Here is the public url for the prezi presentation I made for my final reflection project in this course. I tried to cover many of the topics that we discussed throughout this course, and to say how I could use the many tools in my future teaching.
http://prezi.com/6bpridywcgk3/
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Class Presentations & Darren Kuropatwa
I really enjoyed the presentation on Skype and Elluminate. We have talked about these before but we had never gotten the chance to see how they work. Skype could be used for helping students with homework. Students could interact via skype with other classmates, or even the teacher to ask questions. Skype also has the benefit of being able to send links and files back and forth. This would be great for giving and receiving resources with other teachers. Two people could skype, and together go over a file that one sent to the other. I also like the ability to be "hands free". This allows you to be working on something as well as talking.
There are two things I really liked about Elluminate. I liked the "notes feature" so that students could have the ability to take notes during a presentation right within Elluminate without having to miss any of the presentation by going to a different program such as Word. I also really liked the graphing calculator feature. It could be a cool way to have a person very knowledgable about graphing calculators that maybe doesn't live in your town show your class new tricks on the calculator through Elluninate.
I also thought the idea from another presentation of using the XBOX as a social networking tool was interesting. I didn't know that this was possible, so that could be something to look into more.
The presentation made by Darren and Rob was really good. It is so crazy to think of how the world could be in years to come. The video that we watched at the end of the presentation on the 6th sense kind of boggled my mind. I can't imagine there being a day where people have devices that allow you to draw a clock on your wrist with your finger and then have a watch appear, or that allow you to dial a phone number on your hand.
One thing that Darren showed us that I thought looked really good was the website Wolfram Alpha. I think that this would be a cool site to have students look up solutions to math problems, or have them find more than one solution for a single problem. I can also see that benefits that this website could have for me as a teacher. I could find a full solution to a problem, then copy and paste this solution into notebook software and use the hide/unhide feature to uncover the solution one step at a time.
Darren also made me see the benefits of publishing student work in our classrooms. The "Landslide" video was a great example of how just by showing the great work that students are doing, we can help provide students with life changing experiences. It is important that we drill the idea into students that the stuff put online should be stuff that they want everyone to see....this should be done responsibly and ethically. Teachers can be models of this by publishing their students' as well as their own professional work.
Rob showed us how we can use ipadio through our cell phones. I thought that is was pretty cool how it records the conversation, and converts the voices into text. This could possibly benefit students with learning disabilities who maybe have trouble writing. They could use ipadio to send an mp3 file to their teacher to listen to, rather than having to write their assignment out themselves. I could not really think of other uses for ipadio, especially in math classes... anybody have any ideas?
The presentation made by Darren and Rob was really good. It is so crazy to think of how the world could be in years to come. The video that we watched at the end of the presentation on the 6th sense kind of boggled my mind. I can't imagine there being a day where people have devices that allow you to draw a clock on your wrist with your finger and then have a watch appear, or that allow you to dial a phone number on your hand.
One thing that Darren showed us that I thought looked really good was the website Wolfram Alpha. I think that this would be a cool site to have students look up solutions to math problems, or have them find more than one solution for a single problem. I can also see that benefits that this website could have for me as a teacher. I could find a full solution to a problem, then copy and paste this solution into notebook software and use the hide/unhide feature to uncover the solution one step at a time.
Darren also made me see the benefits of publishing student work in our classrooms. The "Landslide" video was a great example of how just by showing the great work that students are doing, we can help provide students with life changing experiences. It is important that we drill the idea into students that the stuff put online should be stuff that they want everyone to see....this should be done responsibly and ethically. Teachers can be models of this by publishing their students' as well as their own professional work.
Rob showed us how we can use ipadio through our cell phones. I thought that is was pretty cool how it records the conversation, and converts the voices into text. This could possibly benefit students with learning disabilities who maybe have trouble writing. They could use ipadio to send an mp3 file to their teacher to listen to, rather than having to write their assignment out themselves. I could not really think of other uses for ipadio, especially in math classes... anybody have any ideas?
