Becca's EDLF 345 Log

Reading Response 5

2005-04-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

I read an article entitled "Teaching about Saving and Investing in the Elementary and Middle School Grades," written by Mary Suiter and Bonnie T. Meszaros. The article makes excellent points and reports astounding statistics. As an example, in 2003, 12-19 year-olds spent $175 billion. The authors insist that children be provided with instruction in financial subjects when they are young, because "the longer we wait to provide personal finance education, the more time teachers will need to spend correcting information...If personal finance education is postponed until the senior year, these students - who may be most in need of personal finance education - are deprived of reaching any" (93).

The article lists numerous print and online references, guides, activities for teachers to utilize in teaching financial subjects. It lists many websites that offer both activities and information on finance (geared specifically towards schoolers). This is just one obvious way of infusing technology into teaching about finance. Microsoft Excel would also be an excellent tool for this subject. As a homework assignment, I could ask students to document their spending for a certain period of time. The vertical axis would list the day, and the horizontal the type of expense. For instance, I might have them categorize expenses into groups such as "food," "transportation," "gifts," "personal items," and entertainement." When entering the amount of money spent, students could use different colors to denote payment type. Similarily, I could ask students to document their savings and payments using spreadsheets. These activities will help them to be more dilligent when it comes time for them to use checkbooks, etc. Furthermore, it is important for students to realize where they are spending their money, to quote my grandfather. Sometimes you do not realize where the bulk of your money goes, until you see it in writing.

Students could use Tapped In to connect with students on an international level, and discuss spending habits. This will give the students a good appreciation for the consumer culture here, and around the world. Talking with one another might inspire them about wise ways to save money. Moreover, it will be fascinating for the students to see where everyone spends most of their money and the value they place on money and these items. Depending on what area of the world we communicate with, students will be able to realize how fortunate we are here in the United States in terms of money.

I definitely agree that in today's world, money is a topic that must be taught in schools. I only wish I had a better grasp of it myself!

Meszaros, Bonnie T. and Mary Suiter. "Teaching about Saving and Investing in the Elementary and Middle School Grades." Social Education. Guest Ed. Mark C. Schug and Richard D. Western. Ed. Michael Simpson. vol 69, number 2. Mar 2005. Silver Spring, MD: National Council for the Social Studies. 2005. p. 92-95.

Reading Response 3

2005-04-21T20:36:00.000-07:00

Do everything in moderation – including Power Point – would be my advice to teachers and students today, especially to those concerned about the usage of Power Point in the classroom. Edward Tufty makes a very good point when he says that Power Points help the creator, but not necessarily the viewer. I do not believe Tufty’s idea holds true in all situations, however. Power Points help students to take down essential notes. When they study these notes, students will be able to recall other points of lecture and add them to their notes on their own time. Power Points help students get a clear idea of what is important to the lesson or lecture.

Sherry Turkel complains that Power Point puts the emphasis in the wrong place – specifically on the cool transitions and effects – and detracts from the importance of conversation and interaction. As a solution, teachers should stay away from filling their Power Points with special effects, and use them primarily to provide images or present overlying themes of the lecture or presentation. Power Point can serve as a great supplementary tool! Similarly, when teachers ask students to make Power Points, set guidelines and limits on special effects. Limit the number of projects done that are designed to especially utilize the special effects tools. None of my teachers in high school lectured with Power Points. I did not experience them till college. Looking back, I would have been grateful if teachers in high school had used them. I believe they help the students stay more attentive. Furthemore, I never made a Power Point till college. Granted, I don't think Power Points should replace papers or reports, but they would have been nice visual aids during an oral presentation.

I am not too worried about Power Point, provided it does not take over other essential aspects of school, like giving speeches or writing papers. Power Point should not run the show, but help it along.

