While most parents think that they are making their children safer by denying  or limiting access to the internet.  The realization is that the ones that are typically being targeted are teenagers.  According to Dr. Finkelhor there were almost no victims in the sample he collected involving a child under the age of 13.  Basically by denying access to the internet in the schools we are keeping the school safe, not the children.  Most proxies and site blockers will keep the average student (those not seeking the attention of adults) safe.

2. What are we making safe?

The intention is to safe guard the addresses and information of such students that would give out their information.  Parents think by denying access they are protecting their children from violent crimes and abduction; however, according to Dr. Finkelhor, only about five percent of the cases he reviewed were violent crimes and only 3 percent involve abduction.  Most of the cases the adults were explicitly honest about their intentions.  And while we think we are protecting kids from the 45-year-old pedafile, kids are actually trying to reach out to college students to gain more freedom (Danah Boyd).   While we think that we are protecting kids from strangers, not all strangers on the internet have bad intentions (Amanda Lenhart).

3. What are the consequences of such decisions?

The consequences of denying students access to the internet is that we are limiting certain educational opportunities because we have a unstantiated fear of something we don’t completely know the facts on.  Although we think the internet has caused such an increase in crimes, the real statistics are that since the internet grew in popularity the instances of sexual assult, sexual abuse, and early age of engaging in sex have all been deceasing (Dr. Finkelhor).

1. List the software/applications you experimented with this semester

Wikis Blogs Delicious (social bookmarking) Wordle Wisdomap (and other mindmapping applications) Twitter

Google Forms Google Sites Rubistar Flickr Audacity Photobooth Moove

Feed Readers Skype Mendele Darfur is Dying Food Force Free Rice Survey Monkey

2. List the instructional strategies you learned about in this class

Direct Instruction demonstrations didactic questions drill and practice explicit teaching mastery lecture guides for reading, listening, and viewing structured overview Indirect Instruction case study cloze procedure concept attainment concept formation concept mapping inquiry problem-solving reading for meaning reflective study

Interactive Instruction brainstorming circle of knowledge cooperative learning groups debate discussion interveiwing lab groups panels peer practice problem solving role-plays tutorial groups Experimental Learning experiments field observations field trips focused imaging games model building role plays simulations surveys synectics

Independent Study assigned questions computer-assisted instruction correspondence lessons essays homework learning activity packages learning centres learning contracts research projects

3. How does technology aid in communication?

Technology aids in communication by its endless possibilities to express oneself through different forms of multimedia.  Also technology allows us to communicate with others who are not right in front of our faces.  From the telephone, to instant messenger, to email, to this blog, and even the use of video conferencing, all are methods to bring people together in communication.  Although technology will never fully replace the face to face interaction, technology allows us to use our time better, instead of having to travel for a meeting, we can communicate with the use of a program like skype.  Instead of sending a letter in the mail to China which could takes days or weeks, we can send an email which takes seconds.  Also, through the use of the internet, some communication takes place more on your time than based off of when you an another person is available.

4. How can technology assist you as a teacher?

One of the things that we talk about in this course is the multiple learning styles of students.  As a teacher I believe we need to be conscious of this fact, however if we are able to incorporate all learning styles into a lesson, students as a whole will get more out of it.  Although a student may favor one type of learning style, they are still receptive to the others, and by using all three styles, we are catering to more of their senses which will allow for deeper understanding. Through the use of technology we are able to reach out to more of those learning styles through simulations, visual effects, and the use of audio.

5. What did you learn about yourself as a presenter?

As a presenter I have learned that I need to slow down a bit when I present.  I tend to get nervous and speed through things, luckily for me technology tends to help me slow down, I don’t need to remember quite as much from memory to present, although the more that I have memorized the better my presentation.

6. What did you learn about Internet safety?

I used to think like many Americans in regards to internet safety, that there could be someone lurking trying to trick young people into posting information about themselves.  While this is possible on the internet this is not very common.  “Predators” like the ones shown on to catch a predator, are not that common on the internet.  And even more reassuring is that most kids will ignore strange messages and look at them as if they are spam rather than posting or replying to them.  Kids are alot smarter then we give them credit for.  Part of this is attributed to things they learn from their parents as well as things they learn in school; however, because of the possibility of internet predators as well as other dangers, we should not stop there.  One thing that kids might not thinks as dangerous is putting up certain pictures of themselves on their webpages.  Cause after all, once you post something, it almost impossible to take it back.

