Journal 8 Virtual Success

In this Learning and Leading with Technology article from February 2009, Julie Young, et. al., praise the learning being accomplished at the Florida Virtual School (FLVS). The FLVS have no set schedules and no classrooms. They are virtual schools. They claim the FLVS provide students with high-quality, technology rich educational experiences. The curriculum is delivered through the internet. Teachers "coach" the students in one on one or small group sessions. The authors say that their success stems from the learning environment being structured to take advantage of the things their students value most. The article did not provide more than a couple examples of how this school worked. The idea sounds interesting enough, but other than a mention of an online literacy fair and the development of an online newspaper, details of how the process worked were a little sketchy. The authors advocate dramatic changes in the way we deliver education and instruction.

Question 1.

How did the FLVS students perform?

According to the article FLVS students consistently earned higher grades, received better state assessment scores, and achieved higher marks on AP exams than students at traditional schools.


Question 2.

According to the authors, what matters most in an interaction between a teacher and student?

The authors suggest that whether face to face or virtual the interaction must be authentic. The teachers at this school focus their attention on the student's concerns and they value the interaction.

Journal 7 Connecting Depth and Balance in Class

In this Learning and Leading article from August 2008, Matthew Kuhn discusses how the power of educational technology is making it easier to ensure the depth of lessons even if they do not mean to use one of the popular taxonomies. Kuhn makes specific reference to Benjamin Bloom's taxonomies. At the pinnacle of Bloom's Taxonomy are cognitive processes that require thinking involved with evaluation and ultimately creation and synthesis. Kuhn discusses how a typical "Water Cycle" project can be moved to higher levels of cognition simply by incorporating Movie Maker and the internet. He cites several examples of classrooms using wikis, blogs, applications from Explore Learning and Inspiration. He claims that if technology is wisely integrated a variety of learning styles with experiential depth will be met.

Question 1.

What was the point of Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences?

Gardner described how intelligence can be displayed in seven different categories: musical, verbal, physical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, visual and logical. The article claimed that wise use of technologies would lead to increased incorporation of these various intelligences.

Question 2.

What intelligences would a class blog incorporate?

A class blog would allow those with acumen in the verbal/linguistic and interpersonal learning preferences to express their intelligence. Blogs tend to facilitate group discussions, class notes and peer feedback.

Journal 6 Computer-Based Concept Mapping

Anderson-Inman and Ditson describe how concept mapping may be used as both an effective learning tool and teaching tool. Concept mapping is simply organizing concepts and their relationships in graphical form. They spoke of how students who are categorized as visual learners benefit from seeing concept maps in their learning. Creating visual and "symbol-rich maps" may promote long-term retention of material. The authors then describe how the software program Inspiration can be used to create concept maps for brainstorming, curriculum planning and concept formation tracking. In all three cases the idea is to start with big picture ideas, refine the ideas and then expand upon them. The beauty of the concept map is that this is easily done with a program such as Inspiration.

Question 1?

How else might the students progress be tracked by a concept map?

As noted in class the background colors of the various symbols can be changed quite easily. I could see a scenario where after a lesson or at a given time interval you could ask the students to color the background green for concepts they are comfortable with and color the background red for areas that are unclear. I also think the visual representation given as a big-picture idea at the beginning of a major unit would be extremely helpful. For instance, I created a concept map for the generalized process of photosynthesis in class. I tried to think of the main ideas that I would hope the students would get from studying photosynthesis. Clearly, the main ideas would be elaborated upon and much more info delivered, but providing a guideline as to what the take-home message should be, may lower the anxiety of students when you get into the intricate and more complicated issues involving photosynthesis.

Question 2?

What type of student might a concept map approach best serve?

The concept map would be an approach used with students who have not typically responded well to text-centered approaches. As mentioned above, concept maps would also be appreciated by learners that are often labeled visual learners.

