D/B6
Chapter 14 reflection:
What I understood from this chapter is that there is a whole field of work and study dedicated to improving human performance. Whether we perform at home, at school, at work, at play, there are people studying ways to improve/streamline/economize this performance. I can see one way that this happens to us all the time in the classroom: State Standards and Benchmarks. In this way, we are hoping to improve student performance (on tests). While I think these standards are great goals to have and help with what to teach and when to teach it, it also streamlines and cuts out any "gaps" that we may have had in the curriculum. In the diagram in the book, I took "gaps" to mean things that were dispensable, or really, just junk that we didn't need. Unfortunately, because of such stringent details in the standards and benchmarks, there is no longer room for "gaps" in the curriculum, but we have also cut out a lot of good information. The "gaps" in the curriculum were mostly topics that aren't currently covered by standardized tests. I agree that we need standards and benchmarks as a guideline for our teaching, I just wish there was more room for student discovery into topics that may not be tested.
We also use improve performance in the classroom when we teach our students the rules and procedures to which the class must adhere. The reason we have procedures for sharpening pencils and taking a bathroom break is to maximize student performance.
Podcast Profile:
http://smarthistory.us/Arp_Collage.m4a
I listened to several podcasts on smARThistory. Basically, there are two commentators who discuss the history and possible meaning of different artowork. I listened to one podcast (I linked this one) about the artwork "Collage with squares arranged according to the laws of chance." by Jean Arp. It was interesting to hear the two commentator's opinions about this artwork, because in my undergrad we discussed this artwork and came to entirely different conclusions.
I can see myself using this particular podcast or others like it as a way to show my students artwork that my school may not have prints of and also a way for them to get quick information about the artwork and the artist. I could see that I would have to preview the content of the podcast to make sure it was both interesting enough and appropriate for my students.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
D/B5
In reading the history of instructional technology, I'm a little shocked that the author thinks education hasn't been hugely impacted by technology. Though I agree that the way we teach hasn't changed much over the years, we have definitely implemented more technology every year. When I was in elementary school we had one apple computer in our classroom that was used mostly as a reward to play games. Now, in the district that I teach in (that I also attended as a student) every elementary classroom has at least 4 student computers and a teacher computer as well as most schools having a computer lab or mobile lab. While subbing, I had to take a class to the computer lab and they spend a half an hour practicing word processing and another half and hour doing research by looking at pre-approved websites. (Delicious would've been a life-saver here!)
It seems that all levels of education have been impacted by technology in a very meaningful way. Here I am taking an online course on the same computer that I also use to type and send in my lesson plans. I think we don't realize how much technology has infiltrated our every day activities. I was in the library with some students and I realized that none of the students that I teach would even have a clue to what a card catalogue is or how to use one.
In answering the question that the book asks about which age group will be impacted the most, I can't say. I see technology changing the way I teach and also the way I take my master's courses. I've been "trained" by technology and use it as often as possible in the business/government sectors to avoid lines and crowds. I suppose I think all of the age groups are being impacted equally, just in different ways.
In reading the history of instructional technology, I'm a little shocked that the author thinks education hasn't been hugely impacted by technology. Though I agree that the way we teach hasn't changed much over the years, we have definitely implemented more technology every year. When I was in elementary school we had one apple computer in our classroom that was used mostly as a reward to play games. Now, in the district that I teach in (that I also attended as a student) every elementary classroom has at least 4 student computers and a teacher computer as well as most schools having a computer lab or mobile lab. While subbing, I had to take a class to the computer lab and they spend a half an hour practicing word processing and another half and hour doing research by looking at pre-approved websites. (Delicious would've been a life-saver here!)
It seems that all levels of education have been impacted by technology in a very meaningful way. Here I am taking an online course on the same computer that I also use to type and send in my lesson plans. I think we don't realize how much technology has infiltrated our every day activities. I was in the library with some students and I realized that none of the students that I teach would even have a clue to what a card catalogue is or how to use one.
