Organizing My Online Life

The best part of Friday's class for me was that it was in North Quad. As a freshman at Michigan, I lived in a tiny dusty room under a yellow sign that said in big black letters, "CAUTION: Asbestos." Not super comforting. I'm jealous that current Michigan undergrads get to live in such nice places! I'm excited to explore the building even more when I take a class in the School of Information in the fall!

In class, we gathered in our groups of 4 to explain our assigned online organizational tool. I was assigned Diigo and I really like it! I absolutely hate reading on the computer screen mostly because there are few programs that allow highlighting and annotating on the computer. Diigo solves this problem! It only works for websites, not pdfs, but it definitely makes things easier. It also allows you to access bookmarks from anywhere, which is very helpful. At the end of class we set up a SecMAC Diigo group. This will be a convenient way for us to share important/interesting documents with each other.

I have used Skype for a long time now, so I didn't really learn anything new there. I had never heard of Endnote or Dropbox before last week. I didn't see much of a difference between the two, but I think it is handy to have a place to store files online. Having another place to back up work or store large files is never a bad idea.

All in all, class was enjoyable and I continue to be amazed by how many online tools can be used to make our lives easier. I'm starting to lose track of how many of these things I've signed up for!

Killing Two Pigs With One Bird

As usual, I really enjoyed our 504 class on Friday, July 20^th. A former MAC student joined us to describe his use of video games in the classroom. To teach parametric equations in his math class, he used Angry Birds. He thoroughly explained his lesson, its successes and failures, and how he plans to tweak it for next year. He mentioned that he felt his students were drained after a long trigonometry unit. While there were some failures with his lesson, it geared his students up for the rest of the year. I thought this was an interesting application of video games in the classroom and made the ideas presented in our readings more concrete.

He also described where he got this idea: twitter. I swore to myself (and others) that I would never join twitter. I still haven’t, but his presentation made me really think about it. He introduced us to the tweet deck. This is an application on which you can join groups (his were education and math groups) that can provide some great teaching ideas. He went so far as to say that the tweet deck has saved his life a few times. How can you argue with that? I guess we’ll see.

In the second part of class, we created websites for ourselves that we can use as online portfolios. The website, Weebly, is extremely user friendly and I think everyone’s websites looked great. K mentioned that these portfolios could help us in our job searches and that we could have our students use Weebly to create their own portfolios.

The amount of new technologies we have learned in only three classes is amazing and I look forward to learning more! 

Epic Win

So I’m going to admit something here. I love video games. I don’t consider myself a gamer, but an afternoon of Mario Kart for N64 sounds like a great time. I grew up, however, listening to my mom tell me that these video games were going to “rot my brain.” Several arguments could have been avoided if I would have had access to McGonigal’s talk. I found the Gee paper and McGonigal’s TED talk fascinating in how they actually gave solid evidence for the place of video games in education and even as tools to save the world. 

The games discussed at the end of McGonigal’s talk were very interesting. I have to admit that I was a little skeptical in the beginning. I mean, saying that 21 billion hours of gaming each week is going to solve global warming? This seems a little counterintuitive. When I think of games, I think of the hours I’ve spent helping Link or Mario save the princess. I don’t think these skills will help me solve the world’s problems. When she described “A World Without Oil,” I started to see where she was coming from. This game, she said, actually got people to think differently about spending and oil usage to the point that they actually changed how they acted outside of the “virtual world.” This is a powerful tool that can be used to get people to think about problems and be able to virtually solve them. Perhaps they will then feel that they can solve similar problems in their real lives.

What fascinated me most about the Gee paper is all of the connections I saw between the positive outcomes of gaming and some of the teaching goals we have discussed in all of our classes. For example, Gee makes the point that games are able to provide feedback and new problems to the gamer. We have discussed the usefulness of effective and timely feedback in our classes. In a video game, that feedback is instant, which allows for faster self-evaluation. If your character “dies” trying to defeat the “boss,” you know you did something wrong and you can go back and try something new. He also talks about how games effectively facilitate practice and give appropriate challenges. Games allow the gamer to practice certain skills for a period of time before offering new problems with new required skills. Therefore, the gamer spends a lot of time practicing a particular skill set. Once the player has mastered these skills, the game poses a new challenge. We have discussed in several of our classes the importance of practice and providing work at the appropriate difficulty level. Gamers are willing to devote HOURS to practice. If the gamer is playing a game like those discussed by McGonigal, these hours of practice could actually lead to positive change.  

