I chose to check out ZOHO. I never realized this stuff existed until I saw a commercial for it on TV last week. This is so cool, as is everything else that we’re learning about in this class. I would definitely recommend this to my coworkers and my students. I think that this is a good way to organize things for meetings and what not. I really think that this could benefit my students though. Just last week, our last week of school, I had two seniors come to me with two different situations that this application could have fixed. The first student was working on a PowerPoint presentation at home. He stayed up all night long, finished the presentation, and didn’t have any way to save it. He left his flash drive at school and didn’t have a disk or a CD to save it to and couldn’t remember my email address. By the time that he got a hold of me at school he had figured something out. Had he had ZOHO, he could have done his presentation online and not had to worry about saving it to something. This would have saved him a lot of stress. The other student came in to my room on the last day of school with a letter typed and saved on her flash drive for me to print out. When I went to open it, it was in WordPad because that was all that she had on her computer. She had to spend another 10-15 minutes in class making adjustments in Word. If she would have had ZOHO, she wouldn’t have needed to spend the extra time on it.
I chose to look at Picnik for my Image Editing selection. I love pictures and, again, I didn’t know this was out there! I really should become more aware of this kind of stuff…good thing I’m taking all of these classes to teach me! There’s so much that you can do with your photos here. One thing that caught my attention right away is the fact that you don’t need an image editing program on your computer. Another cool feature is that you can get your photos from pretty much anywhere, your computer, facebook, myspace, etc. This application is very user friendly. A lot of the editing options can be just a one click thing, you can also get more detailed but when I’m trying to walk my parents through some “new technology” one clicks are great! I’m not seeing a whole lot right now that I could do in the classroom with this application at the moment, but I’m anxious to use it to enhance some pictures for scrapbooking! By the way, there is a digital scrapbooking feature as well.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Week 7 Reflection
One thing that I took away from Chapter 30 is the importance of visuals in your instruction. I’m a visual learner myself and I like to show my students a couple of different ways on how to do things. As I was reading this chapter, I was thinking of different posters that I could make for my classroom that incorporates more than one visual. Most of my students really struggle with the Quadratic equation; I was thinking of making a poster with an example and arrows to show the steps. Now that I’m thinking of it, maybe it would be a neat idea to have the students make a poster on how they do it!
Another thing that really caught my attention in this chapter is the fact that some media can hinder the learning process. Since I started my undergraduate studies in 2000, you always heard “incorporate media into your lessons.” It never dawned on me that I might be incorporating the wrong media or irrelevant media. I’ve learned a lot from this course and I’m going to try my hardest to incorporate a lot of it into my teaching.
While reading chapter 31, what caught my attention the most was the idea of artificial intelligence. It sounds like an awesome tool to use in the classroom. It also has me questioning my own beliefs of technology never being able to take over teaching! The book states that “at the individual level, future instructional systems will diagnose learning needs, learning aptitudes, and styles; develop instruction tailored to identified needs and aptitudes; modify the level and type of feedback and instructional strategy based on learner responses and progress; and implement best practices guidelines based on up-to-date research findings.” Wow! Working in Adult Education, this type of intelligence would be so helpful. If I knew for each student their best learning style for each subject, that would be amazing. If I could have immediate access to half of this information instead of taking half the school year to work with the students and try different things, it would be so much easier for myself and my students. As educators, we could get a lot of use out of a tool like this.
Another thing that really caught my attention in this chapter is the fact that some media can hinder the learning process. Since I started my undergraduate studies in 2000, you always heard “incorporate media into your lessons.” It never dawned on me that I might be incorporating the wrong media or irrelevant media. I’ve learned a lot from this course and I’m going to try my hardest to incorporate a lot of it into my teaching.
While reading chapter 31, what caught my attention the most was the idea of artificial intelligence. It sounds like an awesome tool to use in the classroom. It also has me questioning my own beliefs of technology never being able to take over teaching! The book states that “at the individual level, future instructional systems will diagnose learning needs, learning aptitudes, and styles; develop instruction tailored to identified needs and aptitudes; modify the level and type of feedback and instructional strategy based on learner responses and progress; and implement best practices guidelines based on up-to-date research findings.” Wow! Working in Adult Education, this type of intelligence would be so helpful. If I knew for each student their best learning style for each subject, that would be amazing. If I could have immediate access to half of this information instead of taking half the school year to work with the students and try different things, it would be so much easier for myself and my students. As educators, we could get a lot of use out of a tool like this.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Screencast
This is a screencast on how to use my district's online classes. In the video I walk you through how to login, read a chapter, answer the questions at the end of the chapter, and how to email the instructor.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Week 6 Website
The purpose of my website is to inform students and parents of what's going on in the classroom. This is a work in progress and I hope to learn more about it so that it is visited on a daily basis by both students and parents.
