Jason Gaylord
February 22, 2009
Educ 422, MW 1-2:15
Instructor McCulloch
Ariel Owen writes in her article about WISE online mapper and "casual mapping," which allows students to generate easy to understand relationships out of complex data. Reflecting on this article makes me think about what we learned in class last week about how every individual learns differently. In this case, Owen is using several different strategies that appeal to many different learning styles. For instance, she talks about her students learn about creeks and water by going on field trips, which appeals to natural learners, visual learners, and pretty much the whole scale; however, she also talks about using the computer software program WISE online mapper. Not only does WISE allow users to organize their data and come up with simple relationships, but it also connects to learners who actually have to go through the steps of something to get it, and see things in ways they had never thought about. As Owen says about how this technology complements her students field trips, "Part of science is simplicity, and in these maps it is essential," because the maps help illustrate relationships.
Like Owens relates, technology is a useful tool in the classroom because it allows students to actually create something that is easy for them to see. As well, technology allows them to work quickly on projects and get what they need to get done and learn from their mistakes. For instance, as Owen relates to the readers, some students will use the technology to work through a problem and will present their maps and stop and realize there is more work that is needed to be done to get it right; and as Owen writes, there is nothing more essential to showing that someone is learning when they can correct and teach themselves.
My personal thoughts on this article is that it is excellent that these kids are able to use technology inside the classroom to help connect them to the outside world of biology. For me as a naturalistic learning, I need that connection, and I am more able to learn when that happens.
Jason Gaylord
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Posting #4
Jason Gaylord
February 15, 2009
Instructor McCulloch
Posting #4
The spreadsheets reading was a nice simple tutorial on how to use Microsoft Excel. I found it to be helpful and give me some of the necessary answers for beginning my first project in Excel. In particularly, the tutorial showed me the importance of Excel and how it is useful in organizing data and easier than using pen and paper. For example, Excel does all the changes for the user. If data changes, it simply makes the adjustments. In previous experience, I rarely used Excel, but it always has come up as the tool people want used when figuring out data and organizing it. This is because Excel is easy to use, and also because it is neat and organizes data in a manageable way. Further down the road, Excel allows its users to add colors, create charts and graphs. These are things that are very valuable to anybody who works with a large amount of material containing numbers.
On the quiz, I missed three of the ten questions. Though this is a considerable amount when thinking about what kind of grade I would have received had it been a test, I feel confident that the tutorial and the quiz taught me many good skills to get started on my Excel project. Also after reviewing the material, I feel that if I had to take the test again, I would receive a perfect. This week I am excited to utilize the skills I have gained through the short tutorial and the lecture from Instructor McCulloch. I think that the equations like SUM, MULT, DIVD, and SUBT will be crucial to my future as a teacher and organizing grades for my students.
Jason Gaylord
Jason Gaylord
February 15, 2009
Instructor McCulloch
Posting #4
The spreadsheets reading was a nice simple tutorial on how to use Microsoft Excel. I found it to be helpful and give me some of the necessary answers for beginning my first project in Excel. In particularly, the tutorial showed me the importance of Excel and how it is useful in organizing data and easier than using pen and paper. For example, Excel does all the changes for the user. If data changes, it simply makes the adjustments. In previous experience, I rarely used Excel, but it always has come up as the tool people want used when figuring out data and organizing it. This is because Excel is easy to use, and also because it is neat and organizes data in a manageable way. Further down the road, Excel allows its users to add colors, create charts and graphs. These are things that are very valuable to anybody who works with a large amount of material containing numbers.
On the quiz, I missed three of the ten questions. Though this is a considerable amount when thinking about what kind of grade I would have received had it been a test, I feel confident that the tutorial and the quiz taught me many good skills to get started on my Excel project. Also after reviewing the material, I feel that if I had to take the test again, I would receive a perfect. This week I am excited to utilize the skills I have gained through the short tutorial and the lecture from Instructor McCulloch. I think that the equations like SUM, MULT, DIVD, and SUBT will be crucial to my future as a teacher and organizing grades for my students.
Jason Gaylord
Jason Gaylord
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Post #3
Jason Gaylord
February 8, 2009
Educ. 422 MW 1-2:15
Instructor McCulloch
Posting #3:
This week in class, I learned a few important things that I believe will help me in my pursuit of becoming a great teacher. For instance, like I covered in the post before,. will be a great tool for helping my students stay on track when researching and getting extra help for assignments, as well as, be a great source for me to view other teachers' bookmarked sites. In addition to the Delicious website, I also got a brief tutorial on how to use Rubistar, which allows users to view and post rubrics for class assignments. This will be particularly useful for me as a future teacher because it will allow me to post the criteria for a project, and then, grade a student's work accordingly. Not to mention, however, that this will also allow my future students a reference and guide of expectations for projects they will have to execute in the course.