In answering the question that the book asks about which age group will be impacted the most, I can't say. I see technology changing the way I teach and also the way I take my master's courses. I've been "trained" by technology and use it as often as possible in the business/government sectors to avoid lines and crowds. I suppose I think all of the age groups are being impacted equally, just in different ways.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Educational Podcasts
I found a really cool site using the delicious bookmarking tool that features podcasts for a lot subject areas in education. I loved that there are podcasts for visual arts! Find the subject area that you teach or are interested in and then click on it to see all kinds of podcasts related to that subject.
http://epnweb.org/index.php?openpod=2#5
http://epnweb.org/index.php?openpod=2#5
Thursday, July 9, 2009
D/B4
Photo sharing turned out to be much more complicated and irritating that I would've thought. I've never used a photo sharing website though I had certainly heard of them. I've even recieved pictures from friends this way. I found both photobucket and flickr to be a little confusing. It was easy to download pictures (though much slower than downloading them into facebook, I found) but much harder to organize them, change their size, etc. It seemed that each picture that I downloaded brought up a slightly different screen when it was finished downloading.
Because I found the photo sharing sites difficult to navigate, I'm not convinced I would use it with students. Especially because my students are elementary age. One way that I can see students using this service (maybe high school age) is to share pictures without printing them out. I had an assignment in college where I had to photograph every letter of the alphabet that I found in nature. For example, a fork in a tree could be 'Y'. While printing them out was a nice touch, it would've been a lot easier (and cheaper)to simply upload the pictures and share them with the professor and the class. It might also be nice to document different stages of a science project this way. In fact, this photo sharing idea could be used in any project that requires documentation of a step-by-step project. As with anything photo related, the drawback is that students could post inappropriate photos.
In conclusion, I found the photo sharing sites kind of confusing though I can see that once you've figured it out it is a nice service (especially since you can just send the files over to a store near you and pick them up). However, teaching kids to use this service might not be worth the time it takes and they could post inappropriate things.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Trends and Issues chapter dedicated to instructional design seemed quite wordy, but once I got past that I realized a lot of their ideas about creating lessons or designing the instruction were things that I do all the time. They suggest a systematic approach to designing instruction. If I were asked about the way I create my lessons I would've never said systematic, but in thinking about it, I definitely do create them with a system. In fact, I sort of have a "blueprint" of what my lesson plans look like and then use that same format by copying and pasting it so that the lesson is organized the same way both in my brain and also for the principal that checks them.
The core elements/phases of instructional design are all basic elements or goals in lesson plans. There is always a section for the students to implement their new knowledge by applying it to a certain assignment. Then that assigment will be evaluated by the teacher. There is one big difference in the ADDIE instructional design method and the one I use. It says in the text that the ADDIE approach is not to be completed in a linear step-by-step manner. I would suggest that my lessons are completed this way. Since I only see the students once a week for 50 minutes, everything has to have a step and there have to be goals about which step we are going to complete each week. Obviously, during the development stage where the students are trying out their ideas there is room for revision, but otherwise we stick as much to the step by step plan as possible. If I had to break down my lesson plans I would say my lessons look like this:
Intro to project ->analyze project example or famous artist influence ->develop own idea based on implementation of information gleaned from introduction and discussion (room for revision here)->create based on developed idea->evaluate finished product
Another disconnect between the ADDIE approach and my approach to lesson planning is that one of the goals of ADDIE is that Instructional Design assumes outcomes can be measured in a realiable and valid way. One big challenge of teaching elementary art is having to evaluate it. I see my art class as a way for students to try out ideas, express themselves pictorally, use new media and techniques and a way to learn problem-solving techniques. It is hard to evaluate the artwork reliably when the subject matter is so open to discussion. In every lesson there are goals for the student to reach, but they all reach them in different ways. So I believe the outcomes can be measured validly, but not necessarily reliably. The teacher must know the student, have interacted with that student, problem-solved with that student and then conversed again when the project in finished to really understand if the student reached the goals of the lesson.
