Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin

I understand the Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin and am concerned about the cap on enrollment.  If students who could benefit from an online mode of education are not allowed to pursue their education in this way, how is the cap helping?  As a public school teacher, I might have some reservations for private schools getting public funding, but a public online charter school should be able to get funds as easily as other public schools and easier than private schools.


I understand the Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin and am excited about the fact that parents are not expected to have a DPI license in order to teach their children.  Parents are their first teachers.  If they are not encouraged to support the education of their kids, apathy will soon grow and then you will have some of the problems you find in some of the brick and mortar schools.

Collaborative Groups

I believe the biggest benefit of collaborative groups is that everyone in the group is able to learn from the ideas and thoughts of the other group members.  In other words, collaborative groups can create something greater than the sum of all the group parts could do separately.  Even in the worst of all collaborative groups, all of the students are able to take something away from the experience even if it is "I don't ever want to work with that person again."

Authentic Assessments

While working on this module I had both success and difficulty while doing something new involving authentic assessments.  I found success in the fact that I was able to figure out how to create an assessment that meets the standards that my students are expected to meet as well as well possibly prepare them for future challenges while in the traditional or blended setting.  My difficulties that I found were to be able to differentiate and create an authentic assessment for the pure online class without causing myself a migraine with the logistics and attempting to pay for all the shipping I would need to do.  I guess I am used to classes where I am the sole source of supplies.  If in an online setting students were able to provide their own material for labs and experiments, I am sure this would be a stress that is greatly reduced.

Facilitating an online discussion

This week we were able to choose a topic that we are going to facilitate a small group.  The topic I chose was that of at risk students.  This topic is very important to me since I teach in a district where most of the students I teach might be labeled as at-risk at one time or another in their career .  Hopefully, I will be able to get some more ideas about how to reach some of these kids in order to be able to help attempt to reduce the rate of the students that I teach from dropping out of school.  Even if it means that I make the impression that they will be able to come to me when they are having difficulty, I want to do what I need in order to be able to help the kids of Milwaukee.

This week we were asked to identify synchronous and asynchronous online learning tools that would be appropriate for my targeted online learners.  


There are many different ways that a course could be created as an asynchronous learning environment.  Wiki's, blogs, web pages and applications such as Facebook all have their places for online learning environments.  The applications that I would probably use if I were to create an asynchronous learning environment would be PBWorks, and Google Sites.  PBWorks is a amazingly customizable learning environment that allows for bilateral communication as well as electronic submission and grading of classwork.  Google Sites is nice in the fact that the instructor can not only create a nice site that explains student work and allows for students to submit their work, but due to many customizations of the Google Sites, the administrator can give or limit many of the permissions that students would have on the site.


For synchronized online learning experiences, I have mainly found applications that would be best suited for small groups.  Skype and other free  web conferencing applications like it that I have used, are best suited for small groups of up to 4.  If you go much beyond this number, the amount of lag makes the conference impossible to continue effectively.  The best large group synchronous online learning environment that I have experienced is Elluminate/Blackboard.  I have been part of an online learning experience of over 20 members with little to no audio or video lag.  The ability to use a whiteboard or share desktops truly enhance the learning experience of the students.  For the instructor, having the ability to limit the ability of students to disrupt the class when student input is not needed is a great feature.  Some of the other larger scale online learning environments that I have read about but have not experienced are Red5, Wowza, and offerings from Adobe in the form of Flash Media Server.   

Some Student Work with Web 2.0 Tools

Here is a VoiceThread my students did about Plate Tectonics.

CeDO 550 Week 1

These are some problems I had navigating the course management system and utilizing the discussion boards.  I have been exhausted this week with attempting to do he work I need to do at my school, help my 2 kids at home, work my second job and attempt to keep the house clean since my wife herniated a vertebrae in her neck.  Due to this, I was confused by our new class site and how the work was going to be assigned.  When I checked out the assignments page and the submissions page, I hadn't realized that we needed to click the link in order to get the description of the work.  I am very glad that the contact number for our professor was listed on our class site. Between the phone call and re-watching the recorded session of our "Class 0", I was able to get my work done.  Hopefully I won't have the same problems next week.  

Being SMART with technology

   One thing that we were asked to think about how we would use the applications we have been introduced to over the last year.  Specifically, we were asked to consider the following:

Specific - what exactly will you do?
Measurable - how will you be able to prove it was done?
Attainable - Will you have the resources and time, what might you have to do to make it occur?
Realistic - Make sure it is doable, you certainly can add something to a lesson plan or work item, you caanot get to the moon?
Timely - Assign a timeline - when will this be done by?

Overall, each of these considerations is important to be able to help students be successful in their learning even if you are not using modern technologies to deliver your content.  It is always important for the educator to plan for student activities and learning experiences with the learning expectations in mind.  A salesman that had tried to train me as a salesman once told me, "You only can plan to succeed, if you succeed to plan."  This is as true for education as it is for sales.  If you do not plan with the outcomes you want in mind, there is no way that you will be able to reach them.  This is especially important when attempting to integrate technology into the presentation of information in a classroom.  When attempting to get students to use a new technology, the educator needs to be able teach the students the appropriate way to use the technology.  There is also the fact that the educator needs to be able have enough time to be able to learn the technologies and have enough time to teach the appropriate use of the technologies to the students.  If the teacher fails to plan appropriately, they are doomed to fail in their attempt to integrate the technologies appropriately.

CEdO 535 Week 5

This has been an interesting week.  We have been looking at many different ways to spark our students interest using technology.  Looking through the Web 2.0 sites made me realize just how many applications there are out there that I don't know about and have no clue how to use.  I have always thought that I was technologically savvy, but seeing all of this stuff out on the web, I just know that I am still a babe exploring this new world. 

Google sites are pretty nice.  I have created my own websites before using an html editor, as well as WYSIWYG sites such as GeoCities (before they were taken over by Yahoo).  I am realizing that I have much less time than I have ever had previously in my life to do fun things such as creating a website.  So the WYSIWYG format is pretty nice to be able to create a site quickly.  Here is my site as it is so far.

Eyejot.  The program seems to have uses to be able to enhance learning for students.  For me, there is only one problem.  I have a small phobia about creating videos of myself.  Maybe it is due to the experiences I have had in the past, but I would rather not publish a video that I feel would be ridiculed.  Even though I can think rationally about the fact that not many would ever bother to look it up, there is a small niggling voice in the back of my head that says that if I create a digital video, it will end up (somehow) with either a student or co-worker that has an axe to grind.

Weed 4 of CeDO 535

This week we turned our attention to several different things.  Social Bookmarking, Podcasts and Screencasting, Social Networks and Micro-blogging in the classroom all were discussed.

