Rock 'n' Roll with Math..?

This Rock 'n' Roll Video Teaches Math
-Glenn Bull and Lynn Bell

Glen and Lynn talk about the ways of being able to teach math in a fun and exciting way, a way that engages the students to not just learn the material to ace a test, but to actually learn and comprehend the concepts. They talk about how digital video's can be used to present challenging mathematical questions or problems for the students. Math is usually such a visual concept, because of all the problem solving, and by creating and analyzing digital video's it is providing unique opportunities for "guiding this development." Video clips offers instructional possibilities for moving students from a passive mode of watching to active exploration in mathematics. You tube is also a very good source for video clips and short movies that will challenge students to watch carefully and engage in mathematical thinking.

Students need experiences that guide them as they learn to reason with mathematical concepts, they need opportunities to make decisions based on their analysis, which video clips help achieve. In high school, students develop insights into math's abstractions and structure by exploring the behavior of certain relationships between concepts, having a child make their own video demonstrating this idea can help them to comprehend the material more in depth.

I think if students are taught how to make videos to figure out concepts, it will teach them a great deal about how to figure out problems on their own, and of course what the concept is about. Children need more time to problem solve for themselves, as many rely on many of their teachers and parents to tell them how to solve a problem, creating their own digital videos can be a great start to all of this. Also, students will then be able to share their ideas on the video they made, which will hopefully make it easier for the rest of the class to understand their concept as well, coming from their peers point of view.

Social Networking

Web 2.0: Today's Technologies and Tomorrow's Learning

-Jennifer Grott

Have you ever thought about using facebook as a means to teaching? Many haven't but those few who have, have found it extremely successful. Often, students find that these

technologies, so prevalent in their lives outside of school, are unwelcome in their classrooms. Many teachers can tell stories about the disruptive influence of video games and "social networks" in their classrooms and schools. Educators, researchers, and designers are just beginning to explore the educational benefits of social networking technologies. By connecting students and teachers, they can create strong communities of practice, essential aids to good teaching and learning. Social networking technologies help teachers and students extend their learning into an additional space, as Grott mentions.

Some teachers look at social networking as a negative thing, that only disrupts class time and takes away from studying. The don't see the positive of being able to connect classroom time home time and it's more of a way for teachers to stay connected with their class. There are many networks that can open eyes to the students about what more is going on in the world around them. For instance, having a twitter account keeps you informed, from celebrities mainly, about events and fundraisers going on. It's making simpler ways for the younger generations to stay informed about news events.

Online Learning

Learning Comes in all Shapes and Sizes
-Thea Jones

Thea Jones is from Alaska, and realizes that with the harsh weather conditions that she and many others live in, it's sometimes impossible to get your kids to school and you to work. They took teachers out of "brick-and-mortar" classrooms and put them in virtual ones. They made sure teachers had all the tools they needed and, through video, they "re-injected” them back into the classroom. Students still receive direct instruction, but only now, their teachers are remote and have access to a vast amount of content. They looked at other programs in the state to see what did and didn't work, and they also took a very close look at their students. It's all about the audience, isn't it? They said their students are digital natives, and they feel just as comfortable typing on a keyboard as putting pen to paper. Which seems true for today's generation, of a technology based world, and on a positive note, they've seen student test scores improve.

This is such a great idea, and can make missed classes not such a bad thing. As I have personally taken online classes, I know it's not a stress if I can't get to class right on time because of something randomally coming coming up, everyone deal with interuption in their lives. If kids became sick or had a death in a family, they could still obtain the work done in classm and still complete assignments, all through going online. Not only does this make it so kids can access their class at any time, it's also giving them a boost in this technology based world. It would be easier to post assignment and project instructions online, and if there were questions about anything, the kids would have their parents or gaurdians at home to ask questions to as well. I think having virtual classrooms is beneficial for teachers, students and parents. Giving the parents access to the classroom at any time, too, and seeing what their child is learning.

Math and Technology? Who knew.