Journal 5 "Can You Hear Me Now"

Sherry Turkle presents the case that perhaps with our increasing technological savvy and sophistication, we are alienating ourselves as real individuals. She feels people are becoming more concerned with their virtual identity and ignoring their real identity. Moreover, the speed with which we receive and send messages is not allowing for proper time to think and process the information. She mentions that young children feel a sense of security in being tethered to their parents or guardians via cell phones and text. She laments the fact that many will express intimate thoughts to strangers knowing that the other person can't know their real person. She also describes the annoying nature of being put "on pause" when somebody you are engaged in a conversation with accepts a cell phone call or text. I have seen this with my own kids. My son will sit fixated on one of several games for hours, completely mesmerized by the action as if it is real life. My other son is a text-junkie. He can barely keep his phone charged all the time. Numerous times he will have a group of friends sitting around my family room and not a word is spoke as they are all texting other kids. I think the future will obviously determine if the effects of becoming virtual people actually disrupts or discourages meaningful social interactions.

Question 1:
Turkle uses the word avavtar in her article, what does this mean?

A couple of things, an avatar can be an electronic image that someone creates usually in a computer game setting whereby this image can be manipulated by the computer. It allows people to act out various scenarios which may or may not represent their real lives. She also uses avatar as a reference to individuals who anonymously take the place of their real identity and express themselves intimately to strangers in personal pages or social networking sites.

Question 2:
What does Turkle mean by self-splitting?

A form of multi-tasking where an individual engaged in one activity will split from that activity to attend to something apparently more pressing such as a new email, text or phone call. It is common practice and actually fairly rude as the person now being ignored in favor of the more urgent info is discarded for a period.

Journal 4

In the article Deubel described why he felt a class blog would be useful. He listed the guidelines that he would incorporate into his class blog and how he would mandate complete participation. He gave a couple of ideas to protect the class account and stressed the importance of the ethical, self-monitoring by students to ensure the blog contains trusted content.

Question 1.
What might be a possible downside to a class blog as a forum for discussion?

As pointed out by Deuble, typical classroom discussions can be dominated by a few, more outgoing students. Some shy or disengaged students may never contribute to class discussion. At first blush it appears a blog would allow these students to participate. However, is this just another method that we can allow students to become more depersonalized in the human experience? A recent article in Time pointed out that the number of true friends an individual has is down from 3 to 2. Perhaps the blog is just another safe haven and hiding ground to help someday eliminate all social contact????

Question 2? What rules of engagement did Deuble describe.

Deuble noted the need for "truth, accuracy, and accountability for what you say." He also suggested mutual respect was a premium as well as the need to minimize private issues.

Journal 3 Too Cool for School? No Way!

The authors describe how technological knowledge needs to be factored into the mix of content knowledge, pedagogical content and pedagogical knowledge. This led to the notion that teachers should include technology to their coursework in what they called TPAK technological pedagogical and content knowledge. They then described three examples of teaching technology.

Question 1. What drawbacks are there to incorporating all the latest and coolest technologies into teachers methodologies?

The budget cuts in California have left fewer and fewer certified computer science/information technology staff. The teacher would then be responsible for examining, mastering and utilizing numerous new software to find a few that work. It may be difficult to get a reasonable return on the time investment for the individual teacher.

Question 2.
How was the software AxPC used to teach mathematical concepts?

Students were allowed to manipulate the software to help them describe and explain ratios and percentages. The concepts of beats per minute and music composition were integrated into their learning.

Journal 2 Social Networking

Jim Klein describes the creation of a "learning landscape" to allow both students and educators to more effectively interact not only with each other but with the greater community as well. The project brought the latest social networking tools together into one platform. This has greatly improved communication and established a sense of community. The only expense to put this together was the time of those setting it up. While still too early to tell, it appears that this program is increasing scores in both science and writing and language fluency.

Question 1. What safeguards are in place to keep the monitor information that will be public?

Sophisticated access controls which allow the users (teachers, in the case of students) to select what information will be shared with whom.

Question 2. Where can students access this information?

Students can access the information anywhere they can get on the Internet. They have a centralized file store that allows them to share, store and retrieve their data from anywhere with Internet access.