EDIM 502 Week 5_Students Meeting the NETS-S

The era of strictly pencil and paper classrooms has changed. The Internet, handheld devices, and free educational applications have changed the way of teaching. Although 21st Century Learning has been and continues to be a major struggle for many teachers, it has become extremely efficient and beneficial towards not only gaining the interest of students, but also furthering the student's understanding. Helping with this transition, the International Society for Technology in Education created standards for teachers and students to follow call the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S). These standards consist of the following 6 categories:

1. Creativity and Innovation
2. Communication and Collaboration
3. Research and Information Fluency
4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
5. Digital Citizenship
6. Technology Operations and Concepts

These standards can easily be met through a mixture of 21st century learning and inquiry based learning. For instance, students may be probed with solving a task or presenting a product of his or her work. Through the Internet and Web 2.0 applications, soon to be 3.0, students can learn technology operations and concepts to more efficiently research solutions or information needed. The students can also collaborate with others via Web 2.0 tools, such as through Google Docs or a Linoit board. From a teacher's standpoint, this may seem frightening that students can easily share work. The reassuring aspect of Google and many other Web 2.0 collaborative applications, are their revision history. Making the students aware of this tool within the application, creates a sense of accountability and digital citizenship. 

Students can also become more critical thinkers and problem solvers through these Web 2.0 applications. For example, a student may be asked to solve a task such as designing a wall speaker mount that allows the speaker to rotate or re-position itself in three different ways. Through online research consisting of videos, animations, online discussion board, etc., the students can formulate an idea of how he or she would solve the problem. The student could then take that idea a step further and use a Web 2.0 application like Google Sketchup to digitally design the product. The student's entire process of researching, designing, and then displaying his or her product via a Web 2.0 application like Prezi, Voice Thread, Podcast, etc., would bring the student's creativity and innovation full circle.

References:

National Educational Technology Standards for Students. (n.d.). NETS For Students 2007. Retrieved November 19, 2012, from www.iste.org/standards/nets-for-students/nets-student-standards-2007

EDIM 502 Week 1_Project Based Learning

Over the past several years, a large focus in education has been on the engagement of students. In that same time, educational technology that has become more abundant, relevant, and interactive. Combining the plethora of technological resources and new practices, education has moved into 21st century teaching. According to Edutopia, 21st century teaching allows students to grow in the following areas,

• "personal and social responsibility
• planning, critical thinking, reasoning, and creativity
• strong communication skills, both for interpersonal and presentation needs
• cross-cultural understanding
• visualizing and decision making
• knowing how and when to use technology and choosing the most appropriate tool for the task"

Students are acquiring and heightening their skills and the understanding of content to a level of being able to apply it in unique ways. The practice of this application process is called project-based learning. In conversation about project-based learning, Edutopia provided several instances of school classroom projects learning environments. Each classroom has similarities in the teaching style, working style of students, the subject in which the projects were based on, and the overall learning outcome. Edutopia's project-based learning examples can be seen at the following websites,

1. http://www.edutopia.org/march-monarchs
2. http://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms
3. http://www.edutopia.org/geometry-real-world-students-architects

In each of these examples, the viewer will see that the teachers did not necessary lecture and teach all of this content. Instead, the teachers took the role of a facilitator of knowledge, resource, and most importantly a guide to the outcome. This allowed the classroom to become student centered and not teacher centered. The expectation of the students is to actively engaged in progressive towards the investigation, recording, creating, and presenting of their findings. It is up to the students to dive deeper into the content and learning from one another. The content the students were working with was authentic, carried real world meaning, and relevant to each of the student' lives. The relevance got the students interested in learning and collaborating with on another.

The entire learning process that was displayed between the different situations resulted in a higher order of thinking with the content than the students would have normally got with typical education. The passive role of the teacher and mixed with the students active role to work hands-on allowed the students to not only apply the content in unique ways, but also solve problems that occurred within the activity.

