Live from ASSET!

Here I am, at my very first technology conference. So far it is similar to the library and research conferences I have attended, with the name tags, free bags and breakfast. However, I find the vendors and all the cool technology much more fun to look at! As I wandered around the exhibits before the keynote address, I fell in love with a SmartBoard type of technology called Mimio Interactive, which turns ANY whiteboard surface (including a piece of white foam core board!) into an interactive surface! The ramifications of this little piece of technology astounded me, as I pictured teachers being able to share the Mimio, making it much more cost effective than large SmartBoards. Every class has a board, so just clip the Mimio on and you're set to go. I will definitely remember this piece of technology when I get a job in my own library next year, because if there is no SmartBoard already, I'll budget for the more cost-effective Mimio!

Rushton Hurley was the keynote speaker. He was great, very funny, informative and inspiring. His message was a good one, that technology will enable us to learn along side of our students, creating a fun learning environment which will increase focus and confidence of our students. He demonstrated a few fun and free technology tools and connected these to the curriculum and also to testing and assessment. His use of the interactive "clickers" was a lot of fun too! Now off to my first session on technology projects in the classroom! I'm having so much fun already!

"Which Technologies Will Shape Education in 2008?" Article Response

My first reaction to reading this article was that I am so happy that I'm in this program now and I can recognize some of these technologies! I like the way this article broke down the technologies into time frames of when we will feel their impact, whether in the near term, mid-term or a bit further down the road. I was excited to see that grassroots video will have a significant impact in the next year or so. I'm amazed by the easy to use and relatively inexpensive video equipment that is now available for student use and the simple and free internet based services supporting the sharing of these videos. If a new computer geek like me can figure out how to make a video and upload it to You Tube or Google Video, then anyone can do it! The mash-ups and mobile broadband in the mid-term range I'm not as familiar with, but the idea of virtual field trips really interests me. Finally, I was a bit surprised to see the "collective intelligence" and "social operating systems" in the further down the road category, since I've seen their use quite a lot recently. The implications for education and learning when using technologies such as wikis or social networking are enormous. I've just begun to use these tools and I look forward to incorporating them into many future lessons!

Survey Monkey Workshop

I've been playing around with Survey Monkey in order to get ready for the workshop this afternoon. The link for my first survey is listed below. Can you guess what it's about? Reading of course! Click the link and take my survey when you get a chance. Thanks! Click Here to take survey

Metacognition Module Response

For this assignment, I chose to present my answers to the module questions in a PhotoStory format. Now, if you know me, my strength is my writing, so I definitely decided to work outside my comfort zone and try something new. Since I am student teaching at the moment and working with two 9th grade English classes who are working on my world hunger webquest, I thought I'd create my own PhotoStory, since that's the format the students are using too. I figured I could use the practice so I could help the kids. Well, the actual process of creating the PhotoStory went well, and the project came together easily, I'm happy to say! However, I did not account for the fact that I did not know what to do with the PhotoStory once it was complete! I realized soon on that the file was too large to email to Michele. Then I decided to embed it in the wiki, but how to do that? Well, don't use YouTube, I can save you a lot of time here. I tried uploading my PhotoStory to YouTube and after several tries I realized that wasn't going to work, even though they kept giving me a code to embed, it never worked. At 1 a.m., I gave up and did the only smart thing I could think of the next morning, I emailed Karen! Thanks for your suggestion Karen, which was to upload the PhotoStory to Google Video. This worked perfectly, and I was able to embed the code in the wiki. So, all I can say is, I learned a lot about "Metacognition" in the module, but my learning did not stop there, I've learned alot about PhotoStory, YouTube and Google video too! Here's a copy of my metacognition video, in case you want to check out my first PhotoStory!

