Chapter 7. Rethinking Education
This chapter talked about the course of technology. Optimists see a golden age of learning opening before us, in which people will be able to find resources to pursue and education they want. Pessimists see people becoming subservient to their technologies and many people being left behind as technology begins to dominate our lives. The chapter did a good job talking about what may be lost, and with every one of these points they came with a rebuttal which seemed to uphold the technologies argument. An example of this is diversity. The chapter talked about how many are concerned with the issue of students becoming sucked into their computers and not interacting with other people. As I said before however, the book had a good explanation to every one of these problems. They said instead of limiting diversity we actually see expanding in the movements toward multiculturalism and the mainstreaming of minority groups, such as the handicapped. Another problem that the book has was the potential decline of liberal arts as education becomes more centered on the individual.
The chapter then talked about what may be gained from technology. The authors said that the most powerful promises offered by technology are that learning will become more engaging. Education will be directed more toward what people want to learn, and hence, they will be more excited and drawn to learning. The chapter also talked about competition in the classroom. They stated that the kind of competition between students found in school will likely diminish. They believe that this kind of competition causes a sense of failure that overwhelms many students. Technology allows the students to feel less pressured and allows for little competition.
I really liked how this chapter ended. They stated that whether the potential loses outweigh the potential gains the emerging education systems remains a matter for debate. How society acts to take advantage of the promise and mitigate the dangers is something to be concerned about. So basically what they were saying is that there will be concerns with technology in the classroom. Though the loss may over ride the gains there is still an argument that it is helpful.
This chapter did a good job of giving us some arguments. I’m sure there are many people out there that are not technology enthusiasts. It seems that this whole book talks about how great technology is. It was time for a chapter that stated “maybe the losses are more than the gains.” I like this way of writing. It shows that they authors acknowledge that there will be issues, but they are confident that the benefits will someday prove to us that technology is the way to go.
As a result of this new thinking, I am excited about using technology in the classroom. If you remember when I came into this class I was a technology skeptic. I saw that the trouble of technology is way more than the advantages that it holds. However, the more I learn about technology the more my mind is changing. This chapter helps with this change. It tells me that in the future I will have problems, and it may seem like technology isn’t worth it. However, I will take this frustration in stride and try and convince myself that technology is worth it, and something that will benefit my class in the future.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Exit slip October 28th, 2010
Today we had a fun day in class! Chapter 7 discussion did a great job of explaining their main points, and I enjoyed thier presentation. We got to play around with a cool tool Elluminate. The class had a fun time drawing and creating while Professor Boyer was talking.
Professor Boyer talked a little bit today about the work load this week. He says that every week we should spend 8 to 10 hours on this class. wow! thats a lot of time but I guess we are in college...
Professor Boyer talked a little bit today about the work load this week. He says that every week we should spend 8 to 10 hours on this class. wow! thats a lot of time but I guess we are in college...
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Chapter 8 Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts
Chapter 8 talked about how with many different forms of technology it has become much easier to create and consume multimedia as well as text and digital images. The first part of the chapter talked about Podcasting. Podcasting is easy to use and does not require many tools to get set up. Also it has become huge and there are many podcasts out there that are informative and helpful to teachers and everyone. Some benefits of podcasting are that instead of making schools buy expensive radio stations, they can simply implement a podcasts and it’s free and accessible to many people. Podcasting isn’t just an audio too though; tools such as you tube allow students, teachers, and anyone to show pictures and videos to add to their podcasts through video publishing.
The next step up from podcasting is screen casting. With this awesome tool you combine audio with video. Though this can be a little more complicated than video publishing, if you can podcast you can screen cast! The chapter explained a little bit on how to use screen casts, and some cool things you can do with screen casts in the classroom. One of these is a web TV for the classroom. This is having your students create their own TV shows online. The chapter ended by the authors saying that our ability to create and share multimedia in more and more transparent ways is only going to continue to expand. What they mean by this is that we are advancing more and more into the future. Yes, right now there are many cool tools out there for us to explore, but these tools soon will be standard, and there will be newer tools coming out all the time. I took away from this that we need to jump on the wagon now and learn about this educational technology, because soon more will come out using the new technology as a base.
