EDLD 5364 Week 5 Reflection

This week was a good week as we wrapped up this course and completed our team project. Each member contributed to the project and it is great to work with the group of professional in my team. This week’s videos were very enlightening. This week I watched a video from Professor James Paul Gee about gaming as a form of assessment. I never really looked at games as a form of assessing a student’s knowledge or looking at it as a form of higher-level thinking and problem solving. However, after listening to his talk I have a better appreciation of those that use games. He stated that gaming is a process of problem solving where the student gets immediate feedback to their game experience. If they fail at a level it takes them back to their last known place marker and lets them try again. The student experiments with the game until they figure out the problem and can solve it to pass to the next level. Education should be the same. Students should use gaming to solve problems. As Professor Gee stated, “chemistry class is a game where the students learn the game of chemistry”. It would be great if we could make all classes run in this manner. All the other videos were taking about how gaming is becoming a new way of learning. Teaching should be about learning how to solve complex problems using a game based format. I now have a great appreciation of those students that game. I also let my students use a program called Study Island that has a gaming section that once their daily and weekly work has been completed, they are allowed to play on the game side. I think that they students are learning more because it is making them think in the way they look at life in the gaming world.

EDLD 5364 Week 4 Reflection

This week there was no web conference with Dr. Borel. However, my team and I had a web conference for almost an hour as we summed up the projects we are each going to do for this week’s assignment. I am going to make a video about the natural resources of Canada for the social studies/geography for my part of t he project. I have already found the pictures to use and will use iMovie to make the movie with voice over on the pictures. The reading were interesting this week about how schools are able use technology to enhance their students learning. Through the use of UDL, Universal Design for Learning, educators are able to develop a comprehensive learning strategy that takes students from the ordinary to the extraordinary. This is both an awesome thing to look at and at the same time, depressing because I am unable to do the same things. The reason that it can’t be done is because as a teacher I am required to teach the students what they need to know to pass the state mandated performance exam. I have to teach the test rather than teach the students what they need to know to succeed in this changing world. Even if I could find away around teaching the test, I would not be able to do so due to the filters in place on the computers. WE are unable to even do the basics of learning using the blogs, wikis, and document sharing for collaboration. That is the frustrating part is that I could do so much but the “system” will not let us because we have to “teach the test” instead of teaching the children. Link to my video for this weeks project. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ0Nuhm25sY

EDLD 5364 Week 3 Reflection

This week was a good week albeit a very busy week. The web conference was very good and informative. The bugs and issues from last week were worked out and Dr. Borel was able to get the message about this week’s lesson and secrets to success out. The assignments this week is complex and involves much more thought and work to complete. We are continuing to work on our group project and finalizing most of the work. There is some confusion about exactly what we are supposed to submit and on what but after our team web conference we have figured out the requirements. The major issue and drawback with the course assignment to date is the website for the project. The site is difficult to work with in setting up and formatting the pages. Once that is complete then submitting our work next week will be easy. The most interesting part of this week is the electronic book we had to create and share. I completed mine in about 3 hours and found that I actually had a good time doing it. This will be an excellent tool to have the students do and to also show to our students. I could see where this tool could be used for the lower grade levels since it has the interaction of the character as the students learn and read along. file:///Users/RTC/Downloads/Water_Cycle_Dude/start.html

WDLD 5364 Week 2 Reflection

This week’s web conference was an utter disaster. Something was wrong with someone’s microphone that caused a feedback loop. My sound was similar to the Emergency Broadcast System message alerts. I was unable to hear anything that was said by Dr. Borel. The best part of this week’s assignment was from the Google® Hangout with my team. We spent nearly 90 minutes going over strategies for the group project. We decided that we would use a cross-curricular approach to the assignment using the book “Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen. I will be doing the Social Studies part of the lesson for 4th grade. In our readings, we continued to discuss and work on UDL to develop technology in our lessons. I have found that this approach is very similar to military strategy planning. In my military service, we used backward planning and forward execution for all mission planning. This is basically the same approach that UDL uses. Now that I understand this, the lessons are much easier. I have done this for many years, it just was not explained in this current context or verbiage.

EDLD 5364 Week 1 Reflection

This week’s assignment was interesting and frustrating. The most interesting part was the readings about how students learn. Through the readings, we learned about constructivism and connnectivism. These talk about how students learn either through the shared knowledge of others or through the experiences in life. I personally feel that this is a combination of both. Children learn at an early age about life or a subject through interactions with others and at the same time they learn on their own. They can be told not to do something but until they experience the lesson does not take hold. The other part of the readings and videos we learned about cyborgism. This was interesting and at the same time a bit scary or freaky. I realize that as technology grows our access to it will become part of us. I am not sure I am ready for it to become actually “part” of me. Having implants put in me is not something I am ready for. The frustrating part of this week’s assignment was the transition from EPIC to Blackboard. I had just gotten used to EPIC and understood how to make it work for me and then we changed. We are still not able to upload our discussion board due to a technical glitch in the system. The highlight of the week was that I get to work with an awesome group of educators on a group project. Our group works very well together and our strengths compliment each other. The web conference this week mostly focused on the introduction to the course and discussing the switch over to Black Board.

