Final project

Hello all my vacationing students (and anyone else). If you could put comments about the final project on the discussion page of the wiki (or here) that would be great. my goal is to give everyone the opportunity to produce some great work. Let me know if you have additional ideas. I will flesh the project out this weekend after I get some comments back.

New blog

I'm testing a wordpress blog out. This is more about analyzing how things are going in class. I'm not sure what the best way to handle all this management is (I dont want to be editing all day).

Friday: Completing Online Work

Today you will tie these elements together in a blog entry. This will require you to search effectively, find QUALITY information, and synthesize it quickly. Post this by midnight tonight (Friday). You can always edit it later. If you are unable to find effective information, get help from a buddy. Trust me, the information is there. I know you have the skills to find them if you focus on the task.

Answer the question in a substantive blog entry that includes links to valuable resources. You must try to find one quality blog on the subject to link to.

Choose one of the following tasks:

1. What are the three leading causes of death for African children? How is the Gates Foundation trying to solve these issues? Include technorati tags Africa, poverty, GatesFoundation.

2. The genocide in Darfur has prevented farmers in that region from generating a stable income. What efforts by the UN are in place to stabilize that region so crops can be planted and other areas of life can return to normalcy. Include technorati tags for Darfur, crops, United Nations.

3. How many years of schooling does the average child in the Sudan have? Are there differences between girls and boys? How does this effect their future lives? use technorati tags for Sudan, education.

4. How many orphans has the AIDS crisis produced in Africa? What efforts is the American government undertaking to stop the crisis? How will this crisis effect these children and is there any way out of the crisis? Use technorati tags for AIDS, children, GatesFoundation.

To make technorati tags click here.

On blogmeister be sure to use paragraphs, links, and any other devices you can to show that you can communicate in an effective manner. Write the entry as if a child in Africa is reading it. And remember, they might be. And without sounding silly, its not a game for them.




Please also check the final project. Its on the wiki. The structure is done, but leave comments if you have any idea on the discussion page. I will be fleshing it out over the next week. Get a head start.


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Technorati Tags: online education blogs Africa GatesFoundation

Online Gaming and Simulations

We worked yesterday on the typing test, the Dig Here! program, and the Ayiti Unicef game. Each showed us an aspect of online simulation learning. You were each to make a blogmeister entry based on that experience. I'm still working on the super-cool science site.

Today I will ask you to look at several more sites and then make a reflective entry in your blog. Remember, we are grading the depth of your blog entries now, not just that you have made one. The ONLY grade for this week is the quality of your blog.

So for today (some of the 3D work might not work in school)....
3D Farming: Can you succeed as a farmer?
3D Architecture: Can you build a successful house.
Tall Buildings: Super-cool site about tall buildings
Power Play: Can you build a better mousetrap?
Margaret River Senior High School: This is the school on the opposite side of the earth. Its amazing how similar they are to us.

Be sure to leave time to visit the questions on blogmeister.


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Technorati Tags: k12education gaming simulations 3DFarmer

Wednesday Online Work

Today we will work on some fun online tasks as we move towards vacation.

Typing Test: Go head-to-head with your neighbor. How fast can you type?
Another cool Google Earth app. Dig here!
Science Site. This page is absolutely amazing. I SO HOPE it plays in school. You can get lost in the catapult thing for hours.

Check out the Unicef site. analyze it for usability, etc...Try out the games (Ayiti looked pretty cool). They are pretty cool, and I think a great way to learn.

Can you find other sites that are "cool". If so, add a comment or write in your blogmeister. Everyone should check blogmeister today for making an entry.

Tuesday

We are finishing the second part of our sample exam today. Some of the pages are very impressive. I think all of you did well once you sat down and tried to solve the problem. Today we will evaluate the projects and look at our classmates work. I think you will be impressed by how far we have come.

You will need to do this on the exam without any assistance. If you need to practice, start now.

