Module 3 Collaboration

I do agree with Rheingold, I don’t think we were meant to be alone or to work alone. The first day of school the students are looking for acceptance from someone so that they could be friends. School aged children especially elementary and middle school students completely break down when they’re friends betray them. So I think it’s natural that people want to work collaboratively. Not only does working as a group takes some of the pressure off the individual you have someone that can help you out with ideas, help come up with solutions and also have your back when you need it.

Technology helps facilitate collaboration because it becomes easier to work as a group. Everybody doesn’t have to be in the same place and gather at the same time to get a project done. Through e-mail, Skype, and Google documents and other sources of media it helps getting things done a lot easier and faster.

http://docs.google.com/?pli=1#all
www.skype.com

Module 2 Cognitivism as a Learning Theory

As educators we have to take what we know about learning theories to help us apply it to teaching our students. Our students all learn differently one student may be a verbal learner another more hands on, we can't put them all in one category. The same with learning theories, I don't believe one learning theory is better than the other, when you combine the theories you can see how learning really works. Most people learn from using what they learned in the past and applying it to new knowledge. Knowing how our students learn will help us diversfy our lessons. We have to step out of our comfort zone and teach differently. I am more of a verbal learner, I like to listen to the teacher talk about the subject. I've learned as a special ed teacher that a lot of my students are more hands-on, so I had to learn to make sure that I put a lot of experiments or projects into my lesson plans for my students to fully understand the concepts that I'm trying to teach. Motivation also plays a major role in education, some students are motivated to make good grades because of the awards and praise they recieve. Others are curious and want to as much knowledge as they can obtain. But what about the students who do not do well in the classroom what motivates them? It's our duty as educators to find that motivation to help that student succeed in school.

http://lumpe.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/emerging-technologies-for-learning/

http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/01/crash_course_in.html

EDUC 7105 Module 1 "Metaphors of Educators"

I believe that at one point in any given day an educator would fall into one of the categories, depending on the class or student. I personally like the "Educator ad Concierge". "The concierge serves to provide a form of "soff guidance"- at times incorporating traditionl lectures and, in other instances, permitting lerners to explore on their own (Siemens, 2008). As an educator you have to know when to teach your students and when you should let them explore new ideas on their own. Personally, this is a hard one for me, I sometimes want to give the students the answer instead of guiding them with a question, though I'm working on it. I also like the idea of students learning from each other as well as the educator. Students sometimes learn more from or listen to each other more than an adult, since they're using language that they easily understand.

Reference:

Siemens, G. (2008, January 27). Learning and knowing in networks: Changing roles for educators and designers. Paper presented to ITFORUM. Retrieved from http://it.coe.uga.edu/itforum/Paper105/Siemens.pdf

Revised Video Presentation

I made a view revisions to my original video like adding music (which I finally figured out how to do) and adding more clips of my students playing games in class.

Video Presentation: Games in Education

Classmates mindmaps that I liked

I liked Sarah's mindmap on the static end of her technologies she used the overhead projector (something that I think I used a few times until I got my laptop and started using the Smart Board) and letters. On the dynamic side she used the example of PDA for content. These are things that I didn't even think to put on my mind map.

http://roadierider54.wikispaces.com/file/view/MindmapCrawfordS.doc

I also liked LaVerne's mind map, for static technologies she had lectures and online class notes.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguvzguffBOQ05ARRYWLOr8ZnN_IlxiKh0ODrDiB-ewt47IVBn0Ode-bh64PHu_gao7Tb8a5p3a2iQQ4zZGnMdeGXHqsGcDD5PFCsuQM7gZYyC9JZu5V3ukuHcXTfjusFFpmluz0OGIh2U/s1600-h/MindMap,_MartinL.png

Module 5

I have to admit that I'm very much stuck in teaching in static technology. I love technology and I use the available technology in the classroom ie. smartboard, cps, online games, but that's where the technology ends. I never thought to use blogging in my class, especially when I taught English. I think this would've been a great way to let students express their thoughts or maybe even a wiki space. Since taking this class I have begun to think of new ways to incorporate technology into my class other than online math games. I'm teaching a scripted remedial math program to our special ed students and it really doesn't offer any leeway to teaching the class. I have done some video, where the students teach the lessons, but I think that's still static technology. I have shared some ideas to my neighboring co-worker who teaches technology. She already uses wikis to share her lessons to her students but I showed her the wiki I have for my other class where we post our assignments and she liked it and is going to try a similar thing for her classes.

I am open to any suggestions on how to use dynamic technologies in my class.


Link to my mind map


http://scromwell.pbworks.com/Mind-Map#view=page