Distant Learning

PROS of Online School
·Convenience - Students can take online courses whenever; students are not limited by a school's annual/semester/quarter system.
·Flexibility - Class times are not set, and the pacing of assignments and readings occurs at your own discretion. You can proceed through your degree program at your own rate.
· Availability - Accredited, reputable, and educationally vigorous distance learning programs have increased in recent years.
· Cost - Pricing for online degree programs is usually cheaper than traditional school programs.
· Self-Direction - Students are able to control their learning environment, moving through courses at their own pace.
· Classroom Time - Some distance learning programs have a classroom component; however most do not require attending a physical school. You can learn, study, and graduate from the comfort of any computer location.

CONS of Online School
·Instructor Face-Time - Distance learners typically don't have the face-to-face interaction that is important to some students
·Technology Requirements - Distance learning program requirements are usually modest: computer and an Internet connection. However, students must have some proficiency in using computers.
·Social Interaction - Though online learning environments often have chat rooms and message boards they lack physical classroom interactions with other students.
·Limited Support - Students are required to take their own initiative in completing assignments, reports, and exams.
· Campus interaction - Distance education programs lack the physical value and attractiveness of attending a campus location.

I think that virtual schools will have a great impact on my teaching. Due to the availability of cheaper technology and the economy many parents and teachers could be looking for a cheaper and more convenient way for their child to obtain a degree. Which means for me is I need to be flexible and prepared for learning how to be an online teacher or learning how to incorporate online interactions for my students. I think distance learning can be a great way to help students earn degrees from all over the country especially in rural areas. This gives students and equal chance to have available education.

Emerging Technologies Project

Emerging Technology Project:

Teacher Website: http://teacherweb.com

This is a great technology to implement into the classroom if you want your students and parents to have another way to connect and communicate with the teacher. First, Teacherweb is a website designed for teachers. Teacherweb allows the teacher to create their own template for their own class website. The teacher then can customize his or her website and use it as way to communicate to the students virtually. The teacher can post grades, give exams, have a calendar of events and much more. Teacherweb has incorporated many neat options that the teacher can use to make the classroom more efficient and organized. According to the website Teacherweb was created in 1996 and now has over 100,000 teachers using this technology. I feel like this use of the internet will keep growing because computers will become cheaper and more available for the masses so Teacherweb can really be affordable and a great way to connect to the 21st student.

The Teacherweb can help the teacher be more organized and this will help the students stay on task. The Teacherweb will allow the teacher to post upcoming events, important information from class lectures, create WebQuests and many other projects that the students can refer to. One of the most important and great aspects of the teacher website is the communication for students and parents. Student will be able to see what is due and what is being taught in their classroom. Like I said before in this post, this will allow the student to stay on track with his or her assignments for the classroom. Also, the students will be able to post questions and concerns that they did not have time to ask in class or were uncomfortable to ask in front of everyone. The website will create a safe environment for the student to express his or her feelings to the teacher.For parents this is a great way for them to see their students’ progress in the classroom. They will be able to see how well their student is doing and what their student needs to be doing. This will also allow the parents be more involved in their student’s curriculum. The website, will basically, give parents a light into their child’s life in school. Finally the classroom website will allow the parents an easy way to contact the teacher with questions and concerns.

Skype-http://www.skype.com

Is an online free software program were you can connect and chat with people all over the world. Also, Skype allows people to use video chat for free. Skype is a great technology for people to use for communication.

This technology can impact my teaching by allowing me to communicate to my students and other teachers through the internet. By having this free access to chat it will enable me as a teacher to chat with other teachers who can aid me in creating new lesson plans. Skype can impact the student learning because this will allow the students to be able to communicate with other students around the world. This communication can broaden children’s views about the world because it makes them see and hear other perspectives.

Kidinspiration: http://www.inspiration.com

Inspiration and kidinspiration is a software program available for teachers to use in their class. The software allows the student to interact and create projects to help further their learning experience on the computer. In the software program students will be able to work on math problems, create concept maps for an array of subjects.

