I was surprised that one would need/want to use folders when working with Google Earth, but when the tutorial suggested putting all the place cards for a project in one folder, that made sense. I was really surprised that Google EARTH includes Mars, and that you can do all the same things with it that you can with the earth. (The Sun feature however is not about the sun itself, but shows a time elapse picture of how the sun shines on an area on earth, including sunrise and sunset.)
The middle school lesson plans were exciting and I could see how Google Earth could really help them to look at events through a geographic (and even historical) perspective. I especially liked the idea of using Google Earth to look at migration patterns and the push and pull factors behind immigration, as well as the prehistoric migration of humans across the globe. I like that it can be incorporated into other subject areas, such as history (locations of and physical distances between battles) and even literature (birthplaces of writers and locations of events in novels and poetry), and even science (environmental issues and perhaps even the location of species).The high school lesson plans referred to visual field trips (including ones the students designed) migration patterns of whales and how they affect the Maori people, and tracing the paths of historic explorers.
I viewed one of the education link that had additional ideas for how Google Earth (as well as Google Sky) could be used to understand changes in the environment , natural disasters, and to view an earthquake in real time. I was excited to see several links to tutorials on Google Earth that were not videos!!! The fact that lesson ideas were arranged by themes made the site much more useful, and it was exciting to see how it could even be used in mathematics (something that seemed shocking when I first looked at it, but then seemed like an obvious application that I should have recognized).
Friday, July 20, 2012
Finders Keepers
I'm having trouble appreciating the appeal of any of the three tools we studying today, so I'm going to try really hard to imagine I'm living someone else's life--someone who would have a real use for these tools, because I can't imagine ever wanting to use them myself.
To bookmark items in Delicious you must either know the url, copy it from your browser's bookmarks, or go to the site and then save it to Delicious. This only seems worthwhile if you are constantly accessing numerous websites from computers that are not yours. I suppose this could come in handy for a teacher who works from several classrooms and is unable to save sites to browsers. Another feature is that the sites you have saved can be (and are expected to be) viewed by others. I suppose this may be useful if you and other teachers have saved numerous teaching resource websites and want to keep each other updated constantly on your newer discoveries without needing to discus it together.
Google Reader might seem more appealing if I wasn't already utilizing Facebook for much the same purpose (plus allowing me to keep in touch with others through updates, messages, and chatting). It is nice that they have bundles of things you might like to follow, as well as allowing you to choose items individually. When I fist followed FB and wanted to fan news sites from a wide variety of viewpoints, it took a while to choose a wide selection, so I can see the benefit of this preselection for news and other various types of things people might want to keep up to date with. Of course developments in educational research and teaching methods would be a selection any teacher would wish to follow.
I can definitely see the value of Library Thing if it was used to keep track of a shared collection of books, such as a separate library collection for teaching staff (although I would assume using the school's library system would be simpler). I don't really see the appeal for an individual to keep track of their books this way, or why s/he would feel the need to share it with the world, but to each his own. I suppose it could be useful to keep track of journal articles this way though, and I suppose a community of teachers might want to make this information more available to each other. I also do like the idea of encouraging students to discus their favorite books with each other. I'm not sure I would encourage them to make Library Thing accounts, but looking at this tool does inspire me to perhaps have a project where they exhibit their favorite books.
To bookmark items in Delicious you must either know the url, copy it from your browser's bookmarks, or go to the site and then save it to Delicious. This only seems worthwhile if you are constantly accessing numerous websites from computers that are not yours. I suppose this could come in handy for a teacher who works from several classrooms and is unable to save sites to browsers. Another feature is that the sites you have saved can be (and are expected to be) viewed by others. I suppose this may be useful if you and other teachers have saved numerous teaching resource websites and want to keep each other updated constantly on your newer discoveries without needing to discus it together.
Google Reader might seem more appealing if I wasn't already utilizing Facebook for much the same purpose (plus allowing me to keep in touch with others through updates, messages, and chatting). It is nice that they have bundles of things you might like to follow, as well as allowing you to choose items individually. When I fist followed FB and wanted to fan news sites from a wide variety of viewpoints, it took a while to choose a wide selection, so I can see the benefit of this preselection for news and other various types of things people might want to keep up to date with. Of course developments in educational research and teaching methods would be a selection any teacher would wish to follow.
