IPAD App #2

Spellboard is an excellent app for elementary students who have weekly spelling tests.  This app allows you to type and speak the word and enter the student's grade level(even in other languages to help with students foreign language classes).  After doing that, the app offers different quizzes to get you acquainted with the word and the definition.  As a student who dreaded having to learn new spelling words every Monday, with a practice quiz on Wednesday, and a test on Friday, this app would have made learning spelling words MUCH more fun.

IPAD App #1

The eClicker app is a great tool for a classroom that has enough computers for all of the students in your class. Even if you have to go to a computer lab for all students to have enough computers, you could use this app.  It offers a way to poll the entire class without students fearing to look "dumb" or "novice" if they are not catching onto the material you are covering.  In a classroom, you could use the poll as a trivia game for a social studies review.  If you are using it in a computer lab, you can use the poll to make sure all of the students understand the instructions they have been given or that you are clearly explaining the steps for them to master a computer program.  The teacher has an option to make a chart out of the polls answers.  You could use this as a feedback monitor for your lesson plans.

Editorial Cartoon Analysis

EDITORIAL CARTOON ANALYSIS
Name: Suzanne Miller                        Date:4/30
1. What is the event or issue that inspired the cartoon?  The influence that commercials have over our buying power.
2. Are there any real people or places in the cartoon? If not, what images are portrayed in the cartoon?  There is a generic man, but the main characters of this cartoon are the aliens.
3. Identify the specific artistic techniques used in the cartoon (i.e., symbolism, analogy, exaggeration, labeling, and irony). What is the artist trying to show the reader by using these techniques?  The artist uses exaggeration and irony.  The artist use exaggeration by having the aliens pick up the TV broadcast and their desire to buy a product advertised.  He uses irony by having the commercial product be the thing that sticks out from our TV broadcast as opposed to the news or other more important ideas.
4. What is the cartoonist's point of view about the topic portrayed in the cartoon? Give examples to support your interpretation.  He thinks that commercial advertising is too influential.  Aliens come all the way to our planet just to buy some steak knives.
5. Is this cartoon persuasive? Explain why or why not. No, because it is trying to show the persuasive power that advertising has over people (or aliens), not trying to be persuasive itself.
6. What other techniques could the artist have used to make this cartoon more persuasive?  Have the man be the president showing that advertising products are more important and influential than the "most important man in America and possibly the world."

Best and Worst of the Webquest

Underground Railroad
1.  Efficent use of time - quickly go through project information
2.  High-level learning - creative use of writing and performance
3.  Affiliator - students worked together
4.  technology - good use of color and links

Acient Eygpt
1. technology - all black and white. few links
2.  Efficent use of time - WAY too long, time issues
3.  Affiliator - students worked alone
4. Altitude - one site; total recall of info from that site.

Best to me means a project that will challenge students to research and think for themselves collaboratively.  Worst is a direct-style project:  teacher chooses infomation to be learned and presented and exactly how it will be learned and presented.

The Altitudinist

Your Impressions

WebQuest	Strengths	Weaknesses
Grow School Greens	Project is very student oriented.  Students research and choose which vegetables to use as well as where to plant the garden and how big to make it.  There are few restrictions placed on thier ideas.  This is a very hands-on, student-centered project, not just recalling information from a book.	Maybe the teacher choosing the websites instead of free reign for students?
Where is My Hero?	Students allowed to interview outside source for who they choose as a hero.  Students decide 3 qualities of a hero.	Only two definitions of the word "hero" are allowed.  Very short list of people to choose from.  Too teacher-based and strict with information that can be used.  More book-recall than higher order learning.
Underground Railroad	Great way to involve students in higher order thinking by asking them to write from the point of view of different individuals involved in the Underground - student choice.  Students dress and act as character - students will have to learn/come up with ideas on how their character would act or dress based on research.	Only one website allowed for each character - more recall than finding information for themselves.  Specific senarios given for journal writing.
Ice Cream	Students decide on new ice cream flavor.	Recall info from one webstite on how to make ice cream.  Following a worksheet on how to make a new ice cream flavor.  Advertisement for ice cream does not leave enough leadway to be extremely creative.
Ancient Egypt	Students decide whether to use Ancient or Modern Eygpt.  Students decide what kind of illustrations best show their factual information.	Only one site per subject - not able to compile information and pick out which is best.

