MACUL

 I really enjoyed going to the MACUL conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  I thought it was a great opportunity to not only see the city of Grand Rapids, (which I have never seen prior to this visit), but to also learn more about how I can incorporate technology and computers into my placement/classroom.  It was great to see so many of my fellow MAC'ers  at the conference, as well as so many educators advocating and supporting technology in the class.  I thought MACUL did a great job of providing educators with valuable speakers and opportunities to hear how others in the profession are using technology to enhance their classrooms and further engage their twenty-first century students.  After a fun two hour car ride with my good friend Professor Cotter, we finally arrived in Grand Rapids and were ready to explore the conference and attend some sessions.

            The first session that I attended, and would like to spend the majority of this blog discussing, was led by the University of Michigan's own Liz Kolb.  Liz's session was entitled "I am PAC-MAN: Learning Through Gamification."  I felt the need to go to Liz's speech for a couple of reasons.  First, I find the concept of gamification within the classroom to be a really fascinating concept, and one that I could see myself trying to adopt in my own classroom one day.  Secondly, having taken Jeff's class last semester that dealt with gaming and simulation, I could really relate to her ideas and concepts.  I thought it was really interesting that Liz decided to switch every aspect of her class to recreate a gaming style classroom.  By this, I mean she changed her class format from administering grades to administering experience points.  Additionally, instead of giving homework and tests, she administers quests (assignments) that students go on to complete at their own pace.  I really like the pacing option which gives students the opportunity to learn at their own pace.

            I also thought that it was really unique that upon completing a quest, students can receive badges symbolizing their mastery of a particular subject.  Moreover, each teacher can create and personalize their own badges that they wish for students to complete.  Also, just like any normal video game, students can level-up the more badges they receive.  One interesting aspect that Liz stated was that these badges can follow students around and can be used to symbolize their mastery of a real-world skill.  So if a student receives a badge symbolizing their mastery of Microsoft Excel, then they could quite possibly place this achievement on their resume.  All in all, I really enjoyed Liz's presentation and seminar and definitely walked away with some great insight that I can use within the walls of my classroom.  I look forward to sharing the knowledge and insight I gained at MACUL with my fellow teachers at John Glenn High School.                   

EDUblog Comments and Thoughts

            Recently I had the opportunity to read and post a comment on two education blogs that I found to be insightful and time well spent.  Unfortunately, one of my comments has still not been posted on the blog due to review by a moderator prior to posting...so hopefully someone reviews it soon so it can go public.  The first educblogger I read was by Lee Kolbert A Geeky Momma's Blog entitled Improving Learning with Mobile Technology.  Lee Kolbert is a former teacher and current manager of educational technology for her school district.  Mrs. Kolbert's blog provides free downloads and an abundance of tips on social learning, including tools for moderated messaging, polling, and private communication networks.  The particular blog I commented on she shared an ebook that contained teaching words of wisdom, and lessons from educators on improving learning with mobile technology.  I liked one particular page in the ebook that discussed the importance of teachers giving the classroom back to their students through the controlled use of technology in the class in the form of cell phones.  Cell phones can be used in conjunction with assessments to help teachers better understand what material their students have a grasp on and what material they are still unsure of.       

            The second blog I read and commented on was by Joanne Jacobs.  Joanne is a educational journalist who often writes on educational issues such as special education, state academic standards, teacher training, cultural aspects of education, college readiness and much more. I found her blog entitled Linking and Thinking on Education to be witty, visually pleasing, and good to read as a future educator.  More specifically, I read her article Test revolts spread-but will they burn out? and was informed about the recent uprising in teacher, parent, student dissent regarding the abundant use of standardized tests in the classroom.  Joanne states that recently "More than 80 percent of the parents at a NYC primary school recently decided against participating in the testing that would have been used to evaluate their children's teachers."  She also said that because of increased protesting and resistance testing rollbacks at the state level are already underway in Texas, Washington, and Illinois.  I have never been a fan of standardized tests because I believe they are inequitable and force teachers to "teach to the test."  Far too much weight and emphasis is placed on standardized tests and I would love to see this movement continue to grow in numbers and in strength.     

Webinar Reflection

I can't believe this is my last blog of the fall semester in EDUC 504, once again it seems like the class just started.  For this blog I would like to discuss my experience creating a webinar and listening to my classmates various webinars over the last week.  In 504 we recently had a small group project where in our groups we successfully created and presented a webinar introducing a Web2.0 tool.  A Web 2.0 tool is any website that uses technology beyond the static pages of earlier websites, in essence they are more user-friendly and interactive.  My group, which composed of my two good friends and fellow cohort members Cory Cotter and Alexander Griffiths, presented Museum Box as our Web 2.0 tool.  Museum box is a pretty cool website that allows the user to build a virtual museum box composed of information that the user wishes to present in a unique and visually pleasing fashion.  To be honest I didn't find Museum box to be anything special when compared to other methods of presentation like Prezi, or even PowerPoint, but at least the option is on the table if an educator wishes to try something new. 

            As far as the experience of being introduced to webinars through 504, and having the opportunity to hear some and then create our own, I thought this was very insightful.  I learned that a webinar is simply a presentation, lecture, workshop, or seminar that is transmitted over the web.  I found the idea of a webinar to be a really cool alternative to a traditional lecture or class.  I really enjoyed listening to my fellow classmates webinars that they created and thought the whole process was beneficial to know as a future educator.  I don't know if I ever see myself using a webinar in the classroom at least in the near future, but I definitely would not rule it out.  In order to use a webinar in a traditional high school classroom this would require all your students to have internet and computer access and I know at my placement at John Glenn high school this would be challenging.  Also I'm not sure the students would be fully engaged and appreciate the use of a webinar.  I could see webinars being really useful in more of a college setting where access to technology and student engagement and participation is much higher.               

