This class is a breath of fresh air! I know the next 6 weeks is going to be much easier than some of the other classes because I LOVE this stuff and LOVE working on fun, creative "stuff" like this. I am really looking forward to learning more about presentations & digital storytelling/pictures. I think I have a pretty good handle on digital pictures & storytelling but I know there is always room for growth & improvement.
I'm excited about the Posterous assignment but am a bit worried about posting the picture each day. I've been taking pictures every day but just got them all posted today. Now that I see how easy it is I'm hoping that I'll remember to do it each & every day. Once in a routine I'm sure I'll be just fine. I'm really interested in what we are going to be doing with the pictures at the end of the activity. It will be fun to check out all of my classmates' pictures to see what their hobbies/interests/etc are and learn even more about each of them.
Okay, now off to read some more & meet with my group. Lots of work to do....but I know it isn't going to seem like it is as much "work" as some of the other courses since this really is of interest & fun for me. :) G'night for now...
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
CEDO 525 Week 5
Because of a school commitment, I wasn't able to attend the class session last week. However, I did watch/listen to the recording, and I am still thinking about one part of the class over and over....and that is Kris's example of the business she toured and how the business incorporated each of the learning strategies that we have covered in this class. After her explanation, I started thinking about how my school incorporates each of the learning strategies or how certain strategies could potentially be improved. I really like the example provided about "Reinforcing Effort & Providing Recognition" at the business she toured. I would love to make a suggestion to my principals of a way that we, as a school, could do a better job of this. A simple bulletin board in the teacher work room/mail room with room for people to pin up "way to go" messages cheering on someone who is doing a great job or a public thanks/recognition on a particular project would go a long way. I realize that public recognition isn't necessary for everything but once in a while it sure is nice to have someone compliment your efforts or celebrate your success(es) in a way that can be shared with others.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
CEDO 525 Week 4 Strategies
Identifying Similarities & Differences
One of the recommendations for this strategy is "Have students use graphic organizers as a visual tool to represent the similarities and differences." Whenever applicable I do have my students use graphic organizers to arrange information in a logical, visual manner. I LOVE the new SmartArt tools in Microsoft Office 07 & newer; the word clouds, mind maps, flow charts, etc are super easy to use and look great! The SmartArt graphics are broken into categories which helps the user easily and quickly select the best option.
Homework & Practice
I rarely give true "homework" in my classes where students have to complete/finish activities outside of class. 99% of the learning activities take place during the class block as long as the given time is used wisely. Right now in one of my classes the students are working on a group project. There was class time given but a few of the groups will need to finish up the project outside of class prior to class on Thursday. One group in particular was listing off a million reasons why they wouldn't be able to finish their project; here are just a few given to me... "Some of us are in extra curriculars after school so we can't all get together to finish it then", "None of us have PowerPoint at home to finish up the project", "Ya de ya de ya da!" I realize that these "excuses" are not totally legit but instead of fighting that fight I just calmly told the group that all of what they told me was okay. I told them, "Just upload what you have done to Google Docs & finish your presentation online whenever you each have time to work on it." We've used Google Docs for many activities in that class so I'm surprised they even tried to give me all of those excuses regarding why they wouldn't be able to get the work done when they knew I'd probably "gently remind" them about Google Docs. Funny students.... :)
Generating & Testing Hypotheses
In my Intro to Business class the students complete an online business simulation called JA Titan. The students are put into groups, and they make various business decisions. After the decisions have been submitted they receive instant feedback. The students then look through the business reports and make the next quarter's decisions based on what happened in the previous quarter. This simulation certainly requires them to generate & test hypotheses each time they submit their decision and then review their reports. The students enjoy this simulation because it is very much "video game-like" and gives them instant feedback based on their decisions in the simulation.
One of the recommendations for this strategy is "Have students use graphic organizers as a visual tool to represent the similarities and differences." Whenever applicable I do have my students use graphic organizers to arrange information in a logical, visual manner. I LOVE the new SmartArt tools in Microsoft Office 07 & newer; the word clouds, mind maps, flow charts, etc are super easy to use and look great! The SmartArt graphics are broken into categories which helps the user easily and quickly select the best option.
