Journal+Entries

=Home Personal SpaceJohn's Journal = Go to John's Page John & Kim's Video The most effective use of the internet in the classroom is using it as a resource for student information/projects/homework. I plan to ask students to conduct research on various topics, especially controversial topics, in order to come to class prepared to engage in discussion. I'll also rely on the internet for students to be able to contact me via email, send digital projects, and check their grades. I currently don't plan to utilize the wiki concept, but maybe that's because I'm a newbie. My problem is that I will have a lot of time invested in weekly lab investigations (it is a science classroom after all) and don't realistically foresee myself utilizing a wikispace. I know that I will have a hard enough time making my classroom as personal and authentic for my students without the added task of trying to manage (I foresee the management as the key downfall) a wikispace for my hundred-plus students. Student Web Project on Stem Cells Pro's of Stem Cells Con's of Stem Cells
 * Journal Entry - 7 July 2008**

I'm seeing more value in the ease with which students will be able to conduct their research (and plagiarize if not watched closely) and the beauty of going paperless. I guess my biggest problem is I think I already spend too much time on the computer, so spending additional time double-checking student work and grading doesn't necessarily appeal to the science geek in me. We science nerds like to get our hands dirty, and the computer doesn't really mesh with that philosophy. I've currently got my students doing a laboratory journal (old-school) to write down their observations, ideas, results, and answer questions I ask during their labs. Perhaps it would be better to ask them to do this online, removing the possibility of me having to cart around a stack of lab notebooks (or stay after school countless hours to grade them). Really just brain-storming here. Perhaps I'll give it a shot this year, see how it works and implement it as a classroom procedure the following year. I just want to gain comfort with the process before committing myself to it. **FIN.**
 * Journal Entry - 9 July 2008**

Microsoft office is THE product that makes a classroom manageable. Gone are the days of keeping hand-written ledgers for calendars, student grades, lesson plans, tests, quizzes, presentations, etc. I do virtually everything on microsoft office (why I own a PC and haven't made . . . and probably won't make. . . the transition to Mac.) I use word to make virtually all of my documents that I use in the classroom. It helps me keep an electronic record and version of every document I produce. I like to make my quizzes and tests on Excel for the simple fact that you can type the questions into the various boxes and then cut and paste to create different versions of tests. It also keeps me from having to format tabs in word to get the answer columns lined up (so I'm a bit lazy). Of course that method only works when I'm doing muliple choice format quizzes and tests, if its an essay based one, I use word. The days of the overhead projector and transparencies is over. Microsoft Powerpoint is the only way to do a presentation (although I still believe that you can accomplish a lot with chalk (or dry erase marker)). The visual power that powerpoint offers just makes the old flipping transparency days obsolete. Expanding my skills through making a stand-alone presentation will just make me that much more effective in the classroom.
 * Journal Entry - 14 July 2008**

I have a lot of experience using microsoft excel and powerpoint for basic spreadsheets and presentations. I have used the conditional formatting tool in Excel before, but had not written out my own logic path for the grades, so that was a bit challenging. I had to go check out Jame's a couple of times as I stumbled through the correct logic path, but once I figured out how the "If" statements worked, it became clear to me. In powerpoint I'd done a lot of basic presentations, and only animated a few things once or twice, and really hadn't worked on the timing function or made it a stand-alone presentation before, so that really pushed my bounds. I knew where to find the animation components on the PC, but had trouble navigating it on the mac. . . maybe I'm just so used to my PC. Anyways, I think it came out pretty good for a first try at it.  I think the gradebook will be a very effective tool for me to track how my students are doing on different assignments (Hwk vs quiz vs lab, etc) So I think I will get some real value out of that one. The only downside is the fact that the school has an established grading system that we HAVE to use, so it will be tough to motivate myself to input data into more than one spreadsheet. Knowing how to do the powerpoint is cool, but it really isn't effective use of time-management. It took me a couple of hours to get the animation right (I think my timeline would go down as I got better at it, but it still takes a lot of run-throughs to get the animations right). In the classroom, I think I could just as easily use cut-out magnets or drawings on the white-board to accomplish the same thing, and it takes near zero prep time. The only downside to that method is students can't take it home to look at. Despite those misgivings, I think the powerpoint skills are quite useful, especially if I'm prepping a lesson for a substitute, and I enjoy having that tool in my kit-bag. On the other hand I loathe sitting in powerpoint presentaitons myself, so why would I inflict that upon my students every day? But I think that's more reflective of teaching style than anything else.
 * Journal Entry - 16 July 2008**

Editing digital images is a great tool for basic presentations in the classroom. I plan on incorporating the skills by making graphics that will help build my classroom environment. Little things like making signs for the doors, graphics for bulletin boards, and for inclusion in powerpoint type presentations. I do not plan on using video in my classroom, other than for personal reflection or if a student has a planned absence and misses a significant portion and requires it to make up work. I can't think of many lessons where students would utilize a video. Probably the only exception is perhaps medical-type training for my Anatomy and Physiology students as they do their dissections. Students could video their procedures for dissecting their cats, while narrating to the camera what they are doing/seeing; reflecting the skills doctors must possess when performing surgeries. The only other reason I can foresee for needing graphics skills is to spot student plagarisims. Knowing how to use photo-shop may help me prevent my students from cheating on an assignment. (I'm not sure how they'd use it, but it's a thought.)
 * Journal Entry - 22 July 2008**

I guess that's about it.

