Module 6 97-2003
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Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
Emerging Technology #2 - Digital Scrapbook of Our New Bathroom
Scrapblog was very simple to use. Upload your pictures, drag them into a frame, add a text box and you're done. As I explored the site, I found where you could look at backgrounds and stickers for decoration. I especially liked that you could sort these by price and could specifically choose free ones. This was much easier and more enjoyable than the podcast!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Could it be?
There is a VERY good possibility that the remodeling of the bathroom will be completed TODAY! My 2nd emerging technology assignment should be posted in a day or two, documenting this project. Oh the joys of home ownership, lol!
Friday, June 11, 2010
Delicious
I have come learn what a valuable asset Delicious is going to be for me. Often times at work, I'll want to get to a website that is on my laptop at home. Or I'll get on the desktop at home and save something there, then not being able to find it when I log onto my laptop. It has been very frustrating at times. I've bookmarked much more than the required sites and I can see myself adding to the list almost daily. Here's the link...
http://delicious.com/cedennis_iupui
I'm looking forward to seeing your pages too!
http://delicious.com/cedennis_iupui
I'm looking forward to seeing your pages too!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Toward a New Model of High-Tech Schoolrooms
In the article, Toward a New Model of High-Tech Schoolrooms, author Royal Van Horn describes a differentiation between a high-tech school and a high-tech schoolroom. He believes the emphasis should be on building a classroom rich in technology providing students with valuable lessons by creative, diverse and relative means.
Although the article centers on the development of a high-tech schoolroom, there was one sentence in the article that stayed at the forefront of my thoughts throughout the read. Mr. Van Horn wrote, “Kids learn from teachers in classrooms.” This is a very personal statement and bears a great deal of responsibility for someone who wants to be a teacher. How will I provide my students with the necessary tools to be inspired to learn? How will I reach every student in my class with the growing number of learning styles and disabilities that need to be addressed? How will I stay current with teaching trends? How will I continue to keep my lesson plans fresh and creative? In this article about high-tech schoolrooms, he did not say, “Kids learn from technologically equipped schoolrooms.” However, it is with technological advances in the classroom where teachers can make an impact. It will be up to us, the teachers, to use every ounce of technology available, be it a reading or math program for a computer, a smartboard with interactive capabilities, a video camera or an assistive technology to reach all the students in the classroom.
I agree that technology needs to be an everyday part of a classroom regardless of the age group being taught. It’s a shame that technology appears to be underutilized at the elementary level. Van Horn writes about his observations, through the use of computer monitoring programs, that computer usage peaks during times of the day when the children have just a few minutes before lunch or while they wait for the end of their school day. This hardly seems like an appropriate use of integrating technology into the elementary classroom. (As a side note, I would like to state that this particular article was written in March of 2006. A lot can and has happened in the four years since the publication of this article, not just in technology but also with classroom curriculum. Even when my own children were in elementary school, they were taken to a computer lab once a week with a trained computer specialist, not the classroom teacher. Today, Plainfield middle school students are required to take a computer applications class and high school students are required to take another computer class as a requirement for graduation. I would imagine significant changes have been made in numerous school districts throughout the country.)
I believe most of us would agree that technology can be a true asset in the classroom but there is one area that Mr. Van Horn did not address. Who is going to pay for these high-tech classrooms? The technology that Mr. Van Horn writes of is above and beyond classroom computers. He makes mention of “a planetarium, a 360-degree immersion theater, and a high-definition television production lab.” I cannot even imagine the cost of such elaborate technology, and in this day where students are being billed to participate in extra-curricular activities and teachers are being laid off, can such extraordinary expenses be justified? We all want what is best for the children, but let’s face it: School budgets, state budgets and federal budgets simply do not provide the resources to offer our children the best.
Even though the expense issue was not addressed, Van Horn does comment on the status of teachers using technology. “Expecting every faculty member to schedule the lab and to know how to use it productively with students is simply unrealistic.” Unfortunately, I see the truth in this statement since I work with a teacher who still hand writes his tests and makes copies of that, instead of typing it into a word processing program. If this teacher is so resistant to something as simple as word processing, how would it be possible for his students to be inspired or encouraged to do a cinematographic vignette of the civil war or learn to stage a virtual protest, or to produce any other thought provoking, technologically creative assignments? After all, kids learn from teachers in classrooms.
