Assignment 2

How can students use their devices to take notes and organize their information?
We utilized Skitch by Evernote to take notes on a video that was appropriate for the age group of our students.  We chose a video on Learn360 about the importance of balanced Breakfast, Snacks, Lunch and Dinners.  In our case, we were able to add labels, draw freehand, create clocks of the suggested meal times.  For our students, ages 5-6 this would have been a very difficult taks as they are still learning how to write and specially how to coordinate their fine motor skills, which need to be quite precise for freehand drawing.  A more appropriate activity for their age group still using Skitch would be to give them the material such as a picture, and have them scribble or draw OVER it to show the most important elements or something that they would like to point out.

How can students use mobile devices to collaborate and make research more effective?
By researching with mobile devices the notes gathered and the research collected by the students becomes available to all and is easier to save and share this information with their peers.  This facilitates collaboration among the students.

Which strategies can be used by teachers to support different learning styles and levels of competency?
As teachers we could support different learning styles by introducing and adopting various note taking applications and programs.  They all cover the main purpose which is to take notes, yet, each application has its own characteristics which appeal differently to the disting learning styles of our students.

Pre-Assignment 8

Adapting Teaching Methods to Become Real 21st Century Educators

Taking into consideration both Why Mobile Learning? and Above And Beyond  videos, several ideas on how educators should adapt new teaching methods to become real 21st century educators come to my mind.

To start off, the 21st century is not the future, it is today and we have been living it for the past 12 years.  Nonetheless, with ever changing technologies and application of such technologies, it has become an even more important task to "catch up" with the 21st century teaching expectations.

The video of Why Mobile Learning? is an inspiration on how mobile devices are now closing gaps in education by proving to be essential in the development of children with special needs.  More than ever before there are tools out there that enhance the learning experience.  Ipads are now aiding students with autism to become more independent and prove to give them the tools they need to learn material that before would just have been a battle to learn.   Ipads, ipods and many mobile devices give the opportunity for mute girl to "have a voice".  Mobile learning is definitely a teaching method to adopt in every classroom as it is opening new gates of education not only in traditional education but also in development of special needs education.

On the other hand, the Above and Beyond video is not explicitly speaking of the importance of mobile devices in education but speaks of the importance of vital 21st Century educational-learning skills such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity.  It is a very simple video that sends a clear message that I could sum up with the following quote by Hodding Carter Jr: "There are two lasting bequests we can give our children.  One is roots.  The other is WINGS."  This resonates with me as it is very true that the 21st Century educator must never forget to foster skills such as the ones mentioned above.  We may teach and be guides in our students' education however the most important thing we can provide is their "wings".  This is, provide them with enough tools and skills so that they are competent to make their own judgements, create their own thoughts and ideas and be innovators.

We are living a mobile learning revolution, education teaching methods need to be re-examined and new teaching methodologies must be implemented to keep up, but more to keep WITH this revolution.  It is not only about adopting certain gadgets that will "do the trick".  It is more of a change in mindset.  It is fostering 21st Century skills and fuse them to the use of technologies to the best of our teaching-learning advantage in order to provide our students with the TRUE 21st century education they deserve.

EDC 672 - Pre-Assignment 6

Bill Rankin's Mobile Learning presentation

• In what ways did the lecture make you think about your own perspective of education in time? 
• How does his lecture change you view on mobile devices and their use in education?

Bill Rankin's Mobile Learning at ACU: Full Presentation  was an eyeopener for me.  Of course I was aware that technology and the use of it in the classroom were ever so present as they are today, however his reasoning and ideas of how it is we got to where we are today are not only interesting but also quite logical and foreseeable.  He talkes about the cycles of technological change and makes you realize how it is an ongoing circle.  Once we are at the stage where creations of new technologies threaten our existing culture there needs to be a NEW beginning of a cycle by creating technologies that become successful by SOLVING problems or cultural "threats" and thus the cycle begins again.  

I believe that the presentation was quite easy to digest and explained in simple terms.  He provided real life examples of how the use of technology has been implemented since the 3rd century with the use of scroll vs. codex vs. hand printed books vs. printing press vs. internet and beyond. How each one presented/solved a problem for society, wether it was about FINDING or ASSESSING the information each era has its challenges and there is where room for technological growth and development takes place.

We should take advantage of where we are in terms of technology in order to provide our students with the most meaningful learning experience possible.  It is an era were we as teachers are our students' mentors, we need to live and work in relationship with them.  It is not our job to FEED the information to our students as it was done in the past.  Technology and information are not replacing us as their guides.  We now need to adress informational problems of the current age meeting the reality that the students of today face and not how the previous model used to work, and we do this by providing technological tools and mobile devices that aid in the search of information, in the development of ideas, and by hands on usage of technology in real life scenarios both inside the classroom and out. 

Assignment 5

Applying both blooms taxonomy and the super 3 into lesson plans will ensure a higher lever of thinking and a better sense of information literacy from an early age.   While I do believe that it is a very time consuming process, especially while you are learning as you go to do it, it will provide for a more effective and efficient learning experience for your students.

