ALMOST FINISHED

Chapter 9 was interesting b/c throught this whole book we were learning different ways in incorporating meaningful learning into the classroom by using different forms of technology. Now in this chapter it goes into detail on how we can assess this meaningful learning. The text brings out that meaningful learning should be "authentic and therefore complex"(pp 228) that means we have to adopt or learn authentic performance assessemtn practices. One of the authentic assessment tools that they identified was the RUBRICS system. I actually am very fond of this idea of marking b/c in the traditional way of marking the teacher gives a grad, "but neither student nor teachers can really tell you where the grades come from - and a few comments generally accompany the grade...little substantive feedback about the performance is made available to the student."(pp 229) When using the Rubrics system it is a code, or a set of codes, designed to govern action. In meaningful learning environments Rubrics can be created with the students and teachers working together to develop a rubric that will promote intentional learning by identifying KEY points or IMPORTANT aspecst of the performance to be marked. Then the student can look back and see were they have gone wrong or were they have done a great job b/c the coding system is layed out straight forward and they have helped create it. It puts ownership on the students b/c they have put their ideas into what should be marked.

The chpater further discussed how to develop a GOOD rubric and not only using rubrics on students but using them to assess our own learning environment to see what is doing well and what we might want to change. In an effective rubric you should have ALL IMPORTANT elements included in the rating system, each element is unideimensional- meaning that you should avoid using elements taht are really molecules, ratings are distinct-comprehensive-and decriptive = the ratings should cover the range of expected performances. An effective rubric communicates clearly with both students and parents, and provides RICH infromaiton about the multiple aspects of the performance and avoids thetempatation to create a contrived summary score. (These are the few Characteristics that the book mentioned about a GOOD and EFFECTIVE rubric.)

The book also identified ways of creating a Rubric for assessing the effectiveness of a Rubric. It also provided sample Rubrics on the different activities mentioned throughtout the text and how you can assess them.

All in all this chapter was very informative and very indepth. I highly recommend this text book for future students or teachers. It gave clear and interesting information to use.

Christina

P.S. It was a pleasure to read all of your blogs and thank you to everyone who commented on my blogs. CHEERS : )

Sorry everyone that I did not hand in my response to this article.  I did read it for the class but because there was this article and the chapter to post on I posted the chapter and forgot about this.  So here is my response to it, better late then never.

I really enjoyed this article.  It was a great idea to give different age groups cameras to capture moments in there lives.  It is also interesting the things that they decided to photograph such as personal belongs.  Each age group photographed different things but according to Erik Erikson he identified the Eight Stages of Development and when I read this article on Children As Photographers it remined me of this theory of development.  Erikson said that you will see the children or adolences acting a certain way in different stages of life and this is shown in the different ways the children used the camera and the different pictures they took.  By looking at a picture you can identify what stage of life they are in even before looking at the child in person.

Personally I think it is a great idea to let children be able to explore using cameras.  They can use it in many ways to express themselves.  For instance they can use it during art, drama, science, history, english, and even math these are just a few.  Then after they take the pictures they can use tools to upload them onto the computer and create projects on the computer.  

So I agree that Children CAN BE PHOTOGRAPHERS. 

Cheers

Christina

What is MicroWorlds? For meaningful learning to take place one must require how to construct their own models of thinking. To do this learners must explore for themselves and maniputlate phenomenon and then observe the effects of them, and generate their own mental representations of these phenomenas. This brings us back to the question of what is MicroWorlds? It is defined as "an exploratory learning environment that presents a simulation of some real-world phenomena wherein learners can manipulate, explore, eand experiment in different ways...it supports learning BY DOING, instead of just watching or listening to a description of how something works."(pp 191) There are many forms of MicroWorlds that support the differnt forms of learning environments they were created so students could learn new skills and gain knowledge and are exploratory environments that rely on the interest and curiosity of the learner.

