5

I did not find this chapter to be as useful to me as the previous chapters. The use of Mindtools in the classroom seems to be directed more towards middle and high school students than elementary school students.

Right now, the only Mindtool that I plan to use in my classroom are concept maps, as discussed in the previous journal entry. I like the idea of creating a class concept map throughout the entire school year. It allows students to continuously review and evaluate their learning, and it allows them to see the connections among various content areas.

Spreadsheets can be used with upper elementary students. There are several benefits of using spreadsheets. For instance, collecting data and creating visual representations of the data helps students recognize the relationships and patterns created by the information.

Spex Classic, a "simple children's educational software," [http://www.aspexsoftware.com/spex_charts.htm] is a great resource to use to introduce students to spreadsheets. Students are given a budget to design a room and are able to see the effects of choosing different furniture and prices in the graphs and spreadsheet. The spreadsheet shows the type of furniture chosen for the room design, the price of each piece of furniture, and the total cost. If furniture are added or removed from the room design or if a price is changed, this is displayed in the spreadsheet, as well. The program allows students to experience spreadsheets in a practical way where they can see how spreadsheets are applicable to real life. Note: The program uses English pounds; however, the conversion of English pounds to its U.S. equivalent can be included in a math lesson.

Idea to modify the project for my classroom: The teacher and students can bring in advertisements from various stores (furniture galleries, Macy's, Target, Wal-Mart, etc), and they can furnish their own bedrooms using a budget. Students can be given a list of items that they must include in their rooms, such as a bed and dresser, and students will be able to choose what fun items they want to include in their rooms, such as a computer or board games. Students will be expected to compare prices of the same type of item at different stores to find the best deal. Microsoft Excel can be used to display this information, just as the information is displayed using the spreadsheet and graphs in Spex Classic.

The purpose of Mindtools is to promote students' critical thinking and problem solving skills; however, I am not comfortable incorporating them in my classroom, with the exceptions being concept maps and spreadsheets. I had the most difficulty following the "Modeling Systems with Systems Dynamics Tools" and "Modeling Thinking with Expert Systems" sections. This information is new to me, and the examples offered in the textbook did not help me to better understand the information. For example, I did not know where to begin when looking at the systems model of the sun on page 87. There is too much information, and I felt overwhelmed just looking at it. Once reviewed in class, I hope I will have a better understanding of these Mindtools.

Notes

- Mindtools

- Engage different types of thinking

- Build models of different phenomena (model domain knowledge--the content that students learn in schools--helps students better comprehend & remember what they are learning)

- Build models of problems

- Modeling Knowledge w/ Concept Maps

- Concept maps- ideas connected by links (statements of relationships)

- Identifying important concepts, arranging those concepts spatially, identifying relationships among those concepts, labeling the nature of the relationships among those concepts

- Students learn more from constructing their own maps than by studying teacher-produced maps

- Modeling Problems w/ Spreadsheets

- Spreadsheets have 3 primary functions: (1) storing, (2) calculating, (3) presenting information

- Used to model phenomena in 4 ways: computational reasoning tools for analyzing data, mathematics comprehension, visualization, simulation modeling tools

- Modeling Thinking w/ Expert Systems

- Expert systems = computer programs designed to simulate expert reasoning to facilitate decision making for various problems

- When students try to learn something well enough to be an expert, they engage in deeper-level thinking

- Students can use expert systems to reflect on and model their own thinking processes (cognitive simulations)

- Why Build Models w/ Mindtools?

