Week 7 Free Online Applications Review

I played around with Google Documents (Docs), Google Presentations, Zoho Writer, and Picnik Photo Editing.

Google Documents
I really liked how Google Docs was so similar to MS Word… not too much new stuff to have to learn. The option to have others collaborate, read only or read and write, is great for group projects.

The 30-second-auto-save feature is a both a benefit and a drawback. Thirty seconds is way too quick if you are creating something on your own. If you make a mistake it is saved. Sometimes you don’t know what you did, so how do you un-do it? Thirty seconds is great if you are collaborating. That is almost real-time editing possibilities.

The idea of accessing my documents anywhere without having to have a flash drive/disc is quite handy. I ran into the problem (at school) of Google actually running slow though. Too many people using its services at once? That could be a problem if there is a deadline to be met. It does not auto correct misspelled words as it does in Microsoft Word.

I love the colors in text boxes and its borders. Editing text boxes seems easier (done faster), has more options.

"Comments" are a great idea for collaborative ‘are you sure?’ work or notes to self. Having the options to make different colored comment boxes for different people, saying who wrote the comment and when, and adding a comment to the actual text without having to re-write it are great ideas.

Inserting special characters; i.e., letters from another language (è or ç), is much easier to do with Google. The MS Word special character insert box is smaller. You have to scroll down through it, making it harder to find what you are looking for.

Google Presentations
Google Presentations is also very similar to MS PowerPoint. I thought Google’s version was a little easier to use. The 30-second-auto-save feature is also on Presentations.
I liked the text formatting auto delete button.

It is easy to insert images and video. You can even drag pictures from a different site into your presentation.

Formatting of text boxes is also easy, with border color options and background color options available.

Adding YouTube videos was also very easy.

Zoho Writer
The tool bar options are more plentiful (easily accessible?) in Zoho vs. Google.

Zoho Writer is not as similar to MS Word as Google Docs is.

Inserting special characters (é and à) for example, is very easy with a button on the tool bar.

Smileys are a cool option.

Zoho Writer comments are hidden with a symbol vs. Google Docs comments showing what, who, when, and color options.

Picnik Photo Editing
Playing with Picnik’s features was fun and easy. Students could have a great time learning how to make their own class scrap books.

It has simple to follow button options. Edit allows you to choose from: crop, resize, red-eye, colors, sharpen, and exposure. You can even get rid of blemishes! If only real life were so easy!
The create button was my favorite. Under ‘effects’ you can change the picture a number of ways. My picks are: snow, goo-ify, doodle, pencil sketch, focal zoom, focal soften, 1960’s, black & white, and sepia. If you do something you don’t like all you have to do is hit the cancel button and it goes back to the last version you have saved.

Picnik allows you to send your pictures/creations to several different photo sharing/editing sites, e-mail them, print them, or save them to your computer.

Week 7 R/D 13

What most made you say, or think, “that’s so neat?” Why? [from chapter 31] What was your favorite activity of the semester and why?

Advanced performance tracking sounds pretty cool. I know plenty of people who would love to get their golf and/or tennis swing analyzed. The use of the microhydraulic capability glove that makes smaller and smaller corrections as you improve is a great supplement to the performance tracker. I wonder if you could save the analysis and improved results on a disc that you could play over and over at home? Of course, if it really works then you wouldn’t need to watch it over and over. On the down side, I got a little scared about all the super-hyped parents who would use it to create the next Tiger Woods out of their two-year-old. For a world language teacher, how cool would it be to have a student use it to learn the correct pronunciation of certain L2 words? The better the student’s pronunciation the less the microhydraulic capability glove would have to work! A great tool for world language teachers who don’t ever seem to have enough time to check on individual speech!

I love the idea of Dr. Warwick’s implant for those people who are disabled. What a great idea to help them lead a more normal, independent life! As for educational purposes, I’m not quite sure how they could be used except for maybe as a pocket-translator that would be automatically accessed when needed. Hmm… that could possibly put me out of a job.

