Brad Frey - EPSY 556:Analysis of Advanced Instructional Technologies

Universal Access

2006-11-18T22:27:00.000-08:00

Since I have begun teaching 7 years ago, I have taken classes that covered many different topics and ideas, especially those regarding varying teaching styles. Brain Compatible Strategies for Teaching Math, Differentiated Instruction, and Universal Access. While these topics are all different, they do have an underlying theme. I believe that theme is that we teachers have different kinds of students. Students from different socioeconomic backgrounds, students from different family make-ups, students with different learning styles and students with different attitudes toward school. Teachers have a very difficult task, teaching to this many different students. No one said it would be easy and many teachers, that I’ve seen are sometimes unwilling to try different approaches. But that is what we signed up for and that is what we need to do.
I have 21 students in my Introduction to Algebra class, 11 of which have IEPs. I do have a second teacher with me, but even with this small number of students, there are many different kinds of learners in this class. Technology has helped me in my attempt to reach these students. One use of technology that I use frequently is http://www.funbrain.com/math/index.html. This is a very basic website that I use to practice simple arithmetic facts. The beauty of the site is that in the same baseball game, students can change the difficulty level and the amount of hints and clues. My very basic students can have the same amount of success as my more developed students.
I also came across an article that shows how technology can give universal access to information that most of us take for granted. One of the biggest drawbacks that blind people have when using the Internet is not the words, many programs can read the text aloud to their users, but the images. In order to solve this problem, web creators need to label millions of images. Asking people to spend their time doing this would become very boring, very fast. Professors at Carnegie Mellon have developed a way to entice people to help. They have created the ESP game. Two visitors to www.espgame.org are matched up and shown a random image from the Internet and then they are asked to label the image. Partners are not allowed to communicate and are given words that they are not allowed to use, taboo words. When the partners give the same word, points are awarded. The labels are used to help programmers and web sites describe the images on their site. Eventually, the labels given by the humans will be used to develop computers to come up with common-sense judgments or descriptions.

Are we as teachers reaching our technology standards?

2006-11-11T22:26:00.000-08:00

Are we responsible users of technology?

2006-11-04T21:23:00.000-08:00

Are we responsible users of technology? How well do we model fair use and copyright guidelines when technology makes it so easy for us to use other people's material?

Could teachers as a group be more guilty of copyright violation? I don't think so. I've seen teachers at school show movies in class, download music (legally and illegally) and play in class, show TV shows, copy extensive passages from books, use lyrics from songs and copy supplemental workbooks that were given as materials to look over. Teachers will often cite the Latin expression "Ignorantia juris non excusat or Ignorantia legis neminem excusat" which, of course, translates to "Ignorance of the law is no excuse." But are the "crimes" greater than the benefit derived by the students? I feel that most of the time they are. CBS produces lesson plans for their hit show "NUMB3RS" and gives specific information on how the show may be used http://www.weallusematheveryday.com/tools/files/waumed_taping_terms.pdf. Teachers are allowed to show the math scenes of the show, but the rest of the episode is considered off limits. Isn't CBS' goal to have as many people watch the show as possible? I will admit, I will show the math scene in the show, then do the project or projects associated with it. The next day I will reward the class with the rest of the show, so that they can see what happens. Violation of copyright? I guess so, but everybody wins. I get an engaging lesson, CBS's sponsors get people to see their commercials and my students get to do something is math class that gets them excited about math.

Is Digital Storytelling a meaningful tool and measure for learning?

2006-10-28T04:59:00.000-07:00

I, like Carolyn, can't get the Prensky article out of my head. Digital natives, digital immigrants is such a simple tag to put on us, but so descriptive and so accurate. As a digital immigrant, I so much want to be a digital native, like my son and my students. But, alas, it will never be. I can take one step closer with Digital Storytelling.

I have to admit, I was a little skeptical about Digital Storytelling. It sounded like a nice way to tell a photo story, maybe rehash some pictures in a new, techy way. But I didn't see how it could be very educational, especially in math. The more I looked, the more I read, the more I believed in its ability to teach and for kids to learn, but in subjects where more expression and creativity is normally found, perhaps English or Social studies. How to apply this to math?

As I sat around this summer and planned out my curriculum for the upcoming year. One project that I considered was giving my pre calc students digital cameras and letting them explore the world and find examples of conic sections (parabolas, ellipses, circles, etc.) Conic sections are fun and I thought this might be a nice project to add to the chapter. Little did I know, that I was going to employ digital storytelling. I can now have the students take pictures, upload them and do the voice overs to explain their photos.

Another item that I include every year is a biography on a famous mathematician. How much more fun would it be to create a digital story?

Another way for math teachers to employ digital storytelling is in geometry. Architecture is full of shapes. Students could determine the scale between the picture and the actual building.

