Week 14

Using Video for Teaching and Learning

As educators, our aim is to get students energized and engaged in the hands-on learning process, and video is clearly an instructional medium that is compelling and generates a much greater amount of interest and enjoyment than the more traditional printed material. Using sight and sound, video is the perfect medium for students who are auditory or visual learners. With the added use of subtitles each child then has the choice to watch, listen to, or read each presentation. Video stimulates and engages students creating interest and maintaining that interest for longer periods of time, and it provides an innovative and effective means for educators to address and deliver the required curriculum content.

 The more interested and engaged students are, and the more interactive each learning session is, the more students will enjoy, learn from and retain information from the lesson. Video provides a means of interactive instruction and is a very flexible medium. Having the ability to stop, start and rewind is absolutely invaluable. It provides the option to stop each video and challenge students to predict the outcome of a demonstration, and elaborate on, or debate a point of historical reference. You also have the option to rewind a section of the video to review a segment to ensure that children understand a key concept. You can ensure to add further interactivity by copying activities, conducting discussions or repeating demonstrations and experiments in the your classroom.

 Minimum Equipment that You Need to Produce a Video :

·         A recording device (webcam, camera, or screencasting software).

·         Access to editing software (iMovie, windows movie maker, or an online tool).

·         Computer, laptop, or tablet.

·         An online presence to post videos like YouTube, SchoolTube, or Vimeo.

There are many ways to apply video technology in the classroom. One very simple could be to make an "introduce yourself" video, and show it to our students the first day of class. We will  look more approachable when we use video instead of the standard introduction speech. We can incorporate our credentials, hobbies, and favorite music all in one video. I am pretty sure that most of our students are going to be surprised with this idea. After our self introduction video, it could be a good idea to have our students create a 30 second video about themselves so they can all get to know each other, and as the first class assignment for them. We can help our students with ideas for the content. What did they do over the summer? What are their hobbies?. Other idea could be to create a "moving flashcards" video. We can make the memorization fun again. We can have our students create an Animoto slideshow of vocabulary words, historical dates, the periodic table, etc. Students can integrate music and images which I am sure it will help students better absorb the information and it is a lot more fun than index cards. Animoto is an easy-to-use website where we and our students can create 30-second videos for free. As educators, we can sign up and get a free Animoto Plus account. The Plus account allows us to sign up 50 of our  students for six months with the ability to create videos of unlimited length. A final idea could be to create a "virtual field trip" video. It can be logistically and economically challenging to get the  entire class out on the open road to experience the world. We can have students pick a local attraction like a national park or monument and create a video about it. It will feel like you are actually there.

Week 14

TED-ED   Lesson

This is a TED-ED lesson I created about How the Electoral College works. This today's trend topic is going to be my final project about. I think this lesson is a good start to know a little more about what happen with our vote during the Presidential election day. I wrote some questions about the video in the "Think" section. In the "Dig Deeper" section I added some links and images that students can access to get some more information. Also I posted a discussion question about the video in the "Discuss" section and a text box for some  final thoughts.

Click here to acces the TED-ED lesson I created

Jorge Villarreal

Week 13

Using Google Photos for teaching and learning

Google Photos has many features that we can take advantage of in Education. It is a free photo management system. It is a cloud base application and offers us unlimited storage for high-resolution images. Using this application we can easily upload images and videos through auto-syncing and drag-and-drop interfaces. Once we have the images uploaded, we can manipulate the images, post them to Facebook and Twitter, share a link pointing to the images, create an Album, or tell Stories with them. Google Photos has a smart search that use keywords much like what we do while searching for images in Google search. In Google Photos, the keyword “food” , for example, will return the images of foods, a color keyword like “red”, “green”, or “black”  will come up with images with the respective shade or have the appointed color. Google Photos comes with a photo editor. The edit button will bring a toolbar which lets us do some basic image editing such as cropping the image, adjusting the shade, lights, and colors. Another feature is the image compression. As we are uploading photos to Google Photos, the image size is compressed. Once it has been uploaded, download the photos and we can find that the image sizes are much smaller, almost 80% compression rate.

In the classroom we can make a lot of projects using Google Photos. We can work with K-2 kids  in a photo album to introduce kids to numbers. Here you will assist kids taking the pictures. You give each child a number and ask them to find things that correspond with that number and take a picture of them. For example, if they are assigned the number 3, they may look around the classroom, school, or outside for things that are gathered in 3's. They may find three books together in the library, or three apples in the classroom. Then take a picture of the books or apples. You can then make a Numbers Album in Google Photos with each number being a different page. You would have the child word process the word for the number; the figure for the number, and then insert the pictures. In the same way we can generate other Google Photos o albums to introduce kids with the colors, shapes, etc.

