Taryne Kate

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose." -Dr. Seuss

[tarynekate214]

Week 9

      Throughout this course I have wondered when and whether we would touch upon the topic of device interface and use. I was glad to see that in this final week we are finally delving into it. I am constantly working with children whether it be at my summer job, babysitting, or in my classroom and there is one thing I have consistently noticed; apps can be frustrating for children. When children get frustrated, they give up quite quickly. This is frustrating for adults who are trying to use certain apps to help children learn. One app in particular that I have experience with in the classroom as well as using while babysitting is ABC Mouse. This is a great app which also has a website to be able to use it on a computer. In general, both the app and computer version of this program are not created in an easy to use manner. Icons and fonts are extremely tiny and there are many different tabs to click in and out of. For children, this is extremely difficult to navigate. I have had students give up and move on to a different game or app because they continuously clicked wrong buttons because of the small size. Both readings this week discussed the importance and proper user interface required for apps to run effectively.

                One issue I myself notice while using apps, generally the apps which are free, is the seemingly large number of advertisements that pop up while using the app. The Nielsen reading brought about a great point; “touchable areas were too small in many apps” thus “increasing the risk of touching the wrong one.” Similarly, he also observed that “accidental activation due to unintended touches again caused trouble.” I have found this extremely true when it comes to these free apps with the obnoxious advertisement pop ups! These pop ups generally have an “x” button in the corner to x-out and continue with what you were doing. However, these x buttons are, majority of the time, too tiny to click and if you are the slightest bit off with where you click, you are brought to the page for the advertised app in developers hopes that you will download it. As an adult, this is something that I get frustrated with and sometimes will end up deleting the app that has constant ad pop ups. With me reacting this way and being 24 years old I can only imagine a child’s frustration. Having this problem in educational apps is an even larger issue because kids get frustrated and will be uninterested in learning what’s intended. If developers could work on creating more efficient interfaces with little distractions, learning will improve immensely.

                Many other issues I have seen with some apps are the actual ways in which a function or task must be carried out on the device. For example, some apps require you to tilt and turn the device to make something go a certain way. For instance, there is a monster truck game some of my male students enjoy playing in their free time and you are required to tilt the screen forward to make the truck drive forward. If you want the truck to jump over an obstacle you must tilt the screen back again in one smooth, quick, flicking motion. These types of tasks are very difficult for children, especially those with poor hand-eye coordination. While these apps can help children work on coordination issues, for those who need that, it is highly frustrating. These sorts of tasks are difficult for me to do! Another app which requires this type of device movement is Temple Run. This is a very popular app and one which I have downloaded myself. However, after two attempts, I deleted the app from my phone. I was extremely frustrated with the game because I could not figure out the motion of moving my phone side to side and back and forth to make the character in the game run through the obstacles. While using certain apps in the classroom can be highly beneficial, a teacher does not want to use an app which will cause students any frustration. It is also important that they be simple to use with few buttons and options which students would end up wasting time navigating through to get to where they should be.

[tarynekate214]

App Review: Quizlet

              As a teacher of elementary students, I constantly find myself trying to take advantage of the abundance of technological tools and apps available to me to enhance my students’ learning experience. I think it is more important than ever for educators today to learn the tools that their students are using at home and incorporate it into the classroom. Doing so can increase both student interest in the material as well as help them to reach a new level of learning and understanding. Technology has come a long way in the past decade, even that past few years and educators need to keep up because there are so many great tools to take advantage of!

                The educational app which I chose to review for this assignment is Quizlet. Quizlet is an app created by a 15-year-old high school sophomore from California in 2005. The purpose of this app is to aid students in memorizing vocabulary and study material for various subjects using interactive flash cards. The app has a text-to-speech audio feature in seven different languages (English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, French, German, and Korean). Although originally designed as an online website, Quizlet quickly began getting demands for a mobile app in which they finally launched in July 2012.

