Web 2.0 Educator

The blog I chose to read was created by Hey Jude. His blog had a lot of videos posted on it to illustrate what the topic of the posting was about. It would definitely appeal to a visual learner. The type of technology that was the subject of the entries I read was more effective internet search engines. The author quoted leapfish, semantic web, and Calais. The author's ideas about technology in the classroom was about collaboration. How collective ideas are better than a single person's thoughts. Leapfish not only searches the key words but related ideas and topics. An example is if you searched Martin Luther King Jr. Links about him as a person would appear but also links to other relevant topics like Rosa Parks, Malcom X, Plessy vs Fergusson, and the Chicago Riots. Semantic Web is what Calais is. Calais is built by all the people that use it. Anyone can write and post it. The post is automatically categorized so it will appear on another users seach page if the topic is relevant. One video posted on the blog is an interview of Michael Wesch, a collge professor at Kansas State. A loose quote from Michael Wesch is, "I have 400 students in my lecture. I am not really interested in what one person can do. I am interested in what 400 people can do when they all set their minds to a common goal." This idea of using technology for people to join together for a common purpose: to learn and discover the world, is what the blog postings I read by Hey Jude are about. I think the ideas presented here are very good in theory. I believe it is indeed the way of the future. I'm just not sure if the future is here yet in terms of application. I guess it all depends on the skills the students already possess for that type of technology and what resources the school provides. Hey Jude's Blog.

My MEL Experiences

• Context- In the 5th grade my sister was learning what a biography was. The teacher had all the students research and write one. The personal connection the teacher help the students make was helping the students choose a famous person in history with the same name as the student. My little sister's name is Molly and her biography was on Molly Pitcher.
  
• Avoid Rewards- In my elementary gym class, we had to do assessments at the beginning of each year. We had to do jumping jacks, sit ups, and a sprint. My gym teacher would always give the kid who won each event a lollipop. I think it made the other kids feel bad for not being as fast or not being able to do a lot of jumping jacks or sit ups. In retrospect, a gym teacher feeding kids sugar seems counter intuitive.
  
• Hands on- In my biology class, we were doing a bird unit. My teacher played for us some recordings of bird sounds of birds that were local to the area. Then we went outside and walked the cross country trails listening for different birds. I think we ended up hearing 5 different birds that we could identify. That was fun and it helped us appreciate something as mundane as bird chirps.
  
• Helping Students Succeed- I was struggling with the review at the beginning of my AP Calculus class because I had not had any math classes since the beginning of my sophomore year and this was my senior year. My teacher was very patient with me and reviewed with me some basic principals that I had forgotten. I was getting frustrated because I knew I had done it all before and I could not remember it. He just said, "hey take it easy. I know you can do it, just relax and let it come back to you." Knowing he had confidence in me helped me feel comfortable to come in after class whenever I did not understand a concept. I got a 4 on the AP exam but even without that kind of success, I know he helped me a lot.
  
• Student/Teacher Relationships- I had a geography teacher, Mr. Jones, that for all of his classes, he gave each student a nickname. Even outside of class, when Mr. Jones saw us, he would call us by the nickname he had given us. My nick name was M.C. which are my initials but the day he gave me the nickname, he asked me if I could touch this. I just looked at him and said, "touch what?" He said, "come on M.C. isn't that your song?" I just laughed but the name stuck. It made me feel like he cared enough to come up with nick names for all of us and remember them.
  

Type I and Type II Technology

Type 1 Technology- Uses technology to accomplish tasks already being done in the classroom. There is nothing innovative or future thinking about how the technology can change the way students are educated. Here are a few examples of this use of technology. A teacher posting the reading assignments on the web instead of using a text book. The teacher I had that did this did not even add pictures or anything. All the link consisted of was uploaded text or links to speeches. The most elementary use of technology that most clearly exemplifies this concept, but students have been doing it for as long as computers have been accessible, is word processing papers instead of handwriting them. If the teacher is even more willing to take risks she might have the students email their homework so there is no paper at all. Another example is taking a test on a computer instead in paper form. One of my teachers signed up our mobile lab, which is a 30 laptops on a cart, so we could take an essay style exam. He wrote the questions on the white board and we wrote our responses on the computers. What is even more sad about this scenario is that he had us print our essays so he could grade them.

Type 2 Technology- An interactive, innovative, and adaptive approach to technology's use in the classroom. This focuses more on the student's use of the technology in new ways, rather than using the technology to do things the student is used to doing. A few examples would be: a virtual recreation of an important fort in a war that the student could explore by going into different rooms to find the answers to a list of questions, a collection of art works the student could look at and analyze at his or her own pace, and a debate between the same class at a different school through an web camera.

Chapter 2: Respect, Liking, Trust, Fairness

Students respect good teachers even though they hate the subject or dislike the teacher on a personal level. This jumped out at me because this seemed way too mature to be coming from most of the kids I went to high school with.

I must admit, I was not this mature. I had biases and hated certain teachers whether they were good teachers or not. I learned ALOT in my chemistry class. I still to this day hate that teacher because of who he is as a person. He's not a bad man or anything like that. We just don't see eye to eye on a lot of issues. I think that the above statement is true only on a very small scale or on a superficial level.

Chapter 1: Knowing Students Well

Something that stood out to me was one of things that "Tiffany" said about a chemistry teacher she had. She said that the teacher never asked the class if they were understanding or if they were confused. The teacher kept on talking, "teaching to the whiteboard" so to speak.

This jumped out to me because I have had a few teachers more interested in covering the curriculum or getting through the lesson plan than if we were understanding it. One particular teacher I had was doing this when she realized how quiet the room was. My teacher turned around and looked at us. We all just stared at her with blank looks. So she asked, "does anyone have any questions?" This was definitely a speak now or forever hold your peace kind of question. When no one else even moved, I raised my hand and said, "I don't have a question, I'm so confused that I can't even think of one. All I know is that I don't get it." The teacher looked at me, rolled her eyes, and then continued teaching more material. I guess she thought I was being a smart Alec. I really don't know.

Learning Styles Inventory Results

These are the results of your inventory. The scores are out of 20 for each style. A score of 20 indicates you use that style often.

Style Scores

Visual	6
Social	19
Physical	14
Aural	12
Verbal	18
Solitary	4
Logical	4

I agree with the results from this test. I knew I liked words and the suggested ways to study for reading/writing learners are the ones that I use. I hate studying alone. I usually do it a lot because I do not need a lot of study time to remember the material. So studying with a partner does not work well. Usually I study in the lounge in my dorm or if I am in my room I play music while I study. I did not realize that I am a kinesthetic learner. I have never really explored any of those study suggestions. The one time I can remember doing something like that was in high school. I used to practice conjugating Spanish verbs while running during track practice. I have not tried anything like that in college.

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