Application reflection

How good is free, apparently it's not that bad as it turns out.  This week for my application review I decided to check out  ZOHO.  While I've used a few programs previous to Microsoft Word, I am a true dyed-in-the-wool fan of Word.  I have to say that this is mainly because of two reasons:

1. one, because it seems to be what everybody uses
2. because it is what I've always used

Luckily I bought a copy of the Office for Students and Educators when I was in college for a slight discount and have been using it ever since, but come on, it's still expensive.  After looking at what is available in ZOHO, I have to admit I am impressed.  First, there are so many programs available to use.  My Office suite includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access.  Just looking at what is available in ZOHO I find 15 possible formats to use including all of the programs that I have available to me in Microsoft; I also see a couple of things that aren't.  If I want a website creater I have to but that seperately with Microsoft, I also would have to go outside of Microsoft to get a Wiki creater.

 

With what I saw while browsing throught the program, I'd be willing to try this ZOHO suite out before dropping a couple hundred bucks on another Microsoft suite.  I'd definately let my students try it out, It would take care of the problems of "I forgot it at home!" as they could simply log in and export it to their school account.

 

For the image editing program, I looked at FotoFlexer.  I have Adobe Photoshop on my computer and find that while I would love to be able to use all of the different parts of it, at my level of photography, I wouldn't buy it for myself (it was a gift...before I found out that you can get most of the tools free online from Adobe).  Foto Flexer is a great tool, especially for students as it allows you to get photos from your facebook or myspace accounts, edit them and drop them back in.  It has more tools that I thought would be available for free, most of which are the ones that I use from my expensive program.  Do I like having the ability to "remaster" my pictures - yes, do I have the ability at this time...not without the instruction manual that I had to buy from the bookstore.  This program allows you to crop, change the lighting, shutter time, color, etc., but unless you're a photographer most people just choose the "auto fix" button and move on. 

 

The really cool thing about this program that works with school age children is the ability to alter your photos.  I had a great time with my 2 1/2 year old son editing a picture of him by adding sparkle letters, spinning his picture, making him look like he was standing in front of a fun-house mirror...all of the stuff that you see students do if you've ever watched them edit their pictures for fun.  Again, if you're a professional photographer, this program is probably not for you, but if you want to crop your pictures, get the red-eye out, and have some fun with your friend's pictures, this is a great investment.

 

Oh yeah, did I mention that I'm typing this on the ZOHO writer program and am posting it to my blog with a touch of a button...

 

Week 7 Reflection

One thing that stood out for me in this weeks reading of Ch. 30 was the fact that the human brain takes in different types of information, i.e. visual and audio, in different ways. I guess I just assumed that I learned better using multiple ways of learning because I learned better with illustrations rather than simply reading the words from the page. When the authors said “Working memory has at least two separate subsystems for storage of data: a visual/pictorial storage area, and an auditory/verbal storage area…”, illustration 30.4 suddenly made sense when combined with the “seven plus or minus two chunks” bit. This is why teaching materials using music, mnemonic devices, movement, etc. works so well, it allows the brain to process the material using different subsystems to record the same data, thus moving it back into the long-term storage area.

The second thing that stood out for me was the discussion about how different types of audio being added to the information presented has different effects on how well your learners retain the information. I have watched so many students create PowerPoint presentations, for projects in my class or their computer class, with random sounds inserted into each slide. I can also think back to my time in the business world where business slides contained the same thing just to make the presentation “stand out” from others. I was always amused but more often slightly annoyed at those presentations and now I see that rather than adding to the presentation, they were simply “irrelevant audio”.
In the future, I can see that items added into the educational process need to be well thought out, they need to add to the material and not simply be there to add some pizzazz. We, as educators, need to make sure that we’re putting a lot of thought into ways that we can reach our different learning types in various ways without distracting the rest of the learners.

Chapter 31 had a lot of “wow” moments but as far as educational “wow” I found the paragraphs on I-PUSH and I-PULL to be interesting. How cool would it be to start all of your students working on a learning module and see how the different learners were given different levels of scaffolding to help them complete the necessary materials. I have had problems in the past, especially in math, with higher functioning students completing their work early and looking for things to do, an I-PULL module could lead these students on to higher level problems/projects to keep them occupied and, more importantly, interested in the material while the slower students had the time they needed to complete the training and get the minimum objectives covered.