Because I found the photo sharing sites difficult to navigate, I'm not convinced I would use it with students. Especially because my students are elementary age. One way that I can see students using this service (maybe high school age) is to share pictures without printing them out. I had an assignment in college where I had to photograph every letter of the alphabet that I found in nature. For example, a fork in a tree could be 'Y'. While printing them out was a nice touch, it would've been a lot easier (and cheaper)to simply upload the pictures and share them with the professor and the class. It might also be nice to document different stages of a science project this way. In fact, this photo sharing idea could be used in any project that requires documentation of a step-by-step project. As with anything photo related, the drawback is that students could post inappropriate photos.
In conclusion, I found the photo sharing sites kind of confusing though I can see that once you've figured it out it is a nice service (especially since you can just send the files over to a store near you and pick them up). However, teaching kids to use this service might not be worth the time it takes and they could post inappropriate things.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Trends and Issues chapter dedicated to instructional design seemed quite wordy, but once I got past that I realized a lot of their ideas about creating lessons or designing the instruction were things that I do all the time. They suggest a systematic approach to designing instruction. If I were asked about the way I create my lessons I would've never said systematic, but in thinking about it, I definitely do create them with a system. In fact, I sort of have a "blueprint" of what my lesson plans look like and then use that same format by copying and pasting it so that the lesson is organized the same way both in my brain and also for the principal that checks them.
The core elements/phases of instructional design are all basic elements or goals in lesson plans. There is always a section for the students to implement their new knowledge by applying it to a certain assignment. Then that assigment will be evaluated by the teacher. There is one big difference in the ADDIE instructional design method and the one I use. It says in the text that the ADDIE approach is not to be completed in a linear step-by-step manner. I would suggest that my lessons are completed this way. Since I only see the students once a week for 50 minutes, everything has to have a step and there have to be goals about which step we are going to complete each week. Obviously, during the development stage where the students are trying out their ideas there is room for revision, but otherwise we stick as much to the step by step plan as possible. If I had to break down my lesson plans I would say my lessons look like this:
Intro to project ->analyze project example or famous artist influence ->develop own idea based on implementation of information gleaned from introduction and discussion (room for revision here)->create based on developed idea->evaluate finished product
Another disconnect between the ADDIE approach and my approach to lesson planning is that one of the goals of ADDIE is that Instructional Design assumes outcomes can be measured in a realiable and valid way. One big challenge of teaching elementary art is having to evaluate it. I see my art class as a way for students to try out ideas, express themselves pictorally, use new media and techniques and a way to learn problem-solving techniques. It is hard to evaluate the artwork reliably when the subject matter is so open to discussion. In every lesson there are goals for the student to reach, but they all reach them in different ways. So I believe the outcomes can be measured validly, but not necessarily reliably. The teacher must know the student, have interacted with that student, problem-solved with that student and then conversed again when the project in finished to really understand if the student reached the goals of the lesson.
D/B3
Wow, social bookmarking is awesome. If only I had known about this before! I taught art at three schools last year and would copy and paste cool websites and send them to myself over e-mail so could remember them at my other schools. Once I got to my other schools I would add them to my favorites. What a waste of time since I could've been using delicious. It has been fun trying the various new technologies for this class, but social bookmarking is my favorite at this point.
I think social bookmarking has so many possibilities for use in schools. At one school that I was working in two years ago, I noticed that the computer lab had a list of cool sites to visit based on subject area. I think it would be great to list all of those on delicious and tag them based on subject. In doing this, students could access these sites from home, as could parents. The only drawback would be making sure the students didn't add sites, or at least, someone would need to check if they are appropriate, labeled correctly, etc. Teachers could also share cool sites with each other this way. At every art meeting that I attend someone brings up a good site for us to "write down." And every time it needs to be repeated various times, and still someone will e-mail saying they copied it down wrong. I can't wait to share this bookmarking site with my colleagues.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In regards to the Trends and Issues text and their definitions of Educational Technology/Instructional Technology and/or Instructional Design and Technology I think they have way over thought the matter. Obviously the ideas behind Educational Technology change because technology is constantly changing, emerging and becoming obsolete. All of the definitions seemed fine to me. Maybe I'm just not as picky, but as long as the definition refers to using technology as a way to teach and learn, that is fine with me. As technology advances, society will have to continually deal with different problems related to the advancing technology. When I was in high school, very few people had cell phones, now kids as young as 5 have cell phones which brings about a lot of new concerns involving texting while driving, pictures being taken in class, cheating with phones, etc. And these are only a few problems! We would have to rewrite the definition of educational technology every time a new product came out or a old product had a new feature. I think we need to be more flexible in our definitions of educational technology because as soon as one definition is published it is already starting to get outdated.