                The app runs by having users to create a profile to store each set of flash cards he/she is working on. Users are able to browse pre-created sets of flash cards for the topic they need to study or they can create their own flash card set specific to their study needs. The program also allows users to add photographs to their flash cards, which especially useful if you are trying to memorize and study parts of the body for a science test. Quizlet provides three different study modes in the app to help students memorize the information and ensure understanding. The first study mode is traditional flash cards. In this mode the program shows one side of the flash card (either the word or definition), to view the answer, you click on the button “click to flip”. This will show you the other side of the flash card and you can then see if you were correct in your answer. This study mode also allows for shuffling the order of the flash cards so you aren’t studying them in the same order each time, as well as an option to show both sides of the flash cards at once. The second study mode available is called Scatter. The scatter mode is a matching game. The terms and definitions are randomly scattered about the screen and the students’ goal is to match terms with the correct definition. Students do all of this while being timed by the app. The goal is to practice the terms and definitions in scatter mode on various occasions and try to beat your time each time you study, trying to complete them with 100% accuracy in the least amount of time possible. Finally, the third study mode available in the mobile app is called Learn. This mode is given either the term or definition and prompted to define the other. If either is incorrectly defined, those terms are reused until the user gets it correct. This is one of the more effective modes that this app offers. As new topics or subjects are done, the app keeps a log of the users recent activity logging what cards have been done and how the student did while studying those flash cards. This allows users to see how they did maybe on a previous day and go back to the same stack of flash cards and study the same set again.

                This app is set up to have a very easy to follow user interface with very little distraction from images or colors. This makes the app less distracting allowing the users to focus on what they need to be focusing on; their study material. From what I have experienced so far, there are no obvious limitations with this app. The only thing I have seen is that the mobile app has less study mode options than the online version of the program. If a user uses Quizlet on the computer, there are several more options available as far as study modes goes. There are also more options if you choose to buy the Quizlet Plus app, which is not expensive, therefore, if you will be using the app often enough, buying the Quizlet Plus app may be worth it.

                As an educator, Quizlet can be used in numerous ways to benefit students. Teachers are able to create an account in which they can create a set of flash cards students can study for an upcoming test. The teacher is able to make the flash card set available to all of his or her students. Once that is set up, students are able to access the flash cards on a computer at home or on a mobile app to study the terms and definitions required. To make this even more fun for students, they are able to compete in certain study modes for high scores. For example, if Jack and Jill both study the flash cards using the Scatter study mode, they will be timed in how fast they complete all the terms and with what percent accuracy. They can then compare their scores with one another and view other classmates’ scores as well. If they see that they did not do as well as another classmate or friend, it will push them to practice more often to do better. Teachers are also able to use Quizlet in the classroom. This works especially well if there is a SmartBoard available. The teacher can simply pull up Quizlet, log in, and open the flash card set that they would like the students to work on. These cards can then be used as a class review or game and can be done several times in different study modes to keep it interesting. This program can also be used for center work as a computer center. Just create a flash card set for students to work on, and while at the computer center, students will use various study modes to practice the terms and definitions.

                I would most definitely say that this program embodies the community of practice concept from our readings. A community of practice is “a group of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it better” (Wenger-Trayner). I feel that this app is a community of practice because all users are using the app for the same purpose; to gain a better understanding of a certain topic through memorization techniques. Although not all users are studying the same topics, they are able to share their topics with other users so that others looking to learn about the same thing can share information provided by another user. This allows each user to possible learn other terms with a certain topic that they may not have had in their flash card set on the topic. Everything on this program is shared with all users to provide users with the greatest access to the information they need.

LATEST ACTIVITY: RECENTLY WORKED ON/COMPLETED CARDS

HOME PAGE

CREATING YOUR OWN FLASH CARD SET

SEARCH FOR A TOPIC OF PRE-MADE CARDS

FLASH CARDS STUDY MODE

LEARN STUDY MODE

SCATTER STUDY MODE

[tarynekate214]

