Mobile Learning Relection

1. Why should teachers embrace mobile learning?

THIS IS WHAT THE STUDENTS ARE DOING! They use technology and mobile devices all the time, so it only makes sense to have learning take place using the technology they are comfortable with and possibly addicted to.

Students have this reaction when they are told to put their cell phones away:

 I know this because I am one of those students. If there was some way to get students to use their mobile devices to enhance learning then their will be a positive result.

2. What are some issues/challenges with mobile learning, and what are some possible solutions?
The number one problem that comes to my mind is that students are going to be doing personal things on their mobile devices instead of actual school work. Students will say, “yeah yeah, I am exploring the app you told me too” when in reality they are like this:

Completely zoned out to whatever in going on in the class and focused on personal interests

The way to deal with this is to give students the devices they will be using rather than their personal device. These devices, such as ipads, will have certain social networking apps and sites blocked, no game apps, and no texting so that students have to either use the technology to do the classwork or do pretty much nothing.

3. What are some examples of best practices and practical uses for your desired age group/subject?
For high school history it will be hard to get students to use mobile devices (especially cell phones) without being distracted. I would use text responses to questions much like clicker quizes to get an idea of class understanding. In order to do this I will have to trust my students but have harsh punishments for anyone breaking the rules and using their phones for other purposes in order to avoid the cell phones becoming a distraction to the student.

4. What are three specific applications that you thinking might be usesful in your future classroom? Why? How might you use them?
One of the apps I found was “today in history” I thought this app would be a great way to start of the class with a historical fact just to get the students thinking. It also makes the date relevant, dates are an important part of history and it is useful for students to get used to applying dates to historical events.
The second app I would use is remind101. I think it is a great way to update students on changes in the classroom or remind them of important dates and assignment specifics that they may have spaced on.
Finally I think Twitter is a great way to stay connected to students and teachers. It is a great way to keep students updated on what is going on in the class and can be used to remind students as well.   

Information Literate

1.  Can we define what it means to be information literate? To be information literate is tricky because there is simply TOO MUCH INFORMATION! Anything from personal information to websites and books can be false, tampered with, or stolen. Being information literate means to have the ability to sift through the bull…

 

…found in information and get down to what is real! What is reliable! And sites that can be TRUSTED.

2.  Can we teach our students to have the skills essential to information literacy?

Yes! It can be done! Students are already more likely to take privacy precautions on the internet. They understand that the digital world is cold and hard, and not necessarily forgiving or trustworthy. Myself, and kids growing up today, understand that nothing on the internet is exactly what is seems. Students can be taught how to judge the quality of the information they are introduced to. Students can learn about the peer-reviewed process and find out who is claiming the information is accurate. Noting the number of citations and reviewers can help students decide what information is

**It’s the students call. 
Another way students can test if information is trustworthy is to see who is editing it and making corrections and who is putting the information out there. If a trustworthy site edits, retracts, or criticizes the findings in a website then it is more likely to be false. Data can be very bias also. Students need to look at who is posting the charts, where they got their information, and whether they have a personal bias towards a certain outcome. They can also check other sources to see if the information is consistent throughout the internet by comparing other sites. 

3.  Can we truly prepare students to be effective users of the most powerful medium?

Students can learn! The steps are simple enough for students if they are given the knowledge to know what types of information are safe and what types are so unbelievable that they should not be believed. 

Ok, I am done. Self five: 

Project Rainbow

Project Rainbow
Here is my Podcast.
Obviously I am very interested in Flipped Classrooms. In history class time can be used as discussion or debate time. Posting lectures online and having students discuss in class what they have learned and their ideas about the subject will better instill the information into their little learning heads.

So about Project Rainbow.
At first they were like:

They are minding their own business thinking that they are just going to become invisible for a second then go kill Hitler!
But then suddenly things started to change.
And things went wrong!

And after that people kind of freaked about about the whole thing…..

Because stuff got complicated.

YOU CAN’T STOP ME!!!…

….From using blogger.

I have to get a new blog…..

This is upsetting. I feel at home here..

I just feel like I can’t let go.. I don’t like change.