Screencast project

My screencast project was in introductory video to parents on how to use the class website. I find that when I ask parents if they've ever visited the site through the year they have no idea what I'm talking about. I also discuss one of our science projects, a WebQuest, that the students do during our last science unit. It walks them through the process.

Website Project

Here is the address for my website:

http://sites.google.com/site/mrjohnsons6thgrade/index

My site is for my students as a "Welcome back to school!" On my index page I included contact information and a picture of me playing Jeopardy with some former students to show some of the things that we've done in the past. I also included a clock and a calendar to show how timeliness and thinking ahead are important.

On both the math and science page I explain the information that we will be covering during the upcoming year. On the math page I included a sudoku puzzle and other math games for my students to practice skills learned during the previous year. On the science page I included an image from a trip to fossil park as that is one of the GLCE's that they will be covering this year. I also included two gadgets, the first is a converter from farenheit to celsius to help students gain understanding of the differences between the two types of measurement. The second gadget gives tips towards greener living since we talk about environmental issues in class.

Week 6 Reflection

1. All three of the chapters dealt in part with the need to have a solid goal in mind when starting projects that are based on the end users. I’ll start with this most recent chapter. In the portion written by Jacquie McDonald, the author writes about the Instructional Design Generator model and how “This model has proven more effective than the transformer approach. No doubt we have all experienced the difficulties of redesigning (transforming) materials that are near completion before ID input is sought.” Unless you have a strong understanding of what the desired outcome of the project is from the start, you’re just going to end up redesigning it in the end. In ch. 21 the authors talked about the difference between “Piecemeal vs. Systemic Change" and how Systematic change is better than Piecemeal change because “…if a significant change is made in one part of a system, that part will usually become incompatible with other parts of the system, and the system will work to change that part back to what it was before.” In ch. 2 the authors talk about how ID needs to be goal oriented when they say “Unfortunately, any well-intended projects fail from lack of agreement on the goals or the decision to put off this important step in the false belief that this can be settled later.” Again, if we don’t completely understand what we’re working for as a complete view of the final product from the customer’s point of view, or as the overall ecological systemic view, the project is doomed to failure.

In the middle school setting, or any educational setting for that matter, understanding that sometimes there needs to be a complete systemic change vs. the piecemeal change that schools so often do, would ensure that projects reach the students in a workable fashion that is designed to pass the test of time.

2. While reading ch. 27 I found many of the competencies discussed to crossover into education. One of the ones that I feel I do well are communication, which they discuss often throughout the chapter, and one from the 2004 ISPI/ASTD PT Competencies list “4. Use partnerships or collaborate with clients and other experts as required.” I often work with other teachers at my grade level to prepare projects and assignments for my students.

Some of the competencies that I would like to improve include one from table 27.3 “14. Use media and technology to enhance learning and performance” I would like to improve this because, while I use many of the technologies available through my district, I know that there are many other methods that I could use, particularly software available for free on the web, to reach some of the different learners in my class. Another competency I would like to improve on is “16. Evaluate instructional effectiveness.” from the same list. It isn’t enough to try different things, an effective teacher must also know if projects work, why they are appropriate for meeting educational goals, and if not, can they be modified or should they not be used at all.

Week 5 reflection

1. Two things that I picked out from reading ch. 18 that I thought might be useful in the classroom are the use of technology-based training delivery and the discussion of globalization vs. localization. In regards to technology-based training, I am trying to increase my methods of using different methods of relaying information to my students, parents, peers, and administrators. I myself have used internet based training in the past for professional development and I find that it is very helpful. I completed Harry Wong’s training for classroom management. I was given a specific time frame to complete the training and then left on my own to complete the various chapters in the manual. I’m not sure that would work will with some of my students but I can see some members of my class choosing to do projects like this.

