Web 2.0 Educator

I read Wes Fryer's blog, Moving at the Speed of Creativity.

I really liked what he had to talk about. He really believes that technology should be integrated into classrooms because he believes that the students learn more that way. What he had to say about cell phones in schools really interested me. He had one post talking about how cell phones should be embraced and used to the capacity because here is one technology that most students have and schools do not have to provide for them. Plus I think that students would find it really cool to be able to use their phones in class and would learn more, simply because they are using their cell phones.
He seems to know a lot about copyright issues, or at least have a definite opinion on them. I think one of his specialties is trying to encourage educators to embrace the technology that students have, such as mp3 players, instead of banning them from school. He believes that teachers should find ways to pull those types of things into their lesson plans, and by doing so engaging their students.

Type I and Type II Technology

Type I the user does what the program says and passively learns, simply the user does what s/he is told.
~In my elementary school we had a program that told us to type sentences and certain letters and then the program graded us on our proficiency.
~In middle school we had a program that we used in Spanish class that you simply moved through the program by using the right Spanish word. The only thing you needed was a knowledge of the language but you did not really learn anything new from the program, it was more of a review.
~

Type II is where the user makes the prominent choices and thus controls the program.
~PowerPoint; since it depends mostly on what you do with the program.
~Oregon/Amazon Trail; since the users actions depict how the game goes.
~Spider Solitaire; the choices the user makes determines the flow of the game.

Information from the introduction of Cleborne D. Maddux and D. LaMont Johnson book, Type II Applications of Technology in Education: New and Better Ways of Teaching and Learning (2005).

My MEL Experiences

• Context: In my High School Economics class everything we did related to our lives. It was progressive, first we learned how to write checks and balance a check book, then we bought a car, next we got married, and finally we bought a house. For each project there was a check list of what had to be included at the end, but it was very flexible. For example for getting married you had to find flowers, a cake, dresses, tuxes, limos, and so on. Every activity was something that would most likely be useful in our lives.
  
• Hands-on: In my fourth grade class we were learning about astronomy. We each had to pick a certain amount of constellations and draw what they looked like, and generally learn about them so we could tell others about them. We then created our own planetarium, I guess thats what you could call it. We took heavy black plastic and drew on our constellations in relationship to everyone else's. Then we created a big black bubble that you could crawl in and out of. It took up our entire classroom. We took turns giving "tours" of our sky to first and second grade classrooms. It was the most fun I had all year. We each learned about our stars but learned about others by sharing with each other. It was a lot more fun to do this activity rather then sitting in our desks, reading a book.
  
• Autonomy: In my Junior High School English class we always had a list of different projects that we could choose to complete. There would normally be some types of the following projects; paper, poster, song, and presentation. That way we could pick what we were best at and most comfortable doing. We could also go and talk to her about creating our own project or slightly altering the ones she had. It made my life easier because I could pick the project that worked best for me.
  
• Learning Styles: In my sixth grade class we were always doing a lot of different activities from every different Learning Style, though I did not realize it at the time. We spent a lot of our class time writing and reading but there were always activities that went along with them that would be from other areas. I remember doing a lot of pictures to represent our writing, and spending a good deal of time outside. We did group projects, we did projects by ourselves. We had a lot of flexibility within the class to make the class work for us.
  
• Connections: In my history class sophomore year my teacher never made connections from what we were learning to us or the time now. We did the same thing every class. We would come in, get our homework checked off, then we would go over the homework, and then she would lecture on the new topic. After she was done we would open the book, read the chapter, and answer the questions that came after. It was always the same and always one of the hardest classes to stay awake in.
  

Learning Style Inventory Results

Style Scores

Visual 5
Social 13
Physical 5
Aural 6
Verbal 6
Solitary 10
Logical 6

I think that this does represent me pretty well. I like to be around people and I am not surprised that Social is the highest one. I am surprised that verbal is not higher and that it ties with Aural and Logical. I would have thought that it would have been the second highest since I love to read and I would rather write a paper than do a project. I'm also not sure how Physical scored just one below Verbal, I think that was the biggest surprise. Overall I think it represents me well and in general shows me as being more well rounded than the quiz we did in Dr. Grace's class.

Survey thanks to http://www.learning-styles-online.com/inventory/.

Chapter 2 Respect, Liking, Trust, and Fairness

One of the students, Alexis, is talking about one of the coaches at her school. He is great friends with his team, but he does not have any authority over them. He gives in to what they want to do rather then making them do what they should.

I had a teacher like this in High School. She taught my senior lit class and let everyone talk her out of having to do any work. At the beginning of the year she laid out a balanced plan of papers, projects, and even a couple of movies, but never followed through with the papers because a few students complained about having to write them. The coach and my teacher both tried to be friends with their students rather than coaching and teaching them. They let the students talk them out of doing work that could have benefited them, such as the sports team not ever winning anything. This is where they could have struck a better balance between friend and educator.

Chapter 1 Knowing Students Well

The parts where the students are explaining the ways that their teachers have connected the subject in class to their own lives. Two of the examples were relating geometry to art and relating chemical bonds to dating.

I agree with the students, when a new subject is introduced it is normally easier to understand if it is related to something that you are already familiar with. If teachers had done this in my science classes I think I would have understood the material sooner and better in the long run. When I read what these students had said it became obvious to me. Of course you would learn a new concept better when it was compared to a concept that you already knew.