Week 8: Reading Response

        Mayer’s article explains numerous types of learning models which benefit the various learners. As a teacher, I understand that all students learn differently. For this reason, teachers are constantly being told to “differentiate” our instruction to be beneficial to majority of the students in our classroom. Being a teacher for students with special needs, I have taken extreme note of how each student learns and what works best for each. It is difficult to aim lessons to benefit each of them when they all learn so differently, however, there are some ways in which I find interest majority of my students and it was mentioned by Mayer. Mayer stated that “mental model construction is often difficult for novices when explanations are presented solely in words.” He continues to say that this difficulty is improved when verbal explanation is combined with pictures. Mayer’s study of college students on this issue showed that showing animations or frame-by-frame illustrations helps learners build component models by showing the location or possible state of each component. These component models makes understanding the verbal narration of the casual model easier for learners. I have noticed what Mayer mentioned in my own experiences. While it is slightly different as I am dealing with elementary students’ grades 2-3 and not college students, their learning and thinking processes prove quite similar. My students get lost with verbal narration of a topic within minutes. Whether it be because they are simply bored or they do not have the attention span to sit and listen for longer than a few minutes or they are just uninterested, my students seem to get nothing out of narration. However, once a brief video clip is added into the mix or a diagram model is shown to them, they tend to tune in to the narration for a bit longer. At the end, most are then able to answer questions when the lesson is complete where as if the lesson was given strictly as a narration, my students cannot answer simply questions.

                In addition to seeing this in my students, I have seen it in my own learning.  As a young student, I struggled with reading comprehension greatly. However, this issue went unnoticed by all of my teachers until the end of third grade. By this time, I had fooled all my teachers because I was able to read all of the words but they failed to notice that I was not understanding what was read. Immediately, my mom hired a reading tutor to help me with this issue. The tutor was able to see my issue within minutes of working with me. When reading silently to myself, I could not retain what I read. However, when she read aloud to me and I followed along in my book looking at the words she was reading and the pictures on the pages, as well as hearing her narrate it, I was able to recall to her everything that happened on the pages she read to me with great detail. She determined that I learned better with a combination of hearing things narrated as well as seeing them in front of me; which is not how my school teachers had been teaching reading in school. Seeing as she knew after elementary school, the chances of being taught this way for reading would be slim, she taught me strategies to cope with it and help myself when reading. Now, as a teacher myself, I make sure to pay close attention to students strengths and weaknesses in different areas of learning to ensure that each student has an equal chance at success.

                In the Cognitive Tutor article, Ritter states that “in order to create instruction in mathematics, we need to understand the knowledge components involved in completing a particular task.” I believe this is true for all academic areas, not only mathematics. From personal experience in the classroom, I see this on a daily basis. Students need to be given the proper steps in order to hold on to the content they are learning. As teachers, we can provide these steps to ensure students’ retention of information through use of graphics, images, and animations in our lessons along with detailed explanations. Both articles this week provide insight into various ways of teaching for understanding to the many different learners in a class. In today’s world, with all of the technology available to us, I believe it is easier than ever to provide a better learning experience for students to ensure understanding and learning.

[tarynekate214]

Week 7: Tablets and E-Readers

                While reading the “Math That Moves: Schools Embrace the iPad” article, I came across some points that we have brought up in our podcast this week about different pros and cons with using iPads in a classroom. As we mentioned in our podcast, the article mentions the point that the use of iPads in the classroom are replacing textbooks, allowing students to “correspond with teachers and turn in papers and homework assignments, and preserve a record of student work in digital portfolios.” Essentially, allowing the classroom to be extended beyond its four walls, another point we brought up in our podcast. I think tools such as the iPad or e-readers are a great investment for schools to replace textbooks because the tablets for each student end up being cheaper than textbook sets. In addition, the tablets are also lighter for students to carry around because they can have their textbook for every class in digital form on one device rather than needing 3 heavy textbooks to carry around all day. For this reason alone, I would have loved to have these tools available to me in middle school and high school! Being an individual who has scoliosis, I was luckily able to get a doctor’s note which allowed me to have 2 textbooks for each course; 1 to stay home and the other which stayed in the classroom. While this was great for me and I never had to worry about carrying the textbooks, other students noticed and would ask why I got special treatment. If I went to school and iPads were available, I could have avoided the whole situation because an iPad is lightweight enough for me to have been able to carry back and forth and other students never would have known.

