MERLOT screenshot

MERLOT

review of MERLOT resource

Quality of Content

Does the software present valid (correct) concepts, models, and skills?
The software I reviewed was titled, "Reading, Writing and Rings: The Cassini Mission Literacy Program." It does seem to have valid concepts, models, and skills because it is from an extension of NASA. Since Language Arts has become a forefront of eduction science has taken a back seat. The lesson given integrate writing and reading so that science it integrated into these main curriculums. Skills of compare/contrast pieces and writing paragraphs are appropriate for 3rd and 4th grade skills.

Does the software present educationally significant concepts, models, and skills for the discipline?
The skills presented such as note taking, developing a paragraph from a main idea, identifying important vocabulary and taking a stand on an issue are important Language Arts concepts that can be integrated in science.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching-Learning Tool:

What stage(s) in the learning process/cycle could the materials be used?
The stages of the learning process this material could be used for if for exploration and assessment. The skills of paragraphing, main idea, compare/contrast and taking a stand on a topic would already need to be taught. The science lesson given seem to be where then students expand upon their knowledge of these structures by applying new knowledge on the earth, moon, and sun in these Language Arts formats. It also can be used to assess both students knowledge on the science concepts and Languae Arts pieces addressed above.

Explanation or description of the topic/stating the problem.
The science lessons on the website site themselves as, "brining together reading, writing, and science in ways that underscore the belief that scientific thinking and the intelligent use of language go hand-in-hand." Integration of these curriculum areas support language, vocabulary, and comprehension development.

Demonstration of the curriculum/exploration of the problem.
An example lesson was that students read about Saturn. Then they apply the reading skills of visualizing and wondering to the texts about Saturn as they use descriptive words to visualize Saturn and wonder about why it looks and is the way it is.

Practice using the curriculum/analysis of the outcomes from solving the problem.
From hearing information read about the planet Saturn students will draw a picture from the descriptions read. Then they will label their picture using the nonfiction text feature of captions and headings. Students internalize the the science concepts through text features of nonfiction.

Applying the curriculum to "new" problems/application of the outcomes to other problems.
As a final unit assignment students design and test a parachute that would be able to drop from a height an withstand water. They use problem solving skills and writing to develop a plan to test and evaluate.

What is(are) the learning objective(s)? What should students be able to do after successfully learning with the materials?
The learning objectives are that students will integrate reading and writing into this earth, moon, sun science unit to internalize the science concepts taught. They will be using Language Arts skills while moving through the scientific process and through nonfiction texts.

What are the characteristics of the target learner(s).
These are knowledge of nonfiction text students, comprehension strategies, compare/contrast writing pieces and ability to learn and define new vocabulary.

Does the interactive/media-rich presentation of material improve faculty and students' abilities to teach and learn the materials?
The videos and simulations come from NASA and have the quality since they are straight from a reliable source. The video seem to support the scientific learning more than the integration of Language Arts curriculum since they are about the earth, moon, sun systems,

Can the use of the software be readily integrated into current curriculum and pedagogy within the discipline?
The videos can be shown from a computer through a projector. However, the texts that the lessons refer to are not linked or described as to where they can be found or where they are from.


Can the software be used in a variety of ways to achieve teaching and learning goals?
The software expands beyond videos since there are podcasts, posters to be printed off, and diagrams that be printed and cut out to be then put together.

Are the teaching-learning goals easy to identify?
The teaching-learning goals are in the foreword of the lessons. However, Grade Level Content Expectations are not linked so I would as a teacher have to match which lessons match the Michigan GLCES.

Can good learning assignments for using the software application be written easily?
The assignments are already written with an outline but the actual directions and step by step process is not easily found or on the site.


Ease of Use:

Are the labels, buttons, menus, text, and general layout of the computer interface consistent and visually distinct?
The menu for the site is on the right hand side and is not overwhelming since when you click on a title then a smaller menu appears. I found the site very user friendly and items were fast to download.


Does the user get trapped in the material? Can the user get lost easily in the material?
Some of the lessons are lengthly to read and the site also has links to solar systems, stars and other planets. You can spend a lot of time exploring it.

Does the module provide feedback about the system status and the user's responses?
I could not find a link like this on the site. There were many positive peer reviews as this materials can be used from kindergarten to 12th grade.

Does the module provide appropriate flexibility in its use?
The lessons do go in sequence but I could see picking and choosing which ones to use and explore since you can focus on them from a literacy perspective or science one or from both.

Does the learning material require a lot of documentation, technical support, and/or instruction for most students to successfully use the software?
The videos and images are easy to browse through and are labeled. The lessons are tailored to teachers.

Does the material present information in ways that are familiar for students? Does the material present information in ways that would be attractive to students?
The video, virtual tour and image are load quickly and are easy to browse through by pages or by key words.

