The Blog Experience - Personal & International Writing Exchange

I learned that I had to organize my thoughts and be more concise. Otherwise, maintaining a blog could be a great deal of work. I often found myself taking notes on the readings and videos on word. Eventually, I would re-write what I had written (perhaps condense it) before posting.

I found what others had written to be very interesting. Most of the time we had a similar thought about what we had read or viewed or attempted; however, sometimes I was surprised by the difference of opinions. For instance, my classmate, Jeff, wrote that he found using Engrade (the on line grading system for teachers) difficult and didn’t seem to like it. I, on the other hand found it easy and I like many of the features that it had to offer. Sheldon loved Engrade. By the way, Sheldon has the best blogs. His titles are catchy and his blogs are well written. Michelle also liked using Engrade.

I know that my group, “On To The Future,” worked for hours on the newsletter to the parents. Therefore, I took it upon myself to look at and comment on the other groups’ newsletters as well. I looked at their slide show of screen shots, digital movies if I could. I wasn’t able to see Sheldon’s, so I let him know during a group meeting. Michelle, some how, posted sheldon’s digital movie to her blog and our group watched it from there.

I also like Michelle’s blog’s. They are often short and to the point. I love the way she attaches her slides, videos, and more to her blog pages. She viewed one of my digital stories on my blog and made a helpful comment. I especially liked to look at others blogs right after an assignment was due and I knew we had to post it to our blogs. I found the variety to be quite interesting. I love Jeff’s history video. I can definitely see him showing that to his class.

I do prefer to blog over twitter. I was a little frustrated with the fact that twitter only allows a person a certain amount of characters per twit. I like the fact that a blog can be as long or as short as you would like it to be. I like the fact that we can add links, photos, slide shows, videos, collages and more to our blog page to make it interesting. When I am through with this blog, I plan on creating a Christmas slide show on Smile Box and posting onto my blog. I hope I don’t have any problems. I have done it before. Sometimes I would have a problem getting it on and I would call Michelle and she would talk me through it again.


INTERNATIONAL WRITING EXCHANGE - BLOG EXPERIENCE

Even though our semester is over, I still plan on checking in on my classmates and especially my group members through their blogs and continue to comment to them either through e-mail or right on the blog. I think Sheldon had the catchiest titles. I think my titles were catchy. They may not have all been exciting. However, I definitely let the reader know what the blog was going to be about.

I found that I learned a little more about the class by reading the blogs of my classmates. If you think about it, we had at LEAST two blogs going on at the same time. Through the International Writing Exchange (IWE), I found out that one of my classmates was born in South America (I think it was Victoria). She posted a beautiful collage of family photos. I also communicated with Sheldon and Michelle through the International Writing Exchange. While a discussion was on-going about family (which I believe I had originated that topic), I got to see a beautiful family photo that belonged to Sheldon. I had posted a video clip from YouTube, which featured my father the summer before he passed away. Sheldon had commented on my movie, which I believe inspired, him to post his family photo. I sent a reply comment back to him. Each time someone made a comment on the IWE, it would show up in personal my e-mail log. For a while I was responding to everyone via e-mail until Dr. Smirnova explained to me that I had to click on a link towards the bottom of the e-mail to respond on the IWE site. I believe I also originated the topic of music and food as well. It was interesting to see how far those subjects were carried.


Well, it is finally time to wind things down. I do have a few more things to post, which I will do probably later today. So I will say, goodbye for now.

Wonders Of the Web (WOW) – Final Project for Teaching With Technology @ Mount Saint Mary College – Displayed What We Learned.

Before everyone goes their separate ways for the holiday, I wanted touch base with my classmates and let you know that I have enjoyed learning from all of you. I learned by listening to your comments and ideas from our class meetings, looking at your posted works or blogs, but most of all I found all your presentations on Monday to possess passion. Everyone was passionate about their subject matter, which made it quite enjoyable.