Applying artificial intelligence’s I-PUSH learning environments would be a cool application for second language learning. Setting up different tutorial scenarios for students to work on at different times, or multiple times, would allow teachers to have more time for hands-on help with others who need it. If the I-PUSH tutorials had voice/pronunciation recognition, students’ verbal abilities could increase dramatically. Being able to provide one-on-one, or three-on-one, verbal help is one of the most difficult things to manage in a time-constrained classroom. Adding simulations on top of this would be phenomenal! Imagine a student negotiating the virtual Paris Métro system. They would have to use correct vocabulary (taught beforehand by the teacher), correct pronunciation, correct grammar to negotiate the subway system and reach the correct destination. Any mishaps would also provide a learning experience. Students would learn (hopefully) from these mistakes and not repeat them the next time they utilize the simulation I-PUSH tutorial. They could repeat it as many times as necessary to learn what they are supposed to. This would be WAY better than the contrived “conversations” that students have to do now.

My favorite EDT 5410 activity was the creation of my own website. I’m so proud of the fact that I did it all by myself with only a couple of minor problems. Currently, it seems to be the most useful thing. Adding pages, and information to my pages, is quick and easy to do. It is something that all students can access (even if through the public library’s computers) and use.

Week 7 R/D 12

Describe two tangible take-aways that you think you could apply in your work. In other words, what are two ways you believe you can apply ideas in this chapter to improve your teaching/instructional design work? [from chapter 30]

I won’t place as much value on student knowledge based on their feedback surveys. I’ll still use feedback surveys, but I’ll compare them with test results. I think they will be best used in the future to tweak particular aspects of a lesson, get ideas from students, self-evaluate my lesson’s effectiveness and my effectiveness as an instructor.

The information about how much working memory a person has will affect my lesson plans. In particular, lower-level language students (who have less prior knowledge to aid them in learning) will receive lessons done in smaller, more well-developed chunks that give them an immediate opportunity to use/apply material from the lesson. Making sure to pay attention to the expertise reversal effect with higher-level students is important and something that I didn’t consciously pay a lot of attention to. Sometimes I use material for both levels because; 1) it took so long to create, 2) I think it is cool, or 3) I don’t have anything appropriate for that particular level.

My school has us write out our lesson plans the week prior to being taught using a form that pretty much looks like the cognitive process of learning described on page 315. It forces me to think out how the kids’ thought process might be as they receive my lesson. I am also much better prepared than some teachers I know who fly by the seat of their pants some days. I’ll try my best to continue doing lessons in that form when I move to another school.

Week 6 web site related lesson

Web Seek and Find for Elementary French

Using Madame Wellman’s web site http://dmvwellman.googlepages.com/home you need to complete the following activities.

Find five (5) new words in French. Write the French word and its English meaning. Each word must start with a different letter of the alphabet!

Go to the “Belette” site. Listen to and find one song that you know in English. Write the name of the song in French and English.

Find a game at the “Kids Playground” site that you like to play. There are many to choose from. [DO NOT use the “English/Anglais” section. Failure to use the “Français/French” section will earn you a failing grade.] After you’ve learned how to play it, write down how to play it (in English) so you can teach someone else. Be prepared to actually teach someone how to play it too!

This lesson helps elementary students with becoming more comfortable using their second language (L2). It provides a smaller, secure area in which they have to use L2. It makes the tasks something they can actually accomplish and be able to use more efficiently in further studies.

Week 6 Screencasting Potential Use

Montréal, Québec, Canada is the second largest French-speaking city in the world. It has four daily newspapers. The French-language newspapers (La Presse, Le Journal de Montréal, and Le Devoir), and the English-language paper, The Gazette. La Presse is the largest one.