The only part of the talk and the paper I took issue with was that they talked about how, in games, there are no real consequences for our actions. If we fail a level, we just go back to the beginning and everything is reset to the original conditions. This is the one aspect of gaming that, to me, is nothing like real life. I am all for encouraging risk taking, but if gamers are to take such risks in real life, I believe it is necessary to have an accurate picture of possible consequences. If you “fail” and something in real life, things don’t just reset to how they were before. Certain actions cannot be undone.

All in all, I really enjoyed this weeks reading. I’ve learned even more technological applications I can use in the future. McGonigal described gamers as an “untapped human resource.” I agree that we should move away from dismissing gaming and actually try to use gaming to solve the problems that, as McGonigal said, will help us survive the next century. I also hope that by the end of this program, we all feel as though we have achieved an “epic win.” 

Reflections on July 13

I learned quite a bit from Education 504 this week. In the morning, we were put into groups according to our majors and each group was paired with a school librarian. The librarian paired with my group, Rachel, was extremely knowledgeable and helpful. She introduced us to free online databases of which I had never heard, but will definitely use in the future. The Opposing Viewpoints page on the Michigan eLibrary will definitely come in handy down the road (http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/?userGroupName=lom_accessmich).

We then, as a group, formulated a lesson plan regarding the pop ban. Due to the fact that I have a psychology minor, I was placed in a group with social studies interns. My previous blog was a lesson plan for a biology class (my major), so I was excited to work with new people to gain a new perspective on the issue. While my knowledge of government and policy wasn’t up to the level of the rest of my peers, I feel I was able to contribute to the discussion and combine my ideas for a psychology lesson with their ideas for a government lesson. We did, however, have some trouble coming to a group consensus on an overall goal for the lesson. We concluded the morning session agreeing to disagree. The MAC interns are a passionate group and none of us were willing to compromise our teaching goals. It is never a bad thing to interact with people who challenge you, but it is equally important to make sure that you are heard. All in all, it was a good experience and our basic lesson plan can be followed to fit each member’s individual teaching goals.

The afternoon lesson was very exciting for me. I always listen to podcasts, so learning how to make one was, as Kristin often said, “wicked awesome.” I love the possibilities that podcasts and the use of Google Voice offer for the classroom. Having students call in and record their homework is brilliant! The only issue I could see arising with this is time. If each of your 100 students records a 5 minute podcast, that is 500 minutes of listening. You also have to factor in the time it would take to provide feedback. This is an application that would have to be used for an assignment in which the student can explain what they have learned very quickly.

Overall, I enjoyed our class time on Friday. I enjoyed listening to everybody’s podcasts even more!  

How Would I Base a Lesson on the New York Sugary Drinks Ban?

In an attempt to curtail the obesity epidemic, Mayor Bloomberg of New York City proposed a ban on sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces in public places such as restaurants, street carts, sporting venues, and theaters. This ban would not extend to diet drinks. Our discussion of the ban in class sparked very heated conversation. There seemed to be a fairly general consensus in our class (at least with the people I talked to) that this ban will be completely ineffective. While I see that what the ban is trying to achieve is positive and important, I agree with this consensus. Several fellow MAC interns related this ban to prohibition, which was obviously a failure. People don’t like being told how to live their lives. Also, people would still be able to purchase these drinks. Large sizes would still be available in grocery stores and they could always buy more than one small drink. I would like to talk to someone who supports this ban in order to better understand his or her line of thinking. For this blog post, we have been asked to incorporate this ban into a high school lesson.  