This program can help students have a better understanding in elements in literature. The students could create a concept map that encompasses the main elements in literature such as theme, plots, and main characters. Another benefit for kidinspiration and the Concept Map is enhancing science lab write ups. The students can write down their hypothesis and use pictures and diagrams to show there experiment. Finally students can use this program for math. There are many interactive games to engage the students to learn fractions and arrays. Also, the students can design their own math problems by using icons to create their very own word problems.

The impact of using a Concept mapping will be very positive for student learning. The student will be able to organize his or her ideas and make connections to the concepts being learned in class. Also, this program is a great visual for students to see relationships that is being taught. Concept Mapping is very hands on, interactive and allows the student to have visual aids. This is great for students who are kinesthetic learners.

Blog and Wiki Posts

1. Identify and describe 3 interesting/innovative ways blogs and/or wikis are being used in K-12 classrooms.


2. Describe how you might use RSS readers/aggregators within a classroom setting.


3. Describe at least 2 pros and 2 cons of using blogs and wikis in education.

One creative way to apply blogs into classroom is having students create their own, secure blogs just for the classroom. This classroom blog will allow the students to express their feelings about projects, school, life, homework, and allow them to ask questions virtually to one another and to the techer. Classroom blogs will allow the teacher to post discussion questions, project ideas, reminders and other important information for the classroom. Then the blog can be accessed at home and will be a good organizational tool to help students know what is going on.

You can create a blog that archives favorite recipes of each student. To practice math skills, ask students to multiply each recipe so that it would feed the entire class! Post resulting recipes in blog.

The third idea is create a blog where students describe a typical day at school. Invite other same aged students from different global locations to contribute the same type of information on the same blog. Let students ask questions and leave comments to gain cultural awareness. Students can then begin to share/compare thematic units being learned, novels being read, field trips being taken, etc.

One way I would use RSS is allowing my students the access of updated feeds, especially if they were doing a research project. If they were studying about pollution in China the RSS feed could be created by a student and it will bring any updated news that was just published.

Another interesting way to incorporate RSS/ Aggregators into classroom was discussed by Will Richardson on his blog. He describes on his blog, “If you want to create a feed for what’s in the daily news about a particular topic, you can make a syndicated feed of search results of Google News. Just take the following feed address and add your search terms where indicated. http://voidstar.com/gnews2rss.php?num=50&q=your+terms+here So, for instance, if you want to have a feed for the search term “journalism and weblog” it would look like http://voidstar.com/gnews2rss.php?num=50&q=journalism+and+weblog Copy that address and paste it into your Bloglines aggregator, and you’ll start getting any news that’s in the media about your topic right away. When you start getting results from your feed, you may want to refine your search until you get a manageable number of posts. And remember, you can create as many of these feeds as you like, with as many terms as you like (as long as they are separated by a plus sign.) (Thanks to the folks at voidstar.com for providing this service.)

The first pro for using blogs and wikis is it will allow a new way to communicate. Students will be able to stay connected to what is happening in the classroom and will be able to post concerns, question and ideas. Teachers will be able to communicate with the students by keeping their blogs updated. Blogs and wiki allows the teacher to access new teaching ideas from other teacher blogs and also share and reflect with other teachers of what is going on in their classroom.

The next pro is letting the students become immersed with a diverse audience. The blog and wiki allows the students to interact with students nationally and even globally. This can enlighten students with their views about the world and can help the students to become aware of different cultures and beliefs.

The first negative about blogs and wikis is lack of interaction with one another. A key concept for many students to develop and grow is socializing with one another. Students will be able to learn when there are hands on projects and live discussions within the classroom. Blogs and Wikis could become a crutch to use for discussions, and assignments. You have to find a balance where the students are hands on learning and also learning how to connect to the world by technology. The second negative about blogs and wikis is the accessibility students might not have the technology at home to blog and use wikis to communicate with other students and the teacher.

