Once all the administrative details were complete this class seemed to be completely devoted to comparing permanency or perpetual sharing. I know it wasn’t part of Mark’s planning but even the reviews seem to be about these concepts. Kayleigh’s was about Whyville a virtual world for children that allows them to perpetually share with their friends and allows the website to share knowledge through the interactive lab. Brian’s Zoo tycoon was about continual changes, always developing new ways to create a permanent productive zoo. Where as Joan’s was about rote memorization- how can we make all these facts permanent?

Then Mark’s topic: Wiki’s : Sharing and lack of permanency. We don’t expect our businesses or anything to last forever. We no longer keep one set of informational sources only, we are constantly sharing and developing information. I related this back to the book 1984. I guess I read it one too many times between high school and college.

It seemed especially strange to consider that we would be able to collaborate to write a universal text like the California project. It may cause fear in the hearts of the publishers, but it leaves me wondering, will it work? Would the publisher’s suddenly use copy right laws against educators? After all, most of my images and information is a conglomeration of chosen images and information from published texts, some actual text books others are not.  It’s an ambitious project and it will be interesting to follow.

We finished the topic by covering the key aspects of wiki’s and some possible uses. The key concepts to grasp about wiki’s is that they are a tech tool that allow for collaboration through: 

My post is late, and I’m pretty sure it won’t be worth the wait, but here it goes.

Our class last Thursday had me really thinking outside of the box. Everyone had different views on rubrics. I take a very conservative approach with grading, limiting the criteria of a rubric to as view categories as possible. I try to make sure I have at least four criteria. Funny how Larry and I were on the same page.

We started class by reviewing our rubrics and task lists. Then we consolidated our rubric categories as much as possible. I think the final number of criteria were eight. There were a lot of criteria I hadn’t considered, and it should be interesting if my lesson meets those criteria.

We moved onto Larry and Amy’s reviews next. Larry started off with a review of google earth. I thought this would be wonderful, it just needs a little more photographs from people at the individual locations.  Although Amy thought Larry’s was more exciting, I was intriqued by the counting nine’s thing and the math game. I thought these were really awesome ways to keep student’s interesting in learning their multiplication facts. This can be a challenge since it is rote memorization.  

Then we had the most wonderful dinner. Sorry Mark, I just couldn’t take the last of the tortilla de potata, but everything that Marquerita made was wonderful. (Sneaky Brian…snuck out without the tortilla….) I’m afraid that the dinner was so wonderful that I can hardly remember much of the rest of class. Or is it the time delay in writing my blog or was it the Sangria?

Ryan did do an interesting presentation on a tutorial about how to build a web page. I’m still working on my page right now, although it is developing quite well. I’m pretty sure that a tutorial probably would help me a little bit, because as of right now, I have a lot of files and I need to finish ‘linking’ everything together. I spent the rest of class trying to deceiver how to create a link from the first page to another page within Microsoft word’s template for a web page. If any one needs to do this, it is called a cross reference. Of course, when I was showing my husband, he groaned. Part of his criteria for a quality webpage is one that hyperlinks between pages so that it is easier to print information and there is less scrolling down. Hence, I groaned cause when I thought of it from the customer’s (my husband’s) point of view, that meant I needed to make more files.

Hopefully it will work on Thursday! See you Tuesday!

Chris definately turned some heads with his Spore game. I had heard of the game from my kids, but didn’t know how to locate it on the web. I need a course on just web searches because I’m so fussy about my technology tools. The tools I use need to speak to me like the books I choose, if it doesn’t relate just right, I toss it and the idea gets redeveloped. Hence, I fear commitment to a lesson plan.

Spore seems like the perfect game for those of use who aren’t very committed. It gives students  the opportunity to develop their own creature and see if they can successsfully adapt to the environment. Much like Mark had to adapt his questions for Chris. Definately, was a fantastic choice.

I liked the rubric assignment. It gave an opportunity to explore the other templates on rubristar so I could enhance my dictionary of various options of assessing different projects. It also helped to review what a task list was because it wasn’t clear to me that a task list was to be used in conjunction with the rubric.

I also enjoyed the conversation on the “enhanced” self network that provided us with information based on survey responses. It certainly reinforced the idea that we need to teach students (and I need to teach my own kids) of the changes the technology is creating.

Second life

Recently I spent some more time on Second life, a virtual world.  Upon exploring this world further; I found that I that moving around the world and manipulating and creating objects to be difficult and challenging experience.

I started by creating my avatar image. This was fun. The avatar could have just about anything modified on the shape of the body and even have the sex changed. However, I could not find how to locate clothing, so I designed my own. This was not very difficult once I managed to locate the proper menu.

So, I decided to try teleporting and building objects. I found it easy to build objects but I had problems trying to manipulate the objects to make them into structures. When trying to teleport I was having difficulty so I tried to use the Second life tutorial for teleporting. I found this tutorial very useful and I could teleport after I completed the tutorial.

From an educator viewpoint however, I did not find a use for it educationally. I think that it is not user friendly, and it is limited because certain aspects of the game require money. I also did not find away to create a world not accessible by others.  Without a means for securing people from outside the classroom environment, this would be opening students to any person in this virtual world. During one of my visits to this world, I had another online avatar make a sexual advance.