Homework & Practice
I rarely give true "homework" in my classes where students have to complete/finish activities outside of class. 99% of the learning activities take place during the class block as long as the given time is used wisely. Right now in one of my classes the students are working on a group project. There was class time given but a few of the groups will need to finish up the project outside of class prior to class on Thursday. One group in particular was listing off a million reasons why they wouldn't be able to finish their project; here are just a few given to me... "Some of us are in extra curriculars after school so we can't all get together to finish it then", "None of us have PowerPoint at home to finish up the project", "Ya de ya de ya da!" I realize that these "excuses" are not totally legit but instead of fighting that fight I just calmly told the group that all of what they told me was okay. I told them, "Just upload what you have done to Google Docs & finish your presentation online whenever you each have time to work on it." We've used Google Docs for many activities in that class so I'm surprised they even tried to give me all of those excuses regarding why they wouldn't be able to get the work done when they knew I'd probably "gently remind" them about Google Docs. Funny students.... :)
Generating & Testing Hypotheses
In my Intro to Business class the students complete an online business simulation called JA Titan. The students are put into groups, and they make various business decisions. After the decisions have been submitted they receive instant feedback. The students then look through the business reports and make the next quarter's decisions based on what happened in the previous quarter. This simulation certainly requires them to generate & test hypotheses each time they submit their decision and then review their reports. The students enjoy this simulation because it is very much "video game-like" and gives them instant feedback based on their decisions in the simulation.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
CEDO 525 Week 3 Strategies
Cooperative Learning
"...Cooperative learning focuses on having students interact with each other in groups in ways that enhance their learning. When students work in cooperative groups, they make sense of, or construct meaning for, new knowledge by interacting with others" (Pitler, 139). Whenever possible, I use this instructional strategy in my classes. It seems that most students enjoy learning in this manner. In regards to the section on "multimedia", I enjoyed the rubric - "Rubric for a Cooperative Multimedia Project" and also the "Group Roles in a Cooperative Multimedia Project". They are both good examples to use & modify to fit many of the projects I do in my classes. I also liked reading through the subsection titled "Collaborative Organizing" because I employ many of these applications already. When looking over 'shared calendars' I really liked the idea of having the student groups create a shared calendar & then share it with the teacher to allow the teacher to monitor progress. I use Google calendars (embed on our class wiki with all of the due dates for assignments, tests, projects, etc) with all of my classes but haven't thought of using them like suggested above. Also under the same subsection is 'shared bookmarking.' Currently I only use social bookmarking personally; I collect all of the amazing resources I get from my PLN on Twitter & use Delicious & Diigo to keep them organized online. In my Web Tools class my students created a Diigo account where they will keep track of the resources they use for a group project. The last topic under this subsection is 'course management.' My school has had several conversations about getting Moodle up and running but that conversation hasn't gone anywhere yet (although Moodle is "free" it is really expensive to get up & running with the hardware & Internet costs).
Reinforcing Effort
"...reinforcing effort enhances students' understanding of the relationship between effort and achievement by addressing their attributes and beliefs about learning" (Pitler, 155). I do believe this in an important instructional strategy but am having some trouble accepting the suggestions illustrated in this chapter. Many of the suggestions include public recognition of students who are demonstrating effort; one example in the text talks about having a bulletin board in the main office displaying stories of "students putting forth a strong effort to achieve" (Pitler, 162). Does this type of public recognition need to take place? What about writing positive comments on the student's paper, a sticker saying "keep it up", or have a conversation one-on-one with the student expressing & reinforcing the effort put forth?
"...Cooperative learning focuses on having students interact with each other in groups in ways that enhance their learning. When students work in cooperative groups, they make sense of, or construct meaning for, new knowledge by interacting with others" (Pitler, 139). Whenever possible, I use this instructional strategy in my classes. It seems that most students enjoy learning in this manner. In regards to the section on "multimedia", I enjoyed the rubric - "Rubric for a Cooperative Multimedia Project" and also the "Group Roles in a Cooperative Multimedia Project". They are both good examples to use & modify to fit many of the projects I do in my classes. I also liked reading through the subsection titled "Collaborative Organizing" because I employ many of these applications already. When looking over 'shared calendars' I really liked the idea of having the student groups create a shared calendar & then share it with the teacher to allow the teacher to monitor progress. I use Google calendars (embed on our class wiki with all of the due dates for assignments, tests, projects, etc) with all of my classes but haven't thought of using them like suggested above. Also under the same subsection is 'shared bookmarking.' Currently I only use social bookmarking personally; I collect all of the amazing resources I get from my PLN on Twitter & use Delicious & Diigo to keep them organized online. In my Web Tools class my students created a Diigo account where they will keep track of the resources they use for a group project. The last topic under this subsection is 'course management.' My school has had several conversations about getting Moodle up and running but that conversation hasn't gone anywhere yet (although Moodle is "free" it is really expensive to get up & running with the hardware & Internet costs).
