CED0525 Week Three Graphic Organizers

I enjoyed exploring bubbl.us, Education Oasis and Exploratree. bubbl.us had the ability to create organizers using a parent and child bubble hierarchy. I didn't see this approach in the other two tools. Relationships between bubbles are made by using directional lines in bubbl.us; lines and arrow graphics can also be made in Exploratree. In Exploratree the font style, color and size can be changed. While the color of the bubbles can be changed in bubbl.us, I didn't see the ability to change the style or color of the text.

Exploratree offered a wide variety of ready made organizers that could be completed on-line. I didn't see this option on bubbl.us. Both Exploratree and bubbl.us provided the opportunity to create custom organizers. Exploratree can accommodate the inclusion of JPEG files into the documents. I didn't see this as available on bubbl.us. I felt like this would really add to the interest of organizers and brings in the non-linguistic representations that help students make connections. I also liked Exploratree capability to lock elements so that they can't be changed by other users.

Both Exploratree and bubbl.us had the ability to share, print and e-mail the documents. In bubbl.us the code can be obtained so that the organizer can be included in blogs and other websites.

Education Oasis offered 58 free PDF organizers including the following types:

• cause and effect
• character and story
• compare and contrast
• sequence, cycle, timeline and chain of effects
• vocabulary development and concept organizers.

Some of the organizers can be completed on-line and then printed. Others can't. This site seems to primarily be a library of pre-made, unchangeable organizers. I think I would use it for basic organizers that I want students to complete by hand. I would use the other tools if I wanted to do a custom organizer or if creating an organizer was part of the learning task.

With all of these options it made me wonder why anyone would buy a graphic organizer book at the teacher supply store.

CED0525 Week TWO Student Response Systems

This week I began reviewing student response systems. This concept is wonderful. I'd love to see one of these systems in action. Instead of typing in a narrative, I've added my Word document by using scribd.com


Comparison of Student Response Systems

0525 Week One Article Reaction

Reading this article made me consider how long it's been since I've taken any kind of statistics or educational research class. Instead I had to approach the information from a conceptual standpoint.

As is pointed out in the article, the meta analysis of using technology in education only demonstrated an effect size of .410. It further indicated that it had a negative effect of -.091 on student behavior. This made curious about a few things.

I noticed that the study was published in 2003 and considered studies that were published between 1997-2003. Much has happened since 2003. I wonder what the results of a meta analysis would be if it considered more recent work? I realize that it takes time to gather results, but I still wonder. Many of the tools we've been discussing in our program have only begun to be used wide spread within the last few years. Once more teachers and schools adopt these technologies, how will the effects change?

CED0525 Week One

I've been out of education for a while, so I'm really looking forward to working with the strategies that we'll be exploring in class. Things are so different compared to how I taught years ago.

I taught at a private K-8 school out of state. There was no professional development. I had a mentor for my first year, but there wasn't mush to the mentoring program. I didn't have any regular meetings and the one piece of advice that I got from my principal was to take more grades. I finally feel like I'm getting the professional development that I craved.

I can tell that implementing these strategies takes a good deal of preparation. Combining them in a method that supports students and provides flexibility is a skill unto itself.

I've been going through all of the on-line resources that have been mentioned in our text so far and bookmarking them in my delicious account. There are some great resources here. One of my personal favorites is Stellarium, an on-line planetarium. Users can see what the sky will look like using a given time and location. I tried this one at home. Both me and my six year old daughter loved it.

Can't wait for more great resources!

CEDo520 Week 3

As much as I like Google Docs, I've found a couple of new tools that I really like. I used Buzzword for the first time. I found it very similar to the word processor in Google Docs, but the inability for those without Gmail accounts has always bugged me. With Buzzword I can designate anyone to edit the document.

I also found 280 Slides to be similar to the presentation tool in Google Docs.

I also put together my first survey on Survey Monkey. Part of my job function is to train staff on processes using our student information system, Skyward. I need to spend some time this summer reflecting on my training methods. I'm going to use my survey to discern how to make my training sessions faster. I'd be curious to hear from teachers who have used Survey Monkey in the classroom.

CED0520 Learning Resources-Week Two

I found a couple great new resoures this week. Alexa.com provides data on web sites. The user types in the site to be reviewed and alexa.com provides information such as who typically visits the site and the countries where the searched site has been accessed. Alexa also provides information on what other sites link to the searched site. The author of the searched site is provided as well as contact information.

I also found Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators on the Discovery Channel website. All I can say is 'Paydirt!' As someone who has been out of the classroom for a while, this resource is going to be very valuable to me. Kathy offers great resources on all contect areas. In order to do my site evaluation assignment, I went to Kathy's Guide to find my sites to review.

With all the great resources on the web, I'm relieved to know that I won't have to spend a fortune at the teacher supply store.

CED0520 Week One

The more and more I move through this program the more I realize how crucial it will be to teach students about critical thinking skills. The web is full of information with conflicting information and some of it with the purpose of selling something. Students often think that if they find something on-line then it must be true. I guess I'm starting to think of this type of critical thinking as a type of 'on-line street smarts.' Individuals need to consider the source of information and even more importantly consider carefully what information they themselves publish on the web.