Monday, November 29, 2010

Thanksgiving week

Teachers often act as designers, from creating lesson plans to activities to field trips. As a future english teacher I would need to make lesson plans for a wide range of readings for my students.
If i were a sciences teacher I would use trebuchet Simulator. It shows how to use forces and physics. This could alos be helpful in simulating activities in a gym class.
Digital storytelling focuses on activities more than technology. It is used for team work with outhers. Students create a story and put it together. this would be helpful with creative writing.
I think that it is possible to learn from tv alone, but maybe not the best way to do so, part of learning is interacting. You can learn how to cook from tv, but in essence you only know the recipe, not how to actually make the dish well. News is the best example It hink of television learning, because you can't really interact with some of the things going on in the world.
Jonasse D., Howland J., Marra R. M., & Crismond D. (2008). Meaningful Learning with Technology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Gee's principles of learning and game design show that learning can really take place within a virtual world. Out of his principles I liked Critical Learning Principle, Psychosocial Moratorium Principle and the Probing Principle. The Psychosocial Principle allowst the student to be theirselves and act accordingly. Students hide their intelligence from a fear of being too smart and being cast out by their peers or worse being to stupid of they are wrong. I think that everyone has this fear because noone has all the answers. This allows students to be bolder because real workd consequences are lowered. Active Critical learning Principles are important for education because games can encourage the students to be active rather than passive. and lastly are probing skills, allowing someones students to exercise critical thinking and to think for themselves.
 
If i were designing a simulation for my students I would focus on vocabulary and reading skills because English is my major and focusing on the things I know well means that I can incorporate them into my classroom better.I'm not sure how I feel about students working in online simulations.
I find these most important because it allows a student to be active with the materieal rather than passively.
        References
Jonassen, David H…[et al.]. (2008). Experimenting with Technology. Meaningful Learning with Technology, pp. 54-55, 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall, Print