week 14

There are principles about teaching the Gee describes. Gee has identified a number of principles that underlie modern game design that can teach us a lot about learning. I believe that three are very good principles.  The practice principle lets the learners get lots of practice in a non boring way.  It makes the learning not boring because it is virtual.  The practice is related to the task at hand.  I also like the discovery principle.  This is letting the learner experiment and make discoveries on their own.  In my opinion, it is similar to the practice principle but you get to learn on your own by making your own mistakes.  I also like the active, critical learning principle.  I love that it is a more active learning.  I don't believe in passive learning, learning should be a hands on.

Simulation would be easy to incorporate it into a physical education classroom. Pretty much that is the best way to show how to perform an activity. This is already implimented into the class and it is easier to use than in an academic classroom.
I like to play games so getting into games would be intresting.  It makes learning much more fun and I know if I were a student and was given these products, I would love to be involved in this.  When I was in elementary, it made me love math and also there was a program that made me want to learn to spell.  Simulations are a great technology to keep the students involved.  I think that learning is going to be a lot of fun in the future just because of the technologies that are vastly growing today.

Resources:

Jonassen, D., Howard, J., Marra, R., Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful learning with technology (pp. 54). Upper Saddle, New Jersey: Pearson.

Meaningful Learning

Technology based rubrics are rubrics made with the help of internet tools. This is helpful because even if you don't use the rubric that is online then it can be a good starter to create a rubric for your classroom activity. Rubrics are good for grading certain kinds of projects/essay/and short answer questions. It gives the teacher an ability to grade answers fairly, it reminds the teacher what exactly they are looking for to get the right grade. It is good for studnets to because they can see what the teacher is going to grade upon.

Clicker assessment tools is an interactive tool that can be used in a room with a ceratin kind of board. It allows the students to give their input during class easily and quickly. It would be a great review tool because as the teacher is asking questions everyone can answer and see how many people got it right and wrong, and can stop and review the material if not very many people knew the answer.

Inspiration/Kidspiration software allows the students to be more interactive in the classroom and can be more clearly examined on their outcomes. This can always be used in the classroom beceause the more you can keep the students interactive the more they will learn and pay attention.

Jessica Miller

Visualizing with Technology

Digital storytelling is a story told by using technology that we have and use today.  It provides use with the ability to connect to the creator from the viewer.  The activity in the book provides students with an opportunity to work together with all the different roles that people who work in movies have to do.  I believe it would be easy to use this in a physical education classroom.  Students could make a simple movie on of them participating in a physical activity. 

Most students want to know how math can be applied to their lives and how they will need it. We try to use visuals to fing a way.  One of the best-known visualization tools is Geometric Supposer, a tool for making and testing conjectures in geometry through the process of constructing and manipulating geometric objects and exploring the relationships within and between these objects.  It allows students to construct their own shape by defining points, line segments, angles, etc.  It makes shape making a lot easier and quicker.  It is also a good visualization because shapes drawn by human can get a tad messy.   This is useful because it makes huge data available to graph.  It is a very powerful and useful tool.  These types of software help the people who are not very good in math or constructing tables and graphs.  The book also mentions graphing calculators which make math a lot easier! I know that since I am a math major, I use it nearly every class period and it has helped me tremendously.  It is like a small graphing software in your hands.  It is a very useful tool and I would recommend anyone to get one.
I believe that you can learn from TV alone on somethings. I have watched my step-daughter watch all these shows on cartoon network or something like that and she knows more spanish from that than me. You can also learn to cook from watching someone of tv do it. Most people learn visually so it is a good way to learn. however you can't learn how to do something without trying it yourself. So technically you can't learn it you just get the idea.

Jessica Miller

Podcasting

Podcasting is a technological tool people use to record information and others can listen to on their ipod or mp3 player. After reading about podcasts I decided to get on my iTunes and check out what is out there. Mostly what I found were radio shows and news discussions. Anyone can make a podcast though for free. Teachers can use them to have lectures with their students if they happen to miss class or something. Teachers can also use podcasts to record their lectures when the students were in class to help them study for tests and give them a chance to listen to it again.

Podcasting is similar to other Web 2.0 application in a way that it gives people the opportunity to recieve information without face to face time. However podcasting is different because there is no way for discussion afterwards.

I own an ipod but never use it since I got an iphone. My ipod was only a 1G and my phone gave me more memory and convient. I use the ipod part only for music and ringtones. I would like to incorporate a podcast into my physical education classroom but it would take time for me to get it right. Since there isn't much intelectual testing that needs much studying for, I would use it for some kind of work out for a certain amount of time where students can participate in a structured work out out of class. The advantages about this tool is it is on something convient for student that they already use. The disadvantage is there is no discussion part for students to ask questions about the lesson that day.

Jessica Miller

Web 2.0 Applications

I my PE classroom I would like to use wikis and blogs help each other with research projects. There are usually not research projects in PE because there is not time. I would like to have some kind of reserach project in my classroom because people learn first hand and students need to go out and really see how exercise and diet can significantly help your future health. Using wikis and blogs students can work on the project outside of class without having to actually meet up with each other. They can check progress and ideas online. On top of that I can check their progress and give them any needed help.

Social bookmarking would be beneficial for my class because I can use it to give students the opportunity to check out health related websites that can be benificial to them or any project they might do. This way if they do a reserach project they have a guideline to follow without using the entire web to find an answer, because doing it that way they could have problems encountering misleading information. However, I would not use a voice thread because there are just not as clear cut as they should be there are many rooms for error.

