(Week 14)
How do corporations provide training resources for teachers? Give examples.
There are two options for teachers who want to demonstrate basic educational technology standards. The first option is for the teacher to go take classes at a college or university in educational technology, or the second option is to take a workshop to achieve the same competency. The college path may prove to be more useful to some for it may add some more endorsements to their teaching licenses. The teacher workshops are usually given at the district level, and are usually free of charge.
For those who are well into their field, corporations have people called “media specialists.” These people are up to date on the current research technology on the web and in the libraries. Media specialists are in the know on how to research a topic and where to find the information that a student must seek to finish that project for science or history. They have to have up to date technology skills and must be able to teach them to their peers if the need arises.
Next we have administrators. These people who head the schools are in charge of how technology gets distributed in the schools. They take college credit courses and leadership workshops to learn how technology plays a vital role in the school system, and work on getting computers and their peripherals distributed throughout their schools accordingly.
Lastly, we have guidance counselors and instructional support fields, where the technology literacy is important as well. These people must be literate in the technology in order to do their jobs as well. These people must be able to run the school’s technology to do their required work so that there are no malfunctions when it comes to their job.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Fair Use Guideline Questions
(Week 13 Post)
What are the four questions related to the fair use guidelines should teachers ask before using copyrighted materials?
The first and foremost question is the question of the use of the material. Copyrighted material must not be reproduced for commercial needs or to be made a profit from. And obviously, if a teacher is copying a textbook or other scholastic media, it must be for educational purposes. Also, it must be distributed in the school and to the students or other teachers as well.
The second question a teacher must ask is what type of work it is. Is the work factual in nature? Let me give you an example. Textbooks are updated all the time. When Harvard, one of the nation’s top leading universities was first established, it was educating its scholars at the time that the sun was revolving around the earth. Obviously, we now know that that is not true. What if Harvard never updated its textbooks? It would be teaching outdated material. Along the lines of what type of work is being used, does it hold potential for creativity and use for imagination?
Another question that must be called into play is how much of the work does the teacher intend on using? Say it is a pamphlet. Does the teacher plan on using the entire pamphlet? Or is it an excerpt from that pamphlet?
Lastly, what impact does this copyrighted material have on the market for that work? Let us use my example for the pamphlet. Say the teacher uses the entire pamphlet and photocopies it. And say the teacher has 125 students. The teacher thus essentially robs the company out of 125 pamphlets. The company loses that money. To be fair, the teacher should have bought those pamphlets.
I know teachers are on a tight budget, and it doesn’t make sense for them to spend so much money on scholastic material, especially when they keep cutting EEF money. What teachers do need to understand, though, is that they cannot break copyright laws and abuse them in the school.
What are the four questions related to the fair use guidelines should teachers ask before using copyrighted materials?
The first and foremost question is the question of the use of the material. Copyrighted material must not be reproduced for commercial needs or to be made a profit from. And obviously, if a teacher is copying a textbook or other scholastic media, it must be for educational purposes. Also, it must be distributed in the school and to the students or other teachers as well.
The second question a teacher must ask is what type of work it is. Is the work factual in nature? Let me give you an example. Textbooks are updated all the time. When Harvard, one of the nation’s top leading universities was first established, it was educating its scholars at the time that the sun was revolving around the earth. Obviously, we now know that that is not true. What if Harvard never updated its textbooks? It would be teaching outdated material. Along the lines of what type of work is being used, does it hold potential for creativity and use for imagination?
Another question that must be called into play is how much of the work does the teacher intend on using? Say it is a pamphlet. Does the teacher plan on using the entire pamphlet? Or is it an excerpt from that pamphlet?
Lastly, what impact does this copyrighted material have on the market for that work? Let us use my example for the pamphlet. Say the teacher uses the entire pamphlet and photocopies it. And say the teacher has 125 students. The teacher thus essentially robs the company out of 125 pamphlets. The company loses that money. To be fair, the teacher should have bought those pamphlets.
I know teachers are on a tight budget, and it doesn’t make sense for them to spend so much money on scholastic material, especially when they keep cutting EEF money. What teachers do need to understand, though, is that they cannot break copyright laws and abuse them in the school.
Alternative Learning Systems
Week 12
What are alternative learning systems? How might they enhance traditional education?
From my understanding in reading the chapter, alternative learning systems are non-traditional instruction for teaching students that may not go to a “regular” school. Distance learning is an example of an alternative learning system. What I mean by a “regular” school is that students would go to a building, gather their notebooks and textbooks, and sit in a desk or table. In an alternative learning system, students would go to “school” in a different manner. Such manners could be by teleconferences, by internet, or through email and blogs online. In more severe cases where the internet and the world wide web are not available, I can imagine that school correspondence could be done through regular snail mail, fax, or voice mail.
