I am following 12 different sites on my Google Feeder Reader. At first I didn't know what I was really looking for when I searched for sites. Because I am a nursing major I started off searching for nursing sites. I subscribed to several of the nursing sites because some had potential job opportunities and current issues in nursing. When I started thinking more from an educators perspective I searched for lesson plans. I subscribed to an anatomy and some biology science lesson planning sites. I started thinking about how my high school biology teacher always used to have these new interesting topics that related to what we were learning about in biology. To get current topics on science I subscribed to several science journals including the New York Times and PBS.
I chose the sites I did based on the number of other subscribers listed, and also based on how often new material was published from that site. I stayed away from the sites that rarely published material or that had less than 100 subscribers. I searched for PBS because in my past learning experiences they have always provided amazing videos and documentaries.
I did not find this exercise too difficult. I was a little confused at first as to what types of sites I was going to be searching for. Once I started thinking about newspapers and journals that post weekly articles, that's when I started to find A ton of useful material. I guess sifting through the different sites to find a good one was the most time consuming part.
As a teacher a feeder reader could be extremely beneficial for both teaching and learning. For me, if I were teaching a biology class, I could easily pull up relevant current events in science to supplement my lesson planning. I could also follow the lesson planning sites to find new ways to make my lessons more interesting. I could have my students join a feeder reader and have them pull up current events on a topic we learn in class. This could be a fun class project! What made freshman year high school biology so interesting to me was that our teacher was always showing us articles about how they were using all of these new technologies in the medical fields. That has been my all time favorite class and with a feeder reader its really easy to keep up with all this cool new science stuff!
What I want to know more about feeder readers is how to better organize all of my different feeds. It was pretty easy sorting through the information with only 12 feeds but if I had a ton more it might get a bit frustrating. Also, I would like to know if we can share the sites we are getting feeds from with someone else or if someone can view or subscribe to my feeds.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Access
As shown in the readings, socioeconomic status affects access to the internet and social media. There is a technology gap based on socioeconomic status which prohibits many without the funds to have access to the internet. The first article showed a significant gap between income and access to the internet. Because the article was written in 2002, I am curious as to what those numbers would be today. It would not surprise me if those numbers had already drastically increased. As far as income affecting social media groups I do not totally agree with what the last article was saying. I think one of the main differences in Facebook and Myspace users is age, not income. Most everyone I knew in high school was on Myspace, and as soon as we found out about Facebook from older siblings or other friends, everyone began to shift to Facebook, regardless of socioeconomic status. I guess though, that manny began to switch to Facebook when they got to college, and if people couldn't afford to go to college, then maybe that is why they never really caught on to the Facebook trend. Twitter on the other hand, I associate more with upper class because of its popularity with celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and John Mayer.
Access to social media and the internet are extremely important in this increasingly developing world. As much as I like to fight this, the world just keeps moving faster and faster and if you don't have the means to technology, you can't keep up with it. To deny people who are already of lower socioeconomic statuses access to these technologies would only put them lower and lower economically. Most every high paying job requires use of the internet and other social media.
I find that it could be difficult to support students without access to the internet at home. Because knowing how to use technology and social media is becoming necessary to survive economically in this world, I would have to somehow teach my students how to use it while in the classroom. There would have to be a lot of collaboration with other teachers and fund raising to help my students have access to the internet. I would hope that my school would have a computer lab, and if so, I would fully utilize that lab whenever possible and make sure students have access to that lab. Its sad to think that a huge chunk of students don't have computers or access to the internet at home like I always have. I can not imagine surviving without my computer and feel that in the past it may have been a luxury, but now it is becoming more of a necessity.
Access to social media and the internet are extremely important in this increasingly developing world. As much as I like to fight this, the world just keeps moving faster and faster and if you don't have the means to technology, you can't keep up with it. To deny people who are already of lower socioeconomic statuses access to these technologies would only put them lower and lower economically. Most every high paying job requires use of the internet and other social media.
