Educational I pad App Review

When it comes to young children it is hard to get them to pay attention to anything for any period of time.  It has to be extra ordinary in order to keep the attention of the child for more than twenty minutes.  This makes things hard when trying to introduce math to a child at the first and second grade level.    Using this I pad app, it captures the attention of any child who plays it. 

There is another I pad app exactly like this one that is better geared towards boys using dinosaurs. 

The wonderful thing about these apps is that their bright colors and happy pictures entertain the children while they learn. 

There are only three simple rules:   1. Visually solve the math problem, 2. Touch the correct star to answer the problem, and 3. Complete each level to unlock special prizes. 

This is a great app to return to as the child’s math skills improve.  The game moves from adding to subtracting and then having a combination of the two. 

This amazing app captures your child’s attention so you know they are not getting into any trouble while you are trying to get your own errands done, while the child is learning and having fun.  What more could any parent ask for.   

Price:  FREE

Rating :5/5

References:

Counts, B. (2010). Ace kids math games hd free lite - for ipad. ITunes Preview, Retrieved from http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ace-kids-math-games-hd-free/id367798719?mt=8

Counts, B. (2010). Dinosaurs kids math hd free lite - for ipad. ITunes Preview, Retrieved from http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dinosaurs-kids-math-hd-free/id368406942?mt=8

 

When I Become A Teacher

My WebQuest

Behind the scenes with Cinderella

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/behind-scenes-with-cinderella-261.html?tab=1#tabs

My role is the Altitudinist.

   

Your Impressions

WebQuest	Strengths	Weaknesses
Grow School Greens	Great for research, gets kids involved and excited.	Takes too long to see results. Young ones may lose interest.
Where is My Hero?	Gets kids to research history and get information from real life people.	It limits their creativity.
Underground Railroad	Good to apply knowledge of slaves and slave holders.	Too many process, may take too long.
Ice Cream	Great for creativity.  Allows them to think outside the box.	May get messy if you feed them some ice cream.  And you must feed them ice cream after that.
Ancient Egypt	Good for learning about new cultures.	Seems hard to follow.

 

 

The best webquest would have to be Grow school greens.  It forces the child to be responsible for something.  The webquest has them do research, but then put that research to work.   In the Process it provides individual jobs to be done at the same time promoting teamwork.  This allows room for higher level thinking and help when they get stuck.  At the end of this project they can see all their hard work pay off in the form of produce. 

I feel another good webquest is We all Scream for Ice cream.  This webquest allows children to be creative in the flavors they create and the label they produce for their ice cream product.  It is a great way to mix fun with learning.  This webquests offers the opportunity to analyze how to make ice cream and adding your own fun with your own flavors.  The Advertising allows the children to work as a group and analyze how the best way to get their ice cream flavor out there. This provides additional work for advertisement research.  

I feel the worst is the Ancient Egyptian WebQuest.  I feel the layout of the webquest made it hard to stay on track.  It does encourage them to learn about a new culture, however, there is nothing about individual and group work.  Not forcing children to have their own role in the project allows room for one student being stuck doing all the work.   The eliminates the higher learning for any of the other students.

I feel the worst is also the Unraveling the Underground Railroad.  This webquest allows individual work but the positions that the child holds forces some to be the controller and some the controlled.  This project may be good for bullies to show them how it feels, but it seems like it could cause a negative light on a child.  It is a great idea to teach the children of the underground railroad, but having them act out may go too far.  It doesn’t really offer much analyze of information.  It also hinders their creativity because the only thing they are doing is creating journals after the research.  It does encourage them to synthesize multiple perspectives, I just feel it is not as good as the others. 

The best: are the best because they allow both teamwork and individual work with analyzation of research that is being put to work using your hands to allow the students to remember longer.  These also provide the students with a chance to be creative from growing plants to creating a new ice cream flavor.  These provide a little of analyzing information with synthesizing multiple perspectives at the same time allowing them to use creativity.

The worst: to me are the ones that didn’t provide a little of each point.  These would either provide multiple perspectives but not allow them to be creative.  Or has them analyze work but doesn’t allow them to see different perspectives.   