Reinforcing Effort
"...reinforcing effort enhances students' understanding of the relationship between effort and achievement by addressing their attributes and beliefs about learning" (Pitler, 155). I do believe this in an important instructional strategy but am having some trouble accepting the suggestions illustrated in this chapter. Many of the suggestions include public recognition of students who are demonstrating effort; one example in the text talks about having a bulletin board in the main office displaying stories of "students putting forth a strong effort to achieve" (Pitler, 162). Does this type of public recognition need to take place? What about writing positive comments on the student's paper, a sticker saying "keep it up", or have a conversation one-on-one with the student expressing & reinforcing the effort put forth?
Friday, September 24, 2010
Graphic Organizers/Mindmap Applications
The three mindmapping applications I chose include the following:
Bubbl.us
Bubbl.us
- Free & collaborative
- Create online
- Share, email, or print your mindmap
- Embed on website, blog, or wiki
- Save your mindmap as an image file
- Free & collaborative
- Create online
- A few more "bells & whistles" - can change basic text boxes into different shapes & pictures
- Change between outline view and graphic organizer view depending on learning style & needs
- Free & collaborative
- Create online
- Even more "bells & whistles" - depending on the word/phrase in the textbox, it will search & find images, videos, and links that match for an easy addition or customization of your mindmap
- Can make your mindmap public or private
- iPhone app & available on Google Apps Marketplace
It was interesting that as I looked at each application, they progressively got more and more advanced (for lack of a better term). Bubbl.us seems very basic with Webspiration building in a few more "bells & whistles" like customizing the look/feel of the textboxes. Mindmeister takes Webspiration one step further by creating an application that tries to "think" for you. What do I mean? The software actually looks for images, videos, or links online that relate to the word/phrase in the textbox. All three applications are easy to use, free, meant to be collaborative, and are available via the Internet. A feature that I really like about Webspiration is the ability to switch between the mindmap view to the outline view iwht a click of a button. However, my overall recommendation goes to Mindmeister. I like the "forward thinking" of the application & think it is really neat it suggests and predicts information or images that relate to the information in the mindmap.
The Use of Advanced Organizers in the Learning & Retention of Meaningful Verbal Material
(article by David P. Ausubel)
I was very reluctant to read the article once I saw the copyright of 1960. I thought to myself, "WHY are we reading an article that is 50 years old?!" in a technology class. After reading the article, it appears that the issue (struggle with student knowledge retention) was the same as it is today. With the help of graphic organizers, it helps students organize the information in a manner that will assist them in remembering/retaining the information in a more meaningful and long lasting way.
My favorite part of this article is the following: "The metallurgical topic was chosen on the basis of being generally unfamiliar to undergraduates in liberal arts and sciences (i.e., not ordinarily included in the chemistry courses), but still sufficiently elementary to be both comprehensible and interesting to novices with no prior background in the field. Really?!?!?!!? Reading/learning about the "metallurgical properties of plain carbon steel"...I thought this guy said the topic was going to be "interesting to novices".
In all seriousness, I did enjoy & relate to the last paragraph of the article. It reads as this...."The suggestion was offered that the greater use of appropriate (substantive rather than historical) advance organizers in the teaching of meaningful verbal material could lead to more effective retention." That's what we all want, right? More effective retention! Furthermore, "this procedure would also render unnecessary much of the rote memorization to which students resort because they are required to learn the details of a discipline before having a sufficient number of key subsuming concepts. I think the use of advanced/graphic organizers more definitely help students to organize information and make those connections to prior knowledge which leads to learning rather than memorizing.
I was very reluctant to read the article once I saw the copyright of 1960. I thought to myself, "WHY are we reading an article that is 50 years old?!" in a technology class. After reading the article, it appears that the issue (struggle with student knowledge retention) was the same as it is today. With the help of graphic organizers, it helps students organize the information in a manner that will assist them in remembering/retaining the information in a more meaningful and long lasting way.