7. What did you learn about assessing students’ learning?

Teachers should assess student learning on multiple levels.  The use of testing only does not test student understand completely.  Teachers can assess student understanding through writing, projects, as well as presentation; when used in conjunction with testing it can give teachers a well rounded look at an individuals understanding and will help to better evaluate students with test anxiety.

8. Why should we teach kids to be media literate?

If we do not teach students to be media literate, we are doing them a disservice.  Tomorrows jobs will be based off of problems that we do not exist today.  Why is this? Because technology is always changing and always evolving.  If we do not stir students interest in it now, how will they ever keep up?  Also students need to be media literate in order to learn in most classrooms today.  Just like with language if people are illiterate they are missing out on learning opportunities.

9. What’s the most important thing you learned in this class?

I think one of the most important things I have learned in this class are to be open minded and to stay connected.  If we are open minded we can create new uses for technology as it comes out, and yes these uses can often be in the classroom.  And its important to stay connected because learning happens best as a collaborative process.

10. How can I improve this course?

My opinion is that the is really good as it is; however, there is alot of work involved in this class.   I suggest that some of the lesson plan assignments (which are pretty time consuming) should be combined which will still cover all the same aspects but decrease the amount of assignments.

If you are an TACTILE learner, you may wish to find out more about what you can do to maximise your learning potential.

Multiple Intelligences Survey

Does your top intelligence match what you anticipated?
What do they tell you about the way a learning environment may be best set up to maximize your potential?

Test Results

My top three intelligences:

Intelligence	Score (5.0 is highest)	Description
	4.86	Nature: You are sensitive to nature and environment. You probably know the names of rocks, flowers, birds, and trees. You love to be outdoors. Here are some ways to use your nature intelligence in your learning: Work in the garden. Read about plants and/or animals. Study habits of fish or birds. Read nature magazines. Go hiking. Take photographs of what you find on your hike. Write a story describing the photographs.
	4.57	Logic/math:You enjoy exploring how things are related, and you like to understand how things work. You like mathematical concepts, puzzles and manipulative games. You are good at critical thinking. Here are ways to work with this intelligence in your lessons: Arrange cartoons and other pictures in a logical sequence. Sort, categorize, and characterize word lists. While reading a story, stop before you’ve finished and predict what will happen next. Explore the origins of words. Play games that require critical thinking. For example, pick the one word that doesn’t fit: chair, table, paper clip, sofa. Explain why it doesn’t fit. Work with scrambled sentences. Talk about what happens when the order is changed. After finishing a story, mind map some of the main ideas and details. Write the directions for completing a simple job like starting a car or tying a shoe. Make outlines of what you are going to write or of the material you’ve already read. Look for patterns in words. What’s the relationship between heal, health, and healthier? Look at advertisements critically. What are they using to get you to buy their product?
	4.29	Body Movement: You like to move, dance, wiggle, walk, and swim. You are likely good at sports, and you have good fine motor skills. You may enjoy taking things apart and putting them back together. Incorporating body movement into your learning will help you process and retain information better. Here are some ideas. Trace letters and words on each other’s back. Use magnetic letters, letter blocks, or letters on index cards to spell words. Take a walk while discussing a story or gathering ideas for a story. Make pipe cleaner letters. Form letters out of bread dough. After you shape your letters, bake them and eat them! Use your whole arm (extend without bending your elbow) to write letters and words in the air. Change the place where you write and use different kinds of tools to write, ie., typewriter, computer, blackboard, or large pieces of paper. Write on a mirror with lipstick or soap. Take a walk and read all the words you find during the walk. Handle a Koosh ball or a worry stone during a study session. Take a break and do a cross-lateral walk.

These surveys told me things I already knew about myself due to taking other personality and learning styles tests.  The second survey reaffirmed things I already knee about myself even though I hadn’t taken a survey on it before.  I already knew I love nature and animals, that I love math and think of things in a mathematical sense, and I always fidget in situations where I need to be still.  I believe that knowing may help some people but for others they might close themselves off to learning or think that their teacher is biased against their learning style.  I think however, that the learning style is not as important as the modality in which the content is best conveyed.

I would use Kidspiration which is a mind mapping tool.  This allows students to visually represent ideas and their connections.  It also allows them to condense large chunks of information into a aesthetically pleasing form.  This can be used with story lines in language arts, in math for equations, in science for experiment results, as well as for many other subjects.  This promotes greater understanding and comprehension because the students themselves organize their ideas.  This software also allows students to choose icons for each node, which can help them to create a visual representation for each topic within their mindmap.

