After reviewing the list of online applications for office suites and photo editing, I went through and tried each and every application. The application for office suites that I found to be the best in my opinion was Google Documents. I loved all the photo editing applications and each had its own pluses. In the end I have chosen Sumo Paint because currently in my Computer Literacy class we use Adobe Photoshop and this application really mirrors it in look and usage.
Google Documents
Google documents has many great features that make it very user friendly such as being able to convert existing documents, can share easily, can collaborate on documents with others, and many more things. In the word document portion of this office suite, you have all the same features of Microsoft Word. Some nice features of this software is that it auto saves every few seconds, your documents are also saved on a server that can be accessed from anywhere you have Internet access. Another great feature is the collaboration feature, this is where you can give authorship rights to multiple people and you can work on a document together. You can actually all be at separate computers typing at the same time and within seconds see on your screen what everyone has been typing or working on. This is great to use for students to use especially for group assignments. The collaboration piece is great because teachers can see exactly what each student did because it is color coded for what they typed. No more one person doing the whole project and everyone getting the credit. This application also eliminates the excuses we get from students that their printer ran out of in or their printer is broken, they now can easily access it from the web and print it at school or share it with the teacher.
Besides the Word portion in the application, there are softwares for Presentations (similar to Microsoft PowerPoint), Spreadsheets (Similar to Microsoft Excel), and Forms. I really like the Forms software. This is great to develop permission slips or even create simple online quizzes. The quiz results are easily tabulated and compiled into a Google spreadsheet. You can even have the quizzes automatically graded for you. All this is done through giving the students the link to the Form you created. This would be an awesome tool to check for student understanding in classrooms that have a 1 to 1 computer to student program.
I totally would recommend sharing this with students and colleagues. The possibilities are endless with this tool. Oh by the way, did I mention that this is free. I did some research to see how much we spend for licensing per computer for Microsoft Office and I found out that we spend $54 per computer every time we buy a computer. After finding this out, I instantly thought of all the money that could be spent elsewhere if we used free applications. Maybe we could be a 1 to 1 school district or at least the elective teachers could get Interactive White Boards like the core teachers got this year.
Sumo Paint
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, we currently use Adobe Photoshop in our Computer Literacy curriculum. I explored and used Sumo Paint and found that it is very similar not only in looks but how it operates to Adobe Photoshop. Anyone who has used Adobe Photoshop could very easily use Sumo Paint. The tool bars are identical and only look slightly different probably because of copyrights, but are easily identified. Other benefits are that the application is online, so you can access it anywhere you have Internet access and you don't have to take up space on your computer because the program is not downloaded to your computer like Adobe Photoshop. On different feature that Sumo Paint has is that your color palette and layer palette are easily accessible on the right side of the page. I tried to find out what it costs for each computer license of Adobe Photoshop and nobody I asked had a precise answer for me. I know if I were to buy it, it would cost $100 for an individual copy. I imagine there is a school discount and bulk discount, so I would guess that it would probably cost the district around $60 per seat. Again, Sumo Paint is FREE so we could be saving money in this tight economy or at least use the money in different areas.
I feel free softwares and applications are going to be the ways in which education saves money when it comes to technology. It is the way of the future!! I already use several open source applications in my technology lab. Hope these reviews help you.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Week 11 - Website Creation
I created this website because my school is thinking about having each teacher in the building create a website that would be linked to our school website. My principal would like us to have the capability to post what we are working on during the week and what homework assignments that students will have for the week. Since I am an elective teacher, I decided to include a syllabus or a course description for each grade level. I only have students for nine weeks, so this will help keep parents informed. I like the fact that parents or students can subscribe to my announcements and homework posts. This will give them instant updates anytime I post something new. I also did the contact me form that way if there are any questions, parents or students can easily reach me. Here is the link to my website: https://sites.google.com/site/pinewoodmiddleschooltechnology
Monday, November 8, 2010
Week 10- Concept Mapping
The concept map above represents a mapping for creating a website for the classes that I teach at my middle school. One thing that my school is trying to start is to have each teacher create a web page for their classes. Because I teach multiple grade levels and classes, I have the idea to create one website that contains several pages for each class. Each page for each subject will be connected back to a homework hot line page that will be updated weekly with the weeks assignments. There will also be a page that contains resources for each class for students and parents. This is a nice tool to be able to organize your thoughts as you start a project. Students could easily use this application to construct an outline for projects or papers that they are writing.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Week 9 - Screen Cast
The screen cast that I made was an intro for students getting ready to use a software application from Google called Google Sketch Up. It is a free application and teachers can upgrade to the Pro version for free also. This program is a 3-D CAD (computer aided design)applications that allows you to draw three dimensionally. This screen cast teaches the students where to find tools and the basics to doing some basic construction. This would compliment my lesson in my technology class when we begin our unit on Google sketch up. I typically start out demonstrating to the students on my computer and projector, but now students could view it at their own pace or if a student was absent when I covered this info, they could simply follow the tutorial when they get back to school or home. This is great to make lessons interactive or differentiate for learners with different learning styles.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Week 8- Google Maps
Google Maps
Google maps is a really awesome application. After thinking for a while about how I could have students use Google maps, I came up with an idea of using Google maps in 8th grade U.S. History to map out the battles of the civil war. Students would be assigned certain battles of the civil war from various states and would pin point on the map where there battles took place. They then would list various facts about that battle: like who the generals were for each side, dates of the battle, casualties, and who won the battle. Students could also attach photos of the area and make links to websites about the battle. By doing this activity, the students could create a historical timeline and map of the civil war. This would make the activity more interactive for the students and they then have an interactive guide for the war that they can access from anywhere. Here is the link to an example of what the students would create: Google Civil War Map
Below is also the map embedded on my blog.
