Smartboards: Do They Have Brains?

With the growing popularity of the use of “Smartboards” in public schools, one can only wonder, why?

Do these boards give more detailed instruction than the teacher? No. Do they explain things in a language that students can understand? No. Are they like little portable audio textbooks that deliver information to students in a funky cool cartoon voice to engage their curiosity and make them more eager to learn? No. Can they be used to travel back in time and right the wrongs of various historical figures to make this, the world we live in, a more pleasant and peaceful place to exist in? No.

Well, what do they do?

“You can use a projector to project things on them.” said Martin Queeblesac, a teacher at Westwood Middle School in some little hick town in Oklahoma.

“Can’t you do that with a projector screen?” asked curious naysayer Devlin Croupe.

“But you can draw big circles on different things to draw students’ attention to specific details that are important with the Smartboard.” countered Queeblesac.

“But can’t you just stop for a second and use a laser pointer or something to do the same thing?” questioned Croupe.

“Well, yes. However, with a smart board you can do interactive games and things and have students actually walk up and write things on the smart board, which is certainly more impressive than just using it as a projector screen.” stated Queeblesac haughtily.

“Isn’t there a computer lab in your school you can visit to accomplish all the interactive stuff you want to do and a chalkboard/whiteboard in the classroom for them to write on?” Croupe slyly queried.

“Yes, but, it takes a lot of effort to get all the kids to line up and walk down the hall and back.” Queeblesac replied.

“So you are saying that Smartboards are worth, what like $1000, of taxpayer money just because you’re too lazy to walk down the hall?” demanded Croupe who by now is become very angry and red in the face.

“To state simply, they are much much more than $1000, and yes, they are worth every penny of taxpayer money. In fact, I think every schoolroom should have at least three per student just to prove the point.” Queeblesac smartly replied.

“You arrogant pig! I hope these boards drastically improve and their capabilities soon advance to the point that they make your job irrelevant and THEY teach the class!” screamed Croupe.

Okay, so, sorry for all the gibberish, but I enjoyed it. To answer simply, no, I don’t feel Smartboards are worth the money. Have a good break!

Rubric

Criteria	Accomplished (3)	Developing (2)	Beginning (1)	Score and Comments
Introduction	Engagingly describes a compelling question or problem.	A question or problem is described.	The purpose of the WebQuest.	2. There was a question stated; however, the description of what the problem was and how to be solved was a little too open ended.
Task	Task is doable, engaging, and is connected to learning in the real world. It elicits thinking that goes beyond mere comprehension.	The task is doable and elicits higher order thinking but is not relevant to student lives.	Task requires simply comprehending or retelling of information found on web pages and answering factual questions.	3. I thought you did a great job of giving a very doable task that students will enjoy.
Process Checklist	Every step is clearly stated. Most students would know exactly where they are at each step of the process and know exactly what to do next.	Some directions are given, but there is missing information. Students might be confused.	Resources provided are not sufficient for students to accomplish the task.	2. The directions are given, but you could be more specific on how the groups will be broken up rather than just leaving it as “choose one of the two groups.”
Resources	There is a clear and meaningful connection between all the information needed for students to accomplish the task.	There is some connection between the resources and the information needed for students to accomplish the task. Some resources don’t add anything new.	Resources provided are not sufficient for students to accomplish the task.	3. The students have all the info. they need to have.
Evaluation	Criteria for success are clearly stated in the form of a rubric. Criteria includes qualitative as well as quantitative descriptions.	Criteria for success are clearly stated in the form of a rubric. Criteria include qualitative as well as quantitative descriptors.	Criteria for successes are not described.	3. Criteria for success was clearly stated and were descriptive enough.
Visual Appeal	Appropriate and thematic graphic elements are used to make visual connections that contribute to the understanding of concepts, ideas and relationships.	Graphic elements sometimes, but not always, contribute to the understanding of concepts, ideas and relationships.	Color is garish and/or typographic variations are overused and legibility suffers. Background interferes with the readability.	3. I thought the smiley- faces were a nice touch.
Navigation	Navigation is seamless. It is always clear to the learner what all the pieces are and how to get to them.	There are a few places where the learner can get lost and not know where to go next.	There aer more than 5 broken links, misplaced or missing images, badly sized tables, misspellings and/or grammatical errors.	3. Navigation is clear to the learner. 19/21 total.

