Blog Reflection # 7 Educational Philosophy Revisited

The purpose of education is to enable the children of today to evolve into the adults of tomorrow who are capable of utilizing the broad foundation of knowledge they have acquired to analyze the ever-changing world around them, evaluate their interaction within it, and create advances for the improvement of human life.   As a realist, I believe that the strong foundation on which students build their own educational background should be an amalgamation of concrete basic knowledge, philosophical constructs, and practical applications.  Knowledge with no true real world application is knowledge easily forgotten and dismissed.

Learners must be empowered. As a constructivist, I believe learners must take their personal education into their own hands and, much like a blacksmith, forge and shape it to fit their unique individuality. Every child has the possibility to fashion an education that is uniquely individualized for only them.  Consciousness of others and a regard for the precious individuality of all should be developed throughout the life of a learner.  Learners must also be aware of the serious, complex, tension-filled global world in which all humans live.

Teachers should be leading learners, challengers, coaches, mentors, enablers, and energizers.  Teachers must engage students and foster a desire and love not only of learning knowledge, but also learning through experiences.  Teachers must ensure that students feel they are unique and special and that their communication sharing how they see and interpret the world around them is deeply valued. 

Teachers should be lifelong learners.  Continually improving one’s self personally and professionally sets an example for today’s students to follow as they become the next generation of educators, policy makers, and parents.  Teachers must be open and ready to try new methods, practices, and ideas.  Educational stagnation cripples innate curiosity and the spirit of learning and education.

Teachers should enjoy sharing knowledge not only about subject matter but also how it relates to many aspects in real, everyday life.  Teaching should include interwoven technology and communication relationships.  Students today function in a global world that has technology enmeshed into almost every aspect of life and these children must be prepared to live in a digital world where they will be required to function intimately with some form of technology communication relationships every day.  It must become second nature to them.

Education is the one aspect of life that has the greatest positive and long-lasting benefits for a civilization as a whole.  No other single social endeavor can produce the greatest amount of benefits for a civilization as that of carefully, thoroughly, and continually educating its population.

Blog Reflection #6: Podcasting

What are your thoughts on the future of podcasting in education?

cs.sru.edu

I believe that podcasting has strong future in the field of education.  Teachers on my campus are recording lessons to be accessed on the school’s webpage so kids can review lessons at home as a refresher or view  for the first time if they were at home sick and missed the initial lesson.  This ability really helps those students who are absent from school quite often for various reasons to stay current with the rest of their classmates.  It also benefits those students who need a review of the lesson (from their actual teacher) when they get ready to do their homework.  We have also had a teacher record her lesson when she knew she was going to be out for an extended time.  That way her students would not miss out on valuable instruction while the substitute was there.  The only problem we have encountered is that there are many students who do not have access to the internet at home and cannot make use of this extra resource.  As the article mentioned, teachers could use only an audio podcast which would allow more students accessibility since iPods and mp3 players are much less expensive and consequently more available to some students than computers are.

This application of podcasts does not have the negative aspect of contributing to students cutting class.  In middle school, our students are still required to be present a certain percentage of class time.  Our educational podcasts fall more into the categorization of supplemental or review material.  “Supplemental materials have a much better track record of positively influencing learning outcomes and stu­dent performance” (Deal, 2007, p. 8).

How will you integrate podcasting in your current classroom?

I must admit that I am not one of the technological leaders within my campus yet.  I stress yet, because my lack of technology knowledge is one of the reasons I am taking this class.  I am all for making podcasts of English and Reading classroom lessons for my students who are absent.  I also plan on using podcasts with students as a cross curricular activity with the computer teacher.  She has the capability for students to create their own podcasts of characters and books they have read while in my class.  This would be a great alternative to the traditional written book report.  This idea will also help with some of my students that are limited English proficient.   Having them turn their work in as an audio podcast would allow for easier sharing with and translation by bilingual faculty members.  

Deal, A. (2007). Podcasting. Teaching With Technology, June, 1-15.

Week 4: Critical Analysis of Information: Mapping Information

1. Dr. November's Information Literacy Quiz (http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/i-information-literacy-quiz/)

OK, so I did not score too well on the quiz.  I was a low scoring "moderately savvy".  This IS a  huge improvement from where I was before beginning grad school and taking many ETEC courses.  Although there were several questions that I did not know (6, 8, 10, 12), I was really close, but maybe not exact, on many of the questions.  Numbers 3 and 5 were holdovers from my high school days sitting in a semester long computer class.  Number 1, 4, and 9 I learned playing around on the Internet at home.  Numbers 2, 7, 11, and 13, I learned something about during my grad studies this last year.

