What are the "affordances" and "constraints" of the technology? In other words, what does the technology allow us to do or prevent us from doing? The answers to this question might be "messy."
Skype and iChat allow us to communicate with others "face to face" online. Both are free services and allow for a lot of different types of usage. Although it is great that you can use it for so many things, this might be a downfall of the technology as well. If students use this to socialize, they might not want to use it for educational purposes. It may also be distracting using all the different tools available. I actually found myself distracted in class on Thursday when using iChat. I ended up playing around with the technology at first because I was unfamiliar with it. Students in our classrooms can find themselves in that situation as well.
What new skills do we need to teach students?
Students will first need to learn how to use iChat and/or Skype to communicate with others. They will then need to learn the different types of tools available other than just talking with another person. A great way to do this would be to show the students how to communicate with another person, but then allowing them time to discover the different tools available themselves. In addition to this, we need to teach the students expectations of using this technology and what we expect from them.
What will I need to do differently in terms of how I teach in the classroom? How will teaching and learning look different?
Because it involves communicating with others, I would have to coordinate with another classroom or another person as to what is going to be taught and what the students should discuss with each other. Teaching in this case will be more constructivist. I would provide the students with some basic content knowledge, but they will discover more by communicating with others different. Learning in this case will be done on the computer and through discussion rather than through a typical lecture. Something that I will need to do especially is ensure the students are on task.
How does the technology help me to foster creativity, innovation and some of the other 21st century skills?
What are some ways I can use this technology in my classroom?
This technology will help me foster creativity and innovation by allowing students the freedom to discover things on their own. It allows them to work with a wide array of individuals from all over the world without leaving their computer. This presents students a unique opportunity to do communicate with individuals and this communication can serve as primary sources in education.
I can use this technology in my classroom by communicating with students who are absent, either for a short period of time or a long period of time. This would be great to use for peer tutoring with other students around the world. It also allows for more constructivist type lessons which are difficult to develop in mathematics classrooms. I would also possibly be able to teach an entire class via Skype or iChat. Dr. Hartshorn taught my Higher Geometry class once last year via Skype while he was in California. Most of our work was done on Geometer's Sketchpad. If he had used iChat, he could have connected our screens so we could see what exactly he was doing on Sketchpad. Although it wasn't a perfect class, it showed me that this type of technology can be used in the classroom.
This helps foster 21st century skills because more and more communication is done online rather than face to face.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
1/25/11
Readings:
Flickr - Great Quotes about Learning and Change
The New Literacy
Pew Internet and American Life Project
Learning is continuous, but school is not. That means the majority of the learning takes place outside of school in the real world. While this learning might not be defined by a curriculum, it is still learning. When you're an infant, you aren't necessarily taught to read and write (exclude those "My Baby Can Read" programs) like you are early on in school, but that doesn't mean you're not learning. You learn how to walk and talk just by being around others. You also learn from your environment. If you touch something that you've never seen before, say a pin, and it hurts when you touch the point, you learn not to touch it. Essentially, you learn the fundamentals of being a person outside of school in the real world.
A major component in learning outside of school is through technology. Television, for example, is utilized by people of all ages to learn. If you're a child, you can watch educational children shows. If you're an adult, you can watch the news and learn about what events occurred recently. You can even watch normal TV shows. I knew nothing about crime scene investigations until I watched CSI. Even though a lot of it is outrageous and unrealistic, I still have a better understanding of that than I did before I watched the show. When I watched it though, I didn't realize I was learning. This leads to how I feel people learn from technology in the real world. People learn best from and through technology in the real world without even realizing that they're learning.
I can't begin to describe how many times I've randomly come across something online that I found interesting. Because I was interested in it, I didn't realize that I was learning anything from it. It could be from something as silly as someone's Facebook status. Someone could post a quick thing about what's going on in their life. By reading that, you learned what is going on with them but without realizing you learned it. While it's not in a school's curriculum to learn what so-and-so did, that doesn't mean you didn't learn.
Another example is just by watching sports on TV. Even if you've never played it, you can learn how to play the game just by observing it. Now we even have DVR which allows you to rewind. So you never have to miss anything. You can show a replay and get a better understanding of what happened during a certain play. You could even being watching a sport played in another country, but not even yours. This type of information would not be available without technology.
While reading Clive Thompson on the New Literacy, I found it interesting (but not surprising) that students learned how to write for a specific audience by using technology to communicate with one another, but they were still able to use correct prose for academic work. Obviously, students did not think that when they were texting their friend, blogging or posting a status update would teach them how to address certain audiences. Again, they learned by doing something they were interesting in, but without realizing they learned at all. This is something that is difficult to learn, but many did learn outside of the classroom.
Technology has allowed us to encounter a wide range of information that we may never have come across without it. Technology has also provided us with more ways for entertainment. Naturally, technology has allowed us to combine entertainment with learning.