Along these same lines, not only do the finances have to be available to properly train teachers in the varied uses of technology, we must also find a way to encourage those teachers with ten, twenty and even thirty years of teaching experience under their belts to embrace the use of technology in their classrooms. Van Horn says the mere existence of a few networked computers in a classroom and one on the teacher’s desk is not enough for teachers “to integrate these computers into their instructional day…and no amount of staff development will make it work.” It is imperative, in this day and age of technology and the direction in which business and employment opportunities are going to be based in technology, to incorporate the use of technology in the daily instruction of our students. A whole new dimension of learning will be available to students who are taught by innovative and tech-savvy teachers. We have to remember, kids learn from teachers in classrooms.
Last year I had the privilege of working with a student teacher for a couple of periods a day and having my daughter as a teaching assistant one period a day. When the student teacher found out that my daughter wanted to be a high school French teacher he offered her one piece of advice. He told her to take as many computer classes as her college career would allow. He explained, the more technology she gained, the more she was going to be able to give to her students. At the time, I saw his advice as nothing more than an opinion of a young 22-year old, eager to make his mark on the youth within our schools. But I saw this young man in action, using technology to teach several different grade levels of math to high school students with learning disabilities and he was amazing. Today, probably more so than ever, I am astounded by how much I learn from teachers in classrooms
Although the article centers on the development of a high-tech schoolroom, there was one sentence in the article that stayed at the forefront of my thoughts throughout the read. Mr. Van Horn wrote, “Kids learn from teachers in classrooms.” This is a very personal statement and bears a great deal of responsibility for someone who wants to be a teacher. How will I provide my students with the necessary tools to be inspired to learn? How will I reach every student in my class with the growing number of learning styles and disabilities that need to be addressed? How will I stay current with teaching trends? How will I continue to keep my lesson plans fresh and creative? In this article about high-tech schoolrooms, he did not say, “Kids learn from technologically equipped schoolrooms.” However, it is with technological advances in the classroom where teachers can make an impact. It will be up to us, the teachers, to use every ounce of technology available, be it a reading or math program for a computer, a smartboard with interactive capabilities, a video camera or an assistive technology to reach all the students in the classroom.
I agree that technology needs to be an everyday part of a classroom regardless of the age group being taught. It’s a shame that technology appears to be underutilized at the elementary level. Van Horn writes about his observations, through the use of computer monitoring programs, that computer usage peaks during times of the day when the children have just a few minutes before lunch or while they wait for the end of their school day. This hardly seems like an appropriate use of integrating technology into the elementary classroom. (As a side note, I would like to state that this particular article was written in March of 2006. A lot can and has happened in the four years since the publication of this article, not just in technology but also with classroom curriculum. Even when my own children were in elementary school, they were taken to a computer lab once a week with a trained computer specialist, not the classroom teacher. Today, Plainfield middle school students are required to take a computer applications class and high school students are required to take another computer class as a requirement for graduation. I would imagine significant changes have been made in numerous school districts throughout the country.)
I believe most of us would agree that technology can be a true asset in the classroom but there is one area that Mr. Van Horn did not address. Who is going to pay for these high-tech classrooms? The technology that Mr. Van Horn writes of is above and beyond classroom computers. He makes mention of “a planetarium, a 360-degree immersion theater, and a high-definition television production lab.” I cannot even imagine the cost of such elaborate technology, and in this day where students are being billed to participate in extra-curricular activities and teachers are being laid off, can such extraordinary expenses be justified? We all want what is best for the children, but let’s face it: School budgets, state budgets and federal budgets simply do not provide the resources to offer our children the best.
Even though the expense issue was not addressed, Van Horn does comment on the status of teachers using technology. “Expecting every faculty member to schedule the lab and to know how to use it productively with students is simply unrealistic.” Unfortunately, I see the truth in this statement since I work with a teacher who still hand writes his tests and makes copies of that, instead of typing it into a word processing program. If this teacher is so resistant to something as simple as word processing, how would it be possible for his students to be inspired or encouraged to do a cinematographic vignette of the civil war or learn to stage a virtual protest, or to produce any other thought provoking, technologically creative assignments? After all, kids learn from teachers in classrooms.
