It may be difficult for students to complete their first script in one night but I think this is a good way to expose them to the need to meet deadlines which is a definitive feature of the career of news reporting. They will not be scored on the writing until they have had the chance to do an initial broadcast, receive feedback from class, and revise/rerecord their broadcast.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Final Lesson Plan
My choice of subject matter/focus for this lesson plan was influenced by my own interest in journalism and love of news radio, as well as my desire to present a lesson that was dynamic and fun for students.
It may be difficult for students to complete their first script in one night but I think this is a good way to expose them to the need to meet deadlines which is a definitive feature of the career of news reporting. They will not be scored on the writing until they have had the chance to do an initial broadcast, receive feedback from class, and revise/rerecord their broadcast.
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It may be difficult for students to complete their first script in one night but I think this is a good way to expose them to the need to meet deadlines which is a definitive feature of the career of news reporting. They will not be scored on the writing until they have had the chance to do an initial broadcast, receive feedback from class, and revise/rerecord their broadcast.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Course Reflection
Educational Technology
Course Reflection
a. Coming into this course, what was your level of tech skill? Did you find it easy to adapt to the ways we used technology in this class? What was difficult for you? What was easy?
I feel that my level of tech skill was average for a person of my age but probably below that of some of the twenty-somethings in the class. Therefore, it became difficult for me, at times, if a series of instructions were given that involved something unfamiliar. One example of this was adding tabs at the top of the page to change windows more readily. This is something which I have actually done but frequently forget to do because I usually don't manage a great number of windows simoltaniously.
b. What have been your favorite parts of the class? What was your favorite activity?
Everything we've done, so far, was interesting and potentially very useful. I regret not having been here on the days we used PrezE. I had a lot of fun making the Xtranormal videos. I ended up using the software to make an invitation to my husband's 40th birthday party that has gotten rave reviews, so far.
c. Do you think you can easily incorporate your tech knowledge and skills into your role as a teacher? Out of all the tools we learned about this quarter, which one do you see using the most frequently as a teacher?
I hope that I will make a lot of use of MERLOT and PrezE but it was good to learn about GoogleDocs and GoogleForms.
d. What do you want to know MORE about in Ed Tech? What are you still curious about? Will you be able to explore these ideas on your own?
I hope that I will be able to explore many of the resources shown to us in class on my own. What is often the case is that I get distracted too much at home by family/kids and do not explore all of the amazing resources the internet has to offer.
e. Do you think your level of tech skill/knowledge has increased this quarter? If so, how? Are you a more confident web user?
I has increased drastically, along with my confidence. From what I've heard out of class, I believe that most of my classmates agree that we wish other classes were structured in this manner and that there were another Educational Technologies class available that continues where this one leaves off. Since teachers are required to accumulate so many PD hours every six years for certification renewal, I imagine (as I'm sure others would) that this class could be part of a series available to local educators.
Since you demonstrate the skill and then have students immediately put it into practice, you could easily dispense with the textbook unless you are required to have a print reference available.
Course Reflection
a. Coming into this course, what was your level of tech skill? Did you find it easy to adapt to the ways we used technology in this class? What was difficult for you? What was easy?
I feel that my level of tech skill was average for a person of my age but probably below that of some of the twenty-somethings in the class. Therefore, it became difficult for me, at times, if a series of instructions were given that involved something unfamiliar. One example of this was adding tabs at the top of the page to change windows more readily. This is something which I have actually done but frequently forget to do because I usually don't manage a great number of windows simoltaniously.
b. What have been your favorite parts of the class? What was your favorite activity?
Everything we've done, so far, was interesting and potentially very useful. I regret not having been here on the days we used PrezE. I had a lot of fun making the Xtranormal videos. I ended up using the software to make an invitation to my husband's 40th birthday party that has gotten rave reviews, so far.
c. Do you think you can easily incorporate your tech knowledge and skills into your role as a teacher? Out of all the tools we learned about this quarter, which one do you see using the most frequently as a teacher?
I hope that I will make a lot of use of MERLOT and PrezE but it was good to learn about GoogleDocs and GoogleForms.
d. What do you want to know MORE about in Ed Tech? What are you still curious about? Will you be able to explore these ideas on your own?
I hope that I will be able to explore many of the resources shown to us in class on my own. What is often the case is that I get distracted too much at home by family/kids and do not explore all of the amazing resources the internet has to offer.
e. Do you think your level of tech skill/knowledge has increased this quarter? If so, how? Are you a more confident web user?
I has increased drastically, along with my confidence. From what I've heard out of class, I believe that most of my classmates agree that we wish other classes were structured in this manner and that there were another Educational Technologies class available that continues where this one leaves off. Since teachers are required to accumulate so many PD hours every six years for certification renewal, I imagine (as I'm sure others would) that this class could be part of a series available to local educators.
