Reflections from class 10/28

Today's discussions did not go well.  It was hard to understand what our questions were getting at.  Using "gains" vs "losses" terminology made it confusing.  Our group didn't know the goal was to come up with + or - for the question, and the two questions didn't seem to hint at that.  Our groups, For technology or Against technology did not seem to necessarily match up.  For example, just because I was For technology doesn't mean I was coming up with gains for the question.  It was mostly opinion questions and the discussion questions were not clear.  Also, just having us summarize the key ideas of our own discussion did not at all match up with what would have been an appropriate summary of the chapter.  I feel like the group discussion did not build on the chapter of help me understand the the Gains and Losses of the educational revolution.  Professor Boyer had more positives and negatives and didn't really ask for our feedback (just told us to build on his topics.  I definitely had more negatives than positives. 
I was also surprised that when Professor Boyer shared the results of his mid course evaluation and was pleased that his workload was considered high.  Especially because I thought that was a very generous answer (I answered Much Too High.)  He said that ten hours is reasonable.  And I know that's what to expect with a three credit course.  But I think professors sometimes forget that we have other class with similar heavy work loads, a job, and other responsibilities.  This week I plan to count to see if I am really doing only ten hours of homework, because I feel like it is very high.  If I do have more than ten hours, I plan to talk to Professor Boyer.  One of the things he does better than any other professor is making himslef available in a wide variety of ways (skype, email, office hours, etc.)  By keeping track of my hours spent I can see what activites are taking up the most of my time.

Chapter 7 Rethinking Education

This chapter covers the costs and benefits of a revolution in the current education system.  At first glance, I thought it was interesting that the "What May Be Lost" section was considerably longer than the "What May Be Gained."  But, after reading the chapter, I found that for much of the costs the book counters by saying the negatives are not that important to a current society.  For example, one cost of changing the current system is a loss of cultural assimilation.  This was a major component of pubilc education because the waves of immigrants moving the US at the time our current education system was designed all needed to be "Americanized."  However, this is not such a common concern now that Americans are connected through Internet, media, and other advanced technologies.  This downplays the importance of the cost.  And now as future educators, oppositely, we are taught to avoid assimilation and instead accomodate for differnt cultures and teach are studnets to be respectful of differences. 
One majory cost I do see in the education revolution is losing access to an equal quality experience.  Low income areas and families will not have the same opportunity to educationally support their children.  They will have less supplemental material like hired tutors or learning software because they will not have the means to obtain them.  Also, having access to technology, or even a warm lunch and adult supervision during the work week may not be as readily accessable to poorer areas. 
In the "What May Be Gained" section, the text brings up an interesting problem: students' attitudes towards learning.  "The goal becomes to get grades that are good enough... with a minimum of effort" (pg110.)  This is interesting be this implies the real revolution must come from the students, not the structure of teaching or method of instruction.  As teachers we are each responsible for motivating and inspiring our students to WANT to learn and discover new material. 

Chapter 8 Podcasting

In this chapter, I thought there were very two important points the chapter raised about using podcasts for educational use.  First, I think it's important for teachers try out and become very familiar with podcasting before they have the students create their own, as the chapter suggests on page 117.  There are a few different ways for teachers to get familiar with this technology.  First, using iTunes, there are many educational podcasts to subscribe to.  For me, having never listen to, let alone created a podcast before, this is a good starting point.  I do have iTunes, and am interested in finding one informational educational podcast to subscribe to.  I already have an idea where I want to live and teach, and it is about 20minutes to the school.  On the to and from school I can listen to these educational ideas via my ipod and get some creative idea and suggestions from other teachers and professionals.  After I get the idea of the type of content, length, and quality of podcasts, the next step would be to create my own.  I would love to start by picking a favorite lesson, or a time when a handful of students are missing class to document the classroom lesson.  This way my class can catch up on the work they missed or review an interesting lesson at a later time.  I was very surprised to find that listeners do not need an MP3 player to take part of the podcasting movment.  All listeners need is access to Internet.  I thought that an ipod was necessary because of the "Podcasts" tab in iTunes, assuming it was a unique feature to ipods.  But, now that I know how accessible podacsts are, it's definitely something to look into as an educational learning tool.
The second point I found interesting was using podcasting as a medium for "kids [to] make their learning transparent for others" (pg 116) This idea fits with Dr. Buchanan's model of how teachers should not be the only source for infomation for students.  In this form, students can be learning directly from students.  I probably won't have my students create podcast in my first year teaching, but it definitely seems manageable to have my students listen to other schools'/students' podcasts.  Once I get familar with using them in class, I can have my students create infomational podcasts as a source of infomation to other students, including studnets in my class the next year, and as it will be available on the Web, in any other school. 

