Gardens of Time

Video games have come to the forefront of the education spotlight. This is not surprising in the slightest to most of the younger generation because they have grown up with them and it is only natural that they associate them with learning. Video games are more applicable to learning than one may think, they nurture critical thinking, and new ways of solving problems. even the more "violent" games, such as first person shooters, where the player assumes the roles of the actual character through their eyes, still present a new perspective on a particular situation.  Good games, not just educational ones, because in truth all games have something to offer in way of teaching skills that could be applied to the real world, foster critical thinking and usually offer more than one way to do certain tasks. This is performed by offering a better way or performing said task through exploration.

"iPad" App Review #2

The second app that I reviewed on my android phone was called Countries of the World. I t is an interactive map with countries that give all pertinent information about the countries. Not only does it show you the geographical location but also statistics like, capitals, populations, languages spoken, religions, flag(s) and the GDP. This app is a great resource, not only for students, but also myself, especially since I want to be a History/Social Studies teacher.

"iPad" App Review #1

The first app that I reviewed on my Android phone was called Math Practice Flashcard.  This app was a great little learning tool. The first one is for kids PreK to 8. You can choose what you want to practice and then the flashcards start coming. I think that apps like these that let the kids interact with technology and learn are great. The ease of use and being able to control a piece of technology is a factor that could easily drive kids. However, it does get quite repetitive and should only be done for short amounts of time.

Ragtag Wikipedia Video

Three things that I learned are that : Wikipedia is more popular than the New York Times, there is really only a core 600-1000 people are the majority who make edits to site and that their overhead is only $5,000 dollars in bandwidth is their main expense with the one engineer. Two things that I liked is that it was vastly volunteers and the had one employed software engineer as of 2005 and I absolutely love they openly challenge people to compare them to other sites and sources and post those results so that everyone can see. Lastly, I do not like that it is sort of an aristocracy, meaning some people carry far more weight than others. However, I do see the need for this.

The link about the site on ways to use Wikipedia did not really surprise me because i use it the same way when I write papers or have an assignments. The sources at the bottom of the page are when I get a lot of my useful information.

Website Validation

Will standardized testing improve education?


http://standardizedtests.procon.org/

Who?
ProCon.org is an independent, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity


I found this article on a site called ProCon.org and it claims to be independent, nonpartisan and a nonprofit public charity that wants to show the pros and cons of standardized testing.

• It seems to me that the creators do take responsibility for the content of the site.
  
• The information that they wish to present is clearly stated and way to read.
  
• They have many fact and there are links to supported and debatable evidence.
  
• At the bottom of the page they give you a phone number and a postal address.

• I cannot verify that they are credible, however they seem to be very professional, for what that counts for, and they present the evidence for both sides.

When?

• The information on the site is fairly up to date. The last time it was edited was on 3/12/2012.
• It does not, but the links that it has to YouTube content has dates on those, so I am able to see if those links are out of date.
  
• The links on the site do work.

Why?

• I would not be able to get this information faster offline because of the amount and the easily readable columns showing pros and cons.
  
• It absolutely fits my needs, the site present the info in such a neat way that my needs are almost met instantly when I come to the site.

Lastly, the site is a .org, supporting that they truly may be a nonprofit organization.

Double Entry 11

The first thing I learned is that viewing and listening and seeing are all related. Second, There were people that associated better with his voice, others with the pictures he showing and even the guy putting up texts and not talking is somewhat conveying how technology and learning are coming together as one material.  Third, technology is going to be all encompassing it will be in everything. There is a need to be up to date and know as much as you can especially when you are trying to improve your quality of teaching.

Cited -

Dr Geary, Thinking creatively: Teachers as designers of content, technology and pedagogy part1. N.p., 2008. Web. 6 May 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNoijjIrPT8>

Double Entry 10

"Just as students need to engage in the creative thinking spiral to prepare for the Creative Society, educators and designers must do the same. We must imagine and create new educational strategies and technologies, share them with one another, and refine and extend them."

I agree with this statement strongly because I share the same outlook.  It is hard to imagine the school environment without books, for some.  This is the way of the future. It seems that the more resist the change of the future and the sooner we embrace technology in learning the sooner we will be able to move into the future of learning and further humanity.  Technology is changing so fast and it is permeating every part of our lives, it has essentially become our lives and education is not immune. The linked article furthers my argument because it states that not only are we rejecting new technology we are stifling students' ability to create and be innovative. This is more harmful and is farm worse than not doing anything.