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/

As an end-of-the-year project for French I students, they will view a screencast (or several shorter ones) about how to navigate a French newspaper. Our foreign location of study has been Québec Province, Canada. They have already done other assignments on the Internet regarding Montréal, giving and following directions using Google Maps for example. The screencast will show them how to navigate a French Montréal newspaper, La Presse, and search for specific information contained within the various pages of the paper. Being relatively new to the study of world languages, navigating and searching for information that is entirely in French can be a daunting task. Having a screencast that they are able to replay at will should help ease some anxiety and wear and tear on my shoes from having to run around to show several students the same thing over and over. This assignment would serve as an end-cap to the Québec unit. It would review directions, weather words, dates, telling time, and other key vocabulary and allow them to apply it in a real-world situation. Learning to navigate a newspaper will help for further advanced lessons on grammar, reading, and writing summaries or responses to articles.

Scenario: You are going to be in Montréal with your family on vacation this summer. You are the only one who speaks French. You have only the French newspaper La Presse to help you out. What are you going to do? When are you going to do it? Will you be able to do it? How much does it cost?

Follow Madame Wellman’s screencast on navigating a French newspaper. You are going to learn how to find the weather, when certain tv shows are on, what concerts/activities are happening and when among other things. As a class, we are going to view the screencast together. Relevant questions and answers will come next. Then you are going to open a new Internet window (to keep the screencast available for replaying as needed) and find/answer the following. Remember your family is counting on you! Bonne chance!


La Presse de Montréal

View the screencast for each topic, as needed. Then answer the following in French.

-- La Météo/The Weather: You are planning on taking a bus for a day trip to Longeuil. What will the temperature and weather be in Longeuil tomorrow afternoon?
-- Les Actualités/The News: You are a little homesick. How would you find out what is happening in the U.S.? Write the name/headline of one story.
-- Les Arts et Spectacles/Arts & Entertainment: Your little brother wants to see a movie. Use the schedule to pick a kids’ movie to see. Write the name and address of the theatre, the name of the movie, and when you are going to see it.
-- Horaire télé: Mom and Dad are tired from walking around town all day. They want to watch a show, in English. They love Jeopardy!. What days and times is Jeopardy! on?
-- What is casse-tête? What do you do? Can you figure it out? Show Madame when you are done with it.

week 6 R/D 11

While reading Chapter 27 (R/D11), reflect on what you perceive to be your own areas of strength and what competencies you feel you need to work hardest to develop given your professional goals. State and describe at least three competencies you’d like to develop and why. I do understand that most of you are school teachers, not ID&T professionals, but certainly there is plenty overlap between these different types of roles.
-- Strengths—communication in visual, oral and written forms; planning instructional methods and materials; and organization. Teaching another language requires a variety of instructional methods. I usually have several forms incorporated into lessons to get the same idea across. I never know which one will be “the” one to work best. It also makes lessons much more interesting for my students. With eleven classes and 300 students I would die if I wasn’t organized at school. After I’ve had a down day (lack of sleep, sick), I get a little frustrated because I forgot to write down where I stopped for a particular class and the kids are telling me, “We’ve already done that!” I end up wasting valuable class time. We all know we can always use more class time.
Competencies—I’m not sure what my professional goals are. This is my first master’s class. I don’t know exactly what I want to do with this degree, yet.
I know I need to improve my skills and knowledge in IDT and related fields. If I’m earning a master’s in IDT, improving my skills and knowledge is priority number one. Each class, each assignment will help with that. Also having time off this summer will be great to play around with, and reinforce, all the stuff we’re working on now.
Managing the instructional process through the appropriate use of technology is sadly lacking due to the current absence of technology in my building. This class and getting a new job will help with that though.
Commit time and effort to the development of the profession. What better way to inform and promote IDT? I have a difficult time right now explaining what it is I’m going to school for. Instructional designers, training managers, and instructors are going to be so much more valuable as more and more people “get wired.” With the new graduation requirements there will be more of a demand for highly qualified people with training and certification in this field. Helping decide what kids and teachers will learn and use sounds pretty cool and fun.

