Final ABC

For this weeks Blog entry I take a look at 4 essential attitudes of life long learners . This is an article that my instructor hooted from the mission to learn website. The Four essential attitudes that it discusses are directness, open-mindedness, single-mindedness, and responsibility.  The article describes directness as related to confidence but I believe it is more based on your ability to focus and stay directly on task with few distractions. Then proceeds to explain open-mindedness, which makes sense. You need to explore all possibilities if you do indeed plan on growing your knowledge base. Singe mind-ness to me is almost the same as directness. They both deal with the ability to focus on a task and it is hard for me to see much if any difference in this subject based on the authors descriptions. Lastly he describes responsibility as the acceptance of the outcome of the probable consequences of any step. 

I read this article several times and I am not sure if it is do to the authors longwinded vague descriptions, but I fail to see how this article has any merit. It just someone’s verbose descriptions of very similar “attitudes” and it in know way made me a better life long learner.  Check it out for yourself and let me know if you find something that I am missing. 

ABC Distractions

Today I read through an article Engageing, not Distracting, the Digital Generation: Responding to the Times’ Wired piece. It was an article in response to the New York Times article Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction.  The times article is blaming technology as a distracter for student learning, but what it fails to recognize is students have always been distracted by something. In my day it was the ti-83 calculator that you could play Tetris with and if not that then anything else other than school work would grab my attention.  The point we need to make is education should be engaging students. Embracing technology is not the only answer but it is a popular and controversial one. People fear change but when you look at the statistics that say student IQ is going up university scores are at an all time high I think this means we are moving in the right direction.

Final Project

http://masteringaudio.wikispaces.com/1+Home

Here it is my final project! Copy and paste the link to your browser and check it out ;0)

ABC Green School

For this weeks post I once again turn to the website TED.com where this week I took a look at My Green School Dream a talk by John Hardy. John Hardy had moved to Bali when he was 25 found a wife started a jewelry store. Soon he was able to retire and his life was changed when he watched Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth. The movie inspired him to give back to the community locally and create a green school made of bamboo. It is now in it’s third year with one hundred and sixty children from 20 different countries. View the schools website to look at some of the amazing architecture.  The school cover your basic reading and writing but seams to focus also on agriculture and green living. A very interesting anti-technology look at education. 

ABC TED Talk

This week while browsing TED I stumbled upon teaching kids real math with computers a talk by Conrad Wolfram. He stresses the lack of interest in mathematics but the ever-continuing rise of importance in the subject. The answer he proposes to fix this issue is for us to use computers.  When defining math he breaks it into four parts posing the right questions, real world formulation, Computation, and finally real world verification. He suggests that the step of computation be left to the computers and the other three be concentrated on by the student. Math he proposes is greater than calculating but for so many years that was stressed because it had to be done by hand. This is no longer the case. He proposes critical reform in computer-based math. Making the subject more practical and conceptual like computer programming for instance. I found this talk very interested because for years while I was in school I failed to see the purpose in math other than to keep my brain in shape.  Finding ways to incorporate real world situations would definitely spark a greater interest in the subject and I believe it would help move us forward.

Rubrics

This week I have been concentrating on how I plan to assess student performance on the digital story project that I am creating for my Digital Mastering class. The task of creating the video is a hands-on performance based assessment that is designed to allow them to demonstrate their knowledge of acoustics and apply it to their everyday listening environment. This is an alternative authentic form of assessment that allows students to perform a task and apply it to a real life scenario.

I chose to use a rubric to evaluate the student projects because a rubric integrates instruction with assessment and can be used as a planning tool for the students as they create. This was my first attempt at creating a rubric and the parts that I found most difficult and time consuming were writing the descriptions for all the individual fields and assigning point values to them. I found this to be a very informative source in helping with assigning points to the fields and converting the rubric scores into grades.

The first rubric I designed for the project I did though the wiki editor on my curriculum page.  It allowed me to make a table with text color and design and it turned out perfectly fine. One down side was that it only existed on my wiki. So I then designed another through my word processing program and made sure to use proper file management by saving it in a folder labeled rubrics in my school documents so that it could be saved, edited, and used at a later time.  I now feel like I have a better grasp on creating rubrics and realize the difference between holistic and analytic rubrics.

