Joseph+Linsmeier

__**Activity 1**__

The Objective of Education Is Learning, Not Teaching
I do not agree with many parts of this artical. There are certain skills students have to learn so they can learn greater things in the future. I agree that some individual facts about history or author are not important and will most likely be foregotten, but the skill on how to retrieve these facts and use them in a different venue is necessary for future higher level learning. Math for instance is sequential. One does not learn Algebra and Geometry by watching different mathematicians do it diffrent ways. I do agree we must educate for understanding and not memorization. Students must be able to apply new skills they have learned to other situations that are similar, but not the ame. This is a struggle when our traditional education model focuses on students regurgatating mindless facts back from a textbook which has the fact already highlighted.

Moving Toward Web 2.0 in the K-12 Education
I agree with the beginning of this artical in which they refer to most adult in the web 1.0 and our youth in the 2.0. I was not brought up with computers. Most of my computer use on the web is retrieving information that others have created. I do not participate in any social networks and have no desire to. I know that almost all out student at my school participate or have a desire to participate in a social network but are prevented by their parents. They have uploaded pictures and other things they have created and are constanly sharing theys new created items with their friends. I agree education must embrace a new paradigm shift. We as educators need to hold all the cards of knowledge as before. Because of the internet, many of our students learn diiferently that we did and the old education paradigm can not not meet their needs. My school is moving towards a model that drops age barriers for students. That students who learn at a faster pace can move to material that were pleviouly only offered to older students. It creates some scheduling challenges, but the result seem promising.

=Web 2.0 Is the Future of Education= It is obvious that web 2.0 is the future for meeting the needs of our modern, computer age, often stimulated. Much of this artical reflect many of the positives that the first two article mentioned. This article did point out some very important concerns that must be addressed.

__Activity #3__

 * 1.** __**wallwisher.com**__


 * Description:** It allows a teacher to create a wall in which any number of students can post questions or comments. All participants who are logged on have full view of all comment from other participants. Links to pictures and video can be put on the wall.
 * L evel of Bloom's revised taxonomy: ** Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating
 * How does it reinforce basic literacy skills? ** Students are able to see examples of other students writing, ideas, and processes which can teach and reinforce new or past skills.
 * How does it foster creativity and divergent thinking? ** It allows students to have access to the ideas and knowledge of the entire class. This sharing of ideas inspire students to think from different angles.
 * What kind of interaction and collaboration does it enable? ** The program works on all platforms, PC/Mac, Iphone, Ipod, Android etc. It allows participant to brainstorm, plan, make lists, share information, and many other things without having to wait to be called on.
 * How can this technology contribute to student performance? ** Students can share information quickly. Information on the wall from all the participants is available to the entire group. Future access is unlimited.
 * Are there any pitfalls to using this technology? ** All postings go on the wall as soon as the student posts it, so the teacher has no control what each participant may write which could contain a vulgar or harassing comment.
 * If there is a free version and a premium version with a monthly of yearly fee, is the free version adequate? ** The free version seems adequate to me.


 * 2.** __**todaysmeet.com**__


 * Description:** This program is similar to wallwisher.com. The teacher makes a virtual chat room which after connecting to this address, students can make live comments and or ask questions. Through this feedback the teacher can tailor his/her presentation, sharpen points, and address students' needs.
 * L evel of Bloom's revised taxonomy: ** Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating
 * How does it reinforce basic literacy skills? ** Teachers are able to address questions and misunderstandings on the fly as they are teaching. In many cases students can address the questions and misunderstandings of their peers with little or no input from the teacher.
 * How does it foster creativity and divergent thinking? ** It allows all students to see questions and comments of other students. Other students are able to correct a wrong or answer a question right on the fly. This create an atmosphere for peer instruction which requires a high level of understanding.
 * What kind of interaction and collaboration does it enable? ** The program works on all platforms, PC/Mac, Iphone, Ipod, Android etc. It allows participants to get their questions answered faster, and share information instantly.
 * How can this technology contribute to student performance? ** Introduction of new material go much faster allowing for more time to work on homework under the supervision of the teacher.
 * Are there any pitfalls to using this technology? ** All postings go up as soon as the student posts it, so the teacher has no control what each participant may write which could contain a vulgar or harassing comment.
 * If there is a free version and a premium version with a monthly of yearly fee, is the free version adequate? ** The free version seems adequate to me.


