Scenario Response #2

The second scenario I responded to was Carla's available at http://preezo.com/view.php?key=352a356c4eb853408440530ddce70e23 .

I liked the one reason for multimedia helping in the classroom: adds a new dimension to the classroom. I think that is true. There's this other realm which we have access to when computers, the internet, applications and software are available for us. Also, having computers and multimedia in the classroom really does let the learning process go farther then the limits of the walls, books and brains within the classroom.


I think there could have been a much longer and substantial list of things that students can do with multimedia. Presenting information can't be the only thing computers can be used for. There are so many facets of multimedia beyond presentations like simulations, dissections (yes there really are computer applications available which go through a 'hands on' dissection of different animals - a more humane way of dissection without the grossout factor teachers love giving their middle and high school students.), blogging, videos, etc.


A description or at least name of each software could have been helpful with each of the weblinks. Some of the links are easy to understand what they are but it's not so much a list of open sources as a list of the websites to access the open source software. If I were presenting this to the school board or to the principal and put this up on the screen, I'm sure someone would ask me what each of those were. They can't tell how these will aid them if they don't know what they are, what they're basic functions are or what their equivalent software would be.


On a side note: The preezo software seemed interesting. I had a recent encounter with google's version of presenting information and came to a problem with spell checking, editing, uploading pictures and doing a few other things. The project had to be abandoned and redone in another program. The only downside I see to this software is that there isn't a back feature, so if you want to refer back to a slide you have to close out the slide show and start completely over again. However, for my presentation of the final project, I might consider trying this software as an option.

Scenario Response #1

One of the scenarios I responded to was the one done by Jillian and AnnMarie available at http://scenarioproject.wikispaces.com/Scenarios.

I think that the wikispace gave a good description of the purchasing plan as well as usage of the computers. I liked the layout because you were able to go to different pages and go back to each one if you liked. I think the description of the simulations was an intersting thing to bring up. There are many different ways of catching students' attentions these days. Simulations was never one that would have crossed my mind to use. However, I think it would be a really great use of technology to engage students in the process of learning.

I agree that SmartBoards are useful pieces of technology. However, since SmartBoards came out, I have not seen a SINGLE teacher use a SmartBoart to its capabilities. Teachers who are teaching about technology in the classrooms (NOT this class, a different one) have issues when simply pointing to somethign on the board, forgetting they're finger is like a mouse and end up clicking on the next botton or doing something they didn't mean to do. I don't know the full capabilities of the SmartBoard but I haven't even seen a teacher use the 'pens' to write with it, ever! The most I have seen the SmartBoard being used is to show a website or present something on the computer. I would love to see a school district have that many SmartBoards but have teachers who know how to utilize the equipment and software to fully utilize all of its capabilities!

Most Excited and Challenges in Future: Blog Prompt

Blog Response Prompt:
What are you most excited about having learned about Multimedia in Instructional Design? What will be most challenging for you as you leave this class and move forward in your teaching education?


I think I am most excited about the multimedia freeware that is available online. I know that friends of mine have complained about having to go spend a good amount of money on Office just to be able to make a PowerPoint presentation or use Word to write up something. I didn’t know that there were websites where you could download such a variety of software without having to pay anything. I think this would come in handy for students who don’t have access to Office or other word processing programs. I feel that there is a lot to learn in the form of multimedia in instruction. There was such a variety of applications available online that can enhance all aspects of learning in education even math which was surprising to me. There aren’t a lot of computer applications available for math other than simple repetitive games like Math Blaster. But I did find a few graphing programs that you can download for Mac and Windows based computers. This would be a wonderful tool for students who can’t go out and buy a $100 calculator for their high school math classes.


I think the most challenging thing for me to do will be to continue exploring the new multimedia applications which are being developed every day. I am really looking forward to the physics application where you can draw on a computer screen and it applies the simple laws of physics into a learning program. Physics and the understanding of it was hard for me to understand. I’ve seen other students who can’t visually understand what is going on and this application will do wonders for the educational aspect of physics. A similar application which is more a game based version, was shown to me available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsTqspnvAaI . I thought this would have been something I might have downloaded and tried to see how far I got. Some of the levels were pretty difficult if you didn’t know HOW to get it. I think interactive applications and software which are being developed will better prepare the students of today for the future of tomorrow. Another aspect that will be challenging I think would be developing time to start using these applications more frequently to where they become second nature.


Just by a simple skimming through the related videos on the you tube page I came up with a more game based version of Crayon World which is Marker World. Here you control the movement of the ball while still creating balls and squares and other figures to help you get to the star. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcjkCsfSAZM&feature=related These are two tools I think would greatly aid ANY physics class.

