Chapter 2

For this chapter I decided to answer Describe the importance of strategic thinking as a skill for teaching subject matter and content with technology. The first part of a strategy is designing a plan of how you are going to use technology without losing time because of students being bored or confused with the technology. It is best to start out with a technology that is somewhat familiar to the students or that does not take much time to give a detailed instruction in which the students can maneuver functionally within the technology. The book also mentions the subject of diversity, through the examples of tornados. It is important for the students to understand the basis of the content before they engage in the technological application, unless the technology is being used to introduce and education the content itself. Most importantly the most successful strategies involve the preparation and regulation of student's time and experiences with technology.

Umm, I do not really have any questions about this section because it is pretty much comparable to the book of Deuteronomy....Laws, rules, and regulations. Pretty dry stuff here. Well maybe I do have a question, though it may not be directly related to my previous paragraph. There seems to be a huge movement for learning and teaching with technology, and I am sure this has not just happened in the last year. When many teachers use technology effectively and more often than not, successfully, how are so many teachers using technology insufficiently or not at all? I wish I had a copy of this textbook to slam down on their desks. Powerpoint can be a great teaching tool if used correctly; I feel that ninety percent of the powerpoint based classes I have taken have incorrectly used technology. Cramming slides with more than three or four bulleted points just simple diverts attention from what the teacher is saying and rather leads it to a scribbling contest to write down every word before the next slide approaches. Technology is great and should be used in all classrooms; technology helps kids understand content in different ways. In my high-school, I used technology in a lot of my classes, but not all. I feel that all of the awesome and free applications found on the internet could have been extremely helpful in all of the classes which were stricken with dry erase and marker.

Chapter 10

Differentiate blogs from diaries and traditional journals and ways they can be used to guide student learning:

Blogs are different from diaries and other conventional thought-storing mediums because they are extremely custom; blogs are a way to share thoughts with anyone who would care to read one's blog. With widgets, blogs for a certain class or group are able to be linked with each other and feeds update connected bloggers with notifications of a peer's new posting. Hyperlinks, movies, picture, audio and many other multimedia functions and elements are easily incorporated into blogs with the click of a button. Nowadays, when computers are accessible to nearly every student, blogs are a great way for teachers to post assignments, reiterate topics discussed in class, and great for posting question for both students and teachers.

I have no questions about the blog section of this chapter because I am in complete support and understanding of the blog realm. This semester was the first time that I was required to blog for two of my three classes. I was very standoffish towards the idea of being required to post my thoughts online. However, as the semester is coming to an end, blogging has been pretty helpful and I am planning to do it for most of my classes to come. Not so much in this class but in my other English class blogging has helped me achieve a higher grade. Being linked to everyone in the classroom's blog, it is very simple to navigate through blogs and compare thoughts to the subjects we are discussing. For example, some students simply recollect what happened in class and create a very helpful outline by adding links and hypertext to their blogs. These links often help those who need help understanding certain concepts or stories. Also, my friend Rio posts his audio recording of the class lecture on his blog daily; If one just so happens to play hooky, they are able to easily catch up to speed by logging in their blog and listening to an audio recording through the blogs of others. As far as my other English class, I wish that we did have blogs specifically for discussion of what was happening in class. It is important to hear the thoughts of others, and it is impossible to listen to everyone's opinion in a fifty minute class. Blogs are one of the most important tools that I will be using when I teach; they are easily made interesting and are a great way of communication between students and teachers.

Chapter 11

Clarify Key Stages in an effective demonstration that guides student learning with and about technology in various subject areas:

Demonstration: Just as we are doing in our team teaching, the teacher is to demonstrate the technology and concepts while engaging student thought process. As observers, it is helpful to inquire what the students think about what is presented and how it can be adapted. This is crucial because teacher-centered lessons and tutorials often tend to create bored, distracted, and antsy students. Labs and Hands-On Activities: As the book states, constructivists believe that labs and hands on are essential if students are to successfully use technology as a tool. Keep in mind that the teacher needs to create focused and organized labs. At the end of each lab, it is very important to discuss how the students felt about using technology as a tool and what can be changed or improved. Questioning: This part is pretty self explanatory; start by asking simple questions and end with the higher-level ones. Grouping: Grouping, although I am not a huge fan of group-learning (usually one person ends up doing all the work), it is another way to teach technology as a useful tool to students. Some students often work better in groups because they have their peers to explain techniques and situations in more relatable terms. All of these strategies are useful; testing each one is the only way to figure out which method(s) are most useful for your adaptation.