6. Cooperative Learning

I would do cooperative learning through the program called skype.  In class we veiwed a youtube video about a girl name Celeste.  In this video it shows a student who wouldn’t normally have been able to enter this specific classroom without the use of skype.  This program can be futher used to collaborate in world studies and language classes in order to talk to other students with different world veiws and languages.   Although the use of this program is not in person, it is face-to-face in a way.

7. Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback

In order to utilize students ability to improve their own work, I would use a class wiki or a blog.  Students can give feedback to one another, in addition to a teacher or parent having access to give feedback.  Wikis and blogs put the power in students hands to be able to share their work and give them a sense of independence (although content will be reviewed before posting).  The objectives would be posted on the course wiki in order to create an easy way to find out what the teacher expects and feedback for written works (located on the blog) would be posted on each students blog individually.

One of my most fond memories is of our family trips up to Conneat Lake Pennsylvania.  My whole family would go every year and stay in cottages right off the lake.  My one uncle would always bring up his boat to the lake so people could go tubing and skiing.  At first I was afraid to go out on the water tube, but once I warmed up to the idea I had alot of fun.  After I got used to riding on the tube, my uncle decided to have a little fun and see how fast he could go until I would fall off.  When I finally fell off I lost my bathing suit bottoms cause the water pulled them off.  When I first tried water skiing I face planted 10 times before I successfully got up (which also ended up in a face plant 10 seconds into it.  Also while at the lake they had an amusement park and we would always go on the rides, my favorite ride was called the hell hole which was a ride that made you feel like you were floating.  This has inspired my love of the outdoors as well as my love for adventure.

Play is vital in the educational system because it allows students to take on new roles and to develop certain parts of their character free from judgment as well as adding to a love of learning.  Little kids as well as people who love sports this helps them incorporate new skills into real life.

In your child’s class we will be taking part in learning that involves the internet.  This is a fairly new education approach, however; it allows students to work on school assignments, not only at school but also opens up new possibilities for working at home.  From now to the end of the year, you child’s class will be taking part in this pilot writing program designed to help them develop their writing and explore their interests by sharing their writing with a real audience. Students will be using personal Weblogs to post their writing to the Internet.  Also students will be using a course wiki in order to communicate and post assignments for the class to view.

A Weblog, or blog as they are commonly called, is a special type of Web page that can be created and easily updated using a Web browser. Each new entry has its own date stamp. Each entry has a comments section where visitors to the blog may leave comments for the author. The web blog is a tool that can be accessed through the Internet using a web browser. Web blogs also offer students a medium in which to extend classroom discussion.

What are the effects of using a weblog

Web blogs are an internet tool that allows students to post journals and receive feedback from peers, teachers, and parents. Some studies have showed improved writing skill as compared to peers not using the web blog. It has shown that the use of blogs have allowed usually quiet children to speak out on the internet.

Security

This blogging project is designed to minimize risk to your child. The only identifying information included in the blog will be their first name. There will be no mention of our school name or our location. Students are allowed to post their interests and opinions, but not their age, email address, photographs of themselves, or other sensitive information.

Resources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3804773.stm

Permission

Before your child may start posting to their blog, we are asking for you and your child to discuss and sign the following form. Please have your child bring in the signed permission form to class

Blogging Terms and Conditions

1. Students using blogs are expected to act safely by keeping personal information out of their posts. You agree to not post or give out your family name, password, user name, email address, home address, school name, city, country or other information that could help someone locate or contact you in person. You may share your interests, ideas and preferences.

2. Students using blogs agree not to share their user name or password with anyone besides their teachers and parents. You agree to never log in as another student.

3. Students using blogs are expected to treat blogspaces as classroom spaces. Speech that is inappropriate for class is not appropriate for your blog. While we encourage you to engage in debate and conversation with other bloggers, we also expect that you will conduct yourself in a manner reflective of a representative of this school.

4. Student blogs are to be a forum for student expression. However, they are first and foremost a tool for learning, and as such will sometimes be constrained by the various requirements and rules of classroom teachers. Students are welcome to post on any school-appropriate subject.

5. Students blogs are to be a vehicle for sharing student writing with real audiences. Most visitors to your blog who leave comments will leave respectful, helpful messages. If you receive a comment that makes you feel uncomfortable or is not respectful, tell your teacher right away. Do not respond to the comment.

6. Students using blogs take good care of the computers by not downloading or installing any software without permission, and not clicking on ads or competitions.

7. Students who do not abide by these terms and conditions may lose their opportunity to take part in this project.

I have read and understood these blogging terms and conditions. I agree to uphold them.

