It's the final hour! I am happy to say I made it to the other side. This class was a lot of work for me. Teaching is my second career, my first career was tech based so it was great to combine the two parts of my life. However, I left my first career almost 10 years ago and technology has changed dramatically. I have gained a lot of insight on the possibilities but I definitely need to go back and review. I found there to be too much packed into these weeks. I really didn't like the two online sessions. I felt a little too on my own although I did muddle through.
I learned about Web 2.0 technology. I actually think it will make adding technology into the classroom easier. Blogging is the greatest. The biggest obstacle to these technologies is access. Some kids have access and others don't. Implementing technology in the classroom is a complicated issue. I live in Marin and there are schools here that have accomplished that goal quite successfully. These schools are in basic aid districts with huge foundations so the money is abundant. Each student is given a laptop and all assignments are online and a lot of homework is done online. There are other schools in Marin where there might be 1-2 computers in a class or a shared computer room with specified times of use. Listening to my classmates most schools in the Bay Area have even less resources. When you live in a state that has the lowest(or one of the lowest) per pupil spending it is obvious to us teachers that integrating technology is not a priority.
I felt it in this class. I have a shaky online connection and there were many times when I couldn't do my homework because I couldn't get online. I had to go to a friend's house or even the library to get access. So in class projects like webquests are important for students to gain experience on the web. Although I didn't feel confident about my skills at developing curriculum. Good curriculum development is an acquired skill and the bells and whistles of technology can hide poorly thought out curriculum. I would love to see webquest design as part of a collaborative project with experienced teachers guiding the process.
I plan to implement my webquest at my daughter's school. The 3rd/4th grade teacher was very enthusiatic about having this webquest created for her class. Who wouldn't be! She is in her 3rd year of teaching and is open to new designs of teaching. Thank you for the class and I hope it will inspire my future direction in teaching.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
ucb x359.5 Monique Paltrineri Copyright Assignment 9/26
Interesting. Very interesting. While reading the information I am flooded with memories of copyright infringement. Those are all those things that make teaching more interesting! This information also explains why some professors make you buy so many books even though you don't have to read the entire text. Of course that occurs in college courses where the student is responsible for providing his/her own course materials. Actually now that I think about it, my private high school required us to buy all our textbooks and novels etc. I remember the coveted used book section, where used copies were half off. Now I wonder about the legality of used book sales.
In public schools I am pretty sure students can't be asked to go buy materials. I noticed that the first website, A Teachers' Guide to Fair Use and Copyright was dated 1997. THe copyright protected works listed are mainly traditional teaching materials. But as in the web article by Ted Nellen describes, if students are using the internet as reference material and read web pages for information as we traditionally read textbooks, and are accessing the information in its original form, through a html reference rather that reproduction than I see fair use has a new expanded meaning.
From the Copyright Bay site, I found the distant learning section most helpful. As our technology changes educational fair use changes and as educators we need to help define what is needed to keep fair use available and legal.
From the Stanford libraries site, I found the website permissions information an important reference material. I have to admit I have spent hours reading these sites and my limited knowledge about designing websites and/or pages will require more study about legality around these issues.
From reading the material I am starting to understand the different sides of the issue. As an educator in a field of limited resources I want as much access as possible. However, in scholarship where some published material might only be read and discussed in educational settings, the authors need to be able to benefit financially from their works. I will be thinking about these things in future projects and educational endeavors.
In public schools I am pretty sure students can't be asked to go buy materials. I noticed that the first website, A Teachers' Guide to Fair Use and Copyright was dated 1997. THe copyright protected works listed are mainly traditional teaching materials. But as in the web article by Ted Nellen describes, if students are using the internet as reference material and read web pages for information as we traditionally read textbooks, and are accessing the information in its original form, through a html reference rather that reproduction than I see fair use has a new expanded meaning.
From the Copyright Bay site, I found the distant learning section most helpful. As our technology changes educational fair use changes and as educators we need to help define what is needed to keep fair use available and legal.
