After reading the comments in my last post I realized that I did the wrong chapter. I want to apologize for that. I will make sure to pay attention to which chapter I am on from now on.
With that said, this week's chapter was Chapter 7, and again, the last bit of the chapter was the most interesting and what I think I could talk about the most. So I am going to be discussing the types of digital games that the book acknowledges. Internet based games and desktop based games, simulation type games, and virtual worlds.
The first I would like to talk about is internet based games vs. desktop based games. An Internet based game (or browser based game) is a game that you can find off of the internet, while a desktop game usually comes from software. There are a lot of really good educational games for both. A good example of internet based game would be anything from the website coolmath.com. When I taught in the after school program at the middle school I was at, the middle school students would try to ask me if they could play games. When I would say no, they would ask, "even Cool Math?" Cool Math is a great website for the kids to learn math and science and some reading as well. But all of it is in the form of games. They are mostly puzzle type games and a lot of them are very familiar to games that students would play while not in school. A good example of a desktop game would be Oregon Trail or Mavis Beacon Typing software. What makes internet games better than desktop games is the fact that most of them are free. The thing that makes desktop games better than internet games is they can give you more exclusive content. So there are pros and cons to both types of games
The second thing I would like to talk about would be simulation games. I think the most popular simulation game out there is The Sims (which is one of my favorite games). The Sims have a lot of games like The Sims, SimCity, and SimTower. These games allow you to build people (The Sims), cities (SimCity), and buildings and skyscrapers (SimTower). These games teach about life, geography, economy, and finance. Although, I haven't ever seen The Sims in schools, SimCity and SimTower are both great educational games. Simulation games put the student having all control of the object.
The last thing I would like to discuss is about virtual worlds. The book gave the example of the adult game Secondlife. This is a game that I have played before. I appreciate that it stated it was an "adult" game, because I wouldn't suggest this game to any kid. In fact, I really wouldn't suggest it to adults. It's vulgar, it's very personal, and type of people who normally play this game are a little odd. I thought it was just like some game that you could play and not have to worry too much about. But I figured out it was called Secondlife for a reason. You have to devote you first life (the real one) into this game. It was too much for me. What I know my middle school kids loved was Minecraft. I know that you have to get a subscription, but my middle school kids had found a demo version and played it on Fridays when they were allowed a little computer time. The good thing about virtual world games is that it teaches you real-life situations when you may not have access to it. For instance, in these worlds you may have to get a job to get money, or plant things so that you can have food. This teaches students to be responsible.
References:
Maloy, R., O’Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
Schaffhauser, D. (2013, September 10). Will Gaming Save Education, or
Just Waste Time? -- THE Journal. Retrieved September 28, 2014, from
http://thejournal.com/Articles/2013/09/02/Will-Gaming-Save-Education-or-Just-Waste-Time.aspx?Page=1
Friday, September 26, 2014
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Digital Badge # D
Normally, When I start to write this blog I read the chapter and try to pick out three different things in the chapter that stood out to me. This time, as I read chapter 4, I noticed the there was only one thing that really truly stood out to me. And that was the section titled Assessing and Evaluating Students.
In this section, it is stated that there are three factors that influence teachers on assessment. The first of which is personal experiences. The text book goes on to say that new teachers tend to teach in the way that they were taught. So if you were taught by lectures, you will tend to lecture to your students. I think this is why it's good to take classes like Introduction To Teaching Profession, Introduction To Technology For Teachers, and Introduction To Diversity For Educators. They teach us different ways to teach. They open us up to new options that we wouldn't other wise have. It's important for us to see other ways to teach. I am not exactly for or against Common Core. I see somethings that don't really make me happy with it. However, one thing that I agree with is that everyone learns differently. It's important not to just stick with one method of teaching, because most classes don't learn in only one method.
The second factor is standardized testing. There's been a lot of stuff here recently about standardized testing in the news. First of all, Lee county made historical news in being the first and only county in Florida that opted out of standardized testing. Again, I am on the fence about standardized testing. On one hand I believe that there should be some form of exit exam. Most states have one. However, I think Florida pushes to hard for their test. As any Floridian knows, FCAT is a major part of schools. This one test has the power not only to not allow a student to pass high school, but also has the power to cost teachers their jobs. I graduated high school in 2005. I started high school in Florida in 2003 after I moved from Alabama. FCAT was brand new to me and I took my first FCAT exam when I was a sophomore in high school. My brother got very ill that year. We almost lost him. At one point we thought he had a stroke. All of this happened during FCAT week. Being a student for the first time in Florida, I didn't realize how important FCAT really was. I "Christmas Treed" the test just so I could go back to the hospital to see my brother. The next year I realized how important it was and really tried at it. Unfortunately, I didn't pass. I missed the math by about 4 questions, and the reading by about 2. My senior year I passed the FCAT. It took me three years, but I finally made it. Three years later, the school I attended had gotten and F (for about the 5 year in a row) and they got a new principal. The new principal fired 27 teachers. That's when I realized that this test was crazy. I believe very much, that this is a major factor in a teacher's lesson plan and assessment. If not they could duly pay the price.