 * 3. __ visualthesaurus.com/vocabgrabber __**


 * Description:** The vocabgrabber allows a teacher to download or write text and then pull out all the vocabulary that pertains to a certain subject or combination of subjects. After the words are identified, there are multiple tools that allow you to reorganize the words or gather more specific information about each word.
 * L evel of Bloom's revised taxonomy: ** Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating
 * How does it reinforce basic literacy skills? ** This program allows teachers to gather and analyze vocabulary words from any subject area. This creates an opportunity to bring literature into multiple subject areas.
 * How does it foster creativity and divergent thinking? ** I think this does for teachers. It is a tool that can allow teachers to set differing criteria for cross curricular vocabulary.
 * What kind of interaction and collaboration does it enable? ** This programs encourages collaboration among teachers of multiple subjects.
 * How can this technology contribute to student performance? ** This program allows teachers to bring more Language Arts into other subjects and the other subjects areas into Language Arts. When students have a better understanding of vocabulary and writing, the benefit is across the curriculum.
 * Are there any pitfalls to using this technology? ** The full program can get quite expensive to a large school.
 * If there is a free version and a premium version with a monthly of yearly fee, is the free version adequate? ** The free version is very limited. I am quite sure that teachers would desire the full version.


 * 4. __blabberize.com__**


 * Description:** This program allows the user to download a picture of an Animal or person and create a mouth on it that can be set to sound. The picture then appears to be talking
 * L evel of Bloom's revised taxonomy: ** Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating
 * How does it reinforce basic literacy skills? ** Students and teachers could use this program to create tutorials or review projects. Through the verbal aspect of this program, students can learn about inflection, tone, and other sound qualities that convey communication.
 * How does it foster creativity and divergent thinking? ** It creates an opportunity for students to give personification to animals and objects. Can help create empathy toward others.
 * What kind of interaction and collaboration does it enable? ** The program
 * How can this technology contribute to student performance? ** Students in our Media and Film class can have another avenue to be creative in their production of different media.
 * Are there any pitfalls to using this technology? ** This software does not work well on all platforms. Without supervision, this program could be used for bullying.
 * If there is a free version and a premium version with a monthly of yearly fee, is the free version adequate? ** The free version seems adequate to me.


 * 5. __ ed.ted.com __**


 * Description:** This site has contains 190 videos and almost 16,000 classroom flips of extremely high quality. You can use, tweak, or completely redo any lesson feature on this site. You can also create lessons from scratch using videos from YouTube.
 * L evel of Bloom's revised taxonomy: ** Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating
 * How does it reinforce basic literacy skills? ** This site contains many videos and lessons on literature and language arts type topics
 * How does it foster creativity and divergent thinking? ** The videos contain photos, fine art, and dialog that can be very inspiring to the viewer. This multimedia performance can inspire students to think from a multitude of different disciplines.
 * What kind of interaction and collaboration does it enable? **Because this site is so interactive with people of all ages and all backgrounds from all over the world, one can use, modify, or create lessons using input from an immeasurable number of people.
 * How can this technology contribute to student performance? ** Students who are more visual learners will be benefit greatly from the multimedia.
 * Are there any pitfalls to using this technology? ** Even though Ted-Ed is very reputable, you can not be 100% sure the information is correct. (Confirm information if unsure)
 * If there is a free version and a premium version with a monthly of yearly fee, is the free version adequate? ** The free version seems adequate to me. But a subscription lands you much more material.


 * 6. __naiku quick question__**


 * Description:** This site allows teachers to poll students and get immediate feedback. Teacher can verbally ask the question and student can respond using any web enabled device, such as a smartphone, tablet, netbook, or computer. Works just like a clicker, but no need for hardware.
 * L evel of Bloom's revised taxonomy: ** Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating
 * How does it reinforce basic literacy skills? ** This can be used in any classroom and gives students immediate feedback from the entire group.
 * How does it foster creativity and divergent thinking? ** Because of the speed of the feedback from the entire group, whole classes, using this site, can ask what/if questions, or opinions that can generate writing ideas.
 * What kind of interaction and collaboration does it enable? ** Our High school has adopted the "bring your own" technology idea which makes this site ideal. The program works on all platforms, PC/Mac, Iphone, Ipod, Android etc. allowing for totally collaboration by the entire class.
 * How can this technology contribute to student performance? ** S tudents who in the past were unwilling to participate in class discussions, now have a reason to participate.
 * Are there any pitfalls to using this technology? ** The site does not allow for the question to be displayed. The questions must be asked verbally, thus it would not be to functional for flipping.
 * If there is a free version and a premium version with a monthly of yearly fee, is the free version adequate? ** The free version seems adequate to me.

__** REFLECTION: personal plans **__

I never imagined that there was so many Web 2.0 tools. It can be very overwhelming. I have a much better understanding of what these tools are and how they can be used. I am excited to be able to offer ideas to the teachers I evaluate during the year. Many of my teachers are eager to learn and use these technology tools to better engage their students in today's modern classroom. I plan on researching and recommending different tools for teachers as I work with them in the future. The Aces Xavier System leadership continues to push for changes from the traditional classroom where the teachers lectures then hands out worksheets. These sites can be a wonderful way for teachers to challenge their students and to meet the ever changing needs of today's computer aged children. I appreciated your patience helping me navigate through this forest of tools.