Just to make things easier for me and Alyssa, will everyone please take a sec and write a comment to this post. In your comment, give me your name, blog URL, and teaching emphasis. This is mainly to help me and Alyssa make sure we are subscribed to everyone's blog. However, it'd also be a good resource to all of you. You are only required to read the blogs of your blogging buddies and this blog, but if you want more good ideas, you can subscribe to a few more if you want.
Friday, September 03, 2004
September 6th
Once a week or so, I'll try to do a "roundup" of some of the discussions going around our class blogosphere. I'll do this since you won't be reading all of your classmates' blogs. Hopefully your discussions will get specific in your blogging groups, and once a week I'll give the general picture of the class discussion as a whole, with my commentary included!
To start out, Jared had a thoughtful idea on (http://learn2serve.blogspot.com/2004/08/changing-world.html) about "Changing the World."
"The combination of ideas and dialogue are the catalysts for meaningful positive change. Diversity of thought properly represented increases the worth of ideas, propositions, arguments, etc. Let the dialogue begin."
I commented on his blog and said:
A third student, "Luma," was semi excited, semi nervous about class:
How many of you feel this way (silent show of hands! :-). I regret that we only have 1 credit to discuss these ideas — that's not a lot of "sunlight" as Luma says. But I hope you will leave this class with some good ideas about why we should consider using technology and some general ideas for how to do it. Then you can go out and apply the principles of this class to your own situations!
A fourth student, Rosie, responded to my post about the future of super high speed Internet.
A final note, surprisingly, the discussion this week that had the most participation was my post on the BYU game. I don't know if this means my other posts on education were that bad or if my post on the game was that good. Or maybe we just love our Cougars! Go Cougs!
To start out, Jared had a thoughtful idea on (http://learn2serve.blogspot.com/2004/08/changing-world.html) about "Changing the World."
"The combination of ideas and dialogue are the catalysts for meaningful positive change. Diversity of thought properly represented increases the worth of ideas, propositions, arguments, etc. Let the dialogue begin."
I commented on his blog and said:
"Whether you're quoting someone or made it up yourself, that's a great way to explain why blogs can be powerful. It allows a much greater diversity of thought. Anyone can work a blog--they're easy! So now anyone can put their thoughts out there to be read. Who knows who's going to ready YOUR blog this week? Could be anyone. That's why I like blogging. I get to hear many different ideas from outside my little BYU world."Another student, Roxana, wrote about Technology-assisted Language Learning:
"I guess I'll just write how I think that technology can help in teaching a foriegn language. I figure that it can also mean using videos and things like that which can be very helpful because the students can see what they've been hearing. Since everyone learns different ways that would be very helpful for visual learners."I think Roxana has hit on a key for why technology can help her in her subject—Visualization. In what ways could technology help YOU in YOUR teaching emphasis? Visualization is pretty general and applies to many different subjects, but maybe other learning styles are more emphasized in your discipline. If so, how can technology aid you in these learning styles?
A third student, "Luma," was semi excited, semi nervous about class:
"Well, for some of us, like me, this is my first and only shot at learning classroom technology. I'm more into the paper, the book, the flutter the pages and smell the print kind of English teacher. So the name Luma Solem, taken affectionately from Rowling's Harry Potter, describes the sunlight... a light I hope will come to my mind as I try to learn about these crazy things called computers!"
How many of you feel this way (silent show of hands! :-). I regret that we only have 1 credit to discuss these ideas — that's not a lot of "sunlight" as Luma says. But I hope you will leave this class with some good ideas about why we should consider using technology and some general ideas for how to do it. Then you can go out and apply the principles of this class to your own situations!
A fourth student, Rosie, responded to my post about the future of super high speed Internet.
"If simulations like that could be available on the internet and transfer fast enough to be brought into lecture at a spur of the moment (if the students had a particular question that the teacher did not anticipate) learning and understanding could certainly be better served in the moment, rather than waiting till next class period to explain now questions."I think simulations in particular have an exciting future in education. I believe students learn best by practicing authentic problems -- real life problems. Since students can't always be blowing things up in the chemistry lab while doing their homework, having a chemistry simulation like Virtual Chemlab allows them to practice "real" chemistry while at home. Wouldn't that be more effective than worksheets? What do you think class?