Lesson plan on Wordle example

Wordle

Final Reflection

I felt that through taking the class CEP 810 I have both grown as a teacher and as a student of technology. The sessions each week were displayed in a way that many learning styles were able to be met. The videos were able to clarify and enhance concepts that I either had little knowledge on or that were a bit confusing. There were many technology concepts that I was able to either use myself, use in my classroom, or will try it in the future. I feel that my growth was supported by actually being able to try many concepts, such as Zoho, Jing, and Prezi. Part of my personal growth plan earlier in the semester was to use technology in three ways. They were to: expand my growth in using technology, to use one new technology concept in my classroom each week, and to share new technology with my peers at work.

These were the technology concepts that I brought into my classroom:

1. Jing: I used this to capture images of students drawing food chains on our interactive white board. We then came back to the images and used the editing tool to turn the food chain into a food web.
2. Ideas from a blog that I followed: There was a blog that showed ideas for kindergarten. Our classroom, is buddies with a kindergarten classroom and for a craft we used the idea of creating a brace map to display the parts of a scarecrow.
3. RSS feed ideas: I have used videos from my RSS feed in the classroom. Some include: synonym game and place value site.
4. Creative Commons: Students have practiced siting images they have used from the internet when working in groups.
5. Prezi: I created a storyboard for the book we read "Our Only May Amelia."
6. http://www.visuwords.com/ I used this with book clubs on new vocabulary they came across as they read.
7. I created a Smilebox creation depicting highlights from our Halloween party.

These were the technology concepts I shared with peers at my school:

1. Google Docs
2. Prezi
3. Jing
4. RSS feeds
5. Delicious bookmarks

These were the technology concepts that I have continued to use in my everyday life:

1. TPACK to help with my organization
2. Google Docs, Google Reader, and Google Presentation
3. Jing
4. Delcious bookmarks
5. Interactive Whiteboard information from the SIG presentations

I feel that I would have liked to grow a little more in understanding cloud computing. I tried to do some of my own research to better understand the concept and some of the apps available for teaching. I felt that my limitation to learning more about cloud computing was that since I only really understand it in the world of Google apps that I am constricted when trying to learn about it in other ways.

I also would have liked to learn more lessons that I could actually integrate into the classroom. There were a lot of technology resources available throughout the course but I felt that they were more helpful on an individual basis. However, I found discussion forum for lessons that integrated NETS-S resourceful.

Some concepts that I have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology are that first using it through modeling and then slowly releasing responsibility demonstrates scaffolding. Also, having students work in groups allow for them to problem solve first amongst themselves compared to coming straight to the teacher. One of my goals in my personal growth plan was for the students to have more self-discovery compared to me jumping into help and explaining each time. Since the course started I have released more technology responsibility to the students. I always model first so they can see the goal of the lesson in action. Students have been using some ideas that I got from MSU EduTech on MACUL Space. An example of this is that they have been doing group presentations using Prezi about long vowel words.

Integrating the Internet has helped me to think and evaluate the uses of technology in the fact that there are so many resources out there. From following a few 4th grade blogs, I was able to gain some sites to use in my classroom for all subjects. I even was able to uses a few sites on the same concept, such as place value and vocabulary. Also, I have become more aware of the fact that I need to have a critical eye when using the Internet since there is so much out there. Using quality control is really important so that they the technology used in the classroom is actually enhancing learning and not hampering or wasting valuable class time just to say it was utilized.

I feel that the assignment that I turned in that really exemplified good teaching with technology was the Personal Learning Network Visualization Plan. I like to use project based learning as much as possible. I feel that this project was opened ended so that I, as a student, could use the type of technology that meshes best with my learning style. I decided to use iMovie since integrating sound, pictures, and movement is very hands on.

I also found that the SIG project was an amazing opportunity. I was very hesitant to learn that there would be an online group project. I did not know how this could be possible. However, through the use of Google Docs, Google Presentation, and especially Google Chat, our group came together. It was incredible to see our group talking to one another online while we edited our project. It truly showed that online collaboration is possible.

As I look back at my Personal Growth Plan, I had three main goals. One was to integrate at least one new technology each week in my classroom so that students could have more self-discovery compared to being so teacher directed. A second was to share technology tips with peers at my school. Finally, the third was to increase my technology skill set. As highlighted above I was able to meet all of these goals. I feel that I became well rounded from this class since my goals were not only centered around my classroom or myself, but also to share technology tips with my peers. I even have shown my family some new sites and tips that awed them, such as Jing and Delicious.

A new goal I have for myself is to begin a blog for my classroom as noted in my Technology Plan. I feel that it would be beneficial for parents and other educators to gain an insight into our classroom each day. I see it starting as teacher directed but then students could take turns writing a post about each day of school. I will reach this goal by continuing to look at mentor blogs, such as the 4th grade blogs I follow on my Google Reader. I will also try to gain feedback from families and teachers at school as to the type of information they would like to see in the blog.