I find that it could be difficult to support students without access to the internet at home. Because knowing how to use technology and social media is becoming necessary to survive economically in this world, I would have to somehow teach my students how to use it while in the classroom. There would have to be a lot of collaboration with other teachers and fund raising to help my students have access to the internet. I would hope that my school would have a computer lab, and if so, I would fully utilize that lab whenever possible and make sure students have access to that lab. Its sad to think that a huge chunk of students don't have computers or access to the internet at home like I always have. I can not imagine surviving without my computer and feel that in the past it may have been a luxury, but now it is becoming more of a necessity.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Participatory Culture--The New Literacy
These were very interesting readings which are extremely applicable to the way students are learning with new technology.
1. Features of participatory culture that were evident in the the Networked Student Video were mostly, well, all of the them. I was extremely impressed with the initiative of the student and his curiosity to learn the way he did. With the layout of his class there was no printed textbook, and it was mostly online. The student learns to use judgment in finding scholarly and dependable resources with good content. He also uses negotiation, especially when he goes so far as to contact the author of a work he liked and collaborated to have a skype interview with the author for his class. He was also collaborative with his use of social bookmarking, where he shared useful links and found useful links as well. He used blogs online collaboratively as a way of circulation, where he spurred discussion and further learning of himself and his peers. I was very proud of this student for his the amount of work he did in this class, and the fact that he was only in high school. I thought, however, that the element of play was missing from this mode of learning. There could have been online games that the teacher could create or find to help with the learning process. But maybe the teacher wanted the students to find those types of learning games on the internet on their own. While watching the video, I was worried about whether they would actually need a teacher with this new style of learning. I was quickly reaffirmed when they directly addressed my question: yes, a teacher is present. I think though, that the role of the teacher changes in this context, as more of a guide to finding content rather than directly teaching content.
2. The learning experience of the student looks extremely different than what I was used to in high school. Only in college have a I started to use blogging, social bookmarking and the internet for online texts. In my school, the most technology I used was watching videos on YouTube, and I did a podcast once my senior year. I think the reasons that learning is so different is because of the participation gap. In high school, not everyone had access to the internet all of the time, or even knew how to properly use the technology. The teachers were not trained either as to how to use these technologies in their lesson planning. I think these new technologies will create a student that will have to do more work to find the information they need to learn. This takes a lot of initiative and curiosity on the part of the student, as does reading from a boring textbook. For me personally, I like the old style of learning because I am afraid of technology at times. As I have witnessed with my 8 year old cousins though, I am going to have to catch up with the rest of the world. My cousins will enjoy this type of learning because it is more relevant to them. They already know how to upload songs on iPods and download games off the internet. How fast things change!
1. Features of participatory culture that were evident in the the Networked Student Video were mostly, well, all of the them. I was extremely impressed with the initiative of the student and his curiosity to learn the way he did. With the layout of his class there was no printed textbook, and it was mostly online. The student learns to use judgment in finding scholarly and dependable resources with good content. He also uses negotiation, especially when he goes so far as to contact the author of a work he liked and collaborated to have a skype interview with the author for his class. He was also collaborative with his use of social bookmarking, where he shared useful links and found useful links as well. He used blogs online collaboratively as a way of circulation, where he spurred discussion and further learning of himself and his peers. I was very proud of this student for his the amount of work he did in this class, and the fact that he was only in high school. I thought, however, that the element of play was missing from this mode of learning. There could have been online games that the teacher could create or find to help with the learning process. But maybe the teacher wanted the students to find those types of learning games on the internet on their own. While watching the video, I was worried about whether they would actually need a teacher with this new style of learning. I was quickly reaffirmed when they directly addressed my question: yes, a teacher is present. I think though, that the role of the teacher changes in this context, as more of a guide to finding content rather than directly teaching content.