References:

Armstrong, S. (2002). Geometry Students Angle into Architecture Through Project Learning.Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/geometry-real-world-students-architects

Curtis, D. (2001). More Fun Than a Barrel of … Worms?! Edutopia. Retrieved fromhttp://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms

Curtis, D. (2002). March of the Monarchs: Students Follow the Butterflies’ Migration. Edutopia.Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/march-monarchs

Edutopia (2007). Why Is Project-Based Learning Important? Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning-guide-importance

EDIM 508 Week 7_Google Earth Virtual Field Trip

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Virtual field trip? What is that? A virtual field trip can be done in many ways, but what I have created it in is Google Earth. The field trip starts out at Wilson High School. At this point the students are given specific instructions of the field trip will contain and what they should do during it. The trip then takes the students around the world, visiting the New 7 Wonders of the World. Between each stop the students are to use the measuring feature in Google Earth to measure the distance between the monuments. While at each monument, the students will be presented with an interactive Glog. Each Glog contains cultural music, a panorama, brief history, a virtual 3D tour, and information about the monuments engineering. Finally, the students are taken back to the high school where they are presented with a writing prompt. The prompt asks the students to reflect upon the following:

• The distance between the before and after monument.
• What was an interesting fact you learned about the World Wonder?
• What did you learn about the location of the World Wonder's culture?
• What did you find interesting about the World Wonder's engineering?
• What was the culture surrounding the monument when it was created?
• How has the culture of the land changed over time (if any).
• How has that impacted the technology and engineering?

I feel that this virtual field trip is a unique way of educated the students on some astonishing engineering feats of the world while educating them on the history and culture of the land. Through this activity the students will continue to develop their ethical and respectful minds. According to Gardner, “The respectful mind notes and welcomes differences between human individuals” (2007). Whereas the ethical mind “ . . . conceptualizes how workers can serve purposes beyond self-interest and how citizens can work unselfishly to improve the lot of all” (Gardner, 2007). These monuments do just that. They are still inspirational today!


Gardner, H.  (2007).  Five minds for the future.  Boston:  Harvard Business School Press
 

Download The Virtual Field Trip!

EDIM 508 Week 7_Continuing The Development of My Five Minds

 Just in case your browser does not support the video or the Adobe Flash plugin crashes:

• Downloadable Video
• Video Blog Reading

EDIM 508 Week 6_Respectful and Ethical Minds

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Walk down the street of any city in America, you will see that the different cultures of the world are not as segregated as they used to be. “The [(2007)] Census also reported that 38.1 million foreign-born residents comprised 12.6 % of the population. Then, in 2008, it predicted that by 2042, more than half of the population would be minorities with much of the increase due to immigration.” (Krase, 2009). The continuous rise in immigration means a mixing of cultures. Although the mixture of cultures has a large magnitude of positives, it also brings with it a great deal of difference in beliefs, life styles, and ethics.

As educators and adults, it is our job to foster respectfulness and prepare students for this fact of life. Julene Reed stated in her article entitled, Global Collaboration and Learning, How to create a world of success without leaving your classroom, “Educators need to find ways to connect students from different parts of the world so that they can learn together, share knowledge and develop cultural understanding and relationships. Through these types of learning experiences, students will increase their global awareness and understanding of other cultures in different parts of the world” (2007). Reed’s article provides several different digital media means that can be implemented into any classroom, such as email, digital photography / video storytelling, blogging, websites, video conferencing, etc.

A project that I planned to on doing but ran out of time at the end of this past year involved the majority of these means of digital media. The project was going to be a virtual design challenge within my Introduction to Engineering and Design class. The student(s) would have been paired up with another student(s) to design a prototype product that would solve a challenge while staying within all of the constraints and criteria given. The project would involve the students to videoconference, communicate via email and screencasts, and finally present the solution through the means of a live videoconference presentation. The presentation would have been created through multi-editing software, like Prezi that integrated media such as 3D animations, screen captures, videos, and digital images.

This project sounds all well and good, but without the ethical and mutual respect between the students, the project would not be as successful as it could be. Doing project as such is a great learning experience for an individual of any age, especially 18 years of age and younger. Teaching these young individuals an ethical code of conduct and behavior is a life long lesson. The ethical mind “requires more abstract and reflective thinking about one's behavior. No matter what type of work a person undertakes, [(he or)] she can stand back and ask what [(he or)] she needs to do for [(his or)] her work to be excellent in quality and ethical in conduct, and then follow through with those responsibilities. Without this mindset, a person can be easily swayed into doing compromised work that cuts corners, just to be able to get ahead (Maria Fusaro, 2009).

Fusaro, Maria. "Five Minds for the Future." Usable Knowledge. Harvard Graduate School of Education, n.d. Web. 14 June 2012. <www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/teaching/TC106-607.html>.

Krase, Jerry. " “Diversity in America: Past, Present, and Future?” by Jerry Krase | BrooklynSoc.Org ." BROOKLYNSOC.ORG. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 June 2012. <http://www.brooklynsoc.org/blog/node/70>.