Engaging Students with Concept Mapping Activities

Example of Kidinspiration for Concept Mapping

My First Day of First Grade

1. Post a 3-5 paragraph summary of the 3-5 ideas you explored for how you could use Concept Mapping within your future classroom. Give your specific examples

I would use this program to help students to better understand elements in literature. The students could create a concept map that encompasses the main elements in literature suchs as theme, plots, and main characters. Another idea I would use for the Concept Map is for science. The students can write down their hypthesis and use pictures and diagrams to show there experiment. Finally students can use this program for math. There are many interactive games to enage the students to learn fractions and arrays. Also, the students can design their own math problems by using icons to create there very own word problems.

2. Discuss what you see as the impact of the use of Concept mapping within your classroom might have on student learning? Give some details to support your statements.

The impact of using a Concept mapping will be very positive for student learning. The student will be able to organize his or her ideas and make connections to the concepts being learned in class. Also, this program is a great visual for students to see relationships that is being taught. Concept Mapping is very hands on, interactive and allows the student to have visual aids. This is great for students who are kinsthetic learners.

3. Discuss some criteria that you would use to decide whether or not Concept Mapping activities would be part of a lesson for your students.

Criteria for using Concept Mapping is to make sure that the Concept Mapping is age appropriate and tangible for the student to use. Make sure the activity on Concept Mapping connects with your lesson plan and your targets. Have activities outside of Concept Mapping so students can interact with one another so other learning styles are being used so all students can gain new knowledge.

Teacher Web Reflection

1. Describe and discuss the impacts your use of a class web site like
the one we created on TeacherWeb might have on student learning,
on student engagement, and communications with students and parents.

The classroom website will have a positive impact for student learning. The impact that the teacher website will have on a student learning is having the opportunity for the student to stay on track in class. The website will allow the student to be able to be organized with his or her homework and be aware of deadlines. This will allow the student to have an equal opportunity to catch up and see what is due for the classroom. Also, the website will allow the student to have the opportunity to post questions for the teacher or even to his or her classmates. The student will be able to access an array of learning websites to help better understand a concept that was taught that day. The website is a positive learning tool for the student because it allows the student the opportunity obtain additional help with concepts that he or she might be confused.
Also, it is a great resource for the student to find information about a subject he or she might want to learn more about.

The classroom website can have a positive and negative effect for student engagement. The positive for student engagement is the student can interact with practice questions on the website and find key concepts to learn through hyperlinks. The website will allow the student to engage with other students through blogs and this can help the student find answers to his or her question. The negative effect for student engagement is that the website is not personal. The student will not receive feedback from the teacher and have personal one-on-one time with the classmates. An important factor for students to learn is having real engagement with their classmates. This is where students can build skills in working in a team and also learning how to share responsibility for group projects. Students have a variety of learning styles that this website might not address entirely due to different needs for a student. Also, having one-to-one communication within the classroom the students will be able to learn from one another.

One of the most important and great aspects of the teacher website is the communication for students and parents. Student will be able to see what is due and what is being taught in their classroom. Like I said before in this post, this will allow the student to stay on track with his or her assignments for the classroom. Also, the students will be able to post questions and concerns that they did not have time to ask in class or were uncomfortable to ask in front of everyone. The website will create a safe environment for the student to express his or her feelings to the teacher.

For parents this is a great way for them to see their students’ progress in the classroom. They will be able to see how well their student is doing and what their student needs to be doing. This will also allow the parents be more involved in their student’s curriculum. The website, will basically, give parents a light into their child’s life in school. Finally the classroom website will allow the parents an easy way to contact the teacher with questions and concerns.




2. Identify and discuss what you see as the two biggest advantages of designing
and using a classroom web site within your teaching activities. Also, identify what you see as the biggest disadvantage of using a class website for instructional activities and why.

The first advantage of having a teacher website is the communication factor. By having a website for the class it will allow students to be organized and feel safe to ask questions to the teacher. Students will be able to post questions and concerns to the teacher and to their classmates. For the parents it will allow them to see their child’s work and also allow them to see their child’s progress in school. The parents will be able to contact the teacher easily through email. The second advantage for a teacher website is the organization factor. The website will allow the teacher and student to be aware of projects, homework, deadlines and key concepts. The teacher website is a great tool for the student to stay on top of homework but also if a student misses a day of class. The teacher website is ideal for the student to stay organized and as well as for the teacher to be on top of their lesson plans.

