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.

Week 7

What types of writing activities would you make the best use of technology in your classroom?

I think that one of the most useful writing activies would be to use concept maps. Simply writing an outline is a powerful writing tool, but from what I have seen and read this semester, there are programs that can help students find more ideas and become more creative with their writing. The option to go from outlines to concept maps are incredible. I also think that collaborative writing with technology and peer feedback can be incredibly beneficial.

We are creating PowerPoint this week, how would you Not let PowerPoint presentation distract your audience? Do you think you can follow the potential pitfalls from the textbook?

I would try to not distract the audience with too many slides because keeping it short and to the point would help the students stay on task. Too many font styles and slide transitions are also dangers that I will try and avoid. I would like to stick to one font, and pick slide transitions that are more suttle and less distracting. I also plan to stick to one template, changing templates may confuse or distract my audience. I believe that I can avoid these pitfalls by sticking to what I have read and applying this information to keep the audience on track.

Conclusion:

I just recently started writing a rather large paper, and when I made just a basic outline for the paper, it helped a tremendous amount. The tools that are used for concept mapping would have been very helfpul at all grade levels. Collaborative writing is something that I have just become familiar with in college, and I would have to say that it would have helped if these tools had been in my foundations as a student in grade school. Peer feedback through technology is just another example of what could have been more useful if I had had the opportunity to use it as a child.



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

Week 6: Investigating with Technologies

What are personal digital assistants? How do you use them in the classroom?

Personal digital assistants can best be described as small computers that can be held in one's hand. There are different varieties of PDA's and some have more functions than others. They can be used in the classroom for their computer-like abilities. Students can make memos for future assignments, but most importantly, PDA's allow students to transfer files in several different ways to eachother and to a computer if necessary. Other useful programs can be downloaded for free or for a small amount of money that can help the student organize his/her work and see it in graph or chart form. Personal organization of important information that can be sent to others or a computer make PDA's seem very useful in the classroom.

Why do we use online survey tools? How does it help us in our classrooms? What are two good rules for writing good surveys in your opinion?

Online surveys are used to collect data about a number of things. They can be used to find out what people's opinions are on almost anything. These surveys are often used in marketing to find out what the public likes and wants more of or what they do not like. Students can create their own surveys, which incorporates many different decision making skills in how to create a good survey and also how to analyze the data they recieve from their survey. I think the two most important rules in writing a survey are avoiding bias and leading questions because the survey taker may not realize it, but the way the question is worded could ultimately affect their answer.

Conclusion:

This may sound silly, but I had heard the term PDA so many times and never understood what they really are. I had no idea until reading a recent article that they could be used in classrooms. PDA's in the classroom seem like a good idea to me because of the amount of organization that is at one's fingertips, and how easily data can be transfered from one person to another. Online surveys are another thing that I had never considered being used in a classroom. It took reading this chapter to realize the amount of higher-level thinking creating a survey requires. Both PDA's and online surveys seem beneifical for students in my opinion.

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

Week 3 Assignment

I had no idea that a program like Inspiration even existed! All of the information from the Inspiration and Webspiration Classroom videos is new to me. It could be very useful when you need to diagram all of your loose ideas and to organize thoughts. The Webspiration Classroom seems like an equally exciting and fun way to learn with technology.

I am going to be teaching much younger children than what these programs were designed for, but they could help especially with research papers in older grades and for taking and organizing notes. Having students do peer review and offer suggestions to each other could save time, and the teacher could also offer suggestions and praise existing peer review. The first time I taught a new subject I tried to be as familiar with it as possible, but teaching the subject helps you to have a better understanding.


I believe that this technology could be very useful to students. The thing I liked the most about the programs was how the outline of the paper could be changed to diagram view. People learn in different ways, so the different views could really help some kids.









Inspiration Software (2011, February 2). Inspiration videos and webcasts for
    using visual learning in your classroom [Video file]. Retrieved from
    http://www.inspiration.com/videos/Inspiration



Inspiration Software (2011, February 2). Webspiration classroom service:
   Improve writing and thinking skills [Video file]. Retrieved from 
   http://www.inspiration.com/webspirationclassroom



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

Week 2 Assignment

What do you think about using blogs? 

I had never used a blog or knew much about them until taking this class. I had heard of them and knew what they were, but never actually blogged. I think it sounds like a convenient way to relay information quickly to others and also a good chance to network with people with similar interests.

What and how do you think blogs would be useful for education? Some people think using blogs in classrooms is a waste of students’ time. How would you respond?

Blogging in the classroom sounds like a great idea. The students could use the networking to provide feedback for other students and to share their ideas. If someone told me that using blogs in the classroom was a waste of time, I would have to respond by politely explaining how valuable the opportunity for the students to share their work with each other is.

What are some ways that you could use he technology ideas in Chapter 6 to support your curriculum and student learners?

I could use blogs to help some of my students who may be too shy to speak up during class discussions get their chance to talk. I could also use a blog to help provide extra information in case the student wanted to do further research.

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