The last thing that was mentioned as a factor was teacher test. As a future teacher, I know there are test that we have to take such as the General Knowledge Test, the CLAST, and any subject area exams that is required. Many teachers believe that this way is the exact way to teach their students. There could be some things a person can take from this test, but to make assessments from this solely isn't the best idea. Like I said before, best to mix in ideas instead of keeping with one.
Like I said in the beginning of this post, I tend to read throughout the whole chapter and figure out what three seperate things in the chapter spoke to me. But this whole section spoke to me and I felt I had something to say about everything in this section. I am also curious to know how you feel about these subjects (Professor Coleman).
Reference:
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
In this section, it is stated that there are three factors that influence teachers on assessment. The first of which is personal experiences. The text book goes on to say that new teachers tend to teach in the way that they were taught. So if you were taught by lectures, you will tend to lecture to your students. I think this is why it's good to take classes like Introduction To Teaching Profession, Introduction To Technology For Teachers, and Introduction To Diversity For Educators. They teach us different ways to teach. They open us up to new options that we wouldn't other wise have. It's important for us to see other ways to teach. I am not exactly for or against Common Core. I see somethings that don't really make me happy with it. However, one thing that I agree with is that everyone learns differently. It's important not to just stick with one method of teaching, because most classes don't learn in only one method.
The second factor is standardized testing. There's been a lot of stuff here recently about standardized testing in the news. First of all, Lee county made historical news in being the first and only county in Florida that opted out of standardized testing. Again, I am on the fence about standardized testing. On one hand I believe that there should be some form of exit exam. Most states have one. However, I think Florida pushes to hard for their test. As any Floridian knows, FCAT is a major part of schools. This one test has the power not only to not allow a student to pass high school, but also has the power to cost teachers their jobs. I graduated high school in 2005. I started high school in Florida in 2003 after I moved from Alabama. FCAT was brand new to me and I took my first FCAT exam when I was a sophomore in high school. My brother got very ill that year. We almost lost him. At one point we thought he had a stroke. All of this happened during FCAT week. Being a student for the first time in Florida, I didn't realize how important FCAT really was. I "Christmas Treed" the test just so I could go back to the hospital to see my brother. The next year I realized how important it was and really tried at it. Unfortunately, I didn't pass. I missed the math by about 4 questions, and the reading by about 2. My senior year I passed the FCAT. It took me three years, but I finally made it. Three years later, the school I attended had gotten and F (for about the 5 year in a row) and they got a new principal. The new principal fired 27 teachers. That's when I realized that this test was crazy. I believe very much, that this is a major factor in a teacher's lesson plan and assessment. If not they could duly pay the price.
The last thing that was mentioned as a factor was teacher test. As a future teacher, I know there are test that we have to take such as the General Knowledge Test, the CLAST, and any subject area exams that is required. Many teachers believe that this way is the exact way to teach their students. There could be some things a person can take from this test, but to make assessments from this solely isn't the best idea. Like I said before, best to mix in ideas instead of keeping with one.
Like I said in the beginning of this post, I tend to read throughout the whole chapter and figure out what three seperate things in the chapter spoke to me. But this whole section spoke to me and I felt I had something to say about everything in this section. I am also curious to know how you feel about these subjects (Professor Coleman).
Reference:
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Digital Badge # C
I just got done reading in chapter 3 and the biggest things that jumped out at me were the 4 learning theories, digital, media, and visual literacies, and our digital citizenships.
