Mrs. Majoros’ Classroom Blog

When I first viewed, Karl Fisch’s “2020 Vision” I didn’t really understand all of what he envisioned in the video.  I thought things were moving too fast; my initial thought was that by 2020 things will change but not as drastic as what Fisch anticipates.

I decided to view the “What if” presentation and “Did You Know” presentation to help me understand his background for making his vision.  When I saw “What If”, I was greatly struck because I can see myself saying all of those quotes if I were a teacher in the time periods listed.  It also made me laugh of how wrong I would have been and made me startle to realize that I am having the same attitude in this time period of change. 

What I vision of what the world could be like in 2020?

The first thing I vision of what the world could be like in 2020 is that we would all have wireless connection wherever we go on Earth.  Some hotels are starting to provide Wi-Fi and I would hope this trend will continue around the country and the world. 

I really liked the focus on making the environment greener in the video so I hope; we would have great technological advancement to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and to have efficient renewable energy sources.

I also think that the term “thinking globally” is going to be the normal mindset for the human population.  People would think about how their decisions are going to affect their small communities and large communities.  With faster and easier global communication, people will find their own niche.  For example, more people may be informed about sudden decrease in US honeybee population and therefore help to preserve them by providing resources and suggestions.

I also think people will be able to be more involved with current global issues, national issues, and local issues. The news media already has the ability to use website and blogs to add more details, personal accounts, and personal comments to the news to make it more informative and more relevant.  By 2020, the news media would be even more advanced in its technology and its way to reach out to people.  RRS is a good example of people consuming the news differently than ever before.

Finally, social norm is going to change.  People can already communicate in various ways including: direct in person, telephone/cell phone, instant message/text message, and internet connected calls using such software as Skype. The percentage of people directly meeting is going to drastically change to more people communicating via technology.   For example, social networking such as Facebook is going to be commonly used by all generations.

How will changes in the world affect education, and how will changes in education affect the world? How will my choices and innovations in the classroom affect others?

The changes in the world are going to be much faster and more visible than the changes that take place in the school system.  The world is going to have a positive effect on education.  For an example, if the world has Wi-Fi connection then all the students can have internet access at home without any exceptions.  This would help because the web application such as Google Doc can be used by all the students and teachers.  This change alone would make it easier for the student population to use technology in their learning processes.  Without having to worry about internet connection and software, more families would be able to have a computer at home.  Going further with the idea, I think all students would have laptops as one of the essential tools to be used at school.

With the ease of technology, there would be increased number of concerns about students developing their social skills and their own identities.  There many people to meet that working to have a long-term friendship may be harder to do because students can always find someone else.  Student may get in to a quarrel and rather working to resolve the problem, they may move to find another friend.  Students may struggle to find what they like and what they don’t like since they can move from one thing to another without giving something enough time and effort.

The changes in education will continue to shape the world.  Students will learn that technology is one of the tools to be used to learn and grow as a person.  It is critical that classrooms stay as a place for students to directly connect and learn how to communicate verbally, orally, and in written format.   

I am excited to incorporate the technological knowledge I have learned from this class to rejuvenate my teaching.  I think my new curriculum will affect the students and my colleagues as well.  I think it is critical that, teachers, realize that teaching has a global effect on our future leaders and communities.  

How will being a teacher be different in 2020 than it is today?

Will Richardson ‘s list of THE BIG SHIFTS in his book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classroom must be considered in answering this question.  More than ever, teachers must be a part of the students’ learning experience.  Teachers must recognize the value and importance of integrating technology in their curriculum.  Teaches also must be technologically literate to have access to information and resource available.  The shift is going to happen slowly in education but teachers must be willing to get on the boat to make sure that they are traveling with the current.  With the speed of technological advancement, missing the boat can mean missing great learning/teaching opportunities for the learning community.As I have stated before, teachers must put extra effort in teaching students the social skills they need in every aspect of communication as it changes.  It is going to be critical that teachers develop the a sense of belonging and a sense of communities in their classroom for the students to have a safe place for them to learn and explore.