I am also not sure that this would be a benefit for tenth graders. The teenage years are supposed to be a time of self exploration and development of self. If we provide an opportunity to create an avatar better than ourselves, aren’t we providing students with a form of escapism? It is often the desire to obtain an ideal image that perpetuates bulimia and anorexia. I think as an educator I should help students to accept themselves for who they are, but help them manage societal conflicts.

Cellupedia.

Cellupedia is a webpage created to provide educational information about the history, structure and reproduction of cells.

This website had a very nice format. The menu for moving through the various screens, however had very small text. As for informational content, the site was very accurate. The site had very useful pictures, images to illustrate various cellular processes. The site also had a lot of text again, the text size was a barrier.

The meiosis and mitosis sections were very useful. The mitosis section had both images and stages but this was not continued with the meiosis section. I also found that some of the information provided was above the high school level. The site also has a game, but even the website states that this is not realistic because the cell cannot be killed by the environment but rather only by another player. I was unable to create an account to try out the game.

Tonight’s class I learned alot. First of all, I really appreciated everyone’s comments. I know my lesson proposal was very vague and needs to become narrow. I used to write very narrow lessons and then get very discouraged when I couldn’t locate any information. I know of a very nice librarian, so hopefully she’ll be able to help. She was phenomenal the last time I asked for help.  Once I find resources, and have my assignment details for my other class, then I can focus the lesson so that students will have tools to work with.

I really like the websites and presentations provided tonight. I wrote down every site. I liked the criminal justice game on the site Ryan chose. Even though students might not have to do alot of higher order thinking, I think it would be a good model for another activity. Maybe an activity where students are given a description of blood splatter and they have to recreate and  identify the criminal based on blood type and DNA. There’s a series of books called Forensic files from Scholastic that contain short stories (sort of like the Encyclopedia brown series) that students could use. Also as promised, here is the website for comparison to Ryan’s. More pictures and the content is a little scaled down, and it still works! This site is sponsored by the Canadian Museum of nature : www.nature.ca/genome.

Brian, thanks for the website review of the keyboarding program. I could use this to update my skills! I still look at the screen and the keyboard occasionally when I type (okay I look at the screen all the time!) I never did learn the number bar at the top! Maybe if I start using it, my kids will try it out, because I certainly don’t want to see them up until midnight typing three pages.

Kayleigh, what I liked the most about your web pages were that they were educational but also challenging. Although it’s rote memorization, I’m not sure how else you would learn this information because it is all names and locations like geography. From that perspective, maybe the social studies majors might have another idea.

I also really enjoyed tonight’s activities. It was fun to look at the various websites and to try making a webpage. I really learned what not to have on my webpage. I definately will be using a webpage to provide students with links for projects such as my lesson plan for this class.

On Tuesday, we discussed that there needs to be higher order thinking evolved within our lesson that utilizes technology. The NTEQ model uses the combination of technology to ensure that the technology is an extension of our lesson not the focal point. After this discussion, students divided into groups to discuss and create a lesson using higher order thinking. I’m not sure if our particular subject stayed on the tenth grade level of understanding. This excercise did, however give us the opportunity to explore how to combine scientific concepts with the use of a spreadsheet and mathematical analysis.

I hope to use this practice activity as a model to guide my lesson plan due at the end of the class. My only question is, will I be able to continue to plan lessons like this once I am in the classroom?

The software I reviewed was called SCRATCH. Scratch is a free downloadable software created by MIT to generate interest in mathematics. If you have worked with blocks, then you can build with Scratch.

Scratch comes with a variety of different menus and pre-established options, but images can be added, sounds recorded, music created and mathematical equations performed. The first step is to choose a character, called a ‘sprite’. Once your sprite is selected you can begin building your program. In the upper left hand corner there are several menus that are color coded to match the blocks that will be placed on screen. In the middle of the screen is the ‘script’ area, this is where the program is built.  Students can add multiple sprites and each sprite will receive its own script. The students select a menu and then choose the piece and drag it onto the script field. Stack the blocks together and the program is created! By double clicking on the script the student can start the program.  If the blocks don’t cause the sprite to move or do things in the desired order, simply drag and pull the blocks apart and rebuild the script. These finalized programs can then be uploaded to the http://info.scratch.mit.edu/ website for display.

Although I am reviewing this as a game, it could also be considered a virtual world because either a game or a world could be built. This software challenges students to higher level thinking and encourages logic and pattern recognition. In a lesson for the living environment, this could be used to accompany a lesson on population growth or reproduction. In conjunction with the NTEQ process, the students could map out their plan of attack on paper first and then create their software. Students could then talk about how they had to modify their plan to create their final product, and since the software is readily installed on any PC or Mac students can share their completed projects. This also increases safety, and allows students to be able to work on the project at home or outside of class. 

What a facinating evening! I really enjoyed the digital reviews presented. I’m not sure how to incorporate all of these into lessons in science but they certainly are things to explore further. History is one subject that, other than the discussion of scientific discovery by scientists, science teachers usually fail to incorporate. “No time”.