This is not the first time in this MEIT Cohort progression that we have talked about social bookmarking.  Digg, Diigo, Deli.cio.us and Stumbleupon are all relatively nice ways to be able to share your favorite sites with others. One of the nice things about Digg, Diigo and Stumbleupon is that you are able to login to each and share information with your facebook account.  This way you are able to easily use social networking in conjunction to the social functions of the social bookmarking sites.  Deli.cio.us has just restarted as a social bookmarking site.  There is a blog that details the status of the restart.

Speaking about social networking, I found this picture posted by one of my facebook friends.

Not only can Facebook be used as a way to keep in touch with friends and family, but it can be used specifically to focus on current events or the topics that a classroom is discussing.  The problem with sites such as Facebook, is that many districts block access to sites such as this.  If students do not have access to sites such as this, then educators are not easily able to show them how to use it for not only a social media, but also as a learning tool.  The good/bad thing about districts blocking social media sites is that while it is more difficult for students to misuse these sites during a school day, it is more likely that students will not use them as anything other than a site to connect socially or cause drama that then spills back into the schools.  The other issue is that in many cases, students are still checking their social media sites on their smart phones during the school day even though the use of such phones might also be banned during the school day.  This causes more issue for classroom management for the educators.

Podcasts and Screencasts would be very useful in many situations for education.  In MPS the only problem that I would have with trying to use these media to get messages to my students outside of class is that the population that is able to use a computer outside of school is only about 80% of the students I teach.  There are also students who have internet connected computers at home, but they are locked away in a parents room, inaccessible to the student.  The main way I might be able to use a podcast or screencast as a part of my class is to use them for students who missed classes so that they do not fall behind.  In many cases, students who miss class, not only miss the work for the day, but also the explanation of the work.  For most students, this explanation is the more important of the two components that they missed.  

Micro-blogging is a great way to send out quick information to the students who follow your Twitter account.  For students who follow, they would be reminded of due dates, assessments and other important classroom happenings.  But again, this is only for students who are able to 1) have access to the internet outside of school, and 2) have access to Twitter.

RSS Feeds, Flickr, Creative Commons

    This week we were looking at several different topics.   One of these topics was RSS readers.  The link to my shared items can be seen here. I have a feeling that with tools like RSS readers, teachers will truly be able to move toward being the facilitators of knowledge rather than the "font of knowledge".  For many educators this will be a total paradigm shift where educators will need to be able to modify what they use to teach almost as quickly as new information becomes available.

    We also used learned about Creative Commons licensing.  We were to use what we learned about these licenses to put a usage license on the images we displayed on Flickr.  The pictures that I shared can be found here.

Week 2 in CEDO 535

While searching Wikipedia to check for how accurate the site is, I looked at some things that I know quite a bit about. Two Harbors, Minnesota was one of the items I checked the entry for. I spent several weeks each summer wandering the woods and rivers near this town. During those 30+ years of vacations, I learned a lot about the area by listening to the people who lived there. One of those people was Walter Sve who owned and operated the Split Rock Cabins, where my family usually stayed. Walter was a commercial fisherman and carpenter who augmented his income through the operation of a resort that his son operates today. However, due to pollution of Lake Superior by the taconite mining industry, the commercial fishing industry as well as the fishery of the lake were nearly destroyed. A link to the legal battle to stop the pollution can be found here.  Here is a short video detailing some of the trials and tribulations of commercial fishermen on Lake Superior.

We also were working on mini-blogging (aka using Twitter).  I have a feeling that I might get addicted to this. I hope that it does not overtake other pursuits that I have at this moment though.  But, with currently 0 followers, I guess I won't have to worry about getting a big head by having lots of people wanting to know what I say :).

Editing this Sunday evening ~7pm.  Thanks to Twitter I found some neat new sites we might be able to use.  The first is an image hosting site. http://imgur.com/
The second is an open source security software:http://preyproject.com/
This software allowed a guy to recover his laptop when it was stolen and he had gone out of the country.  Link to that is here: http://storify.com/hawaii/sean-powers-laptop-recovered?awesm=awe.sm_5J8w5&utm_content=tweetdeck&utm_medium=awe.sm-twitter&utm_source=direct-awe.sm

Week 1 CEdO 535

One of the assignments for this first week of class was to look at potential sites to host an educational blog.  Our review of the sites (a minimum of 3) was to be documented and shared by the end of the week.  Some of the sites that were interesting for an educational purpose were: Xanga, Edmodo, 21 Classes, Edublogs, and WordPress.  Each of these sites had attractive features that a classroom teacher should be able to find useable. 

The Highlights

I was floored by the the ability of Edumodo to have assignments and grades for your classes on the site.  This site really seems much like a Moodle type site for running a class and allowing a site that students could use to discuss class topics while not in class. 

Xanga was interesting in the fact that depending on the activity on a certain blog, they were able to get different rankings.  The highest ranked were linked on the homepage of Xanga.  This allows users to see where and what the buzz is.

21 Classes is neat due to the fact that a teacher is able to set up blog sites for their students in a relatively safe environment. 

WordPress is very informative with an extensive user guide to bring a user from "zero-to-hero" with regards to the use of the site.


We've also had the chance to read a bit of Will Richardson's "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other powerful Web Tools for Classrooms".   The intro is a good history on the development of the ability to author things on the web.  Things are much more plug and play compared to the start when to do anything, one would need to know how to code what they wanted to show online.  Now, all one has to do to author web material is to sign up on a site.

Identifying and Evaluating Major Data Resources on the Internet

This past week we have had the assignment to investigate and analyze some online data resources that were provided for us as well as find and analyze some resources on our own.  My findings can be found here.  I was surprised by how some online resources that one would think would have their data accessible online did not.  One of these was the National Archives which had broken the link that our professor had given us due to some internal reorganization.  For the most part, if someone was looking for genealogical or census data, he or she would need to either pay for some microfiche to be sent to them, or to travel to a National Archive site for free access.  The National Archive site closest to Milwaukee, WI is in Chicago.  After that, the next closest is in Lancing, Michigan.  I was very surprised to find out that there is no site located in either the capital city of each state or in the major universities located all over the U.S.  However, I did find out that the only reason that this is the reality, is that there is just too much that needs to be stored in the National Archives to be able to digitize it all and maintain it online.  That being said, I am glad there are some enterprising individuals (such as the creators of Ancestry.com and Heritagequest.com) that are doing what they can to make this available for a fee.