This Rock n' Roll Video Teaches Math

-Margaret L. Niess

Ever thought about using digital videos to teach your students math? I haven't. Niess explains that digital videos can give your students challenging math questions for you students, and the National Council of Teaching Mathematics adds, "That visualization is an important tool in problem solving." Niess thinks that by showing new concepts to the students through videos or presentations that the students will grasp the new concept at an higher level of understanding. Video's are more engaging that lectures and grasps the students' attention from the beginning. She goes on to give the example of Abbott and Costello's 28 donut example, where they try to divide 28 donuts among 7 people. Where could we find that video though? YouTube. These video's can help to explain concepts for students who are visual, auditory, or even kinesthetic learners by covering all areas of learning, it works for all.

I think this is a wonderful way to teach kids math, especially for someone like me who has no interest in math. Math is not my favorite subject, partially because it's hard to grasp which makes it boring for me. Bringing in funny and entertaining videos about the different concepts would engage the students in the new concept, and getting them to want to learn something new. These days YouTube has all the videos we could ever want at our fingertips. Another way I could bring this video concept is to break students into groups, and give each group a different math concept to explain to the class. They would explain this concept to the class through making a video that contains the concept. Not only do they then have to explain the concept while making sure they full understand it, they're making it more understandable for the rest of their classmates.

Pedagogical

An Effective Approach Based on Content, Pedagogy, and Teacher Planning

By: Judi Harris + Mark Hofer

Trying to incorporate technology into the classrooms has caused some problems, because of not producing the educational revolution that had been predicted by the "advocates" of technology. Now, we hear about a different way to bring the curriculum into a different side of the technology world. Technology integration efforts often begin with what's most unfamiliar to many teachers: the technologies themselves. Though it's true that we must first become familiar, comfortable, and competent with technologies to be able to integrate them into instruction effectively, doing this only does not ensure effective technologically being taught. Some things teachers can do to integrate technology more effectively, according to Harris and Hofer are:

1. Focuses on students' standards based learning needs rather than the specific features of particular tech tools and resources
2. Is easily adaptable to multiple teaching styles and levels of technological proficiency
Can be learned and applied relatively quickly, with few, if any, additional resources required, even in resource-scarce settings

Integrating all of these new technology strategies into a classroom could be very successful for me, especially with making sure to keep the pedagogical teaching strategy. I can understand how difficult it may be to bring technology into a class in a successful way, but with the new strategies they have come up with, it makes it seem much easier. I would love to have a classroom based on the regular teaching methods and standards, but bringing that into a technology way would be better for the students. They would learn several different way to get tasks completed, rather than just sticking to the pen and paper method. As students' learning needs and experiences develop, it will become much easier for them to work through the aspect of a technology based classroom.

Virtual Worlds in the CLassroom

"Walk, Fly, or Teleport to Learning"

-Maureen Brown Yoder

20 millions kids will be members of internet based virtual world by 2010, and for educators this should be enough supporting evidence that teaching kids to use technology is not recommended, but should be required. Kids that participate in a virtual environment learn more "creative, social, and technical lift skills." It is also a way to keeping the students engaged and playful while learning, as long as proving to help improve their self esteem. MUVE's, a virtual game that has educationally oriented varieties of iterations, while kids can make their own "virtual person" while playing games like flying, walking, learning, and traveling the world. Kids are able to make cities and fantasy lands, and having to deal with problems with in their land. It teaches kids to deal with real life experiences but in a virtual way, and giving them social responsibilities. They brought this virtual game to incarcerated teens who have not been able to experience real life situations, how are they able to go back into the world and survive? This game teaches them the situations that they may come across along with gaining practice and the ability to learn how to deal with problems.

I think this is a great way to get kids more engaged in their classrooms and learning. What kid doesn't want to play video games? With this virtual aspect of education, it teaches kids real world activities and what it's like to deal with problems that are really happening. I could easily incorporate this into classroom lessons, with the first one coming to mind of history. The kids could build their house and a community, and see what it's like to pay bills, how the government works, and what it's like to have big responsibilities. It teaches them decision making skills, which is an important thing to kids needing to get used to. It's hard to get students interested in learning about important things, but by adjusting the lesson to fit their needs would have a greater outcome. Virtual lessons here we come!

