Distance Learning

1.Identify and briefly discuss 5 advantages of distance education
There are many advantages that distance learning provides. It is very beneficial to students to feel ostracized at school and find themselves being picked on. It, when implemented appropriately, allows students to go at a pace that they find appropriate for themselves. Also, along those lines, it can be easier to construct a classroom with diverse learners, or not diverse learners based on how the teacher plans to instruct since the pool of students is much broader than a single school district. Online courses also allow for a lot of freedom in time. So students who find it easier to focus late at night or early in the morning are more accomodated. Lastly, technology allows for a variety of different learning styles to be accomodated by itself, and since distance learning is done on a computer students have more ready access to a plethora of excellent tools.

2.Identify and briefly discuss 5 disadvantages of distance education.
A lot of the problems that have to do with distance education have to do with the learners engaging in it. Distance learning is very much about self-motivation, something that I know I was not great at and am still not great at. With distance learning, it is possible that students are missing a huge part of the adolescent experience in that they are not interacting with their peers face-to-face. While this might differently affect many students, I think that overall it would be of considerable detriment to them. There are also issues with distance learning in terms of teaching it. It is very easy to create a curriculum that is too easy or too challenging. And, since there is potentially less feedback and maybe less signs of ongoing struggles, the teacher can completely miss seeing this and consequently students could fail. Also, on the flipside, the teacher could easily create a curriculum that is not challenging enough and if the learners aren't vocal about it or they don't mind the easy route, the teacher could also be oblivious to this. Finally, there is a possibility that learning disabilities might not be diagnosed by teachers and appropriate measures are not taken to help students because it becomes much more difficult to identify these sorts of problems without seeing the student in person.

3.How you would determine the readiness of students to participate in distance education?
In order to ready a student for distance education I would first work on getting them to be able to regulate themselves. So, I would have them work on keeping a schedule and holding themselves to it. Also, as a parent I would take time while they were in class to make sure that they were keeping up on the work.

4.What would you need to do to be ready to teach in an online environment?
I think to be able to teach in an online environment, you would first want to try out your content and the pace of your content in a real classroom. Also, in preparation, I think it would be a great idea to get a sense of where your learners are at and what learning they benefit the most from. Lastly, I think that it is very important to establish some sort of connection with your students so i think that calling them up for a few minutes prior to the class is a fantastic idea.

Concept Mapping

The examples of concept diagrams that the website had were not very original. I suppose that this is because I have seen them before and they are used because they work, but I was really hoping to find something more innovative. For example, they showed prime factorization, but as far as I know prime factorization is always taught using some form of concept diagram. Their probability example was pretty specific and it would be useful for specifically investigating the results of flipping a coin, but I think it would be ridiculous to create a concept map of each different possible probability even, especially ones with large sample spaces.
I did really like the example of 2nd degree polynomials, I could definitely see that being usable or one that is really similar to it. I know that a lot of students have trouble in algebra going between the different ways to write equations of lines. So I think that using sort of a concept mapping/process diagram could potentially be very useful for students in that regard. Adding of fractions is also a difficulty that students experience, but I often it seems to me that it doesn’t stem from not knowing how to add fractions but rather not being able to distinguish between the difference of adding and multiplying fractions. That is, students get the two processes mixed up all of the time.
Concept mapping is a great way of conveying information to visual learners and I think that it helps both students who like looking at the big picture and students who like looking at things broken down into steps. So it has the potential to reach many learners, but rather than make it a focus in a classroom, I think that it has more potential as a supplement. For example you could show it on an overhead, or you could post it on a teacher website so that students could access it for help understanding conceptually. It is not that it wouldn’t be helpful to make it an activity, but I think that when it comes to the students doing their homework there should be multiple tools made accessible and if a teacher spends too much time on a concept mapping there is potentially a lot of students who aren’t visually learners who are struggling.
When I use concept mapping in my classroom, I don’t just want to throw it in as time filler. As mentioned before I would like it to be an extra tool that students can use or spend time on. I didn’t mention it before, but I think that as a form of assessment, it would be fantastic if I offered this as one method of demonstrating understanding. Also, before I use a concept map or process diagram, I would like to make sure that it is appropriate. As a future teacher, I think it is easy to get caught up in all the potential tools that we have available and start trying to use tools all the time that may or may not be appropriate to the concepts we are trying to teach.

TeacherWeb Reflections

1. Describe at least 2 ways that the use of a class web site like TeacherWeb could be used to support your future teaching. Provide some specific details for each example.