A project for 6-8th graders could be an album-directory in Google Photos of the school's staff and faculty. The teacher will form 3 groups each day to work in 3 different assignments. The idea is to finish the project in five days. If the total number of person in the directory is 20, we are going to work with four person each day. Group 1 is going to take several pictures of each person, and select the best ones of each. Group 2 is going to interview the persons. They are going to compile name, position, main functions and a brief personal message, and Group 3 is going to upload the pictures in Google Photos, and type the info for each person. The next day other 3 different groups is going to work on the same assignments and so on each day until complete the project.

The final idea could be a Google Photos album of a field trip for 3 - 5th grade students. The idea is to create some kind of a field trip digital memory. The teacher take lots of pictures when the class is on a field trip. Back in the classroom, each student can choose 1 picture to work with on Google Photos. The students write a short description of what was happening or why this moment was important.

Jorge Villarreal.

Week 13

Google Photos Assignment.

This is the link to access the Google Photo Album that I create. This album tells the story of the great American mountain lion of San Andres. This story is a reflection on the extermination of some species of animals in some regions of the world caused by human unconsciousness.

https://goo.gl/photos/xNzQygUfHZRRAM9P8

Jorge Villarreal.

Week 12

Self-directed Learning using Feedly

Animatron: Animation Creation for Teachers and Students

I read an article in "The Ed Tech Round UP" site about a free and simple to use animation creator application called "Animatron". This app allows teachers and students create short videos for presentations, and I think it would work well for 6-12 teachers and students. Users will need to register with the website. When you run the app, Animatron will load a blank canvas, and users can add content, in form of images, pictures, text, shapes, lines, and more. As users add content, they will see the content represented as “layers”. Users can adjust the order and length in which the content appears in their video. Once content has been added, users can toggle between the “Design” and “Animation” settings. Users can add multiple canvases to their video. Also they can set transitions between their canvases, and if they wish, they can add a voiceover to their video.

Animatron is cloud based app, so no installations and no plugins are needed. It is built on HTML5 technology which allows to work on both, desktop computers and mobile devices. The software is intuitive, so it makes it very easy to learn. It features a free Marketplace with hundreds of pre-animated characters, props and backgrounds that allow creating animations in minutes. The app also offers importing options. It is possible to import fonts, images, video and audio in various formats to be used when creating a video or animation. Animatron allows two or more people to work simultaneously on one project in real time which makes it an important feature for us in Education.

http://www.edtechroundup.org/home/reviews-animatron-animation-creation-for-teachers-and-students

QuizPedia: Free Online Quizzes for Teachers and Students

I read other an article also in "The Ed Tech Round UP" site about an online quiz creation resource similar to Kahoot! and Quizizz, but with the difference that this app was designed primarily for students to create quizzes. QuizPedia is a quiz tool that turns the tables and let the students make quizzes instead of the teacher. This makes them co-creators of knowledge and strengthens their skills.

In order to create their own multi-modal quizzes students must be able to research, evaluate and validate information and they must distil their knowledge down to a few key questions. This forces them to reflect about the subject from different angles. What do I know about this? What is most important? How do I best present my knowledge to my peers?

And not only do the students obtain knowledge while researching and creating the quiz, the quiz can also help them retain that knowledge if they take the quiz again at a later time, perhaps studying for an exam on the subject.

http://www.edtechroundup.org/home/reviews-quizpedia-free-online-quizzes-for-teachers-and-students

 

Week 12

Using LiveBinders for teaching and learning

LiveBinder is a Web 2.0 tool that we can use as a digital binder to store any kind of online information. There are no design or layout issues to contend with when we use LiveBinders because everything uploaded to the binder is organized in tabs and sub-tabs. The tabs and sub-tabs, are similar to pages in a book, organize information and resources for ease of students viewing. The features of these binders allow us as educators to upload resources in the form of PDFs, images, presentations, videos, podcasts, documents, and more. If a teacher or instructor desires to include links to online resources, all they need to do is create a special tab for these links.

As educators we know that we are always so busy in our classrooms creating, organizing, and storing lesson plans. LiveBinders allows us to create, organize, and share information. As users we  can put almost anything into the binder. Students and teachers can link web pages and YouTube videos or just put documents, images, and videos inside their LiveBinders. All LiveBinber users  have the option of create different tabs and sub-tabs just as we would do in a tangible 3-ring binder.

