Journal #9

O’Dwyer, L, Carey, R, & Kleiman, G. (2007). A study of the effectiveness of the. Journal of Research on Technology in Education,, 39(3),

In my 9th Journal entry I read an article about the effectiveness of online teaching for Algebra.  I found that the article to be enlightening to say the least.  Many of the tests that were conducted in the study showed that, within the small population that was surveyed, there was a vast improvement in the student’s ability to learn Algebra.  The Mean for those students using the web in the pretest was 14.91 and jumped to 15.27 in the posttest.  Whereas, the students who did not use the web average Mean was 14.99 in the pretest and 14.61 in the posttest. 

                I found those stats interesting because I would have thought that they would have been closer together.  What was most shocking was that the students who were not a part of the web based teaching actually did worse on the post test than what they did on the pre test.

Question #1:  How would the stats help teachers in the class room? 

I would say that, based on the stats, the information could be helpful to administrative and teachers alike because it shows that students who take web based classes in their education can improve their understanding of any given subject. They can also apply it their own individual teaching styles by giving the stats a serious look and adjusting their teaching to include what they feel is best for the student.  Maybe a teacher can apply technology in the classroom in a most basic way because students may be learning the material better through technology because they are seeing it, hearing it, and experiencing it through the means that they are most comfortable with as students.  That is probably the best way for teachers to give the tests.  To apply their knowledge to the technology in the most attractive way for the student. 

Question #2: There are a lot of generational differences between learning.  What are those differences?

There really wasn’t much information beyond a small number of socioeconomic data.  In the generational gap of learning the teaching of subjects were different for each generation.  But what is very interesting is that going into the future it seems like young children have found their own nitch and are learning quicker and easier with technology than the generations before them have.  Since they are growing up with it all around them it is a great way reach students in the classroom as a whole.          
When it comes to individual learning differences is the key to teaching the student through technology.  Obviously, a student who has ADD is going to learn differently than a "normal" student will.  Yet, the trick is to learn through experience on how to conduct yourself in the classroom in ways that each student can at least learn the material that is presented to them.  Help from other teachers who have been in the system a while can always help but you also have to develop your own personality within the system so that the students will respond to you as a teacher.  

Journal #10

Seth, A, Raj Singla, A, & Seth, K. (2010). Aspects of service oriented computing. The Journal for Computing Teachers, Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/jct

For my Tenth article that I read was for my Journal entry was about the implication of Service Oriented Computing to help ease the software applications and infrastructure of the technology age.  What the article claims is that it will help the entire IT departments in the areas of rapid application, automated business processes, and multi channel applications.  Now the first question that I have about the article is, what exactly do they expect from the companies and school’s to do with the information that they are offering? I found that there was a lot of “what If’s” and circumstancal processes in what the authors where proposing in the article.  On the opposite side of the coin they did articulate that it was up to each individual system to make it more concrete.

The second question I have about the article, going into reading it, was would it be helping the students, teachers, or someone else in the School system?  Now reading through the article I did find that they were directing the program to the actual IT team at the particular company/school.  The entire system will be easier to implement for the IT team at the school and the upkeep with be the responsibility of the IT team at the school.  Therefore, in my own opinion it doesn’t help direct education of the students and in classroom teaching for the teachers.  All it does is help out the IT team at the school.  Will it help cut costs in the budget from year-to-year? Maybe, but there is too much to process for that to be fully answered. 

I did NETS # 10

After taking the teacher assessment I went to the website about the "top 10 web 2.0 tools for young learners". What I found out through the website was actually some nice tools to help anyone of any age who is trying to learn about the internet.  For example, the website kerpoof.com can be helpful for anyone who needs to learn the basics about making movies, animation, or even drawing. 

Another website listed on the top 10 list is Animoto.  It is a site that, when visited, will allow the user to create slide shows.  The website will help you make slide shows for your business, home, school, and will help customize it to your specifications.  It is not only for children; it for adult and business users too.  It is actually a very impressive website for your basic slide show maker. 

The Final website listed in the top 10 I thought looked like a great web site was for VoiceThread.com.  It is a website that helps the student, or anyone for that matter, create various files.  For instance, a person can make a video file and then add in text messages or even audio files to the video.  Furthermore, a student can also add images and add audio messages for those images.  A very cool site, I will have to investigate it even further. 

Hi.  My name is Nathan Fares.  I went to school, K-12, in 3 different states.  I started out elementary school in the great state of Illinios.  I finished up K-6^th grade in Homewood Illinios.  7^th through 8^th grade I was in Santa Fe, New Mexico where my parents moved us so that they could have better jobs.  9^th through 12^th grade I was in University of San Diego High School in San Diego, California.  My dad got a great offer to move out to San Diego.  So we moved out here to California. 

In my experience with technology I have mainly PC experience.  MAC computers frighten me and I have no clue how to use them.  Frankly, I prefer to us Personal Computers because they can handle Video Games 10 times better than MAC can.  Therefore, I will always be loyal to a PC computer.  Event now, using a MAC I don’t know the controls and they are frankly completely different than a PC computer and much more difficult to learn.  In school,  all I learned on was PC computers and that is all I know how to use. 

When it comes to the mission statement of the College of Education I think it is a fair and politically correct statement.  Now, I am not saying I disagree with it at all.  Actually I agree with it completely.  However, I also think that it does not take into account that out of 100 people there are 100 different approaches to the same issue.  With many politically correct statements it fails to actually make the right choice for individual circumstances.  Therefore, I do think it needs to understand that there are more than one right way to do something.