View Civil War Battlefields in a larger map
Google maps is a really awesome application. After thinking for a while about how I could have students use Google maps, I came up with an idea of using Google maps in 8th grade U.S. History to map out the battles of the civil war. Students would be assigned certain battles of the civil war from various states and would pin point on the map where there battles took place. They then would list various facts about that battle: like who the generals were for each side, dates of the battle, casualties, and who won the battle. Students could also attach photos of the area and make links to websites about the battle. By doing this activity, the students could create a historical timeline and map of the civil war. This would make the activity more interactive for the students and they then have an interactive guide for the war that they can access from anywhere. Here is the link to an example of what the students would create: Google Civil War Map
Below is also the map embedded on my blog.
View Civil War Battlefields in a larger map
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Week 7- Pocasting and Chp. 14
1.) After reading chapter 14 and pondering the question that was posed to us this week, I can see that some of the ideas, concepts and principles from HPI could be applied in education. I know that as the public and government is calling for school reform, we should maybe use the concepts from HPI to help create quality learning for our students. Many teachers administered the MEAP over the past two weeks and wonder how our students have performed on these state tests. We also have had many things such as NCLB act and a resent movie release “Waiting for Superman,” that suggest our schools need to change so that our students perform better. As I looked this week at the two figures in the book on HPT models, it got me thinking that maybe we need to go through these processes as we look at fixing the education system. These processes have been developed over time and have worked in the business sector and may just work in the education field. As a school district or even as a building we need to identify our weaknesses and strengths and from there work on analyzing the cause for those weaknesses. Once we analyze the causes for our weaknesses, we need to work at implementing interventions or strategies to improve. I know we currently work on this in my district through committees called SIP (School Improvement Plan). The state mandates that each school in Michigan has a SIP. These are goals and things that you are going to work on to help you meet or maintain your AYP(annual yearly progress). These plans may include the use of technology, but don’t have to. We do use a technology in my school district called “READ 180” by Scholastic as an intervention to help students who are reading below grade level. This is one of those implementations that we use in our SIP. I really could identify with figure 14.2 on page 141, on how it is a continuous cycle. My lesson plans are the same way and so is our SIP. Our goals change, our students needs change, and the way our students learn change and therefore so do our lessons and school improvement plans. As a teacher, I have to adapt to our clients (students). Maybe, someone in this class can develop an HPI model for education and make millions.
2.) I listened to several podcasts, but I also created my own. One of the ones I listened to was about how technology was linking parents to schools. They talked about parents been able to link to their students grades, blogs and class websites. This was in a school in South Carolina. Here is the link for that podcast: Technology links parents
I also created my own podcast about what we are currently working on in the computer lit class that I teach. Here’s the link for that pod cast: >My first podcast
3.) I think that podcasts could add a lot of value to education. You can follow trends that are happening in education and receive information on various topics. You can have students create pod casts about what they learned and check for understanding. You can also share events with students that are to far away to have a whole class travel to in the allotted time of the school days. One example is cultural traditions from around the world, that could be experienced by students in a world geography or world history class through a podcast(audio) or a vodcast (video). This for many students is more authentic experience than just reading about the subject matter in a book. The more involved and authentic the experience is, the better students grasp the knowledge we want the to learn. You can also use podcast to inform parents about what their child is learning in school. This allows parents to interact more with their children in regards to what they are learning in school. That way parents won’t just get the typical one word responses about what’s going on at school. I am going to try and start doing podcasts for my classes. Thanks for encouraging to use and explore podcasts.
2.) I listened to several podcasts, but I also created my own. One of the ones I listened to was about how technology was linking parents to schools. They talked about parents been able to link to their students grades, blogs and class websites. This was in a school in South Carolina. Here is the link for that podcast: Technology links parents
I also created my own podcast about what we are currently working on in the computer lit class that I teach. Here’s the link for that pod cast: >My first podcast
3.) I think that podcasts could add a lot of value to education. You can follow trends that are happening in education and receive information on various topics. You can have students create pod casts about what they learned and check for understanding. You can also share events with students that are to far away to have a whole class travel to in the allotted time of the school days. One example is cultural traditions from around the world, that could be experienced by students in a world geography or world history class through a podcast(audio) or a vodcast (video). This for many students is more authentic experience than just reading about the subject matter in a book. The more involved and authentic the experience is, the better students grasp the knowledge we want the to learn. You can also use podcast to inform parents about what their child is learning in school. This allows parents to interact more with their children in regards to what they are learning in school. That way parents won’t just get the typical one word responses about what’s going on at school. I am going to try and start doing podcasts for my classes. Thanks for encouraging to use and explore podcasts.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Podcasting
I decided to give the creating my own podcast a try. Here is the link below to my podcast. I had trouble embedding the podcast player from Podbean into my blog, so here's the link to the podcast below.