This reading, as every week, taught me a little bit more about yet another technology tool that I had never used. Podcasts and screen casts are completely new and scary tools that I have yet to experiment with. They sound cool and they seem to be a nice tool to use in the classroom, however to learn them will take a guy like me some effort. The authors seemed to read my mind when they ended the chapter. I really liked how in the end they sort of comforted us and told us that we have not me the end of technology. There will be new tools in the future and these tools may require us to know how to use the tools that are presently new. We as future educators need to learn these tools because soon we will have to learn new ones to keep out students up to date with technology.
As a future teacher I plan on trying to implement podcasts and screen casts into my classroom. They seem like a cool tool to use and they can be informative to me, my students, and also the parents of my students. I want the parents of my students to be confident in my abilities to teach them and learning this technology will instill this confidence. Like the authors said, there will be new technology; we need to teach the technology that we have now before more comes out.
The next step up from podcasting is screen casting. With this awesome tool you combine audio with video. Though this can be a little more complicated than video publishing, if you can podcast you can screen cast! The chapter explained a little bit on how to use screen casts, and some cool things you can do with screen casts in the classroom. One of these is a web TV for the classroom. This is having your students create their own TV shows online. The chapter ended by the authors saying that our ability to create and share multimedia in more and more transparent ways is only going to continue to expand. What they mean by this is that we are advancing more and more into the future. Yes, right now there are many cool tools out there for us to explore, but these tools soon will be standard, and there will be newer tools coming out all the time. I took away from this that we need to jump on the wagon now and learn about this educational technology, because soon more will come out using the new technology as a base.
This reading, as every week, taught me a little bit more about yet another technology tool that I had never used. Podcasts and screen casts are completely new and scary tools that I have yet to experiment with. They sound cool and they seem to be a nice tool to use in the classroom, however to learn them will take a guy like me some effort. The authors seemed to read my mind when they ended the chapter. I really liked how in the end they sort of comforted us and told us that we have not me the end of technology. There will be new tools in the future and these tools may require us to know how to use the tools that are presently new. We as future educators need to learn these tools because soon we will have to learn new ones to keep out students up to date with technology.
As a future teacher I plan on trying to implement podcasts and screen casts into my classroom. They seem like a cool tool to use and they can be informative to me, my students, and also the parents of my students. I want the parents of my students to be confident in my abilities to teach them and learning this technology will instill this confidence. Like the authors said, there will be new technology; we need to teach the technology that we have now before more comes out.
Chapter 6 Rethinking Education
Chapter 6 of Rethinking education talked about the three eras of education. They explained in the beginning paragraphs that there were three eras of education and currently we are nearing the end of the third one. The first one was apprenticeship era, then came the universal schooling era, and now we are entering the lifelong-learning era of education.
The authors discussed when Horace Mann and his colleagues took over the practice of teaching children from the parents and elders in the community. These parents and elders were originally given the job of teaching. Now, in today’s present lifelong-learning era, responsibility for education is shifting away from the state and back to the parents. More and more parents are taking control of the education of their children by buying them educational videos and computer software.
When Horace man and his colleagues took over the practice they tried to bring all students up to the same page in education. They wanted a common high level of success. Before this practice parents had always wanted their children to grow up the same way that they had, and learn the same things that they did. The authors believe we are reverting back to this practice. Teenagers and young adults are taking on more responsibility for their own lives and education. They often reject what school has to offer, choosing to pursue instead whatever interests them or what they think is necessary to advance to their career. The chapter then went on to talk about the content that the students were learning. Originally the parents decided that students should learn content that the parents wanted them to learn for example if the parents were farmers then they wanted their students to learn about the land. Then in the industrial revolution the educators wanted to prepare students with knowledge that would allow them to do whatever they wanted in the world. Finally the authors say that in today’s era it is becoming impossible for school to teach people all the knowledge they might need as adults. It seems as though they may need to choose what appeals to them and pursue the education required for that career.