- Model building is a natural cognitive phenomenon--When encountering unknown phenomena, humans construct personal theories about those phenomena that are represented as models

- Modeling is constructivist--constructing personal representations of experienced phenomena

- Modeling supports cognitive skills--hypothesis testing, conjecturing, inferring

- When students construct models, they own the knowledge

- Modeling supports the development of epistemic beliefs (what motivates our efforts to make sense of the world)

Overview

- Use of computers as Mindtools for building models of meaning

- How Mindtools (Concept maps, Systems modeling tools, Spreadsheets, Expert systems, Databases) can be used to build a model (domain knowledge, systems, problems, thinking processes, experiences)

4

Notes

- Teaching students to write well is critical

- Many students struggle with learning to write well & learning to enjoy writing (tech tools can support individual & collaborative writing)

- Tech tools to help organize ideas before writing (& planning)
- Benefit of using concept mapping as a precursor to writing > process requires students to actively evaluate & organize their ideas as they are generating them (66)
- Semantic networking tools = computer-based concept mapping tools (effective intentional planning & analysis tools for the writing process)

- Supporting Presentation Writing
- Develop & deliver an effective presentation (PowerPoint)
- PowerPoint offers features that can distract learners from creating an effective presentation--visual design features (animation, slide transitions, etc)
- What teachers can do:

- Presentation requirements

- Students evaluate existing PowerPoint presentations
- Supporting Creative Writing w/ Technology
- Publish the writing = motivates students
- Publish on the Internet for public access--inspires students to take their work more seriously & to engage in a level of reflection about their work that is otherwise rare (71)--to write with a purpose, to think critically about what they write, to read what others have produced, & to compare their own work to the work of others

- Supporting Collaborative Writing w/ Technology

- Collaborative writing = activities where written works are created by multiple people together

- Benefits: positive relationships between students, increased participation by students, opportunities for peer and self-assessment, more sources of input and ideas, varied points of view

- Guidelines to help students successfully engage in collaborative writing:

1. Structure activities at the beginning

2. Help the collaborators work out effective meeting or working procedures

3. Establish up front the expectations for participation in the project

4. Pay attention to students who are often left out

5. Familiarize students with the collaborative writing software

- Supporting Peer Feedback on Writing

- Writing instruction may be difficult for teachers because of the time demands of providing feedback that helps students effectively revise their work and improve their writing

- Solution: student-to-student feedback

Students should be given a list of criteria to look for when doing peer reviews.

This chapter proved to be an interesting read. Prior to the reading, I had planned how I will approach writing in my classroom, but the reading encouraged me to consider how I can incorporate technology into writing, as well. Last semester I was enrolled in LAE 4314, a class concentrated on teaching writing in elementary classrooms. One piece of information from the class that I noted is that it is a great idea for each student to read aloud a piece of his writing to the class and then have his classmates write positive comments on index cards. Incorporating technology into this idea, students can record their voices reading aloud their stories or poems and post it online. This can be accomplished using VoiceThread, for example. With VoiceThread, students can also upload images to accompany the audio recording of their story. There are several options to post comments, as well, including using voice, text, or video. Another bit of information from LAE 4314 that I noted is the idea of author visits, in which students from upper grades share their work with students from lower grades and vice versa. A webcam can be used to connect students in one class with students in another class or even another school. Webcams can also be used to communicate with the author of a book the class is reading or an author students admire. I think it would be great for my students to create and manage their own classroom magazine or newspaper on the computer. The content can include what they have been studying, interviews with classmates, a faculty member spotlight, students' fiction and nonfiction work, and their artwork, among other items. Students will be exposed to various writing styles through these activities. For example, the format of a creative writing story is much different than a straight-forward news story.

Throughout my schooling, I have been taught to always write an outline before jumping directly into the essay. Concept maps are a great way for students to organize their ideas. This tool also helps students stay focused on the task at hand because it clearly lays out the different points and topics that students will address to support their thesis.

Personally, I do not enjoy collaborative activities or group projects; however, I do plan to use it in my classroom, as the benefits outweigh the negative aspects. I agree that it is important to give structure to group projects; students must understand what is required of them. Furthermore, each member will be assigned a specific task or, depending on the students' ages, each member will choose a task. I also plan to group students myself. These guidelines ensure that all students participate in the activity and that no one is isolated.