My first podcast
I also looked at several podcasts. I like the NPR and CNN podcasts. I even have a podcast widget on this blog at the bottom.
My first podcast
I also looked at several podcasts. I like the NPR and CNN podcasts. I even have a podcast widget on this blog at the bottom.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Week 6 - Discussion
Greg Mileski
Week 6 Discussion
Oct. 13, 2010
Dr. Horitz
After reading the chapter this week and reflecting on the application question at the end of the chapter, I feel that the Internet and World Wide Web will have impacts on education. To what degree, I am still uncertain. I am however going to give my thoughts in this discussion on each of the three categories of K-12 education, Higher education, and Adult education.
The impact that the Internet and Web will have on K-12 education, I feel will vary depending on grade level. I think that at the younger grade levels of K-5 that it will have the least impact because learners need to learn the basics before they can really utilize their functions. Learners at this age need to know how to spell and read before they can perform searches effectively. However, any type of video or audio media that is available from these technologies could impact their education. The majority of their educational time in school though is used to teach the basics of writing, reading, spelling, and arithmetic. I do know that there are things available on the Internet and Web to help with these areas, but most are for remediation and are used by a smaller population of students. I do believe that the Internet and Web will have a major impact the grade level 6 -12 especially at the upper parts of these levels. At this level students will be able to access all sorts of information and even use it to communicate and collaborate with students. The technology also allows for educators to develop more authentic assignments and make what the students are leaning connected to the real world. Thus, answering that famous question that us teachers get from our students, “Why do we have to do this?” The reason I said that it will impact the upper level even more is because it makes it possible for students to take classes online that may not be able to be taught within their school building. This also will allow students to create their own curriculum track as long as it meets state and federal mandates for education.
As far as the impact of the Internet and Web on Higher education (community colleges, colleges, and universities), I believe it will have a major impact because it will allow students to take classes from anywhere on earth. It also allows students to do the majority of their research without having to go to the library. A go example of this is our current class. You can get a whole degree online without ever stepping on a college campus. I have a colleague that just graduated with a masters from the University of Phoenix and the only time he was on campus was when he went out their for graduation. I did a search on the Internet for how many people are enrolled in online college classes and here’s the results I found: In the U.S., 3.5 million students were enrolled in one or more online college courses during the 2006-2007 academic year. That number equals one fifth of the population of college students. http://www.america.gov/st/educ-english/2008/January/20080108101202attocnich0.4027674.html
I would say that this is quite a major impact.
I also see the Internet and Web having a major impact in adult education (in businesses, government, and/or the military. People in the business sector use the Internet to reach clients and to research business opportunities. Companies also use it to provide training for there workers. It is cheaper to do online training than it is to bring in a professional that needs to be paid. Also you don’t need to pull someone off of the job they are doing to train someone else and productivity stays up higher. As far as the government, most their paper work and documents are stored on a server on the web. This speeds up their productivity. The military uses the Internet extensively for communication and satellite feeds. These I am for sure will continue to be used more and more.
I do think that you can’t totally eliminate the human experience from education. You still need to have interaction between people. There is that social need inside us where we need to see and experience a persons nonverbal communication skills. I’m interested to read others thoughts on this topic.
Week 6 Discussion
Oct. 13, 2010
Dr. Horitz
After reading the chapter this week and reflecting on the application question at the end of the chapter, I feel that the Internet and World Wide Web will have impacts on education. To what degree, I am still uncertain. I am however going to give my thoughts in this discussion on each of the three categories of K-12 education, Higher education, and Adult education.
The impact that the Internet and Web will have on K-12 education, I feel will vary depending on grade level. I think that at the younger grade levels of K-5 that it will have the least impact because learners need to learn the basics before they can really utilize their functions. Learners at this age need to know how to spell and read before they can perform searches effectively. However, any type of video or audio media that is available from these technologies could impact their education. The majority of their educational time in school though is used to teach the basics of writing, reading, spelling, and arithmetic. I do know that there are things available on the Internet and Web to help with these areas, but most are for remediation and are used by a smaller population of students. I do believe that the Internet and Web will have a major impact the grade level 6 -12 especially at the upper parts of these levels. At this level students will be able to access all sorts of information and even use it to communicate and collaborate with students. The technology also allows for educators to develop more authentic assignments and make what the students are leaning connected to the real world. Thus, answering that famous question that us teachers get from our students, “Why do we have to do this?” The reason I said that it will impact the upper level even more is because it makes it possible for students to take classes online that may not be able to be taught within their school building. This also will allow students to create their own curriculum track as long as it meets state and federal mandates for education.
