Thursday, May 31, 2012

Project Tomorrow Proposal:
 

The theme of my story for project tomorrow will be following the lives of my younger brother and sister through there multimodal world. My brother, Nick, is a Junior at Mentor High School and my sister, Kati, is a Sophomore.

I will be capturing their lives through photos and video. Taking pieces of their daily lives and putting together a story of how they use technology for school and after school. I want to examine what literacies they have acquired from technology and how well they can use those tools.

I want to create a story of how my brother and sister are involved in various participatory cultures within technology. I want to find out how much they know about the multimodal tools that they use every day. I want to tell a story of what they think could be valuable in a classroom and how they learn best. What technologies could be better incorporated. I want to expose Nick and Kati to an array of web 2.0 apps and survey a panel of their friends to create conversation of possibilities.

I want to show the positives for the design of technologically enhanced learning and come up with ways to eliminate the limitations. I want to incorporate specific examples when technology was used successfully and when it failed; indicating the barriers that need to be overcome for challenges in literacy and communication.

I will be using vuvox as my story telling tool. I want to incorporate audio, video, text, and still images into my project. I want the story to be interactive so the audience can dig deeper and act on emotion. Create curiosity and intrigue as the story is displayed.
 

Annotated Bibliography


This article clearly defines technological knowledge, technological content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and technological pedagogical knowledge. Technological pedagogical knowledge is an understanding of how teaching and learning changes when particular technologies are used. This has to do with understanding of the constraints and affordances of technologies and the disciplinary contexts within which they function This article gives a great overview of what is needed to be a part of participatory culture and how to use multimodal tools.


This article gives a great representation of how technology can be a hinder in a dynamic environment such as a classroom. There are so many interactions and technologies that at times when technology is put at the forefront it can turn into chaos. It also is a great piece, because it approaches the idea of incorporating technology and pedagogy together. The article gives a set of principles that must be incorporated in order to fully function in the participatory culture.


Pensky brings up a great concept of going to the student and asking the student to collaborate with educators to find out how they learn best. What applications and technologies could improve learning? The idea of going to the customer is not a revelation, but in the world of education the student’s thoughts are rarely heard. This article ties well with project tomorrow because project tomorrow is a student driven project. I want to use Pensky's concept and interview several high school students about the way they learn best and how they learn in the classrooms now. I want to go even further and have students explore web 2.0 apps and tell me which apps would be the most helpful and why.
Website:
http://tdesanto.weebly.com/index.html

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Web 2.0 Apps

1. wishwasher- this application is an interactive bulletin board where everyone in the class can include a post, in any form (video, text, music, etc.) that relates to the topic. This will mainly be used for

2. Heapnote-a notebook organizer that I can upload students notes along with lecture

3. Edmodo-online social network for the class and parents includes a gradebook, calendar and discussion live posts like facebook, but for the classroom.

4. ResearchGate-an online community for scientific research. This will come into action when students have to write experimental reports or come up with research questions.

5. KnoteBooks-has physics lessons and supplementary materials

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

What do I want on my webpage?

As a teacher I would want to create a website that had everything I would want if I were a student or a parent. As a future high school teacher I would want to create a website for high school students that was informative and helpful. As a teacher of science I want to help my students understand the subject matter better and excel academically. Based on my own experience as a student I would want a clear schedule of assignments and calendar for lectures. I would want access to all notes and live lectures to reinforce a concept. I believe there should be open communication between the teacher and students and among the students themselves. A way for interactive homework help or a round table for projects would be a tremendous aide. I talked with a former high school teacher of mine that teaches physics at Mentor High School. He agreed that some of the most important things that he would want on his website is a place for lecture notes, interactive video lessons and a place where students can share notes. A discussion board for projects and experiments. In addition, resource page where students can find certain additional materials such as, how to write a lab report, APA citation application and AP testing materials.