My contributions to the WebQuest wikis

My contributions to the wiki included:

1. http://questgarden.com/106/35/9/100706223425/conclusion.htm.

  This is my nomination for the worst conclusion ever!  I picked this conclusion because it pretty much just says congratulations.  It asks students to do more work after the end of the web quest.  The conclusion did say something about the task, but it didn't make any clear link between the task and the real world. 

 

2. On the "refining webquest audiences" wikipage I added a page on how to use bloom's taxonomy.  There were a lot of good questions on there that could be used for  incorporating bloom's taxonomy.

3. On the task wikipage, I added a site that had a worksheet to help create a task.  This could be a really handy tool if you aren't able to create one on your own.

Maine Memory Network

This website can be very useful to me in my classroom because I can have my students look up important scientific breakthroughs in Maine.  There may not have been many in Maine, but there has definitely been many labs and scientists who have published findings.  I could also have them research what the people of Maine were doing and thinking during a certain time period.  Then the students could compare what they found with the emerging science at the time and see how the science had changed Mainers culture and society.  Science can change how people live and how schools are taught.  So hopefully my students can find the influences of emerging technologies and the way of life of students and inhabitants of Maine.

Copy Right and Fair Use

I found some very useful tips and guidelines for copyrighted material at http://archives.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/TL/2002/10/copyright_answers.php.  There were a lot of interesting new ideas that I had never heard of before, such as:

I never really realized when I could use things with and without permission.  I thought that I could just site things and that would be all that I needed.  So the question that said that I don't have to ask for permission, I just have site the place that I used for material that I do not post on the web.

I also thought that if you were to post things on the web that you would have to ask for permission, whether the website was protected or not.  So if the site that you are posting students work on, you are allowed to put copyrighted material on line.

The question about taping a show and using it to edit and place students into the movie caught me by surprise because I thought that you weren't allowed to take movies off line and edit them without permission.  Maybe you have to if you post those videos on the web afterward?

I never realized that I wasn't allowed to show a class full of students a movie unless it is one for the use of groups.  I always assumed that you could share the one that you buy for your house to any size group.  How do they enforce that, what size is too big?

There is a machine that you can use to unblock protected things on the web so that your students can use them.  I never realized that there was anything like out there.  Of course, it isn't meant for personal use but for educators in the classroom.

I figured that yearbooks would be allowed to use copyrighted items like it can be done in the classroom.  However, it makes since that yearbooks are not class work nor educational.

How to help someone use a computer

What really jumped out at me from the reading of "First you have to tell yourself something" was "you've forgotten what it's like to be a beginner".  In the past when I have tried to help others about using computers or programs on a computer, I forget that not everyone knows everything that I already know about a computer.  When this comes up, I try to step back and explain what I'm telling them to do.

By explaining to the individual, or group, about how to use a computer or piece of software, I get caught up in showing them how to do it; instead of leading them through it and letting them do it themselves.
In the second section, "having convinced yourself of these things, you are more likely to follow some important rules", I found that "Don't take the keyboard. Let them do all the typing, even if it's slower that way, and even if you have to point them to every key they need to type. That's the only way they're going to learn from the interaction." jumped out at me because it is something I use and something that I really need to work on.


I will be able to use this in my presentation by allowing students to get on line and look at our wiki about mp3 players, ipads, smart phones and cell phones and coach them through it without taking it from them to show them how to work our wiki.

Information provided by "How to help someone use a computer." by Phil Agre at http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/how-to-help.html.

Web 2.0 Educator

Larry Ferlazzo is an english teacher from the Sacramento area.  He writes a lot about political issues and things in the news.  English Language Learners seem to be a concern to him because he writes about different technologies that he's used in an attempt to help those students who are having trouble with english.  He mentioned Google Scribe which is a program that will guess what you are going to say next based on what you have already said.  Larry sounds like an educator who is willing to try as many different technologies as he can to help those students that are having trouble in his class.

Type I and Type II Technology

Type one uses technology is the use of technology to further education in the same ways before the technology in the same ways. One example of type one technology is a word processor that would help us write papers and other written work.  A presentation can be done on computers that definitely enhances most presentations.  Another type one technology would be making movies in the classroom.  Students can make projects and teachers can create lessons using a video camera and students.

