Chapter 9: Creating and Sharing Information with Multimedia Technolgies

Q: How can teachers integrate podcasts and vodcasts into their teaching?

Podcasts and audio recordings which are available through the internet and can be saved to personal computers and portable media devices. Anyone can record a podcast, including teachers.
Vodcasts include video with the audio and can be accessed in the same way.
The availablility  and accessibility of podcasts and vodcasts make the man excellent teaching tool. Teachers can make their own or access the thousands made by other teachers. They can be shared with students in the classroom or at home.
It makes learning more interactive andfrees up classroom time for questions and discussions because the students can review the lesson before or after it is taught in the classroom. They can also find podcasts or vodcasts on their own if they are intrigued by a subject and want to learn more.

Tech Tool

PBS Teachers is a website that I have used many times as an education student. They always seem to have a what I am looking for with regards to lesson plans and new teaching ideas. They provide amazing free resources such as educational cartoons, interactive learning games, lesson plans, worksheets, timelines etc for teachers and students to use. All of the resources are sorted by grade level and often list the standards that the lesson plays into.

Summary 

Multimedia technology is "the presentation of information using multiple media including words, pictures, sound, and data." that can be used by teachers to communicate information to students. Traditional classrooms of the past did not use multimedia technology as a methos of instruction. Teachers today realize that this technology allows them to capture a students attention and better teach to all elarning styles.
Through the use of programs like PowerPoint teachers can spend more time interacting with students and less time writing on a chalkboard for students to copy down. The PowerPoinnt can then be shared online allowing students to spend more time listening and less time copying down information.
Whether online with podcats and vodcasts, or through DVDs and CDs, videos and audio can be used to engage visual and auditory learners, but teachers must be careful to make sure that it does not become a passive activity. Teachers need to make sure that students use higher order thinking skills in relation to the video and audio.

Chapter 8: Communicating and Networking with Websites, Blogs, Wikis and More

 

Q: How can teachers use wikis to promote collaborative learning?

 

 

Collaborative learning environments are defined as "settings where teachers and students work together to investigate curriculum topics and share academic information"

Wikis are perfect examples of collaborative learning environments as they allow multiple users to maintain and contribute to the website.

Teachers and students can use wikis for projects and to share information with each other and others in the school. Parent's could also view the wiki to check on assignments and their childs progress and participation.

The difference between a blog and a wiki website is mostly that a blog is maintained by one user opposed to many with a wiki. Blogs are usualy informal compared to a wikis formal tone.



 

 

Tech Tool

 

Edmodo is a free open source software microblogging tool. The website allows teachers and students to connect in a safe environment.

Image Credit: Edmodo



Edmodo allows teachers and students to connect and share information outside of the classroom and is set up to look like a social networking site, which really captures the attention of students.

It's many features allow teachers to give polls, beging discussions, and track student progress and participation. The microblogging site also offers a merit system and can be peronalized with educational apps.

Probably one of the most important benefits of using Edmodo is that it allows teachers and their students to connect with other classrooms and schools.

 

I would be very interested in using this website in my classroom because most popular social networking websites are usually banned, making it impossible for teachers to connecdt with their students that way.

 

 

Summary

 



Wikis, blogs, websites, instant messaging, discussion boards, and emails are all great ways that teacher can use to communicate with students outside of the classroom. Websites and wikis can incorporate all of these elements in one place, making for a streamlined, efficient, user friendly experience which is always important when getting people to consistently use a service.
These communication platforms also open  the possibility of learning from and networking with other classrooms and schools aroudn the world.
It is also important for teachers to teach in the students world. Students today may not remember a world without these technologies. It is the world they will be living in and working in as adults, so we must teach them how to thrive in it.
 

Online Learning Games: Med Myst

MedMyst is an “interactive learning adventure” that teaches science students the scientific method and biology. I would use this in a middle school science classroom. I have never had an easy time learning science myself, and the use of this tool would have helped me greatly. I learn much faster when I get wrapped in a story and the lesson is so much a part of it that I don’t realize I am learning.