The chapter also talked about the shift from assessment. In the apprenticeship era the students were observed to see if they were succeeding in their education. In the schooling era standardized test told the educators how smart the students were. Today these too methods of assessment are merging. The students are still tested but with technology the educators have better tools to observe students and their progress through the content.
The chapter continued on comparing the three eras. The talked about how with technology schooling is returning to the home, less personal bonds are made, and left us with a cliff hanger of a topic. The authors ended this chapter by saying that with all these awesome tools at our fingertips and the way that education is depending on technology, what if students refuse to use and learn from technology?
I thought that this was an awesome chapter. It’s awesome to see how the different methods of education have changed through the years! In some ways it seems that we are returning to the apprentice ship era. In others we are making our own era.
As a future educator I will remember the different ways that education has gone through and realize that it is changing all the time. What teachers thought was the right way to teach students 100 years ago is wrong today, and maybe in 100 years the way that I taught students will be grossly outdated. Who knows?
The authors discussed when Horace Mann and his colleagues took over the practice of teaching children from the parents and elders in the community. These parents and elders were originally given the job of teaching. Now, in today’s present lifelong-learning era, responsibility for education is shifting away from the state and back to the parents. More and more parents are taking control of the education of their children by buying them educational videos and computer software.
When Horace man and his colleagues took over the practice they tried to bring all students up to the same page in education. They wanted a common high level of success. Before this practice parents had always wanted their children to grow up the same way that they had, and learn the same things that they did. The authors believe we are reverting back to this practice. Teenagers and young adults are taking on more responsibility for their own lives and education. They often reject what school has to offer, choosing to pursue instead whatever interests them or what they think is necessary to advance to their career. The chapter then went on to talk about the content that the students were learning. Originally the parents decided that students should learn content that the parents wanted them to learn for example if the parents were farmers then they wanted their students to learn about the land. Then in the industrial revolution the educators wanted to prepare students with knowledge that would allow them to do whatever they wanted in the world. Finally the authors say that in today’s era it is becoming impossible for school to teach people all the knowledge they might need as adults. It seems as though they may need to choose what appeals to them and pursue the education required for that career.
The chapter also talked about the shift from assessment. In the apprenticeship era the students were observed to see if they were succeeding in their education. In the schooling era standardized test told the educators how smart the students were. Today these too methods of assessment are merging. The students are still tested but with technology the educators have better tools to observe students and their progress through the content.
The chapter continued on comparing the three eras. The talked about how with technology schooling is returning to the home, less personal bonds are made, and left us with a cliff hanger of a topic. The authors ended this chapter by saying that with all these awesome tools at our fingertips and the way that education is depending on technology, what if students refuse to use and learn from technology?
I thought that this was an awesome chapter. It’s awesome to see how the different methods of education have changed through the years! In some ways it seems that we are returning to the apprentice ship era. In others we are making our own era.
As a future educator I will remember the different ways that education has gone through and realize that it is changing all the time. What teachers thought was the right way to teach students 100 years ago is wrong today, and maybe in 100 years the way that I taught students will be grossly outdated. Who knows?
IRLO
Am I glad I finally have a project! This IRLO took me a very very long time to complete and I believe I put a lot of effort into the little project that I have. I originally I did not want to complete this project. I downloaded the software, tried to make my project on my own and just couldn’t come up with anything. I tried and tried and got now where. So I met with Professor Boyer and told him I did not want to complete the “A project.” Well for professor Boyer this was not acceptable. He took the time to show me what I was doing wrong, and some things I could do to make my project more interesting. Basically got me started and I owe my whole project to this meeting. So thank you professor Boyer!
My reaction to this project is that I thought it was really cool, but very hard to make. I wish we had spent more time in class working with the software. However, I am happy I completed it and I think this will be a cool tool to use in the future.
In the future I plan on making some more of these, so it definitely had an impact on me. Now that I know how to make one I can use this for an activity when my students are done early with their work. I plan on making IRLO’s up and having them available for my students to use. I believe they are excellent learning tools that teach students while at the same time allow them to have some fun.
