Website Creation

Here is the link to my website:

Maureen C's Website

What is your reaction to the entire web development process? Please describe any positive and negative reactions.

I had very positive reactions to the entire web development process. I always have been curious to learn how to create a website and this project showed me how easy this process can be! I didn't know there were free programs out like like Weebly to use! The only negative reaction I had during this process was when I couldn't figure out how to include some features.

What was involved in the process of developing your site? What obstacles did you encounter? How did you overcome those obstacles? What successes did you encounter?

To develop my site, I used Weebly and used images I obtained from Google to add to my site and make it more appealing. I decided to include a home page, a homework page, a contact page, and a class blog. On the homepage, I added a funny mathematics video and a link to a fun website for students to go to for math practice and games. On the homework page, I included a link to a tutorial for their calculators. Some obstacles I encountered were having trouble adding an image or link. To overcome these obstacles I used my peers as resources and they helped by showing me how to add these features.

Will you continue to build on/update this site after this course ends? Why/Why not? Please explain.

I think I will use this website in my future classroom but I will definitely need to makes some changes and add more important information. I would use this website instead of creating a new website because I have already added some basic features that I would want in my future classroom's website. I could use build on this one instead of starting from scratch.

What errors/issues did you find when you tested your web site for 508 compliance? Based on those errors/issues, what changes would you make to your site?

One error I found when I tested my website for 508 compliance was "The use of color must not be a single method for indicating important information on a web page." I think this means that I need to make sure that all the information on my page in color needs to also be made available without color. That way people who are color blind can see my information.

Here is the entire list of my results: Results

Internet Workshop Reflection

What feedback on your Internet Workshop did you receive from your two group members online?

After going over my Internet workshop, the overall feedback that I received was positive. They liked that I incorporated group work right at the start of the workshop. They said that by having the students work in pairs, each student can feed off of each other and learn from each other. One partner might see one aspect and another partner might look at something different and together they might see things that they wouldn't if they worked alone. They also liked how I decided to do my Internet workshop in 2 class periods and thought this was a sufficient amount of time for my task. They also said that the preparation for teachers section on my lesson plan was well thought out. My peers also said that my idea to have the students come back and evaluate another website together of the overhead projector is a great way to access their learning. One piece of advice I received was on my rubric. Although it was well thought out, my peers said that it might be too wordy and a little too overwhelming for my students. They thought it would be better if I shortened it a bit and made things clearer.

Will you use the Internet Workshop, or use a revised version of the Internet Workshop in your future classroom? Please explain.

I think that I would use this Internet workshop in my future classroom. I think it is important for my students to know how to evaluate mathematics websites online so that they know whether or not they are credible and can use them as resources for extra practice in mathematics. I would probably take my peers advice and revise the rubric before using it in my classroom but other than that I think this workshop is a great lesson for my students.

Briefly summarize your group's discussion of the statement, "Students will become victims of the expansive dark side of the Internet unless we teach the critical thinking necessary to make meaning out of the overwhelming and potentially manipulative amount of information that is now available and growing every day" (November, 2010, p.27).

During our discussion of this quote we said that with hoax websites that are available online, students may take everything they read as true and that is why it is our jobs as teachers to army our students with the skills to critically evaluate a website. There are also a lot of corporate websites on the Web that have a lot of information on them but are sneaky with a hidden purpose of trying to sell the reader something. Internet is a big part of our lives today and students go to the Web a lot more than books for research so we must educate students and provide them evaluation skills. There is no way to get around the Internet, is has become an essential part of our lives. In our discussion we also talked about how in another class we talked about G. Siemens and his idea of "cognitive off-loading." In today's world full of technology, we no longer have to remember things. Instead we off load knowledge into something else such as a device that we can refer to. A great example is cell phones. A majority of people would say that without their cell phone they would not know people's numbers other than their home or maybe their parents. Instead of having the knowledge in our head, we must become competent in knowing how to critically evaluate other resources where information is stored. Since we live in an age where we go to resources for knowledge and don't need to have everything stored in our heads, it is crucial for students to be equipped with the skills to determine if something is valid.

T2P Week 4

Theorists provide multiple modes of learning that help to assign the teacher's role in the learning process as well as the student's role in the learning process. I think it is interesting to look into each theorist's role and compare their views to another theorist. I made the most connection with Nel Noddings. I believe that in order to have a positive, effective learning environment, teachers need to develop a trusting, caring student-teacher relationship. Teachers need to adopt "relational caring" where it is more than looking at their claim to care but to care in the sense that the student recognizes he or she is being cared for. Students will be more efficient in their productivity if there is a foundation of trust and care. Teachers need to uncover their students already inherent goals for learning by developing a caring relationship, and focusing through student-centered teaching. When a teacher takes extra time to create a curriculum that includes student interests, they not only benefit the students but also feel more competent themselves. To me, that is powerful stuff!

