Problem: I teach at an alternative high school where the students have high absentee rates. Unfortunately, apathy is a major reason for this. However, most of my kids do care but have to take care of their children, have no way to arrive at school, or live in transient households so I want to provide a platform that provides students an opportunity maintain good grades.
Solution:To help solve this problem, I designed a website that allowed me to download copies of homework, assignments, completed notes, video tutorials, a blog and links to websites so kids can get extra practice.
Parents:In addition to the features I already have on my site, Rebeccah Haines points out in her article, “Keep parents in the loop with a class website” that classroom websites are great for keeping parents informed about assignments, links to educational websites, and calendars.
(TP): The technology and pedagogy of my website is strong, and it supports my instruction in that it allows me to provide activities that will meet multiple learning styles. Some people thrive seeing videos of how to solve problems and others are auditory so hearing the steps of a problem is valuable. Also, I have sites that offer problem simulations which will give kids yet another option, and I intend on perfecting my ability to produce StAIRs, videos, blogs and podcasts so the kids get a personal touch.
(TC): For technology and content, I have to make sure that all students are comfortable with the technologies I give them to use. A large percent of my students, especially the ones who have been absent from school, have a high level of stress when it comes to math so I don't want to add any more stress by not having them be familiar using the website, downloading assignments, finding videos, locating tutorials, accessing practice, and blogging. It would be great if the kids do not have to troubleshoot problems and deal with bugs so technical issues need to be minimized. In fact, I plan on spending much of the beginning of the school year teaching technology skills over teaching math.
(PC): The PC piece of the puzzle is covered because students will be able to enhance their reasoning skills, both inductive and deductive as there are a variety of activities that will give them chances to visualize and hear the content I want them to learn, to communicate with others and to discover things on their own. My lessons will start off with the basics, but later the lessons will become more difficult and include analyzing solutions, describing how they came up with their solutions, and designing their own problems. am excited about the opportunities for my students!
Implementation:The implementation of my website went well. I received positive feedback from teachers and students. The kids who took the time to check out the site found the idea that they could download assignments. I was disappointed that more kids did not utilize the site. Changes I would make include notifying more parents about the website, taking more time to show the kids how to use the site, providing more completed notes and embedding videos for each lesson instead of having the kids copy notes off of another student ,which happens infrequently, or having students search for their own videos. In addition, I plan on making my own videos on Jing or Movie Maker to give lessons a personal touch.
Findings and Implementation: I feel that my project was a success. It was not difficult to implement and students simply had to remember the address which I wrote on my whiteboard and gave on a hard copy. I am disappointed, but not shocked that more kids did not take advantage of the site, but apathy is a major issue amongst the kids I teach. When I use the site next year I will organize it better, instruct on how to use the site and get information to parents on how to use the site. In John White’s report “The Planning Stages of Creating a Classroom Web Site: Where to Begin?”, he says, “Planning is a critical stage to creating a classroom website.” , and I agree with that analysis so I will make sure to take time to do so.
Citations
Haines, R.. (Year, Month. Day ). In Keep parents in the loop with a class website. Retrieved Jun. 23, 2011, from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/6639
White, J.. (2001, Month. Day ). In The Planning Stages of Creating A Classroom Web Site: Where to Begin?. Retrieved Jun. 23, 2011, from faculty.umb.edu/peter_taylor/610white.doc
It was terrific to work with my group of high school teachers to create our group project though there were some ups and downs because of us having to deal with end of school year issues, relocation, and health issues. First, our brainstorming webinar was a disaster with WebHuddle. One member was unable to logon to the meeting despite having all of the logon information, and I was dropped off in the middle of the meeting and was unable to log back on.
Our project is a professional development tool that shows users how to use Weebly, a free website development tool, to provide students and/or parents access to material that was missed because of student absence or to provide tutoring and practice to those who had trouble understanding the material.
First, I started a Weebly website, cep812highschoolleadership.weebly.com, that each member could edit. However, since I have more experience editing on Weebly, I was the leader of the development of the site. Next, each of us used Jing, which is an outstanding screen capture tool that we used to make screencast videos of the slides that we developed on Google Presenter. Then I had my team members email me the embed code which I was then able to add to the website. Sami was in charge of the intro and conclusion text.
My specific video was on downloading homework, notes, and tutorials. I used a Weebly site for this use during the last quarter of the school year, and the results were promising because some of my students used the site to download assignments and to watch video tutorials. I think the instructions provided to users and the videos my group made for our site are easy to understand.
Things I might have done differently: for our storyboard, we used Google Presenter and used Google Documents for the script. In retrospect, I would use Presenter if for no other reason than it was inefficient to have to back and forth to compare the two parts during our collaborations. Also, it might have been good to add music or effects using Camtasia.