One idea for using LiveBinders for teaching and learning could be for a reading class. A reading teacher 1st-5th grade can collect all the reading material of the year using one digital binder. She or he can include tabs and sub-tabs that links to different types of readings as well as tabs and sub-tabs that links to libraries and reading tools with techniques to improve reading depending on the grade teaching. When the teacher feels that his reading digital binder is strong enough for the grade teaching, he can share it by making it public to other reading teacher. Other idea could be for a 5th grade History class. The teacher can create a digital binder to learn History by creating a travel binder. Students team up with partners and plan a trip to a particular country. The idea is to get them to create a scenario where they have to travel to this country and then document what they visited. The teacher need to provided guidelines, handouts and resources that help the students with their projects. The digital binder can include for example one tab as an introduction of the country to be visited. Also one tab for each day spend in that country with sub-tabs that links to the places to be visited as well as relevant information of each place. Finally other idea could be a digital binder for a teacher conference presentation. This project can be use as a way to present conference material in an organized format in the binder. The teacher addresses all the important issues about the presentation  with examples of tools that other teachers can use for their work, depending on the grade and the subject to be teach.  Teacher can also provides guidelines on how to use some of the web 2.0 tools that he or she is using. 

Jorge Villarreal.

Week 12

LiveBinders  Assignment


Click here to go to My LiveBinder

I create a binder to organize my ESL classes as a student at El Paso Community College.
This is going to help me find the right notes needed to complete all the assignments as well as to prepare me for the quizzes and final exams.


Jorge Villarreal

Week 11

A Final lesson idea

I would like to teach a lesson about American Government subject for grades 11-12th about Electoral College as a topic for the lesson.

  The presidential election is a current trend. Perhaps we are living the most important presidential election of modern times, therefore it will be a historical moment that would indisputably affect the immediate future of the nation.
I chose as a topic the Electoral College to give a broader and understandable aspect of how it works, in addition to other important details that we must take into account.

The American Government subject studies the origin and development of the U.S. Constitution, structure and powers of the national government including the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, federalism, political participation, the national election process, public policy, civil liberties, and civil rights.

Americans elect the President and Vice President through a method of indirect popular election. On the first Tuesday in November, voters cast their ballots for a presidential candidate. These votes actually count towards a group of electors who pledge to vote for a specific candidate in the Electoral College. The "Electoral College" is the group of citizens selected by the people to cast votes for President and Vice President.

The presidential/vice presidential pair who wins the popular vote in any given state receives all of the state's Electoral College votes (with two exceptions). In the end, the winner of the race is the candidate who receives a majority (270 or more) of the 538 Electoral College votes. The results of the election aren't official until the President of the Senate counts the votes out loud at a special joint session of Congress held in early January .

I am going to use two Web 2.0 tools for this lesson, Prezi and Edmodo.

Jorge Villarreal.

Week 11

Helping a teacher to use wikis

It is known that the use of technology in the classroom has been a controversial debate for the last decade. Parents, teachers, policy makers, and students alike have weighed and argued the potential benefits versus the risks and consequences of classroom technology, not only referring to the devices many students personally own, but also when referring to the integration of Web 2.0 tools into the everyday education experience. It’s difficult to be 100% for the use of educational technology all of the time, when there are so many convincing arguments against it.  Most teachers find a happy medium with technology. It is useful in some situations, but a distraction in others. Educators have to make the first step in the integration of technology in the classroom, because technology is going to be in the future of Education and no one can stop it. In this case Jane, a 6th grade teacher in the Ysleta Independent School District, made the first move trying to integrate technology in her classroom. She decided to use wikis in one of the projects of her class. Jane's students should made some online research and collaboratively in groups write an essay on Wikispaces. There were several problems in the scenario presented here, and Jane's experience of teaching is not a warranty of a problem-free project when integrate technology for the first time.