A final note, surprisingly, the discussion this week that had the most participation was my post on the BYU game. I don't know if this means my other posts on education were that bad or if my post on the game was that good. Or maybe we just love our Cougars! Go Cougs!
Thursday, September 02, 2004
Homework for this week!
Hah, just kidding, there is no homework for this week. But there is homework for next week (2 assignments) and so you may want to get started early. The survey is not ready yet, so nobody can take that yet, but it will take about 20-25 minutes, so plan on that for next week.
The Intro to Technology Integration assignment IS ready, so start working on it, if you wish by looking at the assignment rubric. It's also linked to my calendar page but NOT my class assignments page yet. One last thing-The Jonassen article you are supposed to scan is not available on Blackboard yet. Blackboard and the BYU server has been so slow lately that I'm not dealing with it yet.
Which, BTW, is one advantage of blogging! We move forward with the class even when the BYU server is down and out!
This is just FYI: There's a good conversation at SecEd German about how to use technology to teach language, and another off-class topic about stem cell research at Carla's blog. If those topics interest you, check them out!
The Intro to Technology Integration assignment IS ready, so start working on it, if you wish by looking at the assignment rubric. It's also linked to my calendar page but NOT my class assignments page yet. One last thing-The Jonassen article you are supposed to scan is not available on Blackboard yet. Blackboard and the BYU server has been so slow lately that I'm not dealing with it yet.
Which, BTW, is one advantage of blogging! We move forward with the class even when the BYU server is down and out!
This is just FYI: There's a good conversation at SecEd German about how to use technology to teach language, and another off-class topic about stem cell research at Carla's blog. If those topics interest you, check them out!
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
How is credibility on the web establishehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifd?
Here's a thought I have been having today that concerns blogs and wikis (which we will be using later this semester). Many people criticize the blog/wiki trend because it means we are reading stuff that is written by normal people -- not smarty-pants academics or "authorities." They worry that if we used blogs and wikis in K-12 settings, we may be exposing students to incorrect information.
Will Richardson says that
Yes, I think it's still good to teach students to quote sources and to find ideas similar and different from their own. But we should also teach them that THEY themselves can have much knowledge and truth that they can teach others. That's what blogs and wikis do: they make everybody an expert and everybody can have an audience. If you have good thoughts, more people will read you. For example, I read Will Richardson's blog every day because he has established credibility with me. I trust him and his ideas as much as any encyclopedia.
What do you think class? Am I messed up? Is it too dangerous to let students pretend that they know something? Should we require them to stick to the knowledge already created in the past, by "authorities"?
If you want to read more about this, go to my other blog, or Will's blog.
Will Richardson says that
"This is one of the most interesting changes that blogs and wikis are bringing about, the idea that we must learn to seek our own truths and not just rely on the interpretations of truth by others. The read/write Web by its very nature creates unedited texts that are going to have more and more influence and impact on how and what we read and believe. And, it requires us to think about new ways to teach students (and ourselves, for that matter) to find truth"He then quotes Colin Brook of Syracuse, who says that
"credibility is something you earn and develop, not something you simply have. When we ask our students to do research and to prepare the results in written form, we are teaching them to earn credibility through breadth and depth of research. You don't earn credibility by citing an "authoritative source," whatever that means. You earn it by testing your sources against one another, understanding what the reasons are for differences of opinion, and figuring out how to resolve them or to choose among positions, etc."
Yes, I think it's still good to teach students to quote sources and to find ideas similar and different from their own. But we should also teach them that THEY themselves can have much knowledge and truth that they can teach others. That's what blogs and wikis do: they make everybody an expert and everybody can have an audience. If you have good thoughts, more people will read you. For example, I read Will Richardson's blog every day because he has established credibility with me. I trust him and his ideas as much as any encyclopedia.