My Wicked Problem Project was implemented, and I deem it a success. My project was to develop a website that provided students with the opportunity to download homework assignments and notes and to provide tutorials and opportunities for review and practice. The implementation was not difficult in that I was the one who did all of the finding and uploading of materials, and the only thing the students had to do was remember the web address, which I printed and copied for them and wrote it on my whiteboard for all to see.
There was some evidence of success as a few students, who were absent from school for varying periods of time, came to class with copies of notes and assignments, and a couple of them mentioned watching a video. They all had positive responses about the site and mentioned they thought it was great that they could get their work while at home. However, I was disappointed more did not take advantage of the website. My school has a high absentee rate, and while many of the kids are apathetic about school, many do care. In fact, quite a few of my students have young children at home and this would have been a great opportunity for them to maintain good grades, but they could not or would not take advantage.
While I feel very positive about my work, there are things I will do differently next year. First, I will make sure I have more completed notes with examples provided for the kids in advance. I provided blank copies of notes, but I didn't have completed notes, initially, because I thought kids would copy the notes from friends, but the last couple of weeks I upload completed notes. The same goes for videos. I have a "tutorials" page with links to math and/or video sites, but two students mentioned that they were unsure where to look once they accessed a website. I mentioned that they could use the titles from the notes to search for videos, etc, but they were confused about it. Additionally, I will use the blog page I added to the site. I didn't have the time to teach the kids proper blog use and etiquette, and blogging will be a significant part of my classes next year.
There are lessons I learned from this that others would benefit from. First, creating a website on Weebly is not difficult. I just played around on Weebly and discovered what I needed. Next, I wish I'd taken more time to explain to the kids how the site works and show them the benefits. Finally, teachers need to make certain that students will easily find information. It was not hard for the kids to find assignments, but they had to work too hard to find topical videos, examples, and practice.
Next year, I will definitely use a website for my classes. Without a doubt, I will need to make the changes I mentioned in previous paragraphs, but the changes are neither difficult nor unreasonable.
Our storyboard and script are coming along nicely. The project we are working on is using Weebly as a tool to aid in communication, to help students keep up with their assignments, and to compliment what we a doing in the classroom. The topic I have been working on is how Weebly can be effective in helping kids, who have been missing school, have access to homework assignments and lessons, and it is a topic that I have had experience with since I used it last semester for my classes with positive results. To access my part of the storyboard and script, click on the links and look for slides 34-45 on our Google Presentation (storyboard) and my portion of the script can be read in the orange highlighted text in our Google Document and in the speaker notes of the storyboard.
I had fun making slides and using Jing and Snagit for screen captures, and I'm liking that we have been working well as a team. It has been challenging because we have had trouble finding common available times to collaborate. Perhaps end of school year issues have attributed to our difficulties, but the people I work with have been great teammates. I look forward to our final product.
The district I teach in treats social networks and smart phones similarly to the principal from N.J. in the Prezi presentation: they are afraid of the extreme minority of students who abuse them. Kids are kids, and if you tempt them with the "forbidden fruit," they will take a bite. Teacher's jobs have always been to teach and prepare young people more than just our subject-matter, but also, the proper way of doing a variety of things like manners and discipline. We can easily add technology to the list things we need to teach.
I wish I had more access to smart phones and Ipads because tools like Poll Everywhere can be very useful. ; I would use them for formative and summative assessments, and I think the polls could be helpful in keeping students engaged. Heck, they seemed pretty engaged w/ their phones already. Let's see if the kids will use the phones as a learning tools. Plus, if teachers had access to the same technology, we would be able to "approximate" with students because we could move around more with phones instead of having to be stagnant at a whiteboard or overhead projector. Here is a poll I made.
Eventually, schools will wake up and get with the program. The world is changing, and we need to keep up. Let's add smart phones, Ipads, Droids, etc to our schools as they are necessary if our kids are going to receive a modern, quality education.
Here is my first podcast! At least, the first one that I actually uploaded. In it I discuss the ups and downs of implementing a website for students who have high absenteeism or need extra help and can't or won't attend after school tutoring. Please click here to hear my dulcet tones.
I like the potential for web conferencing in schools. That said, I have struggled a bit with them on the student side, though I am getting more comfortable. For instance, I like the Tuesday sessions we in CEP 812 w/ Chuck and before that with Tammy, but I find myself distracted with all of the colors, sounds, and visuals (do I need to increase my Adderall?!!!). The result is that the questions I end up having, I don't think about until after the session ends. I did like Chuck's office hours because I was able to converse one-on-one.
