Week 10 - Practical - Ethics and Legal Uses of Technology

Cell phones seemed to have become part of the human anatomy. I have heard, and shamefully live by the cliche "I feel naked without my cell phone". I am sure that millions of other people, young and old can say the same for themselves. These devices are capable of web browsing, e-mailing, twittering, face-booking, and most importantly texting.

Schools should have a responsibility to do something to limit the usage of cell phones during school hours. I know from experience that they are a distraction to the student, as well as the teacher. Cell phone use should be taken very seriously because as seen from the sexting videos, children are taking their own lives from the mistakes that they've made. Although schools can't do anything to prevent what children do with cell phones at home, perhaps they can educate them about the consequences of sexting.

Week 9 - Ethics and Legal Uses of Technology.

                From the score of my quiz, I clearly need to study up on my copyright knowledge. Based on the articles I read, fair use in schools needs to consider 4 "fair use" factors when using copyrighted work. These factors are:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

   

      The main factor that schools need to pay attention to is the purpose and the nature of the work being used. For schools to justify that the use of a certain product is fair, they need to prove that they are advancing the knowledge of the individuals who are using it. There are also certain rules that need to be followed when using a taped news show, or downloading and sharing a new computer program. These rules are very specific and can easily be broken if the instructor does not pay attention.

With the age of technology advancing every day, this issue of copyright becomes more and more sensitive. This matter is taken very seriously and is protected by the US constitution. The problem is that many of these laws are unclear, and all of them must be followed to avoid infringement. I will continue to read up on the articles supplied in this weeks lesson, to help avoid future infringement.

Week 8 Philosophical - 21st Century Learning

Constructive Learning Transformation Level

This lesson definately touched on most of the NETS standards specifically for learning and inspiring creativity. Creating this interactive book from the bottom up used many different technological tools (keyboards, voice recorders, mouses, monitors, printers and scanners etc.) Most of the lesson was based upon learning different skills, and applying the students work to technology. The students were encouraged to work together for a common goal. If I had to specify which standards would apply, here would be my list.

1-A
1-C
2 A-C
3-B

I feel as though my progression into educational technology had greatly increased since this class began. This is definitely a solid foundation for someone to build off of. Without the step by step directions I feel as though many of these tasks would be difficult to achieve on your own. I feel as though with more practice and the accommodation of more learning experiences, my level of comfort can be somewhere below  the Adaptation level depending upon what programs were being used and how in depth the lesson went. I still have a lot to learn and lots of practice to become fluent in classroom technology.

Luke Akins - Week 7 Philosophical/Practical

The following podcast is an overview of the basic training principals for resistance/aerobic training. Basic use of fundamental rules and language are presented.

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Week 6 Philosophical - 21st Century Learning

Blog Response #1  

    The critics of 21st century skills put up very good points invalidating these new teaching strategies. I would have to disagree with some of their statements though.  The first article claims that for the past century, our schools have been obsessing over critical thinking skills, projects and cooperative learning, and that the education system has been failing to focus on interdisciplinary work. This is true, but I myself have been a student in a public education system within the past 10 years, and although critical thinking has been a focus, for some teachers I had, that still did not stop them from integrating the lesson to teach their main interdisciplinary subject. In fact, the way it was taught (whether it be in a group, or as a project), helped me understand better how math skills, literature skills, or even science relates to the real world. Why can’t both types of learning happen at the same time?
    The second article goes on to criticize 21st century skills by saying that schools fall victim to “all at once syndrome” where school reforms must happen on all levels at the same time. The author then compares the the 21st century skills movement to the financial crisis which doesn’t make sense. The use of 21st century skills is voluntary as far as I know, so no one is forcing teachers to use this method. The use of 21st century skills when used appropriately can be a very useful tool. I don’t feel as though this needs to be a “movement”. A lot of the scrutiny that come out of this I feel is because it is tagged as a “movement”. Instead of giving it that stigma, teachers should just try and involve some of the skills this system calls for. I do not feel as though this is a fad, or should become a fad, rather than permanently integrating some of these skills within our teaching styles.

Blog Response #2

    I feel as though teachers make sacrifices everyday to their curriculum. Schools are killing creativity and something needs to be done about it. New ways of teaching need to start happening, because kids are being bored to death by force feeding subject matter in the old lecture/homework form of teaching. Classes like dance, music art and phys ed.  Can make learning fun again. Teachers need to get creative and integrate subjects like math and English into music and art subjects. Unfortunately with the state of the economy,  there might not be art or music in the near future. Kids need that for of creativity to express themselves.

Week 5 Philosophica/Practical

Back to school_night_

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I am in love with this idea for classroom usage! Creating powerpoints like this would help students especially when they are out of the classroom. Most of today's students are on computers at home and I feel are more likely to check out presentations like this for homework, study guides, extra credit. This was not that hard to make either, and sound could easily be coupled with pre-made PPT presentations. What I liked most about slide share, was it automatically separated the sound to the correct slide (and was surprisingly accurate). I am definitely going to take advantage of this technology in the future and am glad I got to practice. This lesson was a great base for a potential educator to build upon. I am looking forward to what else is coming.

-Luke

Week 4 - Presentation