CEDO 525 - Enhancing Learning Materials - week 1 blogs

First things first...I hope Kristine Deiner(our teacher for this class) recovers from her hospital visit as she was missing from our week 1 class.  Louie was our sub and did great but I just wanted to express well wishes for Kris.  On to this week...we were supposed to do two separate readings and then give a brief reflection on each one.

The first reading was from HERE.  The article is broken into two parts: Theory and Research Based Principles of Learning and Teaching Principles.  I'd like to reflect on the principle of learning that states: "Students' prior knowledge can help or hinder learning."  I agree that prior knowledge influences how students interpret the information that we present to them.  I also agree that prior knowledge can impede or enhance their learning experience but I'd like to expand on a few other thoughts pertaining to that.  When discussing topics that can be considered opinion-based (politics, etc) it is important to present both sides of things and let the students initiate the discussion.  The teacher must act simply as a moderator and remain as neutral as possible in order to get an honest discussion from the students.  It may be necessary to provide guidance during the discussion but the students should not know what your opinions are as that can influence students and often the tone of the discussion.  Another important role that prior knowledge plays relates to how much trust a teacher has garnered from students.  A student that has inaccurate or insufficient prior knowledge wouldn't necessarily be impeded by it.  If the teacher has shown themselves to be a trustworthy source of information the student will have no problem adjusting what they "thought" they knew to the newly presented information.

The second reading came from HERE. This was a 2003 study about the effectiveness of teaching and learning with technology on student outcomes.  The conclusion basically stated that technology had a moderate positive effect on the students tested.  It also emphasized that more research needed to be done to gain a better understanding on how technology is truly effecting student learning.
     Here is my take:  Research is fine and dandy and helps to illustrate trends but the nature of educational research is such that when it is finally published there is a good chance that things have already changed.  I also find a flaw in the way that this research was presented.  I think the role of technology is being underestimated.  I find it hard to believe that the control group didn't use technology.  I'd be interested to see what qualifies as using technology and what qualifies as their traditional methods.  Students learn better when using technology because technology is a part of society and their everyday lives.  It's that simple.  Technology helps students find information that they would never have available to them if it weren't for technology.  Technology also helps students find faster, more efficient ways to get things done.  To say that technology only has a minor or moderate positive effect on learning is like saying that books and libraries were only a minor improvement over leather parchment and quill pens.  It just doesn't make sense.  I think that technology simply being available is not necessarily going to make students smarter or better learners but the technology is there, and it keeps evolving.  It is the teacher's or integrator's job to guide the students on how to USE this technology to enhance their learning.

CEDO 520 Final Post

This week's main topics included copyright issues and keeping our students safe on the internet (in addition to ourselves.  As the state of things exists right now, there is a lot of unknowns when it comes to copyrights and their use.  This is especially true in education as it seems that some exceptions are made when things are used for educational purposes.  Not everyone's intentions are clear, however.  I'm referring to both the originator and the user when I say that.  That's why something like Creative Commons was created.  Creative Commons exists to help clear up any confusion when it pertains to what exactly the owner is willing to share.  Creative Commons provides an infrastructure of choices while allowing the creators to also customize the conditions of sharing their property.  Even with something like this trying to take hold around the world there is still a lot of gray area.  I'm not sure what the solution is, but I'll always err on the side of caution when using electronic content by giving credit to the original source and using other's work in an acceptable manner to the best of my knowledge.

Internet Safety has really come to the forefront lately and rightfully so.  As proven by even high profile individuals, not being careful of what you share online can have some disastrous results.  Last year was the first year that I put together a unit strictly dedicated to Internet safety and it will be a hot topic as long as the Internet maintains its status as a social networking venue.  The more that people use the Internet to communicate and do everyday activities, the more likely that people will exploit that whichever way they can. Staying up to date with social networking sites and demonstrating safe computing practices to students when it comes to using the Internet will help keep students safe but it will ultimately depend on parental assistance.  Parents cannot ignore what their kids are doing on the Internet anymore.  Just like my parents probably checked my dresser drawers or bedroom closets from time to time, parents of today need to be knowledgeable about what their kids are doing online.  Maybe that means they take a few classes to help them figure out how to check the browser history or they make their children show them their Facebook page from time to time.  Regardless, add that to the many parenting responsibilities that already exist.

As this class comes to a close I can't help but notice the similarities between this one and the previous class (can't remember the title off the top of my head).  This class seemed like a lighter, less in-depth version of it.  In fact they were so alike that I even found myself tempted to use some of the assignments that I had created in my prior class for this one.  I can't help but think that this class would've been more beneficial later on in the grad program considering that resources change so quickly.  The separation between the two classes might have helped...having these two classes back to back just felt redundant at times.  Just my humble opinion...