Web Quest

After learning about webquests and looking at a few in class, i will use them in my future classroom. It is a great way for students to work in collaborative groups under specific roles and use the web in order to research and present on different topics. Not all the webquests on the internet are "good" for students to use, some have complex instructions that would take weeks to complete. These type of webquests require a lot of time for students to work together in class on completing their projects. Sometimes long term quests have their advantages, they focus on deeper understanding and reach the evaluation and analysis levels of bloom taxonomy. Short term quests are better when focusing on specific content, students reach the lower levels of blooms taxonomy (Knowledge and Comprehension). Personally i think that web quests are more beneficial for students and allows them to participate in high order thinking. Scavenger hunts are good for introdutions but webquests have an end product produced by students.

Assistive Technology & Inquiry-Based Learning

If your a standard education teacher or a special education teacher, it does not matter, you will come across assistive technology. Especially with today's focus on inclusion and differentiated instruction, students with special needs will more than likely will be present in your classroom for either the entire day or a certain period of time. Learning about different types of assistive technology and how they work is important because if the student doesnt know how to use it, you will need to be able to activate it or attempt to get it to work in order for the students in your classroom to recieve the best education possible. These technological devices allow students to participate in tasks that they were not able to do before or tasks that they previously had difficulty in completing. Keyboards with pictures inplace of keys is a common type of assistive technology. This keyboards can be used independently of a computer or connected. They may spell a word on the computer screen or say the word aloud. If a student is unable to speak they can use a series of keys to communicate what they want/need (communication boards(. Another type of assistive technology is a device that holds a book and turns the page for students. There are also simple adaptive devices such as books with large print, computer screen magnifiers, hearing aids that connect to a microphone that is worn by the teacher and much much much more.
Inquiry-based learning engages students in an active process of learning based upon scientific methods. Students are to create new models that tie into what is learned in calss, they are parallel but using their own knowledge and ideas to make a connection to the real world. This type of learning pulls on prior knowledge encouraging and boosting the self eestem of students. My favorite part of inquiry-based learning is that it makes a connection to the real world, students can reach a deeper level of learning when they connect it to their life experiences.

Bloom's Taxonomy and Scavenger Hunts

Bloom's Taxonomy is a classification system of learning objectives in the field of education. It's main purpose is to help educators figure out what level of vigor they are requiring students to use for the completion of school work. Also to ensure that students have using high order think whenever possible, because just having the knowledge of something doesn't help a student to become fluent in the area. The skills in the cognitive domain of Bloom's Taxonomy are 1) Knowledge 2) Comprehension 3) Application 4) Analysis 5) Synthesis and 6) Evaluation . They range from lowest order processes to highest. Each level has key words associated with them, for example knowledge: list, find, name, state etc. Having key words that are associated with each level is helpful to teachers when constructing test questions, essays, and projects because using the right words depends on what outcome you expect for your students.
I believe that Bloom's Taxonomy is necessary for all teachers to use. It is a great way to ensure that you measure learning correctly according to your goals and the curriculum's goals. I also think that using Bloom's Taxonomy with technology is a great way to ensure student progress and the new verbs associated with each level make it easier for educator to apply the objectives. The new verbs are 1) Remembering 2) Understanding 3) Applying 4) Analysing 5) Evaluating and 6) Creating. It removes a lot of confusion to what each verb means.
In class we participated in a couple of scavenger hunts, i believe conducting them in the classroom is a great way to boost student participation. They are fun, can be challenging and adaptable to all subjects. Students can be given scavenger hunts or create they're own for their classmates. Competition can be introduced or the teacher may feel that it is better not to include it. Competition can make student learning/participation more desirable because there is often a reward following. The teacher may break the class into teams and have them race to answer the most questions correctly or individually challenge them to beat there best score. The Internet can provide information that students to know off hand and encourages them to use the web to search for answers. Infusing technology is always a plus in the classroom, as long as you do it right. Scavenger hunts are easy for teachers/students to create and a great way for teachers to introduce new subjects, they can be used in all subjects/ grade levels and follow bloom's knowledge or remembering level but teachers can make them more difficult to reach high order thinking.

