Chapter IX

     For my journal post I watched "7 degrees of connectedness" by Rodd Lucier. The video begins with Rodd leading us down a somber street in his hometown in Canada. The video is basically a series of interviews he does with his peers concerning the subject of using technology to become better educators. The first tool that is outlined is Twitter, which Lucier describes as a "tribe" of like-minded people he follows. Since he can control who he follows  he chose to follow fellow educators and over time began to interact with them. I personally don't have a Twitter but I can relate in my experience with Facebook. I use Facebook to add people I don't know but find interesting, which is technically against the rules. I have poets, musicians, debaters  and even some celebrities on my friends list. I have interacted with a few of these people and now have contacts around the globe. I could apply the same concept to education -- I could add the best educators in the world to my friend's list and every time I log in to Facebook I can be exposed to some of the greatest thinkers of this age.

     The next topic that's covered is Podcasts and how one of his acquaintances got involved in creating them. He describes starting out listening to teacher podcasts and his journey to becoming a popular podcaster himself. One thing that is stressed is the idea that everybody has a voice and podcasts can be a medium to project that voice to the masses. I personally have never really been into podcasts but they have an almost cult-like following. They're convenient because you can listen to them virtually everywhere, including you car, and I can see this being useful as a tool teachers can use to get through to students who simply don't have much time on their hands.

     The overall theme of the video is connectedness. In education, this concept is quite obviously opening new doors. Now with the rapid sharing of ideas and concepts, I believe we can move and improve education at a much faster rate than ever before.

Chapter VIII - Alternative Blog Post

For my chapter eight blog post I chose to write about David Warlick's blog 2 Cents Worth. I read the first post which was a piece on Gary Stager, a very prominent educator. In the article, Warlick goes over Stager's presentation at a recent education conference and lists some of his points. To my surprise, I found myself agreeing with Stager on almost all points.

One of the Stager quotations noted in the article read, "School should work with the tech of the day." The blogger then points out the poignant question of "why do we think education should be cheap?" The thought raises some questions to me:

Why are we not spending more on education?

Why are the worst schools the least funded? Shouldn't they get more funding since they are in obvious need of it?

Why are schools so behind in adapting technology?

The quotation also brought to mind an old mantra I heard once, probably uttered by some dreadlocked hippie wearing a 'legalize it' shirt. It went something like this: it will be a great day when schools get all the money they need and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.

The last part of the article moved me the most. In the very last lines Warlick writes, "What an amazing learning opportunity that surprise avails any teacher – wasted in this case, because she thought her classroom was about teaching, not about learning." I think far too many teachers don't take this advice to heart. They're focused so much on teaching they actually forget that they are there for the students and not vice-versa.

Chapter VII - Alternative Blog Post

I chose the game FreeRice which was shown to the class by Olivia. It's a neat little non-profit website that will generously donate ten grains of rice for every question you answer correctly on their site. FreeRice runs off advertisement money they received form sponsors   They offer a multitude of subjects that participants may answer questions in with a variety of different difficulty levels.

As an English teacher I would implement this game (particularly the grammar portion) for students to use in addition to classroom learning. This could aid in reinforcing concepts that I have already taught and might encourage students to continue their education outside of the classroom. I could assign homework with the guidelines that each students shows me a 'receipt' of a pre-set number of rice grains donated. I feel this will be a more entertaining homework assignment than the usual vocab worksheet most teachers might assign. The vocabulary portion could also be used, but I feel would be less helpful because it is much more ambiguous than grammatical concepts. I plan to teach high school but I think this would work better when used with younger children. All the while, I still think anybody could pull something from this great website.

I particularly like the fact that this website serves two ultimate purposes: to educate and to end world hunger. While students are working on their grammar or vocabulary  they can know that their work is actually contributing to help somebody in need.

Chapter VI

Focus Question: How might educational websites provide interactive and engaging learning experiences for students?

Interactivity in itself implies that not only the website itself will communicate with students but that the opposite is also possible: that students can interact back with the website. For an educational website to be engaging, teachers must ask no further than how can I make my classroom engaging? For the same techniques can also be applied online. Relevance is quite an obvious answer. If the information is kept up-to-date and relevant to the students life, they'll be able to grasp it better. The idea is not to barrage and belittle students with tons of information, but to present it as simple concepts with references to things they can wholly understand. The best teachers I had in high school were the ones that were the simplest.

Tech Tool: Interactive Online Field Trip: The Cave of Chauvet-Pont-D'Arc

This tech tool focuses on an interactive website that allows students to take a virtual tour of one of the earliest cave paintings ever found. This was one of the few times I've come across the concept of "virtual field-trips" and I have to say that I'm definitely an advocate. This site is a great example of an experience that could only be possible via the internet. Of course, I realize there is no replacement for actually being there and experiencing something like that in person -- this is probably the closest most of us will ever get.

Reaction:

The chapter goes over the concept of social bookmarking which I've experienced somewhat in class already. Delicious is an example of a social bookmarking site that we've implemented in class. Trends on the internet these days seem to be going the way of social everything. Now we have social bookmarks, social documents, social videos, even entire hard-drives that can be stored entirely online. It's quite a voluminous concept to imagine that we're nearly impervious when  it comes to storing information nowadays. With information stored entirely online, what could possibly delete it? Short of a complete website wipe (which is improbable seeing as they have backups) it seems impossible.