Since you demonstrate the skill and then have students immediately put it into practice, you could easily dispense with the textbook unless you are required to have a print reference available.
MERLOT
This site allows educators and others to build a variety of classroom materials in all of the following formats; "e-portfolio, lesson plans, pedagogical analysis, student reflection, online course, tutorial, presentation, community website, etc." free of charge by logging on at:
http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm
The user of this site employs Content Builder software to develop materials. They are licenced through Creative Commons and made public through MERLOT. One of the best sources I found for English Education material was:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index.htm
This site is linked by thousands of schools and universities and has received nearly 80 awards. It links a huge array of writing and grammatical resources. Open source material such as that offered by MERLOT opens a world of tools and resources to teachers. The internet has already expanded teachers' available resources far beyond their textbook and local library but this site provides the ability to be part of a lesson plan creation community.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Creative Commons
Educators benefit from using creative commons because it offers a wealth of material that is free and legal to use, avoiding copyright infringement. Their goal is "universal access to research, education, and culture." Copywrite infringement lawsuits against teachers are not extremely common, due to the "fair use" exemption of the Copyright Act which allows for limited use of copywrited materials for purposes other than commercial profit such as for; news reporting, research, parody scholarship and teaching. However, in these days when students easily use a computer to copy and paste work that is not their own, it is important to teach students that pledgerism is not acceptable by modeling this value. Creative Commons provides a resource for sharing educational materials without disregarding this important value.
Visit Creative Commons through this link:
http://creativecommons.org/
Friday, May 11, 2012
An Online Presence
I performed a Pipl search on myself this week and found that the site simply pools information already available in various public records. It is uncomfortable to see all of this content, including; phone number, current and previous addresses including aerial views, next-of-kin, and associated photos made available so easily, however, it wasn't as bad as I had expected when we were shown the in-class sample by our instructor. For one thing, I had no photos associated with my name, so that was a relief. Sponsors listed on the sidebars claim of offers access to school, criminal and financial records but I guess this is just to information that would already be listed elsewhere such as schools attended, not as specific as grades received. I think there are privacy laws protecting most of our information from view but it is still uncomfortable to know that websites such as this are now part of everyone's "online presence."
Ohio DL Schools
Students in our Educational Technology class have been investigating Distance Learning and were asked the two following questions regarding five of the popular online learning services available in Ohio(Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, Ohio Virtual Academy, Ohio Connections Academy,Virtual Community School of Ohio, and Virtual Schoolhouse:
Which of the five DL options would you pick for your child? why?
I would selectOhio Connections Academy (OCA) which is accredited by NCACS and AdvanceED. Their site says that they are the only statewide Ohio eSchool rated Excellent in 2010 by the ODE whose School Year Report Card has shown OCE to add more than a year of academic growth. They also claim to be the "only Ohio virtual school to achieve Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)"from 2006-2008. An eSchool needs to have excellent technology (using Connexus®) and their website is most impressive in this regard. It was the most comprehensive of the sites we evaluated and the lesson samples displayed there were the strongest, including clear steps for the student, the learning facilitator at home, and enrichment including Teachlet® Tutorials.
Ohio Virtual Academy (OHVA) might also seem a good choice in that their site lists among accreditations that they are the "top-performing statewide e-school in Ohio for the fifth year in a row" and that ODE designated them Effective in their 2010-2011 grade card. However, I felt that the sample lesson plans exhibited at the OCA website contained more helpful detail and overall better design. Their OVHA site is also laid out in a user-friendly manner and they offer an advanced, 24/7, customer and tech-support. I simply prefered the quality of the sample lessons offered at OCA.
Electronic Classroom of Tommorrow (ECOT) would be my third choice. They claim to be the largest eSchool based in Ohio and the "first online charter school in the nation to graduate students." They are accredited by aAdvanceED and the North Central Association (NCA), and are members of the Ohio Coalition for Quality Education. Their technology (IQity®) used for delivery seems to be from a well-established provider, however, I the layout of the site seemed weaker than the other two and didn't inclue sample lessons at all.
-which of the five DL options would you NOT pick for your child? Why?
Two eSchools that I would probably not select are those that seem to be run to meet needs in one area of Ohio:
Virtual Community of Ohio (VCO), is run by Reynoldsburg schools but much of their website seems nonfunctional. It has a link to a Annual Report and a Report Card but neither were active and I could find no other information on accreditation. When I went to their site and tried to launch the sample lessons on "Biomagnification and Mercury" and "Solving for the X-intercept" neither would launch. Attemping to view the textbook samples, I received the message 404: Not Found.
Virtual School House (VSH) said that it was developed to serve special education needs. It has a brick and morter school located in Cleveland but their website appears not to be kept up-to-date. For instance, the 5th grade page still wishes students a Happy New Year. I also found no infomation on accreditation and links for curriculum showed state benchmark/indicators but did not have lesson plan samples.
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