Our evening began with discussions on transfer of learning and then we ventured into virtual reality environments in schools (thanks to Teresa) and using technology to support the teaching of writing. "Evrim's" webspiration is a powerful concept mapping tool and the class produced some interesting products in the few minutes we spent on the Life in Iowa concept map.
We discussed our use of Facebook in the class and my sense was that most students are positive about this environment and feel quite comfortable in Facebook. And I learned how to stop the chat function---thanks! We do have three Web environments currently active for 505 (Facebook, WebCT, and the class blog) and I am interested in students' reactions and suggestions for dealing with these three environments.
I wanted to make a comment on how pretty much everything Bransford says in his book talks about contextualizing or making problems relevant to students. This will ensure the greatest level of transfer. I think it's funny how schools (at least when I taught full-time in 2005-2006) were really pushing this framework of rigor and RELEVANCE. There was another "R," too. Anyway, they put together this matrix (I guess you could call it that) that shows the types of activities (application, synthesis, etc.) students need to REALLY have an understanding. This poster is hanging in several of the rooms I sub in now. Are the majority of teachers really providing these relevant learning opportunities though? Couldn't technology be a HUGE part of this framework? I'll stop there with that comment. :-)
ReplyDeleteI was kind of disappointed with using webspiration last night because I had JUST used it the night before in CI 501. It was a little repetitive for me I guess. Still nice to be able to work with new people on activities in class. This class always seems to go by faster than others which is great!
Since we have several students in both 501 and 505, I need to coordinate more effectively with that class. The 505 approach needs to be in the framework of combining technology, pedagogy and content and thus using the technology tools to promote learning in specific content situations. I will work to stay on this track!
ReplyDeleteI just got back from a research day at my high school and had an interesting discussion with one of the students. He was explaining a game he was designing and complexities of putting it together. He told me that he was working with other students on the creation of the game. I automatically assumed that he was talking about other students from the class but through out the discussion he told me that the other students were high school kids from around the world, namely Australia, England, Canada, California, and Austria. He meet them in a forum and they are creating the people for his game. Talk about technology providing global connections! Wow!
ReplyDeleteFor the class structures, I like it. Especially, in small groups, we are finding opportunity to share our experiences with different people from different areas and this really enriches the classroom atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteTheory and practice go hand in hand during the lesson which is the other good aspect of 505.
facebook/webct/blog
For blog, I think it is effective because you can get immediate feedback from students and having an archieve at the end of the semester is a another good part of it.However, for facebook and webct, I think they have the same function to some extent. I know it easier and fast to post anything to facebook but I can say that webct is more effective for online discussions because we can reply anyone`s posting but on facebook interaction is more limited because as we talked in the class our reply to somebody`s posting(for example, a post in the middle) seems at the end of the discussion which causes the interaction among members to be limited.
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ReplyDeleteI really like that our class varies the interaction in our activities between large group, small group, and pair activities. This gives ust the opportunity to practice different communicaion skills that we're going to use in our own classrooms. Plus it just seems to help break up the time when we separate into groups; unlike other night classes, this one doesn't seem to stretch on forever.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of practicality, I do think the Facebook has a number of flaws, particularly dealing with discussions and wall posts. I have trouble remembering what information is posted in what area and it's really clunky when trying to reply to a particular post early in a discussion. I do think Facebook is convenient, though. I'm on it so often that it's easy to just hop onto the group page and browse around. Maybe we can use Facebook in a more focused way. Perhaps we can just use Facebook for resources that we find or something like that. Then we can have our discussions on the blog and use WebCT for assignments, class information, and more formal academic kind of things. If we can just clarify the organization a bit better, then I think we can better utilize the three sites.
To me the blog seems more personal and less confusing. The conversations are clear whereas on Facebook the conversations are posted all over. I find the blog easier to read and find myself reading it first and no so much Facebook.
ReplyDeleteI think that Facebook should continue to be used for links, resources, dicussion and troubleshooting while WebCT is for turning in assignments. Personally, I use Facebook as a tool and resort to WebCT just to hand in my work. I think Facebook is much more informal and user friendly.
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