Through alternative learning systems, there is much more responsibility placed on the student. The student has to place time aside on a regular basis to spend for the class. I personally try to put aside several hours on Saturday morning to put for this class. Right when I wake up on Saturday morning, I do my work for this class (though that hasn’t been the case for the last two weeks).
The way that alternative learning systems may enhance traditional education is that it gives the opportunity for people who have to go to work to get an education. Those people who have families and more responsibilities are given the chance to go back and possibility start a new career. They are not forced to sit down in a building and put away time every week at the same time every day to work on school. Rather, they can manage their time in a way that they see beneficial each week to work on their school stuff.
What are alternative learning systems? How might they enhance traditional education?
From my understanding in reading the chapter, alternative learning systems are non-traditional instruction for teaching students that may not go to a “regular” school. Distance learning is an example of an alternative learning system. What I mean by a “regular” school is that students would go to a building, gather their notebooks and textbooks, and sit in a desk or table. In an alternative learning system, students would go to “school” in a different manner. Such manners could be by teleconferences, by internet, or through email and blogs online. In more severe cases where the internet and the world wide web are not available, I can imagine that school correspondence could be done through regular snail mail, fax, or voice mail.
Through alternative learning systems, there is much more responsibility placed on the student. The student has to place time aside on a regular basis to spend for the class. I personally try to put aside several hours on Saturday morning to put for this class. Right when I wake up on Saturday morning, I do my work for this class (though that hasn’t been the case for the last two weeks).
The way that alternative learning systems may enhance traditional education is that it gives the opportunity for people who have to go to work to get an education. Those people who have families and more responsibilities are given the chance to go back and possibility start a new career. They are not forced to sit down in a building and put away time every week at the same time every day to work on school. Rather, they can manage their time in a way that they see beneficial each week to work on their school stuff.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Visual Literacy
Week 11 Posting
What is visual literacy? Where and when is it learned? Why is it important?
When you read a textbook or read a newspaper, most of what you are taking in is text. For some classes and areas of study, this may be sufficient. In other areas, where a description is required, a diagram or picture may be required to explain the text better. Such visuals help in aiding the learning process. The ability to interpret visual aids and other visual diagrams is called visual literacy.
Some examples of visuals include real objects (which are like rocks, stamps, animals, or actual objects), models (such as solar system kits, teaching kits, human anatomy figurines), exhibits (dioramas, book displays, artificial mountain range setting), print materials (books, worksheets, handouts, etc.) and graphics and photographs (drawings, photographs, Venn diagrams, etc.) Graphics and photographs are especially good because it shows how things were in the past as cameras took them, though the quality was not as good then as they are now. Real objects are great in that it lets children see objects up close and personal.
Children learn visual literacy skills mostly in school, and as they progress through the grade levels in school, the maturity of their visual literacy skills grow as well. In elementary school, perhaps they can associate a picture of a dog with a real dog. As they progress to middle school, they will learn more complex picture and diagram skills, to the point that whey they are in high school, they can follow higher level complex flow charts and Venn diagrams.
These skills are important to learn so that when they graduate from school (and hopefully college), they will have strong deciphering and organizational skills. When they get jobs in the workforce, they will need to be able to follow a flow chart and take directions from a list of objectives. Jobs that require some sort of construction really need these kind of skills, where they have to follow a blueprint. It also builds on their problem solving skills, where they can benefit in all aspects of life. Problem solving skills can help them with their finances and organize their life better as well.
What is visual literacy? Where and when is it learned? Why is it important?
When you read a textbook or read a newspaper, most of what you are taking in is text. For some classes and areas of study, this may be sufficient. In other areas, where a description is required, a diagram or picture may be required to explain the text better. Such visuals help in aiding the learning process. The ability to interpret visual aids and other visual diagrams is called visual literacy.
Some examples of visuals include real objects (which are like rocks, stamps, animals, or actual objects), models (such as solar system kits, teaching kits, human anatomy figurines), exhibits (dioramas, book displays, artificial mountain range setting), print materials (books, worksheets, handouts, etc.) and graphics and photographs (drawings, photographs, Venn diagrams, etc.) Graphics and photographs are especially good because it shows how things were in the past as cameras took them, though the quality was not as good then as they are now. Real objects are great in that it lets children see objects up close and personal.