In the article "Then, Now, and Beyond, Oh the Changes We've Seen" by Maureen Brown Yoder, there are several examples of how technology has changed over the past thirty years. For instance, the first significant thing Yoder points out is that technology in the classroom was first thought of as a passing feature; however, as Yoder articulates quoting a peer, "Technology was not a fad, but a tool providing possibilities that we could only imagine 30 years ago"(2). Technology has been effectively utilized by several teachers to add collaboration, communication, speed, problem solving, and confidence in students and their learning. By working in groups on the computer, as is later pointed out in the supplemental reading about the Integrated Technology Classroom, students are able to teach each other, as well as, the computer is able to help tutor students when the teacher is not available. Through this collaboration, students are, then, becoming more confident with using the computer and teaching themselves. As the article suggests, "Teachers encouraged students to make mistakes, revise, and rethink their original hypotheses, respecting their ability to learn without formal, one-way instruction"(3). Interestingly enough, Yoder points out several software programs and interactive learning guides, such as, the "Compelling Real-World Stories" like The Voyage of the Mimi, which is a video story complemented by interactive software, that are allowing and encouraging students to participate in real world scenarios and problem solving the explorers themselves had to go through to accomplish a goal(5). I, for one, did have a class where this story was used, and it did force me to think about real situations and how I would solve the problems the crew faced on the vessel of the Mimi (Ben Affleck was one of the crew members).
However, the more compelling feature technology has helped change in the classroom, may be the more simple utilities of the computer. As is pointed out in Yoder's article, "Learners are freed from the tedium of paper and pencil efforts that are time consuming and unforgiving"(4). For example, with the computer, students are now able to produce a project that is well organized and easy to read. Instead of having to hand write papers and formulate new templates, students can now type and use templates to accomplish and produce assingments. This feature, alone, has made technology a time saving tool which has allowed students to focus more on content than making sure their products are legible.
February 8, 2009
Educ. 422 MW 1-2:15
Instructor McCulloch
Posting #3:
This week in class, I learned a few important things that I believe will help me in my pursuit of becoming a great teacher. For instance, like I covered in the post before,
In the article "Then, Now, and Beyond, Oh the Changes We've Seen" by Maureen Brown Yoder, there are several examples of how technology has changed over the past thirty years. For instance, the first significant thing Yoder points out is that technology in the classroom was first thought of as a passing feature; however, as Yoder articulates quoting a peer, "Technology was not a fad, but a tool providing possibilities that we could only imagine 30 years ago"(2). Technology has been effectively utilized by several teachers to add collaboration, communication, speed, problem solving, and confidence in students and their learning. By working in groups on the computer, as is later pointed out in the supplemental reading about the Integrated Technology Classroom, students are able to teach each other, as well as, the computer is able to help tutor students when the teacher is not available. Through this collaboration, students are, then, becoming more confident with using the computer and teaching themselves. As the article suggests, "Teachers encouraged students to make mistakes, revise, and rethink their original hypotheses, respecting their ability to learn without formal, one-way instruction"(3). Interestingly enough, Yoder points out several software programs and interactive learning guides, such as, the "Compelling Real-World Stories" like The Voyage of the Mimi, which is a video story complemented by interactive software, that are allowing and encouraging students to participate in real world scenarios and problem solving the explorers themselves had to go through to accomplish a goal(5). I, for one, did have a class where this story was used, and it did force me to think about real situations and how I would solve the problems the crew faced on the vessel of the Mimi (Ben Affleck was one of the crew members).
However, the more compelling feature technology has helped change in the classroom, may be the more simple utilities of the computer. As is pointed out in Yoder's article, "Learners are freed from the tedium of paper and pencil efforts that are time consuming and unforgiving"(4). For example, with the computer, students are now able to produce a project that is well organized and easy to read. Instead of having to hand write papers and formulate new templates, students can now type and use templates to accomplish and produce assingments. This feature, alone, has made technology a time saving tool which has allowed students to focus more on content than making sure their products are legible.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Blog #2
Jason Gaylord
February 1, 2009
Educ 422, MW 1-2:15
Instructor: McCulloch
This week in Educ 422, I learned about the website del.icio.us. It makes cataloging all of your favorite sites much easier and neat. I thought it was really cool because its primary goal for users is to utilize the site for social bookmarking. Social Bookmarking is important to teachers because it allows students to use predetermined sites prescribed by the teacher to do assignments, as well as, allows other teachers to see what their colleagues are using as sites for teaching in order to streamline and come up with more effective and efficient lesson plans and learning tools. Personally, I am excited to use the site once I have a classroom because it will allow me to direct students to the best sites and most academically respected material in the field of study.
