Group case study

I will that my group had made really good progress on this case study. I am happy we now have a third group member to add more ideas to our group and this will hopefully improve are score. Rick and I have posted our answers to the questions and our new group member is going to post the answers today. Rick is going to turn in our progress report Sunday for the group. It is really nice to actually have a group in which all of the members do their work and take part.

I not sure if we are going to be given more information during week nine or if we will just be compiling all of our group answers. I feel that we are in great shape and will do well on this project. I am looking forward to ready all of my groups answers and see what we all came up with that was same and different. Looking forward to next weeks finished project.

MY Prezi

I am putting the link below for my prezi.

http://prezi.com/m5qgfxx6wjo1/how-to-get-your-first-united-states-passport/

Listen Listen

I would much rater listen to a podcast the read the text. I often buy books on tape or find the podcast on the internet for my classes. I like to be able to listen cause I have a 30-40 minute drive to class everyday and it is a great way for me to use this time. I have to read it and can't find a podcast of it I am less likely to read it cover to cover. I will normally just read parts of it to figure out whats going on enough to get buy.

Using a podcasts is a great way to help student prepare for a test in a class. They can find ones on the same subject but is gives more information on it. It may also give the students a different point of view on the same subject or " make that light bulb click".

I do feel that all students have different ways of learning. Some students need to hear things more than once to get it while others know it from the time they hear it. Some students can take notes and listen while other can only do one at a time. I podcast allows for the student to play first and take notes and then play and just listen if needed. Podcast are a great tool that can be used in education.

New Related Video

I picked this video cause it makes some great points about how the world has changed. It shows what we are teaching was great for back then but ask are we providing students with the right tools for todays world and the future?

Technology and Instruction

I really enjoyed these three videos. I would have never watched them if it was not required for this class so I am glad this was an assignment. The three videos all had there own different message but they all related to education today and I found way in which I could relate to all three of them too.

The first I watched was on creativity on education. He made some really great points. With the budget cuts and standardize testing it is hard for students to be aloud to be creative the teacher is just worried about teaching for the test. I also thought is really crazy when he said kids starting school today will retire in 2065 and we don’t have any idea of what these students will be facing in five years from now yet in 2065. I also found it interesting when he said creativity is important as literacy. The other story that was also so true was about the girl they said should be a dance and they enrolled her and dance and she was very successful and now days we drug the kids that can’t sit still. If will teach all kids to just sit still and we don’t let them be creative who is going to do the jobs that require creativity? This is just one reason why creativity is so important.

The video titled “A. Vision of Students Today” showed many things students can relate to. The fact the textbooks is a huge money making business and students have to buy them and often never open them drives me nuts. The fact of average class size with a 115 students is crazy. Also only 18% of teachers know my name is even worst. Being that I am 6’3 and 300+ pounds this is one fact that is not true for me. I hardly ever miss class and when my teacher take role they just go right past my name. This video really shows how things are changing in this world. When the student shows the test with a grade of a 31 and says it can’t help with all these other everyday things is one of the things I think about everyday. I wonder why does education not teach so many things I deal with all the time. The Facebook thing is something else I don’t really get. When I am sitting in class students are always on there phone or laptop looking at Facebook and not paying attention to what the teacher is saying. Are they really learning anything?

The last video Design 2.0: Design what. It is amazing how much the web has changed just in my short life time. I can remember when you got on the internet and it was so slow and anytime someone was calling it would kick you off the internet. Teachers never told students to go home and look something up on the internet 15 years ago yet today this happens all the time. Now I can do research without stepping foot into the library. I can find books and journals online and it doesn’t take an hour to download it. This class is also a great example of how the web has changed. Being that this is my second go around with college it is amazing just how much thing have changed since in the last eight years. When I was at Nebraska there where no online classes or at least none that I knew of. Today students can get a degree over the internet.

These videos all talked about things that are good and bad for education. Technology is one of those that can both way from having the resources right there for the student to the student being districted in class by the web. It is to be hoped that students will make the best of technology and there education now and in the future.

Video I like the most!

Five Advantages to Mind Maps

1. Great for visual learners

2. Great way to connect things

3. It allows the learner to make pathways

4. Looks great when you use software to create them

5. The learner can get expanding on the ideas the more they learn about it.

I think there is tons of great you can use these mind maps for. I had never seen a mind map used before this year. I think they are a great tool to help students learn new aterial and great way for the teacher to present the new material to the students.

My Digital Mind Map

I can not get mine to upload and I have tried many different things. I added it as an attachment on the group board for now.

‘Designing for learners’

There are many things a teacher has to think about we designing the classroom and homework activities. It is very important to help the students to the high level learning. It is really important for the teacher to find a happy median on things. They do not want to be the students best friend or be the teacher in the case study we read about. If the students don't respect the it will be a long semester for both the teacher and the students.

Does this mean the teacher should not challenge the students? NO, they need to challenge the students. The teacher though must make it known from day one what they expect and spell everything out for the students. If the students understand why the are doing this assignment or paper the will get more out of it. When looking at the case study one of the complains is having to write papers and that they never have had to do it before they did it in english and got an A so why are we doing it now? Communicate is major for everything. In todays world we are always email, IM, twitter, or social networking and if you don't know how to do this well it will be hard to do your job well.

blog and twitter

Blogs and twitter can be very valuable education tools. Back in the old days you it was slow to find out news and what the reader got was the writers depiction of what was happening. With blogs people can get news right away. It allows anyone to tell the world what is going on. Twitter is a great way to stay in touch with friends and family. It may not important enough to call or email and say I am going to the store but you can twitter it and they will fill more connected to you and know what is going on in your life.

When looking at blogs and twitter and how they relate to education and Bloom's Taxonomy they fit right in. Blogs fit into the evaluation and understanding parts of Bloom's. They allow the student to post something and get feedback from others which will help the student evaluate the material. Twittering helps the understand things better. It can be as simple as where are you? What ever the simple question is it allows the student to better understand something.