grace’s blog

The Future of on line learning.

One of the most wonderful things that I am taking away from this course is that I learned and look forward to a future education system that will have no borders.

Students will now be able to go beyond the four walls of their classrooms and soaked up knowledge and information and more importantly be involved in the education process by being able to problem solve rather than memorize data.

I have no fear that this technology will replace the importance and the dynamics of the classroom. The classroom will always be the starting point to learning and it will be the ending point. As a dedicated book reader several years ago I feared that with the invention of the lab top and the internet the art and pleasure of book reading will disappear. But I have found that my neighborhood Chapter Book Store is still always filled with individuals like me that can serve the world on my computer to learn more but each Sunday I still find myself drawn to Chapters to continue my learning experience.

As a teacher I often worry that the world of computer technology was only there for the rich and that children developing countries will be denied access to this technology. But I have found over the last several years in my studies and research that in many remote parts of the world children still come to school with no shoes on but in photos of the school rooms there always appears a computers and I fully believe like the saying “cream always rises to the top” that these young minds will also make it to the computers screen.

This re-conforms my believe that this growing, new technology will expand the constrictive learning process like never before. In a short period of time that I have taken this course my understanding of this technology has been expanded ten-fold and I am sure within a few years the excellent textbook we had for this course will be outdated.

As I said before all learning starts in the classroom and the critical part of that will be the continual upgrade and education of our fellow teachers.

I really enjoyed the video dealing with motivation and rewards because of the fact it dealt with two different concepts in the area of motivation. The first part of the video dealt with the concept can a fat cat (rat) is motivated. We have felt for years that to be successful and to get places in life they always say you have to be hungry. And to a point, first part of this video proof that point. We all know high achievers that are always refer to as a (lean, mean, fighting machine) and at the same time we know people that are a bit overweight and too content with life and tend to watch life from the sidelines. When we are hungry for something we always remembered mistakes we have made that have blocked us from our goals and we learn fast not to make them again. The nice thing about this video was that it presented the fact that we first believe  is the this and lean rat who gets the food but the video points out that using the right motivation both rats will attained their goals we just have to present the right reward.

I see this in my Day care and that when I conduct circle activity I see my students can not remain focused on the planned activity. I realized that I had to do something to keep them motivated in the right direction. so I introduced an award system . Which consisted of stickers that would be awarded for positive behavior during the circle time? And you would never guess how far a simple sticker will go to motivate the group of young children.

I also find it is true at home with my two children. I generally find by mid-week they are starting to ask questions what fun things we have planned for the weekend. This period of time gives me the opportunity to ask how they are doing in school and what activity they working on at present, with this knowledge I then set up some goals for them for the rest of the week and if met activities are planned to reward their activity on the weekend.

Assessment

This Chapter 9 had to major effects on me. The first was from the personal side in which for many years as a student I was always concerned how I was assessed on my performance. There was nothing worse as a student to be given a grade that was labeled average. It gave me no understanding of the area of the subject in which I was poor in or any idea of the area that needed improvement.

I always found that I always enjoyed the learning process and this old means of students assessments did nothing to help me improve. I can not helped but think if I had the feedback and understood the desired goal that was set out for me how much better I would have done. The understanding of the base line for any learning program we learn from this chapter is a key in a learning process. 

The second part that I took from this chapter is it how important it is for me as a teacher to re-assess my own set up for assessing my students and how important it is for them to be part of the process. This activity will insure that they understand what is expected, where they stand in the process and it will give them the right direction to take for improvement. This framework will also be used as a foundation for my meetings with parents. This will insure that they also will be part of the process.

The nice thing also about this chapter is the area in which it provides the anatomy of a Rubric. Using this guideline I can apply this against any subject as it is universal. As we learn and effective Rubric communicates clearly with both students and parents. The feedback from both will let me know if they understand what I am trying to do, what the current status is of the students performance and what is needed to improve the student’s performance.  The entire process will clarify each person’s expectations of the process or activity. So in closing this chapter not only gives me a better understanding of how far we have come in the assessing the learning process of our students but it helps frame a structure that can be used in the future.

Learning in problem-based learning environments.

After reading Chapter 8 all I could think of was where were you back in October Chapter 8?

