Gabcast! Tech Teaching #2
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Journal 3
Article: “Video in the Age of Participation” by Glenn Bull, from Learning and Leading with Technology on iste.org (Feb 2007)
This article explains how convenient it has become to incorporate video into your curriculum now that there are vast Internet video storage sites where you can find a short digital video file that fits nicely into your lesson plan. I took a look at the videos on PBS and there were some good science selections. The author also mentioned some African waterhole video clips on YouTube.com which I looked at. Although, not exactly exciting and dynamic, these clips are far better then watching the National Geographic webcam for hours to see one animal. I tried the Discover Education Unitedstreaming site after I signed up for the free 30-day offer. I arbitrarily asked it for content about Newton’s Laws of Motion. Oh man! This site has 23 videos about Newton’s Laws of Motion!! It’s got all kinds of media presentations to include in a lesson. It’s got video segments, images, articles, audio (songs and sound effects), quizzes, events, lesson plans, and clip art. And it has it all cross indexed by subjects and keywords! But wait! That’s not all… It’s got all this stuff categorized by grade also. But, hey! There’s even more. I can do a standards search on it! After putting in grade 12 and the state, CA, I ended up with more than 100 items related to teaching the laws of motion to 12th graders. I am totally impressed. This is a great resource. And it seems as though this resource is being utilized by a lot of schools, since 200,000 teachers have attended the Discover Education Network (DEN) workshops.
Another Internet site with digital video and other media is Next Vista, which is teacher and student oriented. And there are new Web 2.0 services coming online like “tagging” in which users can tag the content with keywords so that others can skip directly to a relevant section of the digital content. Many of these new developments are making the video content more convenient for educators to incorporate into their lesson plans.
Question 1: How would I use this technology in my high school science class? This technology is a big win for science! Usually only very verbal or logical people would be turned on by science at an early age. Appropriate, targeted short videos could excite kids and give them a high level concept oriented understanding of the laws of physics and chemistry. But they are no substitute for direct experience, or experiment in science.
Question 2: What style of learning is involved in watching a video? The dominant one is visual, as it would be in a physical demonstration as well. If there is narration, then verbal is involved somewhat but I think that in a well designed video the visual overwhelms the verbal. Video watching contrasts with lecturing while using the whiteboard which is all verbal unless you draw good pictures on the board.
This article explains how convenient it has become to incorporate video into your curriculum now that there are vast Internet video storage sites where you can find a short digital video file that fits nicely into your lesson plan. I took a look at the videos on PBS and there were some good science selections. The author also mentioned some African waterhole video clips on YouTube.com which I looked at. Although, not exactly exciting and dynamic, these clips are far better then watching the National Geographic webcam for hours to see one animal. I tried the Discover Education Unitedstreaming site after I signed up for the free 30-day offer. I arbitrarily asked it for content about Newton’s Laws of Motion. Oh man! This site has 23 videos about Newton’s Laws of Motion!! It’s got all kinds of media presentations to include in a lesson. It’s got video segments, images, articles, audio (songs and sound effects), quizzes, events, lesson plans, and clip art. And it has it all cross indexed by subjects and keywords! But wait! That’s not all… It’s got all this stuff categorized by grade also. But, hey! There’s even more. I can do a standards search on it! After putting in grade 12 and the state, CA, I ended up with more than 100 items related to teaching the laws of motion to 12th graders. I am totally impressed. This is a great resource. And it seems as though this resource is being utilized by a lot of schools, since 200,000 teachers have attended the Discover Education Network (DEN) workshops.
Another Internet site with digital video and other media is Next Vista, which is teacher and student oriented. And there are new Web 2.0 services coming online like “tagging” in which users can tag the content with keywords so that others can skip directly to a relevant section of the digital content. Many of these new developments are making the video content more convenient for educators to incorporate into their lesson plans.
Question 1: How would I use this technology in my high school science class? This technology is a big win for science! Usually only very verbal or logical people would be turned on by science at an early age. Appropriate, targeted short videos could excite kids and give them a high level concept oriented understanding of the laws of physics and chemistry. But they are no substitute for direct experience, or experiment in science.
Question 2: What style of learning is involved in watching a video? The dominant one is visual, as it would be in a physical demonstration as well. If there is narration, then verbal is involved somewhat but I think that in a well designed video the visual overwhelms the verbal. Video watching contrasts with lecturing while using the whiteboard which is all verbal unless you draw good pictures on the board.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Journal 2
Article: “Breathing Fire into Web 2.0” by Justin Hardman and David Carpenter. From Learning and Leading with Technology (Feb 2007) on iste.org.
The article notes the disparity between the promise of technology and the reality that we have in our schools today. Private business has taken much more advantage of the new infrastructure then schools have, and many of the students and faculty are already using Web 2.0 tools at home for social networking.
The author says some teachers are using wikis, forums, and blogs, which are aspects of Web2.0, and administrators are beginning to integrate classroom management and curriculum mapping software. Beyond that, schools should participate in an online communication and collaboration system that incorporates all these Web 2.0 features.