Bernie Dodge, Department of Educational Technology, SDSU

About Me

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My Scratch

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Scratch - density game

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Double Entry #10

"The game requires players to use different skills, characters at different times although often problems can be circumvented with more than one solution. Schools should seek to progressively implement this approach to customization into the learning experience."

admin. (2012, January 20). 10 things schools can learn from video games. Retrieved from http://www.learningingaming.com/10-things-schools-can-learn-from-video-games/ 

I think this is a bit unfair to teachers.  Half of what we learn in our education classes is to use multiple approaches to "customize" lessons to students.  We learn about different types of learners and different types of intelligence and are required to write out lessons to incorporate multiple ways of teaching.  Perhaps the writer of this article is proposing for the teacher to use differential instruction. In a perfect world, in a tiny classroom, I am sure most teachers would love to be able to do individualized plans for each of their students.  It just not realistic in the world that we teach in to expect that kind of individualization and customization for a class of 25 3rd graders.

This article  gives an encouraging view of how real-life teachers are using games in the classroom.  It discusses the advantages that gaming can give to education.  The ideas are really amazing, especially the Angry Birds one!

Dwyer, L. (2011, December 5). How gaming is changing the classroom. Retrieved from http://www.good.is/post/how-gaming-is-changing-the-classroom/ 

Wikipedia

I found it really interesting that Wikipedia allows for all of it's material to be used in commercial pursuit.  Two things that really surprised me were that the biggest amounts of articles on Wikipedia are written in German, Japanese, and French and that only 1/3 of all the traffic is to the English Wiki.  I guess Jimmy is right in his idea that we think in English-centric ways about the internet.  I agree with the idea of  a free encyclopedia for everyone and the idea of Wikibooks in order to give people the literacy skills and knowledge to use the encyclopedias.  I also really like that they don't take a stand on any ideas - that they stay neutral.  It's important for a history of world information to be unbiased.  It is a great supplemental resource for school textbooks which are extremely biased overall.  The only thing that I kind of disagreed with was the idea of aristocracy in their groups of server editors.  I understand the two examples of people that he gave, but the idea that certain people hold the veto power over others who are less well-known rubs me wrong.

I'm not surprised that Wikipedia is hard to read especially with the topic of cancer.  It's an encyclopedia.  I remember doing research out of Britannica and having a hard time understanding the language, especially on scientific.  The website that the study compared it to is probably written specifically for patients.  The information on Wikipedia is for research basis.

I have used Wikipedia as background information sometimes.  I have never used it the other 3 ways described.


Inclusion (education) is the article topic I looked up.
1. There are no clean up banners
2.  The language is very clear, the information is complete, referenced, and neutral
3.  A lot of the  resources are books so it's hard to know if they are good or not.  One that didn't make any sense to me was a link to the Wiki page about the Utah Education Association.  It's not very long and makes no mention of inclusion.  The only thing related is that they are over the School of the Blind (which is not inclusive at all).
4.  Rated C.  Some of the people said that their wasn't much research and it seemed like a personal opinion essay, however, it is what we have learned in SPED classes about inclusion and doesn't  push for full-inclusion or for mainstreaming.  It simply shows both sides.
5.  Reliable