As for globalization vs. localization, that hits to the heart of adjusting my teaching method to ensure that all of my students are learning in an appropriate manner…differentiation I believe its called. I meet with two classes throughout the day, my advisory and my teaching partner’s class. Both classes have drastically different mixes of students as far as ability, behavior, neediness (if that’s actually a word), and socioeconomic makeup. While I have to teach both classes the same information, I often tailor my method of teaching depending on which group I deal with. I also have two Japanese students (they’ve only been in America for the past year) in my advisory so I have to deal with the ELL aspect too.

2. The first thing that stood out for me in ch. 21 was the comparison of systemic change vs. piece-meal change. The second thing that hit home was the part about needing to have the various levels, or clusters, to drive the change. I was hired into my district at the same time as our new building principal. In the time since we started she has made some changes that are very long term and some changes that, if you listen to members of the staff, would fit into the piece-meal portion. We started a program called WEB (Where Everybody Belongs) that uses members of the 8th grade class, who have gone through training, to welcome the incoming 5th graders and work with them through the rest of their first year in the building. This program has many of the students, teachers, parents, administration excited and energized. The goal of this program is to encourage students to step up and create an environment of caring and understanding amongst the students and we have a very long view of where we want it to go.

There have also been, in my mind, minor changes that she has implemented that has the staff divided and at odds with one another. The first change, she had staff buy-in because it is run by teachers, counselors, and administration, the second change, members of the staff felt that they had no say in the changes and are troubled by how these changes are affecting day-to-day activities, no feel for its systemic environment.

Google Map project so far...

Students in the 5th grade discuss the Lewis & Clark expedition. This year we had students create a biography of the leaders but I can see how our social studies teachers could have the students research the expedition and create a map listing information such as:

Beginning and end of expedition
Current cities Lewis and Clark passed through
Different Native American nations Lewis & Clark encountered
Dates of important events

I've created a basic map detailing the route they took to explore the western part of the United States, but students could also detail their return trip using different colors.


View Lewis & Clark Expedition in a larger map

And now for some non-technology news!

My son, Kieffer Gerrit Johnson, was born last night at 9:48! He weighs 6 lb., 4 oz. and is 19.5 in. long.

Week 4 Reflection

a) I strongly believe that the internet and Web will have a major impact in K – 12 education. I know that I use the internet in my classroom all of the time. I use the projector every day (it was down today and though I was able to teach my lesson, it slowed me down) and while I know that isn’t web based technology necessarily, it is still beyond teacher and textbook. I have students asking questions and commenting on things that we are learning about in class that I can simply Google and give them the answer on-the-spot. I have also been able to find many useful tools to help aid in my math presentation, especially in working with fractions. These web sites allow students to interact with fractions in such a way that they don’t actually have to know how to produce the fractions themselves, but they can still compare different fractions and begin to understand how they relate to one another. I also use Discovery Education to play streaming video for my students. There is no way that our library could afford to stock all of the videos that are available. Finally, I have to say that research is much easier with the internet. Once students learn how to sort the quality information from the static, they find that there is so much more information than was available in their public libraries.

b) This class is an excellent example of the impact the web has had on education. While I would be able to attend these classes in a classroom, the fact that I can access this information when it fits best in my schedule, whether it be from 5 – 7 Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, during my kids nap time, or during my lunch at school, makes it much easier for me to pursue my education. What about students who can’t make it to class due to injury or illness, imagine listening to a lecture on a podcast - sure it might not always be the same as being there but it sure beats borrowing your friends notes.

c) Adult education? I was in the military and it is amazing how much educational offerings they have. I an imagine a soldier stationed in another country pursuing his bachelors degree. I have an uncle who was recently laid off who is taking classes from the community college and I’m sure that it would help to be able to take your class around the time when you are out doing interviews and working on your resume. Think about the professional development that is available to us now at the touch of a button. In the past we would have to travel to get our training but now we have more possibilities available to us at the touch of a button.

2) Since our students are our customers, HPI can help us find ways to better reach those students who don’t necessarily fit the mold or learning style that we often find in our classrooms. How do we increase student performance without simply teaching the lessons over and over until ALL students understand the material? Is there a way that we can alter our teaching methods so that we’re meeting all of our students needs? It seems like a lot of HPI can be boiled down to the old axiom “work smarter, not harder”. This chapter talked a lot about how HPI relies a lot on behavioral psychology, as does education, and how we need to figure out what the root problem is for our students not grasping the material so that we can make subtle changes to our methods and achieve our desired outcomes.

