EDOL 533: Week 5 - Cummunication Tools...

Question #1:

     Have you ever used online communication tools in the classroom before?  If so, detail your experiences.  If not, what has prevented you from using online communication tools?

Answer:

     I have used some of the online communication tools discussed for this week, and the one that i like the least is the use of "email" as a communication tool. I know that probably sounds crazy to most of you, considering that it is one of the primary forms of communication used in today's never ending exchange of information, but i assure you that there is at least a touch of sanity to my reasoning. As I have found in both the teaching, and the business world, the problem with emails is that the "tone" of the message can be very easily misconstrued. Because the reader is only getting a visual on the words being communicated by the author, and is unable to hear the influx or tone of the authors voice, it is very easy for the reader to misunderstand or misconstrue the authors message, or the proper emotion by which the message was sent. For instance, I have sent emails to parents before, informing them of their child's progress in class, and the parents often think that the child is in trouble, or that I am upset with the student, even if I am communicating that the child is doing well, or getting a good grade. I have always found that a personal "hand-written" note sent home with the child always seems to come off much softer with the parent or guardian. The access to "emoticons" has made a tremendous change in benefiting the use of email, and helping the reader to understand our message, but I still prefer other avenues. How about you guys?

Question #2

2. Identify one online communication tool you can use in the classroom and discuss how you will prepare your students for using this communication tool. 

     I really like the idea of using blogs within an ongoing lesson plan, much like we are doing for this class here. I think it gives the student a wonderful sense of "ownership" in learning and communicating their understanding of the material being presented. I love the fact that it gives other readers the opportunity to respond to their posts, and to collaborate with their classmates in regard to specific instruction provided by the educator. 

     Blogging also allows the student the opportunity to place "still" graphics, video, charts, etc. into the blog itself, further allowing them to communicate their understanding of the lesson material. This form of online communication allows all the parties involved to access the information needed, wherever their is access to the internet, which means they can work at school, at home, in the local Starbucks, etc.

     One of the cool things I really like about the opportunity to use blogs in the classroom is that they can be fully customized to fit the students personality, and allow them to be as creative as they choose in regard to how they facilitate their blog. This provides a fun and exciting way to learn and to communicate, and gives the student a welcomed change from the daily "Please turn you text to page 176 and read through page 182 and then fill out the worksheet" mentality that has deadened our classrooms, numbed our kids out in regard to any change of learning being exciting.  

EDOL 533: WEEK 2- Spreadsheets

     

     Though I have never actually created spreadsheets for use in the classroom, I have used software that is driven by a spreadsheet based interface such as Infinite campus, etc. I plan to learn to use software such as excel, and to learn to create spreadsheets for classroom management such a database to show who has turned in what assignments, etc.

     I can also see where it would be very effective to have the students learn to use the software to create charts and graphs to help them in areas where it is necessary to measure, track, and evaluate certain processes that are continually changing such as weather systems, the stock market, use of natural resources, etc. Allowing the students to create such charts would give them a "visual" understanding of the system being measured, as opposed to just writing a bunch of written information and data on the whiteboard and hoping that they "get it." The visual would allow the students a point of reference as we discuss as a class, and help them to see the effects of change in the system as the data rises and falls.

     I am excited about the prospect of learning this new tool I have found, and in researching more creative ways for it to be implemented in the classroom. I believe that this is another avenue for learning that the student base will buy into, and that it can be a very effective way of showing them how such software can be learned and used to measure many different types of processes, which allow for the imagination and creativity to be used in the equation.

