Homework
Here is my homework for EDT 500.
Due September 6, 2011
Presentations:
Here is a presentation that is not so good:
I can't use the word terrible because I did learn from this presentation. The information presented made sense and it was properly chunked. In other words I could understand it, learn from it and I was not overwhelmed with too much text on any one slide. I also liked the integration of videos which were both informational, relevant and interesting. Things I did not like about the presentation were: 1. There were a lot of harmony issues with the presentation. The graphics and text were placed in different places on every page (sometimes text was centered, sometimes left justified but went across the page, sometimes on the top and sometimes on the bottom). The font was different on many pages (sometimes white on black, mostly black on a white transparency, sometimes in color and different font family, etc.) and I didn't see a reason why it was different. In summary, there was nothing that linked all of the slides together. 2. Image selection was not always related to the content. For example, there was a large graphic of Jimi Hendrix on one page and I couldn't find a reason why he is connected to Web 3.0. There were several chess images at the end and I wasn't sure how this related to the content either. 3. Simplicity - Many pages like the very first slide had way too much information on them that it was difficult to find the emphasis. The first slide had too many graphics that were irrelevant to the topic. (Why was there a picture of a girl holding a camera? Are we talking about photography?) The title was not emphasized enough and it took some time to figure out what this presentation would be about. This presentation would have been more effective if it has fewer images and less clutter. 4. Summarization - It would have been nice to have an advanced organizer at the beginning to give a preview of what we would be learning as well as a summarization at the end of what was discussed.
Here is a presentation which is good (and done by an amateur):
This presentation is good but not excellent. Here are the good points:
1. The presentation has harmony. All of the slides look like they belong to the same presentation. Most of the fonts are the same. The creator probably used PowerPoint which will increase and decrease font size automatically depending on the amount of text on the page. This can cause a harmony issue for me but it is a nice feature sometimes.
2. The selection of images are appropriate to the content.
3. There is an appropriate amount of information on each page.
4. The information was well organized and not scattered throughout the page.
5. There was appropriate emphasis.
I had some problems with this presentation such as:
1. There is not name of the presenter on the title slide.
2. Inconsistent use of periods at the end of bullets.
3. And advanced organizer and summary slide would have been useful.
4. A slide to hook in the learner at the beginning would have been helpful. The presentation was a little dull.
Here is a great presentation (done by a professional):
This presentation is great because:
1. It has a hook to get the audience interested. The title makes the reader want to learn more. The statistics in the beginning also get the reader hooked.
2. The title slide is not only interesting but it includes the presenter's name.
3. There are no harmony issues. The slides use just a few colors and the placement and use of font is fairly consistent. The presentation avoids being boring because the slides do change text placement from time to time but are still consistent in how they do that.
4. The images are appropriate to the content and since many are in black and white they still harmonize with the color scheme. There are few images which makes the images that are used both interesting and meaningful.
5. There is the correct emphasis on each slide and there is no clutter. The slides are interesting, informative yet succinct.
6. There are no spelling errors, inconsistent use of bullets or periods, etc.
Taking Learning Seriously:
Amnesia: I suffer from amnesia the most when I am learning something that requires memorization. For example, in History I have memorized many dates in the short term but do not remember these dates now. I am much better at learning a process like how to work an application. When I learn an application, I don't memorize the process. For example, I don't always know to go to "File | Save As" but I know that if I look through the menus I will eventually find that action for which I am looking. Technology is a great tool for me and others who suffer from the same amnesia. Technology, like all of the facts available on the Internet, can help someone like me to look up dates quickly when they are forgotten.
Fantasia: It is difficult to come up with an example of fantasia because by its very definition it is an error in learning that has not been corrected most likely because it has not been diagnosed. One of the interesting things about fantasia is that sometimes it is deliberate. When I think of teaching children the difference between right in wrong, whether it be a part of morality taught by a parent, teacher or religious institution, it is often taught that there is good and evil in the world. If you do good you get rewarded. If you do bad you get punished. Children hear this, see it in action on TV and in movies and conclude that there are "good guys" and "bad guys" in the world. When I watch TV with my children or try to teach them values I use the same terms - "good guys" and "bad guys." It is just easier to make someone good or bad to get my point across.
Many children carry this concept into adulthood. My children are now asking me about current events and politics. They still want to use the terms "good guys" and "bad guys." I recently had a conversation with my older children (7and 9) about political parties. After I explained the basic beliefs of each they concluded that democrats were good guys and republicans were bad guys. I am an independent and so I really wanted them to see that there are pros and cons to both. But they weren't quite ready to make that leap into learning that people are not good or evil but somewhere in between and make choices based on their situation.
Since technology - TV and movies - are part of the cause of this problem it would be nice to see some children's programming that shows that there are shades of gray in people and that people make good or bad choices based on their point of view. In addition, it would be nice to have conflicts presented in TV and movies be resoled with words and not violence.