                In this article, the author also wrote that “school leaders say the iPad is not just a cool new toy but rather a powerful and versatile tool with a multitude of applications.” While I agree with this in that the iPad is definitely versatile and has numerous educational uses and applications, it also has not yet been proven to help kids learn better than traditional ways of teaching. While they may be great motivational tools to engage students in their learning, there is little evidence to say that they are a better way to learn. I do not think this would be as large of an issue if the machines weren’t so costly. However, the machines are expensive and the money could be used to hire young, new teachers who are good with multiple forms of technology and can use the technology already available to them to further student learning. Many younger teachers finishing their degrees are familiar with all sorts of technologies and how to use them in a classroom. Therefore, it would be more beneficial, in my opinion, to hire these teachers and provide them with jobs rather than spend the money on machines that are not yet proven to benefit the children in any way. The same goes for e-readers. E-readers are great, however, like any electronic, the battery dies. I also think for younger students, it is better to present reading in hard copy form. Children need to learn to appreciate books, physical books, not electronic versions. They need to learn to hold a book and learn the conventions of reading before using an e-reader to read. With e-readers students do not practice turning a page of a book. It may sound silly, but if students learn to read with e-readers and are then given a regular book, they may not know what to do with it. I do agree that e-readers provide access to a variety of books which is great, but I do not think it would be a tool I would ever be willing to use in my classroom despite the fact.

[xtiana91]

Visit Original Link

Our thesis for this podcast is that we believe e-readers and tablets should be used in schools because they support student learning and expose them to technologies that are used in the real world. We also acknowledge, however, the disadvantages of having these devices and we suggest some examples.

By: Taryne Cahalin (tarynekate214), Stephanie Sirico (ssirico), Christiana Vasquez (xtiana91)

Recorded on an iPhone 5

Edited and assembled using Audacity

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Our Podcast - enjoy =)

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Augmented Reality Reading Response

                While reading Savannah: mobile gaming and learning all I could think was the discrepancy between the game world and the real world Savannah. Through further reading, I found that the students in the study noticed what I had been thinking through their experience with the game. One of the girls in the study said that “in reality you would like be able to move around and be able to see things ahead of you.” I can definitely see the potential of using such a game for teaching students about various subjects. However, I am unsure if it will ever be able to take care of the gap between gaming and reality. It is difficult to recreate and produce each and every aspect of reality into a game world; if not impossible. If/when using a tool such as this Savannah game, it is imperative to explain to students the gap between gaming and reality that exists and discuss it thoroughly before and after playing the game. While a virtual game may provide students with further understanding of a certain topic such as science, “building a literate populace is vitally important, as we prepare students to think critically in an ever changing world of multiple media” (Mad City Mystery, Squire and Jan). The Mad City Mystery reading discusses the game World of Warcraft and the findings about this game reaching benchmarks for science literacy more closely than that reported from any science classroom. This specific game requires players to collect data and create tools to record the data as well as creating spreadsheets to analyze data. A game such as this can be extremely useful for science learning and I can see why the findings showed what they did. While students learn and practice finding and recording data in a science class, the spreadsheets to record data with or the tools to use are provided for them while the game requires students to create and find those things on their own. Also, because it is an interactive game and can be played as a multi player game, I feel that it appeals to a greater number of students. However, I do not think students realize they are learning and carrying out science tasks by playing the game, they most likely just view it as exactly what it is, a game.

                In my experience, I definitely see how different types of games can help student learning. Games are a great motivation for many students, especially at the level I teach at with eight and nine year old students. While searching for an article on my own for this week, I came across one I found to be extremely relatable to my line of work in teaching elementary school. The article is titled Effects of Handheld Games on Students Learning in Mathematics (http://tinyurl.com/mqw38vq). While this article focused on student learning in mathematics, it very much rings true in various subject areas. This article said that the importance of handheld learning environments is “that every student has immediate access to a learning tool in a small and mobile package. The high mobility of handheld devices enable students to be lifelong-learners with no limit of time and place.” While this is something I 100% agree with and believe, I also see the difficulty in providing a handheld learning environment as it can be expensive and many districts do not provide that kind of room in the budget to supply the devices. However, if they are available I think teachers need to take advantage of the devices because students thoroughly enjoy working with them and enjoy it more than paper and pencil learning. One group of students in this study were given GameBoys and a certain amount of time to work each day on specific tasks on the GameBoy. The time allotted for practicing skills on the GameBoy decreased as the weeks went on from 15 minutes per day for five days a week down to 15 minutes per day only twice a week. While this one class was given GameBoys, another class in the study was provided with a card game. This class was paired up with partners to work on practicing addition and subtraction facts using their flash cards 15 minutes per day three times per week. The results of the study showed that the card group had higher scores for their overall math skills scores. Each group was given a pre test, post test, and final test. These were the scores that showed student growth and proved that the cards group scored higher on every test.

