Archive for March, 2008
11 of 18
I graduated high school in 2003 and I have to say that “power points” were awesome for presentations. They were both visual AND they worked as notes cards. I agree with class that most of the time we would sit up there and read them right off the board…and… we were not graded on content, but…presentation. It was all about who spent more time preparing for the presentations rather than who was able to look away from the power point the most. It was about who came up with the most creative special effects…there were pictures, animations….and when students figured out how to put a “Utube” video on the slide…that was an automatic “A”. I lived by power points…better than writing at 5 page paper! However, now, whenever I hear power points I just want to know one thing…”how many slides”…I want to know this so I can count down! I really don’t like power points and I hope that they fade out the way instant messaging did when it first started. I was all over it like white on rice….talking to 15 different people at once, thinking this was better than a cell phone because there was no hanging up and calling back…now I don’t even sign on…hoping that I never have to again…it’s been 3 years since my last “im”. I love technology and the constant change that goes along with it, but, I feel like when someone new comes along and is really simple to pick up on….teachers grab on to it and beat it to death…like power points…=)
10 of 18
Since I would like to be an English teacher I decided to write my research paper on blogging in the English classroom. I wanted to break everything down for myself and weigh the pros as well as the con’s and see if it something that is worth while and practical for ALL the students.
At first I thought it was a neat idea to continue class outside of the classroom. Being able to send links, ideas, homework, and other notes over posts and give the students materials they missed in class. Even allow the student who stayed home sick to still be apart of the class discussion. I also like that it is an introduction to the new world. No more pens and pencils, lined paper and cursive, just allowing the students to focus on the content…which lead me to a problem. What will be the point of spelling tests when there will always be spell check? What’s the point of learning how to write in script when it is a font style on the computer. If computers are really going to replace the pen and pencil…why do we still make students take standardized test, like the ELA, on paper…writing. When all other major papers and projects are expected to be typed, double spaced, in 12pt font?
Going back to the blogging on of my major problems was when someone said in class, “…students don’t have to focus on spelling and grammar…” this made me nervous because if they are not practicing it…they are not learning it…and soon all blogs with be spelled wrong and contain poor grammar. These posts…the one I am writing right now…is going to be posted on the Internet! Everyone can access this is judge me by it…spelling and grammar is important. Now, if there is a written assignment, like a journal entry, then I can see the excusing spell check and grammar, but, if it is an option on the computer…it should always be used…which brings me back to the, “If they’re not practicing it, they are not learning it…” Which is why I like blogging because it is a tool the students can take with them after they leave the classroom and enter into the real world…which is slowly eliminating pens and pencils, stamps, lined paper, and mail boxes. Also, it may help when they need to write e-mails…a students who is familiar with these skills at a young age will be able to adapt better in the real world when the technology has changed, but, at least they have the foundation and understanding of where it has been.
Please criticize this and let me know of other con’s if I have not mentioned them! =)
9 of 18
Last class was a great “tool” that helps with school and organization. I have to say that I always thought that the way to organize websites was through “favorites” and now I know a better way. This is neat because it really is a tool that can help any teacher when it comes to planning and researching. I am a person that is big on organization and I am happy that I can now organize over the Internet on the computer, rather tan writing down and booking websites that may switch or close down. Then there is the idea of networking with other teachers to share and teach new ideas in the classroom. This is a great tool to teach through out the world and even introduce students to a new idea that the lesson that they are learning was actually taught across the world at some point. Working technology into the classroom can work to teach students how to use these tools and make them more of a normal occurrence rather than working a project around it! This way students use the internet and programs like these to help organize themselves and their work all the time…rather than waiting for a project that requires it to learn a tool that could have helped them when they were in high school….like me….=)
8 of 18
I have to say that last class was by far my favorite. Since my very first e-mail was through AOL dial-up, then switched to a yahoo account with Roadrunner I thought I found something that worked for me. I have used the same yahoo account since I was in 10th grade. With different colleges I had different e-mails, but, I always had the fowarded to my yahoo box. Now, I love this Google homepage! It’s a great way for to have everything I want right in front of me when I log in. I am also happy that we put each others web blogs in there as well, because I was getting tired of going on to the wiki page to see who was who.
I would love to see this in a classroom! This way students can have the class blogs right on their homepages and can “tune in” for a few minutes at home. What’s great is that I, as a teacher, can post things that we did not get to in class, copies of lecture notes, homework assignments, related links, and other things that students can do if they were really into what we covered in class. It would be a neat way to teach students responsibility and work with them to work outside the classroom. Kinda of a neat way of, “checking in” to make sure that they working out side of class. Blogging can also help those who do not speak in class earn points for disscussing outside of class. I dunno…I just love this google page!
7 of 18
When it comes to technology I am becoming a bit nervous…I understand that we are learning to adapt to new technology and it is constantly changing and I do love the possible end results for all of these programs we are learning, however, I am starting to worry about how much we are relying on it.
One cold, dark week the Geneseo Internet was down for a few days and you would think that the world was coming to an end! Projects were extended, exams moved back and students had NO WAY of reaching their professors. Watching the video in class about the escalator stopping really made me laugh because the professors had to remind students that they too had telephones, office hours and secretaries. It was not the end of the world, but, students are being conditioned to utilize the internet so much that they are ignoring any other ways of gathering information. Geneseo was also at fault for this because with this new wave of technology and Internet libraries there is no longer a need to actually purchase a “hard copy” of books. The pros to this is that they will never have to hunt it down if it is put back wrong, or worry about someone damaging or losing it or even keeping the most recent books on the shelves. But, what happens when the website is down and a student walks into the library to find a book about genetics and the most recent one is from 1999?!? I am not even saying that a student will do this! At Geneseo there are now beanbags placed in all the isles so that students can have a quiet reading spot…why are they there? Because no one takes out the books!
Don’t get me wrong, I grew up in the generation of Instant Messaging and loved every minute of it. I was able to see if someone from my class was on-line to ask questions about the homework or project (or tell my parents that was what I was doing when I was catching up on the gossip I missed). I was also able to surf the net for a picture I wanted to put on my poster-board. Before the Internet I would have to go somewhere and make a color copy! That was like .50! I was able to use “Word Art” and “Clip Art” to make up for my poor penmanship and lack of artistic talent. So, these can really benefit a student, but, I don’t want a student or my own child spending most of there time at a computer looking up information. Libraries are not awful, but, there needs to be that balance in case the Internet does go down….you are not stuck taking your class down and giving them a lesson on how to use a card catalogue. I agree, when the Internet is utilized properly it is the best way to get recent accurate information, however, with all of this good…there is a lot of bad and I think it takes a well balanced teacher to say, “You must have two Internet sources and two book sources”.
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