EDIM 508 Week 5_Glog

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Look around. What do you see? Everywhere you look you see some sort of creative way of expression, whether it is through a movement, a noise, physical feature, or a graphical representation. As an educator, we need constantly find innovative ways of inspiring creativity. According to Howard Gardner, “creativity can be maintained by exhibiting different, equally viable solutions to a single posed problem” (Five Minds for the Future, 2007). A quick and easy way of taking any subject from a bunch of sources and compiling it into one graphical representation is by creating a Glog at edu.glogster.com. A Glog is a digitally interactive poster creating software. It allows you to embed URL links, pictures, sounds, and videos.

I plan to implement the use of my Glog into my class as a teaching tool on Geometric Shapes and Solids. The instructional purpose is to provide the students with an aesthetically appealing poster that allows them to navigate through lecture material, activities, and supportive materials, such as pictures and videos. Within my Glog, I have two embedded Prezi presentations. One Prezi is on Geometric Shapes and Area, and the other Prezi is on the Properties of Geometric Solids. I have multiple still images that act as supportive material. One of these images is a scanned and digitally manipulated image of the exact formula sheet the students get in class. I also have two supportive activities that were created through Discovery Education.  To go along with those activities, I have an embedded Khan Academy video and URL linked quiz. I also have two small animation videos that help work the student through two of the problems within the activities. Finally, there is an embedded work cited link to a Google Doc of my citations.

Besides the teaching tool aspect, I also plan to use the software as a stimulus for the creative minds of my students. By allowing the students to create his or her own Glog, they will be able to display his or her work and / or present a topic. The following High School Pennsylvania standards are some of the basic standards the students will be completing while doing a Glog:

·       1.6.11-D  Contribute to discussions.

·       1.6.11-F  Use media for learning purposes.

·       1.6.11-E  Participate in small and large group discussions and presentations.

·       3.6.10-B  Apply knowledge of information technologies of encoding, transmitting, receiving, storing, retrieving and decoding.

·       3.7.10-C  Apply basic computer operations and concepts.

·       3.7.10-E  Apply basic computer communications systems.

Here is a link to my Glog: http://jnjarrett.edu.glogster.com/geometric-shapes-and-solids/

Gardner, H.  (2007).  Five minds for the future.  Boston:  Harvard Business School Press

EDIM 508 Week 5_Content Creation

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As the year comes to an end, I have personally asked several of my students what they liked, didn’t like, could have been better, and wish they would have done more of within my classes. As a Technology and Engineering department, we have also asked the students to fill out a Google Doc form that asked very similar questions along with some other department questions. It was very interesting to hear what the students had to say. Some of them were blatantly honest and some were scared to critique the class.

My two-second level classes that consist of upper classman were given a survey at the beginning of the year asking what they would like to focus the course content on. Comparing that to what the discussions and end of the year evaluation form they filled out, I was able to reflect myself on topics I need to change for next year. The students informed me that they liked the fact that I gave them a voice within the course’s content. I did find out though that the majority of the students were upset for the first two marking periods of the year with the amount of work they were being held accountable for. They expressed that they enjoyed the first level course and its laid back mentality, so they signed up for a second year of it. Not teaching the first level course of either of the subjects, I have a hard time transitioning the students into a fast paced, large workload, proactive class environment. They did however mention that by the third marking period, they really started to enjoy the course and see a major change in their ability. They loved the use of the technology, the project they created, and most importantly the creative freedom. They loved the fact that they got to take home and use the majority of the projects once they learned the proper background knowledge.

My introductory engineering and design course had a mixture of opinions. The majority of this course is 9^th graders. I have found that they are still in that if I don’t 100% like my teacher, than I hate the entire class and all the things we do in it stage. It seems hard to believe students would perceive a class like this, but I have been told directly from a non-opinionated student that he still feels this way at times. A big problem I have in this course is that not everyone is ready or understands the transition from a Middle School Technology Education class (30 days of hands on and fun projects) to a High School Honors Introduction To Engineering and Design course (a lot of lecture and low end manufacturing). You can only imagine the evaluation remarks I got. The most useful comments I got were that they enjoyed the technology used and the ability to research, hand sketch, 3D computer design, and then manufacture their own idea to solve the task at hand. To me this is important that the majority of the students I know are moving on because it is real like application and problem solving. Like Gardner says, “Creativity allows for innovation or meaningful change in how problems are approached in the field” (2007).

Gardner, Howard. (2007). Five minds for the future. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.