I was pondering over this idea of educational technology today and I started to think about distance learning. In one of my interviews I was asked if I would like to become a distance learning teacher, or whatever they call it. At the time I was thinking, how can I say NO nicely? Now, I think that it would be a pretty neat experience, or definitely a huge learning experience. The only thing that I really have against distance learning or online learning schools is that you never have that personal connection or interaction with the students. You would never know just who that student was, what they looked like, what they enjoyed doing, what are the best teaching strategies you could use to motivate them to learn, etc. I think these are all important things to know when you are a teacher and I do not think these connections would be made over the Internet, especially when students are in middle years or high school.
I think that many distant learning programs are set up for correspondence classes that you may take in University, but I can imagine that there is an increase in using distance learning in the elementary or high schools systems as well. Some possible benefits of distance learning might be:
§ Accelerated learning programs – students who are gifted, probably at the high school level, could use this technology to take some university classes that are offered online to begin working towards a degree in their desired program area.
§ For students who are sick – if students need to stay at home or are in the hospital but can still do some school work it would be beneficial to set up a learning program for them online. This program would have to be more than email between teacher and student/parents.
§ Any student who has to work at home for any reason.
I would think that some parents would choose online learning schools for their children if they wanted to home school them. If you want to learn more about one online learning school that offers a variety of courses for grade 4 – 12 students, as well as adults you can check out St. Paul’s Academy: http://www.redeemer.ab.ca/spa/html/index.htm. This school is part of Christ the Redeemer Catholic Schools. Does anyone know if there is such a thing like this in Saskatchewan?
~Linsey~
Greetings Group Three!! Well, the focus of tonight’s class was Publisher… and Gloria gave us the 411 on how to create eyecatching documents on the computer! Before tonight, I had heard about a few of these programs… but I had never considered using them as a template for my teaching. The one thing that I have to say is… it takes me FOREVER to complete a document on Publisher. There are still so many hidden techniques and shortcuts that I am unfamiliar with… that I was getting frusterated. A part of me wants forget about Publisher and break out the old markers and bristal board…but I won’t. I think that once a person becomes a little more confident with the programs, they are then able to navigate through them successfully and then create a detailed and professional looking document. However, until then… my brochure looks extremely sad!
Talk to you later,
Laura
I started browsing through others blogs to get my mind going again, and found
that
people are looking at our blog as well. Lindsy’s blog on Oprah was circulating
on other
blogs. I see why that is a subject that can get a response from almost anyone,
especially anyone with kids or like all of us going into the teaching field.
I also came across a posting by Ryan that had me thinking about something that I
never
really thought of specifically, “Computer Trash”. This is a ever growing
problem espcially
when new models and electronics and being pumped out every day. Where does all
the
outdated technology go. There is reports that it is being dumped into some 3rd
world
countries and causing toxin levels to be over 300 times the that is allowed by
the Health
Organization Standards! 300 TIMES! Wow that reallt caught my attention. The
report
also mentioned the high level of cancer that is developing among the people that
live in
these areas. That is just crazy. I know there are a few programs out there
that take in
computer and refurbish them and send them to schools in need, but that is doing
so little
in the long run. Japan has created a law that requires 3/4 of equipment
components to
be recyclable or reusable. Now there is a leader and a good start. Now just to
get
others to follow and set up programs and recycling depots that can use the
computers or
parts until they no longer function, then have them disposed or recycled further
to
reduce the harful effect that is going to creep up on society and become and
epidemic.
To view this story in further detail visit:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/news/national/2002/10/21/Consumers/hitechtrash.html
Janick
I would also like to comment on the usefulness and practicality of using Hotlists in the classroom. In my classroom, I know that there will be some sort of research project assigned to my students at some point. I also know that it is important that I take the time to provide my students with a lesson on using search engines and search strings so that they can find information that will be useful to use in their writing. However, sometimes I feel that you can spend at least two hours allowing students to find the information they need. Many students have trouble understanding if the information they are finding will actually be useful to them in their writing – and as I’ve learned – after all their searching efforts they may not even be finding information on the right topic! Students can be given Hotlists to help them complete research, learn about a new mathematical concept, explore different cultures/places, etc. I think that this list could go on forever.
