Double Entry Journal #10

QUOTE:
"Success is based not only on what you know or how much you know, but on your ability to think and act creatively." (Resnick, 2007-08)


RESPONSE:
I selected this quote because I thought that what it said about success is very true. Too many people think that success is only based on smarts, but to truly be successful there needs to be a broader basis than just that.  Being able to act and think creatively is important because creativity is what can make someone unique, and that is very important. A lot of people pride themselves on how much they know, but if they don’t know how to apply that they aren't truly going to be successful. Educators need to show students that success is not based on only knowledge and the resources from the article are good examples of that.

I chose this wordle because it is a good representation of success and creativity. I especially liked that "success" and "creative" were the key components of the wordle. 

SOURCES:
Massey, L. (Designer). (2008). Wordle. [Print Photo]. Retrieved from http://creativeliberty.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/surf’s-up-creativity-links-for-july-14-2008/


Resnick, M. (2007-08, December/January). Sowing the seeds for a more creative society. Learning & Leading with Technology, 18-23. Retrieved from http://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/Learning-Leading-final.pdf

Scratch Tutorial

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iPhone App Review

Stack the States Lite (Free) – This is a great game for students learning about the United States and wanting to find out fun facts about each state. The goal is to build a stack of states as high as possible and each time you get a high score you will unlock a new state and you want to try to fill up the map. Not only does the game help teach interesting information but it also helps children learn the location of each individual state. The graphics and details in the app are also very well done.

-This would be a fantastic app to use in a future classroom! It has the capability to have more than one player’s records saved so that they could save their progress and compete against each other. I would use it in my future classroom during a history class and I think that it could be extremely helpful during preparation for a test that would be given about our country. Not only is it educational but it’s fun too and that is extremely important. 

1st Grade Math Splash (Free) -This app is great for teaching place value and numbers and comparison. Those are the free sections but there are also sections you can buy to help with other skills. The app is interesting because it integrates a kid friendly underwater theme with easy to understand math skills. It also gives a score at the end of the section to let the player know how well they did. One helpful component is that the child’s parent can sign up to receive weekly updates on their child’s progress so they can keep track of how their reviews are going.

-I would use this app in my classroom for review purposes more than anything. I think that it is a great learning tool; I just wish that there were more sections that were already unlocked. The different skills that the app features would be very helpful during reviews in the classroom and I think that students would enjoy working on it together or by themselves. Not only could it help students reinforce what they've learned but it also could be a helpful visual tool for those who may be struggling with the content. I also would have the parents sign up for the progress report so not only could I see what they were doing when they reviewed in class, but also so the parents could be involved and see what their child’s strengths and weaknesses are. 

Scratch | Project | Pop! (Workshop)

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Gardens of Time

The Gardens of Time game reflects five of the ten things that students could learn through video games with interaction, production, the cycle of expertise,within the regime of competence, and exploring. It reflects interaction through being able to play with your friends and have "neighbors" that you can help out, visit, and who can in turn help you out. It reflects production because the way that you are able to gain coins or buy things for your garden is by advancing through the levels by completing the tasks. A major thing that the game shows is the cycle of expertise; the more you play the searching games the easier it is to find the objects from the list and the faster you are able to do it, which in turn gives you the rewards that you want. It also is within the regime of competence because while the goal is easy the task itself is also challenging. Finally, it reflects exploring by being able to go visit your neighbor's gardens, going to different lands to search for the hidden objects, and by getting to travel through time to do the tasks. Gardens of Time is a very good example of how students can learn skills through video games.

Double Entry Journal #9

QUOTE:
"Therefore it can be argued that in video games, failure is good as it helps facilitate alternate solutions to problems." ("10 things schools," 2012)


RESPONSE:
I chose this quote because I was surprised to find that risk taking and failure is something that schools and students can learn from video games. Most of the time one thinks of video games as just a source of entertainment and in some cases educational, but I personally have never thought of the experiences that take place in them as instructional about failure or risk taking. I'm not sure whether I agree with that or not because if I play a game I don't think I gain any sense of risk taking or lessons learned from failures from it. However, I also don't enjoy video games so the lessons learned could also be linked to the motivation and reasons behind playing the game. 


I chose this video because I thought that it gave a good explanation of the way that video games could help students learn.

