My Web

I made my web! http://yette0505.googlepages.com/olivafamily

Web development performance task! I will ask my students to develop their own web systematically and practically. . I want my student to use this web development technology three different, meaningful ways; as a window to express themselves as learners, a mirror to reflect their thoughts and values, and a vehicle to communicate with the world and people. I believe my students will have meaningful learning experiences with this technology task like I did. Personally, it was a good opportunity for me to make a connection between knowledge from text books and practical application for my future classroom. The project, developing my web in my content area-literacy education gave me a good chance to think of what I have learned, what important issues for me and how I integrate them into practical application in my own classroom.

One of the important benefits I’ve got from this assignment is that the knowledge, knowing how to make a web as well as understanding what important issues in my content area became meaningful for me because I interpreted them in my words and applied them to practical application such as writing a letter to introduce my teaching philosophy to parents, writing a book response in my own web.

There are also several reasons why I want to use this technology. First, students will use technology “as knowledge construction tools that they learn with, not from” (Jonassen et al,. 24) with this technology task. As I have experienced, this project will encourage my students to use technology as Mindtools because students should think about what they know in meaningful ways and how to express their thoughts deeply and critically while developing their own web.

Second, web development task requires students to think deeply what they are learning now. They have to construct what are meaningful for them and do self-monitor how to improve their web.

Third, this technology task emphasizes that students should be designers to interpret and organize their personal knowledge. It also requires them to analyze and evaluate what they know. It is the same as the technology function as Mindtools.

As I said above, it was a good opportunity for me to think of what I’ ve learned and what I am learning in literacy education as well as technology area. It was a little bit different learning experience from a creating Blog task. In Blogging, It seemed to me that I just made a personal journal note to share my personal thoughts and opinions with others. In contrast, web development task was much more inspired me to think about my learning, my knowledge and myself as a learner. I felt that I had to be more thoughtful and more professional in my web.

Thoughts about What I Did

Technology decision assignment! It was very meaningful time to make a decision for technology purchase. It helped me think of what really need for students as a teacher.
Actually, it had not been my job to choose technology equipment for a computer lab, it seemed to me it was a lab-technicians' job.
Through this assignment, I could widen my perspective toward educational technology. In addition, it was a good opportunity for me to get responsibility to consider educational technology issues such as how I can use technology well, what I can do for students to make efficient use of the technology, and something like that.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0! I first heard the phrase in our technology classroom. It is almost my first time to think and learn about Web 2.0. So, first of all, I tried to understand what Web 2.0 is exactly. According to Wikipedia,"Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies — which aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users." MacManus focused on social effects of Web 2.0. He is one of the persons who are strongly believe Web 2.0 is so powerful and effective. He pointed out that "it’s open (or at least it should be), it’s letting go of control over your data, it’s mixing the global with the local. Web 2.0 is about new interfaces - new ways of searching and accessing Web content." (http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=5) In addition, he noted that "take a look at what the education community is doing with the Web, for example. They are not only starting to use the tools of Web 2.0 - blogs, wikis, podcasts, etc. They’re also adapting to a new generation of kids who are growing up on the Web, the so-called ‘Digital Natives’. The challenge for educators now and for the future is to learn and teach Internet literacy, converse and collaborate with their students using Web tools, and help our children make sense of the huge amounts of information and media that surround us." From several articles about Web 2.0, I noticed that there are sharply divided opinions to Web 2.0. I am still not sure which one is more persuasive in terms of educational points of view. However, one thing, now I am sure is that we need more effective technological tools to build cooperative meanings, construct meaningful learning and communicate extensive knowledge. So, I am really curious that Web 2.0 is a good alternative of WWW for teachers and students. I hope I can get an answer about the question through our class.
*Originally it was posted at the class webvista.

What I've thought about readings, discussions, and so on...

This week's discussion and reading topic is about hypertext.

First, I've reflected about myself as a reader after reading the article, "Hypertext and the Changing Roles of Readers." Well, I can say I am a kind of person who is more familiar with paper-type text (traditional text) rather than electronic things. Most of time, I print out weekly reading papers from the WebVister like the author of the article, Patterson. I do not know that that means I am old-fashioned or I am out-of-date or even I am wrong... But I think I need more practice to apply what I've learned about hypertext and something like that.

Second, some questions have occurred to me as a teacher in relation to our discussion. Which is more effective and educational way for students; giving them a strict guide or letting them free to be involved in hypertext. In addition, when kids are involving with hypertexts as readers or writers, how degree we can give them a guideline? Is it enough to give them rubric for helping their learning process? If it is not enough, how I can help students? In my teaching experiences, when my students sat in front of computers, I could not control where they to go anymore. It was so difficult for me to teach something for them with computers because each student had their own mouse.

My Thinking about My Work-Making My Blog

It was my first time to make a blog. At first, it was somewhat difficult to create my own blog but later I was being fascinated by making my own blog. I am sure that the experience of making my blog would make a difference for my future teaching because sharing and posting opinions between teachers and students via a blog would be a democratic and effective way of scaffolding meaningful communications. After creating my blog, I got to know that technology could be an important social venue where teachers can encourage critical, creative, and cooperative thinking of students beyond classroom settings. In addition, through making and developing their own blogs, students will be able to do self-directed study by their unique purpose and own pace, which would contribute to increasing their self-efficacy. To me, It was a really cool experience to make my own blog! Definitely It was!

Anyway, I have to go to my boy! Have a good sleep like him.

What I have Learned through the Class 2 (9/13)

From Reading
"Technologies should be used as knowledge construction tools that students learn with, not from." (p. 24) I like the concept-Mindtools. Students use technologies with critical thinking, and the technologies help them as learning strategies. It seemed to me that the mechanism between learners and technologies as Mindtools are so cooperative learning in educational setting. In my teaching experiences, frequently I've made mistakes confusing the important reasons why I use technologies in my classroom. My children loved to do computers, and I just let them enjoy computer programs, not engaged them with critical thinking. I mean, I did not encourage my students to think deeply and critically at all when they used computers in the classroom. Therefore, one of the important points I've learned from the article is that I need to teach my students to have intellectual partnership between computers and learners themselves.

From Concept Mapping-Inspiration
Unfortunately, I've got to know about myself that I am not a person who has very systematic knowledge or plentiful ideas about something after trying to develop my concept map with Inspiration. Well, Inspiration is really cool program and I know my kids would love it. However, my problem was caused by lacking of ideas about my concept, not caused by using a new technology. Even though the program, Inspiration helped my ideas look so cool, it was not enough to encourage my critical thinking about my concept at first. To be honest, I could make just three nodes because ideas did not come out. From the first experience of using Inspiration, I have learned the importance of pre-teaching or pre-thinking(?) activities before just using technologies in my classroom. For example, if I do the pre-activities such as brainstorming, mindmapping about our subjects before developing visual images with Inspiration, I think I would get much better learning effects. Even good technologies themselves can not guarantee everything. It depends on how teachers and learner use them critically, effectively.

After My First Class

I would say that I am not a technological person. So, I definitely need to take this course, Technology Tools for Education. However, on the other hand, it means- I am poor at technology that I am going to be in trouble in this class. And it happened to me at the first class. The first mission of the class was to create a personal blog. It was not easy for me to make the basic frame of my blog. Even it took quite a long time to understand how to post my writing. Anyway, it seemed that the class would be a good challenge for me to develop my confidence and practical skills about technology and multimedia.

I hope that the class, Technology Tools for Education will be well balanced between theory beyond technology and practice for developing practical technology skills.