CSO and Lesson Plan with Google Apps

SC.O.E.1.3:
Students will use Google Docs conduct and/or design investigations that incorporate the skills and attitudes and/or values of scientific inquiry (e.g., established research protocol, accurate record keeping, replication of results and peer review, objectivity, openness, skepticism, fairness, or creativity and logic).

We chose to use a earth science related lesson plan and CSO for the assignment. Since we're both in a science related major, this assignment was favorable. Here is a link to the lesson plan. 

Partner: Alicen 

Game Design, Scratch and Learning

Scratch is a extremely simplified method of contracting games using "building block" style programming. It's easy to learn, and allows young students to learn from trial and error. In the 21st century, it is very important the students be given all the tools possible to learn and expand their technological capabilities. Scratch gives students the opportunity to solve problems through a desire to create. "The ability to program interactive input provides students direct experience with sensing, feedback, and other fundamental systems concepts."(21st century learning skills)

ISTE-NETS-T Standard 1a

Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.

Scratch is very useful in supporting this ISTE-NETS-T Standard. Students are able to work on their own in oder to create a project, and then they can collaborate to further their understanding of the topic. The programming is designed to provoke new ideas from simply exploring all the options. If a students discovers that they can make a character walk using scratch, then it won't be long until that student tries to make the character jump. This kind of thinking builds up until even more complex ideas form. 

After exploring the scratch homepage, I was able to find a really cool project dealing with the periodic table. Here is a link to it! 

SC.O.C.1.5

draw conclusions from a variety of data sources to analyze and interpret systems and models (e.g., use graphs and equations to measure and apply variables such as rate and scale, evaluate changes in trends and cycles, or predict the influence of external variances such as potential sources of error, or interpret maps).

The above is a CSO for chemistry. I believe Scratch could be used to help students understand the content listed in the CSO. Scratch could easily be used as a data source to analyzed, and could be a fun way for students to express results from an experiment. 

I played around with Scratch for a little while, but my project is kinda lame. Here is a link to my project though. It will give you some idea of the basics of Scratch, but don't stop at my attempt. Look around the website, and see all the awesome projects people have created. 

Video Conferencing

ISTE-NETS-T Standard 3. Model Digital Age Work and Learning

Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society.

b. Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation 

Video conferencing seems to address this ISTE-NETS-T standard. By using webcams to interact with other groups, teachers are able to provide their students a means to exchange knowledge with other students. 

Here is a website which describes five different ways video conferencing can be beneficial to the classroom. It listed ideas that I had never even thought of before. Very informative read. 

Video Games and Learning Part Two

I've always been an advocate for video games, and the positive effects they can have in children. I believe that in moderation, video games can produce skills and provide a learning environment for students. "Your Brain of Video Games" spoke about how video games can increase vision and can cause a larger attention span for gamers. I support this claim fully just for the fact that I've seen it in my friends who play a good amount of these games. "Are Video Games Making your Kids Smarter" sad that games offer multiple opportunities to learn. These was no shocker to me because growing up, I played a lot of puzzle and strategic video games. Looking back I can see all the learning environments I was placed in. The Big Thinkers video said that Video Games give a safe place to make risks and fail. I think this is very important because that gives opportunity to learn from mistakes. 

So yes, I do support video games as a learning tool. As long as the duration of games play doesn't shut off the student from social interactions. 

Here is a website that has taken video game based learning to the next level.

Video Games and Learning Videos

Your Brain of Video Games

Argument: In reasonable doses, fast paced games have quite powerful and positive effects on our behavior. 

• The vision of people who play fast paced video games is better than those who don't play these video games.
• People who play action based video games can solve conflicts quicker than those who do not play these video games. 
• These gamers also have a larger span of attention than non gamers. 

Are Video Games Making your Kids Smarter?

Argument: Our world is too slow to hold the attention of children who play video games.

• The act of learning increases gray matter in the brain, and video games offer numerous opportunities for learning. 
• Games are wired to produce pleasure through the accomplishment of overcoming challenges. 
• A teacher by the name of Ananth Pai introduced a game based curriculum into a classroom, and increased the reading and English levels of that classroom in 18 weeks. 

Big Thinkers: Katie Salen On Learning with Games

Argument: Play is a fundamental way children develop.

• Video games give children a safe place to take risks and fail.
• Video games increase learning and bring about social skills and problems solving.
• The games bring out higher thinking in children in the way conflicts need to be solved. 

Learning Styles and Picasso Head

I believe that learning styles are apparent in students, but more as a preference to the student. David Glenn quotes Harold E. Pashler, a professor of psychology at the University of California, in this statement, "For a given lesson, one instructional technique turns out to be optimal for all groups of students, even though students with certain learning styles may not love that technique" (Glenn, 2009). This revolves around the idea that while student may have preferred learning styles, certain lessons are best taught in a style that may not be appealing to all students. 

Don Clark makes the following statement, Learning styles are points along a scale that help us to discover the different forms of mental representations; however, they are not good characterizations of what people are or are not like" (Clark). This supports my belief that students should not just be taught in their preferred learning style, but in what learning style will best present the information. When I'm a teacher, I will utilize all forms of learning styles to properly convey the content I'm teaching. 

For my Picasso head, I got a 4.0 in self and a 3.71 in social. I decided to show both sides in my Picasso head. The right side shows self. I have one eye closed with a small ear. It's basically to represent how my ideas are all over the place and I'm trying to formulate my thoughts. The left side of the head has a bigger ear and an opened eye. As I form my thoughts and ideas, I begin to share them and gather input from those around me. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how much I do this in reality.

This site describes different ways technology can be used to benefit an interpersonal student. It suggests allowing students to create blogs and journals on the computer to format their ideas. It says to allow students to research using the internet, and then create presentations programs such as powerpoint or prezi. These technological tools will provide interpersonal students with a means to organize and present their ideas in a manner they will enjoy.  

Works Cited

Clark, D. (n.d.). Learning styles & preferences. Retrieved from http://nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/styles.html




Glenn, D. (2009, December 15). Matching teaching style to learning style may not help students. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Matching-Teaching-Style-to-/49497/

Learning Styles

Learning styles don't exist
Claims:

1. Not three ways of learning, but rather three ways of storing information.

2. Not recalling what we see or hear, but the meanings behind the information.

3. If you already believe in a theory, you're more likely to accept any situation the might prove the theory.

Multiple Intelligence
Claims:

1. Human beings have different kinds of intellectual strengths.

2. Everything can be taught in more than one way.

3. Students need to be taught to think scientifically.

My Opinion
Based on the two videos I watched, I still believe that there is some credit to learning styles. Just from personal experience, I can say I learn better in my chemistry labs than I do during the lectures. I've always been better with hands on activities. While I know it would be impossible to teach things like geography just by speaking, there are still a multitude of ways learning styles can be utilized. Perhaps I'm just sticking behind it because I've always believed it, but it just makes sense to me. Multiple  Intelligence also makes sense to me because I've seen students with different strengths and weaknesses all throughout my educational career.