The way I would do it is to plan according to both strategies, a whole unit.  This way the students will not feel overwhelmed with processes and theory behind their already challenging exercises.  It too would become overly tiresome to apply this higher level of thinking process to ALL lessons.

Educational TED Talk: Stuart Brown Says Play is More Than Fun

Educational TED Talk

What is the purpose of this media/information resource?
Shares the research made by Stuart Brown about the importance of play and how it should be part of anybody’s upbringing. Adults who have grown up dedicating some time to play, grow up to be well rounded beings who are able to analyze, think critically, creatively and to problem solve efficiently (higher order thinking skills).  In the end we become adults who are able to innovate and have a better approach to life.

How is this produced?
Dr. Stuart Brown is presenting at the 2008 Art Center Design Conference.  He is presenting with the aid of a slide show of a couple pictures and closes his presentation with the use of a video.

Who created it?
Dr. Stuart Brown, a play researcher and psychiatrist.

Who is the intended audience? How do you know?
It is targeted at educators in general.  It might seem that it targets early Childhood educators, but most MS, US and even college Educators need to be reminded of the importance of play in life.
It also serves to provide information to parents, counselors, therapist and anybody that is involved in educating and raising children in any type of society.

What is the main message?
That play, from an early age influences on our adult life into happier, smarter adults.  However play is not only limited to our childhood, keeping it up through our lives can make us smarter at any age.

Who benefits and what do they gain?
The world!  We have forgotten how important it is to allow ourselves to be connected with our feelings and emotions. We have left aside play because we feel that as adults it just doesn’t fit in our busy and hectic lives. If there is no humor in life we become a negative version of who we could have been, there is depression, so let loose and allow yourself to feel the joy of play in any way it presents itself.

What would have been my information needs that would have led me to this video?
We are Early Childhood Educators who understand the importance of playing in the early years. We know that allowing children to play in different ways (constructive, imaginative, team free play)  builds up their social, emotional and cognitive skills. We thought that it would touch on play in the early years and even though it does, it goes beyond the early years, it actually tries to make adults understand how much we need play in life in order to be well adjusted.

How would you organize and assess the information found?
The information we found in the video was interesting. The researcher brought up different points of view to the importance of play. He included the scientific, social, emotional and  physical aspects of play. In the end he tried to explain the relationship between all of the already mention aspects and how they all contribute to the quality of our adult life.  We assess this talk as a reliable source because he is an expert in his field and the video comes from a respectable educational source.

Identify and explain the Big6 steps you're applying in this activity.
Task definition- Understanding the objective of this activity.  To find a video on TED talks and answer the questions that followed by posting them on our professional blog.
Information Seeking Strategies- The fact that I we are  interested in ECC topics led us to this video.  When we looked for videos we automatically discard anything that we felt wasn’t relevant for us The word “play” was the one that attracted to us to it.
Location and Access- Go to TED.com and find an educational talk that would suit our needs.
Use of Information- We used the information given in the video to properly address the questions.
Synthesis- We analyzed how this information can be applied in our everyday teaching as well as how it could be applied to different aspects of our personal lives.
Evaluation- After working without a time pressure and having the freedom to look for a video that was appealing to both of us, we were able to focus on the task and work at our own pace.  This helped us to critically evaluate the information better and create a more effective response.

Donut Hunt Experience (Web Quest)

During this activity we learned that there are many uses to applications that we had not used before or that we believed to use for certain purposes only only.  The i-nigma QR scanner was applied to take us from one clue to another by directing us to different web images.  Before this activity I had only seen the codes on different magazines and just wondered without really looking int what they were, mush less with out even considering if they could be of any use in my life.  Once I was instructed to download the application barely looked into what they were, but now thanks to this activity I actually learned hands on to different uses of the QR codes.  Basically I learned that there are many more uses to our mobile devices, and library resources than those most of us even imagine, wether they are to conduct a treasure hunt or inside a classroom.

I also learned that I don't know how to do APA citation.

Google vs. Databases

Google vs. Databases.

We typed the exact same key words on Google and on Ebsco database in order to evaluate the top five hits on each one.

From our research we conclude that both databases and Google offer informative and useful results.  However, both have positive and negative characteristics when using them as research tools.  

The positive characteristics in using Google are:

• Internet sites offer attractive layout and color, which if used properly can make the user feel motivated to keep on reading.
• Many sites offer useful links that may enhance your search while making it interactive.
• It is fast and simple to use.

Some negative aspects of Google could include:

• Large amount of unreliable or unaccountable sources.
• Different layouts may confuse navigators.  (Too many ads, crowded information, too many colors, popups.)

Databases pros:

• Information is reliable and accountable.
• Results may be more specific for certain topics.

Databases cons:

• Results are very limited to specific areas and may not necessarily cover what we are searching for.
• Databases are not very attractive to read and may discourage users from even reading the article.