Week 13

- When and how do teachers act as designers?

Teachers are always acting as designers by making lesson plans for their students. When a powerpoint or any other technology that a teacher can use in their class is made, it requires some level of designing on the teacher’s part.

- Select one of the followings and explain what it is and how it can be used in classroom: SketchUp, Trebuchet Simulator, Model Car Design, Scratch, iStopMotion, Impromptu. 

iStopMotion is a program that is used to help students create a time-lapse recordings and their own animated movies. iStopMotion allows the students to use several different kinds of technology to put together these animated movies in small increments. It could be used in the classroom by students to make small animations and can be applied to different subject areas like social studies and in language arts. I like that elementary students can use it as well. I would have my students put into groups and show their animation to the class.

- Explain "Digital Storytelling by Kate Kemker." What do you think it would work in your classroom?

Digital storytelling involves three parts. The first is when a student makes a storyboard on paper. Then they shoot their video and edit it on the computer using different software like Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro. I think that it can be used in the classroom to help students develop good organizational skills and to teach them how to develop a good structure for their work to be successful.

- Mathematics is one of the most abstract subject-matter domains. Helping students to visualize mathematical concepts is very useful in helping students make math real. What other methods suggested in the textbook will also help make math more real to students?

The book speaks a lot about different programs that are helpful in teaching mathematics. Some of these programs are Mathematica, MathLab, and Statistical Analysis System. I have used MathLab in college, and I felt that it was incredibly helpful because the program offered examples and step-by-step instructions. Tools like graphing calculators are also helpful.

- Is it possible to learn from TV alone?--that is, learn how to do something merely from watching TV instruction? 

This is something that I am not really sure of. I believe that some things can be learned by watching TV if they are simple enough, but I also believe that learning through instruction and using hands on experience is very important.

Jonassen, D., Howland J., Marra, R., and Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning with Technology (3rd ed.). Columbus, OH: Pearson. 

Week 12

 I personally believe that Voice Thread is unnecessary. It does not seem to be useful for anything other than people that are bored and looking for new ways to use technology. It's like a blog where they have replaced the writing with words. I could see potential for using it for educational purposes though because projects could have others' input that includes tone of voice to show whether or not they are really sincere or sarcastic. Sometimes a student may need to actually hear the approval of others to build upon their work.

I do not think that I would use this for my lesson plan. I do not see the point in voice threads at all. It seems like something that I might do at home if I was really bored and had exhausted all of my other options. Another reason I would not use it in my lesson plan is because I am doing mine on physical education. Voice thread may be beneficial in lesson plans having to do with art, photography or something along those lines, but I could not think of one way that this would benefit a physical education lesson plan.

I might use it in a real classroom, but I highly doubt it. I honestly can't see the benefit of this program, especially for educational purposes. I feel like the only reason we were made to look at voice thread in this class is to show how useless it would be in the world of education, but that is just my opinion.

Conclusively, I do not like the program and cannot see myself using it in the future for any reason what so ever. Maybe someone can change my mind and show me how this could be beneficial to education, but I just don't see it happening.


What's a voicethread anyway. (2007). [Web]. Retrieved from http://voicethread.com/?#q

Week 11

The three principles that I think are important are the most important for education are the commited learning principle, the discovery principle and the practice principle. The learning principle is important in education because students are taking what they know from their own experience in the real world and applying it to the virtual world, which they may relate better to and show some real interest and commitment. The discovery principle is important in the virtual world because video games now allow so much discovery through trying different situations and finding which ones work best. The practice principle is extremely important because students can relate to practicing things in a virtual world that they would be less likely to enjoy in the real world.

If I was creating a simulation for my class I would want it to be something like the "Sims" where the student could go in and create their own world from basically nothing. Some variables might be deciding on whether or not they would like a family, what kind of house they would want to live in, if they might want pets, and just letting them build a world as they would like to see it. Basically by giving them the options to do create what they believe a town should be. Any one of these variables would affect another because the creation is their own. If they decide to tear something down and rebuild a structure, a whole new city could be created.

In conclusion, I had never really thought about using video games to teach in a classroom, but it seems like a wonderful idea. Students can engage in all kinds of stimulating activity that they would actually have interest in, which is so important now.

Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning with Technology (3rd ed.). Columbus, OH: Pearson.