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?
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
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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