The article goes on to describe how the Hong Kong International School is implementing its own Web 2.0 tool called MyDrangonNet. MyDragonNet seems to do all of the same things that WebCT does for CSUSM. I would like to read an article like this about WebCT so I could compare it to MyDragonNet. There is some information about WebCT on www.blackboard.com . They have an academic suite and a commerce suite. Their online learning application, called Blackboard Learning System, is the most widely used course management system among U.S. postsecondary institutions, they claim.
As the article describes MyDragonNet, it has been designed with a very large vision and does more then basic course management. The tool has three major components. It has lots of database capabilities to organize all the information in efficient ways such as to map curriculum to standards for any grade and you can search through all the varied media and data types in various useful ways. Also, teachers, staff, parents, and students are all in close communication through its messaging component. And there is an electronic portfolio management component that showcases all the projects teachers and students have completed and would like to share. The author refers to this highly evolved system as a “multifaceted virtual community experience”. That sounds pretty cool!
Question 1: How would I use a tool like My DragoneNet in my high school class?
These are awesome capabilities! I could use it to communicate with parents and students. That would be the best benefit. Even with all the sexy applications and the new high bandwidth applications, email and the person to person communications implied is the most important aspect of it. This system has that as a primary goal. A teacher should be accessible to the students and the parents. That’s really all that needs to be said.
Question 2: What about the curriculum to standards mapping features?
Well, OK, those are really cool too. Why should each teacher “recreate the wheel from scratch”? Engineers don’t do it in private business. We should be able to incorporate elements from other teacher’s lesson plans as long as we understand them and it makes sense. The value that the teacher adds is to know his or her students well and then to know the content well enough to choose widely among all the possible technology enhancements. These features only give you a multiplier on the skills you already possess.
The article notes the disparity between the promise of technology and the reality that we have in our schools today. Private business has taken much more advantage of the new infrastructure then schools have, and many of the students and faculty are already using Web 2.0 tools at home for social networking.
The author says some teachers are using wikis, forums, and blogs, which are aspects of Web2.0, and administrators are beginning to integrate classroom management and curriculum mapping software. Beyond that, schools should participate in an online communication and collaboration system that incorporates all these Web 2.0 features.
The article goes on to describe how the Hong Kong International School is implementing its own Web 2.0 tool called MyDrangonNet. MyDragonNet seems to do all of the same things that WebCT does for CSUSM. I would like to read an article like this about WebCT so I could compare it to MyDragonNet. There is some information about WebCT on www.blackboard.com . They have an academic suite and a commerce suite. Their online learning application, called Blackboard Learning System, is the most widely used course management system among U.S. postsecondary institutions, they claim.
As the article describes MyDragonNet, it has been designed with a very large vision and does more then basic course management. The tool has three major components. It has lots of database capabilities to organize all the information in efficient ways such as to map curriculum to standards for any grade and you can search through all the varied media and data types in various useful ways. Also, teachers, staff, parents, and students are all in close communication through its messaging component. And there is an electronic portfolio management component that showcases all the projects teachers and students have completed and would like to share. The author refers to this highly evolved system as a “multifaceted virtual community experience”. That sounds pretty cool!
Question 1: How would I use a tool like My DragoneNet in my high school class?
These are awesome capabilities! I could use it to communicate with parents and students. That would be the best benefit. Even with all the sexy applications and the new high bandwidth applications, email and the person to person communications implied is the most important aspect of it. This system has that as a primary goal. A teacher should be accessible to the students and the parents. That’s really all that needs to be said.
Question 2: What about the curriculum to standards mapping features?
Well, OK, those are really cool too. Why should each teacher “recreate the wheel from scratch”? Engineers don’t do it in private business. We should be able to incorporate elements from other teacher’s lesson plans as long as we understand them and it makes sense. The value that the teacher adds is to know his or her students well and then to know the content well enough to choose widely among all the possible technology enhancements. These features only give you a multiplier on the skills you already possess.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Journal 1
“Professors adjust their methods to reach technology-savvy generation”.
From the San Diego Union-Tribune, written by a staff writer.
I was a computer science grad student in the 80’s at SDSU and reading this article made me feel like it was the 1880’s. Things have changed! I suppose in a very large classroom it makes it less personal, but in an upper division, in smaller classrooms, I would call it rude to even have your laptop open in class. Cell phones, computer games, chatting? It doesn’t sound good to me. Not in the classroom. At the college level it might not be bad for all students, but forget it for high school. I subbed for a high school math class that had computer-based activities, and I found I had a problem, for example, with kids watching fight films on YouTube.
On the other hand, having more contact with your teachers is good. I like the idea of the message boards we have begun using in our ED courses here. Having all the assignment information online keeps you productive at home. Also, I could imagine using computer graphics to illustrate science or math concepts. I like the clicker technology also, but that is technology that engages rather than distracts in class.
Question 1: How much technology should you allow in a high school classroom?