1. Sheldon - I apologize because I missed a lot of your presentation in trying to get onto WebEx. Luckily I was on the phone with Michelle and I heard what she was hearing. I was also lucky enough to view it while you were rehearsed it during our final group meeting. You did a fantastic job. I love the fact that you added photos of Spain and family members in your presentation. It allows the viewer the opportunity to imagine what he/she could do with the tools that you had chosen to present (i.e., Piknik). I would also like to add that I sincerely enjoyed working with you this semester on all our group projects. I learned a great deal from you. Be well and stay in touch please.

2. Jeff – I have seen the link for Jog the Web, but I never did explore the use of it. When I use firefox I can bookmark items. I like the concept of bookmarking sites. You are always very organized. I was a pleasure to learn from you classmate. Be well.



3. Tina – I sincerely enjoyed your presentation. I can tell that you put in a lot of time and effort. I was so upset when your power went out. You had me captivated. I agree with you. Many students need the visual to go along with what you are saying to them. Creating videos is something that I am very interested in doing both for educational purposes and for personal purposes as well. Creating family memories is very important to me. Therefore, I will go back and review your presentation again over the break because creating videos is something that I want to work on in the near future.


4. Kiarra – I love your enthusiasm for the subject matter that you teach. We saw it earlier in the semester when we all completed a project on “Constructivism.” I’m sure you are going to make a fantastic teacher. You are right, the student always love playing jeopardy. Good luck and be well.



5. Kristen – You did a great job even though you had a student at the house with you and you were rushing through your presentation. If I would have known that you were going to have a student come, I would have let you go before me. I am studying special education. Therefore, I am always looking out for helpful tools that I can use. I think I will play with PicLits over the break and perhaps create a lesson using this site. Thank you and be well.


6. Michelle – You did a fantastic job, as usual. I loved the way you used prezi for presenting you project. You had turned me onto Glogster during the course of the semester. You had already sold me on the idea of incorporating Gloster or Snapshot into the classroom via projects or even my own use. Thank you for being a fantastic group member and mentor. Be well and stay in touch.

Reflection on Mount Saint Mary's Teaching with Tecnology course

I sincerely enjoyed taking teaching with technology. It was a great deal of work. It was quite frustrating at times. It was also very time consuming. However, I learned so much. Collaborating and collaboration took on a whole new meaning through taking this course. I learned that I could do so many of the things that I only dreamed of doing. I often was afraid to try new things on the various websites in fear of getting a computer virus or someone stealing my personal information. I took a leap of faith. Because I trusted Dr. Smirnova, I knew that she would not suggest a site that had been known for viruses. Below I have touched upon a few key aspects of the class.

• Group Assignments: I loved the group assignments most of all. I liked that fact that we had to all do our own assignments and do a related assignment with our group. I found it helpful to have group meetings every other week from class meetings. First, we always found a time that worked for all of us, and it usually was not on a Monday evening. Friday evenings seemed to be a popular time to meet because we all didn’t have the pressure of having to be at work by 7 A.M. the next morning. Second, we often discussed our individual projects, which added to our learning experience. We would often share the product of our individual assignments during our group meetings and receive instant feedback from our group members. We would also discuss how we were going to each tackle the up coming individual projects as well. I feel that I learned a great deal from my group members.

•Digital Stories: I loved learning how to make educational movies.

o Math: I plan on creating math movies. You know the math teachers often feel that they would like to pop in a movie that relates to their topic like the science, social studies, and English teachers can. However, you really cannot find many movies pertaining to math that are educational and entertaining (just clips from movies). Therefore, it is my mission to create at least a few math movies that I can show to my future classes. I believe that I could not create a math movie that would hold the student’s attention for the entire class period. However, a fifteen minute movie with possibly a SMART Board activity to follow is something that I will attempt.

o Religious Education: During the course of the semester, I created a movie (digital story project) that I plan on showing to my religious education students. I created a story about Abraham (Old Testament – “Father Abraham”) and I plan on creating more Biblical stories as teaching tools. There are many visual learners. Therefore, creating visuals to go along with what you are verbalizing is a plus, especially for my first grade religious education class.