“In MedMyst: Reloaded and MedMyst: Original students use the scientific method and science process skills to investigate infectious disease outbreaks.”

The student becomes part of the story with MedMyst and it makes it interesting as they are solving problems in a fun way.

Instead of just learning the scientific method in a lecture and having to repeatedly write it down to learn it, students can learn it through the Disease Defenders MedMyst game. The student is given a choice of ‘training’ with an epidemiologist, microbiologist, or veterinarian and help solve an infectious disease outbreak using the scientific method.

I have played a couple of the games on the Web Adventures site by RICE University and found them extremely engaging and captivating. I was able to move around the game like it was a virtual world and make decisions that affected the outcome.

I would use this as a center in the classroom or as a full lesson if the resources were available for the whole class to use a computer. The website even gives the learning objectives that correlate with each game and has printable worksheets available as supplements to the game, along with assessment options.

Chapter 6: Engaging Leaners with Digital Tools

Q: What is information management and digital content?

Digital content in schools is educational information conveyed to students using technology. Digital content mainly refers to information from the internet. Using digital content allows the teacher to access ways of conveying curriculum content to every type of learner in a more streamlined, interesting, and efficient manner.

Information Management in schools refers to the way information is stored and organized. Teachers use programs and the internet to teach and to track things such as grades and assignments. This information is also stored digitally. This would be information management.

 Tech Tool : Goodreads

When I am looking for a new book, I browse the shop on my Nook Simple Touch. I love how convenient it is for me to find a new book without leaving my house, especially when I finish a book at midnight and eager to begin another before going to sleep. The one thing I miss about hardcopy books however is browsing the shelves of a bookstore. Reading lists of titles based on loose genres is not the same as standing in front of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy shelf in the store and scanning the covers and seeing the new releases .

Goodreads helps to bridge that gap between the old way and the new way of reading. When I read, I become wrapped up a specific  subgenre for a few books at a time and crave more of the same until I get it out of my system. While my Nook makes suggestions based of my reading history, Goodreads allows me to browse specific book sub genres along with making recommendations based on my favorite books. Goodreads also has an online community that helps to substitute for speaking to a bookstore employee about recommendations and upcoming releases.

Sign up is not required to browse Goodreads, but if you do sign up then you can catalog what books you have already read, are currently reading, and have lined up to read next.  Your books are arranged on ‘shelves’ where you can arrange them any way you like and can see the cover of the books. You can also share your shelves with friends so they can see what your reading.

I can also choose to add a widget to my blog or website to display my books and reviews. If I need to have a physical list of my books, I can export my shelves to a spreadsheet for a printable list.

 

Summary
Digital content and information management are essential to teachers is they want to be organized. Along with information management bookmarking tools can be used to organize websites and virtual teaching tools. They also allow teachers to share the suggested educational websites with their students in a way that is easy to access from  any device with internet access.

Along with storing their favorite websites online, teachers can access curriculum standards and curriculum based lesson plans online.

Webquests are great ways for teachers to put their lessons online in an organized and interactive way. These can also be shared with other teachers.

Educational websites allow students to learn in their own way and at their own pace.

Chapter 5: Researching and Evaluating Internet Information

Q: How can teachers respond to problems of plagiarism when students use online sources?

Plagiarism is defined as the direct copying and misrepresenting of someone else's work as one's own. When using someone else's words you must give credit, whether the words were written or spoken. To not give credit would be considered plagiarism and cheating in all areas. Technology has made it easier for students to plagiarise. It's easy to click download on a paper so you don't have to write it yourself. It is also easier to copy and paste words from digital books and text, and websites than it used to be to write out someone else's work.

Programs are available to teachers to check for plagiarism such as Turnitin. Some students plagiarise because they do not understand what constitutes plagiarism. Teachers can try to avoid this problem before it happens by educating students early on referencing their work and what plagiarism is.

The way a teacher constructs the assignment can also help to avoid plagiarism. Do not ask students to recite facts, but give an assignment that requires them to think and give their personal viewpoint on a subject.