Storybird

Teacher's First Year by ssuesli2201 on Storybird

Double Journal 12

Summery

            Sex offenders should not be banned from social networks because not all sex offenders actually committed a sexual crime.  Some sex offenders were placed on the list for random things such as: urinating in public, public nudity or streaking, some sex offenders were teenagers who had consensual sex with other teenagers.  This article is a persuasive article to get others to see that not all sex offenders should be punished from social networks because of some sex offenders who actually had sex with underage children.  They also make the argument that it is in our best interest to allow them on social networks to keep track of what they are doing to keep others safe. 

Evidence:

            The fact that some of the sex offenders were placed on the sex offender registry when there was no sexual encounter in the situation is one piece of evidence.  It would be in our interest to allow them to be on social networks to keep track of them.  Also, there were only a very small few cases where the internet was used to form a relationship. 

Validate the Website:

            The domain name makes it a commercial site.  It is a news website.  The author is clearly stated and when the article was written is also clearly stated.  There is short information listing of the author stating what he has done recently and why he is interested in this information.  There are advertisements to make the site proof that it is a commercial site.  The information in the article can be validated using other internet sites.  Also using the links in the article, one downfall of the article is a link goes to more work of the original author however another link gives validation of some of the points made in the article. 

My Position:

            At first I felt that sex offenders have no business on a social networking site.  I looked at it as allowing a sex offending in an elementary classroom; it just doesn’t work well to do so.  However, when I learned that not all sex offenders where in a situation of sexual encounter that some sex offenders are on the list for crimes like urinating in public or public nudity they should be able to be on social networking sites.  First we should allow all sex offenders to be on social networking sites to keep track of where they are and what they are into.  Second we should rethink the sex offender list because if we really have sex offenders who only urinated in public then we have bigger problems with the rights of people then social networking.  I am not saying the public urinaters should go without punishment, but do they really need placed on the sex offenders list? 

5 W's and 1 H of cyberspace

California's Velcro Crop under Challenge (1993)

Who

·         Yes Ken Umback

·         No

·         Yes

·         No

·         No

·         No

What

·         No

·         No

·         Yes

·         No

·         Yes

·         No

·         No

·         No

·         No

·         No

When

·         Yes

·         Yes

·         Yes

Where

·         . com

Why

·         Yes

·         No

·         No

How

Answers of Wikipedia

a.       Wikipedia is a free source of information.  A nonprofit organization.

b.      It is not 100% fool proof; however, it is an excellent place to start for gaining information. 

c.       They have “wisdom of crowds” and volunteers so that if someone edits something with misinformation they have people that validate what is said and then correct it if it is wrong information.  

d.      Larry Sanger left Wikipedia because he believed that Wikipedia should give more authority to experts.  He created his own Citizendium that does just that.

e.      Vandalism appears in the form of someone intentionally blanking a page of information or change the content of a page in a deliberate attempt to compromise the integrity of Wikipedia. 

f.        It reveals that Wikipedia will never be the one stop shop for reliable information.  It is a good place to start but should never be your stopping point.  In theory, it can never work because it will never be perfect.  It will always have some flaws in it. 

g.       It successful because there are others out there that feel that a free source of information is a good thing so they all work together to make it work.  Team work makes it work.

h.      They don’t want to accept advertising because it is a free site they wish to rely on donations.

i.         Wikiscanner scans the IP address of anonymous editors of the Wikipedia site to be easily checked.  It checks for bias used through government and prominent businesses around the world.  

Double Journal 11

I have learned several things in reading about Wikipedia.  I have learned that there are multiple volunteers that oversee the website to make sure that information is a correct as they can get it.  I just assumed it was a bunch of doctors or very smart people that just put the information out there.  I find it fascinating that anyone can edit Wikipedia at anytime.  I find it even more fascinating that the volunteers can oversee those edits and make sure that only the most accurate information is posted. 

I have also learned that it is a free site run off of donations and volunteer work.  They only have ten employees and run such a successful website for educational purposes.  As well as I learned that Wikipedia is not your end destination when looking up information.  Wikipedia is not cited because there are so many known and unknown authors of the site; however, there are lots of references at the bottom of the page to help you move on to get to the end of your destination to do more research elsewhere. 