2.  Meta-Web Information

I chose to look at All About Explorers.

• I don't recognize the domain name, but it seems at first glance to be reliable. 
• This is  .com which means it is a company and could have been purchased by anyone so I would be wary to trust this site. 
• I do not see any evidence that this website is personal page.
• There are a variety of sites linked in including: 3 .coms, 1 .gov, 1 .org, 1 .edu, 1 .co.uk, what looks like a personal site, and one I didn't figure out.
• There's one linked to an elementary school where I assume they would use it in history class (if I didn't know better) as well as one that looks to be linked to a library.  A Library Science program has linked to this site for a resource probably to demonstrate to future librarians how easily it is to fool someone into thinking that this site has quality information.
• One embedded link leads to a "class action suit" where All About Explorers agreed to pay 113 million points to users of this site for school projects that were failed due inaccurate information. 
• This site: http://philbradley.typepad.com/phil_bradleys_weblog/2009/03/all-about-explorers-incorrect-data.html made the point that children are susceptible for believing wrong information on the Internet.  Bradley noted that teachers should use this site as a lesson with students proving how very accurate-looking information is not always accurate. He also provides a link to a New York Times article stating how a librarian used All About Explorers to teach her students about web reliability. 
• Using Google, the inaccurate site All About Explorers was the fourth entry right under Wikipedia.  This site is full of links to various things which must have been the reason Google rated it so highly as to put it close to the top of the list.  With altavista, All About Explorers was the 4th entry as well.  However, other early entries are from more reputable sources like National Geographic.  With excite, All About Explorers was farther down in the list only because this site listed information about Ford Explorers first.  All three did not lead me to quality information easily.  I had to search a page or two into each just to find a good website that contained accurate info. 
• Google had the least advertisements, which surprised me.  I suppose that it has gotten SO popular, it has enough income so as to not bombard users with ads like the other two search engines do. 

3.  Author

The author is a man named Gerald Aungst, but the given email address isn't valid.  It was registered with FastDomain, Inc.  If the author cannot be traced or contacted, then that would be another red flag warning not to use the information from the site.

4.  Purpose

The website itself discloses why it was created.  All About Explorers was created by a group of teachers that wanted an example with which to teach their students about the dangers of trusting online information and strategies to discern quality site from those that are not.  The website has changed very little since its inception in the spring of 2004.  The factual information IS not reliable, but the website is a good resource for teachers because the lessons provided for teachers to use with their students are still relevant and can be used today.

5. Repeat

I used this approach to look at a search engine, yahoo.com.

• Since I use this website all the time, I am fairly familiar with Yahoo.  By seeing the .com, I understand that Yahoo is a company and may not ALWAYS have unbiased information.  In addition, it has been in use AND in the media for quite some time so I think this site is trustworthy and beneficial enough for me to risk sifting through all of the information presented.  It is definitely not a personal page, although you can easily personalize the Yahoo page to fit your style or needs.  One negative aspect is that Yahoo has been known to crash before or crash personal computers instead.
• In examining the external link, I found that there are about 7,400 of them with a extremely far ranging sources.  This lets me know that yahoo.com is a global site that an extraordinary number of different cultures, groups, and individuals use. There are so many various reasons for the external links to yahoo.  From this, I know that I will find information that may be presented in a biased or unfamiliar and I must accept this information with caution.  The embedded links can go to any number of sites and they also have a wide range of topics that may or may not always by appropriate for younger viewers.  There seem to be an extraordinary number of dating site, health, and higher education links.
• Using Yahoo is much like using Google in that searches and news feeds are based on trending issues rather than on factual and revelancy aspects.  Yahoo also has a tremendous amount of advertisements that slow my computer down on a regular basis.  There are advertisements on every page, no matter what link you may follow.  If it is still a Yahoo page, then there will be advertisements.
• Yahoo is the oldest directory and has human editors that sort information into categories.  In 2004, it changed its format to crawler-based listings. Yahoo now uses its own search technology.  Sites listed on Yahoo must pay a fee to be listed and must meet editor approval.  This weeds out some of the more unsavory sites from finding their way onto the yahoo site.
• Yahoo.com is registered by MarkMonitor, Inc. and run by the Domain Administrator.
• Yahoo.com was first archived on Oct. 17, 1996 and looked extremely basic with a link to 14 categories, such as "computers and the Internet", "social sciences", "reference", and "education".  It looked as if it was truly just a directory for linked information instead of the massive, all-inclusive site it has since become.  The information within the links was much less 'trendy' and 'popular' in nature than it seems to be on today's site.