Hotlists are for those times when you want students to learn exactly what you need them to learn! All students can be provided with the websites that will be helpful and encourage learning to take place. As the teacher, you will provide students with the websites that have information you want them to know; at the same time, students can explore all of the websites and still feel they are in control of their learning. I think that it decreases searching time and increases learning time, which is very beneficial for education.
I had created a hotlist before, but as I now know after one year it gets deleted – so I guess that hotlist is gone. It is a good idea to print of your hotlist so that, if for some reason you have left it sit for one year, you can just quickly re-enter the information. Although, hotlists are a quick and easy way to direct learning, I think that students still need to be able to be encouraged to search for information themselves. They need to develop reading for information skills and feel comfortable with navigating different websites.
You can visit my hotlist at: http://www.kn.sbc.com/wired/fil/pages/listmathke1.html. This hotlist provides students with information about angles, triangle angles, and quadrilateral angles. I have also included some fun interactive games, or virtual manipulatives, that students can try once they have learned about angles, triangles, and quadrilaterals. It would take longer than one class for students to go through all of these websites, but it could also just be used to introduce the topics and get students interested and motivated to learn about them.
One thing to keep in mind about using Filamentality is that when you add URL’s there is no way to put them in order after you have added them. For my Hotlist I wanted to make sure the information was first on the list and the games were second. There was no way to do this using the categories of angles, triangles, and quadrilaterals. I had to make a separate category for activities. So just remember to add the URL’s as you want the order of them to appear on your Hotlist page.
~Linsey~
Yet another useful little tool for integrating technology into the classroom. Filamentality is a great resource for creating a hotlist on any topic to satisfy both Foundational and Learning Objectives in the curriculum. I found the tech task tonight to be very useful; as well, Filamentality’s website is very simple to operate.
I decided to create a Hotlist for Australia. I traveled to Australia and backpacked the east coast this past summer and enjoy bringing my life experiences into the classroom: stories, objects, pictures, etc. I placed ten websites into my Hotlist and filed them under the following categories: Factual Australia, Australian Animals, Australian Sports, and Australian Places. This Hotlist will be helpful to both teachers and students when studying such units in the Social Sciences like Gr.8 Cultures and Gr. 6 Personal Identity.
Creating a Hotlist with Filamentality has numerous advantages, such as organizing data and making information easily accessible to students. However, I feel its best benefit is to ensure students are not accessing inappropriate material on the internet. Considering the students will be provided with a Hotlist, there is no need for them to experiment with other search engines. I definitely foresee myself using Filamentality in my future classroom and throughout various subject matters.
Keep On Keepin’ On,
Kyle
http://www.kn.sbc.com/wired/fil/pages/listaustraliky2.html
I had some company from Sunday to Tuesday this week – two of whom were my younger cousins and they also brought one of their friends. These boys are about 14 and 15. As I had to finish up my PowerPoint I took them to the university with me. How insightful they were about my PowerPoint and how they wish their teachers would do something that ‘cool’. They were throwing ideas at me left, right, and center and were quite curious as to how my PowerPoint would work, who it would be for, and if I was really actually going to use it. They thought I would be a really good teacher if I did. As I was putting my voice recordings into my PowerPoint one of the boys was on another program where you can type things in and it will read it back to you. I didn’t even know where he found it but I did some exploration of my own and it’s in the control panel under speech. My computer only has one voice but I’m sure you could get others. I thought it would be good to use for any of your students, especially if they were typing and had trouble spelling. I know there is spell check but sometimes spell check gives you some pretty awful choices for the word you actually want. This way they can hear if that is the word they want to use.
