Michael Dietz's BUSE 4280 Blog

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DIetz Bus Ed

Teachers and Communication – Richard Smith and Caroline Crawford – Education and Technology Today

This blog talks about how teachers can communicate in a forum that is easily described as a teacher marketplace and network.  Teachers can share their own knowledge,  sell some of their original work, collaborate on ideas.  I liked this podcast as a new teacher to tell me about ways to share knowledge and find knowledge of other teachers.  The podcast talked about teachers being on islands and coming up with their knowledge.  This podcast talks about ways to bring teachers together and help each other become better teachers.  I found this very useful since it opened my eyes to new ways to communicate with my co-workers and become a better teacher.

http://epnweb.org/index.php?request_id=251&openpod=2#anchor2

www.weareteachers.com

Boutique Business – John Jantsch – Small Business Marketing Blog

This blog and podcast talked a lot about how to market and position your small business.  Small businesses are typically entrepreneurship start-ups and this podcast talks about how to position your business and how to market your business for success.  It includes a talk about hiring employees and how you as the own should act.  There is a certain type of boutique business that is a little higher end but with proper marketing and strategies these business can succeed. I would use this blog when teaching entrepreneurship to my students.

http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2010/09/01/creating-a-boutique-business/

I posted this as my question on Twitter and I wanted to give my own opinion on it in my blog.  The book mentions, ” the collapse of distinction between media forms and the societal effects”.   When I read about this I thought about so sites like Youtube and Facebook that started out purely as social media have since become forms of credible media and news and education sources.  I know Youtube has hosted Presidential news conferences live, the President also has a Twitter.  I find it interesting to think about and I consider where a distinctive line can be drawn between using Youtube in school too look at funny videos or to watch the news or learn a lesson on how to use the computer.  How can schools block these educational tools because of certain content on them when they can be valuable teaching tools?

I think that the use of wiki’s and blogs, much like we do in this class, is a valuable tool for the reflection of student learning.  Reflection is a huge part of the learning process and when I consider how to use it in my classroom I think using blogs for reflectionwould be a perfect blending of technology in the classroom.

The first thing about this chapter that I enjoyed reading about and learning was the all of the open source software that is available and how to use it.  I come from a very tech-savy family who uses these technologies dail, but I never really understood them or how to use them.  As I type this blog entry I am using Mozilla Firefox.  I have used torrents before to share files between my brother and I.  While I don’t think that I have a solid grasp entirely on the capabilities of web 2.0 and open sources I think they provide a great platform to collaborate and share ideas and I hope to be able to learn about them and be able to use them effectively.

I also enjoyed catching up in this chapter about all of the programs that I already use on a daily basis including; social networking, Microsoft applications, video messaging, and Google.  I think reflecting on it now Google provides so much in the way of education opportunites.  I have Google Earth and enjoying flying around the world via satelite but that is a great tool to teach geography.  We are also using Google Reader in class, and I have also used Google to share files and create slide shows.  I think Google is something that will continue to evolve and large search engines will grow and include email and all of the other features like Google does.  We like big box one-stop shopping stores like Wal-Mart in real life… why not in cyberspace too?

The first part of this chapter that I found particularly interesting was the updated Bloom’s taxonomy diagram.  The biggest thing that caught my eye was the tense change of the words.  All of the revised taxonomy words ended in “ing”.  To me this meant than in the first Bloom’s it says “Analysis”, this revised version calls it “Analyzing”.  I think it is a big and correct change to make sure at each level the student is actually doing the skill.  I thought the switch from nouns to verbs was a good improvement.

The other part of the chapter that I took notice too was the huge statistical numbers about our students.  Maybe since I am currently in that generation I don’t feel the numbers as much untill I read them but I was astounded by the numbers of internet users, their average ages, and how much me rely on all things technological everyday.  Sometimes when I read those numbers I’m shocked and blown away, but I realize it is how our society is evolving and as a future teacher we need to embrace this.  I think Dr. K does a good job of introducing us to all of these technologies in class and I look forward to continuing to learn about them and how to effectively use them in my future classses.

With a focus on expanding education into newer technologies when will paper and pencil tests be lost forever, and is that a good thing?

I came up with this question and I think it is best thought about and discussed during the entirety of a class, like this one, that is focused on building and growing the technologies used in teaching.  I think it is interesting to consider the history of education when considering the future.  Thus, I think all the students in the class and most who will read this post grew up taking paper and pencil tests, writing essays and filling in bubble sheets.  While I understand the learning preferences and problems that these tests pose to students I think something can be said for the results of these tests for so many generations and how our society hasn’t cumbled, in an educational and learning sense, with their use.

In Chapter 1, to go along with my question David Jakes made a list of 7 points titled, Making It Stick.  Point 4 is: The innovation must add value to an instructional process.  While I won’t argue that new technologies and assessment methods don’t add value, but on the other hand, could they actually take away value from other established methods?

My last thought from the chapter is the table with the comparison of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.  I believe the current rate of technological advancement is that it doubles or something every 5 years or so.  What could we possibly consider and imagine Web 3.0 to be like?  Also, when should we expect it to arrive?