Cited -

Resnick, M.. "Sowing the seeds for a more creative society." . International Society for Technology in Education, 2007. Web. 6 May 2012. <http://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/Learning-Leading-final.pdf>.


http://www.positivespaceblog.com/archives/does-society-stifle-creativity-and-innovation-in-youth/

Double Journal Entry 9

6. The Cycle of Expertise. Video games will provide sets of challenges until certain actions, behaviors and skills become routine and automated. The games then provide a new problem in the form of a boss, new level or game mechanic that makes the gamer re-think their mastery, learn a new skill and then integrate this skill into the rest of the experience. This is where mastery is consolidated through repetition only to be challenged again, and it is an integral part of learning and expertise.


This entire passage really hit home with me. I have been playing video games since I was able to hold a controller. They enveloped me early, for fun and challenge. It seemed to me that the challenges that I was not receiving in school I sought out in video game form.  This "rule", if you will, is in every video game ever and, if done well, is the most obvious and best hidden, aspect of the game. When you get to a certain "boss" you have been "trained" to realize that there is a trick of some kind and you need to look for it. It is great for problem solving and critical thinking skills.


For my follow up article, I want to do something a little different. I can not provide a link, but here is what I did, I went to Google and searched 'video games in school' and came up with more video game design schools more than anything. Now, I am sure that there are hundreds, if not thousands of articles about how video games could be in schools and we all know they can reinforce learning. I just found it super interesting that the main search engine for the world would put out sites on video game design schools before how video games could help public schools.




Cited -


Admin, . "10 things schools can learn from video games."Learning in gaming . N.p., 2012. Web. 6 May 2012. <http://www.learningingaming.com/10-things-schools-can-learn-from-video-games/>.

Double Journal Entry 8

a. What is Wikipedia? 
Wikipedia is a multilingual, Web-based encyclopedia project, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organization

b. How would you answer the question posed in this piece “How reliable can a source be when anyone can edit it?”?
I would say, first, you need to fully understand the article and not take one source as the best source, second, Wikipedia is constantly monitored by a vast number of people, such as, you and I. This is the best policing tool that there is.

c. Who do the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in when it comes to weeding out misinformation? 
The people who use the site or 'The Wisdom of the Crowd'

d. Why did founder Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia? 
Sanger left Wikipedia, believing that it should give more authority to experts; he has since created another site, Citizendium that does give more credit to experts

e. What would abuse or vandalism look like on a Wikipedia page? 
False information, or information that attacks other people.

f. What do the statistics quoted in the third paragraph of this piece reveal? 
That they did something right, the entire world wants knowledge and they are going to Wikipedia to find it.


g. Why do you think Wikipedia is so successful? 
Wikipedia is so successful because really of the ease of use. People always want to know something and with technology they can know it right now. Wikipedia makes it so easy to find what you are looking for and even more.

h. Why might Wikipedia’s creators not want to accept advertising? 
It would greatly hinder the site on the point that makes it so successful. It would slow people down and get in the way of the information that they want to attain.

i. How does Wikiscanner help increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries?
 IP address of anonymous editors of the site to be easily checked; the tool, Wikiscanner, quickly exposed examples of self-interested editing by prominent businesses and governments around the world


Cited


Cohen, N., and N. Cohen. "Wikipedia." The new york times on the web. Times Topic Page, 2009. Web. 6 May 2012. 
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20090206friday.html

Double Entry Journal 7

How might technology be used to support students in your future classroom who have learning differences like Dyslexia?

As the world becomes more and more technologically advanced, it will seep into every fabric of our lives. Embracing it now is the only real way to fully appreciate what it can do for us. Teaching is no different, in fact, maybe it is. It may be more important to teach with technology now more than ever, students crave and what information on a level that is hard to provide without such technology. Also, children with disabilities, e.g. dyslexia, can have technology read aloud to them, can help them keep rhythm or just help them pretend they are someone else.

Find a resource on the Internet that helps you think about how to support students with learning differences in schools. Describe it and link me to it.

This resource is a guide on how to notice some symptoms of certain learning disabilities. I chose it because if you know what the learning disability is, it is much easier to support it and those students can be more effectively integrated into the classroom.

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/learning_disabilities.htm

WebQuest Worksheet

About Me Scratch

Learn more about this project

Scratch Tutorial

Learn more about this project

Learn more about this project

I rather enjoyed this simple game.

ThinkAloud

ThinkAloud

ThinkAloud

View more PowerPoint from dehaugh

Double Entry Journal 6

"Researchers find that reading for understanding online requires the same skills as offline reading, including using prior knowledge and making predictions, plus a set of additional critical-thinking skills that reflect the open-ended, continually changing online context."