Children learn visual literacy skills mostly in school, and as they progress through the grade levels in school, the maturity of their visual literacy skills grow as well. In elementary school, perhaps they can associate a picture of a dog with a real dog. As they progress to middle school, they will learn more complex picture and diagram skills, to the point that whey they are in high school, they can follow higher level complex flow charts and Venn diagrams.
These skills are important to learn so that when they graduate from school (and hopefully college), they will have strong deciphering and organizational skills. When they get jobs in the workforce, they will need to be able to follow a flow chart and take directions from a list of objectives. Jobs that require some sort of construction really need these kind of skills, where they have to follow a blueprint. It also builds on their problem solving skills, where they can benefit in all aspects of life. Problem solving skills can help them with their finances and organize their life better as well.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Privacy and Filtering
Week 10
Contrast the issues of privacy and filtering when using the Web in the classroom. What are the responsibilities of a teacher in each of these areas?
First and foremost, when it comes to the area of privacy and schools, in no way should a teacher ever put a student’s name or picture on a webpage on the internet. This can put the child at harm for suspecting child molesters or for any persons who are looking to harm that child. There are also very strict guidelines set forth by the school in each district for what the teacher can also put on the school webpage, as well, and each teacher, if they choose to put something online, should be knowledgeable about these guidelines. If, for example, a teacher wanted to put a sample of a student’s writing online, as a guide on how to write a term paper, the teacher could omit the name and write “this is student A’s paper on how the mummification process in ancient Egypt was conducted.” Or if it was written by a group of students, the teacher could write “this is a step by step procedure by group C in first period on how to carefully weigh a small amount of unknown mass.” The point is that in no way should anyone on the site know who the teacher is talking about, or should there be pictures of the students on the page.
Filtering, on the other hand, is from the opposite spectrum. It is what the school wants to keep the students from gaining access to. Privacy can be seen as what we do not want other people to see at the school, filtering can be viewed as what we do not want our students at the school to see online. For instance, I would assume (and hope) that most, if not all schools in the U.S. would have some sort of adult filter on their school computers. This would mean that students on these computers would not be given access to adult sites. Other “harmful” sites could be gang, violence, drug, or crime related websites. We do not want our students to view these websites at all, much less at school. I know at my school, our school filter has Youtube and Myspace blocked. They cannot view these sites on any school computer.
The role of the teacher in both privacy and filtering is to keep the student safe. We as teachers need to keep students safe in privacy because we do not want strangers or deviants on the outside to gain information about our students inside our schools, and potentially harm them before or after school hours. With filtering, we can hopefully avoid some knowledge of heinous behavior at school through the use of the internet, and it is through the compliance of all the staff that this works. No plan is fool-proof, but we can take baby-steps in the right direction. Cyber-bullying has submerged as a new type of bullying recently. This is where people insult, bully, and heckle their classmates through instant messages, blogs, and personal websites at home. When students leave the classroom, school does not end for all classmates. Some of the children carry it home with them. With online access at home, some students can feel like they’re back at school again. But at school, we can try to make them feel safe while we’re there.
Contrast the issues of privacy and filtering when using the Web in the classroom. What are the responsibilities of a teacher in each of these areas?
First and foremost, when it comes to the area of privacy and schools, in no way should a teacher ever put a student’s name or picture on a webpage on the internet. This can put the child at harm for suspecting child molesters or for any persons who are looking to harm that child. There are also very strict guidelines set forth by the school in each district for what the teacher can also put on the school webpage, as well, and each teacher, if they choose to put something online, should be knowledgeable about these guidelines. If, for example, a teacher wanted to put a sample of a student’s writing online, as a guide on how to write a term paper, the teacher could omit the name and write “this is student A’s paper on how the mummification process in ancient Egypt was conducted.” Or if it was written by a group of students, the teacher could write “this is a step by step procedure by group C in first period on how to carefully weigh a small amount of unknown mass.” The point is that in no way should anyone on the site know who the teacher is talking about, or should there be pictures of the students on the page.
Filtering, on the other hand, is from the opposite spectrum. It is what the school wants to keep the students from gaining access to. Privacy can be seen as what we do not want other people to see at the school, filtering can be viewed as what we do not want our students at the school to see online. For instance, I would assume (and hope) that most, if not all schools in the U.S. would have some sort of adult filter on their school computers. This would mean that students on these computers would not be given access to adult sites. Other “harmful” sites could be gang, violence, drug, or crime related websites. We do not want our students to view these websites at all, much less at school. I know at my school, our school filter has Youtube and Myspace blocked. They cannot view these sites on any school computer.
