Blog 5: July 27, 2012

1. The most relevant parts of Dr. Robert's presentation for me were the amount of time that is accumulated when people are using multiple forms of media at one time, and the part concerning how many students actually read books. It is quite startling to see the numbers and the pie graphs revealing where technology, in many senses, has lead our society. What resonated with me most however, was the discussion that took place after the presentation. There was a bit of a battle going on at the beginning between strong opinions against technology and some opinions in support of it, it took a while before people could reach a consensus that we need both. I feel strongly that a balance of both is our only option, if we want to preserve and transfer the value we know a text can provide, but also keep our students up to date with what is relevant and necessary for functioning in our society. We can not completely oust technology unless we want to do our students a huge disservice. We also can not leave behind the value in experiential learning, nature, and literature, but I feel for many of us as teachers we understand this already. As detrimental as technology appears to be, we have to teach our students how to use it responsibly and effectively, we can not pull the plug on technology unless we want our students to sink in the real world. In a way it's like we're throwing them into the fire, but we can't turn back time and technology is moving at a rapid rate that I think will be a losing battle for anyone who wants to fight it, regardless whether you think it's good or bad.

3.) I think this article presents some true facts, but also some hype, and not all of the facts. I have been in online classes that I can say I learned absolutely nothing in. I can also say I've been in online classes that have driven my intrinsic motivation, challenged me, forced me to be more responsible, and where I actually learned more than in a regular class. I'm not necessarily for or against online courses, but the reality is that they do exist in college, and students need to learn how to navigate those sites; sometimes that's a really tough part of learning to take an online class. I think the effectiveness of online classes are also totally based on the teacher, and whether or not the teacher plans to hold the students accountable, grade the work in specific online programs and provide sufficient feedback, and hold students accountable for plagerism. Aren't those the basics? Shouldn't that be what teachers are doing anyway? The problem is the budget, and that is where we as teachers, myself, my school community and my teaching are affected. I need a job just as badly as the next person. I also believe that some classes need to be in person, and students need to experience being among a community of learners, participating in discussion and working with their peers. However, I don't think one to three online classes is/are going to jeopardize that learning. What I do think though, is that having a completely virtual learning experience would be completely insufficient and detrimental to one's education. I'm not so anti online classes because I understand why they're happening. Districts aren't in control of the budget cuts, so when it comes time to cut, what are their options? Lay off teachers and have larger class sizes, or lay off teachers and provide online courses?  As far as increasing graduation rates, why can't those students have another shot at learning the material a different way? Maybe they need the style of an online class, and for some reason that works for them. I don't think it's dumbing down the content if the teacher of that course is doing his or her job and holding students accountable. The scary thought, I think for many teachers, is that this may be the direction education is headed in, and will allow the private sectors one more area in which to invest their money that can definitely have the potential of taking away from public education. When it does come to student choice though, I think online classes are okay to have, depending on the situation. If the student has failed Algebra twice, why not let them try it online? I failed Geometry in high school, miserably. I took it a few years later through BYU and I aced it. I learned so much. I was completely held accountable though. I was mailed tests and had to go to University of Phoenix to take them with a proctor (the tests were actually mailed to University of Phoenix). I had to set up my appointments and stay on top of everything. I also had an English class where we submitted papers online, and the teacher graded really hard. She also had available office hours so we could visit her and get in-person help if necessary. I think it all depends, but I don't think online education is all bad, by any means. I think we could never switch to it, as I explained before. But as an option, or when districts are backed into a corner, I don't see why the article takes on a sort of blaming tone, (towards the Republicans it seems). I'm sure there are plenty of corrupt people in both parties with private agendas to score whatever it is they want to score, but I also don't believe that all advocates of some online education are a bunch of crooks either. Is it possible some people have the same philosophy behind it as I do? And I'm not looking to cut jobs/ ruin lives. I really think online classes can be effective, but that they also have their place.

I will definitely be registering on Donorschoose.org. I'm astounded, first of all, that this site exists! I'm so excited because I see so much potential for what I can do with my classes now. Last year I really wanted to order class sets of a certain book, but I couldn't. Now, ordering materials may be with in a new realm of possibility thanks to this website. I'm also really nervous that I may not have a Document Camera next year, so this totally lifts my spirits.

The next source I will definitely be recommending to my students is http://www.openoffice.org/. I've actually known about openoffice because I had to use it in college, because I couldn't afford microsoft word. I wish I would have thought to share this with my students last year! I had a number of students who did not have microsoft word, and could not buy it. This would have solved so many of my issues. One thing I would recommend, however, is to do an in-class tutorial on it, because students will need to save the document in whichever format they are trying to make the "office" compatible with. For instance, students would need to save a document as a ".doc" if they wanted their work to be compatible with microsoft word.

I think dropbox would be great to use for sharing teaching tools among departments or grade levels. Teachers could add lessons, edit lessons, or share worksheets this way and they're accessible from anywhere, which is so convenient. At Pittsburg we had the T-drive where we kept all our shared files, but we couldn't access it from home. I think having a separate dropbox which could be shared with students would work well too. I could upload assignments and students could find them in the dropbox if they lose an assignment or need to make up a missing assignment, or were absent that day. It was always difficult keeping organized the multitude of extra worksheets, rubrics, and graphic organizers I kept laying around for students who needed an extra copy for whatever reason.

I definitely want to convert a lot of my power point lessons to prezi, for the pure fact that students will think they are cool. If students are interested in what is happening in front of them, I think they may be more likely to stay engaged. As we discussed in class, it also organizes information in a really visually affective and logical way that I think will help students to better see connections between certain information.  

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