Along these same lines, not only do the finances have to be available to properly train teachers in the varied uses of technology, we must also find a way to encourage those teachers with ten, twenty and even thirty years of teaching experience under their belts to embrace the use of technology in their classrooms. Van Horn says the mere existence of a few networked computers in a classroom and one on the teacher’s desk is not enough for teachers “to integrate these computers into their instructional day…and no amount of staff development will make it work.” It is imperative, in this day and age of technology and the direction in which business and employment opportunities are going to be based in technology, to incorporate the use of technology in the daily instruction of our students. A whole new dimension of learning will be available to students who are taught by innovative and tech-savvy teachers. We have to remember, kids learn from teachers in classrooms.
Last year I had the privilege of working with a student teacher for a couple of periods a day and having my daughter as a teaching assistant one period a day. When the student teacher found out that my daughter wanted to be a high school French teacher he offered her one piece of advice. He told her to take as many computer classes as her college career would allow. He explained, the more technology she gained, the more she was going to be able to give to her students. At the time, I saw his advice as nothing more than an opinion of a young 22-year old, eager to make his mark on the youth within our schools. But I saw this young man in action, using technology to teach several different grade levels of math to high school students with learning disabilities and he was amazing. Today, probably more so than ever, I am astounded by how much I learn from teachers in classrooms
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Say What?
In an effort to stay on top of things in this class, I explored Part IV of module 2 - Assistive Technologies. I thought it would be fun to take some of our English tongue twisters and translate them to French, then back to English. The results are listed below.
(Original) Sally sold seashells by the seashore.
(English to French) Sally a vendun des seashells par le bord de la mer.
(French back to English) Sally sold seashells by the edge of the sea.
(Original) How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuch wood?
(English to French) Combien de bois une marmotte d'Ameriquie pourrait-elle jeter si une
marmot d'could pourrait jeter le bois?
(French back to English) How much wood a marmot d'America could it throw if a marmot
d'Could America throw wood?
(Original) Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter
Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled
peppers did Peter Piper pick?
(English to French) Le joueur de pipeau de Peter a selectionne un picotin de poivrons
marines. Un picotin de joueur de pipeau marine de Peter de poivrons a
selectionne. Si le joueur de pipeau de Peter selectionnait un picotn de poivrons
marines, que des poivrons le joueur de pipeau de Peter a-t-il marine a-t-il
selctionne?
(French back to English) The player of pipeau of Peter selected a ration of oats of marinated
sweet peoppers. A ration of oats of player of pipeau marinated of sweet pepper
Peter selected. If the player of pipeau of Peter selected a ration of oats of
marinated sweet peppers, that sweet peppers the player of pipeau of Peter did
marinate it selected?
In the first one, the only slight change was for the term seashore. In the French version, the alliteration was lost. For the woodchuck, I have learned the French call it a marmot and I was impressed that the idiom "chuck" was translated correctly. It's been my experience that idioms are hard to perceive in foreign languages. Again, the alliteration was not apparent. Lastly, good old Peter Piper. I found this one quite amusing. This one DID provide some alliteration although I don't know that it would be classified as a french tongue twister. In the re-translation to English, I giggled at Piper being referred to as one who plays a pipe and not as a last name. I'm guessing that "oats" was the re-translation of "peck" and can see where "marinated sweet" is a reasonable re-translation for "pickled". All in all, a fun experiment.
I've added the babelfish yahoo translator to my gadgets. Hope you take the opportunity to play with it. Enjoy!
P.S. I saved the translations on a word document, but could not copy and paste them to this blog. Please forgive the lack of accents that were not tranferrable to this post.
(Original) Sally sold seashells by the seashore.
(English to French) Sally a vendun des seashells par le bord de la mer.
(French back to English) Sally sold seashells by the edge of the sea.
(Original) How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuch wood?
(English to French) Combien de bois une marmotte d'Ameriquie pourrait-elle jeter si une
marmot d'could pourrait jeter le bois?
(French back to English) How much wood a marmot d'America could it throw if a marmot
d'Could America throw wood?
(Original) Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter
Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled
peppers did Peter Piper pick?
