Distance Education Blog

5 Pros to Virtual Schools:
1. Convenient/can do it right out of home
2. Students work at their own pace
3. Students get practice incorporating technology early on
4. You can work with the best teachers from around the world
5. Work with mentors/teachers more on a one-to-one basis (even though there’s less interaction)

5 Cons to Virtual Schools:
1. Less teacher-to-student interaction
2. Less peer interaction
3. Less bodily-kinesthetic/social activities
4. Can easily get behind if not keeping up with work
5. Can get expensive (cost money)

I would determine the readiness of students to participate in distance delivery by assessing their technological skills. Another aspect of the students that would be important to measure would be their maturity level. Students have to be mature enough to get their work done and determined enough that they will sit down and make themselves do it.

To teach in a virtual school, you would need to be able to come up with innovative ideas to incorporate students. The activities and lessons you present would have to be in more creative ways so students can really grasp the concepts without actually seeing the teacher.

Powerpoint Kiosk

Whitney Tomita
Today we reviewed our powerpoint kiosks and there were many things about others projects that I liked. I really enjoyed how the natural disasters powerpoint had sound effects for almost everything. The volcano slide made a cool eruption sound, for example. I also liked how the correct and incorrect answer slides had evil laughing or applause. It was funny. For the health powerpoint, I enjoyed the idea of incorporating children working with their parents. Health is something that is greatly overlooked, and it was a good idea to have them learn the information together. Lastly, for the Woodland Park Zoo powerpoint, I liked the idea of having a narrator. I also enjoyed that it was characters from Beauty and the Beast because many children like that movie.

My group didn’t really have any difficulties with this project. The one thing that I still wish we could change is how the review activity works. I liked how if you get the wrong answer, you have to go back and review the material, but I wish that you couldn’t just skip to the third question/end. I don’t know how to make it so that you won’t have to redo all the previous questions if you get one wrong, and make it so the children can’t just skip ahead.

There are many ways that I plan on using kiosks in my teaching. First, it is a fun and different way to incorporate technologies. Children can work on the computer and do the activities. It is very interactive and a different technique so can be fun. It can also be a good way to review. In my practicum, the students can take review quizzes for books to make sure they get the main ideas. This is something that they really enjoy and even bicker over sometimes. I think that using kiosks as review quizzes could be a motivating and enjoyable assessment method. Lastly, I will use kiosks to teach new information. Everyone in my group did different topics and I feel like I could learn with others about these subjects. It is a good group activity and informative at the same time!

Emerging Technologies

Three emerging technologies that I believe will have a substantial impact on my classroom are desktop video conferencing, virtual classrooms, and computer based classrooms. Each of these will impact teaching, students and classroom instruction in a different way, as well as impact my classroom as I become a new teacher in schools. Before I talk about that, it is important to define each of these new technologies, and how they can be used in a classroom setting.

Desktop video conferencing is a new way to conference with video, voice, and data. This can be used in terms of parent-teacher, teacher-teacher, or teacher-administrative conferences. This could impact my future because it is less face-to-face interaction with parents, fellow teachers, and administrators. It could eliminate staff meetings, and most outside lecture tasks could be completed out of the home. On the positive side, this could make it easier to communicate with busy parents who maybe aren’t willing to come into the school. This could be a method that would make it easier to connect with those parents and inform them of their children’s struggles or successes in the classroom.

Virtual classrooms are a new, innovative type of classroom where the professor isn’t actually present in the classroom. An image of him/her is projected into the middle of the classroom, and then the professor can lecture. The professor can also see video feed of what the students are doing to make sure they are paying attention/completing necessary tasks. This could affect me personally in a few ways. Positively, it could make it so that teachers or speakers that can’t quite make it to the classroom could still virtually be there to share ideas. Negatively, it can make learning experiences less positive for students if they need teacher-student interaction. It could also decrease the need for teachers because the “best” teachers could lecture to many classrooms at once. Finally as far as short term in concerned, it would be harder to be trained/shadow a virtual teacher.

Lastly, computer based classrooms are classrooms that will primarily be based off computers. Lessons, assignments, and projects will all be completed and submitted through computers. This will affect all new teachers because there would have to be much more intensive computer training to get to this level. Also, there would not be the traditional use of the classroom anymore. Education, to this point, has been done in classrooms with students sitting at desks. Many of the most educational lessons I have learned have been sitting at a desk. This will make teachers be more creative and have to think of new ways to get important information across to students. Teachers also won’t be able to show their enthusiasm as much in subjects and lessons, which could decrease student interest.

As far as students are concerned, I think that all of these could be beneficial in moderation. However, if we completely wipe out the traditional paper and pen method of teaching it would be overall detrimental to students learning. It would greatly decrease personal interaction, and the social aspect of school would no longer exist. Ways that children learn social skills is also through schooling and interacting with peers and teachers. It could also decrease the curiosity and eagerness for learning. As I mentioned earlier, it is harder for teachers to display their passion for a subject or topic through a written explanation. This could decrease the student’s willingness to learn.

Overall, if used correctly, technologies could be beneficial in classrooms in the near future. I plan on incorporating many ideas into my classroom, but still keeping the standard way of learning. There is nothing wrong with keeping up with technology, but you need to know when to draw the line and see that it maybe isn’t exactly most beneficial for the students. By using the best of both worlds and finding a balance, I believe that students can learn to their greatest ability.