I can definitely see the value of Library Thing if it was used to keep track of a shared collection of books, such as a separate library collection for teaching staff (although I would assume using the school's library system would be simpler). I don't really see the appeal for an individual to keep track of their books this way, or why s/he would feel the need to share it with the world, but to each his own. I suppose it could be useful to keep track of journal articles this way though, and I suppose a community of teachers might want to make this information more available to each other. I also do like the idea of encouraging students to discus their favorite books with each other. I'm not sure I would encourage them to make Library Thing accounts, but looking at this tool does inspire me to perhaps have a project where they exhibit their favorite books.
MAC OS
I was introduced to the idea of computers in elementary school in the eighties, but they never had much appeal to me. I had played Oregon Trail and that lemonade stand game, and when I was in high school I learned enough about word processing (Wordperfect, Word, Microsoft Works) to get my assignments turned in. I've never really even been big on surfing the web, until I went back to school at UT and realized the books I had checked out for a research paper were all over fifty years old. I am more familiar with the Windows operating system, but I have used MACs a few times. I had never even heard of the linux operating system until I read this assignment.
Most of what I learned from the atomic learning was basic terminology and basic concepts of what a MAC can do. For example:
-The dock is the row of readily accessible icons on the bottom of the screen
-Stacks are piles of documents placed together. (I'm not sure if they are the exact equivalent of folders, or just very similar.
-Quickclick allows you to see what a file is (at least vaguely) without taking the time to actually open it. (very cool)
-Clicking the red box doesn't actually quit the application.
-The launchpad gives you all the icons for various applications.
-Widgets can be added to your dashboard. (They seem like really simple gadgets.) They are a sort of quicklink. Additional choices can be downloaded.
-There is a time machine backup system (but you need an extra hard drive to use it). In case your hard drive ever crashes, this has automatically backed up everything on the hard rive (not stuff on your flash drives, ect). It also allows you to go back and retrieve files if you've erased them by mistake.
(Unlike how the name implies, to find something old you don't have to give up new material, you can selectively retrieve just the one thing you regret losing. --Not like the undo button on a word document.) This is the best computer related invention of all time!
Most of what I learned from the atomic learning was basic terminology and basic concepts of what a MAC can do. For example:
-The dock is the row of readily accessible icons on the bottom of the screen
-Stacks are piles of documents placed together. (I'm not sure if they are the exact equivalent of folders, or just very similar.
-Quickclick allows you to see what a file is (at least vaguely) without taking the time to actually open it. (very cool)
-Clicking the red box doesn't actually quit the application.
-The launchpad gives you all the icons for various applications.
-Widgets can be added to your dashboard. (They seem like really simple gadgets.) They are a sort of quicklink. Additional choices can be downloaded.
-There is a time machine backup system (but you need an extra hard drive to use it). In case your hard drive ever crashes, this has automatically backed up everything on the hard rive (not stuff on your flash drives, ect). It also allows you to go back and retrieve files if you've erased them by mistake.
(Unlike how the name implies, to find something old you don't have to give up new material, you can selectively retrieve just the one thing you regret losing. --Not like the undo button on a word document.) This is the best computer related invention of all time!
Drawing
My first reaction to google drawing was that the name was a misnomer. It was cool, yes, and it could be very useful for making flow charts and for communicating information visually, but it wasn't really drawing, and it wasn't creative. Then I saw how the basic shapes could be used to "draw" Goofy!
I learned that you can import images by uploading them specifically, typing in a url, or doing a google image search. Images can be similar to the stock images, or they can be actual photographs. Textboxes can be part of the drawing and/or a drawing can be embedded into a regular google document. After being embedded into a document both the original (saved) drawing and the new copy can be edited separately. I especially liked the drawing of the seating chart for a wedding, and thought the idea could easily be adapted to make drawings of molecules.
The examples from the lesson plan (for elementary students!) were much more complicated than I would have thought possible. It definitely allowed students to be really creative, and I loved the way the children's drawings incorporated real life images. This would be a really useful tool to get students who don't feel comfortable about their artistic ability to still be creative in a visual way. For those students who are artistic in a more traditional way, drawings gives them a new medium in which to express themselves.
I learned that you can import images by uploading them specifically, typing in a url, or doing a google image search. Images can be similar to the stock images, or they can be actual photographs. Textboxes can be part of the drawing and/or a drawing can be embedded into a regular google document. After being embedded into a document both the original (saved) drawing and the new copy can be edited separately. I especially liked the drawing of the seating chart for a wedding, and thought the idea could easily be adapted to make drawings of molecules.
