EDCI 5825 - Week 6

The Big 10 shifts in education would have been surprising to me before starting this class but after working on the various projects, using blogs and wikis and reading the texts, the shifts make sense. I think that shift #5 and shift #6 are the least surprising to me (Richardson, 2010).

Shift #5 is that it is becoming more important to know where to find an answer than the actual answer. Searching websites and blogs takes some practice to really know how to find the information that you are looking for. If the right combination of search words is not used, the search site will find plenty of matches but you could also waste a lot of time looking through websites and blogs that do not have what you are looking for (Richardson, 2010).

Shift #6 is that readers have to be critical of what they find on the web. Information on the web could have been posted by anyone. So the information may not be correct and the user has to verify it (Richardson, 2010).

Since I will be teaching High School math, I think that one of the harder shifts to implement would be #9, that mastery is no longer measured by a test. I do not think that math tests are going away anytime soon. Students are still going to have to take standardized tests in math so they will need to learn math skills and how to solve specific types of problems. Projects linked to real world applications would help solidify concepts but I think that the 'mastery' measure will still be a math test for some time to come.

I think that Big Shift#2 is already happening and would be almost impossible to stop. Shift #2 is many teachers and 24/7 learning. I see this in that there are many "homework" or "problem help" websites. Students can enter their problem any time any place and have someone working on a solution and explanation for them. They can even search previous questions to see if any of the responses would help them. So students can find help anytime from anywhere by using the internet. One example of a math help website is Math Guide at this link: MathGuide. The teacher is not the only resource for the student any longer.

EDCI 5825 - Video Editing Project

If I were to start this project all over again, I think that I would go with a different approach. We filmed the clips that we did with more of the idea of a movie but given the topic and the editing available, I think that more of small clip acting followed by slides or voice overs would have been more effective. A clip of one or two people talking closer up than trying to film 4 people would be clearer to see and hear. My family did not have any suggestions, they were fairly impressed since they did not think that I knew how to do anything like this.

I am amazed at how many editing techniques are available in iMovie. It is very intimidating at first but once you start using it and realize how easy it is to experiment and try the different options it is fun. The recording and loading of the videos clips is very easy too. Reading the instructions for this project I was thinking that I could not imagine being able to do what was required but all it takes is time to get used to the way iMovie works.

I don't know if there will be time to do a movie project in the high school classroom. I would like to be able to but I think that it would probably have to be more of a class project since I don't think that everyone would have video equipment and I don't know if the software would be readily available. So if I could get past any equipment constraints, a video project would be something that I would like to be able to do with the class. I think that I do have enough skill to assign a video project.

From this project I learned both about the topic of cyber-bullying and the mechanics of editing the video clips. I have a much better idea of how videos can enhance the classroom learning and that it is not as hard as I had thought to make a decent video.

EDCI 5825 - Final Project Blog

Link to Laura's Blog

I hope that I will be able to use the Blog that I have created in the classroom. When I know what I am teaching I would be able to add course specific information to the blog. This would hopefully make it more personal and meaningful for the class. Once there was more class specific information such as homework or project assignments, the students and parents would hopefully start visiting the blog, using it for information and posting questions and thoughts there.

I would like to be able to have students create their own blogs for the classroom. It will depend on the school system that am teaching in, the maturity of the students and the technology available. Many students may have the capability to go online at home but we would only be able do this as a class if there are adequate resources in school as well. I also would want to make sure that the students are mature enough to understand the point of having their own blog and that is was for school work not a social site.

My view of instructional technology has changed very much over the last few weeks. At the start of the class I thought that Facebook, blogs and wikis were really only social or political sites and had not idea that they had uses for education. I had also never listened to a podcast or heard of Jing so I had not thought of that technology as educational either. I hope to use many of the technologies that I have learned in this class, including all the new power point techniques too.

I think that since this was the first time I had used most of the technology in this class (jing, garageband, imovie, blogs and wikis) that I will only get better as I use the technology more. I think that the items that I created were okay for first attempts. They are generally usable but not as dynamic or slick as they could be. I think that I could use most of it in a high school environment but will look to keep improving.

The wiki alone for this class was very intimidating when I first looked at it. As I looked at the projects included, it was very scary. But that was worse than actually working on any of the projects. There always seems to be one thing that is hard to figure out on each project but overall I am excited about using the techniques and more comfortable using the technology than I ever thought I would be after a few weeks.