https://sites.google.com/site/meghansadulteducationsite/
https://sites.google.com/site/meghansadulteducationsite/
Week 6 Reflection
A theme that I have noticed throughout the last three chapters is teamwork. Instructional Design and Technology in any setting cannot be successfully accomplished alone; it requires the work of a team. Table 18.1 in the book, on page 176, defines the roles of different team members. Last week in my reflection, I talked about how these roles carry over to the educational setting with an example of a curriculum committee. One of the main topics in Chapter 21 is that of the Step-Up-To-Excellence (SUTE) process. There is no way in the world that this process can be done alone. This process needs multiple team members that work together. Chapter 22 gives us a look into the everyday lives of five common roles in higher education. All of these faculty members share how they work together with their colleagues to make the most of their careers.
I think that all professions work as a team in their environments. This is also something that can be worked on every year. I know that my district works very well as a team, but there is always room for improvement. This is why we all attend professional development meetings throughout the year. It’s always good to have a team building meeting at least twice a year to keep everyone on track and to keep them looking at the bigger picture. Wouldn’t it be neat if all of our school districts would move towards the SUTE process?
I think that my strength is communication. I communicate very well on a daily basis with students, parents, and coworkers either in person, on the phone, or through email. I’m always giving suggestions for improvements, encouragement, and also asking for advice. If I have a concern, I like to deal with it ASAP; I’m not one to wait around for someone else to fix something! Two competencies that I’d like to develop, or more improve, would be: 1.) Stimulate and sustain learner motivation, and 2.) Use media and technology to enhance learning and performance. In Adult Education, my students work at their own pace. Most students come to us because they have gotten kicked out of their high school. More often than not, my students are not the honor roll students and don’t have much planned after they earn their diploma. Since they are no longer in a high school setting, they are not constantly reminded of their graduating class. Therefore, they tend to not have a lot of motivation to earn their credits. I am really struggling this year to get them motivated. I have tried everything that I can think of, and some students just don’t care, it’s so frustrating! I would love to take a class to learn different motivational techniques for Adult Education students.
I think that we are all looking to develop, or improve, our skills in media and technology to enhance learning and performance; why else would we take this class. I’ve already learned so much in the six weeks that we’ve been in this class that I hope to put to use in my own class and district. Sometimes I wish we had more time with each new piece of technology that we are learning about!
I think that all professions work as a team in their environments. This is also something that can be worked on every year. I know that my district works very well as a team, but there is always room for improvement. This is why we all attend professional development meetings throughout the year. It’s always good to have a team building meeting at least twice a year to keep everyone on track and to keep them looking at the bigger picture. Wouldn’t it be neat if all of our school districts would move towards the SUTE process?
I think that my strength is communication. I communicate very well on a daily basis with students, parents, and coworkers either in person, on the phone, or through email. I’m always giving suggestions for improvements, encouragement, and also asking for advice. If I have a concern, I like to deal with it ASAP; I’m not one to wait around for someone else to fix something! Two competencies that I’d like to develop, or more improve, would be: 1.) Stimulate and sustain learner motivation, and 2.) Use media and technology to enhance learning and performance. In Adult Education, my students work at their own pace. Most students come to us because they have gotten kicked out of their high school. More often than not, my students are not the honor roll students and don’t have much planned after they earn their diploma. Since they are no longer in a high school setting, they are not constantly reminded of their graduating class. Therefore, they tend to not have a lot of motivation to earn their credits. I am really struggling this year to get them motivated. I have tried everything that I can think of, and some students just don’t care, it’s so frustrating! I would love to take a class to learn different motivational techniques for Adult Education students.
I think that we are all looking to develop, or improve, our skills in media and technology to enhance learning and performance; why else would we take this class. I’ve already learned so much in the six weeks that we’ve been in this class that I hope to put to use in my own class and district. Sometimes I wish we had more time with each new piece of technology that we are learning about!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Google Map
The idea of my lesson plan is making a family tree. The assignment would be for the students to do some research of their ancestors. Part of the assignment would require them to make a family tree on poster board. The other part of the assignment would be for the students to create a customized map on Google. They would have to pinpoint the birthplace of each member of their family. The birthplace could be a city, state, or country...whichever is known. They would also have to include an image or video with each ancestor. The image should be something of significance to either that person or that place. Extra credit would be rewarded for adding more detail to the map. Here is an example of some of my family tree with images of popular places.