• Creativity: As a former Day Cay operator, I love creating. The children that came to my home always left with some type of creation for the day. Creativity is something that I want to incorporate into my classroom as well. Among the sites and tools that I have learned about this semester, I loved working with Gloster, Smile Box, Microsoft Windows Movie Maker, Slide Share, Webspiration, Google Documents and Voice Thread to name a few. I loved the creative aspects of those sites and tools. Furthermore, the reason why I mentioned the sites and tools that I did was because I found them easy to use. If I found them easy, most anyone would too. The best part is that I didn’t have to spend money. Twitter is a little frustrating because you are only allowed so many characters per post.

• Collaboration: Among all the tools and sites that were used, I found the collaborative tools and sites to be of most interest. I plan on incorporating many of the collaborative tools in my classroom. I have found that I had learned a deal through collaborating with my group members. We had collaborated through several mediums. Google Chat, Google Documents, G-mail (Google e-mail system), PBwiki, Webspiration, WebIQ, WebEx, and Voice Thread were among the most popular and my favorite collaborative sites and tools. When working on various group projects, we communicated via g-mails, g-chat, posting work to the Google documents and to the PB Wiki. We were all contributing to the assignment and Google Documents and PB Wiki were the places where we could view the work in progress, and where g-chat and g-mail were the mediums where we communicated our thoughts and suggestions in between meeting on WebIQ. While on WebIQ, we could upload something that we wanted to share or work on collaboratively. The facilitator of the meeting could allow the other members of the meeting access to the pen. There were times when we when we were all writing and working at the same time on that site. We sometimes had a problem with wanting to work on the same page, but a different area. The entire page would move before you. When that happened, we moved to Google Documents, where we could all work simultaneously and still hear each other and communicate on WebIQ.

• Communication: Of course there are blogs and twitter. Blogs are great for posting interesting information that you know or learned and want to share. I like the fact that you can post a picture, slide show, collage, or even a movie to your blog page. I plan on continuing to post work, pictures, and movies to my blog site well after this semester is over. Twitter was okay. I didn’t like the fact that you were only allowed a set amount of characters at a time. However, that is a feature that I’m sure others love about the site.

• Personal Growth: I am very excited by the fact that during the course of this semester, I actually created three websites. My PB Wiki is the site where I posted the majority of my work. I posted my interests, assignments, and personal facts about myself. I was careful to always create a link back to my PB Wiki home page. I also continued to work on the teacher tool kit long after the assignment was completed by my group. Each time that I found an interesting, helpful, or resourceful site, I posted it to the appropriate section of my group’s tool kit. Aside from the PB Wiki site, we were asked to create another website of our own. I found this site to be complicated to use. Through the attending some of the on-line meetings, I heard about Weebly. I decided to try it. I found it easy to use. This site is still a work in progress for me. In my studies for this course, I got a lot of great ideas from others. I plan on transforming my Weebly site into a great educational site that others will come to. This site, however, is still in its infancy state. In the future I will create a website for my students, where I will post assignments, class presentation, and podcasts. I have learned so much, and I plan on continuing to grow and learn.
•

Middletown High School NJROTC: VETERANS' DAY TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY

Middletown High School NJROTC: VETERANS' DAY TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY: "Over 75 Middletown Cadets [this would be where our unit name would go if we had one!] were on the road to New York City for the 91st annual ..."

Veterans Day Parade photos from NBC News channel 4 can be found on the website provided below. At home, viewing parade on TV, we were able to see many faces like Jessica Glickman, Samantha M., Edith were among many of the familiar faces.

Web Link:
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/PHOTOS-NYC-Veterans-Day-2010-107296233.html

Middletown High School NJROTC: VETERANS' DAY TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY

Middletown High School NJROTC: VETERANS' DAY TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY: "Over 75 Middletown Cadets [this would be where our unit name would go if we had one!] were on the road to New York City for the 91st annual ..."

