CEdu 533 Week 2

We learned more html tags during the last class. The people that invented and developed html must have been brilliant.

We searched for good and bad websites as a group and will present our findings to the class during class session 3. It seems easier to find examples of bad websites than good ones on the web. That might be because poorly designed websites tend to stand out.

It looks as if this week we will be learning about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and various other items in order to create a web page. Sounds like fun!

CEDu 533 Week 1

In week 1 of our new class, "How the Web Works", we saw some intriguing videos and took part in a virtual classroom experience. I think it seemed to work pretty well and we had a good start to the class.

We are learning how to write HTML code, which I think is fun. It is especially fun when it works, in other words, when I use the code correctly. I'd like to see the code for some of the pages I go to on a regular basis. There is probably an easy way, I have just never looked into it.

Our powerpoint presentation on changes that the web has brought about led us to discuss some of those changes and will provide for an interesting class presentation. It's hard to imagine a world without the web now. 16 or 17 years ago, I had never heard of the World Wide Web or the internet.

The comments that class members provided for "the internet is . . . " were insightful and sometimes humorous.

I look forward to finding out more about how the web works.

CEDu 533 Week 1

Week 5 T-Table, Normal Curve, Benchmark

During and after this class I felt dumb. I have trouble keeping track of all of the different formulas and concepts and remembering which one is used in which situation. I wish I had more time to really review everything at my own pace before the "activity" tomorrow. Doing a group and individual project, as well as studying for the final "activity", was a bit overwhelming this week.

During class 5 we learned about the t-test and various related concepts. Before that we talked about the normal curve.

Doing the exercises on the sheets and discussing them during class did help. It was a good class session, it's just that there is much to remember and it all sort of blends together in such a condensed program.

Week 4 - r, correlation, pearson and spearman

In the week 4 class we learned about correlating data and calculating a figure called "r". Excel sure is handy with these statistical calculations. I wonder what they did in "the old days". The Pearson and Spearman formulas can be used in different situations but usually do arrive at about the same number. One of the most difficult aspects of statistics and this class is remembering all of the formulas and concepts and which formula does what. It's a lot to take in in a short time. It's probably keeping my brain on its toes, so to speak.

Statistics Week 3

I am very concerned about the benchmark (test) we will be taking tonight. We learned about the z number and did some other calculations. Hopefully, we will have a good review before doing the benchmark.

Technology question - is there a way to link a downloaded video to a powerpoint presentation? If I have the video saved somewhere on my computer can I somehow embed a link to it in m powerpoint?

What are some good websites for converting files? Converting online video files to WMV?

Cedu 549 Statistics Week #2

During the last class we learned about many formulas for figuring out mean, standard deviation, median, etc. It is possible to do this with a calculator or maybe even free hand, but the formulas are available in Excel and Google Docs Spreadsheet. We began working on the descriptive project in our group meeting last evening and came across some strange MS Excel behaviors. Hopefully those problems will not occur while we are working on the benchmark tomorrow. I would like to know if anyone has any ideas about why we were having these problems. We were using PCs at school. Maybe we could discuss this in class.

The descriptive project is a very good practice run for our own research studies, I think. I think it will help to prepare us for summarizing and describing our own data. We have begun working on it as a group, so we have a good start already.

I am interested to know if anyone knows of any helpful or fun websites related to statistics. I am an elementary school library media specialist so I am always looking for good websites to pass along to teachers.

Make-Up Blog for Statistics Week 1

In week one of statistics we learned about many basic concepts and terms that will provide a foundation as we move further into the subject matter. I think this will be a fun class and a little different than many of our previous classes. I am glad that we are learning how to do research and report our findings as these are skills that are fundamental to the academic community. I think this entire process of planning for and carrying out an action research plan will benefit me as an educator. Hopefully I will have a solid idea of how to quantify and report my findings as a result of this course.

CEDU 520 Action Research

Some thoughts about our current work:

I am having trouble finding articles on clickers in elementary education. There are many articles on clickers, but not so many relating to the primary grades. Much of the information and research has concentrated on the post secondary level. It is a good thing I am doing this study, then.

Although all of this paperwork and errand running relating to our action research seems like a real pain now, I think it is good that we are being required to do this. It will give us a taste of what research entails and how to conduct it correctly. Also, I really think this might help to improve my instruction. I am very interested to find out what the outcomes of this study will be and whether the clickers do improve learning. I have a feeling that they will, but I will keep any biases to myself. I don't want to affect the results in any way.

