A Few Recaps That I've Neglected

So, it occurred to me that I've been forgetting to update my blog with class recaps. Let's make up for some lost time.

November 14th: after being absent for two class meetings, I returned to discover that everyone else had begun the podcast project. After talking to Mrs. Enlow about what I had missed, I joined the group of Bridgette, John (I think he goes by Jack?), and Yuran. The project they had started on was on Philadelphia cheesesteaks - a personal favorite of mine. While I helped mostly with picture scavenging, I also contributed my voice to the sound portion of the assignment. We didn't get a chance to finish the project in class, so we're going to meet on Saturday to finish it on-campus.

November 21st: unfortunately, I arrived to class rather late due to my step-dad being in the hospital. Before anyone panics, he's fine; he was having a procedure to remove scar tissue that had formed after they placed a defibrillator-pacemaker in his heart several months ago. Of course, I told him I'd hang out with him until the operation was finished; the procedure ending up taking all day. Ordinarily, I don't think he would have minded if I left before he returned to his room, but he (and I guess me to a far lesser extent) was aggravated from the contradictory statements the nurses kept giving us ("It's a really short procedure," "it shouldn't only be another hour," etc.). What made this even worse was the fact that my group and I couldn't work on our project on Saturday when we had planned, due to not having access to a computer with the correct version of Apple's GarageBand. So, not only did I miss finishing the assignment with my group, but I also missed the majority of a presentation on adaptive technology. I was, however, in attendance for the explanation of our final project: a lesson plan using instructional technology. I already have to create a lesson plan for another education class of mine, so I should be able to a decent portion of the work for both simultaneously. In addition to the adaptive technology and final project explanations, a few students also presented their Web 2.0 PowerPoints.

November 28th: today's class was mostly dedicated to presentations, but with the podcasts we worked on previously interspersed throughout the class. I was really happy to listen to my group's podcast - they did a fantastic job! I say "they," because I feel like I let them down a bit by joining the group late and was unable to join them in finalizing the project. On the other hand, Bridgette did assure me that the remaining work on the project didn't take very long, and I did try to finish the project that one Saturday before Thanksgiving. Perhaps I'm being too hard on myself. At any rate, I suppose I should discuss a few of the Web 2.0 presentations that I saw today. Let's see - I liked Wordle, presented by Lindsey. It's a Web site that allows a user to input text and have it transformed into a "word cloud." It seems like a fun tool to mess around with, but I don't really see it's practicality in the classroom. Andrew did Facebook, which I thought was an odd choice, simply because I never really thought of a Facebook, a social media Web site, as relevant to a classroom setting (unless you count using school computers to check your Facebook profile). While I wouldn't use it as a technological tool in my own classroom, I must admit that it can be invaluable to a teacher, provided they use the site correctly. Lastly, there was Engrade, presented by Yuran. It was difficult to understand what Yuran was saying in her presentation (I assume she speaks English as her second language), but because I got to know her a little while we worked on the podcast, I decided to look up Engrade on my own. Apparently, it's an online grade book that comes complete with Wiki pages, online quiz capabilities, flashcards, and so on and so forth. Being that it's a Web site specifically designed for a teacher to use, I can see the pertinence of it's classroom applications. The only addendum that I would make for Engrade would be to make sure everything placed on the Web site is backed up in a few different places, as technology has a habit of not working sometimes.

The Last Two Classes

Well, I have had nothing to report about for class, simply because I missed class two weeks ago, and there isn't any class tonight. I did take the quiz in lieu of class tonight. That was pretty exciting. Anyway, happy Halloween. If you need me, I'll be at a show dressed as "hipster Batman." Shazaam!

A Class Recap for October 17th

This past Monday's class was split between two distinct, yet equally important portions. The first portion was an introduction to our desktop publishing assignment. We will be creating a newsletter as if it were the first day of a new school year in our fictitious classrooms. I think this project will be fun, as well as educational; clear, concise communication among administration, teachers, students, and parents is fundamental for students' achievement, and a newsletter is a great way to do that. We also

The second portion of class was dedicated to Web 2.0 presentations. Kathleen presented "Zoho Challenge," which is an online quiz maker. I actually wanted to present this Web 2.0 myself due to its wide array of applications. However, I thought Kathleen did a great job presenting it, and I found that I was even more eager to use this Web 2.0 program/application in my own future classroom. Next, "Flickr," an online photo album, was presented by Vicky. I've used Flickr before, but wasn't very impressed by it initially; nevertheless, Vicky's presentation made a little more interested in it. While I find its usage inside the classroom sparse, it's probably fun to mess around with outside of the classroom. Lastly, Peter presented his chosen Web 2.0 application, "WikiSpaces." Of the three presentations Monday, I think this Web 2.0 application is probably the most versatile. Basically, a teacher for any subject can create a WikiSpace for their classroom, using it to keep students up to date on assignments, projects, and other goings-on in the classroom - a mini Web site, really. Being a Secondary English Education major, I think I could use WikiSpaces in a multitude of ways to keep my students not only informed, but possibly interested in the material by posting links to videos and pictures that would extend the lessons from the classroom.

