Sunday, August 17, 2008
Ed Tech in Review
A suggestion...I would have liked to have class twice a week, one day for regular class, one day for the students new to computers, so we could ask more questions and figure out how to work a computer. The computer language is a problem for us. On the first day you kept saying "click on the icon," I knew what an icon was, and it wasn't a little picture :). Thank you so much for your understanding and help. I hope to have you as a teacher again.
Kristin
P.S. If you teach a "computer class for dummies" I would love to go to it... maybe a weekend class?? Just a thought.
Students: Nature, Nurture, Learning andTeaching
In the article The Emotional Basis of Learning by Noboru Kobayashi, M.D., the author discusses the importance of daily emotional support in a child's life for proper physical development and mental growth. Optimum learning conditions may be hindered by something as simple as lack of nourishment, to as complex as socioeconomic problems, but can be improved by strong emotional support. I cannot imagine living in a home where I could not have breakfast, or didn't sleep because of the neighborhood I lived in, but this is some students reality.
I feel that a teacher must be a role model and an emotional rock for their students. Students count on their teacher to be a steadfast constant in their lives. When home life, and even the ride on the bus to school can be stressful and traumatic, a teacher can be a light in the storm. A teacher can also encourage open realtionships between students and parents. Because in the end, it is communication and understanding that can solve a lot of problems, and help students, parents and teachers.
Response to Article: Learning in the Webiverse: How Do You Grade a Conversation?
I thought I would be enlightened about how students/teachers can use the Internet and the Web to broaden learning skills. I was shocked to read this article. Either I am such a novice with "Web" vocabulary or etiquette that I simply don't understand what the goal of his article was, or this is a poorly written and uninteresting article. "If the students extended their discourse skills to synthesize several comments in their own comments, they got even higher grades." I do not think this is a well constructed sentence, and if I were to grade this article on content, grammar, etc., I would give him a D. He would miss an F grade simply by attempting to write an article and using several twelve point Scrabble words.
I understand his point that the author must be aware of, and write to his audience. Since the audience is other students, and most importantly the teacher, how can one have a "conversation" and not consider this a "performance?" The student is judged/graded on this conversation, so I would expect a more formal essay type response rather than chit-chat.
I had my mother, who was an English teacher read this article. Her response, "This article shows that computers MUST be creating a new type of illiteracy." And I would have to agree.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Teachers: To Blog or Not to Blog?
As a newly computer literate person, the short answer is I don't know. I am just learning about different blog sights, and their function. I did some research looking for blogs in Klamath County, and surprisingly I did find a few blogs. None of them had anything but course descriptions and the syllabus. This was not exactly what I thought a teacher would use a blog space for. I can see how a blog may help to inform parents, but I am old fashioned, and to me nothing beats a note sent home with a student for the parent's signature. I would want to know by a signature that my message was read. Blog space can be used as a fun tool for learning...if the student has a computer, I think this is the main roadblock to using computers. Socioeconomic status, and actual availability of the Internet. Yes, there are still places that don't have cable access. I like the idea that blogging can allow those computer savvy parents to have an additional resource for what their child is doing at school. But unfortunately, in our litigious society, I see more problems than solutions. By making blog posts, the teacher can soften boundaries with both the student and parent and feel more like a friend without human interaction. Blogging also can open up the teacher, administrators, and district to severe public scrutiny. The content of a blog should remain purely professional without personal insights, to protect yourself. Maybe this is one of the reasons, the Klamath County teachers literally had one blog post a year. Today, with a witch hunt for teachers with any flaws, blogging may just allow the stoking of a fire. I hope that our society will change, but for now, tried and true communication seems to be the safest way to keep a good job. On a positive note, once all children have a computer to use at home, the blogging and Internet are superb tools to enhance traditional education, and hopefully spark interest in subjects that may have gone dim with the student and teacher. Maybe this is the best way to spark interest in parents for their student.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Is Internet surfing considered Reading
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Response to Multiple Intelligences
Response to "Is the Google making us stupid?"
Furling
Assignment 1
Assignment 1, Ed Tech Kristin Shimek
As a technology/computer challenged person, I found the iGoogle sight really easy to create. I am now a YouTube junkie, and I wasted a lot of time playing with the sight. FYI I somehow found a link to igoogle templates for teachers that are free! Some are very interesting, and I think it would be a huge time saver. Note to self: after reading the PDF stuff I decided to download Adobe 9.0… it took 57minutes to download! I thought this sight provided a lot of educational material, and is a great way to stay current with world events.
The Furling sight did not open at my home computer, and after about 45 min on the phone with the “help line” THEY could not figure out why it wasn’t working. Also tried to open on a neighbors computer and could not open (similar problem with powerpoint demo). I am not sure if it was a problem with the sight or my computer, but everything else seemed to load without problems.
The VLIB sight I was surprised with the amount of info one must pay for, and the amount of advertisements used as articles on a subject. I thought it would be easier to find info than google, or at least more concise, but had a lot of trouble navigating to get valuable info.
Planet PDF was a great sight. I loved the FREE tab info and downloaded 2 books (as if I will have time to read them). Interestingly the sight says that it is even for people who don’t know what PDF stands for, and I could not find a definition…on this sight. I can see using this sight to be able to assign and “provide” books to students. I can see using this sight to customize a students reading assignments.
After doing this assignment and over 14 hours on the computer, I feel very overwhelmed with computer lingo, some of sights could have been in Japanese and I would have understood as much. But as a wise man once told me “just breathe”, and I still am. I hope this will get easier with practice and this class.