My rules are, technology should draw the attention of the student not distract, and it should enhance learning. College kids can handle the distractions of a laptop on the Internet, but if they fail it’s considered their own problem. This isn’t the case in public K-12. Of course, there may be times when a laptop or even a cell phone of MP3 player can be part of the lesson. But the exact usage of the devices has to be specified to a high school student. Possibly, one could set up a club situation after school for more focused kids to just experiment with technology. But, the key difference is that it would be an optional time when there was no teacher-led class.
Question 2: What technology will be in the high school classroom of 2020?
Taking the trends that have been evident and not allowing for a paradigm shift, I would imagine that many schools will still have only a basic PC hooked up to a big screen. Possibly, it will be a high definition screen. In localities where there is a high tech or high finance presence there will be much more. In fact, in those schools 9th grade science students may experience the dance of the planets in a virtual reality. Einstein's theory of gravity will be directly experienced. Maybe their priorities will be less scientific and the kids will run realistic business simulations. But how will they teach algebra and geometry? I've seen the self paced program in one class and (I don't claim to be any expert on its effectiveness, but) I think it was working pretty well. Perhaps the next generation of software will be able to take in their work and tell them where they went wrong. At this moment that part of the process is owned by the teacher and we get a lot of pride out of doing it. What will it change when that changes to a machine? And, what about all those other schools that have minimal access to technology? What kind of disadvantage will those kids have?
From the San Diego Union-Tribune, written by a staff writer.
I was a computer science grad student in the 80’s at SDSU and reading this article made me feel like it was the 1880’s. Things have changed! I suppose in a very large classroom it makes it less personal, but in an upper division, in smaller classrooms, I would call it rude to even have your laptop open in class. Cell phones, computer games, chatting? It doesn’t sound good to me. Not in the classroom. At the college level it might not be bad for all students, but forget it for high school. I subbed for a high school math class that had computer-based activities, and I found I had a problem, for example, with kids watching fight films on YouTube.
On the other hand, having more contact with your teachers is good. I like the idea of the message boards we have begun using in our ED courses here. Having all the assignment information online keeps you productive at home. Also, I could imagine using computer graphics to illustrate science or math concepts. I like the clicker technology also, but that is technology that engages rather than distracts in class.
Question 1: How much technology should you allow in a high school classroom?
My rules are, technology should draw the attention of the student not distract, and it should enhance learning. College kids can handle the distractions of a laptop on the Internet, but if they fail it’s considered their own problem. This isn’t the case in public K-12. Of course, there may be times when a laptop or even a cell phone of MP3 player can be part of the lesson. But the exact usage of the devices has to be specified to a high school student. Possibly, one could set up a club situation after school for more focused kids to just experiment with technology. But, the key difference is that it would be an optional time when there was no teacher-led class.
Question 2: What technology will be in the high school classroom of 2020?
Taking the trends that have been evident and not allowing for a paradigm shift, I would imagine that many schools will still have only a basic PC hooked up to a big screen. Possibly, it will be a high definition screen. In localities where there is a high tech or high finance presence there will be much more. In fact, in those schools 9th grade science students may experience the dance of the planets in a virtual reality. Einstein's theory of gravity will be directly experienced. Maybe their priorities will be less scientific and the kids will run realistic business simulations. But how will they teach algebra and geometry? I've seen the self paced program in one class and (I don't claim to be any expert on its effectiveness, but) I think it was working pretty well. Perhaps the next generation of software will be able to take in their work and tell them where they went wrong. At this moment that part of the process is owned by the teacher and we get a lot of pride out of doing it. What will it change when that changes to a machine? And, what about all those other schools that have minimal access to technology? What kind of disadvantage will those kids have?
Monday, January 29, 2007
Intro Letter
Hi! My name is Eric Plaks.
I’m the one on the right next to my daughter and wife. I grew up in Connecticut and got my BS Engineering in Computer Science in ’78. I moved to San Diego a few months later and began my career in software engineering. Along the way I rode the Internet wave and became highly specialized in networking protocol software that runs on Internet devices. Intel bought the company I worked at and it was a great time to be a software engineer. Last summer Intel left San Diego as a cost savings and I had the option to move to Oregon or take a severance package. I started thinking, what do I really want to do from here? I’d like to teach science!
I am clearly a professional techie but even a professional is just a user when he gets on a PC or a Mac. Especially if he’s a low level grunt as I was, working on the bowels of computers embedded inside devices. So before you assume I know a lot about technology, keep in mind that my daughter sometimes has to show me how to get to a function in my cell phone! The culture is that the engineers sneer at applications like Power Point as tools that only managers use well. Thus I never became proficient at Power Point or Excel. I used high powered Unix based mini computers at work and got a Mac at home, but when we were purchased by Intel I got assimilated. Resistance was futile and so I became a PC user. Besides, every Pentium sold helped my stock options increase in value. It was the 90’s and greed was good!
I am very impressed by the mission statement and the fact that my professors seem to really believe in it. Compared to a corporate mission statement I’d have to say that it’s long and complicated and vague. But even Intel doesn’t have as big a goal as to “transform public education”. “social justice” and “educational equity” are tantalizing subjects that beg me to dive in and learn how they are applied by good teachers. I have almost no idea how, to tell you the truth, but I’m more than willing to learn.
-Eric
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)