The role of the teacher in both privacy and filtering is to keep the student safe. We as teachers need to keep students safe in privacy because we do not want strangers or deviants on the outside to gain information about our students inside our schools, and potentially harm them before or after school hours. With filtering, we can hopefully avoid some knowledge of heinous behavior at school through the use of the internet, and it is through the compliance of all the staff that this works. No plan is fool-proof, but we can take baby-steps in the right direction. Cyber-bullying has submerged as a new type of bullying recently. This is where people insult, bully, and heckle their classmates through instant messages, blogs, and personal websites at home. When students leave the classroom, school does not end for all classmates. Some of the children carry it home with them. With online access at home, some students can feel like they’re back at school again. But at school, we can try to make them feel safe while we’re there.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Streaming Media Week 9
What are streaming audio and streaming video? How have they altered the use of audio and video on the internet?
Streaming audio is a format of listening to sound clips from the internet that allow the audio to come in through a continuous flow or stream. Other forms of download such as WAV or MP3’s require one to download the entire sound clip first before allowing you to listen to the sound clip. With streaming audio, you can listen to the sound clip as it is coming in, and it does not permanently save to your computer. RealOne Player uses this technology, and you can listen to online concerts and some online radio stations as well. However, if your computer does not have RealOne player, you may have to download it before you can listen to the sound clips. Streaming audio is really a nice alternative to downloading an entire sound clip, because you do not have to wait for the entire file to download before listening to it. You can listen to it after a mere few seconds. For our class, our pod casts uses this streaming audio feature.
Similar to streaming audio is streaming video. Videos are nice because rather than just listening to sound, you can watch what is going on as well. However, the main thing that most people dislike with watching videos online is that they can take a long time to download, because the file sizes can be very large. With streaming video, you watch the video as it is downloading. There is no need to wait for the entire file to download to your computer before watching it. However, on the downside is that the videos can be somewhat choppy or fuzzy if there is a lot of people downloading from that site at the same time.
The ways that streaming audio and video have changed the ways that people use audio and video on the internet is that people no longer have to download music completely to listen to it or download an entire movie file. People can go to Yahoo music and listen to music online without downloading it to their computer (by paying for it legally, of course), or watch a music video online without having to download it to their computer. Educators can capitalize on this concept as well. They can go to educational sites and show educational videos to their students, and not have to spend class time waiting for the video to download, or spend their planning period trying to get the file clip to download to a CD or DVD. They can instantly show the file in class with little wait and show the students that day’s lesson from the internet.
Streaming audio is a format of listening to sound clips from the internet that allow the audio to come in through a continuous flow or stream. Other forms of download such as WAV or MP3’s require one to download the entire sound clip first before allowing you to listen to the sound clip. With streaming audio, you can listen to the sound clip as it is coming in, and it does not permanently save to your computer. RealOne Player uses this technology, and you can listen to online concerts and some online radio stations as well. However, if your computer does not have RealOne player, you may have to download it before you can listen to the sound clips. Streaming audio is really a nice alternative to downloading an entire sound clip, because you do not have to wait for the entire file to download before listening to it. You can listen to it after a mere few seconds. For our class, our pod casts uses this streaming audio feature.
Similar to streaming audio is streaming video. Videos are nice because rather than just listening to sound, you can watch what is going on as well. However, the main thing that most people dislike with watching videos online is that they can take a long time to download, because the file sizes can be very large. With streaming video, you watch the video as it is downloading. There is no need to wait for the entire file to download to your computer before watching it. However, on the downside is that the videos can be somewhat choppy or fuzzy if there is a lot of people downloading from that site at the same time.
The ways that streaming audio and video have changed the ways that people use audio and video on the internet is that people no longer have to download music completely to listen to it or download an entire movie file. People can go to Yahoo music and listen to music online without downloading it to their computer (by paying for it legally, of course), or watch a music video online without having to download it to their computer. Educators can capitalize on this concept as well. They can go to educational sites and show educational videos to their students, and not have to spend class time waiting for the video to download, or spend their planning period trying to get the file clip to download to a CD or DVD. They can instantly show the file in class with little wait and show the students that day’s lesson from the internet.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Problem Solving Software vs. Brainstorming Tools. Week 8
What is problem solving software? Contrast it with brainstorming tools. How does each promote critical-thinking skills?
