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