Student’s signature:_____________________________ date: ________________

Parent’s signature: _____________________________ date: ________________

If you have any more questions or concerns please contact your child’s teacher via the number listed in the school directory either prior to the start of the school day or directly after school.

1. What tools or applications have learned about in this course?

a. Since the beginning I have learned to use many different tools and applications. First, I began the course with setting up a gmail account and learning how to use all the tools within the gmail account including google documents. This has allowed me to share information with other class members and could be applied to many other situations. Next we set up a blog site, which I didn’t really know how to use, and probably wouldn’t use it unless I became a teacher. It is interesting to use however doesn’t really apply to the field I want to go into. However, another application I do like that I learned about in this class was delicious. This application allows me to bookmark many different websites that I use and access them from any computer. Also we have learned about wordle, wisdomap, and twitter. I already knew about creating concept maps, wisdomap wasn’t really a new application to me; however, twitter and wordle were. I didn’t really care that much for twitter but I did like wordle. I actually pasted a chapter from a bible in there to see what the main points of the verse were, it was really interesting to see.

2. What teaching or instructional strategies have you learned about?

a. I have learned about ways to incorporate technology in new ways into presentations and I also created a wiki for another class that I am in so that the class can share book outlines before tests.

3. What else do you want to learn about integrating technology into your curriculum?

a. I just want to continue to learn new ways I can integrate technology into professional settings as well as teaching situations.

Tech vs. Nature: This picture symbolizes the fight between keeping a classroom natural and teachers struggling to incorporate technology in meaningful learning.

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2008.

Tool 1: Mindmeister

1. Why you chose it:
   I chose this application because it is an easy mind mapping tool that allows student to create a mindmap in order to organize thoughts and ideas.
2. What opportunities it might provide you and students in the classroom:
   This application has the great ability to organize student’s thoughts for writing papers, taking notes, and showing the relationship of separate topics.
3. What potential barriers might be involved in using it:
   I actually like the application Inspiration better; however, it costs money to use. The free version on mindmeister limits the design abilities for the mind map.

Tool 2: Yugma

1. Why you chose it:
   I chose this program because it would be an interesting opportunity for students especially in language classes. I haven’t seen many tools like this that do live feed.
2. What opportunities it might provide you and students in the classroom:
   If students could speak one on one with other students from another country, they could possibly learn language easier because they have the motivation of talking to a real person with real dialogue
3. What potential barriers might be involved in using it?
   Student behavior could dictate whether or not students are mature enough to use this program. Another barrier is that schools may not have computers or the signal strength to have a live feed video that is useful. And finding another classroom across the globe wanting to participate could be a challenge. Finally, the last challenge is that there are two different versions of this, the commercial one and the free one; the free one is probably limited on features that could be essential in the classroom.

Tool 3: Google Scholar

1. Why you chose it:
   I use Google Scholar constantly in my research papers and I really like it.
2. What opportunities it might provide you and students in the classroom:
   This is a venue for peer reviewed articles which is essential in upper grades.
3. What potential barriers might be involved in using it.
   younger students might have problems find articles and it doesn’t really relate to younger grade levels. Sometimes I even have difficulty finding exactly what I need for my research papers. Also not all schools have access to computers and some articles are closed off unless you have passwords for the database. Some databases charge a certain amount per year to use their services, which many schools are already underfunded so this could be a challange.

]]> http://shannanpugh.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/ll6-learning-tools/feed/ 0 slpugh http://shannanpugh.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/ll5-reflecting-on-lesson-plan-one/ http://shannanpugh.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/ll5-reflecting-on-lesson-plan-one/#comments Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:53:10 +0000 slpugh http://shannanpugh.wordpress.com/?p=53 ]]> 1. Describe what you liked about your lesson plan and what you weren’t so keen on.

My favorite thing about my lesson plan is that it gets students to be involved in the physics lab as well as brings to life certain concepts. The thing I was not very keen on was remembering all the concepts that were involved with the lesson, its been a long time since I’ve taken physics. Also I’m not that experienced writing rubrics, but the rubistar website was a blessing.

2. Describe how your lesson plan was active and authentic. If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently? If you wouldn’t change anything, explain why.

It was active because students are expected to utilize technology tools to create a concept map, graphs, and a lab report. It was authentic because students are expected to apply technology to content-specific activities based on real world problems. If I had to do it all over again I think I would try to incorporate more technology.

3. Was your lesson plan safe or risky? Explain your answer.What biases, hidden or in plain site, did your lesson contain?

