we operate optimally- probably not. Did we do some good work- I think so. I dont believe that I suffered or was affected by this in anyway that I was suprised by. I just wasnt suprised by the whole process at all. The only difference in my mind was that we used some different technologies- email, yack pack, wiki pages.
I think that the success or failure of any project comes down to the individuals that make up the team. If you are willing to put in the work to make your project a success, and if you have the ability to look at a group project as a reflection of yourself...than it's not a problem to tackle a group project. I think our team was perfectly postioned in this respect, and we did a pretty good job.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
First Time - Second Life
Well, I was eventually able to make a Second Life session this week, and I think that if nothing else I am more comfortable with the software than I was before we met. I had to admit to being a little suspicious of the software as something along the lines of a Sims on steroids, and to be perfectly honest, I work on computers everyday for "real" purposes like payrolls, student registrations, and programming of alll sorts...so the idea of me creating an alternate ego for myslelf and tooling around in a Kool Aid Man costume is really not all that appealing to me personally.
I am a huge believer in the power and necessity of communication...and there is a part of me that believes that subjects in a setting like Second Life are put in a position which either inhibits this type of necessary communication, or shows people expressing themselves in ways which could cause harm to themselves in their "first" lives...through porn, exploitation, inequity, and other fun topics.
To me, Second Life just seems like something that takes away from my time that I have in my first life..which is already too darn busy. Does this mean that I think there is anything wrong with Second Life as a whole? Actually, the answer is no...I think that Second Life is a great thing, and all the problems that I described in seeing it could be found in your local library...so I'm not going to bash it. It's just not something that I think I can see myself spending a lot of time in.
As for teh educational opportunites that exist in SL, I think that they are limitless. I really liked the virtual campus environments for the University of Kentucky, BGSU, and several of the others that I later looked into. I think that a wealth of topics and information can be found in these environments and a great deal of inspired learning can go on in these environments. I think that the variety and amount of information that can be shared is an overwhelming positive of a simulation like SL, and also the format in which it can be presented - a way in which all of our senses can be stimulated. This is a great opportunity for learning which educators should not pass over lightly.
As for the dangers of this technology- I think that the dearth of communication is critical to avoid, as we dont want to make a society of folks whose only form of communication with one another is through avatar or chat session. There is also the issue of age inappropriate material in SL, as well as the problem with the veracity of the information that can be found out in SL. This isn't Fox News, so we can be sure that all the information there is true (haha.)
However , I need to reiterate that we need to temper our fears and allow this technology to play out and let our children develope critical knowledge. I'm not saying that we expose them to porn in SL, but that we not eliminate all content out of hand..this idea backfires for those who wish to ban books and ideas, and it will happen again for technology like SL if we atempt to limit it.
just some of my thoughts...thanks for listening.
I am a huge believer in the power and necessity of communication...and there is a part of me that believes that subjects in a setting like Second Life are put in a position which either inhibits this type of necessary communication, or shows people expressing themselves in ways which could cause harm to themselves in their "first" lives...through porn, exploitation, inequity, and other fun topics.
To me, Second Life just seems like something that takes away from my time that I have in my first life..which is already too darn busy. Does this mean that I think there is anything wrong with Second Life as a whole? Actually, the answer is no...I think that Second Life is a great thing, and all the problems that I described in seeing it could be found in your local library...so I'm not going to bash it. It's just not something that I think I can see myself spending a lot of time in.
As for teh educational opportunites that exist in SL, I think that they are limitless. I really liked the virtual campus environments for the University of Kentucky, BGSU, and several of the others that I later looked into. I think that a wealth of topics and information can be found in these environments and a great deal of inspired learning can go on in these environments. I think that the variety and amount of information that can be shared is an overwhelming positive of a simulation like SL, and also the format in which it can be presented - a way in which all of our senses can be stimulated. This is a great opportunity for learning which educators should not pass over lightly.
As for the dangers of this technology- I think that the dearth of communication is critical to avoid, as we dont want to make a society of folks whose only form of communication with one another is through avatar or chat session. There is also the issue of age inappropriate material in SL, as well as the problem with the veracity of the information that can be found out in SL. This isn't Fox News, so we can be sure that all the information there is true (haha.)
However , I need to reiterate that we need to temper our fears and allow this technology to play out and let our children develope critical knowledge. I'm not saying that we expose them to porn in SL, but that we not eliminate all content out of hand..this idea backfires for those who wish to ban books and ideas, and it will happen again for technology like SL if we atempt to limit it.
just some of my thoughts...thanks for listening.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
In what ways will the evolution of Web 2.0 potentially change the educational process?
Changes made by Web 2.0 technology could have a definite effect on our lives. When you think about the first video in the assignment the first words that appear are "text is linear" but "digital text is different."
This reminds me of the first experiences I had with the internet in the 1990's, where some basic HTML coding changed the way that I looked at things altogether, and waiting 10 minutes for a page of text to load information about movies, baseball, or politics was something that was just cool.
