Web 2.0 & Social Media Videos

Web 2.0 & Social Media Videos

These videos do a pretty good job of explaining their points.

The Web 2.0 video still lost me on the technical terms - with more info, I may understand. They mentioned that apps like YouTube, Flickr, and Yahoo are part of their interface; that it's intended to be a rich user interface, with interlinking parts (which those apps are).

The Social Media video did a great analogy with ice cream and ice cream shops; basically, that what used to be restricted to a few can now be used by all with access to the internet. It has made the world unique and original, and increased communication. Blogs, Podcasts, Videos - are all examples of how people contribute to the universal social media. We can provide feedback and rate all kinds of things; everything is interlinked.

Overall, these were interesting and informative videos!

Back to School Presentation (Prezi)

This is my Back to School presentation on Prezi.

Edinger Back to School on Prezi

Netiquette Presentation

This is my presentation for netiquette guidelines for my students:

Edinger Netiquette Guidelines

Evaluation: War Lords of Japan Spreadsheet

The War Lords of Japan (5th grade) project's objective is to have students be able to:
 1. Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the geography and natural phenomena of Japan and the development of the Shinto religion through table and graph interpretation, activities, and projects.
2.  Access prior knowledge to understand the unpredictability of Japanese weather and geology in order to realize how important it was for the early people of Japan to try to find a way to control forces of nature.
3.  Use the knowledge gained from this lesson to perform satisfactorily on the Japanese Religion Quiz in order to help his/her group obtain moves, koku (wealth), and armies in the War Lords of Japan simulation.\


The Technology objectives of this project are:
1. Students will use Excel’s table and graphing features to show relationships between the natural phenomena of Japan and its earliest religion.
2.  Students will use a teacher created accounting sheet to enter assignment results to determine moves, koku (wealth), and armies in the War Lords of Japan simulation.
3.  Students will be able to instantly view their castle team standings on an Excel chart after completely entering data on the accounting sheets.  They can also view graphs that compare each castle team’s strengths and weaknesses.


Basically, this project is a game to help students understand Japanese military strategy, how it affects villagers, the dispersion of wealth throughout the country, and also the importance of Japanese weather/geography in the development of the Shinto religion.


To adapt this project for an older group of students, I would have them create the accounting sheets, which keep track of the students' group standings war lords game themselves; in this version, the teacher creates it for the students. The graphs and information in the spreadsheets can be created by the students as well, which would give them practice using the application.
Overall, the game suits Sociology quite well; it explains multiple aspects of Japanese culture and war, all in a fun game that the students learn all different kinds of lessons from technology applications, to Japanese religion, culture, and history.

Jigsaw Classroom

This post is about the Jigsaw learning method - a cooperative technique in which each student's part is essential to the group's understanding of a subject.

How can the Jigsaw method be used in your classroom if you only have 5 computers?
If a classroom has only five computers, the class can be split into five groups. Each person in a group is assigned a task to learn about how to use word processors (for example, if your focus is Microsoft Word, one student's assignment could be how to use the tabs). Each student is allowed time on the computer to learn their one task, and then the computers are passed to the next student and his/her assigned task, until the group is finished. Then, each student confers with his/her "expert" group - the students from the other groups with the same assigned task - and goes back to teach his/her own group the task they learned.

What could be an advantage of this method?
There are many advantages to this method; it promotes classroom cooperation, enhances communication skills, accountability, and social skills. It is also proven to make children like school more, want to learn, and reduces prejudice in the classroom. Students teach other students; therefore, it is in their best interests to listen, communicate, and be courteous to one another.

What could be a disadvantage?
In a computer classroom setting, I can see how having five computers could limit the effectiveness of time management in a Jigsaw class. The teacher would have to limit each student's computer time in order to give each enough time to complete their task correctly.
Another disadvantage could be class size - if you have a large class, the use of only five computers would be a challenge. Also, uneven class sizes would lead to uneven groups, and possible partner situations when assigning tasks.

Overall, I agree with the Jigsaw method being a positive cooperation reinforcement tool in classrooms. A five-computer classroom would be a challenge, but I believe it would be possible to still use this method in learning how to use word processors.

The Future Classroom

While watching the "classroom of the future" videos on GameLab, I noticed a few differences between the 1987 version of "future technology" and what we actually have today.

A few things they got right:
Well, we do really have video calls, and we can video "conference" like they do in the videos - though we just call it "Skyping". We did develop wireless keyboards, and computers really are a multi-functional tool for us (internet, television, music, etc). We can use voice commands for our computers, and even cell phones.

Some things they didn't:
We don't have computer-like screens on the walls of classrooms (which is what it looked like in the video), and kids still have desks - not fluffy chairs. Our computers don't talk back to us - they understand some voice commands, but don't process them like people do. Not yet, anyway. And laptops are quickly being replaced with tablets - which are touch screen, which was also not in the video.

I think that eventually our whiteboards will be smartboards, and able to process information that is written or projected onto them. I think kids will have tablets and/or phones that can be connected with the smartboards, and the classroom will have an inherently technological part to it. Communication will be spread out over sites like Blackboard, Facebook, Twitter, and others, that will allow students and teachers to communicate online. We have barely scratched the surface of what technology could look like in the classroom - and I think we'll start to see more in the next 5-10 years!

Introduction

Graduated from Boise State University - Major in Sociology, with a secondary focus in Social Studies