Week 20

Technology in Education

For me technology is the fast way to find out information to help my students. Technology is also good to supplement my learning in an efficient way. You have right there on the spot good lectures, video, study skill tools, I can generate multiple choice tests, I can see labs in chemistry, any kind of thing that is useful.

When I need something for a student, before building one from scratch I look online to see if someone has already a shareable version. Good examples are math pages, lab pages, open university web pages, quizlet for study skills, and articles related to the subject I am teaching. In the process I am showing the kids how to be more independent and resourceful. For students with auditory learning a student can use a dictation software on their computer. Students can use that as a technological extension of their body. They can learn what they dictated by reviewing. If the are visual learners for math they can use a graphing calculator that allows the student to slide the curve by changing the equation. This allows the student to see more complex functions. 

Even though all of the technology is available to students (and many do plagiarize and that needs to be pointed out to each student if they use the technology incorrectly) teachers in the high schools and some colleges, consider the use of technology such as dictation, recording, smart pens for note taking as a form of cheating and do not allow students to use it in their classrooms. This is counter productive when these are excellent tools for a student to reach their full potential.  Technology is not a curse but a gift especially for children with learning differences by enhancing their learning through the technological tool. This is considered assistive technology. 

Teachers should have as part of their training, a class about how technology can benefit the students learning experience. 

This is a page by LD online with links about assistive technology.

http://www.ldonline.org/indepth/technology 

Video about a high school student's story about using technology to support her dyslexia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epd6Ui0a-gQ

(I could not link this the regular way please click)

A lot of other students I have worked with are denied access to technology to support their learning. Consequently they are unfairly docked points because of their learning disabilities rather than because they did not study or complete an assignment to go to a party.

Week 19

learning Theories:

 behaviorism, constructivism, connectivism- Many components have to be taken into account for learning to happen: student learning style, temperament, age, environment, culture, finantial, knowlege of technology.
Are the learning theories important to learn? Yes, but we have several examples that learning happens without the formal knowledge of those theories. Learning can happen when we provide an active, social engaging and non-threating environment to  learners. Learning should be contextual based. We have several examples of contextually based learning through out the world:

Ex:
In Brazil, children learn to play in a carnival band with out going to a formal school. Learning is passed on from the musician in the communities that live in the favelas (shanty town).
The children also learn how to play Soccer- no shoes, no club. Players find their own soccer field, learn the rules of the game with out this established structure of a club culture. The community gets together and play rounds usually older kids teens or twenty year old watch as little kids play. The older kids take over later at night when the little kids go home. It's a pass down system where untrained teachers teach.

Tribes in Africa, where the learning comes from the elders in a community, it is an important social component.This brings the elders into the community as an important factor. This is a good example of connectivism.
This is a fun video done by a tourist who asked specific questions about tribe and wife coming from other villages and how many wives the men can have. 

 Creation of the Pyramids in Egypt- is another example of people making amazing monuments without computers and calculators and the formal learning western stile. It should be noted Egyptians did have training for boys who learned Hieroglyphs easily. All the people had a specific job within the town they learned their specialization from childhood.  This would be an example of Behaviorism mixed with vocational learning.

But one can say in these same countries their is a high illiteracy rate and poverty, yet that does not mean that people cannot learn.There are many examples of contextual learning that is academic and includes the three R's eventually going beyond the basics.

In the US there are schools implementing blended learning programs where students use there skills such as reading comprehension and writting to study other courses and integrated into the classic English class. For Example at Gunn high school they have blended learningcourses named American studies. They read books and the history research will be based on the era of the book it was written in. This gives background knowledge about what was happening during that time in history. This gives more depth to the topic.

As I was thinking about blended learning and technology I found this well written article from the university of Wisconsin. They incorporate the three learning methods as well as technology.
-Article about different learning theory and online learning Madison University:http://academictech.doit.wisc.edu/blend/design/principles

Drummers and soccer ( by cause and affect foundation)

Week 18 Classroom Management

When I teach an online class I would like to find a LMS that is user friendly and that has the tools necesarry to obtain all the benefits from multy media such as video, forums, articles etc... Currently I would like to use google plus, drop box and Blackboard.

Moodle is another option but does to have some limitations with respect to grading. While it had collaboration as a plus. The most important thing when you use an online software. You first have to understand how to use it and then properly teach a student how to use the program with a cheat sheet. Students should not spend their time trying to navigate the program and should focus on the material. This is similar in a small scale as a graphing calculator where you buy an expensive calculator and then you have spend a lot of time learning how to use it while the course flies by.

Below is a you tube video of a teacher that has been using Moodle in her social studies class. She gives advice on the benefits of using Moodle.

Week 17

Technology is part of our life, young adults and teenagers use technology on a daily basis. The article about Vashi talks about how the technology helped learn about film and allowed him to find his passion. At the same time he is failing his Algebra 2 class. For me, the biggest question is Vashi in the right environment for his learning stile? He should be in a school where their would have more of an interdisciplinary approach, where he can incorporate his passions into making movies such as script writing for English and geometry for visual space in the movie etc.....

The solution is that the parents need to know their child and know their style of learning. Then from there they can pick the right type of environment for the child. It so happens that the redwood city school district has several charter school and more than one  high school to select from. Technology is going to change the rules of education, more students will be able to educate themselves independently. The parental and teacher rules on the use of technology is going to be dependent on the temperament of the child.

My survey is about how to better math courses together with technology so that students can succeed and enjoy math.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8W2B35T