From the Stanford libraries site, I found the website permissions information an important reference material. I have to admit I have spent hours reading these sites and my limited knowledge about designing websites and/or pages will require more study about legality around these issues.
From reading the material I am starting to understand the different sides of the issue. As an educator in a field of limited resources I want as much access as possible. However, in scholarship where some published material might only be read and discussed in educational settings, the authors need to be able to benefit financially from their works. I will be thinking about these things in future projects and educational endeavors.
Monday, September 22, 2008
ucb x359.5 Podcast review - homework 9/23
Now I am really getting into this. There are endless possibilities. Downloading children stories, brushing up on content, making lessons come alive etc. This must be how my daughter felt the first time I took her to Toys R Us at age 5! I can't believe these are free.
1.Storynory - this podcast is an audible story book resource. You can subscribe to it and receive a new one each week. My kids will love this. Lots of rich fairy tales, legends and Greek myths. Unfortunately the narrator advertises for Audiblebooks.com at the beginning of the story. But the ad only lasts for about 30 seconds and then on to the story. The narrator has an English accent which creates a lot of drama but might be difficult for ELL students to understand. I can imagine listening to these stories would be a great rainy day or right after lunch quiet time activity.
2.Ecogeeks - Science Video Podcast, The Wild Classroom
This podcast is an educational tool for teachers. There is a website to go to for additional information and a couple episodes with come with lesson plans(there is one about spiders!). It takes a long time to download on my machine but I have a temperamental DSL connection.
Love this podcast. Kind of goofy, kids will love it. I watched a podcast about the rainforest. Nice introductory information about the rainforest layers and what lives in each layer and how they are interdependent. If your class is planning a field trip to the new Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, the podcast could give students a perspective on their new rain forest exhibit. Podcast begins to address problems with declining rain forests and some significance to surrounding rain forest cultures. A good starting point to jump off in my directions. Can't wait to check out more.
3.Barnes and Nobles - Meet the Writers
Judy Blume interview. I love the idea of giving students an opportunity to hear the authors. What a way to inspire young writers. The interview gives us a chance to hear that she has similar fears and insecurities about her writing. SHe talks about drafts and editing, all topic we discuss in teaching writing. This gives a real world example for students. It is short so it could easily be used as an intro to a lesson. I recommend it!
4.Great Speeches in History - learnoutloud.com
The National Energy Crisis by Jimmy Carter
This speech gives a great historical perspective. For our young students who look at raising gas prices and our dependence on foreign oil as a contemporary problem, the speech gives listeners a chance to hear similar ideas of 30 years ago. I find a greater impact from listening to a famous speech rather than reading it. The learnoutloud.com website has many more educational podcasts to look through although they are not free.
5.Sunday Puzzle - NPR Word puzzles galore! I love Will Short. THese are great episodes with word games that are fun and thought provoking. Great extra credit questions for kids who love word games. I know many 4th and 5th graders who would love these. Will Short gives the questions to a guest who answers so it would be better to reproduce for your kids. Although there is a challenge question at the end.
1.Storynory - this podcast is an audible story book resource. You can subscribe to it and receive a new one each week. My kids will love this. Lots of rich fairy tales, legends and Greek myths. Unfortunately the narrator advertises for Audiblebooks.com at the beginning of the story. But the ad only lasts for about 30 seconds and then on to the story. The narrator has an English accent which creates a lot of drama but might be difficult for ELL students to understand. I can imagine listening to these stories would be a great rainy day or right after lunch quiet time activity.
2.Ecogeeks - Science Video Podcast, The Wild Classroom
This podcast is an educational tool for teachers. There is a website to go to for additional information and a couple episodes with come with lesson plans(there is one about spiders!). It takes a long time to download on my machine but I have a temperamental DSL connection.
Love this podcast. Kind of goofy, kids will love it. I watched a podcast about the rainforest. Nice introductory information about the rainforest layers and what lives in each layer and how they are interdependent. If your class is planning a field trip to the new Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park, the podcast could give students a perspective on their new rain forest exhibit. Podcast begins to address problems with declining rain forests and some significance to surrounding rain forest cultures. A good starting point to jump off in my directions. Can't wait to check out more.