One of the problems is that not all the students in a group worked about the same in the project. "In one group, only one student was involved in writing the essay. Other students made only minor editing". A possible solution to this problem might be to create and distribute responsibilities into the group. The idea is to create some strategies that use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of the subject. Each member of a team is responsible of learning what is taught which create  an atmosphere of achievement.

http://www.dailyteachingtools.com/cooperative-learning-tasks.html

Other problem here is about tensions regarding ownership and credit. A possible solution to this problem might be to apply collaborative learning strategies. This learning involves students working in pairs or small groups to discuss concepts, or find solutions to problems. This often occurs in a class session after students are introduced to course material through readings or videos before class, and/or through instructor lectures. Similar to the idea that two or three heads are better than one, many instructors have found that using this technique, students teach each other by addressing misunderstandings and clarifying misconceptions.  

https://www.edutopia.org/stw-collaborative-learning-college-prep

And finally, some groups create problems at the time of write, edit or delete something due to a lack of coordination working on wikis. A possible solution to this problem might be to establish good communication channels. The wiki should be for as much communication between the group as possible, including sharing and editing documents, posting meeting agendas and minutes, schedules, progress reports, and group member contact information. Team members can visit the site to review progress, view earlier documents, and communicate with other team members.

http://theelearningcoach.com/elearning2-0/using-wikis-for-elearning/

Jorge Villarreal.

Week 10 - Section II: Ideas for using Twitter for teaching and learning.

The best way to get the most out of  a product is to use it. Using Twitter is a two part process. The first part is as a consumer, where we follow people, read their tweets, and learn from them. A lot of people stop there, which is easy to understand since that is the easy part. But the best part happens when we share, when we create and not just consume. One important thing about Twitter is to be connected and create a network. Follow some of the people we find interesting, exchange ideas and conversations with others using the #hashtag conversations we are involved in, and when appropriate, take it to the next step, connect with them, either via other social media, email, or at a place  you are both attending. Sometimes from behind the glow of modern devices, we forget to continue to forge our networking relationships in more conventional ways, too.

In Education is very important to share our resources. If we always find interesting things on Twitter, such as lesson plans, we have to share our awesome resources, too. Along the lines of the "get what you give" idea, the more we feed into the community, the more robust it will become and the more it will grow and become useful to us. There are many resource sharing sites that are conceptually great fail when not enough people contribute to them. We do not have to be a chronic Tweeter to stay regularly involved,  but it is important to check in, reply, and participate to keep the community going.

As educators we can take advantage of Twitter in many ways. For example when in a field trip, we can stay informed sick kids and parents of all our activities since we leave school. Smart phones allows us to keep them engaged with pictures and descriptions of the lessons learned. Other idea could be directed to the parents of K-12 students interested in daily classroom activities, so they can follow teacher tweets discussing some of the lessons learned and any progress on projects with one quick and handy trip to a dedicated Twitter feed. It is a good idea also to apply Twitter ideas mixing fun and education ideas like to go on a scavenger hunt. We can get students moving and organize a sort of Twitter scavenger hunts. We can even see if other classrooms or professionals want to get involved. This activity can easily be applied to a wide number of grade levels and academic subjects.

Jorge Villarreal

Week 10 - Section I : Learning from Hashtags

Using the hashtag #onlinelearning I found a very interesting tweet about the future of the online learning for students as well as for teachers.

https://twitter.com/helloammba/status/791268233949089792

The future of the online learning.

As technology is rapidly changing the world around us, many people worry that technology will replace human intelligence. Some educators worry that there will be no students to teach anymore in the near future as technology might take over a lot of tasks and abilities that we have been teaching our students. I think that Education will never disappear. It will just take up different forms. Similarly to the personalized learning experience, students will be able to modify their learning process with tools they feel are necessary for them. Students will learn with different devices, different programs and techniques based on their own preference. Blended learning and flipped classrooms form important terminology within this change.

Students are having more opportunities to learn at different times in different places. Online learning tools facilitate opportunities for remote, self-paced learning. Classrooms will be flipped more each year, which means that the theoretical part is learned outside the classroom, whereas the practical part shall be taught face to face, or online interactively with a teacher behind the screen. In the next years, students will incorporate so much independence in to their learning process, so mentoring will always become fundamental to student success. Teachers will form a central point in the jungle of information, so our students will be paving their way through. Though the future of education seems remote, I think that the teacher and educational institutions will continue to be vital to reach an academic performance.

The scope for innovation is truly vast. The web contains the biggest store of information available to anyone in the world, and the internet is the widest-reaching communication medium. A considerable amount of valuable information is already available. Today institutions are thinking of innovative ways to incorporate digital content into learning programs. Online learning will continue to offer unparalleled opportunities for interactivity and open communication among students and teachers. I think that the future of the online learning has already started.