Engaging Students with Concept Mapping Activities

Concept mapping is something that I wish my teachers would have stressed more when I was younger. It is a great tool to use when trying to connect ideas, elaborate on ideas, or when combining multiple ideas. It can be extremely helpful if used correctly, and will be highly beneficial to use in primary classrooms like mine.
I can use concept mapping in many different ways. One thing that I really liked about this particular program is that you can use pictures to help concept map. Since I will be working with the kindergarten and 1st grade years, the students will still be struggling to use the right words effectively. Pictures can be helpful to create a visual and make sure that they know what they are connecting.
Something else that I found about this program was that you can personalize a concept map by subject too. The different templates help the students have a starting point, and make it easy for them to begin their mapping. The colors and way that you can really create your own map to be unique will help young students. Hopefully this will help them be involved in the activities and feel that they get a real say in the concept mapping process.
I can use the concept mapping activities in many ways in my classroom. One way is to engage students in their learning. An example of this is if I have visual learner. Giving them a concept map or letting them make on themselves will probably enhance their understanding of the material. If I give my student a page of notes they will probably struggle, but letting them see how the ideas and concepts are connected could really help grasp the subject manner. This could also help with students that are ADHD. If a student can get interactive with his/her education instead of be lectured it can help increase the amount of attention they pay.
Lastly, concept mapping can change the way my studnets can demonstrate an understanding of topics. This tool can show me what my students think about the topics, and how they relate. I can utilize it not only to assess their knowledge, but to understand what I must teach more clearly. If every student or most are confused about a certain aspect, then obviously I am not doing my job.

Blogs in Education

Today I searched for "educational blogs" on three different search engines to see the results. I found that the first result that popped up was the same on every engine I tried. I am assuming that this was the case because it was the closest to the text that I typed in. The rest of the results varied a lot. I do not know why this was, but I was thinking that maybe that different engines search for different results. For instance, maybe one engine searches for closest text that matches and another searches for most recently updated.

I also explored a few educational blogs and found that they are used in many different ways. First off, they are being used how I think I will most likely use a blog in my classroom. They are a great way to communicate information to students and parents about classroom status and what we are learning. Second, they are being used as a tool for teachers to reflect on lessons and to get feedback from parents to better their teaching style. Lastly, I noticed that it was a great tool for teachers to communicate to each other about lesson plans or topics. This can help elaborate on activities and communicate on ideas for other activities.

I also researched the difference between RSS readers and aggregators. I would say in my classroom I would use an aggregator because it sounds like that is more used for communication from me to my classroom. RSS readers sound like they are used to keep up with your favorite websites more, and I wouldn’t need that in my classroom. Although there are many great education website and can be useful for my students, I feel like I could use my aggregator to summarize those websites if needed.

I think that blogging and using RSS readers can be useful in my classroom in many ways. Most importantly, I feel that it helps provide another resource for my students to use. I can show them other websites and videos that I might not be able to in class. I can also further explain projects and post examples so they get clearer ideas of expectations, since we all know it is hard to sit in class for so many hours in a day. Also, parents can use this as a tool to stay interactive in their students learning. Sometimes it is easy to get out of touch with your child, and this is something that parents can do at home to stay involved.

I think as much as there are pros to using blogs and RSS readers like posting examples, staying in contact with parents, and getting a clearer view of expectations, there are also cons. Blogs and RSS readers can reduce the face-to-face interaction between parent and teachers or students and teachers. It can also be an unfair advantage to some students if they are wealthier and have better computers/internet connections. Some students might not be able to afford the internet or computers at home, or might just have 1 for the whole family and not get very much time on it daily. This can provide an unfair advantage for some students over other. In order to reduce this, I think it is important that you use these tools as enhancers and not necessities. Also, it would be good to get students some computer lab time in school so they can access the internet as well.

WebQuest

For one of our assignments we were supposed to go onto webquest and explore to see what resources we could use for when we get our own classrooms. Once we got into class, we discussed in a group our findings. My group found that we like this website because the activities can be used either for individuals, or in group settings. Also, we can use many of these games and resources in our own classroom, so it's a good way to get collaboration from other teachers that you will probably never even get to meet! Lastly, this is a way for us to get new ideas and really use the world as our resource. There is no limit to who can post these activities so we get ideas from everyone that can access the Internet.

Personally, I found that you can modify already made webquests. I like the idea of this because it makes it so that you can alter it a little to fit more into your classroom. If we are studying the alphabet, I can use the activities but gear them more towards to learning level of my classroom at that point in time. I do not think I would do anything differently if I were to access this webpage again. I would probably go there with some subjects in mind so that I would know exactly what to search for instead of just exploring around. I feel that this activity was extremely helpful for showing us another great resource that we have at our fingertips!

Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

As someone who learns very differently than most people, I think that studying Gardner's multiple intelligences is very important to be a good teacher. I had a lot of trouble growing up learning in the classroom, because I like to learn by reading and then asking questions. In elementary school and throughout high school this was not the method that teachers used. In my classroom, I plan on incorporating many of these intelligences so that each student has a fair chance to succeed.
One way that I plan on doing this is by using technology in my classroom. Computers are an amazing way to have students play games to learn, and have fun doing it. This is the bodily-kinesthetic approach to learning. I am also going to use technology by playing music. I think that remembering songs and listening to things is another good way to learn. These are just a few of the methods I have thought of and will use in my classroom to tie together Gardner's multiple intelligences and technology.