Not as interesting a conversation as it appears!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
The i-generation is having tech babys!
Belinda Marie - born 7-14-1991
Xavier Denzel Crocker born 11-15-2009
Monday, September 20, 2010
Communication, Collaboration, and User Generated Contect
We're learning more ways to use communication technology every day. Skype is the communication of the future for my generation. Like the "Back to the Future" movie's predicted! Ha! We already have video conversations by artist and others available to show our students but with this technology we can create our own interview with an Artist or Creative Professional. Chapter 5 of the book "Digital Diet" gives planning advise for holding such an interview. The main point is the more planning given the more successful the interview. The questions and the students asking the questions should be planned out ahead of time. The finished interview could be posted on YouTube if the person being interviewed will approve it and it can be saved for viewing by other classes. The more the students are involved in it's production the better. Student led learning engages the students.
Another communication tool that's catching on is Twitter. This could be used similar to a blog for outside of class discussion and sharing of ideas. One way a class could use twitter could be in a group creative idea mind map. Students could bounce ideas off each other and then look at all of them in class and narrow down to the best solution for the problem. Viewing a group or class assignment as a problem to be solved and opening communication as much as possible can contribute to it's success. Another use may be to get feedback on the class from students. They may find it easier to share their viewpoints this way and a teacher can get beneficial feedback.
Social networking sites have become very popular in a free time sense but in Chapter 8 of "The Digital Diet" many great ideas for using these in education are given. The most popular one "facebook" reaches such a large group of people that many groups inside facebook have been formed. Students can be led in learning outside of class by a facebook set up by the teacher just for viewing by that class. There could be pictures of students projects included and maybe a featured student artist weekly or monthly. This would be a great way to show parents the learning going on in class. Flashcards and other learning tools can be set up for the class. This is similar to using a classroom blog but there are more applications or things that you can do. The chapter in "The Digital Diet" did advise that you need to find out your districts policy on using facebook or other social networking sites. They also advised that you should not use your personal site which I think is good advise. In setting up one myself I am cautious about how much information I want to share.
Voicethread is shown in Chapter 9 of "The Digital Diet". This is a good tool for making multi-media presentations. Students could use this to present the culture of their family and childhood traditions. That would be a great way to share the multi-ethnicities in our classes. the students can present a project and show the steps and difficulties they encountered working on the project. The Teacher could give an example of this and that would be a great way to show how creating Art takes time and sometimes evolves or changes during the act or to show the creative process involved. The teacher could also create a library of these on different technical skills or Art topics and these could be made available to students to perform further research on their own. Demonstrations given in class could be included in this library then if a student wants to re-watch it they can or if they missed class they can still watch it. The ease of this software in using slides, videos, sound and voice opens up a lot of creative ways to use the computer in education.
Resources:
Churches, A., Crocket, L., & Jukes, I. (2010). "The Digital Diet: Today's digital tools in small bytes. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Brooks-Young, S. (2010). "Teaching with the tools kids really use: Learning with web and mobile technologies." Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Another communication tool that's catching on is Twitter. This could be used similar to a blog for outside of class discussion and sharing of ideas. One way a class could use twitter could be in a group creative idea mind map. Students could bounce ideas off each other and then look at all of them in class and narrow down to the best solution for the problem. Viewing a group or class assignment as a problem to be solved and opening communication as much as possible can contribute to it's success. Another use may be to get feedback on the class from students. They may find it easier to share their viewpoints this way and a teacher can get beneficial feedback.
Social networking sites have become very popular in a free time sense but in Chapter 8 of "The Digital Diet" many great ideas for using these in education are given. The most popular one "facebook" reaches such a large group of people that many groups inside facebook have been formed. Students can be led in learning outside of class by a facebook set up by the teacher just for viewing by that class. There could be pictures of students projects included and maybe a featured student artist weekly or monthly. This would be a great way to show parents the learning going on in class. Flashcards and other learning tools can be set up for the class. This is similar to using a classroom blog but there are more applications or things that you can do. The chapter in "The Digital Diet" did advise that you need to find out your districts policy on using facebook or other social networking sites. They also advised that you should not use your personal site which I think is good advise. In setting up one myself I am cautious about how much information I want to share.
Voicethread is shown in Chapter 9 of "The Digital Diet". This is a good tool for making multi-media presentations. Students could use this to present the culture of their family and childhood traditions. That would be a great way to share the multi-ethnicities in our classes. the students can present a project and show the steps and difficulties they encountered working on the project. The Teacher could give an example of this and that would be a great way to show how creating Art takes time and sometimes evolves or changes during the act or to show the creative process involved. The teacher could also create a library of these on different technical skills or Art topics and these could be made available to students to perform further research on their own. Demonstrations given in class could be included in this library then if a student wants to re-watch it they can or if they missed class they can still watch it. The ease of this software in using slides, videos, sound and voice opens up a lot of creative ways to use the computer in education.
Resources:
Churches, A., Crocket, L., & Jukes, I. (2010). "The Digital Diet: Today's digital tools in small bytes. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Brooks-Young, S. (2010). "Teaching with the tools kids really use: Learning with web and mobile technologies." Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Technology - Tools of the Trade
The technology tools available today should be utilized by teachers. Per Rosen in the book "Rewired" many of these tools are already used as second nature or "24/7" by the i-generation. Education policy has in the past tried to disconnect our students from the world while they are in school, but is that worth the fight? This generation is continually communicating so why not use these tools with this skill to work on group project work and share learning with their classmates. The new phones are starting to access and preform many of the same functions of a laptop except they are easier to carry and many students already have cell phones. Students as young as 7 or 8 are using cell phones geared to their age group so the mobility and versatility of this technology has quickly advanced (Rosen).