I am bad at goodbyes….. This is the most I could muster up:

Here is my new blog:(

How can I use video creating or podcasting int he classroom?:

The main reason I enjoy video creation, viewing, and podcasting is because the new and exciting technology takes students from this:

to this:

(Warning: possible exaggeration above)
But in all actuality, students respond well to technology as well as interactive learning.
Video Creating is great for this. Students can make videos that demonstrate or emphasize concepts that are being learned in the classroom. These types of projects can appeal to every student. Outgoing students can be in front of the camera, shy or introverted students can be behind the camera, tech savvy students can be part of the editing process, and every student can have a part in a current form of interactive learning. 

Podcasts are exciting to me because I love the idea of a flipped classroom. This is where the students do traditional homework during class time and listen to lectures as homework on their own time. In history I would use this technique to generate more class discussion and boost writing assignments. Having the resources available to allow students to listen to lecture outside of class makes this possible. With podcasting students can receive all the information they need about dates, concepts, themes, and controversies before they come to class and then have the entire time in class to work in groups or one on one with the teacher. Class discussions are a important way for students to learn. They often learn better when trying to express their own ideas and thoughts about a certain topic and sharing in small groups in nonthreatening. One thing I think students lack is the ability to write good papers quickly. There is not enough writing taking place in the classroom and history is a great time to make sure students are getting a lot of those skills they will need when they move onto college. Podcasts will allow students to listen to the lecture on their own time and then come to class to brainstorm, talk among their peers, or with the teacher to get started on the writing process. This way students have the teacher on hand if they run into any difficulties.

PART ONE:
“Do as I say, not as I do” does not work with students. In order for them to take plagiarism and copy rights laws seriously the teacher needs to also. Hypocrisy is not popular with anyone, especially students. To me, that is the major reason teachers need to pay close attention to copy right laws. If a teacher is going to ask students to practice academic honesty, they should as well. PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH.
Another reason teachers need to use follow copyright laws is to stay moral as a teacher. Being a good role model for students is a large part of the job. Students wont respect a teacher that breaks laws and doesn’t seem to have a moral compass. Students who don’t respect a teacher wont learn from that teacher and if enough teachers lose the respect of their students there will be no learning. 

PART TWO:
A lot of the stuff in the chapter is very familiar to me simply because I know from being a student practically my entire life what is affective and what is not! Presentations need to be clear, easy to follow, and effective.
One this I had never thought about but have noticed is the Signal-to-Noise Ratio. I had a teacher in middle school that had obviously just learned all of the new tricks to power point because he included anything and everything! The slides were, to say the least, noisy! The noise cuts away from being able to clearly understand the slide and its information. At first I thought the examples of the “fixed” slides were way to boring but the continuation of the section which shows affective ways to use nonessentials was really nice! I particularly like the slides that included dark backgrounds with easy to see graphs over them.
Most of what I saw in the chapter seems common sense to me. Use the effects that make the slide visually appealing but most importantly CLEAR! I already know not to jumble up slides with a million words! The slide should be an outline but not do all the talking. The teacher should do all the talking and the slides should visually complement the lecture or lesson. Like in the text with images second on page 154 where the pictures are placed behind the words and complement each other rather than fighting for the viewers attention.
Another thing I thought was very interesting was the Picture Superiority Effect. I like the idea of using pictures to help recall the information. I use this in my notes all the time for classes here at WOU! I write a key term, concept, or story and then I draw a little picture to help me remember. A lot of the times I find myself drawing the same picture that is on the slide.
These are all pointers I can use and continue to use in my presentation. A short lesson on how to create slides like these would be useful to high school students when I am a teacher. It is important for students to be able to display information clearly and present to a group affectingly.
In the power points I have used over the years my pictures have not be used as well as they could have been. I also think I could cut down on text in the slides pretty often. Another tip that my older power points could use is to split up a full slide into more than one. 

PART THREE:
Prezi Presentation.
Ahhh. It’s about a pirate

CLICK HERE TO VIEW!