The examples from the lesson plan (for elementary students!) were much more complicated than I would have thought possible. It definitely allowed students to be really creative, and I loved the way the children's drawings incorporated real life images. This would be a really useful tool to get students who don't feel comfortable about their artistic ability to still be creative in a visual way. For those students who are artistic in a more traditional way, drawings gives them a new medium in which to express themselves.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Google Maps
I've used Mapquest but never Google Maps. I was surprised by some of the features of Google Maps (some of which may be on Mapquest as well) that I thought would be really useful, both for in regular life and for teaching. I like that when getting directions you can avoid highways and tolls and that you can plan your trip for the car, walking, or even public transit. I especially like that the same site can give you both directions and a visual of what the location actually looks like. (How many times have you followed directions correctly, only to be unable to recognize your destination?)
I viewed the lesson plan and map for the Language Arts Lesson on the historical novel My
Brother Sam is Dead and the map for the science lesson on the weather. I really liked the placemakers feature that allowed students to show a location and to tell more about it. The map was really helpful for students to understand the distances between battles and cities mentioned in the novel, and to understand how these effected the lives of the characters in the novel. It was also interesting to see that even information unrelated to geography (such as discussion questions) could be added to peacemakers on the map, and how the key on the left provided a sort of timeline as well. It was also interesting to see how students could connect how different weather phenomena are related to geography,as they can see that the locations where tornados are prevalent are on the plains, ect.
I viewed the lesson plan and map for the Language Arts Lesson on the historical novel My
Brother Sam is Dead and the map for the science lesson on the weather. I really liked the placemakers feature that allowed students to show a location and to tell more about it. The map was really helpful for students to understand the distances between battles and cities mentioned in the novel, and to understand how these effected the lives of the characters in the novel. It was also interesting to see that even information unrelated to geography (such as discussion questions) could be added to peacemakers on the map, and how the key on the left provided a sort of timeline as well. It was also interesting to see how students could connect how different weather phenomena are related to geography,as they can see that the locations where tornados are prevalent are on the plains, ect.
iPad apps
My favorite app was the first one I looked at, Your World. It gives a picture of the world, which you can turn even more easily than a globe. On the bottom of the screen are outlines of various countries, which you attempt to place on the world. Initially the map shows only a grey outline of the land masses, but as each piece is filled in it appears as a natural geography map. By typing the W icon after a country has been selected, you can access a wikipedia entry that gives more information about that nation. Images can be emailed, posted to Facebook or Twitter or saved as a photo. Achievements are earned as you complete various levels, such as Africa, the Americas, and U.S. States. This app would be amazing in a social studies classroom! It gives students a real-world perspective of where each nation is located and what it looks like (rather than an arbitrary set of boxes on a map with just one orientation), so students are better able to understand how each nation is located in relation to the others, and are more likely to recognize them on various maps (rather than just the one they've studied). The division into regions would make it much easier to incorporate into lessens about the regions. The email feature would make it easy for a teacher to use completion of a map as an assignment or even a test (especially if one sees testing as not only an assessment tool, but as an additional teaching tool.) Can you imagine, a test that is actually fun to take?!
Lincol...grams (Lincoln Telegrams) is an app that shows actual (letters?) written by President Abraham Lincoln and organized by date. Each entry includes an actual image of the letter, a transcription (the handwriting is difficult), a very brief summary of its content, an explanation of the context of the letter, and a number of inferences about what the words imply about attitudes or other events. This app could be used not only in lessons about the civil war, but as an introduction to or illustration of the concepts of primary documents, historical context, and making inferences. For this to be most effective, it would probably be best for the teacher to choose specific selections for students to work with.
I had trouble using Xperica HD (partly because I don't remember much of the science!), but I loved the idea, and hope I could eventually use it with more practice. It gives visual demonstrations of numerous scientific experiments. This could be used as an initial exercise before doing actual experiments( to help students get it right the first time and avoid wasting time or materials) or as a replacement for expensive or risky procedures.I especially liked that it included an apparatus list (It's hard to follow instructions if you can't identify the equipment) and it explained the aim of the experiment, as well as giving step-by-step instructions. There was also a Learn icon that gives additional information to put the experiment in a broader scientific (and even historical) context.
I also briefly spent briefer amounts of time with The Weather Chanel, Science@VL, History Tools, America Lite, NewsPro, and Globe, since I was completely unfamiliar with Apps.