EDCI 5825 Week 4 Blog Questions

1. What is the right balance between giving students freedom to explore the Web for research and providing them with structure and guidance?

The right balance between giving students freedom to explore the Web for research and providing them with structure and guidance is through the use of primary sources. Teachers can provide students structure by providing certain agencies to research and find their primary sources but they will have the freedom to explore what they want to research. The National Archives and Records Administrations (NARA) is a federal agency that contains all permanently valuable federal records and this organization is developing a website providing public access to these documents (November, 2010). The authenticity of these documents allows students to explore but also know that what they are reading is valid.

Students have freedom in their research but also guidance through the Digital Classroom (November, 2010). November (2010) says “the Digital Classroom provides educators and students with primary source material and with tools for using primary sources in the classroom” (p. 67). This collection is available on the Internet through the National Archives and provides primary sources that are easily accessible (November, 2010).

Another resource from NARA is the Archival Research Catalog (ARC), which is an online catalog that provides information and digital copies of thousands of primary source documents (November, 2010). November (2010) provides an example of a classroom where the teacher has students do research on this database using the names of significant people they knew had to do with the government. One student researched George Bush and found a document about another George Bush that was not the President he was looking for. After doing more research to find biographical information, he did find that this George Bush and President Bush were both pilots. This example shows “the power of primary sources in not just teaching historical content, but also in encouraging valuable research skills” (November, 2010, p.69).

2. What is the role of the teacher in helping students to make meaning of primary source material?

The role of the teacher in helping students to make meaning of primary source material is to provide structure and direction to the students (November, 2010). It is important for teachers to help students because many students have not developed strategies to evaluate primary sources. There are many ways teachers can help. One skill teachers should teach their students is “to understand the language and perspective of the organization or the people who provide primary source material” (November, 2010, p. 73). November (2010) gives an example of students searching “Trail of Tears” on NARA to search for information on the forced march of the Cherokee from their homelands. The federal government would not have called the removal of the Cherokee “Trail of Tears” and the students’ search may have been more productive if they took into consideration the government’s perspective (November, 2010).

A few more skills teachers should teach their students are to think about bias and subtleties, to sort fact from fiction by being visually literate, and to think critically about the primary sources (November, 2010). Teachers should guide students’ questions by encouraging students to focus on a specific question when analyzing a primary source (November, 2010). It is also important for students to examine other sources to help them learn about their primary source (November, 2010).

3. How can teachers use Podcasting and/or multimedia tools to promote collaborative learning?

To promote collaborative learning, teachers can use Podcasting and other multimedia tools such as videocasting, screencasting, and live-streaming TV. All these tools allow students to publish their work to an audience allowing for communication to share ideas and learn together. Podcasts are quick to make and easy to consume through RSS (Richardson, 2010). RSS allows people to subscribe to their podcast so that they can view new podcats whenever they are created (Richardson, 2010). If students publish their own podcats and subscribe to others, they can be creating and contributing ideas to a larger conversation (Richardson, 2010). Education Podcast Network is a great website to visit to view nearly 1,000 different education-related shows that students can use (Richardson, 2010). Richardson (2010) gives an example of students who create “Coleycasts,” making their “learning transparent to others” (p. 116) by creating “enhanced” podcasts with audio and accompanying slides. Another example is “Students Teaching Students,” which is a podcast created by fifth graders in Thailand to “think about how to better understand the reading process and the themes, plots, and characters for the books they are reading” (Richardson, 2010, p. 116). It is amazing what students can learn when they work together through these podcasts.

Video casting is another tool that promotes collaborative learning. With websites like Teacher Tube, students can view thousands of student-and-teacher-produced videos as well as upload videos of their own for others to look at (Richardson, 2010). This is another tool that allows students to communicate through creativity. Screencasting is also very useful for students to learn from together. With programs like Jing, students can create training videos for their peers to teach each other (Richardson, 2010). Finally, live streaming allows students to create TV on the web for the classroom through online video streaming sites like Ustream.tv (Richardson, 2010). For example, with live streaming, students can go online and participate in live review of the election and conduct a careful analysis of the voting by interacting with the “viewers” (Richardson, 2010). The possibilities for collaborative learning are endless!

Screencast Reflection

After reviewing feedback provided by other groups in response to my groups’s survey, I think the overall effectiveness of our screencast went well. My group worked very well together and we were successfully able to create a screencast in the instructed amount of time. At first we struggled with thinking of features we can teach in our screencast but once we got going we were able to quickly work through the project. What worked best in our group was our ability to break up the work. While some people were working on the actual screencast other people were working on the google doc and survey. I left class feeling very accomplished and proud of my group.

