Images

I really like using publisher. I use it for weekly newsletters and the monthly newspaper that I have my students create. I am definitely comfortable with reformatting photographs. I have also made certain that my students are aware of how to do this as well. I have them create brochures on a place of their own choosing, and part of this includes pasting in pics and edit those. I can say that students do love taking photographs, it is the journalism job everyone wants to do. 

Reading the Image

I think its very interesting that this weeks reading is on "reading" images, because I just read about visual literacy in one of my other classes. I definitly think that visual literacy needs to be amped up in classroom. Students do not know how to pause and really see what they are looking at. If a teacher asks the right questions the thinking that students do while reading images can be just as indepth as when they read text. Another reason that placing an emphasis on visual literacy is so important is because not all students excel at reading text,this reading images gives them chance to still access the content without being frustrated.

I also really like the idea of students using images to express their ideas, but I have had problems with using this in the computer lab when the printers don't work or do not print color, and thus the workt hat the students created can not adequntly be presented. I certainly hope that the price of colr printing goes down, because I think that will open up alot of whatis being discussed here.

Video

I have to say that I really like the idea of using video in the classroom. The ideas that jumped out at me was the idea of this demystifying actors and actresses. I teach 5th grade and I think this is an age when kids start to idolizing people in films and television, they don't realize that the people they see are not perfect, and should not be their idols. Anyways... I think I would have the students making films, more than I would be making ones for them to watch. I think a great idea would be to have the students tape little lessons which could then be shown to younger students at the school, thus making what they are doing real.

Math and Computers

I have to say that the mathematical aspects of this chapter were a bit over my head. I use the Internet to buy a book, research a topic, write a paper, not figure out a formula or work a spreadsheet. I do gradebooks on line, this is true but it is via program that i am requirred to use, which runs all the formulas with out me bing involved.
I teach reading, and I have to say I have a difficult time finding how using spreadsheets in my reading lessons can ever be more than using them for the sake of using them, versus being an integral part of the lesson that helps convey the overall purpose of the lesson. I believe that a program, tool, whatever shoudl be used becasue it helps move you along, not because it is shiny and looks good.

I have been in charge of taking my students to computer lab and teaching them the spreadhseet competancies, pretty tragic when you factor in the fact that no one has shown me how to use spreadsheets.

Word Processing

I was very intrigued by the section of the chapter that discussed how the present technology is allowing different intelligences to come to the for ground. A teacher could create lesson and post it on the Internet, that lesson can now have written text, images, and audio. The students could choose which media they wanted to access the information via. I really like this idea. It is something that I had not thought about before.

The chapter also discusses how word processing allows students to produce and edit a piece of writing much more quickly than pen and paper, and this is certainly true. However, getting the students as comfortable Word as they are with pencil, eraser, and paper is in of itself an arduous task, and as of right now my computer time is limited. I think if student are to become truly adapt at word processing and reap the benefits of it a lot more time needs to be allotted to the computer lab, and I see this being a long way off. I think computers need to be it eh room, before this ease will ever be gained.

Linking

I thought that the reading on linking was very interesting. Linking is a computer term, but it is also very much a reading term as well. In my reading class I do not say linking, but connecting. Having students make connections to their life, other readings, and the world is an important part in the reading process. All too often I find that students make what can be referred to as "thin" connections (she has red hair and so do I) versus thick connections (I have felt bad when a friend betrayed me, so I understand how that character feels). I spend a good bit of time in class helping them push past these think connections and look for emotioanlly thick connections.

So the question is, how does computer linking relate to the classroom. I think a neat idea would be to ask students which sites they think should be linked to certain text. For example the students could read a web page and then I would ask which web page appropriately links to the current web page. At a higher age level having students search for appropriate pages to link together would also be a good way of utilizing "linking."

I am trying to think where I learned what computer linking was.. Did I learn it in school, or was it something that I learned simply from the use of the computer? I feel that I am a generation that had to learn how to use the computer on its won, as it was gaining popularity as I grew up, but the need to know how to use computers was not nearly as imperative

Reflecting on media in the classroom

I have never used a power point presentation in the classroom, the main reason for this is that my classroom simply does not have the technological capabilities. Our school until just this year definitely was not working at critical mass. Instead of having technology in classrooms that reached everyone, we have one or two computers. In the case of my classroom these were rarely used for anything other than games after class. This year though projectors were put into all 5th thru 3rd grade classrooms, with connections to the internet!!! So I could not use power points in my classes if I so desired. I really like the idea of having a slide that requires input from the students. I teach 5th grade and if i student up in front of them and talked for really more than 6 minutes with out getting them actively involved I would lose most of them.

