Project 5 Blog

The most challenging aspect of this project was tying math into real life problems, that were not just simple story problems, but problems that would relate to the students. The most rewarding part of this project was seeing the final project with all the transitions and animations. It was overall a good project that had alot of information that could be a great guideline for teaching. The biggest reason to use powerpoints in the classroom is to use it as a guideline for the lesson plan. It could also be used by students since most students have an understanding of powerpoints in this day and age. I would show the teacher the 7 tips, those are very vital when it comes to powerpoints. Making sure you don't put too much information and use the powerpoint as an outline. Students could use this powerpoint to look back at the examples, they could use this powerpoint to help tutor another student in the future, they could use this to simply learn on their own.

Project 4 Blog

The most challenging aspect of this project was figuring out what I was going to do. It was very difficult finding the academic standard that I wanted to use as well as how to make that work with pictures and music. Quite frankly I did not like this project from a mathematics standpoint. Maybe it is just me and I lacked the creativity to make something useful and special with this project but overall it was tough. The most rewarding part for me was when I was able to make the sound track that I used fade out right in time with the end of the pictures. I thought that was really cool since you see that happen in movies, videos, commercials, and so on, but being able to do that was really cool.

These last two points are very difficult because I found this project to not be very useful for math. I could see myself using iMovie to do things for personal use, or school subjects such as history where images of historical value could be shown, or a time period of books our authors for english but for math I did not like it very much. I really do not know how iMovie would help from a picture standpoint, but if students were able to use its video features and take a video of a statistical project they are doing it could be useful for a new way of learning.

Chapter 8 Focus Question #3

I think that teachers can use blogs in classrooms to provide a tool for discussion all the time. A student can post a question to a teachers blog or can comment on a students blog proving their opinions, corrections, statements, and discussions. Due to these features providing students to make comments on assignments or tests as a form of homework, it allows teachers to see the time the assignment is posted and the time students reply on the blogs. A blog allows for more work to be done outside of class which can be beneficial to students as a way of giving them homework without it feeling like homework as these blogs do to me since it is not on paper anymore.

Project 3 Blog

When it came to project 3 I did not really have any challenges in the development other than putting all the thoughts and ideas I had onto the website and making it connect in a way that makes sense. That was the toughest part for me since we had so many weeks to plan out what we were going to do and with time it made that process simple. A pro to a website is that it can be accessed anytime of the day, they are 24/7. A student can look at it anytime to refer back to it and learn more outside of school. Another pro is that once the information is posted there is not a lot of change when it comes to math equations or the process in thinking behind them. Therefore, you would rarely have to change any information. I am biased, I cannot think of any cons to a website having information. I think my role on the team was just too simply complete my math section of the site. Actually, I am technically the host of the website but I made sure all members had the ability to edit the site ahead of time. My area was the Math page. I did not use the survey feature on the Google docs; I did not see that as part of the project so I will obviously lose points there.

Chapter 9 Focus Question 1

Multimedia technology refers to laptops, computers, the internet, and various other electronic items that can be used for learning. All of these can be used to enhance learning because there is so much that can be taught hands off through computers and websites. Students can learn on their own away from and outside of school. They can do lab work during school and can read their materials and see examples of a project online. It is comparable to how iusb offers eBooks for nooks; it is a new technological way to read without buying a paper book. New multimedia technology also connects to the hearing and seeing learners, but it could be a downside for the hands on learners. Multimedia technology can have a greater reach than a simple textbook or lecture.

Chapter 6 Focus Question 6

The question provides is "How might educational websites provide interactive and engaging learning experiences for students?"

This question seems a bit repetitive since we have already done project 1, and it fits in great with project 3 we are currently working on. Just like project 1, a website can give the student an Independence within the work they are doing, letting them work on their own, at their pace, while still completing assignments and learning the material. It gives them a new way to interact with the material. Plus through websites students can engage one and other by email, instant message, and now with skype and face time they can video chat even. All of these things provide a new way to learn and discuss a topic which can be fun and in a way even entertainment for a student. Just like project 3 is now showing us, we can get more than one subject within a website providing a multi tooled website, giving students another way to connect to subjects. Since one website can connect to math, social studies, and English for example, a student with a strength in one area could apply their strength to their weakness because the website is set up in a way that with the material they are able to make a connection. Websites provide a new and potentially powerful tool for student learning.

Fair use

I was not really interested in the fair use and copy right topic until last weeks class. I thought it was very interesting that copy rights last so long and that fair use is not something that will stop a company from sueing you but it is just a defense when they do. I believe that movie making is a very good industry to be in if you can get the rights to a movie that has some sucess. This is because within the next 100 years there will be another technology advancment beyond Blu-Ray discs, and when that happens the time countdown will restart giving the owner another 100 years of profit. It is an endless cycle anymore with how long copyrighted material stays as such before going to public domain. That is why fair use comes into play since all material shouldn't be outlawed completely, a loop hole was needed, and fair use provides that in a small way.

