Final Reflection CEP 811

I really enjoyed learning about the stand alone resources. I had always wondered how people made them, but learning that they were just a presentation was really wonderful. I never knew that Powerpoint (which is what I used) was capable of doing so much. It was great to see how to incorporate instant feedback for students using the program. I think these would be great resources for students who may need some extra help in class or need to have that hands on interaction.

Web based technologies are great. Using MERLOT was fantastic; I really liked being able to contribute my own work, but then browse other people's as well. However, because I had so many internet problems this course bouncing from hotel to hotel, I also learned that relying heavily on technology sometimes has its downfalls. The school where I'm teaching here in Germany has extremely limited internet, and things like streaming videos, are very hard if many people are using the internet. We've been told the bandwidth has been increased, but the speed of the computers lends evidence to the contrary. I do love using web pages in the classroom because they help to alleviate many of the problems that may come up. For example, I upload all my worksheets and presentations onto my class website. If a student is absent, they can go onto the site and download and print a copy of any worksheet that was missed, or lecture that they didn't hear. Students can also see exhibitions of their work on a class website. Sites can also be used to communicate with parents; by posting schedules, videos, and worksheets, parents can view the site to witness exactly what their students are completing (or expected to complete) in class. I also put links to videos on my site, so students can watch videos or see diagrams in action, and then maybe they'll be able to visualize a concept better.

I haven't met all my goals for technology integration yet. First, my class doesn't have enough computers to do full fledged technology lessons. I've been trying to work it so that I can do rotating lessons for students, and then they will each have an opportunity to use the technology. I teach in 90 minute blocks, so rotating is a great way to keep the students interest.

I love when teachers ask about new goals; I do it myself all the time. Of course I have new goals. Any time I learn something new, I usually end up creating new goals. I'm definitely going to start designing more StAIRs. I really think they'd be useful in teaching biology. My break begins the day after tomorrow, so I'll have some time to go through the book and pull out some information to make more StAIRs for the material we will be covering. Some of the concepts are at the molecular level, so students may have a hard time picturing what is happening. I want to put in more videos and animations to help students witness different processes. I'm going to continue to use sites like MERLOT where I can contribute some of my ideas and borrow ideas from other teachers. I like getting ideas from MACUL space as well because I think most of my greatest ideas have been inspired by the work of others. I liked seeing many people sharing different technologies because it always makes me happy when people share. My short term goal is to try to develop StAIRs for my next few chapters, but my long term goals are to keep learning more. The more I know, the better teacher I can become.

Face to Face Instructional Strategies

Online Teaching Experiences

I would love to be able to use something like Moodle or Blackboard in my class to give students access to all assignments and reduce paper usage as well. Being able to post lectures and examples of lab set ups would be wonderful to use. Students could review lecture notes or see a lecture if they have missed class. Posting videos of lab set ups would save a lot of time explaining how to complete experiments, especially if a student were absent. It would also allow students to go through videos at their own pace and pause or rewind if needed. Moodle or Blackboard wouldn't necessarily teach just one piece of content; they could help the overall essence of the classroom.

As a science teacher, some of the online technologies that would help me most when teaching specific content would be the online field trips or the online simulations. Many times I don't have access to places that show my students science in action, so online field trips would be great. Many times we discuss topics in class that students do not understand because it doesn't affect them directly (we all know teenagers are keenly focused on themselves), so being able to take a field trip to a lab where scientists are doing stem cell research or seeing what an archeological dig looks like would be very beneficial to them. Perhaps even doing an online field trip at a museum where there is vast evidence of evolution or skyping with someone who is on the Galapagos Islands would help students broaden their visions of the world. It would be great to have them interact with scientists in the field and then create blog posts about the experience.

I think having a class wiki would be one of the most difficult technologies to use, and not because using a wiki is hard. I've noticed that with the internet becoming so commonplace that plagiarism runs rampant, and many students don't know how to formulate their own thoughts without plagiarizing. It seems like a lot of a teacher's time would be checking on students' posts to make sure they weren't stolen from somewhere else.

