Paperless Classroom Presentation

I found the presentation regarding the "paperless classroom" to be very interesting. I had heard about paperless classrooms before but I did not know much about how learning would take place. The available links were very insightful and provided even more information. I am sure that many classrooms will become paperless in the future, and I hope that it is sooner than later. I really like the idea of the paperless classroom and I would love to observe it taking place in the classroom.

Educational Blogging Presentation

I absolutely love the layout of the presentation, it is very eye-catching and informative. The hyperlinks are great resources, I really liked the "Blogger Preparedness" and "Blogging at School". These two links provide great information that would be beneficial to share with school staff and parents before implementing the use of blogs.

ISTE

ISTE is a organization that is dedicated to improving the learning and implementation of technology in the classroom setting. ISTE provides on-line information as well as professional development opportunities in order to better the quality of technology integrated instruction that is being used in the classroom environment.

I believe that ISTE would be a great organization to be a part of in order to have access to up-to-date information concerning the various sources of technology available, as well as to learn more about various was to integrate technology into my classroom in order to differentiate the quality of instruction for each of my students.

I found many ways that I as well as the school could benefit by joining ISTE. For starters it would provide more insightful information to everyone as to different activities that could be used within the classroom that would integrate the use of technology such as by using a blog, robots, etc. in order to teach and enhance the core concepts that we are already teaching in the classroom. Also as I already mentioned being a part of ISTE brings with it professional development opportunities which could help individual teachers to enhance and improve their instructional methods and differentiation techniques through the use of technology in the classroom. ISTE would be beneficial to everyone since we are living in the age of advancing technology in order to keep us up-to-date on different strategies as well as how to use the technology that we have to improve not only our teaching but the learning of our students.

Book for Library

The book that I found listed in the ISTE bookstore that I thought our library should have is "Differentiating Instruction with Technology in K-5 Classrooms" because it seems to include a lot of insightful activities that can easily be implemented into the average classroom setting in order to accommodate the various needs our students. The book has activities and lessons that can be used immediately but it also describes how the teacher can design their own technology based instruction depending on the needs of individual students.

Universal Design for Learning

I had never heard about UDL until reading through the articles, and I learned a lot about what it is and how it is used in the classroom. Specifically I learned that UDL is a way to differentiate instruction for students in a way that is engaging and promotes student success. Also UDL is a way to develop curricula that goes along with the No Child Left Behind Act.

I would define UDL as a tool for designing a technology enhanced curriculum.

In order to make what I already do UDL compliant, I could create my own UDL lessons using the lesson builder tool in order to allow for more differentiated instruction for my students.


Technology plays a huge role in UDL. Technology is a way to enhance the learning process for each student in order to encourage to them and assist them with the lessons. For example, eReader is a technological tool that can read a passage for students who struggle with their reading skills. By listening to the computer read to them helps the student build their listening comprehension skills as well as be exposed to what a good fluent reader sounds like. eReader is not the only technology tool that can be used. My perception of the readings is that technology is the driving force of a UDL lesson in order encourage students.

Copyright/Fair Use Issues

I was unaware of the many issues that surround the idea of copyright policies. The article about the "10 Myths concerning Copyright" was a real eye opener and helped to clear up a lot of the misperceptions that I had about copyright issues, especially the use of web based documents.

Also the article about schools and the issues of copyright. I was under the impression that since our school paid for the licensing of the software that it was fair game to use and make copies, etc. but apparently that is not the case. I did not realize how much some people violate copyright laws through the use of e-mail. I foresee a lot of changes to take place with the future because authors are not getting the credit they deserve for their work that is found on the web.

United Streaming

http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/studentCenter/index.cfm?cdCode=TE246-E145

The video that I chose to integrate in my unit plan is one that is interesting and will capture my students attention as well hopefully get them excited about learning their multiplication facts.

The video uses real children that are about the same age as my students and it uses interesting dialogue within a game show atmosphere to introduce students to the topic and to walk them through what will be learned. The video also allows and encourages students to use what they already know in order to help them be successfull.

Through my evaluation of the video, I found it to possess the four general areas of importance. The content is mentioned from the beginning so that students know what they will be learning about by watching the video. The instructional design allows students to use math skills that they already acquire in order to help them solve multiplication problems, and it also demonstrates evaluation of the students within the video as well as gives the students who are watching it a chance to display what they have learned through watching the video. One specific reason that I chose this video was that it technically well-done and portrayed. The picture is clear and it shows various angles throughout the video in order to capture the interest of the students while they are watching.

The video focused on the same objective throughout which was helping students to multiply whole numbers. Through the video, students are exposed to strategies that can be used to help them solve multiplication problems.

I definitely think that the implementation of the video will grab the attention of my students and have them excited about learning multiplication.

Video Questions

1. While watching the "Mom Song" video the camera angle changed on average about 6 times in a 10 second time frame. The "Ask a Ninja" video changed many times during a 30 second time frame, I tallied approximately 14 camera angle changes. So about every 2 seconds the camera angle changed to something different.

2. The rule of thirds was more visible in the "Ask a Ninja" video because the scenery in the video allowed you to focus more on teh ninja, whereas in the "Mom Song" video there were more props in the video to view.

3. The shot selection in both videos was important. The shot selection in the "Mom Song" video was primarily important in order to emphasize the reaction of the audience. The shot selection emphasized the dialogue of the ninja during the "Ask a Ninja" video.
I think that kids would be a little more distracted by the ninja video because the the camera angle changed many times in a 30 second time period, but I think that the continuous camera angle change would keep the kids interested because they would never know where the ninja would be on the screen.