Some of the programs that interested me were: Interactive Pysics which allows learners to create or run an infinite number of different physics and play 'what-if' games in order to understand the dynamics of physical objects, Math Cats which romotes open-ended exploration of math concepts via MathWorlds project when using it students learn how to manipulate the movements of objects and create buttons to start the animation, Counting Money seems like another tool that would be useful in a primary grade level that I could use because it assists with learning addition and subtraction and recognizing currency.

When children/ adults use these programs to create their own projects to learning they are learning the most as the designers and developers because they are the ones that are gathering the information, reviewing it to make sure it works, and evaluating the contents which leads to more understanding and 'ownership' of the learning that they have just gone through, instead of having the instructor lecture the same information and not being able to manipulate it.

I really liked the idea behind the project OWL (OpenWorld Learning). The man that created or the founder of this nonprofit organization had the right idea. He designed this program for children that were in low-income nieghborhoods to teach children the development of skills for writing, conducting research on the Internet, using word processor and database applications, and creating programming projects using the MicroWorlds authoring tool. The best part of the project was that they recruited and trained college-educated people to serve as teachers and mentors to students, there were also student teachers that they trained as young as 9 years old who then developed teamwork and leadership skills. This to me is an amazing organization, they took the needs of the community and the taught the future generation of children skills that are needed for future careers in there lives and on top of that it was away for children to stay out of trouble because it was held after school and during summer when students are out of school. You can see that they were really thinking for the better of the community.

I didn't really know exactly what a Virtual Reality was but this chapter brought out a definition of it. It states that a, "VR is a type of microworld that provides learners with an interacive, 3-D experience by surrounding them with a moving, simulated world...the user is able to see, hear, touch,speak, manipulate, and interact." (pp 201) You might wonder what this means, well at least I was wondering and when I read on I found out that one of the VR that they talked about is something that I had seen on TV it was an Immersive Virtual Reality which a head mounting display [HMD] which "consists of two tiny monitors mounted inside a device that is stimulated approximately 3-5 inches in front of the user's eyes. The device shields the user's peripheral vision and tdracks the movements of the head to simulate directional placement within the virtual space."(pp 203) I saw this device when I was watching Discovery Channel and they showed something to do with military training, its a form of virtual combat to prepare them. For me this was the only VR that I am familiar with.

The text brought out very interesting points on how you can use VR in the classroom and why it would be beneificial. It points out that when you use VR in the classroom children can explore existing places and things that students would typically not have accesse to. They can create places, things, and events with altered qualities, Interact and collaborate with people at a distance. These are just a few points but to me are very valid points that I can take into consideration when thinking of my own classroom in the future.

In conclusion I truly agree with the authors of this book when they say that, "MicroWorlds and virtual reality can be used effectively to engage students in collaborative learning that supports meaningful knowledge consruction."(pp 206) If we all took a little more time to learn new ways of teaching we can help engage students more and then have motivated learners.

Cheers

Christina Frijio

In today's society knowing multimedia is very important.  The growth of learning mulitmedia products has increased over the past decade.  Most companies use multimedia in training their employees and not only for training but is has become an essential component of corporate and educational communications.

You might wonder what is multimedia?  The text points out that, "multimedia represents the integration of more thatn one medium into some form of communication. The media represents different modes of experience, including visual, auditory, olfactory (smell), tactile (touch), and even gustatory (taste)." (pp 166)  Multimedia products or technologies have improved over the years starting with the creation of videodisks, then compact discs, then DVDs, then the World Wide Web, and finally Multimedia Production Software.

Multimedia Production Software can be used to create hypermedia which "enables students to impose some kind of knowledge structure on the information...deciding which structure to use and modeling that structure are bothe important forms of problem solving that engage students in critical thinking."(pp 171)  To constructe a hypermedia knowledge bases is constructive which is literal and pedagogically.  It requires students to be very active because they are manipulating the various multimedia programs.  It also requires students to carefully plan and use critical thinking skills to manipulate the programs.  So they are engaged in all forms of problem solving, information searching, decision making and modeling.