You can find photos from NBC News on line of the Middletown, New York NJROTC marching in the 2010 Veterans Day parade at the following site:
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/PHOTOS-NYC-Veterans-Day-2010-107296233.html

Mind Mapping

Below, please find a mind-map of the properties of real numbers. These are properties that the students gradually learn. They begin learning these properties in about first grade and they are still being reviewed throughout high school. I decided to create my mind-map on webspiration. I like webspiration because it is a collaborative sight, colorful, easy to use and you can upload your own images. If I had to create the next mind-map, it would probably be almost the same, only I would add the next layer, which would be the inverse of the additive property and so on. I realize that when the image appears on the blog site it will be difficult to see. Therefore, please also find the link to this mind map just right above the image. http://www.mywebspiration.com/view/658477a2a02

Newssletter to Parents about 21st Century Learning & Teaching & Web 2.0

A Reflection on Engrade, The On Line Grading Site

I really enjoyed using Engrade. I found it very easy to use. I have used teacher ease, another on line grade book in the past. Teacher ease was not free (although there is a free trial period) and I think it is a little more complicated. I was familiar with Engrade’s existence before this assignment and some of its capabilities. However, I never took the time to try it out until now, and I like it. As part of the assignment for teaching with technology class, I created a class of five fictional students, set up a weight scale for the grades, and created a few fictional assignments. I even downloaded a couple of worksheets onto the site so that the students, if absent, could have access to a missed assignment. The fictional class is called Integrated Algebra 109. There are many features that I liked about Engrade. For instance, each time an assignment, quiz, or test is posted (with the date), the post automatically is placed on the calendar. A class calendar with assignments posted is a great communication tool. If the parents are made aware of Engrade from the beginning of the school year, they can verify that their child does or does not truly have homework to do that evening. Moreover, they (the parent) could remind their child to study or quiz them before a test. If more teachers used Engrade, the better the chance that a student or their parent(s) can periodically check on most or perhaps all their grades at one time. Also, I like the fact that a teacher could choose to print out each student’s assignment/grades individually. This feature comes in handy for parent-teacher conferences. I keep folders for each of my students in the class. Instead of taking the time to hand back papers during class, I place the corrected papers in their individual folders as I am grading them and they can each grab their folders as they enter the room and take their seats. The individual print out is something that a teacher can periodically place in the student’s folder as a reminder of missing work or as a status report. After all, we cannot assume that all the students will be checking their grades on line. There are times when a teacher would decide to excuse a student from a missing assignment for various reasons. I like the fact that Engrade allows for a student to be excused from an assignment. Teacher ease also offered this feature. Each time you excused a student from an assignment, a wrapped present would appear (you are giving them a gift – I thought that was cute). I appreciated the fact that the grades can be waited according to the teacher’s desire. There is a discussion tab where the parents or the student may click on to view a particular graded assignment and the regarding said assignment. I like this feature; however, I wish that the program had the capability to automatically (if desired) send out an e-mail to the student’s parent(s) regarding each assignment. The teacher ease site offers this feature. My son’s teacher used this and I found this helpful. A parent may not always take the time to check Engrade (especially for multiple children), but they will probably check their e-mail. Having worked in a building where teachers were using a variety of grading systems. I found that the excel program were among the two most popular methods for grade calculations and organization. Through my experience, I did notice a couple of problems using Engrade. First, when the grades were near due, and many of the teachers were on the computers entering their grades, the system would slow down. I heard several teachers complaining about the decrease in speed during this time. Second, I remember one marking period in particular, the morning that the grades were due the computer system had crashed. Teachers were upset because they could not access their grades from Engrade or enter them into the school site. I didn’t have that problem because my grades were all in the night before (thank goodness). Overall, I like the site because it is free, easy to use, and provides the teachers, students, and parents with a great communication device.

Video Lesson (special education) - Pluralize words that end in -y when there is a consonant before the -y ending.

I am posting my video lesson plan for a special education course that I am taking at Mount Saint Mary College (ED 5280). This post is for Dr. Berlinghoff's review.

