Digital Blog #D - Chapter 5

Digital Blog #D - Chapter 5

In Tech Tool 5.1 section: “Search Engines and How They Work” the author explains how search engines, like google, can move with lightning speed, sifting through millions of webpages to locate a topical website, and deliver tens of thousands of results in a blink of an eye.  It can be very frustrating analyzing lots of web pages to find the information one is looking for.  The author suggests that search engines, such as  Internet Public Library www.ipl.org, the Voice of the Shuttle http://vos.ucsb.edu, the Technorati http://technorati.com, and the Encyclopedia of Educational Technology http://eet.sdsu.edu/eetwiki/index.php/Main_Page, just to name a few,  are more beneficial for teachers and students to search for academic topics, educational standards, and learning materials. What a wonderful idea.  Imagine how many hours can be saved, by simply using the proposed search engines.  

Child Focus 'E-safety'

The second subject of interest from this chapter, is ensuring safe online experiences for students.  Teachers can pre-select websites for their students.   There are several companies that offer software packages to restrict where children can go on line.  One of such company is Razzul from Kid Innovations that was designed for families with 3 to 12 years old children.  Then there is Nanny and netTracker software programs that monitor, block and report data-related sites that are visited by students.   This is incredible.  It is a comfortable feeling to know that your children are actually safe surfing the net.  

Smart Online Search Tips for Kids

The third subject that caught my attention is teaching students how to recognize the URL that indicate the purpose and goal of the site.  For example, a URL with a “.com” indicates that the site has commercial purposes, whereas a URL with .org is used for nonprofit organization.   Knowing this makes it easier for a student to go directly to the site with a URL of .K12, without wasting time searching for information on google.

As a foreigner, I can say that America is a respectful country when it comes to doing things correctly.  Whatever Americans get involved with, they tend to go all out to be correct.  Education is moving into cyber space, and smart people are busy creating tools that can make searches more, efficient, and safe for our younger digital citizens.   I have been using computers for a long time, yet I am just becoming aware of this advanced thinking.

  

Reference

Common Sense Media (2013, November 11). Smart online search tips for kids Retrieved from https://youtu.be/pqGlhNDx7_k

Creative Conspiracy (CC) (2012, May 16). Child focus “e-safety” Retrieved from https://youtu.be/d5kW4pI_VQw

Maloy, R., O’Laughlin, R., Edwards., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2^nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

 

Digital Blog Post #B – Chapter 2

Digital Blog Post #B – Chapter 2

In Methods for Teaching with Technology, the author shows two distinct teaching philosophies.  “Teacher-centered” also known as, “teaching as telling,” the teacher presents and explains academic information to the students; the teacher uses scores from the tests to determine who has learned and who has not.  Student-centered, teaching is also known as constructivism, i.e., encouraging students to develop their own knowledge by discovering ideas and concepts themselves. According to this concept, students learn more deeply and retain information longer when they have a say in the teaching process.  Most middle school and elementary grade teachers, report that their personal thinking falls in between this two philosophies (Maloy, et al, 2013, p.35). “Plato believed that children would never learn unless they wanted to learn. In The Republic, he said, " ... compulsory learning never sticks in the mind." (Education reform, n.d.).    

Moving forward; National Educational Technology Standards, (NETS), is for teachers and students, a broad vision of schooling that features technology-supported learning environments for every student.  NET’s core believe is that technology broadens the scope of the learning experiences.  The role of schools is to teach academic content; promote innovative and creative thinking; and prepare students for citizenship in a digital world.  The goal of NETS is to decrease the density of Teacher-centered learning and increase the concentration of Technology-based learning classrooms.  “Students learn through participation in project-based learning where they make connections between different ideas and areas of knowledge facilitated by the teacher through coaching rather than using lectures or step-by-step guidance. Further, constructionism holds that learning can happen most effectively when people are active in making tangible objects in the real world. In this sense, constructionism is connected with experiential learning and builds on Jean Piaget's epistemological theory of constructivism.” (Constructionism, n.d.)

In the section of, Your Teaching Philosophy, I learned that younger people who were born after 1980 grew up using interactive computers and wireless technology.  This class of young people are digital natives. Digital Immigrants are the teachers who are still learning how to interact with computer technology.   Digital native students, are moving away from traditional school-based literacies of book reading and writing on paper.  It is intuitively obvious that the digital immigrant teachers must think about how to change their teaching methods to accommodate their digital native students. 