Type two uses of technology is to further education in new ways.  These two uses of technology are important in their own way and both types are needed in the classroom.  An example of type two technology is a project I did in my German class where we had to go online and plan a "make believe" trip to anywhere in Germany.  This got our class out to the place where we were learning from the comfort of home.  This wouldn't happen without the technology.  A smart board is another example of a type two technology.  A smart board enables a teacher to write on the board and also bring up things from a computer.  It gives a lot more options to teachers who like to use as many different ways of learning as possible.  There's a program for physics that enable them to create rockets and launch them.  They learn the necessity for aerodynamics and propulsion.  Students aren't typically allowed to shoot rockets off, so this enables them to do just that.


Information from Internet Applications of Type II Uses of Technology in Education (2005) by Cleborne Maddux and D. Lamont Johnson, editors. NY: Haworth Press.

My MEL Experience

• Student/Teacher Relationship:  One of my favorite classes in high school was geometry.  The teacher was extremely enthusiastic and made the classroom a safe and enjoyable place.  Mr. J knew how to get the students involved and knew how to make it interesting.  He would put a math concepts into games like baseball.  It helped us to really get into the subject.

• Learning Styles:  My history teacher did an impressive job incorporating many different types of teaching and assessment.  We did posters, presentations, movies and of course normal tests.  It made for an interesting class where I learned a lot more than I would have thought possible.

• Helping Students Succeed:  Ms. Johnson was one who really pushed us to believe that we could do anything that we believed we could do.  She had high expectations for our class but she pushed us to learn more in the limited time that we had together.  The class was an advanced placement class so she expected us to write very well.  We rose up to the challenge and ended up doing better than I ever had in an English class.

• Autonomy:  One of the best English classes I ever had was my senior year.  We were allowed to decide when and what we were going to read.  Of course we had certain guidelines, but we were able to decide in what direction we were going to lead the class.  It created interest in the subject and helped us to enjoy the subject.

• Hands-on:  My physics class consisted of almost all hands-on learning.  We took the concepts that we talked about in class and experimented with it in the labs.  It made the concepts easier to comprehend.  I'm a visual person, so it helped me out a lot to see the things in a three dimensional world not just a two dimensional.

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness

Respect for the students is just as important as students respect for the teacher.  In order to prevent favoritism in the classroom, the author created a checklist that teachers can perform upon themselves in order to prevent favoritism.  It consists of questions that ask whether you are treating a student less than the others or are giving a few more attention than the others.

The checklist was interesting to see because I remember seeing teachers in my high school who did favor certain students.  It made everyone else in the class feel less than the others because they weren’t the favored ones.  Of course it can go the other way as well; some students felt uncomfortable because they were the favored students and didn’t like the extra attention.  This is an important thing for each teacher to prevent because all students should have the same opportunities.

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

What jumped out at me in the first chapter was the questionnaire that they proposed to send out at the beginning of the school year.  The author talked about knowing the kids in your class by handing out questionnaires and asking questions about their lives.  The questionnaires are supposed to help teachers tailor their classes for the students in their class.

The use of such a questionnaire had never even crossed my mind when I thought about teaching students with different abilities.  Some of the questions that the book proposes really made me think about the relationships between students and teachers.  Some such questions were “how do you get to school?”, “what do you do after school?” and “what time do you usually get to bed at night?” (pg. 10).  It really stuck out to me because I never would have imagined one of my teachers in school asking me those sorts of questions.  This is probably the best way to really find out about your students and I plan on implementing some version of this when I get into the classroom.

Learning Style Inventory Results

I found that the results of my personality test were fairly consistent across the board.  The highest categories for my personality include physical and solitary.  I find that I actually do my best work when I am alone, so this does not surprise me.  I do love playing sports and other activities that get me outside which shows up in the physical category.  I was very surprised, however, when my visual score was not as high as the others.  In fact, my visual, oral and verbal styles were all low compared to the rest, as seen in the graph below.  I believe that this is actually a good representation of my learning habits, with the exception of the visual.  I feel like I learn faster and more completely when there is a visual section involved.