Capstone Video (Final Assignment)

file:///Users/ashleyevans/Desktop/2013-10-12_1349.swf

Section 7

The Internet provides educators with endless opportunities to enhance student learning. I teach World History, and for so long this subject has been taught in the classic sit and get format. Perhaps the notion is that history has happened and the teacher is there to teach the students what happened, why it happened, when it happened, etc. E-Learning provides an outlet in which students can apply their knowledge, and more importantly, expand on what they are being taught. As I have mentioned so many times before, we live in an age in which the information is easily assessable without the need of a teacher. Educators are now encouraged to be facilitators. Some teachers refuse to honor this because they feel the need to teach in a traditional manner. Whether it be arrogance or fear, the fact of the matter is that educators are not meeting the needs of their students. In my classroom, I can teach about the French Revolution. I can tell them the causes and effects, and even have them analyze the cause and effect relationships to other revolutions they are to learn. What E-Learning can do for my students, is allow them to connect with the French Revolution. They don’t have to stick with other revolutions from the textbook such as the Russian Revolution or the American Revolution. They can actually compare the French Revolution to modern day revolutions. For example, the Arab Spring has emerged in the last few years. Although some of my students have never really heard of the revolutions taking place, they can learn about them and visualize what an actual revolution looks like because of the Internet. They can understand the ideas of indoctrination and totalitarianism whenever they watch a youtube video provided my Lisa Ling (sp?) as she snuck into North Korea and gave us a glimpse of this sort of dictatorship first hand. This not only makes the content relatable, it ignites passion within my students. They want to KNOW why and how, and they DESIRE to learn more. It’s amazing to watch their minds race and their eyebrows lifted in amazement.

Reusable design is a great way to have our students interact with the course content. A program that was introduced to my department, and that I have not yet used, is called stratelogica. It is a program that provides maps from every era in history and can be as detailed as showing every battlefield in history. The students can interactively participate in this program and it gives them the opportunity to become a part of the learning process. For example, they can take a portion of the map and create their own legends and essentially design their own maps with the use of their new and old knowledge.  We no longer need to pass out copies of maps (what a waste of paper!) and we can instead give the students a digital means in which to learn essential geography skills. I plan to take some courses provided by our district that will give me a thorough lesson in how to facilitate learning through this fantastic program.

As I read this chapter, I immediately thought of Virgin Airlines. I have only flown Virgin once, but what an experience it was for me. As I have flown many times before, I cannot think of one time I actually paid attention to or listened to what happens if the plane were to encounter trouble. It was boring, and my thought was if we are going down then we are going down and there is not a thing I can do about it and I would probably have heart attack and die immediately anyway. But Virgin Airlines did it right, and for the first time ever, I paid attention and knew exactly what to do in case of an emergency. This airline used a video (not flight attendants) to explain what to do in case of an emergency and how to act on a plane. It was hilarious, innovative, and I literally wanted to watch it again after. In fact, whenever I got home I searched the web for the video so I could watch it again and share it with my husband. Now that is rich media! Here is the link:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyygn8HFTCo) . As I began this course, media instruction began to weigh heavily on my mind. I began to scan the Internet for innovative videos to use in order to grasp the attention of my students. I found a guy, John Green, who has created a series of World History crash courses that are 8-12 minutes long and cover various periods of history. It is hilarious, relevant, and very innovative, much like the video I fell in love with on Virgin Airlines. Next semester I plan to start using these videos to introduce or conclude ( I have not decided yet) each remaining unit. I cannot wait to see the impact it will have in my classroom. 

Section 6

I teach World History at the 10^th grade level. I am currently in my 12^th year, and have witnessed the evolution from direct instruction to and IT classroom. I feel as though my undergraduate experiences did not prepare me for the current state of education. Whenever To put things into perspective, when I was in college, we used only Library books in order to complete research papers. In addition to meeting various criteria in obtaining my Masters Degree, it is my hope that I gain an understanding of how to implement technology into my daily lesson cycle. I also desire to continue my education in the field of technology in order to maintain the proper knowledge and motivation in order to ensure a successful learning environment for all my students.

I decided early on that I was not looking for an economic income, but rather physiological fulfillment. While I do enjoy the finer things in life, such as travel and food, I do not believe I will be happy working a job in which I am unable to serve others. There are career paths I could have chosen that provide both economic and psychological satisfaction, however, I love teaching young people. I absolutely believe everyone is capable of learning, and I know that everyone has the desire to learn; they just have to find that spark that will ignite what is already inside of their soul.

Even in education, there are ways to move up the professional ladder and even earn more money. As of now, I have little interest in any supervising role. I much prefer to remain in the classroom with the goal of inspiring young people to develop a love of learning, in addition to critical thinking skills.

While I do believe this class has offered me some important tools in continuing my goal of creating a student-centered classroom with the use of Instructional Technology, there is still a lot for me to learn. There are so many tools available through the web and I need to continue to reshape my lesson cycle in such a way that it reflects the technological revolution of the last decade.  More than anything, I believe this class has given me the motivation to spend more time lesson planning and researching how my students learn, rather than focus on how I am going to teach them. I need to learn to be more creative in my lesson cycle and give the students the opportunity to take control of his or her learning and apply the knowledge that I have in the past spent too much time giving them from in front of the classroom.

I am greatly inspired by people such as Kimone Gooden, who was able to quickly reach low-income middle school students through the use of technology. She was a part of a nonprofit organization called Citizen Teacher, whose aim is to give to lower income students what students in higher income districts receive – high quality education. Gooden explained, “Over the course of a semester I witnessed the students' level of interest and excitement increase. I saw a new awareness develop around what was possible that they did not envision before. Engineering, marketing, and IT were now added to the list of careers our students wanted to pursue when they grew up.” In just a few short weeks, this woman, through the ideas and goals of a few volunteers, changed the course of young peoples’ lives; and much of this was teaching them how to blog! (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kimone-gooden/cisco-it-doesnt-take-a-teacher_b_3998540.html).

I am also inspired by people such as Cullen White, who teaches IP classes and is frustrated that the classes he teaches are viewed in education as electives, rather than core or AP classes. He is teaching young people applicable and interesting ideas, and the administration in secondary education is falling short in its commitment to excellence. Cullen writes, “The things we explore together are far too interesting, too important. In one class, we're learning how data moves from device to device, and how to build our own networks. In another, we're building Web apps while learning how to obtain feedback from users and analyze data. There is never a dull moment. Students are constantly engaged by the meaningful, hands-on experiences that my classroom provides. Why wouldn't they be? They know that what we learn matters, because my courses mimic the same online, tech-enabled world that they grew up in. What we do is immediately relevant to them” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cullen-white/cisco-our-future-depends-on-put_b_3962330.html).  Cullen believes that if we do not adequately prepare our students for the IT boom in the job industry, we could likely face an economic crisis. Just like the beginning of this section discuses, history has proven that many technological advancements have had huge impact on societies – good and bad; but technology isn’t going away – so as much as we grumble about the negative impact and disservice it does to our youth, we need to realize it is here and moving fast, and we owe it to our young people to prepare them properly.

For me, I will continue to take classes that will better prepare me for the rapidity of this technological revolution. I have one more class to take before graduating, and it is an ETEC course. Furthermore, I plan to take advantage of the many continuing educational opportunities that my school district provides in the way of technology.