My long-term goal after this course is to continue widening the scope of my technology knowledge. I signed up to take CEP 811 in the spring and will take CEP 812 in the summer. I plan to keep integrating technology into my classroom daily and hope there will be professional development opportunities possible each year. I became more confident in my use of technology throughout this course and believe it will continue to grow and expand.

Learning Styles

My learning styles:

• Tactile/Kinesthetic
• Visual

Types of teaching strategies more effective to my learning style:

• Tactile/Kinesthetic: Hands-on approach, exploration of what is being taught, many breaks, listening to music while working, skimming thought materials before really digging into it, and making around to learn new things.
• Visual: Being able to see everything that is going on. May visual displays such as charts, diagrams, illustrations, videos, notes, hand-outs, and other images. Taking detailed notes with highlighting important details.

Types of teaching strategies less effective to my learning style:

• Tactile/Kinesthetic: Sitting for a long time, not being about to explore myself, and listening for long periods of time.
• Visual: Listening without any visual representations, many verbal distractions, images without pictures and diagrams,

We can't teach each lesson focusing on every learning style that we have in the classroom. What should be our focus instead?

• In each lesson it would be beneficial to have visual, auditory, and tactile elements to the lesson. When giving directions you can orally say them, write them on the board, and also have the kids practice them by moving.
• You can make sure that students have a chance to work independently, with pairs, and with materials so that students can watch, listen and actively participate.
• Visual learners make of many of the population then auditory and then tactile. However, all three styles should be in each lesson to best meet the needs of as many students as possible.

Creative Commons Lab

**I had to change my image since the Lansing Capital Building image was not allowed to be downloaded.

Photo Attribution

Original image: "The mascot pup after a bath in 1943"

Image Url: http://www.flickr.com/photos/australian-war-memorial/3526345203/

By: Ronald Keith Monro

License URL: http://www.awm.gov.au/about/copyright/index.asp

Image

Photo Attribution

Original image: "Michigan State Capital"

Image URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/larrythebiker/47034025/

By: Larry the Biker

License URL: http://www.flickr.com/help/general/#147

I use images in my classroom all the time. Just today we read a book about tap dancing and most of my students have not seen this before. I shared both images from my Google search and videos from You Tube. Students then asked if they could have them put up on our classroom sites so they could view them at home. The copyright of these are important to know since I was sharing them with my class and then they might be sharing these with others.

I would use this image in my classroom since we are currently learning about the Michigan government. Most students have not traveled outside of the town they currently live in and would be interested to see what an actual capital building looks like. I could use this image to compare and contrast how the city town hall looks in the area which the students go to school at compared to the Lansing State Capital. It would be important to share with the students that I did not take this photo since credit is due to the correct person. I would share the cite of this image with them so they understand more about citing and the responsibility with it.

From cep 810

From cep 810

PC Maintenance and Security

Tutorial 1: : Explaining Cookies.

One thing that I learned that I would like to share with others is that cookies are small information bites that are placed on your computer and this is how websites keep track of you. There are two types persistent cookies and session cookies. Persistent cookies are ones that track your interactions on a site each time you visit and session cookies only track each individual session separately.

I was surprised to learn that cookies are what track and remember your name when you come back to a site. The example the tutorial gave was that when you set up an account with amazon and make a few purchases and come back in to login into the site it welcomes you with your name and suggested items to purchase based on past items bought. When I completed my online Scholastic book order this morning cookies tracked my previous purchase also an suggested books to buy.

Tutorial 2: Sandboxie

I think it is important to know about this product since it can be downloaded from the Internet and its purpose is for information from the Internet to not go straight back to your hard drive but to this program Sandboxie. You then have complete security on the Internet.

The thing that surprised me the most was that you can use this program through your web browser so that anything you click on or download does not come back to your hard drive but is stored in the Sandboxie.

Tutorial 3: Setting up preferences in Google search

You can filter searches in Google by clicking preferences and then following down until you get to filtering safe searches. Then there are three options and you can pick strict filtering.

I was surprised to hear that you can pick how many search results come up. The default is ten but there could be up to 100. It would be helpful to know this since it would connect with the type of searches a person does and how time is available.

Tutorial 4: Malwear and how you get it

This word is defined as being "malicious software to destroy, wreak havoc, hide potentially incriminate information and and damage computer software." It is meat to "break your computer" and is an umbrella term for many examples of Malwear.

I was surprised to hear how you get it. It can come from downloaded pictures, games, and software. It can come from pop ups, emails, and peer to peer software sharing. These all can include viruses, even Instant Messenger can hurt your computer if your computer is not updated with anti-virus protection systems.