Monday, April 4, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Ideas for Activities in Photo-Sharing--In Math?
Activities for Photo-Sharing in Math Class
Here are plans for a couple of photo-sharing activities in my Math for Elementary Teachers Class:
Activity 1: Similar Figures versus Congruent Figures
Description: Take a tour around your town or city with your digital camera or cell phone. Take at least 10 photos of architecture which displays similar figures and congruent figures. Tag your photos with where the photo was taken and what is being displayed in the photo—is it an example of similar figures or congruent figures? Upload your photos to the site…
Activity 2: Ancient Numbering Systems
Description: Find photos of Babylonian, Mayan and Roman numbering systems on the Internet. Share via the Discussion Board with a brief description of what these numbers mean in the photo.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
MySpace--NOT!
I researched MySpace because it was the first social network site that I heard about.
1.What was the target audience for this social networking site? The target audience for this site started out as a place for bands to connect. It quickly evolved into a popular site for teens in about 2004. As I peruse it, I see that it definitely targets teens and young adults with the nature of the entertainers featured on the log in page.
2. How long was the site in existence? MySpace has been in existence since 2003.
3. Why was it popular? What was its demise? It is still in existence. It was popular because music is popular with youth. Bands wanted to be able to contact fans. And fans could connect with their favorite bands. “Friends” were affiliated with common music likes.
4. Is/was there another competitor in the same market that was more popular? It would seem that Twitter and Facebook are MySpace’s competitors.
5. Would you ever consider creating an account and using it? Explain your reason using a personal experience as an example. I would not consider creating a “MySpace” account. “MySpace” seems to still cater to a younger audience. I am on “Facebook” and have found many long lost pals through it.
I find myself checking Facebook a couple of times a day and adding another social network for me is not a good idea. I simply don’t have enough time. Also, I see that many of my “friends” on Facebook are on there hourly and posting totally useless stuff which I find annoying sometimes. Oh well…
Reflection on Steve Hargadon and Social Networking
I totally agree with Steve Hargadon when he states, “There is very real value in “moderating” or “guiding” your network. The nature of a social network site encourages free response and uncensored posts. If one were to use a social network within their classes, clear cut expectations for responses must be communicated. Inappropriate posts must be dealt with immediately as inappropriate behavior must be dealt with in a face-to-face setting. It just wouldn’t be that someone would post something offensive, but rather, posts might begin to diverge away from the classroom topic at hand.
I definitely feel that some disciplines lend themselves better to a social network than others. Humanity types of courses where there is much verbal expression of ideas and writing would be better types of courses for the social network. Math classes would benefit the least from a social network setting. Writing is a valuable tool in math. However, the type of writing is often more technical. For instance, students might be asked to explain their approach to a problem. Their explanation may involve math symbols which are not easily available through the mechanism of a social network.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
The Role of the Wiki in My Classroom
After investigating wikis and trying to build a wiki on my own, I can see that they could be a useful tool in my math classes. I would design a wiki for each course I teach and organize pages by course content. The wiki would have generic titles of pages by topic instead of by chapter or section. This would allow it to be a work in progress and not tied to a particular text or program. Any notes that I would post would be under the appropriate page. It would be great if Tegrity videos could be posted under a page as well.
I am not sure how I would make this a requirement in my classes at this point. However, I do see it could be useful in getting students to share their problem solving strategies.
http://mathforelementaryteacherscourse.wikispaces.com/
I am not sure how I would make this a requirement in my classes at this point. However, I do see it could be useful in getting students to share their problem solving strategies.
http://mathforelementaryteacherscourse.wikispaces.com/
Sunday, February 20, 2011
What Will Become of American Education?
What Will Become of American Education?
After looking at Will Richardson’s post “Crazy Days” on Feb. 19, my grandmother’s words come to mind—“We’re all going to hell in a handbasket…”. This seems to sum up the state of the American education system after looking at the newspaper headlines and happenings across the country with regard to education. In Arizona, life for the K-12 teacher started to really get rough when the security of having tenure was eliminated. That coupled with budget cuts eliminating positions and any possibility for wage increases makes the teaching profession even less desirable than ever before. Truthfully, why would any sane person go into such a profession? What I see is that the education system that is currently in existence will cease to be in the same format. For fiscal reasons, I predict that online education will be the primary delivery system of education not only at the college level but at the K-12 levels as well. This has some very serious pedagogical implications.
Some of these pedagogical implications are exposed in the author’s post entitled “Online Learning is not Learning Online” where he shares a list of “benefits” of online learning supplied by high school sophomores in Utah. The author is not impressed by this list and neither am I. “I can do all my math for the week on one day if I want to” and “I can work around a busy schedule” are just a couple of items on the list. Such reasons are superficial and imply that online education is a means of convenience. Students don’t mention anything about “learning” at all. The author is chagrined by the students’ views on online education and argues that they may doing coursework but are not getting the connections needed to sustain them beyond the class. Essentially, these students are not demonstrating that they are becoming the “life-long learners” that educators hope they become.
So what does all of this mean for the current teacher? It means we have super challenges ahead of us. We will need to sort out meaningful from non-meaningful technological activities that we require of the online student. If our goal is to have students become critical thinkers and lifelong learners, we will need to require activities that require much from the student. Activities in which students can “click” their way through the course should not be the focus. Activities that require the student to seriously reflect about their experiences should be the norm. Easier said than done…
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
My Teaching Philosopy
My teaching philosophy is centered around the idea that the student is ultimately the one responsible for his or her learning. The role of the teacher should be as facilitator. The teacher should provide the student with tools to guide learning. These tools are vast in nature depending on what subject is being taught. For example, in the area of mathematics education, the tools would include problem-solving models and instruction in the use of technology.
In an in-person class, my view of an ideal classroom is one in which the teacher uses a rather Socratic method of teaching. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method I visualize the teacher answering a student question with a question to invoke critical reflection on the part of the student. However, there are a couple of things that prevent this method from being a common reality in today’s classroom. First, there is not enough time to cover the required material if there is a lot of individual reflection of each problem situation. Second, today’s students want instant answers. They are used to “Googling It” and getting immediate results. They want to see how to do the problem, but don’t want to reflect on the problem-solving that goes into it. They see the answer to the problem as the desired end. I see the problem-solving that goes into getting the answer as the focus. Further, getting students to share their approaches with other students is valuable. As students witness other approaches, they are broadening their experiences with problem-solving and are essentially adding to their “toolbox” to draw upon in future problem solving situations.
In many ways I see that online education as an ideal opportunity to achieve the goal of making students responsible for their own learning. Online education is definitely student-centered. They must be active and participative in classroom assignments. They aren’t permitted to sit in the back of a classroom somewhere “learning by osmosis”. Students must take advantage of tools within the online course to direct their own learning experience. Again, the role of the teacher should be as facilitator. For me, personally, this is a giant leap out of my comfort zone. I welcome the challenge in creating the tools needed to enable students to learn in the online setting.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
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