Archive forSeptember, 2006

Teachers who EXCEL

September 24, 2006 @ 11:43 pm · Filed under Math

Why teachers should learn Excel…

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  • Integrates real life situations with technology
  • Increases communication and motivation
  • Supports many levels
  • Engages students in higher level thinking skills for mathematics
  • Supports principles and standards
  • Applies to cross-curricular activities
  • Is a great management tool
  • Compliments and enhances instruction

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Tech Integration Principles (EdTech)

September 24, 2006 @ 10:28 pm · Filed under Technology

To integrate technology into education successfully, everyone must be involved and accept the following principles:

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1.  Technology is important.  It is our future.

2.  Technology involves more than computers.

3.  There’s no such thing as failure.

4.  Stop asking how to integrate and start asking how students learn.  Don’t force technology into the curriculum.  Examine ways to teach and apply technology. 

5.  If it works, make it work better.

6.  Support must be universal.  Incorporate training.  Training must be available anytime, anywhere.

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Response to Math and Technology

September 10, 2006 @ 9:36 pm · Filed under Math, Technology

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I totally disagree… there is a place for technology in the math classrooms.  However, have been a math teacher myself, I know that the use of technology should not eliminate a student’s need to understanding mathematics.  Yes, I do believe that students need math taught separately and opportunities to construct their own mathematical knowledge before sitting in front of a computer or calculator.
The misconception here is that some teachers are not aware of how to do this.  Just because you use technology and math in the same sentence does not automatically mean using calculators and a computer to generate answers.  I think a very important part of this is looking at the method/philosophy of the teacher.  I know that “technology” does not produce the same cognitive result as actually learning the meaning/patterns/and relationships with numbers in math. Just because a student can produce the answer to 43+26 on a spreadsheet does not mean he or she has mastered double-digit addition. Technology is not a crutch allowing students to avoid understanding. It is to be a tool that enhances understanding.  

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Blogging In the Classroom

September 9, 2006 @ 10:10 pm · Filed under Technology

paper and pencile.jpgTo Blog or Not to Blog…That is the Question

Blogging provides a communication space that teachers can use with students whenever there is a curriculum need to develop writing, reflect on work, or share ideas/work samples for parents/students/teachers. What used to be a difficult process for Internet publishing is now almost as easy as sending e-mail or typing in Microsoft Word.  To Blog, just login to your site from any Internet connection, enter the content in a form box, press a button, and your blog is updated. 
The collaborative aspect of blogs is what has brought many teachers into the digital communication age. Commenting capabilities in many of the blogging software packages allow for easy peer review for students, teachers, and makes bringing in experts or mentors from outside the classroom easy.      

Ideas for Blogging:

  1. Audioblogs – teachers can help students work on their reading and pronunciation skills.  Students can play files back at school or home.  Excellent tool for ESL students.
  2. Mentoring Tool – have student teachers log their thoughts/reflections on their practice and share ideas/goals and links.
  3. Grade Level Tools – share ideas, agendas and resources by grade level.  Provide parent information and news.
  4. Journal Writing – record you thoughts, research, and book reviews.
  5. Student Blogging – have students write and respond to questions, book summaries, math problems, science observations/data and much, much, more!
  6. Music Blogging – Create musical compositions and let your students listen and critique. I love doing this!
  7. Blogging for Presentations – blogging will allow for an excellent presentation tool…share your ideas with others.
  8. Blogging for Parents – provide news, links, and resources for your students’ parents.

Four Benefits of Student Blogging

By: Richard E. Ferdig, Ph.D., and Kaye D. Trammell, University of Florida

1. The use of blogs helps students become subject-matter experts. According to Blood (2002), there is a three-step process involved in blogging: scouring, filtering and posting. The blogger visits multiple Web sites relevant to his or her topic to find information to which they will respond, critique or hyperlink. The blogger must then filter the results to post the “best of” content for readers. Through this process, bloggers are exposed to vast amounts of information on their given topic, even if they do not comment on everything they find. The regularity of doing this at least once a week creates a repetitive process where the blogger builds an ever-growing knowledge base on particular topics.
2. The use of blogs increases student interest and ownership in learning. Technology has been cited as a motivating tool because of its newness. Blogs are novel to students not only because they are a newer technology, but also because students are blogging about topics that are important to them. Students direct their own learning while receiving input and feedback from others. They also take ownership of their learning in the blogging activities by actively searching for information.
3. The use of blogs gives students legitimate chances to participate. One goal of teaching and learning is to enculturate students into a community of practice (Lave and Wenger 1991). While blogging, students quickly learn that posted content can be read by those other than the teacher and their classmates. Blogging opens up assignments beyond the teacher-student relationship, allowing the world to grade students and provide encouragement or feedback on their writings. We have had students in our classrooms actually receive job offers based on postings in their blogs, because their postings provided a legitimate way to interact with an authentic audience in a community of practice.
4. The use of blogs provides opportunities for diverse perspectives, both within and outside of the classroom. Mainly due to time and curriculum constraints, not every student gets to share his or her thoughts in a traditional classroom. Blogs allow all students to participate in a discussion, opening up diverse perspectives. By blogging, the classroom also extends from the physical constraints of those who fit in the room and are registered to a limitless international audience. It is likely that someone outside of a class will come across student blogs, thereby extending diversity to include perspectives outside of the classroom.