I guess I really don't have any questions or qualms about this section because it is pretty straight forward. At the level I will be teaching, students are going to already know how to type and do basic word functions. These techniques are great if you are introducing a new technology; I guess I would apply them to free software or something like that which would be useful in an English classroom.

As a student, I was pretty tech-savvy; It was often me who told my English teacher how to do certain things on Word and other programs. I taught her to use the Grab program in order to take snapshots for step by step instructions, which made tricky applications of Word seemingly painless. Other than that, I don't really call learning a whole lot of new styles of technology in most of my classes.

ch 13

I choose to answer this question: Identify the usefulness of scoring rubrics when assessing student learning in technology rich ways.

Rubrics are very important when incorporating technology in your lesson plans. The rubric must score knowledge of the technology and the content material which is being enhanced by the technology. From the highest level of achievement to the lowest, the scoring guides must be stated clearly; it is best to have examples so the students can visualize the rubric. As we talked about in the class, a written plan or script for the technological material is vital when making a multimedia project. Instead of just using words such as advanced, proficient, partially proficient, and not proficient, accompany an example of how these categories reflect the work they are designated to.

During my days in High school, I can really only remember making two movies. One was for a health class and the other for an English class, which I think I have discussed in my previous blogs. My English teacher, with the use of a rubric and examples, made her grading scale very clear to us. We had to turn in a script before we could begin production and I remember everything going fairly smoothly, as we had stuck to our script. Most students need more than just a few words to describe the proficiency of their projects, and adding examples and clarity to rubrics can solve this problem and help students score higher.

The only question I have about this section is: How are we as teachers to grade those students who have great quality but poor content while using technology to gain knowledge. Is a student to fail as though they had written a poor paper in impeccable handwriting? I guess that is probably something that needs to be assessed on the rubric.

Chapter 3

Much of this blog is going to be pretty cut and dry; this chapter deals with the transformation and understanding of learning and knowledge from the late nineteenth century till now. The question I chose to answer is: Explain constructivism and how it affects teaching and learning today.

Constructivists believe that individuals learn by their own processes; how one learns depends on past experiences and thought processes. Constructivists support student-based learning, rather than a teacher showing the students how to singularly process information. I believe that the flourish of technology in the classroom largely depends on constructivism. Technology creates tools that can be adapted to many applications; personalization of expression and interest through subject areas is made possible by programs and technologies used in the classroom today. Here are some examples of new learning environments created by constructivism:

• Student-centered Instruction
• Multi-sensory stimulation
• Multi-path Progression
• Multimedia
• Collaborative Work
• Information Exchange
• Critical thinking and decision making
• Proactive or planned action
• Authentic real-world text

The constructivist style of teaching is one that I support; however I question how this approach, which aims to socialize, stimulate, and civilize students can be incorporated into subjects such as home-ec, shop, and all those other silly classes I was required to take in middle/high school? How can a teacher apply authentic real world-applications of carving a key from a scroll saw? Obviously my failure to see the purpose of requirement of these classes for students still lingers. I guess I am only asking this question because I really do not have any questions about this section that are on the tip of my tongue.

To refute my positive view of constructivism for a second I shall recall every single math class I have taken. (I have actually taken alot of math because I was originally a pre-med major). I understand that learning how to solve math problems extends beyond the graph paper; solving math problems exercises many important thought processes and specific areas of the brain. As every math student I have raised my hand in class and asked where the hell am I ever going to need to know how to solve impossibly hard and lengthy math problems. The teachers always say that someday somewhere you are going to need to know how to work through problems, be numbers or otherwise. Constructivism has enabled the world of math to incorporate real-world examples into wordy math questions. For me, I really think that this application of worldly terms farther confuses many students. If math is really just about learning processes of problem solving, why bog down each question with trains, boats, bacteria, and rockets? I do not have an answer. Besides the math realm, I am in support of Constructivism.

Chapter 8

Clarify actions that are important in each of the multimedia design process phases.