There are several similarities and differences between traditional literacy and digital literacy. They both require one to be literate in not only what they are reading, but also how they read what they find. Digital literacy needs to be taught in the same fashion as traditional literacy, however, it is not being incorporated appropriately.  As technology becomes more a part of our lives we have to assume that future generations will be even more immersed in it.  The major difference between digital and traditional literacy is that digital literacy takes a far greater effort to prove and verify the source. The Internet, for one, is full of unverified and unaccredited sources of information.

Article

This article covers a few topics on digital literacy, but my favorite part is where it points out that our students today are tech savvy and are natives of cyberspace. they grew up with it and have a knack for the ever changing world of technology and should be taught as such.

David, J. L. (2009, March). Ascd. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Teaching-Media-Literacy.aspx

Jones-Kavalier, B. R., & Flannigan, S. L. (2006).Connecting the digital dots: Literacy of the 21st century. Retrieved from 

Magazine Cover

Voki

Double Entry 5

"Media literacy education can flourish only with a robust understanding of fair use."

This being quite the lengthy reading and much of it, I am not going to lie, tedious. However, I did enjoy somewhat trying to differentiate between what is an what is not and the other aspects of fair use.  I chose the quote above because, not only was it highlighted, it really stuck to me. It just clicked and along with the definition of media literacy, made total sense.


Fair Use

I actually linked the fair use guidelines, while I did not read all of them, mainly due to the fact that I was pretty burned out on reading. I did skim most of it and tried to notice some of the more significant ones.

The answer to the question that was proposed it rather easy for me to answer because all of the materials that I used in my digital story were all obtained from open sources. So yes, it does fall under fair use.

Double Entry 4

"If digital stories are going to survive in education, they need to be tied to the curriculum and used to strengthen students' critical thinking."

I could not agree more with this statement and the fact that while these can be very helpful and useful tools to help students learn and teachers more accurately relate to their students, the digital stories themselves need to be tied to something.  The ability for one to critically think on subjects and wrap their minds around thoughts is one of the most valuable abilities one can learn and can be used and applied to every facet of life.

Article

this article touches on sort of the same thing, it simply explains what digital storytelling is.  Again, just using digital storytelling just to use it seems monotonous and useless. I can not stress and agree more with the point made about it being tied directly to the curriculum.

Digital Story

Photo Story.

Recording Romeo

The strategy that I chose to read was Recording Romeo, in which the teacher, Jerri Raven, had her students read the S Shakespearean classic Romeo and Juliet while they played dramatic music in the background.  In this way she simulated an environment that immersed her students in the material and enhanced learning through the technology and application of the immersion technique.  This was mainly because she was basically having them do a performance and when you give a performance you need to know the plot and be able to critically think about that plot.

Double Entry 3

"Gradually, we have become less obsessed with correctness and more focused on tolerance and personal expression."


     The first article, "Are Digital Media Changing Language?", was great and I really enjoyed reading it.  The two mains points that were hit on were Whatever and Control. Both of which were very well expressed and I could not agree more with them.  The "Whatever approach simply stated that people just do not care enough anymore about language and as long as you are able to express yourself that is all that really matters.  The "Control" touched on the fact that we are more easily able to control our surroundings through technology, which is quite obvious, however we also see it as a way to control our communication. Another quote that was eye opening  from the "Control" section; "As the arsenal of control devices continues to grow, we increasingly come to see language not as an opportunity for interpersonal dialogue but as a system we can maneuver for individual gain."  This was just a brilliant observation.
    The second article was one that put "textisms" together in the same group and stated that they will soon die off because they were a novelty and that as we come up with more sophisticated phones with actual keypads these short hands will soon be less apparent.

     This short video just touches briefly on how digital media is all around the youth of today and how they and we are always learning. Even if it isn't what parents or adults want them to learn.  It also reinforces the whole expression through technology argument.


Ammon, S. (2010, Jan 22). The keypad solution. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/magazine/24FOB-onlanguage-t.html


Barron, N. (2009, Jan). Are digital media changing language?. 66(6), 42-46. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Are-Digital-Media-Changing-Language¢.aspx


Digital media's effect on kids & learning. (2008, Oct 10). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYcWq_GYEN0

Learning Styles

Do learning styles exist?

Are they useful for classroom instruction?

What is the best philosophy for using learning styles?

Learning styles do exist in some capacity, however the effect that they have on the classroom as a setting is small if at all.  As a classroom instructor these styles are not that useful because when teaching a group you need to adjust for content and the meaning of that content and how you are going to convey that knowledge.  The best philosophy for using learning styles is one that is on an individual basis.  A situation where you are able to specifically tailor a system in which a single or few people can target the learning.  Even then, however, it can still be said that the content of the teachings is far more important.