Problem solving software is a software program written to help students practice their problem solving skills. For instance, in the field of science, it could help a student formulate and test a hypothesis, and in the field of mathematics, it could help that same student find multi-step strategies to find solutions to complex word problems, correctly apply mathematical formulas, correctly identify and apply theories, rules and concepts to predict outcomes. In a psychology class, if a student were to study the aspects of behavior, they could then deduce what a person with X personality would do in situation Y. The benefit to problem solving software is that they help the student by allowing them to work out the problems physically and mentally, and thus they learn by doing. In math (since that is my field), students can test out relationships and see if they hold true for all values of x and y, and make a logical hypothesis for all cases. The problem solving software is good, since it is a multimedia program, and as we learned last week, today’s students are different from yesterday’s students, and need a wide array of constant stimuli to keep them entertained.
Brainstorming tools is a program to digitally connect two or more ideas and create connections between them. Some of them only use text, while other use clip arts and other forms of media. What usually happens is this: you start with one or two main ideas. Let us say we’re going to start with the idea of food. For the sake of argument, we are going to say there are two kinds of food, healthy and fast food. So, from the main idea of food, we branch off an idea bubble to healthy food, and an idea bubble to fast food. From the healthy food bubble, we then branch off to other forms of healthy food, such as organic, lean, low-fat, low-carb, low-calorie, etc. For fast food, we would then branch off some fast food choices, such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Arby’s, Taco Bell, etc. If we wanted to go into more detail, under McDonald’s, we could do another branch off and branch Big Mac, double cheeseburger, French fries, chicken Mcnuggets, and if we even wanted to go further than that, we could branch off from Big Mac and say hamburger patty, lettuce, bread, sauce, etc.
The way that problem solving software differs from brainstorming tools is that problem solving software builds the skills that a student needs to solve (perhaps) complex problems that they may encounter later in life, such as money matters or how to get around a certain situation. Brainstorming is, in simple terms, how two or more main ideas are connected, and finding the connections between the main ideas, and what sub-categories fall under each main idea. It does not involve any problem solving, except to figure out what sub-idea goes with what main idea. Each promotes critical thinking in that problem solving makes a student think really hard on trying to figure out different way to find a solution to one problem, and brainstorming requires a student to figure out what pieces of the puzzle go together. For instance, say we have a topic on the discussion of sea animals. And we talk about sea snakes. Will a third grader know that an eel is a fish, or will they think that an eel is a snake? What about a sea horse?
Problem solving software is a software program written to help students practice their problem solving skills. For instance, in the field of science, it could help a student formulate and test a hypothesis, and in the field of mathematics, it could help that same student find multi-step strategies to find solutions to complex word problems, correctly apply mathematical formulas, correctly identify and apply theories, rules and concepts to predict outcomes. In a psychology class, if a student were to study the aspects of behavior, they could then deduce what a person with X personality would do in situation Y. The benefit to problem solving software is that they help the student by allowing them to work out the problems physically and mentally, and thus they learn by doing. In math (since that is my field), students can test out relationships and see if they hold true for all values of x and y, and make a logical hypothesis for all cases. The problem solving software is good, since it is a multimedia program, and as we learned last week, today’s students are different from yesterday’s students, and need a wide array of constant stimuli to keep them entertained.
Brainstorming tools is a program to digitally connect two or more ideas and create connections between them. Some of them only use text, while other use clip arts and other forms of media. What usually happens is this: you start with one or two main ideas. Let us say we’re going to start with the idea of food. For the sake of argument, we are going to say there are two kinds of food, healthy and fast food. So, from the main idea of food, we branch off an idea bubble to healthy food, and an idea bubble to fast food. From the healthy food bubble, we then branch off to other forms of healthy food, such as organic, lean, low-fat, low-carb, low-calorie, etc. For fast food, we would then branch off some fast food choices, such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Arby’s, Taco Bell, etc. If we wanted to go into more detail, under McDonald’s, we could do another branch off and branch Big Mac, double cheeseburger, French fries, chicken Mcnuggets, and if we even wanted to go further than that, we could branch off from Big Mac and say hamburger patty, lettuce, bread, sauce, etc.
The way that problem solving software differs from brainstorming tools is that problem solving software builds the skills that a student needs to solve (perhaps) complex problems that they may encounter later in life, such as money matters or how to get around a certain situation. Brainstorming is, in simple terms, how two or more main ideas are connected, and finding the connections between the main ideas, and what sub-categories fall under each main idea. It does not involve any problem solving, except to figure out what sub-idea goes with what main idea. Each promotes critical thinking in that problem solving makes a student think really hard on trying to figure out different way to find a solution to one problem, and brainstorming requires a student to figure out what pieces of the puzzle go together. For instance, say we have a topic on the discussion of sea animals. And we talk about sea snakes. Will a third grader know that an eel is a fish, or will they think that an eel is a snake? What about a sea horse?
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