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Sunday, January 30, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Week 2 Reflection
Initially, I was shocked at how easy it was to set up a blog. I’ve read blogs before but couldn’t believe that it took literally minutes to set one up for myself. I use a number of Google efficiency tools, but I had not had experience with Google Reader. I logged into that component of Google to find I had somehow already subscribed to several blogs that I regularly follow. What a great surprise that this tool is available to put all of the news feeds and interesting blogs that I enjoy reading in one place.
Honestly, at my level, I feel that both blogs and RSS feeds lend themselves best to the demonstrations band of Dale’s Cone of Experience. As a teacher of such young children, I must show students how these tools can be used in the classroom, provide step-by-step instructions in using these tools, and always clarify any misconceptions or generalizations that the students present. Dale points out that in order for a demonstration to be effective, students need to be “creatively” and “imaginatively” engaged. By accessing blogs with content personalized for the students, with content directly related to our classroom activities, I can provide the foundation for students to be engaged in the way that Dale suggests.
Thinking about Postman’s perspective, I’ve considered what type of problem I have in my classroom and how a blog could be a solution. One problem that I have at the second grade level is matching students with age-appropriate websites and their struggles with typing in those websites correctly. I would love to set up a blog for small groups of students, or individual students, as needed. Students could name their blog, which would give them the ability to spell the web address correctly, and I could customize the blogs to meet the needs of each group of learners. The blogs would be filled with web quests based on our current curriculum, age-appropriate Scenarios, and would be differentiated to meet students’ interest and ability needs. In regards to the RSS feeds, I see another problem that the feeds could be a solution for. Every year in March, my second graders and I follow Alaska’s Iditarod dog sled race. Subscribing to a feed would be a way to be constantly updated, quickly and efficiently, to check in on the racers progress. There are a number of blogs that update racers statuses and provide interesting information. We could use Google Reader as a clearinghouse for this data. Students could access this feed with minimal adult assistance and the fact that all of the information would be in one place would allow us to save a substantial amount of time typing in websites and navigating unfamiliar sites (this is very labor-intensive for eight-year-olds). Thus, it would give us more time to dive into the information that we use in our math and social studies lessons. Both of these problems may seem very simple and unsubstantial to some, but at my level these are real concerns that a blog and RSS could help alleviate for my students and I.
Honestly, at my level, I feel that both blogs and RSS feeds lend themselves best to the demonstrations band of Dale’s Cone of Experience. As a teacher of such young children, I must show students how these tools can be used in the classroom, provide step-by-step instructions in using these tools, and always clarify any misconceptions or generalizations that the students present. Dale points out that in order for a demonstration to be effective, students need to be “creatively” and “imaginatively” engaged. By accessing blogs with content personalized for the students, with content directly related to our classroom activities, I can provide the foundation for students to be engaged in the way that Dale suggests.
Thinking about Postman’s perspective, I’ve considered what type of problem I have in my classroom and how a blog could be a solution. One problem that I have at the second grade level is matching students with age-appropriate websites and their struggles with typing in those websites correctly. I would love to set up a blog for small groups of students, or individual students, as needed. Students could name their blog, which would give them the ability to spell the web address correctly, and I could customize the blogs to meet the needs of each group of learners. The blogs would be filled with web quests based on our current curriculum, age-appropriate Scenarios, and would be differentiated to meet students’ interest and ability needs. In regards to the RSS feeds, I see another problem that the feeds could be a solution for. Every year in March, my second graders and I follow Alaska’s Iditarod dog sled race. Subscribing to a feed would be a way to be constantly updated, quickly and efficiently, to check in on the racers progress. There are a number of blogs that update racers statuses and provide interesting information. We could use Google Reader as a clearinghouse for this data. Students could access this feed with minimal adult assistance and the fact that all of the information would be in one place would allow us to save a substantial amount of time typing in websites and navigating unfamiliar sites (this is very labor-intensive for eight-year-olds). Thus, it would give us more time to dive into the information that we use in our math and social studies lessons. Both of these problems may seem very simple and unsubstantial to some, but at my level these are real concerns that a blog and RSS could help alleviate for my students and I.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Week One - Reigeluth/Joseph and Postman Essays
Uncanny. That’s the word that kept running through my mind as I read the Technos Quarterly article, Of Luddites, Learning, and Life. There are three colleagues at my elementary school who share many of the same views as the author, Neil Postman. It was interesting to consider his perspective as I read this article and it challenged me to understand his point of view.
Honestly, I found the entire article rather contradictory. Although the author claims that “they (technology/machines) divert the intelligence and energy of talented people from addressing the issues we need most to confront”, that really isn’t the case at all. The article focuses on the need to teach social values to students. Prior to the “at-our-fingertips” access to technology that we have today, the typical student was given an outdated history textbook with one opinion, a teacher with another opinion, and parents at home with a third opinion. If they were lucky, a typical student was given the luxury of three diverse opinions on a particular topic. Today, however, thanks to the machines that Postman sees as “problematic progress”, students are given access to thousands of opinions. As teachers, it is our job to teach students to sift and sort through this information to find credible sources in which to build our own opinions. Postman refers to this “information glut” and tells us that we’re overwhelmed by the information and just don’t know what to do with it all. On the contrary, because we have become accustomed to filtering through this plethora of information, we can begin to think critically about various opinions, based on the wide array of information that we have access to today. It has become a primary job of teachers to teach students how to think critically about these varying opinions. This practice of thinking critically at an elementary level will give students the skills that they need to succeed later in life. I’m always hearing and reading how today’s employers want employees who can solve problems, work as a team, and think critically. Without the access to technology that we have, I don’t feel that we could prepare students as well as we do.
The authors do agree, however, that learning needs to be differentiated to meet the needs of every learner. Postman claims that “school has never been about individualized learning” while Reigeluth and Joseph contend that “we should hold achievement constant at a mastery level”. Their opinion is that children should be allowed to progress at their own, individualized rates. This really has been the business of elementary schools for the past several years. At my school, we use a workshop approach to teaching reading, writing, word study (spelling), and mathematics. We have no textbooks in our elementary schools as a result of our teaching practices. Students are differentiated based on learning style, interest, and ability. These flexible groups allow students to do what both of the authors see as most important – start where they are, both socially and academically, and move forward from that point. Every child sees success and grades are not only measured against state academic standards but are all measured in growth and effort. Although technology isn’t directly involved in this approach to instruction, this does seem to be the beginning stages of the “learning-focused paradigm” that Reigeluth and Joseph suggest.
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