Teacher Example

This week I have been working on creating an example of the project I expect my students in my digital mastering class to create. These are university level students all who have a brand new MacBook Pro as part of their tuition.  The goal is for them to create a digital story of their home monitoring environment. What equipment they use, where it is placed, what kind of deficiencies are caused by this placement, and how can this be overcome are the questions they must ask and answer.  This should be a good practical integration of their knowledge into their own home environment.

I have been concentrating on evaluation this week.  Evaluating the links and resources I provided to make sure they reinforce concepts, and evaluating the software options I expect them to be able to create this project with.  For starters I just created an example in PowerPoint and posted it to SlideShare. Then I exported that PowerPoint into slides that were added to iMove where I could fine-tune a narration. This was something that I was not aware of how to do and took me a bit of time searching through help menus and online. The software that I suggest using for this project is very well supported and I now feel confident that if my students encounter any roadblocks such as I did they will be able to find the answers.

Searching for how to better incorporate the audio does make me want to update the original draft of the project so that audio examples of the environment are included as part of the project. This could prove to be a bit more challenging, and I have not quite figured out how this can be accurately accomplished.

In evaluating the links and resources I provided I realized that not every link will pertain to each students project, and since the project is based on their own home environment and equipment they will have to do some research as well. This will allow my students to improve on one of the ISTE NETS-S standards of Research and Information Fluency by letting them evaluate and determine the quality and appropriateness of web resources that will compliment their project.

All and all I think this project is headed in the right direction. To keep updated on my progress check out my wiki-space. The narrated slide show is soon to come, as well a rubric, and hopefully a few more graphics.

Enviroment

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ABC AES

This past weekend was the 129^th Audio Engineering Society convention. This is the largest annual gathering of audio professionals. You will usually find workshops, tutorials, technical papers, and a wealth of new audio gear debuting here on a yearly basis.  Some of the highlights include Avid’s release of Pro-Tools 9 software and Rupert Neve’s classic 1073 mic pre in a 500 rack module.   The Pro-tools 9 release is the first time that the software has been offered in a stand alone version separate from any of the digidesign hardware which is exciting for those of us on the move or looking to use other interfaces to incorporate into are audio set-ups.  The 1073 allows us to have that classic 70’s Neve sound with out the $10,000 price tag. Its only around a grand which is actually very exciting. I am currently researching all the new products so that I can incorporate what I find useful into the classroom and so far it seams like there is a lot of updating to do!

Curriculum Page

I like the idea of being able to focus my students learning by providing them with access to appropriate web resources by using a “Curriculum Page”. Expanding that even further by introducing a Web Quest is an invaluable way to integrate 21^st century learning into my classroom. Creating a space that organizes all of the online resources for my class into one curriculum page turned out to be a very arduous task. 

My first attempt began by creating a basic layout of the curriculum page in Microsoft Word. This actually went very well. I followed a basic tutorial and tailored it to my specific area. Next step (or so I thought) was to post this newly created resource to my wiki which I had already set-up this past week on wiki-site. This is where all of my trouble and heartbreak started.

Wiki-site is horrible.  This is not a site I would recommend to anyone who didn’t have four extra hours and the patience to learn a brand new type of editing. The page I designed in word was worthless and could not be posted to this site. So I kept my hopes up and thought “Well it can’t be that hard to just start from scratch using wiki-sites editor.” I was dead wrong.

So in comes Wikispaces and saves my day! I was able to do what took me hours on wiki-site in seconds, and it looked infinitely better. Compare my work to my first wiki.

Obviously it is still a work in progress, and I still need to better organize the content. I will hopefully add more pictures and possibly audio soon as well.  If I need to compress or zip these files to get that to happen I at least have a better grasp on how to do that now.

The last little bit of information I need to gather is to find out how to post HTML on any of these wiki-sites.  That would have saved me an infinite amount of time. The first curriculum page I created in word could have been used, or this awesome webquest template. Once I get passed the technical aspects of designing this curriculum page focusing on the content and ensuring that it complements my class will become my next priority.

7 Ways Games Reward the Brain

Tom Chatfield discuses seven ways in which games reward the brain in this months  TED Talk. It is a very interesting video that talks about how games engage us. It encourages us to evaluate the underling reasons why we are so enthralled so we can incorporate this structure into other areas like business or education.