Surveys, Analyzing Data and Other Questions

This week, we actually created a survey, solicited responses, and analyzed the data.  We chose to do a survey on who preferred the books and movies of the Lord of the Rings series or the Harry Potter series.  The link to our survey can be found here.  The results can be found here.  We were initially of the mindset that younger people (under 30)  would prefer Harry Potter, and older people (30+) would prefer Lord of the Rings.  One of the reasons we thought of this, is that people who are younger probably have not been exposed to Lord of the Rings, while Harry Potter has been almost universally known among readers.  The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings series should have been more known by those who are older and were exposed to the books and original cartoon movies when they were newer.  Our group found that younger readers preferred Harry Potter, while older readers were more evenly distributed.  Males preferred Lord of the Rings by a margin of 2 to 1.  Females were reversed preferring Harry Potter by a margin of 2 to 1.  One thing that I wish we included were questions about if the survey taker was into role playing games (table top or online), Society of Creative Anachronism or LARPing (Live Action Role Playing).  I have a feeling that that would have been able to give us more information about the two series.  The people I knew had taken the survey and asked about it, the people who were into AD&D, online games, etc. seemed to prefer Lord of the Rings.  This might have to do with the fact that Lord of the Rings is not a book series for a person who has not been introduced to a "hard-core" fantasy series.

Surveys & Gathering Data

One of the things that we were assigned to explore this week is the creation of surveys.  This is something that I am somewhat familiar with since my students created a survey to gauge the thoughts of people about the Budget Repair Bill that was proposed by Governor Scott Walker this spring.  The main thing that I wanted my students to understand is that the data you can get from an experiment or a survey can be severely impacted by bias.  This could be bias that is found in the questions that are asked or the sample that is used to find the answers to your question.  My students, when creating their questions let their bias (against Scott Walker) influence the questions.  The population sample was also tainted due to being done in a school where most people had a natural bias against their pay and benefits being changed to a smaller figure.  So after all of the work my students did, I had them analyze the data.  To no ones surprise, the feelings about the budget bill and Governor Scott Walker were negative.  However, when my students realized that they had biased questions and sample, they understood that the data that they received was not representative of the state of Wisconsin as a whole, but only of one Milwaukee Public Schools middle school.

Week 2 CEDO 540

The statistical mean has had an extreme impact on some kids I deal with recently.  I was fortunate enough to be able to help coach the Milwaukee Swim team entry for the U.S. Youth Games in Cocoa, Florida.  Instead of using an automatic timing system (such as a Colorado Timing System) the Youth Games used 2 timers per each lane and then the meet manager would "average" the two times and record the "averaged time" to find the place of each entrant.  Unfortunately for one of our swimmers, even though she out touched the other swimmer, one of her timers stopped the timer late.  This meant that her mean time was 0.17 seconds slower than the other swimmer.  So, according to the mean, she did not win the race.  Unfortunately, this also meant that she did not get the points a first place finish would get.  The difference between getting first and second place points in this one race was great enough that our girls ended up getting 3rd place overall in the meet.  They only missed second place by 2 points.  However, our boys won second place and had enough points for the team total points won the team a second place finish.  Kudos to my wife for a great job coaching.

CEDO 540 Week 1

This week we were introduced to the basics of statistics.  For the most part, statistics is the gathering and analyzing of data.  To many this is very boring stuff.  For me, it depends what I am doing with the data.  In many cases, I use data to try to predict what would happen in a future occurrence of something such as weather (which is all about statistical analysis) or even to predict the results of a future experiment.  I also attempt to use statistics along with the scientific method to help either prove or disprove a hypothesis that I might have.  For the most part, my hypotheses are relatively simple.  They can range from "Can I hit the snooze button and still get the kids onto the school bus?" to "How can I best make sure that I won't be one of the teachers on the cutting block next year?"  The snooze button hypothesis is tested on almost a daily basis, which adds to the amount of data that I have (for the most part, I can hit the snooze button at least once and get the kids on the school bus successfully). 
One of the books that was recommended to us in class, (How to Lie With Statistics) is a good review of how statistics can be used to attempt to prove a specific point of view if used in a biased manner.  I liked what I read enough to order a copy from Amazon.com.  The link for the book at Amazon is here.

CEDO 530 Week 5

This week we were able to see what others did with the Prezi's.  I was amazed at the ability of others to convey stories through pictures.  Just tonight, my wife was asking me to help empty her phone of all the pics my kids have taken with her phone.  She started deleting many b/c there "was a mess" behind the target.  I was crying "No! Don't!" because these were some amazing pictures that I could only hope to be able to take.  Unfortunately, my wife won the argument since it was her phone involved. 

The other things that we did were to finish our Pecha Kucha, create rubrics to score multimedia assignments, and review some technology in our groups.  I put in quite a bit of time on the Pecha Kucha, but in order to be perfectly understood, I will need a voice double so that my mush mouth won't impede other peoples ability to get my point.  The rubric was relatively easy since I used one of the websites to create it.  I just needed to modify the assignment a bit in order to add more technology to it.  The technology review has yet to happen as of this writing.  But I am sure that there will be much learned.

Prezi, Pecha Kucha and more.

First off, I apologize that I am posting late on Sunday.  I just got back home after a family weekend trip that surprisingly did not have internet connectivity.  I will definitely be suffering from the sunburn I got while fishing (well, not actually fishing, but taking off the fish of everyone else).
                 

This week we used the photos that we have been taking for the last month.  We needed to use them in our Prezi.  I am really impressed with the ease of use of Prezi as a tool.  I showed several of my co-workers and they were amazed at the way the non-linear and size as hierarchical organization.  I have a feeling that there are going to be many people asking me to show them what I know about Prezi over the summer.

Great Pictures on Prezi

We also needed to storyboard our Pecha Kucha.  This has been really helpful with the planning and execution of this exacting presentation.  I even had some of my former students critique what they saw.  The information was good.  I just need to work on my audio component.

Here is the link to the Pecha Kucha storyboard. 

Animoto, Elements of a Good Digital Story, more Presentation Zen

For the most part, I have really enjoyed playing with Animoto this week.  I was able to create a little introduction that I will be able to use in my classroom next year.  I also have already started showing other teachers in my school how to use it.  If I got it to work correctly, I have embedded my Animoto video below.


Looking at the different parts of a "Good Digital Story" according to Bernajean Porter was interesting.  There are parts that I am good at: "Living Inside Your Story", "Unfolding Lessons Learned", "Developing Creative Tension".  There are others I need to improve upon due to my love of verbal communication, these would be: "Economizing the Story Told" and "Showing Not Telling".  "Developing Craftsmanship" is something that I feel that everyone can improve upon since no-one is perfect.

The Presentation Zen chapter really reinforced what I found I need to work on while reading DigiTales.  I need to not overwhelm my students with words or pictures.  I need to use more "Empty Space" and use "Contrast" to better effect.  If I overload my audience with information, I have lost them.  I need to remember to simplify and stay on the message I want to convey.  