In creating hypermedia children can produce materials that can help them ant they are then constructing their learning and taking ownership of their creation.


In conclusion I agree with what the authors of our text says, "[I believe] that students-as-producers-of-technologies engaged in much more meaningful learning thatn students-as-receivers-from-instructional-technologies."(pp186)

cheers

Christina

WHAT CAN I SAY ABOUT THIS CHAPTER. IT WAS VERY INFORMATIVE AND EDUCATIONAL. WHEN I FIRST STARTED READING IT I DIDN'T KNOW WHERE THEY WERE GOING WITH IT. BUT I SOON FIGURED OUT THE PURPOSE OF THE CHAPTER. WHICH WAS TO ENGAGE THE STUDENTS IN MEANINGFUL LEARNING THROUGH VIDEO. I THOUGHT THEY BROUGHT OUT VERY VALID POINTS ABOUT T.V. WATCHING AND VERY SERIOUS POINTS THAT TEACHERS SHOULD BE TAKING INTO CONSIDERATION. ONE POINT THAT STUCK OUT TO ME WAS, "THE MAJOR REASON THAT STUDENTS DO NOT SUCCESSFULLY LEARN FROM WATCHING T.V. INSTRUCTION IS THAT THEY ARE NOT MENTALLY ENGAGED BY IT." (PP 124) FOR TEACHERS TO GET THEIR STUDENTS TO BE MENTALLY ENGAGED REQUIRES PREPARATION ON THEIR PART, AND FOR SOME THIS IS TO MUCH FOR THEM TO HANDLE, SO AS THE TEXT BROUGHT OUT IT CAN BECOME A FORM OF A BABYSITTER OR SUBSTITUTE TEACHER, WHICH IS NOT A GOOD THING (PERSONALLY).

THE TEXT BROUGHT OUT ANOTHER THING THAT STUCK OUT IN MY MIND, AND I PERSONALLY THINK IT IS VERY TRUE THAT IT IS HAPPENING. THERE WERE 3 PRIMARY EFFECTS ON CHILDREN'S LEARNING ABILITIES THAT HAPPENED WHEN HEAVY USE OF TELEVISION WATCHING OCCURRED, "ONE - CHILDREN'S ATTENTION TO THE FAST-PACED AUDITORY AND IMAGE CHANGES...CAUSES ATTENTION DISORDERS WHEN TRYING TO PERFORM COMPLEX COGNITIVE TASKS...DIFFICULT FOR THEM TO STAY ACTIVELY FOCUSED ON COMPLEX LEARNING TASKS...TWO - TELEVISION VIEWING RESULTS IN A LACK OF PERSISTENCE...THREE - VIEWERS BECOME READILY 'GLUED' TO THE TUBE...BRAIN ACTIVITY SLOWS DOWN, CAUSING A HYPNOTIC, TRACE-LIKE STATE WHILE VIEWING."(PP 125) WORKING IN THE SCHOOL I CAN SEE STUDENTS WHO ARE ACTIVELY ENGAGED IN THE DISCUSSIONS IN CLASS AND STUDENTS WHO ARE DISTRACTED EASILY AND WHO TEND TO CONTINUALLY ASK QUESTIONS BUT HAVE A HARD TIME COMPREHENDING WHAT THE TEACHER IS TRYING TO TELL THEM. IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW FROM THIS STUDY OF POSSIBILITIES WHY STUDENTS MIGHT BE THIS WAY IN CLASS. THIS IS ONE CHAPTER THAT REALLY INTRIGUED ME.