EDCI 5825 - Week 5

I think that teachers should be encouraged to create online activities for students within the traditional classroom. I don't think that teachers should be forced to do this because it takes time, creativity and daring to try and if a teacher isn't really ready or willing, then it will most likely not be a good experience for the teacher or the student. The internet is here to stay and students should get opportunities from teachers so that they can get some direction. There are many benefits to learning on line. Some of these include that some students participate more in the online environment since they like feeling more anonymous, most parent interaction improves and students learn how to interact with peers (November, 2001). Over time the opportunities for online learning are increasing. Teachers who do not use the internet are missing out on professional growth opportunities for themselves and for new exciting lessons for the student. In the Hartford Courant this week there was an article about online summer school. The article stated many benefits to classes online, including that the students can work on classes at a time they choose and that due to online diagnostics, the students only have to take the part of the course that they need to build up their knowledge in. Here is a link to the whole article: Summer School.

Since students are already using social networking sites to connect to other people with similar interests as their own, it only makes sense to tap into this to make use in the classroom. Facebook used for interest-based connections is increasing in educational circles. Private groups can be used within a class and to give family members access to what is going on in the classroom. Public sites can be used to connect classrooms to people outside their school, town even country. Public sites can also be used to connect to experts outside the education field who can provide more information on a topic to students. Ning is a site similar to Facebook but sometimes more likely to be allowed in a school. Ning sites could be used to share students experiences in internships, connect with someone who has information on a subject the students are studying and to share a particular skill. With all social networking sites teachers should get permission before setting one up for the classroom. Many schools may be blocking Facebook for example and the school administration would have to allow the site to be unblocked. Teachers also have to spend time and effort monitoring the sites for content published and who has access (Richardson, 2010). It is important to stress that social networking be used for interest based concerns and not friendship based since many school systems see a problematic side of social networking. The West Hartford school board is considering implementing a new policy on what teachers post on Facebook or twitter for their personal use. Here is the link to the entire article: West Hartford & Facebook. So teacher may have to work hard to make administrations understand the positive used of social networking.

Learning Theories - Week 5 After Class

T2Ps from Week 4 work:

If ethnic minority students have realized that they are different from the white majority students but have not accepted or internalized that realization, then they may be distracted students. They might be distracted because, according the Phinney, such students would be in Stage 2 of her model and in that stage such a person could be confused and/or angry. This would be a distraction in the classroom and interrupt learning. Teachers can help students by being sensitive to the stage of development that a student may be in. The student has to move in to the next stage themselves (the teacher cannot do it for them) but recognizing what is motivating the student and what the issue may be, can keep the teacher from causing more harm or trying to deal with the student in an ineffective way.

If teachers treat learning as conditioned behavioral responses then, they could misinterpret student learning. Skinner believed that conditioned responses was all that learning was. Students who are respond based on cues may seem to know material but may not really understand it. This may mislead the teacher and the student. I will try to use conditioned behavior very minimally since I would like my students to understand the material and be able to become independent thinkers.

If teachers incorporate current cultural elements into the classroom instead of always insisting on more classical elements, then students may be more open to learning in the classroom because they can relate to the subject better. This can foster more trust between the student and teacher and overall lead to better cooperation and a better learning environment for the students. A teacher would have to be comfortable talking to students (i.e. Duncan-Andrade) since to really know what the students consider current, the teacher would have to observe or ask and not just decide for his or her self. This shows flexibility on the teacher's part which would hopefully be appreciated by the students.

I will try to be sensitive to students in my classes. Actively observe their behavior and be attune to any changes that they bring to school. This could help me understand why they react to something in my classroom in manner different than I would have predicted. I will also try to be flexible in that if there is a way to get the point across that the students relate to more than traditional methods, I will not stick to the old way of doing things.

Learning Theories - Week 5

Teachers can help a student learn to control his or her response to a situation:

If middle school students are concerned about gossip, what they are wearing and popularity then they are less likely to focus on learning in school. This is because according to Maslow’s Theory, one cannot progress on the growth needs (need to know and understand) until the deficiency needs (safety, belonging and esteem) have been met. This is shown in the video “Lenayiskindofcool”. The students in the video talk about not wanting to go to school on a day that they have a bad outfit on, obsess over boys and get “married”. They further explain that the getting married is just talk. Lenay was obsessed with Josh while in middle school. She saved notes from him and even an old backpack strap. But Josh liked Nicole. There are a few teachers in the video too and they state that the students are so distracted because they have not eaten, their best friend gave them a nasty look, someone might beat them up or that they are so interested in a member of the opposite sex.

