Discussion
Session 2 (
The introduction of networks and easy availability of
electronic information could bring about major improvements in the ability of
students to read, write, and reason. Schools and homes now have tools and
resources that can help learning and actively engage the student.
Discuss changes that you have seen or expect to see in your teaching/classroom
as a result of the use of technology (computers, CD's, databases, online
services, Internet, etc.)
Response to
Discussion Topic on
Here is a
little background about my experiences with computers. I have a B.S. in
Mathematics and have taken many graduate level computer science and mathematics
courses. I worked for fourteen years at several large computer and engineering
companies as a computer analyst/programmer on highly technical mathematical and
artificial intelligence government projects.
When I married and had two sons close in age, I left working full-time but
decided to stay involved with computers by teaching computer classes at several
home schooling groups. When my kids entered grade school I started helping in
the school library which I have done here in
Although my help in the library has been mainly taking inventory, filing books,
preparing new books for use (labeling and cataloging books on the computer), I
have noticed that students use the computers infrequently to research topics
for report assignments given by the librarian. By the way, the librarian does a
good job teaching students where to find things in the library and look up
books in the computer's card catalog. I help keep the books in order on the
shelf and they can be quite out of order in an elementary library.
Getting back to the subject of how the internet is used by the students, there
are "specials" teachers that come in to the library to help the
students perform their research or assignments on the computers. It seems that
most of the time the computers are used to help the students learn to type and
write short papers. I don't see them using it very often for research and the
computer room seems to be empty most of the time. I think this is due to the tight
schedule in the other main subjects (math, science, ILA, etc.) that prohibit
the students from spending much time there.
I think if technology is going to be used more often the teachers will have to
incorporate it into their lesson plans instead of leaving it as a
"specials" activity. If the students need to use the internet to
research a topic they are studying then they should be given some time during
regular class time to go to the library's computer room. In older grades this
may not be a problem as long as the students are given a lesson or two on how
to logon and find some initial search engines. In grade school (first through
fifth), it may have to be done as a class so that the teacher (or librarian)
can monitor their progress.
Ideally, the teachers would incorporate computer time in the classroom (on the
classroom's computer) during the lesson to show students where to find
interesting web sites related to the subject being taught. Unfortunately, many
teachers are probably not familiar with how to search for web sites themselves
and the computers in their classroom are not fully utilized as research tools.
Instead the computers are used as organizational tools for the teacher or as
computer fun reward time for kids who finish their work early.
In some cases, I am not sure that all of the classroom computers are hooked up
to the internet. Some are connected to a school wide system to send messages to
other personnel in the school system such as the principal and other teachers.
For the web and computers to be used more frequently, the teachers need to be
planning their lessons to include showing the students interesting websites to
visit. The teachers should also research the different lessons available online
for their subject area and let the students pick one or two to complete as part
of regular assignment time in the classroom.
Being a computer programmer and interested in tutoring math and conveying
computer knowledge to students, I can see great potential for web site and
tutoring programs to be joined in an overall "improve your math and
computer skills" website. I have discussed this matter with Carroll County
Public Schools' math supervisor and hope this class with give me the background
to forge ahead with this project.
Reply to
Laurie Lewis on
Hello
Laurie,
I enjoyed reading your discussion message about students using the internet for
research. I know the whole idea of using computers on the web can be
overwhelming for those who are not trained or experienced in doing so. I think
each school's librarian or "specials" education teacher should take
this class since they are probably going to be the ones guiding the students on
how to use the web. I think the teachers who need to maintain their certification
by taking more classes should consider taking this class as well. It so happens
that the librarian where I help in the school library has taken this class. I
plan on asking her how much of what she has learned has helped her with the
students.
A big problem that I have seen and heard from teachers is that they barely have
enough time to teach the basics let alone introduce new subjects or ways of
teaching that require more time. I think the concern among teachers is that the
start up time for the students to get used to using the web and for the
teachers to know what is out there may seem too risky. They are concerned about
just getting the students to do the basic lessons.
I hope that as more teachers and librarians use the web, and if more take this
class, that gradually their lesson plans will include interesting websites and
online lessons. Maybe we can make a difference by creating some really great
web sites that we could show to the teachers or principals where we work or
volunteer in the schools. That may encourage them to try using the web more.
Hope to hear from you again, Cindy (Cynthia) Vaskis
Reply to
Heather Hess on
Hello
Heather,
Thanks for responding to my message. I agree with you in that the younger
generation seems to know how to manuever around a
computer game much better than I ever will. I think this is because they have
no pre-concept about how difficult it might be and they are not afraid to try
things even if they don't get it right the first couple of times. They just
keep pounding the keyboard until something works. I have found that I have to
do that in this class, just keep at it until it does what I want it to do. It
does take a lot of time to work through new software and kids have the time
since they are not bothered with jobs or cooking or cleaning the house.
My background as a computer programmer was when I was single and could spend
the time as I wanted to but now with a family I only get large blocks of time
when the kids are in school or late at night.
I think teachers will have to educate themselves on using the web and finding
web related resources for teaching in order to keep their students' interest.
The days of using only one method of teaching is going away. If money for schools
is cut, those who make decisions about what teachers to keep or let go will
most certainly look at who can utilize current technology to keep the students
interested in learning.
Well, hope to hear more of your comments in the future,
Second
response to Discussion Topic on
I have an
additional response to this question of whether I have seen the use of the
Internet in the classroom and what I expect to see in the future. I volunteer
in both of my sons' elementary school libraries (they go to different schools).
