p272#2

My classes do not have the benefit of a web site. I have not, at this point built one. The present students, future students and their parents are not getting the advantages that a current web site would provide them. The course that I teach is a "hands on" assessment course. The students manufacture products. If the site was set up to familiarize the students with the safety practices, the procedures to measure correctly, the measurements needed, the steps to build the projects, pictures of the procedures, and rubrics, valuable instruction would have a built in step to help the students recall (the duplicity of instruction). This would be a tool to help the students to reach their potential in the course. Other teachers in my school do have administration approved web sites through the school web site. Some web sites are able to post homework assignments due, missed homework assignments, project due, current test and quiz scores, as well as current grades. It allows parents to track their children's progress and enables instant communication between parent and teacher regarding any questions.
When my courses do have a site, I would like to have a picture library of past projects, many of which were outstanding. I would also incorporate, examples of measurement tests/quizzes, writing assignments and the end of the quarter presentation. I want the students to do well on these assignments and if they have a better knowledge of what is expected from them before it is due, with help from their parents, then the web site has done the students a valuable service. It would also promote the classes I teach showing the connections to other fields of study, which might not be clear without the benefit of a web site. There is no downside.

p.196 #2

I have used concept mapping in my classroom for a number of years. There are two projects that the class does that I find this resource extremely valuable.

1. Bridge Building
2. Rockets

This concept diagram, web diagram, concept map (which I use interchangeably) idea is a precursor to a writing assignment that counts for two grades.

1. 20% for the scientific knowledge component of the final project rubric
2. one of the three quarterly writing assignments, which has counted up to five points of their grade

The students form into groups of three, I go alphabetically and if any are left over the two are added to groups. They begin with the central idea of rockets, or bridges. The students are encouraged to use the writing assignment, that is given to them at the time of this assignment and I have already gone over, so they have a strong background when they do the written test, as again it is a significant grade. The writing assignment consists of the national technology education standards which they choose two out of four of the following to write a minimum of five sentences. (They are strongly urged to write more than the minimum requirement.

Standard 3: Students will develop an understanding of the relationship between technology and other fields of study

Standard 8: Students will develop an understanding of the attributes of design

Standard 9: Students will develop and understanding of engineering design

Standard 11: Students will develop an ability to apply the design process

To model this project, I do a concept map on the board using a random word from the students as a practice example (bird, boat, fish, etc.). I also show them a bad example of a project, a fair example of the project, and two excellent examples of the project. One about rockets, that I have kept for a number of years because the students drew it so it is an obvious solar system, and the class is able to see that. They are given a large sheet of paper, ruler, colored pencils, dictionary and are sent to the lab to work on the tables. I let them work on it for two periods, and encourage them to look at other groups, for ideas. Some groups are more receptive to this idea than others.

The maps are graded as a test, which is twenty-five percent of their final grade, on a rubric. The majority of the students do well on this project and it helps them relate to the final writing assignment. I an going to expand this idea to the materials processing class.

p180 #2 jp

The use of integrating digital imaging is an ideas that would work well in the curriculum I teach. Much like art, where the use of digital images is limitless, materials processing (wood working) can incorporate the same use and results. For example:

• Step-by-step modeling of project and the students progress
• New project introduction
• Identification of: tools, equipment, wood species, old hand tools and equipment
• A portfolio of student work
• Use of documenting student work for competitions
• History of woodworking
• Power point presentations
• Photo story presentations
• Presentation of previous student work
• Safety perhaps showing non severe injuries or equipment breakdown (malfunction)

I would have to investigate the copy right laws as well as release forms for students before use of downloaded pictures.