week 6 R/D 10

(R/D10) For your reading reflection, since you have now read for the past few weeks about instructional design/technology in three different contexts (business, P -12 & higher ed), identify 2 or 3 significant themes or differences you have noticed across these contexts and describe them. Is there a particular area or way that you believe your current professional working environment could learn from the other contexts described in these chapters?
-- Well, each one seems to have the basics— they are well-organized, have management systems and employee training in place. All three try to employ the most motivated and knowledgeable people. Business is about the money. Schools’ main purpose is to educate. Higher ed is also concerned about making money, but if they don’t do a good job with educating students they won’t get the money.
Higher education requires much more in the way of meetings, research and training responsibilities than P-12. The things they do are very systematic, usually requiring piecemeal changes. Colleges and universities have to attract, and retain, their students. There is much more motivation/striving for excellence. P-12 students generally attend school where they live. Higher ed. has many faculty members for each area of study, whereas P-12 sometimes only have one or two teachers for a particular subject.
My current school is trying for systemic change through piecemeal work. They could learn a lot about having properly trained people in the correct positions who know what they are supposed to do and do it, organizing throughout, and following through on establishing and enforcing rules, consequences and decisions.

google map

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week 5 google map lesson plan

Google Map Lesson Plan
For EDT5410, Summer I 2008

Oh no! A tourist comes up to you and, speaking French, asks for directions. They are looking to see three things in the French-speaking city where you live. You have to give them directions in French! There’s a problem though, directions must include a minimum of five changes in direction to arrive them at each of their points of interest. No straight lines! Bonne chance!/Good luck!

Students have been learning how to give and follow directions in French. They are to pick a large French-speaking city. (There will be a list of places to choose from for those who need it.) Students are to use Google Maps to create a route for a tourist/another student. The ‘directions from/to’ on Google Maps is not an option. The end goal is to have their partner re-create their map and arrive at three tourist attractions/places of interest. The route they take will be filled in with the line tool. Students are to give directions such as turn left, turn right, go straight, follow, stop, etc. Points will be given on the Google Map and its contents, verbal directions given, partner comprehension, and list of Internet sites used to create the original map. The pins on the original map will indicate the places of interest and should include at minimum: name, address, and phone number. Older students could also include: more points of interest, more twists and turns in their directions, a web site link, the bus &/or metro stop if applicable, things to do and see there, and pictures/video.

Teacher’s Sample Location: Montréal, QC Canada

Sample of student directions:
Commencez à la Basilique de Notre-Dame. Tournez à droite à la Rue Notre-Dame…. /Start at Notre Dame Basilica. Turn right on Notre Dame Street….

week 5 R/D 9

R/D9: Reflection on experience so far. How challenging? Support? Excited, frustrated, both? How to incorporate things learned? Opinion as to first course?

-- So far, this class has been extremely challenging to me. I thought it would be difficult for a non-tech person, but I’ve invested more time than I thought I would.
-- Support has been good. It took me a while to figure out all the options/accessories that come with the blackboard system. The discussion postings are a great idea.
-- Yes, I have been both excited and frustrated. Excited because of the potential to use all of this stuff and because I can help other teachers and my own kids. Frustrated because I use so much time trying to figure things out that I know other people do in a fraction of the time.
-- I’m not sure how I’ll incorporate the things from class. Where I’m currently teaching I don’t have many kids with Internet access, no phones in my room, no computers in my room, no Internet access for my kids at school, no up-and-running library. With some luck I’ll be in a different district come fall.
-- As a first course, I think this class is good for opening up the possibilities/potential out there. I also think it helps weed out people who may not be quite right for the field. If I could make a suggestion it would be to make sure all incoming distance learning students had to take a blackboard tutorial before starting classes. If the student knows blackboard already they could take a quick “quiz” and exempt out of the tutorial.

week 5 R/D 8

R/D8: Pick out two trends or issues that particularly surprised you and/or hit home and explain why.