Double Entry Journal #8

1. "Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based encyclopedia project, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organization." 
2.  I personally would point out that many people research and look at Wikipedia everyday and most misinformation gets corrected before too much time goes by.
3.  The put their faith in the wisdom of the crowds.
4.  He believed that the information should give more authority to experts.
5.  Abuse could be slander about a person, a company editing their page to protect their self-interests, or a political entity editing a rivals page with misinformation.
6.  The stats provide evidence of Wikipedia's enormous popularity as well as displays the incredible amount of information on many various topics that it holds.
7.  I think that Wikipedia is so successful because the information  is generally correct and because it is usually the 1st website on the list when you use a search engine.
8.  If Wikipedia accepted money from advertising the site would more than likely become biased towards those   companies paying for advertisement.
9.  It erases anonymity of people and lends credibility to the information posted by not allowing information to edit with self-interest go uncorrected or unnoticed. 

Thinking Aloud

SlideShare ThinkAloud

5 W's and 1 H - Christian teaching in the classroom

Who?
Jane Kulp and ChristianTeacher.org.  Jane is the site founder and the only other person listed is her son Reverend Andrew Kulp.  The website is described as a resource for Christian teachers in a public school setting.  On the home page of the site, the only way to contact the author (who is Jane Kulp - same author of the article) is by putting in your information and text and sending. There is no email address, local address, or phone number.

What?
The information is extremely biased towards the Christian faith.  It also blames the teachers for not doing more, though their textbooks do not include information pretaining to their faith and they are not allowed to favor one faith over another.  This text, to me, trys to play on the fire and brimstone of sermons - do this or you are not Christian enough and are a bad person opened to damnation.  There is only one view point discussed and no offer for another.  Though this website encourages teachers to evangalize in their classrooms, later it says that it is against Congressional policy and not to show preference - quite a contridiction.  It also doesn't give teachers any idea how to do what they are asking them to do, just what not to do because it's against policy.

When?
It was created in 2002.  One of the court cases linked to is from 1969, the other 2 are from articles 2002 on Christian based websites.  All are still hot.

Where?
This is a .org, which means it's an organization

Why Here?
The easiest way to find this kind of information would be to go to the web.  Otherwise you'd have to go to different pastors, preachers, teachers, school board members, and government officials to find out what is allowed, what is expected, and what actually happens in regards to teachers including Christianity studies in their classrooms.  This site doesn't particularly suit anyones needs.  It doesn't give enough information.

Double Entry Journal #7

There are many ways technology can be used for children with learning disabilities. Digital Storytelling is one use of technology that could help a child with dyslexia by having them use images to get across their message when they may not have the words to say what they are thinking. Children that are at a low level for reading can use audio books. Podcasts can be used for any student with learning disabilities. A teacher can record her lesson, such as a math lesson, so that the student can review it while working at home.

This site is about how to use technology that can help the elementary child with reading difficulties. It includes teaching recommendations for different types of problems (phonemic awareness, fluency, phonics, and comprehension)that students with learning disabilities can face, what kind of technology would be beneficial, and research behind the use of this technology. It also includes other benefits that the use of technology gives students faced with difficulties in reading.

Magazine Cover

Double Entry Journal #6

Media literacy needs the same skill set as traditional literacy such as using prior knowledge to understand what is being read as well as making predictions about what will happen, but media literacy also needs critical thinking in regards to the source of the information being read.

In the United States, almost two-thirds of a national sample of adults doing online searches were not aware of the difference between paid and unpaid search results and believed that search engines provide fair and unbiased results for any given search (Fallows, 2005).

David, J. (2009). Teaching media literacy. Educational Leadership, 66(6), 84-86. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Teaching-Media-Literacy.aspx

This quote was a wakeup call for me. I am one of those two-thirds because I never thought about the fact that a search engine would give results because they were paid to do so. I have always thought search engines gave you a list of sites using the key words you had typed in and never thought about the order in which they appeared. I think this example shows why media literacy is so critical in our classrooms. When using the internet to research, whether it is for a paper or other type of project, students need to understand they are not getting unbiased research. It will increase their critical thinking skills to look for an agenda or angle in the writing they are using and help them become better researchers. This video and conference works well with the topic of the article we read, using cyber-bullying to demonstrate the need for media literacy in the elementary classroom when the students are just branching out into social networking and using the internet for research.

