Appropriate Use of Technology
Salman Khan was a hedge fund analyst who was helping his younger cousins with their math lesson. What makes him special is the unique and effective way he used technology. Khan, after giving his cousins a lesson in person, would then record a short Youtube video covering the same material, which was meant to be used as supplemental to the face to face lesson. However, what is remarkable is that Khan discovered that his cousins' preferred his video posts more than the face to face lesson. The idea here is that because everyone learns at a different pace and because we all are differently abled when it comes to attention span, a well crafted lesson that each of us have access to, can start, stop and rewind at will, means we all have our own personal tutor. This subtle but powerful notion is not meant to replace the traditional class room, but it is obvious that technology in this case is more than merely a conduit for supplemental information. With web 2.0 tools available, the Khan Academy has created a virtual learning environment where students are held to high standards of excellence, but are given the opportunity to fail as many times as necessary to achieve that excellence. This is something that only the most charismatic and talented teacher can do for a class of 40 or 50 students.
I found a tutorial covering the concept of indirect measurement using a given scale to measure the size of an object. This video used a simple picture of a helicopter and a small length scale a literal inch represents 7 feet in the image. The teacher walks the student through the thought process of answering various length question as he self talks through the problem. Then the video moves on to measuring the height of the Empire State Building based the relationship between its shadow and the the shadow thrown by a yardstick at the same time of day. I felt like this type of tutorial was very effective, because the visual aspect of online learning brings to bear the full capability of computers and technology with regard to resources that are rich and vibrant (in contrast to a piece of yellow or white chalk), combined with the audio of someone who is doing more than just lecturing, the teacher's in these lessons are also modeling their own thought process and methodology. Very powerful. As I mentioned earlier technology allows the use of more polished, interesting and thus engaging material than a simple chalk/white board can. In addition to this benefit of technology, with the use of streaming videos I can pause for a moment to take in a point the speaker has made without fear of missing out on the material that follows. This serves to reduce my stress level during the lesson. There are, or course, other methods in which this lesson could have been taught, but for the medium - the internet - this was very effective. I can see this lesson being taught by taking a class outside to get a more realistic view of scale and measurements, maybe with taking a model car that has been built in 1:25 scale and comparing it with the original. I honestly can't think of any fundamental way I would have delivered this lesson any differently. I thought the teacher in this case did a great job. Any differences would lie in my own style of delivery, that is my speaking mannerisms, not in the sequence or manner in which he delivered the material versus how I would deliver the material. I thought he was spot on.
September 24, 2011
Standards, Standards, Everywhere
The category I was assigned to focus on was Measurements, and right from the start one major difference is that the Common Core doesn't break down the study of measurements like the NCTM or CMP do. For example the NCTM really lays out a long term plan spanning K-12 whereby a student should come to fully understand the nature of what it means to measure things. This student would have a broad concept of the difference of standards with regards to units, be able to select the correct tool for what is being measured, and be able to covert within a given system as well as between two or more systems. In contrast while the Common Core does mention measurements as a standard and does lay out standards that are in line with the NCTM, it does not provide such a detailed framework for achieving this. The CMP only mentions measurements in relation to surface area, volume and angle measurements, and there is no mention of helping students build a philosophy and thus a deeper understanding of how measurement may be applied.
September 21, 2011
National and State technology standards incorporated in band class
The NETS*S standards, taken as a whole have been designed to provide educators with the tools to ensure students today achieve a minimum level of technological literacy. By fostering the use of modern technology in the class room Oregon is showing that it is committed to helping students develop a broad set of skills in utilizing technology of all sorts. The requirements cover creativity, problem solving, communication, learning, research, and critical thinking, which are great attributes to be fostered in students regardless of the context.
In my high school band class I would develop a project requiring students to write music that must be done with some sort of music notation software. This can be in the form of an off the shelf program like Finale, or Sibelius, or with various cloud based free notation programs. I even have one for the ipad which is surprisingly powerful and easy to use. This kind of exercise would cover the creativity portion of the OETS.
