Am I boring or what? This is how to add a footnote!

George Mason

See more Audio at TeacherTube.com.

The White House History

Edu 255 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPRo5dLaAV4

The Lights Are Flickring

We have made leaps in the numerous new online tools such as blogs, and wikis that have enabled us to connect with our students. Among these new tools are photo-sharing sites such as flickr that has remarkable potential for learning.

An obvious feature of Flickr is its imagery; it can be used to design lessons that support visual learning. Educators could use photographs to prompt creative or interpretive writing; this would be an amazing tool in art history. I was amazed to find that Flickr allows photos to be geotagged; you can actually take a photo of a historical site and place it on a world map. This would allow a class to take a virtual fieldtrip and become familiar with its geographical location. WOW!

The use of flickr and others like it can be advantageous in the classroom, creativity has no limits.

Finding Your Niche

I found it comforting to learn that Steve Hargadon wasn’t a success in his first try, “if you jump in front of what you think is a parade and it turns out not to be have been, you have to be willing to move on or morph”, this concept can really be applied to anything. I really pride myself of my cuisine tenant; I owned a restaurant and catered weddings for many years. But, when I was young my mother did all of the cooking, so I had no common sense when it came to the kitchen. And in my first year at Flagstaff Junior High School, I became the first person to start a fire in the home economics room. No, this was not my last failure, but from each of them I learned a lesson. So, learning how to be a success by learning from your mistakes, and finding your niche will make your 2.0 classroom a success.

Social Networking Sites

Yoursphere.com launched in the United States in September 9, 2008, targeting parents for their teens and kids. It was popular, because it offered minor safety features that other sites did not.

Yoursphere.com is a safe social networking site for kids only. Most social networking sites (SNS) are designed for adults, lacking the necessary safeguards for minors. Social Networking Sites such as facebook or myspace do not prevent predators from contacting your children. This site also offers positive features such as creative writing contest and other positive activities.

This website confirms the social security to information that is entered; they further search the name against a sex offender database. Parents who are giving the minor permission are included in this verification process. These safety features include monitoring cyber bulling. To pay for these safeguards, parents pay an annual fee.

Although, there are other social networking sites for minors that offer some safety features, Yoursphere.com seem to offer the safest. Yoursphere.com would be an account that I would encourage my own child to use, solely for the safety features that it offers. They use technology to oversee discussions to ensure that, they are not only appropriate but safe.

Wikis in the Classroom

In my classroom, I would use my wikispace to be a great source of student collaboration, engagement, and demonstration that would be beyond the classroom environment. The wiki would be a source for research and collecting data that could be used on class projects. Students could share biographies, photos and websites that would enhance understanding for all who participate. It would also serve as a way to connect the classroom with home; parents could join and be able to have a steady stream of classroom updates.

The wiki would operate as a central location for students to develop ideas and to solve problems, skills that will be a lifelong benefit. Collaboration is particularly valuable in that it sets paradigm from individualism to a system of working together.

In the future using a wikis will be a great way to organize my class and will be an effective way to engage my future students.

Technology a New Pedagogy?

I wouldn’t necessarily say that new technology is a “New Pedagogy”, I would say that it is educational adaptability. Technological change is not a new phenomenon; technological advances have historically improved educational techniques. For instance, the mechanical printing pressed developed in the 15^th century had an immediate effect on society. Books could be produced in great quantities, facilitating dissemination and shifting individual perspectives.

As educator’s it is our responsibility to adopt and adapt to new technology in order to improve teaching methods. I agree with Will Richardson perspective on the benefits of new technology, and its effectiveness in education. New technological advancements have improved educators ability to teach, by allowing them to spend more time on educational content and less time on paperwork.

New technology certainly does initiate a new form of information revolution that will have a profound impact on education. As educator’s become more comfortable with new technological advances and begin to make them an integral part of their lessons, they will open up new opportunities for students to learn. And maximizing a student’s potential to gain knowledge is every educator’s responsibility. Isn’t that what teaching is all about?

Instructional Design

Instructional Design

Instructional design is the fundamental component by which educators deliver instructions to a learner and apply it to a given situation. Although educators rarely use the term instructional design, they implement the process by providing students with prepared instructions.

In exploring the design approaches of behavioral and constructivism, I wanted to understand how each technique would benefit my future students.

The behavior approach is interrelated to observable changes in a learner’s behavior in response to a specific instruction. B. F. Skinner’s perspective is that teaching ought to be broken down into steps followed by reinforcement; the learner’s observable response to the instruction is his/her measured understanding.

The constructivism approach supports the idea of a unique learning experience by which learners are able to solve problems through activities. In this method it is suggested that long-lasting learning comes as a result of activates in a social framework. The assignments are constructed to reflect real-life conditions and evaluated on activities, projects and experiences.

Acknowledging that both behavioral and constructivism have the common feature of analyzing assignments, I found each approach to be unique. The behavioral approach is supported by the practice of analyzing changes in observable behavior, where learning can be easily measured. In the constructivism approach this is not the case; learners are evaluated on group activities rather than individual learning, making assessment difficult to evaluate. Further comparison of the two approaches reveals one other dissimilarity in defining meaning. The behavioral approach frames its instructional goals, where the constructivism approach allows the student to define the meaning for them.

In a classroom environment each of the approach has a purpose and can be used effectively. A proficient educator will recognize the best effective instructional design, and apply it to the given situation. Flexibility is the architect of learning.

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

TEACHING STATEMENT Jennifer Gale Ruiz

One of the things that gave me a passion for learning was when participation was an encouraged element. An educator that trusts their students, giving them the freedom and responsibility to participate in their education, helps the student respond to intellectual obstacles. This partnership will create an encounter of critical thinking and an exchange of new ideas.

In my own experience this nature of teaching gave me a passion for history. As a first year student at Yavapai Community College, I took a history class that successfully stimulated the class by student participation. This class was no longer a requirement, it was a passion for a subject that so many of the students had previously detested. Active participation requires creativity and motivation by the educator, one of the ways that my instructor stimulated student participation was that, he required the students to make some of the multiple choice questions for the exams. This practice required the student to have knowledge of the subject, so that the answers would not be in conflict, it further gave some relief of the anxiety of failing the exams. Before each exam we would quiz each other on our questions, encouraging open classroom discussions, creating a better understanding of the subject matter.

My aspiration in teaching will be to encourage learning by learner participation, helping to make the students more than just passive recipients. In my studies, I will continue to explore new ideas and approaches to engage student involvement during my path to becoming a teacher of history.