In conclusion traditional classrooms have to make way for technology-based classrooms.  NET mandates technology in the classroom.  Students simply learn better using technology.  Teachers have no other choice.  They must learn how to use technology to facilitate 21^st Century students.  If traditional teachers resist the 21^st Century way of teaching; students will move to self-directed learning known as autodidactic. “Autodidactism is a contemplative, absorbing process, of "learning on your own" or "by yourself", or as a self-teacher. Some autodidacts spend a great deal of time reviewing the resources of libraries and educational websites. One may become an autodidact at nearly any point in one's life. While some may have been informed in a conventional manner in a particular field, they may choose to inform themselves in other, often unrelated areas. Notable autodidacts include Abraham Lincoln (U.S. president), Srinivasa Ramanujan (mathematician), Michael Faraday (chemist and physicist), Charles Darwin (naturalist), Thomas Alva Edison (inventor), Tadao Ando (architect), George Bernard Shaw (playwright), Frank Zappa (composer, recording engineer, film director), and Leonardo da Vinci (engineer, scientist, mathematician).” (Education, n.d.)

  

By aspecte.gr
[Public domain]

Reference

Constructionism (learning theory) (2016). . In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructionism_(learning_theory)

Education (2016).. In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education

Education reform (2016).. In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_reform

Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA:Pearson Education Inc.

Record. M. (September 11) Class. Created with Toondoo. http://www.toondoo.com/cartoon/10397112

TEDx Talks (2013, March 6). The future of education: Sajan George at TEDxUNC Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah-SmLEMgis

My EME 2040 blog

My Digital Blog Post # A - Chapter 1

I am impressed with the Technology-Based Teaching Tool; Using the computer, tablets, and laptops, teachers can reach out to students over a wide range of learning styles.  Students can work in groups using laptops or tablets, and others can work, with the teachers in learning groups.  Teachers can use “intelligent tutoring systems," “speech-to-text”, “text-to speech” software, and “handwriting recognition programs.  There is a wide variety of digital technology on the market that that can assist students in their learning process to succeed.  Students have choices as to which tools best help them to understand the subjects.  This technology rich-teaching method is an attractive way of teaching; it is fun, engaging and creative.  As a Montessori teacher, I will reserve the above technology based teaching method for elementary schools. Neurological research confirms Montessori's observation that different developmental issues are primary at different ages.  In preschool children's, sensory and motor skills, and the neural regions most related to them, are paramount.  If the above research is true, then, using computers and other digital technologies during the first six years while children are in the formative period, in my opinion; can be harmful to a child's natural development.  In the first six years, children need to learn their way, naturally into the new real world.  They need to learn about their bodies, their communities and nature; and they need hands-on experience, at the time their brains are absorbing and adjusting as to how the natural world works.  I think that computing and cyberspace method can confuse children's ability to separate real from animation.  

I enjoy the idea of using Technology-Based Textbooks in a primary classroom.  The teacher can find a large variety of reading materials on the internet, for every subject on the curriculum.    Teachers can use simulations, visualizations, stories, poems, audio, video and math manipulative software to reach access a large variety of different learning styles and keep the students interested in learning.  Again, this is great for elementary students, in my opinion, but not for primary students.  Mark Powell a Montessori elementary teacher has all kinds of fun projects for elementary students, using technology, which I would introduce to my class, if I was an elementary teacher.  Check out his blog “Technology and Montessori". 

Lastly, the Technology-Based Learning Environment, according to the text book, has many of benefits, such as serving as an extension of the classroom; in that students can effectively use technology to do their homework. They can use online tutors, discussion boards and blogs that follow the classroom discussions.  That is all great if children budget their time to do homework, and leave time to socialize with each other.  I feel sad when I see children or even adults having their meals in restaurants or hanging out together in public places, and not talking to each other.  It seems that the iPad, or iPhone gets all the attention.  The technology age is a good thing and a bad thing at the same time, because people are tending to not socialize enough to stay grounded.  

     The 21st Century teaching method can be very effective, because it uses a variety of technologies to illustrate the information.  Students become much more engaged in the subjects at hands; furthermore, they are in control of how they assimilate the information.  The technology based teaching style, also encourages creativity, collaboration and critical thinking skills, which, is a plus in today's world.

Tablet in the classroom

Resources

Malandra, Cortneylyn Steffens. "Tablets in the Classroom." YouTube.  YouTube, 17 Oct. 2013. Web. 03 Sept. 2016.

Powell, Mark. "Technology and Montessori." RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Sept. 

2016.

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Tablets in the Classroom

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