EDLD 5366 Self Reflection

“Critical reflection has been elevated to the major objective of adult education in the work of Mezirow (1990)”. (Atherton, 2011) By using critical reflection, a student can assess their work to see how it applies in their current work place. Using Peter Pappas’ “Taxonomy of Reflection” is a great way to explain how a critical reflection could be used and implemented in the classroom. (Pappas, 2010) Pappas’ first critical reflection is “Remembering: What did I do?” During this course I have learned numerous ways of incorporating Digital Graphics and Website Design into the K-12 classroom. While some of lessons I had knowledge of, it was a fresh way of looking at how these ideas could be utilized. The most notable lesson was the use of making digital graphics. This was a new experience for me; to develop a method of showing students how to make the movement of an object or pattern into something entertaining. This simple lesson can teach students the mechanics of movement and flow as a problem solving exercise. Using the acronym “C.R.A.P.”, contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity, it is easier now to distinguish quality works of graphic design in books, posters, and website. This was a new concept to me. Using this acronym with my students will help them in other areas of media production as well as spatial relationships in math and science. Next comes “Understanding: What was important about it?” The importance of this course was to gain an understanding of how all the critical elements of graphics design and a website can lead to better teaching experiences for students and educators. In today’s world of visual stimulus, what we do, think, and feel is interconnected through visual input. Mike Parkinson states, “What we see has a profound effect on on what we do, how we feel, and who we are. Through experience and experimentation, we continually increase our understanding of the visual world and how we are influenced by it”. (Parkinson, 2012) By understanding how to make a presentation more visually stimulating and engaging, students will learn easily and their attention will stay on the subject. Sharing this knowledge with fellow educators will increase learning across all grade levels. Pappas goes on to the next level of taxonomy with “Applying: Where could I use this again?” I have designed and implemented several websites over the past several years, however, with this new knowledge I could have made those websites and designs much better. I can now take the knowledge I already had and couple it with the new strategies from this course to make the next website design far better. This joining of old and new strategies could be used to assist my school with reaching out to students and parents to engage them in learning and further studies. Next in the higher order of taxonomy from Pappas is “Analyzing: Do I see any patterns in what I did?” I used my peers and group to help with this concept. I found that patterns help to reinforce visual statements or to concentrate on a specific item. Making the personal logo was a challenge for me but with the help of my wife and my teammates’ input my logo fit my personality perfectly. I used the patterns of spheres going from large to small to represent the things in education I like most. This repetition, or pattern, emphasized the overall concept of education and the pattern that each of the other areas making up the whole. My peers gave me great insight to this and made the experience more enriching. Pappas’ next to the last level is “Evaluating: How well did I do?” I did exceptionally well in this course. I am not an art driven person, but with the new concepts I learned in this course, I have developed a better understanding of what would make a presentation more visually appealing and would make the reader want to learn more. Regardless of the grade, I have made great strides in understanding what makes a presentation better. “Students can become better language learners when they engage in deliberate thought about what they are learning and how they are learning it.” (NCLRC, 2004) Pappas’ last and highest level of taxonomy is “Creating: What should I do next?” I will take this new knowledge and apply it to my teaching. Through the use of visual graphics and effective visual aides, I will be able to have a much better presentation in classroom instruction when using the computer or printed media. I can take the knowledge of this course and share it with other faculty members to enhance their classes. Using a website to communicate with students and parents is another way to extend my classroom. Websites offer a way to share events, ideas, and thoughts to the students/parents and by using polls and surveys, can have them communicate with me concerning the classroom activities. Bibliography Atherton, J. S. (2011). Learning and Teaching: Critical Reflection. Retrieved August 16, 2012, from Learningandteaching.info: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/critical1.htm NCLRC. (2004). Assessing Learning: Peer and Self Assessment. Retrieved August 16, 2012, from The National Capital Language Resource Center: http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/assessing/peereval.htm Pappas, P. (2010). A Taxonomy of Reflection: Critical Thinking for Students, Teachers, and Principals (Part1). Retrieved August 16, 2012, from Copy / Paste: http://www.peterpappas.com/2010/01/taxonomy-reflection-critical-thinking-students-teachers-principals-.html Parkinson, M. (2012). The Power of Visual Communication. Retrieved August 17, 2012, from Billion Dollar Graphics: http://www.billiondollargraphics.com/infographics.html

EDLD 5363 Video Posting

You can find the video for hour group project on YouTube at: http://youtu.be/JtFI2hF8x3k. My sincere thanks goes out to my teammates for this project Mary Angel, Tanya Henslee, and Ericka Turner. You guys were a great group of educators to work with. Thanks for all your hard work and cooperation. Randy