Blog #6, Social Media

Social Media can be considered to be any website which allows collaboration and connectivity between users, having some objective or purpose. For example, Twitter allows people to connect to each other and share their thoughts in 'Tweets". "Social" implies that collaboration is facilitated, and "Media" implies the purpose behind it, being communication of some sort of media. There are many ways that social media can be used in the classroom. The diagram above illustrates the possible uses of several of the larger social media websites. For example, YouTube or iPadio could be used to share to any audio or video presentation that students do. Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and Pintrest could all be used as the platform for a class-wide brainstorm forum. With the trend towards more and more reliance on technology for communication and production, using these tools is evolving from helpful to almost essential. Students must learn to collaborate using technology and using these sites in classroom in very helpful in reaching that goal. Using these could also increase student interest and effort, and humans are naturally built for collaboration and community. However, some of these social networks have a downside when used in the classroom. Websites like Facebook and Twitter which are often used outside of class, and have more strictly social uses could be a distraction to students which could hinder their focus. That being said, all social media sites include some degree of non-educational uses. So, a good guideline to follow when using social media in classrooms could be to use the sites which are less popular, and so fewer students would be prone to distraction. Not only that, students will then "learn to learn" how to use technology, which will help them be able to adapt as more and more ways of collaborating online are developed. 

Blog #5 - Educational Resources Online

This week we discussed online resources for education. We discussed what made a resource valid, and possible ways to apply these resources in the future classroom. A few good criteria for a valid online resource can be seen in the graphic attached above. This graphic compares the aspects of an online resource which can either confirm it as valid or red-flag it as a possibly unreliable source.  In summary, a few criterion for a reliable online resource include cited sources, good grammar, positive peer reviews, university or government websites, and information which is consistent with cross references. Some examples of valid sources which I found were journal cites such as "MERLOT" and "The Chronicles of Higher Education", as well as university websites which include articles and resources from established professors and experts.  In cases such as academic writing and teaching or researching, it is important that you know where the information you found originated from, in order to ensure validity and protect against plagiarism. In other instances, such as appeasing personal curiosity, it is not as important to ensure that your sources are 100% valid. 

Once you have learned to determine whether an online resource is valid, then you have opened the door for an unlimited array of teaching aids and strategies, which will help your students grow and learn in an increasingly technological world. 

Article Review - Feb 14, 2012

http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/eek-a-science/42112

The article which the above link leads to is called "Eek! A Science!" and is written by David Barash. It discusses the misconception that science is an academically-superior, creatively-inferior subject, especially in relation to the humanities. I found this interesting because it is a misconception which I have never considered nor challenged in my own intellectual career.  Science is not superior or inferior to any other subject by any terms, but is just different.  I have often seen science as completely structured, with no freedom or creativity, and as a result have gone about my science endorsement classes with that mentality. After reflecting on this article, I have realized that I often restrict myself as a result of keeping these misconceptions. That being said, I must realize that science can be creative. Experiments, connections between topics, and especially the discipline of teaching science can be very creative and unbounded. Granted, it is a different way of manifesting this creativity, which I must practice to learn. To do so, and to redeem my science classes from the restricted mindset of creativity-starvation will be the key to enjoying these classes, and to being a successful teacher of the topics.

Blog #4 - Technology and Collaborative Learning Classroom Ideas

This week in class we discussed several online resources which could be beneficial technologies to use in classroom instruction. These were Diigo.com, Google Sites, and Wikis. There are many ways that these can be utilized in the classroom, and the goal of this blog is to mention a few ideas which may be applicable.

One way that Wikis can be put to use as a teacher could be in the development of rubrics. As the instructor, I could post a skeleton rubric for a particular assignment, and then invite the class to edit that rubric and collaborate in its development. This could have been another innovative way to develop our rubric for the video projects as well.

Another idea could be to encourage students, or simply as the instructor, to create a Google Reader RSS site which would bring current events about the particular school subject to it. That way students would be encouraged to remain on top of the events surrounding the subject of the class, and would provide an easy way for me as an instructor to find current events which I could share with the class in order to promote an increased interest in said subject.