Chatfield suggests that instead of grading people in little bits and pieces that we utilize experience bars that measure progress over time. Multiple long and short term goals and tasks need to be attacked at the same time to keep students engaged but also provide satisfaction as time passes. He states that all effort must be rewarded in some way large or small and rapid frequent clear feedback must be provided to ward off any frustration. Elements of uncertainty must be introduced to keep us enticed. There needs to be windows of enhanced attention where concentration is focused and moments of release. Finely other people must be involved so we can share and collaborate. 

These are supposedly the underling reasons behind the massive attraction in games like World of Warcraft and Everquest. If we can incorporate this maybe people will become addicted to education.

Websites to Integrate

(ABC)

This week while searching for something to blog about I stumbled across a link my instructor posted on our class’s site 47 alternatives to using youtube.  I understand that youtube is apparently a website that is blocked on most school networks. Fortunately for me this is not an issue where I currently teach. However, I did find this article very informative. In looking through the list of 47 websites I noticed a few I was already familiar with. TED talks for example is always a source of great inspiration for me in blogging, and hulu has provided me with entertainment for hours personally.

The first site I came across that I was not familiar with was How Stuff Works.  Almost immediately I found material that I could possibly integrate into my lessons at school.

Material ranging from games and puzzles like this one of an audio mixing board to informative articles of a variety of industry related topics.  Monkey See was another interesting site that I was introduced to with a variety of tutorials. In particular I found detailed videos on beatboxing that I thought was very entertaining. Finally the last site that I dove into was this week in rap. I loved this site and think it would be perfect for my students. It’s essentially current events and issues highlighted through rap to make them more entertaining.

If you are looking for websites to integrate into your instruction I highly recommend checking some of these out. You are bound to find something informative and useful that  your students can benefit from. 

Home Monitoring Project.

Digital Storytelling RR#5

A particular area that I wanted to address in my lectures at school is what’s wrong with the home monitoring environment that my students are using to mix and master their recordings in.  I teach Digital Mastering which is the final class of the Recording Arts bachelor degree at my university. I think that it would be interesting for them to create a digital story in the form of a video or slide show where they can film their monitoring environment and identify potential problems and provide solutions on how they can be fixed. If the student does not have a sufficient home monitoring environment an analysis of the listening room at the school can be done as a substitute. This project can be created in either iMovie or Keynote.

Information to include in the presentation would be: 

-What kind of speakers do they have

-How many sets

-Where are they placed in the room

-What problems and deficiencies does this cause

-How can these problems be overcome

The story would need to include pictures or video of the listening environment. Detailed specs of the equipment used by referencing manuals, manufactures websites, frequency response charts. An analysis of the monitoring environment marking where certain frequencies build upon or cancel with each other will need to be provided.   Following the analysis of the deficiencies of the environment should be a plan for overcoming these deficiencies detailing how acoustic materials and repositioning can effect the environment.

A List of websites to reference:

Gear Slutz

http://www.gearslutz.com

Walters-Storyk

www.wsdg.com

Steven Klein

http://www.soundcontrolroom.com

Book Online Integration

For this weeks ABC option I am going to bring the blog back a little closer to home. In my class we have been toying with the idea of switching to a new book. The current option that we have for the class is lacks substance and aside from a few passages is a difficult read.  After experiencing the textbook for my grad class with just as much online substance as what was contained between the covers I knew I wanted a book that integrated digital media.

I teach digital mastering and was very pleased when I found that Bob Katz had a second edition of Mastering Audio. I was familiar with the first edition and was pleased to see that they were addressing the subject of Internet delivery in the new edition.  The book references several sites that can be used to supplement the learning.  One of which is the authors own personal site.  I believe this will give some students the opportunity to delve further into some topics, and hopefully will take much longer to go out of date because of the constant upkeep on the Internet links. Wish they had books like this when I was in school.

Digital Story Embedded

How do we maintain interest? Students develop a new initiative to learn when we can keep their attention.  One of the best ways to keep their focus is by engaging them with a relevant story, building a concept with a climax, resolution, and possible twist. Offer students a challenge to create their own digital story leading them toward the potential for success when the project is complete. These elements make up the ARCS Motivational Model.