It is important for teachers to be understanding to these students. That could mean helping them outside of the class issues. Helping them understand that although some of these things seem so important right now that in the longer run, they are not. The crush on a boy will pass, if the BFF doesn’t get over the dirty look, then find a new friend. Teachers can help them understand that although they can’t control the gossip or anyone else’s behavior, they can control their own response to situations.

Teachers can help a student gain perspective on his or her life:

If a student is confident in his or her identity, then that student is likely to be able to cope with bullies or other difficulties that he or she might encounter. This is similar to Phinney’s Model of Ethnic Identity but instead of developing ones ethnic identity, the student is comfortable with his or her identity verses a bully. The student doesn’t like being picked on but accepts that such things happen and that you just have to move on. This is evidenced in the video “Bullies, gotta hate em’!” In this video a young man who identifies himself only as “TheGoofyKidNextDoor”, talks about how he was bullied. He isn’t crying about it though. He is says that you have two choices, 1) fight back or 2) ignore it. He comments that he ignored it and is okay with that because he theorizes that some day he will drive a big fancy car and the bully will be the one washing it. He also says that he would rather get picked on but have a nice life and friends, than be someone who picks on people but does not have any friends.

Teachers can help by looking for ways to keep students from bullying others so that this situation does not happen. Teachers can also help students move to the position that this young man is in, where he does not let the bully ruin his life. Teachers can help give students perspective.

Teach students, don't just control them:

If students can be trained to respond to the teacher’s cues, then the class will appear to be under control and all students will conform to the teacher’s methods. Behavioral psychology, further developed by B. F. Skinner, is a scientific stance that all behavior is controlled. Skinner believed that all living organisms follow the same laws and are able to be trained in the same manner by teachers in educational environments. This is on display in the video “Whole Brain Teaching: High School Math”. In this video the teacher repeatedly uses verbal and visual cues that the class responds to. She starts with “Class” and they respond, “Yes” every time that she says “Class”. When she says “Teach” they say “OK” and turn and review the concept that she just covered with a partner. If she asks them to “Mirror” her, they copy the hand movements and sounds that she is making. When the class is following as she expects, they gain a point. If they don’t follow, she gains a point. They can regurgitate what she has just taught them.

This was interesting to watch. As a teacher, it feels good to have all the students involved and attentive. But I think that what was missing was that not all students learn the same way. Some of the students might learn better under other conditions. Some might prefer a quieter environment. Some might feel that the arm movements that are part of the lesson are somewhat juvenile. Also, although students could quickly reproduce what she had done, this doesn’t show that they understand or that they will remember it. Whole Brain Teaching seems to emphasize classroom control over student understanding. Much more information on Whole Brain Learning can be found at this website: http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/goodies/research.html. I think that Whole Brain Teaching might be useful to help bring a class under control but I don’t think that as a teacher that I would use it exclusively. I hope to be able to teach students to think independently and not follow directions all the time. Unless the teacher is going to follow the students through the rest of his or her life, they need to learn independent thinking.

EDCI 5825 - Power Point Project

The power point lesson that I have created is a Math Subject, about Functions versus Relations in Algebra. The Concept Attainment method is used. Students are told to look carefully at the examples (functions) and non examples (non functions) and decide what the examples have in common compared to the non examples. The graphs were all created in Grapher in Word. After showing several sets of graphs the students write an initial hypothesis. These can be shared with the class. More sets of graphs are shown. If they fit the hypothesis, then no changes are needed. If they don't, then the hypothesis should be revised. Several more graphs are checked against the revised hypothesis. Finally, the answer is revealed and discussed. Functions have one Y for each X value. Next, a website (Paul's On line Math Notes) is visited for more details on functions. Finally, a second website is visited where various games concerning functions can be played online.