(English to French) Le joueur de pipeau de Peter a selectionne un picotin de poivrons
marines. Un picotin de joueur de pipeau marine de Peter de poivrons a
selectionne. Si le joueur de pipeau de Peter selectionnait un picotn de poivrons
marines, que des poivrons le joueur de pipeau de Peter a-t-il marine a-t-il
selctionne?
(French back to English) The player of pipeau of Peter selected a ration of oats of marinated
sweet peoppers. A ration of oats of player of pipeau marinated of sweet pepper
Peter selected. If the player of pipeau of Peter selected a ration of oats of
marinated sweet peppers, that sweet peppers the player of pipeau of Peter did
marinate it selected?
In the first one, the only slight change was for the term seashore. In the French version, the alliteration was lost. For the woodchuck, I have learned the French call it a marmot and I was impressed that the idiom "chuck" was translated correctly. It's been my experience that idioms are hard to perceive in foreign languages. Again, the alliteration was not apparent. Lastly, good old Peter Piper. I found this one quite amusing. This one DID provide some alliteration although I don't know that it would be classified as a french tongue twister. In the re-translation to English, I giggled at Piper being referred to as one who plays a pipe and not as a last name. I'm guessing that "oats" was the re-translation of "peck" and can see where "marinated sweet" is a reasonable re-translation for "pickled". All in all, a fun experiment.
I've added the babelfish yahoo translator to my gadgets. Hope you take the opportunity to play with it. Enjoy!
P.S. I saved the translations on a word document, but could not copy and paste them to this blog. Please forgive the lack of accents that were not tranferrable to this post.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Yodio - How I Got Here Yodio by cedennis
I was really out of my comfort zone on this assignment. I do consider myself proficient on a computer but podcasting was not my favorite thing to do. Thank goodness for Yodio. It was extremely user friendly and although I found podcasting to be stressful to me, Yodio took the edge off, lol. It was very easy to do what needed to be done with very little instruction. When I found myself struggling, I found the help I needed with a great deal of ease. I think I'll look forward to the next emerging technology assignment with a little less stress...at least I hope so, lol. Enjoy the long weekend!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Summertime... and the feeling is easy.... NOT!
Today was the last day of school (I work at the high school) and I have to say, I'm ready for summer break! I can't believe I was the only one going up and down the hallways playing Alice Cooper's School's Out for Summer on my Ipod, lol. Oh well, now I'll have more time to dedicate to this class, lol.
The bathroom tile guy came today and finished ripping out stuff that we didn't have to do. It looks pretty bare and echoes in there, lol. A week from now it should look like a brand new bathroom and I can't wait!
Okay, now a few comments on this podcast assignment. Is anyone else feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of technology out there for us to explore? It's one thing to explore it and completely another thing to experience, learn, develop and explain it. Although I'm fascinated by all this technology, I'm somewhat unsure of my ability to actually learn it. It's amazing to me how things have changed over the years, not just with the advancement of technology but also the attitude in learning how to use it. As an older adult, I'm a little more fearful of doing something wrong or hitting the wrong button than those of the younger generation. It's funny, when we moved into our new high school and all the classrooms were equipped with smartboards, the kids walked right up to them, explored all the buttons to see what would happen with each of them. I went through a 2 hour training session to learn how to use it, and the students are still able to do more than me...and it's not from a lack of trying on my part, lol. There's just SO much there to play with and learn and remember! Anyway, it is with much anticipation and trepidation that I will be presenting my podcast. Any words of wisdom, encouragement or advice before it's due will be appreciated!
The bathroom tile guy came today and finished ripping out stuff that we didn't have to do. It looks pretty bare and echoes in there, lol. A week from now it should look like a brand new bathroom and I can't wait!