Podcasts

After learning all about podcasting and creating one with my classmates, i have found that they are fun and enjoyable. I believe that students would love to create a podcast that have educational value. They incorporate voice narration, sounds (jingles etc.), and pictures. It makes education fun, informational, visual, technical and interactive. Garage band is a software that is not too difficult to use with a small amount of basic training. Students can easily record their prepared information and add sounds/pictures to illustrate their ideas.
Some problems that i can foresee happening when creating podcasts in the classroom are time and software. The main reason i would decide not to have students create pod casts is that they take time and preparation to create. Students need to prepare a script, find pictures, edit and save their podcasts. This can take a long time, especially if it is a large part of a students grade. In order to carry out this project student would need lots on in class time to work on their projects. Especially because some students may not have access to a computer at home, or one with the software required to make and publish a podcast. Even the school may not have garage band and itunes installed on every computer in the school.
Young children may also have problems with creating podcasts, and may need more help then provided. In this case, a teacher could become overwhelmed and the project may fail miserably. I think podcasts would work best with upper elementary school age children, middle school and high school students. Some good ideas to have students create projects are for a travel brochure, creating stories, reporting on a broad topic and making newscasts. Having students work together will encourage teamwork, problem solving and creativity.
Another way to use podcasting in the classroom is for the teacher to create a podcast to teach a lesson to his/her students. This can spice up a lesson and engage students in learning. It is a different and interesting way to incorporate technology in the classroom. The music and pictures enhance the lesson. When teachers use podcasting they do not have to worry about teaching all the students in the class to use the software required.

Desktop Publishing

Desktop publishing is used to create pages that incorporate text and images. In education, desktop publishing can be very useful. Educators and administrators can use various software applications (microsoft word, adobe pagemaker and more) to create newsletters, calenders, advertisements, presentations, certificates and much much more. Students can also use these programs to create flyers for events, the school newpaper, books and projects.
"Principles of Design" by Jacci Howard Bear describes the general rules that can be used to create appealing and effective desktop publishing designs. They include balance, proximity/unity, alignment, repetition/consistency, contrast and white space. Elements on the page should be evenly balanced in order to avoid sending the wrong message. Unless you want to have the elements unbalanced to emphasize a particular part. Proximity/ unitiy refers to how close or far apart the elements are to one another and if the content is in order. This will organize your creation and not cause to much clutter or confusion. Alignment is how the publisher decides to place text and graphics to make it easier for the reader to read. Using to many fonts and graphics can also cause confusion for readers, sticky to only a few fonts and graphics can allow readers to get the point without being overwhelemed. Contrast refers to the size of different elements and the colors. Designers should use colors/patterns/fonts that are readable and important information should be bigger. The last principle, white spaces, is the amount of space between graphics and text to make it easier to read.
Besides the principles of design, there are "12 rules of desktop publishing" by Jacci Howard Bear, they are:
1.Use only one space after punctuation
2.Don't use double-hard returns after paragraphs (pushing enter after each paragraph)
3.Use fewer fonts
4.Use ragged-right or fully justified text
5.Used center text spairingly
6.Balance line length with font size
7.Use all caps with the right fonts
8.Use proper typographical punctuation
9.Use frames, boxes, borders with a purpose
10.Use less clip art
11.Use more white space
12.Reset software document defults
*All these rules are the authors personal selection, the designer shoud base everything on what looks best for their end product. As long as it is readable and send an effective message.

Powerpoints and Webpages

Powerpoints are great for teaching lessons, expecially when there is a lot of information. A good power point presentation only notes the key points for any given topic. Using paragraphs of information is not the correct way to construct one. Bullet points are great to list pieces of information that the students need to know for future tests and projects. Then they are able to go back into their radings or notes that they have taken and study or do a project. Powerpoints work best when the students are able to read them, using dark background and light text works best. The font and pictures (centered with text) should all be reasonably large.