This week I tried to delve into the realm of digital story telling using PowerPoint. I am not perspicacious when it comes to using this program. In fact, this was only the second time that I have ever made a PowerPoint.  I am more comfortable with using Keynote, but I thought I would change things up a bit and introduce myself to a new software. Prezi  is another software I became aware of after I created my PowerPoint.  I watched several videos on it and I am very excited to try to create my first presentation on it.

In creating my digital PowerPoint story I discovered firsthand the importance of storyboarding and preplanning.  Being a little unfamiliar with PowerPoint I just dove strait in to creating slides. This caused me to spin my wheels for a while figuring out the program. Just before getting frustrated and giving up I just wrote down a brief outline of my story. Then bam! The presentation was made. See it posted below.

It may be a bit elementary in its design but making this presentation has planted a new found interest in developing assets like these into my teaching to make my class more entertaining as well as engaging.  Incorporating the use of my digital camera is my next goal. Taking pictures and incorporating those into the slides, and after that finding a digital video camera would be the next logical step in incorporation.   I especially like what can be done with cut outs, a little artwork, and a video camera like in this video of Digital Story Telling.  Videos like these definitely can maintain interest by the viewers always wondering what is coming next. Hopefully with a little practice and determination I will soon be making digital stories like these.

Presentation1

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Rising tide of Mediocrity ABC

I stumbled upon an article posted by my professor on our class webpage Technology in the classroom: why it needs to catch up fast.  It is another article that states the desperate state of education.  Claiming that technology has not effectively improved our global ranks. Now I pose the question is this because other nations are becoming more globally competitive? It always seams to imply that America is failing and slipping in rank because we are being outpaced. Is it that other countries are finally catching up?  Have we been “oversold and underused” on integrating technology in the classroom? 

I believe this all boils down to maintaining a students interest and creating a desire to learn.  I have heard brilliant ideas that completely shake up and change the education system as it stands now.  One of those is creating a mixed mode version of learning less days at school and more outside work with online elements. That may not be such a bad idea. I remember one of my personal issues in school was just how much time I had to be there and how much of my time I felt was just wasted with pointless busy work.  Students can tell when they are given busy work and that does not push them to learn. In my case it just frustrated me and made me lose interest.

Building interest I believe is the single most important thing that we could do as educators to improve our students. If I was interested or could see a point to a task in school it motivated me that much more.   Build interest and them push them for results. Stop the rising tide of mediocrity that causes community colleges to have to teach remedial high school tasks to students. I see this all the time and wonder and worry if the next generation will all be complacent with just barely good enough. 

(ABC) Lets Make a Video

I was recently exposed to the idea of creating education videos for the classroom in one of my graduate courses. I am not sure why this idea had not come to me sooner knowing how much I love to watch videos, and how hard it is to remain focused on someone lecturing for multiple hours.  I may have thought that having my students watch videos was cheating them of their education, and if they can just go youtube a lecture what is the purpose that I serve. Then the connection was made of creating my own videos giving them my own personal touch just for my students.

I began looking up different software to accomplish this task. The one demoed in my graduate class was of software called Camtasia.  This seamed like a very useful tool but was PC based and the bulk of my work lies on the Mac platform. So I began researching other software, and I found ScreenFlow. This is mainly Mac Based software that I can run on my old PowerBook.  It turns out that my school even has a continuing education class on this software. So I have signed up to expand my knowledge a bit more.

The Idea of having videos for my class excites me for many reasons. I can make sure that everyone is receiving the same content, they can view the video multiple times for clarification and reinforcement of the content, and hopefully it will be entertaining and more engaging for the students. Now all the time I spent repeating myself in the past I can use to reinforce ideas and hopefully inspire a few more.

Online Presence

Our reputations, identity, and how we want to be remembered can all be drastically changed and manipulated in the digital world we live in today. You really have to be mindful of how you are representing yourself online. Every post to a social network and every email you send must be written with the mindset, “What if my mother was to read this?”  If you don’t you might be stuck dealing with a documented digital embarrassment.

Sadly few people seam to be aware of the importance of this.  The Internet seams so vast and so unending, but part of that means whatever you put out there is going to be impossible to real back in. “Spoken word dissolves, but written perpetuates the scandal” this is a Daniel J Solove quote from the Future of Reputation and it resonates to the core of this issue.