Spanish and Technology

"Spicing Up Spanish Class"

Trying to engage first year spanish students may be a hard task for teacher's as a language is usually required to graduate, not necessarily a "want to take" class. Getting students to become engaged is a challenge, but would the help us technology help to make it easier? Getting students in a first year Spanish class to talk with people of other countries was a required assignment, to hopefully get them to relate more to the culture they were learning about, but how do you do that if you are no where near that country? This is were the wonderful use of technology and computers come in; they are required to talk to people through online chats and hear from the countries natives what their lives are like. In addition to online chatting, they used: blogs, wiki, excel, online databases, graphic organizers, email and photo story to "sheen a country report". After extensive research the students were required to give a power point presentation based on the facts and information they found about their country.

Trying to get students more evolved and excited about doing reports is what needs to be done to obtain better grades and an understanding that will last with them, rather than cramming the knowledge just for a report and good grade. Letting the students have online chats with people from other countries gives them the knowledge from a person their age, a point of view they can relate to. Being able to give a power point presentation in a 3rd grade class would be a great experience for the teacher to see where the students are in the technology area. Students need to learn how to use wiki and proper research data bases to receive the correct and probable information to complete a truthful project, especially research projects. Having the option for all the different technology resources available will, in my opinion, help to further a child's education.

Literature and Technology

"Writing for Real Purpose" --Chinwe H. Ikpeze

Chinwe Ikpeze informs us of a fifth grade teacher, John Blain, who wanted to incorporate technology into his literature lesson plans. Blain assigned a couple readings, Because of WinnDixie and The Tiger Rising, and required the students to take part in an online discussion, a cross between a blog and wiki type discussion room. Blain generated questions for the students to take part in as well as the students needing to create own question and concerns they had with the readings; Blain then took the most popular online discussion questions (open ended questions) and brought them into the classroom for a more engaged conversation about the reading and their thoughts about the book(s). Another part of the activity was for the students to write about the main theme for the book and then talk about whether they agreed with the theme or not, and back it up with evidence and explanations. Blain noticed there was more engagement from the children along with higher reading and writing test scores.

I think this is a wonderful way to incorporate technology into the classrooms, and I think it's an easy way, too. There always comes the problem of some students not having the opportunity to have access to computers and internet, but I would like to have at least two computers in my classroom. Another idea for the problem would be to offer after school time for students who do not have access to computers, to stay and work on the computers in the classroom to make sure they are still getting the technology lessons and still being apart in the classroom activities as well. Students need to know how to incorporate technology into all lessons as it can be a successful solution to problems or questions they may need answered. 

Chatting online, is it beneficial for students?

Chatting It Up Online: Students Talk to a Favorite Author.

-Pamela Livingston

Mary Pope Osborne, author of the Magic Treehouse series was expected to be online and available to answers questions from young fans. At a elementary school in Philadelphia, the all boys 3rd grade class had the opportunity to have an "online chat" with one of their favorite authors, Osborne, and ask questions they wanted more information on. Herb Booth, Jackie Gwen and Barbara Wybar, school faculty members, went through a process to make an online chat accessible for their students; Wybar explains that to "get the children more engaged in reading" she needed to find a unique way to entice the students. Wybar went through the process of signing up for an online account, emailing the network ahead of time with questions the students were interested in, making sure network walls were down, having back up technical plans, and practicing the online chat situation before hand to make sure things went smoothly. The students were sent to the computer lab during the day of the scheduled chat, and had an experience they loved. They were able to ask open-ended questions, since simple questions could be found elsewhere, and the online chat with the author of a series of books they loved, ended with success!

The way these teachers took the initiative to find a new way to entice their students into a different learning environment is something that I would want to do for my own students. Livingston gave great examples of how to successfully complete an online chat, and it makes it seem easy enough to incorporate into my own classroom. Students would not only be learning about their favorite authors, or learning how to successfully write but they would be becoming more skilled and advanced in an era that soon will be based solely on technology. Students could be more successful in education if they were to become more familiar with computers and technology; if they have questions on a certain subject, the answers could be just a few mouse clicks away.

Current ISTE nets for teachers include: Facilitating and Inspiring Student Learning and Creativity, which involves promoting and supporting innovative thinking and to model digital age working and learning to name a few or many. The students ISTE nets are basic operations and concepts, knowing technology productive tools, and knowing how to communicate productively through technology. ISTE nets are important in making sure the teacher and the child are on the same page with the new technological advances.

Standards: NETS4