Digital Story-making Reflection

2005-03-21T13:29:00.000-08:00

What an awesome assignment! Whenever I hear about or see software like Windows Movie Maker, I think that it will be too complicated for me. I probably would not have attempted to use Windows Movie Maker if a project had not been assigned for class. Senior year of high school, my good friend and I put together a digital story for another friend's birthday, but she did all the work!
My main difficulties in completing this assignment did not stem from Windows Movie Maker. Rather, the hardest part was gathering artifacts, since all my pictures were clumped together on a CD-rom, and I had to carefully sort through them and save the ones I needed. Importing pictures and recording narration was very easy. However, I did have some difficutly in arranging the narration and setting it up in just the way I wanted. I might be mistaken, but adding transitions and effects to the pictures seemed to set my narration off in some places, which I then had to go back and fix. I also failed to read instructions carefully enough, and tried adding music before I had rendered my movie.
I made a couple of mistakes in my project. I forgot about adding a title, or introduction, and my music overpowers my narration. Fortunately, I can change both these things before showing the video to my friends. I cannot wait to make more videos in the future. I am already planning to do one for my older brother as a college graduation gift.
In my future high school social studies classroom, assuming I teach American history, I could assign a project in which students, working in groups, took pictures of themselves acting out a certain event in history, like the Boston Tea Party, and then used these pictures to create a movie. Or students could depict a common event during a specific time period, like a dinner party or dance in the South in the early 19th century. This would allow them to be creative, dress up, and really imagine themselves back in time. Every group could present to the class. This would certainly keep students' attention, over simply reading reports or showing overheads.

Reading Response 2

2005-02-17T14:19:00.000-08:00

This article hits the nail right on the head in terms of how Social Studies teachers should be engaging their students in the classroom. Personally, I thoroughly enjoy history, although I must admit that many classes, lectures, and history books have proved quite boring. If even I, as a history major, get bored, think how much more frequently a non-history major must get bored in class! Being able to entertain and keep my students busy in class is actually one of my fears as a prospective Social Studies teacher. Incorporating digital technology into the classroom is a perfect answer to making class more enjoyable, easier to understand, and more interactive. Not to mention, as van Hover, Swan and Berson point out in the article, digital technology affordably provides our students with resources that they otherwise might not be able to view, due to high costs of printing them on paper. Images make a fantastic supplement to lectures: this is their obvious advantage. The article thoroughly explains their more beneficial purpose: allowing students to infer information about the 'where' or when' of the picture, and the thoughts of the picture's subjects. It makes history seem much more tangible and real.

The project the article speaks of is wonderful - particularly the part in which students take their own pictures, and compare and contrast them with the images they previously studied. This is a great way of understanding the larger picture, or the overall importance of history: that we are connected to past peoples and have been shaped by past peoples. Really ambitious students could take this project a step further, for instance, by taking pictures of or in the same place as the historical picture they studied. Or they could take a picture of a similar event as the one in their historical picture, but this time in a different place.

Ideally, technology can and should be used in all types of classes, but I feel it is especially benefical for Social Studies, a subject that otherwise doesn't leave a ton of room for creativity.

Reflection on Power Point

2005-02-12T11:30:00.000-08:00

This was my first experience with Power Point, and it turned out to be a really fun project! After completing just a couple of slides I excitedly showed my progress to my roomate. Power Point offers so many options for being creative - from animation to colorful backgrounds to sounds. I experienced a few moments when I thought I was going to need to ask for help to be able to do what I had envisioned, but after few minutes of searching through the different options on the taskbar and using the Help Menu, I was good to go. My favorite aspect of Power Point is defininitely the animation: being able to make pictures "fly in" or "fly out," or make them move around the screen. I did find that while making the initial slides, I spent more time than I needed picking fonts, colors, etc. I think I could have saved myself time by focusing on the content of the slides first, and then going back and choosing colors and fonts. Creating hyperlinks and searching for pictures turned out to be time-consuming as well. Had I been using photos, I would have finished the project in less time.

When I designed this project I did try somewhat to pick a topic that I could use in the classroom. I felt that my project would convey important points to students: that reading can be both fun and educational, and we can learn lessons from reading without even looking for them. In my future classroom, I could reinvent this project by asking each student to complete his or her own slide, depicting the best lesson they've learned from some literary work. I could share the finished product with the class, have students choose and read one of the books described in the Power Point, and complete a book review on it.

Technology Autobiography

2005-02-03T10:07:00.000-08:00

When I first began reflecting on this assignment, I immediately thought to classify myself as a techno-phobe; however, I realized quicly thereafter that my experiences with computers in college have greatly lessened my fears about technology. I no longer classify myself as a techno-phobe. Granted, I sometimes still find myself reluctant to work with technology, but I am much more comfortable with computers now. One factor that played a major role in this change was my access to internet here. At home, I use dial-up: using the internet can be unbearably slow! At UVA, I am constantly logged on to the internet. I can send and recieve e-mails in seconds, or download information in seconds. Professors post lectures, materials, and grades online, forcing me to use my computer. Some professors even leave students the option of submitting work online. When in a time crunch, I have been forced to take advantage of this option. As a member of Curry, I am required to take technology classes like this one, to enhance my computer knowledgeability. Although I still get a little nervous about studying computers in class, I am grateful after the fact. I can honestly say that I use computers much more frequently in college than I did in high school, and I enjoy it.

