Chapter 9 Alternative Post

One of the main purposes of this VodCast, Digital ID Project A Platform for Learning, Sharing,Remixing and Teaching Digital Citizenship, is to emphasize the use of CIPA (childrens internet protection act).  It continues to explain that a digital citizenship is established with everything that we do on the internet.  We (as adults and as young people using the internet) need to be ever aware of all the content that we put out online.  Once it's out there it's always out there.  This leads to teachers and teaching kids on ethical interment use.  One teacher comments to her students that when writing on the internet you need to say preciously what you mean because people cannot always detect your humor or sarcasm from somewhere else.  It is always extremely important to watch how much information you give and to who.  On the wiki sit Digital-ID, created by teachers for students, they have a funny yet informative video on how worms, bugs, and bots get into our computers.

 

The VodCast itself seemed a little too broad and didn't focus in on a point.  It was very informative in the sense that it guides you to other sources.  I did not like that they mentioned sites and then didn't link to them in their references.  It made it very difficult or impossible to find.

On the Digital-ID website I also enjoyed this video about evaluating websites. They used the acronym CAPOW (currency, authority, purpose, objectivity, and writing style) to use while evaluating a website.

As a teacher, I will have the responsibility in guiding my students to proper internet use.  This is true for elementary and middle school students (wherever I decide to go).  This VodCast led me to a wonderful website, Digital-ID, that is allowed to be remixed by teachers for their students.  It is full of information, and the videos make learning fun and humorous.

Overall, I enjoyed watching the VodCasts from k12onlineconference.org and watched a couple more than the one I wrote about.  It is full of information that goes way beyond the classroom.  As a teacher it is a necessity to be on top of things and this site provides that service for free! *adds to delicious* 

Chapter 8 Alternative Post

David Warlick is a blogger, author, and above all a teacher.  In his “about this blog” section, Warlick vividly paints the way for his thought process on education and technology today:

“Many of the barriers that prevent us from modernizing our education systems come from the baggage of outdated notions about teaching, learning, curriculum, our children, and their future.  Asking questions seems to be one way of probing and provoking new perceptions about what we do, why we do it, and how we might adapt within an almost constantly changing environment.”

I completely agree with Warlick, and believe that teachers put up barriers with the old way.  He points to the solution of many problems, and that’s simply asking questions.  Asking questions is just as important to teachers as it is for our students.

In Warlick’s blog post titled “WhereDo We Go to Measure Success,” he points out the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineer, and Mathematics).  Yet in a graph he created, based on data from Bachelor'sdegrees conferred by degree-granting institutions, he fails to mention the overall increase in degrees received over the years, despite the huge shift in percentage.  “Mathematics and statistics” had one huge drop, in 1970 it was 24k degrees and in 1975 it was 15k degrees to now being 16k degrees… the question isn't what are we doing wrong now but what were we doing right or wrong back then when the data showed the largest decrease.  Overall, the data seems shocking.  Warlick questions, “Is STEM education doing what it’s suppose to do?” in relation to the graph; however, I am asking, will STEM education change these statistics when the children of this generation grow up and graduate college?

To continue with Warlick’s thought process in his blog post “I Never Needed to Know That,” he stumbled upon a blog post of 10 Things Students Won’t Need to Know WhenThey Graduate.  One thing that this list makes clear, and that Warlick points out, is that there is no way to know or predict what knowledge will be most important to our students for the future.  Some of Warlick’s comments really got me thinking, “How they learn has become much more important,” and “Perhaps the most important thing we can help our children learn, is how to teach themselves.”  I believe these are wise words, and one solution would be to teach children how to synthesize their questions properly with the use of the internet.

Largely, Warlick’s blog is to promote critical thinking among teachers and himself.  It is a personal blog and is based on his personal opinions and views on today’s education.  From what I have read in his posts, Warlick is an innovative teacher that truly wants what is best for the kids and ultimately our society.

Sources:

Bachelor's Degrees Conferred by Degree-granting Institutions, by Field of Study: Selected Years, 1970-71 through 2009-10. Rep. no. 286. Institute of Education Sciences: National Center for Education Statistics, n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2012.

Dillon, Bob. "10 Things Students Won’t Need To Know When They Graduate." Weblog post. 10 Things Students Won’t Need To Know When They Graduate. Edudemic, 27 Aug. 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2012.

Warlick, David. "2¢ Worth." Weblog post. 2¢ Worth. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2012. <http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/>.

Chapter 7: Problem Solving and Inquiry Learning with Software and Web Tools

Focus Question: How can teachers evaluate the different types of educational software available today?

To be a good game it must consist of rules, goals and objectives, outcomes and feedback, conflict/ competition/ challenge/ opposition, interaction, and representation or story.

To be a good game for a classroom one might ask: Does it have teacher support resources?  Is the content current, thorough, and age-appropriate?  Does assessment include pretest, posttest, recordkeeping by students and groups?  Does the program promote creativity, higher order thinking, collaboration, problem solving, discovery, or memorization?

Going to sites like the educationalsoftware preview guide lists a searchable directory of more than 1,000 software titles for use in prek-12 classrooms.

Tech Tool 7.2 A Math Learning Game—Zoombinis Logical Journey

I loved this game as a little kid.  I am now sitting here wishing that my parents had not thrown away all my games from when I was a kid because I “grew up,” and windows 98 is now “obsolete.”  This game was awesome at creating patterns and using higher order thinking.  It took a lot of trial and error to figure out what the pattern should be.  This game would be great for k-5^th graders because it comes in different difficulty levels.  I would use this game as a “fun-Friday” educational game because it would take at least 30-60 minutes for the kids to get past a couple levels.  As you can see in this YouTube video below 3 adults/ teenagers had to really think to get past a few level in 30 minutes.

Even though this tech tool is talking about Zoombinis, which is awesome, it links to the learning company, which is a site that contains much more.  It continues with game like The Oregon Trail and Carmen Sandiego.  All of these are fun and thought provoking games.  I would not use any of these games as a core in the classroom however; it would strictly be an additive because it does take up so much time.

Chapter Summary & Connection

Adding games, video games, interactive games, and manipulative tools is very important to kids and should be important to teachers too.  I think one major thing that teachers are going to have to battle with is the time that some of these games consume versus the lack in quality of some of the shorter games may be.  I remember going to reading labs when I was in elementary school, and I am certain that the use has grown much more in the past 15 years.  When I go and visit the local library, even they have reading games on the computers for the kids.  There is obviously a connection between these games and children learning…  I believe you learn best when you are having fun.