Creating a Digital Story or Lesson / Assignment - ELA "Drop the y and add ies"

Because I have to create a video lesson for my Applied Research & Diversity special education class, I decided to practice the lesson that I am creating for that class and use it as a digital lesson for my teaching with technology class. The topic, pluralizing words ending with –y, when there is a consonant before the -y was randomly chosen (hand-picked) out of an envelope. There are a lot of repetitive statements because the lesson is geared towards a special education class. Dr. Berlinghoff, my special education professor told our class to make ure that we repeat ourselves to that the student will remember what they heard. Sometimes I wonder if I had repeated certain things too many times. Perhaps I will send her a link and have her preview the screens before that assignment is actually due.

At the end of the lesson, I created an assignment for my “pretend” class to carry out. The assignment would be a lot of fun for any class. The students (“pretend students”) will have the opportunity to be creative using words, art/computer clip art, they will have the opportunity to video themselves or simply record their voices as their artwork and lyrics to their song appear on the Voice Thread presentation. Please find the link to the link to this Voice Thread lesson/assignment posted below.

I believe that this lesson and assignment display what a teacher can do with Voice Thread. Any student that was absent can still view the lesson for the day. In addition, the students will love the creative aspect of the assignment. I think that they are going to love the fact that they can hear themselves and their friends and family may have the opportunity to post a comment.  Moreover, a posted lesson would be helpful to a student who has been absent.  I also believe that the children are going to love to have their family and friends post comments to their work.

Creating a Digital Story or Digital Lesson/Assignment

Because I have to create a video lesson for my Applied Research & Diversity special education class, I decided to practice the lesson that I am creating for that class and use it as a digital lesson for my teaching with technology class.  The topic, pluralizing words ending with –y, when there is a consonant before the why what randomly chosen (hand-picked) out of an envelope.  There are a lot of repetitive statements because the lesson is geared towards a special education class.  At the end of the lesson, I created an assignment for my “pretend” class to carry out.  The assignment would be a lot of fun for any class.  The students (“pretend students”) will have the opportunity to be creative using words, art/computer clip art, they will have the opportunity to video themselves or simply record their voices as their artwork and lyrics to their song appear on the Voice Thread presentation.  Please find the link to the link to this Voice Thread lesson/assignment posted below.

http://voicethread.com/share/1471025/

Digital Story - Religious Education - The Story of Abraham and Sarah

I decided to create a digital story about Abraham and Sara for a number of reasons. First, I teach religious education on Saturdays and I may someday include this video into a lesson. Second, the textbook that we use consists primarily the New Testament (Jesus and after). I believe that the Old Testament is very important too. I have a children's Bible that I use in conjunction with other sources when I teach lessons from the Old Testament. However, I like a little of what one source has to say and some of what another source had to say. Creating the digital story gave me the opportunity to include the parts of the lesson that I feel are important. I will post the link below. It may be a little longer than you expected, but felt the length would be okay for classroom use. I hope you enjoy the video. Please let me know if you learned anything from it.

http://litacme21.pbworks.com/w/page/Fran%27s-Children%27s-Bible-Videos

WAIT A MINUTE - I'm trying to get the video to appear here on the blog. The site listed above belongs to one of my pbwiki pages. The video is also posted on my Mount Saint Mary College Moodle page and my assignment page of my pbwiki. I'm going to keep trying. Hold on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Let me think . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

                      The Story of Abraham and Sarah

 

LOOK AT THAT!!!!   I think I figured it out!  YESSSSSSS!

Wait a minute again.  It is taking a long time to load the video.  Is that normal?  How long should I wait?  I left the computer to get something to eat, came back and it still says, "Processing Video."  How long is too long to wait?

Collaborative Site - dimdim

A brief look at dimdim and it seems to be a site that I may want to play with some more. It features a collaborative, real-time space where people and work on a project simultaneously. They could shar documents, use whiteboards, and record their sessions with anyone around the world. When they said, "anyone around the world," I thought of the family that I have in New York City, New Jersey, North Carolina, California, Nevada, Forida, Canada, and Italy. I know that many other sites do the same. It is just that becuause they mentioned it in their advertising, I thought of all the people that I may want to collaborate with on a personal level (organizing a family reunion).

