Week 7 Questions

Hey everyone! Here are five questions, feel free to answer as many as you want!  Remember, you do NOT have to answer ALL of them.  Have a wonderful week! :)

1. Do you think there are negative aspects to having technology in the classroom? What are those aspects? What part of a child's education are suffering? (For example, handwriting, social skills, interpersonal skills, etc.)

2. Give three detailed examples of how technology can be used in the classroom to help students with special needs. (For example, how students have speech needs, physical disabilities, learning a new language, etc.).

3. How do you think that technology is now assisting teachers or helping us do our job more fully?  Think in such ways of incorporating Smart Boards into lessons, using Word templates for lesson plan organization, and Grade Machine or Excel for grading purposes.  

4. In the article, "Technology Integrations" there is an activity, please do the activity and answer the questions and post. The questions are 1) Do you think these sites would engage your students? Why? 2) Which site(s) could you use with your students? How? 3) Did these sites make you want to find more like them? Why?

5. How much of a student's day at school should include the use of technology? Please justify your answer. Think about your classroom and how you will teach your students, how often and for how long will you use Smart Boards, computers, videos, etc. within lessons.

Week 6

Sorry for the delay everyone, we were having technical difficulties which I'm sure you can all relate to. So, anywho...here are the discussion questions Lori and I have for you to answer. Just a reminder you don't have to answer all of the questions.

1. Describe ways in which you can become "digitally literate." Describe ways your classroom can become "digitally literate."

2. According to the video: "Web 2.0...The Machine is Us/ing Us Part 2," virtual reality is a likely outcome of the participatory internet. Do you agree? Why or why not?

3. Do you think it is important for students to be assessed on their "technological literacy?" What about students that are "being left behind?" Do you think it is fair to assess students on their technological skills when some can't even read at grade level?

4. According to the summary of findings of "Teens and Technology," teens seem to use the internet for personal reasons such as talking with friends, playing games, but they are not using the computer for educational purposes. Will incorporating computers into lessons really keep students engaged? Do you think they will be engaged in the lesson simply because it is different from using the textbook and worksheets? Or do you think they will eventually become less engaged in the lesson because they are using the computer for "school work" not for playing games and talking with friends?

5. How has technology in the classroom changed since you have graduated from high school? What are the positive and negative effects of these changes on education and learning?

Week 5 Blog Summary/Presentation

Okay I'm really bad at this. Sorry about those two previous blogs that had nothing written in them! I can't figure out how to delete them. Anyways... the posts all look great! Thank you all for your contributions and your insights to this weeks questions. It seems as though the majority of us realize that Wikipedia is not an accurate website for information (~ 9 posts). Although there are benefits to using Wikipedia in the classroom, teachers need to inform their students that there are also faulty pieces of information out there. A few of us posted on question #2 ("Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach."), and made some excellent points. I would like to point out a piece of Theresa's (goaliegurl21) response to this question. Theresa stated that, "Students should be encouraged to express their learning in ways that best suit them . . ." This pretty much sums up the quote in #2. Our students are much different learners today, than they were years ago. They need to be allowed to express their learning in a way that they can show what they truly do know. Now on another note, try to respond to other people's posts throughout the week -- not just one section of the week. However, I like how the class is supporting each other's opinions, and bringing in their own experiences. Nice job this week!

Week 5 Wikis, Wikipedia, Wikibooks, and Collaborative Writing

Hi Everyone! Here are the questions for week 5. We are looking forward to a great discussion. If you have any questions please let us know. Kathryn and Gretchen.

#1
In the article "7 Things You Should Know About Wikipedia", what are the implications for teaching and learning? How could this be used in the classroom? Do you think it it is age appropriate for elementary students? Why or why not?

#2
The article "Uses & Potentials of Wikis in the Classroom" states, "Today's students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach". What does this mean to you as a teacher? Give one or two ideas on how we can adapt our classrooms to the needs of today's students. Also, do you completely agree with this statement ,or is it meant to primarily focus on the lack of technology in most schools?

#3
As a teacher allowing students to use wikipedia, how would you raise awareness about using only factual information and avoiding "wikiality"?
****wikiality- Stephen Colbert's term. Stating that on wikipedia any user can change an entry and if enough other users agree with them it becomes true.

#4
Online researching has enabled students to access an unlimited amount of information. How important is teaching them to use printed material in this technologically advancing world? Explain.

#5
Do you agree with Ferris and Wilder's argument that wikis "help bridge the gap between teachers and students?" Explain your answer and provide examples.

