Harris Article-Like a Boss

#3- Harris' response to this criticism is that Internet projects are a tool to aid our students in learning and that we should use every tool we have possible to help our students learn. Just because schools rely more on high stakes testing doesn't mean that we have to limit what our students use to learn. There isn't any reason why our students shouldn't be able to collaborate with other students, not in their classroom, to achieve an academic goal. Yet the internet and computers should only be viewed as a tool, not as curriculum.
I would definitely have to agree with Harris' response to this criticism but I would have to expand on it. I think computers and the Internet are not only necessary but vital for our students. Our world is ever shrinking and there isn't any industry or facet of our society that our students will engage in that doesn't involve internet use or computers. If we don't encourage our students to use the internet or computers they will have to learn the skills associated with both by themselves. Also there is a lot of information on the Internet and if we don't encourage our students to use the Internet to do research how will they ever learn to sift through garbage that is on the Internet.

BDodge Article

In Dodge's article he said that the only way to get better at doing webquests was to do more webquests. If this means making a lot of new ones or going back to older ones and updating them, then this is what you need to do to make better webquests. Also don't make webquests only to make a webquest, don't create an assignment using a website you designed to show your students and their parents what you can do with a website. Using a webquests should be a fun activity for your students that actually creates some genuine learning. With our webquest, I believe this is what we set out to do and I think we did a very good job with it. We took a simple concept, the Branches of the US Government, gave our students sites to go to to find answers to our questions and presented them with authentic and real life situations concerning the US Government. By presenting our students with scenarios that could actually happen in the real world, we hoped that this would illustrate to our students what their government does and what it can't do.
I think by including real life scenarios that required our students to think out solutions to the problems we posted, that the students will be more engaged in the activity. The only thing that I would want to change with our website would be to figure out how to make it look better. Thankfully, Dodge said not to get too worried about this and to focus on making your website functional and affective.

Reiser Article

What the article and the UEN website had in common was that these both relied heavily on technology and alternative methods of assessment. I don't know how effective, or relavant, using a telgram would be in a classroom, like the Reiser article suggested, but I guess it would be fun to incorporate with a younger classroom. The UEN site that I found that closely mirrored the Reiser article was the Under the Sea lesson. This lesson showed how you could center the instruction around the students. I really liked that the students got to design a newspaper article about the ocean.
I think designing a lesson using the Reiser article as your model would only work in moderation or with an exceptionally motivated class. I think that if you tried to do this method with every class you might run into the problem of some students not participating or falling behind. I don't think that you could do an entire two week lesson plan using this method, maybe one or two days.

I hope this works, here's my video

Classroom Management

What is most important to be an effective classroom manager is to establish a smooth running classroom from the start of the school year.  Behaviors that a teacher can engage in to better manage their classroom include developing smooth instructional procedures, the smoother a lesson the less disruptions.  Also teachers can make instruction clear with clear work requirements.  It is also important to outline what you want students to do during down times and have clear rules for the classroom that you don't break from.  Lastly it is important to make academic work enjoyable, not a choir, and to listen to your students.  If your students know that you care about them and their academic success they will be more responsive to them, which will make it easier to keep them on task.

Barron Article

3.  What are the benefits of technology in education?

The biggest benefit, that I saw, from integrating technology into the classroom was motivation.  It is difficult to motivate students, especially if you are teaching teenagers, when all you are doing is lecturing at students.  If you find some way of making what you are teaching exciting, new and interesting then your students will respond positively.  In the Barron article he did make mention about how when technology was used in classrooms school performance and attendance increased.  I can definitely see how this would happen, when I was in elementary school, I was always more excited to go to the classes that used computers instead of the classes that only used worksheets.  I felt like I was actively participating in what I was learning.

Another benefit of technology in the classroom is that students are always connected to the classroom.  Teachers no longer have to worry about snow days or if a student is sick and what they could be missing.  Teachers now can email their students assignments they are missing and when there are snow days, students and teachers can meet in a virtual classroom and have regular classes.  This isn't fun for the students because they don't get to enjoy a snow day but it makes sure the students and teachers don't fall behind and it gives the students a lot of responsibility when it comes to their education.  They aren't passive in their learning.  Students do need to have their own family computer and internet access, of course, which sometimes can be difficult for some families.

My website

If anyone is interested here is the link to my website for ED PSYCH 5151

Http://sites.google.com/site/sufds1983/home

The Drive

"The Drive" in the 1987 AFC Championship game between the Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns was the greatest 2 minutes in any NFL game ever, agree or disagree.