Learning Blog Prompt: Thought Process/Learning Style

What do you need to change in your thought process or learning style(s) to begin to adapt to R-Directed thinking for the purpose of creating 21st Century learning environments for students?

I believe that there are a many different ways you can incorporate R-directed thinking processes in the learning environment. Of these, multimedia projects which are engaging and thoughtful with meaning to the students is a great start. This means that if you are doing a science project on pollution, make it apparent information to them. Choose places which are polluted around the area which students would know as good examples. Children love animals, bring up the dangers of oil spills to birds and aquatic life. Other different forms of pollution (which is appropriate for school aged children) can be the six-pack holders for soda. There have to be abundant pictures of birds with those things stuck to their legs. It was even in a movie where a penguin had one stuck around his neck and it was causing him to slowly suffocate.
As for my own personal thought process and learning style, I do not believe I need to make drastic changes to become a fully R-directed thinker and promoter of education. I feel that I have tried to find meaning in most of the items I teach. I know from previous experiences it is difficult to have students find meaning in what they are learning, especially mathematics and algebra. When developing word problems or interesting applications I always try and make it applicable to the students. There are many ways you can include items within the students' lives like using their names in examples, birthdays, ages, locations, ambitions, favorites and many more to make it more enjoyable. Having the subject be personable makes it more fun and engaging. Finding or making games out of the work children have done is a great way to review as well as to correct students when they are wrong and help them become more proficient with the material. I don't think that I was a majorly L-directed thinker. I feel that I side a lot more, and feel that I would benefit more with the R-directed thinking processes. I think one thing that I can improve on would be my story senses.

Learning from Experience - Stellarium

I remember having an astronomy lesson in science class. The teacher was trying to let us explore the sky and one of our assignments was to observe our night’s sky. This was difficult because some students lived in more rural areas than others. Because each student had different views and light effects it was difficult to come to a consensus on student’s observations. We were also supposed to research a specific constellation and give facts about it in a simple report as well as a graphic representation of the constellation. The problem arose first when not the entire student body did the night observation assignment. The second was that those who did didn’t have the same experience and did it on different nights, times and locations. A third issue was that not all of the students were able to determine which starts were the correct stars they should be looking at when it came to larger known constellations like Orion’s belt and the Big and Little Dippers. However with the use of Stellarium, your computer becomes a planetarium. There is a lot of control with Stellarium from the telescope to the time and location (coordinates). I think this would have benefitted the students a lot more if they were able to scroll around the sky looking at what interested them. It would have also promoted the students to choose their own stars or constellations for research. An interesting addition for the project could be a pseudo ‘trip’ to the star by using computer video recording features students can record adjustments in their view to simulate them ‘flying’ or getting closer to their star or constellation. This could be something interesting a student could include in their presentation of information on their researched star or constellation.

Open Source Software Review - Maxima

Open source software has been introduced to the class in a variety of different ways. I remember overhearing the word Audacity come up a few times as being software available for download that allows you to do sound editing, recording and much more. Although this was something that was useful in classroom applications, I felt that I should find something more appropriate for what I want to teach (math, science, physics area). The Virtual Terrain Project caught my eye. This software allows a person to render terrain in 3D. The website offers real terrains of cities like New York and parts of Hawaii. I think it would be interesting to incorporate this into a project where the students are designing their own cities and required to include all of the necessities like schools, police and fire stations while considering the physical layout needed. Additional Open source software that I thought was really interesting was Maxima, a computer algebra system. I remember learning calculus and the pictures in the book were sometimes very vague and hard to determine what you were looking at. Maxima allows for the plotting of very higher end equations and expressions. The extent of this software encompasses simple plotting to very complex items which I know were covered in my years at college including vectors, Laplace transforms and 3D plots. This can be used in lesson plans frequently. Because it’s competition is Maple, which I’ve used and is difficult to come across because it is expensive, isn’t readily available for simple calculations like integrating and differentiation, Maxima is convenient for high school calculus applications where students might not have access to higher end calculators that do the calculations and graphing for them. This can be used in a lesson plan for students to check themselves in answers, get significantly accurate graphs and plots as well as many other uses. Maple used to be available to all Drexel students with the newest version, but this is only good for so long and I myself have had significant issues with the software. I am very tempted to download Maxima and try it out.

Essential Conditions for Technology Integration

Blog Prompt: Do you feel that this article (After the Bell, Beyond by Eric Langhorst) encompass the Essential Conditions for Technology Integration? Why or Why Not? Cite information from the article to support your answer.