Jorge Villarreal

Week 9 - Reflection

Using Edmodo for teaching and learning

As educators we can use Edmodo for teaching and learning as a way to enhance the experiences that students have with what we would already normally be doing in our classrooms. Posting assignments on Edmodo gives students a chance to see written reminders of directions and due dates that we have stated orally.  Putting assignments online also gives us the chance to attach files, link websites, and many more tasks. Posting our learning targets, success criteria, and assignments for parents and missing students creates transparency and helps absent students get caught up.  Students never have to worry about losing an assignment.  It is helpful for us to have saved and organized digital copies of assignments that our students turn in.  Sometimes we can have conversations with students through Edmodo that would be uncomfortable for students to initiate.  Linked parent accounts create total transparency and trust regarding such conversations. We are all connected in an Educational chain, students, teachers, parents, and a large professional community. The Edmodo student management, give us the necessary resources for us that have more than one class and subjects, ensuring a very efficient workflow. It also helps us assign instructional content and create assessments, with the advantage of a grading tool which parents and students can access.

A Paperless Idea.

One of my main problems teaching is the way I manage paper-based assignments, quizzes and all the written work related. Sometimes I cannot find one or more student work and is when I get in trouble trying to be fair with my students.  I can use Edmodo to generate a digital file to store all the students related work. I can also establish a three way communication teacher-students-parents to improve the teaching and the learning experience in and out of the classroom.

A Learning Community Idea.

The objective is to form a group of teachers or staff or both that share common academic goals and attitudes, who meet semi-regularly to collaborate on class work. The group have to meet every specific period of time and we can use Edmodo to post their minutes of the meeting and then any follow up or discussion that occurs between meetings. Also we can use  Edmodo to post to the entire staff important documents such as blank field trip permission forms and such that all staff or educators need access to. By posting them in Edmodo they remain in all libraries and are accessible by all the people in the learning community.

A Cultural Exchange Project Idea.

A Cultural Exchange Project give students the opportunity to learn about other world cultures by connecting your classroom with classrooms around the globe via an Edmodo group created by Teachers. Cultural exchange programs expose students to people from different cultural, religious, geographic and socio-economic backgrounds and in so doing provide the opportunity for students to develop a greater understanding of diversity in USA and worldwide. They allow students to interact with and learn from people who are different from themselves and to participate in new and unique experiences beyond their own communities. Cultural exchange assists students to develop positive relationships with others, understand a broader range of perspectives, and develop the knowledge and skills needed for participation in our multicultural society.

Jorge Villarreal.

Week 8 - Prezi Presentation

Week 8 - Reflection

Self-directed Learning using Feedly

 

Mental Health Problems Students Face

I read an article written by Amanda Green posted in The Edudemic blog this month about mental health problems students face. The title attracted me a lot because I have seen some cases as an educator so I decide to know more about it. The article talks about the important role the teachers have to identify some signs and symptoms to pay attention to. As educators we spend so much time with students, particularly observing them in social and educational situations, so we can provide invaluable help in identifying possible mental health issues, so we can work with parents to help students get the help they need.

According with the author mental health issues can start in very young students or emerge later with teenagers. We have to be alert because sometimes it is difficult to detect that there is a health problem at first, so we think that everything is normal, but in other cases we notice something like the child suddenly starts yelling at you or you find yourself stunned and shocked when the child begins saying upsetting things you would not expect from a child their age. Maybe the child grades has suddenly dropped, and the child just does not seem interested in doing anything about it. In other cases the child has started skipping school. Children might be having dramatic mood swings from one moment to the next, or  maybe they are starting doing things that they haven’t done in a long time.

Parents and teachers know when the children are not acting like themselves and may be they are going to need help. The article establish other important signs and symptoms to pay attention to:

• Appearing withdrawn or wanting to be alone all the time.
• Appearing overly anxious and worried. Or just having a lot of fear.
• Losing sleep or having nightmares.
• Losing or gaining a lot of weight.
• Appearing depressed, sad, or irritable a lot.
• Appearing aggressive or violent. Or breaking rules more than usual.
• Self-harming behaviors like cutting, scratching, head banging, or otherwise hurting themselves.
• Thoughts of death, wanting to die, or talking about suicide.

The article establish that as many as 15 million children in the U.S. could be diagnosed with mental health disorders. However, only as few as  7 percent of these young people actually receive the care they need.