3) The Podcast that I started listening to is from The Education Podcast Network, it is called The Technology Teacher. Here is the blurb from the site: "This podcast is all about Technology Education, what it is, why it's important, and plenty of best practices. Look for classroom gadget reviews, software reviews, plus, we'll also have several student podcast episodes as the year progresses."It is done by Ron Kroetz, technology education teacher at El Cerrito Middle School in Corona, CA. Each week, Ron gives a 2-3 min. podcast about some new technology that can be used in school. Since I have a short attention span and don't really know what to look for as far as the new and exciting technology yet, this is really what I need...check it out.

4) To me, podcasting is a great tool to use to help preserve your lessons so that others may hear it, absent students, or students who need more time to go over the information. I can also see it used to keep parents in the loop over what is going on in your classroom. I don’t necessarily see how this works any better than a webpage will, however, it could be a pretty neat way to get kids involved in teaching or reviewing the materials that they learned, a type of reinforcement as it were.

Podcast

The Podcast that I started listening to is from The Education Podcast Network, it is called The Technology Teacher. Here is the blurb from the site: "This podcast is all about Technology Education, what it is, why it's important, and plenty of best practices. Look for classroom gadget reviews, software reviews, plus, we'll also have several student podcast episodes as the year progresses."

It is done by Ron Kroetz, technology education teacher at El Cerrito Middle School in Corona, CA. Each week, Ron gives a 2-3 min. podcast about some new technology that can be used in school. Since I have a short attention span and don't really know what to look for as far as the new and exciting technology yet, this is really what I need...check it out.

The Tail of the Dragon!

Here is my map, its a trip I took with my wife a couple of years ago on my motorcycle.


View My trip to the Tail of the Dragon in a larger map

Week 4 techno stuff

Ok, I'm going to claim my cricket post as my static image post...if you have a problem with that, tell me please.

As for imbedding a YouTube video, here goes:



I thought it was neat how this actually started out with Google's intro screen from the day this was all anounced, it goes to show how this new technology is driving the spread of information.

Cricket anyone?

Friday morning, standing in the hall watching the wave of students come

crashing down the hall. A group of them stands out from the rest by their sheer volume. My teaching partner confiscates baked crickets covered in ranch dressing powder. I approach the group a few minutes later and discover a hard candy...thing with a scorpion inside. It turns out that one of the boy's father went to a candy show and picked up some interesting stuff. Long story short, we (my teaching partner and I) told the students that if they behaved all day, I would eat a cricket. Bon appetit! Oh yeah, technology...I was suprised at how many students whipped out their camera phones to take pictures!

This site is Delicious

Here is the link for my Delicious site. I'm still playing around with it.

http://delicious.com/mrjohnson1100

My Flickr site is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrjohnson1100/

Week 3 observation

I can see many uses for social bookmarking in schools today. I keep coming back to research materials. Imagine bookmarking sites for use in your classes, and rather than having a set per assignment, you can just tag them for use with many assignments. Since many units link back to previous ones, you can simply tag them for any place they would be of value in your class. I also know that I have kids in my 5th grade class that simply love looking at sites like Discovery.com and others like it. What better way to get kids to branch out to sites other than the ones that they see on TV than to have a whole set of pages bookmarked for “fun science” or whatever your class is. If I were a high school teacher I would be even more excited about the research aspect of this.

Outside of student use, I know that other science/math teachers in my grade are always e-mailing new and exciting sites to each other, now we won’t have to, we can just look at their page. Principals trying to get out the news of new PD opportunities, just bookmark and tag them for staff perusal. Has your school been in the news recently? Bookmark the site and tag it as public relations. Extra funding or scholarships? Let the parents and students know about it.
Before reading Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, I have to admit that when I’ve thought about this field in the past it was more along the lines of what was said near the end of the first chapter, “Most individuals outside of our profession, as well as many inside of it, when asked to define the term instructional technology, will mention computer, videos, CD-ROMs, overhead and slide projectors, and the other types of hardware and software typically associated with the term instructional media.” I see now that it really deals with how we use these things (hardware, software) to create useful teaching tools and programs. It’s not so much what you have, but how you use what you have. How can these tools help you create more meaningful lessons and programs to help create enduring understanding for your students, lessons that are both educational and entertaining. Lessons that link the material that they are learning to real-world activities.