Based on the description of Poetry Forge in the textbook, my initial reaction was that this is a horrible website because it does not allow students to create their own poems, rather it generates poems for the students. Users enter their own adjectives, nouns, and prepositional phrases, and the tool combines them into "poetic" phrases. The site, according to the textbook, is designed to help learners engage in poetry writing and practicing the application of literary structures that are essential and commonly used in poetry writing. I explored the website and created several poems by typing in random adjectives, nouns, and prepositional phrases about Spring. The different poems that were generated as a result of my contributions were unsatisfactory. I feel that this site would stifle children's creativity. The child is not creating for himself. Yes, it can be used to introduce children to writing poetry for the first time, but I prefer students to read and study different poems and be inspired by these to create their own, rather than just type in random words and phrases, and have special software combine them for the user.

Twitter can be used to help students develop their writing skills. For example, because the user is limited to 140 characters, this helps students practicing editing and revising. This helps students extend their vocabulary, as students really need to consider their word choice. Furthermore, students can tweet about what they learned in class that day. This helps students with their summarization skills and thinking about the main idea.

Note to self: collaborative writing idea > in google docs have each student write a sentence to create a classroom story (one student starts the story and then the next student adds a sentence and so on > class can read story together and peer review)

3

Notes

- Benefits of causal reasoning

- Enables students to...

- Make predictions, inferences, & explanations

- Draw implications

- Argue for (provide justifications) actions they have taken

- "The computer should be an object to think with" (45)

The reading discusses the use of technology to promote higher levels of thinking, such as causal thinking. I agree that it is important for students to learn how to reason causally. It is imperative that students understand the relationship between various concepts, rather than solely memorize facts.

Currently, I do not feel comfortable using microworlds in my classroom. I participated in the "Air Resistance and Falling Objects" simulation and the "Air Powered Projectile" simulation from the Interactive Physics microworld. Although this may be beneficial to use if I, as a teacher, do not have the funds to provide such materials, I would prefer to do these experiments with real objects, not with a computer. I feel reluctant to use technology to replace activities that I can easily create in my classroom. I think that students will better understand the material if they experience it in real life.

I also visited the Funderstanding Roller Coaster Simulation page. I think it is great to use to explore the relationship between speed, mass, gravity, and friction. However, it should follow a lesson that more comprehensively explains these concepts. The simulation alone is not sufficient to promote students' meaningful learning; it should be used as a reinforcer. This encouraged me to think of how I would teach a Physics lesson using roller coasters. I like the idea of students designing their own roller coasters, with pipe insulation and a marble, for example. The roller coaster simulation can be used for additional practice.

The adventure game Lemmings is a great tool to use to help children practice the skills of planning and strategizing. I was first introduced to the game in elementary school, and, since, I have enjoyed it. The goal of Lemmings is for the player to safely get a certain percentage of lemmings from an entrance to an exit. For the player to achieve this, he must devise a plan for the lemmings to overcome obstacles and dangers posed in the level, usually by assigning individual lemmings specific tasks, such as building stairs or digging. At the start of each level, the player can pause the game to survey the problem scene and create a plan to overcome the obstacles. Then, the player can test his ideas, with the results being immediately noticeable. As the levels become more difficult, the player uses previous strategies and knowledge to solve the problem. The game has many benefits. It allows children to practice problem solving skills and reasoning skills. Furthermore, it allows children to hypothesize and make predictions about what will happen next as a result of a certain move. Note to self: The board game Stratego is great for strategic thinking.

In general, I think that I would use microworlds, simulations, games, virtual worlds, etc. either as options for free time activities for students or to briefly support a lesson plan. I do not feel comfortable sitting children in front of a computer for long periods of time. They most likely use the computer a lot at home and will use it a lot as they progress through school, so I want my classroom to offer a break from it. On my classroom webpage, I would link to such sites and offer ideas on how students can use the sites or offer directions, but I would not depend on them for a lesson in my classroom.