3.Barnes and Nobles - Meet the Writers
Judy Blume interview. I love the idea of giving students an opportunity to hear the authors. What a way to inspire young writers. The interview gives us a chance to hear that she has similar fears and insecurities about her writing. SHe talks about drafts and editing, all topic we discuss in teaching writing. This gives a real world example for students. It is short so it could easily be used as an intro to a lesson. I recommend it!
4.Great Speeches in History - learnoutloud.com
The National Energy Crisis by Jimmy Carter
This speech gives a great historical perspective. For our young students who look at raising gas prices and our dependence on foreign oil as a contemporary problem, the speech gives listeners a chance to hear similar ideas of 30 years ago. I find a greater impact from listening to a famous speech rather than reading it. The learnoutloud.com website has many more educational podcasts to look through although they are not free.
5.Sunday Puzzle - NPR Word puzzles galore! I love Will Short. THese are great episodes with word games that are fun and thought provoking. Great extra credit questions for kids who love word games. I know many 4th and 5th graders who would love these. Will Short gives the questions to a guest who answers so it would be better to reproduce for your kids. Although there is a challenge question at the end.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
ucb x359.5 Monique Paltrineri Podcast 9/22 Assignment
I admit it. I heard my first podcast the other night while doing my homework for this class. What an interesting idea! I can imagine many uses in education. I have done a lesson in 2nd grade where we went on a bird walk and made observations. Students could listen to bird sounds before the walk to help identify specific birds. From the Faqs for Podcast Fans, I suspect finding and downloading podcasts is an easy thing to do and the possibilities are endless. THese resource are very helpful to teachers since I have noticed that library resources are not always up to date in our schools. Like most internet sources, the podcast author needs to be investigated in order to verify a reliable source. I have to admit though I have no idea what RSS means and if I need to know how to use it or not. The RSS article is information that I have no reference for. Where to start using RSS code to create a podcast is not clear to me either. With further study I could probably figure it out.
I appreciate Apple's attempt to encourage podcasting in education. It makes sense that private industry wants their future employment pool educated in current technologies. I really like the foreign language aspect. Currently my daughter receives 1 1/2 hours of Spanish a week in her classroom. Supplementing that with visual and audio learning could be a huge benefit and very cost effective. I think that is a key component to these new technologies. In a time of limited resources, creating cost effective teaching tools is important. Podcasting in the classroom might be an excellent way to communicate with the general public as well. Letting the public know about all the exciting and innovative learning that is happening in our publicly funded schools can remind taxpayers that their investment is justified. In our district we are getting ready to ask voters for another parcel tax and podcasting might be good advertising!
I appreciate Apple's attempt to encourage podcasting in education. It makes sense that private industry wants their future employment pool educated in current technologies. I really like the foreign language aspect. Currently my daughter receives 1 1/2 hours of Spanish a week in her classroom. Supplementing that with visual and audio learning could be a huge benefit and very cost effective. I think that is a key component to these new technologies. In a time of limited resources, creating cost effective teaching tools is important. Podcasting in the classroom might be an excellent way to communicate with the general public as well. Letting the public know about all the exciting and innovative learning that is happening in our publicly funded schools can remind taxpayers that their investment is justified. In our district we are getting ready to ask voters for another parcel tax and podcasting might be good advertising!
ucb x359.5 Monique Paltrineri Web review 9/20 assignment
I reviewed primarily math sites.
Gameaquarium
Appropriately named! The site goes in many different directions. I found literacy songs for preschool teachers. The site took me to links to buy/subscribe to children's craft books, a directory for educational websites, links to other math games and squoltool/squoltech sites. The main focus of the site takes you to several different math games divided into math topics. It covers many math levels, I explored the addition games for K-1 graders. I found a basic game called Addition Machine that is similar to filling out a worksheet except the game tells you if you are right or wrong. Pretty basic. I found another game called sum sense inconsistent. It started out easy and then got really hard and then easy again. I think it would frustrate some students. Another game in the list was Addition Pin Ball. This game was more sophisticated but it has distracting advertising flashing at the bottom and on sides. It was more game like so I think it would keep a student's interest. These games could provide some practice for students that wouldn't require any correcting, however for learning addition I would use hands on materials to cover more learning styles.