As related to the coaching field, Wikis could be very beneficial as well. Sites could be created for individual teams which could include collaborative records of stats, rosters, strategy, opponent film, and lists of student health records. This would bring all of those aspects of coaching into one common area, where all of the staff could collaborate, contribute, and discuss with increasing ease.

All of these ideas in mind, the resources we discussed in class today would be very beneficial in my possible future as an educator.

Blog #3 - Video Reflection

If I could start the group video project over, there are a few things that I would do differently.  The first was somewhat uncontrollable given the class layout. The groups were split by subject area that we plan to teach. We had a group of future science teachers and future math teachers. We decided to do a math video, simply because we had a great idea for one, and the majority of the group is math-focused. However, being a possible future science teacher, I would focus the new video on that subject area, so that it would be something that could be used down the line in a classroom setting. So i would choose some topic such as an experiment or a video on how to do scientific notation in a fun way.  Another change would have been to find a music track that was long enough to not have to repeat. It was hard to make it flow with a repeat in the music. However, this was another variable that, given the circumstances, we could not help.

Some ideas for another video, this time focused on science, could include a science experiment making ice cream, how to make a model volcano, or how to create a device which would protect an egg from a fall. Research needed for these videos would consist primarily of instructions of how to do these things in order to be complete and concise, and anything that is necessary to ensure that we do not violate any copyright laws. Resources would include supplies for the specific experiments, video filming and editing technology, and a quiet, clean environment in which to film.

Perhaps in the future, if I do myself in front of a science classroom, I could put these ideas to use and develop a video in order to create a more technologically diverse atmosphere in the classroom so that the students would be able to retain interest and investment in the class.

Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons

Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons are all terms which refer to the rights people have regarding their personal creative work. Copyright is the exclusive legal right the originator of some creative work has in the production of duplicates, and to determine whether or not to allow others to use it as well.  Fair Use is essentially the fact that people have the right to quote short excerpts of a person's original words in certain specific circumstances, such as in a news report or article. Creative Commons is an organization which encourages legally sharing creative works in the spirit of collaboration and promotion.

These concepts are important for us as we go about the development of our video projects because they shape the way we can go about gathering information and media for the video. We must be careful that we do not infringe on others' rights with regards to their creative work. We must ensure that we are legally obtaining music, logos, and ideas for the project. Steps that we took included careful discretion with images and care taken in the search for websites to gather music from.

Group Collaboration in the Classroom (Blog #1 - 1/16/2012)

In class on Tuesday we watched a video and read an article considering the ideas of collaboration and idea generation. I found their claims interesting and very valid. I have found in my educational past that the better ideas and higher quality projects have been a result of group collaboration. Bringing together several students with different talents and different ideas has proved very helpful, granted the group can work together with harmony and make the best of each member's talents. It coincides with the idea of synergy, which I learned about in a class last fall. The concept essentially is explained by the equation 1+1=3. The premise is that when two or more people collaborate to complete some task, then result is greater and more effective than the total if the same amount of individuals did the same task independently.  This is likely in part due to the concept of idea collaboration which Steven Johnson considered in his video, Where Good Ideas Come From (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NugRZGDbPFU).  He argues that a vital step in the development of good ideas is collaboration and bouncing smaller ideas off one another to combine and build them up.

It will be important in my future classroom to facilitate this type of group collaboration, not only to help students see the benefits and potential of it, but to help them to develop the interpersonal skills involved with teamwork in their future career fields. One way to help students see the benefits of collaboration is to ask thought questions in class, and have students independently attempt to answer the question. Then I will have them gather into small groups and discuss the question, and eventually share their ideas with the class. This will illustrate the evolution of "the idea" from individual, simple ideas, to the more complex, developed, thorough thoughts that arise from group discussion.  Other simple ideas would include combinations of group and individual projects and quizzes.