As far as the impact of the Internet and Web on Higher education (community colleges, colleges, and universities), I believe it will have a major impact because it will allow students to take classes from anywhere on earth. It also allows students to do the majority of their research without having to go to the library. A go example of this is our current class. You can get a whole degree online without ever stepping on a college campus. I have a colleague that just graduated with a masters from the University of Phoenix and the only time he was on campus was when he went out their for graduation. I did a search on the Internet for how many people are enrolled in online college classes and here’s the results I found: In the U.S., 3.5 million students were enrolled in one or more online college courses during the 2006-2007 academic year. That number equals one fifth of the population of college students. http://www.america.gov/st/educ-english/2008/January/20080108101202attocnich0.4027674.html
I would say that this is quite a major impact.
I also see the Internet and Web having a major impact in adult education (in businesses, government, and/or the military. People in the business sector use the Internet to reach clients and to research business opportunities. Companies also use it to provide training for there workers. It is cheaper to do online training than it is to bring in a professional that needs to be paid. Also you don’t need to pull someone off of the job they are doing to train someone else and productivity stays up higher. As far as the government, most their paper work and documents are stored on a server on the web. This speeds up their productivity. The military uses the Internet extensively for communication and satellite feeds. These I am for sure will continue to be used more and more.
I do think that you can’t totally eliminate the human experience from education. You still need to have interaction between people. There is that social need inside us where we need to see and experience a persons nonverbal communication skills. I’m interested to read others thoughts on this topic.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Week 6- Embedding
Here's a cool video about technology that is being developed.
Static Picture
This picture is from Art Prize 2010, take on Sunday Oct. 3 by me.
Here's my Google Map
This is the middle school where I teach.
View Larger Map
Static Picture
This picture is from Art Prize 2010, take on Sunday Oct. 3 by me.
Here's my Google Map
This is the middle school where I teach.
View Larger Map
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Week 5 - Photo Sharing and Istructional Design
Greg Mileski
Week 5 - Flickr and Chapter 2
Dr. Horvitz
Oct. 6, 2010
I can see photo sharing being incorporated in many educational activities. I see photo sharing being used in the following areas:
Social Studies- units on world cultures, different lands or even just exploring places you couldn't travel to due to time and money. (Virtual tours)
Language Arts- Using pictures for written prompts or to create stories.
Science-when talking about different land structures and tree identification.
Math- To talk about shapes, scale and measurements.
Technology- How to tag things and post things.
As for concerns about using photo sharing, I have concerns about students posting things that are inappropriate or giving out too much information. Here with students, it is important to talk about Internet safety and to teach them about the option to mark things for public view or private view. We don’t need students posting their names and tagging friends in pictures that can be viewed by the public. Unfortunately, we have some sick people in this world that prey on children because of information they post. Photo sharing if taught in school does provide an opportunity for educators to teach those Internet safety skills.
Benefits of Photo sharing sites are that they let you organize your picture, label them, and create albums that you can easily share with others. Some sites even provide you with options to create prints for reasonable prices. A few other benefits are that your pictures are stored out on a server so if you have a fire in your house you don’t lose your photos and you also can access your photos anywhere you have Internet access.
As I read chapter 2, I really liked how they outlined the elements/phases of instructional design called ADDIE. I also liked how they listed six characteristics of instructional design. Since I am a teacher, I could see some similarities between the process the authors described and processes I’ve used to develop lesson plans. The processes that are similar are that I try to identify the goals, make it learner centered, make authentic assessments (usually project based), and I also collect data as we go through lessons to check for understanding. Like they say in the reading it usually takes a team to make instructional design effective and efficient, this is probably why some lessons don’t measure up so well. When this happens, this allows for that revision process. This is also another reason it is good to collaborate with other teachers and colleagues. In my district we have professional development days in our schedule about every two months which gives us time to collaborate with other teachers. Since I teach technology, I meet with the other two tech teachers form the other two middle schools. This is a valuable time to discuss and revise lesson plans. I’m glad to see similarities between creating lesson plans and the instructional design process.
Differences I see are that instructional design usually takes a team of people with a wide range of skills and usually takes a longer time than me making a lesson plan. Lesson plans for me may take only a week or less to design, but they are modified constantly for the learners. The other difference is the time constraints of the education process. We don’t always have time to dwell on a topic for long periods of time because of the amount of material that needs to be covered. Unfortunately, we as teachers use practices that get the majority of students to learn the material and move on because of this. Those who don’t master it either fall behind or get remediation. Maybe we need to fix this! Where to start?
Week 5 - Flickr and Chapter 2
Dr. Horvitz
Oct. 6, 2010
I can see photo sharing being incorporated in many educational activities. I see photo sharing being used in the following areas:
Social Studies- units on world cultures, different lands or even just exploring places you couldn't travel to due to time and money. (Virtual tours)
Language Arts- Using pictures for written prompts or to create stories.
Science-when talking about different land structures and tree identification.
Math- To talk about shapes, scale and measurements.
Technology- How to tag things and post things.
As for concerns about using photo sharing, I have concerns about students posting things that are inappropriate or giving out too much information. Here with students, it is important to talk about Internet safety and to teach them about the option to mark things for public view or private view. We don’t need students posting their names and tagging friends in pictures that can be viewed by the public. Unfortunately, we have some sick people in this world that prey on children because of information they post. Photo sharing if taught in school does provide an opportunity for educators to teach those Internet safety skills.
