Technology in School is Cool!

Too Cool for School? No Way! By Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler

Technology is definitely not too cool for school. Although most technology is not designed with the classroom in mind, technologies can be repurposed as educational tools. As Mishra and Koehler mention, “such repurposing is possible only when the teacher knows the rules of the game and is fluent enough to know which rules to bend, which to break, and which to leave alone” (16). This means that as future teachers, we must familiarize ourselves with technology before we enter the classroom so that we may appropriately use the technology to help teach different subject matters. Three examples of repurposed technology were given: Microblogging, specialized search engines such as visual search engines, and DJ software. My personal favorite repurposing was incorporating DJ software into the classroom. In particular DJ software, for instance trakAxPC, is great for aiding teachers in educating students about math. When you use this software, users are able to download music and then cut, paste and rearrange the music as they like. As students use trakAxPC, teachers can educate the children on fractions, ratios, proportions and even percentages. This hands-on experience makes learning fun, but also suits many different types of learners from visual to auditory and kinesthetic. Also, using this lesson plan introduces students to both mathematics and music. I agree with Mishra and Koehler when they state “teachers need to develop a willingness to play with technologies and an openness to building new experiences for students so that fun, cool tools can be educational” (18).

In my future classroom, I hope I will be able to imitate the trakAxPc lesson plan while adapting it slightly. Before bringing my students into the computer lab, I would discuss mathematical concepts such as ratios, fractions and proportions. Then I would have my students bring in some of their favorite songs, classroom appropriate of course, so that they may manipulate it. I realize that this technology may be new to some students so I would give the children some time to explore and learn about trakAxPC and how it works. After they familiarize themselves with the DJ software I would assign a project where each student had to make a short mix of three of their favorite songs. After they are finished making their new song, I would either have a worksheet for students to fill out or I might have students write a short paragraph about their music. If I chose to handout a worksheet, I would ask questions regarding the mathematical concepts I discussed and the students would have to answer the questions based on the song they created. If I decided to have the students write a paragraph, I would highlight the mathematical concepts that must be discussed in their paragraphs, such as what ratios and proportions of each song were used. When all is said and done, I would have the students share their work. Overall I feel that this would be an effective lesson plan because it works with all kinds of learners, but it is also something different and exciting.

Copyright Laws: The Importance of Copyrighting in the Classroom

Copyright Law and Technology by Elizabeth Langran and Glen Bull

For this week’s blog, I decided to read an article that is debated daily- copyright laws. I found this article by Langran and Bull to be very insightful for current and future teachers as to what copyright laws must be followed inside of the classroom. Langran and Bull explained that “Copyright is not a fixed entity; in reality it is malleable and constantly changing, due to the influence of interested parties. In recent years, technology has been the catalyst for revision of copyright laws and the introduction of new legislation” (24). I believed that this was an important point- as future teachers we need to be aware of these changing legislations so that we, as well as our students, can abide by the current copyright laws, especially when we use technology. As a guideline to students and teachers alike, Langran and Bull included four factors that when weighed will help us decide whether or not our material qualifies for fair use, or if it must be cited: “1. Purpose of use 2. Nature of the work 3. Amount used 4. Effect on the market”(25). There are many new materials created daily that our students may want to incorporate into their projects, videos, and writing. As teachers, it is our job to make certain that our students understand these copyright laws and the importance of such legislation. I found this article to be extremely helpful with the different domains of copyright use, and I suggest that my blog followers check out this article for clarification as well as to reinforce the knowledge you have.

As teachers, we must educate our students when and how to incorporate copyright materials into their work. In my classroom I might start with a discussion about how we feel when others “steal” or use the work or ideas we have spent time creating. Afterwards, I would explain to my students that there are laws that protect our work so that we get credit for our efforts. I would also explain the various laws such as fair use and citing in a manner that the students would understand. To assess if my students have retained and understood the importance of copyright and copyright infringement, I would group students together to create a PowerPoint on a topic of their choice. Further requirements of their project would be that each person must create two slides to contribute to the overall PowerPoint. On one slide I would ask that they follow fair use laws. On their second slide, I would ask that students cite their source(s), pictures, or music that they incorporated into their project. Hopefully this project would reiterate to students when citing is necessary and when they are protected by fair use. Overall, I feel that is necessary that all students learn about copyright laws to help protect others’ work, along with their own, as well as to expand the knowledge of all students.