My reaction to this project is that I thought it was really cool, but very hard to make. I wish we had spent more time in class working with the software. However, I am happy I completed it and I think this will be a cool tool to use in the future.
In the future I plan on making some more of these, so it definitely had an impact on me. Now that I know how to make one I can use this for an activity when my students are done early with their work. I plan on making IRLO’s up and having them available for my students to use. I believe they are excellent learning tools that teach students while at the same time allow them to have some fun.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Exit Slip October 21, 2010
Today we wacthed the presentation on chapter 6 of rethinking education in the age of technology. This group did an excellent job! They had a great voice, provided a very good presentation, and they even gave out candy!
The rest of the day was very informative. We talked about cool tools that you can use with the interactive white board lesson. We also talked about skype and some upcoming assignments. We ended with a mid semester analysis of Dr. Boyer. Overall a good day!
The rest of the day was very informative. We talked about cool tools that you can use with the interactive white board lesson. We also talked about skype and some upcoming assignments. We ended with a mid semester analysis of Dr. Boyer. Overall a good day!
Friday, October 15, 2010
Chapter 5 Rethinking Education
Wow another long chapter! The title of chapter 5 was “The seeds of a new System of Education” The beginning of the chapter lists everything that the chapter talks about. It says that there is an explosive growth of home schooling, workplace learning, distance education, adult education, learning centers, educational television and videos, computer based learning software, technical certifications, and Internet café’s. (Yep a mouthful)The first part of the chapter talked about homeschooling. Apparently this is a really good thing to do to your kids if you can do it effectively. According to the text children who are schooled at home score significantly better on standardized tests in every subject area. This is kind of a cool fact because the parents of homeschooled children only spend 3 to 4 hours a day working with their kids. The chapter then moved to workplace learning, and reeducating their workers. Many businesses are resorting to this method as we advance with new technology. They even pay for it in certain situations. The chapter then moved onto distance education. This has been around longer than most may think, even longer than the internet. PBS had a big help in education many people around the world at the same time. There are even k-12 schools that are completely distance learning. The chapter then moved onto talking about learning centers. Private vendors of education such as learning centers like all the other items in education are continuing to expand. This is a very prominent practice in Japan.
The next part of the chapter talked about educational television and videos. Some examples of this include Barney, the Electric Company, CNN C-Span, discovery Channel, and many more. The authors pointed to the fact that kids watch a lot of TV. so why not show them something entertaining and educational? The next heading talked about computer-based learning software. This talked about video games such as the Sims, and world of war craft. This to some may seem like just computer games, but actually they can be very educational and can help student learn many things such as reading. The last two headings talked about technical certifications, and Internet cafes. There are majors in colleges now that are exclusively computer based, and the people who gain this major are certified to work with all sorts of new technology. Internet cafes provide a bunch of people to meet together and not just drink coffee but have access to internet. With this power you are not grounded to your home or business to receive internet, you have another available location.
This chapter was super long and was more informative than helpful in convincing me that technology is really an awesome thing. Some cool things that I read about were the facts that technology is helping so many people around the world receive education. Through the process of distance learning, online schooling, and educational television millions of people can learn at the same time in a million different locations.
As a future educator I will be very open to complying with all of the titles talked in this chapter. I was in a distance learning language class and I loved it, so maybe my students will be able to experience the same thing.
The next part of the chapter talked about educational television and videos. Some examples of this include Barney, the Electric Company, CNN C-Span, discovery Channel, and many more. The authors pointed to the fact that kids watch a lot of TV. so why not show them something entertaining and educational? The next heading talked about computer-based learning software. This talked about video games such as the Sims, and world of war craft. This to some may seem like just computer games, but actually they can be very educational and can help student learn many things such as reading. The last two headings talked about technical certifications, and Internet cafes. There are majors in colleges now that are exclusively computer based, and the people who gain this major are certified to work with all sorts of new technology. Internet cafes provide a bunch of people to meet together and not just drink coffee but have access to internet. With this power you are not grounded to your home or business to receive internet, you have another available location.
