Last Call!

These types of classes are usually pretty boring… wait for it…… but I was pleasantly surprised with this one.  I feel like we were exposed to lots of useful technologies that can be used both inside and outside of the classroom.  For example, I don’t really see myself using RSS or Google reader inside the classroom (although I do see the beneficial uses in a history of English classroom), but that’s something I see myself using outside the class for my own use to keep up on my cnn and aol news fix.  Along the same lines as RSS and reader, I would us sites like Delicious to organize my own favorites and important sites if my toolbar starts to get overloaded.  If I’m being honest, I wasn’t too too fond of the digital stories and podcasts.  They were definitely a cool thing to try out and have some fun with, by I don’t think I would ever really use them in a classroom setting.

Like I said in my presentation, I think the most useful thing we did was the visual vocab.  Most teachers use some sort of presentation software, whether it be powerpoint or smart board or something else.  And because of this, how to effectively relay the info on each slide to the students effectively is necessary.  The visual vocabulary project forced me to think about how to arrange slides, how to match proper and effective words and pictures, and how to contrast colors to make it as visually pleasing as possible.  Also, the design theories that we learned and presented about will have a huge impact on how I will design and deliver presentations and lessons to students.

As far as the wikis go, I think they could be tremendously useful in the classroom anytime there is a group project or anything like that.  Practically every student has a computer at home or at least access to a computer so students will easily be able to work on projects “together” without actually being together so it avoids scheduling conflicts, which is usually one of the most difficult aspects of group projects.

So in general, I think the projects are going to be useful in the classroom and I really enjoyed the class more than I thought I would’ve.  I’m definitely going to be taking some of the projects and tools we did with me as I leave the class, some for in the classroom, and some for outside the classroom

NING and its Bling

For my poster I chose to do Social Networking, more specifically, NING.com.  I have used NING in another class, and I find it to be way more useful and classroom friendly/appropriate than say something like Facebook would be.  The first thing that I thought about when organizing my poster is how it would be read.  We read left from right, so I put the major introduction and description of NING on the left side of the poster. I also made it the largest section of text, to ensure that was the first thing readers would look at.

Another major aspect that I took into consideration when designing was cognitive load theory.  I broke up information into little sentences or bullets, so the reader could easily get the information and not get bored of reading and lose interest.  Also along with the cognitive load theory, I included two different explanations of NING; one through a brief description of its capabilities, and another through a screenshot of my NING from another class.  This way, the reader can not only read what NING can be used for, the can actually see for themselves what the layout and profile of NING looks like.

Sure you can have my autograph - Podcast 1.

Digital Story 2

FINALLY ABLE TO UPLOAD! The videos only about 3 minutes long I'm not sure where all the extra space and time came from

Questions for Will Richardson

1. Is there any technologies that you have come across or have used yourself that you think would be most beneficial to a high school Math teacher?

I ask this question because as a future Math teacher, I often find it hard to find ways to incorporate new technologies that we learn about into a Math room.

2. Do you think it would be more beneficial to students to slowly integrate a particular technology into the classroom to ensure they are comfortable with it and it is effective?

I was just wondering because if you were to start using a technology and the students weren't responding, what would be the best way to adapt?

What's Important to me? by Steve Grassi

What's Important to me? by Steve Grassi

Steve's Visual Vocabulary Slide Show

Prod. vis vocab

View more presentations from grassist.

Cognitive Load Theory

The Cognitive Load Theory is an instructional theory that starts from the idea that our working memory is limited with respect to the amount of information it can hold, and the number of operations it can perform on that information (Van Gerven et. al., 2003). This theory plays off of the work originated by George Miller in which he found that our short term memory is limited in the number of items it can store effectively. George Miller presented the idea that the short term memory can only accept and store approximately 7 units of information, whether they are numbers, faces, words, etc. These units are often referred to as “chunks,” and these give way to an important part of the Cognitive Load Theory, chunking.

Another theorist who has contributed to the Cognitive Load Theory is John Sweller, who elaborates on Miller’s findings. Sweller notes that the difference between experts and novices is the fact that novices haven’t organized chunks of information into schemas as well as experts have. When it comes to chunking and instruction, the Cognitive Load Theory looks for techniques to be deliver information in a way that reduces the working memory load, in order to allow information to enter and be stored into long term memory.




Citations:

"Cognitive Load Theory." University of South Alabama Homepage. 2006. Web. 16 Sept. 2010. http://www.southalabama.edu/oll/mobile/theory_workbook/cognitive_load_theory.htm

Soloman, Howard. "Cognitive Load Theory (J. Sweller)." Theory Into Practice (TIP). Web. 16 Sept. 2010. http://tip.psychology.org/sweller.html

"Information Processing Theory (G. Miller)." Theory Into Practice (TIP). Web. 16 Sept. 2010. http://tip.psychology.org/miller.html