A disadvantage for the teacher website is instructional activities. The website allows the student to search for more understanding about a concept through the given hyperlinks found on the teacher website. Also, the student can take tests, quizzes and practice quizzes to assess their own understanding of a concept. However, instructional activity is essential for every classroom because it allows the student to become more hands on when learning a new idea. For the kinesthetic learners it is important for them to have real- life experiences in the classroom because it will allow them to gain new knowledge about a subject. Instructional activity allows students to collaborate and create more handa on experience to learn a subject matter. It would be difficult for a teacher web to accomplish an instructional activity because the main elements are collaboration among the students and also participation from the classroom. The teacher website can provide a way for the students to express what they have learned in an instructional activity through blog posts and also posting questions if they did not understand part of the activity.

Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom

The multiple intelligences strengths I identify with are Existential and Interpersonal. The core characteristics of Existential Intelligence are:

Collective Consciousness – the capability to see how something relates to the big picture
Collective Values – the understanding of classical western values of truth, goodness and beauty
Summative Iteration – the ability to summarize details into a larger understanding
Intuitive Iteration – a responsiveness to the intangible qualities of being human, be it responding to the arts, philosophical virtues or religious tenets (surfaquariam.com)

The second intelligence I identified with is Intrapersonal. The core characteristics of this intelligence are:

Collaborative Skills – the capability to jointly complete tasks with others
Cooperative Attitude – the willingness to offer and accept input
Leadership – recognition by peers as someone to follow
Social Influence – an ability to persuade others
Social Empathy – an awareness and concern for others
Social Connection – a skill for meaningfully relating to others (surfaquairum.com)

The best learning style that describes me is the Existential Intelligence. I like to understand and see connections to bigger pictures in life.
Students with this intelligence enjoy

Meaningful learning
Look for connections across the curriculum
Like to synthesize ideas based on their learning
Enjoy literature and customs from other cultures
Have a strong connection with family and friends
Develop a strong identity with their neighborhood and town
Express a sense of belonging to a global community
Like to get involved with social and political causes
Can have a strong commitment to their health and well-being
Tend to look at information relative to the context in which it is presented (surferaquiurum.com)

I could support this learning style by relating meaningful, insightful, and creative lessons for the student. The student will be interested in material that has a global tie and different perspectives included into the lesson.

Integrating your instruction across the curriculum
Including the arts in instruction where appropriate
Discussing how topics are important to the classroom, school, community or world
Bringing in resource people who offer additional perspective on a topic
Helping students learn to cohesively summarize what they have learned
Allowing students to demonstrate learning by applying understanding in new and different contexts
Having students participate in rubric development for performance-based tasks so that they take ownership for their learning

Technology is extremely important to help stimulate the student with this intelligences. Technology will enable the student to connect with other cultures and societies around the world. Technology will enable the student to be able to see, understand and connect globally to complex questions about life.
Here are some technologies that will be useful for students who identify with this technology:
Technologies that stimulate this intelligence:

Art replica
Planetarium
Stage drama
Classic literature
Classic philosophy
Symbols of world religions
Virtual communities
Virtual art exhibits
Virtual field trips
MUDs
Blogs
Wikis
Virtual reality
Simulations (surferaquirum.com)

Understanding Multiple Intelligence will help the teacher create a well rounded lesson plan that will enable the student to comprehend subjects because it encompasses their strengths and weaknesses. By realizing your student’s strengths and weaknesses the teacher will be able to use different activities to stimulate the students learning abilities. For example if you know the student needs a visual aid to help understand a subject the teacher should implement in the lesson a visual aid. By understanding and communicating with your students you will know their needs and this will create a strong learning environment for the student!

Day One

Welcome to T&L 445 blog. I am excited to learn how to use this for my future classrooms.