Benefits of Photo sharing sites are that they let you organize your picture, label them, and create albums that you can easily share with others. Some sites even provide you with options to create prints for reasonable prices. A few other benefits are that your pictures are stored out on a server so if you have a fire in your house you don’t lose your photos and you also can access your photos anywhere you have Internet access.
As I read chapter 2, I really liked how they outlined the elements/phases of instructional design called ADDIE. I also liked how they listed six characteristics of instructional design. Since I am a teacher, I could see some similarities between the process the authors described and processes I’ve used to develop lesson plans. The processes that are similar are that I try to identify the goals, make it learner centered, make authentic assessments (usually project based), and I also collect data as we go through lessons to check for understanding. Like they say in the reading it usually takes a team to make instructional design effective and efficient, this is probably why some lessons don’t measure up so well. When this happens, this allows for that revision process. This is also another reason it is good to collaborate with other teachers and colleagues. In my district we have professional development days in our schedule about every two months which gives us time to collaborate with other teachers. Since I teach technology, I meet with the other two tech teachers form the other two middle schools. This is a valuable time to discuss and revise lesson plans. I’m glad to see similarities between creating lesson plans and the instructional design process.
Differences I see are that instructional design usually takes a team of people with a wide range of skills and usually takes a longer time than me making a lesson plan. Lesson plans for me may take only a week or less to design, but they are modified constantly for the learners. The other difference is the time constraints of the education process. We don’t always have time to dwell on a topic for long periods of time because of the amount of material that needs to be covered. Unfortunately, we as teachers use practices that get the majority of students to learn the material and move on because of this. Those who don’t master it either fall behind or get remediation. Maybe we need to fix this! Where to start?
Monday, October 4, 2010
Week 5 -Flickr post
Well, here's my link to my Flickr photos. I went to downtown Grand Rapids on Sunday with my oldest daughter and we walked around Art Prize 2010. These are some of the photos from our trip.
Here's the link:
My Flickr Photos
Enjoy!!!
Here's the link:
My Flickr Photos
Enjoy!!!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Week 4- Delicious and "Trends and Issues"
Greg Mileski
Week 4- Social bookmarking and IDT
Dr. Horvitz
I really like using social bookmarking. I have had a delicious account for about two years now. This is great because I was always finding interesting things on the web and bookmarking them just to the computer I was on, that made it hard to access them if I was on a different computer. I would find things at school on my desktop computer and mark them there, then I might be at home trying to find that website and I couldn’t access them or find them easily because they weren’t bookmarked on that computer. Frustrating!! Now with delicious, I can find my websites I have bookmarked anywhere I have Internet access.
This is also a great value for teachers and students. Teachers can share bookmarks easily with colleagues using social bookmarking. Rather than sending individual websites to colleagues, they can access all your sites that you mark as public. You just need to share your delicious page address. The other nice thing is that others have bookmarked things that may be useful for you. This cuts down the amount of wasted time. For instance, I was looking for some resources for my geometry class and I was able to link onto other peoples delicious accounts by doing a search in delicious for things tagged as geometry. I found several great resources marked by other Geometry teachers. With the vast majority of information out on the web to sift through, I find it’s easier to use delicious to sort it all out. If others have bookmarked it, it probably is useful.
The potential for students is endless. Students could use a teachers bookmaking's to help locate resources on various topics. Students can also use it to keep their bookmarks organized in a fashion that they can use. It also allows them to access site anywhere they have Internet access, without having to remember individual URL addresses.
At first, I thought educational technology was just talking about the tools and software that you used to teach students. After reading the first chapter in Trends and Issues, I thought it was neat to see how the definitions for the field have changed over time and rightly so as the various types of technology has changed. If you think about the type of technology that was around when the first definition was created (ie. pictures, films and slides) compared to the type of technology around today (ie. Internet, Interactive whiteboards and podcast), then there is no wonder way the definition has changed. Besides, the field is more than just the equipment (media) used in the field it is also the techniques (instructional design) and human performance. When I think how knowing the new definition will help me in my career, I now know that it is more than just the media. When I’m looking at new technologies, I’ll now look at the media, the processes and how it will impact the learners performance. I like that Instructional Design and Technology looks at what problems need to be solved for students educationally, how a student learns and what the student needs to achieve the goal or task at hand. I feel Technology should answer these questions or not be used in education. I wonder how long until we get a new and improved definition?
Week 4- Social bookmarking and IDT
Dr. Horvitz
I really like using social bookmarking. I have had a delicious account for about two years now. This is great because I was always finding interesting things on the web and bookmarking them just to the computer I was on, that made it hard to access them if I was on a different computer. I would find things at school on my desktop computer and mark them there, then I might be at home trying to find that website and I couldn’t access them or find them easily because they weren’t bookmarked on that computer. Frustrating!! Now with delicious, I can find my websites I have bookmarked anywhere I have Internet access.