Digital storytelling is more difficult for math and science teachers, but still worth the effort.

Digital Natives - Visual Literacy

2006-10-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

Our CTER experience is beginning to wind down, only 6 months and 1-½ classes left. Has anyone noticed that the discussions amongst ourselves are shorter? While each class has been full of useful and new information, I catch myself trying to get excited about each new project and topic that we begin. I know that’s a bad attitude and I would be angry with my own children and my students for acting like that, but it’s true. So while I really (repeat: really) liked the Web quest module, I saw an article about Digital Natives and wondered, “Didn’t we talk about this before?” WELL, apparently I wasn’t paying attention earlier. WOW, did that article by Prensky hit a chord with me. I found myself reading it over and over. I’ll bet I read it 4 times. I made copies (55 copies) of it and put it in the mailboxes of all my teachers at school. I explained it to my son on the way home from his basketball practice; it made an impression with him too. I caught him explaining to his mother how he was a “digital native” while she was only a “digital immigrant.”

Most importantly, I began to rethink my approach to teaching my lower level math students, my Introduction to Algebra students. It hadn’t dawned on me that this was what those students needed. I took this class to the computer lab on a Friday and played addition and subtraction games for 47 minutes. That night at our football game, I had 4 students come up to me and tell me how much fun they had in math class and that math used to be their worst subject, the one they hated the most and now it was their favorite. Friends were jealous; friends in honors classes were asking me if they could take my class. I just thought it was a good day in class. I hadn’t realized that that was the way those students learned the most, the way that engaged them the most. Instant gratification, short burst of learning, hidden from them because they were having fun, playing games.

Is it possible to make every day like that? No. It is like a tolerance for drugs. Give them a day of fun; you need to top it the next time and the next time. But engaging them in this matter 2 or 3 times a week might just do the trick.

Final Webquest

2006-10-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

Here's my final Webquest:http://students.ed.uiuc.edu/bcfrey2/bradfeportfolio/webqueststartpage.html

Webquest Troubles No More

2006-10-09T13:09:00.000-07:00

Apparently it was the student server's problem. Here is my 2nd draft of my webquest: http://students.ed.uiuc.edu/bcfrey2/bradfeportfolio/webqueststartpage.html

Media in Learning

2006-10-08T20:14:00.000-07:00

Media has always been an important component in schools and learning. I think back, way back, to watching film strips on the great depression in grade school. What a wonderful way to learn!

Now the media we present in school is far more dynamic and abundent. We thought TVs in the classroom was great and then we added VCRs. But we topped that with DVDs and United Streaming. I go one better, I have Directv in my room with TIVO to record whatever I want.

We can go to the computer lab or bring in the laptops and the world is right in their palms. With so much information available to students, how do we get them to soak it all in, soak any of it in. I think the secret lies in letting them create. Even though I teach math, I am intrigue by the many opportunities that students have to create an online journal of their knowledge.

This semester I will be giving one of my classes a webquest regarding travel. Part of their assignment is to document their vacation. Originally I had planned on giving them Power Point to create a travel documentary, but now I am considering a couple of others. www.scrapblog.com is a fun place to create an online scrapbook. It is very easy to use and with the option of adding music, students would really enjoy this option. A second option for the students is www.jumpcut.com. This is a very simple site that lets users make short movies by using pictures, music, video clips and many special effects. I had fun playing around with this site. I actually made a short music video with pictures of my kids.

Webquest Troubles

2006-10-08T17:24:00.000-07:00

If anyone was looking at my 2nd draft webquest, you noticed that it is exactly the same as the first draft. Apparently, none of the files I saved went to my student server. My desktop is back from its weeklong visit to Best Buy and I should be able to save the files now. Stay tuned. Sorry about the trouble.

Web Based Media

2006-10-07T22:33:00.000-07:00

It's too bad Michael's live presentation went South on us. After listening to it recorded, I was geeked over all the tools he presented on the page http://uiucmtw.wikispaces.com/WebBasedMediaBigList. What a wealth of tools! I can't wait to jump in a try a couple of these. As it was, I had tried a few:

In www.blogger.com, I have http://bradfrey.blogspot.com/ for this class, http://skyhawkgirlsbasketball.blogspot.com/ for my girls basketball team and http://skyhawkgolf.blogspot.com/ for my golf team.

We created some wiki pages for another CTER class: Success in Math Class and Competition in the Math Classroom.

I have used http://picasa.google.com/ to post pictures to my blogs.

I have a bloglines account, although I don't check it enough. I like what Michael said about setting up my classmates blogs in my blogline account to have an easier way of checking posts.

http://pages.google.com/ is a very simple way to set up web pages. I did a very short one using google at http://coachfrey.googlepages.com/.