I picked ThinkFree Office online because it has be best review from our reading. I like ThinkFree is nice free software that is most like Office and I like the Poweroint-compatible file. I am not sure if it’s excel program is capable of creating graphs but if it can then it is also helpful. The sharing ability is great but I don’t see it being better than students e-mailing the documents or to each other.

I can think of one application for the students to use this. I think ThinkFree may be helpful if a student’s family cannot afford to by Microsoft office. They could use this as an alternative resource. However, I don’t think it works well as a replacement. To access the information, you don’t need to download anything but you have to create user name and a password. It’s another thing I would have to put on my list of all the user names. I think the district should look into sharing the software with the students or the family should invest into buying the software at a student discounted price.

How would a paperless class change your role as a teacher?  Would a paperless space make it easier or harder to build a learning network? Why?

I think the article talked about two different issues; one issue was on paperless classroom and the other issue was on Internet class.  I think the paperless learning would make a little difference in the learning network.  I think students need to learn how to discuss and write/type their ideas on the computer.  They must also learn how to communicate effectively and appropriately as well.  For the Internet class where students meet few time during the week, learning network would be harder to build at a high school level.  I think it is valuable for students to have face-to-face direct interactions with the classmates and the teachers.  It would be harder to build a learning network because it depends on the students’ motivation and maturity levels.  Especially for classes/subjects students perceive to be their weakness, it would make it hard for them to find a place in the learning network. I think we have to work harder to make connections with the students. 

How would paperless classes change learning?

I think it is a big shift in thinking to go paperless.  I think I would enjoy having my office rid of all the paperwork.  I think students must develop strong computer skills to go paperless.  For example, if I want them to make a quickly make a graph, they must know how to use excel or other graphing software. 

How would you measure learning in a paperless class?

I think the methods of assessment are going to be the same.  They can still write lab reports, complete projects, and activities.  Only thing students cannot do is drawing (unless it is scanned in). 

                          
How has this shift affected your teaching practice so far?

I have been making my lectures to be shorter with very focus topics.  I am incorporating constructivist theory in my curriculum where students are given experiments and activities to test and connect their prior knowledge with a new knowledge.  This allows for students to converse with other students and for me to converse with them in a small group setting and in a large group setting. George Siemens’ is quoted in the book for saying, “Ideas are presented as the starting point for dialogue, not the ending point.”  I think this quote shows the importance of the learning process.

How do you expect it might affect you in the future?

I need to make sure that the expectation is very clear for the students.  With this big shift, students must become active participates to make the learning experience successful.  They can no longer sit and let the time pass.  This also means I need to teach students to be live up to the expectation.   I cannot expect my students who are used to putting their legs up to breeze through classes to be responsible for their learning experience.  I think I need to have a clear plan of how I am going to get my class to converse in learning of Science.

Have your views changed since you started this course?

Will Richardson, in his book, provides great ideas and resourceful information.  The book has shown me that it is possible to make the big shift and be successful.  It is little scary to think about going paper-less or teaching with wiki or blogs but I can see that it can benefit the learning experience for all.

How can you use technology to facilitate this shift in your own classroom?

I think technology is one of the tools we can use to make the teaching conversational.  I think it is great for students to be able see a big picture of things they are learning or doing in the classroom.  For example, my students test the water quality of the Chicago River but I don’t do anything with the data beyond the classroom.  But, I did find a website where students can post their lab results to share with the world.  I think this will be great to talk about difference in lab results, reasons behind the results, or what the results mean. 

I have never used Skype before but after some exploration I am interested in trying it out with my sister who lives on east coast. I don’t know what my aunt has on her computer but I did talk to my cousin in Australia. I got little frustrated with it because there was at least three seconds of delay. I would, personally, rather pick up the phone and pay to talk on real time or just write an e-mail or snail mail.

