Assignment #6

Thus far, I have found many things useful in the MD 400 course. I enjoyed working with Inspiration, and Windows Movie maker the most. I was pleasantly suprised how easy the aforementioned two technology were to use. I however, do not like working with Photoshop at all. I find the Photoshop software to be too involved and I really do not think that most students at the elementary level will learn to master this product in the short amount of time they will probably have to use it. In other words, I wish theat we could have used the time spent on Photoshop for something else more useful to the classroom.

In addition, i think that all members of the class should be creating their websites in the same manner. I think it is grossly unfair to have some students use Google while others are to create the site from scratch. The whole class should have been allotted space on the university server so that all could upload their own pages as opposed to using a tool like Google Sites.

My hope for the remainder of the semester is that we use products that are easy for all levels of students to use, as I am in the Elem. Ed. program and I think a lot of students in this age range might have difficulty using some of the technologies we are dealing with this semester.

Suggestions for the instructor:

1-Have different sections of the class (one section for ED. Tech. majors and a different section for everyone else)
2- Cover less technologies and spend more time on each one studied.
3- Have all students create a website without using templates.
4- Provide university server space for all class members.

Assignment #5

Today I revisted the educational blog entitled "The Innovative Educator". I read a recent posting about a lesson plan one teacher created for her class when they had a substitute teacher. She actually created an interesting assignment that utilized technology to ascertain the science background of her students. The lesson even had extensions to be used by the regular teacher or other substitutes. Whether or not the substitute lesson plan succeeded or not is unknown to date, as the plan has not yet been implemented. The teacher's intention for creating the lesson plan was to eliminate the disruption in her class due to having a substitute teacher.

I have substituted for quite a few teachers at the elementary and middle school level and while the above mentioned idea sound godd on paper, I honestly do not think that it is going to eliminate the disruption that exists in a classroom due to the regular teacher being absent and a substitute teacher being present. The eruption exists because most students see a chance to deviate from their regular classroom activity and get away with it because the substitute teacher has no idea who they are so their will be no punishment. In most classes, the best and most interesting of lesson plans is not going to engage the students enough so that it is business as usual.

I did however, think it was great that the regular classroom teacher was actually trying to come up with a way to make things easier for her sub.

Assignment #4

I read the articles on inquiry-based learning and historical thinking and found them quite interesting. I only really first heard or read anything on inquiry-based learning last semester. In fact, for the class I took last semester, me and my group had to create a whole unit based on inquiry-based learning. I must say that it was quite a difficult task considering I was used to creating lessons where the teacher just tells the class what they will be learning as opposed to creating a lesson plan where my make-believe class supposedly came up with the subject matter they wanted to learn. For the sake of writing the lessons, we had to pretend we had brainstorming session with our pretend class and the class would decide on what topic they would explore and how.

Anyway, I think inquiry-based learning is a great way of learning. This method of learning allows students to really think about thinks as opposed to just learning facts. Students learn to think on their own which gives them the tools to function in the real world. The teacher no longer stands up in the front of the class and merely tells the students things. The students no longer just read about the subject they are to learn. With inquiry-based learning the students are thinking, researching and observing. They are trying to figure out how things work on their own and they are trying to do the aforementioned many ways, in they own ways.

I would definitely use inquiry-based learning in my classroom, assuming the administration of the school where I worked did not object to the same. I firmly believe students should reach conclusions on their own. Students need to become real thinkers. In addition, I believe that inquiry-based learning makes learning more interesting for students as they in essence become their own teacher. The class basically learns from each other and I think the teacher also learns something new too.

In summation, again, inquiry-based learning would take place in my classroom in every and all subjects!

Web Quest:

Elementary School WebQuest - Quest