MY WEBSITE

Warning: This website contains material that is known to provoke the following feelings:

1. Jelousy
2. Desire
3. Manliness

View at own risk.

To view Amanda Keightley’s Website! CLICK HERE!

Mind Blowing is expected.

Enjoy:)

Wiki2.0

Exploring wiki2.0!

The first place I visited was twtpoll which allows for people to create online pools and surveys. This site is intended for all audiences. and can be used by students or teachers in the classroom at any grade. I thought this site was extremely easy to use. All you have to do is click the buttons on the top of the page to either create a poll of create a survey! Here is an example of a poll I made that you are encourage to take anytime between now (4-12-2013) through next year. This can be a useful tool in the classroom. One idea I had for this site was to take polls on how well my students understand the content I am teaching. Each student can complete a poll or survey and I can review the results and determine what material needs to be covered more thoroughly. Another way this can be useful is to create a poll for classroom management. For example I can discover what type of snack the call would want on a special day, students knowledge of classroom rules after opening week, and other student preferences for how the class is ran. This site was super easy to use which is its major perk. The only thing that didn’t enjoy about the site is that the amount of advertising was extremely annoying

The second place I discovered using wiki2.0 was Sweetsearch.The purpose of sweetsearch is to give students a reliable place to find research for their classes. Each website that is accessed through this website has been approved by a research team, librarians, or teachers as reliable. This site is specifically targeted at students but the age of the audience is unspecified. The website is set up like the popular search engines used by students already. There is a search bar where students can type their desired topic and press “go” to enjoy academic based findings. That is the major plus to using this site. Everything I searched gave me academic material rather than with a google search where anything could pop up in the results. Other features included on the sweetsearch homepage are a number of tool bars. These included:

• Teaching We Research Skills: Which allows educators and students to learn some effective research skills for academic uses. 
• Sweetsearch For Me: Which is geared towards younger students starting out in their research. 
• Sweet Search Today: This allows students to explore and learn new information daily. 
• Sweetsearch Biographies: Over 1,000 profiles of people students may want to research.
• Sweetsearch Social Studies: A search engine specifically for research in social studies. 

This website can be effectively integrated into the students research habits. It can be introduced as a substitute for google or bing as a academic search engine that will allow students to do more effective research for the classroom. The only downfall is that if a student wants to research a new topic the team of experts approving sites to be included in the results may not have gotten to anything relevant to the topic yet.

The third site I explored using web2.0 was Historypin. This site is described as a place where anyone can go to share historical pictures or stories.  The site collects historical photos to create a digital history of the world. This site is for anyone who has a historical story or picture that can contribute to the site. Sometimes history is thwarted by overwhelming facts, politics, and a disconnect from the time. This site can be used in social studies classroom to help students gain a more personal interaction with history. Students can learn about the Kennedy Space Station in a book or through research but historypin will allow students to be connected to the time. They get a feel, through pictures, of what life was like during that time. A lot can be discovered from historical pictures for example this picture taken November 18 1969 shows children standing around waiting for Apollo 12 to blast off. The children are posing for this picture only hours before the shuttle started its journey to the moon. Students are not only learning the date and specifics about the space shuttle but they can see the popular dress of students, their interactions with each other, and compare these pictures to the type of pictures taken today. For example in this picture I imagine any number of my male peers would probably try and make the space shuttle appear to be a penis by laying down in front of it with a particular camera angle. Does this show that students were more mature during this era? Or were they just more heavily supervised and disciplined? The only problem with this site is that it hasn’t grown enough. There needs to be more interaction on the site for it to be useful for all historical times but they have a very good platform that can be used in the classroom to instill some sites of the time to students. 

And the remainder of the term!

Fishies

The coolest part of my blog BY FAR!!! are my fish! They are colorful and beautiful and if you decide to visit my blog you can feed them!
PLEASE DON’T OVERFEED THE FISH! They will eat until they virtually die.

Enjoy these pictures of cute fish… I promise I am not obsessed with fish. I just think they are the most wonderful part of my blog.. SO FAR.

One Fish

Two Fish

Red Fish

Blue Fish

For more fish fun visit: Sam’s Blog