My web conference on WebHuddle with the High School team did not go well. We had troubles w/ communication, and I was dropped from the meeting for no apparent reason. The result is that I was not able to contribute much, and I still have not received a copy of the meeting. Our moderator said she neither could not find any support on the site nor was there any intuitive links that would solve our problem. The only positive thing I can say is that WebHuddle is free, but it is a classic case of "you get what you pay for."
The potential I see in web conferencing is that it could be very useful for students who have missed school and/or are struggling, and they can't or won't stay after school. Now, I can have "office hours" and give kids more personal attention and feedback without them feeling threatened by peers.
For the TP portion of my project, my goal is to learning opportunities that will cover as many learning styles as possible. Some students like traditional worksheets and notes, but not all so I have provided links to video tutorials that show traditional math techniques, but also some that have music and animation. Also, there are interactive sites like Khan Academy and Larry Green's Applets, and I have an interactive StAIR that can be helpful for a variety of students. I plan on making videos and/or podcasts of my daily lessons to add a more personal touch to the site. In addition to math, I teach/monitor an online curriculum class, and the feedback from every person I've had the discussion with is that they like the traditional classes much better than the online classes (all of which have video and/or audio pieces) because they like to have a teacher with them. CEP 811's and 812's weekly live sessions and our recent leadership project meeting has made me think about offering daily/weekly video meetings to help kids with their homework and to provide students with opportunities to complete group projects.
For the TC piece, I will need to make sure that all students are comfortable with the technologies I use. A significant percentage of my students, especially the ones who have been absent from school, have a high level of stress when it comes to math so I don't want to add any more stress by not having them be well-versed using the website, finding videos, locating tutorials, accessing practice, and blogging. I would love it for the kids to not have to troubleshoot problems and deal with bugs so technical issues need to be minimized.
The PC piece of the puzzle is covered because students will be able to enhance their reasoning skills, both inductive and deductive as there are a variety of activities that will give them chances to visualize and hear the content I want them to learn and also chances to discover things on their own. I am excited about the opportunities for my students!
My group used a free service called WebHuddle for our meeting, and it met with disastrous results. One of our members set up the web meeting, and she gave us the lo gin information. Things began ominously when we were unable to get all of the mics to be heard and were forced to text. Things continued downhill as one of our members was unable to log in despite having the necessary information (I and the other two members were successful logging on), and she ended up getting into the discussion via telephone. Also, while I was able to logon to the meeting, I was booted off the meeting after about five or ten minutes and was unable to get back into the meeting. How frustrating!!!! Because our leader was on the phone with another team member, she was unable to answer my phone calls so I could not participate. Fortunately, I was able to provide input before getting dropped. The final "slap in the face" was that, for reasons I don't understand, the moderator has been unable to provide us with link for the meeting so I can post it here.
As frustrated and helpless as I felt during this time, I felt worse for our moderator. She worked hard to get this to get the meeting organized and to find a platform for us to have the meeting, but nothing worked. WebHuddle is a poor website as, from my vantage point, there was little or no help support and things seemed intuitive, such as buttons that looked as if they would have allow all microphones to be heard at the meeting, were not effective at all. I would not suggest anyone use WebHuddle unless he or she were proficient with it already.
A major issue at the alternative school I teach at is absenteeism. Some of the problem is student/parent apathy, but most of my students care about their grades but have to deal with their children or transience. The unfortunate result is that many kids fall behind on their homework and have trouble catching up because they don't have access to the assignment and my teaching. Hence, there is a need for students to have the ability to access assignments, notes, and tutorials so they can more easily learn the material and maintain good grades.
To help alleviate this issue, I have developed a website on Weebly.com called mrhsgroovyalgebra.weebly.com to help with this issue. I am able to use the office copier to scan worksheets and notes, though I need to, and have started to, scan or download completed notes. Additionally, I have provided links to sites like khanacademy.org and youtube that provide video tutorials for just about anything I have taught. I have a blog page on the site that I have not utilized yet, but I like the idea of having me and/or my students being able to have discussions about various assignments. I uploaded a StAIR that can provide kids immediate feedback about how they are succeeding on a particular topic. I would like add podcasts, screencasts, surveys and videos of my lessons could be to the site as they would do even more than the site offers already to help cover various learning styles or learning disabilities.
I provided all of my students with the website (hard copy and on my whiteboard), and when I talk with parents, they get the address, as well. I have received positive responses from the students (approximately ten) who have used the site, and unanimously, they like the ability to get their assignments. They seemed to be tentative about using the video tutorials, but I got positive feedback after I showed a few students a tutorial on Cramer's Rule.