Crossing the Swamp
The swamp game is a game option in the math series. The game is setup to practice addition/subtraction facts and multiplication/division facts. I found that the game didn't give much visual guidance to figuring out the answers. Unfortunately, the sound didn't work for me so perhaps the audio gave more guidance. There didn't seem a way to figure out the answer without just knowing it. I wouldn't use the site. The game is more about a game then learning. Hand-ons manipulatives are more effective tools.
blackboard math
Again, the site could be used for practicing math facts as well as number key strokes. I like that the game is leveled. I might encourage students to do this at home as a practice exercise.
E-Learning
This is very interesting. I didn't see this before. It looks like an effective training tool for employees. These types of training tutorials take the place of one on one or group training by an instructor. It is a method of giving information that is interactive and interesting. It allows the trainee to review information at his/her own pace. I used to be involved in corporate training and I can see how big corporations can get a lot of bang for their buck using eLearning. I don't see the same benefits for children as for adults. Children are inquisitive and constantly want attention and interaction. So are adults for that manner but I just can't see how elearning addresses all learning styles. It can be part of a teachers toolbox but not box itself.
Gameaquarium
Appropriately named! The site goes in many different directions. I found literacy songs for preschool teachers. The site took me to links to buy/subscribe to children's craft books, a directory for educational websites, links to other math games and squoltool/squoltech sites. The main focus of the site takes you to several different math games divided into math topics. It covers many math levels, I explored the addition games for K-1 graders. I found a basic game called Addition Machine that is similar to filling out a worksheet except the game tells you if you are right or wrong. Pretty basic. I found another game called sum sense inconsistent. It started out easy and then got really hard and then easy again. I think it would frustrate some students. Another game in the list was Addition Pin Ball. This game was more sophisticated but it has distracting advertising flashing at the bottom and on sides. It was more game like so I think it would keep a student's interest. These games could provide some practice for students that wouldn't require any correcting, however for learning addition I would use hands on materials to cover more learning styles.
Crossing the Swamp
The swamp game is a game option in the math series. The game is setup to practice addition/subtraction facts and multiplication/division facts. I found that the game didn't give much visual guidance to figuring out the answers. Unfortunately, the sound didn't work for me so perhaps the audio gave more guidance. There didn't seem a way to figure out the answer without just knowing it. I wouldn't use the site. The game is more about a game then learning. Hand-ons manipulatives are more effective tools.
blackboard math
Again, the site could be used for practicing math facts as well as number key strokes. I like that the game is leveled. I might encourage students to do this at home as a practice exercise.
E-Learning
This is very interesting. I didn't see this before. It looks like an effective training tool for employees. These types of training tutorials take the place of one on one or group training by an instructor. It is a method of giving information that is interactive and interesting. It allows the trainee to review information at his/her own pace. I used to be involved in corporate training and I can see how big corporations can get a lot of bang for their buck using eLearning. I don't see the same benefits for children as for adults. Children are inquisitive and constantly want attention and interaction. So are adults for that manner but I just can't see how elearning addresses all learning styles. It can be part of a teachers toolbox but not box itself.
ucb x359.5 Monique Paltrineri Web Safety 9/20 assignment
Web safety is an important topic for education. As educators we cannot assume that students have been properly prepared to use the internet by their parents or caretakers. Many children are probably more web savvy then the adults in their home. Communicating safety tips to parents is an important way to raise awareness at home.
At school, computer use needs to be supervised. Computer activities need to have clear objectives. Giving students age appropriate information about web safety is a common sense solution. Just as we create awareness around strangers in person, children can learn about strangers on the internet. Guiding students to children oriented sites and search engines are helpful ideas.