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Cyberbullying
I was part of the group that made a presentation on cyberbullying and presented it today. Through researching cyberbullying for this presentation, it became clear that cyberbullying is a huge issue in schools especially with the rise of the use of technology amoung students. I do not think that schools are really doing very much to make students aware of cyberbullying and the effects it can have on the individual (at least not at the schools I have been at so far in student teaching). I think that it should be part of a teacher's job to talk about issues such as cyberbullying with their students rather than pushing the issue aside and not really dealing with it. Many students, I'm sure, think that it is just a joke when they are bullying others via facebook, text message, etc. One thing that teachers could do to possibly demonstrate the effects that cyberbullying may have on a person, would be to show videos, and hold classroom discussions. Perhaps if students realize the serious consequences their actions may have on their classmates, they may start to think before they act and refrain from cyberbullying even if they think they are just "joking". Teachers could show their class the video that we used in our presentation.... it really shows how horrible cyberbullying can make a person feel, and how it makes day to day life extremely difficult for a high school student. The url to that video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ENXyPDA29w.
I searched around you tube to see what else I could find on the effects of cyberbullying. I found another video about a 13 year old boy who committed suicide after being bullied at school and on the internet. In this video, it shows this boy's father speaking in front of students at a school telling his son's story (he has spoken to approx. 100 schools), speaking of the pain of losing a child, and giving advice on how to fight cyberbullying. This could be a good video to show students in your own classroom. There are many, many more videos on this topic as well. Here is the url for this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDBiqUWRtMo
I searched around you tube to see what else I could find on the effects of cyberbullying. I found another video about a 13 year old boy who committed suicide after being bullied at school and on the internet. In this video, it shows this boy's father speaking in front of students at a school telling his son's story (he has spoken to approx. 100 schools), speaking of the pain of losing a child, and giving advice on how to fight cyberbullying. This could be a good video to show students in your own classroom. There are many, many more videos on this topic as well. Here is the url for this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDBiqUWRtMo
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
A Little Bit of Everything
This week we had the pleasure of having Mike teach us, as well as Dr. Gatin returning to visit! After watching Alan November's video, there are a few things that I am going to talk about. He says that we need to make the curriculum more global, and that students need to talk to others all over the world because we are all social beings who learn from interacting with others. I agree with him about this, and think that everything we have been talking about throughout this course has provided us with the tools to be able to communicate with other schools from all over (Skype, wikis, blogs, etc.) Another point that Alan makes is that there needs to be a shift in schools from the teacher being in control or "the boss" to the students taking more control and becoming self-directed learners. I think that this is a good idea because it will help to better prepare students for when or if they enter post-secondary studies. I found that during high school I was told exactly what I had to do every night for homework, and exactly what I had to research and how.... then when I went to university I had to learn how to become a self-directed learner and had to figure things out for myself, and look at what I needed to learn, or study more, or find more information on. Alan November also says that technology is not making students any smarter, and that in fact students are losing critical thinking skills due to all of the available technology. I think that technology has many more pros than cons for students as we have seen in the last month and a half... the one thing I do agree with that the internet has done is to give students a way to not have to think about their own opinions on certain topics or issues, but just to search the web to find their version of the truth or what they are supposed to believe. I don't think that students use the web to find many viewpoints on an issue, and to think critically about which views they find to be valid.
Having Dr. Gatin return to our class helped me to get a better idea of how Second Life really works. It was interesting to see him enter this virtual environment with his avatar and to see how one moves and flies around. Although I am not completely sold on the idea of using Second Life, he pointed out a number of possible uses that it could have. I think that one of the things I would consider using Second Life for would be to have students enter this world and view a short powerpoint presentation. You could then have students discuss it as a class the next day, or they may also type comments as they read along. I was thinking that maybe this would provide a bit of motivation for students to actually do the reading (might be kinda fun for them to fly around and change their avatar??) rather than giving a boring regular powerpoint for them to read. What does everyone think?