As soon as I get my digital camcorder, I am hoping to utilize the podcasting tools and create short instructional videos for my students to download to their video iPods.

Is Blended Learning Good for K-12?

2006-09-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

I think that it would be foolish to say that blended learning is NOT a good thing for K-12. But how we use blended learning and who teaches it are very important points. Other concerns about implementing more blended learning in K-12 range from how much to include, where are the funds to use blended learning coming from and how comfortable are teachers with technology so that they can teach. Students are tech savvy, can teachers reach the same level as the students? In fact, don't teachers need to surpass the technological level of their students. We have 13 teachers in our CTER cohort, shouldn't every teacher out there be reaching out for more tech training.

Blended Learning

2006-09-29T16:07:00.000-07:00

What is the importance of blended learning in the K-12? In order to determine this, I think a definition of blended learning would be helpful. What is blended learning? There is no one definition. According to Caroline Gray, www.learningcircuits.org , "Blended learning is a powerful training solution that combines e-learning with a variety of other delivery methods for a superior learning experience."

Blended learning will become more and more important and prevalent in the K-12 classroom as schools' become more technologically advanced and teachers become more technologically savvy. Students different learning styles play a huge part in how blended learning is used in schools. Giving students different avenues and opportunities to learn is what teaching is about. Using varying technologies gives all students a chance to match their learning style with the topic being learned.

What is the value of my Webquest? Will my Webquest empower student learning?

2006-09-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

I think my webquest will give my Introduction to Algebra students a tremendous, fun opportunity to show what they have learned over the semester. This webquest will be their 1st semester final exam.

The task will force students to take on a certain level of responsibility within their group, will test their cooperation skills and will show their determination in completing a task. Not only will the students show off the math skills they have learned throughout the year, this webquest will give them the opportunity to be creative and show their imagination, whether designing an interesting PowerPoint or finding unusual and clever places to go and things to do at their chosen city.

Many of my students have never traveled more than 30 miles from home and I hope that by researching new places they will realize how different and fascinating our country is.

Webquest First Draft

2006-09-24T19:01:00.000-07:00

My first draft of my webquest can be found at http://students.ed.uiuc.edu/bcfrey2/bradfeportfolio/webquest/Webquestcoverpage.html.

I have enjoyed fine tuning my original idea, but still have a long way to go. Not only with the webquest itself, but with the webpage I've created to present it. Like all good things it is a work in progress. If any one has any tips or ideas, please let me know.

Thanks,

Brad

Intitial idea for a WebQuest

2006-09-10T20:44:00.000-07:00

For the past 2 years, this year makes 3, I have taught the Introduction to Algebra courses at our school. This course is quite different from the other two courses that I normally teach, AP Calculus and Pre Calc Honors. Different in content as well as students. I have approached the Intro class a little differently than earlier teachers of Intro. I use a lot of hands on and project based learning. Many of the assessments I give are very similar to the projects. Portfolios, computer based and even personal demonstrations. One of the only times I give a standard test is for their final exam. But I have found that many, if not all, of the students do very poorly on their final. I have been trying to find a way to check their learning without giving them a multiple choice test to end the semester.

One of the ideas I've been pondering is giving the students a project to complete for their semester exam. We spend a semester learning about many real world math skills so I think I will try to incorporate these into the semester project. The WebQuest I will be trying to put together is "Planning a Family Vacation."

For this project, I plan to have students shop for a new car, have them calculate taxes and licenses and get the total cost of their new vehicle. I then thougt about having them drive this new vehicle to 4 or 5 different cities. Using the MPG data from their new car and the current cost of gas and the distance in between cities. I think we can calculate driving costs. Some other ideas include having the students find activities to do in each city, find hotels in each city and determine the total cost of the trip. I also might incorporate some banking and lending info to see if they could afford their trip or how much would they have to take a loan out for.

I think working on a project, incorporating all the skills we will work on over the semester will give the students a better chance of success on their finals.

20 Technology Skills Every Educator Should Have

2006-09-02T09:39:00.000-07:00

As our society continues to become more technology based, for better or worse, it is so important for teachers to continue to learn and implement various forms of technology. Important not only as a classroom tool, but important in understanding how are students are thinking, acting and learning.

I thought the list in the article was very extensive. I am more tech savvy than some of the members of my department, but, as the department chair, I am encouraging everyone of the math teachers to try and experiment with more and more technology. I looked at the list of 20 skills and how well I can do each and how I would like my department to use them.

Here are 20 basic technology skills that all educators should now have:

1. Word Processing Skills

This is the most basic and practical of all the skills. Teachers have been doing this forever. First by hand, then by typewriter and now by computer. We can all learn a little more about the word processing program that we use, but most are pretty good.