                As a teacher, this is somewhat of a breath of fresh air. As educators, we are constantly being introduced to new techniques and ways of teaching and much of that now a day revolves around technology which, as I stated earlier, is difficult to gain access to if the district cannot afford it. However, this study showed that flash card games are just as effective in teaching students the skills. In my opinion, I believe this is because students are focused simply on the facts while using flash cards. Unlike a game on a handheld device, flash cards don’t contain any graphics or animations to distract students from what they are learning. They are only focused on the facts. Overall, I think there are benefits to games and devices in learning, but I also believe that “old practices” still work and many people are quick to argue other wise.

[tarynekate214]

Mobile Interview: by Taryne & Stephanie

Interview in which we asked individuals their thoughts on how mobile technology is affecting society as well as questions to gain knowledge about their extent of mobile technology use.

[tarynekate214]

Reading Response 5

      In our reading Communication, Power and Counter-power in the Network Society, Castells states that “if a majority of people think in ways that are contradictory to the values and norms institutionalized in the state and enshrined in the law and regulations, ultimately the system will change.”  While he mentions that this may not necessarily lead to total fulfillment, change will happen, however difficult it may be to come about. Similar points were mentioned in the reading The Internet in Society by Evgeny Mozorov. Mozorov discusses the inevitable democracy that will come as a result of the access to technology and connectivity.  He explains that with enough technology, individuals will use the available tools to collaborate on similar interests. These ideas have been proved to be accurate time and time again; for example, the Occupy Wall Street movement. When enough people share a common interest and passion for something, they will find a way to make something happen. Despite the size of the change resulting from their actions, where it minimal or major, if enough people are passionate about it, like Castells said, change will come. This is seen more and more now a day with all the different technology outlets individuals have to go to in order to seek new information or find out more information on what they are passionate about. People are able to go to blogs and comment on one another’s posts making it very simple to create groups based on interests. While being able to read comments on blogs and posts, it allows us as individuals, if we are not yet sure of our stance on a certain issue, to delve deeper into the discussion and possibly decide on our point of view. At the point, we are then easily able to access a great deal of information to support our thoughts and back up our reasoning.

      Another part of the Castells reading that stood out to me was when he mentioned that the main communication between “the political system and citizens is the mass media system, first of all television.” In part, I agree with this statement; let me explain further. While I believe many individuals gather information from the television, I believe it is not as many individuals as it used to be in the past. However, television is a great way to get across to people because majority of individuals watch television on a daily basis. There are various advertisements shown daily on television which display numerous views on many different issues, whether they be political or social. While this may help you to choose a stance to take on a certain issue, it should not be the only information you intake when taking on a certain point of view. I would say this because depending which news channels you watch or who created the advertisements you are viewing, they may be twisted or biased in some way or another. Therefore, it is extremely important to look further into what you are supporting (or not supporting) and have concrete facts and proof to back up your logic. I think this is an important point that many people forget. A great number of individuals see an advertisement on television or an article on the news or in the paper and automatically take it for the truth and get defensive when asked questions about why they believe what they are supporting. In my own experience, I have had many friends who support something and when probed to discuss why they support the issue at hand, they simply say that “[insert famous individuals name] said that it is wrong.” Meanwhile, my friend never looked further into the reasoning behind the issue to actually understand what was going on. I remember the presidential election when Obama was first running and I saw a story on the news about just how ignorant people actually are when it comes to things such as political issues. I recall the news reporters asking people passing on the streets if they agreed with Obama’s stance on various issues, such as abortion, and the report would tell the individuals what his stance was on that issue. Almost every individual asked said they agreed 100% with Obama’s stance on all issues mentioned, however, the reporters tricked every single person. The reporter was telling them the opponent’s stance on the issues, not what Obama actually believed.  Therefore, proving the voters were ignorant on the election issues. They believed whatever the reporter was telling them about what Obama believed, when in reality it was his opponent who took that stance. I found this so interesting at the time because it just proved that many people were voting for the future president without knowing or understanding what he actually believed. I think that having the technology is great, and now a day most people can use it flawlessly when it comes to communicating with friends and family through social media. However, when it comes to using the technological tools to find information for social, economical, or political issues, many individuals take others words for truth without trying to discover more about it on their own. All the while, there is a plethora of information available to them with the click of a button. Just by taking the time to click that button, I think people would find much more than they bargained for and be surprised at what they may find.

