Google Maps Lesson Plan

I focused on my teachable minor for this assignment, health education.  I created a map of my hometown and marked several different community resources for health issues.  In a lesson plan, students could create a map of their hometown or an area that is assigned to them and mark similar community resources.  They could also be broken down into the groups of health education.  For example, one group could be assigned to sexual health.  This group could mark all of the OBGYN offices in town as well as childbirth centers, hospitals, health clinics, health departments, free information centers, counselors, etc.  Another group may be assigned tobacco use and mark down similar resources but focused on tobacco use (smoking cessation). The students could make maps in groups or individually.  This would be a great assignment because it would make the students more aware of resources in their communities and would create an awareness for the ADVOCACY part of health education.  


View Health Resources in Hastings, MI in a larger map">
View Health Resources in Hastings, MI in a larger map

Baby

Also...just a little side note: 


My husband and I welcomed our first baby, our daughter, into the world last week.  We got home from the hospital this weekend and are getting used to life at home while trying to recover from a very long and physically hard week.  We're hanging in there though and trying to get caught up with everything!  


:)  

Week Eight Reflection

After reading Chapter 18, a couple of different ideas came to my mind about how to use this in the professional world. I taught classes through Michigan Works! on employability skills. My training for these classes consisted of computer-based training as well as presentations that included PowerPoint presentations from an overhead projector. The training meetings were set up via a program on the internet through e-mail that allows us to pick our top three dates and times that we are available to train. E-mail was also used to attach training resources and meeting minutes that the absent trainers were able to use. All of this training, as explained in Chapter 18 on page 180, is part of "Enhancing Training Effectiveness and Efficiency" by using technology-based training delivery. In the end, I was teaching clients, but this is a business type situation. They hired an outside corporation that had developed a curriculum for what I was supposed to be teaching, brought in a trainer with technology-based training tools, and trained the people who were actually going to be implementing the lessons. This would have taken more time without technology. 

The second idea that I see usable from Chapter 18 is "Advanced Evaluation Techniques" also on page 180. After classes were completed by each branch, we had phone conference calls to give feedback about how the classes were run, what went well, what went poorly, and ideas for change during the next classes. This is what is described by the book as a "traditional summative evaluation endeavor to adequately measure transfer and organizational impact". We would have a conference call, which involves technology, and it would result in organizational change. There was always something that was altered in the curriculum or implementation of the curriculum because of these conference calls, which ultimately makes the outcomes change for the classes that were planned for the future. This may also be categorized under "Globalization of Training" on page 181 of Chapter 18.

Week Seven Reflection and Podcast

Chapter 14 described a lot of different information and focused on Human Performance Improvement (HPI).  I like how the chapter says that "The vision of HPI is relatively simple: achieve, through people, increasingly successful accomplishments that are valued by all organizational stakeholders: those who perform, their managers and customers, their peers and colleagues, shareholders, regulatory agencies, and ultimately, society itself."  We can take all of the roles that the book listed in that statement and assign them to people in the education world.  When we add mediums through which the performance and behavior is being delivered, we can then achieve the "improvement" part of HPI.  The chapter emphasizes that HPI is the accomplishment through people and that there are various means of reaching this.  I agree that this is how it is in the classroom.  I really like the idea on page. 136 that we really need to be thinking systemically versus using linear thinking and acting.  In this particular section, the book focuses more on the workplace, but it is true in the classroom as well.  We need to not be just thinking about the end number or end goal and step by step how to get there, we should have a system set up for our students-a web of options for each student to meet that ending goal.  I also believe that teachers need to focus on performance as well.  Instead of grading based on only right or wrong, we need to be sure that we acknowledge their "hard work, knowledge, and strong motivation" (pg. 137).  The book states in that sentence that "Hard work, knowledge, and strong motivation without valued accomplishment is unworthy performance."  This statement is arguable.  In my own classroom, I feel I would be willing to take all of that into consideration, but to what extent?  This is something that each teacher will have to decide for him or herself.  The chapter also discusses the future of HPI and how it is looking to be expanding.  I believe that it will but agree when it says that it "has emerged slowly but forcefully" (pg. 143).  I think teachers naturally use some of this in a classroom, but more will be developed specifically for education purposes.  