Having Dr. Gatin return to our class helped me to get a better idea of how Second Life really works. It was interesting to see him enter this virtual environment with his avatar and to see how one moves and flies around. Although I am not completely sold on the idea of using Second Life, he pointed out a number of possible uses that it could have. I think that one of the things I would consider using Second Life for would be to have students enter this world and view a short powerpoint presentation. You could then have students discuss it as a class the next day, or they may also type comments as they read along. I was thinking that maybe this would provide a bit of motivation for students to actually do the reading (might be kinda fun for them to fly around and change their avatar??) rather than giving a boring regular powerpoint for them to read. What does everyone think?
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Double Presentation Week!
One of the most important points that Howard Griffith and Donald Girouard made during their presentation on Web-Based courses was that these courses may be used as a teacher resource for any teacher, even if you are not teaching a distance or web-based course. I took a look at a few of the WB courses offered at http://webct.merlin.mb.ca (where you can use the username "demo" and password "demo"). These courses are set out very clearly with introductions to each concept and module, example questions with full solutions, and then assignment questions. A teacher such as myself could go to this website to get help organizing my material for a course, or I could use the example questions rather than making my own from scratch. Some of the modules also have notes on key concepts for each topic which would also be a helpful resource.
From Shawn Kleebaum's presentation, one of the coolest things I saw was Prezi. Prezi is kind of like a new, creative way for doing a powerpoint presentation. Some benefits of using Prezi in presenting information to your students would be that Prezi has the "wow factor" that PowerPoint does not really have, the canvas layout helps to prevent a presenter from using too much text, and it is easy to incorporate images, sounds, and videos into one presentation. I think that students would be a lot more motivated to do a presentation in classes if they had the opportunity to try using Prezi. One thing that I really like about Prezi is that since you work on one big canvas, you are able to show connections between ideas, and remember previous ideas better, rather than in PowerPoint where you are always flipping to a new slide.
Another idea I got from Shawn is to incorporate a Google Calendar into my classes. For each course, I think it would be a really good idea to have all deadlines and test dates marked on a course calendar. A big benefit of this for students would be the ability for students to receive reminder texts on their cell phones as to specific due dates in their class. Since the majority of students in high school have cell phones now, most of them would have no excuses such as "forgetting" that an assignment was due.
From Shawn Kleebaum's presentation, one of the coolest things I saw was Prezi. Prezi is kind of like a new, creative way for doing a powerpoint presentation. Some benefits of using Prezi in presenting information to your students would be that Prezi has the "wow factor" that PowerPoint does not really have, the canvas layout helps to prevent a presenter from using too much text, and it is easy to incorporate images, sounds, and videos into one presentation. I think that students would be a lot more motivated to do a presentation in classes if they had the opportunity to try using Prezi. One thing that I really like about Prezi is that since you work on one big canvas, you are able to show connections between ideas, and remember previous ideas better, rather than in PowerPoint where you are always flipping to a new slide.
Another idea I got from Shawn is to incorporate a Google Calendar into my classes. For each course, I think it would be a really good idea to have all deadlines and test dates marked on a course calendar. A big benefit of this for students would be the ability for students to receive reminder texts on their cell phones as to specific due dates in their class. Since the majority of students in high school have cell phones now, most of them would have no excuses such as "forgetting" that an assignment was due.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Dr. Glen Gatin's Presentation
One of the things that Dr. Gatin talked about today was Google Docs. I have never used Google Docs but I've heard that it is pretty neat. It allows two people to work on the same document. One person could edit the document and the other person could make the changes. Google Docs is a tool that I could use as a teacher. Provided that my students have access to it at home, two students could work collaboratively on a project without ever really having to get together in person.
