BLOGSVILLE, Ontario

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/default.stm

It was neat to get an article directly sent to my Google reader. The article was from a BBC News website, and this is a site that I visit frequently so to get it sent directly is a time saver. The article is about some war crimes spys in Sudan who have been arrested.

From kids POV : grade 2
Pretty neat stuff. There is a snake and a talking garbage can. I can sort things, and learn about animals. But this is boring compared to my Wii! I liked building the helicopter bulldozer, that was fun but the picture was easy...I like my brothers Aircraft Wars game better. It was really easy to use though, and I liked the animals that talked to me. I liked making movies, but the rabbit was kind of scary, and he wouldn't let me make a funny movie that didn't make sense. There wern't very many things for me to do here either, and I kind of got bored afer about ten minutes. It was fun but not as much fun as other games I can play.

Teacher's criticle POV:
This software is pretty basic in all respects. From very simple graphics, to repetative jingles, to dated symbols, to monotone voices, and finally the disorrienting background grid on the desktop behind every screen.
The games are basic, and they are fairly user friendly. I think that this software would only really be used on very low grades. Compared with a lot of todays programs this would not intrigue students or challenge them. There are a few good teaching point, such as sorting which could help with some primary curriculum...but the attributes they are sorting by are a bit complex for the age range I think these graphics were designed for.
If I did not have access to other software, I would definetly let my students use this to reinforce classroom learning. However, if there were any more recent programmes available I would definetly choose them over Sammy's Science House. Overall, my opinion is that Sammy's Science House is in desperate need of going one of those reno shows. Oh yea, and the creepy English rabbit in the movie section who asks the players to 'touch me when your ready' definately needs to go.

Here's a link to another review. http://www2.worldvillage.com/wv/school/html/reviews/sammy.htm
This person seem to think it was bit more appropriate for age 3-6, but I would argue that the topics covered in the pond acticity as well as the attributes used to sort the animals (such as scales vs fir, and warm blooded vs. cold blooded) are to advanced for this age group.

SMART TECH Goals for Me

Honestly, I found the survey a bit confusing to decode exactly what it suggests my areas of improvement should be. Partly because the colour did not transfer and partly because I am not very familiar with the words that were used to suggest what I should be doing. For example, in the Teaching, Learning, and the Curriculum section the survey suggests my ‘needs to start using content specific media, tools and resources for own learning and research’. I am unsure about what exactly ‘content specific media’ is, but I assume throughout the course this will become more clear.
Completing the survey has helped me understand some specific areas where I can grow to help me in the area of integrating technology into my classroom. Some goals I have going into this course and for myself as a developing teaching, as I mentioned in my brief review of completing the survey, are in the area of developing lesson plans that involve more technology and becoming better able to fix problems that occur with computer technology. I am looking forward to being able to name the exact technologies I will be integrating into my teaching, exactly what it will look like, feel like, and sound like, and how I will be integrating then into my lessons. There are of course the obvious computer games, even if they are educational, but I want to learn about some other ways and other technologies to use.
To be clear, my two main goals are in the categories of Technology Operations and Concepts and Planning and Designing Learning Environments. Specifically, I would like to improve my ability with solving routine hardware and software problems as mentioned by my skills test. To me this means being able to fix basic programming problems and knowing how to go into the control panel and decode and diagnose problems with software. This is perhaps not a completely measurable goal because I am not sure how to compare my present abilities and what I will arrive at. As far as who will help me, I presume the most obvious person will be the professor of my Technology in Education course, for which I am writing this. I will also learn a lot from those peers who are more adept with technology and perhaps even from some of the students I will be working with. A more measurable goal will be to design inclusive tech-based learning experiences. To describe a very tangible goal, I would like to have developed 10 lessons for my next practicum that directly involve suitable technology for the grade six class I will be teaching. I would like to integrate the technology into lessons in a variety of subjects, not solely in media communication classes. An important aspect of this goal is that I want to use five different types of technology, although exactly what five types I am not yet sure. I am setting this goal because it is important for me to build a variety of tools I can use when I want specifically to integrate technology into my lessons. I need to build a reserve of different games, programs, and websites that are applicable to the grade level I am teaching, and to be confident with the technology I am using with my students. My associate teacher will be an asset surely, in helping me integrate appropriate technology with the grade six students.
I believe these goals are feasible, as long as I remain focused on achieving them. With the help of my professor, my peers, and my associate teacher I will achieve what I have set out to during the course of EU432.

