ericwalker

How are Web 2.0 tools impacting how I think about teaching?

I am now looking at technology and see it as an asset. It can save classroom time and make the students more productive. I will be using blogs in my classes.  I will most likely start with one class and expand it as I get more comfortable with this format. I really need to play with all these new ideas. I need to explore the web and find the best out there for my math classes. I will be using the links set up in the class as a guide to begin my search. I am excited at the possiblities that have been open to me.

What worked

This course was effective in showing me a whole new world out there in cyber-space. It made me feel that I am totally unprepared for what is out there. This course did exposed me to many different avenues to help change and enhance my teaching. I am excited by the possibilities the I have been exposed to. I also see these methods as to saving class time and giving the students another opportuniy to get help through the internet. I did enjoy our class discussions it was good to get perspectives from the all aspects of public education.

What didn’t work

I have felt over-whelmed and lost at times this week. It would be helpful to more time to process what we’re doing. I was struck that some of my classmates had done most of this before and how many technology people were in the class. I had trouble remembering what we were doing and where things were as we moved from screen to screen through the web.

Suggestions for this course in the future

What I was hoping for when I came in the class was learning the Ilife Suite. We did spend some time on that but it was very fast. More time on this would be good. It would be helpful to know who the people in the class were. We comment on people’s blogs and they on ours and have a hard time placing who is who.

Teaching with Blogs

I see this as a resource to help me as I learn more about blogging. I like this site as it had blogs from all levels and had alot blogs for math classes.

a difference

This website is by a high school mathematics teacher and deals with the evolution of his blog and his teaching. I think I will benefit from his experiences . I can also look at his students’ blogs. I also notice he had a puzzle section which I could possible use in my class project.

Absolutely Del.icio.us Tools Collection

I linked to this because I am hopeful at some time to develop a del.icio.us account for our math department and see it as a resource for all the teachers and students as well.

This abstract makes me want to put Mr. Friedman’s on my must read list. This class had made me realize that the world is getting smaller. With the current technology, how often do we find ourselves talking to someone thousands of miles away as to how to turn on your computer. I had heard of Friedman due to Imus in the Morning show and thought of him as an expert on the Middle East. I did not know that he was an expert on international business. I am intrigued to read his book.

Harold Varmus seems like an extraoridinary individual. His crusade seems to be reasonable. He has seen the issue that plagues post seconday education. Universities have become a cash cow. I look to the future and am scared for my children. Spending $40,000 a year for an education is daunting. I read that the ivory league schools no longer touch their endowments and tuition rises. I hope that Mr. Varmus is successful for the betterment of mankind.

Project Idea

The idea for my project is to create a blog page to deal with the world of mathematics outside the classroom. I see this blog being a blog where the student would come and read about various topics dealing with mathematics. Some ideas would be articles about famous mathematicians and their work and importance, new discoveries in mathematics, creative problems that require thinking outside the box, or readings that could help them develop into critical – thinkers. The students would be require to comment on readings or solve the problems being presented.

Need for change addressed by this project (Why are you undertaking this project? For example, is it an old project that you want to do in a new way?)

I am actually combining a few different things that I have done in the past. I use to do a history of math project with my students where they did a biographical presentation on a famous mathematicians. I also bring articles to them to read and comment. I feel this change will free up class time and expose my students to more history and developing mathematics in this day and age. I see this as an enrichment tool for my classrooom.

Expected outcomes (What will it look like if your project is successful?)

I see a blog page with articles to read and comment on with links to help sites and other sites of interest.

Activities correlated with objectives (How will you undertake this project?)

Things I need to do:

• Set up a new blog page (done)
• Search the internet to find relevent material.
• Figure out how to post this material on my blog
• Decide what ways to have the students comment on what they have done with the blog entries
• Design a rubric to evaluate the student responses.
• Determine if the schools network will allow students to access my blog page.
• Decide how many classes to do this with and how many blog pages I need. ( Question: Can I use the same blog page but have separate response areas for each class?)

Timeline for implementation (When will you accomplish each piece of your project?)