This chapter was super long and was more informative than helpful in convincing me that technology is really an awesome thing. Some cool things that I read about were the facts that technology is helping so many people around the world receive education. Through the process of distance learning, online schooling, and educational television millions of people can learn at the same time in a million different locations.
As a future educator I will be very open to complying with all of the titles talked in this chapter. I was in a distance learning language class and I loved it, so maybe my students will be able to experience the same thing.
Chapter 6 Blogs Wikis Podcasts
This chapter starts out by talking about the social web. According to this “social web” we all have many friends out there just waiting to be found and connected to, and those friends have other friends who can just as easily connect with us and point us to new and interesting information or learning. So basically the internet has millions of users and most of these users can be contacted and will help us.
Of course if you talk about the social web they have to talk about… Twitter! According to our text this is not only a social network, but also a powerful tool that teachers can use to help their students. Then the book starts to talk about social bookmarking. This is where people can collect links and information on the internet that they find useful and want to use later in the future. All of us in Ed. 331 use a sight called delicious, which fits right into this category. Another sight at the front of bookmarking is called Diigo. The author really really liked this sight because on Diigo the ability to separate your information into categories is much easier. This is a good tool to use to prevent having a huge amount of information and no way to organize it. The rest of the chapter continues to talk about Delicious and Diigo. The author points not only to the awesome tools that both of these sites give us, but also how the tools will make our lives as educators easier.
This reading adds to my continuing change of how to think about technology. As a kid I really thought that twitter was stupid. Who the heck would want to proclaim to the world every little thing that they do every minute of the day. However, this reading talks about some of the benefits that twitter has. It actually can be used in a classroom setting which I think is awesome. I guess twitter can be used for more than I thought. The chapter also talked about using delicious. This is a sight that my professor showed me how to use and I think that it is awesome! As a teacher I am really excited to look up ideas and programs for my lesson plans on my delicious account. This chapter did a good job of continuing to make me a believer in technology. With all the really cool tools that it gives us it awesome.
As a future educator I may use twitter to put up assignments, send reminders, and inform my student’s parents of what is all going on in the classroom. I will for sure use delicious. I really like this site and believe it will make my life so much easier in the future.
Of course if you talk about the social web they have to talk about… Twitter! According to our text this is not only a social network, but also a powerful tool that teachers can use to help their students. Then the book starts to talk about social bookmarking. This is where people can collect links and information on the internet that they find useful and want to use later in the future. All of us in Ed. 331 use a sight called delicious, which fits right into this category. Another sight at the front of bookmarking is called Diigo. The author really really liked this sight because on Diigo the ability to separate your information into categories is much easier. This is a good tool to use to prevent having a huge amount of information and no way to organize it. The rest of the chapter continues to talk about Delicious and Diigo. The author points not only to the awesome tools that both of these sites give us, but also how the tools will make our lives as educators easier.
This reading adds to my continuing change of how to think about technology. As a kid I really thought that twitter was stupid. Who the heck would want to proclaim to the world every little thing that they do every minute of the day. However, this reading talks about some of the benefits that twitter has. It actually can be used in a classroom setting which I think is awesome. I guess twitter can be used for more than I thought. The chapter also talked about using delicious. This is a sight that my professor showed me how to use and I think that it is awesome! As a teacher I am really excited to look up ideas and programs for my lesson plans on my delicious account. This chapter did a good job of continuing to make me a believer in technology. With all the really cool tools that it gives us it awesome.
As a future educator I may use twitter to put up assignments, send reminders, and inform my student’s parents of what is all going on in the classroom. I will for sure use delicious. I really like this site and believe it will make my life so much easier in the future.