Universal Design for Learning

I have spent quite a bit of time reading through all the background information about UDL, and I feel as though it was a bit of a waste. I don't mean that as an attack on anyone, but everything that was presented to me is just good teaching. It started out by saying that UDL was used to adapt lessons for students with disabilities or who were classified as English as a Second Language (ESL). It then went on to talk about how the principles can be used to design lessons for all students. Well, duh! We are in an age of education where adapting lessons has become the norm. I feel that the UDL principles are what good teachers use to present material to students in a variety of ways, except that the terminology of what the teacher is doing is different. I'm very disappointed in this lesson because it was such a waste of time on something that teachers SHOULD already be doing. If they're not, then we can't classify them as good teachers. Of course I take my lessons and try to accommodate students who are more kinesthetic learners or who are more visual learners or more auditory learners. That's what good teaching is! It's taking information and adapting it to reach as many students as possible. Perhaps when I evaluate my lessons, I don't use the exact terminology found in the UDL principles, but I definitely try to "Provide multiple means of representation" which means to show the same thing in different ways. I also try to "Provide multiple means of action and expression" which means that I try to involve my students in lesson and give them options to express their knowledge. And I most definitely try to "Provide multiple means of engagement" which means I try to draw on experiences that they may have had or make topics relevant to their lives. I'm actually insulted by the content of this lesson because it seems to imply that good teachers didn't realize that they had students of all different abilities in their classrooms!

MERLOT Evaluation

For the MERLOT evaluation, I chose to evaluate a website. The site was called "Awesome Science Teacher Resources" and AWESOME they were! The site focuses on biology and chemistry topics in the classroom. All of the topics were completely relevant to the class that I am currently teaching, from cellular transport to photosynthesis. The site is broken down by subject area, topic, and finally, activities, labs, and links. There is a plethora of information on the various topics, including different activities that students can do, experiments that they can perform, and other websites they can look at to get additional information.

Any of the material on the site could be used in the classroom immediately. While I was browsing the site, I found a few activities that I'll be trying immediately in my next class. All of the national standards for biology are listed, so it's easy to see how the activities listed link to the standards. Most of the activities have a clear objective/purpose for the lessons listed. I did find a couple that didn't have the objective listed, but overall, most did. There were a lot of interactive type of things that students and faculty could use; for example, there was a Jeopardy game that teachers could use for a class game, or students could use in small groups to test their knowledge. I could use this immediately in my class because I have enough computers to divide my classes into small groups. Looking at all the assignments, I see that most would be easily incorporated into my classes.

The website is visually pleasing, and it has a lot of information. It's extremely easy to use. I like the site because it's laid out in an efficient manner. One click allows users to download something they want to see. Some activities are in PDF and some are in Word. I like both; either can be edited if need be. Students could use this site, but it is a better tool for teachers who are looking for supplemental information on certain topics.

Personal Learning Reflection

CEP 810 has helped me learn a lot about technology that I can incorporate into my teaching. I have learned about RSS feeds, and although it is not something that I like to use, I have envisioned some uses for it in the classroom. For example, it can help students create a list of credible sources for different topics. I also really liked learning how to embed a Google Calendar into a blog or website! I like to give my students as much notice as possible about upcoming and future assignments; I realize that they have a lot going on in theirs lives (much like me) and sometimes need more advanced notice of assignments, tests, and projects. Even though our SIG project wasn't exactly what was expected, I learned a ton about Google and all the possibilities that Google can be used for in a classroom! I had no idea about Google Scholar and Google Docs and Forms; it really opened my eyes. Using a bookmarking tool was genius, so I could find information easily. The last thing that really struck me was doing the Creative Commons Lab and making sure that I register media that is put on the Internet. I thought that was very informative. Everything that has been taught in this course is great because it can all be used from the Internet, and I don't need certain programs to run them on school computers. Making specific requests for school computers is a hassle because sometimes software isn't free or it's blocked or any number of excuses why teachers can't have it. This course allowed me to see how a number of things can be done on the Internet without dealing with those problems.