Power Point features used in this presentation include: Two different types of WordArt on the first slide, the theme "Breeze" on all slides, 3D Cube Left transitions between all the graph slides (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15 &16), fly up entrance animation on slide 2 and 17, images from Discoveryschool.com are found on slides 8, 9 and 18, graphs from Grapher in Word are found on the Example/Non Example slides, hyperlinks are on slides 17 and 18, title slide, comparison and title & content slide layouts are used and the Vertical Chevron List SmartArt is used on slide 2. The Vertical Chevron List on slide 2 was a challenge feature. I used this because the format of that SmartArt fit the steps that I wanted to display on that slide. I was not planning on using charts or tables so I didn't use those features. I didn't try the narration right now since I spent time using other features that I had not used before.

I learned many new features of powerpoint. I had not used the animation or transitions before. I also found a couple of new websites to add to the lesson that I had not been aware of before.

A lesson can be enhanced with presentation software in several ways. I think that the lesson becomes more visual since images are included. This makes it more interesting and animated. The lesson is organized and can easily be modified or enhanced as new ideas come to the teacher. The presentation can be shared with the students by either posting it on a class blog, website or wiki. This makes it available for students to refer back to.

EDCI 5825 - Classroom Website Creation

The website that I created is found at:

Laura's Website

I enjoyed creating a website but found it frustrating at times. I feel very excited to have done something new, especially that sounded very intimidating at first. Sometimes adding or moving elements around felt awkward. It feels like something that the more you work with it, the easier it will become to create. I used the help section to add a calendar. It was actually pretty easy to follow but then in the last step, pasting in the html address, I had a problem understanding how to do that. Also there were a few times where I had to close the website and come back in since it was not allowing me to do add or move elements.

Some of the obstacles encountered included, not knowing where to find certain things or how to post some of the links into the website. Referring back to notes, using help, asking other students and Vanessa's help were all important to figuring out how to accomplish tasks.

I hope that I will build on this website to use in the classroom. I think that students today are so used to using the internet that they might respond more favorably to information posted on a website. Much will depend on where I am teaching, if all the students have access to the internet and how the school system views using the internet for class.

One of the warnings for the website concerning 508 compliance, was due to use of color. The 508 rule indicates that something that is important to website functioning, should not be indicated by color alone. This is due to the fact that all people may not be able to distinguish colors correctly (i.e. colorblindness). So if there is anything that the website is distinguishing with color, it should also be labeled (marked up) or be able to be figured out by context. Although the checking tool noted this, I don't think that there is anything in the function of the website that depends on color.

EDCI 5825 - Week 4

It is not always easy to strike the right balance between allowing students freedom on the web and providing structure. Students need to be able to make mistakes. "Feeling the frustration of continued failed searchers and then finding success can be very empowering for students" (November, 2001, p.65). So a teacher has to know the correct place to step in. If a teacher steps in too soon then the student looses out on the chance to feel the empowerment but waiting too long can cause the student to give up. So the teacher needs to pay attention to figure out the right point for each student. Schools do also use filtering to restrict students freedom on the web. Currently this is required in schools by federal law. The following link has details on school filtering on the internet: http://www.fcps.edu/DIT/InternetFiltering/publicfaq.htm#What%20is?

When dealing with primary source material the "role of the teacher is to provide structure and direction to a student's ability to make meaning" (November, 2001, p.64). The teacher should provide perspective, help with searching skills and assist with visual literacy. When using primary source material, it can be useful to consider the perspective of the organization providing the information. That can drive how the information is labeled. Also, students need to be coached in the words used when searching on the web. Some words seem very similar (i.e. airplane and aircraft) but find very different web sites (November, 2001).

Podcasting and other mutimedia tools such as screencasting can be used for collaborative learning in the classroom. Podcasts are fairly easy to create and are an easy way to share ideas about a subject. Once the Podcast is created it can be used as a source to refer back to as a refresher or for students who missed class to catch up on some issues. Students can create podcasts too. This could be used as the final product of a project to record the learning. It could also be a topic of the student's choosing.

This link is to Dan's Math website where he posts regular podcasts all about Math and education:

http://dansmath.com/pages/podpage.html

He posts these to share with anyone who sis interested.

Video and screencasts can be used in similar manner. Video of course has the advantage over podcast that there is the visual content but it is also a bit more complicated to create. Screencasts are good for showing a process on your computer to share a skill with others (voice explanation goes along with screencasts too) (Richardson, 2010).