This week in CEDO530

We got the chance to use a site called VoiceThread.  This is a very interesting site where presentations are enhanced while not going too far from the "simplicity" ideas found in our book Presentation Zen.  For the most part, using VoiceThread a teacher can help create a presentation that not only is visually stimulating, but also allows the presenter to give detail without creating a slidument.  I am hoping I will be able to also use VoiceThread as a way to pre-plan some of the initial parts of the different sections that I need to teach.

CEDO 530 Week 1

Digital Storytelling.  The words bring some ideas to my mind.  The main idea is being able to effectively communicate (without confusion or distortion) with others using digital media such as audio, video or CG.
This week we were learning how to become more effective in presenting with programs such as the ever present PowerPoint.  I really appreciated some of the Presentation Zen ideas of simplifying the message so that it doesn't get lost amongst extraneous chatter.
I also am in the midst of taking pictures for 28 days straight.  I am not sure how I will be able to string all of these disparate photos into a coherent and cohesive story, but we'll see.  I know I will enjoy the challenge.
Oh, and we needed to write a story from the perspective of a future point in time.  I chose to write about reflecting on the lives of my daughters while walking my eldest down the aisle.  If you would like to read it, it can be found here (or copy and paste: https://docs.google.com/a/wolfmail.stritch.edu/document/d/1Cxr_dstLe5lG5B4MiDUzfTCkdWslt7czUQg0xQ8-m5U/edit?authkey=CJTs-eoO&hl=en# ). 

Final Post for CEDO 525 Enhancing Learning Materials through Technology

Over the past 6 weeks, we have looked at a lot of ways to enhance the ability of our students to gain and retain new information.  In many ways, I was re-introduced to ideas that I have been exposed to prior to this class.  The main difference is that with this class, I was able to understand how to apply many of these technologies for our students. In past workshops and graduate level classes, I have been told to use advanced organizers to enhance learning.  However, without being able to understand how to use them, I was where I started.  But, thanks to my classmates and professor, now I have been able to start using some of these organizers to help my students put their thoughts about new topics in order to be able to better understand these topics.  I am eagerly anticipating using the Cornell Note Taking Method for my students to learn more while we have a guest speaker who is going to be presenting his rock and mineral collection to the class.  I am hoping that using this note taking technique will add to my students overall knowledge base.

I'll sign off for this class using one of my literary hero's Douglas Adams, "So long and thanks for all the fish."

Identifying Similarities and Differences, Homework and Practice, and Generating and Testing Hypotheses

This week, we discussed how students learning can be impacted by: Identifying Similarities and Differences, Homework and Practice, as well as Generating and Testing Hypotheses. The effects of these ideas can usually be witnessed in the classroom setting.  In many cases, depending on how each of these ideas is implemented, each can be a positive or negative influence on a students education.

 Identifying Similarities and Differences
   Students have been proven to learn better when they are able to connect new information with prior information.  This can be useful even if students do not have prior knowledge.  If parallels can be drawn from the similarities and differences of the new material and related to the similarities and differences of things that students already do know their ability to learn new material is still enhanced.

 Homework and Practice
   Homework and practice can enhance the ability of students to learn new material.  However, if homework and/or practice is done without students knowing exactly what is supposed to be learned or practiced and why they should learn it, most of the possible positive effects of homework and practice can be lost.    


Generating and Testing Hypotheses
     This is something that happens in my science classroom on a daily basis.  Science is all about attempting to explain the world around us.  To do this, my students need to be able to research a topic, and then use the background knowledge they gained to make their best guess at explaining why things are the way they are.  We then use experimentation of some sort in order to then test to see if their hypotheses are supported or not supported by the data they collect from their experimentation.  People generate and test their hypotheses every day.  This can be seen in the morning when someone sleepily hypothesizes that they are able to hit the snooze button "just one more time" and still get to work or school on time.  If they are able to get to where they need to go, they have proven their hypothesis.  If not, they have disproven it.  The fact that people hypothesize all the time, and do not realize it, makes the process of teaching how to hypothesize relatively easy if the connection is made to prior experiences of the students.




One of the last things that we have had to do in CEDO 525 was to apply some of the learning strategies that we have been learning about to an online lesson.  I chose to use the online lesson from Learner.org's Interactives regarding the Dynamic Earth.   My full thoughts can be found using this link.  However, I found that overall, this is a useful site that would allow students to be able to get nonverbal instruction in the composition of the Earth and some of the major geological systems.  When I get to the geology section in my class, I am planning on using this as part of the review of the materials.

Cooperation and Collaboration

One of the videos we needed to watch this week was a talk by Clay Shirky at a TED event about how the "cognitive surplus will change the world".  I am somewhat inclined to agree with the speaker.  Overall, I believe that people want to help each other when it is feasible.  Mr. Shirky's premise is that through technology, people are much more able to help others with their resources.  Before the communication paradigm changed within the last 10 years, people were only able to help with what they knew about.  This meant that either they needed to be connected to an event though people in their lives, or needed to be made aware of a situation due to the traditional media.  This did not lead to many areas of need being addressed or an area of need being superficially addressed due to the attention of the media being redirected to something more "newsworthy" or just more "up to the minute".  If the earthquake in Haiti had happened fifteen years ago before this communication  paradigm shift, I do not believe that the global resources that are still being directed towards rebuilding that country would have been sent.  This would have led to a longer rebuilding period with many more deaths due to disease and/or civil unrest.  The country of Haiti is still recovering, but is much further along than it would be without communications platforms such as Ushahidi which communicates where help is needed.  This is just one example of how the world is changed by the "cognitive surplus" (the human impulse to help and the technological ability to do so).


