1. The bear is getting happier.
2. I paid good money learn how to play spore! I vaguely remember one of my instructors stating that she learned how to operate a VCR in a masters level course.
3. How do we get gaming culture to address the needs of education in a timely manner. I can see that it could be lucrative, but generally gaming culture moves at the front edge of technology and it seems to take public schools eon's to adopt anything new.
4. If the game uses the correct fundamentals about the subject but allows the user to manipulate the environment or product and see what happens, it can be a great tool in the classroom. One aspect that is great is the lack of severe punishments for failures. You still lose, but you can restart and it doesn't cost you more money. Your entire lab is not lost by one mistake. It also can increase the amount of information that can be worked with in a given time frame by removing the labor from a lab activity.
If it is just repetition or filling out the worksheet online, you might as well save the money and order the photocopies.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Tuesday 11/03
1. Yes, I am still a bear. The bear is considering having a ships porthole installed in current location of navel.
2. What did I learn this week? I found out that my new cell service does not work as well as it should have from Elk Camp. In past years, my nextel service was non-existent while my father-in-law/hunting partner had excellent service with verizon. This was one of the driving factors when I switched in September. This year neither his nor my cell phone worked consistently in the same location where his had worked just fine the last three years. He had to call home using the onstar on his truck. It is frustrating when you choose a technology only to find out that it will not do what it once did. I am sure there are contributing factors that could be explained to me by customer service, but none of these will change what happened.
I did not learn anything "in class" as I was not there. I was coaching one of the most exciting games I have had in a while. We were 2-6 going in and needed to win to get the play in game tonight for an oportunity to play on Saturday. Last year, Sultan beat us on a last second field goal. This year, we jumped out to a 21-7 lead, only to watch it vanish in the fourth quarter to a 22-21 deficit. We rallied with 2 minutes left to kick a 30 yard field goal to win the game. It was great to see our players fight through the frustrations and come out on top. Now we have to play tonight.
3. I have read and re-read "From dialogue to monologue and back: Middle spaces in computer-mediated learning" and pondered this with its relation to adolescent development. It seems that technology is viewed as this "rising tide, that will lift all boats" savior that will "engage" more students. What I question about this is did the technology in the setting described actually change the performance of the class as a whole or was the grading performance just as it normally would be? If you were to do the same assignment without the speakeasy or sensemaker tools, would the students have fared proportionately. I understand the use of the tools and what they were aiming for, but the question should be, "did it engage more students?" Would Jordan and Ann have delivered a similar report had the tools not been available to them? My hunch is that Connor and Tom would have delivered above average work either way. The technology is great if one is open to using it and one is able to correctly assimilate the information that becomes available from it. Did Jordan and Ann not understand how to use the tools effectively or were they choosing to "not use" the tools?
4. In the Tel's labs that we looked at a couple weeks ago, there was a dialogue to monologue and back pattern. I did like the way that it was set up as you went through the lab, offering catch up points for everyone involved instead of one group being finished with everything and other groups lagging behind. There will still be some of this, but it keeps everyone moving at the same speed. This is great for moderating classroom behavior but it might make things slow for students who are ahead of the game.
What I thought of adding to the activity described in the article by Enyedy and Hoadley was more options of using the concepts of thermal energy, insulation, specific heat, and heat flow by offering more than one way to use it. This activity was constricted by the it only being about a house in a desert. This concept alone may have driven students away from it by making most have to live in an environment that they may not have preferred. The physics concepts involved all behave the same way, but by giving students options of where to live they might take more ownership in it. How can these concepts be applied to the environment that I want to live in rather than everyone applying them to the same situation.
If the goal is to get as many students to understand these concepts then allowing them to study these concepts in regards to something that interests them will engage more of the students. If we need to find the best "desert house" then they all have to study desert houses whether they like it or not.
2. What did I learn this week? I found out that my new cell service does not work as well as it should have from Elk Camp. In past years, my nextel service was non-existent while my father-in-law/hunting partner had excellent service with verizon. This was one of the driving factors when I switched in September. This year neither his nor my cell phone worked consistently in the same location where his had worked just fine the last three years. He had to call home using the onstar on his truck. It is frustrating when you choose a technology only to find out that it will not do what it once did. I am sure there are contributing factors that could be explained to me by customer service, but none of these will change what happened.