I LIKED THE FACT THAT EVEN THOUGH STUDIES HAVE PROVED THIS COULD HAPPEN, THE AUTHOR OF OUR TEXT GAVE SOLID EXAMPLES ON HOW WE COULD TAKE THIS INTEREST OF CHILDREN OF WATCHING T.V. AND MAKING IT INTO MEANINGFUL LEARNING BY MAKING THE CHILDREN PRODUCERS OF THEIR OWN SHOWS. IT IS SIMPLE AND EASY. YOU NEED EQUIPEMENT SUCH AS A VIDEO-CAMRA AND A COMPUTER FOR EDITING (THIS MIGHT BE COSTLY, BUT WAYS IN GETTING ONE IS BY RAISING MONEY FOR THE SCHOOL OR BORING ONE FROM FAMILY OR FRIENDS) SOME EXAMPLES WERE VIDEO TAPING YOUR OWN STORIES, HAVING A VIDEO PRESS CONFERENCE, CREATING A NEWSROOM W/IN THE SCHOOL, HAVING A STUDENT TALK SHOW, CREATING VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES...ETC. THESE WERE JUST A FEW EXAMPLES WERE YOU GET THE STUDENTS INVOLVED IN THEIR OWN WORK, THEY HAVE TO RESEARCH THE DIFFERENT TOPICS AND HAVE TO PRESENT THEM IN A CREATIVE WAY, THEY HAVE TO THINK CRITICALLY ON HOW TO PRESENT IT, THEY ALSO LEARN HOW TO PROBLEM SOLVE, AND FOR MOST OF THESE THINGS THE TEACHER IS THERE TO COACH, GIVE FEEDBACK, REGULATE, AND MOTIVATE THE STUDENTS TO KEEP GOING TO COMPLETE THEIR TASKS. I REALLY ENJOYED LEARNING NEW IDEAS THAT I WILL TRY IN MY CLASSROOM IN THE FUTURE.

IN CONCLUSION I HIGHLY ENJOYED READING THIS CHAPTER.

CHEERS

CHRISTINA FRIJIO

Well what can I say about this article.  It is very unique or scary to think about.  I guess the phrase that was used in the article is "the internet is a data graveyard, but it is graveyared waiting for a forensic archaeologist with a desire to 'condense fact from a nuance of vapor'".  Everyone including myself always thought it was a safe thing to use the internet but in reality I guess it might not.  If a Hacker really wanted information on you they could easily access it by digging around and searching.  It might take a while but b/c we might have thought it was forgotten data or unimportant info such as letters, photos, or private database information mistakenly left on hard drives that these Hackers could come across.  I just can't imagine all of this.  I knew that Hackers exist but I didn't really know the extent of it.  I just figured that once you close an email account it was closed for good, but according to this it is information or "slices of historical points in our lives when we have left traces on the Internet."  Pretty scary stuff.

I had no clue about anything that was dealing with Hacking.  In the article it mentions Derridean Achivists and again this was new to me.  This person explored how memory, language, weriting and reading involved a haunting of the past that is both from the crypt and in need of decrypting.  Wow what we think is not important all it takes is a little information and Hackers can use this little info and collect, anaylis, a piece together things to create a different identity if they so choose to.  It might not even be true but who is to say it is true to people that don't know you.  They have learned to talk "with" ghosts which is another scary concept to wrap my finger around but I guess in reality this is what we have to watch out for. Another powerful statement the article brought out that reached my core is, "How many people are dead in real life, but live on in traces throughtout the internet."  It is good that I am reading this article b/c it opens your eyes up to certain things that I was not aware of before or I did not take into account of.  I guess I took it lightly.  This brings into question teaching young ones to be safe when using the internet and not to give out to much information about themselves in case of this problem of hacking. 

My question is, if blogging, are the ultimate resource from which to start constructing an 'identity map' of an individual, then why in the world are we doing this?  I am questioning now if this is a safe way of interacting with one another.  I was all for the open classroom and trying to incorporate talking to others around the world using different tools but "IS IT SAFE?" I don't know any more.  

But what I do know is that catching a Hacker is a hard thing to catch, we never know if even we are being watched and all we can do is try and take some form of safety into consideration.  And when you think about it even if you never did go online before there are many other ways in our lives that people can find out information about us, so I guess I can not live in a bubble.

Cheers

Christina

I am seeing if my mood setting is working. Nothing important