Flipping Physics with founder Jon Palmer

          Last week in EDUC 504 we had a great guest lecturer in former Mac'er John Palmer '00.  John Palmer his novel idea of "Flipping Physics" in an entertaining and captivating fashion.  Flipping Physics is a unique concept that quite literally flips the classroom, I'll explain.  John has modified his class where the students learn the material at home and come to class prepared to ask questions and do their homework.  I should add that John is a semi-professional video editor and creates videos for his students to watch and learn from while at home.  After watching his videos I must say they are really well done, entertaining, and funny.  Although most of the material goes way over my head because I am a terrible physicist, there were a few points that he made more easy to at least ponder.  John uses his basement and his acting skills to create funny skits in which he presents students with that nights material.    

            By "Flipping Physics" John creates a classroom that allows students to focus and work through their homework problems.  This gives students the opportunity to ask questions regarding the homework while in class.  Additionally, John can also go over the problems at the end of class and can also work through tough problems at the front of the room if confusion arises.  This model does require students to do the learning at home, but this is made fun with John's entertaining and well done videos.  Through the lecture John also talked about how a lot of time is saved within the class by adapting the flipped classroom model.  He also showed us some evidence that further backed up his claim that flipping a classroom creates a more effective learning environment.  He did this by averaging all the quizzes and tests from two semesters, one from a "traditional" classroom model, and the other of a "flipped" classroom.  His results concluded that the "flipped" model was slightly more effective seeing a three percent increase when compared to the "traditional" classroom model.  I don't see myself using the flipped classroom model in my history classes but I still respect the model and thought John's lecturer and presentation was very insightful.  I admire his dedication and intuitive approach to the field of education.             

Tech Tools in Use-Prezi

       

             Earlier in the semester three of my fellow Mac'ers presented the website Prezi to our cohort and I must say I was impressed.  I was impressed first and foremost by Cory, Even, and Matt's well done presentation and delivery of Prezi.   They explained the website top to bottom and spent a good amount of time showing the class how we as future educators can use the website to better present our daily lessons .  Moreover, I was also impressed with the actual product of Prezi.  Prior to the presentation I had only heard about Prezi and its ability to allow a user to create an aesthetically pleasing presentation.  Additionally,  initially I had no clue how to make a Prezi  presentation, I also had no knowledge of what the websites limitations were.  As a future secondary history teacher I see a lot of potential in Prezi and feel that I will definitely find a use for it in my class.  Through Cory, Even, and Matt's presentation I feel like I have a good grip on how to navigate the Prezi website and create my own Prezi from scratch. 

            I feel that incorporating Prezi presentation with a traditional history lecture could create a very effective combination for initiating learning.  With the ability to embed videos, music, pictures, and other medians I believe that Prezi is perfect for catering to the multitude of different learning styles present within an average classroom.  Throughout the groups presentation Cory, who is an historian by trade, showed the class a couple example presentations of how you can create and implement a history Prezi presentation.  Prezi allows the creator to include primary sources such as, maps, artwork, documents, pictures, political cartoons, and much more inside the presentation.  It also allows the creator to present the information with unique transitions and backgrounds that make the presentation much more captivating for students during their long days at school.  The technical term for these cool transitions that can be customized based on the users desire is "Zooming User Interface", or commonly abbreviated as ZUI.  From the few times I have messed around with Prezi since the presentation in class I have found the website to be user-friendly and easy to navigate.  All in all I give Prezi a grade "A" and find that it can be a very effective supplement when presenting information to students.                  

Technology at John Glenn High School

             It has been a little over a month in a half since my last blog and a lot has happened since then.  I am already in my fourth week of my year long student teaching placement at John Glenn high school (JGHS) in Westland, Michigan.  I have been placed with veteran teacher Michele Anderson in her U.S. history class that is composed up of mainly eleventh graders with an occasional twelfth grader in her class.  I would classify the use and role technology plays at John Glenn as mediocre at best.  The building, which opened in 1964, still has no wifi which makes using laptops difficult.  I am forced to leave my laptop stationary in one spot in the corner of the classroom next to the only ethernet cord in the class.  The classes are all equipped with Dell desktops that are literally 11 years old, which is crazy old considering the recent technological advances in computing the last few years alone.  Additionally, all classes have an LCD projector that is used in collaboration with Smart boards.  Most of the teachers seem to have a love-hate relationship with their boards sighting their potential uses and daily malfunctions and misuses.

            The grading and attendance is all done at JGHS through an on-line program called Zango that is accessible from any computer.  From my experience with the program thus far I have found it to be exceptionally slow and not very user-friendly.  Through speaking with my mentor and other John Glenn teachers I have gathered that the program is really unpopular and more of a pain then a time saver.  Located in JGHS's library is a laptop cart with over 50 laptops and 33 desktop computers available for all students who need to do research or just type up a document.  The student body seems to be more connected with technology as are most twenty-first century students.  Almost all the students have cell phones and are always on them during passing period, with cell phone use being  restricted while in class.  My teacher Mrs. Anderson uses her Smart board nearly every class as she displays her PowerPoint on it during lectures.  I look forward to gaining more insight on the use of technology and its role at JGHS as my student teaching internship continues.          

Organizing my online life

Here is a screen shot of my organizing your online life document.  I found Pinterest to be really innovative and valuable as a future educator.  I plan to use it in my history classroom this fall while student teaching to show various primary sources like pictures and paintings to my students.  If you would like to refer back to my Pinterest blog it was published on July 17th, 2013.