Next year, assuming I have the resources, I will need teach my kids how to utilize the tools on my website and will make parents aware of its existence and what it provides. Also, the person who is our "resident" grant writer says I may have something that I can use to gain resources. For the remainder of this year, I plan on designing surveys that will help me check for understanding and provide formative assessment and to use the blog.
I found this course to be very challenging and rewarding, and ultimately will help my teaching. My favorite was designing the website, and I have given my students the address. No one has yet to use it, but a few kids have expressed interest in checking it out. I have a blog page and intend on starting conversations as we go along.
I can see a Wiki being a useful tool for any course that requires group work. I like that they offer the ability for groups to communicate and to edit each others work. Yet, it has many of the same features of a regular webpage. The only Wiki I didn't like was the one I took 4 or 5 tries to get them to accept the page I made for my place of employment. Actually, I found it good to know that they are picky so people aren't adding material that is untrue or hurtful. The frustrating part was that the "help desk" was not very helpful.
The goal-directed lesson plan was time consuming but was effective, along with UDL principles, in making me think harder about differentiating lessons so more kids can learn the material. An additional bonus is that such plans will make me more organized.
It is also important to realize that technology is not a "magic pill" that will cure all of our woes. I learned that educators must plan and analyze the quality of technologies with the same vigor as traditional lessons lest we risk ineffective teaching and/or students who are not prepared for quality jobs. However, it is vital that educators strive to keep up with the rapid changes in technology because we must do justice for our students.
I would like to know more about PowerPoint. I've had some training on it but not nearly at the level I needed to do everything that I wanted to for my StAIR. I spent more time on that assignment than any I can remember in my high school and college years yet I could not get it completely correct. Much of my frustration centered on adding my voice to the show. I made a folder with the show and the sound files and I even used WinZip to compress the files to know avail. I like the StAIR idea and will continue to pursue producing them for my students.
As far as my goals for this course, I have reached my goals and more. I have sat through many workshops on all sorts of software or hardware yet none of them effectively trained me adequately enough for me to feel comfortable enough to add them to my teaching. The fact that I have already given my students my webpage is a strong indicator that technology will be a strong force in my teaching. Also, I made a website for my in-laws' church!
As far as my future plans, I am excited about 812 and intend on going for my MAET. Also, I have applied to teach a professional development course for my colleagues on blogging and designing a webpage! My goal is to be on the cutting edge of educational technology.
The Online Experience Guidelines are interesting and completely reasonable, and I owe it to my students to implement more of these experiences into my classroom. Currently, my school offers online classes on Odyssesyware, which I teach, and a Careers class which has an online piece. Ultimately, I want to offer online instruction for my math classes, and I can see online simulations, gaming, test preparation, and blogging as useful tools.
There are a variety of websites that offer free online simulations and games, such as techtrekers.com and http://phet.colorado.edu/ that offer many practical situations involving money, graphing, solving equations and linear programming, just to name a few. Test preparation used to cost big bucks. Now, you can go online to saab.org and algebrahelp.com and get kids ready for a variety of tests. I have already started a blog on a website to help students with their math.
An assignment that I'd like to do online is a linear programming problem involving maximizing profit on shoes. I would start with a KWL asking about profit, linear inequalities, linear programming, etc, and perhaps a PowerPoint StAir would be useful where I have them practice the skills. Then, I would have them use some sort of tactile object, like Legos, so they can touch and visualize what they're working with and have them enter data into a Google Docs spreadsheet. Next, I would have them use the data to determine an optimization equation and inequalities that represent constraints. The blog would be useful for students and me helping each other with similar problems assigned for practice.
The possibilities are great, but the hard part about using technology is the fact that I have nothing but scientific calculators. It would be very difficult to fulfill the Michigan Merit guidelines unless I had a ratio of no worse than 2 student to 1 computer, if not 1 to 1, in my classroom. Since many of my students do not have home computers, I do not feel I can give assignments that require use of the Internet nor do I feel comfortable sending kids to a lab without me there. Unfortunately, our labs are used all of the time w/ Odysseyware so I can't barge in an take over the lab. I'm enthusiastic about tech in schools, but kids can't use what they don't have.
After many grueling hours with the Wikipedia Help Chat, I have finally had my article accepted! It was a good experience in that I had to use a different technology than I'd ever used before to communicate to solve a problem. The biggest issue I had was that I "chatted" four times, at about an hour a session, with people, and the first three were terrible at helping me. That said, I've had many similar issues with phone help lines, as well.
I made a Wikispaces page and it was fun to work with. I could share documents, provide a calendar, add video tutorials and give the kids an opportunity to have discussions with me or their peers. I'm not sure I'll use it immediately, and I don't think I like it as well as my webpage because I'm not sure I want my students to be able to edit my content. However, I like the wiki idea for group assignments.