This is also a great value for teachers and students. Teachers can share bookmarks easily with colleagues using social bookmarking. Rather than sending individual websites to colleagues, they can access all your sites that you mark as public. You just need to share your delicious page address. The other nice thing is that others have bookmarked things that may be useful for you. This cuts down the amount of wasted time. For instance, I was looking for some resources for my geometry class and I was able to link onto other peoples delicious accounts by doing a search in delicious for things tagged as geometry. I found several great resources marked by other Geometry teachers. With the vast majority of information out on the web to sift through, I find it’s easier to use delicious to sort it all out. If others have bookmarked it, it probably is useful.
The potential for students is endless. Students could use a teachers bookmaking's to help locate resources on various topics. Students can also use it to keep their bookmarks organized in a fashion that they can use. It also allows them to access site anywhere they have Internet access, without having to remember individual URL addresses.
At first, I thought educational technology was just talking about the tools and software that you used to teach students. After reading the first chapter in Trends and Issues, I thought it was neat to see how the definitions for the field have changed over time and rightly so as the various types of technology has changed. If you think about the type of technology that was around when the first definition was created (ie. pictures, films and slides) compared to the type of technology around today (ie. Internet, Interactive whiteboards and podcast), then there is no wonder way the definition has changed. Besides, the field is more than just the equipment (media) used in the field it is also the techniques (instructional design) and human performance. When I think how knowing the new definition will help me in my career, I now know that it is more than just the media. When I’m looking at new technologies, I’ll now look at the media, the processes and how it will impact the learners performance. I like that Instructional Design and Technology looks at what problems need to be solved for students educationally, how a student learns and what the student needs to achieve the goal or task at hand. I feel Technology should answer these questions or not be used in education. I wonder how long until we get a new and improved definition?
Saturday, September 25, 2010
My delicious website link-week 4
Here's the link to my delicious social bookmarking sight.
http:www.delicious.com/milesgre
Have fun looking at my links and hopefully some of them you can use.
http:www.delicious.com/milesgre
Have fun looking at my links and hopefully some of them you can use.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Week 3 - Wikis
It was great to watch and read about wikis. I had used a wiki one other time when I took a class through the Kent ISD called “23 Things”. The class was all about 23 web 2.0 tools that you could use in the classroom. I hadn’t really given much thought about wikis since that class. Now that I have used them again, I can see them being used in several ways. One such way that I can see them being used is for collaboration for group projects. Students could create pages for all parts of their project. They could have a page for listing items that need to be done, a page for who is assigned to do those tasks and create a page for each task. An example of this would be a group of students that had to do a project on a country for their geography class. The pages inside their wiki could be one for language, religion, cultural traditions, description of land and etc. I can also see wikis being used by students to get feedback from classmates on different topics.
The middle school were I teach is even looking at using wikis to post our homework hot-line on. I see the school having a page to update upcoming events and then that wiki page having links to the various pages that each teacher has created. Teachers would have to make sure they update them on a regular basis, whether that is daily or weekly. I’ve been asked to help assist in this. I’m looking forward to see how it is accepted by my staff and to see if the students and parents will use it. Currently not many students or parents use or phone line homework hot-line. The more options that we give parents and students to stay informed, the better our students will perform.
The other way that I can see wikis being used is to create a compiled list of resource for students on the different topics that I discuss in class. This would be really useful for those students that have trouble finding quality information when the do searches on the Internet. Students can get to work quickly and can stay focused on the topics at hand. The only time I wouldn’t have them use this if I was assessing them on being able to find valuable or pertinent information from the web.
I’m looking forward to seeing what other ways you all have come up with to use wikis.
The middle school were I teach is even looking at using wikis to post our homework hot-line on. I see the school having a page to update upcoming events and then that wiki page having links to the various pages that each teacher has created. Teachers would have to make sure they update them on a regular basis, whether that is daily or weekly. I’ve been asked to help assist in this. I’m looking forward to see how it is accepted by my staff and to see if the students and parents will use it. Currently not many students or parents use or phone line homework hot-line. The more options that we give parents and students to stay informed, the better our students will perform.
The other way that I can see wikis being used is to create a compiled list of resource for students on the different topics that I discuss in class. This would be really useful for those students that have trouble finding quality information when the do searches on the Internet. Students can get to work quickly and can stay focused on the topics at hand. The only time I wouldn’t have them use this if I was assessing them on being able to find valuable or pertinent information from the web.
I’m looking forward to seeing what other ways you all have come up with to use wikis.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Week 2 Blogs, RSS, Dale's Cone, and Siegel
My early impressions of blogs are that they are an effective way to share information with individuals. I used a blog before with a class that I had taken through the Kent ISD called "23 Things." It also can be a nice way to get feed back from readers through their comments they post. It is nice to be able to ask the writers of information questions.
As far as my experiences with RSS Readers, I love them. This is a nice simple way to follow information that is updated without having to type in a thousand different websites or clicking on your favorite’s folder and selecting each site. You can simply read the headlines to see if it is what you want or not. If it interests you, then you can click to find out more. I have feeds to news, sports, free technology, and blogs that I follow. This really decreases the amount of time I could be wasting by going to all those websites individually. I'm sure we have gone to a website and found that on a particular day, there was nothing of value to us. That totally wastes your time. If you are like me, my day is to busy to waste time.
