DTLR Project Reflection

1. TeacherWeb is a really cool for giving your students a consistent resource for class related information. Keeping track of due dates, completing minor quizzes, and even attendance could be completed online. However, I do not think TeacherWeb's true potential can be reached without every student in my class to have 24/7 accsess to an internet-ready computer.
   

2. I worry about liability. However, the behavioral agreement form seems to be a good protection, but I would worry about some lawyer using the fact the student is not of age to sign a contract, but perhaps I could have the parents sign the form. Anyway, I think we could do some cool things on the Wiki, but it would take tons of time for me to set up. Perhaps after a few years, I will have built up a collection of lessons so I did not have to worry too much about planning and I would some have extra time.
   

3. I would like to use the Wiki site for long-duration class projects: Possibly a sort of history simulation, or an online creative-writing club. I think the more creative you get and the farther you get away from the basic logistics use of the websites the more interesting, dynamic, and ultimately usefull these websites will become.
   

   
   

New, Cool, Awesome Techs

Here are three cool new technologies that I hope to use in my classroom!

The OLPC Laptop. A manufactured laptop at around $100 US.

Program Website: http://laptop.org/en/

The OLPC program is designed to get modern technology into the hands of students who cannot normally afford an expensive computer. Designed to be produced and sold at ridiculously cheap prices, the OLPC is a shining beacon of technological refinement. These little laptops will be essential in linking up the poor areas of the world to the information age.

These laptops are not just little gifts to send off to Third World countries, they will also play an important role in the American education system. It is a well known fact that many American schools are impoverished to the point where they cannot adequately supply their students with computers. Also, many families do not have the means to purchase and maintain a computer. With the OLPC laptop, it will finally be possible to have every student in every American school equipped with a personal computer. Properly equipped, the American school system will finally be able to utilize the full potential of recent advancements in internet-based software without the stipulation that a large amount of students will not have the hardware to take advantage.

Project Gutenberg Website: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Project Gutenberg is collaboration of eBook enthusiasts who are devoted to turning old texts into electronic texts. Most of the works on the site are older texts, long out of the timeframe for copyright, but these texts are usually the true classics of any given era: Rene Descartes, Plato, Aristotle, etc.

Having thousands and thousands of old and rare books (and those not currently in print) in a free, full-text database has endless uses in the classroom. They can be for research, pleasure reading, or simple sheer curiosity. However, Gutenberg is organized only by Title and Author. This makes it hard to simply browse the database, as it seems designed to cater to people who know exactly what they are coming to the website for. For use in the classroom, a sort of Text Book Treasure Trove activity would get students familiar with the site, and give them ideas on what kinds of things they can find there.

Pandora Website: http://www.pandora.com

The Music Genome Project is one of the coolest things to hit music-player technology since 8-track tapes. Listeners can type in almost any song or artist (that has a record deal) and make their own private station. This station does not immediately play the song or artist you requested due to legal issues (but it will always come up eventually). Instead, Pandora will take equilizer data from the song you requested to get a sense of how it sounds, it then finds songs that "sound" like the song or band you selected. You can then rate the songs via a tumbs up and thumbs down mechanism, and your choices effect the song choices. The more you rate songs, the more tailored the "sound" of the music the station picks becomes. The only weakness of the program is that song repition can be a problem once you narrow your station, forcing you to add variety back into the mix.

From an educational standpoint, Pandora is an effective tool for expanding music interest among students. By listening to a variety of music, students will become more aware of differnt aspects of their own culture thay may not have been aware of. Also, Pandora is useful for decade based music surfing. For example, a unit on the 1960s will be aided by a 1960's music station on Pandora.

Multiple Intelligences

As far as I can tell, student learning styles and multiple intelligence studies are total bunk. The differences between them are irrelevant to a teacher's actions in the classroom. Learning styles are basically distinguished between auditory, visual, and sensory. In the course of a normal, well-designed unit plan, a teacher will engage his/her students with a variety of activities and assignments; it is almost impossible to not hit all three of these learning styles during the course of a normally designed unit. Why put the extra consideration into something you do naturally, or worry about something that lacks solid research in terms of its real effectiveness? This stuff is a fad that is taking too long to fade away.

Multiple intelligence inventories are even more ridiculous. How is it useful for a teacher to have a map of nice different intelligences? That information is too expansive, too nonsensical, and too useless for any serious consideration by an educator. The only advantage to learning style inventories is that the quizzes are kind of fun to do. Teachers can better spend their time by working with student artifacts, identifying individual student strengths and weaknesses, and executing well-targeted re-teachings.