I do feel that the article encompasses key parts of technology integration. There is incorporation of the internet, blogs and different forms of media into the general use of education. Typically a student would receive a piece of paper with a list of items which they needed to know for a test. Sometime during the preparation for the test the teacher would go over each one requiring the students to write down as much as they could in a small amount of space and time. Giving students the ability to hear complete definitions and topics which are important for a test would be beneficial. Granted that doesn’t mean you can’t review in class, it is just a more appealing form for which students and parents can also be involved. Having this also gives a great advantage to the parents who even if they wanted to help all they could, might not be so bright on the topic and haven’t sat in on all the classes, so it gives them a more level playing ground in which to help their children succeed. When it comes to reading a book, I remember my teacher making us write in little journals that only she read every few weeks. We were enticed into doing a group discussion but it wasn’t always interesting or fun. By using technology in the form of a blog, each student can see what others have written and become more engaged in the learning process.

I did have one concern though. The teacher described making these StudyCasts using recording software and putting them up on the web for students to access. I know a good portion of people that are over 30 would not be so savvy with internet terms of ‘putting things up on a website’. I myself have taken things off of a website that were put up there. There’s a link that’s given to me that directs me to the file I want and then asks me to Open or Save the file. The file then downloads and does the appropriate actions. However, I have no idea how someone would go about posting a file like that on a website. I wouldn’t say that it’s common knowledge for putting items up on iTunes either. The idea for making StudyCasts and other recorded media is a great idea; I just hesitate to think it can be mainstreamed into the curriculum when even a person who knows computers proficiently wouldn’t be able to put one such item together and posted for students to have access too. As well I’m not sure if and how you would go about making these things available but only to those who you want to see it. The teacher described having a man from Spain contact her regarding a biased opinion in one of her StudyCasts. I would not be sure if I’d be comfortable in putting those out into the internet for anyone to have access too. I think applying a type of program access or website access would be more sufficient where documents and files would be protected and unable to be shared unless given permission or with a correct password.

Although I may have some slight issues doing something similar with a classroom, I definitely agree that the teaching practices he used with his students were more engaging, enthralling, and better overall fit for today’s students and would have no objection to using similar practices in my future (once I learned how to do it of course!)

Text Blog: Chapters 1 & 2

Chapter 1:
Chapter 1 focused on what multimedia is and why teachers should utilize multimedia in the classroom. A key part of multimedia is its ability to be incorporated into the classroom and curriculum and to aid student learning. Part of the chapter described including the theory of multiple intelligences into multimedia projects. I think that this is something that is useful to keep in mind when creating projects. If you are able to activate different intelligences within each student within one activity of a project then you can help promote active learning, activate learning by means they will best benefit from as well as give them important roles which the overall project and learning will benefit from because of their strengths. Incorporating different intelligences into a multimedia project also allows for students to have different ways of understanding the material. The chapter further went into cooperative learning which I feel is an important part of education today. Communication is an important part of today’s world and starting with the fundamentals of working with classmates is a good way to get a good structure and base for students when they get older.


Chapter 2:
Chapter 2 focuses on the DDD-E model which is decide, design, develop and evaluate. This model allows the student to be given guidelines and structure while not limiting their creative and learning capabilities. The teacher sets the goals and standards as well as what the project is plus how the students will be evaluated on the results. The students are given an array of different methods to keep them focused on the task at hand and guide them through the project. I think that this is something that is important to keep in mind. Evaluations should be done first so that you know what you want from the students, what they should know when they are finished and what should have been accomplished. From there the activities should be designed to direct the students toward the common goal. I feel that there are many different applications of this that can be seen in education that have mostly been based off of the backward design. However there is definitely applications for the DDD-E model throughout education regardless of its multimedia inclusions or not.

Learning Blog Prompt - Learning Style Inventory

Out of my learning style inventory, verbal is the most challenging for me. I think this would be the area where I would most want to focus my learning. I have tried for many years to become a better reader but I read words not full concepts and sentences. It’s very difficult when you are trying to read a college textbook for material and don’t get anything out of it let alone remember two words before what you just read. I know that this is the area where I struggle the most and my learning inventory was no surprise to me (I was a completely visual person scoring an 11 on the visual side.) I also would want to learn about hearing disorders and how to overcome them. It has been brought to my attention that I have a hard time hearing things. As well when I do hear sentences (most prominent in a lecture or when the information is important) I head the whole sentence but I can’t remember the whole sentence. I have a hard time being able to head and process the entire sentence at once. If I were to learn more about my learning styles I would want to learn how to overcome these difficulties.

