It's been a little while since I have done a reflection, but I am excited to talk about Challenge Based Learning. I know this concept has gone by a few different names over the years, but this is what it's called now. Basically, in class, students are presented with a problem and asked to come up with ways to solve it. So rather than just studying the effects of global warming, students would be challenged to figure out ways to fix it in their day lives. This means students would have to first research and understand at least one aspect of global warming so they can find ways to fix it. They are learning and doing at the same time.
Apple jumped on board and has the challenge based learning ideas on their website, though it is not an Apply concept. This kind of lesson planning fits closely with traditional lesson planning, just with a new twist. To use this kind of learning the experts say you must start with a big idea such as conservation, power, peace etc.. The next step is making this big deal local and personal; something the students can understand. These questions aren't meant to have correct answers; they are meant to make the students think.Then, based on the essential questions, teachers must challenge the students to generate concrete answers or solutions. Students then have to decide what information they need to know to answer the challenge. The questions they ask are called guiding questions.Since the challenge and questions should have been broad enough to allow for multiple answers, students or teams will present their solution to the challenge.
This way of thinking and teaching can be used in almost every subject.While pondering how this could be used in English, I wondered what it would look like for students to go through this process pretending they were a character in the book or play they read and use the reality of the story to guide their answers. Then to relate it specifically to them, they could compare it to the real world. This is a slightly different twist to the typical challenge based learning, but it is a way to teachers to use it without cutting too much from their curriculum. Apple's website has great resources and further explanations about Challenge Based Learning and wonder examples for teachers to us in their classrooms.
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
4.25.2011
3.10.2011
Podcast Reflection #10
Tech Chick Tips 3/7
This episode of the Tech Chick Tips was short and sweet. They hit on several good resources to use in the classroom. They mentioned there are going to be a lot of changes to Wikispaces. They are adding the “extras” that teachers use the most. This means the sites will be even more teacher friendly. And they are now allowing college professors apply for free wikis that use to only be available for K-12 educators. (Or as the Tech Chicks pointed out, now these professors won’t have to lie or their application!)
The girls mentioned a cool alternative to Google Docs, Type With Me. It is the same concept—share the document and every can edit at the same time—but it doesn’t require a user name or password, like Google Docs does. It even has a “time slider” that allows viewers to see all the changes made to the document. You slide a bar and it shows all the edits and changes.
A neat resource made directly for teachers is an interactive Bloom’s Taxonomy Chart. It has each level, and in the level, it has different resources that support that level of learning. It’s a good place to go to when you need your class do move to more advanced assignments.
The other resource I thought was neat, especially as a future English teacher, was Weboworm. This site uses visuals and words to help students understand vocab words. They draw a picture and use the word in a sentence. At the bottom of the image, they give the definition, and below this they provide some history and the correct usage. These aren’t pithy little words; they could legitimately be used as high school vocabulary.
This episode of the Tech Chick Tips was short and sweet. They hit on several good resources to use in the classroom. They mentioned there are going to be a lot of changes to Wikispaces. They are adding the “extras” that teachers use the most. This means the sites will be even more teacher friendly. And they are now allowing college professors apply for free wikis that use to only be available for K-12 educators. (Or as the Tech Chicks pointed out, now these professors won’t have to lie or their application!)
The girls mentioned a cool alternative to Google Docs, Type With Me. It is the same concept—share the document and every can edit at the same time—but it doesn’t require a user name or password, like Google Docs does. It even has a “time slider” that allows viewers to see all the changes made to the document. You slide a bar and it shows all the edits and changes.
A neat resource made directly for teachers is an interactive Bloom’s Taxonomy Chart. It has each level, and in the level, it has different resources that support that level of learning. It’s a good place to go to when you need your class do move to more advanced assignments.
The other resource I thought was neat, especially as a future English teacher, was Weboworm. This site uses visuals and words to help students understand vocab words. They draw a picture and use the word in a sentence. At the bottom of the image, they give the definition, and below this they provide some history and the correct usage. These aren’t pithy little words; they could legitimately be used as high school vocabulary.
3.08.2011
Classroom 2.0 Reflection
I was a bit unsure about having to manage another social media site, but this one seems like a good combination of worthwhile information. The parts I liked best were the discussion features, the groups and the shows/podcasts. I really like discussion forums because they allows for far more in depth questions and responses. On the site, someone could pose a question and anyone could respond or ask related questions. It is a place to ask very specific questions or pose theoretical idea and garner reactions. People ask anything from how to use a specific technology to what are good ways to reward effort for Kindergarteners. I learned a lot during my general search—including how more and more teachers were having students make movie trailers for novels (which I did and enjoyed during high school). The teachers gave examples of good ones and had recommendations about facilitating the endeavor.