I think our class is getting a lot of reading world wide which is cool. Check the clustrmap on this page and on the blogmeister. You should all have a clustrmap on your blogs. Let me know if you try to insert one (I have to upload it). Those of you who are still skeptical about EVERYTHING must recognize how the dynamics of the class change now that people realize we are being monitored world-wide.

I think this is my first movie post of the year but vacation is coming up and I wanted to update my movie picks. With a baby at home, its hard to keep up.

Movies I have seen recently: (stars out of five)
Casino Royale: Three stars (first scene was five stars)
Da Vinci Code: One star. (horrible....)
This is Spinal Tap: Five stars
The Departed: Four stars (rough movie, not for kids).
The Break-Up: Four stars (Mrs. Schneider says-5 stars)

Movies I want to see:
Pursuit of Happyness
Good Shepherd
Rocky Balboa

Time Article

There is an interesting cover story in Time Magazine about schools in the 21st century. It covers much of the material we have talked about in our readings. It is a longer article, but I think it is valuable reading for you. If you comment in your blogmeister, be sure to leave a link to the article.

If you were running the mile for me on my track team and you walked off the track after three of the four laps and said "That's all I am going to do" and "That should be good enough for you". Or "We had to run FOUR laps?? Nobody ever told me THAT!!". Or my favorite, "I don't feel like finishing the race today, I'm going to do it at home". I don't think you would expect your team or your coach to be satisfied with your performance.

On the same note, if you turn in an assignment where you have only done three out of four "laps", please don't be shocked when I find that unacceptable. Do your best and finish every race. I have coached dozens of All-Americans and kids who literally were blind and had to be led around the track. Everyone has their own limits. I will not accept work that is less than your best effort.

Today you will work on the second part of the sample exam project. The project is posted on the wikispace. While no part of this project is especially difficult you can easily run into problems if you do not plan effectively. I urge you to write out your plan on paper so you can visualize it BEFORE you start coding. Also, look through your past work to see if there are ideas you can use (I promise that there is code you can "steal").

I hope the SHS Winter Concert went well last night. If you participated please let us know about it in your blog. My nieces fifth grade concert last night was exceptional. Monique plays clarinet and I was very impressed by the whole group. I wish I could have made both shows.

Finally, I hope Tania will post her Lewis and Clark video so we can all watch it. It is very impressive. Its worth the time to watch it.

Wednesday

Today we will grade the memo assignment. Same drill as before: fill out worksheet, post entry on blogmeister, post comment on blogmeister.

Tomorrow we will do the second part of the sample exam which will involve applying your HTML knowledge to the bottle label solution.

This is a last call for any missing work before I do progress reports. All missing work must be submitted. I will check on your screen, dont put in UDrive.

Good luck to all the musicians in the school concert tonight. I wish I could be here for it. My niece has her first band concert (5th grade) which I simply can't miss. I urge you all to come and support your classmates!

Tuesday

By midnight Tuesday you must post your memo to blogmeister. Click here for the wikispace explanation. I think the wikispace for the class is going fairly well. Its nice to have access to the work from home and there is never "I lost the paper" excuse.

Check out the clustrmap on the right. You should all add a clustrmap to your blogs. Can you find Bangledesh on the map? What about the other countries? Who is reading about us?

A few notes on your memo.....First, be brief and be specific. Second, follow the format!!, Third, demonstrate a deep understanding of the tools we have learned about. Choose the best tool for the job! If you finish early don't be afraid to add links or other cool stuff to your memo (but keep it professional! no hot pink fonts!)

Technorati Tags: clustrmap blog Bangledesh

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The World is Flat

The flatclassers are checking out Tania's and Nicoles video. Lets get those other videos posted!

Does a global audience change how you make these movies?

Another post is up Click here.

Flatclass video

Click here or above to watch Tania and Nicole's video about the flatclassroom project.