Lincol...grams (Lincoln Telegrams) is an app that shows actual (letters?) written by President Abraham Lincoln and organized by date. Each entry includes an actual image of the letter, a transcription (the handwriting is difficult), a very brief summary of its content, an explanation of the context of the letter, and a number of inferences about what the words imply about attitudes or other events. This app could be used not only in lessons about the civil war, but as an introduction to or illustration of the concepts of primary documents, historical context, and making inferences. For this to be most effective, it would probably be best for the teacher to choose specific selections for students to work with.
I had trouble using Xperica HD (partly because I don't remember much of the science!), but I loved the idea, and hope I could eventually use it with more practice. It gives visual demonstrations of numerous scientific experiments. This could be used as an initial exercise before doing actual experiments( to help students get it right the first time and avoid wasting time or materials) or as a replacement for expensive or risky procedures.I especially liked that it included an apparatus list (It's hard to follow instructions if you can't identify the equipment) and it explained the aim of the experiment, as well as giving step-by-step instructions. There was also a Learn icon that gives additional information to put the experiment in a broader scientific (and even historical) context.
I also briefly spent briefer amounts of time with The Weather Chanel, Science@VL, History Tools, America Lite, NewsPro, and Globe, since I was completely unfamiliar with Apps.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Sites
It's completely unrelated to our actual goal tonight, but I have at least learned (more or less) how to open and work with multiple windows tonight. Here is my incredibly skimpy (yet somehow existing) website.
https://sites.google.com/site/kimshypotheticalclassroom/home
https://sites.google.com/site/kimshypotheticalclassroom/home
Game-Based Learning
I like computer games. I believe you can learn about the real world by playing them. Unfortunately in my experiance (not that I have a great deal) the games that are the most enjoyable tend to teach the least, and those that teach a good deal of material are not at all enjoyable to play. Unfortunately my experiance tonight reinforced that conclusion.
I played Third World Farmer and FloodSim. I've actually played Third World Farmer before, when our class syllabus was first sent to us, and I've noticed that several changes have been made. When I first played it, the game was impossible to "win". No matter how carefully and wisely you made decisions, bad luck and circumstances beyond the player's (or a poor farmer's) control eventually always led to failure. Of course this is not the usual scenario in a game for obvious reasons, but I thought it was a very effective way to demonstrate how people in precarious life situations are so vulnerable to outside forces. The game was a bit simplistic, but this made it easy to play and allowed the teaching point to be reached quickly. It was also a little heavy-handed with political "preaching" ("You've had to spend all your money on foreign medicine, praise patent laws."), but this created a teachable moment about how US policies can affect other nations, and about how everyone has a bias or political agenda, even if it is subconscious. The later changes (showing each person's health, allowing the player to make family planning and education decisions), has added new layers of information to the game, but it has also given the player much more control made it much easier and this has taken away from the initial lesson about precariousness.
FloodSim on the other hand was a deluge of complex information in the guise of a game. Characters lectured the player, who then made decisions that felt meaningless because of the games schizophrenic feedback (newspaper headlines that alternatively read "You've done well" and followed by "You've done poorly" just moments later.)
Although I think both of these games could be used for education purposes, I don't think I would want to use either as they were probably intended. I think playing Third World Farmer would be a good homework assignment after challenges to developing nations had already been studied a bit in class. The next day there could be a class discussion about the game and how it made students think more deeply about their previous learning. There could even be a writing or some other assignment reflecting on the students' experiences with the game and how it relates to other class material. FloodSim could be utilized as a teaching tool with the game projected and the whole class discussing the information as everyone together "tries out this simulation of how policy decisions affect outcomes" or "of what types of policies governments can use to deal with flooding". FloodSim presents a lot of information in a visual way, but I think calling it a "game" and telling students to "play" it would cause those students to never trust their teacher again! as a game it is a dismal failure, (and perhaps the name "Sim" implies that it was never to be thought of as a game in the usual sense), but I think it could be effectively used in the classroom as an alternative to a reading assignment or direct instruction from the teacher.