Web literacy encourages students to be seekers and critical thinkers. The website called Teacher Guide #1: Evaluating Web Pages http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/tpss99/processguides/evaluating_teacher.html is useful teaching tool. Creating lessons that develop evaluation skills of web based information are important steps to gain web literacy. I think it takes lots of practice. Using visual presentations of the material as listed in the Tech Learning article (http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/200103/webliterate.php) is an effective method.
Fact or Fiction? Information found in books and on websites must be critically analyzed by its reader. Gaining information about an book's author and publisher is important for determine the validity of the published information. Using the internet to reference other sources, author info etc is helpful and time saving. I don't think there is a difference between web or paper published information. Don't believe everything you read counts for both mediums. I admit that when something is printed in a book there is a perceived validity to the information. That might be just my 70's and 80's educational bias.
At school, computer use needs to be supervised. Computer activities need to have clear objectives. Giving students age appropriate information about web safety is a common sense solution. Just as we create awareness around strangers in person, children can learn about strangers on the internet. Guiding students to children oriented sites and search engines are helpful ideas.
Web literacy encourages students to be seekers and critical thinkers. The website called Teacher Guide #1: Evaluating Web Pages http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/staffdev/tpss99/processguides/evaluating_teacher.html is useful teaching tool. Creating lessons that develop evaluation skills of web based information are important steps to gain web literacy. I think it takes lots of practice. Using visual presentations of the material as listed in the Tech Learning article (http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/200103/webliterate.php) is an effective method.
Fact or Fiction? Information found in books and on websites must be critically analyzed by its reader. Gaining information about an book's author and publisher is important for determine the validity of the published information. Using the internet to reference other sources, author info etc is helpful and time saving. I don't think there is a difference between web or paper published information. Don't believe everything you read counts for both mediums. I admit that when something is printed in a book there is a perceived validity to the information. That might be just my 70's and 80's educational bias.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
ucb x359.5 NETS for teachers - homework 9/17
With a little investigation, I’ve discovered these standards, presented in a very low tech manner, are put out by a nonprofit organization and not part of any mandated government organization. PHEW! I read through the list and instantly felt panicked by my lack of preparedness to teach in the digital age. And then I thought, wait a minute how and why is the teaching profession attempting to keep of with the digital prowess of youth today.
Education as an industry, institution or whatever you want to call it is really like an old man on the beach trying to figure the best way to assess and adapt to the tsunami he sees coming… and remember his vision ain’t what it used to be. To be blunt, do we really think that we can somehow design and develop and promote and engage and model and facilitate conditions that swirl chaotically all around us? Don’t we all have young students who seem to get the picture better than we do?
At my age (and I am pro- computer) I feel like I am a hamster running madly on a wheel trying to keep up. Marshall McLuhan had a term for people like me, “print- oriented bastard” or POB. As for the ISTE standards ditto (Okay it’s an e- ditto!) it’s pretty linear, pretty word heavy, pretty sequential looking… pretty much obviously written by someone like me.. an old person.
I believe some important skills cannot be developed using technology and others can. Education is a vital link for helping our students acquire acute critical thinking skills to wade through the mountain of images and ideas and text. Education specializes in human contact and communication, which is why again we need to invest in our teachers. Is that still important?
Education as an industry, institution or whatever you want to call it is really like an old man on the beach trying to figure the best way to assess and adapt to the tsunami he sees coming… and remember his vision ain’t what it used to be. To be blunt, do we really think that we can somehow design and develop and promote and engage and model and facilitate conditions that swirl chaotically all around us? Don’t we all have young students who seem to get the picture better than we do?
At my age (and I am pro- computer) I feel like I am a hamster running madly on a wheel trying to keep up. Marshall McLuhan had a term for people like me, “print- oriented bastard” or POB. As for the ISTE standards ditto (Okay it’s an e- ditto!) it’s pretty linear, pretty word heavy, pretty sequential looking… pretty much obviously written by someone like me.. an old person.
I believe some important skills cannot be developed using technology and others can. Education is a vital link for helping our students acquire acute critical thinking skills to wade through the mountain of images and ideas and text. Education specializes in human contact and communication, which is why again we need to invest in our teachers. Is that still important?
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