Exit Slip October 15, 2010
Today we had an excellent presentation about chapter 5. The group did an awesome job of dividing up the discussion groups by using colored pieces of paper. We also got introduced into working with scratch. This looks like a fun program to use and I'm excited to start my project on it.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Exit Slip October 7, 2010
Today in lab we watched a very well done presentation on chapter 4. The presenters did a great job of talking and interacting with the class. We looked at the irol which scared a lot of students including myself. but maaaybe it will be a cool tool... maybe
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Ch. 4 Rethinking Education
This chapter started out seeming like it was adding to the technology enthusiast’s argument. The authors stated that there is a transformation happening that is allowing technology to come into our schools. They also say that this transformation is not unique in our history. Way back in the day it was the parent’s job to teach children, there was no such thing as going to school for some families. The way many people became good at something was by becoming an apprentice to someone. They observed and worked with a certain person, learned their trade and eventually passed on their learned knowledge to a new apprentice. The question that the chapter is focusing on is why the transformation from apprenticeship to universal schooling took place and how it developed over time. The book says that this occurred because of a chain of events beginning with the printing press.
The printing press led to widespread development and diffusion of knowledge. This was a critical tool in the development of science, and writing. Then the protestant reformation happened. When the bible was converted to many different languages many people could connect and communicate on a similar topic. Then the American Revolution became the next link in the education chain. The forefathers of this country wanted its citizens to have to opportunity to have schooling and fought for this goal. Finally the industrial revolution occurred. This allotted for universal schooling all throughout the country. This signaled the shift that occurred in education, from a family responsibility to a state one.
After the chain of schooling evolutionary events this chapter goes on to talk about some key things that went on in schooling after the industrial revolution. They talk about beginning education for small children in 1856, about establishing a physical organization of school in 1910. These changes led to hiring professional class leaders and teachers to develop and maintain bureaucratic measurement of production to see if it is right according to specifications.
The chapter ended by talking about the problems that the transformation caused. Now that schooling was set up schools and administrators had to come to a consensus on a number of issues. These included attendance practices, tests, grades, textbooks, and levels of schools such as high school.
These readings helped me realize that the schooling system has come a long way, and that we are fortunate to be living in the time that we are because the way that we are being taught right now was nonexistent just 100 years ago. Many events were so very crucial to the development of schooling such as the printing press. Had they not happened I don’t know how we would be taught today. I really liked this chapter because I am a huge history buff. However, this reading does not change my view on technology’s role in education too much. What I believe this chapter was showing was that throughout history there have been tools coming out that were considered technology. (Such as the printing press.) These tools helped us become who we are today, and technology is continuing to evolve all around us. It is our job to ensure our futures success by not allowing technology to be stopped.
As a future teacher I will try and remind my students of the history of education and how technology played a crucial role in where we are today. Hopefully they will realize that their lives would be way different had certain events occurred that allowed our schooling system to evolve the way that it did.
The printing press led to widespread development and diffusion of knowledge. This was a critical tool in the development of science, and writing. Then the protestant reformation happened. When the bible was converted to many different languages many people could connect and communicate on a similar topic. Then the American Revolution became the next link in the education chain. The forefathers of this country wanted its citizens to have to opportunity to have schooling and fought for this goal. Finally the industrial revolution occurred. This allotted for universal schooling all throughout the country. This signaled the shift that occurred in education, from a family responsibility to a state one.
After the chain of schooling evolutionary events this chapter goes on to talk about some key things that went on in schooling after the industrial revolution. They talk about beginning education for small children in 1856, about establishing a physical organization of school in 1910. These changes led to hiring professional class leaders and teachers to develop and maintain bureaucratic measurement of production to see if it is right according to specifications.
The chapter ended by talking about the problems that the transformation caused. Now that schooling was set up schools and administrators had to come to a consensus on a number of issues. These included attendance practices, tests, grades, textbooks, and levels of schools such as high school.
These readings helped me realize that the schooling system has come a long way, and that we are fortunate to be living in the time that we are because the way that we are being taught right now was nonexistent just 100 years ago. Many events were so very crucial to the development of schooling such as the printing press. Had they not happened I don’t know how we would be taught today. I really liked this chapter because I am a huge history buff. However, this reading does not change my view on technology’s role in education too much. What I believe this chapter was showing was that throughout history there have been tools coming out that were considered technology. (Such as the printing press.) These tools helped us become who we are today, and technology is continuing to evolve all around us. It is our job to ensure our futures success by not allowing technology to be stopped.