At the end, the article list the Most Common Mental Health Issues For Children, according with the APA (The American Psychological Association) :

1.     ADHD, (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder)

2.     Anxiety

3.     Depression

4.     Autism Spectrum Disorders

5.     PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)

6.     OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

7.     Tourette

8.     ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder)

9.     CD (Conduct Disorder)

10.                        Eating Disorders (Anorexia/Bulimia)

http://www.edudemic.com/student-mental-health/

The Pros and Cons of Technology in the Classroom

I read an article written by Amanda Ronan posted in The Edudemic blog last April about the pros and cons of Technology in the Classroom. The article talks about how in the last decades, technology has taken the front seat in Education and society is becoming quite dependent on the technology. It is the technology which helps in enhancing the skills and preparing children for the future.

Technology could provide a high end environment and an interactive learning experience. There are numerous means in which teachers could use technology in their classroom. Technology in education is playing a crucial role in enhancing the skills and knowledge of the people across the Globe.

It is known that the using technology in the classroom, has been a controversial debate for the last couple of decades. Parents, teachers, policy makers, and students alike have weighed and argued the potential benefits versus the risks and consequences of classroom technology, not only referring to the devices many students personally own, but also when referring to the integration of tools into the everyday education experience.

The Ronan's article establish the next pros and cons about using technology in the classroom:

Pros of Technology in the Classroom

1.     Data and analytic reporting

2.     Just in time information

3.     Differentiated instruction

4.     Different learning modalities

5.     Assistive tech for special needs

Cons of Technology in the Classroom

1.     Replacing teachers

2.     Distracting

3.     Easier to access others’ work

4.     Disparity of access outside of class

5.     Privacy

                http://www.edudemic.com/education-technology-pros-cons/

Week 7 - Reflection

Using Google Drive for teaching and learning

The most basic way to describe Google Drive is that it is an online file cabinet where you can store documents and other digital files. Think of the word “Drive” the same way we would think of the word "hard drive"  on your computer, except that Google Drive is cloud-based application, in other words it exists online, so you can upload a file into Google Drive from your home computer, then open your Google Drive on your work computer and get into that same file. It’s accessible from wherever you have Internet. I have used Dropbox app, and it is almost the same, with the big difference that once we are inside Google Drive, we also have access to a collection of tools we can use to create things. Many of these perform the same functions as tools we are already familiar with. For example  Google Docs is a word processing tool (like Microsoft Word). Google Slides is a presentation tool (like PowerPoint). Google Sheets is a spreadsheet tool (like Excel). Google Forms is a survey creation tool (like Survey-Monkey). So Google Drive is not just a place to store things. It is also a place to make things. This means we and our  students can use these tools to do any kind of writing assignment, take tests and quizzes, and create slideshow presentations all inside the same platform.

One of the challenges we have as educators is to manage and organize documents with a class full of students. Using Google Docs which is very easy to learn as a tool for our students to make their writing assignments could make so easy for teachers to collect and control all student works. The students work using Google Docs and the teacher could use Google Forms to collect assignments. In other words Teachers create and publish a Google Form to be used as an InBox. When it is time to turn in a Google Doc, students complete the simple form and submit a link to their Google Doc. The information submitted by students automatically populates a spreadsheet to be used by the teacher to keep track of all the assignments and also to quickly access those assignments for review and grading.

Another idea is to create some kind of self-grading quiz. If we use this kind of quiz we can provide students with immediate feedback. This can increase student motivation, so we just have to create a simple self-grading quiz with a Google Form.  We create a quiz with a few multiple choice questions. Students take the quiz themselves to submit the correct answers, the app pops a simple formula into the spreadsheet end to let the app do the grading for you.  This immediately publish the spreadsheet of results. We have to teach students how to use the find tool to quickly find their score and significantly raise the stakes to increase student motivation.  It would be better if  we require students to sign in with some sort of unique identifier that protects their privacy.

Week 7 - SURVEY

Create a survey using Google Forms.

The survey I created is about Customer Satisfaction of the Longoria Bank new accounts department service.

This is the link of the Survey:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdg7ZEYwv55bVyPqVR1OowKcpoMswHVEgnqdWAQc6rBuuJRig/viewform

Week 6 - Reflection

Using Pinterest for teaching and learning.

I had heard about Pinterest before but now that I know a little more about it I realize that is s perfect technological tool to share and comment on visual material, which could be photographs, sketches, videos or web pages. I read that in the last couple of years its presence in the network has an incredible growing, and I think it is because its structure is more versatile at the time to compile content, organize and store ideas, so it is easy connect and comment on other people's work. Also one  important thing is that using this tool you can forget all about copyrights issues. You can attach images from other people’s web pages, or re-pin content from other people’s boards.  In fact sharing content from other people is actively encouraged. This tool is about the social activity of interaction and sharing and gaining followers, rather than keeping ownership of your work. When the Pin It button is used to select pins from a web page, the pin automatically includes a link to the source web page, so you can remember where you found it, and other people can go to the source for more information.