To help develop my students' musical abilities I could arrange a series of master classes with former professors from Sacramento State, as well as from Portland State using Skype. It might be a bit awkward at first but I think this could be a valid use for video communication on the web.
With my band I will have students acting in leadership roles as band officers and will encourage them to use cloud based tools like Google Docs to collaborate and publish guidance for the rest of the band. I would also have my students update and keep current the class blog. These actions will help satisfy the Critical thinking, problem solving and Decision making criteria.
Here are some of the challenges educators may face in implementing these standards:
1. Quantity and Quality of equipment
2. Network access to certain websites
3. Lack of support for integrated lesson plans from the administration
4. Teachers themselves must evaluate their own abilities and have a high level of facility with technology if the standards are to be met.
Quantity and Quality of Equipment
With regards to point number one, as long as there is at least one computer in the classroom that has access to the internet then you can design projects that utilize the power of technology. Also, not having 30 computers in the classroom is a poor excuse for not requiring assignments be done on a computer, or in then cloud. Students have access to the library both in the school, and the public library, and Teachers can let students use their classroom computer when warranted.
Network Access to Certain Websites
Network access can be challenging, but the Teacher must not shy away from making the request to use a currently blocked website, if it truly enhances their lesson plan.
Lack of Upper Echelon Support
Sometimes the administration just needs to be given a demonstration of how you will be using the technology before they can fully buy in and support it.
Self Evaluation and Tech Education
Teachers need to be willing to ask for help if they feel they have hit a creative wall with regards to using technology in the classroom. A Teacher's disinterest in using technology should not be tolerated if we truly believe we are acting as guides for our students in the modern age. Therefore Teachers need to be able to rely on each other, and not be afraid to steal ideas that are working from other Teachers.
In my high school band class I would develop a project requiring students to write music that must be done with some sort of music notation software. This can be in the form of an off the shelf program like Finale, or Sibelius, or with various cloud based free notation programs. I even have one for the ipad which is surprisingly powerful and easy to use. This kind of exercise would cover the creativity portion of the OETS.
To help develop my students' musical abilities I could arrange a series of master classes with former professors from Sacramento State, as well as from Portland State using Skype. It might be a bit awkward at first but I think this could be a valid use for video communication on the web.
With my band I will have students acting in leadership roles as band officers and will encourage them to use cloud based tools like Google Docs to collaborate and publish guidance for the rest of the band. I would also have my students update and keep current the class blog. These actions will help satisfy the Critical thinking, problem solving and Decision making criteria.
Here are some of the challenges educators may face in implementing these standards:
1. Quantity and Quality of equipment
2. Network access to certain websites
3. Lack of support for integrated lesson plans from the administration
4. Teachers themselves must evaluate their own abilities and have a high level of facility with technology if the standards are to be met.
Quantity and Quality of Equipment
With regards to point number one, as long as there is at least one computer in the classroom that has access to the internet then you can design projects that utilize the power of technology. Also, not having 30 computers in the classroom is a poor excuse for not requiring assignments be done on a computer, or in then cloud. Students have access to the library both in the school, and the public library, and Teachers can let students use their classroom computer when warranted.
Network Access to Certain Websites
Network access can be challenging, but the Teacher must not shy away from making the request to use a currently blocked website, if it truly enhances their lesson plan.
Lack of Upper Echelon Support
Sometimes the administration just needs to be given a demonstration of how you will be using the technology before they can fully buy in and support it.
Self Evaluation and Tech Education
Teachers need to be willing to ask for help if they feel they have hit a creative wall with regards to using technology in the classroom. A Teacher's disinterest in using technology should not be tolerated if we truly believe we are acting as guides for our students in the modern age. Therefore Teachers need to be able to rely on each other, and not be afraid to steal ideas that are working from other Teachers.