I played Third World Farmer and FloodSim. I've actually played Third World Farmer before, when our class syllabus was first sent to us, and I've noticed that several changes have been made. When I first played it, the game was impossible to "win". No matter how carefully and wisely you made decisions, bad luck and circumstances beyond the player's (or a poor farmer's) control eventually always led to failure. Of course this is not the usual scenario in a game for obvious reasons, but I thought it was a very effective way to demonstrate how people in precarious life situations are so vulnerable to outside forces. The game was a bit simplistic, but this made it easy to play and allowed the teaching point to be reached quickly. It was also a little heavy-handed with political "preaching" ("You've had to spend all your money on foreign medicine, praise patent laws."), but this created a teachable moment about how US policies can affect other nations, and about how everyone has a bias or political agenda, even if it is subconscious. The later changes (showing each person's health, allowing the player to make family planning and education decisions), has added new layers of information to the game, but it has also given the player much more control made it much easier and this has taken away from the initial lesson about precariousness.
FloodSim on the other hand was a deluge of complex information in the guise of a game. Characters lectured the player, who then made decisions that felt meaningless because of the games schizophrenic feedback (newspaper headlines that alternatively read "You've done well" and followed by "You've done poorly" just moments later.)
Although I think both of these games could be used for education purposes, I don't think I would want to use either as they were probably intended. I think playing Third World Farmer would be a good homework assignment after challenges to developing nations had already been studied a bit in class. The next day there could be a class discussion about the game and how it made students think more deeply about their previous learning. There could even be a writing or some other assignment reflecting on the students' experiences with the game and how it relates to other class material. FloodSim could be utilized as a teaching tool with the game projected and the whole class discussing the information as everyone together "tries out this simulation of how policy decisions affect outcomes" or "of what types of policies governments can use to deal with flooding". FloodSim presents a lot of information in a visual way, but I think calling it a "game" and telling students to "play" it would cause those students to never trust their teacher again! as a game it is a dismal failure, (and perhaps the name "Sim" implies that it was never to be thought of as a game in the usual sense), but I think it could be effectively used in the classroom as an alternative to a reading assignment or direct instruction from the teacher.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Searching
I knew about, but had never used, the advanced google search. On looking closer I really liked that I could limit the search results to articles in English and could even limit the country of origin.
I had no idea how to search for images. (I knew it must be possible, because I had known people to find images quickly, but I had no idea how it was done.) I was shocked by how easy it was. I searched for the Egyptian pyramids (about one and a half million results) and then limited my search to images of both the pyramids and the sphinx (about one hundred and fifty thousand).
I love google alert and can definitely see its usefulness in keeping up with news events (such as Romney selecting a running mate) or more frivolous things like movie releases.
I liked the Google Bookmarks and can definitely see myself using it, but I was surprised it was a little harder to access. After clicking on the link my first two tries were unsuccessful because those links were unavailable with my browser (Safari), and I didn't want to learn to access it through iGoogle because I know it is being abandoned soon. I was finally able to access it through the tab on my gmail account, but was surprised that instead of being able to search for the page and select it I had to actually input more information. This will still be a great tool, it will just be much more time consuming to set up then I had anticipated.
I had no idea how to search for images. (I knew it must be possible, because I had known people to find images quickly, but I had no idea how it was done.) I was shocked by how easy it was. I searched for the Egyptian pyramids (about one and a half million results) and then limited my search to images of both the pyramids and the sphinx (about one hundred and fifty thousand).
I love google alert and can definitely see its usefulness in keeping up with news events (such as Romney selecting a running mate) or more frivolous things like movie releases.
I liked the Google Bookmarks and can definitely see myself using it, but I was surprised it was a little harder to access. After clicking on the link my first two tries were unsuccessful because those links were unavailable with my browser (Safari), and I didn't want to learn to access it through iGoogle because I know it is being abandoned soon. I was finally able to access it through the tab on my gmail account, but was surprised that instead of being able to search for the page and select it I had to actually input more information. This will still be a great tool, it will just be much more time consuming to set up then I had anticipated.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Forms
Once I got the hang of it (and with lots of help from my partner) it wasn't difficult to create a quiz using Google Forms. Setting up the self-grading feature (which was kind of the whole point) was a different story. I finally decided to just grade it the old fashioned way for now, so that I'll have some chance of getting both posts done tonight! (I had printed out both sets of written directions, and perhaps one of them will make sense in the morning. They certainly don't make sense to me right now.) But using Google forms to make quizzes and mastering the self grading feature is definitely a skill I want to acquire, so I'll be looking over it again this weekend.