Okay, now a few comments on this podcast assignment. Is anyone else feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of technology out there for us to explore? It's one thing to explore it and completely another thing to experience, learn, develop and explain it. Although I'm fascinated by all this technology, I'm somewhat unsure of my ability to actually learn it. It's amazing to me how things have changed over the years, not just with the advancement of technology but also the attitude in learning how to use it. As an older adult, I'm a little more fearful of doing something wrong or hitting the wrong button than those of the younger generation. It's funny, when we moved into our new high school and all the classrooms were equipped with smartboards, the kids walked right up to them, explored all the buttons to see what would happen with each of them. I went through a 2 hour training session to learn how to use it, and the students are still able to do more than me...and it's not from a lack of trying on my part, lol. There's just SO much there to play with and learn and remember! Anyway, it is with much anticipation and trepidation that I will be presenting my podcast. Any words of wisdom, encouragement or advice before it's due will be appreciated!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
I'm a post hog
Good morning everyone! I couldn't help myself. There was no way I was going to be able to limit myself to comment on just 5 blogs, especially since there are only 9 of us in the class. It was fun reading about all of you. Although there is as much as 31 years between me and most of you, I look at age as just a number. This is a fine example of how I live my slogan, Life-It's All About Choices. It would be very easy for me to make excuses for not being able to post on your blogs because we virtually have nothing in common. But I CHOSE to find something that I could relate to with each of you. It made the task so much easier to accomplish. :-)
Today is going to be a busy one. My son recently got his IHSAA referee's license for baseball, softball and track and field. I'm going out to watch him for the first time umpire girls softball. Tony is my special needs child. The summer after his 3rd grade, he was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. Although he is VERY high functioning in the classroom, he does not have instinctual social behaviors. You might consider him to be a geek or odd duck. He's very knowledgeable on any number of subjects and often thinks everyone wants to know what he knows....about lacrosse or planets or chess. He's a huge sports enthusiast however, he was always the one who would much rather read the rule book than actually play the game. Needless to say, this umpiring is right up his alley.
Also on the agenda for today is getting one of our bathrooms ready for a makeover. New tiled floor and tub surround, new toilet and sink, reglazing the bathtub and a new coat of paint. The tile guy is starting this week and the tub glazer will be here the week after. I've been wanting to do this project for about 5 years so I'm really looking forward to starting the demolition this weekend.
Tomorrow, I will probably spend some time on doing a better job of customizing my blog. Many of you are very creative and I saw some things I would like to incorporate.
Only 3 more days of work... WoooHooo!
Today is going to be a busy one. My son recently got his IHSAA referee's license for baseball, softball and track and field. I'm going out to watch him for the first time umpire girls softball. Tony is my special needs child. The summer after his 3rd grade, he was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. Although he is VERY high functioning in the classroom, he does not have instinctual social behaviors. You might consider him to be a geek or odd duck. He's very knowledgeable on any number of subjects and often thinks everyone wants to know what he knows....about lacrosse or planets or chess. He's a huge sports enthusiast however, he was always the one who would much rather read the rule book than actually play the game. Needless to say, this umpiring is right up his alley.
Also on the agenda for today is getting one of our bathrooms ready for a makeover. New tiled floor and tub surround, new toilet and sink, reglazing the bathtub and a new coat of paint. The tile guy is starting this week and the tub glazer will be here the week after. I've been wanting to do this project for about 5 years so I'm really looking forward to starting the demolition this weekend.
Tomorrow, I will probably spend some time on doing a better job of customizing my blog. Many of you are very creative and I saw some things I would like to incorporate.
Only 3 more days of work... WoooHooo!
Friday, May 21, 2010
I'm A Blogger?
Hi, I'm Christine. I'm a non-traditional student having much more fun going to school this time around than I did the first time. Last time, I was a piano performance major, this time, I'm studying math. Last time I quit after the first year, this time, I'm in my third year and probably have that many more years to go since I'm a part time student. On those rare occasions that I have free time, I enjoy golfing. It seems as though that free time will now be taken up by blogging.
On more than one occasion, I've been told I know just enough about computers to be dangerous. Learning about and setting up this blog was no exception. I snooped around all the tabs, gadgets and widgets, filled out my profile, played with color and fonts. What I was unable to do was POST something to my blog. I felt kind of silly having to ask my daughter for help at 7:00 this morning. She thought it was hilarious. Needless to say, I don't have any tips or shortcuts to offer at this time. But I have every intention of learning this useful bit of technology because #1, I love computers and #2, I love to write. I'm a little excited that a few of you will be forced to read what I have to say and I hope you'll find it worthwhile, lol.
I will post more later. Right now, I have a hair appointment.
Enjoy the picture of my husband and myself, along with our friends Tom and Joan, with w
hom we spent this past weekend golfing.
hom we spent this past weekend golfing.
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