There have been many cases of employees being terminated due to a Facebook posting or an improperly forwarded email. At my work recently a woman was let go for posting a craigslist rant in which she vented all of her frustrations with the school and the students in a 6 page online document that seamed to go into more detail than our constitution.  She did not post her name or the schools, but in reading the post it was certainly not hard to figure out either.

I had a blast using the online identity calculator and MIT’s Persona project. I have developed and unique spelling with my name that makes it very easy to find information about me online, and I am very pleased that the online identity calculator showed that I was represented in the way that I wish to be. My personal web page, Facebook, and Myspace are the first things that show up when my named is searched. This is amazing for an online presence, but that just reinforces the importance of maintaining a positive online image.

As educators I believe it is our job to maintain a positive online identity and to inform and stress the importance of this to our students. With the popularity of social networks and the ease of access to information we would be remiss if we did not aid our students in dealing with this issue.

Resources:  

Daniel J. Solove. The Future of Reputation: Gossip Rumor and Privacy on the Internet, October 2010, http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/dsolove/Future-of-Reputation/text/futureofreputation-ch2.pdf

Change of Seasons (ABC)

Summer is turning to fall and it’s starting to feel as if there is a little breeze to the air. The winds of change are rippling out into the education system.  Education seams to have been spending a bit more time in the spotlight lately.  Which is not a bad thing. Talking about improving education can only be good.

With the film Waiting for Superman on its way to theaters, a documentary by Davis Guggenheim, there has been rejuvenation in the debate of our education system. The film seams to tackle the productivity of charter and public schools, and brushes on controversial topics of performance based pay for teachers and ending tenure for un-productive teachers.

Oprah spent a day discussing education and the documentary on her show where she unveiled a 100 million dollar donation by Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, to the failing Newark schools system.

In the senate democrat Tome Harkin has proposed a cut of funding to for-profit colleges. This is an issue that directly affects me.  The thought is that to many students amass large amounts of debt dropout and then default on these massive loans.

So education has been busy becoming the talk of the town lately. Lets hope that this helps us move in a positive direction. :0)

Referances:

http://film.waitingforsuperman.com/videos

http://politic365.com/2010/09/28/newark-school-system-flush-with-donations-from-zuckerberg-gates/

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/09/30/bloomberg1376-L9KYK81A74E901-0DG69CV545LPHQ8PGD7PBNH9RS.DTL

Productivity

There are so many tasks in today’s world that we all have to deal with (getting your groceries, doing your laundry, dealing with the family, juggling work, ect.). When you’re a teacher you may be averaging grades, designing lesson plans, or keeping track of meetings and dates. This is an incredible amount of daily work that a person is asked to balance.  If we as educators are living up to the ISTE standard of engaging in professional growth and leadership then we have many tools available to learn and aid us in this chaos. Recently, I have been dealing with the various types of productivity software.

Using basic word processing software to create newsletters and memos, spreadsheets for organizing grades, databases for organizing student data, and presentation and graphic software to make your lecture more interactive and entertaining. This gives us plenty of areas for which we can become more familiar and productive. Any one of these types of software can significantly minimize the amount of time we spend on these tedious tasks. Freeing us to spend more time on the integration of these tools into the students learning. Allowing the students to use these tools to build on their ISTE standard for research and information fluency.

Integrating productivity software will excel anyone’s technical knowledge.  Take the Excel program for instance. Learning this will allow you to organize data using functions to add, average, sort, and reference all in an instant. You can even color code it to make it more visually appealing. Trying to accomplish this same task by hand would take days. To me it’s a no brainer on which method is better.

Still many people sequester themselves away from all of these tools that can make them more productive. It could be a fear of the unknown or an unwillingness to change. Even the smallest of steps would help with productivity. Like using the Save As function when word processing to save a document as a template for commonly used material.

I have to admit it takes time and is not always easy. For me to get just the simplest tasks done in excel took some time and a little research. I had to reference the programs help guide, and when I couldn’t find the information I wanted there I went online, searched for tutorials, and googled specific questions that I had.  In the long run the time that it took me took look up and educate myself how to accomplish various tasks will be more than made up by the amount of time saved by being more efficient and productive.

resources:

Gunter, G. A., Gunter, R. E., & Shelly, G.B. (2010). Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom (6^th ed.). United States: Course Technology, Cengage Learning.

http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_for_Teachers_2008.htm

http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/2007Standards/NETS_for_Students_2007.htm

Security Threats

 A lot has been written on security risks for schools on the computer. Controlling access to students browsing to prevent viruses moles or exposure to inappropriate material, but tonight I experienced another security risk that hasn’t really been covered. As I’ve stated in previous blogs my school provides each student with a brand new Mac laptop. The students use these laptops for class and are required to bring them to school. Many of the students walk to the campus. This poses as a security threat to the students carrying these new laptops.