Week 3 Blog Summary/Presentation

By Dr. Shi PrettyWinter

Ok, here is a summary/presentation of this week's blog discussion.Thank Lauren, Theresa and Alison for taking leadership in coming up with questions for the discussion. The questions are open-ended and make good coverage of the readings of the week. It seems many had deep feelings about children conditioned by the biases of television (9 posted on this topic). We might all have inspired by jlatta’s s applauds of Postman’s book THE END OF EDUCATION and go to read it . One good point is that the posts/comments come from your own life/teaching experiences. Another good point is that in your post you refer to what others said about a point as what Christine did “to add to Lauren said earlier about…” Other good points include relating the issue to our teaching, like audreyd516 went further to relate the readings/perspectives to our own teaching, talk about teachers responsibilities to help students. It is always easy to talk about what we see and what we experience. But we might need to go deeper into the message the piece of reading (or writing, if you want) tries to convey. Deeper reflections on the reading – what Postman really tried to say about the invasion, dominance or control (Postman would not say any of these terms are too strong), of technology, to what we do and what we think (Postman…). His point is that we human beings let tools rule over our mind. Going from there, perhaps we can reflect more on good use/integration of technology with the purpose of advancing understanding and learning? There are two comments (by Lori and Lauren) on backward design. Lauren put forward her understanding from the reading and referred to what others (Lori) had said about this issue and then related to self experience. That is an exemplar post – relate to the readings (better yet, quotes from the readings), refer to what other said, and relate to experiences. Only one post was made (by Kathryn) on the quote "learning in almost any subject today means not only learning the concepts, but also how to use technologies in that endeavor." Here are some suggestions to the class for making more effective blog posts. Perhaps follow Blog Moderating and Presentation Project guidelines more closely – tie our posts closely to the readings themselves instead of merely putting forward opinions/feelings/experiences, ask hard/provocative questions to elicit/motivate more comments/answers to these questions?

Week 4 Web 2.0: Blogging, YouTube, Podcasting, Wiki and Other Participatory Learning in Education

Here are some of this weeks discussion questions. Do not feel obligated to answer all questions. Feel free to ask any questions you have along the way! Looking forward to the discussion!

#1: As a teacher trying to raise awareness in schools about computer technology where would you go for assistance? Would you start with administration,the school board , or perhaps local, state, or the federal level? What would be a good argument to convince them to spend monies on computer updates instead of something like sports?

#2: When discussing social networking what responsiblities do teacher's have to discuss internet preditors?

#3: What is the difference between the way news has been viewed in the 20th and is being viewed in the 21st century? What would be a good 21st news assignment for your class?

#4: Do you agree with the reasons given in the additional you-tube presentation as to why we should let our students blog? Pick a couple of reasons and elaborate. If you do not agree, give supporting details why you do not.

#5: In referring to Tim O'Reilly's article, did it help you to better understand Web 2.0? What did you find were the greatest contrasting changes from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0? What do you see as advantages/disadvantages that do/do not support you in your teaching?

one sentence definition of WEB 2.0: Web 2.0 is basically a tem that describes a new way of information sharing, and collaboratning between individuals that includes using new forms of technology such as wikis, blogs, and other collaboration based programs to "stay current" and up-to-date in the everchanging technological world.

My vision of k-12 students today would be that they are much more exposed to technology (computers, ipods, cell phones,etc...) than most of the people teaching them and because of this factor, they may be ahead of most educators in that regard. Personally I would have to guess that most of the kids that I am bound to teach are going to have much more knowledge of computers than i will. However, by taking this class i am hoping to change that. Having said that most students are ahead of their techers technologically, it is the responsibility of educators today to try and learn how to use and implement new technologies in their classrooms. The internet and other new technologies are everywhere in everyday life. The real world is a technological world and it is ever changing. In order for the U.S. to catch back up to the rest of the world academically and technologically our educators are going to have to step up. I hope that this post workss...

Week 3 Keep it up!!!

This week's reading is perhaps the heaviest compared to other weeks. But each of the 5 readings (http://edu551.wikispaces.com/Schedule) is important - and each is fantastic!!! These 5 readings will provide the basic understanding of what we are doing for the whole semester. Please keep it up and finish all the readings #1 to #4. You can skim #5 - just do tidbits.

Thank Lauren, Alison and Teresa for taking the leadership. They are working hard on the readings and will collaboratively post leading discussion question by the end of Thursday. The class can go there after that and everyone will make at least one post to the our class blogger - please make your post under "Tuesday, September 2, 2008 Week 3 Mind Vs. Tool Posted by Alison12 at 6:23 PM" - the post just below.

Week 3- The Mind Vs. the tool (Lauren, Alison, and Teresa)

Hello, here are some of this weeks discussion/blogging cues:-feel free to ask if you don't understand a question!

1. Explain your understanding of the Backward Design of Understanding?

2. Pick one of the 6 Key Emerging Technologies from the Horizon report and give a brief description of it. Also include an example of how it is being used in academics today or how it might be in the future. This can either be an example from the text or a creative way that you think it might be used in the future!

3. Do you agree with the quote, "Learning in almost any subject today means not only learning the concepts, but also how to use technologies in that endeavor"? Why or why not and explain your reasoning. (refer to Educational Technology: Media for...)

4. According to Neil Postman, what is a technopoly? Do you believe that the United States is a technopoly, why or why not? If so, how do you a technopoly manifesting itself in today's society?

5. According to the article: "What Neal Postman Has to Say..." there are two different worlds: the world of the printed word and the world of television. The article claims children live in a world of television and come to school conditioned by the biases of television. Do you agree with this statement? What does this mean to us as teachers?

*You do not have to post a responce to all of these topic questions!

Week 2 Blog Follow-up

Group work

1. What are the biiiiiiiiiig ideas (suggest a list of 5) in Siemen's 2006 "Connectivism..." arguments? Provide your comments to each idea.

2. YOUR visions of today's k-12 students?

3. Design one class activity integrating blog to ENGAGE a class of 20 4th graders (content, activity, length, etc.)