When I first started reading about Guidance System for Transforming Education (GSTE) I thought “that’s what my school needs.” The more I read the more I was overwhelmed with how much we would have to do and how little support it would probably receive. Our “district” comprises two school buildings (K-5 & 6-9) managed by a company that delivers from up high. The buildings are right next to each other, but there is very little interaction between the staff. The charter was much better in previous years, but this past year the quality of the students has decreased dramatically. I believe this in part due to our doubling in size. The management and higher administration are just now, in the last two weeks of school, realizing how bad things have gotten. Unfortunately, I don’t think GSTE is realistic for us at the moment. It is too big a pill to swallow especially when most teachers are looking for jobs elsewhere.
I also got excited about Step-Up-To-Excellence (SUTE) when I read Figure 21.1. This seems to be much more manageable. “Build team spirit.” That’s one they’ve worked on. “Periodically secure necessary resources.” They’ve tried their best with limited funds because of doubling our size this past year. “Engage in reflection.” Teachers do that every two weeks regarding their lessons. Further reading dashed my hopes— SUTE can “…be used with failing or low-performing districts if these districts develop the necessary conditions for successful whole-district change.” The book then lists five conditions. If these conditions aren’t in place then they have to be developed in the needed Pre-Launch Preparation phase.
I am learning so much and it is very frustrating not being able to use it. I hope that I can recognize these traits in my next district. I also hope that my current charter school’s management team puts some of GSTE and SUTE into place in the very near future for the sake of the students’ future.

week 5 R/D 7

R/D7: What are, in your mind, two unique, interesting, different, noteworthy ways IDT has been used in business & industry that you believe could be usefully applied to your own professional work? Explain.

Prototyping is an excellent way to find out if your lesson idea is feasible or not. I always create a model/copy of a project/activity that I want students to do. I also have my own boys do it too to check out the feasibility. This way the students are able to see what it is I want them to do and I can tell ahead of time what needs to be fixed/revised. Prototyping doesn’t have students involved throughout the design and development though.

I believe enhancing training effectiveness and efficiency to be used in the form of teacher professional development would be great. I’ve sat through enough PD days that have basically been a waste of time and money. Having teachers put in time to complete a collaborative Internet-based activity, or self-work activity, where they were actually involved, instead of sitting in a large room listening to a speaker and wishing they could escape, would be a much better way to spend teachers’ time and schools’ money. Even teachers learn better through doing than passively listening. Unfortunately, I haven’t experienced any great technology-based training yet.

Foxon’s (1993) view of transfer, with regard to high-level evaluation, “as a five-stage process (not an event) that occurs over time after training” from page 180 is something that is used in schools already. It isn’t always followed through on, but it is initiated. Professional development gets teachers and administrators fired up about some new idea, it is touted as “the thing to do”, teachers try to implement it for a while, and then we fall off one by one. Support and follow up lag and everyone reverts back to the old. People are creatures of habit. Habit is hard to break. A good administration is key.

week 4 r/d 6

A little background… My school is one of two buildings for our charter. I work in the K-5 building housing 900 kids and there is a 6-9 building housing 400 kids next door. This urban school has been around for eight years. It has an average of 60-80% turnover every year for teachers alone. As I read figure 14.1, Gilbert’s Behavior Engineering Model, I saw things that could be improved in every cell. Two of our biggest problems are; 1) matching between people & position, and 2) tools, resources, time, and materials designed to achieve performance needs. The lack of consequences (that are reinforced), incentives (made known to students), or rewards (that are actually given) from the Cause Analysis section of the ISPI’s HPT Model (figure 14.2) is the top concern. My students have rough, inconsistent home lives and bring a lot of baggage with them to school. Having an administration and staff that used some of the information in this chapter would work wonders to improve student behavior and teacher morale. I hope our management company will be receptive to the things that I’m learning and would like to present to them.

