Week 3, Group 6 Assignment

My online group experience for this week was great! Chris and I got to finish designing our website. We didn’t know where to start at first, but we were able to figure it out. We both worked very closely to do a good job and create a nice and helpful website for students to navigate. He did part of the work and I did the other part. When we were confused we would email each other and we would figure it out. Our communication was good because we would get a response very quickly by frequently checking our mail on blackboard.

I think we did a great job. Our website looks great and is easy to navigate the site. I think anyone should be able to find what they are looking for and if they are confused they can just click on the tab that corresponds to their subject. Overall I think we did a great job.

Week 2 - Group 6

This week has been good. There is only 2 of us in my group, but is been good because we seem to be ahead. We are now working on our website and we have been communicating back and forth with each other. Our website seems to be going great! Is new to me because is my first time creating a website, so I'm excited. We are hoping to finish early to have extra time to work on other assignments.

Week 1, Group 6

My online group experience for Week 1 was okay. I was able to communicate with one of my group members, but unable to communicate with the other member at all. We are wondering if she is still in this class or not. Just in case she is not in class anymore, Christopher and I decided that we are not going to wait on her to respond.

We started working together just us two and we hope to do it right. I like group assignment as long as we each do what we are supppose to do. We were able to discuss our assignment and talk about it. My only concern was that Blackboard kept messing up very frequently. Hope we do good and we do it right!

Podcast

As a student I have always prefer to read about the topic being covered versus listening to a podcast. Reading has an advantage for me because I am able to see what it is that I have to learn. I can always go back and read it again if I don’t understand something and I know that hearing a podcast will sometimes make me understand something totally different and get me distracted. I was getting distracted while I was listening to the podcasts. I find it harder to just listen without visual modality and processing the information that I have to learn. When I read something I always go back to make sure I understand what I’m suppose to do. Reading the text is my choice because this is the way I learn and I am able to focus on the words better to process the information.



If I had to prepare for a class or an exam and the topic is being delivered to me via podcast I think I would make sure that I have no distractions to really focus on the topic that I need to learn. Listening to the text without visual modality will be harder for me, but I would have to take notes to go back and review the information. I would definitely make sure that I have a pen and paper to write what I’m listening just in case I forget something. Reading the text allows me to go back and make sure I cover everything I need to cover, but listening will sometimes make me forget some points. By taking notes I can make sure I focus on the main points and review it later to prepare for an exam or for a lesson. Taking notes of what I’m listening would be the way I would prepare myself if the topic is delivered to me via podcast.



I agree that perhaps we have to change how we evaluate students or evaluate in general because everything is changing and will continue to change, especially because of technology. We have to make sure we remember that everyone learns differently and we cover everyone and not just the majority.

Huckabee - Sir Ken Robinson, Author of The Element

I chose this video because I think that Ken Robinson has a very strong point about creativity being fundamental in our lives and kids should be learning about arts as well. I like the way he argues that most people have no idea what their real talents are. As a matter of fact, I don’t really know what my real talent is. I also agree that you really have to look very deep to determine what you are good at so you can do something you feel comfortable doing and you know you are going to enjoy it. Like he mentions, more and more kids are being diagnosed with ADHD and their solution for this “epidemic” is having the kids take medicine to control it. We are not focusing on the kid’s talent to see if maybe he is just good at what he is doing and is okay for him to do that.

3 Videos: Designing instruction and Integrating technology in instruction.

The first video talks about how creativity should be as essential in education as literacy, but is not being valued in our schools. The speaker mentions that our creativity is fading away as we are becoming adults and “getting educated.” Our education system doesn’t acknowledge our creativity and I do agree that they underestimate the ones that are gifted in the arts. As we grow, we can’t continue to do what we are good at, because we are being forced into our own school system that diminishes our skills and creativity. As a result, art classes are being put at the bottom in every school system around the world. He really emphasizes why creativity is so important in society today and why we should start paying more attention to it because everything is changing, especially technology. Most of the stuff that we are learning in school will probably not be use after we graduate. Because of technology today, it is easier for anyone to get an education and get a degree. It interests me to know that more people are getting a degree than ever before. What will this do to society and to us? I think that creativity will distinguish us from others and we need to realize it to prepare our students for the future. By allowing our students to be creative, a solution can be found to what something can be called “a problem” and will allow them to prepare themselves to succeed in life.

The second video talks about students not being taught what they need to know to prepare them in life because they are reading information that is not relevant to their lives. Most of the stuff that we are learning in school will probably not be use after we graduate. Why are we not doing hands-on and still learning straight from the expensive textbooks we have to buy? Most of our research and reading that we do comes from web pages. We have to pay high cost for tuition and end up in a classroom with a large number of students. It is interesting because the video shows how with technology there is so much we can do and we are creating a schedule that keeps us busy and we don’t have enough time in a day to do it all. With all the technology that we have, and in order for us to accomplish something we have to know how to multi-task. Technology is creating a new era and we are not being taught what we need to know to be ready. What we are using it for is not relevant to what we will need it in the future. We need to implement technology in teaching to allow our students to know how to use this resource for the right reason.


Web 2.0 allows people to stay connected and share information around the world. It allows us to use our creativity to design web pages and add anything like pictures, charts, graphs, etc. It is very easy to explore and hypertext can link everywhere with just one click. The title defines the content to allow the data to be exported. We are the ones to organize and create the data with our ideas. Web 2.0 is linking people, so we are able to put together technology in teaching. We can create a blog and follow a course to stay in touch with everyone in our class. We can view others ideas and creativity and they can view ours.

Favorite Video: A Vision of Students Today

All are great videos, but this one is my favorite out of all because it gave an opportunity for students to express how they feel about our education.