The first I would like to discuss would be the 4 learning theories which are: behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and constructionism. The behaviorism theory is we learn by how we act to things around us. One of the greatest experiments of behaviorism is Pavlov's dog. Ivan Pavlov would ring a bell whenever it was time to feed his dogs. He discovered that once he would ring the bell his dogs would begin to salivate. To put it to an example using students, If you give your students rewards at the end of the week for doing their work, and continue to do it for a few weeks, the students would do their work, unprompted, because they expect an reward at the end of the week. Cognitivism is the theory that learning comes not from environment but internally, as in our memory, motivation, attention, ect. By reading this blog, you understand what I am saying because you have memorized these words and their meanings. So you are able to decipher this because of cognitivism learning. Constructivism is basically that we are able to interpret the world in our own way. So experiments and activities are key to this learning style. The last would be constructionism. This is essentially the same things as constructivism except for it adds that people learn while doing things in the real world. Which I can relate to because I am a very hard headed individual. I learn by trial and error. I have been out of high school for almost 10 years now. In between this time I have had 7 jobs, have gotten married and been to 2 different colleges. I did well in my first year of college. I went to what was then Edison Community College. I wanted to get out of South Florida so I went to North Florida to a college and I was an 19 year old free person. I rarely attend my classes and I ran out of money. I moved back down to southwest Florida and began my career as an uneducated person. I hated working the jobs that didn't envolve kids. These were jobs like CVS and JoAnn Fabrics. I hated working with money in fast paced situations. With working with kids and no education I worked with babies. I have been thrown up on, pooped on, and I have been in a room with 12 crying, sleepy, cranky infants. I knew that I couldn't do that for much longer. I had the opportunity to work with middle school students after school for three years. I enjoyed this although middle school was just as bad as the infant room with all of the hormones, emotions, drama, and (sometimes) blatant disrespect. I decided I wanted to be the boss of my classroom, and going back to school would be the only way to do it.
I also liked reading about digital, media, and visual literacy. I have learned that I am more visual literacy kind of person. I learn by videos, books, magazines, ect. My mother is an art teacher for an elementary school. She always has Prezi's for her kids. In her words "It's like Power Point but on crack." I plan on using things like Prezi for my classroom
The last thing I want to talk about it our digital citizenship. As citizens of this country, we have our rights. No one has the right to take away any of our rights. Digital citizenship is our digital rights. I am currently injured and because of my injury I had to step down from my job working with the middle school in the after school program. The good news is I have time to commit to my FOUR online courses this year. Even though some of it has been taken up by doctors appointments. All of this just to say, all of my classes we give responses to our classmates discussion post. They must be constructive and valuable information. We simply cannot write "You suck!" on the post (which is just mean but I guess they need to tell us this for a reason.) We need to be open to people's beliefs and rights and not big meanies (as my 7 year old cousin would say.)
Reference:
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
The first I would like to discuss would be the 4 learning theories which are: behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and constructionism. The behaviorism theory is we learn by how we act to things around us. One of the greatest experiments of behaviorism is Pavlov's dog. Ivan Pavlov would ring a bell whenever it was time to feed his dogs. He discovered that once he would ring the bell his dogs would begin to salivate. To put it to an example using students, If you give your students rewards at the end of the week for doing their work, and continue to do it for a few weeks, the students would do their work, unprompted, because they expect an reward at the end of the week. Cognitivism is the theory that learning comes not from environment but internally, as in our memory, motivation, attention, ect. By reading this blog, you understand what I am saying because you have memorized these words and their meanings. So you are able to decipher this because of cognitivism learning. Constructivism is basically that we are able to interpret the world in our own way. So experiments and activities are key to this learning style. The last would be constructionism. This is essentially the same things as constructivism except for it adds that people learn while doing things in the real world. Which I can relate to because I am a very hard headed individual. I learn by trial and error. I have been out of high school for almost 10 years now. In between this time I have had 7 jobs, have gotten married and been to 2 different colleges. I did well in my first year of college. I went to what was then Edison Community College. I wanted to get out of South Florida so I went to North Florida to a college and I was an 19 year old free person. I rarely attend my classes and I ran out of money. I moved back down to southwest Florida and began my career as an uneducated person. I hated working the jobs that didn't envolve kids. These were jobs like CVS and JoAnn Fabrics. I hated working with money in fast paced situations. With working with kids and no education I worked with babies. I have been thrown up on, pooped on, and I have been in a room with 12 crying, sleepy, cranky infants. I knew that I couldn't do that for much longer. I had the opportunity to work with middle school students after school for three years. I enjoyed this although middle school was just as bad as the infant room with all of the hormones, emotions, drama, and (sometimes) blatant disrespect. I decided I wanted to be the boss of my classroom, and going back to school would be the only way to do it.
