Week 12 - What a Quarter!

I must say, out of all the courses I've taken at Walden, 8823 has been by far the most useful in providing technology resources that I can use in my classroom. I can proudly say I'm a blogger, a twit, and a skyper. I feel I can connect with as few or as many people as I like with the click of a button.

Although my course work is now complete, I'm just beginning my journey towards social change. First on my list -- to help conquer the 'kill and drill' epidemic that is being forced upon our children in order to pass the annual standardized test. This is not teaching, nor are the children learning how to critically think. I'm tired of seeing students pulled from their electives, spending countless hours afterschool, and even coming in on teacher workdays in order to pass a multiple-choice test.

Cell phones in the classroom

In January, Louisana State Community college will begin offering courses delivered via a Blackberry or Iphone - no need for a computer.

Check out http://www.notifu.com This site allows you to text message multiple users (email, twitter, text message, and receive responses). Imagine how you could use this in your classroom.

m-Learning Project

Came across this interesting m-learning project. http://www.waag.org/project/freq1550

So when are we going to take the initiative to take up the fight to allow cell phones in our schools?

Week 11 - Simulations and Gaming

Let me first start by saying I’m very blessed to have two wonderful teenage kids who are well mannered and behaved and I love them both dearly. I have a 15 year old daughter and a 13 year old son. My daughter spends little time in front of the television or computer (other than a few minutes to check her MySpace). She does well in school and is very self-directed when it comes to her school work. In her free time she’ll turn her hip-hop music on so all the neighbors can hear, try on 18 different outfits and leave them all on the floor. She’ll create 27 new hairstyles; leaving all the bobby pins, curling iron, hot rollers, flat iron, blow dryer, crimping iron, barrettes, and hairspray out on the bathroom counter. She’ll paint each fingernail and toe nail with an intricate design. If you ask her to play DDR she will, and perhaps Mario Cart once in awhile, but other than that she doesn’t play much in the way of video games.

If I would let him, my son can spend 12 straight hours playing World War Craft (WOW). The boy lives to game. He doesn’t make a mess around the house because sitting in front of the computer or the T.V. doesn’t require that he pull out a lot of stuff. We have set rules in the house regarding his gaming privileges. He must have all his homework done prior to gaming. How can it be, two kids raised in the same house can be total opposites?

So what is this attraction to gaming? My son tells me it is because the game offers competition (although when it comes to sports he is not competitive – he hates seeing the other guy lose), skill is required, sometimes you get lucky, and the risk of dying. He is normally a quiet kid; however in front of the game, I’ve witnessed him show excitement, frustration, and relief (I hear a lot of Phewwwws). Do I worry about him gaming too much. Sure, I’m a mom.

Mark Wagner, a Walden graduate, helped relieve some of my worries pertaining to gaming, with his dissertation. Mark’s dissertation on Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing games (MMORPs) revealed “MMORPGs might be useful for helping students develop 21st Century Skills such as critical thinking, creativity, comfort with computer use, fluency in multimedia, economic literacy, and global awareness” You can view more of his result on his blog at http://edtechlife.com/?p=1960
On a post, dated Feb. 06, 2008, Mark shares a story of meeting with a superintendent http://edtechlife.com/?p=1943 . Interestingly enough, the 51 year old superintendent is an avid WOW player. The superintendent is interested in creating a 3D Virtual School. Rather than using a ‘flat’ medium like Blackboard, he believes a 3D virtual school would enhance community and students would be able to do rather than memorize

Week 10 - Repositories and Learning Objects

I originally created videos demonstrating how Spotsylvania County Schools are using both an LMS and LCMS. After a kind suggestion from my classmate Marvin, I decided to omit them from my blog (too much information to be shared). The point I was trying to make with the videos was that the possibilities to enhance student learning are boundless. Today, I was talking with a colleague who asked me if I placed extracurricular club activity information on the LCMS. I said no and instantly thought, but what a great idea.

I'm an advisor for Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA). We just held a fundraiser this weekend and the LCMS would have been a great utility for having students sign up to volunteer. I could use the LCMS to post podcasts from Business Leaders, post competition information, volunteer opportunities, and social events. Often times the student may be hesitant to get involved but if the parent finds out about it, they convince their child to participate. Two goals my department has this year is to increase parent communication via the LCMS and to increase participation in FBLA. What a great way to kill two birds with one stone.

By the way, I have posted a video in this week's class discussion.

Cyndi

Week 9 - Are LMSs On Their Way Out?

Although many schools haven’t even started using Learning Management Systems (LMS), they may already be starting their demise, or at least a major overhaul. According to Mark Crosslin, founder of the EduGeek Journal blog, an online community that promotes news and views from the ed. tech. world, claims educators are looking for alternative to the packaged LMS. Educators who have limited funds are turning to free tools like Facebook, Blogger, Wordpress, and pbWiki to present material. In addition to costs being a disadvantage of current LMS, he believes current LMSs confine students to the application and does not expose them to the world. He suggests such improvements as including multilevel blog systems, social network components, and extension tools for continuous learning.

Crosslin’s Death of the Learning Management System is a 5 post series that can be found at http://www.edugeekjournal.com/blog/index.php?filtertype=site&filterselect=1&tagid=9 .