Next, webquests are discussed which I touched on briefly in the tech tool section. The idea is relatively new but I advocate it completely. However, I can only hope that schools never replace real live field trips with virtual ones in the name of saving money. Nothing could ever replicate actually being there.

Videoconferencing is another concept I was introduced to. I've never actually used it in the classroom but the concept seems intriguing. The idea that I could have my students have a live chat with students from another country is awe-inspiring.

Chapter V

Focus Question: How can teachers respond to problems of plagiarism when students use online sources?

The most obvious answer is that the teacher can ask for a student to cite his or her sources. There are also various webtools teachers may use such as TurnItIn, which is a plagiarism checker marketed towards teachers and professors. The internet might actually make plagiarism harder because a teacher can simply look up a few sentences and usually find the original article. In the old days, the teacher would have to siphon through dozens of textbooks if he suspected a student of cheating.

Tech Tool: Flickr

Ah, the mighty Flickr. Flickr has come under my radar before: it's the ultimate tool for photographers. Flickr is a photo sharing website much like other social networks but with a specialization in photography. Teachers could implement Flickr as a visual learning resource and by holding online discussions and picture sharing among groups of students.

Reaction:

This chapter contains a comprehensive section on types of information problems and responses to those problems. There's multiple categories including: misinformation, malinformation, messed-up information, and mostly-useless information. There's also the problem of censored information and the inherent dangers of censorship in our society.

A little later there's a section dedicated to Wikipedia. It contrast Wikipedia's open-source policy to that of an encyclopedia in which a number of board members write it. It talks about trust issues some teachers have with the site because it is not evaluated by a panel of 'experts' as with other encyclopedias  Personally I think Wikipedia is the best thing since sliced bread and will encourage my students to use it. If nothing else, it provides a good list of sources a student can use.

I answered the focus question about how teachers can deal with the problems of plagiarism and later on in the chapter it discusses that very topic. I found out some sites even offer ghost-written essays students can buy for money. Other times, students have a problem with actually knowing when they have crossed the plagiarism line. It is my thoughts that teachers should establish a clear guide at the beginning of the semester on what exactly constitutes plagiarism  But of course, the best way to avoid plagiarism altogether is to create assignments that cannot be plagiarized in the first place.

Chapter IV

Focus Question: How does technology promote educational change?

By changing the way subjects are taught and learned, technology by its very nature promotes educational change. Since technology is still in its twilight, these new innovations are revamping the entire school system from the ground up. Everything from grading to school lunches to teacher-student communication involves technology. Some schools have even gone so far as to count attendance via an identification card each student caries with them and must swipe at the beginning of each class. Even here at Edison, we're have a debit card system that we can use to purchase things on campus.

 Tech Tool: National Education Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T)

The National Education Technology Standards for Teachers is a neat little website run by the National Society for Educational Technology. Despite the long and tedious name, NETS-T is a small but effective website that provides resources for technocentric teachers like case studies and rubrics for evaluating how well you implement technology. There's also a NETS for various other education occupations such as administrators and coaches and even students.

 Reaction: 

This chapter has a section which covers technology integration issues which I enjoyed thoroughly. I think it was the most pragmatic approach to technology in the classroom I've seen yet from this book. It mentions how teachers need more training and resources when it comes to technology -- a sentiment that couldn't be closer to the truth. It mentions how a study done when calculators were first implemented showed that teachers reacted similarly and wanted more training. Later in the chapter it is discussed how technology integration can lead to educational change. It goes on to say that the reason technology hasn't been so heavily implemented yet is because teachers have a hard time letting go of tradition. I agree, yet I can see so much change just in my short time in the school system. I think things are changing whether teachers like it or not.

Chapter III

Focus Question: How can teachers use technology to make decisions about meeting educational standards in their lesson plans?

Technology could be used to to review the educational standards which I'm sure are available online. Furthermore, technology could be used to hold polls online in which students, teachers, and parents could answer and make a majority decision on a question that needs to be decided. Lastly, technology can put teachers in contact with students outside of the classroom, ensuring that students are prepared enough to meet the set educational standards.

Tech Tool: Gliffy
Gliffy is a neat little website that provides web-based programming that teachers can use to create diagrams and graphs. This could be used to create seating charts, graphs, student gradebooks, and other visual media. Gliffy is free to try and also offers a standard and a pro package at 4.95$ a month and 9.95$ a month respectively.

Reaction:
The chapter starts with a vignette about a teacher who plans her lessons during the time she spends cooking. The story is much better than the previous ones used and is actually readable. The chapter goes on to explain academic content that teachers must teach students. The book explains that although the content that you teach is dictated by the district, the way you choose to teach the content is not. I've always believed in teachers having flexibility when it comes to the way they choose to present the information to students.

Another cool bit in the chapter is a comparison between two different types of testing assessments. Norm-referenced tests compare students with other students and Criterion-referenced tests compare students to standards or objectives. Before this chapter I had no idea these two terms existed. It goes on to talk about electronic grading and the perks of using it. This got me thinking back to my days in high school when my grades were posted online and I could check them whenever I pleased. I'm curious as to why colleges don't employ this method as well. Granted, there are certain teachers who do, but for the most part our grades our a mystery until after the semester ends.