I was really impressed with how easy it was to see which answers were commonly missed and which students had or had not answered correctly when the data is organized (as seen in the tutorial). I'm also curious whether a quiz could be designed to accept multiple answers as correct. (The tutorial stated that it was designed to be used when there are specific answers, but the use of formulas suggests a formula could be created to give 100 for more than one answer. One of my questions was "Who is/were the greatest British rock band of all time?", and although I know the proper answer is the Beatles, I was willing to accept the Rolling Stones as an alternative.)
I looked at both middle school lesson plans, and realized I had completely forgotten that forms could be used as a way of collecting data, rather than just as a tool to create tests! It was interesting to see how it could be used to make visually appealing surveys and to correlate the collected data.
I was really impressed with how easy it was to see which answers were commonly missed and which students had or had not answered correctly when the data is organized (as seen in the tutorial). I'm also curious whether a quiz could be designed to accept multiple answers as correct. (The tutorial stated that it was designed to be used when there are specific answers, but the use of formulas suggests a formula could be created to give 100 for more than one answer. One of my questions was "Who is/were the greatest British rock band of all time?", and although I know the proper answer is the Beatles, I was willing to accept the Rolling Stones as an alternative.)
I looked at both middle school lesson plans, and realized I had completely forgotten that forms could be used as a way of collecting data, rather than just as a tool to create tests! It was interesting to see how it could be used to make visually appealing surveys and to correlate the collected data.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Gmail, Google Calendar, and iGoogle
I wish I had looked at the Gmail tutorial when I had first set up the account! I love that they filter out the spam for you, but that it's still accessible in case they were wrong. In another email account I have I was frustrated that people I have corresponded with are not automatically put in the contacts list, but apparently Gmail handles it automatically, and I can even add info. I was frustrated that spellcheck seemed to only identify misspelled words, but I now know how to access the spelling suggestions. (I will have to try my other email account to see if it also works the same way. It turns out spellcheck on this blog also works by just pressing control and clicking the word for suggestions. Now you've learned something too ;)
I really liked Google calendar, particularly the share feature. I've always found it frustrating when my family schedules a fun event and expects me to come, even when I've told them my work and school schedules and they should know that I won't be available. I'm wondering if they have any filters on it though. I'd love for family and work colleagues to know that I'm not available, but I wouldn't want them to know specifically about my doctors' appointments, ect! I also like that you can easily change the focus to the day, week, month, or next four days, and I like that it can list your agenda. I also LOVE that the most recent version is still available even when you are offline! I currently don't have internet access at home, and wish other websites (email and Sakai for example) could also be accessed this way.
I agree that it's a shame that they are discontinuing iGoogle. I was shocked by how easy it was to set up, and I can't imagine that setting up various apps could be so easy (and certainly not free). I liked that they could set up your page for you after asking just a few questions, but that you could still also add things yourself. I was surprised that you could click on each item and make it full screen. (I don't know why that should surprise me, as it seems to be fairly typical of computers and the internet in general, but I was still delighted when I saw that it was possible, especially because I feared I was adding so many things that it would no longer be practical to view them.)
Spreadsheets
AAAAHHHHHHH! I'm not sure I understand Spreadsheets, and I certainly can't say that I have mastered any aspect of it. That said, I liked the way Spreadsheets was used to record data and convert it into graphs in both of the middle school lesson plans. Obviously this is a very useful skill, and much more efficient (and accurate) then measuring out the spaces when creating one's own graph--not to mention the fact that it is much easier to incorporate into a slide presentation.
I especially liked the example link of the survey of voters asking what issues were most important to them and who they voted for. If I teach Social Studies, I could definitely see myself assigning students a similar project letting them see graphically how the perceived importance of various issues shape voters' decisions (rather than just the label of Republican or Democrat).
I had always wondered why Spreadsheets existed, because I thought it was merely filling in tables, and you can do that with Word . I had no idea such programs do computations for you, or that the data collected could so easily be displayed in a more visual and understandable form. I especially like that shared spreadsheets can be edited or only viewed.
I especially liked the example link of the survey of voters asking what issues were most important to them and who they voted for. If I teach Social Studies, I could definitely see myself assigning students a similar project letting them see graphically how the perceived importance of various issues shape voters' decisions (rather than just the label of Republican or Democrat).