[xtiana91]

[tarynekate214]

Week 4 Reading Response

        This week, while reading Use of Mobile Technology for Teacher Training I couldn’t help but think about my teacher training experiences.  Any teacher trainings I have ever attended, I was presented with pamphlets, books, or power point presentations, never any sort of technology for my personal use.  I found it interesting that these teachers were given handheld PDA’s for use throughout the year; granted this was done for research purposes. In the research study discussed, I was not surprised to see the decline in the number of teachers using the PDA mid-year. This did not surprise me because, as a teacher myself, I know how easy it is to get excited about a certain tool in the beginning of the year and think of all the possibilities to use it for. However, when it really comes down to it and the school year kicks into high gear, those fun, new tools you were once excited about using are pushed aside and forgotten about and seem to become a hassle very quickly. I think that if tools such as a PDA were introduced to teachers at the end of one school year providing them with the opportunity to practice using and getting familiar with the tool over the summer vacation, teachers may be more apt to use it effectively and consistently once the new school year begins. Much of the issue with new tools and technologies and teacher training is that these are introduced at the beginning of a new school year or in the middle of the year when teachers do not have the proper time to just be able to sit and explore all that the tools can do. In my own experience, I notice I come up with various ideas that would seemingly work great in the classroom or would be effective tools for keeping track of grades or meetings yet I do not use them. For example, my co-teacher and I discovered a lesson plan website and sat down on prep period looking over how it works. You can schedule in the times that each lesson/subject is taught during your day and even color coordinate the blocks of time by subject. This works well for us seeing as I am only in her classroom for half of the day as I go to a different grade the other half. Having subjects color coded in the plan book would be nice to just look for the blue and know that means math and that is what and when we are doing math for that day. However, since we’ve discovered this tool and these specific features, we have yet to sit down and actually put our lesson plans into this program (we learned of this website over 3 weeks ago).

                In the article A Framework to Enhance Motivation… , the author discussed collaborative learning. Much of the instruction at the elementary level is collaborative. Whether students are working in groups, with partners, or just turning and talking to the person next to them for a quick discussion to answer a question, students are engaged with one another in the classroom daily. This article stated that research studies have found that “cooperative learning enhances learners’ motivation more than the traditional whole class.” Collaborative learning, as the reading stated, must emphasize “activities that support learning through social interaction.” In my classes, students are encouraged on a daily basis to work collaboratively with one another in some way, shape or form. My second graders have been paired up with a “reading buddy” which is someone on a slightly higher reading level than themselves. The students on the lower reading levels are excited to read with their buddy because they believe they were paired up with their partner because they are on the same level.  This is beneficial for the student who is weaker in reading because they are being pushed and challenged by the student who is on a slightly higher level than they. My third graders are constantly turning and talking to the person they sit next to during ELA lessons to check for understanding and to discuss ideas and topics from our readings. They enjoy doing these activities because they know at some point they will be asked to turn and talk to a partner. I know some teachers who do not do this with their students in fear that they will not discuss what they are supposed to be discussing.  However, from my experiences, the students seem so excited to be able to talk during a lesson to a friend next to them, that they are speaking about what was asked, and I circulate the room and listen in on conversations to make sure of it as well. Overall, I agree with the idea that collaborative learning increases students’ motivation to learn. When students get this opportunity, they take it in stride and help one another reach their potential and many of the students who are lower academically are gaining knowledge from classmates without realizing it, which is beneficial for them. I have seen first-hand how students take part in collaborative learning and I do believe it should be used. However, it is important to set the ground rules so it is carried out properly and students get the most out of it. It also is not something that should be used for every lesson and I do not think it should be used more than once per day.