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True Technology Integration

September 7, 2006 @ 11:06 pm · Filed under Technology

Technology integration means a lot of things to a lot of people. Below are examples:

arrr.gif  “I use the computer and game software in my class as a reinforcement of skills we have covered.”
arrr.gif  “Students in my class are required to advertise for events using Microsoft Publisher.”
arrr.gif  ”Students use the Internet to find information for their reports.” 

arrr.gif  “Students play math games.”

arrr.gif  “Students create movies.”

arrr.gif  “Students blog.”
arrr.gif  “All of my students must turn in their essays in word-processed form.”
arrr.gif  “I use PowerPoint to make presentations to/for my class.”  “Students also create their own presentations.”
Are these examples of technology integration? One might argue that each of these examples integrates technology. But…the real issue is not if technology is used in the classroom, the issue is whether or not technology is enhancing the learning in some way. Below are three simple questions to ask yourself when trying to determine technology’s worthiness in a given lesson or situation.

  1. Is the lesson content worthwhile? (Are there clear objectives, connected to standards. real-world aplications, or significant questions, etc.)
  2. Do the lesson activities engage students?
  3. How does technology enhance the lesson in ways that would not be possible without it?
  4. You may notice that of these three questions, only one actually deals with technology. The first two are about good teaching. Without good content and teaching, technology is somewhat irrelevant.

The technology-related question is quite challenging for many educators. Of the eight sample ways teachers integrate technology mentioned above, how many of those could provide positive answers to our questions? Does the teacher that has her class use the Internet for research ask significant questions of students in their research, or are students searching the internet for information more easily and readily found in a book in the school’s media center? Are the PowerPoint presentations students create about assigned countries simply reproductions of paper-and-pencil versions, or do they allow presentation of the material in a way that aids in conveying the information? What is technology integration? It is all about good teaching. Educators that are integrating technology well into their classes don’t just use it for the sake of saying they did. These skilled professionals use technology tools when appropriate, to make the content more meaningful, interesting, understandable, and real for their students.

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Blogging

September 7, 2006 @ 12:02 am · Filed under Technology

computer.GIFWHAT IS A BLOG? (A Virtual Learning Community))

A blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public reading. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site.  Online communication tools enable students to interact with curriculum content, the teacher, and their peers outside of the classroom. Students are given the opportunity to negotiate the meaning of content through these interactions – creating the potential for a deeper and longer lasting learning. 

Fundamental principles of constructivism support this view:

*learning is an active process of constructing rather than acquiring knowledge
*individuals learn through interaction with their world
*individuals develop knowledge through social interactio

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Technology and Math

September 4, 2006 @ 10:38 pm · Filed under Math, Technology

MathInitiatives.gifIMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY IN A MATH CLASSROOM

After talking with several math teachers (good friends) about how much technology they use in their classroom, I had to ask what they were doing…I was curious. However, I was not surprised by their answers. All three teachers named various software programs, which I have stated before is not bad …but…
drill and practice software can only be effective when used properly in a constructivist manner and only after students have an understanding of the problem at hand.  We all know that math is based upon laws, theorems, and algorithms. I think pressing a button and the computer giving the answer doesn’t help students’ understanding of what mathematics is all about. If this is what your students are doing in the classroom, they are getting the impression that mathematics understanding can be gained by pushing a button that generates all of this information.
I came across a study on the impact of technology use “in a constructivist…mathematics classroom”.
The summary of the findings in this study were given in the following order:
First, technology must be tightly linked to the constructivist instructional philosophy.
Second, having a computer present in the classroom and using it is no guarantee that the student will develop meaningful constructs. “Technology should be used as a tool for student use in creating their own, personally, meaningful, representations”(p.333). 
And finally, the student must have the opportunity to instruct the computer. This allows the computer to “serve as an active critic of the students’ work”(p.323). 

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