After reading Dale’s Cone, I find that Blogs and RSS best fit in the Visual symbol section of the cone. Blogs fit well here because they can give you that timeline of events. For instance, I had a friend that adopted two more children from Bogota, Columbia and they blogged daily about the adoption process. They were in Bogota for three months while paperwork was being done. It was great to be able to follow their daily happenings and see pictures. It made you feel as if you were going through the experience with them. Without this technology, we wouldn’t have known this information until they got back. The reason I feel RSS fits here is because of the way information is organized in a flow chart on the left side of the screen and tide-bits of information of postings are put in order of event (date & time). Information in RSS is in a nice and easy to read format without having to go to many websites.
In regards to Siegel’s article on “computer imagination,” I feel that RSS feeds can be used by students to filter and access information from the web. This gives them up to date information that they can glance at quickly and find the relative information, making them more efficient and productive. No searching many sites, just get your information dumped into one site. One imaginative educational use for blogs that I can see is that you could share events or cultural customs with people from different places in a timely fashion. You can even post comments or ask questions. I could see my student’s blogging with students from all parts of the world. Students not only write, but include pictures and embed videos in their blogs to educate each other. One of my colleagues uses blogs to make his room paperless and to check for understanding of what his students learned each day. This allows for him to post individual comments and answer some of those questions that the students didn’t want to ask in front of their peers. That alone is a plus in my book. I’m curious to find what other imaginative ways others thought to use Blogs and RSS in education.
As far as my experiences with RSS Readers, I love them. This is a nice simple way to follow information that is updated without having to type in a thousand different websites or clicking on your favorite’s folder and selecting each site. You can simply read the headlines to see if it is what you want or not. If it interests you, then you can click to find out more. I have feeds to news, sports, free technology, and blogs that I follow. This really decreases the amount of time I could be wasting by going to all those websites individually. I'm sure we have gone to a website and found that on a particular day, there was nothing of value to us. That totally wastes your time. If you are like me, my day is to busy to waste time.
After reading Dale’s Cone, I find that Blogs and RSS best fit in the Visual symbol section of the cone. Blogs fit well here because they can give you that timeline of events. For instance, I had a friend that adopted two more children from Bogota, Columbia and they blogged daily about the adoption process. They were in Bogota for three months while paperwork was being done. It was great to be able to follow their daily happenings and see pictures. It made you feel as if you were going through the experience with them. Without this technology, we wouldn’t have known this information until they got back. The reason I feel RSS fits here is because of the way information is organized in a flow chart on the left side of the screen and tide-bits of information of postings are put in order of event (date & time). Information in RSS is in a nice and easy to read format without having to go to many websites.
In regards to Siegel’s article on “computer imagination,” I feel that RSS feeds can be used by students to filter and access information from the web. This gives them up to date information that they can glance at quickly and find the relative information, making them more efficient and productive. No searching many sites, just get your information dumped into one site. One imaginative educational use for blogs that I can see is that you could share events or cultural customs with people from different places in a timely fashion. You can even post comments or ask questions. I could see my student’s blogging with students from all parts of the world. Students not only write, but include pictures and embed videos in their blogs to educate each other. One of my colleagues uses blogs to make his room paperless and to check for understanding of what his students learned each day. This allows for him to post individual comments and answer some of those questions that the students didn’t want to ask in front of their peers. That alone is a plus in my book. I’m curious to find what other imaginative ways others thought to use Blogs and RSS in education.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Week One Discussion
Greg Mileski
EDT 5410
Dr. Horvitz
9/9/10
The two articles for this week really got me thinking about how I use technology in my classroom and the things that we are doing with technology in our school district. I teach in a lab filled with 31 computers everyday in the middle school. We try to teach the students the skills that we think they will need for the future, but are we really? This year our district has just finished installing Interactive White Boards (IWB) in all our K-12 buildings for core teachers (Math, ELA, Science, and History). I’m a little sad that I don’t get one because I am an elective teacher, but at least I still have my projector.
In Reigeluth’s article on page one he starts of saying that at first new technology is used to support prevailing methods and gradually people realize that technology can create methods that can result in quantum improvements in performance. I can at least see that the first half of his statement is true with the IWB’s in our district so far. The training that staff has received so far has many staff members saying that this technology is nothing more than a glorified overhead projector. I think they haven’t seen the big picture or had enough training. Once they use them more, I believe they can possible help with student performance. Anyone else have IWB’s in their schools?
I found myself identifying with table one markers that were identified between the Industrial Age and Information Age systems on page 9 of Reigeluth. I can totally see how our education system is inline with the industrial age makers. Is this Wrong? I don’t know, it’s worked this long. Our society has changed to the information age, is it time to change our educational system to be more inline with the Information age markers? Reigeluth goes on in his article to explain that we need to move towards a new paradigm of education that is learning focused and his table 2 on page 10 points out the principles of this paradigm.