[tarynekate214]

I am from Capezio, from taps and rubber soles. I am from the competition stage. (Bright, exciting, it looked like home) I am from the summer time bike rides to the docks family vacations to Hilton Head memories clear as day. I'm from city lights from museums and Broadway shows. I'm from the reliable and the caring, from Do right! and Do good! I'm from loving roots with the Irish "gift of gab" and substantial recipes. I'm from baby boomers, fresh soda bread and cookies. From motorcycle rides back home after a Sunday morning game. TGIF on Nick-at-Nite board games and desserts, excitement filled our house the best night of the week. I am from these snapshots -- snapped and stored in my mind to replay as I please.

(All photographs taken with my iPhone and posted with poem from my mobile device using the upload with email function.)

[tarynekate214]

Constructionism and 1:1 Computing

       As I was doing the readings for this week, I found the Implementation and Effects reading to be very interesting.  This article mentioned research that found that the use of computer labs in schools is effective over the short term.  However, to make a difference in learning, students need exposure to this technology more than once or twice a week at school in a lab setting.  In the district I work in, teachers have access to a computer lab of 28 laptops as well as access to a laptop cart that can be signed out and used in our own classrooms for the students.  The district has also been set up to be completely wireless which allows students to now have access to the internet on the cart laptops.  Despite these technologies, I have seen that they very rarely get used by teachers for the classroom.  I have only ever seen this technology taken advantage of fully by the fifth grade teachers in order to have students’ complete reports in the classroom.  In my experience bringing my students to the computer lab, both second and third graders, they do not know how to use a traditional computer. In my opinion, this is a skill that needs to be taught and unfortunately there is not enough time to teach computer skills on a daily basis at the elementary level.  As for learning at home, from what my students discuss with me, it seems that most kids today are familiar with tablets and touch-screen devices.  Give a student an iPad or Android tablet and they can probably use it better than we could.  However, they do not have the basic knowledge about the keyboard to know where each letter is and which specific purpose each button serves.  For this reason, I believe a program that provides students with laptops rather than tablet computers would be wonderful.  Unfortunately, like the One Laptop per Child article continuously mentioned, these sorts of programs to provide students with individual laptops for home use are put into place in underprivileged areas and countries; many not even in our own country.  It seems to me that this program is taking care of students in third-world countries rather than taking care of their own here at home first.  I think it is assumed that students here in America have the resources and parents have the income to be able to buy them a laptop.  However, I work in a school district in a town that would be classified as “middle-class” and majority of my students either do not have the money to be able to afford it or the ones who do are given tablets instead of laptops or desktop computers most likely because tablets are a few hundred dollars cheaper.  Programs that try to do good for underprivileged children, in my opinion, seem to take care of those in other countries forgetting that there are those who still need help at home.  Maybe you disagree, but it is not just programs that are trying to better education, it’s those that aim to feed the hungry too, forgetting that there are individuals starving here in our own country.