I'm very proud of the lesson that I devised for teaching Osmosis in collaboration with my sister's biology class in a different school. This lesson combined a lot of what I hope to accomplish with technology. I want to encourage students to collaborate with others, but I don't want them to be limited. I want them to think broader and I hope that working with students from Chicago while we're in Germany will help them think big! It really showed that technology can unite people.

I feel that I have accomplished some of my goals. I learned how to integrate more technology in my class. I used Google Docs to have students collaborate on projects with people in other time zones. I embedded a Google Calendar into my class website. There are a few goals I have not accomplished. The big one is that I wanted to learn how to create a site where I could have each student log in and create their own blog on a universal class site. It's all right, though; you can't win them all. I'll get to this eventually.

Newer goals, for me, just mean thinking bigger! How can I get more computers in my classroom? How can my school increase the bandwidth so we don't have as many Internet problems? When will I have time to develop that class blogging website? How can I reach out to teachers all over the world to try to skype or facetime with them and create new global lessons? I will accomplish these goals by talking to people. It's amazing what can be learned or done when one simply talks to people. People have great ideas, and I need to draw from them all.

Personal Technology Plan

Learning Styles

Everyone learns differently.  I don't think that any person has only one particular way they learn; rather, they learn by a combination of different styles.  I believe that I learn by both visual and auditory means.  I enjoy a good presentation, and can recall what things look like and where they were placed during a presentation.  I also enjoy listening to people talk and share experiences during a good lecture.  These examples would suggest that I'm both a visual learner as well as an auditory learner.  However, I was/am an athlete, and I learned a lot during basketball or volleyball or softball by practicing things over and over again; by doing!  I guess that also makes me a kinesthetic learner as well.  Can I be all three?  Are some more present than others? 

I feel that I was taught and exposed to all different types of strategies while I was growing up, which makes me more apt to learn information in varying styles.  I feel that students, while they may be predisposed toward one type of learning, can still learn by the other types if they are exposed to them at a young age.  I guess there is a reason youth is called "the formative years".  I firmly believe that although we may have predispositions, we can be shaped by our experiences.  That's probably the scientist in me coming out; wanting to debate 'nature vs. nurture.' 

Many students haven't been exposed to all ways of learning, and it is extremely hard to accommodate all learning styles in one lesson.  However, I believe that being a good teacher means taking information and presenting it in a variety of ways to try to include all kinds of learners.  For example, perhaps there can be a lecture, a hands-on activity, and a demonstration which could possibly reach all learners.  Who knows, maybe it'll even help students who are predisposed to one learning style begin to make connections of a topic in another learning style?

Creative Commons Lab

Human beings are creating new things everyday.  Innovation is one of the things that drives our society, and humanity should encourage the expression of new works.  Copyright is important because new designs, products, and original ideas should have some sort of protection.  It was originally designed to help creativity blossom in society and protect products created by the human mind.  Copyright covers some very basic rights of the creator.  These rights include being compensated for original work.  The creator should be able to control the work and how it is used, reproduced, distributed, performed, or displayed.  If the creator chooses to sell the work, then it is his or her choice.

Fair use is a sort of exception to copyright.  It is used in education for granting use to copyrighted materials. Educators can use materials to supplement other information, such as textbooks, under fair use.  Fair use protects educators by allowing them to use copyrighted material; however, there are limits to fair use.  Educators cannot claim fair use when copyrighted material is used in place of textbooks, workbooks, etc.  It seems that if the use is limited to parts of work, and non-profit, then fair use is in effect.

In order to deal with copyright issues, there are many things that can be done.  First and foremost, information needs to be distributed to teachers to show them what is legal under fair use and what falls into copyright infringement.  Copyright benefits the creators of original works, so teachers should also be aware of using copyright to help students or themselves with works that they have created.  I found it interesting that one suggestion for dealing with copyright issues was to conduct audits of photocopying.  It's a great idea, but it seems like most schools wouldn't take the time to complete this.  I liked the suggestion of maintaining the school budget to make sure that needed materials were purchased legally.  Unfortunately, most educators know that schools are not always fiscally responsible.  Then, of course, there was the suggestion of modeling legal and ethical behavior in the school.  I try to do so, and I think the most educators do as well.

