Week 5 - Kinestetics, Wikipedia, and Bias. Yes, they are connected

1) As teachers prepare lessons, they must consider the auditory, kinesthetic, and visual learners. The web provides quick access to materials that can be displayed during classroom instruction. Using google, one can immediately switch between search types. Image searches, text searches, video searches, and map searches produce vastly different results that are all useful in the classroom. However, just like when we search for research information, we must be careful in every search we conduct. 

2) Textbooks and Wikipedia are both written by human beings who are innately interested in the topic upon which they are writing. Therefore, the authors will have a bias that comes across in their writing. Using Wikipedia, it is easier to submit error reports to the publishers/monitors of the site. Additionally, there is more volume coming through Wikipedia’s audience than through a textbook’s audience; therefore, Wikipedia has millions of editors (all double checking one another) reviewing the material daily where a textbook only has a handful of editors.

3) Most students rely on Wikipedia as their main source of information as it is readily available. I normally use Wikipedia, but I would never cite it as a source. Wikipedia has become incredibly reliable as it has matured throughout its existence, and I feel completely confident employing it as a means for me to learn.

The dangers of searching on google - when we search, we must carefully consider what we search for, otherwise, we may come up with results like these:

Searching "Saw" Produces these Results

Week 4 - Understanding By Design

- Ecological Footprints -

·              In this UBD lesson, we look at what understanding the students gain from the lesson, not what their new abilities are. This lesson results in students understanding that people have such a large impact on the environment. Humans change the ecological balance of the planet, and this lesson results in the students’ acquisition of this concept. Concepts are purposefully more abstract as they become more universal and applicable as facts are forgotten. However, the application of facts is not strongly emphasized in this type of lesson.

       Student Objectives

       This is much more concrete that understanding by design. Students will be able to move beyond the idea that humans have an affect, but will evaluate and quantify the information. The students will also be able to list off real life changes that can be made to reduce the human ecological impact. Student objective focus on the application of information, which is a valuable skill that is necessary through like

     I would begin the series of lessons with the Understanding by Design model. This will best allow me to communicate concepts (such as the affect of humans’ vehicles on the environment as a result of CO2 production). Then, I will use a student object model lesson to teach students to quantify data on the output of CO2 from different model cars so that they can effectively present arguments and improve problems. Then in the third lesson, I will have the student’s present arguments to the class using data on how to best improve CO2 emissions.

Week 3 - My old eMachine

When I was growing up, my first computer was a giant white machine. I played with it at home when I was in late elementary school. I was always such a nerd and enjoyed making powerpoints of what I wanted for Christmas. This was the result of me wanting to be a businessman when I grew up. I was self-taught, but as computer interfaces improved over the years, the use of the computer became much easier. The interfaces that are employed with mainstream technology today has resulted in students being much more naturally accustomed to using technology.

Students today are much more innately talented with technology than the teachers who try to show them how to use them. It is not a result of the inefficiencies on the part of the teacher; it’s just that the students are raised by their parents using technology. In a classroom setting, the students are the masters of the technology and the teachers are the students, except in rare cases. Teachers are parents and workers whose time is spent investing in people while students often have more time to invest in and be consumed by non purposeful technology. Then, because of their understanding of interfaces, students can automatically understand and operate the interface of a technology that is used for productivity.

 Teaching Students to use technology responsibly

Week 2 - The Power of Drive

Currently, I am using Google Drive apps on all my devices as a way to manage my documents.  Everything from pictures, to slideshows, to essays gets stored on my Google account. Other than Google Drive, I do not use any apps for the teacher education program. The Google drive app has increased my productivity by allowing me to switch from device to device without much difficulty or layover time. The only apps that I employ increase my productivity. I do not use facebook or twitter, which means that I do not waste time with technology. Because of my personality, I am constantly working, so my technology is a means by which I make my time more effective. The apps that I use make my work much more effective and has resulted in my being a better leader and administrator of tasks. Apps are not instructional tools, but ways through which teachers can better manage their time. Because technology is clearly not available to all students, it is logical that apps and cellphones (personal technology in general) cannot be used as a direct instructional tool. Additionally, students have enough exposure to technology that they innately understand it, and do not need someone to teach them how to use it. Teaching a student how to use an app is like teaching them how to walk. We need to be teaching uncomfortable things, like oral communication and the value of attention to detail, which are two things that the workforce is looking for.

 

Week 1

For reasons that I cannot explain, I have always been better at manipulating
technology than most of my peers. Technology seems to be something I am naturally
good with, but most people would not realize this when they first meet me. I work for a
software company, so I have gained a great deal of hands on experience with servers and corporate systems, just like the infrastructure of a school. I realize just how efficient
technology can make an organization, when it is applied appropriately. If the technology
that is implemented has flaws, it will result in larger problems than the company had in
the beginning. I see these fears in potential clients regularly, which makes me a better
evaluator of software and hardware. I will pick out the software that I use in my
classroom based off of the evaluations I perform on the software, using the skillset my
experience as an employee of a software company has given me.
Due to the potential for personal security compromises, I have chosen to remove
myself from social media. Additionally, I realize the importance of being present in a
room and being present in a conversation. Therefore, I put away the distractions that
come from emails, cell phones, computers, and iPads while I’m with other people.
Additionally, I do not watch TV because I am too busy to waste time watching movies
and television shows. Overall, I use technology to increase my effectiveness as a leader
and communicator, but I do not let technology control my life.
Similarly, I will not allow technology to control my classroom. It will be a tool
that I use to assist my students assimilate information into schema through visual
stimulants. I will not just use technology to be using technology. Additionally, I will not
replace interpersonal communication with technology, because students text and post
enough to be experts on how to communicate outside of speech. I will foster the growth
of their social skills through classroom forums that are done in person, not in online chat
rooms because the digital divide results in half of my students not having access to the
internet or computers.

I'm naturally good with computers, but do you think kids are naturally better with technology than their parents?