EDOL 533: WEEK 3 - DTP

     Holding a degree in Mass Communications with an emphasis in Graphic Design, I have a real passion for desktop publishing and find that I use it pretty much daily in my jobs as a substitute teacher and sports writer for a local paper. I am also a local coordinator for Special Olympics and find that I create, implement, and distribute print media quite frequently. As a freelance graphic designer, I specialize in the creation of "print" media, and have a small functional bedroom studio in Marshall County, Kentucky, entitled "In2uitive Designs." You can view my work at my studio website here:

http://www.in2uitivedesigns.com

     I have used DPT in the classroom to create everything from graphic rich lesson plans to simple permission forms to be sent home to parents. I have also created multiple projects that make use of the computer labs at school, and allow the students to use desktop publishing to create reports that require them to use the internet to research information, locate and place graphics within the document that helps to tell their story or support their theory, etc. The kids love having the opportunity to create as they learn, and as we are a "Title 1" school, it is especially a big deal and a wonderful treat for those students who have no access to a computer at home. It's interesting that as the students begin to really buy in to the project, they don't even really realize that they are "learning."  I have found that the kids retain much more information on a particular subject when they are allowed to actually take ownership of the assignment, and they really enjoy working together to locate the data they need to communicate about their assigned topic. It is very interesting to see how 2 different sets of kids working on the same assignment can interpret the lesson different from one another, and use a completely different set or style of graphics, yet tell the same story. 

     

EDOL 533: Week 4- Powerpoint Presentation

   

      The Powerpoint presentation that I am discussing for this blog was for a resource "World History" class of Special Needs high school freshman and sophomores. The presentation was for a lesson on English Monarchs, and specifically covered the "Tudors."
     The item in my presentation for which I am most proud is the slides that covered Bloody Mary, the English Queen that wiped out thousands of Protestants in an attempt to wipe out Christianity and bring all power back to the Catholic church. The students really loved the graphics and the interesting nature of insanity which was embroiled within the Tudor bloodline. As I went through the slides with them, I approached the subject with them in terms that made the history of who the Tudor's were relevant to their generation and understandable within their culture. The students always seem to get the lesson on a much deeper level when I am able to break it down for them in terms that they understand and can relate to. Graphics are also such a huge part in getting the lesson across to the kids that I work with, and if I can be successful at creating and properly placing the right graphics along with the information I am teaching them, together they seem to create a synergy that drive the lesson right home for the kids, and they really seem to buy into the lesson, and consequently do really well on the chapter tests when I use the Powerpoint presentations as a medium for test review. The presentations are a fantastic tool for quizs and test review, in regard to being able to "measure" what the kids have retained of the chapter lessons. They can be used in such a way that you can make a game of the review, and the kids actually look forward to the end of the chapters so that we can do the test reviews, and they get to compete against one another or a teams, usually with some sort of "treat" provided to the winning team. I love using technology as a vital tool to reach the students, and Powerpoint is a great tool to add to ones arsenal of vehicles in which to reach the newer generations.