View Family Tree in a larger map
View Family Tree in a larger map
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Week 4 Reflection
I don’t see how the Internet and the World Wide Web won’t have a major influence on the way instruction is presented to learners. In the K-12 school system a teacher can use a classroom blog to present information to their students. In the higher grades, the students will be able to do more at home and use class time for more constructive activities. In lower grades, or all grades for that matter, podcasts are another way to instruct learners. In college settings, the Internet can be used to make more classes in the format that we are using for this class. Thinking back to my undergraduate classes, I could have saved myself a lot of time by taking most of the general education classes online. Maybe they have done this by now, but it would have been nice!
I think that most teachers, and schools, use some form of the HPT model already. I know that my coordinator sat all of the staff down last winter and went over our model again with us to refresh our memory. I think that this is a good thing to do a couple of times a year to get everyone back on track so that we can all be working towards a bigger goal. This model is a good thing to adapt to your classroom too. I know that I try to find more incentives and rewards for my students instead of consequences. I have to remind myself of this a few times a year, especially around Christmas vacation and spring break when I just can’t wait for vacation!
I chose to listen to a Love and Logic podcast titled “When Kids Are Home More Often.” I listened to the first two episodes and there was a really good message. Basically what Dr. Charles Fay was trying to get across to parents was that you need to make children responsible for their own actions. Isn’t this always the message with Love and Logic? In this episode, he wants the parents to run “practice outings” to learn how to behave in public. What he suggests is to have the kids make the outings fun for the parents. This is accomplished by having a conversation with your kids before you go on a “practice outing.” Tell your kids that you will go somewhere, let’s say Chuck E. Cheese, somewhere that you don’t really want to go, but your kids really do. Tell your kids that this could be fun for the parents in the following ways, if the kids are doing something that they’re not supposed to be doing, they will stop just with “the look.” Tell them that there will be no complaining or tattling. Once you get to Chuck E. Cheese you let the kids do their thing and if there are problems that can’t be solved without confrontation, you simply pack up and leave without warning. You get away from threatening to leave “the next time that you have to say something to them.” With these “practice outings” the key is to practice acceptable behavior at a place that you don’t necessarily want to be. This way when the kids are learning the hard way the consequences of their actions, you’re not tempted to give them a second and third chance to correct their behavior because it really doesn’t bother you to leave.
Podcasting could be beneficial in school setting for teachers because they could be listening to an episode while getting caught up on their grading or responding to emails. I have yet to meet a teacher who can’t multitask. You can catch up on a podcast during your planning period or at lunch if you want to stay in your room.
I think that most teachers, and schools, use some form of the HPT model already. I know that my coordinator sat all of the staff down last winter and went over our model again with us to refresh our memory. I think that this is a good thing to do a couple of times a year to get everyone back on track so that we can all be working towards a bigger goal. This model is a good thing to adapt to your classroom too. I know that I try to find more incentives and rewards for my students instead of consequences. I have to remind myself of this a few times a year, especially around Christmas vacation and spring break when I just can’t wait for vacation!
I chose to listen to a Love and Logic podcast titled “When Kids Are Home More Often.” I listened to the first two episodes and there was a really good message. Basically what Dr. Charles Fay was trying to get across to parents was that you need to make children responsible for their own actions. Isn’t this always the message with Love and Logic? In this episode, he wants the parents to run “practice outings” to learn how to behave in public. What he suggests is to have the kids make the outings fun for the parents. This is accomplished by having a conversation with your kids before you go on a “practice outing.” Tell your kids that you will go somewhere, let’s say Chuck E. Cheese, somewhere that you don’t really want to go, but your kids really do. Tell your kids that this could be fun for the parents in the following ways, if the kids are doing something that they’re not supposed to be doing, they will stop just with “the look.” Tell them that there will be no complaining or tattling. Once you get to Chuck E. Cheese you let the kids do their thing and if there are problems that can’t be solved without confrontation, you simply pack up and leave without warning. You get away from threatening to leave “the next time that you have to say something to them.” With these “practice outings” the key is to practice acceptable behavior at a place that you don’t necessarily want to be. This way when the kids are learning the hard way the consequences of their actions, you’re not tempted to give them a second and third chance to correct their behavior because it really doesn’t bother you to leave.
Podcasting could be beneficial in school setting for teachers because they could be listening to an episode while getting caught up on their grading or responding to emails. I have yet to meet a teacher who can’t multitask. You can catch up on a podcast during your planning period or at lunch if you want to stay in your room.
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