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One team member should select and read an article before the next EDU 323 class. You will present an overview of the article to your team. You may use the content in your blog for your presentation. Article must be selected from http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/technology/front_tech.htm
I choose the article Lessons On Teaching Writing from Website Design. There are so many technological advances today that are at our fingertips as educators. Reaching our youth as stated in this article amazing. The progress that these students made in learning the required language skills was reached accomplished and exceeded the learning goals in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteThis article talks about how a group of students were taught how to design a web. The learning lesson of these children was to get them to correctly perform the language goals of writing and organize their thoughts. They reached their goals through using and learning how to design a web site.
What is more important in this article is that while the children were reaching their goals they were learning and having fun. One such girl even discovered other websites on her culture by others of her own kind.
My thoughts are that more educators need to reach out more and use the Internet in their lessons. I feel that this will inspire other students to want to learn more and exceed the limits of what is expected of them in the classrooms. I very much enjoyed this article I hope you will be inspired to read it as well.
Thank you,
Donna Ferguson
In his article "Technology and Academic Achievement", Les Foltos questions techonology as the "sivler bullet" for increasing student's academic achievement. He agreus that simply having technology in the classroom doe snot automatically increas the academic acheivement of the students. Mr. Foltos makes the point that the key factor in increasing student's academic acheivement through technology is how the teachers actually use technology in their classroom. If teachers do not use technology or use it improperly for their student's advancement, then the academic acheievement will not increase; however, if the teacher uses the technolgoy to increase the students' critical thinking skills then the academic acheivement will increase nad hte huge investment in technology by schools has been a good one.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mr. Foltos's arguemtn about technology and student academic acheivement. If the teachers are not properly trained in how to make technology beneficial to their students' academic acdvancement, then it is doing the students not good, it is a waste of hte teacher's time and the school system's money on new technology is worthless. Teachers must be trained not only in how to use technology, but also how to use the technology in ways to help the students to the largest benefit in improving their academic achievment.
The article "Learning with the Internet," had some very good information. It discusses how we all use the internet everyday and incorporating it into the classroom is not really an issue now. The main focus of the article is how to use the internet to effectively create "positive student learning experiences" (Kumar 2004). According to Muthu Kamar, students should use the internet for "authentic learning activities" such as research and discovering information for a classroom task. Two researchers, Bruce and Levin, suggest that there are three main tools the internet can be used for: tools for inquiry,
ReplyDeletetools for communication, and tools for construction. Basically the three tools should expose students to "real life contexts," allow communication between other cultures, professionals, teachers etc., and "can access a wealth of resources at their own pace and have meaningful interactions with the content information" (Kumar 2004). In addition to those things the article also claims that students should be taught how to use the internet. For example, they should learn how to differentiate a reliable source from a nonreliable source, learn to skim, and how to go about the search. Also, when teaching lessons using the internet teachers should be aware of the time constaraints in order to use their time effectively with the technology.
I completely agree with the article. Many teachers today do use the internet in classrooms even if it is just to look something up on Google. There are many more ways the internet could be used effectively in the classroom though. I have seen so many teachers just let the students go to the computer lab and let the technology teacher do all of the teaching. Many times that is the only experience students have with the internet themselves. By classroom teachers integrating the internet more into their own lessons students can learn how they can use the internet as an effective learning tool. Teaching the students the tools and strategies mentioned in this article would definitely benefit the students as well as the teacher. Instruction could become more hands on and fun for the students. I encourage others to read this article because it has even more in depth information on this topic.
The article I chose to read is entitled “Americans Need to Know More about Technology” from the National Academy of Engineering. This is a very interesting article that speaks on why and how All Americans can and will benefit from enhanced or advanced technological skills. These technological skills go far beyond knowing a little about technology and the internet. These particular skills are skills that will allow the federal, state, and local government, individuals, and businesses make better, informed technological decisions that may better prepare them for the high-tech demands of the work-force today and the future.
ReplyDeleteTo start this evolution of technology integration into every day lives, the article suggests that learning about technology should start as early as kindergarten and from there, there should be an integration of technology amongst all subject areas throughout a student’s learning career. This article makes the suggestion of changing the current technology standards to where teachers are required to become specialized in integrating technology throughout the whole educational curricula so that students can make connections between technology and learning. It further states that agencies that specialize in technology should offer award systems to individuals, businesses, and government agencies who are dedicated to integrating and teaching technology skills to students as well as the general public. I agree with the article and believe that integrating technology into all subject areas will allow students to become more active or engaging in learning since the curricula will support more of a project-based learning style. Project-based learning is more of a teamwork and collaborative effort which could foster attitudes of caring amongst communities. Integrating technology in all subject areas will also keep the children interested in learning and they will be more alert in class.