I was very surprised to find out that in some schools and with some teacher Wikipedia is banned.  I have heard of banning a lot of things but never an informational free website.   Another thing that surprised me was that I didn’t realize it could be done in real time.  Such as with the Virginia Tech shooting, the information provided could have saved some lives if a student were to come across it at the right moment. 

My only question is why would Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia if he thought it was lacking in expertise?  If he is one of the founders then he has the say so to fix the problem that he sees or branch out from Wikipedia to get credible information.  Such as when he created Citizendium why didn’t he just stay with Wikipedia and use the fame from it to help people find more expertise in their information.  Instead of leaving why not just fix the problem?

Related Material:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/10/sunday/main2244008.shtml

References :

Crovitz, D., & Smoot, S. (2000). Wikipedia:friend, not foe. 1-97. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/archival/EnglishJournalArticle2.pdf

Johnson, C. (2009, February 11). The good and the bad of wikipedia. Sunday Morning, Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/10/sunday/main2244008.shtml

Think Aloud

Shana's Think Aloud

View more presentations from slsuesli

Website Evaluation

In the website that I have chosen I have found that the information could have been provided by anybody due to the commercial domain name.  The person that does claim to have written the site is Ken Umbach and when looking up his information he gives a “Totally Bogus Biography”.  When looking into some of the links programmed into the site it sends you to something totally unrelated or it sends you to something totally ridicules like a picture of random cats.  This website is easily verified due to its ridiculousness tactics used to create this website.   

Double Journal 10

Three Things I learned:

1.      I learned that dyslexia is not limited to mixing up letters or words it affects the reorganizations of voices and sounds. 

2.      I learned that children with dyslexia have trouble processing sentences, which causes them to fall behind if the teacher continues to talk. 

3.      I learned that when you ask a child with dyslexia a question they seem slow at answering as if they don’t care, but it is not that they don’t care they just need the time to process the question in order to answer it. 

4.      I also didn’t realize that children with dyslexia have trouble finding the words to say, or when they do find the words they then have trouble pronouncing them or forming the words to sentence form.     

Two ways to use Technology:

One way to use technology to help with learning disabilities is to use an audio version of a book and as you are listening to the book you follow along in the book in hopes to learn to recognize the words for future use. 

The use of computers has given children and people with learning disabilities a whole new light.  When using a key board it can help a person with LD that is struggling with his or her writing skills.  It helps by putting words into sentence form so they are able to read what they wrote and continue working at an easy pace.   Using the spell check on computers can help those students with spelling difficulties and if they miss spell a word often enough and see over and over again how the word is spelled may help them to correct their error and spell with more ease. 

Related Material: 

http://www.ldonline.org/article/6380/

References:

Schultz, P. (2011, September 3). Words failed, then saved me. Sunday Review the Opinion Pages, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/opinion/sunday/with-dyslexia-words-failed-me-and-then-saved-me.html?_r=1

Jendron, J. (2011, October 14). Assistive technology and learning disabilities. South Carolina Assistive Technology Program, Retrieved from http://www.sc.edu/scatp/ld.htm

Quenneville, J. (2001). Tech tools for students with learning disabilities: Infused into inclusive classroom. Retrieved from http://www.ldonline.org/article/6380/

Reading Grade 11 Level 1 & 2

Double Journal 9

Quote:

First, internet users are relatively anonymous. Second, CMC is not face-to-face and therefore lacks the non-verbal features of communication such as tone of voice, facial expressions and other interpersonal features such as physical attractiveness. Much of the research in the CMC field explored how these two missing features affect social influence and interaction.

Response:

I kind of agree with this because when you are talking over the internet or in a text  message and you sometime get into arguments because you misunderstand what the other person is trying to say because you didn’t receive the verbal or nonverbal cues due to not be face to face with them.  Sometimes I get into arguments with my fiancé over the phone because there is a misunderstanding due to not enough nonverbal cues.  When I can’t see his face and if he is joking I can and do take offence to some things he says.  Like, if he is joking and he is smiling I can’t see that over the phone, sometimes you can hear it in their voice however you can’t hear a smile over the internet.  I don’t feel that the internet is a bad way to communicate or that it is going to cause bad social skills, I just feel that there needs to be a happy balance between internet interactions and face to face interactions. 