Just recently robberies, assaults, and now a shooting have taken place on the students walk from school to home.  So maybe we should take some time and consider how we deal with these risks…

Multiple Vines Bare More Fruit!

“Is it more unethical to allow threats to students/schools or to deny students/teachers access to instructionally-relevant Web-based tools and content?”

Imagine a garden paradise where everywhere you look you find rich, luscious fruit trees (persimmon, pear, apple, etc.), ripe and exploding with flavor. You are told from any tree you may feast but not to taste from the tree at the center of the garden. For if you do all of your innocence will be lost.  Sound familiar? How do you think this story would have turned out if God would have put up a firewall and blocked access to the tree? Would we still be in that garden paradise? Was the fruit made with the purpose to be tasted and inevitably eaten so that we could become aware?

Is it more unethical to allow threats to students, or to deny students access to instructionally relevant content?  Do we push technological advancement into the classroom allowing students to have access to digital media like cell phones and laptops? What if this technology causes disruption? What if students use it to cheat?

If the students are on school provided technology restrictions should be made to restrict access to content that may endanger the system (such as viruses worms). Network ids and passwords for individuals to log-in giving them deferent security privileges is a great way to accomplish this. With cell phones evolving into smart phones to someday growing into just a hand computer that’s awesome and does everything the students will be constantly wired in and free from any blocking. There would be no denying them instructionally relevant material. Content on their devises would only be limited if they were underage and the students parents wanted to password protect and block certain sites based on moral beliefs.  So on their own we can encourage them to grow with out any restrictions.

Ethics should be taught and encouraged on all of these new technologies just the same way we would in teach and encourage students to communicate amongst each other in a group. Not to cheat, not to disrupt, to be good, and respectful of their peers. Technology is the new guy. Accept him.  The bad behaviors of students have always been there.

At my school every student has a brand new Mac laptop and usually on their own they own an iphone, Android, Blackberry, whatever… This is a daily part of my teaching experience and it is exciting that the students have these tools available to complement with their learning. We have to evolve and learn to deal with technologies cause they are coming if they are not already here. Accepting this might make this fruit a bit easier to swallow.

Resources:  

Gunter, G. A., Gunter, R. E., & Shelly, G.B. (2010). Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom (6^th ed.). United States: Course Technology, Cengage Learning.

http://cpsr.org/issues/ethics/cei/

http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/A-Am/Adam-and-Eve.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persimmon

Rising to the Surface…

While sifting through the World Wide Web for something technology related that assists in educating. I thought I stumbled upon a perfect product, but it turns out it was just a potential good idea that bubbled up. The Microsoft Surface.

The Microsoft Surface is multi-touch computer in the form of a table. Unfortunately it seams as if this product is drowning with the price point being near  $10,000, the unit being on bulky wheels, and being a pc driven by windows. It was unveiled in 2007 but has been sinking in popularity ever since.

It was recently announced by Microsoft researcher Bill Buxton that in three more years the Microsoft Surface would become the size of a sheet of glass. Along with the sleek new design the price would drop to a more economical level. Still no price range has been given. With a competitor like Apple who already has the successful ipad out it makes seeing this product float even more unlikely.

For a moment imagine the possibility of a touch surface the size of a table. My favorite image is a class of elementary students gathered around a table navigating around on it with their hands flying everywhere. It could be a useful product used by artists to design, tables for group work, or interactive desks for the students to sit at.  Interactive surfaces have definite appeal for education I just don’t believe the Microsoft Surface will be the one that rises up.

References:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtKQNwqNLLk

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/Pages/Product/WhatIs.aspx

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Bill-Buxton-Microsoft-Research-Microsoft-Surface-Touchscreen-Table-surface,11280.html

http://www.aboutmicrosoftsurface.com/

http://www.i4u.com/39373/microsoft-surface-homes-3-years

Connectivism & Networks

This week I dove further into 21^st century student, the tools that this student will use, and more importantly the theory behind them. 