Check out the podcast that I found:  


http://teacherspodcast.org/


As described on their "About" section of the website (directly from teacherspodcast.org): 

"A New Generation of Ed Tech Professional Development for Educators is Here!

News, views, research and resources you can use are featured in every episode of The Teachers’ Podcast. The popular podcasting team of Mark Gura and Dr. Kathy King are teachers, ed tech experts, authors and professors.

Note that this is not your usual podcast, nor PD experience. Instead it includes fun, abundant resources and crisp insight from the perspective of what you can use today and tomorrow."

My own summary of the podcast: 

It is a bit on the casual side, but Dr. King and Gura really try to make good conversation about the use of technology in education.  Some of the podcasts begin with some small talk and some organization, but once they get into the subjects of focus, it is some good information that really makes you think about your own personal opinions on the topics.  They speak of things beyond in the classroom such as meetings, conferences, and methods to get people used to using technology.  They speak of different ideas to use students to help teach technology to their peers, parents, or anyone else involved in their education.  The podcast also uses a lot of networking.  They have several connections from higher education facilities, K-12 education facilities, and businesses from different states in the nation that are mentioned and referenced in several of the podcasts.  Dr. King and Gura feed off of each other's information and comments and get into some great conversation.  They give great examples of podcasting in the classroom, which I like because that is our topic for our class this week.  The examples that they gave are great and some that I would not have thought of myself.  

Podcasting would have a great value in the classroom.  Having lectures on podcast available to students would be a great tool.  If the student misses a day, this would hopefully eliminate the 5 or more students a day that come up to your desk and need explanation "What did we do yesterday?  I was gone, I don't get it."  Who has time for that!?  If the students were able to listen to a podcast of your lecture that day, they would be able to hopefully spend a lot less valuable class time trying to play catch up.  Another way podcasting could be used is for extra help with certain tough subjects.  Teachers could re-phrase or summarize a difficult topic on a podcast and refer to it for students who may need extra assistance with that certain lesson.  If the student has listened to the podcast and still does not understand, obviously the teacher would step in at that point.  Podcasting could be used to give examples of what the teacher is looking for in a speech or a presentation.  As a student, it is hard sometimes to know what the teacher is looking for exactly if it is a project like that.  I think it would be helpful to have different styles of the completed project available for things that would be acceptable to the teacher.  It would also be helpful to have a podcast of instructions for a large project posted so that parents and students can refer back to it.  It may help a teacher cover too for when the students argue their grades after they receive them.  :)  

Map of Veracruz, Mexico

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Video: Educational Technology

Week Six Reflection

Based on what I know and based on what was presented to me in Chapter Three, I absolutely believe that the World Wide Web and Internet will have a major influence on the way instruction to learners. I almost feel that this question is too simple to answer because we are constantly using it already in classrooms, which means it is taking over and changing certain aspects of instruction. 

The book, in Chapter Three, discusses the history of instructional media and the important events that took place in the United States. I found it interesting that events from other countries were not included in this chapter at all when it was the "History of Instructional Design and Technology" chapter...not stating "in the United States". But anyway, the chapter starts from the beginning (1st decade of 20th century) and talks about school museums using slides and 3D photographs, then moves on to how we started using more films, viewers, and even more slides. During the years, audiovisual-incorporating sound into the media, along with radio, movies, and media that we would know better today, came into place. The book, while describing these events, also describes that these new forms of media were used in instruction for learners as they came out. The chapter goes on to speak of televisions, radio, computers, and then recent developments. The recent developments section was interesting to me because even though this book is not old at all, it is missing so much that we are using already in classrooms today.