The site also offers video and voice phone conferencing with unlimited use at the lowest price (so they claim). We can therefore, say that this collaborative site does not come without a price.

Please find the address to the site at the end of this post.
http://www.dimdim.com/

Collaborative Sites - SightSpeed

I found this collaborative site interesting because one among some or the ordinary features that many collaborative sites are offering like video or voice conferencing, SightSpeed offers an interesting way to send "video e-mails. They are persuasive in saying that not only can you use their site for business or educated related opportunities, but you can send a "video email to your family and friends. In addition to video conferencing and video e-mail, SightSpeed also offers video chat. Please find the link to this sight below this post.
http://www.sightspeed.com/

Collaborative Sites - Google for Educators

Part of our "teaching with technology" assignment this week was to check out some collaborative sites. Collaboration is one of the key ideas to the 21st century learner and skill. We must be collaborators and teach our students how to collaborate successfully. During this process, I investigated a site put out by Google; it is called, "Google for Educators." It is a place where educators and ask for suggestions from other educators, share lesson plan ideas and more. It is a type of blog in a sence. Please find a link to the Google for Educators site at the end of this post.
http://groups.google.com/group/google-for-educators

Flat Classroom Conference Qatar Opening - Video

The idea behind the "Flat Classroom" is very exciting. It is very much like what my classmates and I have engaged in through our "teaching with technology" graduate course. We have engaged in a correspondance with students from France, Japan, California (USA), and Saudi Arabia. The video was nice to see. I like the video-visual effects. However, the sound was not the best quality. The music was loud and clear, the words stood on the screen long enough for me to read them, but every time someone spoke, there was more of what I could not hear them say than what I could actually hear them say. This was very frustrating because I am an auditory learner, and I would have really liked to have heard what was said. Please find the link to this video at the end of this post. Perhaps you may be inspired by this "Flat Classroom" project. It is a fantastic concept tht demonstrates our direction towards global learning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdPjpmYFMBg&feature=player_embedded

Yuuguu - A Collaborative Site

Today my group members from Teaching with Technology and I all signed up to work on a site called Yuuguu as collaborators. Perhaps we will use it during one of our next collaborative meetings. The site’s address is http://www.yuuguu.com/features/features-for-collaboration. The site allows the users “to share screens, host online meetings and work in real time on the same documents over the web for free.” The name of the site and its meaning is interesting. The name of the site, “Yuuguu” is the Japanese word, meaning fusion. Our ideas will someday fuse together.

Glogster

Teaching with Techonolgy - Fran's Screen Snap Shots

http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d546b784e5449794d6a4d3d0d0a&blogview=true

I hope you enjoy the slide show of my screen snap shots.  I have also included some family photos.  There is a photo that contains my parents.  I lost my father last summer to a long illness.  There is not a day that goes by where he is not in my thoughts.

Create your own slideshow design

Levels of Teaching Innovation (LoTI)

Levels of Teaching Innovation

A Reflection by Fran Glickman

In the past, educators used a categorization of six thinking levels, ranked from the lowest thinking level to the highest when planning their lessons. Educators made sure to incorporate each of the levels into their lessons and assessments, with the ultimate goal of all the students being able to perform at the highest cognitive level. These original six levels were referred to as Bloom’s Taxonomy, named after the psychologist, Benjamin Bloom. The six cognitive (thinking) levels ranked from lowest to highest are:

1. Knowledge: Recall of facts
2. Comprehension: Understand the meaning of information
3. Application: Using information in new situations
4. Analysis: Breaking down material into parts for examination
5. Synthesis: Putting parts of information together to form something
6. Evaluation: Judging the value of material based on criteria for a purpose

Like many things in the world of education, Bloom’s Taxonomy was re-evaluated and modified to make it better. Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl felt that some of the terms needed to be modified and reorganized and then republished as “Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy,” which is as follows (also ranked from lowest to highest):