Strategies Discussed 


   The educational strategies that were discussed in class this week were: Cooperative Learning and Reinforcing Effort.  Many examples were cited and many possible problems were posed.  I have attempted to use both in my classes and have had mixed results.
  Using cooperative learning can be a useful tool where students are able to add their strengths to a group assignment.  In many cases, this is where "shoulder partners" are used in professional development situations.  In the classroom, there needs to be a level of trust built up between the students who are expected to cooperate in their learning processes.  So, in many cases, having students rely on "shoulder partners" that may change often (when ever the seating chart changes), is not the best idea.  When assigning students to work in groups, I usually attempt to have students strengths and weaknesses complement the weakness and strengths of the others in the group.  If I did not attempt to do this, the ability of the group, or at least individuals in the group, will be severely limited in the ability to enhance the learning of the group as well as the quality of the product that is made by the group.  Also, if strengths and weaknesses are not considered in creating a group, one of the major problems of group work usually creeps to the fore.  This problem is that not all group members contribute to the product made by the group.  If this happens, not only is the learning of all the group members compromised, but there usually are hard feelings on all sides due to the level of effort not being "equal". 
   Reinforcing effort is also something that can have mixed results (and has) in a classroom.  There is a very fine line between reinforcing a good level of effort and reinforcing an inadequate level of effort.  I have seen this in many cases with regards to my special needs students.  Some of my students feel that as long as they are not a disruptive force in the classroom, they are owed a good grade for a class.  While this might be the case for severe cases of emotionally and/or behaviorally disabled individuals, it should not be considered appropriate for students who have specific learning disabilities.  In the case for these students, they need to be pushed to achieve as much as they can in all areas, even in the areas of their academic challenges.  This is something that is very frustrating for the teacher who is doing this, and usually met with resistance by the student who has been given standards that are not as high as could be due to their limitations.  I am the father of two girls.  One is in the Special Education program due to having such ear and sinus infections that she was effectively deaf for the two years before starting school.  My other daughter is precocious and into everything.  My wife is also worried about ADHD for both of them.  However, when I get to see my kids after I get home from work, I ask them the same question every night.  It is, "Did you do your best in school today?"  Even though one daughter might have some delays, this does not mean that she should be able to give less effort at learning what is being taught in the school.  To me, if she has a problem with learning something (in this case reading), then more effort should be expended to get her to where she is expected to be.  This means that I as her father sit with her and help her with her homework and make sure she logs onto Raz-Kids in order to try to get her caught up to where she is expected to be for a "normal kid".  My "precocious" daughter is not allowed to relax on the fact that reading comes more easily for her though.  She is expected to do her best, and her mother, her grandparents or I work with her every night after she comes home from school.  Maybe I am more of a parent like the "Tiger Mom" that has been in the news, but I truly believe that I need to teach my kids that they should strive to do the best that they can do when they do something.  I don't go as far as making them study until they go to sleep, we do go to movies as a family and play games, but if they need to get some work done, that is expected to come first, regardless if they "don't want to" or not.

Helping Students Learn & Retain Knowledge

This is version 2.0+ of my blog this week.  For some reason, when I attempted to save my original versions, I got a "You were not successful" page and had to start over several times.  This version is not as complete, but  is better than if I had just given up..



This week we were looking at using advanced organizers to help students learn and retain knowledge better.  One of the articles we read was written in 1960, but is still appropriate to teaching students today.  The gist of this article was that if teachers are able to connect new information to the prior knowledge of students, then the learning and retention of the information is enhanced.

Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizer

My class starts daily with a "focus question" that brings higher order thinking (according to Bloom's Taxonomy) and gives students an idea about what we will be doing during the class period.  For the majority of students, this is taken in stride and they at least make a guess when they do not "know the answer", even if there is not technically a "right" answer to the question.  The problem with this is that in some cases, I have students who do not want to think more than it takes to find specific answers that would be located in a textbook.  These students exhibit a huge amount of resistance to the probing questions as well as attempt to disrupt the discussion of the questions.

Non-linguistic Methods

The longer I am in the classroom, the more I employ non-linguistic methods of conveying information.  Maybe it is due to the prevailing entertainment culture of current students, but most are not practiced at being able to sit and listen to a lecture on a topic.  However, if that same information is put into a YouTube video, they will pay attention raptly for 20 or more minutes.  Streaming video has become an integral part of my classroom, since it is one medium that I know my students are engaged by.

Summarizing and Note taking
 This is a weak spot for most of my students.  Most students have been trained to copy verbatim from textbooks to answer questions posed by their teachers.  In my class, I try to design my lessons so that this is not able to be done.  If I ask questions, I ask some that would need to be answered by synthesizing information from multiple passages.  Another thing that I have started doing is that I give my students a synopsis of the unit we are going to be investigating.  The only problem is that these are worded using scientific terms.  One of the first assignments for the units is for the students to translate these synopses into "regular English" so that anyone would be able to read it.  This is done in groups so that the students who do not have the best reading abilities are still able to participate with the rest of the class.  Once all the groups are done "translating", the groups all share out what they thought the synopsis meant.  We then discuss these interpretations as a class, and what their teacher actually meant.  This is usually an engaging discussion. 

Review of 3 Non-Linguistic Applications.

Setting Objectives, Providing Feedback, Providing Recognition.

This week we were supposed to reflect on Setting Objectives, Providing Feedback, Providing Recognition as well as the article Feedback that Fits.  These three areas are where many teachers have weaknesses.  In some cases, all three are weaknesses, or sometimes one or two are.  For this reason there are many technologies that have been created to shore up these weaknesses in order to best help the student to be able to achieve.  Feedback that Fits is an article that encompasses the different ideas we are supposed to blog about.

Setting Objectives - 
  
Setting the objectives for a class can be both easy and hard.  This is easy due to the fact that state educational standards are published and give each teacher the objectives for the class(es) they teach.  The hard part of this is being able to discern how to best communicate these objectives to your students.  The way that MPS is attempting to communicate objectives is requiring teachers to post "What we are going to learn today is..." and "What we are going to do today is..." somewhere students are able to see it.  If these postings are not referenced by the teacher during the class however, it is only lip service to the true objective, getting the student to understand what they need to from the lesson.  Rubistar is a nice program that allows the teacher to create a rubric that shows students exactly how they are able to earn the grade they want.  Unfortunately, when most rubrics are used, they become a simple checklist.  While this allows for unbiased and quick grading, this might also not allow for the depth of feedback that is needed when used to score and given back to the student.  I have to admit to having used rubrics in this manner in the past.  However, it does not allow for the true differentiation of scoring that is required.  This leads into the next topic.


Providing Feedback-


In many cases, teachers might jot down a word or two on assignments as feedback.  Sometimes, a section might re-teach a topic in order to redress the issues found in the work produced by the students.  These would be examples of written individual and group verbal feedback.  Using a rubric would also be a benefit to students so that they would be able to see how they are able to attain a certain grade as well as how they did compared to how they thought they did when the rubric is returned.  If details are included on rubrics, these can be incredibly effective modes of feedback.  The Milwaukee Public Schools uses an online gradebook that can be accessed from any computer by parents or students to see how the student is progressing in the class.


