Horizon Report

1- Happy Thanksgiving

2- If you haven't already, look over the Horizon Report because it is actually useful and encouraging.

3- Here is my summary of Da Report:

The Horizon Report is basically a summary and analysis of the developments in technology for use in the classroom. This year's report includes a K-12 section which was our reading for the week. It is a well written article about the exciting findings in technology as well as the challenges we face everyday to include technology effectively in the classroom. The "Advisory Board" identifies five trends and five challenges to the world of technology in education. Then they focuses on six types of technologies for implementation over the next five years.

The five trends are (in order of decreasing importance):

a- Technology is a vital part of everyone's life. Okay Duh.

b- Technology is increasingly empowering students both in school and at home.

c- The web is becoming more and more personal (i.e. iGoogle).

d- Our ideas about learning environment are changing.

e- "They" are seeing creativity and innovation as increasingly important.

The five challenges facing schools for incorporating technology:

a- There is an increasing need for assessing new skills such as computer literacy.

b- Students are different, but schools are not changing the way we teach. [I'm not sure if students are changing biologically, but they have more technology knowledge.]

c- Teachers are not emphasizing real-life examples in class.

d- We recognize that "new technologies" should be incorporated into the classroom, but it slow to happen.

e- Resistance to change in the education system is great.

The six forms of technology and a description of each:

Collaborative Environments (Less than 1 year to adoption)

This technology is one that we have talked a lot about. It includes using websites like Blogger or a Wiki to create a community that can work together to complete an assignment or as an on-going part of the class. The report gives other examples like using Facebook or MySpace to set up personal accounts or using a virtual meeting ground like Second Life to meet up with students from across the globe. This technology is easy to implement and can huge payoffs in terms of teamwork and asking higher-level questions for assessment.

Online Communication Tools (Less than 1 year to adoption)

This is another type of technology we have used quiet a bit in class so far. Online communication includes instance messaging, Twittering, Skyping, and any combination of text, video, and sound communication. This technology is being used currently and will be highly prevalent in your students' lives weather it is in the class or not. Teachers should use these technologies to develop students interests and to allow for experts and other adults to be involved in the learning process. It also allows students to learn outside the classroom when there is a "teachable moment" in their daily lives.

Mobiles (2-3 years to adoption)

The mobiles the report refers to are cellular cell phones and smart phones. The implications for these devices are almost endless. They are already used as a cheap way to have clicker systems by using Poll Everywhere. The third-party apps can be used for a variety of classroom situations and are very useful as cheap alternatives to expensive equipment. The only problem is how many students actually have mobiles and how expensive the application you want to use is.

Cloud Computing (2-3 years to adoption)

Cloud computing refers to the innovation in internet processing where data is stored cheaply on a conglomeration of computers without having to store or process data on your own hard drive. Websites like Flickr, Google, and Blogger use this technology. These websites are already used in classrooms, but new websites that can process large amounts of data in an instance are becoming more and more useful for studying trends and laws in science or social studies.

Smart Objects (4-5 years to adoption)

Smart objects are sensors or devices that "knows" its place in the real world, but also communicates or exists in the virtual world. Most smart objects are used as a way to track objects or to determine how something changes over time. The smart object can communicate with other smart objects are can be harvested for data. This technology is far off, but is getting more affordable by companies like Lego and LeapFrog.

The Personal Web (4-5 years to adoption)

This is not new technology, but it is in policy development and could take some time to be useful. Teachers can make an online community for their class to find only what they need for the class. Websites like Portaportal would be an example of this, but the idea is to have many features with multiple uses. This technology will allow for better research from students and a more central database for classes.

4- My analysis of Da Report:

The report does a good job of giving both a detailed description of each technology and then two comprehensive lists of applications in the classroom. This will be very helpful in the future when I find a topic that could use a technology, but I'm not sure how to use it exactly. My questions for you are:

a- How useful do you think The Horizon Report is to teachers?

b- Why do you think they look as far ahead as five years? Are those technologies even practical?

c- Is the report tilted toward the schools with resources and do they take this into consideration?

5- I found the Mobiles section very useful because I think that we will be using cell phones in the classroom almost everyday in the future. Students cannot continue to be bombarded with technology and then expected to keep it out of the schools. Why not use what is already there? I know not everyone has cell phones right now, but soon that may change drastically. The section on cloud computing seemed to narrow for me and it seems that teachers would have a hard time implementing that into schools. I can see teachers moving away from data collection already in favor of online simulations and this will only draw the students further away from really experience research and laboratory work.

6- Have a good weekend Techno Beets.