Also this week, in the internet assignment, there were several helpful learning websites listed. In my exploration of some of these sites, I found that most of them would be helpful in teaching a class in the particular field I want to teach. For instance, Rubistar would be helpful because it allows teachers to create a standard students need to follow in order to succeed on the assignment or course. As well, it allows teachers to easily assess the performance of students and their progress with the material. Something, however, that I thought would be even more important to students about RubiStar was that it allows students to track and see their progress.
In the reading for this week, I found quite a few helpful tips and philosophies about learning. With regards to the article "Teaching for Understanding," the article explains that students have many preconceived ideas before they ever step foot into the classroom, and with these preconceived notions, each student learns differently than the other. Keeping this in mind, teachers should come up with several ways to change students preconceived misconceptions and as the article explains, a good way to do this is by developing several different teaching strategies with technology. For example, technology allows students to explore many different explanations that challenge their misconceptions, as well as, allows students to find several formats, in which, these misconceptions are busted. Maybe one of the most helpful ways technology can help a teacher explain to students the rights and wrongs about a particular subject is by helping teachers quickly assess the misconceptions students have about a subject or lesson. Summarized, technology should allow a teacher to quickly identify the problems students are having and offer many different learning methods to change their minds, as well as, allow students to participate in this experience bringing the things they learned in complete harmony with the knowledge they already have.
Netiquette, another reading for this week, simply is the correct way, in which people should correspond over the internet. There are several lessons and rules to be followed in Netiquette, but the most far reaching rule, is that the way you correspond in business, is the way you should correspond over the web. For instance, be sure to be clear and not vague in emails. Also, allow some time to pass when responding to an email you think may be provoking because simply put, you may just be misunderstanding the others prose.
Jason Gaylord
February 1, 2009
Educ 422, MW 1-2:15
Instructor: McCulloch
This week in Educ 422, I learned about the website del.icio.us. It makes cataloging all of your favorite sites much easier and neat. I thought it was really cool because its primary goal for users is to utilize the site for social bookmarking. Social Bookmarking is important to teachers because it allows students to use predetermined sites prescribed by the teacher to do assignments, as well as, allows other teachers to see what their colleagues are using as sites for teaching in order to streamline and come up with more effective and efficient lesson plans and learning tools. Personally, I am excited to use the site once I have a classroom because it will allow me to direct students to the best sites and most academically respected material in the field of study.
Also this week, in the internet assignment, there were several helpful learning websites listed. In my exploration of some of these sites, I found that most of them would be helpful in teaching a class in the particular field I want to teach. For instance, Rubistar would be helpful because it allows teachers to create a standard students need to follow in order to succeed on the assignment or course. As well, it allows teachers to easily assess the performance of students and their progress with the material. Something, however, that I thought would be even more important to students about RubiStar was that it allows students to track and see their progress.
In the reading for this week, I found quite a few helpful tips and philosophies about learning. With regards to the article "Teaching for Understanding," the article explains that students have many preconceived ideas before they ever step foot into the classroom, and with these preconceived notions, each student learns differently than the other. Keeping this in mind, teachers should come up with several ways to change students preconceived misconceptions and as the article explains, a good way to do this is by developing several different teaching strategies with technology. For example, technology allows students to explore many different explanations that challenge their misconceptions, as well as, allows students to find several formats, in which, these misconceptions are busted. Maybe one of the most helpful ways technology can help a teacher explain to students the rights and wrongs about a particular subject is by helping teachers quickly assess the misconceptions students have about a subject or lesson. Summarized, technology should allow a teacher to quickly identify the problems students are having and offer many different learning methods to change their minds, as well as, allow students to participate in this experience bringing the things they learned in complete harmony with the knowledge they already have.
Netiquette, another reading for this week, simply is the correct way, in which people should correspond over the internet. There are several lessons and rules to be followed in Netiquette, but the most far reaching rule, is that the way you correspond in business, is the way you should correspond over the web. For instance, be sure to be clear and not vague in emails. Also, allow some time to pass when responding to an email you think may be provoking because simply put, you may just be misunderstanding the others prose.
Jason Gaylord
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