Mobile Learning: A Skill that Creates Lifelong Learners

Envisioning the Future of Education: Learning While Mobile by Mark Van ‘T Hooft

The article I read this week focused on bridging the gap between formal and informal learning. As many more technologies become available, knowledge is becoming more and more mobile. As a result, learning while mobile has started to combine both formal and informal learning. Learning while mobile “considers learning as personalized, learner-centered, situated in time and space, collaborative, ubiquitous and lifelong. Learning while mobile sees learning as happening across contexts, people, and digital tools that are both mobile and static” ( ‘T Hooft, 13). Learning while mobile recognizes that learning is a social process, and consequently, many websites are helping to keep learning social while connecting students, teachers, and the world. For instance, MyArtSpace has been created to permit children to connect learning at school and in museums. MyArtSpace allows students to discuss an open-ended question in class, explore the answers at the museum, and reflect online at MyArtSpace (‘T Hooft, 14). As children survey the museum, children may take pictures using their mobile phones, and these pictures may be uploaded to MyArtSpace and shared with the world. Frequency 1550 is another website that has begun to incorporate mobile learning both inside and outside of the classroom. Students are given GPS devices, where they can download a challenge and then “complete location-based media assignments on the city’s history, and create their own knowledge” (‘T Hooft, 14). I believe that learning while mobile is important for all students, as it educates students to be lifelong learners.

Learning while mobile can be adapted into the classroom setting in many ways- from online homework assignments to uploading photos to share about a culture or history. In my classroom, I believe it would be fun to complete a project that incorporates MyArtSpace. I would discuss a certain era in history with my students. Afterwards, I would have a field trip to a history museum, where students could use digital cameras and video recorders to help retain the answers and note what they thought was interesting. In addition, I would have students collaborate in groups as they work on creating a video project about their answers and what caught their attention. Also, I would have one of the requirements of the project to include outside resources, such as websites and books. Once their project is complete, we would share our videos on MyArtSpace as well as on our class website. Overall, I feel this assignment would teach students about history in a memorable way, while demonstrating that learning is fun.

Internships that Teach all: Teachers, Students and Universities

Do Your Teachers Need a Personal Trainer by Aileen M. Owens

The article I decided to read this week was about how teachers of the past need to be trained on today’s technology. As a result, an internship program was created where students from Duquesne University, who were hoping to attain their teaching credentials, partnered up with teachers from the Mt. Lebanon School District. These students were in a technology education class similar to ours, where they were learning about current technology and how to incorporate these technologies into the classroom. Students who wanted to could intern at a school in the Mt. Lebanon School District and work with current educators while educating the teachers on the current technologies students had been learning in class. Eventually this internship became a part of the technology curriculum at Duquesne University. I feel that this type of program is extremely valuable to the current teachers, their students and even the college students. This internship allows teachers to be educated on current technologies and how to create lesson plans that meet the standards while incorporating technology into the classroom. In addition, the students benefited from this program because they had better informed and well-researched teachers who now posses the knowledge needed to bring technology into the classroom; plus learning had gained a new twist as smart boards and computers were brought into the classrooms. Lastly, the students from the university benefited because “they got experience providing teacher and student training in the classroom, and they created and implemented authentic lessons to include in their portfolios.” I know that a program such as this would be very advantageous to the students here at Cal State as well.

I believe that students who are trying to attain their credential learn the most from their experience in the classroom- which is why this internship was such a great idea. I hope that after I get settled in my classroom, I too can offer the same opportunity to local college students. This would benefit the college students as they train to become teachers and gain real-world experiences and applications. Also, as technologies change, I would be able to learn about the new technology so that I may stay current and continue incorporating these rapidly changing technologies into my classroom. I believe an experience such as this would even be valuable to my students. The children in my class would be able to recognize and understand the benefits of college. Also, as I have college students enter my classroom, the students would be able to interact and ask questions from a true college student. An experience like this would provide my students with a positive role model, which many children do not have. Overall, an experience such as this comes once in a lifetime, and I believe that both students and teachers alike should take advantage of these experiences when they arise.

MUVEs are Flying into the Classroom

Walk, Fly, or Teleport to Learning: Virtual Worlds in the Classroom by Maureen Brown Yoder

This article discussed how virtual worlds are improving the classroom setting. Many teachers are finding that virtual games known as multiuser virtual environments (MUVEs) can actually provide more for students than traditional teaching methods. Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City, Ayiti: The Cost of Life and Teen Second Life are all MUVEs that have already been incorporated into the classroom setting. These games were created by the cooperation of Global Kids and GamePill who share the mission of informing the youth about leadership, as well as social and global issues. "Virtual worlds can provide an assortment of learning opportunities, from identity formation to social networking, entrepreneurial skills, and financial literacy," says Barry Joseph, director of Global Kids’ Online Leadership Program. " Students are soaking up the knowledge that stems from these MUVEs. Teenagers from New York and Chicago were selected to participate in a summer camp called I Dig Tanzania back in 2008. While at camp, the students explored “Tanzania’s culture, politics, and scientific research while they explored Second Life. Students drove their virtual jeeps through Virtual Tanzania and saw animated lions, giraffes, elephants, and hippos. They spoke with the international research team in Tanzania via Skype and debated the topic of ecotourism at Serengeti and Mount Kilimanjaro. Then they discussed paleontology and planned a fossil dig.” This article demonstrated the benefit and knowledge of fusing MUVEs into the curriculum.