It started with a read of chapter two in Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom. I learned about networks, the Internet, and the web.  Then the bomb was dropped when I watched the video The Networked Student by Wendy Drexler. For the first time I learned about Connectivism and its role for the 21^st century student. The connection then came on how wonderfully modern web networks and Connectivism compliment each other.

Networking and the web make the perfect tools for a student of Connectivism.

In the Drexler video the narrator said, “Connectivism is a theory that presumes that learning occurs as part of a social network of many diverse connections and ties.”  It was followed up by saying that the tools were not as important as the connections made by possible by them. 

I had to stop and think about this for a moment until if finally made sense.  Connectivism is making you into a much more proactive learner. Instead of just sitting back and absorbing information like a sponge. You are forced to think and engage in a topic by asking yourself questions and then searching for the answers. When your ideas are organized you can then share your progress for others to reference and build on.

This theory is perfect for this day and age. The Internet facilitates you in this process allowing you to research, reflect, and receive feedback on whatever topic you may be engaged with.

The social networking aspect of the Internet (blogging, tweeting, ext.) makes all of us participants in a networked conversation providing us with many diverse opinions and views. Precisely what Connectivism is based on.

So the tools may change but networks and the World Wide Web are certainly powerful weapons for this theory.

Drexler, W. (2008).  The networked student. Retrieved September 11, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwM4ieFOotA.

Gunter, G. A., Gunter, R. E., & Shelly, G.B. (2010). Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom (6^th ed.). United States: Course Technology, Cengage Learning.

The School of the Future

 

So I might be behind the ball a bit.  I was browsing the Internet and found out about Microsoft’s school of the future.  This was an experiment with the school district of Philadelphia joining forces with Microsoft to create a 21^st century learning environment. The first class started in 2006 and recently just graduated. 

This seams like a very interesting experiment on 21^st century learning, but now with its inaugural class graduating I look at this school, and it already seams out of date. Students carrying around big bulky laptops running those stable operating systems of Microsoft.  I hear numbers like 65 million dollars spent and think if that same school was built today how different it would be.

Imagine if Apple Teamed up with a school district and started a school today.  Ipads seam to me like an obvious marriage for education. Having the ability to put all of your textbooks onto it and corresponding supplemental links and video make the ipad ideal for education. Then perhaps all of the ipad application technology could be linked up with the student’s iphones giving them alerts and keeping them on task. The parents then could also receive instant notice on their student’s progress.

This is the challenge with integrating technology. Picture that class of the new Apple School of the Future in four years, and what technologies will then need to be updated.

Technology is ever changing so should our ability to incorporate it. 

 Reference: 

Microsoft, (2010) School of the Future: Microsoft Education September 7, 2010, http://www.microsoft.com/education/schoolofthefuture/  

Activity Reflection EME5050 - Swimmin in the WWW

To write this activity reflection first I must dig myself out of this pile of post it notes listing information and relevant educational sites. This process of searching for educationally relevant material can be a time consuming black hole with each page of relevant data pushing you ever further into the never ending abyss of the web.  The shear amount of information available is mesmerizing but at the same time can make one feel a bit overwhelmed.

My first jump off of the springboard put me smack dab in the middle of Google for Educators. A rich environment of information and integration of certain web tools for the classroom. I learned what it means to be a Google certified teacher, discovered Googles book search, and read about how Google Earth could excite a classroom.  This was just the tip of the iceberg there was enough information here to provide a multitude of ideas for integration of technology into the classroom. So I bookmarked it and moved on.

After swimming around in the land of Google for a good several hours I dried myself off and took a dip in AwesomeLibrary.org. Here I could search for a topic and it would provide me with lists, multimedia, lesson plans, and papers on whatever topic I was interested in from Iraq to the history of the blues. It seamed each site I dove into would give me just a little bit more. Teach-nology.com for example had worksheets, lesson plans, even rubrics available on a variety of topics. I found that these websites were invaluable tools that could aid in ones teaching. Again making sure to have these references for later they were added to my bookmarks. I even sent a link to a peer via Facebook.

