Glogster

I liked Glogster, but I don't see it as being a useful assessment tool. The Glogs(?) that I looked at were sparse. I don't see how a student's understanding can truly be assessed in less than three paragraphs. Bring back reports!

No, Really? Who'd have thunk it?

While watching The Daily Show with jon Stewart I saw a commercial that just needed to be researched. Extenze is fake! No, really! So not only were people stupid enough to believe the BS but they sued because they had been duped. Only in America.

Now the question is do men admit they bought the product or forgo the settlement. If they submit a claim They admit they needed enhancement and they were [cough cough] stupid.

And yes, this is real.

http://www.extenzesettlement.com/faq#Q1

Couldn't Have Said it Better

This was posted on the chemistry teacher's listserv this afternoon. It's a veteran teacher responding to a new teacher's request for help with her even newer smart board.

Just to note a Smart Board is really a glorified mouse and nothing more. The Smart Board is best used by allowing the students interact with it.

A good lesson with images and videos is a good lesson with or without the Smart Board. The Smart Notebook is pretty good software and using it allows the presentation of the lesson to be a little nicer. In the Smart Gallery there a lots of interactive calculators and timers and quiz type templates along with many images both simple and animated. I nice review activity is a Jeopardy game. I use Powerpoint to make these and I make the used links the same color as the background so it appears as if they dissappear. You can make it from scratch or you can download someone else's template.

Remember don't feel obligated to go head first into these things, as fun and pretty as they may be they are still just bells and whistles. Try to design the lesson using the Smart Board to engage the learners. Think about what would make you more interested in the lesson and then add that. The best lessons I have seen with the Smart Board are simple and take advantage of one little feature. Such as an English or History Teacher can use an interactive map to illustrate an explorer's travels by dragging a boat around the screen, or a chemistry teacher can construct an atom by dragging the pieces together. Students can match experiments with outcomes by clicking and dragging. Just like Powerpoint too many bells and whistles take away from the lesson.

Good luck

jing

http://screencast.com/t/vRpWfHXY

Second Life

Dear Parents,

This quarter we will be using Second Life in our chemistry classroom. You may have heard some negative things about virtual worlds and Second Life in particular. I’m afraid that many of them are true. However, we will be utilizing islands created by the likes of NASA. All of the worlds that I will be having your children visit will be kid friendly. The reason that we will be utilizing this technology is that it will allow us to participate in laboratory activities that we would not otherwise be able to. It might be that we will be performing an experiment that uses equipment that we do not have or chemicals that might be considered hazardous. We would never be able to do these experiments in our classroom. By utilizing Second Life your students will have expanded educational opportunities.

Mr. Kay

Most useful software

The software that I have found most useful so far has been diigo. I base this decision on the fact that I use it often, while I have not used any of the others.

The second part of the question is much more difficult. If I know about a piece of software, I already have a fairly good idea of how it works. If I am not familiar with it, then I don't know to ask for it. I will say that I think my fellow students would benefit from some time spent with classroom management software. It's almost guaranteed that they will have to use one.

LiveBinder

               

   

Periodic Table

I chose this binder because it had so many resources. Many of them I have found and used individually. Now, I have them all in one place.

SAS Classroom Activity

For this week's assignment I chose interactive #8. It's a gas law interactive. The reason that I chose it is because it makes the invisible, visible. Inexpensive equipment exists to make these measurements in the high school, or college, laboratory. However, I feel that at this age it will still feel like hocus-pocus. Letting them "play" with this interactive and see the changes that the gases go through when the variables are manipulated. Perhaps it would be best to use both this virtual lab and the Vernier equipment. Using data from both might really cement it for the students.

Are you kidding me

Here I sit listening to NPR tell me about the return of the McRib. Somebody drove 10 hours to get a McRib sandwich. Another guy has a website for McRib sightings. Seriously, they couldn't find something better?

Sent from my iPhone

Homework

Things that I like about Zoho Writer that makes it unique:

1. It's Free!

2. I can access it and USE it from my phone. The iPhone rocks!

3. It has bunches of features.

Things that I think Zoho Writer lacks in comparison to other word processors:

• 1. It's really not accessible offline.
  

• 2. It doesn't know how to spell zoho!
  

• 3. features can be browser dependant.
  

I could integrate this program into my classroom by... allowing students who do not have newer office suites to use the feature sof the newer suites without the expense.