EDCI 5825 - Critically Evaluating the Web

The feedback from my group members on the Internet Workshop that I created was generally positive. We agreed that the workshop that I created was fairly basic in nature but that it would serve the purpose of generating conversation with students about the veracity of what can be found on the web using an interesting example. Where I could have improved this lesson the most, was in the lesson plan. The feedback was that while they could have followed what I intended, that was probably due to being in the same class and that it could use a bit more detail to ensure that someone else reproduce what I intended.

I also missed the intention of two parts of the lesson plan. For the differentiated instruction section, I was thinking about how the students would be assessed when I should have discussed how any special learning situations would be handled. I should have included that the Internet Workshop should be able to be completed by most High School students but that any special situations could be handled by the formation of the partners that would complete the project together.

The other part of the lesson plan that I didn't complete correctly was in the "Content Area and Technological Standards". I should have included the appropriate National and State standards that are covered in the workshop. The National Standards are found at:

http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/2007Standards/NETS_for_Students_2007_Standards.pdf

The standard that would be covered include:

Research and Information Fluency and Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making.

The Connecticut State Standards are found at:

http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/PDF/Curriculum/Curriculum_Root_Web_Folder/ccltec~1.pdf

The applicable portions include:

As a result of education in Grades k-12, students will safely and effectively use the resources, processes, concepts and tools of technology.

I would like to use this Internet Workshop in the classroom. I think that it would be early in the year before we used the internet for more involved research projects. That way we could learn and discuss the pitfalls before we dove in to using the internet.

"Students will become victims of the expansive dark side os the Internet unless we teach the critical thinking necessary to make meaning out of the overwhelming and potentially manipulative amount of information that is now available and growing every day"

Our group discussion of this topic was centered around the fact that we all agreed with it. We realize that high school students for the most part will not just learn by themselves that not everything on the internet is true. They also will not just realize how to discriminate even among valid sources since there is so much data on the Web. Teachers need to help students sort it all out.

Learning Theories - Week 4

How do you see Vicki's pedagogy influencing her students' sense of relatedness and/or what Pink refers to as their "purpose" i.e. their Drive?

I think that Vicki's pedagogy fills her students with a strong sense of purpose and drive. She empowers them since she involves them in decisions in the classroom, allows them to learn things that she does not yet know and doesn't tell them all the answers. These things allow the students creativity and builds confidence in their abilities to solve problems.

There ware so many theories to consider from todays class. They all potentially help to understand a student's behavior and motivation or lack of motivation. The one that stands out separate from the others for me is Skinner's. All the others have some form of interest in knowing the student better. Skinner's didn't seem to care for the student as a person but only in how the student could be manipulated. This seemed "older" than the other theories. The Connectivism paper seemed more recent as it is so tied into the internet and technology and Duncan-Andrade felt very current too. I can appreciate Duncan-Andrade for caring about his students so much. He talks to his students to really see what they think not just try to get them to say what he wants. It appears that he tries to incorporate current culture into his teaching to relate to the students better.

Kohlberg's Moral Development, Gilligan's Development and Phinney's 3 stage model of ethnic development seem to me to be some of the more useful theories to keep in mind when teaching. Being able to relate to the students will be so important and these theories all have potential ideas to help understand students. Having the idea that students can be at different levels of moral development can help explain some of their reactions to classroom work, homework and in general being in school.

I appreciated that you explained the reason that we would not be using the other textbook in class. The ironic thing for me was that my first impression of the bit of the text that I have read, was that it reminded me of more of a 'behavior modification' view of class room control. It didn't seem to fit with the other texts that we are reading this summer that were more theoretical and student focused.

EDCI 5825 - Screencasts

The screen cast project was initially very daunting but once out group actually started recording, things went well. I think that getting used to the technology was scary at first but it was fairly easy once you start using it. It also starts to become easier to see what you can display and what can fit in a certain time period.

The feedback from the other groups was mostly positive which was nice given that this was new technology for all of us. It is interesting to get feedback since some comments thought that the basic went too slow but others folks didn't know anything about EXCEL and thought the pacing was good. Also, some people liked that we left a "mistake" in and commented about fixing it while other people didn't like that and thought it should have been redone. Also, some one did not like that the advanced topics were split into 3 separate pieces. There was a suggestion for an additional topic (sorting) too. The feedback was good in that it provided other ideas to think about.