My favorite part of this article is the following: "The metallurgical topic was chosen on the basis of being generally unfamiliar to undergraduates in liberal arts and sciences (i.e., not ordinarily included in the chemistry courses), but still sufficiently elementary to be both comprehensible and interesting to novices with no prior background in the field. Really?!?!?!!? Reading/learning about the "metallurgical properties of plain carbon steel"...I thought this guy said the topic was going to be "interesting to novices".
In all seriousness, I did enjoy & relate to the last paragraph of the article. It reads as this...."The suggestion was offered that the greater use of appropriate (substantive rather than historical) advance organizers in the teaching of meaningful verbal material could lead to more effective retention." That's what we all want, right? More effective retention! Furthermore, "this procedure would also render unnecessary much of the rote memorization to which students resort because they are required to learn the details of a discipline before having a sufficient number of key subsuming concepts. I think the use of advanced/graphic organizers more definitely help students to organize information and make those connections to prior knowledge which leads to learning rather than memorizing.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
CEDO 525 Week 2 Strategies
Cues, Questions, & Advanced Organizers
After reading this chapter in the text, I realized that I employ many of the strategies suggested. I usually start out a new chapter/concept with a KWL. I found it to be extremely easy to set up in a Google Doc, make it a public document, post it to my wiki, and direct my students to fill in the K & W section prior to starting the unit. At the end of the unit, the students can then go back into the KWL Google Doc and fill in the L (What I Learned) section. It is a nice summary of the knowledge gained over the course of the unit and also a great way to clarify or clear up any misconceptions that might show up in the "Learned" section. In addition, I provide the students with a skeleton outline that they fill in while we are talking about a particular topic. The skeleton outline includes the key terms and the basics of the main points, and students are then able to fill in the missing information or add details where needed. Many of my students have opted to fill in this information right on the computer rather than have a "hard copy" of their notes. This electronic form of notes is nice because they can add links or pictures to their notes for more explanation; they can also upload their notes to Google Docs or email them to themselves to have at home or school. Another tool I use on a regular basis is graphic organizers like Webspiration or Mindmeister. I really like the powerful additions that Mindmeister has - adding links, pictures, videos, etc. The students are able to summarize or brainstorm using this tool. They are also able to answer the essential questions that are pulled from the unit. The students know that if they can answer those essential questions that the concepts have been mastered. As described in the text, I think using multimedia is also a great way "activate prior knowledge and develop a mental model to understand new information (Pitler, 82). In my Web Tools class when I'm introducing a new web application, also head out to YouTube to find a short explanatory video. I really enjoy the "In Plain English" videos by CommonCraft. They do a great job of explaining a concept/application in such simple terms and allow the students to make those connections or predictions.
Nonlinguistic Representation
The first question that pops into my mind after reading the first two pages of this chapter is, "Hmmm, how can I convince my principal to let me buy a Wii for my B&IT department?" I can tell him that it is to improve my nonlinguistic learning activities. Now...if only there were games that relate to my content area?!? Maybe there are...I guess I've never looked! :) The section that sticks with me most in this chapter is the "Multimeda" section. While reflecting on my class, both past and present, most of my students respond the most to multimedia. One tool that I've been playing with and allowing my students to play with is Prezi. It is a powerful tool that allows the use of multimedia - pictures, text, videos, links, etc, and the author organizes all of the information on a canvas rather than individual slides. This allows the author and viewers to zoom in and zoom out on the details of the concept being presented and get a great sense of relationship with all of the information in the presentation.
Summarizing & Notetaking
"Remember that one of the generalizations from McREL's research on note taking is that the more notes taken, the better, and one of the recommendations for classroom practice is that students should be taught a variety of note-taking formats." This point resonates with me; thinking back to my years in primary, secondary, and post-secondary school, I don't remember a teacher ever teaching me how to take effective notes; nor have I, now as the teacher, ever taken time to teach this important skill. I provide tools and different applications for the students to take notes but I haven't ever taught the students how to filter through the information to decide what to write down in order to create "good notes" to study from at a later time. Hmmmm, interesting & something to think about. Another point from Chapter 6 that jumps out at me (regarding "Multimedia") is this: "When students experience multimedia, they sometimes get caught up in the entertainment factor and neglect the critical analysis of the content necessary to create useful notes they can use for further study. When teachers introduce multimedia into their classrooms, they must ensure that students stay focused on distinguishing trivial content from essential content, coalescing minor points into major themes, and personalizing their notes based on their learning styles." Having students use multimedia for summarizing and notetaking, many times, like the text mentions, the students get caught up in the fun-ness of the application/process and need to be reminded or redirected back to the task at hand. I usually let the students take the few minutes to be caught up in the "entertainment factor" so they can get it out of their system; if I allow them a few minutes to enjoy the tool and explore, they are more likely to stay on task once I gather them back and redirect their attention back to the summary/notes/project/etc.