1. The site I chose is http://recap.ltd.uk/podcasting/humanities/cityzeum.php. It has a pull-down menu of 19 categories that each contain several podcasts. You can choose from humanities, English language and literature, math and science, history and geography, and modern and traditional languages to name a few. I chose to subscribe to the humanities city museum Paris podcasts. They have a lot of cultural information on Paris monuments, museums, squares and streets, gardens, statues, and more. It includes information on things to see there, things that are nearby, things to do, and/or which métro station to use. (The Paris métro system can be a little intimidating.) It also includes the address, admission prices, and phone number. The pronunciation is excellent. It is an UK listed site but, the accent of the speaker is midwestern U.S. It does not provide further information/links of the things being broadcast, the things there or the things nearby; however, everything is listed for easy searching on other sites. It would be useful to accompany a textbook, slideshow, posters or pictures. Some possible French lessons: directions, art, history, grammar (commands, past tense).

2. I think one area in particular that could be a great benefit is for K-12 educational programs to video/podcast lessons for students who are unable to physically attend classes, say due to illness, detentions or suspensions. My students don’t care about missing out on school. They don’t make the work up most of the time and have fun doing what they want instead of being “stuck” in classes. With a video/podcast lesson they wouldn’t miss out on anything. That would make teacher’s lives easier too with regard to all the makeup work.

week 4 r/d 5

Our text cites work from Cuban (1986), regarding the recurrent pattern of expectations (high) and outcomes (low). I think that this time, with the Internet and World Wide Web, it is different. The ease, and low cost, of putting information online and updating it, makes it an attractive offer for schools, businesses, government and the military. The ease, flexibility, variety, and lower costs of online classes make them an attractive option for many people. Obviously, the Internet and its web applications are being used for an awesome impact regarding all of us. Taking classes solely online, let alone earning your master’s degree, is something most of us would not have thought of doing ten years ago. The number of applications today within the Internet and web offers a wide variety of options for learning/accessing information. Just think of all of our assignments applied appropriately for our students.

week 4-- extra credit

The site I chose is http://recap.ltd.uk/podcasting/humanities/cityzeum.php. On the home page , it has a pull-down menu of 19 categories that each contain several podcasts. You can choose from humanities, English language and literature, math and science, history and geography, and modern and traditional languages to name a few. If you click above you can hear a lot of cultural information on Paris monuments, museums, squares and streets, gardens, statues, and more. It includes information on things to see there, things that are nearby, things to do, and/or which métro station to use. (The Paris métro system can be a little intimidating.) It also includes the address, admission prices, and phone number.

The pronunciation is excellent. It is an UK listed site but, the accent of the speaker is midwestern U.S.

It does not provide further information/links of the things being broadcast, the things there or the things nearby; however, everything is listed for easy searching on other sites. It would be useful to accompany a textbook, slideshow, posters or pictures.

week 4 static images

The World Famous Toledo Mudhens Game on May 24, 2008.
They won 2-1 against the Louisville Bats in the bottom of the 9th.

Week 4 Google Maps -- Plymouth, MI

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Week 4 Video of WDW German Biergarten Restaurant Show

Week 4 Video of Luxembourg Garden in Paris, France

week 3 R/D4 -- photo sharing

(R/D4):
3) How might you incorporate photo sharing into a educational activity or unit? What might be some concerns you would have about allowing students play with these services? What might be a great benefit of such services?

I could use photo sharing for a number of units: family, my likes/dislikes, places that speak French (geography, tourist, citizens), foods, types of stores/buildings, clothes, furniture, modes of transportation, sharing with an e-pal, etc. Students could create a PowerPoint presentation, a book, a dictionary, a display. I think it would be a great tool for a group project. The numerous pictures available could be overwhelming for an individual project, depending on the time frame. Again, the filtering/policing thing is an issue for me. Authentic photos are so much better than the contrived ones in a text… no matter how good/up-to-date the text. A good picture is worth a thousand words.

