Just Shoot Me
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For this assignment, done on the first day of class, we wandered around the beautiful campus of Michigan State University in small groups to take pictures of ourselves to reveal something unique and interesting about ourselves. I chose to take this photo because I love the water and behind me is the Red Cedar River and I am posing with my Fitbit Ultra activity tracker (the little black piece of technology in my right hand). I have been on a fitness kick and about a month before classes started I purchased this little tech tool that tracks steps, flights of stairs, miles traveled, calories burned, and even gives you an active score based on how active you are throughout your day. It even tracks your sleep efficiency when you wear it at night. Wearing this little gadget has made more more aware of how much (or how little) I am moving and has really motivated me to get up and stay moving. |
Behaviorism Web Software
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This assignment had our group researching the behaviorism concepts, extinction and chaining, and finding software on the internet that uses these principles to teach. Linked here is the short presentation we created using Prezi. |
Purposeful Re-purposing - Creativity Tools
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Not all Web 2.0 tools online were designed with education in mind, but with some ingenuity and an educational purpose, any tool can become an educational technology. As users we are constantly redefining technologies based on our need. In this group assignment, we looked at creativity tools and technologies that could be repurposed for education. Our group chose 5 tools to research and reviewed them in this wiki. |
Exploring Key Topics in Technology and Education
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Our group created a website containing annotated lists of key online resources to help teachers and students develop information literacy and technology skills. Our site is designed with the Michigan Educational Technology Standards in mind and is divided as the METS are divided, by grade level groupings. |
Cognitive Concept Map |
My group was assigned to build a concept map illustrating the main ideas of the first two chapters of Daniel T. Willingham's book "Why Don't Students Like School?". We chose to use the online concept mapping software Popplet to create our concept map. In addition to summarizing the chapters, the presentation here also gives a review of Popplet. |
Tech Integration for Willingham book |
This presentation is meant to be the starting of a multi-media accompaniment to the Willingham book. Each of the technology tools given is linked within the presentation. Take the time to click on the links and check out these tools for yourself. |
Alphabits
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In this activity, each of our class groups was assigned a letter and asked to find a representation of that letter somewhere in nature. Each group found multiple examples of their letter and as a class we were able to discover BEAUTY in the world around us. I really liked this activity and hope to use it with my own students to possibly spell out SCIENCE or EARTH or other words related to our study of earth science. |
iImages
These images were a stepping stone to deeper thinking about the Dream It project below; meant to be a powerful way to visualize the big idea(s) in my content area (earth science) and determining what concepts or methods of teaching and learning would be most effective in reaching students. It is my goal for students to think more like scientists; probing, questioning, seeing the world anew, with a sense of wonder and discovery and a desire to learn more about the natural phenomena they are experiencing. The quote by William Lawerence Bragg, used in my iImages below, spoke to me. Students can and often do memorize facts that they will quickly forget after the test about those facts is completed. Memorizing facts, while those facts may be important, doesn't mean a student has understood them, but if a student can take the information (those facts), explain them, interpret them and apply them through a process of engagement and discovery, the student is much more likely to understand and remember that information.
De-Motivational Poster
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This was a fun mini-assignment in which our groups were challenged to create de-motivational posters. We created several, but these are my favorites. These two posters were created using my own personal photos of Michigan State Hockey and my silly daughter. |
Leadership Tensions: Mac vs. PC
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This activity served as a visual representation of educational tensions that exist in our current educational landscape. It was also a fun opportunity to learn about photo editing. I used a free Web 2.0 photo editing tool called pixlr to combine two photos into one. It's hard to tell where I stand on the issue of Mac vs. PC, isn't it? |
Looking Back, Looking Forward
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This paper is a thoughtful reflection on my second summer of the MAET program and a professional look forward as to how I want to continue to grow as a technology leader in the years to come.
I believe we are in a constant state of transformation and metamorphosis as learners and educators.
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