DBE #10 - Sowing Seeds for a More Creative Society

"In many cases, new technologies are simply reinforcing old ways of teaching and learning. ...  We need to continually rethink our approaches to education and rethink our uses of educational technologies."

Incorporating technology into the classroom should also mean improving the educational process to encourage students to develop their thinking and problem solving skills with technology. I completely agree with the above quote. Improving education through technology should mean improving the entire process. Introduction of technology and using old ways of teaching and learning should only be for a transistion period. Providing students with the opportunity to problem solve, develop creative thinking skills and interacting with others is an important part of the education process. Giving them the marketable skills that will improve society as a whole should be an educator's primary goal.

This is a link to an article on the effects of technology in the classroom: http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/EdReformStudies/EdTech/effectsstudents.html"Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society" by Mitchel Resnick.
Copyright © 2007, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), 1.800.336.5191 (U.S. & Canada) or 1.541.302.3777 (Int’l), iste@iste.org, www.iste.org. All rights reserved
Learning & Leading with Technology | December/January 2007–08

Scratch | Project | class project 2

Scratch | Project | class project 2



I used Scratch Cards: Say Something, Surprise button and change color

My Scratch Project

Project

DBE #9 - 10 Things Schools can Learn from Video Games

"10 Things Schools can Learn from Video Games"- http://www.learningingaming.com/10-things-schools-can-learn-from-video-games/

Quote: "The Cycle of Expertise. Video games will provide sets of challenges until certain actions, behaviors and skills become routine and automated. The games then provide a new problem in the form of a boss, new level or game mechanic that makes the gamer re-think their mastery, learn a new skill and then integrate this skill into the rest of the experience. This is where mastery is consolidated through repetition only to be challenged again, and it is an integral part of learning and expertise."

This particular quote tends to make sense. Rote memorization of facts without utilizing them in applicable situations often results in forgetfulness as soon as the unit is over. Utilizing skills in a gaming situations and adapting to increasingly difficult situations provides opportunities for knowledge application. Mastering a level and being able to carry that skill and knowledge to the next is a valuable tool.

Resource: http://bblocks.samhsa.gov/educators/lesson_plans/classroomgames.aspx "Games in the Classroom". suupports games in the classroom as well and provides lesson plans and examples of board and online games.

Gardens of Time

Garden of Times reflects several things from the article "10 Things Schools can Learn from Video Games": 1. Interaction-player is encouraged to adapt game field and invite neighbors to participate. 2. Risk taking- player has to assess situations and often through trial and error complete scenes. 3. customization- player is encouraged to build his own garden through advancing through scenes and earning gold to make enhancements. 4. Withing realm of competence- player moves through scenes at own pace, adapting and developing skills with each level.and 5. Exploring-player can move at self pace and experiment different levels and capabilities.
While some games may have a place in the classroom. I am not much for video games and find the repetition tedious.

WEBSITE EVALUATION

It is important to validate any information we are extracting from the internet. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself the age old questions of investigation: Who, What, Where, Why and How. While the above example is designed to teach students to validate the websites they use, I used it as an example to answere the validation questions.

DBE #8 Wikipedia

a. What is Wikipedia? "a multilingual, Web-based encyclopedia project, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organization". A collection of informative entries edited by the users of the site.
b. How would you answer the question posed in this piece “How reliable can a source be when anyone can edit it?”? Not very reliable. Very difficult to verify information and sources when entries can be continually edited and updated.
c. Who do the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in when it comes to weeding out misinformation? "wisdom of crowd" They believe that because a lot of people have acess to edit, errors will be corrected quickly.
d. Why did founder Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia? He felt more authority to edit should be given to experts.
e. What would abuse or vandalism look like on a Wikipedia page? Incorrect or biased information postings
f. What do the statistics quoted in the third paragraph of this piece reveal? That use of Wikipedia is world wide and that Google is a contributor to its sucess.
g. Why do you think Wikipedia is so successful? People love the idea of putting their knowledge "out there" and influencing other people's opinions
h. Why might Wikipedia’s creators not want to accept advertising? Accepting money for donations and allowing advertisments would lessen the reliability of information due to bias.
i. How does Wikiscanner help increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries? Allows wikipedia to discover the source of information quickly revealing any fraudulent postings.

Citation: Information Published on the Times Topic Page on Wikipedia on October 18, 2007.

My Teaching Philosophy