I had always wondered why Spreadsheets existed, because I thought it was merely filling in tables, and you can do that with Word . I had no idea such programs do computations for you, or that the data collected could so easily be displayed in a more visual and understandable form. I especially like that shared spreadsheets can be edited or only viewed.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Browsers
Well, I guess I finally understand why when I use the internet on multiple computers at different locations (my mom's house, my sister's house, the Seymour library, UT's library, three different computer labs at UT), they always seem to work differently and everything seems to be in the wrong place! I've used Explorer extensively (yes, I thought Explorer meant "get on the internet" on a "regular" computer) and had a tiny bit of experience with Firefox and Safari.
Tonight I looked at Opera, SeaMonkey, Camino, and Sunrise. I'm not exactly sure what I am looking at, but Opera seemed pretty "normal" to me, with features fairly understandable and in the proper place. SeaMonkey's STOP button seemed promising (I'm guessing it is used when the page you chose is taking forever to load, or you've just changed your mind), but everything downloaded so efficiently tonight I really wasn't able to try it out. When I tried Sunrise I wasn't sure I was looking at a browser or just a big advertisement for Apple, but I hated it! The clicking and getting multiple little pictures is probably really efficient and I'm sure a younger cliental would love it, but all the shifting images made me seasick!
The best for last.....drumroll please......Camino.....I love it! I love it! I love it! I'm actually not sure if it's the browser itself or just the way they've pre-bookmarked it, but this seems an amazing set up for grownups! I'm a news junkie (and Political Science major) so the tab with the multiple news sites is the besets thing on the internet to me. (They offer a pretty good selection, but I wonder if it can be personalized by adding FOX news to the mix?) Google should of course always be at one's finger tips, and Amazon is convenient, but not as obvious a voice. (I'm wondering if Apple owns Amazon, or if they pay to be placed there?) I also LOVE the translate button, and have always wished for such a thing. (I once mentioned this to a professor and she looked down her nose at me and informed me that Americans should learn multiple languages. I replied that of course that was true, but surely she didn't expect me to master ALL of them!)
I've been thinking about what to do for a personal computer in the future, (I have a REALLY old, and surprisingly heavy notebook) and thought it would probably be sensible to get a Mac. Now I think I know what browser I want too :)
Tonight I looked at Opera, SeaMonkey, Camino, and Sunrise. I'm not exactly sure what I am looking at, but Opera seemed pretty "normal" to me, with features fairly understandable and in the proper place. SeaMonkey's STOP button seemed promising (I'm guessing it is used when the page you chose is taking forever to load, or you've just changed your mind), but everything downloaded so efficiently tonight I really wasn't able to try it out. When I tried Sunrise I wasn't sure I was looking at a browser or just a big advertisement for Apple, but I hated it! The clicking and getting multiple little pictures is probably really efficient and I'm sure a younger cliental would love it, but all the shifting images made me seasick!
The best for last.....drumroll please......Camino.....I love it! I love it! I love it! I'm actually not sure if it's the browser itself or just the way they've pre-bookmarked it, but this seems an amazing set up for grownups! I'm a news junkie (and Political Science major) so the tab with the multiple news sites is the besets thing on the internet to me. (They offer a pretty good selection, but I wonder if it can be personalized by adding FOX news to the mix?) Google should of course always be at one's finger tips, and Amazon is convenient, but not as obvious a voice. (I'm wondering if Apple owns Amazon, or if they pay to be placed there?) I also LOVE the translate button, and have always wished for such a thing. (I once mentioned this to a professor and she looked down her nose at me and informed me that Americans should learn multiple languages. I replied that of course that was true, but surely she didn't expect me to master ALL of them!)
I've been thinking about what to do for a personal computer in the future, (I have a REALLY old, and surprisingly heavy notebook) and thought it would probably be sensible to get a Mac. Now I think I know what browser I want too :)
Presentations
I have viewed Powerpoint presentations, but I have never actually made one, so I have very little to compare this to. I looked at a link on one of the lesson plans that explained some features and how they could be used for collaborative projects. The tutorial told of "colorful presence markers" (I'm assuming that lets the teacher know who contributed what), the ability to be edited by multiple people from multiple locations, the existence of a revision history, and the chat feature. These features seemed to be very similar to the Documents features and do seem to be designed particularly well for collaborative learning projects. I also like the idea that, assuming students have internet access at home (I'm not sure if that is a big assumption, but I plan for that to be one of the first questions I ask students to answer in a quick survey when I start teaching) students can work together without having to go to each other's homes. I don't know if the features listed above are available with Powerpoint, or if they might require additional software or work to hook up, but I thought they would definitely be useful in a classroom setting.