As a future teacher I will try and remind my students of the history of education and how technology played a crucial role in where we are today. Hopefully they will realize that their lives would be way different had certain events occurred that allowed our schooling system to evolve the way that it did.
Chapter 5 RSS Blogs, Wiki, podcasrs
The first thing we learned about in this chapter reading was what RSS stands for. That is Really Simple Syndication. This cool tool enables information content to come to your computer instead of you having to search for it everywhere. It is basically a consumer of information. They talked about setting up an RSS. One of the best tools out there to set up an RSS is Google Reader. This site is free to use and the author believes is one of the best out there.
Now when setting up your RSS you want to be careful of what sites you are looking at. They offered some hints of what to watch for. For good sites you want to make sure there are some advertisements, an author’s full name, and how often the site is updated. Also look for comments or well established conversations about the content of the site. They then went on to give us some hints on how to search properly and what to do when you become stuck.
The final pages talked about how to implement RSS into the classroom. The authors suggest using agitators and believe it will benefit immensely. They report that “Having a well-stocked, well-fed aggregator is like having a personal guide.” Some handy tools that RSS enables teachers to do are instead of reading through all your students web logs you can simply collect it in your agitator and read them together. Also the RSS feeds can be great sources of information for News Searches. Finally you can monitor your student’s feeds and see what information they are attaining. This chapter ended by telling future teachers that if you make an RSS you want to make sure and check it on a regular basis. IF you fail to do so you will find yourself with hundreds of feeds and a lot of work to do.
This reading really shows me the beginning of the impact that technology has on teaching, learning, and the world! I am just getting used to using a delicious account, a web log, and frankly a computer, and now there is a tool that collects all of this information because there is so much of it. I think that is just crazy. It really shows how much technology has grown, and how people are beginning to deal with the vast information that is out there. It is cool to see a tool that allows you to become a little more organized on the web, and also a little scary. This is just yet another tool that I will have to learn to use to keep up with technology.
As a future teacher I honestly will not do much different as a result of this new thinking. I have to decide if an RSS account is worth my time and effort. If it is, as usually I will be the first to jump on the band wagon and learn to use it. HOWEVER, if I can find a way to avoid this tool and do thing the old fashioned way I probably will try that for right now. I need to get used to the technology that I am working with now before I try to organize it.
Now when setting up your RSS you want to be careful of what sites you are looking at. They offered some hints of what to watch for. For good sites you want to make sure there are some advertisements, an author’s full name, and how often the site is updated. Also look for comments or well established conversations about the content of the site. They then went on to give us some hints on how to search properly and what to do when you become stuck.
The final pages talked about how to implement RSS into the classroom. The authors suggest using agitators and believe it will benefit immensely. They report that “Having a well-stocked, well-fed aggregator is like having a personal guide.” Some handy tools that RSS enables teachers to do are instead of reading through all your students web logs you can simply collect it in your agitator and read them together. Also the RSS feeds can be great sources of information for News Searches. Finally you can monitor your student’s feeds and see what information they are attaining. This chapter ended by telling future teachers that if you make an RSS you want to make sure and check it on a regular basis. IF you fail to do so you will find yourself with hundreds of feeds and a lot of work to do.
This reading really shows me the beginning of the impact that technology has on teaching, learning, and the world! I am just getting used to using a delicious account, a web log, and frankly a computer, and now there is a tool that collects all of this information because there is so much of it. I think that is just crazy. It really shows how much technology has grown, and how people are beginning to deal with the vast information that is out there. It is cool to see a tool that allows you to become a little more organized on the web, and also a little scary. This is just yet another tool that I will have to learn to use to keep up with technology.