When I explored the groups aspect of the website, I realized this was a great way to find specific discussions, instead of filtering through over 700 pages. This option lets you join a very specific group for a topic and ask questions. For example, there is a group for beginning Classroom 2.0 users. People ask more “beginner” questions about blogging or how to protect students when they do a lot of online work. I found this very helpful; I found better ways to use this website and learned a few things to mention during this blog!
The last aspect, that I am glad I finally found, is the podcast/show portion. I had looked before to do podcast reflections over them but was unsuccessful. It linked to their own podcasts and those of related sites, like The Future of Education and their archives of podcasts. As you can tell from my other entries, these podcasts are excellent ways to learn about new technology (I often multitask and clean my room, so they are doubly productive. I think it is very interesting that Classroom 2.0 has live shows. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will be able to listen to their shows, but they seem like very productive and helpful ways to get instant access to information and ask questions to the people running the show.
All things considered, I think this website will be useful while I am in school learning, but will be even better once I know what issues I am facing in the classroom and need to seek answers.
When I explored the groups aspect of the website, I realized this was a great way to find specific discussions, instead of filtering through over 700 pages. This option lets you join a very specific group for a topic and ask questions. For example, there is a group for beginning Classroom 2.0 users. People ask more “beginner” questions about blogging or how to protect students when they do a lot of online work. I found this very helpful; I found better ways to use this website and learned a few things to mention during this blog!
The last aspect, that I am glad I finally found, is the podcast/show portion. I had looked before to do podcast reflections over them but was unsuccessful. It linked to their own podcasts and those of related sites, like The Future of Education and their archives of podcasts. As you can tell from my other entries, these podcasts are excellent ways to learn about new technology (I often multitask and clean my room, so they are doubly productive. I think it is very interesting that Classroom 2.0 has live shows. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will be able to listen to their shows, but they seem like very productive and helpful ways to get instant access to information and ask questions to the people running the show.
All things considered, I think this website will be useful while I am in school learning, but will be even better once I know what issues I am facing in the classroom and need to seek answers.
2.27.2011
Podcast Reflection #8
Tech Chick Tips: TVEA 2011 part 1
This podcast talked about a ton of useful resources the Tech Chicks learned about at a conference they attended. They were all really interesting, but not many of them were for Secondary kids or about English. However, I know many people will find them useful. They talked about several Google tools. I thought both were perfect for classrooms. The first is Google Art. It lets you tour many museums across the world. This would be great for schools that have cut their field trip money. It allows you to pretend like you are walking around the museum, instead of simply looking at different pieces of art. The program will then show you related pieces.
I called my sister the moment I heard about Google Body. She is in currently in anatomy and I knew how help this way to view muscular and skeletal systems would be to her, especially because she is considering going into medical fields. Some students are lucky enough to go on a Cadaver Field trip, but even at my very affluent high school, spaces were limited. So if a school can’t send all of their students to study cadavers, this would be perfect. (It’s also great for slightly squeamish students, like me. I can handle digital information, not real bodies!)
I am also very interested in the concept of video conferencing. But I have no idea how to set it up (or how I will use it yet—but that will come when I have a classroom and unit plans) Whirlidurb seems like a great place to start for Middle Level students. This program sets up a videoconference exactly for the students needs in the classroom. This is an excellent resource for experiential learning. Students will engage with the people they conference with and can learn from some one besides the teacher, which is refreshing to both students and teachers. They also help classes find all the resources necessary to do video conferencing. Sometimes, figuring out what you need is the hardest part. The company will schedule your conference and make sure you have everything necessary for the conference to move smoothly.
The most interesting thing they mentioned was Toontastic. It is an iPad application that allows students to make a video that tells a story. It sound so interesting because the emphasis is setting up a story with all the right elements, exposition, climax etc… Students can use their creativity to draw characters and settings (or pick them if they aren’t artistically inclined) and animate them by dragging them across the screen. The app has the student record the story while they are moving the character. This can be a great way to teach students how to build a story and could be used as a way to test if students read a novel—can they summarize the plot in the video? If my school has access to iPads, I would love to use this.
This podcast talked about a ton of useful resources the Tech Chicks learned about at a conference they attended. They were all really interesting, but not many of them were for Secondary kids or about English. However, I know many people will find them useful. They talked about several Google tools. I thought both were perfect for classrooms. The first is Google Art. It lets you tour many museums across the world. This would be great for schools that have cut their field trip money. It allows you to pretend like you are walking around the museum, instead of simply looking at different pieces of art. The program will then show you related pieces.