After reading this chapter in the text, I realized that I employ many of the strategies suggested. I usually start out a new chapter/concept with a KWL. I found it to be extremely easy to set up in a Google Doc, make it a public document, post it to my wiki, and direct my students to fill in the K & W section prior to starting the unit. At the end of the unit, the students can then go back into the KWL Google Doc and fill in the L (What I Learned) section. It is a nice summary of the knowledge gained over the course of the unit and also a great way to clarify or clear up any misconceptions that might show up in the "Learned" section. In addition, I provide the students with a skeleton outline that they fill in while we are talking about a particular topic. The skeleton outline includes the key terms and the basics of the main points, and students are then able to fill in the missing information or add details where needed. Many of my students have opted to fill in this information right on the computer rather than have a "hard copy" of their notes. This electronic form of notes is nice because they can add links or pictures to their notes for more explanation; they can also upload their notes to Google Docs or email them to themselves to have at home or school. Another tool I use on a regular basis is graphic organizers like Webspiration or Mindmeister. I really like the powerful additions that Mindmeister has - adding links, pictures, videos, etc. The students are able to summarize or brainstorm using this tool. They are also able to answer the essential questions that are pulled from the unit. The students know that if they can answer those essential questions that the concepts have been mastered. As described in the text, I think using multimedia is also a great way "activate prior knowledge and develop a mental model to understand new information (Pitler, 82). In my Web Tools class when I'm introducing a new web application, also head out to YouTube to find a short explanatory video. I really enjoy the "In Plain English" videos by CommonCraft. They do a great job of explaining a concept/application in such simple terms and allow the students to make those connections or predictions.
Nonlinguistic Representation
The first question that pops into my mind after reading the first two pages of this chapter is, "Hmmm, how can I convince my principal to let me buy a Wii for my B&IT department?" I can tell him that it is to improve my nonlinguistic learning activities. Now...if only there were games that relate to my content area?!? Maybe there are...I guess I've never looked! :) The section that sticks with me most in this chapter is the "Multimeda" section. While reflecting on my class, both past and present, most of my students respond the most to multimedia. One tool that I've been playing with and allowing my students to play with is Prezi. It is a powerful tool that allows the use of multimedia - pictures, text, videos, links, etc, and the author organizes all of the information on a canvas rather than individual slides. This allows the author and viewers to zoom in and zoom out on the details of the concept being presented and get a great sense of relationship with all of the information in the presentation.
Summarizing & Notetaking
"Remember that one of the generalizations from McREL's research on note taking is that the more notes taken, the better, and one of the recommendations for classroom practice is that students should be taught a variety of note-taking formats." This point resonates with me; thinking back to my years in primary, secondary, and post-secondary school, I don't remember a teacher ever teaching me how to take effective notes; nor have I, now as the teacher, ever taken time to teach this important skill. I provide tools and different applications for the students to take notes but I haven't ever taught the students how to filter through the information to decide what to write down in order to create "good notes" to study from at a later time. Hmmmm, interesting & something to think about. Another point from Chapter 6 that jumps out at me (regarding "Multimedia") is this: "When students experience multimedia, they sometimes get caught up in the entertainment factor and neglect the critical analysis of the content necessary to create useful notes they can use for further study. When teachers introduce multimedia into their classrooms, they must ensure that students stay focused on distinguishing trivial content from essential content, coalescing minor points into major themes, and personalizing their notes based on their learning styles." Having students use multimedia for summarizing and notetaking, many times, like the text mentions, the students get caught up in the fun-ness of the application/process and need to be reminded or redirected back to the task at hand. I usually let the students take the few minutes to be caught up in the "entertainment factor" so they can get it out of their system; if I allow them a few minutes to enjoy the tool and explore, they are more likely to stay on task once I gather them back and redirect their attention back to the summary/notes/project/etc.
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