There are a lot of ideas to use Pinterest.  Educators of all levels and grades have a growing presence in this social media. After I have created my Pinterest account I immediately create a board with courses and learning material that I am needing for this term where I included the Lynda.com video clips. It is an excellent way to organize content that I access frequently in one place. I do not need to remember addresses or web pages to access what I need quickly.

Another idea could be create boards on Pinterest to concentrate research and reading material in one point. One important thing using internet is that our students need to access secure and reliable sites. As educators (K-12) we can create Pinterest boards to give our students a secure and structured list of resources where they can find the information they need about some specific topics that we need to cover in our lesson plans. The web is too wide and there are many unreliable sources. Sometimes it would be good to restrict what you want them to look at, so we can create  boards with all the information they need so they can concentrate on writing and reading, rather than searching through masses of information.

Teachers can design research projects to improve student knowledge in any subject such as World History. For example, if the research project is about The Great War, each student can create a Great War board where they can pin research, YouTube videos, and pictures from both Pinterest and around the Internet. When they’re ready to take their project to the writing or presentation stage, they’ll have everything they need in one organized, visually , and easy to access place, and the best if students use this kind of tools like Pinterest for research it could foster both digital literacy and modern research skills.

Week 6: Pinterest Boards

Using Pinterest to create boards

Hello everyone:

This week I created an account on Pinterest.com. Then I created a board, collected pins, and found some educational boards to follow. This is the link to access my educational board on Pinterest:

https://www.pinterest.com/javamexi

Week 5

Using Evernote for teaching and learning

I had not heard too much about Evernote before, but now that I started to know a little more about it I think that this Web 2.0 tool can be a very useful element for us in the processes of teaching and learning. Based on the reading material and my little experience using Evernote I can say that this tool is very versatile, so its implementation in Education can only be limited by our own creativity.

I am a ESL student and when I made the audio notes for the assignment  I notice immediately that this option is perfect to improve everyone's  pronunciation and especially for those who are learning a second language. In fact I made an Evernote personal notebook, and in less than an hour I recorded more than 50 phrases with at least 50 words. I took my English text book and I started recording phrases. Some of them I re-recorded more than five times until I was satisfied with the sound and the tone of the words.

For students to achieve a comprehensive, well-rounded education, integrated teamwork on several fronts is very important. Evernote is one of  several Web 2.0 tools that we can use to establish a better communication between students, between students and teachers, and among parents and educators.  It is easy to share projects and write notes with  Evernote, so no matter if the student is shy or have some problems in socializing with others, here everybody can express opinions, establish points of views, so the more teamwork fundamentals exhibited, the more opportunity exists for students to learn the important  skills of compromise and collaboration.

 Educators need to be efficient, so they have to be or become more organized, and I think that this is the better way to succeed in Education. Evernote can be something like an assistant for teachers, because it is a cloud application that is designed to ‘remember everything for you’ and allows users to easily collect and find data on multiple devices, so no matter where the teacher is, home or school, they can access all of their information efficiently. Teachers receive a lot of pressure thru administrative, assessment and reporting demands, but it they use Evernote as an assistant they can store student assessment notes, lesson plans and administrative tasks within the app. At the end teachers can get more time to spend with students, and this time is what directly impacts on their learning.

Week 5 - A public Evernote notebook

Week 5: Blog post 3: A public Evernote notebook

I had not heard too much about Evernote before, but now that I started to know a little more about it I think that this Web 2.0 tool can be a very useful element for us in the processes of teaching and learning.

The notes I prepared are about are about children and adolescents that use video games. Using the following link you can access my first Evernote notebook:

https://www.evernote.com/pub/javamexi173/week5-blogpost3-apublicevernotenotebook

Week 4 - Reflection

How to teach Computational Thinking

I read an article written by Steven Wolfram posted in The ED Tech Round UP blog this month about How to teach Computational Thinking. The title attracted me a lot so I decide to know more about it. I have never heard about Computational Thinking before. My first thought  was it could be a new kind of trend or something like that, but not it comes from more than 30 years ago, and the concept is growing a lot now. Computational Thinking is known as "CT" and was created to solve problems formulating things with enough clarity, and in a systematic enough way, so one can tell a computer how to do it. In order to clarify more this concept the author makes a comparison between "Mathematical Thinking" (MT) versus "Computer Thinking" (CT).  MT is about formulating things so that one can handle them mathematically, when that is possible. Computational thinking is a much bigger and broader concept, because there are just a lot more things that can be handled computationally, and it could be anything. According to the author CT is going to be a defining feature of the future, so it is important to be teaching this to kids today, because CT is going to be needed everywhere, and if we do it very well CT is going to be a key to success in almost all future careers.