EDOL 533 EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY: WEEK 1

WOW! SOMETIMES, TECHNOLOGY CAN BE A REAL DINOSAUR, BUT IS IT WORTH THE TROUBLE?
     I will be the first to admit, that when I saw the name of this class, "Educational Technology," I was pretty stoked! I mean this was going to be a piece of cake right? Of course right. I hold a degree in Mass Communications with an emphasis on graphic design, I am a reporter for a county newspaper, I use technology all day long from sun up to sun down. I have several Apple computers in my home studio, as well as multiple printers, fax machine, wireless routers and modems, high-end image scanners, copiers, digital card-readers, SLR's, I even have an iPhone, you get the point. As a certified Rank 4 Substitute teacher at the middle and high school levels, I also use technology daily in regard to the world of teaching. Smart boards, overhead projectors, windows computers (which I am pretty sure are of the devil, and I am convinced that Bill Gates is the Anti-Christ-lol) and more. So after looking at all of the technology based tools that I work with on a daily basis, one would think that I am pretty tech savvy and that it would be only appropriate for you all to vote me in as your great technology guru and leader, right? WRONG!
     Amazing how as we go through tons of training and everyday life, we can eventually get to a place where we feel we pretty much have things figured out, that we are pretty attuned to a general understanding of how things work in the world around us. I know I did. 
     Then, enter EDOL 533. Enter Professor Christine G. Goldberg, with her strange ramblings about "Wiki's" and "Blogs" and "NETS *T," etc. What in the world? Could it be possible? Could it be that there were actually technological tools of learning and communication that I had not procured? Could there truly be ways of communicating a lesson plan to a student that I had not yet stumbled upon? The truth of the matter is a resounding YES! Yes, there are new weapons to add to my arsenal of amazing ways to reach my students that I have never approached or thought of, and I only have one thing to say to Ms. Smarty Pants Professor Goldberg, THANK-YOU! Thank you Ms. Goldberg for bringing me out of my delusional slumber of day to day mediocrity and same "ole' same ole'" approach to technology in the classroom. 
     I had heard of "blogs" before, but my understanding of them (without further research or investigation) was that they were simply kind of a digital "diary" or "journal" that the "twentysomethings" were using as a form of self-expression. I had no idea of their value as a vital tool that could be used in the teaching/learning process, both in and out of the classroom. One of the great things about the wonderful world of 'blogging," is that it can be accessed anywhere there is an internet signal, giving the teacher or student access to the information 24/7 and allowing for a connection to the given information, whenever it is convenient.  
     There can be no doubt that technology is a huge plus in regard to how we deliver information to our students, and in the way in which they are able to creatively express back to us exactly what it is that they have learned, but what about the bad days? What about the days when the technology goes down, or fails to behave as it is supposed to. This past Monday's class is a perfect example. I function (and have for 20+ years) primarily on Apple computers, and for whatever reason, Safari (an Apple Browser) did not like nor care to be friends with "Elluminate," which as you all know is the video conference interface that we use to enter the "virtual" classroom for online classes at UC. No matter what I tried, I just kept getting explosion windows telling me that I did not have the proper plug-ins to access "Elluminate," which I knew was a boatload of malarky, as I had accessed the interface the week prior, with no issues at all. To top all of that off, once I was finally able to break through the evil "Safari" gremlins, the professor was then unable to assign me any rights. Ah yes, technology. Most often our best friend, occasionally, a formidable foe. A foe that not only fails to work properly or effectively, but also leaves us late for class, missing deadlines, unable to teach the lesson we had prepared for the day, etc. Which brings me back to the original question, and the title for this weeks blog. With all the frustration that technology can sometimes bring us, is it worth it to try and develop a classroom that integrates technology into the daily instructional plan? Is setting up classrooms like the ones we witnessed the ladies from Louisiana incorporating in the video this week entitled "Collaborative Approach" worth the time and trouble involved to make it work?  After seeing the "You Tube" video entitled "A Vision of Today's Students," we can scarcely deny that the successful teaching practices incorporated in the classroom environment are scarcely effective at reaching today's technologically advanced and motivated students. For all intents and purposes, technology is no longer something we can do to improve our classrooms, it is something that we must do if we have any chance at all of reaching today's youth, and by-passing the other world powers in terms of education. 
     I personally have learned a whole lot this week, including how to create and implement the blog that you are currently reading. I have learned once again that we never get too old, or should be so set in our ways, that we miss out on the fact that regardless of the subject, we never "arrive," and there is always more than can be learned. I have learned that when it comes to technology, be prepared and set yourself up well in advance for what you need to do, as there may be some troubleshooting involved. Mostly though, I have learned the answer to the question, and the answer is a great big massively huge YES! Technology is most definitely worth what it takes sometimes to make it happen. I believe it can be one of the most valuable tools in the classroom, if not the most valuable, in regard to reaching a student base that by the age of 11 or 12, have more than likely already surpassed most of us in our understanding of mainstream technology, and how it works. 
     I cannot wait until next week! To see what lessons will come my way, and to see how very little I actually know, about databases and spreadsheets and the like. 
So... Until then, have a great week fellow learners, and may God bless you richly!


Michael