Webpages, when used in the classroom and in everyday use really sould be creditable. Using Cornell University's, 5 Criteria for Evaluating Webpages, can ensure this. They are 1) Accuracy: author provides contact information and the article is purposeful 2) Authority: the author(s) are qualified and is published in appropriate URL 3) Objectibity: Who was the website written for and is it biased 4) Currency: website is upto date with no dead links and 5) Coverage: website is free of cost and all information is viewable. If the website meets this criteria it is considered a "good" website. This is important because you don't want to use information that is inaccurate and teaching/ preacticing this criteria will help your students in the future.

Having a class website is a good way to enform students and their parents on what is occuring in the classroom. Assignments and events can be posted online to provide easy access to students. This information should also be available offline to students who do not have internet access at home. This website creates a connection to parents and guardians that do not always have the time to be involved activley with the school. It also creates unity, where students can access articles that you find interesting or are needed for projects.

Last class, we spent alot of time reviewing for the spreadsheet project. After completing this assignment I have found that excel is a very useful tool to use in the class room. It cuts done on the use of paper and allows you to quickly do math with the click of a button. I also like how you can create charts, if I deleated the names under each bar, I would be able to share the average to the class. This would just provide a visual to show the students where everyone is in the class and why we must review or continue on. The spreadsheet also provides me with a structured, orginzed view of all the students grades. It makes comparison easier on the teacher and helps them decide what areas need to be reteached or approaced in various other ways. I believe i will use excel in my classroom and hopefully be able to teach my students the different things that can be accomplished with this program.

In my previous blog I mentioned the different web 2.o programs that I have explored and how useful they can be to myself and others. I still find that my protopage is very useful in condensing the many website i use daily into one area. I also helps me organize my life (work, test, birthday etc.) and do research. One new thing i discoved is that you are able to import different widgets from other sites. Widgets are applications or tools that can be placed on websites and blogs that is marked by a specific code. Examples include clocks, calenders, weather and pictures. They are very similar to adding an application on an ipod/iphone.

At the end of the last class, we explored in groups the different National Educational Technology Standrads for teachers and students. These standards incorporate positive was to include technology in the classroom and encourage digital learning. Each standard has varioud componets that better describe what is include in the main standard. For example, the teacher standard #3 is Model Digital-Age Work and Learning. Underneath this standard are the detaits- "Teachers exibit knowledge, skills and work processes representitive of an innovative professional in a global and digital society." It then list bullet points of what teachers a spefically to do. I think these standards hold the student and teacher accountable for understanding and using technology to increase learning. It gives them some structure and instruction on where to start and what is expected of them.