Tech Tool

 iGoogle lets you personally design you Google search page. A teacher can choose to have news from their subject area i.e science or mathematics displayed on the homepage. This would allow the teacher to easily begin lessons with up to date news articles.
iGoogle also allows you to view your google calendar without going to a separate page and add a to do list which would be useful for lesson planning.
After creating my own iGoogle page I saw a notice at the top saying the iGoogle would no linger be available after 1st November 2013. They suggest changing to google chrome for similar features.


References

Maloy, R. W. (2011). Transforming learning with new technologies. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

Turnitin : Products : OriginalityCheck. (n.d.). Turnitin : Leading Plagiarism Checker, Online Grading and Peer Review. Retrieved February 14, 2013, from http://turnitin.com/en_us/products/originalitycheck

Chapter Four: Integrating Technology and Creating Change

Q: What are “digital inequality” and the “participation gap”?

Digital inequality, also known as the digital divide, refers to the separation of technology access between low-income and high-income households and different social groups. While libraries and schools offer free use of computers and the internet, they are not avails available during certain times of day or weekends.  Lack of free access to technology at home also leads to a lack of media and technology literacy known as the participation gap. If a student only has limited access then they cannot play learning games online or freely explore the internet without a libraries network restrictions on downloads.

The participation gap is being addressed by schools in a number of ways:

One-to-one computing – This is where students each have a personal computer for use during school.

One/two/three time activities – This is where students are split into groups that move through sets of activates. One or two of the activities use technology.

Electronic textbooks – Electronic textbooks are much more interactive.

 

Tech Tool

Edutopia is a website that among many things helps educators implement technology into their lessons.

I liked the section called “How to Integrate Technology”  and the article titled “Guided Homework Help Goes  Online”  which helped me discover the New York Public Library’s Dial-A-Teacher Whiteboard where students can connect with teachers in real time: The students logs on for free and connects with certified teacher where they can use an interactive whiteboard and upload homework assignments.

 

Chapter Three: Developing Lessons with Technology

Q: How can teachers evaluate and assess their students?

Types of assessment:

*Standards based assessment:

These begin with the curriculum that gives a framework of expected outcomes for each grade level. Tests are then made to assess how a student is doing working toward those goals.  

Standardized Testing: These tests are administered and scored in a standardized manner and can include multiple choice, high-stakes, and time limited tests.  Standardized tests allow for an easy comparison of outcomes between test takers. High-stakes tests currently play a major role in college admissions and high school graduation. Since teachers are held accountable for their students test scores, this type of test is given often.

Norm-referenced tests: These tests rank students by grouping of age or grade level to show how a student s doing in comparison to the norms of the larger group.

Criterion-referenced tests: These tests compare a student’s performance to specific objectives or standards instead of to other students as with norm-referenced tests.

 

*Instructionally supportive assessment:

This type of test uses assessment results which can guide the teachers instructional practice. Assessments cam ne a mixture of teacher observations and student work such as portfolios. This allows the teacher to see different learning needs.

*Performance assessments:

These measure how a student does within the context of a certain activity.

Student performance rubrics: These can used in performance assessments to evaluate assignments and activities. Rubrics give students a clear framework for evaluation and grading

 

Technology can be used to conduct standardized tests and for performance assessments. Performance assessments can be used to evaluate PowerPoint presentations  for example.

Tech Tool:

Gliffy allows teachers to be better organized with its free diagraming tools.  

Teachers can create classroom floor plans and seating charts. It also allows teachers to organize information into flow charts and Venn diagrams for visual learners.

Gliffy provides a few pros like free use of most features, it’s browser based, and collaborative.  I attempted to make a flowchart to illustrate my this blog post but found what should have been a simple task to be time consuming and frustrating. In order to make the flowchart look presentable, I had to mess with alignment way too much. While pressing the undo button to put back an arrow I had moved, I somehow ended up deleting half of my flowchart with no way to get it back.

Gliffy would be a good free diagraming tool in a pinch but I don’t think it’s the best.