Week 5 & 6 Review

Tonight was quite the whirlwind - we tried to cover playing with lots of academic software, in six different stations - a pixel's worth of what really is out there - both for free and at cost.

Understanding that there are different categories of software is important, though it's far more important to be aware of what is out there, so that by the time you have your own classroom, or means to put technology in your classroom, you want to know how to go about making choices for software that will definitely help you improve your teaching and lesson effectiveness.

By far, Academic software is more fun and exciting to play with. Recording keeping - the stuff of Administrative software can sometime be used for Academic purposes, but still doesn't hold the charm and pizazz of even some of the free Academic titles out there such as Tux Paint, Google Earth, Stellarium, or LinCity.

Each of these software titles has some type of for-cost relative. Your decisions on what you use in your own classroom will in large part depend on your familiarity with technology, your willingness to learn something new, and what exists at the time of your initiation as a classroom teacher. Much is and has changed in the way of software development that takes the Mac/PC specification out of the equation and puts it squarely on the shoulders of the browser and related plug-ins you do or do not have. That - we'll discover and discuss in the coming week(s):



One thing of note, we'll be doing course evaluations in two weeks, and this semester they'll be in Blackboard!

Week 4 Review

This week we talked about hardware - the virtual beginning point, or at least base for much of what we'll discuss for the rest of the semester - mostly because without hardware, we can't do half the things we do unless we have hardware first. Hardware is the stuff we can physically touch and feel, compared to software, which is the stuff that runs on hardware. We covered how the difference between hardware and software can be understood by using a book as a metaphor. The book, it's physical pages, cover and binding, even the ink would be 'hardware'. The software portion would be the story itself, the meanings behind the words, "Once upon a time, there once was..."

Having this understanding between the two different types of 'ware', can help you establish what types of needs you have for your classroom and/or troubleshoot problems you might be having with technology.

Most of us have some type of experience with technology - and in this day and age of cell phones, iPods and computers, most of us have several experiences with hardware, and having an appreciation of how hardware has changed over the years can help us understand how hardware has changed and how it will continue to change.

Week 3 Review

Class this week really consisted of three major sections of content:

• Understanding the link between standards and objectives
• Playing with HTML Code (tags)
• Introduction to LiveText

These sections are not categorically related to one another, however they are meant to have impact on each other in some respect. Understanding the link between standards and objectives helps you to write and create strong lessons. Lessons (and the lesson you have for homework) can be created electronically in LiveText by creating documents. Documents created within LiveText can be further enhanced using HTML coding (tags).

Creating lessons is something that simply takes practice and understanding how objectives fit into standards also takes practice. Knowing how these things come together is not as simple or concrete as identifying the answer to a simple math problem like "2+2". This is especially true of the technology standards for students. These standards are far less concrete and more 'nebulous', but many examples of how teachers hit these standards exist.

Next week we'll start taking computers apart - or at the very least, looking at them and the peripherals we use with them.

Chapter 3 Missing Downs

Thanks to Kristen - (EN), I've been told that the Chapter 3 Puzzler is missing a few downs (and no I don't mean football here), I've posted the downs in Blackboard in under Week 2's assignments and will post them here - in addition to sending out a class-wide email.  I'm sorry about that - somethings in curriculum just are not edited well enough.  I've gone back and re-examined the teacher's text and the originals I have are also missing the clues.  So here they are:




Down (for Chapter 3 Only):


 


21. A program that tells the computer how to function and
how to manage it’s own operation.


 


22. The “brain” of a computer, incorporated into a single
microprocessor chip.  Within it,
calculations are performed; the flow of information between input, output, and
memory is coordinated; and program instructions are transmitted.


 


24. A set of instructions that tell a computer how to
complete a unique task such as word processing, database management, or
drawing.


 


25. A measure of resolution in printers and some other
output devices.


 


27. Multiple types of media that are combined into an
integrated whole that presents instructional content.  Although not only digital media my be included, the term is
often used to refer to a computer-based format that combines, text, graphics,
audio, and even video into a single, coherent, digital presentation.


 


31. The series of chips that make up a computer system’s
temporary memory  area.  This area empties when the application
is closed and fills up again when the user opens a new application.

Chapter Puzzlers returned

Chapters 1 and 2 Puzzler's were returned via campus mailboxes today. Generally Puzzler's garner 1 point per correct entry, and in this case each chapter had 24 potential points each for a total of 48 points for chapters 1 and 2 puzzlers. These grades have been posted to Blackboard.

Chapter Puzzlers Posted

For those of you who did not pick up the chapter puzzlers in class, activated the link for accessing the puzzlers here in Blackboard. They're also available at the text's website - which can be accessed using the COURSE TEXT to the left.

Week 2 Review

Understanding the learner and understanding all the facets that go into realizing the learning process are critical to finally coming around to the larger portion of this course's content - technology.

Without a foundational understanding of how someone learns, being aware of the various tools available to teachers (by way of theories, methods, and planning), the use of technology will (and probably should) fail, especially if it's given the power to supplant your teaching rather than to support it.

Realize, that I really do enjoy learning, and learning about technology. I love to play with it, figure out and investigate how it can be used in a support role to teaching. Yet, we have to get a good handle on these basics - including lesson planning.

Lesson planning holds behind it this idea of looking before you leap, and thinking through how you are going send the message - with the intent that the message you send is the message received. Lesson planning takes practice, research, collecting the supplies needed, preparing the classroom, etc., in order to help bring about or at the very least - support student success.

This week you have the same chapter puzzler's to do - and I know those will probably be very easy. Focus your best effort on coming up with a rock-solid lesson plan - one in which you can be proud. Here's my objective for this assignment:

The Learner Should Be Expected To: construct a lesson plan with a given framework (see bullets below) and identify the technology to be integrated into the lesson 100% of the time.
TLS(BET): assess the role of the technology identified 100% of the time.

Be sure to include/state the following:

• the grade level
• the subject area
• the subject area standard you'll be focusing on
• well written objectives (at least 2)
• well written procedures following a Step 1, Step2, etc. pattern
  
• materials you'll need (just a list not the actual supplies
• some form of technology integration

We'll examine your finished lessons in our next class period. Happy lesson plan writing. DO NOT find a lesson online and simply bring it in. My objective is NOT "TLSBET: print information from the Internet."