Picassohead

Website Validation

Website- http://home.inreach.com/kumbach/velcro.html (Velcro Crops)

The authour is Ken Umbach, he is a satirical writer who writes short witty articles for various magazines and websites. The authour clearly created the information himself calling upon fake sources for information and predictions. The author does  not leave their contact information on the page.
Obviously, the page is written in humor and is not meant to be taken seriously. It is in fact, satirical writing. It is most likely aimed at bored college students or middle aged people working a dull desk job. The page is quite old for a web page, 1996, and has not been updated recently.
In conclusion, it is just an old satirical web-post that is meant for humor.

WebQuest

I thought that the "World of Shakespeare" and "Anti-Earthquake" Web quests were best. They both listed roles for each member of the group, were straight forward and time efficient, factual and listed several links that were helpful in finding more information or ideas. The two worst WebQuests were "Foreign Country Presentation" and "Waves and Sound." Neither promoted group work or collaboration with other students. "Waves and Sound" was lengthy and didn't seem to allow much room for creative response while the "Foreign Country Presentation" while short, left too much open to interpretation on how to do things. Plus, the "Foriegn Country Presentation" listed Wikipedia as a credible source, which when talking about foreign policeis and economics, it probably isn't.

About Blogging

Thus far, truthfully, I have found nothing that I really like about blogging. I can see it's benefits, like recieving feedback from students on different topics or to divulge information to a broader public than just a classroom, but I personally would rather have face time. That being said, I won't keep a blog after this class. I think that this class actively uses Collective Intelligence by reading and studying information and "pooling" our knowledge to reach a collective goal. I think Diigo is actually a better example of this because we can see each other's ideas and perspectives as we cover the information.d

Learning Style

According to the Leaning Style Test, I am an Aural reader. This means that I learn well by first person interaction and by listening to someone speak. It means that graphs, charts, readings, and other visually oriented learning tools are, for the most part, ineffective forms of learning. I would basically agree with this because I have found that I do better at remembering details and facts if I listen to a lecture without taking notes. If I try to take notes and read them later, nothing really sticks.

http://www.picassohead.com/?id=9d2be7a

Twiiter Stuff: Smothering Creativity.

Personally, I think forcing people to say whatever they want to say in 140 characters or less promotes creativity. It forces  overwhelmingly narcissistic individuals who want to narrate their entire lives for others to skim through and roll their eyes in boredom to simplify "I went to the mall and I bought some food, music, and shoes... more shoes... then left the mall and met some friends and went out and got some dinner and ate some food, but I didn't like my food so I didn't leave a tip... then I brushed my teetht again because I just couldn't help but felt like there was something in my teeth..." and so on, into "I went shopping. Bought stuff." I think that sometimes revision, especially when writing things that are only going to waste other individuals' time is very important. I think twitter and texting do influence the way we write. Those of us who do twitter and text a lot, use a greater amount of simple, or incomplete sentences.

Slide Show

Here is my Presentation.

The Effects that Edmodo has on Children's Attitudes Toward Writing.

I think that what we have been doing with the kids via Edmodo is pretty great. Any time a yound student gets positive feedback from an older, yet still young enough to be cool, person, it's a positive boost to that student's moral. Students were all quick to respond to comments and criticism from us as a class which either means they were excited to be a part of the assignment, or they had a teacher who was really on the ball. Maybe it was a bit from both, but either way, it's still a positive result.

21st Century Writing.

I feel that, despite growing demand and emphasis on the use of computers in society, schools are not preparing students well enough for the future. Schools do not offer enough computer based curriculum, and are still usinng out dated text books.

