Internet Pedagogy (RSS)
U of M class IP Class Sept 25
Lab
Tomorrow's news today!! (search Philippines english newspapers)
- how do you tell what's good?
- how can you tell the bias?
- what's news for them?
Sharing and publishing docs (sharing can be fun and scary)
Should we go on a Picnik??? (picnik.com for photo editing)
Class
Questions / Assignments ??
Deadlines please...
Important Ideas ??
Is Google Making Us Stupid?
How do we deal with this in ourselves and students?
Filed under: Internet Pedagogy
Too many people missing without letting me know. Thank-you to those who did.
Email me your list of deadlines please!
This week we decided not to take a break, but to finish earlier. Think about it.
LAB - most evenings we will start in the lab.
We started with internetteaching.pbwiki.com and learned that if you use the link in webct you can run into login problems, so just go directly to the site and log in there. Also - to reduce or eliminate the email notices, you can go to account (top right) and change the settings there.
We added pages, edited pages, learned about stealing the lock from other people, adding plug-ins and editing the sidebar (menu).
You can now start adding content to these pages (or make new pages) for assignment 1.
We also started a presentation in Google docs - which looks very much like a stripped down Powerpoint or Keynote. You can upload your PP work or you can download your presentations as PP files for when you don;t have internet access.
CLASS
We watched the video, Are Schools Killing Creativity? and discussed it's relevance for us and how we tend not to vary much from how we were taught. For the child gifted in skills that are not school skills, we have to find things to offer and encourage them. Schools were developed for an industrial age and all the priorities that go with it - reading, basic math, being on time, coming every day, doing the work an authority assigns to you ....
We talked about charter schools and hockey schools and whether they could work in Manitoba and how many diverse schools you can possibly have.
We did not get around to discussing the Poster article yet.
For next class read Is Google Making Us Stupid?
We were missing a number of people tonight - hmmmm. Only a couple emailed me to let me know.
We started by talking about the following questions in groups of 3 - 4:
- coolest cultural differences you have encountered
- what part of your 'heritage' is being lost (that which helps define you as German, Ukrainian, Chinese, Eritrean, ..... - Canadian ?
- why does English have so many foreign words?
This was in preparation for the notion that the internet may be the device that assimilates us all into one culture, and we need to think about whether that is a good thing and how to respond.
We talked about some of the readings. In particular was the Graham article:
Graham - Anarchy and the Internet --- the serious issues
- anarchy as good and bad (govt. as good or bad)
- cultural compliance / assimilation (who are the Borg?)
- cross-border disruption (subversive in that it can ignore existing governments)
Could this be democracy across political borders??)
- is knowledge = power ??
Does access to knowledge = knowledge??
Some quotes:
There is however a further line of thought worth exploring. This rests upon the idea that what the internet encourages is not so much political as moral anarchy, and that moral anarchy is inherently destructive.
moral education is most obvious in the early years of a life, but it continues indefinitely, and at every stage its form is the same - the submission and tempering of natural preferences to socializing influences.
Surfers have the the opportunity to seek out kindred spirits and to pass over the sort of reforming and refining influences that operate in normal processes of learning. This is evidenced most strikingly perhaps in such things as child pornography networks where, I shall assert, evil preferences are unchecked because those things which would check them can be ignored by the surfer, and are then strengthened by meeting with confirming responses. The logical outcome of this is moral fragmentation rather than moral community. Such fragmentation is anarchic in the bad sense.
In conclusion:
DON'T PANIC - educate and socialize!!
We have the responsibility to act and to educate our students.
Lab time
We logged in to WebCT, created Google accounts so we can try some of the Web 2.0 stuff like docs, mail, blogs, RSS readers, calendars, etc. You do not have to use gmail (or any of the others in the long run) but we can try these things with only one password and user name
We also requested access to internetteaching.pbwiki.com which is the wiki we will use with this class to share information about the internet, pedagogy and teaching resources.
NOTE: All the dates on the course outline are wrong! We go straight through until Nov 27. There is no class in December
Started with claiming user ID's and intros. Please make sure that you can login to WebCT (www.umanitoba.ca/webct)
We are a group from all over the grade and curriculum scales. It will be interesting to hear all the different perspectives while we talk about issues and resources.
We did some brainstorming and sharing about what we think is important about education. Some of the ideas we came up with are:
Ideas about education
Chance to play
Giving direction and meaning
Open doors
Power trips
Fostering curiousity
Enriching experiences
Keeping up to date
Learning
Stimulating
Creating global citizens
creating interaction
Positive role models
Creative thinking and problem solving
More than one solution
Understanding
We are being told that education has to change form an industrial model to an information age model. Are we doing this for our students or for the large corporations? Does it matter who we are doing this for?
Rennie demonstrated some of the communication tools he uses. They are linked on the course outline on webct
We also talked what is essential technology. Rennie thinks a word processor is the only computer tools a student really needs from K-12. Others think they only need the internet (and web2 tools). Whatever they need, they need direction in how to use it effectively and meaningfully - especially the internet.
Regarding the assinment about the internet protfolio. here is some more info:
You are to develop a portfolio that explores the potential of the internet for teaching and learning in your particular subject or interest area. The portfolio will consist of an exploration of 10-15 internet-based databases, concepts, “tools”, software or websites. Each should will be organized on a minimum of one page using the following structure:
Title, Description (What is it?),
Pedagogic Possibilities (How can it be used in the classroom?)
Potential Problems (What is the downside of this idea? Where might problems arise?)
Example (Provide an example of how the idea might be used.
References (Include here any websites consulted.)
Conclusion/Summary/Rating.
Some Details
Your portfolio should be accompanied by an introductory page and a conclusion page. Writing is to be in the third person, and should be written for a generic audience who might pick up the document without any knowledge of the course. In other words, this is an objective document, not subjective.
Some potential resources, tools, websites or concepts to explore
1. Blogspot.com
2. Google Images
3. Google Scholar
4. Google Docs
5. Database:Oxford English Dictionary
6. Database: Dissertation Abstracts
7. Website: UM Commons
8. Portal: UM Jump
9. Questia.com
10. Imdb.com
11. Ted.com
12. De.lic.ious.com
13. Wikipedia
14. Wikiquote
15. Wikihow
16. Nicenet.com
17. You tube
18. Netmeeting
19. Yahoo messenger
20. My Face
21. webquest
Grading
Grading is holistic, based on content, discussion, as well as writing, and presentation skills.
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