Providing Recognition-


In many cases, the recognition that students I see has almost all been negative.  This does not mean that I am the source of this negativity.  Personally, I attempt to emphasize the good that I find in students.  This can get worn down over time, but I do try to make sure students know that they have the ability to do what is right for themselves and the others around them.  In many cases, words of encouragement, a note recognizing the good in their work, behavior, etc or a phone call home letting the family know about something positive can be a great motivator for my students.  For the most part, negative recognition is seen as earning "street cred" so that most recognition of negative behavior results in more negative behaviors.  Many of the students that I deal with are in the situation outside of school with at most one parent who lives at the same address.  In many cases, the only people who recognize the student for anything (positive or negative) are their teachers.  This might explain why students who have the reputation for being "chronic disruptors" come to school every day they are allowed to.  Recognition of being a person, good or bad, can be a huge motivator for students.  Teachers and the people in those students lives need to recognize this and make the effort needed to reach them.  

Technologies available-

There were many ideas for using technology for giving feedback.  The main problem with the online or e-mail generating technologies is that for the students I have, the main technology they have outside of school is their cell phone.  Depending on the applications they need to be able to be seen (for example adobe flash), the technology centered feedback might not be able to be received (the iPhone).  For the most part, I would suggest that in an urban school system, some of the traditional technologies of stickers, a good word, or recognition in front of peers can be great motivators.

Learner Centered Education

One of the paradigm shifts that has happened within my lifetime has been the shift from the needs of the curriculum to the needs of the learner to be able to acquire the curriculum.  With the learners of today, there have been many things that have been found that can affect their ability to acquire knowledge.  Whether it is learning styles or prior knowledge, the teacher should tailor their lessons to be able to meet the needs of students to find success in a multiple of ways.
  When reading Learning Principles from Carnegie Mellon University, I was somewhat surprised but some of what I saw.  I had realized that prior knowledge can help the learner positively if the prior knowledge is appropriate and accurate.  However, I hadn't really thought about the fact that "when knowledge is inert, insufficient for the task, activated inappropriately, or inaccurate, it can interfere with or impede new learning."  I have seen this in many of my students over the years and had thought of it as a learned behavior where students who show helplessness are enabled by some teachers in order to show some growth.  This is not something that will help the child in the long run.  However, I am not sure how to combat this.  Having a low tolerance police for not trying does not seem to have much effect.  However, enabling the negative behaviors also would have negative results.  So, I seem to find myself with a problem.  Strong feelings and ideas can be dealt with even if not reasoned with, but how can one be made to care?  How can one deal with apathy?


Waxman, H.C., Lin, M., & Michko, G. M. (2004) A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of teaching and learning is  an interesting examination of the effect of technology and learning.  For the most part, it seems that it has a minimal positive effect on learning.  Technology also seems to have a minimal negative effect on behaviors.  It seems that technology is not the panacea that people are looking for when it comes to today's educational woes.  However, the studies did not state that all of the students in the studies were taught by educators who are proficient in technology.  This could make a major difference in both learning and behaviors.

Work Responsibilities vs. Worker Rights

Within the last week, the news that has been on all of the teachers that I have been listening to has been the "Union busting" maneuvers of Governor Scott Walker and the Republican majority of the Wisconsin State Senate.   I got into teaching after working in many other fields before obtaining certification.  The reason I gained certification to teach is that I have a passion to help kids in Milwaukee who might not find many people in their life who are willing to take the time to attempt to know and help them.  This is not only just teaching them the required curriculum.  This is to also push the students we have in our classes to their utmost.  If this makes me a person that is hated in the present, I hope that the students will respect the fact that I only pushed them as hard and far and fast as I believed they could handle.  When being challenged, people find out more about themselves.  With encouragement and being taught how to persevere until they succeed, failure can be a better learning experience than any success that a student has.
  
I have been hearing reactions from "I'm proud that the Democrats are taking a stand" to "We knew this was going to be coming, why are they protesting now?"  The main quandary that I find myself in is that for the most part, I do believe that all levels of government (as well as individuals) should practice balancing their budgets and not engage in deficit spending.  However, I do not believe that union members should have to give up the ability to bargain pension and health care as well as their wage rates.  The problem with part of the current fiscal "crisis" that Governor Walker is having to deal with now is also seen as a way to be able to strip most unions of their most central powers.  If the reports that I have been hearing are correct, the amended budget would  require all members of unions that deal with public entities pay higher percentages of both health care and pension.  This was accepted by most as a given when Governor Walker was elected in November.  The reason that I feel that many of the people who are protesting in Madison are there is that the language regarding unions effectively negates the reason to have unions in the first place.  Some talk show hosts are asking, "Why are people worrying about this?  Public employees are protected from working in an "At Will" state and do not need to worry about being fired as people who work in private industry."  While this is true in the general sense, the wording of the language regarding public unions removes all of the bargaining power of unions except for negotiating pay rate.  At least according to the union representatives that I had talked to, this means that a district would be able to institute longer work days, year round school, larger class sizes and a multitude of other changes.  This means that even though the union would be able to go to the district and claim that wages would need to be raised to compensate teachers for longer hours and more work, the districts would be able to refer the union request to an arbitrator.  The problem is that because of the "Qualified Economic Offer" law that has been in effect for quite a while, the school district would always have the decisions come down in their favor and be able to institute whatever they want.  This is due to the fact that the QEO had been interpreted in a way that the arbitrator needs to only consider the fiscal needs of the district when making their decision between the two sides.  So, even though Governor Walker states that this is only an attempt to reign in out of control spending, it is effectively a way to totally gut the teachers unions of any bargaining power in the state of Wisconsin.
 
My usual feeling about the union that I belong to, the Milwaukee Teacher's Education Association, is mainly existing for the political motives of the hierarchy of the union.  There have been numerous occasions that the majority of the membership have asked for  the elimination of the residency requirement for MPS teachers in the contract discussions.  Every time that this is brought up, it seems as if the union poses the questions, gets told "no" and then accepts that answer.  For those of us who are cynical, this is also seen as a way for the union to keep its political power.  Because if its members have to live in the city of Milwaukee, then they also all would vote in the elections of politicians in Milwaukee.  These politicians would owe some of their political capital to the MTEA and then on the whole, vote favoring the MTEA .
 
This is why I am torn.  I see the origination and original reason for unions as a good thing.  But the current union structure is somewhat a parody of the original good idea.  Reform is necessary for the unions, but the elimination of the unions as a functioning body is going too far.