The article "Americans Need to Know More About Technology" has some great ideas in it. I do not think that many educators would believe in the article, however. The main idea communicated through the article was that people of all ages should know more about technology and its history than just how to look things up on the Internet. I think that many educators would think that knowing the history of technology would be very hard for educators, in conjuntion with everything else they must teach, to teach the history of technology.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with a certain portion of this article. The article said that students should start learning how technology fits into all subject areas in kindegarten (really before). I was teaching a couple of days ago my second lesson plan for this class. I had to teach them how to use the Internet for research. These students seemed to be clueless about how to do it. I was shocked and amazed that second grade was the first time that this had even come up in the standards for the students.
The article "Instant Messaging: Friend or Foe of Student Writing", written by Amanda O'Connor looks at adolescent and teen use of instant messaging and text messaging "language". O'Connor briefly observes IM an TM use by teens and adolescents, but her focus is on how the language used while IMing or TMing affects their formal writing skills in academic settings. O'Connor examines two key beliefs of this possible language change. Some teachers believe there is no room for IM/TM language to be used in academic environments and is considered blasphemy to the English language. On the other hand, other educators believe IM/TM language use is just another example of the ever-evolving quality of human language. These teachers incorporate IM/TM language in their curriculum to engage students and to even teach language history.
ReplyDeleteThough I do agree that IM/TM language should not be used in academic writing, such as formal research papers, formal letters, resumes, etc. I do see where IM/TM language can be used in the classroom. For instance, O'Connor gives the example of a teacher using an Internet chat room as a venue for her students to discuss writing and literature. This chat room environment allows her students to discuss an academic subject in modern language. I especially like the idea of using IM/TM language to discuss and teach the evolutions of language, especially the English language. Like, O'Connor describes the English language today is different from Shakespeare's use. Furthermore, the English language of another 100 years can be different from today's.
However, I believe that it is extremely important for students to not only learn standard English, but to also be able to use correctly and in the right places. It's still important for teens and adolescents to understand that not everyone knows or likes to read IM/TM language, and standard English is still the standard.
The article "Generation Y: Student Inclusion = Technology Infusion" by Martinez and Harper looks at how Gen Y provides a fool-proof way to infuse technology in the classroom. The idea is that students would work along side a teacher, showing them their vast knowledge of technology while the teacher learns how to implement technology into a lesson plan. Technology has been around for several years now and only continues to get better but it is rarely seen in the classroom; this is an issue Martinez and Harper focus on. They want to know why this hold true when 90% of the school's population possess 95% of the knowledge about technology. There have been a few programs/models created to improve this lacking area. Even though one grant no long holds up, its core values do.
ReplyDeleteI think having a student work along side a teacher, discreetly, is a great idea! As long as both parties realize they are equals and the most important thing to get out of it would be the new found knowledge and experience. Teachers could learn what actually interests their students, while the students learns what a teacher goes through to prepare for each teaching day.
Image actually going to China without having to step out of your living room! Well, Virtual World (VR) can do exactly that! VR is a simulator that is used by the staff at the University of Washington to recreate the Puget Sound. Joanne, a Fisheries Field Scientist at the University , uses VR to study the Puget Sound. Her interest was sparked when fisherman caught a Macrondont Horribilis, a rare fish never seen before in the sound. The species can cause significant damage to salmon fishery.
ReplyDeleteBenefits of VR:
-Using this technology, student can measure properties of the marina environment, stop time, choose whether the tide is high or low.
- Students can became a ball and experience Newton’s Law firsthand.
- Augmented Reality (AR) is a form of VR that just appears on the scene. The Nintendo Wii game system uses this technology to allow the player to be inter active with the game.
In the article, "Americans Need to Know More About Technology," the concept and importance of technology in the classroom is stressed at all grade levels. The National Academy of Engineering argues that most Americans know little about the world of technology and yet they are faced with technological decisions every day. They also claim that a major problem in the school systems today is that the students are not being taught about the nature and history of technology, aswell as having a certain level of skill in using technologies and thinking critically about them. They termed this as being technologically literate.
ReplyDeleteThe National Academy of Engineering believes that the connection between all subjects and technology should be emphasized at all grade levels and should be infused into the curricula to better prepare them for the demands of today's high-tech work environment. To help integrate technology into the curricula, it is requested that the Nation Science Foundation should fund an award that recognizes innovative and effective approaches for improving the tecnmological literacy of students and/or the public. Furthermore, government and industry leaders should recieve training on a regular basis about key technological issues through intensive courses, and engineering societies should institute fellowship programs. Thus, the technological literacy of the students as well as the public will be increased and better prepared to handle the technical decisions in their lives.