Blog 2 prompt: Visual Literacy and Internet strategies

Visual literacy and the Internet if used can impact the classroom by bringing lessons to life through multimedia use and collaborative exercises.  In order for students to become visually literate, they must be able to analyze and interpret the media and be adept at producing visual media also.  The impact on teaching comes in the form of the paradigm shift from highly text based learning to a more visual multimedia learning approach which mimics how students interact with information in the twenty-first century.  Teachers must know all varieties of visual media and when it is appropriate to use them. 

Internet usage also has an impact on teaching.  The Internet can be used dynamically during class to fill in gaps of research information through the use of Smartboard technology. This can teach students research skills that include searching out bias,verifying authenticity, identifying and citing rhetorical devices.  The Internet can lend an immediate feel to the educational process.  In a lab setting tools like Faronic's Insight can allow instructors to show one students screen to all students. Collaborative applications like Edmodo, Wikispaces, Schoology, Blogger.com, and Google class can be used through the Internet in for assignments that demand students work in groups.  The Internet can allow for virtual field trips including the incorporation of google glass.  The use of the Internet is not without pitfalls. For example, without control, students can navigate to inappropriate sites. Even with District supported filtering valuable time can be wasted.  Instructors can mitigate this through the use of Programs like Faronic's Insight which allows for control over sites that students can visit.  I use the program and have approved site lists that help me stop the problem before it happens. The Internet can also be used for assessment purposes. Edmodo, Schoology can be used by  teachers to delivers every type of assessment possible.  Essay assessment programs like MyAccess and Holt Online offer auto grading of essays.  Overall, use of the Internet via laptops, desktops, or mobile devices can really modernize classroom operations as long as it is embraced by tech savvy teachers.

Blog 1: 21st Century Instructional Strategies

Instructional strategies are changing for the better and it is a good thing.  The old education strategy of memorize by wrote is giving way to strategies that include all styles of learners.  The importance of this cannot be overstated.  According to authors’s of Instructional Technology and Media for Learning, Sharon E. Smaldino, Deborah L. Lowther, and James D. Russell, Teachers must be prepared to teach student who come to them learning through hand on means and desires to learn in their own way.  They go on to suggest that because information grows exponentially students must be taught how to retrieve information not memorize by wrote in order to recall later. An example of these new realities are those help student evaluate information for accuracy and bios.  Essentially student must be able to find information weigh its sources and understand motivations.  Students are now entering school with technology background that surpasses their instructors.  Lessons must change to fit these student’s needs.  Frequently they know how to use the technology but do not know how to maximize its use to their advantage. The implementation of strategies must consider this. Instead of disregarding technology as a fad, it must be put to use.  With many students familiar with social networking sites, instructors would be wise to adapt this technology to their own use.  I have already started using programs and techniques that have at their core communication.  I have incorporated the delivery of lessons via Edmodo, and use applications like Wikispaces, Blogger, and schoology. I also plan on requiring students to use online portfolio’s.  These applications offer students twenty first century mechanisms that allow for collaboration, team building, and project based learning that will be more and more important to our students during higher education and beyond.

Reference:

Smaldino S., Lowther D., and  Russell, J.(2012), Instructional Technology and Media for Learning, Allyn & Bacon by Pearson Education, Inc.  

Module 2 SQ2

The difference between teacher and student centered strategies is that with teacher centered activities teachers direct the learning while in with student centered strategies the teachers serve as facilitators who offer guidance (Smaldino S., Lowther D., Russell J.).

Examples of teacher centered strategies are (1) Students complete drills on previously reviewed topics. For example, students complete Grammar101.com drills on parallelism identification after review the same with the instructor.  (2) After teaching the use of MS Word Review Comment tool to for annotation purposes and leading students through the annotation of an informational text. Students are asked to read a short information text and annotate it using the SOAPSTone method.

Examples of student centered strategies are: (1) Teacher gives students separate research assignments to students which when combined in a Wikispace will cover an entire topic.  Students check in with instructor daily to show their progress.  Instructor monitors student’s research website visits using Faronic’s Insight. Grading is based on each individual’s contribution to the project.  (2) Students collect poll data on several question posed by instructor on a current event. Student compile data using MS Exel  and create charts from data.. Students write reports using gathered data to come to conclusion regarding that data.   

References:

Smaldino S., Lowther D., Russell J.,(2012) Instructional Technology and Media for Learning 10th ed, Allyn &    

           Bacon. Copyright © 2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.