CEDU 520

We've done some interesting reading for this class. We've been learning how to write article summaries and are starting the process of action research, which involves not only the study itself but many other very involved steps.

A few suggestions for the people who decide on the structure of this entire program. I think this class, 520, would work much better during the school year. Also, why does this program need to be so condensed? I would have liked more time off at various points. I was never very enthused about the accelerated format in the first place and my mind has really not changed about that. I joined this program because it was the only instructional technology program I could find and because Cardinal Stritch has a good reputation. Why not three years for the program length? I'm not in a great rush to get it done. Maybe some people are, though, and that is why it is structured so.

cedu521 Week 1 Project Based Learning

Project Based Learning - How could I use this in my teaching?

One thought that comes to mind is that I could involve students in one of my book orders. This would require them to read reviews, use 21st Century skills in looking for information, and utilize math skills. I might provide them with simplified versions of the forms that I use. I actually think this would be kind of fun. We would, in effect, do the researching, selecting and ordering as a team. I could maybe even use the Visual Ranking Tool to help determine which books we should order. That depends if the tool can be modified to accommodate a large number of items. I think this would qualify as PBL, since we it is an authentic task that requires the students to use various types of skills.

Week 5 Professional Growth

"What ongoing professional development is important for sustaining professional growth?"

Professional development that forces us to look at how we teach and what we can do better. Not only that, but professional development should give teachers the necessary training or at least refer them to a helpful source that will allow them to improve their methods.

In my case, I need professional growth that helps me to stay current on new developments in the library, media and technology fields. This program is a form of professional development for all of us who are in it.

Effective professional development offerings are not usually one shot deals, where you receive instruction and then never have any follow up. I could make a long list of skills and/or information I have acquired in classes and professional growth opportunities and have forgotten because I didn't review them later. Part of that is my fault, but part of the problem is how learning opportunities are structured sometimes.

Week 4 - Self-Directed Learners and Differentiated Learning

An example of somewhat self-directed learning in our elementary schools are students who take classes online. A couple of our students receiving online math instruction in order to place them into middle school level classes. In fact, one of them, a 3rd grader, is actually doing 8th grade math.

PBL certainly involves a significant degree of self-directed learning. Although I haven't seen too many examples of this in the schools it is used to some degree in classrooms (and outside of them).

I think choice in learning can be a significant motivator if used appropriately. Reports and projects are most conducive to choice and self-directed learning in my opinion.

Designing lessons that allow for differentiated instruction is something that teachers are very familiar with. Teachers know that they need to allow for different learning styles and levels when teaching students.

The assignment note says to write about student centered assessment and how this module has added to my ideas about this. Well, I think student centered assessments implies that the individual learning styles of the students should be taken into account when assessing what students have learned. This is obvious and I don't think anyone would disagree. Making assessments student centered can also mean involving them in the process of creating assessments. This can lead to more motivation as a result of their increased involvement, but can also be a slippery slope if they are allowed too much input. I think it depends on your teaching style and your particular group of students.

In my teaching I do give assessments to gauge whether or not the students have acquired various library, information and research skills. I try to make the assessments somewhat active in that students sometimes have to move to different parts of the library or use what they have learned to find information in various sources. So there is some degree of student centeredness (made up that last word) to my lessons and units. I do make use of formative assessments, which may include worksheets, quizzes or just the demonstration of a skill. These are indicators that lead to the summative assessments. The summative assessments are of a similar style but are usually longer and the students have to complete them with less assistance.

cedu 521

This class is going well so far. We have learned about some useful things, such as the moodle and the intel website. I think this might be the most valuable class yet since we are actually designing a unit to use. Honestly, I'm getting really burned out as far as these classes go. I'll make it through but it is a marathon. There are pros and cons to the condensed, accelerated nature of this cohort.

Specific digital divide issues that I see in my classroom:

At some of the schools it is very difficult to book time in the computer lab.

There is not always equipment available to use. Today I was hoping to use the smart board with a couple of classes but the school's two smartboards were already in use.

CEDU 531 Session #4

We discussed rubrics in the last class, which is helpful. Also, we podcasted. I had never podcasted before and I thought this was really cool. Now I actually have an account in Gcast and am able to podcast, which I think is pretty cool. I would like to learn more about different types of podasts, as well. I can see how podcasting would be helpful in education. There are many ways that teachers and students could use podcasts. For example, teachers could post their lectures via podcast to their blog or website so that students could listen to them later.

