Thursday, March 29, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
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/
Monday, March 19, 2012
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
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
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
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.
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.
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.
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