2

• Technology can provide the means for active, authentic learning through investigation in the classroom and in the field
• Flexibility is required for effective thinkers-- Emerging and rapidly changing technologies demand individuals who are prepared to experiment, adopt, or discard technology tools as they appear, evolve, become successfully entrenched, or fall by the wayside (14)
• How to use the Internet as a source of information for meaningful learning
• The teacher must model the process of asking questions, such as who, what, when, and where, to identify search terms that are associated with the problem
• As students navigate the Internet, they must think about the information they encounter and how it relates to their existing knowledge
• How to use the Internet as a source for information: (1) Equip students with the skills to search effectively; (2) Know whether a web site is reputable and contains accurate information
• Teaching effective research skills will decrease the likelihood that students will access inappropriate sites
• Online simulations
  

Prior to reading the chapter, I did not realize that children actually need to be taught how to distinguish between "good" and "bad" web sites. I had never considered that it is the teacher's responsibility to help students gain the skills needed to effectively evaluate a web site and determine if the information is valid. This encouraged me to create a plan of how I would teach this to my students. To begin with, I like the idea of incorporating WebQuests in my classroom (25). I would create a WebQuest on how to evaluate a web site. In addition to criteria for web site evaluation, I would also include a list of several sites for students to evaluate. For example, I would ask students to visit the two web sites posted on the WebQuest of the same topic, with one being valid and the other "bad." Using the aforementioned criteria, I would have students determine which is the credible source. UPDATE: I modified an existing WebQuest on how to evaluate a website to better fit my view of how I plan to approach the subject in my classroom: http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AdGcUjfT_XtWZGZrNnRjcGdfMmcyYzN4Y2d0&hl=en.

While searching the Internet for ways to teach children how to evaluate a website, I came across this page: http://www.radcab.com/. The design of the page immediately caught my attention, and I found it to be appealing to the eyes with its bright colors and cartoon-like images. In fact, I plan to create a poster using the information and graphics to hang in my classroom in the computer area. I like that the site offers a mnemonic acronym for web site information evaluation accompanied by a brief description that children can understand.

RADCAB - Your Vehicle for Information Evaluation

Relevancy- Am I on the right track? Is the information related to my purpose?

Appropriateness- Is the information appropriate for my age?

Detail- How much information do I need?

Currency- Is the information up-to-date? When was it published or updated?

Authority- Who is the author? What are his qualifications?

Bias- Why was this information written? Was it written to inform me, persuade me, entertain me, or sell me something?

The chapter also encouraged me to consider taking virtual field trips in the classroom. I was introduced to the EarthCam web site (http://www.earthcam.com/) in EME 2040. This would be great to incorporate in the classroom, especially when studying Geography.

I am concerned that, as a teacher, I am expected to keep up with the latest technologies; however, I cannot even keep up with the technologies that are widely used today. I am not familiar with how to use an iPod or GPS system, for example. In fact, I do not enjoy using my cell phone often. Furthermore, there is the issue of how I would obtain these mobile technologies to familiarize myself with them.

1

• For meaningful learning to occur, the task should engage active, constructive, intentional, authentic, and cooperative activities.
• Technologies are learning tools that students learn with, not from.
• When students use technologies to investigate, explore, write, build models, build communities, communicate with others, design, and visualize, then they are engaged in deeper levels of thinking and reasoning, including causal, analogical, expressive, experiential, and problem solving.

Although I support incorporating technologies into the classroom, I am hesitant, and somewhat reluctant, to include technologies to a great extent. Previously, I believed that using technology in the classroom was limited to teaching a lesson using PowerPoint or searching the Internet for more information on a topic. I did not view it as a "tool to think with" (10). The chapter encouraged me to broaden my view of technology as a classroom tool. For example, a webcam can be used to connect one classroom with another in a different state or on the other side of the globe. In addition, a class is even able to take virtual field trips of a museum or aquarium online.

Growing Up Online

I do not think that children, especially in elementary and middle school, should rely or develop a dependance on the Internet. The video brought to my attention more of the negative aspects of the Internet rather than how it can benefit children. Students have difficulty focusing in the classroom due to the immediate response of technology. Students have substituted engaging in rich literature for class with a brief summary courtesy of SparkNotes. I feel that the Internet encourages laziness, eventually proving harmful to children. In elementary school, students should be familiar with the uses of various types of technology; however, I do not think that the Internet should be heavily incorporated until students reach high school.