edt604+Assignment+2

=Assignment 2 =

Aha Moments
 1. This was such a nice discovery. I have given oral tests to students after school but it is time consuming and labor intensive. If a student can listen to the test and repeat it as needed, without my intervention, it would be more likely to be a fair assessment. It is difficult to remain unbiased when helping a student in this manner.  [|COEDU Spotlight]  Allison Papke, a Special Education student teacher used iPods in the classroom to give students an individualized testing experience. Papke created podcasts for tests so that students could listen to tests read aloud within the regular education classroom while answering questions at their own pace.  

2. This is a disturbing possibility to me. I realize that there are students for whom written communication is impossible. However, I think it is a matter of maturity for students who don't like to write to be required to write. It takes discipline and planning, forethought and good grammar, to write a decent essay. It would be a shame to have these things become optional. Besides that who hasn't had to write something that they didn't want to write. It's just a part of a successful life for most people.

[|Tech Teacher: iPod, uPod] Students who are reluctant to write essays now have a way to demonstrate their knowledge and share their ideas by producing audio clips such as podcasts. Students also can hold and record long-distance interviews through online tools such as Skype then post them on the Internet to be shared by others. The option of recording thoughts and uploading them to a computer allows students who hate writing or physically are unable to write a way to stay in the “educational game”.

3. I <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Comic Sans MS;">was interested in the study here because Abby said it was inconclusive. I wish they had gone into more detail regarding this aspect. I can't believe the oral nature of homework responses wouldn't have improved significantly because students find oral presentation very difficult in math. Being able to practice it and listen back to what they were saying seems like a perfect method for improving this skill. I also loved the idea of doing a podcast or even a dvd that's left at school for the substitute teacher. So much of what needs to be said is such a pain to write down. All the information that I could provide in a recording of any sort would be so much more helpful than a written list of instructions.

This was actually a research article written by the Department of Mathematics at Georgia College and State University. The article explains how they wanted to discuss different implementations of iPods for student engagement in and out of the classroom. The math department did many different things with the iPods in their classrooms. One they had the student subscribe to a podcast, two the students were going to actually be part of creating the podcasts (they had to use audacity to record their own mathematical communication of concepts), and three upload and watch different lesson or lectures that professors posted on the podcast site. At the end of their study, they found that the data was inconclusive as to if their was actually improvement of student learning by the use of an iPod. However, the "cool" factor was an added benefit and increased student engagement. []
 * Integrating iPods and Podcasting into Mathematics Instruction**

4. I had found this article in my own search but I didn't read it very carefully. In the end, I think that banning the electronic equipment is doing a disservice to the students. It's almost the same as banning the pencil because they can make cheat sheets. Students will always find ways to cheat if that is what they want to do. What we educators need to do about it is remain vigilant, monitor the students carefully and stay updated on the current methods of cheating. With the ti84 the teacher can clear the students' memory chip before administering the test. I wonder if there is some sort of modified app that could do something similar for the itouch. Also, I think that more challenging tests can be made when the teacher allows the students to use all the resources that they can bring into the class with them. The most difficult exam I ever took was a take home Geometry exam with 2 problems. The instructor even allowed us to come to her for help if we needed it. [] Article discussing why schools are banning iPods and handheld devices.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">5. One of the biggest AHA's that I have had throughout this course and throughout the program is that it is not only the teachers who don't know about the technology available and how to use it but the students are in the same boat. They don't know the necessary steps to create podcasts even though they have most likely heard them. It seems to me that I would need to administer some kind of outcome based test to find out what my students know and then require them to do tutorials on the items that they could not accomplish. This was a total surprise to me! I saw this in a number of websites and can't quite pin any of them down.