6.  Discuss findings:  All About Explorers and Yahoo

While these two sites may look very professional and trustworthy, All About Explorers is not and was designed that way.  Student awareness of All About Explorers is minuscule in comparison to their knowledge of Yahoo.  Many students use Yahoo on a regular basis for the homepage and personal email.  However, if they did happen onto All About Explorers, perhaps through searching on Yahoo, then they may be fooled into accepting the information found there as truth.  Although these two sites are very different from one another, they can both be researched in terms of their purpose, history, possibility for bias, and usefulness of content and links.

Blog Reflection #4 Net Gen

Are you more comfortable composing documents online than longhand?

londonrealestateinvestment.com

I have to resist the urge to begin written assignments with paper and pencil.  I learned long ago that if I wrote something, I would remember it.  Writing notes, homework, and papers by hand the first time through actually saved countless hours of studying.  I now try to use a digital medium first just because it saves time and in my life, time is precious.  I have noticed that I don't remember things as well when I use a keyboard rather than writing by hand.  This goes for reading too.  If I read something on a printed page, I can remember it and where it is located on the page. I don't have a completely photographic memory, but many times it's uncannily close. This doesn't work for electronic articles or notes.  Maybe it's just old age setting in, but I have to read over material that I have typed or read on the computer more often if I want to remember what information is on the page/screen.

Have you turned your "remembering" (phone numbers, meetings, and so on) over to a technology device?

No!  I have a thing for remembering numbers so they just sort of stick in my head. Besides, I don't trust my phone or computer to 'keep' all of my stuff.  I have lost way too many papers, bookmarks, and pictures over the years to totally rely on a piece of electronic equipment to store ALL of my data. 

Do you go to meetings with your laptop, iPad, or tablet?

No, I am still a pen and paper gal when it comes to taking notes in workshops or meetings.  I cannot type fast enough to keep up.  Also, I think typing on a keyboard makes a lot of noise when you are in a quiet meeting atmosphere.  The 'keyboard' on my iPad is not big enough for me to type accurately or fast enough.  Also, writing by hand comes so naturally to me that I can listen to what is being said in the meeting while I take notes.  I can't do that with typing.  I concentrate too hard on typing the individual letters and end up blocking out the speaker and all the information being given.

Are you constantly connected? Is the Internet always on whether you are at home or work? Is your cell phone always with you?

The internet is not always on. I still rely on the news from the TV in the mornings and evenings, but I don't always have something on.  I still have a land line at my house, but I do carry my cell phone quite a bit.  I use it almost exclusively for phone calls or texts and rarely get on the internet or email.  I have small children and always want to be available if they get sick or hurt while with family or friends.  This was especially true last fall when my father was dying of cancer.  If he fell, my mother couldn't get him back up, so I needed to be immediately available for any and all emergencies.  My husband, being an athletic director and assistant principal might as well as have his phone surgically attached to his ear!  At school, the internet is on most of the day because I take roll and have email messages that need to be done all throughout the school day.

How many different activities can you effectively engage in at one time?

I am a mother of three, teach middle school, run my family's ranch, take 6 hours of grad school, and have a husband and a household.  I do MANY different things at once.  Digitally speaking, I try to limit myself to one at a time.  Watching TV OR on the internet OR listening to music OR talking on the cell phone.  I will listen to the news or a TV program while making dinner or cleaning, but if I am doing homework, I usually like it quite (or as quiet as it can be with 3 kids who seem to be constantly usuing some form of electronic media or another).

Do you play video or computer games? 

Yes, I confess I like to play the Nancy Drew detective games on the computer.  You know, the ones that used to say "For Adventurous Girls 10 & Up"!!  I like a few other mystery games, but do not play very often because I don't have the time to spare.  However, I do not like PlayStation or Xbox type games.  They frustrate me to no end.  I have warmed up to the wii, but usually only play when my kids ask me to.

What generational category do you fall in or are you a mixture of a few?

I still have many 'old school' habits, but consider myself as a mixture.  I will never have as much experience with technology as my children or those that I teach, but I am willing to try new apps, technology, and programs if it will help my teaching and parenting...hence the ETEC courses.  I use technology more than many people, but I am not a digital leader on my campus.  I really think that part of this lag in my technology use can be blamed on 2 things.

1.  For many years I was a stay at home mom living on 1 teacher's salary and didn't have the money to spare for internet access or a cell phone, and

2.  I don't have the time to 'play' around with the newer technology to really learn what I can do with it.  I have had my iPhone and iPad for over a year, and still cannot use them to their fullest potential.

For students in K12, what and how do we need to change?