http://www.downes.ca/post/38502 Things Your Really Need to Learn

These ten things that Downes has pointed out are indeed quality attributes to posses. Reading his posting made me question why we were required to read such a posting in a Technology course, and I am a bit puzzeled. I do think it is valuable to consider the posting as an example of what can be communicated through blogging spaces and the internet in general. These ten points are not demanded of us from law, or even culture, but I doubt very much that any one of us would consdier them irrelevent. Reading another person's blog, and considering that another person has taken the time to share his views about these qualities is a comforting reflection for me because it casts an optimistic glow on the capacity for wisdom that my neighbours can posses. While Downes is not my next door neighbour, he is a sort of virtual neighbour as I now am a resident of Blogsville.

to be con't...

This is some technology I helped bring into a youth centre in a slum of Nairobi. We had fundraisers, wrote proposals to city council and gov. ministers and finally got 5 computers into our office. Four months after I left Kenya, in January 2008 they were able to get internet access for the first time; a huge moment for the youth centre and for the people in Marurui.

I have not consider myself a very technologically fluent person before. I can't fix my computer when the screen freezes black (unless you count holding the power button down until it shuts off), I get really frusterated programing simple software, and I tend not to buy new techy gadgets unless it is required of me for some reason. Then I took this tech-skills test, and I was forced to reflect. By no means did I score as a computer wiz, but it did highlight for me that I have, and do, use technology in a lot of areas of my life that are not always directly evident. Even so far in my teaching experience at my PDS site, I have made use of technology for almost every lesson in some manner or other, even if it is just typing out my lesson plan. I found it saved me a lot of time working from my previous days lesson when finalizing a new plan, cutting and pasting rather than creating an entirley new document. And while I did not have my student work directly with computers during more than two activities, I did use printed hand-outs, photo-copied sheets, and portable CD players on a daily basis. I use my personal computer daily, my cell phone, my television, my camera, so it seems the more I think about it the more obvious it becomes that I am quite capable of speaking tech to quite a considerable degree.
After completing my tech-skills survey I have also begun to realize that I have some pretty specific goals in mind as to where I want to go with technology in my classroom. With particular attention paid to Planning and Designing Learning Environments, I can identify the area under the Student Teaching column as an opportunity for me to develope furthur as a teacher in training. The more familiar I become with the available technologies I have to incorporate into my daily lessons, the better able I will be to make full use of those technologies. It is my hope that in this course I will develope a comprehensive log of what I have at my fingertips and how to encorporate it into my teaching. I am excited to weave technology throughout the curriculum areas in a way that does not keep it as an exclussive subject. I hope to keep up with the ever changing technologies that my students will be exposed to and to know how to use it and how to teach them to use it. If my students will be technology natives I must keep my passport valid and up to date.

I have never blogged officially before...although I think that keeping up with Facebook is really just a blog. I think that it is great we are learning how to make a 'real' blog because this is what our students will be doing and it is necessary for us to at least keep up to date with what they will be doing online. I am not sure how much I will use it outside of requirements for this course though. I think it is really quite a strange concept to keep other people informed as to what we will be or have been up to, and perhaps even more bizzare to be reading up on what other people have done. I hate that technology is replacing real-time contact and personal contact in ourlives, yet at the same time it is neat to be able to communicate with people around the world.

I have only taught in Kindergarten, Grade one, and with some special classess such as ABLE and LD. None of these classess really have beed appropriate for extenssive technology integration so far but in my next placement I am looking forward to teaching Grade six and integrated a lot of technology and media comunication lessons.

Horray for blogging.....