I did not learn anything "in class" as I was not there. I was coaching one of the most exciting games I have had in a while. We were 2-6 going in and needed to win to get the play in game tonight for an oportunity to play on Saturday. Last year, Sultan beat us on a last second field goal. This year, we jumped out to a 21-7 lead, only to watch it vanish in the fourth quarter to a 22-21 deficit. We rallied with 2 minutes left to kick a 30 yard field goal to win the game. It was great to see our players fight through the frustrations and come out on top. Now we have to play tonight.
3. I have read and re-read "From dialogue to monologue and back: Middle spaces in computer-mediated learning" and pondered this with its relation to adolescent development. It seems that technology is viewed as this "rising tide, that will lift all boats" savior that will "engage" more students. What I question about this is did the technology in the setting described actually change the performance of the class as a whole or was the grading performance just as it normally would be? If you were to do the same assignment without the speakeasy or sensemaker tools, would the students have fared proportionately. I understand the use of the tools and what they were aiming for, but the question should be, "did it engage more students?" Would Jordan and Ann have delivered a similar report had the tools not been available to them? My hunch is that Connor and Tom would have delivered above average work either way. The technology is great if one is open to using it and one is able to correctly assimilate the information that becomes available from it. Did Jordan and Ann not understand how to use the tools effectively or were they choosing to "not use" the tools?
4. In the Tel's labs that we looked at a couple weeks ago, there was a dialogue to monologue and back pattern. I did like the way that it was set up as you went through the lab, offering catch up points for everyone involved instead of one group being finished with everything and other groups lagging behind. There will still be some of this, but it keeps everyone moving at the same speed. This is great for moderating classroom behavior but it might make things slow for students who are ahead of the game.
What I thought of adding to the activity described in the article by Enyedy and Hoadley was more options of using the concepts of thermal energy, insulation, specific heat, and heat flow by offering more than one way to use it. This activity was constricted by the it only being about a house in a desert. This concept alone may have driven students away from it by making most have to live in an environment that they may not have preferred. The physics concepts involved all behave the same way, but by giving students options of where to live they might take more ownership in it. How can these concepts be applied to the environment that I want to live in rather than everyone applying them to the same situation.
If the goal is to get as many students to understand these concepts then allowing them to study these concepts in regards to something that interests them will engage more of the students. If we need to find the best "desert house" then they all have to study desert houses whether they like it or not.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
More Tuesday questions
1. Still a bear.
2. It is kind of a "Duh" when you think about it, but Robin's point that most of your students will go through your class merely to get through it stuck with me. My students won't all come out biology majors. I have to remind myself that most of the football players I coach do not take the game as seriously as myself and the other coaches. To most of them it is a way to have fun with their friends. By the same token, high school biology is basically a required course. The students do it because they have to. That doesn't mean they shouldn't get something out of it or that standards should be lower. It means that I cannot address the subject in ways that only make sense to science people.
3. How has/is the the new technology we have access to making its way into curriculum? I don't have any experience at this point with adopted curriculum by districts except from the word of other teachers I know. One middle level science teacher in a larger district wants to leave because he is tire of teaching curriculum that is district wide adopted and he has little room to add or take away as he sees necessary. I understand the need for districts to have the same curriculum from all teachers in a subject area, but what do you do if the curriculum is lagging behind the technology?
4. Something I have wanted to do for a while now, and I would have to break from sub plans to do it, would be the following.
a. break students into groups, each with at least one student with a phone/camera.
b. send them around the school to take 5 pictures of items they consider to be living and 5 things they consider to be dead. Groups should try to avoid using same things as each other.
c. Put photos together in a slide show. Describe why they chose the items, what about them makes them consider them living.
d. Present whole thing to class as video about characteristics of living and non living things.
2. It is kind of a "Duh" when you think about it, but Robin's point that most of your students will go through your class merely to get through it stuck with me. My students won't all come out biology majors. I have to remind myself that most of the football players I coach do not take the game as seriously as myself and the other coaches. To most of them it is a way to have fun with their friends. By the same token, high school biology is basically a required course. The students do it because they have to. That doesn't mean they shouldn't get something out of it or that standards should be lower. It means that I cannot address the subject in ways that only make sense to science people.
3. How has/is the the new technology we have access to making its way into curriculum? I don't have any experience at this point with adopted curriculum by districts except from the word of other teachers I know. One middle level science teacher in a larger district wants to leave because he is tire of teaching curriculum that is district wide adopted and he has little room to add or take away as he sees necessary. I understand the need for districts to have the same curriculum from all teachers in a subject area, but what do you do if the curriculum is lagging behind the technology?