One school's librarian took this class a year or two ago. I asked her if anyone
does research on the Internet for student assignments. Up until now the
Internet has not been utilized much. Only recently did every classroom have a
computer hooked up to the Internet.
I think as teachers try to search the Internet themselves to help plan their
own lessons, eventually they will have the students researching topics on the
Internet. The students are probably more comfortable with computers than the
teachers.
I think the information gap between those schools with Internet access and
those without will affect whether a student can compete for admission to some
of the better universities. For those students who work well independently, the
Internet can be a valuable resource. For those students who need more
attention, the Internet could appear to be a confusing maze. One solution to
keeping all the students on the “same page” would be to use working groups so
that the students could help each other overcome the problems in first learning
how to use the Internet.
Another
reply to Heather Hess on
Hi Heather,
I enjoyed your summary (so far) statements. I think you are correct in stating
that it will be difficult to get some teachers, if not most, to start using the
Internet simply because they have not been trained to do so. I am not currently
a teacher in the public schools but I have trained peers (engineers and
computer programmers) at work on how to run and manage software systems that I
helped create. It takes a lot of time to prepare a clear presentation of the
material. To incorporate Internet usage into a lesson plan would take a lot of
preparation time on the teacher's part even if they were familiar with surfing
the web.
It would be useful to develop a "teacher lesson planning" web site
where the teacher could follow a set of instructions that would allow them to
quickly build a lesson plan with links to related topics. It might provide them
with many different styled templates that they could pick from and fill in with
the specific lesson's information.
I know from what I have seen in my sons' science lessons in third grade that
they have certain things they repeat each year (taking measurements experiment,
paper airplane flying competition, parachute drop with an egg in its basket
experiment, etc.). If the teacher were to plan as part of the lesson that
students research on the web some related topics (such as "tools used for
measuring in science or engineering", "airplane gliders" or
"airplane designer" web sites to learn about aerodynamic principals,
or "parachute design" or "a parachute club's different group
falling formations and why they work" web sites) then they may have more
of an appreciation for their simple school experiments.
Maybe, because I have a history of computer programming as a career, I am
always looking for where software could provide someone with tools to perform
their job better. In this case, what web site tools could be created so that
the training time for teachers can be significantly cut down and allow them to
get the end product they want, a lesson plan for students to use on the
Internet. Maybe the web site would maintain a huge inventory of lesson plan
templates that the teachers could start from and modify (in a Word File) and
then add their "tailored" lesson plan to a folder located on their
classroom computer.
From 1993 to 1994 I taught a computer class at several home schooling groups
(before the Internet was around). It would have been useful to show the
students examples of what I was teaching them that others in the world had
done. For example, I taught them how computers draw on the screen using RGB
(red-green-blue color values) and point to point drawing algorithms. I
explained how the software creates three dimensional models in an X-Y-Z
coordinate system that are projected onto the screen's flat (X-Y) plane from a
particular view point using math (trigonometry and algebra).
It would have been nice to show my students some online examples of what
different companies were producing in 3D modeling software. I worked at a
company that produced the software for Army tank simulators. I showed my
students some pictures of what the terrain database looked like that the tank
simulators drove across, i.e., what the soldiers inside the simulators would
see out their tank simulator "windows" which were actually computer
display screens. It would have been nice to show them live examples of 3D
modeling software in action. Today, almost every computer game you can buy uses
this technology (3D modeling) but I doubt that most who play the games know how
the models and background scenes are drawn to the screen.
I think there is a lot of work that could be done to prepare "lesson
planning" web sites for teachers to use which could end up being one
answer to the "lack of web training" for teachers. In a much smaller
way, that is what we are doing individually here in this class, creating our
own web site for a single topic. The student web sites from this class could
serve as examples to this "lesson planning" web site. The
"lesson planning" web site would have access to a library of lesson
plan templates covering many topics and instructions for combining lessons
templates with web links. It would end up being an abbreviated form of the web
site creation assignment for this class.
Maybe those of us taking this class and those who will take it can collaborate
to build a "lesson planning" web site and library of lesson plans
that teachers could select from and tailor to their needs. It would be great to
think that what we do in this class might be useful in the future to help
teachers better utilize the Internet for its research and learning tools.
Cindy (Cynthia) Vaskis
Second
response to Discussion Topic on
Hi Jona,
I already responded to your topic question before but wanted to add what I see
happening in the future with technology in the classroom. My experience has been
that if a software need is clearly defined, there will eventually be someone
who develops software to meet that need.
Right now I think the newer generation of teachers just coming out of school
and those who have gone back to school are becoming aware of the importance of
utilizing the resources of the Internet. As those teachers decide that they
want to use the Internet, they may become frustrated at the enormity of
information and become discouraged at their attempts to extract just what they
need to build a lesson plan. Please see my (long)
What may and should happen is that tools should be created to help those
teachers get what they need from the Internet and incorporate it into their
lesson plans. I proposed creating a "lesson planning" web site that
helps teachers create their own "tailored" lesson plan with links to
related topics. Hopefully, those link web sites would spark an interest in the
student for the topic being studied.
The "lesson planning" web site would allow the teacher to select an
initial lesson plan from a huge library of lesson plans and then modify (edit)
it to fit their needs. They could select web links to add to the lesson plan.
It would then be saved on their classroom (or library) computers where the
students could work on the lesson.
I hope that students from this class and future classes would be interested in
collaborating to build such a "lesson planning" web site and library
of lesson plan templates that could be an initial solution to helping teachers
over the Internet learning curve.