4. On the "Ask a Ninja" video, there were two formats in which could view the video: Quicktime and Flash. When I watched the video in the flash format, I was able to watch it instantly when I clicked to view in this format. But when I clicked to watch the video in Quicktime, I had to install the quicktime software in order to view the video.
By watching the video in both formats, I believe that the video was clearer and had less pauses in it when watching it on quicktime. When I tried to watch the video on flash, the video kept pausing every few seconds so I was only able to watch the video in snip its.

Google Groups

http://groups.google.com/group/multiplication-unit-plan?hl=en

The google groups forum would be a great way to collaborate with colleagues and/or even parents. You could let others see what you plan on teaching in the coming weeks and this would be a great way to plan. This forum would also let parents know what is taking place academically in the classroom. I have given the link for my my group page above.

Final Project Progress

So far I have just worked on finding resources to use for my final project as well as completing my rationale. I have found the rationale to be difficult because I have never had to write one this in depth before. So I am worried that it is not done correctly, but I did follow the rubric in order to complete the task. Within my rationale I included what my final project would be about as well as supported it using resources.

I do like the fact that we are required to do specific parts of our final project as homework because it helps to break up the work.

Marco Polo site and EBSCO

Marco Polo site

I did not find the Marco Polo site to be very useful, because the there were a minimal amount of lesson plans to choose from. Plus there were no elementary lesson plans relating to multiplication, which is what I am getting ready to start teaching in math next week, and only one lesson on government.

EBSCO

Before completing this assignment, I was unaware that you could do all of these particular things on the database: create journal and search alerts and a web page. This would have saved me so much time in my EDU 584 class, because I was continuously searching for the same topics and each time I would have to type in the information and/or write it down so that I could look at it again later. I found some really great articles and educational journals that will be helpful in creating my final project pertaining to multiplication in mathematics. One article that I found discusses how to "Learn Multiplication: the Easy Way" plus I found a journal called "Computer and Mathematics with Applications". I would love to use the EBSCO host website with my students in order to help them learn researching skills, and teach them more about how to identify reliable sources of information instead of just focusing on information found on the web.

Survey Results and Project Proposal

All of the information is based on the results of the STAR chart survey using the following website: http://blackboard.georgetowncollege.edu/webapps/blackboard/content/listLearningUnit.jsp?course_id=_1975_1&content_id=_51659_1&step=6

Here are the results from the STAR survey for my school:1. Hardware: high tech2. Connectivetivity: mid tech3. Content: mid tech4. Professional Development: high tech5. Integration and Use: mid tech

Based on my answers to the survey, my school is considered to be a the high tech level.High tech educational benefits according to the survey are: improve higher-order thinking and research skills, greater information resources available for research and education from Internent and CD-Rom, most students/teachers able to communicate with parents, experts, other students and teacher outside the schoolI was surprised at high-tech level of my school, I would have perceived my school to be more of a mid tech. After reading and responding to each of the survey questions, I began to realize the amount of technology that my school does have even though it is not just found in my classroom. My school district is really good at trying to improve the use of technology within our schools.I think that my school could definitely improve on the integration and use of technology on a daily basis. The school where I am teaching now is getting a new school next year so I think that we will definitely be able to improve on our integration and daily use of technology. We will have the writing tablets and plasma screen tv's that will display the information on our tablets. I believe that this will definitely help to improve the instruction that is taken place. Our school just got new student computers this year which is definitely going to be a big help for when our students begin working on their portfolio pieces. We are also starting to do more professional development trainings in order to help the teachers become more familiar with the technology that we available within the school.

Since I am taking this class as EDU 586 I have to do the unit plan. I plan to design a unit on multiplication and try to implement various instructional technology tools to help students understand the concept of multiplication, such as various interactive websites, the use of hands-on manipulatives, graphic organizers, etc. I will use excel to keep a record of student progress throughout the unit.

Reflections of Readings and Posters

Design principles help people to use products because the information is usually detailed in explaining how to use the product in an organized fashion. Plus most product manufacturers have tried to think through all of the possible questions and/or configurations in order to make the product more user friendly for the consumer. But as mentioned in the article, even though experts know a lot about the products they are making it "does not guarantee that they can effectively teach someone how to use it" ( "How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School", 1999. p. 37). I do belive that a many product designers spend time researching and/or reviewing research in order to learn how most people learn in order to relay information/directions to their consumers effectively. My group worked on Golden Rule #1 of Interface Design which states that the user should be placed in control when using a product. One of the six principles of expert/novice learning that could apply to our rule would be principle 1 which says that experts notice meaningful patterns of information. I think this relates to our interface design because there are some meaninful patterns that need to be changed in order to make the Hershey's bottle a more meaningful product. The six principles interrelate so in a way they all can apply to golden rule #1 of interface design because they are working together to make the product more user friendly.

Golden Rule #1

The first golden rule of interface design is for the user to primarily be in control. Myspace.com would be an example of a bad interface design that violates the first golden rule due to the fact that it specifically violates several of the principles. When setting up and navigating through a myspace page you are required to primarily use the mouse or otherwise you will be continuously hitting the "tab" key in order to move from one aspect of the page to another. The keyboard can really only be used to input personal information as well as messaging. First when you set-up a page you must do things in a specific sequence and it must be done in one setting or you will have to begin the process all over. For the older generation, the terminology is not user friendly using words such as blog, upload, profile, etc. They webpage does not allow you to undo things without hitting the backspace/delete key or redo things if you were to accidentally delete them.In order to improve the Myspace experience, I would set it up where you could set up your account in intervals if you chose instead of making a user do so all in one setting. I would want the software to be easy for people of all ages to use. As of now the website is for more experienced computer users and/or younger people who are in their teens and twenties, and it does not provide the beginner with the option of step-by-step instructions to help you relaz while putting together your individual page. I would also provide links that would make it easier for users to set-up their page with background displays, font, and graphic designs that they would want/need in order to make thier page look appealing to others.