Comic

Picasso Head

Before I took the AVK survey I already knew that I was an auditory learner. However, I did not realize that I was so dominant in that area. It is quite well known that learning is a culmination of at least these three types of learning. While I do recognize that it is possible to be multiple learning types, I do know that I would rather have someone tell me directions or explain a task out. I also get frustrated when people repeat themselves.  With my Picasso head I attempted to make my ear the center of the piece while adding an inflow of "sound".

Technology that benefits me most are ones that obviously involve sound. As in a previous post and reading the iPod would be a great help to me.  Having any sort of device that would explain or read out loud to me would be fantastic seeing as how sometimes the way people talk can really trip me up and make my mind wander. The speed at which they speak or if they repeat themselves or get off topic are all tings I immediately notice and really provide a barrier to my learning process. Leaving me a voice mail would also be a great way to use technology to expedite my acquisition of knowledge.

Double Entry 2

"The iPod can support the three learning styles."


This really caught me off guard in a weird way. I had heard about using the iPad to supplement learning and further the impact of what kids are being taught. However, I never really thought of it as addressing all three of the learning styles at once.  This makes it an even more valuable piece of technology that should not be glossed over as another expensive toy.
As to my reaction to the three learning styles that people have, I have a good bit of knowledge on the subject, in fact I may have alluded to it in my previous posting. Knowing what kind of learner each of the kids are and trying to accommodate to their specific style will vastly improve the outcome of the results one is looking for.  This is crucial information that no teacher should be without, they should also realize that kids could be more than one type or that some kids may be very weak in all the areas. It is our job as instructors and mentors to the future generation to compensate for that.


VAK Learning Style Survey


The related link is a survey that you can take to see what kind of learning style best fits your needs.




Web 2.0 and emerging learning technologies/learning styles. In (2011). WikiBooks Retrieved from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Web_2.0_and_Emerging_Learning_Technologies/Learning_Styles


Vak learning styles survey. (1998, Jan 6). Retrieved from http://nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/styles/vak.html

Wordle

Cellphone was an interesting choice I would not of thought of. Maybe there will be service?
Interesting seeing that people either went with a book to wait or a boat to leave most of the time.

Poll

Mine Would Be A Boat (Poll)

Make a live audience poll at Poll Everywhere

Double Entry

"We can’t keep preparing students for a world that doesn’t exist." 

This quote is the one that stuck out to me the most while I was reading the assigned article. I really could not agree more with this point of view on education and the way that we as a society need to change out outlook on the way we educate, not only our youth, but ourselves as well.  If we continue to educate and prepare our students for jobs that do not exist today it will severely handicap them when they do begin looking for work in the future.  It seems so obvious and so asinine  of a statement, however we truly ignore the fact that it is the truth.  Humanity as a whole is advancing at such a rapid rate that many of the jobs that people hold right now will be obsolete, even as soon as I have a child, let alone when that child is old enough to get a job.  In conclusion, it just really makes a whole lot of sense to me that we need to reevaluate the way we teach kids and what they learn.

The linked article below is a short one that ties into how and why we need to change the way children learn.  The author quotes Rita J. King and Joshua Fouts saying, "we're presently in an "Imagination Age," a time during which humanity must imagine and then create, together, the systems of the new global economy and culture."  I believe this really supplemented the quote at the beginning of the article.  I also found it very interesting that when these two doctors went to conduct their research they, in fact, "thought outside of the box" by conducting the research through an online portal and actually applying their theory.

Related Article

Heffernan, V. (2011, August 7). Education needs a digital-age upgrade. NY Times. 

Retrieved from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/education-needs-a-digital-age-upgrade/?hp

Dwyer, L. (2011, May 5). How do we prepare kids for jobs we can't imagine yet? teach imagination. Good Education. Retrieved from http://www.good.is/post/how-do-we-prepare-kids-for-jobs-we-can-t-imagine-yet-teach-imagination/

Introductory Post

Introduction. Sounds easy enough. Short and to the point.
My name is Ethan Haugh and I am from Mannington, WV.
I would like to teach high school 9-12 grade History/Social Studies.
Few sentences on how children learn.
I believe that keeping children engaged is very important and pivotal in how they learn the material that is being presented to them.  That being said, it is quite obvious that all children learn and progress at different rates. Aptitude and intelligence play a large role in how students should be taught because that ties directly into how they learn as well.  One must understand that there are many ways people, not just children, learn, absorb, and apply information that is set before them.  So, there is no one correct way to teach children and all of them do not learn the same way.  Therefore, integrating as many of those ways as possible seems to be the appropriate approach to tackling this issue.  Powerpoint presentations, hands on activities, and visual representations are all needed to fully immerse students and make sure that everyone is learning in a way they feel most comfortable with.