The phases that are described in the text are almost solely based upon designing a video-based project. However, elements of the pre- and post-production are vital in creating a successful concept map or powerpoint presentation. The Purpose of the preproduction phase is to establish and conceptualize the main story line (or core idea) of the project. Actions: students are to individually generate ideas and then be placed into groups where they can use each others thoughts and ideas to create a central image of how the project should turn out. This process establishes a unified backbone for the project without introducing the elements of technology. This phase also includes the collect of permission slips. The production phase is defined by the multimedia technology choice. The transfer of ideas from the preproduction stage to the multimedia of choice happens in this phase. As far as powerpoint and mind maps go, selection of graphics/sound clips begins in this section. For movies, production includes the standards for recording. These standards should be included in the grading guidelines. Actions: After all clips are shot, editing software is used to piece together the clips; then students are to then analyze their merging of clips and see if they coincide with the guidelines for the project. Finally, in postproduction, students are to present their movies, mind maps, or powerpoints. Actions: Students are too realize the importance of the environment of their presentations. For example, when showing a movie the atmosphere of a light or dark room can help create a certain mood. Students who are presenting powerpoints and mind maps must be careful not to only recite information from the visual aid.

Multiple experiences with a multimedia application are essential for the learning process.

I understand what this quote is saying and the value of multimedia enriched students but I also disagree about how this section goes about creating technology literate students in an ever-advancing society. Learning how to use a digital camera is important because there are so many applications in the real world for this, but I do not believe that programs should not try to shove almost in-applicable technologies in certain subjects. I do believe that knowing how to fluently use a video editing program is a valuable skill; I am not sure if this section implies it but I don't think that teachers should spend too much time in class making sure everyone can fluently edit videos (simply because it would take too much time). Smartboards, Digital Tablets, pulse pens, ebooks, the web, powerpoints, digital mind maps, are all valuable technologies in an English classroom and I think that projects should merge with these technologies.

My experiences with powerpoints and movie making were mediocre during my extended stay at Charles M. Russell High. My chemistry teacher would cram too much information onto her powerpoints; when powerpoints are crammed from top to bottom with information and terms, I tend to focus on merely copying down every word rather than how I am supposed to be digesting the information present. Because of this teacher, I hated powerpoints. Further down the road my English teacher used them how they are most efficiently used. She did not cram each slide too much information; she rather referred to her powerpoints for main points and definitions if needed. As far as movies go, I only had to make two movies in high school. Movies are a great way to visualize the interpretation and understanding of a subject matter between teacher and students. Rules and directions for shooting and editing were definitely addressed and I did not find it too hard to actually sit in front of the computer and piece everything together. My teacher did not spend too much time on the actual specifics of editing and the technology based quality of the film itself. When used in the right context, multimedia applications are a great catalyst for discussion, learning, and knowledge.

Chapter 12

There are many key elements to a successful lesson plan as pointed out in chapter twelve. First of all, teachers must have prerequisite knowledge about the content of there lesson. If teachers did not have background knowledge of what they were teaching then they turn out to be life-long substitutes. A clear introduction, detailed and layered objectives without repetition, and finally a closure/reflection section are essential. Although it seems simple, putting together a lesson plan and incorporating technology surpasses lesson plans of the past. As I have said before in my previous blog, it is important to understand what type of technology is being used in the lesson; the lesson must not be just about the technology itself (unless learning how to type is in fact the lesson). If one is using multiple types of technology, it is important to have the correct materials for every one and to be sure to have a back up plan.

My own reflection of this section reminded me most of how my high school required a technology section in our band classes. I thought that the programs that we were practically forced to spend a certain amount of time on just wasted the valuable time I had during the day to play music. The only benefit of making band-students use music writing computer programs lies in the individual who actually wanted to be a composer; I can't remember a single person who actually produced something from those programs. However I also pondered that maybe it was my instructor who was using the technology in the wrong way; maybe there was some other beneficial aspect to the programs we were required to use.

One question I have about this section revolves around the concentration of subject matter. There are multiple examples in the text which rely around every subject but literature and English except for Huck Finn who graced us with his example in Ch. 4. I think that the second section of the chapter was the most beneficial for me; the contextual examples of the lesson plans themselves strengthened my theories of what my own lesson plans are going to look like. Unfortunately it is hard to use excel in explaining The Scarlet Letter. I do believe that programs such as Inspiration will be especially helpful in creating character maps and maybe plot development of some of the more tricky novels.