For me, the idea of the multi user virtual environment "Second Life" is still a little bit difficult to wrap my head around! I do see how it could be cool to incorporate Second Life into the classroom though. Many students from around the world have created Avatars in Second Life. Second Life could be used as a way of connecting the student in my classroom to those all over the world. It seems that Second Life could be kind of like an educational community. Another benefit of Second Life is that it creates a way for students to create their own learning activities and experiences. Teachers could have their students create activities for one another to do. Second Life has the benefit for teachers of being able to participate in professional development in this virtual world, and being able to connect with teachers from all over the world. Hopefully there are many teachers out there in this virtual world who use Second Life in their teaching, that a new comer such as myself could get ideas from as to exactly how they use it in their classes. Second Life provides the chance for educators to interact with students in a new and very unique way!
For me, the idea of the multi user virtual environment "Second Life" is still a little bit difficult to wrap my head around! I do see how it could be cool to incorporate Second Life into the classroom though. Many students from around the world have created Avatars in Second Life. Second Life could be used as a way of connecting the student in my classroom to those all over the world. It seems that Second Life could be kind of like an educational community. Another benefit of Second Life is that it creates a way for students to create their own learning activities and experiences. Teachers could have their students create activities for one another to do. Second Life has the benefit for teachers of being able to participate in professional development in this virtual world, and being able to connect with teachers from all over the world. Hopefully there are many teachers out there in this virtual world who use Second Life in their teaching, that a new comer such as myself could get ideas from as to exactly how they use it in their classes. Second Life provides the chance for educators to interact with students in a new and very unique way!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Dr. Alec Couros Presentation
I really enjoyed listening to Dr. Alec Couros via Elluminate Live! It was pretty cool to be able to have a presentation from someone who was not even in the same province as us. This technology is something that could definitely be incorporated into a classroom setting, by having guest speakers talk to students about specific content areas. He showed us more cool tools (in addition to everything John showed us last week!) that as teachers would be very helpful. Slide share is a place I would love to check out, as there may be lessons that could be used in my classroom, or at least something to go on and modify to my liking.
One thing that Alec really made clear to me was the change in the role of teachers. I agree that Educators are moving less from being content experts and more towards connectors of information and knowledge to students. Teachers are moving from being "the typical teacher" whose small network consisted of information from the curriculum and other colleagues mainly, to "the networked teacher" whose larger network consists of an endless possibility of different personal learning networks to take part in. If we do not become networked, then we will fall behind with all the techonology out there available to us, and this would not be benefitting our students or ourselves as teachers at all.
One thing that Alec talked about were ePortfolios. I am working on my own ePorfolio at the moment, and if I would have known that it was not very difficult, I would have started working on an online porfolio much earlier on in my life. I think it would be a good idea to have the students in my class create an online porfolio of sample work that they complete throughout the year, as well as including reflections on each piece of work. This way, parents of the students could check their child's portfolio every once in a while to see the types of assignments and projects they have been working on, without the child having to bring home paper copies of their material.
Overall, a really good presentation!
One thing that Alec really made clear to me was the change in the role of teachers. I agree that Educators are moving less from being content experts and more towards connectors of information and knowledge to students. Teachers are moving from being "the typical teacher" whose small network consisted of information from the curriculum and other colleagues mainly, to "the networked teacher" whose larger network consists of an endless possibility of different personal learning networks to take part in. If we do not become networked, then we will fall behind with all the techonology out there available to us, and this would not be benefitting our students or ourselves as teachers at all.
One thing that Alec talked about were ePortfolios. I am working on my own ePorfolio at the moment, and if I would have known that it was not very difficult, I would have started working on an online porfolio much earlier on in my life. I think it would be a good idea to have the students in my class create an online porfolio of sample work that they complete throughout the year, as well as including reflections on each piece of work. This way, parents of the students could check their child's portfolio every once in a while to see the types of assignments and projects they have been working on, without the child having to bring home paper copies of their material.
Overall, a really good presentation!
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