Class Recap for October 10th

Okay, so class was a little different this night, in that we didn't do much in the way with Google Docs, and did more interactive and hands-on learning. The first piece of business was discussing our PowerPoint/Web 2.0 assignments. I chose Spelling City, because I'm going to be a high school English teacher, and I feel that expanding one's vocabulary is important for moving on to college. My thinking is that I won't use Spelling City for anything more than additional, light homework assignments. So, in my fictional classroom, I would have the curriculum-based assignments, such as reading chapters in a specific novel or writing papers, but also reviewing a different list or set of words each week. Based on my preliminary usage of Spelling City, I think it would be easy for a student to mess around with a few of the games using the words I provide without overwhelming them with work. I'll have to play around with Spelling City some more to get a better scope on how I could implement it in a classroom setting.

Speaking of PowerPoint, one of the other things we did was actually use what we had learned about PowerPoint thus far to present some of the guidelines in the ISTE/NETS-T Website(s). I thought this was good practice for using the newer version of PowerPoint; I haven't used PowerPoint in some time. As with all the other programs in the Office Suite, Microsoft totally changed the interface, so it's a little frustrating to use upon first examination - especially when one is used to using the older versions of these programs. As for the assignment itself, I liked working with others in the classroom, although I felt like only me and two others really participated. At any rate, it was a nice break from just reading Web sites on curricula, education standards, and the like and simply regurgitating what we read in a Google Doc. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy the discussions we have, but I can also appreciate the variety of approaches we can take to learn the course material.

More Spreadsheets? Must Have Been September 26th's Class

On Monday's, September 26th's class, we did more work with our grade book/spreadsheet assignments. Because I attended a technical high school for information technology, I already understood how to do most of the assignment; this made the class time quite enjoyable for me. I was able to begin work on  the actual assignment, rather than practice all of the techniques. Additionally, I was able to help a fellow classmate who was absent the previous week. This was pretty much all this class consisted of.

I Hope I Can Make "Fair Use" of Monday's Class...

Thanks, everybody. I'll be here all week. Try the veal.

Seriously though, in Monday, September 19th's, we discussed copyright and fair use laws. While I did know a little about copyright laws, I had no real handle on what "fair use" was. After the class discussed fair use laws for a lengthy period of time, I feel as though I have my own, working definition on fair use laws: "Laws for idiots." While this may sound harsh, the class discussion focused mainly on what and what is not fair use - and most of what is not fair use seems pretty reasonable. For example, I used an example in class of a Ninth Circuit court's decision to uphold a ruling that didn't allow a publishing company to publish a book that "parodied" the beloved children's book The Cat in the Hat, but poked fun of the O.J. Simpson double homicide murder trial. While this may seem incredibly silly - especially considering there is very little correlation between Dr. Seuss and O.J. Simpson - it also appears harmless; this is, in fact, not the case. Apparently, the fair use laws define a "parody" as allowable only if the parody is poking fun at the original work or author. As stated above, there is no real connection between Suess and Simpson. This is distinctly what I'm referring to when I saw fair use laws are "laws for idiots;" who would want to use The Cat in the Hat to make fun of O.J. Simpson? Even if one did feel that it made sense (which, obviously, to me it does not), what defense could you even use for your case? For that matter, what case could you make that your book should legally be published? Clearly, a book that has nothing to do with the author or original work, but uses the author's/work's iconic make-up (in this case, the widely known writing style of Dr. Seuss) can't be justified to be printed for a profit. I'm not saying that someone couldn't take a popular song or poem and reconstruct to make fun of a friend, but to openly sell it for profit seems pretty brainless.

All that aside, we did begin to discuss Microsoft Excel in regards to creating our grade books. I feel pretty at home with Excel; I was actually taught fundamental concepts of Excel when I was in 8th grade math. From there, I went to a technical high school for Computer Information Technology, which, in addition to computer networking and programming, did involve learning a fair amount of the Microsoft Office suite. I'm actually kind of excited to do this project.