I thought that the word and power point screencasts were good and useful too. I actually went back and looked at the power point to use something that I had not done before in a presentation that I was creating. If we have the ability to use microsoft office in the classroom I would like to use these. I think that it is goos to have some thing that students can refer back to as different students will pick things up at different speeds.

Any student could benefit from the screencasts. They could just be a review for some but for others they could learn a new task. The steps are clear and easy to follow along and there is voice to describe what is going on too. Also that students could refer back as much or as little as they need is a great benefit too.

I would very much like to be able to use screencasts in the classroom. Once one is created it can be used for not just that class but future classes and other screencasts can be added and created too.

EDCI 5825 - Week 3

1) One of the best ways to manage the opportunities afforded by the internet in terms of publishing student work, it to create a class website (or wiki). There are many sites that can help teachers in getting started, as well as the students themselves may know much about creating websites. The class could keep the website up to date and the teacher would be there to advise the students. This is important given that comments and feedback may come from many far reaching sources. Teachers should help with "what to publish; when to publish; and how to help students make meaning of feedback" but should not give up control as "publisher and editor in chief" (November, 2001, p.39). According to November, some sites that are useful in getting started with creating web pages include: www.schoolnotes.com, www.blackboard.com and www.apple.com (2001, p.35). An example of a teacher who uses a wiki is "The Cool Cat Teacher". Here is a link to where she describes her use of the class wiki, including as a place to put class work: coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-i-use-wikis-what-do-you-do.html.

2) There are various ways that the internet can be used allow students to relate to complex world issues through authentic work. Usually the way to make the work real and living for the student is to involve them in a real problem that interests them. These problems can be found in a variety of ways including talking to parents and businesses in the community. The expectations of what students involved in solving real world problems that they are interested in should be very high. The person with the problem (the client) can be invited to visit the classroom so the students can ask questions and become familiar with the problem and the desired output from their work. In this way the student can become engaged and feel ownership of the problem (November 2001). Teachers can also work with other teachers, authors or business people around the world to come up with ideas to work on together. This way the students can be exposed to other cultures and experiences beyond their town or state. This link has some ideas about getting students involved in a global way: www.edutopia.org/technology-global-classroom.

3) Some new collaborative relationships for teachers due to on line learning include the "anonymous reviewer" and new ways to interact with parents. The anonymous reviewer has proved useful in many ways. The students and teachers learn things from people that live no where near them and that they would normally have never interacted with. This includes people from other countries. The impact on students has been that they seem to be more willing to accept critical evaluations and don't worry so much about making mistakes when they don't know the person supplying the feedback. Collaboration with parents has always been important but not always been easy. Sharing videos of the school day with parents can be very powerful though (November 2001).

The following website link is to a website dedicated to providing training to teachers to get started in creating professional learning communities for collaboration:www.teachercollaboration.org/.

Learning Theories - Week 3

If teachers beliefs are not shared by their students, then the classroom may be frustrating and confusing because the students do not get what or why the teacher is doing certain things and the teacher will probably not know why the students are not on board.

If data is collected on ones students, then it can be used to create more effective lesson plans because the teacher can have a better understanding of the students' learning styles.

Exploring motivations to learning is a fascinating subject. It is initially so counter intuitive yet so obvious once it is pointed out that rewards are not only not effective but can be counter productive. It is so great to have this in mind before heading into the classroom. I love that the teacher was able to summarize this into one graph with two representations of the effect of rewards on performance. The visual representation of this really solidified the issue.

I also had not really conceptualized that teachers are role models for students when it comes to emotions. That will be something important to keep in mind and just one additional way that teachers leave an impact on their students lives.

I will strive to find ways to give my students autonomy, competence and purpose (or relatedness) since these all will contribute to keeping motivation at a high level. Vicki Davis is an inspiring teacher. The technology today makes it so easy to share all the great ideas that are being created all around the world.

Self Determination Theory

Vicki Davis allows her students autonomy in the class room. She does not make all the decisions or even lead all the classes. She really cares for them and wants them to learn and that shows relatedness. They learn autonomy and competence in that she does not define everything but lets them use their abilities to look up information. She also brainstorms with them, letting them use their ideas in class. I think that she is trying to motivate them by understanding them and their emotions but letting them motivate from their own intrinsic beliefs.