4) In reading Chapter 2, what similarities and what differences did you identify between the process the authors describe and the processes you have used to develop educational lesson plans? If you have not developed educational lesson plans, were there aspects of the process described in this chapter that you found particularly surprising, useful or unnecessary?

Every week my school has us complete a standardized lesson plan form. It has us include: benchmarks (analysis), materials to be used (design & development), students’ prior knowledge (analysis), new vocabulary, objectives (analysis & design), direct instruction procedures (implementation), monitoring/adjustments to lessons (evaluation), assessment & evaluation (evaluation), extensions of the lessons, and levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy covered. Every other week we are required to do, and turn in to our administrators, curriculum reflections (summative evaluation)— what worked well, what didn’t, what we think we should do differently next time. I am the only French teacher in my building. The only teamwork I get is when I ask the Spanish teacher what she did/used when she taught ‘X’. Hopefully the material is easy to change (vocabulary) so that I can use it.

week 3 R/D3-- social bookmarking

(R/D3):
1) What value (if any) do you think social bookmarking might hold for teachers and/or students? You may think about students sharing with each other, teachers sharing with their students, teachers sharing with other teachers, administrators sharing with teachers, sharing with parents, or any other scenario(s) you can imagine.

Bookmarking would have to have some sort of filter set up so that kids, or teachers, aren’t sharing inappropriate things. How would you police that? Kids are pretty smart/sneaky. Teachers sharing with students and parents is a great way to get kids to find out about some of the cool stuff that geeks us that we don’t have the time to discuss in class. Don’t we all want to excite our kids about our particular subject? I think with the proper controls bookmarking could work for all the above scenarios. What happens when parents and kids starting sharing with us???

2) Back to the Trends & Issues reading, to what degree do the definitions in this chapter correspond with what you have thought about this area and what it is you hope to do in your line of work (or in a future career)? Does is there anything surprising or very new you read in this chapter? Does something seem to be missing?

I chose this program to help ensure a job. Spanish is much more popular than French & German combined. I’m tired of going to school and not being able to use my degree(s). I think my idea of educational technology was more like the older view 1970 version, implementation of hard- and software to help with instruction. As the definitions show, IDT is constantly changing. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing when I finally finish my degree. Just about everything I read was new to me. The thing that surprised me was how much the authors talked about how psychology is related. Psych wasn’t one of my better subjects. I’m not sure if there is anything missing. I bet I could answer that better at the end of June.

Donna's bubbleshare photos

BubbleShare: Share photos - Play some Online Games.

Week 2 Reading Reflection

What are your early impressions of using a blog and what was your experience using an RSS Reader this week? Any surprises, pleasant or otherwise?
Well, this is my first time for using both a blog and a RSS Reader. Setting up my blog was fairly simple. The hardest part was actually posting it. After I read the table of contents for week 2 on the left side I felt relief… so that’s how you post it. I actually did the whole thing by myself. :-) I consider this a good start for a non-techie. The RSS Reader wasn’t hard to set up, once I found sites that had the RSS feed symbol. Most of the sites I went to were sites where the information isn’t updated very often. The one thing that I was surprised about was how fast everything started being added to my selected reader sites. I’ve found it difficult to read everything. I ended up scanning a lot and reading a little. I’m not really sure how to use it with students, yet. I’m sure that will come as this class progresses.

Which part(s) of Dale's Cone do you think each tool (Blog, RSS) lends itself best to and why?
I think demonstrations, recordings/radio/still pictures, visual symbols and verbal symbols fit blogs well. A blog creator, and/or contributor, can add video, pictures, etc. to show how to make a crêpe. Visitors to the blog can then post questions/comments/recipes, etc. Recordings/radio/still pictures are easy (I assume) to add to a blog and can connect “pen pals” from different schools fairly easily. Blogs are full of verbal and visual symbols for even the most elementary users to enjoy.

RSS works with visual and verbal symbols as they are primarily news/information updates. Still pictures are also included in this. Students can read the latest news from Paris on a variety of topics, then dissect it through links, definitions (maybe a class wikipedia), grammar Q&A, etc.