I made a little more research about CT and I found a lot of information related to. One thing I found is that CT is not only essential to the development of computer applications, but also it can be used to support problem solving across all disciplines, including the humanities, math, and science.

The key is that CT uses a 4 step process to solve almost any kind of problem of any subject. Step 1 is Decomposition, which break down data, processes, or problems into smaller, manageable parts. Step 2 is Pattern-Recognition, it  works observing patterns, trends, and regularities in data. Step 3 is Abstraction, it identifies the general principles that generate these patterns, and the Step 4 is the Algorithm Design or the answer to the problem, it develops the step by step instructions for solving this and similar problems.
http://www.edtechroundup.org/editorials--press/guest-post-how-to-teach-computational-thinking

E-Rate Requests for High-Speed Internet Connections Keep Growing

This article is about a 2016 analysis of the applicants to the federal E-rate program by Oklahoma-based consulting group Funds for Learning. The E-rate program was created in 1996, and has paid out over $30 billion to help schools and libraries cover the cost of telecommunications services. This article contains two figures that jumps out this year. One is the number of requests for subsidies to help pay for high-speed which have doubled the  last year's requests and the other is that about 90 percent of applicants to the program expect their bandwidth needs will increase over the next three years, with nearly one-fourth saying it will at least the double. This info shows us a clear trend of how important is to be connected today at the highest speed possible.

There have been different trends since 1996. For example, many districts have decreased the requests for support telephone and voice services. Two years ago, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)  overhauled the program, prioritizing support for broadband and Wi-Fi networks over older technologies. In 2015, the program saw a huge jump in demand for internal wireless connectivity, but today there was a huge focus on faster connections, while the demand for wireless network equipment (such as routers and switches) continue growing.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2016/09/e-rate_high-speed_connections.html?_ga=1.98669662.15378313.1455185032

Week 3 - Reflection

Week 3:  Using blogs for teaching and learning

Reading and writing texts online are basic skills that students need to know in these days. Teaching with blogs provides the opportunity to engage students in these activities. The students can publish their writing easily and share them with an authentic audience. Once a student posts an entry, others in the class can respond, providing supportive feedback, and offering additional suggestions.

Blogs can create the needed sense of community for the classroom.  Blogs provide students the opportunity to think critically about issues and construct understanding together.  This technological tool can help to change the traditional teacher-centered classroom into a student-driven environment. The students can combine their actual form of communication to discuss traditional topics like the US Civil War, making them more interested in learning. They may be more motivated to care about the quality of their writing as they will want to communicate their thoughts precisely to avoid misunderstanding.  In addition, the ability to respond and comment on each other’s posts may lead to more discussion than the traditional classroom manner because all can participate instead of just a few talking during the class period. As Richard Byrne says Blog discussions provides a forum for shy students to express themselves with written words instead of possibly staying out of a in-classroom.

Richard Byrne established the three goals for classroom blogs: distribution, discussion, and demonstration. He named both three as blogging framework.

About Distribution blogs I would like to implement a very efficient one at school. In my opinion the school's resources are very important in the child's education, but we need the parental involvement, because it is an essential element to complete the education cycle, and I if we have an excellent communication channel with parents we can motivate them  not only in their child's education issues but also in all the school activities and projects.

About Discussion blogs I would like to implement some that can motivate students, because I like History and Math, and I know that is hard to engage students in this kind of subjects. We need a plus of creativity to success on it. Could be some relaxed blogs without complicated terms like to be in a summer camp and learn interesting things at the same time.

Demonstration blogs is the key to close the circle. I would like to implement one that give us back the needed information not only to know about the part where we are getting good results but also to know the part where we need to put more attention in order to elevate the education quality.

Welcome to My Blog

Hello !!  My name is Jorge Villarreal and this Fall 2016 term I am going to use this Web 2.0 tool. Click here to see other Web 2.0 tools.


 I am a UTEP graduate student taking EDT 5372: Web Tools for the Constructivist Classrooms.

On this blog I am going to post class reflections and it would be a pleasure to receive comments from my classmates about these. Thank You !!!!