Journal 5

Bull, Glen (2009).Digital libraries; shifting the landscape. Learning & Leading with Technology, August 2009, 12-13.

Digital Libraries; Shifting the Landscape

This article addresses the potential end to the “marriage” between reading and print material. Personally, I think this is an absolutely astounding and exciting move. I’ve viewed the Kindle on Amazon countless times and sincerely want to have one; I just can’t afford it yet. Kindle is an electronic “read-like-paper” handheld library. Part of what excites me the most will be the lack of paper being processed or ink created and used. It seems like it will simply save money on both ends and is a win-win situation. The article discusses how Google has been digitizing books and has even collaborated with Universities in order to digitize volume libraries that they have decided to remove from their library.

What is an advantage of digital reading over print reading?

A huge advantage is the “alt-F” or “find” command. If a student wants to find the paragraph that specifically addresses electron configuration, they can type just that into the find box and every instance of that phrase will be searched out throughout the entire article (or even book) and the student can scroll through each instance until they find what they are looking for.

How would digitizing affect availability of an item?

Multiple students can view a single digitized item at once. For example, a specific encyclopedia volume can only be held and pored over by a single student for a period of time, but if it were digitized, unless copyright rules apply, multiple students can view it and print just the articles they need at the same time.

Journal 10

Hardin, Kaya (2009).Many eyes, many glimpses of data. Learning & Leading with Technology, August 2009, 36.

Many Eyes, Many Glimpses of Data

This article is a short summary of a tool, Many Eyes, that can be used by educators and students alike in the classroom. I would say that it is definitely an organizational tool and just why they labeled it for math is not very clear. I suppose that since it is an excellent visualization tool for numbers it can be considered mathematic but in my opinion, it is a tool that can be used for any subject. Word clouds are a new model for representing data that I have not heard of or seen (I don’t think).

How might this tool be used for real life issue data representation?

One example that the article gives is putting the data from the rise in greenhouse gases and melting of polar ice caps into a single data representation. That would be very interesting because it would also be a cause and effect visualization for students.

Which of the multiple intelligences would this tool be good for?

Other than the linguistic or auditory approach to much of teaching, this tool could be very useful for visual-spatial and logical-mathematic intelligences. Teachers could even go so far as to attempt to recreate some representations in a 3-D form which would then help bodily-kinesthetic learners.

Journal 9

Mader, Jared (2009).Science + technology = creativity (and fun!). Learning & Leading with Technology, August 2009, 30-31.

Science + Technology = Creativity (and Fun!)

This article addresses the use of technology in the subject areas of science and math. I never really thought that science was lacking in technology but I suppose it could be at the highschool and lower levels. In college though, technology dominates the science scene especially in labs, just like the article mentions, the use of newer and better probes or lab equipment allows the scientist to observe and speculate on the date retrieved more than the retrieval process.

What is an example of technology in science outside of the lab?

In my biochem class we used VMD to visualize proteins on the screen from files that we downloaded from a protein database. We were able to interactively view it, alter its colors, view specific properties and it I learned so much more from it than when we did protein lab work.

What is another idea for a creative science project?

For an at home project, I grew snowflakes in one of my college chemistry courses. Since I had to use dry-ice it might be better to do this project in class but it does take over an hour so class length may be restrictive. Students can take pictures or actually videotape the entire process and create an iMovie that shows the process happening and also describes the science behind it. The better the technology used, the more detailed and intricate the snowflakes show up as.

Journal 8

Bouterse, Brian (2009).Choosing the perfect tools for one-to-one. Learning & Leading with Technology, August 2009, 14-17.

Choosing the Perfect Tools for One-to-One

This article discusses how to choose what type of device classrooms, schools, or districts should choose based on their responses to six critical areas including purpose, operating system, robustness, applications, content, and peripheral equipment. Personally I didn’t even realize that there were so many options to begin with. I simply thought school rooms bought PCS or Macs. I did however have access to tablets in a physics class and since it was an experimental run (semester long) I can only how many applications they could have beyond what I experienced.

How can a student use a laptop with less than a gig of install space?

As we also learned in class, there are websites that offer free storage online. There are also educational applications that are web-based and don’t need to be physically installed onto the computer for students and teachers to utilize them.

Why are other platforms less popular?

The article states that familiarity is what has been causing the Windows and Mac platforms to dominate classrooms for the past few decades. Since teachers are going to be more familiar with these platforms, as are those in charge of maintenance, it makes sense and costs less money to obtain these platforms than to send faculty to seminars or meetings in order to learn how to use newer platforms.

Journal 7

Reynard, Ruth (2009). Beyond social networking: buiding toward learning communities.. The Journal, Retrieved August 10, 2009, from http://thejournal.com/Articles/2009/07/15/Beyond-Social-Networking-Building-Toward-Learning-Communities.aspx?Page=1


Beyond Social Networking

I found this article very interesting because I know so many older people who have joined social networking sites recently, including my grandma even! I love that more people are joining because it has helped communication within my family.

How might online communication boost a student’s response confidence?

The author mentions that a challenge to the new technology tools in the HI experiment was student confidence and viewing their opinions as valuable to the community. This has always been evident in the classroom so it is not unique to the new technology tools. However, I have to admit that from my perspective, the ability to express my opinions online and not out loud having to view response expressions immediately immensely boosts my confidence and I feel much more comfortable posting information online for others to read.


What might be a downside to teachers having Facebook accounts?

Facebook accounts do not restrict the information presented on the profiles or the pictures and many people prefer to post information that is not only very personal but also give details of their lives. However, teachers are supposed to uphold a professional appearance and act accordingly at all times, especially within the presence of students and parents. If a teacher goes to a bar with a friend and that friend tags them in their picture, the teacher’s students could view that picture which would definitely not be an example of professionalism.

Journal 6

Richardson, Karen (2008).Don't feed the trolls. Learning & Leading, May 2008, 12-15.

Don't Feed The Trolls

This article talks about civil discourse and students online. Most people assume that bad manners and rude behavior go hand-in-hand with digital communication and Richardson talks about how students should be taught in the very beginning about how to communicate properly and with good digital etiquette. The first thing to do is to give the students the rules but do not expect that to be enough. Rules are very general and students need interactive learning with civil discourse. Blogs are a good way to teach this because teachers can model proper etiquette and observe student communication. Self-reflection and monitoring is also an important skill allowing students to review and reflect on either their own past online conversations or other conversations between classmates.

How can a teacher start out using a blog to teach civil discourse?

Blogs are becoming increasingly popular as a digital educational tool as they should be! Teachers need to set the rules and model good manners and civil discourse within the blog in order for students in their classroom to learn to do the same.

Can blogs be educational?

Quality learning can occur online, both between teacher and student and also student-student interaction and the sooner a more professional atmosphere is set for online communication, the more effective the learning can be.

Fair Use Harbor - NETS IV, V

This is a summary of the different location within safe use harbor, a site designed to educate about copyright guidelines.
Fair Use Harbor