Chpt 6 Rethinking Education

I understand the transition from apprenticeship-based education to a more universal schooling took place.  Instead of learning specific skills and duties from a child's parent to take over a job position, education revolutionized into giving all Americans an equal education.  School began to teach and transmit American values onto students, which in some cases conflicted with the students' parents values.  I agree that all students need the same basic foundation in key subjects like math, language, social studies, science.  But, I also think that education needs more of an individual learning aspect as well.  Students should have more opportunities to discover information interesting to them.  Many more students would have a more clear idea of what to declare as their college major if they had these learning opportunities in high school to explore different subjects they find interesting.  For example, as a student I could have had the opportunity to study more psychology, the way students learn and teaching strategies which would have really prepared me for my college studies.  It's not important that students pick ONE area to focus on, but that they have the freedom to study in depth any information that would appeal to them.  America would have much more passionate professional is students had time to develop interests and strengths in these area instead of having to suddenly declare their majors in college with, in some cases, little background information in those majors.  A common curriculum is good for younger ages, as that information can benefit them throughout life, despite what career they choose.  But, somehow I feel like I won't be using all my advance chemistry or anatomy and physiology knowledge I had to study in high school.
I found it interesting that the chapter says it is a goal of education to have students "learn how to learn" (pg 94.)  I don't feel like i had enough information on how I can learn in the future.  In my experience, the teacher was the source of information.  If I had a teacher with me for the rest of my life, I know I could be learning.  But since they were the source of information, and it is not realistic to have a teacher follow me around, I am not so confident learning on my own.  One great benefit to technology is students can learn on their own.  They can learn in their own style and in subjects that interest them.  I don't think schools are fully taking advantage of this individualised learning yet, but they should be.  

Reflection from iRLO

This assignment was especially frustrating.  It was hard to complete in a week.  While the daily homework of other classes to complete kept me busy during the week, and on the weekend I tried to get caught up on homework, and only found a little time to experiment in Scratch (and watch some online tutorials) I ended up having to work on this project from 8pm-2am Wednesday night.  I know professors usually don't understand how busy students are and they always justify their heavy load of homework by saying that we probably procrastinate or spend too much free time with friends or on other activities.  But this is not the case for me.  I am overwhelmed with school work and between class, work, hall government obligations and Latchkey duties, its hard to balance all of those obligations with homework and study time.  If we had two weeks for this assignment instead I could have spent a week exploring Scratch, then I would have had a better knowledge of it capabilities.
I found myself constantly revising my lesson.  I knew what I wanted the students to do, but couldn't find a way for Scratch to accomplish that.  For example, I wanted many different sprites with prefix or suffix words on them.  Then, the students could click and drag them to the Prefix Monster or the Suffix Monster and the Monster would give feedback like "Good Job!" or "Try Again."  However clicking and dragging would have been too difficult to elicit a response, so I changed my idea to pressing "p" for prefix or "s" for suffix.  This was also problematic because if the first word was "Pigs" and the students presses "s" for suffix, then all the responses from all the other sprites would go off too (so the Suffix Monster would say "Good Job!" 5 times, "Try Again" 5 times and same with the Prefix Monster) because Scratch did not know which sprite the student was referring to.
Eventually my program works now, but not as smoothly as I would like.  I'm interested to get my peers feedback and look at their projects to see how they handled some of the limitations of Scratch.
I can see the usefulness of this program for students.  i don't think I would take the time to teach them how to use it themselves, but I would like to design maybe two games as a review of the previous grade's skills they need to remember before starting lessons in my grade.  I don't think I would want to create more than that though because of the time it takes.  There are many available online interactive games to utilize, so I would only use Scratch is it was a subject I needed to customize the information for my specific class. 