I also liked reading about digital, media, and visual literacy. I have learned that I am more visual literacy kind of person. I learn by videos, books, magazines, ect. My mother is an art teacher for an elementary school. She always has Prezi's for her kids. In her words "It's like Power Point but on crack." I plan on using things like Prezi for my classroom
The last thing I want to talk about it our digital citizenship. As citizens of this country, we have our rights. No one has the right to take away any of our rights. Digital citizenship is our digital rights. I am currently injured and because of my injury I had to step down from my job working with the middle school in the after school program. The good news is I have time to commit to my FOUR online courses this year. Even though some of it has been taken up by doctors appointments. All of this just to say, all of my classes we give responses to our classmates discussion post. They must be constructive and valuable information. We simply cannot write "You suck!" on the post (which is just mean but I guess they need to tell us this for a reason.) We need to be open to people's beliefs and rights and not big meanies (as my 7 year old cousin would say.)
Reference:
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Friday, September 5, 2014
Digital Badge # B
There were a few things I found interesting in Chapter 2 this week. One of the biggest things that I read that made me really reflect was about web 2.0. More so on Web 1.0. As I said in my last post, I am a child of the 90s. I asked my brother (who is just a year younger than me) what he could remember about technology during his elementary through high school years (1990 - 2006.) We had just got our first family computer in 1997. I remember the dial up modem and having to wait patently for my mom to get off the phone just so I could listen to midi files of *Nsync (one of my favorite things to do on the internet at that time.) He and I both remember having to take a typing class. My mother took a typing class when she was in high school. But she took it on a typewriter. We took ours on a computer. I remember one girl in class who was really good at typing. The teacher asked her "How can you type that fast at your age?" Her response was "I talk in a lot of chat rooms." These days kids aren't great typers on keyboards, rather, they are great texters on phones. Unlike the kids of today, I received
my first cell phone when I was a senior in high school so my texting ability is limited.
My brother and I agree that one of the biggest influences in technology that we had experienced at school was playing the game Oregon Trail. What Oregon Trail taught us was that if you survived the 1800s you were close to godliness. The rest of us died of dysentery.
As for web 1.0 being taught in schools, that wasn't even an option for us half of the time. In our high school years (which was after the millennium) We were able to do some research papers off of the internet but even then most teachers still wanted us to look things up in encyclopedias. (Which I remember using alot in middle school and high school.)
Another thing that I found interesting in this chapter was using technology in a fun and interesting way instead of what most of my teachers would do (lecture.) There are many good things about lecturing. However, most people can pay attention for just a few minutes or more. To sit in a classroom for 45 minutes is just ridiculous. I want to be the teacher that has everyone's attention for the day. The way to do that is to make it fun for the kids. Bringing technology to them certainly wouldn't hurt.
The last thing I want to talk about is the already availability of educational web 2.0 tools. One of these tools is a website called Edmodo. Edmodo is a site that is just like Facebook for students. The school where I was a after school middle school tutor used this a lot. The students would have assignments in class and they would submit them via Edmodo. Much like how we use canvas here at Florida Southwestern. Again, as I said in the last post, I worked at a BYOD school. Where I noticed there were some issues with having devices at school. There were many more great aspects of this method. The kids (when prompted) could get out their devices and do research. I honestly like this method of teaching. It allows the students to use devices, web 2.0 tools, learn from researching by and for themselves, and it allows them to have a little fun doing it.
Resorces:
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
https://www.edmodo.com/about
Another thing that I found interesting in this chapter was using technology in a fun and interesting way instead of what most of my teachers would do (lecture.) There are many good things about lecturing. However, most people can pay attention for just a few minutes or more. To sit in a classroom for 45 minutes is just ridiculous. I want to be the teacher that has everyone's attention for the day. The way to do that is to make it fun for the kids. Bringing technology to them certainly wouldn't hurt.
The last thing I want to talk about is the already availability of educational web 2.0 tools. One of these tools is a website called Edmodo. Edmodo is a site that is just like Facebook for students. The school where I was a after school middle school tutor used this a lot. The students would have assignments in class and they would submit them via Edmodo. Much like how we use canvas here at Florida Southwestern. Again, as I said in the last post, I worked at a BYOD school. Where I noticed there were some issues with having devices at school. There were many more great aspects of this method. The kids (when prompted) could get out their devices and do research. I honestly like this method of teaching. It allows the students to use devices, web 2.0 tools, learn from researching by and for themselves, and it allows them to have a little fun doing it.
Resorces:
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
https://www.edmodo.com/about
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