Another thing that they taught me is how to change what starts up when you start your computer. For the longest time I had this stupid error come up like “csrss.exe cannot be opened”. It frustrated me because I was not trying to open it! I guess it was included in my start programs list. Now I know how to take those out! My cousin also went on to say that I do not need all of the things to start up because it is fairly pointless, but I was scared to let him take any others off in fear that something I really did need would not work. So I removed the csrss.exe from the start programs list and it is so nice to start my computer now! To see which programs are started on your computer when you turn it on just:
§ click on start
§ choose run program
§ type in msconfig
§ click OK
§ click start up
I don’t know if I would really change anything if I were you but that is how you can check it out so you at least know what I’m talking about. He was very adamant about me not having MSN in the list to start running when I turn my computer on. Then they all started to tell me that I was too old for MSN anyway! That’s all I have for now. Have you fellow bloggers learned anything new or interesting about computers this past week?
~Linsey~
Excuse me as I pick my jaw off the floor. I recently read Linsey’s blog, checked out the Oprah website and read that mind boggling article. There are few things that tend to shock me these days, at times I believe I have seen it all (probably because I have taught up north in La Loche and a little in Fiji); however, this article raised my eyebrow. I agree with Janick, and all of you for that matter. Who are these people, referring to the dad, that promote such trash with their own children; for what, a few bucks? Despicable.
Not to sound supportive but it is surprising and impressive how much this 13 year old was able to accomplish with a household computer and a web cam—very scary. Like most unfavorable situations, everyone wants to place the blame on someone or something. This answer here is simple to me, the mother and the webcam. It is crucial for parents to communicate with their children and know everything that is going on in their lives. Yes, my mom nagged that hell out of me, always wanting to know where I was going, who with, what would we be doing, etc and for this I owe her a big thank you. Thank you for caring for me and ensuring I was on the right path for success and life. I do not think this particular mother did a great job at this.
Next is the webcam. I agree with the individual who claimed that all webcams in teenagers’ hands should be tossed away or used under strict supervision. Webcams are sometimes used for porn? Duh, is that really a big surprise? This like many situations is a case of one thing leading to another; it is truly a sad tale of how this boy was suckered in. I have a sense of pride for this young man now however, because he welcomed help and is using his unfortunate happening to make others aware. Cheers to this guy, and cheers to the lovely ladies of group3.
Kyle
First response to Lindsey and the Oprah show. I caught part of the commercial. That seems so unreal. What is going on with the dad? It is so sad when peolpe go for see nothing but money and have no values. I also just read an article that blames a blog site for the disapperance. She posted a fake age and picture, which is part of the problem. The story was pointing out that teenagers that feel down or rejected, or are loners will turn to the internet and become extreemly vulnerable to the sick-minded people out there.
O.K changing gears to multiple intelligence’s. That is such a tough and wide subject area. There is so many different ways to go about things which is a good thing and tiring all at the same time. There is some good programs out there for reading problems such as Win and Kurzwiel. They both are great but costly and take time to use and learn. If you can get it for students at a young age to use it and can continue with it from elementary through high school and post secondary. To learn about what and how to teach, you first need to know the students in the class and what accomidations you need. Teaching using as many ways as possible is good but you need to know what is working in the class and what is not.
I would like to be able to learn and “play” more with different programs.
Janick
Wow, Lindsay… I must have missed that episode! Honestly, I have a hard time believing that the parents were unaware of what was going on- that Mom must have been out to luch, and the Dad must be nuts. If I was a parent, there would be absolutely no no way that my child would even have a computer in their room! Don’t get me wrong- technology is a wonderful thing… but it can also destroy lives if you don’t use it in the right way. If a child has a computer in there room- who is to know what they are up to? I think that the computer would be a whole lot safer for children if it is positioned in an open part of the house- like a family room or something. I think that it is also important for us to realize that anybody using the Internet can be exposed to an extremly dangerous situations- stolen identity, credit card theft, plagerism, etc. Actually, a few years ago my own family had an Internet scare. My youngest sister was chatting on line with whom she thought was a 14 yearold girl living in Regina and attending a local school…my sister actually gave our phone number to the “girl” so that they could make plans to meet. One morning, the phone rang at about 4:00am and it was a man- asking for her. My parents freaked… and then we all got the lecture about using the computer safely. Poor Carolyn- I don’t think that she has ever chatted on-line again!