4. Something I have wanted to do for a while now, and I would have to break from sub plans to do it, would be the following.
a. break students into groups, each with at least one student with a phone/camera.
b. send them around the school to take 5 pictures of items they consider to be living and 5 things they consider to be dead. Groups should try to avoid using same things as each other.
c. Put photos together in a slide show. Describe why they chose the items, what about them makes them consider them living.
d. Present whole thing to class as video about characteristics of living and non living things.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
6 year old working with Netflix Roku.
Netflix is the primary family technological entertainment in the home of this observation. They have a Roku player that works with a wireless router to play anything they select online from Netflix on their computer and put in the queue. The child is 6 and this serves as his “TV”. Netflix sends one DVD at a time and anything in the online queue can be played whenever through the Roku box.
He logs in to his laptop and opens the internet, clicks on the Netflix icon, and it directs him to our Netflix account. He can read well enough to navigate, but by now he has memorized where to go. It is not the first time he has used it. He moves into the children’s area and begins selecting movies and TV shows to make available. He looks for shows for about 20 minutes. He does not select everything he sees, only those that he recognizes, has heard about from conversations with his friends, or that look interesting. The look is of primary concern and most children’ shows have lots of colorful artwork to display, but he is still selective. After selecting the shows he wants to add, he will close out and go get the box. It has three wires to plug into the RCA plugs on the TV and a power cord. He puts it on the television of his choice. Turns it on and then selects the show that he wants to watch. At this point, he knows enough to get it going and watch shows, but his navigation is primarily visual. He can read well enough, but lacks the patience to read through the excerpt’s to see if a show is what he wants or not. If in doubt, he will put it in the queue. He also does not quite understand that you really only need so much in there. He does not remove things once he is done watching them, he will just keep adding to it. Once the show is running, it is generally passive entertainment. .
The biggest difference with this over television is that the viewer is controlling the content. He has chosen what he wants to watch and he will control when he watches it. If he wants to stop, he can and does not fear missing the rest of the show. There are also no commercials, so he is not constantly bombarded with information that he did not ask for. Without the commercials, the shows are shorter so he can usually get more of what he wants in less time than with regular television. Reading speed and comprehension are the biggest obstacles to his use and as those increase, he will get more out of this technology. Other than this, the rest of the muscular movements and images are the same.
So how does this apply to education? He has learned early on that he can control the information in front of him. He is not restricted to what is on at that time and he can use technology to get the information he wants right now. In the classroom, this plays out into why most students would rather not just watch a video on a subject. Most “videos” are meant for passive absorption and the only option a teacher might take is to have guided questions to answer during the presentation. The videos that are shown are usually older and out of date as well. The problem is that most students would rather be looking for the information online to see what they can find. In the classroom, the better options for this would be using a computer lab and having the students put together the information they find and post it or as simple as googling something as a class and seeing where it goes, and letting the students drive the searching.
Technology is the tool they use to drive their life. They reach their friends through instant communication. They put the songs they like on their IPOD. They play the games they chose to play. As a teacher, current technology needs to become the tool that drives the learning. The material you present needs to be accessible and work with the technology they have, otherwise it is just outdated, boring, and something they will never use.
He logs in to his laptop and opens the internet, clicks on the Netflix icon, and it directs him to our Netflix account. He can read well enough to navigate, but by now he has memorized where to go. It is not the first time he has used it. He moves into the children’s area and begins selecting movies and TV shows to make available. He looks for shows for about 20 minutes. He does not select everything he sees, only those that he recognizes, has heard about from conversations with his friends, or that look interesting. The look is of primary concern and most children’ shows have lots of colorful artwork to display, but he is still selective. After selecting the shows he wants to add, he will close out and go get the box. It has three wires to plug into the RCA plugs on the TV and a power cord. He puts it on the television of his choice. Turns it on and then selects the show that he wants to watch. At this point, he knows enough to get it going and watch shows, but his navigation is primarily visual. He can read well enough, but lacks the patience to read through the excerpt’s to see if a show is what he wants or not. If in doubt, he will put it in the queue. He also does not quite understand that you really only need so much in there. He does not remove things once he is done watching them, he will just keep adding to it. Once the show is running, it is generally passive entertainment. .
The biggest difference with this over television is that the viewer is controlling the content. He has chosen what he wants to watch and he will control when he watches it. If he wants to stop, he can and does not fear missing the rest of the show. There are also no commercials, so he is not constantly bombarded with information that he did not ask for. Without the commercials, the shows are shorter so he can usually get more of what he wants in less time than with regular television. Reading speed and comprehension are the biggest obstacles to his use and as those increase, he will get more out of this technology. Other than this, the rest of the muscular movements and images are the same.