Teacherweb (or another simliar website) could provide to be a great tool for a teacher. In addition to being an excellent way for students to learn about you and find resources, it provides a great tool for providing information for them without having to answer individual questions and repeating the same information again. For example, I remember as a high school student there would be times that I would forget to write a homework assignment down. Of course, I was never the only one, and the teacher was undoubtedlyl bombarded with people requesting the same information or other similar information that had been provided in class. With a website, the teacher can post announcements, homework assignments, upcoming test dates and grades hopefully mitigating the unending stream of questions that have been previously answered. Another fantastic aspect about a site is that it gives parents access to this same information so that they can find out how their students are doing and what sort of things are being covered in class. Instead of calling up teachers to figure out what their children need to do, they can look up the website and figure out these things on their own.

2. Identify 2 ways students could use a class web site like TeacherWeb to enhance their learning. Provide some details for each way identified.
Students have a lot to gain from a site like teacherweb. Of course they can get their questions answered about various classroom assignments as mentioned above. However, I remember as a student I wasn't always that motivated and I didn't always know the right questions to ask. As a student, the available resources could provide to be an invaluable tool. I know I'm not always going to explain or facilitate understanding perfectly, but I can provide potentially useful resources that a student might have trouble locating on their own which can assist in their understanding of the material. Secondly, as I put on my teacher web, it can provide a way for them to provide some anonymous feedback. I know that students will rarely use it, but at least it is their and if there is something that they find truly outrageous or unfair in my class it gives them an opportunity to vent without fearing about the repercussions.

Educational blogs are providing an efficient tool for teachers to provide information to their students. It is sort of like a teacher website, but it is a good forum for presenting videos that you found interesting, or for presenting thought provoking discussion topics to be considered for the next day. For example there was a blog where a teacher posted some educational science videos that he had just recently viewed for his students to look. Wikis are a fantastic way to do group projects and discussion groups. As a math teacher, it provides a great tool for students to learn through interacting with their peers as opposed to just asking me every time they have a question. Or, to use an example from the web, they can be used to showcase students’ projects. It is a quick and easily accessible way for people to be able to see what your students have been accomplishing.
As a math teacher, I think it is a little bit harder to find uses for RSS/aggregators. They are a fantastic tool for keeping up on current events, so I suppose I would see if I could find a few websites on math news and keep an RSS feed from those. Also, potentially an RSS feed could be used to keep tabs on math websites that are in the process of being constructed. Or, it could be used to keep tabs on another class/group to keep tabs on data that is being collected so that we could use the data for a math project.
2 pros of using blogs in education
Blogs are a good way of informally reviewing content each day. Students could access it for a quick reminder on what was taught and maybe bring a response to a question you post to class. Or maybe post a response to a wiki.
Also, blogs could be used in the classroom to have students keep journals. This could be used to monitor their progress and collect data on how they are feeling about the class. It could also provide a way for students to find out what was taught in class without having to talk to the teacher if they miss a class.
2 cons of using blogs
They take time to keep updated. Just like all technology they require a lot of maintenance for them to be really useful. And if they are not maintained, students will stop checking them making them unreliable for conveying information. If unreliable, students may start using them as an excuse for missing things that have been posted.
For student blogs, especially in a math class students might view them as ridiculous tools that aren’t related to the subject and treat them as a waste of time instead of a reflective opportunity. Also, just like teachers, students might stop updating them regularly.

2 pros of wikis
They are great for group work. They can be used to help students interact and react to material. As the students interact, it helps socially construct knowledge. Just like with in class group learning, it gives them an opportunity to present material too each other in a different fashion than the teacher has.
They can work as a group when they have free time. Lots of group projects require a substantial amount of time and finding a time when everyone can meet can be exceptionally difficult. This gives the group a chance to meet and share information on their own time.
Cons
The teacher does not have control over what students post and deleting posts doesn’t delete them forever. Inappropriate content that gets posted is hard to get rid of permanently.
They can be viewed by anybody.
3) Describe at least 2 pros and 2 cons of using blogs and wikis in education.

MI project

My biggest strength according to the quiz I took on multiple intelligences was my interpersonal intelligence. I scored 8/10 on it whereas the rest of my scores hovered around 40-60.
According to the surfaquarium website, the core characteristics of this are Affective awareness, ethical awareness, self-regulation and metacognition. That is, being aware of people’s feelings, knowing my principles, being aware of myself and being aware of my own thoughts. For me personally, I am really into metacognition, affective awareness and ethical awareness. I am a little less into self regulation.
As for students who are interpersonal, they are generally very comfortable with who they are and what they like. They know their strengths and weaknesses and the often have a strong sense of justice and fairness. In the classroom this can be supported by differentiating instruction, allowing time for reflection, self-assessment and allowing the students to have some choices. With technology specifically, this intelligence can be supported with things like journals, surveys, real time projects and self-assessments.
I can effectively impact people with all sorts of learning styles by first observing what sort of styles or intelligence they have and then using various online resources to investigate effective ways to teach to their styles. Also, a very important component of teaching is making sure that you are taking advantage of using multiple way of presenting information so that it is easier for all people to comprehend the lessons you are presenting.
Journals