What an exiting Chapter when I read the part dealing with the astronomy village my mind went back to early October when my daughter was working on the Astronomy project for school, and the two of us spent the entire afternoon going about thirty books about astronomy in our library. It was so frustrating trying to find books that dealt with the area of astronomy that she was learning about. The Astronomy village would have made her learning experience so much better.

The same goes for my son last year working on project learning about the polluted river system here in Toronto. I remembered the countless hours he spent trying to understand what pollution does to our water system. Again this Chapter took us to a new level of understanding what can be done with this new technology. The best part of the entire Chapter was truly the part dealing with the “Sailing on the Mimi” The area of learning that this program offers is truly unlimited. It allows the students to not only problem solve but provides a sense of adventure in each learning episode. The truly unique thing about this project is that it in fact a real boat and given the opportunity the students not only with the use of the computer get to travel on it but given the opportune it could actually visit the boat.

I can see how this type of technology will allowed students to get involve in so many areas that will allow them to learn, problem solve and at the same time conduct experiments that are safe as well as a major cost savings to try to provide lab equipment in every school.

This new technology can benefit our students like never before I think the opportunity is so great that it is critical that it is introduced correctly. What I mean by that is that we as educators must be fully trained in this new technology.

Learning by  Exploring  Microworlds and Virtual Realities

After reading Chapter 7 it was another trip into the wonderful world of computer technology in which we learned one more or I should say two more areas in which computer technology is becoming a very valuable partner to today’s teaching professionals. As a teacher I am afraid to say my time with each individual student is very limited  and many times at the end of the day when I am driving home I feel at times I have short change some of my students who may need extra help . With the new computer technology that was review in this chapter this concern would disappeared as it allows each student to learn at their own pace and it allows them to understand their lessons fully before they move on to the next segment. As a teacher I don’t fear this is replacing the importance of the teacher student contact.  There is no question in my mind that classroom interaction is still a critical part of learning. This technology would only act as support to our teaching efforts.

The second part of the Chapter which dealt with the concept Virtual Realities using the example of The virtual Harlem Project is truly a step in the right direction my mind explodes with where this type of technology can go and how it can help future students not only learned about an event in history but by using this technology they will be actually able to visit the event and gain a better understanding of everything that would make up the subject. For example if they want to lean more about civil world this technology would let them get a feel for the atmosphere the people ,what they wore, the things that let them  to that point and it would be like being there.

Module 5 A

In Chapter 6 we gain a better understanding of constructing realities with hypermedia. This Chapter I found really reinforced an activity that I run with this past year while teaching French to a group of Grade 5’s. This was my first year teaching French in this particular school. I quickly learned that the level of my Grade 5 was no better than Grade 1 French for Beginners. The students would enter the class sit down say nothing and just look at the readers. After the first month I found that they hated the subject and even got to the point they did not have the ability to even memorize the assigned vocabulary from one day to the next. Interesting enough I did learned during those first four weeks that they all share one interest and that was playing on class computers. This gave me an idea that I would use this new technology as a means to get them involved with the subject. From my learning topics we were going to study and hoped they would learn the French vocabulary for different types of food they would order in the restaurant. I had an idea instead of having them memorize and just become receivers of the French vocabulary they would in fact on their own developed and produced menus. They immediately jump on this idea and convinced me that they would not only develop a menu but in fact they wanted to go the whole nine yards in using computers develop a full blown café in our classroom for a day. The end result was they created their own series of menus. This lead to posters to decorate the room and very eye catching signs to post everywhere in the school to announced the opening of the French Café. The students got their parents involved and they made all kinds of treats and goodies that were sold to staff and students during this event.  The students then with the money used the computers to search out a worth while charity to donate the money to. To this day I am proud to say that each of those students could go into a French restaurant and order their favourite food.

Module 4B

After reading Chapter 4 I found that I had to stop and catch my breath because it covered so many interesting areas with regard to the new communities that make up the world of computer technology. Front hid chapter it gives me the impression we have move so fast so quickly in this area. In one way it is just an updating of the communication mode that has been used between communities and nations from the beginning of time. the first part of the chapter relates to that of the sound of the drums in communicating from village to village an this chapter shows us haw in one way nothing has changed and we still need to communicate but in another way it shows how we took the mode of communication to the whole new level. And the notice thing is that it presents the point that this is just the beginning and what seems so new now in a very short time will be common knowledge.

