Class Two Assignments

Assn #1 - I completed "An Introduction to Poets and Poetry" by Jenni Riggi for the webquest evaluation. I felt that it was an easy assignment that any one of my students could easily complete. This I liked. However, what I didn't like was that it was very specific as to the poets the maker chose, which didn't give the students a broad range of poets to explore. Also, it was an individual assignment which did not lend itself to the typical webquest layout where conversation/collaboration is the cornerstone of the time spent. I think this webquest would be beneficial, however, to help me to write my own for the beginning of our poetry unit which was the intention of the webquest.

Assn #2 - I'm impressed. I ran through a mathematical simulation about airbags. This brought me back to my days in AP Physics. The activities started out being on the slower side and I wasn't too excited at first but then after I got to step 2 and 3, I was definitely entrigued by the simulations and ability to draw graphs on the site. I am going to email my old Physics teacher to tell her about the site and see if she finds it useful in the classroom. (In my position, I did not find it's usefulness yet- just as the subject and abilities are not supported for my classroom.)

Assn #3 - This assignment made me chuckle as the day before our Thursday class, I was advised by my supervisor to find uses for SurveyMonkey in the classroom to double check homework etc. And then in school on Thursday my team had decided to use it to collect data from the entire team and I was heading the production of the survey. Thus far, I have found it very easy to use (as long as you don't want more than 10 questions - you have to pay then). I really enjoy the way that it collects the data and easily displays it to the creator. One negative is the length of the web address but with the benefits of a website, creating a link is simple. Anyway: Here's my link to the survey that I created for this class.

-->  Out of the four people that responded to my survey, 3 of them, while going through school did not believe that they would be following the technological path that they've led in their life thus far.  There was a 50/50 split as to prefer Mac vs PC- pre Vista.  Three of the four people have used SurveyMonkey before in order to gain feedback on training (evaluation) they've led or gaining information about students or professionals that they are going to lead.  I myself found SurveyMonkey useful in order to collect data about our entire team, students or parents, in order to gain more knowledge throughout the year. 

TQ #1: frameworks for technology-based educational activities

As I lead my students through a bout of researching, writing, and presenting through persuasive speeches, these two articles began to make me think about where I am heading and what my intentions are for my students and self. Currently, in English class, students are preparing to write persuasive speeches and they are using computers as their medium for creating the product. As to the two chapters, as I was continually reading through them, I was thinking about all of the questions that I run into as a teacher who wants to incorporate technology into as much as possible. Very often as a younger teacher who has known school settings to include computers, many of the statements that we said in this book and article, bring up the questions as to the worth that some of our activities have to the students.

In Chapter One of Jonassen, he brought up the idea that technologies are only used best when there is an active, intentional plan, and when reflection or collaboration is included. Very often, I feel that in my past, educators felt that by using a computer in a project, students were gaining something from the activity. In a similar fashion, many administrators, at least in my experience, look to find technology in a lesson plan. According to Koehler and Mishra, that can mean any tool created by human knowledge. In my opinion, many technologies are something new, something innovative, and sometimes something that students don't typically get to use in class or at home. To me, the point of utilizing technology in the classroom is to connect student's outside world of recreation and lifestyle with the curriculum of the district. By utilizing technology, students can begin to find connections between the two worlds and in my hope, find more interest in the subjects that are not their favorites because of the technologies used. All in all, I agree with what Jonassen is saying that a plan, collaboration, and reflection need to be involved, just as these are pieces of a student's lifestyle outside of school whenever technology is involved, therefore it should be done in school as well.

As to the difficulties of the articles, I felt that the Koehler and Mishra article was hard to read in its format. When citing too many these and those, I find it very difficult to read and comprehend the content. I believe I understood the general outline of what technology's role in classroom should be and the TPCK model. From what I understand of the article, I understand the TPCK model and for the most part agree with the model. In my opinion, Koehler and Mishra stated that optimum teaching occurs when all three knowledges are combined to create the center most "triangle"- the technological pedagogical content knowledge. However, I believe that it may not always be possible or plausible to incorporate all three knowledges into every lesson. I also feel that if we use the same technologies or the same practices of teaching to display the variety of content that this model will prove to be ineffective. I believe that when a careful balance of a variety of technologies and pedagogical techniques are used that optimum learning can occur.

With all of this being said, my opinion of the articles include a variety of opinions in that I do not completely agree with one article or the other, but that I find pieces of both that I agree with and hope to remind myself of when future activities are created.

Integrating Technology- night one

Here it is.. night one- class number three.