2. The learning experience of the student looks extremely different than what I was used to in high school. Only in college have a I started to use blogging, social bookmarking and the internet for online texts. In my school, the most technology I used was watching videos on YouTube, and I did a podcast once my senior year. I think the reasons that learning is so different is because of the participation gap. In high school, not everyone had access to the internet all of the time, or even knew how to properly use the technology. The teachers were not trained either as to how to use these technologies in their lesson planning. I think these new technologies will create a student that will have to do more work to find the information they need to learn. This takes a lot of initiative and curiosity on the part of the student, as does reading from a boring textbook. For me personally, I like the old style of learning because I am afraid of technology at times. As I have witnessed with my 8 year old cousins though, I am going to have to catch up with the rest of the world. My cousins will enjoy this type of learning because it is more relevant to them. They already know how to upload songs on iPods and download games off the internet. How fast things change!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Critical Thinking and Problem Sovling
Part One
Example Learning Objective: The student will learn the major parts of the brain
Knowledge: The student will learn the anatomical terms regarding the brain.
Understanding: The students will learn the physiology of the different terms of the brain
Application: The students will see how these anatomical parts are studied by doctors, psychologists, biologist
Analysis/Synthesis: Students will be able to write down each part of the brain and how they work in conjunction with each other
Evaluating: Students can dissect a brain (maybe a sheep brain in a lab) and be able to identify what that brain has in common with the human brain. (Why didn't I think of this for my lesson plan!!!???)
Creating: Students will have to create a model of the human brain, using whatever materials they like
Part Two
Even though the teacher mentioned this point several times in the class it does not surprise me that the students did not remember this on their final exam. First of all the way he taught the students, even though he used a demonstration, did not answer the question as to why it was hotter in the summer. After reading his explanation myself, it was unclear to me exactly why it was hotter in the summer due to the angle of the sun as opposed to the earth being closer to the sun in the summer. The students may have been paying attention but were just unable to fully understand what the teacher was trying to say. If the concept was so important than the teacher should have assessed the students understanding of the concept prior to the final exam. He could also ask other more experienced teachers on how to better get that concept across to the students.
Example Learning Objective: The student will learn the major parts of the brain
Knowledge: The student will learn the anatomical terms regarding the brain.
Understanding: The students will learn the physiology of the different terms of the brain
Application: The students will see how these anatomical parts are studied by doctors, psychologists, biologist
Analysis/Synthesis: Students will be able to write down each part of the brain and how they work in conjunction with each other
Evaluating: Students can dissect a brain (maybe a sheep brain in a lab) and be able to identify what that brain has in common with the human brain. (Why didn't I think of this for my lesson plan!!!???)
Creating: Students will have to create a model of the human brain, using whatever materials they like
Part Two
Even though the teacher mentioned this point several times in the class it does not surprise me that the students did not remember this on their final exam. First of all the way he taught the students, even though he used a demonstration, did not answer the question as to why it was hotter in the summer. After reading his explanation myself, it was unclear to me exactly why it was hotter in the summer due to the angle of the sun as opposed to the earth being closer to the sun in the summer. The students may have been paying attention but were just unable to fully understand what the teacher was trying to say. If the concept was so important than the teacher should have assessed the students understanding of the concept prior to the final exam. He could also ask other more experienced teachers on how to better get that concept across to the students.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Critical Thinking Readings and GWAP
Part 1
So far, what I already know about critical thinking is that I use it everyday in school and when encountering any type of problem. I feel like critical thinking strategies are so smashed into my brain that I don't even realize that I am using them. When being asked to pinpoint strategies for critical thinking I would include: understanding all parts to a situation, and learning the who, what, when, where, how, and more importantly why to a question. The video clip asked which is better: give a man a fish? Or teach a man how to fish? This was a very familiar passage to me because my parents used this approach to helping the less fortunate. Part of what the video was trying to say was that critical thinkers are more capable of making independent decisions.
As an educator, I want to know how to teach critical thinking skills to my students. I was blessed with having amazing teachers in middle school and high school who nailed critical thinking into my head. Those skills prepared me to handle college classes and be engaged in my learning. I want to know at what age children really are capable of being critical thinkers, and how to better incorporate those skills into all aspects of learning. As shown in the video, critical thinkers ask questions and seek evidence. I believe that this promotes more curious learners who will be excited about learning.