What's in the News?

Article: The Summer Travel Blog: A 2.0 Travelogue to Bridge Summer “Down Time”
By Johanna Riddle
Available at: http://www.electronic-school.com/0997f3.html

Summary: This article discussed a media specialist’s experience winning a Fulbright-Hays Scholarship and getting the chance to travel to China during the summer break. Johanna Riddle described her experience creating a blog that was visited by about 50% of the student body while she was traveling and how she connected the blog to further learning in the classroom. After she returned from China, she used a blog to create a consortium that allowed students to post their work online as well as ask and answer questions and make comments. The third grade students had different assignments in reading, writing, map skills, and technology which were tied to part of the teacher’s trip as well as a culminating project using Adobe Photoshop. As of January, the blog site is still being utilized and continues to benefit the students’ learning.

Response: I thought the article had a lot of interesting facts and points. I think that Johanna was using her technology and multimedia knowledge in the best of ways to portray her experience not just to a small amount of students but to an entire community. I would be interested to see the blog site that the students came up with during the summer as well as what they created in the classroom activities which were associated with the curriculum. Johanna specifically mentioned that the students used Adobe Photoshop to create a layered photo project that resulted in the students’ demonstration of mastery in the areas they were studying (research, writing and technology). The students used the teacher’s photos, their own photos, pictures they found during their research as well as timelines and excerpts of their writing to capture the full capabilities of the students.

My View: I was very intrigued by the author’s experience. I had heard of scholarships and programs which allowed teachers to go to different countries for cultural experiences for a number of reasons. I knew that these recipients usually had to relate it to their general teaching practices in some way. Johanna wasn’t the only one using a blog to keep everyone else updated. It was interesting to see what different multimedia outlets there are for entering pictures, videos, sound clips and other items on a blog website. I think that the aspect I was most interested in was the Adobe Photoshop project. I have problems downloading pictures onto my computer that are small enough to post on a website or upload as a picture as well as putting into a document without overloading the size of the file. Using technology and multimedia applications in that way with third graders really makes me want to learn to use the programs and have such detailed and interesting activities associated with a blog.

Questions: What happens when the next group of third graders comes along? They aren’t able to follow the teacher throughout their travels. Are they able to follow with similar activities in subsequent years? Was any data collected on student feedback? (To determine if any tweeking needed work, if they enjoyed it, anything that might help to reuse the situation for subsequent years.) What are some other ways to travel and use blogs in classroom settings without having to travel to China?

Media Learners

€ How can technology make a difference in learning? Find an example of this difference from the Internet and add the weblink to your post.

Technology can make a difference in learning. It can do so by giving access to different techniques which were not able to be done with a paper and pencil. If you are talking about a design of an object that is abtract or hard to describe, technology makes it easier to give another view of the problem. Technology is able to bridge the pathways between starting a project and ending one with the example of the programs from Inspiration. The actual Inspiration software is geared towards aiding a student in the planning, organizing and research of a project. Technology allows us to see things in a different way. It also allows us to simplify things and make them easier to understand or easier to describe something complex. http://www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/tiol.html

€ What are some important ideas to keep in mind as we design learning environments that utilize multimedia in one of the five ways stated in the PDF? (or in any others that you may think of)

There are many important ideas that should be kept in mind when designing a learning environment that utilizes multimedia. First, the multimedia equipment can not be the lesson. If you are using this technology for the first time, you should prepare yourself and try it before in the actual classroom setting with students sitting there waiting for you. If this is the students' first time with the technology then a lesson can be learning the key parts of the technology. Then be used in conjunction with the curriculum and learning environment. Another important thing to remember is to always integrate technology where the inclusion is positive. You don't want to play a video that might confuse the students more. Find the best fit video or application to do just what you want it to do. Make sure there is a good balance between the technology and learning environment. Don't keep all the technology in one area, spread it around so that its within the classroom and not 'in the corner over there.'

Brain Based Learning

Brain based learning is derived from medical studies which help us understand how the brain 'learns'. Knowing about brain based learning is important to any person in a situation where they must teach something. It helps us understand the best ways and approaches to getting new material across with the best retention and memory.Researchers have found that if you associate new material with previous mental, emotional and physical experiences it strengthens memory. For a teacher, if there was any previous information the student might have or experience they can associate the new material with (applying it to the student in their terms) the previous information, it will hopefully promote long-term memory beyond the test or quiz that information was needed for. Taking a different view of this subject: If the student percieves the information as being relevent it diminishes the potential for the material to be remembered. Meaning that if you can't catch the child's attention, the greater chances there are that they won't remember what was said.The challenge now is to find how to natural learning with the practices we see in the classrooms today to better address the learning process.