I feel like my lesson plan is risky, often times taking students out of the classroom is risky for teachers, they never know how their students will behave. Also they will be around a live animal which without common safety practices, could be dangerous. The Lesson plan contains my bias for loving animals, more specifically horses. Also there is a bias of the desire for students to learn and like physics.

1. A Day in the Life
2. Social Studies
3. 7th to 8th Grade
4. Use the web cast to learn about different societal roles and social levels within the time period of 1800’s- 1850’s
5. Educational goals
a. Understands how major technological and economic developments influenced various people. (Ex: business owners, farmers, workers in different regions)
b. Understands different economic, cultural, and social characteristics of slavery after 1800s. Struggles of plantation life and experiences of escaped slaves.
c. Understands influences of urban life in the early and late 19th century (Ex: how rapid urbanization, immigration, and industrialization affected the social fabric of cities: Immigrant experiences and typical life of an immigrant coming to America.
d. Understands the social and economic impacts of the factory system and what a typical family person working in the factory system would look like. Characteristics, lifestyle, etc.
6. Students will be graded using the following rubrics from the website
a. Research summary
Or PowerPoint presentation
b. Group Work
c. Enrichment Activity

• What I liked about the lesson
o This lesson gets students to not only use the Internet but to use other applications and tools to teach other student in the class about something.
• What I didn’t like
o The problem with this lesson is depending on home good the presentations of the students are, it will possibly change the content that the other
students learn about each aspect
• What I want to know more about/didn’t understand about the lesson.
o This lesson relies on a school to have adequate equipment, so my only question would really be, how do we equip schools with necessary
equipment to teach this lesson?

Lesson 2

1. Ancient Egypt
2. 7th Grade
3. The students will work in groups to learn about different aspects of life in Ancient Egypt with the use of the Internet.
4. Educational goals
a. Learn about Ancient Egyptian Writing (hieroglyphics).
b. Learn about the Nile.
c. Explain different aspects about the Great Pyramid of Giza.
d. Learn about the job of an archeologist.
e. Use Egyptian math to a product of two 2-digit numbers (do not use the one identified on the website).
f. Learn about famous ancient Egyptian Rulers.
i. Tutankhamen
ii. Ramses II
iii. Queen Hatshepsut
iv. Queen Cleopatra
g. Learn about the Ankh, a cartouche and the scarab.
i. Describe the significance of each.
ii. Identify and draw each.
6. Students will create a portfolio with the use of different computer applications and will be graded on accuracy of information, neatness, and
cooperation among group members.
• What I liked about the lesson
o This lesson also gets students to not only use the Internet but to use other applications and tools.
• What I didn’t like
o Some of the links are old and outdated
• What I want to know more about/didn’t understand about the lesson.
o How would we combat the problem of outdated material as well as proxy’s that might block certain content that might be relevant and
appropriate, but might have certain trigger words for proxies?

Lesson 3

1. Science Day in the Park
2. Physics
3. Middle school physics (probably 8th grade)
4. Students go to an amusement park (this one is specific to Hershey park but can be modified for similar rides at other parks) and use what they
learn in physics lessons and apply that to the rides. The lesson covers concepts of speed, acceleration, potential energy, kinetic energy, momentum,
jerk, Archimedes principle, horsepower, mass, and weightlessness, law of conservation, work, power, height, “G” forces, and laws of motion. This
lesson gets students to work in teams to calculate different things for each ride in a fun environment.
5. Educational goals
a. To encourage a desire to learn science.
b. Calculate centripetal acceleration.
i. Measure “G” forces.
c. Calculate the work and power needed to lift an object to a certain height.
d. Calculate distance with the use of speed.
e. Calculate average speed.
i. In relation to circumference.
f. Calculate potential and kinetic energy.
g. Apply knowledge of scientific principles at work in a pendulum.
h. Compare speeds and compare the difference of forces at those speeds.
i. Explain the forces involved with collisions.
i. Calculate momentum.
ii. Calculate speed.
j. Use knowledge gained in lab activities to write scientifically about concepts covered.
6. The assignment is graded by assigning points to the completion of a set number of worksheets. Teachers can choose to grade for correctness.

• What I liked about the lesson
o This lesson gives the students the opportunity to learn in a very fun environment.
• What I didn’t like
o The cost of the activity, though it is reduced it still may be too expensive for certain schools to do because of distance of the nearest amusement
park.
• What I want to know more about/didn’t understand about the lesson.
o How would a school get funding to do a trip like this that would inspire learning?