So how does this apply to education? He has learned early on that he can control the information in front of him. He is not restricted to what is on at that time and he can use technology to get the information he wants right now. In the classroom, this plays out into why most students would rather not just watch a video on a subject. Most “videos” are meant for passive absorption and the only option a teacher might take is to have guided questions to answer during the presentation. The videos that are shown are usually older and out of date as well. The problem is that most students would rather be looking for the information online to see what they can find. In the classroom, the better options for this would be using a computer lab and having the students put together the information they find and post it or as simple as googling something as a class and seeing where it goes, and letting the students drive the searching.
Technology is the tool they use to drive their life. They reach their friends through instant communication. They put the songs they like on their IPOD. They play the games they chose to play. As a teacher, current technology needs to become the tool that drives the learning. The material you present needs to be accessible and work with the technology they have, otherwise it is just outdated, boring, and something they will never use.
Monday, October 19, 2009
The Laboratory!!!
What do you think of these types of resources?
Think about the educational benefit of doing this type of simulation vs. a wet lab:
a. what types of thinking are required to do this lab?
b. what types of content knowledge?
c. What does this lab allow you to do that you wouldn't be able to do without it?
d. what claims does the program make about teaching and learning (ie, does it talk about inquiry? independent learning?) and what is your take on these claims?
Direct online access to science information and learning tools. It seems like a very simple concept that could be easily added to any middle or high school science classroom or enabled by securing a computer lab for the necessary periods. What I like most about this is the Youtube possibilities. Many times in my own education, the videos we watched were ancient and outdated. By the time a video is created and sold and then "approved" for use as part of a curriculum, it is no longer "new information." Today's technology gives us access to things almost as they happen which can bridge the gap that existed yesterday. We still need to be careful that what is used is accurate information, but the more current science we can bring to the classroom will only enhance the application side of the fundamentals of science.
I looked at a number of projects, and even worked through creating my own project, but for the sake of this, we will keep it to the cell and mitosis project. Overall, I felt it was grade level appropriate. The lab design involves a holistic approach in that it uses medicines from plants to treat diseases. The ability to do that is the combination of many different science fields so students should be ready to grasp that concept as they do this lab. Moderate problem solving and observation skills are also necessary.
The content involves the phases of cell division so a basic understanding of cell structure such as membrane, nucleus, chromosomes and the idea that almost all growth is achieved by cell division is required as background. Students should understand a working definition of cancer and how that relates to growth. It would also be beneficial if students understand that many of our medicines have been derived from plants and a brief discussion of that process has occurred. It would also be helpfull to use any students in the class that can comfortably share their experiences with cancer, if possible.
If you were to replicate this lab as a wet lab in a high school classroom, it would be a longer term project if it was really designed to replicate this lab. With limited class times and repetition, it would be difficult to maintain adequate controls to replicate outcomes and have most of the students get something out it. The hands on experience would be great, but as a wet lab this would be reserved for an AP class to work on over the period of a couple weeks at least. With this lab as a simulation, students can partner up and work in a computer lab or at lab stations in the room if possible. They can start and stop without worry of ruining an experiment and can start over if necessary. It does bring the holistic nature of science together nicely where as with wet labs, students need to be more focused on controlling their own activities so that outcomes can be achieved and may miss the bigger picture. Even with the user license, it is cheaper to use the technology that is available in the computer lab rather than all of the equipment that would be necessary. Students can also finish this at another location rather than being tied to the science lab, its availability, and the instructors time. What they do miss out on is lab procedure. This really is what you are supposed to learn from wet labs. The content of the lab is important, but the discipline necessary to provide consistent outcomes is also important. At some point, students need to be ready to deal with irreversible outcomes. It does also eliminate some of the "yuck factor" that usually comes with wet labs.
In the project description it states that students "actively explore" and "discover through their inquiry." I cannot wholly agree with this. They do get to make some choices in this project and make their decisions based on the outcomes that they observe, but the outcomes are completely controlled. The exploration and discovery are simplistic. At no point is there "bad data" or something that will be an outlier. Also, if all the labs are done on a computer, the physical movements involved are all the same. The only stimulus that is being activated is visual. In wet labs, all five senses are usually involved whether we want them to be or not. Many parts of this lab are no different than using a video with a hand out, but since it is on a computer, I would expect a higher completion rate as the students are not just passively absorbing information but navigating through it. It is more active than a handout, but not as active as a wet lab.