Finance Reform and Education

  In the news lately has been the idea that public employees have been at the public trough for too long and have been draining the pocketbook of the ordinary taxpayer.  In today's economy, I would have to agree.  This is even though I am a teacher at a public school in one of Wisconsin's worst performing districts.  Do I believe that teachers and other public employees should have their benefits and pay more in line with what is able to be supported by the taxpayers?  In principle, yes I do.  The problem where it gets tricky is in the details.  Personally, I would have no problem with paying more for my pension.  However, if I am paying more for my pension, should I not also have the ability to have my pension in a fund type that is not historically inefficient?  Should I pay more in health care costs?  With the newest contracts that teachers have signed, that is going to be put into place.  Have teacher pay be related to student performance?  This would really need to be researched and attainable goals would need to be put into place for this to happen.  Otherwise, it will be the case of the poor getting poorer ("failing" school districts and their teachers), and the rich getting richer (successful districts and their teachers).
   Let me tell you a little about myself before I go further.  I am a person who believes that you should take care of your responsibilities and not ask others to do so.  As as teacher, I do my best in order to help my students meet or exceed the state standards for 7th grade science (what I am currently happily teaching).   One of the hottest topics that is happening in the Wisconsin state capital of Madison is one attempting to cut down on the expenditures of the educational system, in MPS specifically.  It is said that if a school district is failing to help students achieve the "standards" that are assessed in the high stakes tests, that the district should be penalized by losing the funds and allowing students to attend other schools with the money that is taken away from the district.   In principle I agree with this idea.  However, this would hinge on multiple assumptions being made. The assumptions that I am able to think of are as follows:

1. The only effects on the education of students are the quality of instructional practices that the classroom teacher uses as well as the effectiveness of the teacher to implement them.  
2. The schools that receive the money forfeited by the failing district will educate the students for the full term (either year or semester).  
3. Students will meet the same standards expected of the failing district in an alternate placement.

  In regards to the first assumption, students are not a "blank slate" when they get into a classroom.  In many cases, students have a definite opinion of what school should be and how they measure their success.  Unfortunately, not all students define success the same way that teachers, parents, political pundits and the population of Wisconsin does.  Hard work, critical thinking and responsibility are foreign to many of the students who are judged as "failing" according to the high stakes standardized tests that are given to measure academic ability.  In many of the cases of "failing" students there is little or no support for either the student or the school when it comes to behavior and effort in the classroom.  I have asked many of students who choose to either be disruptive or show little to no effort in the classroom environment the reason they made the choices they did.  In some cases, students claimed boredom with the topic or the type of assignments given or with school in general.  This usually was in the case of disruptive students, but also with some students who gave little to no effort.  I have also heard that the subject matter is either too hard, too easy or the student will never use it when the grow up anyway, so "why bother?"  Another answer that has been given more times than I would like is that "I have acted this way for years, and I still pass."  I have also heard one of the most discouraging phrases, "My [parent(s)] don't care, so why should I?"  This last is one that upsets me tremendously.  I love my daughters and want them to be successful.  I want to help guide them from some the mistakes that I made so they do not need to experience some of the failures that I have.  This is not to say that I am easy on my children.  I would think that it is more the opposite.  I want them to do well.  To do well in today's work place, you need to be a hard worker, self-reliant, polite, as well as being able to provide the services the consumers of your work want and or need.  This last part means that my kids need to do well in school and learn as much as they can about the real world and how to solve the problems that they are faced with.  I can not prepare them for all of what they are going to face, but I hope that I can help then learn the tools that will be effective in crafting a solution to those problems.  But for the majority of the students that I have been in contact with for the last decade and more, this is not the case.  In many instances, students are going to be succeeding without much input from influences outside the school.  Many of my students have not had stable living situations.  Many do not have parents that can be there at night to support their child's education.  Many have living situations where they can not plan for the next test or the next grade because they are wondering where their next meal is going to be coming from.  There are so many issues that effect the ability of students to concentrate on the academics of schools, that traditional public schools will not be able to be effective for those students.
 
  Every February, I am told to expect at least 4 to five more troubled students who are "returning" from their other schools.  In most cases I am told that these schools that the students have left are "alternative" or "choice" schools who received the funding for educating the students.  Now that the funds are secured, the students are cut loose and returned to the public schools where they are guaranteed an education by the Wisconsin State Constitution.  In 1972 the Wisconsin State Constitution was amended in Article X regarding education : "The legislature shall provide by law for the establishment of district schools, which shall be as nearly uniform as practicable; and such schools shall be free and without charge for tuition to all children between the ages of 4 and 20 years".  This is widely accepted as fact that if a student can not afford a private institution of learning, they would be able to go to a publicly run school.  I was not able to find an amendment which allowed for the disbursement of public funds to private entities for the means of education, but I do not have a background in law.  This is not to mean that it does not exist, but that I was not able to find one.  I also did not find that if a entity contracted to give a "free and without charge for tuition" for a student for a semester or school year, that that entity would be able to keep the money that was going to be used for that students education if that student is sent back to a publicly run school.  If "choice" schools are able to skim the cream of the crop of students, wouldn't that by definition send a public district at a competitive disadvantage?  If not only would the "choice" school be able to keep the best of the best, but also send away those that do not fit this criteria after receiving the compensation for the students, the competitive advantage of the "choice" school would grow even greater.  On the whole, if students learning is impacted positively, I am all for doing whatever is legal and more to do so.  However, if what is legal, is not moral, then I would need the merit proven to me before it is done.

  I also would not have as much of a problem with students given the ability to go to "choice" schools if they were expected to meet the same benchmarks are the students in the public schools.  The Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam (WKCE) is currently given to all public schools.  At this time this high stakes test which is given in the first 2-1/2 months of the school year is how school districts are determined to be either succeeding or failing.  This test is not required of "choice" schools.  As far as I know, and I may be missing a lot, there is not standardized benchmark that "choice" schools are required to meet.  If there is going to be competition, let it be fair.  Let all schools have the same benchmarks and be scored using the same procedure.  In science, if you do not control all of the variables (other than the one you are testing), and test multiple times, you are not able to determine if the results you have received have any merit. 

  All that I am asking for is that the playing field be leveled before decisions are made regarding the livelihoods of many educators.  If the Milwaukee Public Schools were to be broken up, what would have changed in the culture of the students that would allow them to be successful.  Trickle down theories are great when it comes to macro-economics, however, to build a successful school that is able to educate all of its students, you need the grass roots support from the families and community (including businesses) in order to have the impact necessary.  If teacher pay in the Milwaukee Public Schools were linked on how students perform on the WKCE, either you would have qualified, energetic teachers leaving the district that needs them the most in droves.  Until you are able to have a paradigm shift that puts the students to the top over the wants and needs of the teachers and parents and community, there will not be meaningful change.  This does not mean that throwing money at a bad situation will help, but neither will using punitive economic ideas.

Are the tools we are using effective?