SOURCES:
10 things schools can learn from video games. (2012, January 20). Retrieved from http://www.learningingaming.com/10-things-schools-can-learn-from-video-games/


(2008). Video games and learning. (2008). [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN0qRKjfX3s

Wikipedia Worksheet

Show Choir

• There are no cleanup banners.
• It is written in a clear and organized way.
• It is neutral and is mostly stating facts.
• Not all facts, but the ones involving certain groups or places are referenced.
• It seems complete and is not lacking.
• The first five references are not reliable, but the other four can be considered reliable.
• The article isn't rated.
• There are no issues around the article being discussed; it says that the article is within the scope of WikiProject Dance, so others were talking about expanding and cleaning up information about the history of dance and certain types of dance.
• I would rate the article as reliable. I chose to rate it as reliable because I was in it and I know the facts that it gave were true, the names of the schools that is listed could still be researched to find out whether or not the facts about them were true, and also because the viewpoint for writing the piece was neutral. 

Wikipedia

3 Things I Learned:

1. Wikipedia is able to do things that other encylopedias can't, like giving information to people everywhere despite things like the digital divide or poverty. I never thought about how Wikipedia would affect those who don't have quite the same resources that we do. 
2. They only have one employee; volunteers do everything else.
3. Running Wikipedia costs only $5,000 a month. 

2 Things I Agreed With:

1. The real problem with vandalism on Wikipedia is between the party of the thoughtful and the party of the jerks.
2. To be able to distribute proper information it needs to have a neutral point of view.

1 Thing I Disagreed With:

1. Anonymous users who aren't even logged in can go and edit the site.

About article:

I wasn't surprised because there are some times that I find Wikipedia hard to understand, but the article made it sound like it is hard to understand on every topic. While I think that there are certain subjects where Wikipedia is written in a hard to understand way, I still find it more helpful than most other sites. 

Ways to Use Wikipedia:

I always use Wikipedia for background information but I have never used Wikipedia for links, keywords, or references. 

Double Entry Journal #8

a. What is Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is a Web-based encyclopedia that is operated by the Wikimedia Foundation.

b. How would you answer the question posed in this piece “How reliable can a source be when anyone can edit it?”?

I would say that it probably wouldn't be very reliable but, like the article says, other people who are knowledgeable about the subject are going to come along and not let something wrong be posted. There are many times that I choose to go to Wikipedia first because even though it doesn't seem like its possible, the majority of the time their information is accurate. 

c. Who do the creators of Wikipedia place their trust in when it comes to weeding out misinformation?

They put their trust in "wisdom of crowds", because they believe that because so many people use Wikipedia that errors and vandalism will quickly be weeded out.

d. Why did founder Larry Sanger leave Wikipedia?

He left because he thought that it should give more authority to experts.

e. What would abuse or vandalism look like on a Wikipedia page?

 Abuse or vandalism would be obviously false information or non-professional sounding information.

f. What do the statistics quoted in the third paragraph of this piece reveal?

 The statistics show that Wikipedia is one of the most popular and go-to sites on the internet.

g. Why do you think Wikipedia is so successful?

I think Wikipedia is so successful because it condenses information about a topic into one space and a lot of times it breaks it down to make it easier to understand.

h. Why might Wikipedia’s creators not want to accept advertising?

They may not want to accept advertising because they would want to stay free of bias and also by having ads that would give them profit and it is a nonprofit organization.

i. How does Wikiscanner help increase the reliability of Wikipedia entries?

It increases the reliability of entries because it can check the IP address of anonymous editors to see who is editing the information on the site.

Think Aloud

Controversial Issue Think Aloud

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• A WebQuest that would be fitting for elementary school students to have to use the Internet to do research is Food Chain Jr.

Double Entry Journal #7

     Technology can be used in the classroom to support students with learning disabilities of all kinds because there are many different types of software and other tools out there that can assist them in their learning process. Software such as HELP ReadTM and TextAssist are good tools that are helpful to students with learning disabilities, dyslexia in particular, because they help them with the reading and pronunciation processes. Technology is also important because things such as audio devices can help those who have trouble with learning by listening and computers and spellcheck can help students who struggle with writing
     WAYS TO HELP STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES is a very helpful resource to use when thinking about how to help students with learning disabilities. I thought it was very informative, especially with the way that it breaks down how to help students in a way that caters to their specific weakness. While it isn't dealing with particular disabilities like dyslexia or ADD, the strategies given can apply to those students as well so that the information can be used to help learners with any problems.