Technorati Tags: k12 education flatclassroom video

Exam

I hope that the totally 10 system is working for you. I think allowing students to choose the assignments that fit their needs is the way to go. Some of you resist the challenge, but I urge you to truly explore the possibilities. Although the process has been a bit messy as we experiment I am very impressed by how fast some of you have worked when some of the restrictions of a traditional classroom are lifted.

I have begun formulating the semester exam. This will be a serious exam as it carries so much weight in the grading system. Currently I envision a vocabulary exam (20%), a web page creation (50%), and an analysis (30%). I encourage you to have quality outlines as I expect they will come into play during the exam.

Do you have suggestions for the exam? Topics? Ideas? If so, leave them here.

Project 6 due Thursday.

Please!

When you take the files out of the data files-web schneider folder in the UDrive please dont save your work back there when you are done. Every class after your then copies YOUR file instead of the correct one.

Before you copy files, check the date and/or properties for who saved the file.

The UDrives should contain none of your files.

Monday

For this weeks project go to the wikispace.

If you are interested in doing a special project about games you should start here. I know nothing about this process but I do know that educational games are becoming more and more important and getting more press. Most are online and interactive. If you did a project on this you would have to do some reading (espcially the teaching guides), find relevant blogs, and then start learning the program. Making a wikispace would be great.

For those of you making movies, can you find examples of student work on the internet that use movie maker? Compare your work to their work. How can you improve? Include links on your blogmeister.

If you are more interested in the graphics manipulation then doing the tutorials in Flash and Fireworks and making a wikispace about them for other students would be a good special project.

Some of you spoke about teaching a class or giving a clinic for senior citizens, teachers, or parents on web basics (email, how to find a website, cool stuff you can do, etc...). If this was your project we would need a detailed action plan. How would this happen. This would make an excellent project for collaboration with other students or a service project for a club.

Exploring the google maps and the myriad of new applications that go along with it might be another interesting project. I showed you the bookmarking program the other day. Here is another post to check out. Maybe you would like to explore ideas for flickr instead.

A few of you will be creating wikispaces based on a project for another subject. One group is exploring how a special car parks itself and will use geometry and physics to explain it. This is a good use of a wiki where video, fireworks diagrams, and other applications can be applied.

In short, I encourage you to do something. All of these application are new to me and I can't keep up with all the ones that are coming out. If we work together and use the tools we have (blogs, wikis, etc...) we could raise our collective knowledge. Also, I realize that many of you take the "safe" choice and stick with your textbook. If you are doing it because you truly want to learn more about HTML forms, then OK. If you are doing it because you think it is easier or safer, then I urge you to reflect on how you approach learning. Take a chance. If we ALL did the safe thing school would be boring and we wouldn't learn that much.

Technorati

What are people blogging about? How could you use this as a tool in assignments for other classes? If a teacher asks you to "internet search for an article" do you think this might be a good tool to use? The spike for this word is obvious. Try other words.

Posts that contain Election per day for the last 30 days.

Get your own chart!

Survey Results

1. Evaluate your technology expertise since September 1.
I've learned a lot more than I thought I would. 56%
I've learned about what I thought I would 21%
I've learned some. 20%
Nothing so far... 3%
Total 100%
2. Have you read or edited your blogmeister from home?
Yes 44%
No 56%
Total 100%
3. What has been the best learning experience?
Bookwork 46%
Web Olympics 28%
Total 10 Exam 26%
Total 100%
4. Are you producing your best work?
Yes 80%
No 20%
Total 100%
5. Which of the following would you like to explore? Click all that apply.
Educational gaming simulations 70%
Blogging and global networking 36%
Wikis/Collaborations 18%
Graphics Manipulation 61%
6. If you look at Project One in the textbook does it look...
Much easier now 72%
Same 25%
Still can't figure it out... 3%
Total 100%
7. Do you feel comfortable creating and editing a basic webpage?
Yes 87%
No 8%
Whats a webpage? 5%
Total 100%


Not bad results, we seem to be doing OK. I will continue to offer you a variety of ways to learn. If you are one of those not doing your best, start doing your best.