As educators, we need to educate and train ourselves (if we are more old school) to flip our classrooms and allow students to direct and manipulate the learning and knowledge flows  that through the available technology. 

thestateoftech.org

Reflective Bog # 3: AFL: Assessment FOR Learning

 Barrett, H. C. (2004). Electronic Portfolios as Digital Stories of Deep Learning: Emerging Digital Tools to Support Reflection in Learner-Centered Portfolios. Retrieved from http://electronicportfolios.com/digistory/epstory.html

          In her article Electronic Portfolios as Digital Stories of Deep Learning: Emerging Digital Tools to Support Reflection in Learner-Centered Portfolios, Helen Barrett, Ph. D., lists “ten research-based principles of Assessment for Learning (AFL)” (2004) developed by The Assessment Reform Group.  Of these ten principles, the one that states that “AFL should recognize the full range of achievements of all learners” (Barrett, 2004) is the one to which I relate the most closely due to my current teaching assignment which has me teaching a dyslexia pull-out program for several middle school students.  Because of their disability, these students do not initially do well on state required standardized tests or on the more common teacher-made tests.  The progress of the dyslexia students in overcoming their disability will never be specifically tested on Texas’s STAAR test or in the traditional grades given in their classes.  A different kind of assessment is required.  An AFL portfolio can be used to check for the learning and internalization of reading and spelling strategies students with dyslexia need to compensate for their disability.

epiphan.com

          These dyslexic students would greatly benefit by employing a portfolio for learning in order to see not only how far they have come, but to see where they are going in their ongoing battle with their disability as well as their life-long learning goals.  Once a student is diagnosed with dyslexia, they are always dyslexia.  The condition is not “fixed” with programs like The Herman Method.  These students are taught strategies to compensate for their specific disability and must plan to use the strategies for the remainder of their lives.  An AFL portfolio has the potential of illustrating how much farther a student has to travel before mastering specific strategies and can illuminate the best path for that student to take in their educational and life journey dealing with dyslexia.  The ultimate goal for a student with dyslexia is for the strategies he/she learns to become so ingrained that they become automatic.  This is the long-term goal to which an AFL portfolio can point the student.

          I think the creation of my personal AFL portfolio will highlight the areas that I need do concentrate on for future study and inquest.  Only knowing where I have been and what I have accomplished thus far does not provide any insight as to how I need to proceed.  As I am a dedicated life-long learner, if I do not employ some sort of strategy and set obtainable goals then the education and things I learn will not be connected structurally sound enough to continue to build upon.  I know where I have been and what I have learned; I do not need proof of that.  I need an assessment instrument that will take what I have learned and place it in reference to the avenues I need to travel to obtain a greater depth of knowledge of educational technology.

Blog Reflection #2 Digital Concept Mapping

 

Digital Concept Mapping

 

 

 

The link given by wordle.com was invalid so I inserted a copy of my digital concept mapping.  However, when I tried to make it larger, it just got blurry.  Needless to say that I am not familiar enough with blogger and wordle to fix my image.  Hopefully this will change.

Reflective Blog #2

After completing the MAPping information activity, what are your reactions to your findings? I was again astounded by the sheer volume of information available on the Internet.  In my everyday wanderings around the web, I do not pay close attention to the vastness of the Internet.  This is usually because I am caught up in whatever thread of information I am following.  However, when I am searching for particular information, it becomes increasingly apparent that I am still not as proficient as I should or could be in finding specific information.  What will you do differently while searching on the Internet for information now?  I pay extraordinarily close attention to the quality of information I use from the Internet within my classroom and for my graduate work.  Even though I really do love the Internet experience in terms of access to information about any topic I could possibly imagination, I now realize that I must be careful to use only accurate and appropriate information.  I am also careful to ensure I give the proper credit to information I put forth in my school work.  Do you see any advantages for organizing your information via a social bookmarking tool? Which one did you choose to use and why? What are some ways you think you could use these tools in the future? One aspect of Internet browsers that I had never really taken advantage of is the bookmark feature.  I now routinely bookmark quality sites that I am sure I will need to return to.  I also take advantage of sites like Evernote to store useful information that I 'accidently' come across in other searches and might use later on in my classroom or in my graduate work. My bookcase at school is stacked with three ring binders full of teaching materials I use.  I am constantly having to tote them home or to and from the copier.  I  have lately been introduced to Livebinders and plan on putting much of my teaching materials on that site so I can access it from any digital device. How confident are you with the information you've used in the past (as part of your college career and/or in your profession)?  The information I used while in college and as a beginning teacher (x number of years ago) was, now that I look back on it, probably not of the highest quality.  I had very little experience with navigating the Internet and felt lost when searching for information.  I am sure I used whatever I could find whether it was quality or not.  I feel confident that I probably used inaccurate information and did not give accurate credit for the information I did find.  The APA and MLA manuals I had in college barely mentioned citing sources of the information found on the Internet.  Now that I have had more experience on the Internet and it has gotten, in my opinion, more user friendly, I find that it only takes just a little more effort to find quality, trustworthy information. 