The Wikipedia page has been frustrating. I have not been able to get them to accept my page though I am still trying to make it work. I've compared it to a Compass High School in Tucson and it does not seem to be any better than what I'm trying to have put on the page. Also, the help desk has not been helpful either. It's a matter of pride at this point!!!
Here are some features and barriers of my Merlot goal-directed instructional design lesson plan using UDL Guidelines. I think it is interesting how detailed UDL lesson plans are and how much mine was lacking. I strongly believe that this lesson can benefit from UDL.
Bravo, Mr. Green! The quality of the content is second to none. There is something for students of all levels of skills. The only problems I came across were when I enter zero as the center of a ellipse and I would have liked a z-critical values chart (or a link to one).
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching-Learning Tool
Mr. Green’s page has very high effectiveness potential as a teaching-learning tool. There are dozens of interactive math tutorials covering topics that range from basic math to calculus,. I like that he provides a link to typed, non-interactive notes for the student who has a more traditional style of learning. Most of the applets provide hints and immediate feedback during the step-by-step process of the problems, and many of the newer applets offer video tutorials. The stage of the learning process (explanation, demonstration, practice, and application) that is most common is practice, but frequently, the other stages are utilized, as well. Assuming the availability of computers, the software could easily be integrated into the curriculum, and at worst, could be used by students at home as a option for re-teaching a lesson.
Ease of Use
The applets are simple to use, the instructions for each applet are detailed but easy to understand, and the controls are uncomplicated. I did not encounter any complications in working with this program.
One of the most awful days in my life was when I was taking a college class and I had a research paper due on this particular day. I saved the paper onto a floppy disk, and I double checked to see if it had saved properly and it had. The only thing remaining was to go to lab and print the paper-I had run out of paper so I couldn't print it on my old dot matrix printer. My worst nightmare then took place: I loaded the disk onto the computer only to discover that the disk had been compromised somehow between me saving the paper and then walking to the lab. I was fortunate that I had an understanding professor who gave me extra time to rewrite it and turn it in later. Because of this, cloud computing has piqued my interest.
I like Google Docs in particular. Perhaps it doesn't have a few bells and whistles that Microsoft Office has, but I see this impacting my classroom quite a bit. The fact that it is free to sign up for means that all students get an account and it reduces the cost of paper and ink because it would reduce the amount of each that would need to be purchased. All they would have to do is complete the assignment and forward it to me for grading. Also, I love the fact that students can work together on assignments and be able to access and edit it at any time. Of equal or greater importance is that there will be no more "I lost my flash drive" or "I forgot to save my report"; it will be sitting on a "cloud"!
Even being a math teacher, cloud computing can be a useful tool. I can have the kids do my quarterly writing assignment online and add more writing to my curriculum without adding more paper to my always crowded tray of assignments I need to grade. Also, I could give assignments on spreadsheets or use the "form" to make quizzes or standardized test practice. I'm liking this more with each keystroke.
Implementing this could be a bit tricky because I have limited access to computers. My plan is to ask one of the Odysseyware teachers to let me bring one of my classes in so they can sign up for a Google account. Then they can do their next quarterly writing assignment on Google Docs! Also, I'm going to transfer my lesson plans and assignments over to Google Docs so I can eliminate the need to have a thumb drive. Ultimately, I'm going to have to go for it and play around with this program so I can better utilized it in my classroom.
CEP-810 has been better than I could have imagined. I have, not only, met my goals for the class but I have surpassed them. Many of the applications are adaptable right away to my classes in spite of not having a great deal of technology at my disposal. Social networks stick out immediately; I can start a blog for each of my classes to upload notes and assignments, imbed videos and links that can aid student learning, and provide forums for student to student or student to teacher interactions. I like the potential of Twitter (and similar), and though there are some privacy issues, many of those issues have been ebbed in my mind, and it is great the professional development ideas that are offered on the networks. Overall, the course has rejuvenated me and has me trying to think outside of the box like never before.
I wish we could have gone over Prezi, Capzules, Time Toast and Cloud Computing. Curse the person who did not unlock the classroom door! However, it turns out that we were using Cloud Computing applications w/ Google Docs and Diigo. Very tricky, Tammy! Google Docs and Diigo were very useful for our group assignment. It was great that we could edit and/or improve each other's work. The others could be used in my classes as alternative method of presenting the sequential problem solving techniques that are prevalent in math. Also, I wish we would have been able to go into website design because I think students would have fun designing one for their class or whatever research they were doing. I would not be surprised if that topic comes up in a future class.