Oh! One final note: the class went on bit of a tangent about educating. This was incredible; anytime I can listen to a teacher discuss teaching and how they approach it, I'm appreciative.

Recap of Monday, September 12th's Class

Okay, so to briefly recap what happened in class, we discussed the different skills required to function properly in the 21st century classroom, in addition to watching a couple of videos on YouTube and Google pertaining to the characteristics of the modern student; fundamentally, we explored the modern student as both a student and a person.

In terms of the 21st century skill sets, I personally believe that the most important is developing interpersonal communication. Sure, we live in a technology dominated world, and, of course, that means it is essential to have technology-related skills for scholastic purposes, such as effectively researching information for a project using the Internet, using word processing programs, etc. I don't think there's any way to logically deny this; however, I think the younger, future generations can easily become absorbed by this. As I pointed out in class, for example, I found that my 18-year old brother and his friends don't engage in conflict the way that me and friends do. When I'm angry at a friend, I would typically do it face-to-face with him or her, because I am probably feeling very strongly about whatever the issue is, and the best way to get that across is by demonstrating it to him or her with inflection and emotion in my voice. This doesn't seem to hold true with my brother's generation; they seem to prefer text message arguments - or email arguments, if it's bad enough. Of course, I would agree that there are a number of ways to display emotion (in this case, anger) through the written word, but can you ever truly replace the tone of someone's voice? Or, better yet, there gestures, actions, and body language? And this is just one example of interpersonal skills that seems to get lost; there are, of course, a slew of other situations where text messages or email don't seem to bring with them the same  force of a live, personal conversation. Many years ago, it was believed that the "village" (the neighborhood in which someone lived) would raise the "village" children. This does not seem to hold true anymore; people believe in keeping personal and family matters confined to their household. I don't necessarily believe this to be such a bad thing, but I do believe that this modern mentality, in conjunction with the exponential growth of social technology and social media (Facebook, Myspace, etc.) that American culture is losing focus on people interacting with people. As such, I believe there needs to be a great deal of focus on maintaining such skills through the classroom.

The "student of today" also needs a great deal of focus from educators. According to statistics in the videos, many students appear to be overworked, under-appreciated, unsure of his or herself, and being trained/educated for jobs that either don't exist or they eventually don't want. If we want to have a conversation about the skills required in the 21st century, then we need to discuss the people that are going to be taught - i.e. the students. "Overhauling" the education system in this country may be too much; rather, there needs to be a refocusing. By that, I think we need to focus the attention on the student instead of anything else. Think about this: at one time (I'm not sure if this is still true or not), the No Child Left Behind Act said that the schools that performed the best on the standardized tests - standards, mind you, that are set by our governments, both state and federal - would receive more federal funding than schools that did not. Pardon the language, but how ass-backwards is that? So, the schools who have the most need don't get it? My point here is that our culture, with all its high points, is ready and able to reduce everything to a "numbers game." That may work with some things, but let's not forget - education deals with educating people, and last time I checked, no two people are exactly the same; the current system may work for some, but it most certainly won't work for all. In order to better prepare the "student of today," let's refocus the system on them. Obviously, we won't be able to make an education system that will be flawless, but we can make one that works - well, better.

Response to "Characteristics of the 21st Century Classroom"

Well, clearly, there are many differences between the 20th century classroom and the 21st century classroom. Chiefly, the 21st century classroom, in order to be effective, involves a torrent of ever-evolving methods of teaching. This includes, for example, the implementation of modern technology and collaborative projects among the students; both of these examples provide a so-called "student-centered" classroom. This 21st century pedagogy is a stark contrast to the 20th century classroom, which stressed the teacher-centered classroom. Additionally, the 21st century and the student-centered classroom is focused on the students' own, innate desire to learn. By using different techniques, such as hands-on learning activities (for instance, science labs) and the cooperation of teachers to use interdisciplinary methods of instruction (for instance, English teachers issuing book reports on novels historical settings and other social studies-themed material), teachers can call upon each individual students natural passion to learn, so that each student may learn how he or she is most comfortable. Again, these new methods of instruction differ from the 20th century teaching methods, in that the teaching methods of last century promoted one teacher lecturing and (possibly) pressing one specific teaching method. Furthermore, the usage of these new methods in the classroom allow students to grip information with different cognitive faculties, allowing for a more comfortable learning experience for each student; it stands to reason that a student who is more comfortable with the material presented to him or her will learn the material better and have a better understanding of it. Through the usage of these new, innovative teaching methods, one can see just how obsolete the methods of last century are.

My First Blog. Hooray!

The title of my blog is a reference to Bruce Springsteen's first album. I really like Bruce Springsteen.