This lab was very informative to me.  I knew a little bit about copyright laws, but I always thought education was totally immune to them!  Now I realize that fair use enables educators to use some portions of original work, but not all of them.  I thought the videos about copyright would be very beneficial to show in classrooms.  I liked some of the suggestions for helping to regulate copyright material in schools, but unfortunately, with the economy the way it is and the way schools are cutting back, I don't see anyone's sole job as watching what teachers bring into their classrooms.

Below I have a photo that would be very pertinent to my class because we are studying hypertonic, hypotonic, and isotonic solutions, so I could use this in a presentation or on my class website in order to show students what they should be looking for under a microscope.

Red Onion Cells in  Salt Solution

Photo Attribution:

Original Image:  "Red Onion Cells in a salt solution"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tessawatson/6106595838/
By: tjmwatson

Released under an Attribution License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/







 

Poas Volcano

Photo Attribution:

Original Image:  "Poas Volcano"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68975111@N07/6271634829/
By: jheintz20  (me!)

Released under an Attribution-Noncommerical-Share-Alike License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

PC Maintenance and Security Lab

For the PC Maintenance and Security Lab, I chose three tutorials.  The three I chose were "Explaining Typical Problems found on many PCs," "Defining Malware," and "Managing your web passwords with Roboform."  I watched many of the tutorials to gain some other information as well.

I began right at the beginning of the tutorials with "Explaining typical problems found on many PCs."  I have never owned a computer that was not made by Apple, so I figured I should start at the beginning when dealing with computers that run Windows.  I run Windows on my Apple, so I thought it would be useful to know some of the problems that PCs may encounter.  It was extremely simple and mostly common sense; clean up the computer and get rid of junk, use a free clean up utility, and update and patch everything as often as possible.  I have a few friends who own PCs and I will definitely be sharing with them that there is FREE anti-virus software in order to keep the computer safe.  I always thought anti-virus software had to be bought and sometimes it didn't work, so what was the point in spending money on it if it was going to be ineffective?  I was surprised that "disorganization" was actually listed as one of the main problems of PCs!  To think that it could actually be causing problems and not just using up space astonished me.

I learned that malware is a computer term that means malicious software.  It makes sense now that I know what it means; anything that is harmful or bad for your computer.  I was stunned to learn that viruses and Trojan horses can actually break your computer and are designed to do so.  Whenever I think of someone having a virus on their computer, I just think it's a problem that could be solved pretty easily.  I learned that if something malicious gets into a computer that the computer could be broken, just as I could break a light bulb if I dropped it.  I had no idea it was so serious.  I will definitely share with my friends who have PCs that they need to protect their computers from malware as much as possible.

Last, I watched the tutorial about using Roboform.  I thought this was a brilliant program.  Roboform allows a person to have one master password instead of remembering all the many passwords from different sites.  How great would this be!  I know I have many passwords that I need to remember, and I think Roboform would be a great way to do so.  It also runs in Mozilla, which is great because most of the people I know use Mozilla instead of Internet Explorer.  I will be telling everyone about Roboform because it sounds like something great to use.  One thing that I found interesting about Roboform is that I can set it to log off automatically after a certain amount of time or inactivity.  I think that would be beneficial to keeping all my passwords and information private.

Getting Things Done; argh!

In order to complete the Getting Things Done project, I used the "Stickies" on my laptop.  I am a big fan of "To Do" lists; I like the satisfaction of crossing off or erasing completed tasks.  Since I am still overwhelmed with the process of my move to Germany, I have many things that need to get done.  It would be easy if I had arrived here before the school year started because I may have been able to get a few of these tasks done before the actual teaching and lesson planning began.  Maybe I'd feel more in control of the situation, but that's life.  As I glance at my list, I realize that none of the projects I want to complete with my classes using all the new Google apps is even on there!  How terrible.