1. Remember
2. Understand
3. Apply
4. Analyze
5. Evaluate
6. Create

With today’s in surge of technology, we need to again modify and further define the levels of thinking to accommodate the “Net generation.” In response to this technical world, the 21st Century Teacher must incorporate technology into lessons and perhaps into assessments as well. Therefore, the “Levels of Teaching Innovation” or LoTI as it is also referred to be created. What does this have to do with Bloom’s Taxonomy? Well, just as Bloom’s Taxonomy was created to enable students to reach higher levels of thinking and learning, so too does LoTI. The LoTI also claims to have “six” levels (but there are really more – 4a and 4b). They refer to these levels as “LoTI Framework:”

1. Level 0 = Nonuse
2. Level 1 = Awareness – Teacher uses technology only for productivity tools
3. Level 2 = Exploration
4. Level 3 = Infusion
5. Level 4a = Integration – Mechanical
6. Level 4b = Integration – Routine
7. Level 5 = Expansion
8. Level 6 = Refinement - Multiple technologies being used toward product completion

In President Obama efforts to have U.S. students compete globally, he stated that the 21st Century skills involved problem solving, critical thinking, entrepreneurship, and creativity among other things. If we think back to Bloom’s Taxonomy, the skills mentioned by President Obama (when speaking about the “Race to the Top”) have been in place for many decades. However, the avenues of where the students can be creative are changing rapidly. Why has the U.S. students’ grades been slipping? The forum on that question can go on and on. There are a number of good reasons. We now have to look at what we can do to make a change for the better. We have to meet the learning styles of the “Net generation.” Educators have to incorporate technology into their lessons and infuse the “LoTI Framework” into their lessons and assessments.

Recourses may be an inhibitor. Many schools do not have the funding to make the change quickly. They have to purchase the technological devices in chunks at a time. President Obama’s goal is for the U.S. to have the highest proportion of college graduates by the year 2020. It looks like we are on course for success.

Education of the Future

Reflection on Education 2.0 video clip - Marc Prensky

Education 2.0 – Marc Prensky video clip

This week in our Teaching with Technology instructor required that we watch a video entitled, “Education 2.0.”  “Education 2.0” was a small video clip from an interview with Marc Prensky, author of Don’t Bother Me Mom – I’m Learning.  Prensky claims that the old premise of school is outdated.  He states that although change is occurring, instruction in schools still involves talking to kids, presenting, telling and explaining to the whole class.  Prensky feels that this type of instruction leads students to tune out.  He believes that kids want group work, project work, case work, sharing things and having their opinions heard.  Kids are so much more involved with each other and with the world than they get credit for.  In a sense, we have to market the subjects that we want kids to be interested in. 

Students should learn how to communicate, express complex ideas, and persuade among other things.  To communicate, express complex ideas and persuade are all verbs.  The verbs have not changed.  However, it is the nouns which have changed.  For instance, the median for which the assignments are done are being changed – the essays, the papers, writing, blogging, videos, pod casts.

Education is heading into a direction where we are going to see the ability for kids to go out and learn anything they want to know in an engaging, communicative way – online; a way to insert adults as educational guides.

Schools, according to Prensky, are no longer the center of children’s education.  Education has bifurcated into school, where you get a credential (and it’s about the past); and after school, where you really learn interesting stuff on your own.  Prensky then told a story about a student who was a Civil War buff – A student who is passionate about a subject – used to get all the information from books and the library.  However, today, the students use the internet and technology.  They are teaching themselves.

In referring to educators, Prensky feels that we need to find ways to help students find and follow their passions, and find the tools that they could use to feed their passions.    Those tools may include the internet, knowing the right things to do, knowing how to do it, knowing how to do it with others, then knowing how to do it better, and knowing how to do it more creatively.  Prensky ends the video clip with the thought that if we can teach the kids those things that they can use to apply their passions and going as far as they can go, then we will be a whole lot better off than we are with trying to get kids to pass those standardized tests.