Nothing like waiting until 3 hours after an assignment is due. No good excuse, just plain forgot. As far as creating a digital image: Photoshop was fun to play with, but I definitely got sucked in. I think it'll be dangerous if I'm actually creating my own posters because I'll sit there for 4 hours trying to perfect the seams on my layers instead of writing lesson plans or grading papers (or playing Civ IV. . . like on a sunday afternoon when I should be writing journal entries). The potential applications, though, are glorious. I love creating my own content rather than relying on the mundane (and usually crappy) products put forth by all the publishing companies. So this offers a great way for me to really make my classroom my own. And I've just been pondering the decorative aspects. . . much less the impact it may have on creating functional items. . . like layering different body systems for an organism for an online- dissection. . .whew! My plan there is to dissect a cat, and take photos at different stages of the dissection, labelling key parts. Then photoshop the layers onto each other to creat a composite image. Students with access to photoshop could then peel away layers as they saw fit, or according to what system they wanted to look at. I'm sure there's probably a better way to do it, but I'm just starting the thought process on this one. Should be cool. Sorry for the late post. . .END
 * Journal Entry - 27 July 2008**

Brainstorm other effective uses of technology not discussed thus far in class: Well in the Biology classroom there are TONS of technology applications. The prospect for doing dissections on video and posting them to a website, or making a DVD, in order to catch up students who missed work is very exciting. Similarly allowing students to capture their own media to log changes in an experiment or a science project would be great (as some of my students did when I asked them to observe plant growth over a few weeks in the spring). There is also the potential to generate 3-D models for chemical analysis. Higher level education facilities already have the programming to do this, but the software is generally hard to come by in the public school system. I'll have to work to rectify that. Adding wicked awesome soundtracks to lame-o movies is also cool. 
 * Journal Entry - 28 July 2008**

Reflect upon this class, its effectiveness, its content, and your place in it: Well I learned a lot in this class, and am a whole lot less afraid of employing computers in my classroom. I was very hesitant about letting students on the internet for anything other than research, but see other value having played with the wiki's for the past few weeks. I've even taken some veteran peers aside and shown them some of the skills learned in the class. They are usually very excited about updating their methods, so ask me questions that quickly go beyond my comprehension of the capabilities, so there is even more pressure to keep learning. All good stuff. So overall I got a LOT more out of this class than I thought I would (I tried to get excused from taking it . . . I'm glad I was not excused!). As for my place in this class. . . it was very individualized, so there wasn't much of a community to help each other out. . . perhaps an area for improvement?
 * Journal Entry - 30 July 2008**

How would you change the pacing of the course? How would you change the basic schedule of the course (one software idea a week, with one day for instruction and one for work)? > What material should have been included, but wasn't? > What material do you think was unnecessary? > How would you have taught the material itself differently? > Go to John's Page
 * Extra Credit - 30 July 2008**
 * I thought the pacing of the course was suitable to the assignments that were given. I think it would be tough to find a problem in a class that is so self-paced. Obviously if you require more time, you just have to work a little bit outside of class. If you are comfortable with an assignment, you may get it done within the allotted time. Sounds fair to me!
 * Maybe poll the class the first week with a list of potential applications for exploration with short descriptions. Then you can tailor the class to those programs that students show the most interest in learning. While I found it cool to learn the video piece, I really don't think I will use it much for my classroom. I'd love to know how to render in 3D, though. Even if we're doing simple things like spheres, it gives me another tool. But that is just my preference, so if 90% of your students wanted to learn video, then they could.
 * Refer to the above question: 3D rendering (since you included it in the journal). I'm sure there are other things that I would have liked to have learned, but the problem is //I don't know that I don't know.// So that goes back to the list of potential programs at the beginning of the course. Kinda prompt the student as to what is out there and see what they are interested in learning.
 * I don't think any of it was unnecessary, I just think that some students have their preferences for what they would like to learn.
 * Well I fully enjoyed the self-paced nature of the class. I think the only thing that could improve the way the material was presented was to include sets of instructions for other possible uses in each program. You showed us some basic skills very quickly, but you could include some advanced techniques in an information sheet or "advanced skills" webpage. Just a thought to help students push themselves on each program. I know I feel as though I've plateaued on excel and powerpoint, but realize there is a lot more that can be done with the program. . . I just don't know what (goes back to that " //I don't know that I don't know."//
 * Based on my last journal entry, I do see the potential for further group learning strategies. Since the assignments are not that lengthy, perhaps allowing each student to demonstrate a "cool" thing they learned about a program, or how they are going to employ the program in their classroom. This idea allows sharing and perhaps increasing the amount students are taking away from the class. Just an idea.