I am a bit nervous about my lesson planning, being that its my first time "playing" teacher. I definitely want my students to learn how to think critically when they are learning. I have to try and connect that into the plans by making sure the students are doing more than just memorizing facts. Maybe at the beginning of a section I can ask open ended questions to get students to try and come up with their own answers to questions, based on what they already know. Also, after presenting the information, again, assign open ended questions regarding what they were just taught. These questions would include definitions first, to make sure they knew the material. Also, the questions would then go further, asking for explanations about the material, and why, and try to make connections with other things they have learned. I would even let these questions be opinion questions, just as long as they could use evidence from the material to back it up.
Part 2
I had never heard of GWAP before this class and was a little bit confused when I first got there. Basically, you are playing games, with some partner you can't see, online. These games show either a video, and image, or a music clip, in which you and your partner must try and get a matching tag for the image or clip. This is supposed to help computers try and think more like a human. This concept scared me a little bit and made me think of robots taking over the world once they became smarter than humans. It was a cool tool though, that really got me to try and describe things in simple words, so that other people would understand them.
I'm not exactly sure how I could use the GWAP in my lesson planning. I would be teaching sciences, so maybe in some way, I could get pictures of different internal organs that students would have to type in keywords about the picture. I guess by making them try and get their partner to think of the same word, it would make it more of a critical thinking activity.
So far, what I already know about critical thinking is that I use it everyday in school and when encountering any type of problem. I feel like critical thinking strategies are so smashed into my brain that I don't even realize that I am using them. When being asked to pinpoint strategies for critical thinking I would include: understanding all parts to a situation, and learning the who, what, when, where, how, and more importantly why to a question. The video clip asked which is better: give a man a fish? Or teach a man how to fish? This was a very familiar passage to me because my parents used this approach to helping the less fortunate. Part of what the video was trying to say was that critical thinkers are more capable of making independent decisions.
As an educator, I want to know how to teach critical thinking skills to my students. I was blessed with having amazing teachers in middle school and high school who nailed critical thinking into my head. Those skills prepared me to handle college classes and be engaged in my learning. I want to know at what age children really are capable of being critical thinkers, and how to better incorporate those skills into all aspects of learning. As shown in the video, critical thinkers ask questions and seek evidence. I believe that this promotes more curious learners who will be excited about learning.
I am a bit nervous about my lesson planning, being that its my first time "playing" teacher. I definitely want my students to learn how to think critically when they are learning. I have to try and connect that into the plans by making sure the students are doing more than just memorizing facts. Maybe at the beginning of a section I can ask open ended questions to get students to try and come up with their own answers to questions, based on what they already know. Also, after presenting the information, again, assign open ended questions regarding what they were just taught. These questions would include definitions first, to make sure they knew the material. Also, the questions would then go further, asking for explanations about the material, and why, and try to make connections with other things they have learned. I would even let these questions be opinion questions, just as long as they could use evidence from the material to back it up.
Part 2
I had never heard of GWAP before this class and was a little bit confused when I first got there. Basically, you are playing games, with some partner you can't see, online. These games show either a video, and image, or a music clip, in which you and your partner must try and get a matching tag for the image or clip. This is supposed to help computers try and think more like a human. This concept scared me a little bit and made me think of robots taking over the world once they became smarter than humans. It was a cool tool though, that really got me to try and describe things in simple words, so that other people would understand them.
I'm not exactly sure how I could use the GWAP in my lesson planning. I would be teaching sciences, so maybe in some way, I could get pictures of different internal organs that students would have to type in keywords about the picture. I guess by making them try and get their partner to think of the same word, it would make it more of a critical thinking activity.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Introduction to How People Learn
Preexisting knowledge, shown in the text, is an extremely important concept of teaching an learning that I had not yet thought much about before. Addressing preexisting knowledge now makes complete sense when dealing with teaching people of any age. A students will learn a concept better if they can relate it to something that they already know. If they have no concept of what is being taught then they are only learning disconnected pieces of information.
Active learning is another important concept of learning that should be incorporated into teaching students at all levels. Before reading this I did not picture elementary kids being able to assess themselves the way that most college students do in their own learning. Younger students would be more engaged in their learning if they understood how and why they were assessing how well they knew their material.