The discussion in chapter 2 seemed really close to the learning cycle model that we use in our district. We’re always supposed to be assessing and reevaluating what we’re doing in order to ensure that we’re meeting the students’ needs. If the students already know material, give a brief review and move on. Did the majority of your students get the lesson? If not, spend more time tomorrow. The two models talked about in this chapter, ADDIE and the ID model shown in figure 2.2 show how there also needs to be continuous analysis of the process to ensure that it is working towards the desired outcome and if not the need for necessary revision.

Hey, the RSS actually worked!

Ok, how many of you ever thought you would hear these two words together: flute + beatbox? Check out this story from NPR and hear it in all its bizzarness.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104196393&ft=1&f=2

Week two reflection

While I’ve never actually subscribed to a blog or used a blog myself (aside from this one), I’ve often used programs that have that as an option. I have a myspace account (although it’s been many months since I used it) and tried to start a blog on my son, who was born 9 weeks premature. I did fine for a couple of days and then just quit writing. I also have a facebook account. I find that I enjoy looking at what my friends are doing with their lives, especially now that I have a family and don’t keep up with them as much. The only problem that I have with these types of networking sites is that I really don’t have much to say for myself. I’ve never felt the need to broadcast my personal thoughts or emotions out for others to see…I don’t even care enough to keep them for myself; Postman would love the fact that these technological tools have failed where a simple journal or diary would have also faced failure.

I have had success with one type of blog of sorts; a forum. I used to belong to a Delphi forum about the motorcycle that I used to own. I found that I couldn’t check the site enough and was always using it to learn from other riders of the Yamaha V-Star for the latest tips on working on my own bike. I guess as long as I have something to learn, I’m interested, but I really couldn’t care less about talking to others about my personal feelings or about the latest trends. I also don’t follow those types of issues in the current media so again, I don’t feel that I would get much use out of subscribing to a blog…I’m sure that will change if I find something that I’m interested in.

The RSS was slightly more useful to me. I get most of my information from two sources at the present: NPR and the John Stewart show. I kind of like the idea of being able to get snippets of the news when I have a few moments but I must admit that typically the stories that I end up listening to on NPR aren’t necessarily the ones that I would click on using the RSS. I don’t think that this will ever become my only source of gathering the news but again, it’s kind of fun on the fly.

Considering Dale’s Cone, I feel that, at its basic level, the blog would fit within the visual symbol level. I guess I’ve always considered the blog as a replacement for the newspaper column of the computer age. I can see after working on my project that people who use the blog to the full extent, such as linking videos or YouTube clips would use the next two lower levels and also include the dramatized experiences level. Just as the reading talked about how you can rarely make the case that anything is on a specific level and nothing else, I’m beginning to see much more possibility with blogs.

The RSS reader is a little more difficult for me to grasp. As with the basic blog, I think that this form of technology sits near the top of Dale’s cone. Aside from choosing which sites you would like to follow, the RSS really doesn’t allow you to “do” much. I’m sure that last comment would anger someone who uses RSS readers to their full extent, but from what I’ve seen it’s a lot of “find this and bring it to me”.

I teach 5th grade (6th grade next year) so I don’t know that I would use these much in the classroom, but I know that my wife, who teaches high school english, has used blogs in the past. The 10th grade unit covers a lot of information about the holocaust and our school has had discussions with students at other schools using the blog format. Someone last week talked about how using the online method allows people who don’t usually speak out in class to take the time necessary to post meaningful comments that add to the overall discussion. I think that using a blog would also allow this to happen.

The RSS reader might also be useful in class for people doing research papers. I’m sure that you could subscribe to web feeds that would fit within the parameters of your topic and allow the students to use them for sources. I suppose this technology would also be useful for a currents event class. I’m still having trouble finding useful things for a 5th/6th grade class.