Passive Voice and Unnecessary Words in Writing

That - originally had 4. Removed/Changed - 3 Really - 0 Just - 0 Was - 1 -> changed to active voice

Double Journal Entry #5 and Activity #2

1. Media in Education is just using the material for it's originally intended purpose. Media Literacy Education is about transforming material into something new. 2. Copying existing work to expand upon it for new ideas. 3. Fair Use is more important today because companies are extending time that material is copyrighted making it more difficult or impossible to use previous material in new ways. 4. a. Did the unlicensed use “transform” the material taken from the copyrighted work by using it for a different purpose than that of the original, or did it just repeat the work for the same intent and value as the original? b. Was the material taken appropriate in kind and amount, considering the nature of the copyrighted work and of the use? 5. Using the Lion King to point out racial stereotypes would answer no to the first question for Fair Use. However, the teacher would be using the material for a social commentary, so I say, yes, it is covered by Fair Use. Also, Principle 1 gives the teacher the right to use it in this way. 6. Principle 4 is most concurrent to what our project was focused on. We used the images and music to illustrate our ideas about what kind of teachers we are going to be as well as to give us as students a better idea of what is acceptable and unacceptable when using media that is under copyright protection. 7. There are guidelines, not dead-set laws. 8. No, as long as you are not using a significant amount or there is a clear intent on why the material was used (like the paper said, music shouldn't be used just to set the mood) and if the material is used in a creative way. 9. Yes, they should. They should share their knowledge of Fair Use to librarians, media specialist, and principals so that policies reflect actual Fair Use and not just fear of being sued. 10. The 10% "myth" is the one that shocked me. I took an educational technology course at my old university and we did an extensive group project and lecture on Fair Use. I don't remember which website we got the information from, but it was exactly like what was in the parenthesis under that myth, so it's really surprising to see that it's not the case.

Double Entry Journal

Our digital story falls under fair use guidelines first of all because of Principle 4, specifically because of this quote :

Students strengthen media literacy skills by creating messages and using such symbolic forms as language, images, sound, music, and digital media to express and share meaning.

By working on this project, we did learn how to use the images and music to create a message about what kind of teacher we wanted to be. I expressly chose the music and increased the tempo of the song to be upbeat and uplifting to portray that I hope to be an uplifting, enthusiastic teacher. We also used images for comment and illustration, which are both included in Principle 4 on reasons students are able to use copyrighted material to share meaning.

What kind of teacher am I?

Double Entry Journal #4

Creating a digital story taps skills and talents - in art, media production, project development, and so on - that may otherwise lie dormant within many students but that will serve them well in school, at work, and in expressing themselves personally.

Ohler, J. (2005). The world of digital storytelling. Educational Leadership, 63(4), Retrieved from http://www.jasonohler.com/pdfs/digitalStorytellingArticle1-2006.pdf

I chose this quote because I agree with what it is saying, but it just scratches the surface of what digital storytelling can do. While digital storytelling enhances skills and talents of students it does something even more important...it gives the student a voice. Using digital storytelling will help the shy child become more comfortable and show their personality. It will help the ELL students show their knowledge instead of demanding that they express themselves in a language that is unfamiliar or that they cannot speak as freely. The video I found was an excellent example of how digital storytelling can work in a classroom. The assignment was to interview someone the students personally knew about immigration for their senior project and to make a digital story out of the information that they uncovered. The students were ELL and many were immigrants themselves. Their writing wasn't very strong to begin the project, but as it progressed they had multiple revisions and refinements that their writing improved. The project allowed the students to put a personal touch on an historical/current phenomenon that they were required to understand under 12th grade CSOs.