The handheld notebook is trying to take the place of a laptop and still perform applications the students can use. The difficulty in using a notebook or a phone to type is determined by the keyboard for me (a baby-boomer) but the avid text messenger can communicate what they want to say in lightening speed and they are continually creating new ways to shorten words or sentences like their own shorthand. This tells me if they desire to perform the task they will learn to do it well. Engagement and desire to learn is our first most important objective as educators. The students that engage in using these tools to gather information, communicate and basically design and create their own cyber world are already using important skills, so why not use and direct these skills in our lessons.
I also can see many uses for blogging. Classes can contribute to discussion outside of class. They can share discovieries they have made on the internet and from pictures they have taken. The learning that takes place - and there can be a lot! - can easily be copied onto disks to save. Future classes can all learn from research and discussions from other students. Students can also learn to use this tool for other classes their in or groups they belong to.
When thinking about using technology in a lesson plan consideration needs to be taken into whether the technology is easily available to every student and that the use is age appropriate. What accommodations that can be made for students who don't have access to the technology outside of class. Can the students check out an i-pad or use a computer lab with internet access during a study period or after school? Some changes in presentation can be made after the technology available is determined but I can see how using these tools can help engagement in learning for all students. Like my kids who didn't have their own cell phones and barely had a computer with internet, they still wanted to use the technology and learned quickly once they got it. They are a communicating bunch and if I remember correctly communication skills has been held as a valuable skill in future success so we shouldn't try to stop the behavior - just use it in a learning direction.
Resources:
Churches, A, Crocket, L., & Jukes, I. (2010). "The Digital Diet: Today's digital tools in small bytes." Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Rosen, L. (2010). "Rewired: Understanding the net generation and how they learn." New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Brooks-Young, S. (2010). "Teaching with the tools kids really use: Learning with web and mobile technologies.: Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
The handheld notebook is trying to take the place of a laptop and still perform applications the students can use. The difficulty in using a notebook or a phone to type is determined by the keyboard for me (a baby-boomer) but the avid text messenger can communicate what they want to say in lightening speed and they are continually creating new ways to shorten words or sentences like their own shorthand. This tells me if they desire to perform the task they will learn to do it well. Engagement and desire to learn is our first most important objective as educators. The students that engage in using these tools to gather information, communicate and basically design and create their own cyber world are already using important skills, so why not use and direct these skills in our lessons.
I also can see many uses for blogging. Classes can contribute to discussion outside of class. They can share discovieries they have made on the internet and from pictures they have taken. The learning that takes place - and there can be a lot! - can easily be copied onto disks to save. Future classes can all learn from research and discussions from other students. Students can also learn to use this tool for other classes their in or groups they belong to.
When thinking about using technology in a lesson plan consideration needs to be taken into whether the technology is easily available to every student and that the use is age appropriate. What accommodations that can be made for students who don't have access to the technology outside of class. Can the students check out an i-pad or use a computer lab with internet access during a study period or after school? Some changes in presentation can be made after the technology available is determined but I can see how using these tools can help engagement in learning for all students. Like my kids who didn't have their own cell phones and barely had a computer with internet, they still wanted to use the technology and learned quickly once they got it. They are a communicating bunch and if I remember correctly communication skills has been held as a valuable skill in future success so we shouldn't try to stop the behavior - just use it in a learning direction.
Resources:
Churches, A, Crocket, L., & Jukes, I. (2010). "The Digital Diet: Today's digital tools in small bytes." Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Rosen, L. (2010). "Rewired: Understanding the net generation and how they learn." New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Brooks-Young, S. (2010). "Teaching with the tools kids really use: Learning with web and mobile technologies.: Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Myart
University of Mo Science and Tech in Rolla.
I also made a sculpture of Jo for a candy mold
Cezanne painting but I was trying to make it
look like my oldest daughter?
piece.
classblogging
I can see how we can use this technology as a creativity tool. The students can blog about their creative ideas for a class project and others from the group can add their comments and ideas. This can be used as a tool for brainstorming for a group or just for an individual project. They can also use it as a type of creative journal or a place to share information students have found online that can be directed by research on a subject. I'm not sure yet about the differences between blogging and other communication like facebook or messaging, but I am seeing lessons that could utilize this or ways it could be used through the entire class. Students could be asked to use a blog to reflect on learning in the classroom, this would be a wonderful way to find out what they think about a lesson or what they have learned. I could adjust lessons and see what learning objectives were successful. Students could be shown a piece of Art and asked what their impression is and they would probably be less fearful of voicing their ideas than they would be in class. They can all be asked to respond and write what they see in the piece without worrying about being right or wrong and then you could pick up the discussion in class. This could be a weekly homework and then they could also be asked to find a related piece online to share on the blog site. The piece can demonstrate ideas being learned in class so comments and examples shared can be a way to demonstrate learning. I am excited about the creativity that can be inspired using technology that the students enjoy using and getting them communicating about Art and Creating is a great idea since they like to communicate so much. I can see how it can be easier to write what you want to say then sometimes to be able to say it as well. Just like that last sentence - I changed it and it still may not make sense! Ha!
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