Some positive reactions to our screencast were that people said it was very clear and easy to follow along. By providing high ratings, people also said that the information for the basic skills and the special skills is useful in teaching. Many people also liked learning about how use tracking and leave comments in Microsoft Word. Some negative reactions were involving our footnote example. Multiple people said that they would have liked it better if we went through the formatting on footnotes and created one rather than just deleting one that was previously there. The feedback I received on Google Form was helpful but I wished I asked more elaborate questions to get a deeper understanding of what people thought. My group asked 4 questions on our survey that were scale based where reviewers only had to provide a number 1 through 5. Although I got a general idea from their ratings, I wish my group asked questions that had the reviewers provide a written response explaining their rating.

I found screencasts created by other groups very helpful for my teaching and learning. I am not very familiar with Microsoft Excel so that screencast helped me the most! Their audio was very clear and broke up each instruction, making it easier to follow. I also learned some advanced features on Microsoft PowerPoint that I never knew were available before. I would love to incorporate these screencasts into my future classrooms because students may not know some features on Microsoft Office that would be useful to them.

Students would benefit from the use of these screencasts because they could use the basic skills to review what they know on Microsoft Office and use the advanced skills to learn some things they didn't already know. The screencasts can be a review or a learning tool.

I will definitely use screencasts in my future classrooms. I wish I was introduced to them before graduate school. I think screencasts are great projects for students to practice using as well as learn from other student's screencast. With the rapid growing technology around us, it is important to expose students to the technology avaiable to them!

Thanks!

Maureen C.

EDCI 5825 Week 3 Blog Questions

1. Now that there is unlimited potential to celebrate the work of students with their communities, what is the best way to mange this opportunity?

The best way to celebrate the work of students with their communities is to have students publish their work on the web. A student gets a sense of acknowledgment for the contribution they made to their community (November, 2010). With an audience reviewing their work outside the isolated classroom, students feel motivated and get a sense of pride knowing that they are important (November, 2010). When students publish their work online, teachers can show their students the work of other students so that they want to improve on their work (November, 2010). A great resource for teachers to find other students work for their students to preview is Think Quest (November, 2010).

2. How can we create authentic work and relationships for our students to give them a deeper meaning in relation to complex issues such as globalization and cultural sensitivity?

Teachers can create authentic work and relationships for our students to get them thinking about global issues and cultural awareness through school to world connections (November, 2010). Programs like Skype, which allows free global connections, allows students to connect with other students from around the world (November, 2010). A teacher can have her students connect with native speakers from other countries where they can learn from each other's cultures as well as the global issues (November, 2010). November gives an example of cultural sensitivity with a situation where a teacher connected her students to a class learning English in Puerto Rico. When one male U.S. student met a female Puerto Rican student through a video program like Skype, the male student immediately hesitated when he saw a girl with blonde hair and blue eyes because he gained a bias to the girl's image and relied on a stereotype on how a Puerto Rican girl should look (November, 2010). By having the teacher communicate with the students in Puerto Rico, this male student was able to convert his cultural understanding to a "deep appreciation of not making hasty judgements about how someone in another country should look" (November, 2010, p. 40).

3. What are the emerging collaborative relationships for teachers?

Teachers should do their best to share their practices by gaining a relationship with other educators. "Teachers will be valued for their ability to share their knowledge and solve problems about teaching and learning that an individual teacher could not solve alone" (November, 2010, p. 50). A great website, created by the Advanced Learning Technologies in Education Consortia, for teachers to share ideas as well as find ideas on teaching with technology is www.4teachers.org (November, 2010). Teachers can also develop relationships with anonymous reviewers. "When a teacher assess student work from another's classroom, there can be a very positive impact on student motivation and quality" (November, 2010, p. 51). Teachers who share the review of student work also grow professionally because "the comments of each partner teacher add depth to the knowledge base of the team" (November, 2010, p. 51). One final relationship teachers should develop is collaboration with parents. The support from a parent or guardian through technology can provide teachers insight on how their child learns (November, 2010).

T2P Week 3

Hypothesis:

If teacher's beliefs and visions are solely what they base their teaching around, then conflicts may arise between teachers and students because what the teacher uses to approach those beliefs may need to be changed or adjusted according to the students the teacher is working with. What teachers believe to be most important may impede the students' learning.

T2P Week 3

Affect and motivation play an important role in learning. It is important to know who you are as a teacher and grasp on what motivates you. Along with understanding your emotion, it is essential to have emotional intelligence so that you know what you are comfortable with sharing with your students. Once you understand your own emotions, teachers can learn how their students emotions affect them. As teachers, we need to understand how powerful emotions play into our students learning. The positive or negative effects of a "hot cognition," "baggage," as well as their intention all are important to look at. Our goal is to get our students to reach a sense of self-determination through autonomy, competence, and relatedness. If all three conditions are present, students can function effectively and experience overall wellness. As teachers, we should empower our students and keep them intrinsically motivated to achieve. When students lose their intrinsic motivation, we can use extrinsic motivation to get them back to their inner motivation. By experimenting with motivators, teachers can find the optimal motivators that get them to excel.