Vicki allows groups of students to choose and teach topics that she might not even understand. She mentions that a group taught themselves Terraform and then she learned about it with the rest of the class. They had created and changed avatars which was something they learned with out her assistance.

It was also interesting that she does not feel the need to explain every detail that she talks about. If they don't understand a word that she uses, she expects that they have the ability to google that term an gain an understanding. This is so powerful in that they are learning to trust themselves to learn and not expect that knowledge will just be handed out to them. It is also like building on their "zone of proximal" development that Vygotsky believes in. She lets them build from where they are with out leading them there, but letting them take themselves there.

Question -

Has letting the students learn something that you don't already know about ever back fired in that it caused problems that you had not anticipated and did not lead to an effective learning experience?

EDCI 5825 - Week 2

1) Being information literate means that one knows how to carefully evaluate data that is found on the internet. It also means that the searcher does not just take all information equally but looks to validate it before trusting it.

2) Teachers and students can evaluate online information in several ways. First, the website address used should be reviewed to find out if it is a personal site or belongs to an organization. Personal websites are the opinions of that person and should be looked at more carefully. Second, links into and out of the website can be analyzed to see who else is interested in the website. Third, the website author should be investigated. Although Wikipedia is useful, it should be used as a starting point and information from it should be validated elsewhere.

3) Internet Workshop, Internet Project, Internet Inquiry and WebQuests - Similarities and Differences - All four of these models challenge students to use the internet but in different ways. The WebQuest is a package already on the internet so this model has the least input from the teacher, all the teacher has to do is find it, decide to use it and direct the student to it. In all other models the teacher or student has more input into the task. Internet Workshop is usually within the classroom while the Internet Project is a collaboration with a classroom in another state or country. Both the workshop and the project are directed by the teachers. The Internet Inquiry is more of an independent task for the student and in addition to navigation and collaboration skills, builds problem solving skills too.

Learning Theories - Week 2

If you collect data on your students, then you have thoughts to use to to create better more appropriate lesson plans for your students because you may be able to have a better understanding of who they are and how they learn.

Week 2

There were again many new techniques that were demonstrated in class this week. The RSQ2C activity is something that I could imagine using instead of a simply having myself review the material from the previous class. I am gaining an appreciation of the different techniques available that reinforce concepts in learners, forcing them to recall.

The Dialogue Stations Activity was an excellent way to stimulate discussion on various topics and have many and various opinions discussed. Discussion in smaller groups can foster more participation and by having each group write their thoughts, those ideas were shared as well.

The Integrated Lesson Plan was challenging. Often times it is easier to plan something if you have been taught that way because you have examples to go by. When there are no past experiences to fall back on, the path is not as clear and the direction to can be so much harder to find.

The case study on Erik's dilemma was very enlightening since he had great intentions and a plan but things were not working out they way he thought that they would. I am always amazed at the variety of ways that a problem can be looked at for a solution as in this case I just assumed that it was bad that the students were not mixing better. But through the discussion I realize that they should not integrate just because Eric thought they should. They may be able to complete the class goals in the groups that they prefer.

I think that it is great that we are getting to practice giving feedback too. It is easy to forget sometimes how important positive feedback can be in a learners day. Grades etc will give feed back but that might not necessarily be positive and given how influential teachers can be it should be something that we take the time to do.

Learning Theories - Resources

1) http://www.mec-math.org/

MEC's vision is for students and teachers to be powerful users of mathematics.

They envision classrooms where all students and teachers engage actively in learning mathematics.

Their approach includes ways of assessing whether children are learning, what classroom environments maximize learning and characteristics of challenging and engaging mathematics programs.

I want all students to realize that math understanding and using math can be powerful in their lives. That math can be fun and interesting and is more than repetition.

2) http://mathforum.org/

This is operated under Drexel's school of education.

Their mission includes providing products and services that enrich and support teaching and learning in the increasingly technological world.

There is no avoiding the continued increase in technology and I would like to try to use the most update techniques in the classroom.

3) http://nctm.org/

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics website promotes high quality learning through vision, leadership and research.

This website has many ideas for lesson plans and professional development.

Welcome

Hi! I'm Laura. I will be teaching Math for High School age children.

I am married with 2 children and worked as an Actuary for many years before deciding to become a Math teacher.