The tuesday grind
1. Yes, I am still a bear. Becoming a grumpier bear due to lack of wins on friday nights and a little b.exe virus that has wreaked havoc on my laptop.
2. It always helps to have a back up. Thursdays class went okay, until we did not have shockwave on the computers in the lab. This meant pulling out the laptop and looking at the homework? A little frustrating as it could have been done remotely, but few things in this world are better than human interaction and sharing with others who are in the same boat as yourself. With the virus, it was handy to have a vpn to my office server where I could then get remote assistance since my browser was no longer working.
3. The questions that currently run through my mind mostly involve increasing the technology as a tool to teach the game of football. I am curious as to what is out there and what player skills I can improve with the use of technology. The game is still played by humans and there is very little new technology on the field, except in the area of protective equipment. Will the use of technology in practice carry over to application against a human opponent on Friday night? Very few of my questions at this point involve anything other than football.
4. In the classroom, you always need a back up. Sometimes your best designed plans will fall apart, or a necessary piece of equipment will not be available or functional. What do you do? A back up plan may mean just another way of accessing what you want online or a whole other lesson plan. As we depend on technology more and more and use it as the sole means of delivering information, we have to keep a back up access plan.
2. It always helps to have a back up. Thursdays class went okay, until we did not have shockwave on the computers in the lab. This meant pulling out the laptop and looking at the homework? A little frustrating as it could have been done remotely, but few things in this world are better than human interaction and sharing with others who are in the same boat as yourself. With the virus, it was handy to have a vpn to my office server where I could then get remote assistance since my browser was no longer working.
3. The questions that currently run through my mind mostly involve increasing the technology as a tool to teach the game of football. I am curious as to what is out there and what player skills I can improve with the use of technology. The game is still played by humans and there is very little new technology on the field, except in the area of protective equipment. Will the use of technology in practice carry over to application against a human opponent on Friday night? Very few of my questions at this point involve anything other than football.
4. In the classroom, you always need a back up. Sometimes your best designed plans will fall apart, or a necessary piece of equipment will not be available or functional. What do you do? A back up plan may mean just another way of accessing what you want online or a whole other lesson plan. As we depend on technology more and more and use it as the sole means of delivering information, we have to keep a back up access plan.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Technology 10/14
If I was to describe a normal work day for me, today would be it. Left house a little after 5, got to office, pulled messages and sorted the mail, made sure crews were going the right ways, and went off to my route of backflow tests and customer visits. Busy morning. Office in Redmond, then Woodinville, then Tukwilla, then back to redmond. Took care of invoices and a couple of emails. Deposited receipts and then went to football practice. Came home, saw family for a little while, ate dinner, read to kids, just put them to bed. For the last 10 years that has much been my work day, plus or minus a few changes. The role that technology has played for me during that time has mostly been as a time/work saving device that supports how I run my business and my life. It is not something that I percieve as interacting with, rather something that I depend on to do its part so I can do mine. For the most part, my entire work/life is propped up in some fashion by technology, but as long as it works smoothly, little thought is given to its presence.
The thought that I raised here earlier was that as the reliability of a technolgy increases, so does our dependence on that technology. As we rely on something more and more, we trust that it will be freely and fairly available. The harbinger of doom that lies within me (and raises his ugly head once in a while) says "what if someone starts to controll the electricity, and we end up in a sort of strange mad max version of society where electricity is scarce and controlled by a few violent and corrupt individuals?"
The answer to the above question might be that it already occurs depending on where you live and that we saw a glimpse of this with the tactics used by energy traders in the early part of this decade. But my gut feeling is that the cycle of dependence and exploitation has always occurred with new technologies. As long as new technologies continue to be developed and we adapt our lives to their uses, we will not be held hostage by the technology or those who attempt to manipulate it.
The thought that I raised here earlier was that as the reliability of a technolgy increases, so does our dependence on that technology. As we rely on something more and more, we trust that it will be freely and fairly available. The harbinger of doom that lies within me (and raises his ugly head once in a while) says "what if someone starts to controll the electricity, and we end up in a sort of strange mad max version of society where electricity is scarce and controlled by a few violent and corrupt individuals?"
The answer to the above question might be that it already occurs depending on where you live and that we saw a glimpse of this with the tactics used by energy traders in the early part of this decade. But my gut feeling is that the cycle of dependence and exploitation has always occurred with new technologies. As long as new technologies continue to be developed and we adapt our lives to their uses, we will not be held hostage by the technology or those who attempt to manipulate it.
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