2. Spreadsheets Skills

Another basic that less teachers are comfortable with. I worked in the private sector for 8 years before teaching and became proficient at Microsoft Excel and use it in all my classes. Only 1 other teacher in our department tries using spreadsheets at all. Finding the right lesson and applications would make this easier to implement.

3. Database Skills

We have been given an excellent way to showcase our database skills in our district. We have an electronic gradebook that is relatively easy to navigate and look at data.

4. Electronic Presentation Skills

The most popular way to use this skill is Microsoft's Power Point. While not an expert, I use Power Point occasionally to present lessons. Some of the other math teachers use Power Point as a vehicle for student presentations because of simplicity of use.

5. Web Navigation Skills

No one thinks twice about this skill. However the ability to narrow a search or find exactly what you are looking for is a skill that I and all of the department could improve on.

6. Web Site Design Skills

As I learned in EPSY 590NET, there are LOTS of places to get help designing web sites. Teachers, at least the teachers in our department, think that designing web sites is a very difficult and arduous task. But there are many places where designing a web site is as easy as typing, point and clicking. Showing teachers where to go for help in this skill is the first big hurdle in getting them to begin their own sites.

7. E-Mail Management Skills

This is now the single most effective way in communication with parents. Every teacher in our school and department has this skill and for the teachers in our department, this is their preferred method of communication.

8. Digital Cameras

This seem like a recreational skill that some teachers have never considered putting to use in the classroom. I have given my students disposable digital cameras and had them go out and take pictures of shapes (parabolas, spheres, rectangles, etc.) to learn more about geometry or trigonometry. As the price of regular digital cameras comes down, implementing them into curriculum should become easier as more cameras can be provided from the school.

9. Computer Network Knowledge Applicable to your School System

This is a skills that all of our teachers have perfected. Our school provides a network location for each teacher and class and any papers, projects, or power points can be saved at any computer terminal and acccessed from anywhere as long as it is connected to our network.

10. File Management & Windows Explorer Skills

This skill, just like navigating the internet, might be taken for granted. But, after helping some of my colleagues look for missing test files or songs on their computer, I know that this skill need much fine tuning. I have seen teachers who are the most organized people in the world, with the greatest systems in place have no idea, or rhyme or reason when it comes to saving files on their computer.

11. Downloading Software From the Web (Knowledge including eBooks)

Another relatively easy task that many teachers have a difficult time with. Part of the reason that our teachers struggle with this skill is because no individual may put a program on their school computer. This task can only be done by the technology director or computer lab aide.

12.Installing Computer Software onto a Computer System

See #11.

13. WebCT or Blackboard Teaching Skills

Because of the CTER program and other online courses that I've taken, I feel very comfortable with this skill as a student. I have created a moodle for one of my classes and use that frequently, but I have no experience teaching with other type programs. As teachers continue their education, more and more will do it with online classes and will become more familiar with the different course delivery programs.

14. Videoconferencing skills

This is a skill that hasn't caught on much in our district. Whether it is because of the small size, number wise and geography wise, or because of the cost involved, teleconferencing is not utilized. However, as camcorders are becoming easy to use, and videos are becoming easier to send electronically, I can see this a great vehicle for enabling students to catch up on work or lessons missed.

15. Computer-Related Storage Devices (Knowledge: disks, CDs, USB drives, zip disks, DVDs, etc.)

As floppy disks become obsolete, teachers and students use more and more portable storage devices and the importance of backing up and storing data. This is another relatively easy skill to master.

16. Scanner Knowledge

I purchased a scanner for our department last year and find novel ways of using it all the time. I feel the math department uses scanners more than most others in school, whether sending worksheet via email or posting solutions to homework online. This is a frequently overlooked skill and use of technology.

17. Knowledge of PDAs

I have used a Palm Pilot for around 8 years and have found hundreds of different uses, both personally and professionally. I have been trying to implement a program to take attendance using a Palm that would automatically send the results to the office. No more attendance slips or emails from the principal for forgetting to take attendance. However, I think that this is also a dying technology. I feel that tablet pcs and smartphones will become the technology of choice instead of PDAs.

18. Deep Web Knowledge

I got to #18 before I felt I didn't have the skill. To be honest, I didn't know what the "Deep Web" was. But now I do. This is an important skill. To be able to find valid, important information from a trusted site, is important. As we have discussed in the past, any goof with a PC can put info on a web page.

19. Educational Copyright Knowledge

As a teacher, knowing copyright information is critical. Students, not all students, will look for the path of least resistance when doing a project or paper. Teachers understanding copyrights and teaching their students about copyrights will save a lot headaches.

20. Computer Security Knowledge

Students are good computerers. They find ways around firewalls and filtered sites. If they don't know how, they know somebody who does and will tell them. It is important for teachers to communicate with other teachers and the technology coordinator at your school to stay abreast of all issues relating to security.