For a classroom application, I may explore an option of having a person from the Friends of the Chicago River available. This may provide a great opportunity for students to ask questions about the history of the Chicago River. This may be better than the instructor answer questions and it is more convenient than to have a person come to our school for the whole day. It would also be nice for the students to see organizations that care about education the Chicago River

I find Siemens’ connectivism theory to be confusing. I read his original paper and I read his paper that he wrote in response to Plon Verhagen a few times and I cannot really define the theory in my own words. One of the main claims Siemen makes is that “learning may reside in non-human appliances”. Verhagen argues that this statement would mean that “learning is not defined as a process but as a result”. This would stand alone in the learning theories against behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism. The learning theories describe how people learn; if the education institutes recognize this as one of the learning theory then we will no longer value education for what it is. Learning cannot be reside in non-human appliances. In Siemen’s view, only the results are valued and the process of making meaning, process of applying knowledge, and process of reflection are secondary.

Verhagen also argues that “usage of knowledge that is stored in “non-human appliances” has been done through the ages”. Knowledge stored in technology is the same as writing on rocks, barks, and paper. It may be faster and global but in the basic definition, it holds human knowledge.

My school district may provide the teachers with laptop computers (PC/Mac systems in one) next school year.  This is going to be great because we can take our work anywhere and everywhere.  Working on documents would be easier because you don’t have to worry about e-mailing it to yourself, saving it on a thumb-drive, or accessing the school network from home.  Entering grades can be done at home or in the classroom.  This will also solve our problems with the desktop computers that we have in our classrooms to share with other teachers.  We waste so much time logging in and out between classes and it is frustrating to find out that some of the programs don’t run on the class computer.

I just heard that the district is further looking into one-to-one laptops by talking about getting a laptop for every student.  This would eliminate the need for computer labs or computer carts.  Students can simply do the work on their computer in the classroom.  Gotham Gazette contains a news article about how New York City has begun a pilot project to provide laptop computers for every student in seven middle schools.  Apple has a page in their website about this topic.  They also have research paper available that provides a support for this idea.  Here is the summary.

Research Summary
The foremost, and most pervasive, conclusion derived from the available research is that the one-to-one learning experience provides many positive outcomes for students, staff, and the affected community. Among the outcomes mentioned most are:
• Improved writing skills and depth of student research
• Increased student interest in learning and ownership of the learning process
• Improvement in student and staff attendance
• Reductions in student behavior problems
• Increased parental interest in school activities• Improved student and staff morale
• A reduction in lecture/presentation instruction and increase in project-based learning activities 

On a relative topic, there are foundations that are providing laptops for students in under-resourced (third world) countries.  For example, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) foundation has a comprehensive website that provides the following main information about its purpose: vision, laptop, participate, and children.  CBS’s 60 minutes had a show on this recently on May 20, 2007.  “What If Every Child Had A Laptop?”   It talks about Nicholas Negroponte, a professor at MIT’s mission and a founder of non-profit organization, OLPC.   Here is what I found to be interesting:

Wayan Vota, director of Geekcorps, a type of Peace Corps that brings technology to developing countries likes the revolutionary idea of OLPC but disagree with Negroponte’s contention that kids can figure it out without a teacher.  He asks, “If you hand a child a violin or a piano they can make noise with it, right?  But will they be able to make music?  And if you give a child a computer they’ll be able to operate the computer but will they really be able to learn without having a teacher…” 

There are many supporters like James O’Hagan from Lockport, IL.  He has a blog titled 1 Laptop : 1 Student.  One of the columnists of WorldChangine Ethan Zuckerman writes a preview of a hundred dollar laptop. However, I see concerns of readers in various sites.  One of the comments on this Zuckerman’s post voiced his/her concerns on this topic

“In developed countries, computers in classrooms have mostly been a huge flop, because it’s been shown again and again that having a good teacher is vastly more important than having computers in the classroom. By contrast, the developing world mostly has a shortage of good teachers, so the laptop should be designed to BE A TEACHER. That’s what the software people should work on–interactive teaching programs. E-books are also a great resource, but these will be more expensive than books. To compete, they have to be more useful than that.”