Professors make a wise choice, I feel, by using computers to enhance their lectures. Seeing a picture every few minutes, for instance, helps keep me focused and attentive by breaking up the lecture. Professors use their computers to show clips from a pertinent DVD or play a song. These too, help make class more interesting.

I believe computers are a necessary item for every classroom today, grades K-12, and beyond. Computers are everywhere now, from homes, to offices, to restaurants, to travel agencies. Children that lack knowledgeability in the field of technology will have a difficult time functioning in today's society and the future's society. Even though teachers cannot teach students everything about computers, simply incorporating the use of computers into the classroom will ease student's fears about technology, allow them to discover easy and helpful ways of finding information and contacting people, and hopefully encourage them to use computers at home and elsewhere. In the younger grades, such as K-2, I do feel that computer use should be fairly limited. Perhaps teachers could encourage students to take turns using the computer during free time, allowing them to play educational learning games. In older grades, it is essential that students be shown how to use the computer for research. In terms of researching a project, internet databases frequently provide the most helpful information. In certain areas, libraries no longer possess hard copies of the information found within these databases. Even I would prefer to research projects using hard-backed books, but I see that this option is being increasingly limited. Therefore, showing students some of the ways in which to use computers should be an essential task for teachers.

Teachers need to instill a love for technology in their students by using computers creatively within the classroom. As a social studies teacher, I can use the computer to show students pictures or paintings to supplement a lesson. I could organize an "e-mail pal" project, in which students correspond with students from other countries, and use their new, acquired knowledge to give a presentation about the schooling experiences of students in foreign countries. I can assign reseach projects which require students to extract information from databases that contain virtual maps, pictures, diary entries, and letters. Teachers can truly put computers to good use within the classroom. However, class should not be centered around computer projects, but rather, centered around lecture, discussion, reading, and presentations. Computers should serve as a supplementary tool, and a means to get students more involved and interested in classroom experiences.

Reading Response 1

2005-02-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

The unimaginable level of content found on the internet can both help and harm its users, as clearly pointed out in the article, “Net-Wise Teens: Safety, Ethics, and Innovation,” by Amy Poftak. I can easily identify with those kids who claim spending an average of seven hours and thirty-six minutes online a week, in their own homes. Although I am now much more frugal about the amount of time I spend online, when I first registered for AOL Instant Messenger about seven years ago, I was quite attached to the communication device. My parents had instituted loose rules that my brothers and I could each only spend about 15-30 minutes online a day, between the hours of 5 and 7P.M., but could sign online for longer amounts of time after 9:30 in the evening, and essentially anytime on weekends. Needless to say, I frequently broke these rules. I liberally interpreted weekend privileges, too, occasionally spending hours online simply instant messaging my friends. Instant messaging proves addictive to adolescents, as they are unable to drive themselves to places, events, parties, etc. Sadly, I believe instant messaging is distracting adolescents from healthier pursuits, such as playing outside, reading, drawing, etc. Furthermore, adolescents are coming to view internet usage as a right, rather than a privilege. With this in mind, parents and educators should encourage children to use instant messenger, e-mail, etc. to keep in contact with people that are otherwise difficult to contact, rather than simply just to talk to friends seen every day in school.
As Poftak further points out, parents and educators certainly do face a major conflict in terms of allowing their kids to surf the web. With thousands of websites pertaining to thousands of subjects, an innocent search for information on a topic like bunny rabbits could locate crude and disturbing websites. I believe it is important for parents to have a formal talk with their kids before allowing them to use the internet for the first time, and frankly warn them about the dangers of using internet. Parents should take advantage of filters and parental control settings to prevent their children from seeing or reading harmful information. Children may feel slightly offended and complain that their parents do not trust them, but until they mature, it’s quite necessary for parents and teachers to take these actions, and kindly explain to the children that these actions are for their own good. Parents must explain it’s not an issue of trust, but rather an issue of safety. When completing school projects, teachers should require students to do information searches from student or education-based search engines. From these types of search engines, students can still find loads of pertinent information and sort through it themselves, without encountering totally irrelevant and tasteless information. Furthermore, teachers need to spend time in class addressing how to go about surfing the internet, what words to use when searching, and how to determine whether a web-site provides accurate information. Undoubtedly, there exists a world of trouble within the internet, but if parents and educators keep highlighting the positive material available on the internet, hopefully children’s internet appetites can be satiated.