September 19, 2011
Best Practices in Education and Instruction
I love the idea of 'Best Practices in education/instruction'. What this means to me is that the education community is sharing their experience of instruction and approaches to education, whether purely scientific or merely anecdotal, which can only have positive benefits resulting in better overall educators -- for those that seek out new information at least. This is a lot like a division of the Army called the Center for Army Lessons Learned. This program began as early as World War II when the Army would send out pamphlets alerting the ranks about safety issues concerning equipment or new tactics or training methods other units have found useful. I had been wondering why it appeared like the teaching profession seemed to be reinventing itself every decade or so, and not circulating the 'lessons learned' from successful classrooms. A bit naive I know, and now I've learned that information is available if one asks. However as there is no one single governing body for education, like there is in the military, it is obviously more difficult bringing about change much beyond the district level.
Best Practices in Education:
Taking a cue from the drama teacher or choral director can work for math as well. The idea here is that in order to create an environment where students are ready to actively participate in class the teacher can prepare the class to learn. An example of this is leading the class in some sort of warm up, such as clapping out rhythms and having the class respond. This serves to get the students thinking about what's coming next, and by challenging them with a sort of physical game you are engaging the students kinesthetically, aurally and visually. The idea of this is great because every moment the students are in the classroom is precious and valuable and you want them all to be at their most receptive, especially if you are making the supreme effort of creating novel and engaging lesson plans and only have a short time with your students.
Parental involvement is crucial to a students success academically. This is true for students regardless of social class or wealth. When parents are involved in their children's academic life those children are significantly more likely to get better grades, graduate, and move on to a postsecondary education. I learned, while I was earning my degree in Psychology while working at a YMCA day care for two years, that if I did not have the support of the parent then any progress I might have with a child could be overwritten in the course of only a weekend. If the values and skills the students are learning in school are not modeled and/or positively reinforced at home then affecting longterm change in a student can be a daunting proposition. I would love to work at a school that had high expectations for its parents as well as its students. I would gladly go on home visits if the school sanctioned and supported this type of outreach and family/community involvement.
Best Practices in instruction:
Encouraging cooperation between students in the classroom, eg. Think, Pair, Share; or small group projects and presentations has long been a method many teachers use in the classroom. However current research and a growing collection of anecdotal evidence suggests that incorporating even more sharing between students can significantly aid in recall of specific facts as well as dramatically helping to solidify a concept within the students mind. I am very much in favor of having students teach/learn/discover a subject together. By allowing more student interaction you are, after a fashion, crowd sourcing your teaching by allowing one student to help you teach another student. This means that both students win. The one helping, is strengthening their understanding of a subject while the one being helped is being given the information in a new light, therefore the concept or subject has a greater chance of gaining purchase. Einstien said that to really understand a subject one should be able to explain it in the simplest of terms. Couple that observation with research that shows that the first born child on average does better in school and earns more money than their siblings because they have had so much more opportunity to teach their younger siblings, and you've got a great recipe for learning.
Another significant element in student achievement is their own belief, or their self efficacy; which is the belief that one has the ability to do something. Marzano believes that student's attitudes and beliefs have a significant effect on their success in school. I've always believed this, and one of my favorite quotes from Einstein is, "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid." This quote actually embodies the power self efficacy as well as the power those around us have over our own self efficacy.
Best Practices in Education:
Taking a cue from the drama teacher or choral director can work for math as well. The idea here is that in order to create an environment where students are ready to actively participate in class the teacher can prepare the class to learn. An example of this is leading the class in some sort of warm up, such as clapping out rhythms and having the class respond. This serves to get the students thinking about what's coming next, and by challenging them with a sort of physical game you are engaging the students kinesthetically, aurally and visually. The idea of this is great because every moment the students are in the classroom is precious and valuable and you want them all to be at their most receptive, especially if you are making the supreme effort of creating novel and engaging lesson plans and only have a short time with your students.