This is interesting because my school district is also introducing a new pilot program within our freshman campus for 200 students called 21st Century Global Tech. This program is modeled after some existing high schools called “New Tech High.” I got to tour one of these high schools last spring in Indiana. These schools incorporate technology and many of the principles Reigeluth listed in table two such as authenticity, performance-based assessments, peer-assisted learning, self-directed learning, teacher as coach, and meaningful content. Classes in this program are linked cross curricular, such as Math with Science and ELA with History. Students work in collaboration groups and produce authentic pieces of work. Students each day login to a computer system that has links to assignments, resources and tasks to do for the day.(Similar to what we are currently doing in this class) Teachers meet with collaboration groups each day to discuss progress on assignments and may teach specific things in a lecture time called “roll ups”. It will be interesting to see how the program works. We are piloting the program for at least two years and next year we’ll have a 9th and 10th grade section of the program.
As for Postman’s article I found it somewhat refreshing. Yes it’s great to have all this technology, but is it truly solving our issues in education. I know I can’t keep up with all the latest and greatest technology. I see kids so wrapped up in technology that they can’t function without having it. Many students in my middle school can not write or type a grammar paper without using texting lingo in their paper (i.e. u for you, r for are, dat for that). Many cannot even carry on a conversation or function in a group setting with you because they’re so use to chatting on online or texting. All my students say that the first thing they do when they get home is get on facebook or twitter. What happen to the days, when you went outside and played or rode your bike?
Another Point by Postman was that look at the money the government has thrown into technology. Technology is costly and with the state of Michigan’s economy many school districts don’t have the funds to provide for new technologies. You have to really look at whether it is worth spending money for different technologies. I think before you spend the cash you need to answer the following questions: What is the problem you have? Will and How can technology solve that issue? Has anybody else had this problem and solved it with technology?
Great articles to get us thinking on the topic of what the role should be of technology in education. I still don’t have a concrete answer of what the role should be. It keeps changing as I read and experience things. Does anyone else feel this way?
EDT 5410
Dr. Horvitz
9/9/10
The two articles for this week really got me thinking about how I use technology in my classroom and the things that we are doing with technology in our school district. I teach in a lab filled with 31 computers everyday in the middle school. We try to teach the students the skills that we think they will need for the future, but are we really? This year our district has just finished installing Interactive White Boards (IWB) in all our K-12 buildings for core teachers (Math, ELA, Science, and History). I’m a little sad that I don’t get one because I am an elective teacher, but at least I still have my projector.
In Reigeluth’s article on page one he starts of saying that at first new technology is used to support prevailing methods and gradually people realize that technology can create methods that can result in quantum improvements in performance. I can at least see that the first half of his statement is true with the IWB’s in our district so far. The training that staff has received so far has many staff members saying that this technology is nothing more than a glorified overhead projector. I think they haven’t seen the big picture or had enough training. Once they use them more, I believe they can possible help with student performance. Anyone else have IWB’s in their schools?
I found myself identifying with table one markers that were identified between the Industrial Age and Information Age systems on page 9 of Reigeluth. I can totally see how our education system is inline with the industrial age makers. Is this Wrong? I don’t know, it’s worked this long. Our society has changed to the information age, is it time to change our educational system to be more inline with the Information age markers? Reigeluth goes on in his article to explain that we need to move towards a new paradigm of education that is learning focused and his table 2 on page 10 points out the principles of this paradigm.
This is interesting because my school district is also introducing a new pilot program within our freshman campus for 200 students called 21st Century Global Tech. This program is modeled after some existing high schools called “New Tech High.” I got to tour one of these high schools last spring in Indiana. These schools incorporate technology and many of the principles Reigeluth listed in table two such as authenticity, performance-based assessments, peer-assisted learning, self-directed learning, teacher as coach, and meaningful content. Classes in this program are linked cross curricular, such as Math with Science and ELA with History. Students work in collaboration groups and produce authentic pieces of work. Students each day login to a computer system that has links to assignments, resources and tasks to do for the day.(Similar to what we are currently doing in this class) Teachers meet with collaboration groups each day to discuss progress on assignments and may teach specific things in a lecture time called “roll ups”. It will be interesting to see how the program works. We are piloting the program for at least two years and next year we’ll have a 9th and 10th grade section of the program.
As for Postman’s article I found it somewhat refreshing. Yes it’s great to have all this technology, but is it truly solving our issues in education. I know I can’t keep up with all the latest and greatest technology. I see kids so wrapped up in technology that they can’t function without having it. Many students in my middle school can not write or type a grammar paper without using texting lingo in their paper (i.e. u for you, r for are, dat for that). Many cannot even carry on a conversation or function in a group setting with you because they’re so use to chatting on online or texting. All my students say that the first thing they do when they get home is get on facebook or twitter. What happen to the days, when you went outside and played or rode your bike?
Another Point by Postman was that look at the money the government has thrown into technology. Technology is costly and with the state of Michigan’s economy many school districts don’t have the funds to provide for new technologies. You have to really look at whether it is worth spending money for different technologies. I think before you spend the cash you need to answer the following questions: What is the problem you have? Will and How can technology solve that issue? Has anybody else had this problem and solved it with technology?
Great articles to get us thinking on the topic of what the role should be of technology in education. I still don’t have a concrete answer of what the role should be. It keeps changing as I read and experience things. Does anyone else feel this way?
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Welcome to my Blog
Howdy!
Welcome to my blog! I'll be posting to here for assignments in my online grad class through Western Michigan University. Go Broncos!! I'll post more soon.
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