I called my sister the moment I heard about Google Body. She is in currently in anatomy and I knew how help this way to view muscular and skeletal systems would be to her, especially because she is considering going into medical fields. Some students are lucky enough to go on a Cadaver Field trip, but even at my very affluent high school, spaces were limited. So if a school can’t send all of their students to study cadavers, this would be perfect. (It’s also great for slightly squeamish students, like me. I can handle digital information, not real bodies!)
I am also very interested in the concept of video conferencing. But I have no idea how to set it up (or how I will use it yet—but that will come when I have a classroom and unit plans) Whirlidurb seems like a great place to start for Middle Level students. This program sets up a videoconference exactly for the students needs in the classroom. This is an excellent resource for experiential learning. Students will engage with the people they conference with and can learn from some one besides the teacher, which is refreshing to both students and teachers. They also help classes find all the resources necessary to do video conferencing. Sometimes, figuring out what you need is the hardest part. The company will schedule your conference and make sure you have everything necessary for the conference to move smoothly.
The most interesting thing they mentioned was Toontastic. It is an iPad application that allows students to make a video that tells a story. It sound so interesting because the emphasis is setting up a story with all the right elements, exposition, climax etc… Students can use their creativity to draw characters and settings (or pick them if they aren’t artistically inclined) and animate them by dragging them across the screen. The app has the student record the story while they are moving the character. This can be a great way to teach students how to build a story and could be used as a way to test if students read a novel—can they summarize the plot in the video? If my school has access to iPads, I would love to use this.
2.02.2011
Podcast Reflection #3
Driving Questions: Kimberly Wright 3/29
Several things struck me during this podcast. The first of which was how behind her university was with their knowledge and education about technology. Sure, she has been teaching for 6 years, but I know there were still resources available. It seems like a huge oversight in her education. It is neat that information like this shows how much progress has been made in teaching future teachers to use technology, in such a short amount of time. But the more in depth we get into this class, the more I am astounded with the amount of resources available to use just in classrooms. And it is great that new teachers are learning this, but it isn’t enough. Entire buildings and districts need to learn how much is out there. I don’t imagine that will be easy, because this information needs to be given over a period of time, which takes times and money that isn’t always available. If many websites were explained a once it would be pretty difficult to remember and very overwhelming to technology-shy teachers. Instead hand-on workshops should be done throughout year, covering one or two resources at a time, so educators can master them before learning something new.
I liked Kimberly’s quote: “The way to bridge the testing gap between what administrators and students want is to use technology.” I believe this could be very true. Almost all students are “plugged in” and as educators we can’t expect them to ignore technology during school. It just isn’t feasible. Instead, with technology, we meet students on there level, making them comfortable. If they are confident about using technology and the internet, it will be easier and more fun for them to learn and do their assignments.
I liked Kimberly’s quote: “The way to bridge the testing gap between what administrators and students want is to use technology.” I believe this could be very true. Almost all students are “plugged in” and as educators we can’t expect them to ignore technology during school. It just isn’t feasible. Instead, with technology, we meet students on there level, making them comfortable. If they are confident about using technology and the internet, it will be easier and more fun for them to learn and do their assignments.
Fun With Text
Wordle and Tagxedo are just some of the fun, visually-appealing word collages that appear on my website. Aside from obviously making a website or classroom more fun, there are a variety of ways anyone could use this with their students, especially in English classes. These programs analyze word usage and make more frequently used words more prominent. When critically studying writing, analyzing what words were used and how often is imperative. Students could take a work (a passage from a novel, a poem whatever) and see how often an author used those words and the analyze why.
Students could also use it with their own work. If they wrote a poem they could put it in one of these programs and similarly analyze their word choice. They could also explain why they chose the shape they did (in Tagxedo) and how to applies/relates to their writing. These programs could enhance less interesting papers, poems or projects!
I could also use it with new vocab words. It would be easy to highlight which words are going to super important down to slightly important. It could help students focus their studies and know what words to cram last minutes. I could also use it as quick way to convey the main characters, setting, themes, motifs etc... of novels we are reading in class. Students could use this as a quick refresher, or they could make their own. Highlighting what aspects of the book they find the most important or interesting.
Students could also use it with their own work. If they wrote a poem they could put it in one of these programs and similarly analyze their word choice. They could also explain why they chose the shape they did (in Tagxedo) and how to applies/relates to their writing. These programs could enhance less interesting papers, poems or projects!
I could also use it with new vocab words. It would be easy to highlight which words are going to super important down to slightly important. It could help students focus their studies and know what words to cram last minutes. I could also use it as quick way to convey the main characters, setting, themes, motifs etc... of novels we are reading in class. Students could use this as a quick refresher, or they could make their own. Highlighting what aspects of the book they find the most important or interesting.
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