My Thoughts on the Video:

First, having three kids of my own, I definitely see the role technology plays in their life.  I too love the internet.  Whenever I am learning something new, or simply want to refresh my memory, I search the web for a quick tutorial.  The better tutorials provide lots of visuals.  If I am lucky, I might even find a video on the topic I am researching.  I also like colorful websites.  There are web sites that offer tutorials and then allow you to take a self quiz.  Some sites offer more than one type of quiz.  One of the most famous web sites used by educators is called Brain Pop.     

Many of the schools today do have Smart Technology.  There are computers being placed in more classrooms.  I see and feel the change.  Originally, when we studied education and creating lesson plans, we were taught to appeal to the eight different intelligences that humans possess.  Today, we have to appeal to a ninth – technology.  Please find the list of eight intelligences listed below.  We know have learning standards to accommodate the use of technology.  If we, as educators, don’t get on board, we will miss the boat. 

Eight Intelligences

1.    Linguistic intelligence ("word smart")

2.    Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")

3.    Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")

4.    Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")

5.    Musical intelligence ("music smart")

6.    Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")

7.    Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")

8.    Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")

This week I did something that I never thought that I would ever do.  

I CREATED MY OWN WEB SITE! 

I am so excited about this because it is something that I only dreamed of doing.  I have only made a home page and a link.  I have a lot more to do, but it is a start.  I ran into a technology savvy friend of mine and I excitedly shared this with her.  She showed me a web site that she created for the team of teachers that she works with in a middle school.  The web site includes links to each of the subject teachers.  They can post any notes, visuals, power points, links to other sites and assignments on the site.

I sincerely like to thank Dr. Smirnova.  If it were not for her guidance and providing us with such tools as the various web sources where we can create a web site for free, create an avatar for free, create a blog page for free, and create a nearly endless venue of medians, I never would have done it.  I am on uncharted territory.  I am boldly going where I have never gone before.  I am scared and extremely excited all at the same time.  My biggest regret is that this is not a two-part class.  Like anything, I need a lot of practice.  I’m afraid that I might learn a mile wide and an inch deep.  It would be great if we can get a feel for most everything this semester and practice and perfect what we have learned next semester.

As much as I am excited by my new adventures with technology, sometimes, I would rather pick up a book and highlight where I want to and make my own notes in the margins.  I realize that the technology is probably out there for that but I don’t want to always have to worry about my technology getting wet or ruined or the batteries dying, or someone steeling it.  People steel books far less frequently than they would an electronic device.

In closing, yes we must teach using technology and use technology as a median to deliver assignments and conduct research; however, books should still hang around for a while too.  I suppose technology will eventually fade out the traditional paper books as DVD’s have been fading out the VHS’.

Introducing The Mathinator 2000

Good Evening!


My “blog” name is “The Mathinator 2000.” I love doing mathematical problems. Many mathematical problems are like a puzzle, where you have to find various pieces of the puzzle in order to put the entire puzzle together (or in math, solve the puzzle/problem). Often, math involves finding a pattern, making a connection. Math does not always come easy. However, there is nothing like the feeling when you have struggled with something (a math problem) and then you conquer (solve) it.


This is my very first blog. I never thought that I would ever write a blog in my life. As part of a technical graduate course that I am taking, I am required to blog. Like any good mathematical problem, I expect I may struggle from now and then with blogging or some other feature of this technical course. However, I will work hard and conquer my technical fears, hesitations, and problems. I have already begun to put the pieces of this technological puzzle together by watching some videos posted on “moodle” and actually writing this blog. “I’m on my way . . .”

As an educator, we understand that we are preparing students for their future careers. Some of the careers that today’s students will encounter have not yet been created. It is obvious that technology will play a tremendous part of our children’s future. I have some exciting ideas about careers for our students. However, before I post my ideas, I like to invite others to respond with some ideas of their own. In the interim, the hint to my future blog is: “Montgomery, NY.”


Please answer the following question:

1. What skills do you anticipate will be in demand for the future?

Until my next blog, “The Mathinator 2000 signing out”