In regards to Kyle’s question about the mountains, I actually lived in Lake Louise for a year and a half. Yeah, the scenary was beautiful… and I learned how to snowboard. After reading your blog- I was green with envy.
Well, hope that everyone has a great week. Talk to you soon!
Laura
In response to Kyle’s blog, I did really nothing over the break. I have been to the mountains before and I sure would have liked to be doing that instead of staying around Regina. I am hoping that I will be able to go out to B.C. in the near future. I found out last summer that it is just as beautiful in the summer as it is in the winter. You can’t get anything better than tenting beside a small stream. The water sounds put you to sleep and peacefully wake you up in the morning.
On the break I did my volunteer hours for another class, as well as a lot of other homework. I did have time to watch Oprah one day and I would like to discuss what I saw. It was about technology and WebCams (http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200602/20060215/slide_20060215_284_101.jhtml). There was a nineteen year old boy featured, who at thirteen years old was introduced to becoming an Internet porn star. At the time of the show he was out of the ‘business’ but was supposed to be in hiding because, after an investigative reporter finally helped him (not his mother or his father) he turned in all the pedophiles paying him to do very unnatural things at such a young age. This boy was an honour student and really quite an intelligent boy, especially in regards to using computers. He did not know that it was older men who were on the other end of the Internet connection watching him take off his shirt and pants and then continue to get paid for masturbating or having sex with a variety of women. He also was unaware that these men communicated with one another and could tell one another how far they got him to go so that the next one could push him a bit further, or offer him a bit more money. Many of these pedophiles were doctors, lawyers, teachers, counselors, etc, people who children should be able to trust.
What really gets to me is that everyone noticed his behaviour had changed. He was living with his mother and she did not understand why he stayed up in his room all of the time or what he was doing in there. At one time he lied about going to a computer conference with a friend in Las Vegas so that he could be flown there to meet a man he talked to over the Internet, who sexually molested him when he was there. Of course, when friends at school found out about his vast array of porn on the Internet word got around and he went to live with is father in Mexico, bringing all of his money from his WebCam business with him. He ended up telling his father how he had gotten the money and instead of helping him get out of the situation, his dad helped him make more money. So this story goes on, and the boy gets further into his business, as well as into alcohol and drugs. A news reporter stumbled across this young boy, and his pedophiles who were talking about this sixteen year olds life on the Internet. Finally, someone gained his trust and helped him out of this horrible situation.
I know that was a long introduction but I just can not help but think about how horrible this is. There are so many young teenagers who have access to the Internet and WebCams as well. No one knew about his life, and the people who he should have been able to trust either did not do anything to find out or helped him continue instead of helping him quit. No child, whether they are thirteen or sixteen, can get out of something this large on their own. No child should be in a position that they can be sucked into this kind of thing on the Internet. When you are making thousands of dollars and living a life you think is pretty easy everything probably looks okay. The bottom line is that this boy wanted out and all he needed was one caring person who knew it was not right to say to him that he can quit.
The investigative reporter who helped this boy stated, on Oprah, that there is no reason for any teenager to have a WebCam and that any child who does have one in their room should have it thrown away. For Oprah’s show they went to buy a WebCam to show to the audience and the boy asked the young teen that was working at the store what they were used for. He answered him by saying they were used to chat and for porn. I was blown away by this. I do not think I have my head in the gutter but who would ever think of something like that. I feel like you can teach your students all you want about Internet safety but you can not be with them all day, in their rooms, in their houses, making sure that they are not getting sucked into this cruel and disgusting Internet activity.
What would you do as a parent or a teacher to teach your children/students about such things? How would you monitor their Internet activity? Obviously, it should be monitored and it can be monitored but children are very smart and can probably find ways around parental blocking and also delete the history of websites visited. There are probably many more children who are wrapped up in Internet porn or who are chatting with pedophiles over the Internet at any time. I know that this situation seems a bit unreal but it is true and it is not like he was the only child involved in it.
Here is a list of things Oprah has suggested parents tell their children, or teachers tell their students for that matter: http://www.oprah.com/presents/2005/predator/safety/safety_online.jhtml. I just do not know what you would do to make sure something like this never happens.
~Linsey~
