Setting Up An Issue That Can Be Solved For Class

Simulation and problem based questions that have to be solved are an important part of higher level thinking. Giving students real life problems that have to be solved also give students meaning out of what they are doing. When setting up a problem, make sure that there are multiple solutions and that the students will get meaning from the problem. When they get meaning out of the problem and see it in a real life situation, they tend to learn more from the problem. This also gives them extra motivation to get their work done. In addition, make sure that you write out everything in detail so that students will understand the problem that is trying to be solved. Furthermore, give them resources that can help them solve the problem, but also encourage them to go out on their own and be creative and find resources and ideas that may solve the problem. This is another way students get more out of the assignment, by finding the information on their own or solving it as an individual or as a group.

If all the information is set up in the problem based question and it is done right students shouls take a lot of meaning from this assignment.

Virtual Reality

I think that virtual reality can really help in education today. One its taking something students enjoy in gaming and turning it into educational purposes. It also can give them a real life situation that they can get meaning from and also learn from it.

We already know it can help in flight simulators helping pilots learn how to fly. It also is successful teaching students how to drive. One Of the main fields though that it can help is in the medical field. At first it was said that virtual reality would never be able to be used in the medical field. However, it has shown to be effective in certain areas and is now being used more frequently. This can give medical students a 3D image that can effectively help them learn.

It also would be great for virtual reality field trips, ones that students would never be able to go on otherwise. In addition, it can be used for math and science. There are critics out there though that don't agree with virtual reality in education. They say students can't effectively learn from it. Overall, I feel that it gives students motivation in your classroom to learn because they enjoy using it and get a lot of meaning out of it.

What Teachers Will Need To Know

In the next five years teachers will slowly need to learn how to teach online classes. In our school this week they offered to all staff the possibility of teaching online classes for extra pay. We have a total of 75 students who are taking strictly online courses. I also think teachers are going to have to learn a vast amount of new technology. With the world evolving around new technology, students will need to learn it to succeed when entering the work force and higher education. If they don't switch to it, their students will be way behind compared to the other students who have learned it and used it. This will give them a huge advantage.

In addition, I think all teachers will have to learn how to develop and maintain Web pages for educational purposes. By doing this it will give students a huge advantage. If they miss school they know what their assignment is. If they forget what their homeworkwas, they can look it up on the Web site. Furthermore, it will give parents a huge advantage looking over their child to make sure they are keeping up with their work. Also their are ways for parents to be able see their childs grades. This would also be benificial so if their child is struggling they can help them or get them help.

I also think teachers will have to be trained to adabt to use video and podcast in their lessons.

Hypermedia

The most important thing about using the Web, is students and teachers must know whether a site is reliable or not. Many of my students come into the media center and want the fastest and easiest information they can find. Whether this information is right or wrong they take the first resource they come across. They one need to find out who wrote the source and then determine whether it was written as an opinion or for educational purposes. They also need to look for grammer and typo mistakes. In addition, they should check the copyright date to see if the information they have come across is current. Another important aspect, is to check the site for advertisements. You should also check the site to see where the author abtained their information and see if the site has been checked over by a qualified educator to make sure the information is correct. All this can help students and teachers determine whether or not a site is realiable.

To make sure teachers and students know this information, I would first teach a class on finding quality information to the teachers. I would also teach this class to 7th grade English classes, so I cover all the students coming into the school each year. I would also put up posters in the media center that would covers the basics of finding quality information on the Web.

Professor At the Urban Community College

To be honest with you I have different views about the professor that was putting information about the Holocaust never happening on his instructional college Web site. As a college or University you have to take that material off the site to keep your creditability. However, as a professor I think you should be able to write about what ever you want, as long as you have done research to back up your theory. In this case though I don't know where he would get the material to back his case because it did happen and it was a terrible thing. I do think though that the professor should have his own site to offer this material, not using the college site for his personnel beliefs. College or university Web sites should only be used for instructional or college materials. I think the college should have an acceptable use policy and have consequences if someone breaks the policy. I also think you should have a group consisting of administrators, webmaster, staff, and students to determine the outcome of the broken policy. They also could revise the acceptable use policy as time changes.

I think everybody has a right to their own opinion, but when your talking about creditability of an university it is a different story.