Web 2.0 and Google Earth

After reviewing several of the web 2.0 programs on the various websites provided in the powerpoint, i've discovered a new way to use the internet that makes my experiences easier. One program that i now use as my home page is www.protopage.com, this website organizes the websites i use, allows me to make to-do lists, shows my inbox of my mail, lets me personalize it and provides me with the weather for philadelphia. Its awesome! You are also able to use tabs that show you news from all different websites, comics and websites. I believe that this website is not so useful in the classroom, but can be intoduced as a easy way to organize an individuals life.
Another Web 2.0 program that i looked into was Bubbl.us, which its alot like the program inspiration that we use in class. Teachers can use this to brainstorm ideas with their class and/or students can make their own webs to brainstorm for projects and papers. I think that bubbl is a little bit easier to use than inspiration because you don't have to hit the lightening bolt before and after every thought. Another cool feature is that you can change the colors of the ballons to coordinate specific bubbles together.
I also explored other web 2.0 programs, such as, spelling city, photoshop, 30 boxes, flickr tools and voki. Spelling city is a good tool to use for younger children to help them learn and test themselves for their weekly spelling tests. Photoshop, which usually needs to be purchased, is a free application online that allows people to edit and personalize photos. 30 boxes is an online calender that keeps track of birthdays, events and allows others to view your calender. This can help students keep track of their homework, projects, sports and personal activites outside of school. Flickr tools is some what similar to photoshop but includes many different applications to edit pictures, create calenders and cards with them and other projects. The last website i explored was voki, which i think is one of the coolest web 2.0 programs. Teachers and students can create characters and add audio to make them talk. This can be helpful to teach students in a fun way and/or act out plays/stories.
Before a couple of days ago, i had never heard of google earth. The only experience i had with such a program is google street view which takes a part in google earth. After downloading the program i immediatly began to explore the world. I went to the house i live in off of temple's campus and traveled down Cecil B. Moore past the 3-D version of the Edge, and arrived on campus. I changed the settings to include weather and it showed the snow and clouds above. I also included streets and traffic which made the experience even more real. Next i went to my house in Willow Grove, Pa. I clicked on street view and was able to view my house. I saw my car and cat sitting outside. Also in the backyard was the pool we had years back. The difference between viewing my house and the house i live at in school is the date of when the pictures were taken. The view of my house in Willow Grove was out of date (we no longer have that pool in the backyard) but the view of my Temple house was from over the summer when we just moved in, the reason i noticed this was because of the Philles banner that is hanging in my housemates window. Similar to my house in Willow Grove, Alter Hall was not present in the street view of campus. After exploring the areas in the United States, i traveled to other parts of the world i always wanted to see.
It was a cool experience because i was able to see exactly what the different cities looked like with out traveling there. I explored Dublin, Ireland, Thailand, Oslo, Norway, Madrid, Spain, Malaysia and the United Arab Emrites. Teaching geography to students can become a virtual experience. This program allows you to explore the ocean, go back in time and much more. Its amazing!

After reading about formative and summative assessments, I have concluded that formative assessments should be used more often than summative. Formative assessments allow teachers and students to see their own progress and understand what they need to keep working on until their fluent in the content area. Since there are so many different types of formative assessments (e.g. paper and pencil tests, observations, questioning, profolios etc.) it is important to have student envolvement and prompt feedback. The best part about formative assessments is that allows teachers/students to change their methods if the ones they were using were ineffective and it provides practice. It is not important to grade these assessments but to use the infomation gathered to prepare for summative assessments.

Summative assessments are used at different times throught out the school year, they are usually given in the beginning, the end and spaced out through out the year. A good thing about summative assessments is that as a teacher you can give one at the beginning of the year to have a better understanding of where each of your new students stands in the academic proccess (perdictive test). Teachers can learn what students need to know before teaching the new material for the year and what areas just need to be reviewed breifly. When using a summative assessment in this way i believe that the test should not be graded. Other ways to use summative assessments include state-wide assessments, ditrict benchmarks, end of the chapter/unit teats, end of the semester exams and scores for ayp/report cards. So, after administering many formative assessments, a summative assessment takes place and the results show what students have learned compared to the content standards at the particular time.

As a future teacher i like the idea of using formative assessments in my classroom and smaller summative ones spairingly. I know that many students are not good test takers and become nervous before exams, and feel that if you give formative assessments before hand the teacher and the student are more comfortable when the summative test comes around. Formative assessments are a great way to learn about each students learning process and can help a teacher solve problems such as "why is my student proforming below average on summative assessments but doing well with everything up to it?"

In class, we also discussed benchmark tests, particually those used in the philadelphia school district. I like the idea of benchmark tests because it makes teachers, students, parents and administrator accountable for their work. Also i like it because a lot of formative assessments are used and when a a sumative test is given, the same one is used through out the district. This shows what teachers are doing a better job at getting material across, and those that need help can maybe go and ask another teacher how they taught their kids a certain lesson. Benchmark tests also give teachers time to look and the results of the tests and reteach the material to students that did not do so well and provide enrichment for those who did outstanding. This type of testing can help students on standardized tests and identify their strengths/weaknesses.