However, as the second video pointed out, web 2.0 allows us to do many of these same things but only now with personalization or flash and pizzaz. We can add video or sound content and link the data across the world on blogs, wikis, and podcasts. We are seeing the dawn of the creative internet in web 2.0.
Tim Berhners-Lee (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/podcast/dwi/cm-int082206txt.html) talks of the web 2.0 technology being nothing more that "what the web was meant to be anyway" and I think that is what the appeal is with the amount of user driven content...we have progressed from the World Wide Web being something that no one owned to Web 2.0 making the intenet into something that we can all stake a claim to...the internet has become ours...and for a change we have a clue what to do with it.
if you look at the types of technology that are in play- between podcasts, blogs, wikis, social networking sites, and other content driven delivery you can see where there is potential for massive change in the educational system as well. One of the largest criticisms of the current educational system is that "cookie cutter" approach to where lessons and ideas are taught from the top down...with little input from the students. We have students learning lessons which are often times less and less relevant to their situations.
I believe the oportunity of web 2.0 is that the technologies position themselves to support and encourage critical thinking and understanding of issues and ideas. Web based podcasts and videos can show and inspire creative thinking about ideas and spur the type of question and response that simple debate without stimulus cannot. I think that this technology allows us to expand not only our grasp of educatonal topics...but the depth of them as well.
We are indeed beginning, as the video states, to practice new and creative ways to be free and equal human beings. In my eyes, this is the reason for education in the first place. If web 2.0 technology can spur that for all people...I am all for it.
More to come...Russ
This reminds me of the first experiences I had with the internet in the 1990's, where some basic HTML coding changed the way that I looked at things altogether, and waiting 10 minutes for a page of text to load information about movies, baseball, or politics was something that was just cool.
However, as the second video pointed out, web 2.0 allows us to do many of these same things but only now with personalization or flash and pizzaz. We can add video or sound content and link the data across the world on blogs, wikis, and podcasts. We are seeing the dawn of the creative internet in web 2.0.
Tim Berhners-Lee (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/podcast/dwi/cm-int082206txt.html) talks of the web 2.0 technology being nothing more that "what the web was meant to be anyway" and I think that is what the appeal is with the amount of user driven content...we have progressed from the World Wide Web being something that no one owned to Web 2.0 making the intenet into something that we can all stake a claim to...the internet has become ours...and for a change we have a clue what to do with it.
if you look at the types of technology that are in play- between podcasts, blogs, wikis, social networking sites, and other content driven delivery you can see where there is potential for massive change in the educational system as well. One of the largest criticisms of the current educational system is that "cookie cutter" approach to where lessons and ideas are taught from the top down...with little input from the students. We have students learning lessons which are often times less and less relevant to their situations.
I believe the oportunity of web 2.0 is that the technologies position themselves to support and encourage critical thinking and understanding of issues and ideas. Web based podcasts and videos can show and inspire creative thinking about ideas and spur the type of question and response that simple debate without stimulus cannot. I think that this technology allows us to expand not only our grasp of educatonal topics...but the depth of them as well.
We are indeed beginning, as the video states, to practice new and creative ways to be free and equal human beings. In my eyes, this is the reason for education in the first place. If web 2.0 technology can spur that for all people...I am all for it.
More to come...Russ
Monday, January 21, 2008
Technical Difficulties
Well I suppose that all educational experience is not something that should be taken for granted, and that even we technical people run into things that just mystify us as to their workings.
I believe that this weekend with the Podcast, and also my systems at work (curse them and their hardware failover) falls into this catagory of problems. The Dreaded "Technical Difficulties.
However, what happens when we are not technically saavy educators and things dont continue to work for us? Is there help available from the school or organization to talk us through or even better...educate us on how this all works?
This lack of training and instruction is something that we in the educational arena are quick to criticize the business arena for, but fall victim to ourselves. We are dependent on the technology, but often leave it to the user to figure out due to bad planning or small budgets.
I believe that we need to take a critical look at this, and look at technology skills, be it Microsoft Word Shortcuts or embedded podcasts, as no different that basic needed skills. Otherwise we will continue to fall short in our goal to integrate technology into the classroom.
thanks for reading, I'm going to go work on this podcast as soon as my 11 year old son shows me how to work the DVR."
I believe that this weekend with the Podcast, and also my systems at work (curse them and their hardware failover) falls into this catagory of problems. The Dreaded "Technical Difficulties.
However, what happens when we are not technically saavy educators and things dont continue to work for us? Is there help available from the school or organization to talk us through or even better...educate us on how this all works?
This lack of training and instruction is something that we in the educational arena are quick to criticize the business arena for, but fall victim to ourselves. We are dependent on the technology, but often leave it to the user to figure out due to bad planning or small budgets.
I believe that we need to take a critical look at this, and look at technology skills, be it Microsoft Word Shortcuts or embedded podcasts, as no different that basic needed skills. Otherwise we will continue to fall short in our goal to integrate technology into the classroom.
thanks for reading, I'm going to go work on this podcast as soon as my 11 year old son shows me how to work the DVR."
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