Related Material:

http://plankhead.com/35

References:

Owens, L. (2009, April 23). Internet & anti-social behavior theory unfounded. Psycology@suite 101, Retrieved from http://laura-owens.suite101.com/internet--anti-social-behavior-theory-unfounded-a111897

Green, Z. (2009, December 19). Unfriending the internet: confessions of an antisocial networker, and why you might be one too Plankhead, Retrieved from http://plankhead.com/35

Graph

Double Journal 8

Quote:

       “He was, he recalls, "an average student who daydreamed a lot." It is perhaps those early memories of unfocused ambition that have infused him with a desire to promote a new way of learning that prepares students to succeed in a highly wired and visual world.”

Response:

        I find this quote extremely motivating to me because it doesn’t stereotype the “smart” kids. In his quote he says he had unfocused ambition. Not that he was great in school or the top in his class, but an average kid with a passion to daydream. This quote to me is an inspirational one that inspires children to follow their dreams. I find it fascinating how some of the most famous people were not the above average kid in class. People like Charles Darwin who did not take the chosen path his father wanted and actually quit school and went into ministry, as well as Albert Einstein who was considered crazy. It is people like this, the “average” person who gives children hope that even they can accomplish anything when they put their mind to it.

Related Material:

http://des.emory.edu/mfp/efficacynotgiveup.html

My Voki

Magazine Cover

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement, nothing can be done without hope and confidence." -- Helen Keller

Double Journal 7

Quote:

 Educators face enormous challenges in preparing their students to be critical online readers. For the most part, the teaching of critical-thinking skills is not part of the regular curriculum, and printed text is still considered the mainstay of school reading. Moreover, many recent studies identify persistent barriers to integrating new technologies into instruction, including lack of training and help for teachers and insufficient access to functioning technology (Cuban, 2002; Zhao & Frank, 2003).

Response:

I agree with this quote, I feel that the use of technology in the classroom has barriers that prevent teachers from being able to teach things like media literacy.  Without proper training for the teachers they cannot be expected to teach something to children they themselves do not understand.  The younger generations of teachers don’t have near the problem with understanding technology as older generations; however, the teachers across the board need to understand so there is no head butting.  As years continue to go by it may be easier for teachers to use technology in the classroom to teach media literacy as the older generations start to retire it allows more room for the young technological teachers to come in and help teach technologically.  I feel that the traditional literacy is being taught by majority the older generation, where the younger generations are teaching media literacy and the teachers caught in the middle where they are too young to retire but old enough they still teach traditional literacy should get help from the teachers that are teaching media literacy.  The students that are not given the opportunity to learn to read using media literacy and traditional literacy are the ones that are missing out. 

Relative Material:

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IysHjKE2D-Y&feature=related

References:

David, J. (2009, March). Teaching media literacy. Educational Leadership, 66(6), 84-86. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Teaching-Media-Literacy.aspx

MediaEdLab. (Artist). (2008). Assignment: media literacy (elementary school intro) . [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IysHjKE2D-Y&feature=related

Questions answered

Photo 1:

I believe that The President is either posing for a photo or enjoying himself would be the reason why he is smiling. 

I believe that the men in the photo with him are higher end men like mayors or governors.

I also believe that the men in the back are secret service protecting him.

The title and caption make me think that he is going to take control of a situation.

Photo 2:

In this photo I believe that he is being given some hard news that is making him concerned.

I feel that the image may be staged to show books in the background or that he is sitting near a window.

I feel that this image doesn’t give you very much information because it only shows the President instead of also showing the people who are talking to him.

The title and caption is somewhat contradicting.  The title leads you to believe that he is solely concerned about his career and what people may think of him and the Caption leads you to believe that his main concern is the oil spill relief efforts. 

The photo that makes me more confident in his leadership abilities is the second photo because he seems like he is just hearing the information and then going to come up with a game plan and the first picture makes me feel like he is just reconnecting the rat pack with the good ole days.   