Page 23 states that "Another reason that newer media are being used to a greater extent may be due to their increased interactive capabilities." This is exactly true and I believe it is why we are using the Internet and WWW in classrooms more and more. There are so many capabilities that save time, are more efficient, do not require one-on-one assistance from a teacher, and create more of an independence in the student. Page 23 also says that technology has "made it easier for educators to design learning experiences that involve more complex interactions between learners and instructional content than has previously been the case." This sums up the answer to the application question in itself. Why wouldn't teachers and instructors at every level want tools that helped them to do this? Different learning experiences for different types of learners is something that most teachers strive for and often times struggle to accomplish. The answer is of course...of course the Internet and WWW will have a major impact on all areas (K-12, Higher Education, and Adult Education). It already has major impacts on the instruction because of what it is capable of. Plus, the capabilities change and improve every single day and people are using these new features every single day to enhance instruction. The proof that people will not stop being curious about and implementing new forms of technology or new features of a technology tool such as the Internet of WWW is in the history that we read about in Chapter Three. Each time there was a new media, it was tried and used and changed until something new came out with the goal of enhancing instruction for learners. The history speaks for itself: technology will always have a major impact on instruction for learners, especially because it changes so much and creates so many new opportunities for leaners that were not available years ago.

Week Five Reflection

As much as I thought I would like the online photo sharing tools that we were to experiment with this week, I was a bit disappointed. I think the actual tools are great for certain things, but my concerns about the tools far outweigh the pros that I have. First of all, I can see so many ways that these could be used in the classroom. In a foreign language classroom, especially in a school that offers some study abroad options or that has student exchange students, this would be a great way for students to get to learn culture. Pictures of other countries, the food, celebrations, housing, schools...that would all be very useful, especially if it were coming from a peer who had visted there. I can also see it being used in culture projects when students create presentations about other countries and include pictures. Group members would be able to share photos easily. As I stated earlier though, even with all of these cool ideas I am thinking about, I wonder how a teacher would have time to monitor this. It seems that we really could have tons of accounts to tons of technology tools to use in the classroom, but we only have so much time in a day. A teacher may see up to 120 students a day. If he or she is using these tools for each class, and therefore each student, that is a TON of different accounts to monitor. I would love to be able to use this tool in a project, but I just don't see how it would be realistic to keep track of. With students being able to tag and comment and with some online sharing programs even upload to Facebook, it doesn't seem like it would work in a classroom (especially in a high school classroom). There is already enough that goes on with Facebook and pictures with high schoolers, I don't think I really want to give them another option. So, in general, I think the tool is a good tool for some certain things, but overall, I cannot really see myself using this often. It could be because I haven't tried it and had the experience to see how it could work, or it could be that my initial thoughts are right. I guess I will have to see when I actually get a chance to use it.

As far as Chapter Two goes, I do agree with the ADDIE model for the most part. I remember in my undergrad creating lesson plan after lesson plan that followed a model similar to this. At the time, I did not appreciate the sequence and the design of the model. After watching how lesson plans played out with actual students, I have learned that this is really how it works. Revision of lesson plans is so important and necessary in order to become an effective teacher. Evaluation is a major part of the revision process. Did the plan work? Was it effective? How did the students respond? What was my workload during the lesson? All of these things will be analyzed before the lesson plan is revised and re-designed, which is exactly what the ADDIE model demonstrates. The ADDIE model focuses on revision a lot and I think so do most effective teachers. Learning centered and goal oriented along with meaningful performance, outcomes, and teamwork are all mentioned in the chapter (p13) as being necessary in Instructional Design. These all should naturally be present in our lesson plans when we write them. If they are not, then to me, it is not a good lesson plan. Is it hard sometimes to write lesson plans that include such detail and thought? Yes, of course. To me, when you are trying to implement a lesson plan that has all of the above thought out already, the actual lesson will be much more effective and the teacher will be much more confident when teaching. If a lesson plan does not include these things, the lesson will not be as effective, may seem incomplete, or may be even hard to teach because the core goals or objectives are not there.

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