The Smartboard however is a useful tool for kinestic learners and I feel it could be very useful. Although it was a valid point that Smartboards are an expensive tool replacing many less expensive technologies, it is multimedia. Multimedia is critical, because when a lesson is being taught it can be time consuming to switch between different media. In my practicum it was difficult to go from the over head to the board or white board primarily because the screen was located directly in front of the white board. Wall space was limited due to cabinets to hold laboratory equipment.

I need to explore beyond the Smartboard webpages that I found and experiment more with actual lessons. I am hopeful I can find a way to incorporate using a Smartboard in my classroom.

Tonight’s theme was how do we take technology and choose the most advantagous method to teach and ensure if technology is challenging students and serving educational puposes.Technology is not only beneficial but expansive it can not only benefit us, but is can also overwhelm us. As we gain more technology we do not always remove technology. If technology is unsuccessful then we create a better vision.

As for the word processing, it’s definately valuable to have this ability to track and edit changes so that students have the opportunity to learn and enhance on their grammar and improve. This is a useful tool, but I still find the insertion of images and identifying the correct image size difficult to add to documents. 

Overall,  I believe this would help students that have difficulty with writing.  But how would this create higher order thinking? Should we use this to direct students to other resources by adding web links or hyperlinks? What will make this a more challenging tool for our students. What happens if these tools overwhelm our students?

The book does have some valid view points. Using a word processor takes the focus off of the language itself and places it back on sharing knowledge. It also allows students to learn more about the software’s use, and to improve self esteem by sharing their creativity with others. Students can share a document and create a class newsletter that illustrates concepts. Through this process, the teacher can use the editing feature to guide and direct the students to think about high level concepts such as why the topic occurs the way it is. These tools would help in a inclusive classroom and allow students who are visually impaired to change fonts to suit their needs.

If I could add or change anything, it would be that the dictionary to provided the definition of the word that was misspelled. This would reduce the amount of work needed for the students when a word is identified by the spell checker but they can not begin to think of the spelling.

Over the past couple of days, I sought to review and use tutorials. I tried out two at the following sites: www.trackstar4teachers.org and www.slideshare.net.  One tutorial was to guide through the use of how to use trackstar for reading and the other was how to create wikispaces. I thought both would be helpful and insightful. (Please note, I hate any thing that resembles instructions, I prefer to struggle and create without them. It has to be  a really difficult task for me to use a help menu let alone a tutorial .)

But, I explored these diligently, just remember I already hold a bias. The trakstar website tutorial, shouldn’t have been called a tutorial. It was just a manual. Directions in writing that gave information without images or motion. Essentially someone typed the manual into a different window. However, the second tutorial entitled, ” Wikispaces in education tutorial“  was a powerpoint slide show containing video feeds and screen prints which at least gave the user a visual aid of what the screens that would be encountered would look like.

Did these two sites thrill me? Clearly not. So how did tutorials rate overall for educational purposes: poor. Let’s dig a little deeper into the heart of these tutorials, and others. First of all the information is static, if you want to add or learn more, it’s up to you to do the research. It’s much like reading or viewing a movie trailer or ad. These are only glimpses into the functioning unit, not the true interactions that are really ongoing.

There is a lack of modeling. First thing we are taught as teachers, if you need to have a students perform or function at a task- teach it. Often tutorials make broad assumptions, for example that you will know all the technological information to input. Frankly, if it wasn’t for my husband I couldn’t tell you the difference between DSL and cable. But this is important information when setting up accounts in the virtual world or creating wikis because it affects the speed of the process.

Speed is the next factor. The teachstar tutorial had this in it’s favor. It was static text and gave the reader the opportunity to read and learn at their own pace, however the wiki tutorial was a powerpoint whose speed between slides needed to be slowed down for me. Unfortunately, there were no controls to slow things down.

Finally, my final and the biggest issue with tutorials, is that they don’t cause higher level thinking. Tutorials are designed to teach step by step how to perform a task and that is exactly what they teach: steps.  Users follow steps, but don’t need to really think about the meaning of how things work or how each step interrelates to the functional unit.

So how could tutorials be used, or improved? Simply put, as a guide only. These are not the means to teach material exclusively. When one is creating a tutorial, go beyond the surface information of the steps, but raise questions and incorporate tasks and delays for students to complete those tasks. Provide RSS feeds or information on how to learn the assumed. “What is DSL? “How do I know if I have it?’”or “What is this word?”

Unfortunately, this involves more higher order thinking for the creator rather than the user. Perhaps students should create more tutorials, to enhance their knowledge? But what to do with the tutorials afterward? How do you teach a student enough information to create the tutorial? Based on these examples alone, I feel my job is a little more secure because I can be there to provide the missing elements.

In conclusion, tutorials are a fast means to provide information, but they often lack modeling,  consist of static information that don’t challenge thinking beyond step by step tasks, lack controls to provide the user with control of the information presented, and make broad assumptions of the user’s knowledge often without resources to find more information. Teachers can use tutorials to activate prior knowledge but will need tasks to challenge or practice the tools provided.