Picture Reading

In the first image, the one regarding the BP oil spill, President Obama is shown wearing plain clothes, leaning slightly forward, and his head is lowered and turned at a three-quarter angle away from the viewer. The reason that he is depicted this way is to seem both common and sympathetic. He is not dressed better than the average man, he is not shown with strong straight posture, he is shown leaning forward as if he is listening to the people. His head is lowered and turned slightly away so he appears to be both humble and non-threatening.

The second image, the one of President Obama on a ship, depicts a leader. President Obama is pictured walking on the deck of a large sea faring vessel walking with a large group of men. He is in front of the group, smiling broadly, sleeves rolled up, is dressed in semi-formal attire, and shows good posture. The image reminds one of a scene in a movie when the heroes all arrive, strong, confident, and practically invincible. The President's sleeves are rolled up as if he is about to get to work with the rest of the crew, he is placed in front of the crew to show that he is in fact in charge, and, last but not least, his smile shows his confidence that his plan will be a success.

Digital Literacy

The article we read talked about education institutions focusing on, and more readily pursuing means of, expanding students’ literacy skills through technology. The article talked about the need to instill in students the knowledge of how to locate information on the internet, and also interpret what significance the information actually holds in accordance to modern life and society.

The reality of the situation; however, is that schools have not implemented programs or curriculum designed to meet these needs in the public school system. Instead, they are slowly remediating into a Cro-Magnon system of trivial learning and an un-applicable curriculum.

One suggested resolution to promote media literacy in American public education systems, is to develop a new form of literacy involving critical thinking. This curriculum would focus on trying to make students "read, listen, see, and think," constructively with complex new modes of delivering information, new multisensory tactics for persuasion, and technology- based art forms. In other words, the "new" educational thought is to go back to the oldest form of learning, hands on.

Magazine Cover/ Digital Story

Digital Stories.

So interestingly enough, with the ever progressing use of social networks and the internet, a new media of literature has risen amongst the population. I am talking about digital stories. A digital story ican be a short narrarated film, a slide show depicting both images and text or several other variations of these means. These types of stories are beneficial because they use multiple types of literacy, not just simply relying on the viewer's reading capabilities as a means of conveying a point or message. So the question asked is this, "Can a digital story be just as effective as a 15 page paper?" My answer is yes. Someone once said "a picture is worth a thousand words." If that truly is the case, a 5 picture slide equals out to being a five thousand word paper, which is a pretty decent sized paper. So yes, I think that because people relate more closely to images than to written words, this is a general statement to be sure, they would gain just as much information froma didgital story than a research paper. If you would like to see my digital stori, click here.

Spelling in the Modern Age.

Spelling is hard. There are enormous amounts of rules that invariably change without reason. Who thought of silent letters anyways? Why is there an "H" in the word why? It's pretty dumb. However, in response to the article we read, we can not just simply change all the words in the English language, no matter how much easier it would seem to make life, so that they are always spelled just how they sound. First reason why, the "th" sound. We don't have a letter to make that sound, so this ensures that some rules must still apply to the new method of spelling. Second point, one of the main reason's we have so many stupid rules on what letters mean or do what is because if we didn't have those rules, there would literally be hundreds of words spelled exactly the same way. Take the word "theory" for example. Sound it out and spell it just how it sounds, you get "there." Theory is not even close to meaning the same thing as there. Speaking of "there," what would you have to do to try and seperate the 3 types of there? (there, their, they're) Yes, in speech it wouldn't matter, but the differences in spelling signify the differences in meaning. For the most part, spelling things the way they sound would be an advantage, but honestly, why bother? If texting and IMing really doesn't affect spelling, then this generation shouldn't have any more difficulties than the last. Why worry about it?

Shanosha

Graph of Survey

http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx?ID=5df3a7d8dff74f608dd17691e11a669f

Digital Media Changing Language.

"Smrpg?"

That is a message a friend of mine sent to me the other day. Know what it means? Neither do I. I even Googled it hoping I could figure it out and reply without looking stupid. The only results I recieved said that "Smrpg" stood for "Super Mario RPG," which in context with the conversation we were having made absolutely no sense at all.