One of the last topics we touched on in class was the controversial subject of accountability. Personally, I believe that holding a teacher accountable for student learning is an awesome idea. There are many teachers out there that still use the "old" teaching system of lecturing and tests. Since we are trying to prepare kids for the future, this type of teaching is unexceptable. When teachers know that their pay depends on how well they teach their students it can create postive atmospheres, better teachers, school pride and raise the bar for everyone in the school. Although i think teacher accountability is a good idea, i believe that parents also need to be accountable for what their students learn. They need to enforce homework, reading and learning in general in their childs life.

21st Century Classrooms, Digtal Natives and Copyright Laws

In my previous blog i described how I believe that the most important change that needs to take place in schools is the shift from teacher lectures to teacher facilitation. In the article 21st Century Skills, that author(s) mention that kids today need to be provided with more hands on experiences in order to aquire the skills needed to survive in the workplace. These skills include being able to use the latest technology, be ing adaptable to change, taking risks, mastering higher order thinking, communicating with others and planning ahead. Society must recognize that the present way of teaching is out of date and students need to be actively engaged and provided with meaningful work.

One way to engage students is to use technology in the classroom; videos, podcasts, powerpoints, the internet etc. In class we discussed the difference between digital natives and digital immigrants. Its important that all educators and parents become digital natives in order to keep up with students and understand their language. To engage means we must no what our students like and dislike, if we know this then it will be easy to find the materials needed to help increase student intrest. Digital natives also seem to be great at multitaking so teachers should not be afraid to play music while students are working or watching movies/television episodes to teach a lesson.

With the increased use of technology and outside recources in the classroom, copy right law will be important for making lesson plans and planning activities. Copy right laws restrict the use of origional works at the hands of the creator. Before using any sources that are not my own, i must insure that i am aloud to use/repoduce copies of the work in my classroom. Otherwise i will need to find another source or contact the author and ask permission. The fair use policy that is designed to help a person decide if they are able to use the work will help me from spending too much time checking on every outside source. This policy scares me because it can be challenged by the copyright holders. In the beginning of my career i think i will have to take precautions to be sure that i am not doing anything illegal. As time passes i think i will understand the copy right laws better and be able to judge what i can and cannot use. This also may not be such an issue since many teachers are granted access to sources to use in the classroom.

21st Century Classrooms

I believe that our classrooms today will eventually transform into 21st century classrooms but only after many changes are made in the way teachers present materals and the attitudes of everyone involved in education (including parents and students). As of now no one is positive on what the job market will include in ten years, so teachers must best prepare their students in technology, high order thinking and communication skills. In order for these changes to take place the school environment should move from teacher lectures to a more hands on experience.

In the article Twenty-First Century Skills the authors mention four main skills that must be introduced into the classroom in order for students to be prepared to enter society. They are digital age literacy, inventive thinking, interactive communication, and quality, state-of-the-arts results. I believe that twenty-first centruy classrooms will need to be equiped with computers for each student or every two students. The internet has become a global phenomenom and students can learn from others around the world. The computer can also be useful for students to look up basic facts and evidence-based articles. The classroom will also change in the amount of risk-taking opportunities students will be able to take part in. Teachers must provide students with hand on experiences where they can discover and adapt to different environments and ideals. Another important point that this article makes is that although technology is growing at a rapid pace, students must be able to communicate with others and take part in society.

Other characteristics of classrooms in the twenty-first century include computers over textbooks and linking all major subjects together. Another characteristic is that students will need to be able to solve and answer higher order learning questions. According to Bloom's Taxonomy students and teachers will be focused on comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. More focus will be placed on the later three. Also teachers will evaluate their students with a variety of different assessments.

My fears are that by the time that current teachers, parents, students,educators and politicans realize that change is needed, there will be millons of students that are not prepared for the workplace. A college education doesn't gaurentee anything in this economy. In ten years, even if the economy is better, a college education still not secure a graduate a job. Even with these fears, I believe that many teachers practicing at universities around the world are getting the required education to transform current classrooms into twenty-first century classrooms.

Introduction

Hi my name is Arlene Rocks and Im a junior at Temple. I am a elementary education/specal education major with a minor in spanish. Im not sure when i will be student teaching, hopefully in a year or so.