The school I teach at has digital cameras available, as well as digital camcorders. Another technology education teacher has started a digital photography club this year, and I'm sure that she would be willing to help out of I had any questions. I have in the past used some photos to document class work and donated materials, but I have not pursued it fully as to be a assest to the course.

tccr:3 review of ppsites jp

this is similar to last weeks two sites:
visuwords.com
wordle.net
i can employ these tools to enhance learning and presentations, they are ones i bookmarked. if allowed by the filters in school i can easly make this a fun and relative assignment. i also should put together a prototype to bring into class and improve it in the future.

inspiration.com
this was presented in class and with the free 30 day download has a potential to of value. it is possible to use the program and get some valuable information to use before you have to make the decision to purchase the program. the tutorial was interesting, and informative and deserves more exploration.

vocabulary.com
it is a intimidating site as the links are extensive. you are able to access multiple dictionaries,a visual thesaurus, the vocabulary university, and much more is understated. i think that the current reviews, of vocabulary in recent movies (i'm not sure if they are age appropriate, and that needs researching) and fiction vocabulary. this as well deserves further exploration.

defense of distraction

My wife, Beth knowing and understanding my dissatisfaction with the multitasking generation (and my current assignment), gave me the “New York” magazine (http://nymag.com/) article “In Defense of Distraction”, by Sam Anderson. The article is not one sided and allows pundits views such as Socrates (“memory-destroying properties of that newfangled technology called “writing”) and the late Herbert A. Simon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Simon) a polymath Nobel prize winner in economics professor of Carnegie Mellon University, “What information consumes is rather obvious: It consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.”

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid occdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh

Are you distracted or focused? How can I (we) say without many years of study that multitasking is a good thing or bad, that concentration focused or not is effective, without study. What was the cause that the PBS Frontline “Digital Nation” documentary filmed that the MIT students mean score on an exam were 75, when the professor asserts that it was an easy 100 grade? Could it have been a factor of bad teaching, bad hair day, flu epidemic, or the Patriots were in the Super Bowl? What do you think, I am just throwing these out there; I know where my feelings lie.
Mr. Anderson’s writes, “When forced to multitask, the overloaded brain shifts its processing from the hippocampus (responsible for memory) to the striatum (responsible for rote tasks), making it hard to learn a task or even recall what you’ve been doing once you’re done”. (p 31), “The brain is designed to change based on experience, a feature called neuroplastic.P(p 101) He gives the example that London taxi drivers, have enlarged hippocampi (memory and spatial reasoning) a neural reward for paying attention to driving in that city. He also writes, that the brains of Buddhist monks asked to meditate on “unconditional loving-kindness and compassion” show instant and remarkable changes: Their left prefrontal cortices (responsible for positive emotions) go into overdrive they produce gamma waves 30 times more powerful that novice mediators, and their wave activity is coordinated in a way often seen in patients under anesthesia.
How would we do, or our parents, our siblings, or most importantly our students, all of them not just the ones who will become MIT students, Monks, or taxi drivers?

There is the strong argument that multitasking is not possible with regard to the “channels” of the brain, language, visual, auditory, etc. For example I can listen to the Yankees on the radio and tie flies, as these are two different functions, but I cannot watch the Yankees on TV and tie flies. I’ll never forget the advice as I was picking myself up off of “Liftline” on Stowe Mountain, that one expert skier told me many years ago, “Only one bump at a time”. Was I thinking, ‘The Matterhorn’ (local hangout), hot shower, aspirin, (or most likely) “What the hell am I doing” when what I should have been thinking and concentrating on was both mind and body to “focus on the fall line”(no pun intended). Is it possible for individuals to be advanced enough to do these multi brain exercised? Anderson leaves us with these words, “”Kids growing up now might have an associative genius we don’t…maybe in flights of irresponsible responsibility, they’ll even manage to attain the paradoxical, Zenlike state of focused distraction”.(p 101)

The article mentions ADHD, (which is what I thought of immediately because of the similarities to multitasking), and how in a changing environment that it could be a benefit. It also talks about drug testing at chess tournaments for neuroenchancers, (“spring from a source as the problem they’re designed to correct: our lust for achievement in defiance of natural constraints”)(p100). I again equate it to baseball, is it cheating, when a baseball player uses HGH or steroids? Have not baseball players always cheated? Spit balls, corked bats, pine tar, amphetamines, coffee, stealing bases, knowing they are out or did not catch the ball and not telling the truth? Apparently there are levels of accepted cheating, when will multitasking be accepted or banned?

Finally to quote Anderson’s article once more, “The true mind will harness rather than abandon, the power of distraction.”(p 101)

In final conclusion, in writing this paper I used the internet, let the dogs out, broomed snow to get fire wood, loaded the wood stove, drank water, and my mind wandered the most when I wrote about skiing. I consider my blogging paper done, with limited distractions and