I think social bookmarking has so many possibilities for use in schools. At one school that I was working in two years ago, I noticed that the computer lab had a list of cool sites to visit based on subject area. I think it would be great to list all of those on delicious and tag them based on subject. In doing this, students could access these sites from home, as could parents. The only drawback would be making sure the students didn't add sites, or at least, someone would need to check if they are appropriate, labeled correctly, etc. Teachers could also share cool sites with each other this way. At every art meeting that I attend someone brings up a good site for us to "write down." And every time it needs to be repeated various times, and still someone will e-mail saying they copied it down wrong. I can't wait to share this bookmarking site with my colleagues.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In regards to the Trends and Issues text and their definitions of Educational Technology/Instructional Technology and/or Instructional Design and Technology I think they have way over thought the matter. Obviously the ideas behind Educational Technology change because technology is constantly changing, emerging and becoming obsolete. All of the definitions seemed fine to me. Maybe I'm just not as picky, but as long as the definition refers to using technology as a way to teach and learn, that is fine with me. As technology advances, society will have to continually deal with different problems related to the advancing technology. When I was in high school, very few people had cell phones, now kids as young as 5 have cell phones which brings about a lot of new concerns involving texting while driving, pictures being taken in class, cheating with phones, etc. And these are only a few problems! We would have to rewrite the definition of educational technology every time a new product came out or a old product had a new feature. I think we need to be more flexible in our definitions of educational technology because as soon as one definition is published it is already starting to get outdated.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
D/B2
I was a little nervous setting up a blog and was blown away by how easy it was. I can also see that allure of creating a blog. There is something seemingly powerful about publicly publishing opinions and thoughts on absolutely anything. I can understand how people love this uncensored communication as well as how it gets people into trouble.
I would categorize blogs into visual symbols for most of the content. Obviously, in addition to the text (visual symbols) there could also be still pictures or motion pictures posted on a blog which could mean that a blog fits into many categories of Dale's cone. I would argue however, that the categories that blogs fit into are still higher up in the cone as blogs consist of mostly learning through observation or through symbolic experiences and not so much through direct learning.
I think there are lot of creative uses for the blog in the classroom. Are there problems to which blogs are the answer? I'm not completely sure on that one. I could definitely use blogs as a supplement to an already working classroom, but I'm not sure that blogs could transform our teaching unless we were positive that all students had computers with internet access. Blogs may be the answer to "how can I get my students motivated about this assignment?" I think blogs could be used in a variety of ways to integrate technology into the classroom. I could imagine that using blogs as a way to collaborate in groups or even peer edit papers. Students could use blogs in addition to RSS readers to comment in diary format on current events. I would be very interested in learning how to use blogs as a way to transform our teaching and not just integrate it into our lessons.
My experience with RSS readers has been pretty positive though I don't think I'm using them to their fullest extent. I like that all of the feeds are on the same page and that I don't have to really navigate away from that page to find the information. I subscribed to sites like Associated Press and People magazine. Since they sort of culminate what is happening in the media, I don't have to navigate away from their sites much either, so I'm not convinced that the RSS reader is a better option.
I would categorize RSS readers into Dale's cone the same way I categorized blogs. Since most of the content is text with videos or still pictures thrown in, RSS readers can fall into multiple categories including visual symbols, pictures or motion pictures.
I could imagine using RSS readers with all students as a way to talk about current events. RSS readers answer the question, how can I get the news to my students without purchasing a newspaper for each student? In this case, technology IS the answer and lets the students find interesting news.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