Going through this process for the first time was overwhelming...I know I used that word above, and it pertains to this process as well.  Even as I'm typing this, more and more tasks are coming into my head that need to be completed in the next week or so.  It's lending some stress to my brain right now.  Organizing the list into what seemed like more manageable components helped a little bit until I got to the "Waiting for" section.  Once I'd filled out that section, I become very stressed out again because those are the situations or tasks that I am unable to control until someone else does their job.  I expect people to do their jobs, just like others expect me to do mine.  Sometimes this means there are times I need to "let it go" and relax, and put my trust in others.  I'm learning how to do that. 

However, upon completion of the process, I realized there were a couple of tasks that I could get done immediately, so I completed them, but I still have many to get done.  One of the major things I want to get done is developing a Google Calendar for my class website.  Most of my students have access to the internet at home, and so do their parents, so I'd like to create this as a pathway to communication between home and school.  It may eliminate unnecessary confusion as to what assignments are due when, and make both students and parents aware of important dates such as projects, quizzes, and tests.

I'm not sure that I'll continue this process.  Like I said above, it made me worry more than feel organized.  I'm going to try it a couple of other times; perhaps it will grow on me, and I'll begin to feel more confident with doing it this way.  If, after the next couple of times, it hasn't gotten easier, I will return to having tasks and alerts set into my iCal to help me get everything done on time.

Social Networks

Social networks are becoming the norm among people.  We use the lingo in everyday lift, such as "Facebook me" and "Tweet me."  I didn't join Facebook until I was traveling in Australia for a summer holiday, and even then I was reluctant because I didn't see the draw of it.  I quickly learned it was a good way to stay up to date on people's lives who I didn't see all the time.  I was "friended" by many people in a short time, and unfortunately, to this day, I'm not an expert on Facebook.  It's a good way to keep in touch with my international friends for free.  Now, since I'm in Germany, it's a good way for me to keep up-to-date on the lives of my family at home.  I log on every few days to read some updates, and that's about it.

I also never understood the draw of Twitter, either.  However, this past summer, I just started a Twitter account, and I have become obsessed.  As a teacher, I rarely have time to watch the news and learn what is happening in the world outside my school.  Twitter has changed all that!  My sister introduced me to the wonderful world of Twitter.  I follow so many different topics that keep me in the loop about many different things.  I now understand how it works, which is the whole reason why I never did it before.  It's brilliant.  I follow feeds from CNN, BBC, ESPN, the White House,  and NPR, which all keep me updated on news around the planet.  It's embarrassing to say, but I had no idea that a volcano had erupted in Iceland until about 3 days later!  I'm a workaholic, and I was always focused on the lives of my students.  With Twitter, I can get my news in 140 characters or less!  Like I said, brilliant!
I also follow tons of education feeds.  I follow PBS, TeachGov, NSF, TeachHub, and Science Friday, just to name a few.  I learn about projects that need funding through DonorsChoose.  I learn what's happening at the Museum of Science and Industry by following MSIChicago.  It's a great way to get short bits of information at a time, and let's face it, as teachers, sometimes we only have a short bit of time to do anything.

My students, on the other hand, use social networks to take the place of actual oral communication or face to face communication.  I witness it with some of my former students.  They "tweet" to one another and have a full conversation in a span of a few minutes.  The same thing happens on Facebook when they "comment" on statuses.  One of my former students follows me on Twitter.  I, in turn, followed her.  After two days, I had to "unfollow" her because her "tweets" were coming every five minutes!  I didn't care that she was sitting in church.  Then that she was listening to some guy preach about Jesus.  Then that she was leaving church.  Then that she was getting in her car to go home.  Get the idea?  My students have lost some of the ability to communicate with one another in a face to face environment because they are so used to "tweeting" or "facebooking".  In their lives, a lot of students leave school and are immediately on these networks and are using them to communicate with a lot of people at once.  I think it gives them validation because they post something and many others can reply and make them feel good or bad about themselves, but they are getting attention, and most of the time, that is all teenagers want.

I'm writing this as a high school teacher.  I'm sure that elementary school teachers may feel differently than I do because their students may not have been exposed to the world of social networks...yet!

