Blog 5

1.  Discuss what was the most relevant part(s) of Dr. Robert's presentation for you.  What further questions do you have regarding this subject?

I found Dr. Robert's presentation on the use of media and media multitasking of 8-18 year olds very insightful and disturbing.  I say disturbing because I'm just stunned that kids/teens today are exposed to media on average of 7+ hours a day.  As he pointed out, this could make them socially awkward.  It is one thing to be able to communicate with their friends on social networks such as Facebook or Twitter, but having a face-to-face conversation is another story.  This could affect vital skills, such as eye contact or speaking eloquently, which is needed to make them successful when they are faced with job interviews or delivering a speech publicly.  Dr. Robert's study on media is very fascinating and I hope he gets the grant to further his study for the next 5 years.  I guess my only question is what other results and effects will he gather if he includes iPads, smart phones, and other innovative gadgets that are revolutionizing technology and media.         

2 and 3.  Discuss the implications for education, for your school community, and for your own teaching.

The question is in regards to the article "More Pupils Are Learning Online, Fueling Debate on Quality".  In the article, I saw some pros and cons.

Pros:
Saves money
Students who were unable to attend school due to circumstances could take the course via online
Higher graduation rates

Cons:
Plagiarism
Online advanced placement courses (because not enough students signed up for the traditional class setting)
Less teachers needed, thus more layoffs

Based on that, here's my take on online courses.  At the high school I teach, online courses are discouraged and frowned upon, especially math.  The school district only grants credit if the student is repeating the class a second time.  Therefore, they cannot take it to get ahead or move on to the next course.  My concern with online courses is that students don't get enough (or any) direct teaching from the instructor.  Is there any rigor on the topics covered?  Does it cover all the necessary topics needed to prep them for the next course?  I feel that students who are deprived of the face-to-face instruction and interaction won't get much from the online course.  Will they retain any information after the class is over?  For instance, I had a student who retook Algebra 2 last summer via online and passed.  However, she had to drop out of Statistics this year during the first semester because she did not have a solid foundation of the Algebra skills.

I think online courses should only be open to highly motivated students (like my 402 classmates) who abides by the rules and maintains integrity.  I have a difficult time seeing students in high school doing this since they are tempted to plagiarize and take the easy way out.  

4. Review the "Technology Resources for the Teacher" document on Moodle.  Explore a minimum of four links with which you are unfamiliar and discuss how each can support student learning in your classroom- now or in the future.  

http://www.dropbox.com/


A new math teacher is coming into my school this year and she mentioned about having this software.  I didn't know what this was until I encountered it here.  This would be very useful for me to save all my important documents (notes, course policies, worksheets, etc.).  I like how you can use dropbox to access your files on another computer or a smart phone.  This could also serve as a back-up copy if I misplaced my flash drive or if my hard drive crashed and lost all my files.



http://prezi.com/


I didn't hear about prezi until this summer when one of my classmates mentioned it during a class presentation for my Master's Program.  A few weeks ago, I got to see how it worked.  I think this is better than Power Point because prezi takes the viewers on a path (journey) to learn.  I know my students would love it and be engaged with the lesson.



http://www.chatzy.com/

Some students may get very impatient and want a response for their question/concern right away when they send an e-mail to their teacher.  This may be the perfect solution for that problem.  Time and date would need to be established to have this work.  Speaking out of context, chatzy could be an alternative solution to the Web Ex requirement for the 403 class.    


http://rubistar.4teachers.org/


I wish I knew about this website a few years ago.  It would have made my life a whole lot simpler to grade my students' projects if I had a helpful, reliable rubric system.  This year I designed a music video project for my Algebra classes.  The challenging part was coming up with the rubric because no other teacher in my department had done it.  In the future, if I design another project, I can use the website to guide me in developing the rubric system.