Project #6 blog

The most challenging aspect of project #6 for me was surprisingly enough "mic fright." I went into the computer lab early in the morning hoping to reduce the number of people present, but before I could start the recording the lab was pretty filled up. There I sat, a guy who has played guitar and sang in front of thousands of people, and I literally had to talk myself into pressing the "start recording" button. "Mic fright" is the real deal! Once I made it over that hurdle however, everything else went great. The most rewarding was just gaining the experience with another application that I have never used before, it's another educational tool that I now have at my disposal. I have utilized Dr. Isaacson's profcasts many times this semester in P250, so I know of the advantages for a teacher to work with profcast. That said, I can't really think of any use for profcast in regard to student use. I definitely plan on making profcast part of my classroom. Thanks for a great class. Merry Christmas and take care!

Andrew Carlin

Toss the Traditional Textbook

I can definitely appreciate online educational sources from the aspect of how easy it would be to update the material in comparison to reprinting an entire new edition of a book for minute changes, not to mention the possibilities of world-wide knowledge sharing as the article suggested. That said, from a personal and probably selfish stand-point, I am not a big fan of online material. I took an online college algebra course a year ago, and I really felt hindered by not have the book physically there in front of me. I can't imagine I am the only person who feels this way, especially with abstract material like higher-level math and the sciences.

New Tech High Schools

I can see and make arguments for both the advantages and disadvantages for high schools like the ones from this article. With our nation changing, economically, industrially, and culturally, schools like these would help to gear our future generations towards the new-tech careers that will be waiting on them after graduation. The other side of the coin might argue that a school like this, which downplays some of the traditional structures, rules, and formalities from school past such as class bells and all passes might be taking focus off the value of structure and rules in society. While I'm not convinced that either side is completely right or wrong, what I am convinced of is that we need to change something in our education system for the sake of our nation's successful future... and right or wrong, they are at least trying!

Project #5 blog

The most challenging aspect of this project was once again the question of what the subject matter will be. I have extensive experience with powerpoint from instructing in the Marine Corps and the Sheriff's Department, so use of the application was definitely not an issue. I guess that the familiarity with powerpoint would actually double as the rewarding aspect as well, as there wasn't any lost time due to a learning curve. I believe powerpoint has a significant role in classroom instruction, as it provides audio and visual teaching aids in addition to lecture. The only caution I can think of to offer with powerpoint is to not let the "bells and whistles" of the application over power the lesson you are trying to teach. It is easy to get lost in the custom animations and sounds, in an effort to make the presentation look good, and the cost of too much is it will take away from the effectiveness of its teaching power. The three ways I can think of that students could use powerpoint in the classroom is as part of their own projects or presentations, in a study-game format, and as printable handouts for note-taking.

Project #4 blog

The most challenging and frustrating aspect of this project for me was my experience with the pictures I used from the internet. I thought I was being especially careful picking the larger photos in efforts of having nice clear photos for my project, but when I loaded them into iphoto almost all of them were incredibly grainy and pixelated. After being shown the correct way to search for good pictures, i was able to swap a few out, but even some of my replacements came out pixelated. At that point, after over five hours in the computer lab, I finished the project and called it a day. The most rewarding aspect (even through all of the photo frustration) was just how easy the imovie program was to use. It was very self-explanatory, and the drag-and-drop format made for smooth sailing. I'm finding the same with all of the mac applications I come across. If W200 has taught me just one thing, (don't worry... it has taught much more) it has opened my eyes to the world of mac. I really plan to use the imovie program in my classroom, because I feel it reaches students with the audio/video formats, and it gives them a way to learn that's more familiar than lecture.