Activity Types

For this blog, we're supposed to read three articles:

Grounded Tech Integration
Tech Integration In Our Respective Subjects
LAT Taxonomy In Our Respective Subjects

Once read, our assignment is as follows:
For your blog posting, please reflect on your perception on the intuitiveness and utility of the AT approach to planning. Think about how this approach might support or conflict with what you're learning in your methods courses. Finally, please post any questions or concerns you have relating to the AT approach itself, particularly activity types, or any of the articles.

Lesson Focus Possibilities

This post is for our lesson focus possibilities that are due by 10/26. Here is the assignment from the class website:

The first step in the process will require you to identify five (5) possible curriculum foci for the lesson. Ideally these should be topics that you will teach in your student teaching semester or topics that coincide with work you're doing in your methods course. One way to begin this process is to peruse the Virginia SOL's for your grade level/content area to see which content/process objectives are emphasized. I would suggest selecting possible focal areas based on a) your interest in the topic, b) possible connections to your methods courses, and c) possible technology connections. Please create a post in your blog group with the five possibilities, referencing the appropriate VA SOLs (including grade level and content area) and the highlighted portion of the standard you'd like to focus on prior to class on 10/26. After discussing the possibilities in class on the 19th, you will select three of the five possibilities to flesh out in the next step.

Communicating with Parents

Perhaps the most prevalent change in our day-to-day lives brought about by technology is that of a new ease of communication. One can engage in real-time conversations with people hundreds of miles away or have a silent, instantaneous conversation via text message with friends in the next room. Artists share their works with larger audiences, the whole world is up-to-date on events across the globe thanks to services like CNN’s “iReport” and in on the same inside jokes thanks to websites like YouTube and Textsfromlastnight.com. This surge in information availability and communication potential has a myriad of implications for educators, and can be a great help in connecting one’s students’ home and school lives if used properly.

In “Communicating with Parents”, Kathleen Casson lays out basic principles for parent-teacher communication, regardless of mode. Her opening sentences were what really struck me; to have a functional relationship with the parents of your students, the first time you call, email or meet them should not be months into the school year when a problem arises with their child. Rather, a pattern of sincere and positive communication should be set up early on in order to build parents’ confidence in the teacher and to make sure that parents and teachers are on the same page when it comes to expectations and hopes for the student’s performance in the classroom, which Casson notes as a key factor in achievement.

When used correctly, technology greatly facilitates interaction between busy parents and teachers. Sydney Brown’s article on class websites gave specific examples of families who have become much more engaged in their children’s’ academic lives thanks to websites administered by teachers. This involvement and willingness by parents to take an active role is determined in large part by how the website is presented; David Walbert’s “Writing for the Web” explains that effective website publishing will take an approach similar to the newspaper USA Today, meaning necessary information is relayed without much embellishment. By maintaining a well-thought out and frequently updated site as a resource for our students and their families, we as educators will make our own jobs that much easier by establishing a healthy link between students’ families and their academic careers.

Finally, the wonders of the World Wide Web do not come without potential hazards. It may be difficult to get some parents to use the internet to connect to their children’s schoolwork (or at all, for that matter. This writer’s father does not have an email address and has been known to type like the keyboard is going to bite him, for example). Being able to judge the family’s situation is vital in making technology work for you: if they’re fighting over one shared family computer with a dial-up connection, if the parents only use the internet during the day at work… these are all factors that must be taken into account when implementing this tool. The final article for this Blog entry discusses what I think is the biggest potential hazard to educators, and that is the fine line teachers must walk in cyberspace when it comes to connecting to their students. I was personally appalled by the stories about teachers in their mid-30s not only friending but subsequently flirting and beyond with their teenage students through social-networking websites. I’m not so naïve as to think this didn’t happen before Facebook, but there are certain lines that adults should be smart enough not to cross. We as teachers have an obligation to set positive examples for our students both in person and electronically, and there are lines that should not be blurred just because there are new ways to go about blurring them.

All in all, very educational readings that certainly shed new light on parent-teacher relations in the digital age. I think as we progress in our comfort level with technology as a society, we’ll see an abandonment of the dreaded parent-teacher conference in favor of a steady flow of communication between home and school, which could be a very healthy turn of events for all involved.

…Speaking of the digital age, did anybody else read and then re-read the sentence about the 14-year-old with a Blackberry? Kids these days, man.

Multimodal Learning Through Media- What the Research Says

Hey guys, this is Charlie. I'm terribly sorry for the delay and having to post on Drew's account. Anyway, here goes the post...

The introduction to Mr. Fadel's research clearly presents his thesis on multimedia based learning. Students using a well-designed combination of visual and text learn more than students who only use text. He is likely intentionally vague on this claim as factual evidence has historically been misused.