Some key points of the reading were: in teaching we must make sure students understand what their learning rather than just memorizing facts, we need to recognize that students have preexisting knowledge that can either help conceptualize or confuse what they are being taught, and students need to be active learners.
Meta-cognition is the ability of a person to assess how well they are learning a material, and the ability to predict how well they would test on that material. According to the text, teaching meta-cognition to students at an elementary level is extremely beneficial. It is a skill that will be used not only in education but in the real world of students. Using it to teach information will force students to become more engaged in their own learning. For teachers, this means they will have to learn how to teach this vital skill to their younger students.
As shown in the text, assessment is vital to the learning environment. Assessments help teachers measure how well they are teaching, and help students measure how well they are learning. What could be changed, however, is the way in which we approach assessment. Instead of basing it solely on spitting out memorized facts, it should assess more critical thinking and application skills. For example, as much as I hate to say it, using word problems in math would be beneficial in assessing if students knew how and when to use the math taught to them. Another idea introduced about assessment is that it should not be strictly grade based. It should also focus on students truly assessing how well they know a material and going back to understand material they did not test well on.
Active learning is another important concept of learning that should be incorporated into teaching students at all levels. Before reading this I did not picture elementary kids being able to assess themselves the way that most college students do in their own learning. Younger students would be more engaged in their learning if they understood how and why they were assessing how well they knew their material.
Some key points of the reading were: in teaching we must make sure students understand what their learning rather than just memorizing facts, we need to recognize that students have preexisting knowledge that can either help conceptualize or confuse what they are being taught, and students need to be active learners.
Meta-cognition is the ability of a person to assess how well they are learning a material, and the ability to predict how well they would test on that material. According to the text, teaching meta-cognition to students at an elementary level is extremely beneficial. It is a skill that will be used not only in education but in the real world of students. Using it to teach information will force students to become more engaged in their own learning. For teachers, this means they will have to learn how to teach this vital skill to their younger students.
As shown in the text, assessment is vital to the learning environment. Assessments help teachers measure how well they are teaching, and help students measure how well they are learning. What could be changed, however, is the way in which we approach assessment. Instead of basing it solely on spitting out memorized facts, it should assess more critical thinking and application skills. For example, as much as I hate to say it, using word problems in math would be beneficial in assessing if students knew how and when to use the math taught to them. Another idea introduced about assessment is that it should not be strictly grade based. It should also focus on students truly assessing how well they know a material and going back to understand material they did not test well on.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Course Expectations
My expectations of this course are to learn about the new technology available and how to effectively use it to learn and teach. Whenever I hear the word technology I usually cringe because I feel like its way over my head and somewhat like a foreign language. Hopefully, this course will help to rid me of my fears of using technology.
I expect my classmates to have respect for me and the teacher by being mindful of other people's opinions, not speaking out of turn, and not speaking when the instructor is teaching. I hope my classmates and I can work together as we approach new materials and collaborate our ideas about how we can use the material for education.
I expect my instructor to come to class ready to teach enthusiastically. I expect him to be organized and fair with his grading. I expect him to have respect and appreciation for my ideas. I hope that he is willing to be patient with those of us in the class who are not technologically savvy.
Questions: How can I apply technology to teaching other nurses, or teaching patients about how to care for a specific medical problems? (I'm a nursing major)
Can you teach us how to properly use powerpoint so that the learners retain the information being presented?
I expect my classmates to have respect for me and the teacher by being mindful of other people's opinions, not speaking out of turn, and not speaking when the instructor is teaching. I hope my classmates and I can work together as we approach new materials and collaborate our ideas about how we can use the material for education.
I expect my instructor to come to class ready to teach enthusiastically. I expect him to be organized and fair with his grading. I expect him to have respect and appreciation for my ideas. I hope that he is willing to be patient with those of us in the class who are not technologically savvy.
Questions: How can I apply technology to teaching other nurses, or teaching patients about how to care for a specific medical problems? (I'm a nursing major)
Can you teach us how to properly use powerpoint so that the learners retain the information being presented?
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