O.K., so it's a little cliched by now. Every professor at BYU asks you to watch conference and look for evidence of ____________ (whatever your class topic is about). For me, my professor wants me to watch conference and look for evidence of evaluation.
Well, I know it's cliche but I'm going to ask you to do the same thing with our class. What things did you notice that might apply to technology in education? I just watched Elder Miller talk about Neal A. Maxwell's counsel about how to bring peace. Do you remember how he had images and video clips of Elder Maxwell play while he was talking? Do you also remember how he showed a clip of Elder Marion Romney when he read a quote from Elder Romney? I don't know about you, but didn't that help his message stick in your memory a little better? Didn't it make it more enjoyable to listen to him and easier to be engaged in what he was teaching? I also was thinking it would be even better if when the leaders of the Church quoted a former prophet, if they actually played the audio clip of that leader talking. That way we could have heard Elder Romney's actual voice. I know there are time constraints, but it's just a thought.
In what other ways does the Church use educational technologies to help teach the gospel message (there are many, so you should be able to think of several). I look forward to hearing your ideas!
Saturday, October 02, 2004
Thursday, September 30, 2004
Home Economics resources
Shauna Jackson, another IPT TA, is going to start doing searches for useful stuff for teachers of different disciplines. She'll do a different discipline each week. I'll link to her posts whenever she does this, so you can benefit from her research. This week, she focused on home economics and found the following:
Family and Consumer Science Wiki
A website full of useful links
From Cornell University, a website about the history of Home Economics
Family and Consumer Science Wiki
A website full of useful links
From Cornell University, a website about the history of Home Economics
Transparent technologies
There's one topic I wanted to bring up sometime this semester. It's the idea of "transparent technologies." To illustrate, I'll quote a comment to one of my posts about Jared's question of "whether technology is helping or hurting" (which, by the way, is a topic I think we could all think a little more on. If you need to do some posting for participation points, you might consider reflecting on this topic).
Anyway, a student responded with a great comment, and part of her comment was that:
Did you catch the "transparent technology?" She said computers keep us from socializing face to face, and then she gives the example of emailing instead of calling someone on the phone. But isn't using a phone a technology? Talking on the phone isn't socializing face to face, but we think it is. We all feel this way, I'm sure, to some degree. Why is this so? Why is email, blogs, or discussion boards a "new," "radical," and "unnatural" way of talking to each other when phones aren't? Either way, we're not actually face to face.
The point I'm making is that after a technology has been around long enough that we have all adopted it, it becomes transparent. That means we don't even notice it's there. Many people don't even consider audiotapes or videotapes a technology anymore, and teachers don't have any hesitation using these technologies, but they won't touch computers (sometimes). But someday, the new technologies of today -- like wikis, for example -- will become transparent too.
As technologies get more and more transparent, it's easier to use them in the classroom because you don't have to teach the students how to use them. For example, all students know how to take a picture, so using cameras would be an easy technology to use. While I'm a huge fan of new and exciting technologies, we shouldn't ignore the transparent technologies that might be easier to use and could still be effective.
That said, I've told some of you that I want your wikis to be about "new" technologies. Transparent technologies are great, but we already know all about them. In your group projects the rest of this semester, focus on learning new technologies that may become transparent to the younger generation very quickly, maybe even by the time you graduate and start teaching ...
Anyway, a student responded with a great comment, and part of her comment was that:
"I totally agree with Jared that blogging and communication through computers escalates the amount of time spent away from others in a conference or socializing setting. I find myself falling into this trap. It is easier for me to write an email to my friends than to call them on the phone"
Did you catch the "transparent technology?" She said computers keep us from socializing face to face, and then she gives the example of emailing instead of calling someone on the phone. But isn't using a phone a technology? Talking on the phone isn't socializing face to face, but we think it is. We all feel this way, I'm sure, to some degree. Why is this so? Why is email, blogs, or discussion boards a "new," "radical," and "unnatural" way of talking to each other when phones aren't? Either way, we're not actually face to face.
The point I'm making is that after a technology has been around long enough that we have all adopted it, it becomes transparent. That means we don't even notice it's there. Many people don't even consider audiotapes or videotapes a technology anymore, and teachers don't have any hesitation using these technologies, but they won't touch computers (sometimes). But someday, the new technologies of today -- like wikis, for example -- will become transparent too.
As technologies get more and more transparent, it's easier to use them in the classroom because you don't have to teach the students how to use them. For example, all students know how to take a picture, so using cameras would be an easy technology to use. While I'm a huge fan of new and exciting technologies, we shouldn't ignore the transparent technologies that might be easier to use and could still be effective.
That said, I've told some of you that I want your wikis to be about "new" technologies. Transparent technologies are great, but we already know all about them. In your group projects the rest of this semester, focus on learning new technologies that may become transparent to the younger generation very quickly, maybe even by the time you graduate and start teaching ...
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Images in your wiki
One student asked me how to post images in a wiki. I thought others might have the same question, so I'll tell y'all. You just right click (pc) or control+click (apple) on a picture and copy the picture's URL. Then you paste the URL into the wiki. So you're really not putting the picture in the wiki, you're putting the picture's web address in the wiki, and the wiki is smart enough to do the rest. A very few pictures have not showed up. If this happens to you, just pick a different picture.