As a future teacher I honestly will not do much different as a result of this new thinking. I have to decide if an RSS account is worth my time and effort. If it is, as usually I will be the first to jump on the band wagon and learn to use it. HOWEVER, if I can find a way to avoid this tool and do thing the old fashioned way I probably will try that for right now. I need to get used to the technology that I am working with now before I try to organize it.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Ch. 4 Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts
The title of chapter four is Wikis so I got a pretty good idea of what the chapter was going to be about. It started with a really cool quote: “Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That’s what we’re doing.” That was form the guy who founded Wikipedia. So are Wikis really this awesome of a source of information?
Wikipedia is a site that sounds like an encyclopedia. And in fact it sort of is. It houses a multitude of information from A to Z that is always changing. However “that is always changing” is a huge problem for some. According to our book every time you log onto encyclopedia.com you become the editor in chief. This allows you to change any of the information that is on the site. (If it is correct and appropriate) The success of Wikipedia has spawned a wiki revolution. Pg. 58 Now tons of businesses have them including McDonalds, Sony and BMW. Now comes the problem how do we implement this tool into our schools?
The rest of this chapter talks about this subject. Obviously many teachers are afraid of “editable” tools such Wikipedia. Are we supposed to trust our students getting information from sites that are anyone can change the information? Even if the site has hired people to watch and make corrections how fast are they at catching mistakes? The book explains though that there are many other uses for wikis. Many classrooms use wikis to complete projects and use the wiki as a portal for assignments and relevant links to many other sources. They finally end the chapter with some instructions on how we as future educators can implement wikis into the classroom. A great site to use is wikispaces.com.
This reading impacts my thinking on technology’s role in the classroom by helping me realize yet again that technology is not evil. I had never heard of a Wiki before I came into the Ed. 331 class, and when the teacher began explaining that we will be working with them throughout the course of the semester I immediately thought that they were a waste of time. Now I think that they are awesome. A wiki can be a bad place to get information but if used successfully you can use them as a powerful teaching tool!
As a future teacher I think I will try to use wikis in my classroom. Being a special needs teacher I probably will not have my students make their own, but I will hopefully have them write on the class wiki. I also will show the parents of the students that I am teaching how to access the wiki so they can view the work of their students. Finally I will be able to use wikis to find helpful resources and links for my classroom. Now that I know that wikis are not evil I am excited to explore them.
Wikipedia is a site that sounds like an encyclopedia. And in fact it sort of is. It houses a multitude of information from A to Z that is always changing. However “that is always changing” is a huge problem for some. According to our book every time you log onto encyclopedia.com you become the editor in chief. This allows you to change any of the information that is on the site. (If it is correct and appropriate) The success of Wikipedia has spawned a wiki revolution. Pg. 58 Now tons of businesses have them including McDonalds, Sony and BMW. Now comes the problem how do we implement this tool into our schools?
The rest of this chapter talks about this subject. Obviously many teachers are afraid of “editable” tools such Wikipedia. Are we supposed to trust our students getting information from sites that are anyone can change the information? Even if the site has hired people to watch and make corrections how fast are they at catching mistakes? The book explains though that there are many other uses for wikis. Many classrooms use wikis to complete projects and use the wiki as a portal for assignments and relevant links to many other sources. They finally end the chapter with some instructions on how we as future educators can implement wikis into the classroom. A great site to use is wikispaces.com.
This reading impacts my thinking on technology’s role in the classroom by helping me realize yet again that technology is not evil. I had never heard of a Wiki before I came into the Ed. 331 class, and when the teacher began explaining that we will be working with them throughout the course of the semester I immediately thought that they were a waste of time. Now I think that they are awesome. A wiki can be a bad place to get information but if used successfully you can use them as a powerful teaching tool!
As a future teacher I think I will try to use wikis in my classroom. Being a special needs teacher I probably will not have my students make their own, but I will hopefully have them write on the class wiki. I also will show the parents of the students that I am teaching how to access the wiki so they can view the work of their students. Finally I will be able to use wikis to find helpful resources and links for my classroom. Now that I know that wikis are not evil I am excited to explore them.
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