Parental involvement is crucial to a students success academically. This is true for students regardless of social class or wealth. When parents are involved in their children's academic life those children are significantly more likely to get better grades, graduate, and move on to a postsecondary education. I learned, while I was earning my degree in Psychology while working at a YMCA day care for two years, that if I did not have the support of the parent then any progress I might have with a child could be overwritten in the course of only a weekend. If the values and skills the students are learning in school are not modeled and/or positively reinforced at home then affecting longterm change in a student can be a daunting proposition. I would love to work at a school that had high expectations for its parents as well as its students. I would gladly go on home visits if the school sanctioned and supported this type of outreach and family/community involvement.
Best Practices in instruction:
Encouraging cooperation between students in the classroom, eg. Think, Pair, Share; or small group projects and presentations has long been a method many teachers use in the classroom. However current research and a growing collection of anecdotal evidence suggests that incorporating even more sharing between students can significantly aid in recall of specific facts as well as dramatically helping to solidify a concept within the students mind. I am very much in favor of having students teach/learn/discover a subject together. By allowing more student interaction you are, after a fashion, crowd sourcing your teaching by allowing one student to help you teach another student. This means that both students win. The one helping, is strengthening their understanding of a subject while the one being helped is being given the information in a new light, therefore the concept or subject has a greater chance of gaining purchase. Einstien said that to really understand a subject one should be able to explain it in the simplest of terms. Couple that observation with research that shows that the first born child on average does better in school and earns more money than their siblings because they have had so much more opportunity to teach their younger siblings, and you've got a great recipe for learning.
Another significant element in student achievement is their own belief, or their self efficacy; which is the belief that one has the ability to do something. Marzano believes that student's attitudes and beliefs have a significant effect on their success in school. I've always believed this, and one of my favorite quotes from Einstein is, "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid." This quote actually embodies the power self efficacy as well as the power those around us have over our own self efficacy.
September 17, 2011
About Me
As part of my Ed Tech class assignments I've written a description of myself that pretty well sums me up, and can be read here. So I will take this opportunity to talk about some of personal interests, hobbies and future plans I have.
Thanks to my wife, of almost eight years now, I have become an avid runner. Being in the military I have been required to maintain a high degree of fitness, but that doesn't mean I am an Olympian; that being said, for the past 5 years my wife and I have been very serious runners, and have completed many 10k's and half marathons in the various states and countries we've been assigned to by the Army, and we are currently training for this years Portland Marathon. Also, I have begun training in earnest to run an ultra marathon by next summer. In order to achieve this I have increased my average weekly mileage to between 45 and 50 miles. However, I have slacked off recently due to the MAT program, but I still maintain between 15 and 20 miles a week.
Another long term goal of mine is to learn to speak Spanish. I lived in Panama with my family for three years when I was in middle school, and I have had an affinity for Hispanic/Latin cultures ever since. I hope to be able to use this skill in my role as an educator as well, by being able to connect a little better with various Spanish speaking students I will have.
Between my running, my future as a music educator, my personal growth as a musician and my family, I've got a rewarding life with plenty of things to challenge me and keep me healthy.
Thanks to my wife, of almost eight years now, I have become an avid runner. Being in the military I have been required to maintain a high degree of fitness, but that doesn't mean I am an Olympian; that being said, for the past 5 years my wife and I have been very serious runners, and have completed many 10k's and half marathons in the various states and countries we've been assigned to by the Army, and we are currently training for this years Portland Marathon. Also, I have begun training in earnest to run an ultra marathon by next summer. In order to achieve this I have increased my average weekly mileage to between 45 and 50 miles. However, I have slacked off recently due to the MAT program, but I still maintain between 15 and 20 miles a week.
Another long term goal of mine is to learn to speak Spanish. I lived in Panama with my family for three years when I was in middle school, and I have had an affinity for Hispanic/Latin cultures ever since. I hope to be able to use this skill in my role as an educator as well, by being able to connect a little better with various Spanish speaking students I will have.