I looked at the presentations in each of the middle school lesson plans, and saw some things that I thought were really cool, although perhaps they are very standard features. I liked that it was possible to not just change the size of lettering, but to also change how dark the letters appeared, so that certain words stand out in a sentence. (in the Science plan) I also loved the background of the spiral notebook in the grass for the kitten story in the Language Arts plan. (I assume that was a template.) I was also surprised that it was possible to make choices in which slide would be next in a presentation (choice A or choice B)! This could be an interesting feature in a teacher designed review. Students could choose from multiple answers and if they choose incorrectly could get a reference to what they need to review and perhaps some silly message or helpful hint.
I looked at the presentations in each of the middle school lesson plans, and saw some things that I thought were really cool, although perhaps they are very standard features. I liked that it was possible to not just change the size of lettering, but to also change how dark the letters appeared, so that certain words stand out in a sentence. (in the Science plan) I also loved the background of the spiral notebook in the grass for the kitten story in the Language Arts plan. (I assume that was a template.) I was also surprised that it was possible to make choices in which slide would be next in a presentation (choice A or choice B)! This could be an interesting feature in a teacher designed review. Students could choose from multiple answers and if they choose incorrectly could get a reference to what they need to review and perhaps some silly message or helpful hint.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Keyboarding
I played Typing Adventure and Ten Thumb Typing Tutorial. Although they are both very different, I really enjoyed both.
In Typing Adventure the learner is a scuba diver who is faced with oncoming sharks which each have a word on them. As the learner types each word the shark vanishes. Eventually when a shark is able to pass without its word being typed that turn (life?) is over. The game has several difficulty levels, so it is challenging without being overwhelming. I thought it was a great way to make the task of typing more exciting (I actually felt a surge of adrenaline as the sharks approached) and along with typing it also exercised the learner's spelling skills, as several of the words were not commonly used, and in some cases the sharks overlapped and hid some letters. It was also more manageable because the learner only has to focus on accomplishing typing one word at a time, rather than facing an entire passage to be typed.
The Ten Thumbs Typing Tutorial included a typing test. (My initial score was 29 words a minute.) The learner could then practice copying various book quotations at different difficulty levels. I really liked that literature was incorporated into the tutorial. This program isn't as exciting as the other, but was still enjoyable.
I would recommend both programs. The first would be especially helpful for less skilled students, especially for those who are competitive. The second ids better for more accomplished students, especially those who enjoy literature.
In Typing Adventure the learner is a scuba diver who is faced with oncoming sharks which each have a word on them. As the learner types each word the shark vanishes. Eventually when a shark is able to pass without its word being typed that turn (life?) is over. The game has several difficulty levels, so it is challenging without being overwhelming. I thought it was a great way to make the task of typing more exciting (I actually felt a surge of adrenaline as the sharks approached) and along with typing it also exercised the learner's spelling skills, as several of the words were not commonly used, and in some cases the sharks overlapped and hid some letters. It was also more manageable because the learner only has to focus on accomplishing typing one word at a time, rather than facing an entire passage to be typed.
The Ten Thumbs Typing Tutorial included a typing test. (My initial score was 29 words a minute.) The learner could then practice copying various book quotations at different difficulty levels. I really liked that literature was incorporated into the tutorial. This program isn't as exciting as the other, but was still enjoyable.
I would recommend both programs. The first would be especially helpful for less skilled students, especially for those who are competitive. The second ids better for more accomplished students, especially those who enjoy literature.
Documents
So far documents seem to be virtually the same as word windows, but I do love the share feature. It seems like it would be useful as a chat box or for any type of collaborative writing (especially since it is sometimes easier to just show than tell, and it may help less assertive students participate more if paired with someone who hogs the mouse!) Also it would be easier to edit (either peer or teacher) with the ability to share online rather than with just a hard copy, and the comments could definitely be easily read.
I think it would be very useful in class discussions in which the teacher wants to summarize in a written form (students could just type their comments for themselves for all to see). There is likely to be a problem with students using it as a high tech (and more subtle) way of passing notes.
We looked at high school plans for social studies (immigration) and art and neither really used documents, other than the fact that the plan itself was a document, and appeared indistinguishable from a document done with word windows.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Blogs
I really enjoyed Chris Lehmann's blog. It's a sort of stream of counciousness commentary on random education topics from a man who seems to have strong, but well-informed opinions. (Perhaps I like it because I tend to have strong opinions myself, and so far I am in full agreement with him:)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)