I plan to teach biology. A discussion of the politics involved in this ban will not be particularly useful in biology class. I would, however, introduce the topic and allow students to briefly discuss their opinions. I believe, however, that a better approach to the obesity problem is nutritional education. In my opinion, the government shouldn’t just start banning all unhealthy food, but they should work on better educating the public about nutrition. I would then launch into a discussion about the effects of excessive sugar on our bodies, namely obesity. I would then link obesity to heart disease and diabetes. I would also discuss the issue of hydration. Many kids believe that they are being adequately hydrated by energy drinks and other heavily caffeinated beverages. This is a myth that needs to be dispelled. Caffeine is a diuretic, which is ultimately dehydrating. Sugar also has dehydrating effects. I would, therefore, discuss the wonderfully healthy effects of drinking water and how all of our important bodily functions that rely heavily on plain old H₂O.

One of the biggest surprises to me is the exclusion of diet drinks in the ban. There is so much discussion in popular media right now about the unhealthy and dangerous effects of artificial sweeteners. This information has gone so far as to say that regular pop is actually better for you than diet pop. I would provide the students with information that supports both sides of this argument. This is an important discussion to have with students who may think that they are making a healthy decision when opting for Diet Coke instead of a regular Coke.

Another exercise would be to compare different beverages. What are the sugar differences between pop and fruit juices? What do we have to watch out for when juice labels incorrectly say “all-natural” or “made with real fruit”? Teaching students how to be investigators when it comes to finding the healthiest food is very important. This involves teaching students how to read the nutrition facts and ingredients of the food they choose. I want my students to be knowledgeable and aware of what they are putting in their bodies.

                                           http://blog.fooducate.com/tag/sugary-soft-drinks/ 

                                          What a great lab experiment! 

At the end of the class, I would again ask the students of their opinions on the ban to see if it has changed. Is it necessary to actually prohibit people from consuming these beverages or will simple education of their dangers be sufficient? 

First Day of Education 504

            When I walked into the Whitney Auditorium on Friday morning for our first day of class I was a little apprehensive. Technology scares me. While I consider myself fairly adept at the basics of technology (I put together a mean PowerPoint presentation), I never seem to have much luck when things get more complicated. Maybe I’ve just had my computer break down on me one too many times in the middle of an important assignment. My fears were eased slightly when the first thing the professors did was hand out note cards. They made the point that technology isn’t necessary useful all the time and this made me feel better about what is to come this summer and in my future classrooms. Also, when going over the different technological applications we would be exploring this summer, I was relieved to hear words that I know. Skype, blogging, and smart phone, among others, are ideas I understand. Thankfully, by the end of class I felt excited to learn new applications that I will be able to use to enhance my lessons in future classrooms.

            We then shifted to a discussion of the Sheskey article, “Creating Learning Connections with Today’s Tech-Savvy Student.” The article begins with the story of a middle school teacher who used a digital camera to photograph his students engaging in a classroom activity and presenting these photos to the students at the end of class. The students then were able to critique their own work against the work of their classmates. This led even the most reserved students to get involved and request to re-do their projects.

This story led to a discussion of accountability. We seemed to come to a class consensus that if students know that people other than just the teacher will see their work, they will be motivated to do a better job. A fellow MAC intern made the point that this could shift the focus away from a teacher-centered classroom. Using technology allows the students to communicate with each other and use new resources to find information rather than having the teacher stand in front of them simply reciting information. I also found Sheskey’s idea of the “digital native” and “digital immigrant” interesting. I babysat for a 3-year-old who was able to find YouTube videos on my iPhone. His 15-month-old sister was able to flip through my phone’s pictures. Technology is becoming the native language for new generations and being able to incorporate this into the classroom will hopefully help engage students and make them more willing to participate. 

  

I am, however, unsure that such a focus on technology is entirely helpful. Another MAC intern said that she believed some kids would be horrified at the thought having their work seen by people other than just their teacher. Early on in my school career, I was this student. I went to a highly competitive prep school and would have been absolutely terrified to have my very intelligent peers judge my work. While I have moved past this in many ways, even the idea of posting this blog for the world to see makes me a little anxious. I believe that forcing this on certain students would overwhelm them and cause them to shut down. This fear may be further enhanced by the horrible, drastic increase in cyber bullying. A student experiencing cyber bullying may not want to share anything that will add fuel to the fire. We need to continue questioning how to best tailor our use of technology and public forums to ensure that all students are benefiting from every classroom exercise.

            I am looking forward to learning more about technology and how to use it in the classroom, while maintaining a safe and engaging learning environment.