Between my running, my future as a music educator, my personal growth as a musician and my family, I've got a rewarding life with plenty of things to challenge me and keep me healthy.
September 12, 2011
Using Google Sheets to Track Class Data
Google Sheets is a great tool for inputting and tracking any type of classroom data you can imagine. If you want to track something and then analyze the data afterwards then Google Sheets is your tool. Everything from class attendance, to assignments, and grade tracking can be done easily in this cloud based tool. I've embedded below an example of having collected data from a class over the course of 5 tests. The graph represents the relationship of average scores for the entire class from test 6 to test 10. What the graph reveals is that as a class the scores increased over time.
September 7, 2011
What is 'Web 2.0' ?
Web 2.0 is a term used to describe the nature of the internet since the the early 2000's. It is meant to imply an improvement over what was thought of as Web 1.0. What this means to me is specifically that there has been a fundamental shift in the ways and in the frequency of internet use over the past decade. The most significant of these changes is in the way we use the web to interact socially, which has also had an impact on the way news of the world is disseminated and absorbed.
With the birth of the blogosphere, Myspace, Facebook and Twitter, the web (web 2.0) has become a dynamic realm where everyone who wishes to have a voice in the world can do so easily. And that is really what separates web 2.0 from web 1.0, this idea of 'easy'. With technological improvements adding to the speed of personal computers, the amazing growth of server farms, and the near exponential increase in bandwidth, in combination with the websites mentioned earlier, normal, non-techy people now have a medium for creating web based content that runs the gamut from the ridiculous to the extremely topical. This is significant because back int the web 1.0 days, in order to put even a single thought on the world wide web, one had to know how to build a website, which meant you had to understand how to purchase a domaine name, then buy server space, then choose an ftp program and then learn how to code in html, all of this in order to put 'Hello World' on the front page of a site called www.anynamehere.com. Only now, because of the technological advantages and because of the software upgrades, this method for creating content on the web has been placed behind a curtain and away from a shy public. The average person won't ever know what's going on in the background and thus the web appears open, inviting, and easy to use.
With web 1.0 I we had sites like Geocities, and Tripod where we could create a personal web page. These were not necessarily difficult to use, and I would say they were every bit the same as blogs are today. Technology however is not the only thing that differentiates web 2.0 from web 1.0. Like I said, there really is not much difference between a site I might have had hosted on Geocities to a site like Blogspot. The difference is in how we, as internet users, have begun to trust the web as primary source for our information. In 1997 it would have been difficult to trust a personal website as being the authority on anything because the precedent just hadn't been established. But now, 13 years later we go to the web first, before even thinking about turning on the television. In this way web 2.0 represents a shift in how we choose to be informed and even entertained.
Basically web 2.0 is a term used to describe the web as we have come to know it for more than ten years. A place where, when you use the term -online community- you no longer use the air quotes to qualify your statement, because true communities are being built, maintained, and growing in the cloud. A place where not just techno-nerd-geekophiles are updating static content on a website once a week or even once a day, but where my grandmother comments on a picture of her grandson only minutes after I upload it directly from my web enabled camera. Really, web 2.0 is just a term used to describe the web that all of us have always imagined. Only, now technology and prevailing attitudes are beginning to align with the initial visions of those that created the web in the first place.
With the birth of the blogosphere, Myspace, Facebook and Twitter, the web (web 2.0) has become a dynamic realm where everyone who wishes to have a voice in the world can do so easily. And that is really what separates web 2.0 from web 1.0, this idea of 'easy'. With technological improvements adding to the speed of personal computers, the amazing growth of server farms, and the near exponential increase in bandwidth, in combination with the websites mentioned earlier, normal, non-techy people now have a medium for creating web based content that runs the gamut from the ridiculous to the extremely topical. This is significant because back int the web 1.0 days, in order to put even a single thought on the world wide web, one had to know how to build a website, which meant you had to understand how to purchase a domaine name, then buy server space, then choose an ftp program and then learn how to code in html, all of this in order to put 'Hello World' on the front page of a site called www.anynamehere.com. Only now, because of the technological advantages and because of the software upgrades, this method for creating content on the web has been placed behind a curtain and away from a shy public. The average person won't ever know what's going on in the background and thus the web appears open, inviting, and easy to use.