Cost of Technology

With the cost of technology being so high and my school budget being cut, I am in the process of writing a grant. The grant is for Playaway audio books. Playaways are the new form of technology for audio books that look like an IPOD. It is a LSTA mini-grant, that is due Oct 29. I feel over whelmed with class work and the grant. The Playaways are neat and I think students will like them because they are like IPODS. The purpose though for getting them is to help struggling students with reading. Hopefully this will give them confidence when reading. They can following along with the book and when they come across a work they are unsure about, the Playaway will help them. I was lucky that Follett Library Resources had most of my titles that are on our school Reading and English list that match up with our school curriculum. I also like Follett because they have a resource that matches up books with the Ohio Academic Standards. When looking for school media sources this is very important.

I also am writing a grant for 20 new computers, that grant is taking a little longer. I am coming up with a colaboration project with a history teacher and trying to get the grant that way. The computers are much needed in my media center for researching, writing papers, and Powerpoint projects.

This Weeks Class Discussion

I thought this weeks class discussion was a good one. We went over so many topics. The one I feel the most important was the cost of technology. With budget cuts many schools can not afford the new technology that is coming out, plus technology is growing so fast that by time a school gets the technology its out dated. More importantly though, is with schools not being able to afford the technology, it is hurting their students. The whole world evolves around technology and students need to learn the new technology so they can succeed when they enter out into the work force.

There is ways though for teachers and schools to get money. They can apply for various technology grants that are out there for schools. They can have fundraisers. Schools must find ways to get the new technology into the schools and into the classrooms for students use. If we refuse to do this our students are going to be way behind, where the schools that can afford it, their students will be way ahead entering into college and the work force.

This brings me to another subject we talked about, which is the school funding situation in Ohio. This gets me so fired up talking about it. The funding system needs to be changed. They can not keep expecting towns and communities to keep passing levies to pay for the schools. For one older people in these towns and communities can not afford it. Ohio state legislature was suppose to change this way back in the early 90's when the court system said they had to. However, instead of changing the system they added profiency test and forgot about the school funding system. Now we are onto the Ohio graduation test and we still haven't changed the funding system. Something has to be done and hopefully soon.

Constructivism

For the constructivism project, my group chose to do a 2008 election project. It would cover different subjects and use all sorts of different technology. Students would learn the election process along with running a campaign. At the end of the project they would participate in an online election with students across the United States.

Students would be involved in creating campaign slogans, candidate commercials, posters, and flyers for their candidate. They would have to create a powerpoint presentation for the candidate they would vote for in the up coming election. During the project the students will be shown how to create a blog on www.blogger.com . They will have to keep a weekly journal on the blog about the 2008 election. The teacher will also create a class wiki were the students can add useful websites that they find.

Finally the students will have a debate about their candidate. They will be split up into four groups and given one of the following candidates: McCain, Obama, Biden, or Palin. They must research and study the issues to be able to defend themselves during the debate. They also will watch old debates along with taped recent debates.

This is a great project because it puts students into a real world situation. They get to see other students point of views and make decisions for themselves on who to vote for. They will learn that it is very important to be informed about the candidates and the issues before they vote.

Constructivism

A part of contructivism is accomodation and assimilation. I feel that assimilation is important because students can assimilate real life situations which gets them to use higher order thinking. In my classroom when I was teaching U.S. History, I would give students a part in history. For instance, The dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima. I would split the class into four groups (two for dropping the atom bomb and two against it.) The students would then have to gather all the history facts to persuade people to go with their idea. The class would then have a debate. By making the students debate, they had to come up with things on their own causing them to use higher order thinking. I would facilitate it so the students would stay on task and keep them in the right direction and of course correct their history if anything came up wrong. My students loved this and I think they got a lot out of it.

Technology

Its been a rough morning. When technology is working its a wonderful thing, but when something goes wrong it can be terrible. I have 26 computers in my media center. First period the junior honors english class came to the library to type essays. For some odd reasons the printers were not working. I had 26 panicking students looking at me because it was due at the end of the period. I ran around the media center like a mad man checking all the wires. It was the last wire I checked, It figures.

We have also had a lot of trouble with the computers, which we have every year starting out the new school year getting the little kinks out of the system.

I am looking foward to starting the new project on Constructivism Learning. I like this style of learning because it gives learners real life situations and they learn from their experiences and other peoples experiences.