Chapter 5 Focus Question #4

I was very excited to see this question because it gives me a chance to why Wikipedia can be helpful when it comes to research. I would agree with 4 points the book made such as misinformation, malinformation, messed-up information and just useless information. I believe that wikipedia is has alot of useless information, from the eye of the beholder. However, if the information can be useful to others then why would it not be used if it is right? In a high school setting, wikipedia is helpful, it is not yet a educational or proper site because it can be edited and it always change which would be a problem if you site it and it has already changed, that is why I do not like it and it should not be used citation wise. Once again, I do believe that teachers and students can use Wikipedia as a stepping stone to a proper educational site that would provide the same information as wikipedia but there is the solid feeling that it will not change or be edited. For example, if I wanted to find out the area of a square, I could find that at wikipedia, then what I should do is double check the information on a education website that would look better in a works cited page after an essay. I have always believed that the best websites to use for essays and information resources are those I get through IUSB library, ebscohost, and those ending in .gov and .edu

Project 2 Blog

Well this project was very interesting, I do somewhat wish that the ibook program did not become such an issue because I was looking forward to using a mac and getting that experience since I am comfortable with powerpoint and the microsoft suites. So there was really not a ton of new experiencese with this project sadly. With the same trend, I went into this project very up beat because I was excited to use a new mac suite that I have not used before, so due to the technical issues that we had to adjust to I was slightly disappointed because I was using powerpoint which is what A106 was for I thought. No offense to you Professor Young. If I were to do this project differently I would have just found a different way to use the geometry shapes and equations. This was a learning experience in two ways not only with using powerpoint again, but also doing more geometry research and finding out that some of the shapes are not used in high school geometry which well make the project a little interesting because some of the shapes are not used often if at all. I actually enjoyed all of the photoshopping, I had used it just briefly in another class that talked about image manipulation but only for a class session. This was fun because I got to use it for a longer period of time for a project, not just messing around in class.

Project 1 Blog

I selected the standards for this project after I had found all of the websites and completed the assignment. It was not the right way to do the project in hind sight because if I would have looked at the standards before I started I could have expanded the project and focused it on the topic standards instead of hitting one primarily and just lucking into covering another one by accident. The standards I covered I got off the Indiana Department of Education website, there were MA.G.4.1 and MA.G.4.7. Ma meaning mathematics, G meaning geometry, and 4.1 and 4.7 being the particular sections mentioned.
When I was picking out websites, I knew that I needed to pay really close attention to the ads that were on the top and sides of the websites by refreshing them multiple times to make sure there was nothing inappropriate. Beyond that I was able to find quality websites that were helpful and provided plenty of information, it was actually tough because so many of the websites focused so much and it was tough to find websites that covered just what I wanted them to cover.
I selected the task with my own creativity based on what I thought would create a lot of study work to learn about an intro to the geometry of triangles and would allow them to then solve and create their own problems to show their own ability with the subject.
There were challenges with the websites, finding ones that were not extremely broad, even though one of the sites was quite vague but it was clean advertising wise so it made sense to keep it in the project. Overcoming them was more just spending more time looking at websites finding a better one then what I had previously found.

Chapter 3 Focus Quesition #2

Student learning objectives are focused on the outcomes and taking it right from the book by saying they are what the student will be able to do after the lesson is taught. After a lesson of geometry for example a student will be able to find the circumference of a circle, they will be able to find the radius of a circle; they will be able to find the area of the circle. Such items like that, a student will be able to do those things, or those are at least the objectives you hope your teaching allows a student to be able to complete.

The Understanding by Design model is used to see if the student is understanding the material they are trying to learn. It is also referred to as the “backward design” because you start with sometimes more complex items or the smaller more basic items in some cases to achieve the greater goal or overall understanding. Once again to use a geometry example, if the end goal is for the students to understand how to find the area of a circle they must learn the steps and be able to identify where to get the information for each step. The equation for the area of the circle is A=πr^2. Now for a student that would be confusing but the end goal is for a student to understand that so as a teacher you need to break it down and say that π is a button on your calculator you use or you can use the numbers 3.14. Next the r stands for the radius which is from the center to the edge of the circle. You must explain all of those concepts so when a student is presented with a circle with numbers and points given they can execute and find the area of the circle therefore, being able to understand the area of a circle.

Blog One AT

History has shown us that people who have disabilities including those that are physical, emotional, and educational have been discriminated against when it comes to their disabilities but also their ability and the access that have when it comes to learning. It affects the person disabled and even those around them. The documentary called Freedom Machines it became clear that there is a lack of supplies and effort to those who are trying to overcome disabilities in this film. The 90 year old women had trouble hearing, and even with a hearing aid she could not constantly hear well enough. When she got help it seemed like the women helping here was there just for show, the solution she came up with was so simple that it seemed that they did not try to fit her correctly the first time. Even those who attended a high school, there was numerous times where adjustments needed to be made because the school was not fit with the proper technology or equipment or training to deal and teach a disabled student appropriately. Since the Americans with Disabilities Act passed, disabled people are beginning to see more opportunities that they deserve and that they and their parents and benefactors are striving to achieve for them. Now that companies such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft are getting behind Assistive Technology to make their programs compatible with brail, and a read back software to help students who cannot see or hear or just struggle overall. Thankfully the Federal Government rules and regulations offer those who are disabled assistance when it comes to receiving an education. All of the new technology can help students who are disabled, allowing them to learn and gain their independence; it allows them to be their own person. Even if it requires them to struggle though the work on their own, they are still doing it on their own which is a big factor. The documentary I referred to earlier called Freedom Machine and all the individuals that were focal points were extremely motivated. Clearly from my standpoint they were way more motivated to succeed and be successful students than I ever have been. Now we have electronic spellers, dictionaries, calculators, text reading software, speech recognition software and more improvements as time goes on. These are all things that will allow people who are disabled to grow. Another key is that the teachers also adapt and are able to incorporate these technologies to their class when they are dealing with a disabled student. However, that is a key to becoming a teacher in the first place, being able to adjust to special situations that come up and to be willing to learn, and always be learning.

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