Considering Siegel’s concept of "computer imagination", what do you think would be at least one "imaginative" educational use of each tool (blog, RSS) that takes advantage of each tool’s inherent strengths? That is, what do you think you and/or your students could use these tools for that they might not be able to do with other more simple or low-tech tools? Or, as Postman might ask, what is a problem to which each of these tools is an answer?

Blogs could be used to expose students to real language. Not the kind they read in texts or see in educational language videos but, rather real, as native people actually use it, every-day language. Students could be assigned a reading (Blog X) in which they then could add questions, definitions, links, etc. to a class blog to help each other understand what they’ve been reading on Blog X. Students could also be assigned a writing assignment on French Class Blog Y to contribute comments, in either the target language or native language, regarding the latest chapter of “The Little Prince”. Students could have various assignments; links to define terms, add clip art to help define terms, explain certain grammatical structures, etc. For students who don’t have Internet access at home, many schools have Internet available for individual and class work. Readers could also be used to expose students to written, published language. They could add comments or summaries of certain articles, defining terms, creating links, or explaining grammar on their own, or class, blog afterward.

The problem is that language textbooks quickly become outdated, teachers don’t always know the latest “X”, paper copies of foreign newspapers and/or magazines are cost prohibitive for many people, especially a whole class. Having students subscribe to newspaper RSS’s (Le Figaro or Le Monde) allows them to find out about a wide range of up-to-date topics. Blogs allow teachers to assess all students, not just the ones who repeatedly raise their hands in class to volunteer comments or answers.

Of course I couldn’t use any of this where I currently teach. No computers with Internet access for students, many students without Internet access at home, younger students who don’t know enough of French to navigate Readers yet.

I think this is appropriate for this paper about Dale’s Cone— “Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I'll remember. Involve me and I'll understand”.—Confucius. This class is an ‘involve me’ experience, over and over and over.

Week 1 Reading Reflection

I’m torn about Postman’s statement that new technologies don’t increase people’s options but rather decrease them. The examples stated do prove that but, without all the information that is available through these new technologies you wouldn’t have as many choices in deciding what to get your masters degree in, where to go on vacation, what books are similar to the last one you loved. I’d love to sail across the Atlantic but, how many people have the time and/or money to do so? A flight is so much more convenient for most people. I never would have been able to choose, much less find out about, the Educational Technology online masters program at WMU without the Internet.

If I wasn’t teaching at my urban public charter school I’m not sure that I’d agree as much as I do with Postman’s statement that “school is to teach children how to behave in groups”. Every day I am refereeing between fourth and fifth graders who are ready to punch someone who said something about their mama. Their parents tell them that if someone says something about them, or their family, that they have to defend themselves. I ask them, “Is it true? Do they know your mama? Brother? Sister?” It doesn’t matter. They have been in school for four or five years yet they still don’t know how to behave in a group setting that requires them to think for themselves or get along with others. Most of them have not heard the narratives that we heard growing up. If they have, they surely don’t believe them. Why should they? They don’t have proof that there is a way out or up from where they are.


I would love to have students on a standards-based, criterion-referenced teaching model. I think it would be difficult at first, for both teacher and students, to adjust. Having relevant technologies available would be key to make it work. Not every device would work for every subject or class. I agree with Joseph that teachers should not rely solely on technology to become more standards-based. I already use peer-assisted and collaborative learning as much as I can. I attempt mastery learning.

A friend of mine taught German via live video feed to students who lived in a small town. The district couldn’t afford to have a German teacher for a handful of students but, they were able to share in the cost of receiving video lessons (along with a few other districts) to provide those students with the opportunity to learn what they wanted. To make it cost effective, this district also used the live video feed for other subjects too. It only lasted one year, most students were bored or didn’t do well, nothing against my friend but, there weren’t any additional technologies or assistance available to the students.