Inertia: As a teacher I experienced inertia this summer. Two of my Jamaican students could not remember or apply the use of an Internet Browser. Every day for two weeks we downloaded pictures from the Internet. These students were only able to do so if I called out the exact steps to find and download the picture. I encouraged them to write the steps down. If they found the steps in their notebook they could follow them, though the process was lengthy. These students wanted a "handbook" on how to surf the net. When really, surfing the net and using a computer is more like driving a car. I can teach you how to drive a Toyota but when you get into a Honda you have to take what you learned in the Toyota and apply it in a somewhat similar but also different way in the Honda. To surf the net or use a computer you need to get the concepts and be able to apply them to different situations.
Since technology was the cause of this issue I am not sure that implementing more technology would be a solution. I know that I find an online manual to an application useful because I can search for what I want to do. In this case these students could search for "download picture" but again, that doesn't address the fact that they need to learn the concept and not memorize the steps.
Homework Due 9/13/11:
Presentation Idea:
CCSU offers it's undergraduate education majors two one credit courses in Educational Technology. The purpose of the first course, EDT 210 Introduction to Educational Materials, is to introduce the student to the various types of instructional media that can be used in a classroom and the role technology plays in an educational setting. To aid in the teaching of this course I will prepare five presentations. Although this course includes numerous topics the following five topics will be the subject of the presentations:
Audience Analysis:
To research the audience for the EDT 210 class I audited the class, interviewed the instructor and reviewed the pre and post skills assessment questionnaires.
The intended audience of the EDT 210 class is undergraduate students at CCSU who have not yet applied to the professional education program. It should be noted that some students enrolled in the course are not education majors nor do they intend to become education majors. These students are simply taking the course as an elective and they need one credit.
Most of the students are the typical age of college students, 17-21 years, but there are some older adults who are completing their degree in education later in life. While many of the 17-21 year old students are familiar with technology as we expect this generation to be they are more comfortable using technology for email, Internet browsing, smart phone applications and writing papers. Students of this age may come into the class with comfortable with the basics skills of computers and can readily apply those skills to the new technologies they learn. Some of the older adults enter the class with little prior experience and as a result suffer from anxiety about technology. In most cases regardless of age students are not well-versed in the more intermediate educational technology skills such as blogs, cloud computing, storyboarding, data management, WebQuests, etc. At this point in the pre-professional education program many students have taken some education courses and have a general understanding of education but they have not had extensive experience with lesson plans.
Due September 19:
Task Analysis:
For this homework assignment I will use Blogs as the example. I could and should write at least a paragraph on each of my 5 lessons.
In the lesson on blogging the defined tasks will be how to set up a blog and how to read and write a blog. Students will need some prerequisite skills such as basic computer skills (ex. navigating the Internet) and writing skills. To adequately compile the list of components of these tasks I will perform each of them and write down my steps. For example, to create a blog, assuming the student has already selecting a blogging service, they would need to go to the website, create a user name and password, and follow onscreen instructions to create the blog. These steps will vary depending on which blogging service is used. They are also very high level at this point. To confirm the task is completely analyzed I could have another teacher perform the steps. I will use the audience analysis to consider how the skill will be taught. In this particular situation, I have observed that modeling the steps on an interactive board and then having students perform the steps is the best approach. Some students, such as the Jamaican students I taught this summer, prefer all of the steps to be written down for reference. Because each blogging service will have different steps it is important that students understand the general concepts for creating a blog and don't get bogged down with the particulars.
Content Analysis:
The blogging lesson mostly lends itself to task analysis however, digital etiquette such as what material is appropriate to post on a blog, how to physically type the text (don't use all caps, etc.), why blogging is important to educational technology and how it can be used in a classroom, and what ISTE standards are addressed by blogging are all content that this lesson will address. Some of the students in EDT 210 will have had experience blogging, others will not. Therefore, the lesson will have to assume there is no knowledge and explain the basics of blogging. I will need to research the content by watching my own behavior blogging, researching blogging dos and don'ts on the web, identifying lesson plans that effectively incorporate blogging into the classroom, and creating the list of ISTE teacher standards that blogging can help to address.
Reactions to Making It Happen:
As a former project manager and a project director who helped to start a project management office to teach others about project management my reaction to this book is probably not the ordinary reaction. Primarily, there are many different methodologies to project management. Every consulting company seems to have their own flavor but the basics or as this book states, the first principles, are basically the same. The main purpose of project management is a "plan" as stated in the book. With a good plan - no matter what you call it - execution plan, system specification, etc. - you can meet success.