What are some implications for the future of our students if we fail to teach them these skills in school? With so many job opportunities hinging on a thorough knowledge of and applicable use of technology, our students would be facing bleak futures indeed if basic computer skills were not taught.  These days, even what I consider a basic knowledge is outdated.  Although today's students have grown up in a digital world, it does not mean that they naturally know how to use the available technology around them.  There is a large digital divide which directly correlates into an economic divide when students leave the public school system.  After all, the schools may block access to sites, but students still have access at home.  This is an inaccurate statement.  Many of my current students do not have Internet access at home.  My district is a Title I district because we have a large number of low socio-economic students and these students have no access to technology or the Internet other that what is offered at school during school hours.  With the economic downturn, even some of the families that have HAD the Internet have had to forgo that luxury just so they can have food on the table and a roof over their heads.

Reflective Blog #1

Educational Technology Philosophy
Having my educational technology philosophy actually written down is very  useful for several reasons.  First, having to put my thoughts together to write it made me really examine how I feel and think about the use of technology in education in general as well as how I feel and think about my use of technology in my specific teaching assignment, my teaching method, and my classroom.  Thinking this subject through allowed me to realize that my views about educational technology have been somewhat tarnished by unavoidable district issues of budget restraint, outdated ideas and uses, and a lack of individual technology support.  I have been out of the classroom for over eleven years and many times feel as if times have passed me by.  I constantly think I am playing catch-up to stay current.

Examining my views also helps me to see the large gaps in my knowledge about educational technology which will help to point me to projects that will add to (not repeat) the knowledge I have.  Being a teacher responsible for educating students with 21st century skills requires that I immediately leave my comfort zone and make a conscious effort to explore new software, new teaching methods, and new connections.

Blogging: Will I stick with it?
I think the concept behind blogging is absolutely brilliant.  Putting yourself out in an environment for anyone to see is a step I am willing to take if it leads to information I can use to improve my teaching, my parenting, or just myself.  I would absolutely love to use blogging as  a means of communication with teachers, parents, students, and the community.  Blogging stands to be one of the easiest and user-friendly tools a teacher can utilize.  Have we met this potential of blogging? No, in regard to education, I don't believe we have.    I completely agree with Downes' statement that if I require a student or parent to respond by blogging I have already destroyed the true essence of what it means to blog. It then becomes just another method to gather required responses from students. Same teaching method, just different medium. 

Blogging has great potential if used within an entirely different teaching environment that the one most teachers today have.  The technology is already present, the only thing holding it back is the people.  Government required internet filters, district rules and regulations to follow, lack of parental understanding and support,  lack of adequate access, and societal pitfalls are all important issues to address when using blogging in the educational setting.

November's #2 Coming Attraction: Live Video Camera in the Classroom
I immediately zeroed in on this topic because a teacher next door to my classroom is about to start videotaping her 6th grade math class and placing the footage on her school web page.  I think this is a great resource for students and parents.  Students sick at home will be able to see the teacher teaching the lesson and stay caught-up and those that were present can re-watch the teacher teach the lesson if they get home and forgot how to work a problem.  I think this idea has great potential for ALL students: those with chronic health issues, those home schooled, and those in alternative placement for behavioral issues to name a few.  Parents can watch teachers teach skills with their child increasing learning opportunities for both and allowing parents to be much more involved with their child's education.  

The downside is that a teacher may have legal issues to contend with if something inappropriate happens in class while recording.  Child privacy rights may be infringed upon if an altercation within the classroom is recorded and then and made available for the public to hear or see.  Also, parents amy abuse the technology and use it as a way to check-up on their child or the teacher.  I think that Downes is correct in saying that having a videocamera in the classroom will force teachers to constantly evaluate what they are teaching and how it is being taught.

My Expectations for This Class
I would be interested in learning how to incorporate technology into my class without it looking like I am teaching the same way and only using technology to change the apearance of student output.  I would like guidance as to how I can urge those that make school policy to be more open to an entirely new way of teaching.  It also would be beneficial for me to have classmates give ideas and experiences using different aspects of technology within the educational setting.  I hope for (and have been greatly pleased with) the instructor's willingness to share his knowledge on aspects of this class...even those that seem as first glance to be quite basic skills.  Some of us are not educational techies and have been out of the educational technology loop for quite some time.  It is a relief when an instructor is willing to assist step-by-step in my personal educational growth.