What do you think class? Am I messed up? Is it too dangerous to let students pretend that they know something? Should we require them to stick to the knowledge already created in the past, by "authorities"?
If you want to read more about this, go to my other blog, or Will's blog.
Monday, August 30, 2004
Week 1 - Setting up our blogs!
Well, this week we discussed our new IPT 286 class and I'm excited to be teaching such a variety of majors! Last semester I was teaching all elementary education majors, so this is exciting, especially since my only experience teaching in a K-12 setting is with high school kids.
Today we shared ideas about how our teachers used technology when we were students. We then discussed David Jonassen's article "Mindtools," where he discusses how we should have our students learn WITH technology, not from technology nor about technology. We also discussed weblogs in education and got started with our own weblogs and aggregators. If you missed class and aren't sure how to do this yet, or if you were in class and got lost, read my post about blogs, and then download the tutorial and follow the directions. And don't forget to subscribe to my blog and all the bloggers in your blogging buddy group.
BTW, when I said you need to be blogging this semester, you need to do a suficient amount of blogging about technology in education. I hope you blog about personal things too, for example one of our students got engaged last week! (I don't know how much she wants to publicize it, or else I'd link to her post here). I like to hear about things like that--it helps me get to know you as a real person, not just a student. So go ahead and blog about personal stuff, but remember that it doesn't substitute for your blogging about class topics.
TWO USEFUL TIPS--If you log back into blogger and go to "settings" and "comments" you can tell it to email you when someone comments on one of your posts. This is the easiest way to know when you have a new comment on your blog. The second tip is to blog in Mozilla, when you can. Mozilla is an Internet browser, like Explorer. It's free (at mozilla.org) and it's more secure and better than Explorer. When you log into blogger in Mozilla, there are cool formatting options that make writing a post even easier. We have Mozilla on all the computers in the TLSC lab (It's the big "M" on the dock at the bottom of the screen).
How often do you need to post to your blog to get the points? I don't know and can't say. It depends on how good your posts are. You should post and comment enough to convince me that you are conversing with your blogging buddies, using your blog to learn, and being diligent about it. It doesn't have to be every week, however.
Have fun-- I look forward to reading about your ideas!
p.s. if you have questions on anything this semester, post them to your blog and either I, the TA, or your blogging buddies will answer it for you. Whoever gets to it first.
Today we shared ideas about how our teachers used technology when we were students. We then discussed David Jonassen's article "Mindtools," where he discusses how we should have our students learn WITH technology, not from technology nor about technology. We also discussed weblogs in education and got started with our own weblogs and aggregators. If you missed class and aren't sure how to do this yet, or if you were in class and got lost, read my post about blogs, and then download the tutorial and follow the directions. And don't forget to subscribe to my blog and all the bloggers in your blogging buddy group.
BTW, when I said you need to be blogging this semester, you need to do a suficient amount of blogging about technology in education. I hope you blog about personal things too, for example one of our students got engaged last week! (I don't know how much she wants to publicize it, or else I'd link to her post here). I like to hear about things like that--it helps me get to know you as a real person, not just a student. So go ahead and blog about personal stuff, but remember that it doesn't substitute for your blogging about class topics.
TWO USEFUL TIPS--If you log back into blogger and go to "settings" and "comments" you can tell it to email you when someone comments on one of your posts. This is the easiest way to know when you have a new comment on your blog. The second tip is to blog in Mozilla, when you can. Mozilla is an Internet browser, like Explorer. It's free (at mozilla.org) and it's more secure and better than Explorer. When you log into blogger in Mozilla, there are cool formatting options that make writing a post even easier. We have Mozilla on all the computers in the TLSC lab (It's the big "M" on the dock at the bottom of the screen).
How often do you need to post to your blog to get the points? I don't know and can't say. It depends on how good your posts are. You should post and comment enough to convince me that you are conversing with your blogging buddies, using your blog to learn, and being diligent about it. It doesn't have to be every week, however.
Have fun-- I look forward to reading about your ideas!
p.s. if you have questions on anything this semester, post them to your blog and either I, the TA, or your blogging buddies will answer it for you. Whoever gets to it first.
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