So Has digital media changed language?

Yes.

If you go back 100 years ago, 50 years ago, 3 years, or even 5 months ago, and used "Smrpg" in conversation, it would not have made sense to anyone, especially if they are talking about West Virginia football. You know what? It still doesn't make sense. But that is the age we live in. Abbreviations are fine, but we have gotten to the place now where we abbreviate entire sentences into single letters simply because, in our minds, it makes sense, but to anyone else, we are probably going to have to send another text explaining what the last text said. Quite frankly it's getting out of control and is becoming a nuisance.

Here is a link to a site explaining how teachers are now trying to implement a wider variety of methods to teach forms of literacy other than reading or writing, which is good, because no one can read or write anymore.

CYLOTFSITIGTESJFTG2BL8R,

Shanosha.

(Catch you later on the flip side. I think I'm going to eat some junk food then go to bed. Later.)

See how confusing that is??

Survey

Resume

So I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to talk about this week. In class, we read an article about using blogs as educational tools in the classroom. I thought that it made a few interesting points while talking about how blogs help to involve the students in learning, and reading, outside of the classroom.

We also were asked to create a resume using Google Docs. I'm assuming that we did not have to provide factual information seeing as how we were asked to publish it to a public blog site, so here is mine. Creative and sarcastic, enjoy.

Love all,

Shanosha

I- Pad vs. Textbooks

     Okay, so textbooks are terrible. They are heavy, boring, basically just a huge compilation of fact after fact with no real world applications. I- Pads on the other hand are great. Light-weight, you can download all the textbook information that is required for class. They are convenient.... Unless you're like me and you despise the use of technology and long for the day when the world falls apart and man is forced to communicate by either morse code or by using a hammer and chisle to leave vague messages for others who wander by... either way, still much better than staring blankly at a computer screen right?? Okay, maybe not.
     The point is, yes I-Pads are way more convenient, light, and definately don't require every tree in the Amazon to make, but they are not practical for public schools. I mean, schools would be REQUIRED to provide each student with one, so what happens when it breaks? And it will... especially if you're giving them to children... I mean that's what children do... break things. So would the school be required to replace them, sweet for the kid... expensive for the school. Schools would all be broke, teachers would all be fired and then the Apocolypse would come. Maybe not, but that's just me. Here are some links to kind of talk about both sides a bit. Look through everything and tell me what you think. Should texbooks be replaced with I- Pads?
http://www.edutopia.org/no-books-no-problem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKAm1OmdFfU

The Pre-Post Post.

Hey everyone,

         My name is Noah Shaffer, I'm a senior in art education at Fairmont State University. I plan on teaching grades K-12, and I hope that students will learn to enjoy and appreciate art no matter what they decide to do after graduation. I think for earlier grade levels, students should participate in more gestural, abstract, or expressive arts with limited art history discussions (ie. matching games- matching famous artists to their worketc.), simply because young children rarely grasp concepts such as three- dimensionality, space, overlapping, etc. at least not until the end of third to the beginning of fourth grade. For these reasons, I think it is best to stick to visual examples that they can easily comprehend, such as color, shape, and pattern. These early classes would be graded mostly on effort rather than craftsmanship.
         Mid level students will work primarily with three- dimensional projects such as pottery and/or various sculpture media but will also leran about perspective drawing and conveying space. They will also develop their writing skills as they would have to research interesting historical or contemporary artists such as Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, or Jenny Saville. The grading criteria for the mid-level students would be a split three ways a third for craftsmanship, effort, and research assignments.
        High School age students will not have a specific area of concentration, rather they will learn and create works of various media and styles such as watercolor, printmaking, drawing, sculpture, painting, abstract, realism, cubism, etc. They will be expected to identify significantly different examples of work such as Cubism or Neo- Classical and so on. These students will also be expected to explore historical movements and important artistic figures from the past. Craftsmanship will be a much more important factor for these students than students in earlier grade levels as well.
       So, basically that's how I think I would run my classroom.

                                                                                                            Love all,
                                                                        
                                                                                                    Shanosha