You'll notice on the wiki assignment page, that you need to have an image on each page. I was really hoping everyone would do a screenshot of the technology they are talking about, especially if you're doing a description page. Seeing just explains things better than telling. However, I forgot that you would need to somehow get the screenshot on the internet so you could then put it in the wiki! You could do this, of course, by putting your screenshot on your BYU U-drive space (the part of your U-drive reserved for website stuff), and then it would be on the internet and you could link to it in your wiki.
But I haven't expected you to use your U-drives or anything like that. So disregard my strong counsel to use screenshots and just use any images you can get off the internet that will help us see what the technology is that you are describing.
However, if some of you WANT to put your pictures on the U-drive and then put them in a wiki, it'd be cool. Once you knew how to put picture on your U-drive you'd be able to put pictures in your blog too. Here's a tutorial to help you do it (it's not hard) and the lab assistants in the McKay building are very good and could probably help you with this.
You'll notice on the wiki assignment page, that you need to have an image on each page. I was really hoping everyone would do a screenshot of the technology they are talking about, especially if you're doing a description page. Seeing just explains things better than telling. However, I forgot that you would need to somehow get the screenshot on the internet so you could then put it in the wiki! You could do this, of course, by putting your screenshot on your BYU U-drive space (the part of your U-drive reserved for website stuff), and then it would be on the internet and you could link to it in your wiki.
But I haven't expected you to use your U-drives or anything like that. So disregard my strong counsel to use screenshots and just use any images you can get off the internet that will help us see what the technology is that you are describing.
However, if some of you WANT to put your pictures on the U-drive and then put them in a wiki, it'd be cool. Once you knew how to put picture on your U-drive you'd be able to put pictures in your blog too. Here's a tutorial to help you do it (it's not hard) and the lab assistants in the McKay building are very good and could probably help you with this.
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
The NEW Internet
Well, we all know how cool the Internet is and you all just found some great resources to help your teaching.
But what if a new Internet came out that was even better? So much better, in fact, that it's creators say it will revolutionize the way we do everything --just like the original internet did?
Well, it's happening. It's called Internet2, or the Semantic Web. I really don't understand it completely myself, but it uses a new language called XML instead of HTML, and the basic idea is this: Right now computers can search through webpages and find words, but they don't know what they mean. For example, If you search for Civil War, Google will find webpages that say Civil War alot. But what if the computer knew what you meant by Civil War, knew what kinds of pages you wanted, and what other words are related to Civil War? What if the computer knew what words meant and how they relate to other ideas? "Semantics" basically means "the meaning of words and symbols."
Anyway, like I said, I don't understand how they're going to make it work exactly, but I know that they are really excited about it. If you want to learn more about this, read this interview with Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the Internet. You can also look up Tim Berners-Lee and the Semantic Web in Wikipedia.
If you can catch the vision of what Berners-Lee is trying to do, what kinds of opportunities could this present in education? How would this impact research and learning and access to information?
But what if a new Internet came out that was even better? So much better, in fact, that it's creators say it will revolutionize the way we do everything --just like the original internet did?
Well, it's happening. It's called Internet2, or the Semantic Web. I really don't understand it completely myself, but it uses a new language called XML instead of HTML, and the basic idea is this: Right now computers can search through webpages and find words, but they don't know what they mean. For example, If you search for Civil War, Google will find webpages that say Civil War alot. But what if the computer knew what you meant by Civil War, knew what kinds of pages you wanted, and what other words are related to Civil War? What if the computer knew what words meant and how they relate to other ideas? "Semantics" basically means "the meaning of words and symbols."
Anyway, like I said, I don't understand how they're going to make it work exactly, but I know that they are really excited about it. If you want to learn more about this, read this interview with Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the Internet. You can also look up Tim Berners-Lee and the Semantic Web in Wikipedia.
If you can catch the vision of what Berners-Lee is trying to do, what kinds of opportunities could this present in education? How would this impact research and learning and access to information?
More on laptops in schools
Well, you all probably think I am pushing for every kid to have a laptop. I'm not. In fact, I don't believe that giving every student a laptop is necessarily a good thing nor would it automatically improve learning. But laptops in schools is a hot issue right now, and one you will probably encounter sometime as teachers. I thought you might want to read this article from e-School News on the subject about a school doing away with paper textbooks. They claim that over time it will actually be cheaper to give out laptops:
Like Rich Culatta said recently, my thoughts are, why all the fuss about laptops? There are lots of other technologies that can be very powerful. In fact, many of you are learning about them as you write your wiki pages.
What do you guys think? What technology do you think could have the greatest, most general across all subjects, impact on a school? If your principal asked you what technology he should purchase for everyone to use, what would you say?
BTW- you might consider signing up for e-School News because it's free!
"Instead of spending hundreds of dollars per student on individual textbooks, which have become increasingly difficult to update given the ever-changing world of state standards, district administrators opted to put the money toward laptops so the curriculum could be modernized digitally alongside evolving requirements, at little or no additional cost.
Lee said the technology should help provide a more relevant curriculum while preparing students for the central role technology likely will play in their lives after graduation."
Like Rich Culatta said recently, my thoughts are, why all the fuss about laptops? There are lots of other technologies that can be very powerful. In fact, many of you are learning about them as you write your wiki pages.
What do you guys think? What technology do you think could have the greatest, most general across all subjects, impact on a school? If your principal asked you what technology he should purchase for everyone to use, what would you say?
BTW- you might consider signing up for e-School News because it's free!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)