Web 2.0/Social Networking Tools in the Classroom: Group Wiki Link

http://dannyswiki2010.wikispaces.com/What+is+Web+2.0

Universal Design for Learning: Inspiration Concept Map (Revised)

Here is my (revised) UDL Concept Map.  I have chosen the key points that I feel best organize the reading material on the Universal Design for Learning.  I chose to separate subtitles/details by color for easy understanding and visual appeal.  I also chose pictures that I find best suit each grouping.  Pictures add another great element of understanding for visual learners.

 

MD 400 Midterm Course Reflections...

I can’t believe the semester is already halfway over!  So far I have learned a lot of new educational technology skills.  I had some experience in photoshop prior to this class but had never taken it to the level we had, with removing objects and replacing them in new photos, etc. That was really neat.  Learning about Inspiration/Kidspiration was great and I could really see myself creating graphic organizers and such in my own classroom someday. These products are very kid friendly and attractive with all the options of adding cartoon figures and designs.  Before this class I have also had very little experience in blogging, let alone creating my own.  I had read a few before on various websites but never knew the logistics.  I think it’s a very useful tool in expressing your thoughts and opinions or just sharing information with others.  I am really enjoying the idea of having my own website to hold all of my ideas and projects for others to see, as well as learning a little about myself.  Having visited numerous websites, I had never given much thought on how to create one or useful hints as to what makes one good or bad.  I have also enjoyed creating my own digital story using personal photographs.  As someone who loves pictures and taking them, it’s a really inventive way to use them further and creating a story to follow.  I was really happy to have been given a lesson on using SMARTboards.  I have had 2 years experience in Assistant Teaching and had never used one.  The school I was teaching at had one in every grade level but I never worked in the classroom that had had it.  I have heard from friends and others that more and more schools are having them set up in classrooms and making it a mandatory tool to incorporate in various lessons.  I feel this experience will come in handy when I apply to future teaching positions.  So far nothing has been too challenging and I have really just enjoyed learning all of these new technological tools and uses.  One challenging thing would be, as in any case using any technology, that you can easily forget how to use certain tools if you don’t use them again soon after.  Also depending on computers and technology to work sometimes can be frustrating when they fail to work properly.  In that case you must always have a ‘plan b’!  I look forward to the rest of this semester and hope to further broaden my horizons on educational teachnology.

The Innovative Educator blog- Revisited

I chose to revisit the blog, The Innovative Educator:  sharing ideas about educating innovatively.  The most recent blog is titled, “Facebook Doesn’t Get Teachers Fired- Inappropriate Behavior Does.”  The blog posted information from a New York Post article on teachers getting fired for flirting with students on facebook.  I was shocked to read this was true.  To think these teachers, and those in defense of such ridiculous behavior, suggest it’s the fault of Facebook and any other digital device of todays world.  I happen to strongly disagree with that and rather agree with the blogger in that it is not the fault of having Facebook, but instead the fault falls in the hands of these teachers themselves and their inappropriate behavior.  Ofcourse now, as the blogger suggests, this is going to further instill fear in adult's minds over whether their child/student is safe to use such tools.  The blogger also notes that this is NOT a social networking scandal, but rather “an inappropriate conduct scandal.”  The blogger goes on to say that “These teachers weren’t behaving badly because of facebook. There have always been inappropriately behaving adults. Facebook, in the case or these adults, didn’t cause their behavior, it just made it easier for them to get caught.” I have to say, I completely agree with this statement.

Inquiry-Based Learning and Historical Thinking

Throughout my educational experience as a student, I cannot recall being taught a lesson solely providing an inquiry-based learning style.  My educational background has been very traditional, memorizing facts and having to recall information given to us.  In a typical lesson, my teachers would tell us about what we will be learning, provide an example and show us how to do it.  We would then memorize what we’ve seen, try to comprehend the meaning behind it and try to tackle it on our own.  There would be discussions on how it can be applied elsewhere and whether or not it could relate to us or life in the future.  Definitely in subjects such as science we were given even greater freedom to learn, hands-on, how something develops or can be made using various materials.  Hypothesis were sometimes created and we discovered IF…THEN, cause and effect solutions and outcomes.

As an Assistant Teacher for the past two years, both in kindergarten and third grade, I also experienced a pretty traditional method of teaching.  As some fellow teachers remarked on the lessons prepared for our students, “we are here to hold their hand through the process” in these early years of learning.  In other words, we provide them with information and try to have them comprehend and apply it to the best of their ability.  If our first attempt fails to any student, we then dig deeper and help them understand using various learning style techniques.  There were various projects, especially in science and social studies, where our students were given materials and asked to tackle the activity with little instruction and see what they can figure out themselves.  Of course in the end, we would still provide the ‘correct’ way to accomplish the desired outcome and why what happened, did in fact happen, therefore again we are teaching a traditional method.

I believe the idea and usage or inquiry-based learning can be very valuable to both the teacher and the student.  Although I agree with many forms or traditional ways of teaching/learning, I also deem it important to use multiple hands-on, effective learning strategies.  A quote given in our inquiry-based learning guide struck me as being significant to the educational world, “Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand.”  The last part of this quote where it states, “ …involve me and I understand”, is what I see as the part lacking in traditional methods of teaching.  As far as historical thinking in classrooms goes, I also consider it to be essential that students learn all different interpretations of historical facts and situations.  So often in traditional taught education, students are only given one (sometimes two) textbooks with all presumed ‘facts’ of how historical events occurred.  The problem I agree with on this is that students are only given one perspective and point of view (usually biased by the author).  I think it would be more valuable to students if they were provided with more than one textbook, and made to research the topic(s) further throughout the internet and other various historical documents in libraries, attend museums, etc.

My MD 400 Professional Portfolio Website

https://sites.google.com/site/md400professionalportfolio/home

Inspiration Concept Map

This Inspiration 'Concept Map' can be used for students in Language Arts.  As my example shows, this would be used as an organizational tool for a creative writing activity on The Beach.  This map would organize the student's thoughts on what and who they would write about, while using descriptive adjectives for quality writing.  As UDL (Universal Design for Learning) suggests, this map is both visually appealing and easy to read for students.  For students with any visual learning disabilities, I would have the audio component on to read back what they have written in each part.  This concept map would be a great tool to use for the class as a whole, as well as students individually.