The assignment that I felt exemplified good teaching was the SIG presentation. It had us in cooperative groups where each member of the group had to research a topic or topics, and it had us using many of the technologies that were taught in the class such Google Presentation, social networks, and screen dumps. The beauty of it for me was being able to communicate with my group members via the internet and not having to play phone tag or meet at a central location. All of these traits and more have my brain working overtime to think of ways to integrate the internet and other technology into future lessons.
I am very enthused about Educational Technology, and I have three long term goals. First, I will continue taking classes toward a Master's in Ed Tech. I love the hands-on nature of technology and I need to keep up with its rapid changes. Secondly, I am working on plans to give the kids more opportunities to use technology, such as internet video tutorials, interactive lessons, and social networks, to help kids learn math. Finally, I will be a leader at my school and district in advocating the use of technology in the classroom. We're too "20th century" and need to help students meet the demands of the modern workplace.
My Vision of Technology In Education in the Future
I envision that technology will become more and more prominent in schools. However, I do not believe that humans will be eliminated from classrooms. The trick is going to be how to find equilibrium between teachers and technology. I compare the situation to my wife’s jobs in sales. I always complained that she would travel too much for work and that Kellogg’s should rely on video conferencing to do handle sales calls. After all, it was going to save on travel expenses and time away from family, but she would say that trying to make sales from long distance, and they were never as successful as when she was face-to-face with a customer because the interaction provided her the ability to read and react to her customer’s emotions .
The same holds true in the classroom: I can see if a kid is shy and needs for me to go to him or her without being asked and help them or if a kid is getting frustrated and needs assistance. In fact, my experience with Odysseyware is that some kids like the ability to work on their own, but many like the face-to-face communication with teachers. Additionally, a major function of a teacher is that of role model who shows kids how to behave, interact with others, and learn. No computer can replace that.
Some people envision computers replacing teachers. However, Lem Smith of the University of Michigan states, “From research, it can be concluded that CAI (Computer-Aided Instruction) is best used when it is in addition to the instruction of a teacher and not when it replaces the teacher.” I believe that to be true, but computers will be used more frequently to instruct students in a variety of courses.
The Promise of Technology
It is all too common to see a report on television or in a periodical that bashes traditional teaching methods. Some of the criticism is well founded and technology in education has great potential to squash some of the complaints.
The ability to type well and to use the tools of Microsoft Office, such as Word, Excel and Power Point, is critical in many careers. I believe one of the reasons my wife has been successful in business is that she has mastered those applications. School is a great place to gain experience with typing and Office. Many enjoy the simple advantage of being able to find information for a research paper in a fraction of the time it took prior to the existence of the Internet. Others like the ability to improve their academic skills at websites such as http://www.interactmath.com/ that provide interactive lessons for students.
Students and educators can benefit greatly from social networks like Twitter, blogs, and messenger sites to receive help quickly on assignments, to get links to video lessons, and more! Though some are concerned about the value of blogging, I am very enthusiastic about blogging. In 2005, Drs. Brock and Fernadette Eide of the Eide Neurolearning Blog did research that stated, “Blogs can promote critical and analytical thinking…Bloggingcan be a powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking...Blogs promote analogical thinking…Blogging is a powerful medium for increasing access and exposure to quality information…and Blogging combines the best of solitary reflection and social interaction. Melanie Eve Miller writes in Views On Technology in Education, “Educational weblogs allow for opportunities to use technology in countless, meaningful aspects, such as e-portfolios, collaboration, construction, perimentation, and development. I believe weblogs are viable in virtually all disciplines, and they endorse the varied learning styles of unique individuals. Blogs promote ownership–pride of ownership–over one’s work, raising the standards of productivity. Blogs may incorporate the use of text, design, digital images, video, and audio, all of which can be used toward a purpose of creating a bridge between school and world by allowing students to intellectually interact with peers, teachers, and professionals on a global level.”
With the financial squeeze that many districts face these days, many free or low cost online tools could find their way into schools. E-textbooks and Open Sources can lower costs on buying new books and productivity software. E-portfolios have the potential to significantly reduce supply costs, and an added bonus for http://www.interactmath.com/is that it’s free! I already use sites like kutasoftware.com and microsoft.com for classroom activities and lesson plans. While these examples may not be for everyone, they will have their place in education and do so already in many cases.
More and more institutions of learning are offering courses online where you do not have to leave the comfort of your home. In fact, I will soon be taking an online course for MSU and a friend of mine, who lives in California, recently earned a degree from a college in Arizona. The reasons I’m liking the idea of online classes is that it will allow me to work and to be home with my kids when my wife has to work late or is travelling yet I’ll be able to take classes toward a degree. I work at Compass High School, and our curriculum includes Odysseyware, which offers all of the courses required to get a diploma in Michigan and dozens more. One of the benefits of Odysseyware is that students can do work at home which is important because a significant number of our students are teen mothers and/or have to have employment to their pay bills. Hence, they can continue the path toward a diploma without having to leave their children or quit their jobs.