I have not experienced Tapped In. However, it was intresting to read about it and what it can offer. To me it seems like it is a chat room just specialized. Meaning all the people chatting are talking about a certain topic and with people who know about the topic. The specialized chatting circles are good too because it's more like one on one questioning and you can ask a question you think is stupid without thinking everyone else will think the same.

Jessica Miller


References:
Community Building with Technologies, Chapter 6. Meaningful Learning with Technology, 2008. Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R. M., and Crismond, D.

Assessing Learning with Technology

Assessment activites are needed to see that students understand the information presented to them. There are two types of tests if you want to see a different kind of regurgitation of information. There is recognize that is multipul choice and true false tests. This shows that you can recognize that two things go together by sight alone. Then there is recall which is fill in the blank, short answer, and essay tests. You can use either one of these styles to test learning. These recognization tests show that students understand the surface of information and get the idea. The recall tests make the student have to explain the topic and really think back get the ideas from their head. It depends on what type of feedback you want on which type of test you present. Multipul choice test allow you to put this many people missed it and this many people got it right, but with an essay test you can see if anyone really understood the concept.

An e-portfolio is an online resume/blog/information sheet. It helps teachers exchange information with each other and allow anyone to get a basic understanding about them. It helps students have a contact page to reach a teacher. Computer based tests and tests done on some type of technology. These type of tests impact validity and reliability in a positive way. Students can make just as many mistakes using technology as they can on paper, however students are more amped to use something other than paper and pencile that they are more interactive in their studies.

Technology is going to get us as teachers above and beyond ever though possible years ago. Technology has taken a huge leap in the past 5 years in our classrooms that is helping us mix it up with our students. Anytime students get to get away from the traditional pencile and paper  work they are more in tuned. Technology has also given teachers an advantage by giving them a way to do less teadious work. Computers can do most of the grading and giving teachers more time to make plans for the next day. Technology has also made the classroom more interactive. The book talked about this controller that would allow students to answer questions with this controller and they would be able to see if they got it right or wrong, but also if anyone else missed it. This is a positive and a negative. I have done something similar to this and I would sometimes accidently push the wrong button. Also there could be a question where you get to see if everyone else missed it and no one did but you. There are always going to be disadvantages to something in one way or another but when the advantages outweight the disadvantages, then it's not a bad idea to impliment it into the classroom.

References:
Jonassen, David. Meaningful Learning With Technology: Third Edition.

Jessica Miller

Copy-right and Blogging

Copyright laws have been implemented to give credit to the creator and give them the rights for people to use their idea. We need to respect this more than we do, especially on the Internet, because when we use something that isn’t ours and don’t give credit to the creator, it’s stealing. It is like plagiarizing on a paper. Someone else came up with the idea and we need to give him or her credit for it, we just agree. Copyrights go beyond plagiarism though. It gives the creator an opportunity to charge for the use of their idea and sue for anyone who tries to steal their idea. The main reason we should respect this is because no one would want someone to steal their idea and use it like they came up with it. However, in and educational setting there are fair use policies. These polices allow teachers to use these ideas and programs in their classroom while limiting the content to an extent. These policies should really be respected because they are a privilege. The creators with copyrighted material are okay with the use of their material for an educational purpose just not when the privilege is abused. If these rights aren’t respected the amount of lawsuits will increase and we will lose our privilege to use the material without spending much money. As teachers we will have to teach our students to appreciate the privilege and not abuse it because they use information on the Internet all the time.  The best way to teach students of this is show them ways to give credit to the creator and also show them how it feels to have someone steal their work and their idea. That I believe is the best way to make that point to the students.

While also teaching the students about giving credit we also need to show them how to be safe on the Internet. Online safety is keeping your personal information safe. With so many kinds of social networking sites on the internet it is easy to get wrapped up in catching up with old friends we get side tracked on what information we are giving to the world. Knowing certain online safety procedures, you can keep your personal information safe. One is hard to do, but it’s don’t use your real name. On social network sties when you are trying to find your friends you need to know the name, just keep it simple. You shouldn’t put your birthday, address, phone number, or any other personal information on your page. Also not everyone needs to know what you are doing every second. People put they are going on vacation from one date to another then wonder why when they get home they have been robbed. There is also a problem with Internet bullying. It is different from safety. Using safety guidelines will help from being bullied. Bullying is when someone finds you and harasses you. They will not leave you alone and find anyway to mess with you online, including stocking you. Being knowledgeable about the effects of putting too much information for everyone to see is the best way to help students be safe. Most people don’t realize what they are doing putting certain things on the Internet till someone tells them. I have been guilty of this, too.

This weeks activities were full of information that has never been fully presented to me. I’ve been told a thing or two along the way but never in this black and white. I learned a lot about the fair use laws. I understood copyright laws, but didn’t really know much about how it changes for educational purposes. I always had the mind set that I would rather just do it the correct way on getting permission than be sorry and get sued for money I don’t have. I got an 80% on the quiz so I don’t know everything that is legal but I’m headed in the right direction. I still don’t know on the social network pages how you can connect with your friends without your name. I was one of those people with my birthday and more personal information on my Facebook because I never though of how that could be dangerous until someone said something. These kids need to be aware of this because they are the main ones putting little thing about them out there for everyone.

References:

Carnell, Liz. Major Crackdown of Internet Stalking. Accessed September 27, 2010. http://www.bullying.co.uk/

Copyright Office. About Copyright. Accessed September 27, 2010. http://www.copyright.gov/ 

Copyright Quiz. Accessed September 27, 2010.  http://www.csus.edu/indiv/p/peachj/edte230/copyright/quiz.htm


Jessica Miller