Namely, the cone of experience is hotly criticized in this article. Its original author, Dale, intended for it to be a visual metaphor depicting learning from the visual (bottom) to the abstract. It had nothing to do with percentage of retained information regarding these experiences. Instead it was taken by educational researchers to diminish the importance of learning through abstract means such as reading and hearing. As it turns out, this basic claim does a terrible job and explaining the complex nature of learners, their environment, and how material is presented. In other words, recent research has detailed the effectiveness of presented material based on how the brain works, how students learn best, and how much interplay exists between media and text in this material.

What factors of the brain must be considered when presenting any material? The first (as those in Heideman's minute sketch class are certainly aware) is the three types of memory and how they relate to actual learning. Before acquiring knowledge, learners must be sensorially alert. Obviously, information must actually be picked up by one of the five senses in order to enter working memory. This, in short, is why so many accidents occur while drivers are on their cell phones. Secondly, Working memory is, as Dr. Moore would say, the grappling process. It is creating, analyzing, and grouping schema. Finally, this information can be stored in long term memory in what we define as knowledge. Multimedia, should then seek to keep students alert by using all senses while helping to group and process information without distracting learners' attentions.

"How students learn", a topic general enough to describe human life; but in this article used describe three essential features to optimize learning. These are: Student preconceptions must be built on prior knowledge, expertise is developed through deep understanding, and the appropriate use of metacognition.

Fadel's final subsection presents the meat of the article in how it relates to our class: multimedia design in its visual and verbal modes. He presents 7 basic tips (one of which seems to completely contradict his message). One should always include text and visuals as retention increases when words are paired with media. Group words and pictures of the same idea in the same spatial region. This allows students minds to organize information better. Present similar ideas simultaneously rather then successively as students learn better this way (Does anyone have a hypothesis for why this may be true). Exclude any extraneous information that may be distracting. Positive benefits of this method are greater for low knowledge and high spatial learners. One heuristic that I'd like to analyze in further detail and get the group's opinion on is the Redundancy Principle. It states, "Students learn better when information is not represented in more than one modality-- redundancy interferes with learning." This seems to go against his conclusion with affirmatively says, "the most effective designs for learning adapt to include a variety of media, combinations of modalities, levels of interactivity, learner characteristics, and pedagogy based on a complex set of circumstances." Any thoughts???

This article details the complexity of the learning process that the "cone of ignoran...-I mean- learning" does not do justice. Using a variety of media in a succinct, flowing manner which is at harmony with students' natural learning process is certainly the take home message. The challenges of doing this are great. Our minds are constantly flooded with information, especially through the media. Teaching should not flood the mind, but allow our learning circuits to process and store information appropriately. In my opinion, effectively choosing what media to use in your classroom is a tremendous challenge. Suggestions or experience with well-tailored media would be lovely.

The Silver Screen

Life on the Screen

In this interview, George Lucas outlined his beliefs that our educational system should be teaching students how to properly utilize all forms of communication. He feels that it is currently stuck in the nineteenth century, merely focusing on the written and spoken word, while failing to give any sort of emphasis to visual, and other nonverbal forms of, communication. Lucas also points out that there is a great communication circle: one part, math, is completely unemotional, whereas its opposite, music, is nothing but emotional; in between these two parts lie all other forms of communication.

Lucas says that it is vitally important to teach students how to understand visual communication because that's what they are bombarded with day after day: "Students understand that they need to have these skills in order to exist in this world, so they're way ahead of us. Most kids relate to each other through music or graphics. They are regularly bombarded with images and sound. Most of their awareness comes through the language of moving images and cinema. That's why it's so important that they learn the language of it." He also points out that there are a number of highly educated professionals who have no clue how to put together a good visual presentation, with the result being a very convoluted lecture in deed.

According to Lucas, teaching emotional knowledge is just as important as teaching intellectual knowledge in the schools: "All these forms of communication are extremely important, and they should be treated that way. Unfortunately, we've moved away from teaching the emotional forms of communication. But if you want to get along in this world, you need to have a heightened sense of emotional intelligence, which is the equal of your intellectual intelligence. One of my concerns is that we're advancing intellectually very fast, but we're not advancing emotionally as quickly."