Another New Start

Wow, did that school vacation go fast or what? I can't believe that I'm already knee deep in the spring semester, my last one for my library degree (hooray!) and my second semester of T.E.A.M. I'm once again learning things at lightning speed. For example, I took the SmartBoard workshop and now I'm creating lessons for it and doing a lot of my student teaching with it at the high school. The students love when I pull out the SmartBoard, it's not a technology they're that familiar with and I notice I collect a lot of onlookers when I'm teaching with it, as other teachers wander into the library to watch! I just finished a workshop on WordPress and am already creating a new blog with this great, free, online tool, so look out Blogger, as soon as I get my WordPress blog up and running, I'm switching! Now, I'm waiting for my next workshop about creating banners in PhotoShop, which I desperately need some guidance and direction in, so I'm looking forward to this class. I have to design a banner for my Dreamweaver site, which is no easy task, not so much in the technical aspects, but because there are so many choices and to narrow it down and come up with an idea that really pops off the page is going to be difficult to say the least. At least I'm following this whole CSS layout which we are now using for our sites and I'm finding CSS much more easier to use than what I had been doing. So stay tuned for some of the new exciting technology I will be learning and using this semester and possibly a new blog!

Cognitivism Module

After studying all the information on cognitivism, I now have a better understanding of how to help students encode information meaningfully to long-term memory so that it can be easily retrieved, namely by focusing on two main elements: providing organized instruction and activating prior knowledge. Memory plays a prominent role in the cognitive theory, and learning results when information is stored in long term memory in an organized and meaningful way. One way to help students to do this is through graphic techniques such as semantic maps, concept maps, networking, advanced organizers, etc, all of which can be done using technology or the old-fashioned way, on the board or individual worksheets. By emphasizing the structuring, organizing and sequencing of information, teachers are facilitating optimal processing. Students benefit from using such techniques as outlining, summarizing, mneumonics, chunking, analogies and links to prior knowledge. A favorite in library instruction is the K-W-L chart, where the students list what they know on a topic, then what they want to know, and finally, after the research is complete, what they have learned. In this way, students are assisted in organizing and structuring the information they already know with the new information they are learning.
Acrostics, mneumonics and visual clues also help students to connect new information to memories already in the long term memory. I remember to this day the colors of the rainbow through "Roy G. Biv" and the "preposition song" and the "helping verb song" I sang in 7th grade English class. By setting all the prepositions and helping verbs to popular song tunes, and repeatedly singing the songs, this knowledge was transferred to my long term memory, as evidenced by the fact that I still remember these songs (but don't ask me what I had for breakfast 3 days ago, you get the idea)! I'm looking forward to singing the bibliography song with my library students someday, another song which combines students knowledge with a popular tune. I also recently observed a library lesson which made clever use of mental imagery. The lesson was on the "Dewey Body" and helped students to remember the different Dewey Decimal classification categories by connecting them each to a different part of the body. I never saw students learn this information so fast and in such an enjoyable manner! Coincidentally, I was studying those same classification categories in my cataloging class, so I passed the "Dewey Body" lesson on to my classmates, since you're never to old to have fun with learning!
Two other ways teachers can help students to encode information meaningfully to long-term memory is by using cognitive apprenticeship or anchored instruction. During cognitive apprenticeship (an example of cooperative learning), students can collaborate in groups to construct meaning and call on their teachers as facilitators to the process. Anchored instruction engages students with authentic tasks designed to develop useful knowledge and problem solving skills, while at the same time motivating students by connecting to their prior knowledge, and thereby facilitating transfer into long term memory.
Finally, while attending my first TEAM workshop last week on Podcasting, I was reminded of the cognitivism module. One of the reasons I listed for using podcasts in education was that they allow for infinite review and reinforcement of skills. By recording podcasts we are using the technology that our students are most familiar with, such as IPODs, and we can help them break down important information into smaller digestible chunks, which they can review at their own convenience, as many times as they feel necessary. I feel that podcasts are a great technology tool which ties into the cognitive theory which emphasizes that the learner is responsible for learning to occur as they rehearse, code and structure their knowledge.

@ Your Library Podcast created in my first workshop! I worked with a partner, a fellow librarian, and we had to discuss ways podcasting can be used in libraries.


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