G Dan K - Web II and Ped II

G Dan K
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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)

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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.

Web II and Ped II February 26, 2007

Again, I have been thinking a lot about the use of audio files. It took me forever to figure out how to make one , and edit it. (I haven't yet posted it anywhere, but that's the subject of another entry!) All the while, I could not for the life of me resist asking myself, "how or why would I every use this information?". Again, like my musings about wikis and blogs, I want to know that this is a pedagogically sound thing to introduce into my own teaching and to suggest that others use as well. Why would I, as an educational administrator, require my faculty to go through the pains of learning this technology if it had no real practical application? The answer is that I wouldn't.

I also asked my students if audio files would be helpful to them. Many said that it would be different and therefore engaging, but only a few said it would be helpful. Then I asked them if it would be helpful if I put a transcript up along with the audio file. That got a resounding yes from the assembled crowd (okay, just a class of 12 students, but they seem like a crowd sometimes).

It occurred to me that this also goes along with what we have read about how students learn. Using one form of input for information is never as good as two or three or more. This is evidenced by the fact that many of the students with learning differences use books on tape to help them compensate for for their differences.

Web II - Blogs for your class

Last time I was in class, I asked Will about the statement in our reading that said something about group Blogs and asked how that could happen. It seems like it is possible to do by inviting others to participate and I was thinking about how to use this in my own teaching.

While we often use first class at our school, it is rarely used for discussion purposes, though we all know that it can be. My question is, "Is a blog or first class preferable for carrying on a discussion about a topic that I as the teacher would suggest?". I'm not sure what the answer is, but given that you could post one question in your blog and allow others to "edit" by adding their thoughts to the post, you could have the entire thread in one place rather than having to open post after post as you do in first class. This would certainly be an advantage.

The other advantage I see is that each blog post would be a discrete topic, with all topics for the course being held in the same place as opposed to the different folders for each topic that we see in first class. So you cold have a nice, neat record of all the discussions that you simply scroll through at the end of the term.

Ped II February 18, 2007

So, the fact that I used objectives on a daily basis in my classroom became a way to assess both my progress as a teacher (e.g. did I accomplish what I set out to accomplish) but also a way to assess student learning. I found myself referring back to the stated objectives on the board and then asking students to do tasks during class or for homework that would let me know if, in fact, that objective had been met by each student. (The answer was that sometimes it had and sometimes it hadn't. The progress was different for different kids, which was no surprise). Formative assessments are therefore helpful both to the students and the teacher. I could adjust how I was doing what I was doing sooner to bring everyone up to speed and the kids were encouraged to ask questions sooner. So it was helpful.

This brings me to another thought. If daily objectives are helpful to keep in mind, how might I keep overarching goals in mind as well? I think I might do more than just put them in the course syllabus, read them during the first class and then forget about them. Maybe I could post it to our class folder ( we use first class as well) and then post a paper copy on newsprint in the classroom.

Web II and Ped II February 16

I will no doubt come back to this theme again, but I see connections between that which we are reading in Web II and what we are reading in Pedagogy II. Basically, learning the need things you can do with wikis and blogs and skype and delicious, etc. is a lot of fun and interesting, but only useful to me if I can see their application to my work as a teacher and administrator.

Well, I think I've begun to see the connection. In my classes, I require student to take what I call "double sided" notes on their reading. The left hand side of the page is for actual reading notes, the right hand side is for students to write questions, make comments, draw connections and analyze the material. Another way that they might do this is with a blog. The pedagogical concept here is to have students do something with the material that they are reading. It is clear from recent brain research that we all learn better if we do more than just read about something. Blogs and wikis would be a way to make this happen. I'm not yet sure how to make this work with the process of taking reading notes, but I'll continue to consider the options.

Pedagogy II February 15, 2007

For the last several days, I have been writing the objectives for the particular class session of Ethics on the board. I go through with my students orally, explain the sequence of events, and then start the class.
.My observation is that doing this keeps me focused on what I want to accomplish during the class. I am more aware of the way we are spending time, whether or not we are getting off topic and whether or not the activities really will fit into the designated class period. In addition, I am more clear about where I want to go and how I want to get there before I walk into the classroom

The only downside so far seems to be that I become anxious about getting through the plan and so I have cut off a couple of very good conversations in order to get to the next objective. The other thing I have noticed is that I tend to write by objectives in terms of content that I want students to learn instead of looking at the skills I will teach them along the way.

1st Post for Ped II

Written February 12, 2007

It occurs to me that I have been teaching for some time now without much thought to my goals and objectives. I have required them of new teachers and have certainly set them for myself in the past, but really haven't used them in any meaningful way in quite some time.

After our discussion about goals and objectives and writing them out for out final project, I thought I might try putting this into practice for the remainder of the Ethics course that I am presently teaching. I remember why they are important now and I want to see if it makes any difference in my students' learning. More later.

Web II - Thoughts about blogs and wikis

Thinking about Blogs and Wikis As I did the reading for this unit, what occurred to me is that these technologies (blogs and wikis) might in fact be helpful with my high school students. In group projects I can see that having a blog for each group would allow them to think through the stages of the project. They could be making individual contributions from different physical spaces and still get feedback from their groups in a timely way. This ends the ,"when can we all get together" issue