I see this blog page being used as a weekly journal for kids responses. I would like to be able to start using this in my classes in the fall and use it the entire year.

Measures of accomplishment (If your project is successful, how will you know?)

My goal for this blog is for the student to learn about mathematics, to realize that the is a whole world of mathematics out there that we won’t explore, to show that there are careers out there for mathematicians, and to show how mathematics is used outside the classroom.

The first thing I think after reading this article is has this guy ever been in a high school. There are many things he does not understand about high school. Teachers need to have empathy before content. Has he heard about being highly qualified? Cell phones used for cheating. Let them use the book. What if a student takes a picture of a math test and sends it to a friend who has the test later in the day or the next day. The students now have a copy of the test and go on line to a help site and get the answers. How does this measure a students ability on those particular skill? I think that the author is an Idealist and puts too much faith in that the student will work to his full potential. He wants individualized learning for the students, but this does not take into account the new restrictions of NCLB or the Maine Learning Results. With the these restrictions content is key, we as educators are expected to be sure that all our students meet standards in many areas. Students in this day and age have trouble focusing so I can see his point in gaming as a learning tool. Students also need to be able to slow down and think through a difficult problem and be a 60 minute kid not a 7 second kid. I see this inability to slow down and process a a reason why America is running short of scientists to do developement and research.

As each day passes, I see more and more possibilities for the classroom. I do a history of math projects with my kids. Each student was assigned a mathematician and would do a biography of their assigned person. I could see this morphing into a blog where the student would go and read an abstract on a mathematician and answer questions about them. Or they could be shown a  problem done in an ancient way and have them explain how the solution works.  This would allow me to share interesting facts about the history of math and also  expose all the students to a variety of  mathematicians rather than just the one they were assigned.

Wow. What an appropriate title for this generation. Generation M is certainly plugged in. I was struck by the idea of multi-tasking with media. I see with my own child instant messaging, doing home work, listening to Itunes, and on the internet doing research. I think back to my high school days and realize that my generation ( I am 41.) also multi-tasked. I listen to music doing homework, talked on the phone, and watched tv as well. We just weren’t able to do all of that on the computer.

The new technology is so powerful. It does so much for you. It can be misleading as to the user what knowledge one has or whether it is just a process of hitting the correct buttons to make things happen. I know in my math classes that some of my students can use graphing calculators and hit the right buttons and can get the graphs, but really have a hard time taking the technology and applying it to the data used to create the graph or make conclusions from the graph.

As I relooked at this article, I was struck by the number of media outlets availiable to today’s students. I was surprised at the average hours a day used for gaming. I was sure that it would be higher due to the stories I hear from my students and the amount of time the say they are gaming. I was not surprised that boys were gaming alot more than girls. I also was wondering why the minorities seem to spend more time with media. I have to ask the question is this because the actually do or was it because their was a higher concentration of minorities in the study.

What an interesting article. The first statement that caught my eye or mind was ” We want our students to acquire knowledge and exercise reasoned judgement. They must be able to examine logical relationships among statements of data, construct arguments, respect diverse perspectives, view phenomena from different point of view, and have the flexibility to recast their thinking when reason leads them to do so”. This is the essence of education. We as teachers are responsible for helping the student to have the confidence and courage to think. This article was right on about developing critical – thinking skills. That is the key. It scares me to think that many of todays young Americans watch the daily show and consider that as their only news source. The article talks about teachers monitoring online disscussion groups. I wonder when this will happpen. Does the teacher have the class logon during class and everyone types in the same room? Seems kind of silly if that is the case. Are the students required to logon after school and then the teacher is required in a sense to teach another class outside the workday? What if the student does not have access to a computer? Online Disussion monitored by a teacher seems like a good idea but is impractical. The skills that were deemed as necessary in this article should be taught in the classroom. I did like the questions that were listed. They were helpful to me as an educator and would be helpful to the student as well. Public Speaking, debating and common courtesy are essential skills that are needed and can be fostered by classroom discussions. I like what the article was saying, but I believe it is impractical for the arena of public education.