Week 2

Ok, I thought the readings were going to be pretty easy after the first week and then BAM, 28 pages for one of the two readings for week 2. Ok, I know that many of the pages are pictures and charts and....anyway, I can see that I'm going to have a lot of reading ahead of me.

I finished the shorter of the two readings this week and I'm starting to formulate my reflection already.

Good luck everybody!

I'm not sure if we're supposed to simply copy/paste or somehow summarize what we wrote but since this is really the first assingment I'm just going to go ahead and do it...here goes!

Looking at my past experience with technology in the classroom, I find that I lean heavily towards the side of having technology in the classroom and making sure that it is up to date and that I have the proper training to use it to its fullest extent. Let me explain that sentence to you. I did my student teaching in a mainly blue-collar area north of Detroit where each classroom had a computer and an overhead projector. The school made the decision to purchase five digital projectors which I made use of almost weekly and I’m fairly certain that I was one of the few teachers that used them with any regularity. Upon graduation from my program I took a job teaching at a public charter school in Detroit where my classroom technology consisted of an overhead projector, a cassette tape machine, and a DVD/VCR cart that I shared with three rooms. In order for me to have a computer in my room, I had to bring in my own laptop from home and download any software I wished to use at my own expense.

Was I able to teach effectively to my students? Sure, I feel that I was able to offer appropriate information with the materials that I had on hand, but I think I could have done much more quality teaching, or at least generated more entertaining lessons, if I could have used some of the technology I have at my disposal now. The Lakeview district had teacher stations in every room from middle school up (I’m not sure what they have in the elementary classrooms) with DVD/VCR, ELMO machines, video projectors, voice projectors (no, they’re not called mikes) so that every student can hear what’s being said, as well as software to go with the computer station in the room.

In the article, Beyond technology integration: The case for technology transformation, the authors bring up the problem of using technology to back up a lesson vs. using it to teach the lesson? I’ve never put much thought into that but I’ve realized that I do a little of both in my class room. I use some of the hardware in my room on a daily basis as do most of the teachers in my building. “I’d be in deep trouble if anything ever happened to my projector.” is a common concern in my building, but I know that most of the people making this claim used chalkboards well before this technology entered their classrooms (luddites anyone?) I now use United streaming, or Discovery Education rather than bother with those old DVD’s or VCR tapes; its like having a video library stored on your computer, just enter your keyword and go.

In addition to using the hardware in my classroom, I’m also in the process of building a useful class website. I found while reading the second article, Beyond technology integration: The case for technology transformation, that I’ve been taking some very basic steps towards creating the classroom where students can learn at their own pace, and that the classroom technology helps guide the students towards attaining their goals. I thought I was just finding something fun and interesting for the students to do when they were finished with their work, but I realized that the material I found, or at least got excited about finding, was material that either taught the students or reinforced material learned in the lessons in the guise of a game. I watched students who were not good at multiplication, and who hated multiplication, focus on learning their multiplication facts so that they could reach the next level in games.

Anther topic that Reigeluth, C.M. & Joseph discussed was using technology to help guide student “attainment based” learning. Our school employs math “coaches” that observe how we teach and offer best practices and one topic that comes up repeatedly is teaching to the GLCE’s vs. teaching to the book. I recall one of our classmates talking about how the classrooms in the district have clickers or remotes in the classroom that teachers can use to perform informal assessment about student understanding of a lesson. This technology would allow my to decide which students had learned which GLCE and how I could decide to move on in my lessons while working privately with certain students to make sure that they weren’t left behind.

While I understand Postman’s discussion on not having technology simply for the sake of having it, I am always excited when I lean a new method to reach students with something that is already in my room and at my disposal. Can I teach without a smart board? Sure, but after listening to my co-worker across the hall talk about how he uses it in his math lessons, do I want one? Yes! Can I use it to help students understand the statistics unit we’re just starting? Definitely.

Reaaaaaaaaaly rough draft

I just set up my blog as I'm waiting for school to start. I guess now that I have it started I should stop and get on with my planning.

Huh, first blog...I'm in the big league now ;)