Double Journal 6

Quote:

“The President wears a blue shirt, red tie, and dark suit with a U.S. flag on the lapel. His hand, eyes and head are raised, looking off to the right. The photograph has been taken from below, angled slightly upward.”

I find this quote fascinating that they took the photo from the angle below the president and angled it slightly upward because it is like showing that the president is above us all in this nation.  It seems obvious to me why the president would wear a blue shirt and a red tie because our national colors are red, white and blue.  I find it interesting thought that they feel the need to comment on the fact that he is wearing a blue shirt and a red tie.  It shows the president has respect for his country by sporting its colors and flags.  It would be rude if he was wearing Italian colors or Spanish colors.  At a WVU game we don’t make a big deal out of someone wearing blue and yellow because it is expected of the mountaineer fans to wear it, however; when those colors are missing it can be construed as you not supportive of the Mountaineers.  You wouldn’t wear Marshal colors to a WVU game, if you do people make something out of it, just a people would make something out of it if the President wore another country’s colors.  Then why is it important to point out that the president is wearing our colors if it is expected of him?  When you look at the U.S. flag on the lapel of President Bush we see that as expected.  However, when it was then missing from the lapel of President Obama’s suit when he was running for Presidentcy, it was then scrutinized that he did not support America by refusing to wear the flag pin on his lapel.    

Related Material:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvBpm_3kCAw

Reference:

Abiloc, D."A Seven Power Lenseon 21st Century Literacy." Multi Media     Schools.(2002): 30-35. Print. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B6DFAmexYq7vMTFmZjZhNWItZWY5Ni00NzdhLWIxYzItMmE4NmI0MGI5NzJl&hl=en&pli=1

Doyouhearwhatihear08. (Designer). (2008). Obama refuses to wear the flag pin . [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvBpm_3kCAw

Photo Analysis Photo 2

Photo Analysis

Double Journal 5

"I was watching a 10th grader struggle at his computer to create a multimedia presentation for his language-arts project. He wasn't struggling with the technology-like any infoage kid, he could click around the screen with considerable ease. It was the aesthetics that seemed insurmountable. As I watched him clumsily cramming together scads of video clips, graphics, sounds, buttons, and a few words, it suddenly hit me like a ton of bits: He was trying to create art, and no one had shown him how. In the process of fumbling with the medium, he was losing his sense of what he wanted to communicate in the first place." (J Ohler, 2000)

I liked this paragraph because I have been in that tenth graders seat and struggled while losing what I wanted to begin with.  It is great for teacher to recognize this because it makes the learning process much easier if you can diagnose the problem.  I feel that the map we made in class felt easy and understandable.  The first one was seemed a little confusing, but now that I know how to use it I should be able to make them with ease now. 

Using digital media to tell stories and using the map to help illustrate your ideas is a great way to make things more interesting for the digital age children.  It should help kids like my nephew who struggles learning, but can learn and play a video game with ease.  My hope is that teacher will understand how important it is for young children to have the homework provided to them in a digital way so they can grasp it with less difficulty. 

Related Material:   http://plus.maths.org/content/digital-art

Reference : 

Ohler, J. (2000, October). Art becomes the next r. Educational Leadership Magazine,58(2), 16-19. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vCKbHYY-gzXtLXnLak8i_hoV7TPAOfxNIamNrkWW3Pc/edit

Dartnell, L. (2008, September 1). Digital art.+Plus Magazine , (48), Retrieved from http://plus.maths.org/content/digital-art

Digital Story Map

Related material : 

http://www.technokids.com/computer-curriculum/junior/digital-storytelling-lesson-plans-technomovie.aspx

Copyright

1. According to Copyright in an Electronic Environment, students cannot upload their multimedia project to YouTube because Fair use ends when the multimedia creator loses control of his product's use, such as when it is accessed by others over the Internet.

2. The limitations are Up to 10% of a copyrighted work or 3 minutes, whichever is less. Clip cannot be altered in any way, however; multimedia can be altered to illustrate a specific technique or to support a specific instructional objective.

3. It depends if you are diminishing the creator’s value then yes you need permission. You must ask permission if multimedia projects are used for non-educational or commercial purposes.