RSS lab

After completing the RSS feeds using Google reader, I have decided that it's not for me.  I much prefer getting updates from Twitter.  I think the thing that irks me the most is that it only shows 100 (I think it is) updates at once.  I can continuously read Twitter updates, and Twitter will update it for me, so I don't have to keep going to the next page.  For me, Twitter works much better.  I understand that not everyone Tweets updates, which is an advantage for the RSS feed, but I'm not a fan.

The RSS lab was very educational to me because I had never used the RSS feeds before.  Since my sister recommended it, I set up by feed using Google Reader. It seemed simple enough to follow different feeds.  I set up the Google Reader, and then I did my best to check them every few days.  I noticed that feeds from National Public Radio, or NPR, were extremely plentiful every day.  One of the feeds that I had chosen to follow was CNN.  CNN also had many stories per day.  I followed a few different blogs, including Roger Ebert’s blog and one called the Edublogger.  Both blogs had some new stories, but not as many as the others.

I decided to follow websites that would cover the things that would interest me the most.  The Edublogger explains a step by step process for using student blogs in the classroom.  Each post explained the next step for teaching students to establish blogs of their own.  TeachHub is a great website done by teachers for teachers, and it has anything and everything relating to teaching.  I’ve gotten many good ideas from TeachHub to use in my classroom.  One thing I learned from TeachHub was a Healthy Living Activity and creating a "Go Green" song.  They were great lesson plans!  Roger Ebert, though film is his background, gives updates about news, technology, and science.  Although he may have seemed like an odd choice, he writes blogs about many important topics in our society and directs his followers where to get more information about certain topics.   CNN is an excellent news source, and I use CNN Student News in my classroom quite regularly.  Scientific American is a website which has a daily segment called, “60 Second Science,” that I use as my bell ringer assignment nearly every day.  I also read a great idea from SA called "Bring Science Home" where students and parents do little science projects together at home.  NSF Discoveries from the National Science Foundation gives updates on NSF funded projects, which I sometimes use to show the real world applications of science.  NSF gave some great innovative projects that I could use in the classroom to inspire!

When I first became a teacher, I was told to “beg, borrow, or steal” any good lessons that I may see.   The TeachHub website allows me access to many different ideas for my classroom.  Using inspirational quotes, doing fun differentiated instruction, and giving ideas for classroom management are just some of the ideas that I have read about on TeachHub.  Every day, Scientific American has a new podcast that covers a scientific topic in 60 seconds or less.   It’s a great way to get my students thinking about science immediately when class begins.   CNN Breaking News covers any major topic that is happening during the day, and many times, education or science may be a part of that.  I like to have my students watch the CNN Student News videos to help them be aware of the world around them.  

After completing this lab, I realized that I am not a fan of RSS feeds.  I much prefer a service like Twitter to have short bursts of news, and when one catches my eye, I can investigate it further.  There were too many times when I would view my Google Reader, and there would be many new stories, but they were only coming from one or two sources.  Then I’d have to sort through all of them to see if there was any information that could interest me.  Perhaps using an RSS feed for different students would be beneficial because it would allow them to build up some credible sources to use for research.  I think I may try that out in my class, and see if they have better success with the RSS feeds than I did.  RSS feeds in the classroom may help students recognize the difference between primary sources and secondary sources.

Screen shots for CEP 810

My RSS feed page in Google ReaderC

Comment on my friend, Kathryn's blog.  She is a middle school science teacher.

810 Blogging Lab

Traditional web pages and blogs have many differences.  In the beginning, traditional web pages were full of factual information, and most were used for research purposes.  I can remember using the Internet in high school for research, and it was a huge project because no one knew how to cite sources since the concept was very new.  Blogging, on the other hand, is mostly opinion; people who are giving their side of some sort of story.  It could be a scientist talking about global warming or a historian talking about the Holocaust.  I feel that the line between traditional web pages and blogs is now becoming blurred because no one seems to know if all the information on a website is accurate.  It takes a lot of confirmation from many different sources to ensure that it's truthful information.