Music and Learning

I chose this topic because I was interested in a personal experience. When I play music int he background while deeply concentrating on some type of work, I have no problem weeding out the music and being able to focus. I wanted to know what affect music had on my learning process. What I found was quite interesting.When comparing electroencephalograms (EEGs) of children who were listening to music and who weren't there is an increase of brain activity in the temporal region. This region is responsible for sound and music. Research has shown that the brainwave activity increases when listening to music at a certain level. Research has also shown that it imporves cognitive functioning, assists in achieving higher mental performances and helps increase the size of the brains neurons. The brains neurons being larger is important because the larger and stronger they are, the stronger the pathways are which carry signals within the body. When thinking about the classroom, I remember having a teacher or two play classical or slow jazz in the background during a quiet reading time or work period. I didn't mind it; I felt focused, more confident and efficient with my work. However there is science reasoning on why this is so. Listening to classical music has shown improvements in math scores. Listening to soft rock or jazz has shown higher productivity and performance efficiency in students. For a teacher I would think this would be important to think of if you are giving individual work to students. This isn't 100% effective however; every student has their own musical preferences and not a single person's brain works the same way as another.

Problem/Project-Based Learning

I recently was working with my internet network in my apartment so that all the computers and wireless devices on it were working. My roommate has a Mac laptop, I have an iPhone, a palm pilot as well as a desktop and laptop computers both running XP. I had never worked with Mac computers except a few times in different computer labs but nothing extensive. My boyfriend is the IT and Security Specialist for the radio station B101 and had setup the wireless network for me. However my roommate's laptop was being difficult: the laptop would get internet initially when you put in the 52 digit password but then once you restarted it, it wouldn't be able to connect. I had emailed my boyfriend to make a trip to my apartment to sit down and 'fix' the situation. I knew that he wouldn't be able to get down there for a few days and really wanted to get the internet up for my roommate. I knew I was somewhat confident in my computer experiences to KNOW I could figure out what to do. Instead of waiting for my boyfriend to come do the work for me I took my roommates laptop and sat down between all three computers and started changing each and every setting possible till I found one that decided to work. This took a lot of self confidence and motivation to keep working at doing it on my own without consulting someone else. I sat down and looked at each of the different securities available with my router and attempted each one using the best of my problem solving skills. Even though it took time, my desire to complete the task on my own paid off. I was able to find a very secure setup for the network which allows all computers access. Thus far, it has worked flawlessly. When I ended up talking with my boyfriend later, he said that he would have done the same setup! So my confidence skyrocketed knowing that the professional with degrees in the field would have chosen the same path as myself. I think that it is important for students to understand how to troubleshoot and work around the errors and alerts that come up on computers when working with technology. This could be turned into a classroom activity where students have a few different options which they must figure out the correct setup to get the best results. It's a trial by error by doing type of activity. There is some science or knowledge behind it but you still have to be able to exercise the power of doing to create results.

Reflection to Marc Prensky, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

When I was reading Marc Prensky's "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" I was bored at first. All of what I was reading was nothing too surprising to me. A benefit I did get out of reading this was that Marc Prensky gave me good terminology for describing the differences with those who grew up with technology versus those who had to learn it or still refuse to learn it. He took the words right out of my mouth when describing the differences between my parents and my siblings. My younger sister is on the beginning of learning the internet world and because my parents weren't Digital Natives they weren't aware of the impending doom on not having an anti-virus on the computer. And two computers later, my sister has learned more about trustable sites and my parents had to find some way of fixing the computers. Instead of learning about what to do or how to protect them, they hired someone or picked my brain to 'make it better'. My mother didn't have an email account until November, when I set it up for her. My dad didn't know how to turn on his new laptop.

Being an engineer as my primary background, I had an easy time learning the basics of CAD freshman year. I wasn't required to do much more with that software, but did with others which were more complex. I didn't know that Doom, Quake and Monkey Wrench were made for the assistance in learning to use CAD software. If I had known this I would have definitely picked up the games to learn more. CAD was a software that I frequently encountered possibly being able to use, but because I didn't know enough about it, would pass on the opportunity.

I think it would be beneficial for myself, for other future teachers, for current teachers in all levels to know how to teach to the Digital Natives. If what's going on currently isn't working effectively enough, what practices can be done to make the needed change?