Although this article was similar to another one that I have read and posted on, I still decided to post about this article because it further demonstrated what MUVEs are truly capable of. I hope that I will be able to use this form of technology in my future classroom. I really liked the idea of incorporating Skype into a lesson plan. I was thinking that I could have my students play one of these MUVEs that will teach about a different country. Obviously, before this lesson plan I would set up a time and date to have a Skype interview with professors at a university in that country. After I have the students play their in their virtual world, I would have the students interview the professors. This will allow students to ask questions, learn what the country is truly like, while making real-world connections. Most technologies have a use in the classroom; we just have to find it!

Laptops: The New Way of Test Taking

Assessment Made Easy by Andrew A. Zucker

In Colorado, the Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST) has adopted a new method of assessment. Each student who attends DSST receives a laptop where they may do their work, but more importantly take their exams. Teachers are capable of inserting multiple choice, short answer and even essay questions into a program that is installed on every computer and laptop at DSST. What the instructors have discovered about this program is that it is extremely beneficial to their classroom and teaching. The student’s exams are graded immediately and results are sent to the teacher, except for the essays, which allows teachers to recognize where the students are falling behind, and the instructors are capable of re-teaching that material the very same day. Also, teachers are using these one-on-one laptops in language arts. Students can write a paragraph or essay and submit it to their teachers that day in class. After teachers receive the assignment, they are capable of pulling up any assignment and displaying it from their projector without showing the students’ name. This allows the teacher to edit a person’s work the same day with the help of the class. Teachers are pleased with this option because it allows them to cover the entire writing process in one day. Also, these laptops are being used for science purposes. In laboratory settings, students can complete their lab assignment, and as they do so, their results can be immediately uploaded to their laptops. Using this one-on-one method of assessment has had positive effects on the students and teachers of DSST, connecting the student to their work in an unconventional way.

This assessment program reminds me of the WebCt and clicker systems that are used here at our school. The program that is installed on these laptops allows for a combination of taking quizzes/exams with immediate results, but also the program allows students to have class discussions and submit assignments. I found this to be an interesting technique to be used in the classroom, and is something I would consider employing in the future. Using this form of assessment would allow me to spend less time grading, and more time focusing on the subject matters and topics that students are falling behind in. I thought that one way I may adapt this for a science class is by having students complete their labs. As the students work, their results would be uploaded to a computer. Afterwards, I would have students search the internet to discover if their results were correct or skewed. As a closing assignment, I might have students type up a short reflection on what their results were compared to the results they should have discovered. Once they complete their reflection, they would submit it to me via the program. This would allow me to cover multiple subjects, from science to writing all in one class setting. I believe that this program is very beneficial to teachers as it will cut down grading time, and allow teachers to have neatly written assignments; educators would no longer have to struggle through sloppy handwriting if reports and papers were submitted electronically. I hope that one day we will all have the opportunity to use a program such as this to improve teaching within our own classrooms.

Video Podcasts Mix Up the Classroom Scene

Remixing Chemistry Class by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams

Remixing Chemistry Class was about two chemistry teachers in Colorado who were fed up with how their class time was spent with the students. After reviewing the previous night’s homework and providing the students with a lecture on a new topic, both Bergmann and Sams only had about thirty minutes for the students to complete actual lab work. During their class, Bergmann and Sams were not capable of giving all the students the individual attention they needed- so they remixed how their chemistry classes were taught. Bergmann and Sams decided to add a bit of technology to their classes in the form of vodcasts (video podcasts). These two teachers would record their lectures, and then post them online so that students could watch the lecture before coming to class. This allows Bergmann and Sams’ class time to be more devoted to student questions and lab work, without the lecture. For students who do not have internet or computers at home, the teachers had DVDs and CDs available to those students. Also, Bergmann and Sams could see who was watching the videos and who was not. What students, teachers and parents enjoyed the most about adding the vodcast element to the classroom was that students who were struggling received more one-on-one and individualized time with the instructors. Also, for students who understood the material, they were capable of working independently, and even moving ahead so they were not being held back due to the lack of classroom time.

I found adding vodcasts to the classroom to be a very inventive and creative idea. Vodcasts are great because they allow students to rewind, replay and revisit subject material that students find difficult or confusing. I truly believe that as educators, we need to have more student-centered activities in the classroom- and vodcasts are perfect for student-centered learning. If the funding and technology is available, I will definitely incorporate vodcasts into my classroom. I will have students watch my lecture as homework. As students are watching and listening to my vodcast, I will have some interactive worksheet available both online and as a hardcopy so that I can make sure my students are watching the vodcasts, as well as understanding them. I find this idea to have the best interest of the students at heart, and will benefit the students as it will allow students who are dedicated to learning to excel, and students who are struggling to have the attention and help they need. I believe that vodcasts will one day be an essential learning tool in all classrooms as more class time will be able to be spent on actual work and hands-on activities.