Another category of sites that I found was based on information of the schools themselves on a state-by-state and district-by-district level. I did find it interesting that when I was searching through the states education department links that Florida’s site seamed to offer so much more for the educators, students, and parents. There were links to helpful information for all parties. Apposed to Indiana’s website that seamed to be based around standardized testing and where every school was ranked based on those tests. Then when I visited Connecticut’s website there was not much to it at all just very basic links with information. The information found on the Orange County public school district website was informative on the school and local level showing hours, weekly lunch menus, and when and where board meetings were to be held.

As you can see the web offers a vast amount of information on every level that can help aid educators, students, and parents. The most difficult part of this process is sifting through all of the information and targeting your searches.  This exercise has now convinced me to keep record of some of these more useful sites by bookmarking them into my favorites and by posting some of these links to social networking sites for my peers to be aware of. If i can manage to keep up with this process of storing and documenting relevant websites hopefully this will be the last time i dig myself out of this post-it note pile!

The dawning of the digital language.

Growing up in school I remember painstakingly constructing sentences. Labeling nouns, using proper punctuation, making sure the right tense was used. It seamed like the English language that I was perfecting was a very delicate science.  The science behind the spelling of certain words to this day baffles me.

We would go through the creation of a letters, where to put the greetings and how to appropriately end. Writing papers had a very curtain structure that had to be adhered to the most precise of details or else one would not pass the class!  Now it seams like I send very few of those letters or write those papers, but I do send emails, write in blogs, and text nearly every day.

With so many people texting, blogging, and emailing it seams like we have begun to move into a new digital communication world.  A less formal world with emoticons and short hand like lol. The question that I pose then is has there been a standard developed for these new means of digital communication and how could it be ignored from being addressed inside of a classroom?

“Are we doing what is best for our students, or are we doing what is most convenient for us?”

 

It’s a simple question that Dr. Mcleod poses on his blog. 

Ultimately and ideally it should be a balance of both.  If doing the best for our students requires tasks that are problematic or just plan inconvenient for the instructor how can we expect the instructor to perform at an optimal level? This in return trickles back down to the student and will most certainly affect their performance and comprehension. Happy energetic teachers inspire and push students to learn.  Frustrated impatient teachers can push a child away from learning all together.

The Flip side of this argument is that we cannot just let convenience dictate how we are to educate. Convenience may make us more comfortable but there is a fine and delicate line where convenience can cross over into laziness.  As educators we are role models. That makes it our responsibility to promote life long learning, and the best way to do this is by example.

Now in respects to the current educational structure and the dawning of the digital student it is time for some change.  The educational system has fallen behind the ball on crossing into the digital age.  The audio industry has made this change from recording on old analog reel to reels to now going strait to a hard drives. Film now as crossed into this world by changing to HD digital cameras, the newspaper print industry is now moving towards the world wide web.  This video from Karl Fisch shows our new dawning into this digital age.

So, it does seam the educational system needs to update and join this digital revolution. The proper way to do this is to work with our teachers and encourage their growth as well. Making a priority toward proper training and instruction of our teachers and doing our best to make the transition smooth and as convenient as possible.

Takin a swing at it

Allright I am a bit new to this whole blog thing but lets try to get off to a good start.

First, in my thoughts on technology and education. After I read chapter one of our book for EME 5050 It got me thinking about the new digital student and how to embrace this new change and really push it forward.  My thought process started out with what does the digital student love to do. Which takes me to gamming. Everyone loves games they’re fun and a great way to pass the time.

The gamming industry has taken a revolutionary turn recently also. With the development of the wii, gamming has found ways to integrate movement and activity into its entertainment. Recently I was browsing the web and found this video on Ted (http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_molyneux_demos_milo_the_virtual_boy.html), which seamed to me like now speech and interactions were being integrated into gamming in as well. 

Now my wondering mine equipped with my newfound concentration on education and technology said, “What if then gamming was incorporated with learning?”  Individual games to interact with and grow with the digital student exciting them to learn and pushing their knowledge.  This seams to me like a great opportunity for children who learn at different speeds or have a hard time focusing. I know when I was a kid all my ADD friends loved playing video games. Now I am not saying that teachers should be replaced with video games, but pushing that industry to focus on development of educational software seams like it would help supplement in a child’s learning. It could even prove to be an aid for a teacher.

Food for thought …

The first of many

yeah i have a blog...       hopefully it will get better ;0}