Journal Post #5

Chapter Five: Researching and Evaluating Internet Information                                        

 Credit to Vancouver Film School via Flickr

Focus Question 2: What are search engines and how do they work?

Search engines retrieve information from the internet. A search engine is a software program that use networks of computers to access information about a specific topic from its databases. I use a search engine daily on my iPhone. If it wasn’t for a Google, I would have a lot more questions about various topics/day to day tasks.

Tech Tool 5.1: Photo and Audio Resources on the Web

Flickr is an online photo managing and sharing tool with many instructional options for teachers. Before this class all I knew about Flickr was that it was a database for pictures and that people could add their own to the site. I had no idea the search tools that were available or the creative commons section which makes it incredibly easy for students to find an image for an assignment and not be concerned about copyright infringement. It has become a tool I use not only for school uses but personal as well.

LibriVox offers free audio recordings of published books and other materials. The site’s long term goal is to make all public domain books available free in audio format. Teachers and students could access a book in full or as a chapter a day in audio. This is very remarkable concept. Instead of hauling around heavy books students could just use a tablet to access work and this also would benefit blind students or students that struggle with reading since it is audio.

Summary/Interesting Points:

I didn’t know there were search engines specifically geared towards children. One is called quintura.com, it is a visual search engine for students that features group of keywords in a visual display for navigating search results. These search engines could be used in school and provide students with the information they are looking for as well as the skills to pick out the information that is right for them while not being bombarded with items that could be of inappropriate nature.

A problem with information on the internet is that not everything you find is true. Misinformation is either false, out of date or incomplete information. A type of misinformation is called disinformation which is when knowingly false of malicious information is posted online. Students must learn the importance of making sure they only use reputable websites. A way to figure this out is to use the AAOCC method which consists of checking if the information has accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency and coverage. I feel like these points are so important and I feel I understand them more after using them for the rubric assignment.  

 

Resources:

Transforming Learning with New Technologies

Flickr.com

Vancouver Film School via Flickr

Journal Post #4

                              Chapter Four: Integrating Technology and Creating Change

 

Credit of Massachusetts Education Secretary Matt Malone via Flickr

 

Focus Question #5: How does technology promote educational change?

Technology is constantly changing keeping up with it through education seems necessary. When you integrate technology into the classroom through assignments, instruction or file recording educational change is happening. There are Type I and Type II of technology applications. Type I is automate which means to incorporate technology into your everyday life. For example a teacher that instead of using a pen and paper to calculate grades would now use a calculator. The tools available have changed but the work being done has not. It represents traditional uses of computers in schools with only a focus on instruction as opposed to thinking outside the box with interaction. Type II is Infomate. Infomating is when technology changes an activity by redesigning and refining it. An example of this is a runner whose distance is being tracked by her running shoes and that information is sent to her Ipod. It represents new directions with technology use including interactive software and programs that problem solve. Technology makes learning more exciting and innovative with every new invention that comes along.

Tech Tool 4.1: Online Technology Integration Resources

 This tech tool is geared towards new teachers and to give them tools to master technology integration. Edutopia is an information and inspiration based website with a collection of technology integration resources. National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T) has two different resource types, the first is digital edge learning exchange, which involves videos about tech integration and there are also rubrics you can use to assess how affectively you are integrating technology in your own teaching. NCTE Inbox and NCTE Inbox blog were interesting to me, the inbox is a weekly summary in email form of important stories in the language arts field as well updates on technology related updates and issues. The inbox blog explores different topics of interest to technology using teachers for any specific subject.

Summary/Interesting Points:

There are many ways from taking screenshots of notes taken on a tablet, to online assignments and grading, amongst others that technology is being effectively integrated into the classroom environment. I was interested in the one/two/three time activities. It is a way of structuring students learning environment for teaching purposes. The classroom is split into one/to/three time groups and this splits a classroom into three smaller instead of just one large one. It promotes group work, this wouldn’t be possible with younger age groups if it wasn’t for computers to occupy the groups while the teacher has the chance to work one on one with students who need it. The fact that technology is constantly changing and we need to keep up with it to keep children up to date and interested is a concept to which I am now painfully aware.

Resources:

Transforming Learning with New Technologies

Matt Malone via Flickr

Flickr.com

Journal Post #3

                                                      

                           Chapter Three: Developing Lessons with Technologies

            

                                      Photo Credit: Melanie Holtsman via Flickr

Focus Question 4: How can teachers evaluate and assess their students?

Standardized testing is both a common and mandatory way to assess a student’s knowledge of the material that had been reviewed. Critics speculate standardized testing only measures a limited amount of knowledge while forcing teachers to teach the test style curriculum. Performance evaluation is another effective form of assessment based on how students can complete a specified task.

 

Tech Tool 3.2: Online Educational Testing Policy

The Fair Test: The National Center for Fair and Open Testing is an online source for teachers to use to keep informed about testing policies. Fair Test maintains information about testing policies including misuse of test scores, gender bias in standardized testing, disputes over testing errors amongst others.

 Chapter Summary Points

-I found it mind boggling but at the same time believable that it is estimated that over 100 million standardized tests are given to K-12 students in the U.S. each year.

-Since the No Child Left Behind Act, schools either are considered “highly performing” or “underperforming”, based on the students average test scores. High performing schools that do not show year to year improvement on test scores, which is considered very difficult, are deemed needing improvement. State education officials decided that is a very high bar for most schools to achieve and wanted different performance evaluation criteria determining school success.

-There is a debate on how electronic grading systems do not assess a student best. If a child gets a question wrong and the teacher graded it and could see the student’s misconception, they can address that with further instruction. Using a test assessment to record answers takes away the teacher’s ability to make sure students fully understand material.

Resources

Transforming Learning with New Technologies

Melanie Holtsman via Flickr

 

Journal Post #2

                                                                

            Chapter Two: Transforming learning with unique, powerful technology

                            

                                       Photo Credit: Jeff Peterson from Flickr

 

Focus Question 6: How does technology provide feedback to support technology?

A student’s ideas and curiosities are supported by technology through a want for to learn and to be able to on their own without direction from a teacher. Examples of these technological tools used are email, discussion boards, blogs, instant messaging, amongst others.

Tech Tool 2.1: Web Resources for Visual Learning

A few of the web resources listed that seem useful and interesting are the E-Skeletons Project, it offers 2D and 3D versions of human and non-human primate’s skeletons. Physics Education Technology offers interactive simulations of motion, heat, electricity, light and other forces and properties. The Whale Hunt documents through slideshows nine days in which Eskimos planned and executed a whale hunt.

Chapter Summary Points

-There are many different technologies available to both teachers and students today. The three points of the chapter I found intriguing were that technology has transformed learning through visual learning, information research and retrieval as well as creative self-expression.

-A research project, Teaching Internet Comprehension to Adolescents, has noted that less than 10% of the study’s 7^th graders check the accuracy of information they find online, while 80% don’t read Google search results because they don’t know how to accurately read the information.

-I like the quote and the point that was brought from The How People Learn series, it was found that human learners from infants to adults are “goal directed agents who actively seek information”.

Resources

Transforming Learning with New Technologies

Jeff Peterson via Flickr