 

The Book Review (cue the JAWS music)

OK. So I've been quiet and demure and nobody knows how I feel about group work. [snicker] All past events aside, there is no reason to give this assignment a group grade. The current state of affairs has us delineating the work, posting the work, and evaluating and responding to the work in a fashion that can be tracked to the individual. If you want to grade me based on my group participation, you can. It's there. In black and white, so to speak. So why give a group grade. If participant A is a slacker they can get a slacker's grade. If they participate fully, but use no critical thinking in their posts or responses, their grade can reflect that. If they shine in every aspect of the assignment, it can reflect that as well. There remains only one legitimate(?) reason for a group grade. That is peer pressure.

The reality of this is, that it will make a great deal of work for JMG. I'm sure that more than one person in the class just smiled when I typed that. 

OK. (ending as I began) That's my two cents and I'm getting off of my soapbox now.

Night all

Critical Thinking in the High School Classroom

This week we were asked to evaluate using the Intel Thinking Tools and/or Thinkfinity to promote higher thinking skills in the classroom. Since my content is chemistry I chose to use the Intel Showing Evidence Tool for my lesson. The reason I made this choice is because I see great promise for this particular software. This is because it will involve the use of higher level thinking and develop the skills of debate and persuasive writing. That is the students will learn to make an argument and defend it with evidence. That is defend it with properly cited sources. I envision using this for writing assignments. (Let's not forget writing across the curriculum.) The assignments would be pulled from current events. This year I would probably use the BP oil spill in the Gulf. How is this going to affect the ecosystem? Will there be long-lasting effects? Should BP be held 100% responsible, if not how responsible are they? They would, of course, have to tie their choice of thesis in with chemistry.
The assignment would be done in stages, with the first being the selection of the question, the second being the research, the third being the draft, and the fourth being the final submission. At each stage the student will be required to submit something. At the second stage we will discuss evaluating sources. At the third or fourth stage one of the topics will be properly citing those sources. This tool from Intel will make all of these stages easier to learn. Additionally the pro and con features of the tool will assist the student with the proper construction of the argument including being able to defend against the "cons."

Should the Department of Education be disbanded

There is a recurrent theme in American politics to eliminate the Department of Education. This year it is being shouted by the Tea Party candidates. I worry that without federal oversight the differences between education in the different states would become so large as to make a high school diploma meaningless. What do you think?

Sent from my iPhone

Google Tips

I found this little trick that will allow the creation of accounts on many pages using a "fake" email. This would allow for the creation of student accounts for the purpose of learning one specific site or tool that the student will never use again. For instance, we could all have used it to create accounts at Diigo without giving them real information. In the seconday schools we will need to be concerned with student privacy. Now you can give every student an account on website X without worrying about this site spamming them or their email address being sold/stolen.

• Google Tips

  fake emails for creating accounts for wikis etc. also has directions for embedding google calendars etc

  tags: google student accounts web2.0

Posted from Diigo. 

Learning in Virtual Worlds

I viewed the short video on gaming as learning. I chose this video for several reasons, not the least of which is that I don't game and no NOTHING about it. I'm amazed by the people who can find hours in their day to spend playing Farmville, etc. This piece was actually about interactive gaming, which Farmville is not. The one game that was mentioned by name was World of Warcraft. This speaker contends that in these games students learn to act as a team. Failing to make a cohesive team will lead to virtual death. It is therefore imperative that the players have individual strengths, but they must be aware of their teammates strengths and how to utilize them, as well. He contends that this is way things are in "work life." The architect, the salesman, and the engineer have different skill sets that are all necessary to the success of the project. School is in opposition to this. We teach to the class and test the individual. "Collaboration in the school environment is called cheating."

From my middle-age perspective: Yes these games are social and interactive; but what happened to playing ball and talking to people? You can interact with a third level warrior princess, but can you ask a girl out? It's not the same thing. Children are suppose to learn how to socialize in school. It's not just about the three R's.

Apple launches their own social networking site.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/ping

New Yorkers Divided Over Islamic Center, Poll Finds - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/nyregion/03poll.html?_r=1&hp

 

Two-thirds of New York City residents want a planned Muslim community center and mosque to be relocated to a less controversial site farther away from ground zero in Lower Manhattan, including many who describe themselves as supporters of the project, according to a New York Times poll.

Goals

What do I hope to learn in this class....


I hope to become familiar enough with the technology that my students are already using daily. Things like facebook, skype, and IM to name a few. I also hope to become familiar with teacher-centric technology such as Smart Boards.

Testing

Testing