Blog 16- More Feedly Responses

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2016/11/trump_might_want_to_get_rid_of.html

The first article from one of the Educational Technology blogs I follow on Feedly is titled, “Trump Might Want to Scrap the Education Department; How Doable is That?”, by Alyson Klein. The article talks about a statement Trump made, that mentioned the idea of him wanting to do away with the US Department of Education. Some Republicans have been trying to get rid of the department since Reagan was in office. Trump did not offer any details about how he would get rid of the department and the author of the article finds that that may be hard to do. As president, if it is something he wants to do, he may try to eliminate the department or at least try to scale back some of the programs. The article continues to offer suggestions and possibilities that could happen in regards to the Department of Education.

            I think it will be interesting to see if this is a change that Trump will persue or if it is just an empty promise. There are many improvements that can be made to our educational system in America, so I will be looking forward to hearing more about this. There was not very much dialogue about education in this election. It will be interesting to see what kind of changes can be made, if any, and how it will help our education system and children.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/11/11/professional-learning-communities-arent-just-for-teachers.html

            Another article from one of the Educational Technology blogs I follow on Feedly is titled, “Professional Learning Communities Aren’t Just For Teachers”, by Mark Edwards and Mort Sherman. The article is based on the idea that school leaders can benefit just as much as teachers do from professional learning communities. According to the article, teachers can learn new skills, meet new colleagues, grow their classroom practice and find solutions to problems in their teaching through learning communities. School leaders, especially principals and superintendents can feel less isolated and find support from people in their same positions through online communities.

            I think online communities can be beneficial to any person in any profession. Since working in education depends so much on experiences working with people like teacher and parents, administrators can really benefit from online learning communities. Like teachers do, leaders can share experiences and ask for advise and hopefully be given information that is correct and be helpful in a situation that they are having. I am a big supporter of online learning communities.

My LiveBinder Link

Please follow the link to my LiveBinder. I made a simple example of information I would need at the beginning of a school year.

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=2114085

Blog post 14: Final lesson ideas

Blog post 14: Final lesson ideas

For my final project lesson plan, I have begun to think of ideas for my lesson. My final project will follow this outline:

1)   Subject, grade level, and lesson topic. Explain why you want to focus on this lesson;

2)   Learning goals for the lesson;

3)   Your understanding of student interest, prior knowledge, or common misconceptions related to the topic; discuss how your lesson can tap into their interest or address misconceptions;

4)   Two or more Web 2.0 tools that you are going to use. Explain how and why you want to use those tools in the lesson;

5)   A concrete list of activities in your lesson in chronological order;

6)   How student learning will be assessed.

Here is my brainstorming so far:

1. The project will focus on third grade science and the lesson topic will be the planets in our solar system. I would like to focus on this lesson because my third grade students complete two solar system units in the beginning of the school year and I would like them to have a project to reinforce what they have already learned, in which they can work with their classmates in a collaborative, interesting and unique way.

2. My goals for the lesson are for the students to work collaboratively with the online tools, to reinforce what they have already learned about the planets and to use online resources to explore new information about the planets.

4. The two Web 2.0 tools that I am going to use in my lesson are Google Sheets and Prezi. I want the students to use Google Sheets to collect research and organize information that they find about their project. With Prezi, the entire class will collaborate on a presentation about the solar system. The presentation will look like the solar system and when you click on a given planet, the students that researched that planet will be able to put their information there for all to see.

6. Student learning will be assessed through rubrics and peer evaluation forms. They will be held accountable for the final project as well as for how they worked with their group members.

Blog 13: Wiki

Blog 13: Wiki

Using technology cannot always be a smooth problem and I can see many possibilities for issues to arise from the use of wikis. In the given scenario, I found four problems that teachers can experience when using wiki with their students. The problems were: one student will end up doing the majority of the work for the group, there can be tension over ownership and credit for who did the work, students can complete the assignment independently because they are afraid of truly collaborating and revising the work of other students and the last problem in the scenario was that sometime students worry more about how the project looks, rather than focusing effort into the content of the material in the project.

I will now prioritize these problems that I identified from the scenario. The greatest problem in my opinion, is that the students worry about how the project looks more than the the quality of the content in the project. The other problems are almost equally as important: students being afraid to edit each others work, one student taking over and doing all the work and students taking credit for another student’s work.

A general solution that could reduce some of the problems with the project would be to have a really good rubric and a good set of directions and job assignments for all students so they know exactly what would be expected of them. Three solutions for the other problems are as follows. For all students to be held accountable for their additions to their project, I would have a rubric for them to follow so they know how they will be graded and the students will also be required to give a peer grade to their group members how they can voice how each member participated. This could also eliminate or reduce the chance of one of the members taking over the project and doing all of the work. For students to focus more on the content, rather than the presentation of the project, the rubric should focus on the quality of content and not place a big emphasis on the physical look of the project.

Some links that can help Jane to use wikis successfully in the classroom are:

·      https://elearningindustry.com/how-to-use-wiki-in-the-classroom This link is titled “How to Use Wiki in the Classroom. The link shares ideas on how to use wiki, tips on how to use it successfully and why teachers should use wiki with their students.

·      http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/how-to-use-wikipedia-for-academics.shtml This link is a pro and con article about the pros and cons of using Wikipedia with students. It can offer Jane basic information about what the wiki world has to offer her and her students.

·      http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/wikiideas1.cfm This link shares different ideas for using wiki. There are links on the website to different content areas, like math, science, social studies, etc., where you can explore more options and ideas for using wiki.

Wiki is a great tool for teachers and students to be able to collaborate online and share ideas in real time. It is excellent for group work so that all members have access to everything the group has simultaneously.