The issue that I want to focus on is the following: in resourceful or in non-resourceful countries what changes must take place in the world of education to make use of having one laptop per student? 

Option 1: Blog Response

I found Science Magazine Podcastwhere it posts a podcast periodically.  The site has  a collection of audio-casts from Science Magazine, current scientific research, global news, and commentary.  I picked Podcasting on April 4, 2008 Podcasting on April 4, 2008 (http://podcasts.aaas.org/science_podcast/SciencePodcast_080404.mp3as) an example to show what I would like to do in my Science classroom.

April 4, 2008 (http://podcasts.aaas.org/science_podcast/SciencePodcast_080404.mp3)’s Podcasting on April 4, 2008 podcast focuses on the following main topics:

1.  DNA evidence shows people lived in North America about a thousand years earlier than commonly thought

2.  Many bacteria consisnt entirely on  antibacterials

3.  Aztec Arthmetics in Base 20

4.  Other and daily science news

This site also has RSS feed that I plan on posting on my Google reader.  I think this may be a “must listen” weekly podcast for me as a science teacher.  If I find a relevant topic covered in class, I would like to have the students listen to the podcast.   I don’t think I am going to have a lesson plan attach to this for now.  I think I would like to start it as an optinal current science news to listen to and have a blog discussion.

Description of class or grade being taught:
High School Sophomores 
Biology (theme around rivers) 

Title of the activity:
River Photo Album

Descriptions:
Students are going to take following pictures throughout the course and post them on class flicker page. 

1. Eight photos by four different forks/branches of the Chicago River.  (One photo is to show the scenery and another photo must include the student)
2. Near a river that is not a part of the Chicago River

“Maps” option is going to be used so that students can post and share where the photos were taken. Students must include short description of the location and date. 

I have not tried this yet so I need to see if a class can share a map so that it would be a collective album of the river. 

Chicago River Drawbridge

North Branch of the Chicago River

Citations:

1. Aleman. (2005, November 25).  Chicago River Drawbridge.  Alemans’ Photostream.  Retrieved April 8, 2008, from  http://www.flickr.com/photos/aleman/66888812/.
2. Pantagrapher. (2007, May 18). Plant Life.  Pantagrapher’s Photostream.  Retrieved April 8, 2008, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/pantagrapher/503652085/

Inspiration Wiki project:  MathWorld: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/retry=a0db9a9f5eaf4c7a00241
This site is like Wikipedia.  It is a wiki focused on the area of Mathmatics.  Members can add definitions and they post historical prospectives.

Mrs. Huff’s Classroom Wiki, Grade Level trips: http://huffenglish.pbwiki.com/Grade+Level+Trips
This site is for students to post their experiences from their school trips.  I especially like how she said upper grade level students can go back and write about their past trips.

Challenging in creating a wiki together as a group in activity 5-C-1:

1. It’s obvious but two members cannot edit the site at the same time.  If many students are working on the page then, there must be a group schedule to show who is going to be editing when.
2. It gets little cumbersome to check the history page for every editing job.

What I learned from the group wiki project:

1. Wiki is very easy to do and you can see the results right away.
2. Multiple brains working on a project is better than one.  It was nice to have the group members’ different angles on the same project.  I feel like we were able to be more complete and meet the needs of the readers.
3. If I were to implement this in my class, I would also like to have students work on their wiki page together physically on the same computer.  It is difficult to know where one person is going with an idea.  For example, it would be nice to have a brainstorming session.

My Wikipedia thoughts:

I think Wiki has a great potential.  I need to think what projects can be done with wiki that would make the students involved and motivated to participate in a class wiki.  To be successful, wiki requires certain level of maturity from the students.  I need to make sure that the students are ready for the challenge.