On a small scale we as a group where able to experience this chapter in action when over the last short period of time Jason visited Florida we found  the sound of our drums reached him and we all learned about his travels. Now closer to home I’ve seen this chapter in action anytime I walk into my son’s room and he is communicating using computer to people that make up his community. They are the students in his age group in High Schools all over our city. Through the use of both MSN and Facebook he is able to communicate with the network of people that have the same interest, concerns and thoughts. Our home is consumed with the sound of clicking the key board with each key stroke he is using computer technology to build community. It works because we hear the continuing “ping” responses. Children today are hypercommunicators. This digital generation learns and builds community differently using computers, Ipods, video games, cell phones.

MODULE 4a

After reading this Research paper I had to go no further than my 11 year old daughter’s room to verify and confirm that this paper was very true. I took a few moments to pull out and review one of fifteen photo albums that she has labeled and placed by year on her wall unit.

I first review her photos taken when she was 7 years old and they were identical to those taken by the seven years old in this research paper. They all consisted of her favorite dolls and Teddy Bears all having tea and cookies together. I then moved to her photos albums of this past year and there was a big change in the photos. The toys and Teddy Bears photographed in her room were replaced with photos of places she has been on school field trips. Some of these had smiling faces of her classmates others were just scenes of where they were and it was very obvious her photos were out to capture the moment.

Each one when I talked to her about it she quickly relived that moment. On the other hand I also took the time to review my 16 years old son’s photos on his cell phone and like the research they were entirely group photos of his friends acting silly.

The photos gave no clue of where they were taken or what was the event. They were just a group of happy kids and when I questioned him he seemed to be happy with the selection process for why he took the photo and it was “Robert or McKenzie looked cool at that moment.”

So in reviewing this research paper the results do not surprise me at all , in fact I even pulled out some very old photographs that I took as a child and in fact to my surprise they were the same.

Now having learned this by using this technology and information as a teaching tool I can now do a better job to enriched this experience in my classroom. Lights, Camera, Action……..

Chapter 3 what can I say it was a light bulb moment when it comes to everything we have looked at so far in this course. As a student and teacher I’ve always founded frustrated when working on a topic that when I use internet as a teaching tool to help me learn more or solve a discussion paper I am always frustrated by learning there is 27,500 sites to visit that covers this topic and in the end like this Chapter expresses it becomes a scavenger hunt and in the end again nothing is learned. Just a hit and miss of sites.

          Then came this Chapter and the introduction to WebQuests . From a stand point from being a teacher and student I think this is wonderful. It would save the hours that I spent being a scavenger hunter and it would give me the time to really get to study the material. The reason that I think this is such a great teaching tool it reminds me of the entire afternoon I spent with my daughter at the neighborhood library this past Fall. Her school project was for her to do a paper on the Solar System when we got to the section that had the book on the Solar System I found a shelf of at least seventy books that covered everything from moon rocks to rocker ships and very little about the nine Planets. A tremendous amount of time was spent going from book to book to find the one or two that covered the subject matter. This experience reminded me of doing a paper and having to review the 27500 sites to find the answer. Te beauty of a WebQuest is the sites are pre picked to covered the topic you are working for. It will increase the quality time spent on the subject. Then looking at this from a standpoint of a teacher I can really see a room full of ligh bulb moments going off, if the students themselves then can create the WebQuest . Then having them being able to communicate with other students anywhere in the World on their subject it’s truly an outstanding learning experience.

          The additional bonus to this Chapter was learning about virtual travel.

And by how setting goals on  Line  Expeditions can really enriched the student.

During these times learning was based on memorizing facts and figures and then given them back to teachers in written tests and at the end of the day I often wonder did I really learn anything? This always rang true a week or two after the exam was written and it was time to review it. I found I only remembered or understood half of the material no matter what mark I received.

This chapter to me was a light bulb moment because at times I think my life is connected to the UNION OF INTERNATIONAL ASSOSIATIONS as my life at times I am sure is made up of a large percentage of the 26,000 problems they have in their database.

This chapter points out that problems are a part of every day life and can be broken down into well and sometimes not too well definitions. But the chapter points out the first step to learning is to understand learning and it presents a formula to understand each type of problem and I am looking forward to how this course will help provide myself and ideas for my students how to take ownership of problems and how we will learn from them and what is learned when they are solved.