I disagreed with the final chapters of the book that stated that you don't need a project management cookbook. There are many green project managers out there, like Will, that don't know where to start in project management and need very clear direction. There are also many managers who need to review project plans and all of the other documents associated with them. To have a standard is important because managers want high level reporting where they can look at a plan from two different project teams and be able to read them without a new learning curve each time. Additionally, reports like these roll up into cross project reports and again the format and information needs to be the same or it is an administrative nightmare. However, I would like to add that project managers do need some creative license so that they can make the appropriate changes they need to make.
This book had many good insights about how to manage a project correctly. Certainly, the project objectives that require sponsor sign-offs, detailed design phase, complete execution plan phase are all very necessary. Many projects lack these. Some just jump right in with both feet and don't do the proper planning that avoids headaches in the long run. Some, have too many of these and the team gets bogged down in the documentation and before the documentation is even done the budget is gone. It is a fine line.
One lesson that really should be underscored is doing the review or as I used to call them, post-mortem. It is so important to learn from your mistakes and I really liked the author's idea that you need to praise what is right as positive reinforcement to do it again. The reality is that I think I only participated in about 2 post-mortems in my entire career. People are always so busy moving on to the next project that they don't do the post-mortem. Also it seems that so many projects never end. There is always some straggling work or changes that need to be addressed.
Due September 17, 2011:
Prezi on Everyday Things that Frustrate Me
or try this link: http://prezi.com/qnxje_w6fwu1/the-everyday-things-that-frustrate-liz-brown/
Due October 4, 2011:
Learning Strategies:
Socratic Seminars - as part of teaching Introduction to Educational Technology I would like students to discuss the merits and detriments of bringing technology into the classroom through the use of socratic seminars. Instead of simply supplying the pros and cons of technology in the classroom I would like the students to do a little research in advance and come into the class prepared to question the use of technology and each other's responses.
Stories - though I've probably used stories before in teaching reading this week's articles made me realize how important stories really are. I've been told several times that I should write a book. Instead, I'd like to take some of my stories and add them to my lessons in Educational Technology. As a teacher I hesitate to get too personal and sometimes shy away from stories. But I will revisit my lessons keeping storytelling in mind.
Teaching a Concept - certainly I've taught concepts before but I like the 4-part approach discussed in this week's readings:
1. definition
2. example
3. non-example
4. analogy
The last two I seldom if ever have used and I want to incorporate that more into my lessons. As a student I know these two always crystalize my learning.
Fluency - one of my biggest concerns when teaching the Jamaican students over the summer was that they were not able to perform simple tasks on their own without much help or in a short period of time. For example, logging on to the websites at the beginning of class or downloading a picture from the Internet were daily activities in which the students were not fluent. I will inform students that they need to memorize and be fluent with these steps by a certain day of the class. They will need to practice these skills for homework so that they don't take valuable class time.
Alphabetic Food Teams and Application Cards - both of these techniques require the learner to apply what they've learned to real life. I would like to take some type of approach similar to this where students, after learning a particular technology, need to brainstorm at least one way to apply it to their professional life as a teacher.
Circles of Knowledge - I have been helping a first grade teacher incorporate technology into her classroom. One lesson we are working on is asking questions. I would like to use the circles of knowledge approach somehow in this lesson. Facts I know, questions I want answered, answers to my questions.
Emergent Literacy - with my children I often forget that I am their first teacher. I used this strategy from this week's reading to help me to remember to take the time to talk with my young children and reach with them.
Formations - my son is having a hard time memorizing his times tables. I think I will try formations.
Idea Spinner - not sure how exactly I would use this but I think it would definitely make the class more engaging.
Due October 12th:
Storytelling:
Here are a few rules to follow:
Assistive Technologies:
"Kate" is a student who has ADHD. Her mother says that she has not stopped moving since the day she was born. She is highly motivated and very athletic. She works very hard at being organized and usually succeeds at being so. She is very personal and can accurately read social cues. She is popular and very kind.
a) cognitive abilities - "Kate" has average intelligence. Her IQ is normal. She is able to memorize facts but has a hard time applying those facts. For example in math class "Kate" knows her multiplication tables but has a difficult time putting them to use to do and algebra problem. Her difficulties with algebra are due to her having a hard organizing the steps to do an algebra problem.
"Kate" has dyslexia. She has a hard time speaking and writing in complete thoughts.
With respect to things like note-taking Kate can read what a teacher puts on the board but she cannot process the words as a complete thought and then grows board by the time she copies the notes.
b) sensory abilities - "Kate" has no notable sensory disabilities.
c) physical abilities - "Kate" is very physical and is always moving. She is a good athlete and is on the soccer team.
Environment #1: Math class
Task 1: accurately copying notes from the board
Task 2: follow steps of an algebra problem
Environment #2: Home
Task 1: getting homework done– attention comes and goes, go back to notes and then goes back to it and then can’t do it
Task 2: studying for an exam
Due October 18th:
Summative Evaluation:
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