Personally, I'm not so sure I agree with everything Lucas said. After telling his interviewer that our educational system is bound up in nineteenth century ideas and methods, the interviewer then asks what he would change. In his answer, Lucas states: "we . . . need to understand the importance of graphics, music, and cinema, which are just as powerful and in some ways more deeply intertwined with young people's culture." I agree with these things being just as powerful as the written and spoken word. However, this is not a new phenomenon. People in the nineteenth century understood the power and importance of graphics, music and cinema. They did not have TV, movies or iPods to entertain themselves with. Not everyone could read. Graphics, music and cinema were vital to their world and they knew it. For someone who was illiterate, having a graphic on a sign outside of a business identifying what the business offered (i.e., a saddle for a business that made and sold horse-related items) was most necessary. I don't think Lucas realized all of this when he made his statement. Depending on their wealth, some were taught these appreciations through education, others, just given the monotony of their daily lives, understood the power of these forms of entertainment.

Lucas also made this statement: "We have to ask, What is important for the kids to learn? The old idea of education as a way of storing facts is not that significant because nobody can store the number of facts there are. Every year it seems to double. Instead we need to teach students how to tell a story. It's not enough to learn geometry; you have to learn how to build a house. We need to treat the language and grammar of the screen exactly the way we learn writing or music or painting." I both agree and disagree with parts of this quote. First, I think education should be treated as more than just a way to store facts. I also like how he takes it further by saying that learning geometry is not just enough: you have to learn how to build a house, too. I like this because having an education is a good thing, but one needs to apply that education to life. Otherwise, it is useless. However, I don't understand what he means by "we need to teach students how to tell a story." Is he saying that education should completely shift its focus to storytelling? Sometimes, you do just need to "learn the facts." If we had a country full of people who knew how to tell a story, but could do nothing else, we wouldn't have a country and I daresay that the mantra of the day would be "Teach them the facts!"

I did like his point that a country survives on its educational system, especially his statement of "The society that has a great educational system becomes the prominent society because that's the way the human race survives." It is unfortunate that so many seem to not get this bigger picture.

One final thing that I cannot leave unturned: I did not appreciate his shameless jab at the military. How would he feel if we were under attack and all of his freedoms and visual communications were threatened? Should the military really “bring [us] zippo,” would he be content with this? Or, better yet, if we didn’t have a military in this country at all, would he truly be glad of that fact? It would save us a lot of money.

Digital Directors Guild
This site explains the importance of digital moviemaking in the classroom. It shows how such activity can help students of all ages learn in a fun and effective way, while being able to validate and express how they feel about certain topics. The site also gives advice for how to incorporate this form of education into the classroom.

Podcasts
This site does much the same as the Digital Directors Guild site. It explains what a podcast is and how to access them (something that I was unsure of until I read through it--I know, I'm completely out of touch with digital reality . . . ), as well as gives reasons of why it is an important educational tool. I liked the podcast examples, especially the one of students explaining their hometown of Bristol, England.

What value do these add to education in general?
I think the value of these things lies in the fact that this is the stuff kids are interested in today and by incorporating items that hold preexisting interest into the classroom, kids will be apt to participate at a deeper level.

What value could they add to my classroom?
In the social studies classroom, digital moviemaking and podcasts have the potential to "make history come alive" for my students. They could see and hear things from the past. Such interaction with the past always makes it more interesting that just bookwork.

What types of learning are these best suited to?
Clearly audio and visual learning, as well as Kinaesthetic (hands-on). Although, the latter might facilitate a greater learning of how to make a digital movie or podcast, rather than subject matter.

What types of students will most likely benefit?
Those who learn best by the ways listed above. Also, students who are outgoing will probably benefit more than those who are shy. I was a shy student in grade school and I would have felt completely overwhelmed and intimidated by an assignment of this sort.

Copyright & Fair Use

Nathan--
I liked your point about cheating and how it relates to copyright infringement; I never would have thought of that. I also highly doubt that anyone would ever get indicted for it, though. Regardless, I think it's an interesting point--one of those things that made me go "hmmm."

As far as all of this copyright and fair use stuff goes, there is absolutely no way I'm going to be able to remember all of it; at least not right off the bat. I imagine that as a seasoned teacher, it might be easier to do so . . . although, on second thought, laws change so much (and so fast), that it might never be possible to keep it all straight. To combat this, I think I'll just find the laws online and double check that what I'm about to do/use will be within the legal limits.

Another thing that I found interesting, and liked, is the fact that the law tackles the "quantity vs. quality" issue. I appreciate that our lawmakers recognize that someone could steal a relatively small portion of a work, but, if it is its most critical point, then that person is guilty of copyright infringement.

One last comment. On the quiz, there was a question about showing a Disney movie for young kids during a Back-to-School night. I understand the points in the articles, but the school wasn't using the video for monetary gain. Why is this considered copyright infringement? It was for the general benefit of the public attending that school event and general benefit of the public is considered Fair Use.