I was intruiged by the comparison of the interent to the rivers, roads and sky ways that in the past have been the mode of information distribution. I have to admit I think it is a little sad. I am not a big fan of technology, I know that it has helped in so many ways, opens up so much information to people, but it seems totake away so much as well. People are so often rushing aorund with their nose in a blackberry, text some friends miles a way and not paying a bit of attention to the world right in front of them. I don't want my son to be so obssessd my the newest technology that he doesn't have desire to go out side and hike or play with dog.

2nd week readings

I have to say I am a bit of a skeptic when it comes to believing that computers will soon be as much a part of the classroom as pen and paper. The way I see it the biggest thing holding back this move towards technology is funding. Education for so long has been on the back burner when it came to funding, and with the economy as it is I don't see schools getting the funding they need any time soon. In addition to school funding being an issue there is also the funding of the students, ie the socioeconomic situation of parents and whether they can afford to buy a computer and have Internet. I work in a lower SES, and many of my students do not have computers.

At my school, each classroom does have at least one computer, there may even be a few rooms with two or three computers, but I don't see these being incorporated into the daily lessons of teachers. Instead they are used as places to do research, or play games. In addition, we have a decent computer lab, but we do not have an instructor in there that can get the students engaged in activities that are worth while. All too often they are playing math games, or having free time.

I feel that at my school reading and math, and subsequent test scores are all that matters to anyone, and no one sees how computers and technology can directly help with these two items, and thus no one cares to put the energy or funding into it.

The wheel and fire, two technologies that changed our world in untold ways. However, I can almost gaurentee that if you asked 5th graders to name a technological advancement that changed their life none would say fire or the wheel. When teaching about technology, as is required by the 5th grade Social Studies curriculum, I want to get students thinking about not just the technology they see everyday (cell phones, computers, etc), but the technology from which all things have come.

Reflections on Web Reading

If given a choice I prefer reading from a book. I am not a techno savey person, when I read on a computer it's on a laptop, at a desk, inside, either at home or in a library. I much prefer laying on a couch or propped up in bed. In addition I like to underline text and write notes in themargin, especially if what I am reading is for a class; I am unable to do either of these things when I am reading on a computer.

That being said, the selection on Web reading was interesting, it made me think about things that I had not before. When reading a printed book nothing can be done about the size of the front or the margins. Up til now I thought the saem was true for text off the web, I was not aware that I could change the size of the font. I have to say that definitly made the reading easier. In addition, there is usually no animated messages or advertisments in a book. With a web page not only are there various distracting messages, but there can be pop ups as well. All of these things are huge distractors, so a web reader is not just grappling with comprehending the text they wish to read, but is also being forced to navigate through unwanted text.

This makes me think of a situation going on in EOG testing. There is an abreviated version of the EOG that is given to students who are in EC and show to be the lowest learners. Two years ago they piloted a version of this test, which was to be taken on the computer. So here you have students who are already struggling with reading and then those struggles are compounded by difficilties they have with reading from a computer. Perhaps if these students were more familiar with using and reading a computer it woud be one thing, but most of these students are also in the lower socio economic strata, so they do not have access to computer at home.

I thought it then, and I definilty think it now, this is a bad idea.

Operating Systems

Operating system, it seems like a very technical, computer oriented term, as i read chapter 1 this week I realized something very different. In reality we each have our own operating system, as individuals, and specifically related to this class, as teachers. It is our operating system that dictates what our discipline plan is, how we set up our classroom, and how we interact with out students. Often we take our OS for granted, we don't even realize we have one. I think though, that reflection on our OS is, in fact, very important. We need to look and see what has impacted that OS. It might be that the OS we have been working with is not the best for our situation; just because Microsoft is what we have always used, does not mean that it serves our needs best.

Chapter 1

I really liked the idea of creating a wonder wall in a classroom. I will be going back to teaching 5th grade next year, and think I will implement this idea. I don't think I will call it a Wonder Wall though. I don't want a lot of questions that start out with "I wonder..." because expierience shows these questions tend to me limited in higher order thinking. I want to see questions also start with How, Who, etc.

I really like the idea of assigning some students to look into getting the answer of SUPs, either from the library or computer lab.