Reflection from class 10/21

I need to remember to write my reflection on the blog from my iRLO.  Also, I still need to post my reflection for this chapter in Rethinking technology.  I still need to comment on my peers' Notebook lessons.  I will have time on Friday and will make those a priority now that this crazy weekend is over with. 

The Chapter group focused on three main points, that education is effected by parents, government, and individuals.  As far as the discussion goes, I think we need to start thinking about ways to discuss and report verbally the information.  Especially being one of the last groups to go.  We need to consider ways to engage many types of learners--including kinesthetic and visual learners as well.  Maybe we can switch groups after we converse on one topic.  That way when we regroup (having one person from each topic form a new group)  Each person will report what they talked about-- and even give their opinions on a new topic from their group's perspective--- called "jigsaw."  Also, the summaries started to get long.  If they made a structure on how to report and it can help lead and spark ideas for the discussions.  Reporting would be quick and easier to follow.

White Board lesson
*lock down objects that aren't supposed to be moved
*allow move lets objects moved but not be edited (like text of county names)

Also, if I need help with revising my Scratch or IWB lesson, Professor Boyer is on Skype.  I could message or call him when he is online/in his office.  This is more helpful because it would be an immediate reply rather than waiting for an email.  I also think that's important to remember as a teacher, to make myself available for my students.  Prof Boyer make it clear to us to always seek out help if we are frusterated.  Some Professors are very opposite, where even if the don't specifically say it, it's clear that asking for help is inconevient for them.  It's hard to feel comfortable contacting teachers when they are not happy and willing to help us understand their content.

Chapter 7: Flickr

I do see the potential use of Flickr in the classroom.  It would be fun to share pictures with families and the community or create assignments with images the students can access and annotate with this online tool.  However, as I pointed out in my last post, I feel it's important to narrow down the tools I think I realistically use in my classroom and I don't think Flickr will make the cut.  I see too many drawbacks from the stand point of a low-income district.  Parents need to have access to the Internet and the interest in surfing it to have time to view their child's classroom activities using Flickr.  This means they need to have an active Flickr account since I would make the album private for the safety of my students.  Also, as in many Phillips Elementary school (the school I hope to teach in) classrooms, I would be lucky to have one computer for the students to access.  And with every teacher vying for time in the computer lab, I cannot count on constant access to that either.  Flickr would have to be an ongoing endeavor and I don't think the benefits outweigh the cost of time and access. 
This chapter did make me realize that I want to send home a survey for the students' parents to fill out at the beginning of the year.  I know currently some parents don't have the Internet in their homes but with technology expanding so quickly, and the parents I will be involved with will have an increasing interest in technology since they will be a younger generation than current parents of elementary schoolers.  I want to find out what programs parents would be interested in and which they would keep up with, like a blog, Twitter, a Facebook page, etc.  I want parents to feel involved and connected to their child's experience in the classroom.  But, I don't want to do it in a technological advanced way that discourages parents.  I want them to find the mode of transmitting information easy, convenient, and inviting for them to keep updated on their child's success. 
I also don't see Flickr being the best tool for classroom learning either.  A lot of the possibilities of Flickr can be accomplished through other methods.  For example, if the goal is to have the students interact and label images, a SMARTboard can help facilitate that.  The students can come up to the board and write directly on the picture or make a star and tell the class about the picture, this method would be similar to annotating a picture on Flickr.  Overall, I can't see Flickr being the most advantageous tool for learning, classroom management, or parent involvement.  It would not be a wise use of my time and effort as a teacher.