                While watching the video “Solve for X”, there was something that Negroponte said that really stood out to me.  He said that the goal of primary school is to teach students how to learn, it is not about what they learn at that level but getting them to learn how to learn.  It is important too at that age to instill in the children a passion and love for learning.  If students do not learn to love learning at the primary school age, they most likely never will.  I have found, in my experience, teaching students to love learning is one of the most difficult things to do.  This is especially difficult if the students you are working with do not have the support at home to enforce the idea.  I had a student a few weeks ago tell me that he was not good at math, meanwhile, this student can do the problems and understand it and is choosing to be lazy and not do the work.  I could not figure out why he was doing so and I tried allowing the use of manipulatives, using the SmartBoard for math time, and having the students use a white board to solve their problems (which my second graders thoroughly enjoy).  However, this particular student still was not enthused to do his work and believe that he can do it.  Later that afternoon when packing up to go home, I went over with this student what he had to do for homework that night.  When I mentioned the math homework he looked at me, and in all sincerity told me, “I probably won’t be able to do the math tonight because I am staying with my dad, and dad hates math”.  Suddenly, in that moment, I realized why this particular student did not like to do math, it was because dad hated math so he decided he does not like math either.  When battling against children’s home lives, it sometimes becomes difficult to inspire them to love being at school and love learning new things. However, I know at the primary level this is what I aim to do, so I continue to work with this student and try to make him see how great he is in math and hopefully by the end of the school year, get him to love doing math. In this video, I also liked the motto from a school in Ethiopia, “Education is cheaper than ignorance.”  Being in the teaching field for a few years now, I have seen first-hand how education is taken for granted here in the United States. I think that children here, as well as some of the parents, do not realize how lucky they are to be able to receive such a great education.  They take their education for granted here because it is just another part of their daily routine, something they have to do and somewhere they have to go.  I think as Americans, we forget that there are people in other parts of the world that do not get to go to school every day, or some even at all.  Therefore, education, I feel, is not as valued here in the United States as it is in other countries which have to work and fight for school for their children to attend and learn.

[tarynekate214]

Tech Project: GROUP

Since Stephanie, Christiana (xtiana), and I are all interested in speech recognition programs .. we are planning to work together for our project.

[tarynekate214]

Tech Report Topic

I want to do my tech report on voice interfaces and how they work.

[tarynekate214]

Very true!! Haha

[tarynekate214]

Situated Cognition

                While reading this week’s assignments, many thoughts were going through my head.  First, I’d like to discuss the article “What can the iPad do for museums?”  This article brought forward several pros and cons of multi-touch technology, such as tablets, for museum and gallery use.  One point that I agreed with very much was the idea of tablets being used by museums to provide people with the opportunity to use an app to take a tour of certain exhibits.  In my profession (teaching), it is becoming increasingly difficult to have field trips approved by administration for your students.  Along with the concern of getting trips approved, teachers must also consider the cost of the trip for parents seeing as there are numerous families who would not be able to afford to send their child on the field trip.  For this reason, an app on a tablet or computer that can be accessed from home or a classroom would be a great asset to any teacher.  Apps that provide tours of exhibits from the comfort of the classroom could be an excellent alternative if one is unable to take a class on a trip to see the exhibits in person.  Also, virtual tours of exhibits may be useful if there is an exhibit the teacher has knowledge of but cannot attempt to take the class because the institution fostering the exhibit is out of state.  There are many ways in which I could see these virtual museum and gallery tours being a great tool and addition to classroom instruction at any level.

                Another part of our readings this week which stood out to me was that which described communities of practice.  When I began reading I immediately thought of my teaching job and how often my colleagues and I communicate to try to better the work environment or plan a lesson or program for the students.  My position, especially, requires a great deal of communication and teamwork; I am a special education co-teacher in grades two and three.  At work, I am communicating with my team of teachers on a daily basis.  I must collaborate with my CSS, who works alongside myself, a general education second grade teacher, and a third grade teacher.  The two classes I co-teach in have 22 students in them with at least four students who are classified.  I am constantly meeting with my co-teachers to plan lessons and create modified tests to ensure that my students who are classified can succeed to the best of their ability along with the rest of the class.  We also have attended co-teaching trainings together where we were taught different strategies to use in the classroom.  After being taught these methods by a professional in the area, we took the ideas back to the class to try them out.  There are numerous methods that we are able to use and it is now a guess, test, and revise method to see which methods work best for our classroom setup with our particular class environment.  This made me realize just how many communities of practice one may take part in each day without ever realizing it.  I also thought of this past Wednesday when each member of this online course worked together through Celly to help each other in getting our accounts set up properly.   We are all a group of people who share a common interest, which is why we are taking this program at Adelphi.  We are learning to interact together through various outlets and, as a result, are being able to share our ideas and thoughts.

[tarynekate214]

Kids today probably don't know what a cassette tape is... How sad?! (Just a simple posting from my phone to make sure it works :] )