The Pitfalls of Technology
Along with promise, technology in the classroom has its drawbacks. The drawbacks include negative effects of technology on students, acquiring the technology, providing support, how the technology is used, and the ability of all students to access the technology. These are no small issues and can affect success or failure.
A major issue is that the cost of technology is not low. A Rand Corporation study concluded, “The costs of providing technology-rich learning environments in the nation's schools are not inconsequential. Based on the experience of the eight schools we have examined, the costs range from $10 to $20 billion, depending on the richness of the environment assumed.” To make things more risky, districts spend large amounts of money but results are not guaranteed. Lem Smith says, “Another con of educational technology is that school administrators tend to spend large amounts of money to integrate computers into schools when the effectiveness of programs on students’ achievement is unclear.
The Rand study also mentioned that “…adequate time is needed to for teachers to acquire skills and plan…” I cannot say that adequate support is taking place everywhere and that is a problem. I am an example of receiving a lack of tech support as I have been at three schools that had online curriculum, online grading, and attendance software, and I have received less than five hours combined of formal training. I know I am not alone in receiving a lack of training; my students have not had any formal instruction on how to use the Odysseyware or Carnegie Math. Tech support is necessary to maintain, update, and repair equipment, and I’ve experienced that there are occasions where down computers have not been fixed for several days which caused problems because I had more students than computers. I haven’t even mentioned the cost of wiring and/or wireless equipment, accessories, and equipment upkeep which is not cheap.
The effects of technology are not always great. I have noticed that more math students, even when I taught Algebra 2 and Finite Math, have woeful basic skills, like multiplication and division. The typical response from students about this issue is that they don’t need to memorize their arithmetic facts because they can use a calculator instead. I have observed that kids’ and adults’ spelling skills have gotten worse, as well. Why? I believe it’s because folks choose to use “Spell-check” instead of working on their ability to spell. Also, the advent of text messaging is resulting in people’s grammar skills plummeting. Heck, I’m guilty of not capitalizing properly and using correct punctuation sometimes when I text, and I had to chuckle at all of the times I saw text message abbreviations (lol, omg, etc.) on argumentative essays I assigned this year. Karen Hollowell of EHow.com comments, “With this increased access to knowledge also comes a probable loss of communication skills and interactive abilities between students and teacher, and students to peers…conflict resolution and socialization used to be two prominent reasons children came toschool. The emphasis now has shifted away from these areas.” Unfortunately, I see this trend getting worse before it gets better.
Cheating is a big concern for all teachers and technology is not making it easier for us. Steven Yaccino of U.S. News and World Report wrote, “…the Internet is inundated with places where lazier students can order custom "plagiarism-free" essays on any subject. These papers could be a major problem in classrooms because there is no way to identify them.”, and “Teachers are increasingly on the lookout for wireless earphones that could allow students to share answers via cellphones or prerecorded messages on MP3 players while keeping such devices out of sight.” I’ve had experience with student cheating I caught a student trying to watch a video on his Ipod that showed him how to solve math problems. About.com’s Grace Fleming’s article on cheating has a list of scams that would make the strongest stomach quiver.
The lack of consistent access to technology is another pitfall of technology in education. While students have access to technology at their schools, not all students have access to computers or calculators at their homes. One does not need to be a sociologist to realize that socio-economics plays a role in this. In my classes, the kids who own equipment tend have more success because they can complete work more easily at home, particularly Odysseyware, and learn computer functions. This observation holds true at the district-level. The more affluent district I’ve worked for have had much higher quality and quantity of equipment than the poorer ones. This is one of the most unfair and unconscionable conditions we have in education.
Overall, I stand by my thought that traditional teaching will not be replaced. Its role will be a useful instructional tool, but will not solve all of the problems that exist in education. I like that there are programs and websites that offer differentiated instruction to support teacher-led lessons. For technology to its fullest potential, instructors need to not only have access to equipment, but also need to receive quality training and support. Most importantly, they need embrace what it has to offer and not fight against progress.
