G Dan K - Web II and Ped II

G Dan K
Originally uploaded by supaken55.

I've often used photos that I bring to class or pull up on a screen to get a discussion started. If I were teaching Violence and Nonviolence again, I might use this photo in a preliminary discussion about what constitutes violence. For example, to activate students' prior knowledge, I might ask them to look at the picture and tell them that it is a "headstone" of a young man who died at age 34 from an overdose of drugs. Then I would ask, "does this constitute violence? Why or why not?" It would have to be one of a series of photos, some with more obvious forms of violence and some with less obvious forms.

Such an activity gets the class going, begins the direct students towards one of the primary objectives for the course, and allows for some indirect instructions. It could be followed up with asking students to find images on their own that depict certain kinds of violence. (Asking them not to be too graphic)

Web II Podcast

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Web II and Ped II

As I read through the material and my peers' posts on social bookmarking, I began to think about more of the educational value of this. I'm not really a big fan of socializing on the Internet, because I have seen first hand the damage it can do to young women. However, as a research tool, being able to give a class an assignment on, say, Kant's idea of the categorical imperative, put the kids in groups, and ask them share their results, social bookmarking could be ideal.
You can transfer your results to a class folder or even print them if you are using them for a presentation or an essay. It could also lead to some plagiarism, but no more so than any other research project.

For my own purposes, I could see working with other teachers who teach the same courses that I do and using social bookmarking as a way for us to share resources. Right now we tell each other about sites that we find especially helpful, but this would be a much more efficient way of sharing.

Web II and Ped II

It occurred to me today, as I was finally able to load my audio file to this blog, that another use for audio files might come from students rather than the teacher.

I have students in my class for whom English is a their second or third language. I also have a student who has a diagnosed learning difference that make it physically difficult for him to write legibly. Perhaps if I allowed these and other students to create audio files as part of their presentations it would allow them to spend more time on expressing their learning and less time on the process of writing well. In the past I have had student who had difficulty writing and allowed them to tape their answers to questions and then write them out afterwards. Perhaps making mp3 files is just a more modern day version of the same thing.

(This gives me another new thing to try that I believe to be a sound pedagogical practice as well as a good way to get technology into the classroom).

My Audio post for Web II

Here is my audio post of an introduction to doing research on the internet for teachers. It isn't perfect, but I have a script to post with it. I have the script below for those who learn best by reading while listening.

Audio file


Audio Introduction to Research on the Internet


We all know that when we ask our students to research anything, they quickly go to Google to see what they can find. And while it is certainly true that there is a vast body of knowledge on the internet, it is also true that there is a lot of misinformation or nonscholarly works. In addition, students log on to sites on the net that may be dangerous. It is our responsibility as educators to help them understand how to use this valuable resource in a safe, knowledgeable and scholarly manner.

To that end, I have written this brief introduction so faculty members can find out more about how to teach their students to do appropriate research on the internet.

Let me begin with myths and legends:

Myth or Fact: Telling students to use only sites that are .edu or .gov will take them to reputable sites – MYTH. .edu sites can be scholarly work or they can simply be sites put up be students at a university that supplies them with server space. It could be student ramblings or musings or the beginning of a project or any number of other things. Generally speaking, if it is a student site, somewhere in the URL address there will be the university name followed by a ~ (that squiggly mark either in the top left hand corner or your keyboard or next to the space bar on many laptops) and then a student name. It’s something to have your students look for.
Myth or Fact: If it appears first in a Google search, it must be a well-known and therefore respectable site. – MYTH. If it appears first in Google, it is likely a sponsored site, meaning that some person or company paid to have it be there. There is usually a subtle marker for this on all search engines – the background color is slightly different or sometimes they just tell you it is a sponsored site. This doesn’t mean that it’s a bad site, but it also doesn’t mean that it’s a good site. Below the sponsored sites are many other choices. These sites appear in order of the number of hits on them. The more hits, the higher the site is in the line up. Again, this doesn’t tell you if the site is good or bad, just how many people have visited it.
Myth or Fact: The only place to find scholarly work is through the school’s online databases – Myth. These databases are an incredible resource and we are very fortunate to have access to so many. If you look at the library’s webpage, it has a list of all the journals that we subscribe to, the dates of the articles included, and a comprehensive chart that explains which databases are good for which academic disciplines in our school. In addition, the library has recently put up a webpage that explains all of the valuable resources available through them for students and faculty. This site contains a tutorial that is very helpful. However, it is also very possible, even likely, that you can find scholarly resources on the internet. You just have to check out your sources carefully.
This brings me to my last Myth or Fact: Wikipedia, because it is an open source, should never be used by students. – Myth. Wikipedia, and other open source wikis can be edited by anyone and so there is certainly a chance that Esther came along and edited the page on Jewish traditions, including inaccurate information about Yom Kippur. However, there are people who’s sole job it is to check on edits made in wikipedia and change or delete any inaccurate information. More importantly, like any site, students should be taught to check the data they get with other sources to authenticate the information before they use it in their papers or projects.
There are many other issues with internet research, but this is a sample of the misinformation that is out there. Look for more about using the internet in later presentations.

1st Web II blog entry

Posted by Susan at 3:14 PM 0 comments Moved from other blog

Beginning my blog for Web II
My name is Susan and I live in Massachusetts. At the moment I am a graduate student and I'm learning about blogs. How are they helpful in a classroom setting and why and when would I use it with my students
Posted by Susan at 3:08 PM 0 comments
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Ped II, but with connections to Web II

Blogs can be used as a formative assessment even with high school students provided you give them something to react to in their blog. I tried this with a first class discussion similar to our discussions, but found that unless I asked them for some a reaction to something specific, I did not get a lot of good quality, thoughtful responses.

This speaks to the problem of formulating quality assessments - either summative or formative. I think that it's very difficulty to come up with assessments that really allow all students to showcase their knowledge, that get students to use their learning in some kind of authentic process, that don't take so much time that you can't move on to the next topic, and that lead back to your goals and objectives. Hmmm... I thought just doing a project or a paper or an presentation was enough and that if I simply varied the type of assessment it would make the class more interesting and speak to different learning styles. But now I think there is more to this assessment thing. Do I want students to demonstrate what I think they have learned? Do I want them to demonstrate in the fashion that I create for them only? If I allow them to have some say in the creation of summative assessments, will I really know what they have and have not learned, or will I only know what they choose to show me? Lots to think about.