With web 1.0 I we had sites like Geocities, and Tripod where we could create a personal web page. These were not necessarily difficult to use, and I would say they were every bit the same as blogs are today. Technology however is not the only thing that differentiates web 2.0 from web 1.0. Like I said, there really is not much difference between a site I might have had hosted on Geocities to a site like Blogspot. The difference is in how we, as internet users, have begun to trust the web as primary source for our information. In 1997 it would have been difficult to trust a personal website as being the authority on anything because the precedent just hadn't been established. But now, 13 years later we go to the web first, before even thinking about turning on the television. In this way web 2.0 represents a shift in how we choose to be informed and even entertained.
Basically web 2.0 is a term used to describe the web as we have come to know it for more than ten years. A place where, when you use the term -online community- you no longer use the air quotes to qualify your statement, because true communities are being built, maintained, and growing in the cloud. A place where not just techno-nerd-geekophiles are updating static content on a website once a week or even once a day, but where my grandmother comments on a picture of her grandson only minutes after I upload it directly from my web enabled camera. Really, web 2.0 is just a term used to describe the web that all of us have always imagined. Only, now technology and prevailing attitudes are beginning to align with the initial visions of those that created the web in the first place.
September 4, 2011
Screencasting with Screenr.com
I recently reviewed the screen capture website Screenr.com and have found it to be simple and effortless to use. It allows you to record 5 minutes of screen capture video, which automatically gets loaded up to the Screenr.com servers as a .mp4 video flle. At which point you can send out the link to the video, embed it into a website or blog, download the file directly, or transfer it to youtube.com. For two examples of Screenr.com's functionality I have recorded a screencast reviewing and showing some of its functions, and the youtube output from that screencast.
Screenr.com has quite a few uses in a classroom setting. As a teacher I can see using it to develop and record additional study material for on going lessons in class. And it could be a great tool for organizing group projects requiring a presentation
Screenr.com has quite a few uses in a classroom setting. As a teacher I can see using it to develop and record additional study material for on going lessons in class. And it could be a great tool for organizing group projects requiring a presentation
Useful Bookmark Archival Tools in the Cloud
I recently reviewed the website Delicious.com which is a bookmark archival and sharing tool. Delicious.com allows you to upload your favorite bookmarks from whatever browser you use, so you can access them in the cloud. Additionally, you can share these links to anyone you wish via email. The website is organized as a community, which means you can browse and search for other bookmarks through Delicious.com users on the network. One other nice feature is that you can download a plugin for you browser in order to keep you bookmarks synced up.
Using this tool in the classroom would allow you to pre-load certain websites at home so you can access them later on any computer in the school.
However, I prefer Xmarks.com. It has the same basic functions, with the added features of allowing you to sync your bookmarks across all the browsers you use, and if you have a class blog you can show the important links in either your postings or as part of the site itself. I've shown an example of imbedding your links as part of your site in this blog (see right). Also I prefer the general layout and visualization of the bookmarks as opposed to Delicious.com's.
Using this tool in the classroom would allow you to pre-load certain websites at home so you can access them later on any computer in the school.
However, I prefer Xmarks.com. It has the same basic functions, with the added features of allowing you to sync your bookmarks across all the browsers you use, and if you have a class blog you can show the important links in either your postings or as part of the site itself. I've shown an example of imbedding your links as part of your site in this blog (see right). Also I prefer the general layout and visualization of the bookmarks as opposed to Delicious.com's.
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