Project #3 Blog

The main challenge I faced with project #3 was how unfamiliar I was with the Google Sites program. It actually equated into a load rework for me as I spent a lot of time on power-point presentations for my website, only to find out that I couldn't upload them and had to use the presentation option provided by Google. After the initial frustration, and there was a lot of it, things went fairly smooth. I came to appreciate how user-friendly Google Sites was, and found that power-points aside, there are many great things that you can do with it.
In my opinion, it's almost all pros for teachers being able to create their own websites for their lesson plans. One of the biggest collective concerns we had in W200 as far as using the internet in school was how to censor what the students had access to. Providing the websites upfront does wonders for trying to keep students on track, as they have no need to go elsewhere. I guess I would have to recognize the one con I can think of, and that's the amount of time it takes to put a Google Site together. I can't imagine too many teachers having enough free time to set a site up for every lesson they teach.
I really can see myself assigning a project similar to this one to my students, not very often of course, but as part of a science project, or even a project of its own. I think Google Sites offers a very easy way to allow students and teachers to utilize the internet constructively for education.

Project #2 blog

I really enjoyed creating this project. From the beginning I knew I was going with the subject matter of "Deep Sea Creatures" as Marine Biology is related to my content area of Life Science. It's honestly an area I wouldn't mind specializing in someday. Marine Biology is also a passion for my nine year old son Sean, and after seeing the demonstration I decided to have this photo book double as a birthday gift for Sean as well. Going into this project I had never used a Mac program before, so I didn't quite know what to expect. The demonstration given in class made the iPhoto program seem simple enough, and it proved to be when I went in the lab almost a week later to put it all together. I really appreciated how easy this program was to use. The next time I use iPhoto, I wouldn't mind experimenting with the different layouts and other options of the program that I didn't use this time around. I believe photo management software can have numerous applications in the classroom, especially after playing with the slide-show function on iPhoto. I think photos are great visual aids for education.

Project #1 blog

The biggest challenge for me with this project was how open-ended it was. So much of this project was ours to create that for me, it turned the choices into roadblocks, and made it hard for me to go in any direction for a while. Eventually I settled on the scientific area of astronomy, as I had just completed AST-N190 over the summer, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. With a direction for the project in mind, I searched through the academic standards for any that would apply to my choice of material. The project directions provided a Middle School setting, so I reduced the standard selection down to 5th and 6th grade science content. Within those two grades I found five standards that allowed me to create what I wanted for this project. I have listed the standard numbers and descriptions at the bottom of this blog. The next issue at hand was determining which websites would provide the information necessary for the students to completes the assignment, but maintain a level of appropriateness for a Middle School setting. Although I did not include trackstar in my project, I did utilize it for searching for the proper websites. Trackstar proved extremely helpful, and it led to every site that I have listed on this project.

5.3.2 Observe and describe that stars are like the sun, some being smaller some being larger, but they are so far away that they look like points of light.

5.3.3 Observe the stars and identify stars that are unusually bright and those that have unusual colors, such as reddish or bluish.

6.3.1 Compare and contrast the size, composition, and surface features of the planets that comprise the solar system, as well as the objects orbiting them. Explain that the planets, except Pluto, move around the sun in nearly circular orbits. (Core Standard)

6.3.3 Explain that the Earth is one of several planets that orbit the sun, and that the moon, as well as many artificial satellites and debris, orbit around the Earth. (Core Standard)

6.3.4 Explain that we live on a planet which appears at present to be the only body in the solar system capable of supporting life.

Assistive technology in education.

I have learned an immense amount of information about a subject that I was ignorantly and completely unaware of before; the subject of Assistive Technology in education. The last time I was in any kind of school setting other than a college was twelve years ago, and I can’t recall ever seeing one bit of AT anywhere in my high school. I have commonly seen the “JAWS” sticker on the computers in the IUSB computer labs, but never gave thought to what they might mean. Needless to say, this video was very eye-opening for me! The biggest issue we have with AT is the lack of access that students who need it, have to it. In almost every story that was told in “Freedom Machines” regarding a disabled child in school, there was a reference made to how the school either could not, or did not care to give the child access to AT. I think the development of AT in the workplace, and not just in school has the greatest potential for improving lives of those who need it. A great example of this was Floyd, again from the video “Freedom Machines” who was a quadriplegic, and was able to hold a day job with the assistance of AT. Floyd not only helped himself, but he returned to the assisted-living home where he once stayed and tried to motivate others to follow in his footsteps. The biggest questions I still have were brought up by a fellow W200 classmate, and that is how AT can and or will be applied to the more “hands-on” educational subjects like the sciences?

Yay for blogging!

That's all.