This past week, we have been looking at effectively using the internet resources that are available.  One step that we needed to take was to create a web page score sheet or rubric that would allow us to determine if the internet resources that we are using were appropriate for what we were trying to get out of them.  We were given two examples one from U.C.- Berkley, and one from Discovery Education.  I found it somewhat funny that after I was done with all of the creation of my version of a rubric, that I ended up scoring Discovery Education (where one of the score sheets is from).  The main reason that I used Discovery Education as one of the sites that I scored is that I tend to use many of the streaming videos from the site in order to help my students understand the subjects that we are learning better.  The link to my blank rubric is here and the scoring of Discovery Education as well as the score of Sciencebuddies.org are located if you click the link in the name.  If I hadn't had these sites recommended to me in the past, I would never have thought of them.  As it is, I use them extensively during the school year.  My only issue is that I am curious if my scoring rubric is too easy.  Will it give most web pages that even attempt to stay educational a good score?  What else could or should I have included in it?

How to use our Blogs in CEdO 520

Originally, we were supposed to use our blogs to discuss what we have learned and how it would be able to effect our personal and professional lives. During the discussion at the end of class, the idea was brought up that we answer the same question over and over again. To some it seemed somewhat redundant and to some it seemed a difficult chore when the class did not offer anything immediately applicable to their life (either personal or professional). So, our first assignment in our blog is to come up with ways we would be able to use it effectively. Below is a list of some of my ideas:

•   Use the blog to discuss the pros and cons of specific uses of technology.
• Make us take a stand on an issue regarding technology and education.  We would need to then support our ideas.
• Use the blog to give feedback about the work we do.  Explain how we feel it could either be improved or what we appreciated and learned from the assignments.  If we don't have opinions on the assignments we are given, are they really having an impact?
• Have us attempt to write through the experience of a student who is watching their teacher going through the process of implementing technology in our classroom.  It could be as short as a diary entry. 

Those are the ideas I came up with.  I hope that some others find then useful.

Looking back at CEdO 515

CEdO 515 (Using Productivity Tools Effectively) has been a very interesting experience.  I was able learn how to use more of the applications that are found and stored online.  This is very useful in the fact that it is accessible to anyone who has internet access.  Embedding things into blog posts and websites also will be able to help with my instructional ability since I would then be able to have students access specific online resources that I need them to from my Moodle site.  An example can be seen below of one minor project that I needed to embed.



As you can see, I can improve on some things (such as formatting), but overall, I have learned how to get improve many of my uses of technology. With the use of embedding, I do not need to use local server space in order to have videos that are available online for my students to see them. I am able to either link to them, or embed the video for them to watch. (an example is below)


Overall, I have been pleased with what we needed to learn in class. I hope to be able to put most of the things we have learned into practice in my classroom.

Graduate School Affecting Real LIfe?

   This week we were supposed to answer the following questions in our Blog: "How does what we are studying affect how you are teaching - what did we cover this week and how does it impact you?".  Overall, many of the topics that we have discussed in CEdO 515 have impacted how I am approaching my teaching.  Since I have started this graduate school program, I have started to suggest to my students that they sign up for a gmail account in order to have access to their documents anywhere they have access to a computer (using Google Documents).  I have also found many resources regarding how to integrate technology into my classroom.  I also have found that according to some of the surveys we have taken that I am pretty good at having my students use higher order thinking in my class.  I just need to figure out a way to integrate the technology into that learning experience while still keeping my students on track. 
   Another thing that we have been learning about is how educators should choose software and online applications to use in the classroom.  We have been given many different rubrics that we were asked to take a look at so that we would be able to explain which we would use and how we would then be able to use the rubric we chose in order to be able to choose software or apps that would be able to be effectively used in the classroom.
   The last thing that we covered in class that I found would be very helpful for my class is the introduction of Google Sites.  I feel that this is one of the sites that will be most helpful to me in my instruction.  I plan on using my Google Site for Cardinal Stritch as my portfolio that will allow me to give a link instead of having to print out a dead tree version of my portfolio. I also am planning on using Google Sites in order to give my students another resource where they would be able to find what we have been doing in class, as well as links and experiments they would be able to do to further their understanding of the subject matter.

InTime Videos & their usefullness in the classroom.

The InTime Video that I chose was Water Quality in the Greenhills Stream.  In this video, students were taught about how scientists did not just pick up instruments and use them.  This video showed the importance of keeping your instruments calibrated for the use that you need them for.  The students were able to also use their probes to check for various types of data including: turbidity (cloudiness), pH and temperature.  

In my classroom, the major ideas of being able to go out and measure data from a place that is dedicated to nature is not really something that would be able to be done multiple times in order to take samples and readings due to the location of my school as well as the short amount of time that students are in my class.  To be able to go gather data in the fashion that was shown in the video, I would need to create a field trip including transportation for my students to get this experience.  I would also be at a huge students to teacher ratio of ~1-2 teachers to 150+ students.  This would promote students to go off task and then lose sight of the purpose of the field trip.  If the focus was learning how to gather data multiple times and then comparatively analyze the date to prove or disprove hypotheses, I would think that it could possibly be modified to be done.  I would love to be able to get the students "in the field" where they are able to step into the role of a scientist and actually collect real data which would be relevant to their lives.  The other point that would be relevant from this video is to have students be reminded that the tools scientists are not infallible.  They need to be taken care of and recalibrated when necessary.  If this is not done, any data that is gathered using these instruments would be erroneous.  It can also be used to remind students that other technologies such as computers are only as good as the user.  If the user is not familiar with the abilities of the computer, either it might not be used to its potential or in a way that would create errors.

 

Spreadsheets and the Classroom

This week for CEDO 515, we were working with spreadsheets.  Spreadsheets were some of the first "killer apps" after the personal computer came to market and made a place for the IBM PC in the business world.  There are many different versions of spreadsheet software or online spreadsheet apps that are available for use.  Even though there are many versions, they all serve the same general function.  They are able to hold, sort and modify data that is stored in them. One thing that is nice is that you are able to create specific cells that rely on the data from another cell or multiple other cells and a function to calculate the data in the cell.  Our class, one of the exercises we needed to attempt was to use a spreadsheet to create a modifiable recipe.  The recipe that I used was from the Betty Crocker website for a Lemon Meringue Pie.  The only problem that I could see with using this recipe and modifying it would be that if you use # of servings that is not a multiple of 8, you would need to make individual sized pies.

One of the reasons I would use spreadsheets in my 7th Grade Science classroom, would be to have my students organize and analyze the data that they collect from doing their science projects.  One one of my favorite websites for my class is called Sciencebuddies.orghttp://www.sciencebuddies.org/.  On this site, there is a page that explicitly shows how to not only use spreadsheets (specifically Excel) to organize the experimental data, but to able to be able to create a graph that will allow the viewer of the experimental end-product to easily understand the relationship between the control data and the experimental data.  The specific page with this info for using spreadsheets in the context of science is here.