How I Employ Technology at Work
When I started to look at answering this comment, I thought my list would be small. I was surprised at how much technology I have used in my career. Currently, I am in frequent communication with others using email and an internet messenger. Like most teachers, my biggest use is word processing because it is easier to develop and save worksheets and tests, but I’m not too bad at using Excel to make charts and graphs. I’ve made some lessons on Power Point, though I don’t use it at my current school because I don’t have a projector. This may change because I can use them on a blog for my students to add some spice to the lesson. I have used web-based grading and attendance programs for many years. In addition to computers, I have used graphing calculators (occasionally with an overhead projector LCD screen) and have assigned students to do projects involving statistics, graphing, linear programming, and others. I look forward to adding to my list of experiences.
My Future Use of Technology
Technology will have a much larger role for me in the future. I plan on using a blog or Moodle to post assignments, notes, instructional video links and websites, and to provide a forum for students to communicate with each other and me on homework issues. I will write grants to obtain more computers, calculators, manipulatives, and more.
Longer term, I intend to improve my teaching by increasing the amount of technology I implement in the classroom. Also, I plan to continue to take classes so I can earn a Master’s degree in Educational Technology. With that, I’ll intend to do one of three things: remain a math teacher, become certificated as a technology teacher, or become an employee of a district’s technology department. Regardless, I’m excited about what the future holds.
References
Eide, D. F., & Eide, D. B. (2005, March 2). Eide Neurolearning Blog: Brain of the Blogger. Eide Neurolearning Blog. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from http://eideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com/2005/03/brain-of-blogger.html
Fleming, G. (n.d.). Technology and Cheating - Using Technology to Cheat - E-Cheats. Homework Tips - Help With Homework. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from http://homeworktips.about.com/od/cheating/a/echeating.htm
Glennan, T. K., & Melmed, A. (2010, October 11). Chapter 3 | RAND. RAND Corporation Provides Objective Research Services and Public Policy Analysis. Retrieved March 10, 2011, from http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR682/ed_ch3.html
Glennan, T. K., & Melmed, A. (2010, October 11). Chapter 4 | RAND. RAND Corporation Provides Objective Research Services and Public Policy Analysis. Retrieved March 10, 2011, from http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR682/ed_ch4.html
Hollowell, K. (2010, June 28). Advantages and Disadvantages of Technology in Education | eHow.com. eHow | How To Do Just About Everything! | How To Videos & Articles. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from http://www.ehow.com/about_4815039_advantages-disadvantages-technology-education.html#ixzz1G2yKgHCV
Miller, M. E. (n.d.). Reaction to: The Pros and Cons of Technology in the Classroom A Debate by Drs. Roy Pea and Larry Cuban. Views on Technology in Education. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from http://www.melanieevemiller.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/technologyineducation.pdf
Smith, L. (n.d.). Educational Technology. University of Michigan Department of Psychology. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from http://sitemaker.umich.edu/lem.smith/effectiveness_of_computers_in_education
Yaccino, S. (2008, October 3). Cheating Students Use Technology, Too - US News and World Report. US News & World Report | News & Rankings | Best Colleges, Best Hospitals, and more. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2008/10/03/cheating-students-use-technology-too
Atomic Learning was an interesting website that offers tutorials on a variety of tech items and provides a place for those who are not technologically savvy to be able learn about technology issues, such as software and the internet, in relatively simple terms. I was impressed by the "workshops" on the maintenance and security of computers and intend to look at other tutorials in the future. I found three items particularly interesting: "Intrusion Detection Software," "File Backup Options", and Tips for Safer Web Browsing."
I knew about the need for anti-virus and anti-spyware programs, but I did not know about intrusion detection software (IDS) and its value.First, anti-virus and anti-spyware only works on signatures that are in their databases and are not updated very frequently.Intrusion detection software is able to prevent malware by looking at the real-time behavior of the malware and preventing it from doing damage.Three programs suggested were WinPatrol, Spybot’s TeaTimer, and Prevx Home.
I liked the “File Backup Options” because it talked about the many options available for backing up my files.I knew about Windows Backup, but until recently, I did not have anything with enough storage space until I bought an external hard drive a few months ago.I may not have bought it if I had known about the free backup utility sites such as Karen’s Replicator and Media Max.
There were some interesting tips offered in the “Safer Web Browsing.”I knew that cookies existed, but I did not know that there were three types of cookies:persistent (used by large websites like Amazon and are helpful in remembering customer preferences), session (are erased as soon as you leave the website that left the cookie), and tracking (which is the most dangerous because the sites that leave them are able to follow users and then give personal information to advertisers or criminals).Also, Active X is something to be careful with because “crackers” can exploit security holes and leave malware thus causing damage to your computer or giving them access to your files.
Even though it's a bit dated (videos made in 2006), Atomic Learning is a quality website.I imagine CNET.com has additional suggestions for the different programs that Atomic Learning offered as solutions, but Atomic Learning provided educational videos that will give you insight into keeping your computer secure.