Owning Goals - A second grade integrated project

Ms. Dillion's second grade class utilized technology and integrated subjects to design a classroom cafe. After looking at the content standards for each subject as well as the technology standards, she came up with goals that the children would be able to understand and put together a presentation, having handouts and using the students own words for what each goal meant to them. They used peer partners to review what they were working on for each of their personal goals and recognizing when they needed to expand or refine their goals. The strategies used were setting objectivesand cooperative grouping. The cooperative grouping works because they are in two persons groups, which is developmentally appropriate for second grade. Setting objectives and thouroughly going over and having the students own words is the best strategy that she used.

Learning Style vs Preference

I agree with what the article is saying, that learning styles are more of a preference than an actual way to learn. When I took the learning style test, it showed that I was a kinesthetic and auditory learner, which goes against everything I ever thought I was. I make note cards. I hate studying with other people because they speak aloud and discuss things when I would rather read over my notes and text quietly. I believe that people prefer to make models to better understand a lesson on the solar system, but that they will still learn the information even if they read about it and take notes during a lecture. I think that knowing the ways your students prefer to learn is important in the classroom. It keeps lessons fresh and innovative instead of being stale. It challenges different parts of their cognitive development. Making art work out of right angles is different from writing a paper explaining right angles and where you can find them in the natural enviornment. Having students read and present parts in a chapter about the weather uses a different process than listening to the teacher and taking notes. The best philosophy for using learning styles in the classroom is to try to use approaches to satisfy all types throught the day in all of the subjects.

Double Entry Journal #3

Before we despair that language is going to hell in a handcart, we should remember two lessons. First, normativeness in language goes through cycles, much like taste in music and politics. All is not lost. And second, regardless of the swings that language goes through, there is room for individual schools or teachers to set their own standards.

Baron, N. (2009). Are digital media changing language?. Education Leadership, 66(6), 42-46. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Are-Digital-Media-Changing-Language¢.aspx

He added that there is very little that is new about most of the abbreviations and lexical shortenings that make texting so maddening to so many. In fact, he said, with the exception of a few recent coinages like LOL, “virtually all the commonly used ones can be found in English a century ago.” For example, bn (been), btwn (between) and wd (would) can all be found in a 1942 dictionary of abbreviations.

Shea, A. (2010, January 22). The keypad solution. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/magazine/24FOB-onlanguage-t.html The idea of language going through cycles made me think about how much words have changed just in the last 50 years and how many of the new "nifty," "groovy," or "grody" words actually stuck and are used by people today...not many and only by people stuck in a time-warp. I'm sure some of these words found their way into essays in their time period and were not an extreme detriment to society at large. Text speak will be no different. I completely agree with the second point that the teacher and/or school will be able to set what is appropriate and what is not appropriate for writing or speaking in school. Just like I remember learning in school that you don't use contractions or "I" in formal writing, current and future students will learn what is acceptable in one setting is not acceptable in all settings.

What David Crystal said in the second quote was an "Oh yeah! He's right!" moment for me. Being a little older than most of the text savvy and obsessed kids in school nowadays, I do get annoyed trying to decipher what my nieces are texting me or writing on Facebook with the many abbreviations and acronyms. But his quote made me think how much I abbreviate and shorthand my lecture notes and the fact that I learned how to do this in high school class so that I used "correct" shorthand.

Technology Comic

The Auditory-Kinesthetic Learner

Using the Smart board (or Promethean board) to correct grammar in a paragraph for English class, match vocabulary words with their definitions in social studies or science class, or solving problems in a math class are ways to get a Kinesthetic learner involved with technology in the classroom. Also, having the Kinesthetic learner create a podcast or a video about a particular topic being covered in class. For an auditory learner in a foreign language class, Skype could be used to interact with a student from a country that speaks that language who is learning English.

Wordle - Grade Level

Our class seems to be split pretty evenly on whether they want to teach younger kids or older ones. The students who want to teach at the high school level are more open to teaching any grade.