Since technology plays such a crucial role in our lives and provides us with more interesting ways to learn, it makes classrooms without technology seem boring. Students who not engaged will not learn as well as students who are engaged. Using technology is a way to keep students engaged. This means that all classrooms should incorporate technology if possible to promote learning. This could be just simply show a documentary on the TV, or using PowerPoints to teach your lessons. Technology also allows students to be in control of their own learning. Teachers could give the students the opportunity to do their own research online about a subject and share it with the class. Students would control what websites they decided to visit to find that information and can easily exit out of ones they find uninteresting. They decide what they want to read about it.
While reading the inspirational quotes on Flickr, I came across a quote from Albert Einstein saying "Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." I feel that this describes our school system completely. We teach the same things over and over again in the same ways, but get frustrated when students who are failing continue to fail. Even worse, we don't understand why they continue to fail. That's definitely insane. Utilizing some technology in the classroom can eliminate doing the same thing over and over again and can yield different results.
One statistic from Pew Internet and the American Life Project stated that "68% of all Americans (internet users and non-users alike) said the internet has had a major impact on the ability of groups to communicate with members. Some 75% of internet users said that." I believe this statistic reiterates even further that technology can be beneficial to a classroom. Instead of a group communicating with members, it could be a teacher communicating with students. Sometimes standing in front of a room and speaking isn't enough. By delivering information on the internet, it allows all students to take the time they need to comprehend it and it serves as a review for students to go back to.
Flickr - Great Quotes about Learning and Change
The New Literacy
Pew Internet and American Life Project
- How do people learn in the real world, outside of school?
- How do people learn from and through technology in the real world?
- What are the implications of that for what teaching and learning could/should look like?
Learning is continuous, but school is not. That means the majority of the learning takes place outside of school in the real world. While this learning might not be defined by a curriculum, it is still learning. When you're an infant, you aren't necessarily taught to read and write (exclude those "My Baby Can Read" programs) like you are early on in school, but that doesn't mean you're not learning. You learn how to walk and talk just by being around others. You also learn from your environment. If you touch something that you've never seen before, say a pin, and it hurts when you touch the point, you learn not to touch it. Essentially, you learn the fundamentals of being a person outside of school in the real world.
A major component in learning outside of school is through technology. Television, for example, is utilized by people of all ages to learn. If you're a child, you can watch educational children shows. If you're an adult, you can watch the news and learn about what events occurred recently. You can even watch normal TV shows. I knew nothing about crime scene investigations until I watched CSI. Even though a lot of it is outrageous and unrealistic, I still have a better understanding of that than I did before I watched the show. When I watched it though, I didn't realize I was learning. This leads to how I feel people learn from technology in the real world. People learn best from and through technology in the real world without even realizing that they're learning.
I can't begin to describe how many times I've randomly come across something online that I found interesting. Because I was interested in it, I didn't realize that I was learning anything from it. It could be from something as silly as someone's Facebook status. Someone could post a quick thing about what's going on in their life. By reading that, you learned what is going on with them but without realizing you learned it. While it's not in a school's curriculum to learn what so-and-so did, that doesn't mean you didn't learn.
Another example is just by watching sports on TV. Even if you've never played it, you can learn how to play the game just by observing it. Now we even have DVR which allows you to rewind. So you never have to miss anything. You can show a replay and get a better understanding of what happened during a certain play. You could even being watching a sport played in another country, but not even yours. This type of information would not be available without technology.
While reading Clive Thompson on the New Literacy, I found it interesting (but not surprising) that students learned how to write for a specific audience by using technology to communicate with one another, but they were still able to use correct prose for academic work. Obviously, students did not think that when they were texting their friend, blogging or posting a status update would teach them how to address certain audiences. Again, they learned by doing something they were interesting in, but without realizing they learned at all. This is something that is difficult to learn, but many did learn outside of the classroom.
Technology has allowed us to encounter a wide range of information that we may never have come across without it. Technology has also provided us with more ways for entertainment. Naturally, technology has allowed us to combine entertainment with learning.
Since technology plays such a crucial role in our lives and provides us with more interesting ways to learn, it makes classrooms without technology seem boring. Students who not engaged will not learn as well as students who are engaged. Using technology is a way to keep students engaged. This means that all classrooms should incorporate technology if possible to promote learning. This could be just simply show a documentary on the TV, or using PowerPoints to teach your lessons. Technology also allows students to be in control of their own learning. Teachers could give the students the opportunity to do their own research online about a subject and share it with the class. Students would control what websites they decided to visit to find that information and can easily exit out of ones they find uninteresting. They decide what they want to read about it.
While reading the inspirational quotes on Flickr, I came across a quote from Albert Einstein saying "Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." I feel that this describes our school system completely. We teach the same things over and over again in the same ways, but get frustrated when students who are failing continue to fail. Even worse, we don't understand why they continue to fail. That's definitely insane. Utilizing some technology in the classroom can eliminate doing the same thing over and over again and can yield different results.