I am somewhat concerned about the individual digital story that we need to have completed by next week. I want to come up with a story that is somewhat compelling and interesting for people to watch and listen to.

CEDU 531 Session #3 - Storytelling Elements

A few of the storytelling elements jump out at me when considering them in a classroom setting.

I think we always need to keep the point of view of the students in mind. They're thinking, "Why do I need to learn this?" sometimes and "I'm bored - I've been sitting in chairs all day listening to teachers." We need to keep in mind what it is like to be students and to always present a clear purpose for what they are learning.

Emotional content. The more students are emotionally invested in what they are doing, the more effort they will give. If the teacher can somehow appeal to students interests it will probably make the learning process more productive.

Pacing. I think lessons, depending on what the subject is, need to be well paced and include a variety of activities in order to hold students' interests and to appeal to the variety of learning styles.

Connections - CEDU Session #2

Well, I think there was quite a bit in session #2 that I could apply to my teaching. Voicethread is a cool and relatively user friendly tool. This could be used as a one lesson activity, whereby students could create a short presentation to show the class. It could also be part of a larger digital storytelling project that is integrated into the curriculum.

The information on copyright and Creative Commons is very important and teachers should always try to respect intellectual property. After all, educators are trying to promote creativity in the classroom. Teachers should practice and promote the ethical and fair use of copyrighted works.

Using Digital Storytelling in the Classroom

There are several ways that I could use digital storytelling in my teaching. Digital storytelling would lend itself very well to booktalking, where I could really make books come alive. Showing students how to find and use resources in the library could be aided with the help of some digital storytelling. I could just imagine making some funny digital stories involving teachers and students that show how to find books or use the patron catalog. It might even be possible for students to create their own simple digital stories on everything from books that they've read to trips that they've taken or just to describe themselves.

This and that.

My thoughts:

I had heard of Creative Commons before but I didn't realize the extent of the benefits that they are providing. Whoever started that organization deserves big time kudos.

I like some of the webquest search engines and some of the webquests we found in and out of class. I might end up trying one or two in school sometime.

I'm glad it didn't snow today as it was predicted to.

I liked the "Connected" newsletter that the instructor showed us in class.

Have you ever heard of a projector (like an lcd projector) that is hand held? Someone I know thought they had heard of something like this. I asked at Best Buy out of curiosity, but the salesperson there had no knowledge of anything like this.

How do I create links on the wiki and name the links? In other words, how could I create a link to this blog and give it a name such as My Blog instead of just having the web address show up in the wiki?

Cyberspace . . . The Final Frontier

Some more random thoughts. I liked our group thinkfinity lesson on internet safety. I think it would be a great lesson to do with students in high school or even middle school.

I like jing because it seems like it would be an easy site to use.

I don't care for Facebook but it certainly is good to know what students are doing. I'm not all that crazy about the idea that someone could google me.

BrainPop is a very nice resource but it is expensive. With shrinking budgets resources like this are becoming more and more difficult to afford.

I don't recall if we talked about the spyware and malware in the last class, but I would be interested to know more about them.

Winter Doldrums

Last week we discussed and reviewed various online quiz / test sites. The one my group reviewed was pretty simple and straightforward. It didn't seem to actually do everything it said it would do, though. The assessment website presented by the last group was very involved. I like a simple, attractive screen for websites, not a busy interface.

The thinkfinity lesson activity produced some good ideas. I would like to find a lesson that is more suitable to what I do, however (library / research skills). I'm not having a lot of success finding a lesson.

Reflection on January 22nd Class

A few stray thoughts from our last class:

Google searches reach about 20% (or less) of the information that is actually available on the web. Wow. Maybe we could see an example of something that would not be accessible via Google?

Boolean searches. Just teaching teachers and students the basic uses of "and", "or" and "not" would go a long way. In terms of digital literacy I think a good, simple lesson on the use of these search terms (as was done in class) would get a lot of bang for the buck, or in other words, benefit for the time spent learning.

I think Suzanne mentioned in class that it would be foolhardy not to take advantage of advanced searches in various databases. I certainly agree. Advanced search options make life much easier and make searching, whether it be in an OPAC or elsewhere, much more effective.

It was interesting to see how the use of the colon and various search terms could be used to carry out searches. Example link:mtsd.k12.wi.us