Double Entry Journal #2

"Teachers can use the smart board to support the students’ learning styles." Web 2.0 and Emerging Learning Technologies/Learning Styles. Wikibooks I realize that this quote is very small, but having observed teachers using the smart boards (hers was a Promethean board) and desperately wanting one in my future classroom, I have decided to expand upon this one little sentence. The smart board, like the section said, is in my opinion perfect for all learners. The teacher that I observed who used one was a special education teacher. She also taught classes for students who failed the English portion of the LEAP test (Louisiana's version of high-stakes testing). Not only did the smart board help the different types of learners in her classroom, but most of the students were so excited to use the technology that they didn't mind that they had to do work that they were apathetic about or had difficulty understanding beforehand. She started her LEAP classes by posting a paragraph on the smart board that had grammar issues that needed to be corrected, much like on the tests the students take. She gave them about 15 minutes to work on it and then the students were able to come up and correct the mistakes. These 7th and 8th graders were as excited as little kids getting to play a game on a computer. It was very evident that regardless of the learning disabilities that they had or the apathy towards school, they tried their best to work at their desks to get the correct answers so that they could not be embarrassed in front of their peers if they were chosen to go up and show their work.

Computer Based Poll Everywhere

Becoming a Teacher Poll

Poll Everywhere

Build television sms voting polls at Poll Everywhere

"Simply put, we can’t keep preparing students for a world that doesn’t exist. We can’t keep ignoring the formidable cognitive skills they’re developing on their own."
Heffernan, Virginia. "Education Needs a Digital Upgrade."New York Times 07 Aug 2011, n. pag. Web. 21 Jan. 2012. <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/education-needs-a-digital-age-upgrade/>.


The first part of this quote made me look back on my previous educational experiences.  The first time I went through college to receive a diploma, most of my fellow students and I were striving for degrees in the usual suspects: Accounting, Law, Teaching, Journalism, etc.  Though each of those careers were changing even then, they were old standbys that were familiar.  Though there were of course the IT students and Computer Programmers, those departments were not as large or popular as the others.  Six years after receiving that degree and reentering college, it is unbelievable how much college life and college course have changed.  Computers are in most classrooms were they were relegated to mostly technology courses before, unless you were one of the lucky few from a well-off family.  Blackboard that we were only just beginning to use and only to record grades is now the primary means of communication, information, and means to turn in assignments.  If all of that can change in just six years, how much different will the world be from when a child begins school until they graduate?
The second part of the quote makes me think of my son.  He'll be four soon and starting Pre-K in the fall.  He also already knows more about computers than I did leaving high school, most of which he figured out on his own.  He doesn't know how to read or even write his name all that well, but he can navigate to the games that he likes to play, find a video that he wants to watch, or find a story program that will read to him.  Everyday he astounds me with some piece of information that he has learned from the computer.  He is thinking in different ways than my brothers did at his age, whether from computers or the change of the times I am not certain.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/113/6/1715.full.pdf

Hi! My name is Suzanne (pronounced soo zahn phonetically) Miller.  I have recently moved to Morgantown, WV from Lafayette, LA.  I grew up right outside of Baton Rouge and received a BS in Communications Studies from LSU.  I went back to school last August to UL-Lafayette to earn another BS, this time in Elementary Education.  After moving in September, I am now attending Fairmont State to finish pursuing my degree.
I believe that children start school excited to learn.  It is especially important for early elementary school teachers to cultivate and inspire this excitement into a love of learning that will last throughout their lifetimes.  I also believe that integration of curriculum is important.  Why should each subject be relegated to it's specific time of day?  When learning about addition, the lesson could begin by reading One More Bunny: Adding from One to Ten by Rick Walton.  A science lesson on seasons could start with an introduction on the artist Claude Monet.  The students would then learn about the seasons and then do a water color project where they could express their knowledge of the four seasons.