One statistic from Pew Internet and the American Life Project stated that "68% of all Americans (internet users and non-users alike) said the internet has had a major impact on the ability of groups to communicate with members. Some 75% of internet users said that." I believe this statistic reiterates even further that technology can be beneficial to a classroom. Instead of a group communicating with members, it could be a teacher communicating with students. Sometimes standing in front of a room and speaking isn't enough. By delivering information on the internet, it allows all students to take the time they need to comprehend it and it serves as a review for students to go back to.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
1/20/11
From my past experiences teaching, I definitely think great teaching and learning not only works off previous knowledge, but enthusiasm for the subject. Unfortunately, as students progress in school, many attitudes toward mathematics shift. Although students may have the previous knowledge to work through a problem, unless they're enthusiastic about the new content, they won't be as willing to learn. Great teaching brings the content to life and can instill enthusiasm toward a subject in students even if they didn't have a positive attitude toward the subject previously. So overall, great teaching and learning stems from enthusiasm. If you're enthusiastic about your content area and teaching, your students will be enthusiastic toward learning.
One of my most memorable teaching and learning experiences was when I was in my pre-student teaching. My cooperating teacher often just presented content in a direct instruction type of way. He was able to capture and hold the attention of his students because of his presence and voice. When I was set to teach, it was the opposite for me. My co-op was tall, muscular and had a deep voice. I'm not quite 5'4, not muscular one bit and even though I don't have a high voice, it still wasn't as deep as my co-op's. By comparison, I learned the students didn't respond as well to my presence in front of the room at first. So, I needed to think of a new way to keep the students engaged in the lesson. I realized that direct instruction alone would not keep the students' attention when I was teaching. I decided to make my lessons more constructivist. Instead of just telling students a rule, I had them figure out a rule from a chart that we completed together. This allowed me to grab the students attention and then present the rule as well as promoting deeper learning for them through Constructivism. I used this type of format for my entire unit on exponents and the students performed quite well on the test.
The ideal that I try to strive for in my classroom is to keep the lesson engaging and to keep the students on track while having a consistent schedule. Engaged students are better learners. The same old routine does not lead to an engaged class, but it leads to a well managed class. On the other end, if a classroom gets too engaged, sometimes the students can get off topic. To solve this, I try to keep my students as engaged as possible. If they get off topic, I try incorporate that topic into the lesson or just make a quick remark and transition back into the lesson. The students will see you someone who gets down to business, but also is willing to deviate from the set structure of the day.
The main challenge that both teachers and learners encounter is the question "when will I ever use this?" When a teacher is asked this question, sometimes it is difficult to come up with an answer on the spot. If the student couldn't think of a reason and you can't think of a reason immediately, the student(s) may not have the enthusiasm to learn the new content, which makes learning that new content challenging. So one challenge that teachers need to overcome is having relevant examples for students for each lesson as to why this is useful. One challenge a student needs to overcome is learning a subject they don't feel is relevant to them by "learning for learning's sake."
Some of my most pressing questions are:
1) How can technology be incorporate into mathematics classrooms?
2) How can I get more comfortable with using technology in front of others?
3) How will I be able to adapt to ever-changing technology?
One of my most memorable teaching and learning experiences was when I was in my pre-student teaching. My cooperating teacher often just presented content in a direct instruction type of way. He was able to capture and hold the attention of his students because of his presence and voice. When I was set to teach, it was the opposite for me. My co-op was tall, muscular and had a deep voice. I'm not quite 5'4, not muscular one bit and even though I don't have a high voice, it still wasn't as deep as my co-op's. By comparison, I learned the students didn't respond as well to my presence in front of the room at first. So, I needed to think of a new way to keep the students engaged in the lesson. I realized that direct instruction alone would not keep the students' attention when I was teaching. I decided to make my lessons more constructivist. Instead of just telling students a rule, I had them figure out a rule from a chart that we completed together. This allowed me to grab the students attention and then present the rule as well as promoting deeper learning for them through Constructivism. I used this type of format for my entire unit on exponents and the students performed quite well on the test.
The ideal that I try to strive for in my classroom is to keep the lesson engaging and to keep the students on track while having a consistent schedule. Engaged students are better learners. The same old routine does not lead to an engaged class, but it leads to a well managed class. On the other end, if a classroom gets too engaged, sometimes the students can get off topic. To solve this, I try to keep my students as engaged as possible. If they get off topic, I try incorporate that topic into the lesson or just make a quick remark and transition back into the lesson. The students will see you someone who gets down to business, but also is willing to deviate from the set structure of the day.
The main challenge that both teachers and learners encounter is the question "when will I ever use this?" When a teacher is asked this question, sometimes it is difficult to come up with an answer on the spot. If the student couldn't think of a reason and you can't think of a reason immediately, the student(s) may not have the enthusiasm to learn the new content, which makes learning that new content challenging. So one challenge that teachers need to overcome is having relevant examples for students for each lesson as to why this is useful. One challenge a student needs to overcome is learning a subject they don't feel is relevant to them by "learning for learning's sake."
Some of my most pressing questions are:
1) How can technology be incorporate into mathematics classrooms?
2) How can I get more comfortable with using technology in front of others?
3) How will I be able to adapt to ever-changing technology?
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
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