Boolean Operators

Name:  Afton Grossardt

Search Keys	Purpose of limiter	What did you find when you tried it? How many hits? Was this limiter effective?
AND	Used to modify a search when you’re looking for an article that contains more than one specific item or term in certain databases.	Articles containing the words American and man, usually as a focal point / 63,727 hits / Yes
OR	Used to modify a search when you’re looking for articles that contain one specific item or term or another specific item or term in certain databases.	Articles that contained either the words American or man / 2,270,685 hits / Yes
NOT	Used to exclude articles that contain specific items from you search in certain databases.	Articles that contained the word American but not man / 1,709,425 / Yes
“                    “	Searches articles that contain the words as one phrase.	Articles that contained and focused on the exact phrase “American man” / 767 / Yes
*	Expands a search to include all versions of the root word.	Articles that contained the word American and variations of the root word “man” / 294,319 / Yes
- (minus)	Akin to using the “not” limiter.  Only searches sites that contain one word and are not related to another.	Articles containing the words American and man, usually as a focal point / 63,727 hits / Confused on this one
+ (plus)	Akin to using the “and” limiter.  Only searches articles that contain a word in relation to a second word.	Articles containing the words American and man, usually as a focal point / 63,727 hits / Yes
?	Used as a single character “wildcard” for finding alternate spellings to a word, e.g. Wom?n could search “Woman” and “Women.”	Articles containing the word American and the words man, men, min, etc. / 68,026 hits / Yes
Brackets ( )	Modifies the order of your search, specifying the database must search the terms in the brackets first before proceeding to the next part of the search.	Articles containing American and man but not the word African / 55,041 hits / Yes
Near	Finds articles that contains specified words or terms within 10 words of one another.	Articles that contained the word American within 10 words of the word man / 1,314 / Yes
Before	Proximity term that searches for articles containing words in a certain order, e.g., social before security	Articles that contained the word American before the word man / 4496 hits / Yes
After	Proximity term that searchers for articles containing words in a certain order, e.g., security after social	Articles that contained the word American after the word man / 10,842 / Yes

Voicethread: Innovative, Creative, and Easy to Use

                Voicethread focuses on taking one of the most traditionally social aspects of teaching (story telling) and combines this with current technologies in order to create a unique and interesting way for people to share stories and information.  I found that using Voicethread was an enjoyable experience thanks largely to the relatively easy to use interface and the level of personalization a person can use when creating a Voicethread.  These aspects of the program are the two biggest reasons why this program could be successful in the classroom. 

Using drawn pictures or photographs a teacher can introduce the idea of a storyboard in one session of class then use Voicethread as a means of both demonstrating a storyboard and giving students the opportunity to create their own story.  The interface is fairly easy to teach, taking a step by step approach to adding pictures, voice, and text to thread.  Each of these steps can be broken down and easily taught in the classroom and demonstrated using the teacher’s own Voicethread.

This program gives students a unique way to write and publish their own stories with a few ways to differentiate depending on a student’s strengths and weaknesses.  Students who are stronger in writing can focus on detailed text descriptions of their story, while students who may struggle with writing can focus more on their voice work.  This also gives those students an opportunity to work on their weaknesses in the writing process without letting their shortcomings overshadow the project.  Most importantly Voicethread allows students a creative way to publish and share their hard work with their family, their school, and the world.

Collaboration Through Established Social SItes

Teaching is based on the sharing of information.  When one types in the phrase “internet definition” on the popular search engine Google, one will find this phrase as the top result:

in·ter·net /ˈintərˌnet/

An international computer network providing e-mail and information from computers in educational institutions, government agencies, and... This is the default definition of the internet according to Google.  Email and information, are the two main focuses of the internet, and since email is generally used to send information to other people, I’m all for clumping email into the “information” category as well.  So since the phrase internet is so heavily rooted in education (the phrase educational institutions comes before any other agency or institution in the description), why is it that the internet is so slow arriving to the party? The truth is there are a multitude of tools out there aimed at collaboration in the educational experience both inside and outside the classroom.  Applications like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are hugely popular social network sites in which people share parts of their lives every day, and seeing as how education plays a huge part in the lives of our students, it’s only natural that both students and teachers alike will want to share their experiences. During some of her classroom observations my advisor Anne took videos of my lessons and the combination of her feedback and being able to see myself teaching taught me a lot.  Publishing the projects we work on in class gives our students a publishing outlet as well as a way to receive feedback from other students and teachers in their school, their community, and from all over the world.  Educational groups and communities already exist on many sites like Facebook and Twitter and sites like Youtube have related content links that allow users to browse similar materials and view video responses. Unfortunately many of these sites are blocked in schools because of the potential for off topic behaviors.  However if there’s anything history has taught me it’s that people will find a way around the system.  If a student wants to check their Facebook status in class, they’re going to find a way to do it.  So why not incorporate it?  By assigning students Facebook homework educators are taking a tool students already use and are making it educational.  So many parts of education are already based around the sharing of information and ideas it would be silly to pass up the opportunities technology applications are offering us these days. References www.facebook.com www.google.com www.twitter.com www.youtube.com CollabTech 2010: Remaking Education: Collaboration, Technology and Discovery. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd7YMv-r5xQ

Storythread: Hulk Hogan and Friends Fix - It!

My storythread can be found at:

http://voicethread.com/share/2331371/

I can't seem to get this to embed in blogger.  I'm going to keep working on it, but just in case I'll leave the link up.

Fairytale

Tech in the classroom: Great idea or pitfall of doom!?

Afton Grossardt

ED 628

            Technology can be a very broad definition and as a result some confusion can arise when asking about the use of technology in the classroom.  Technology, specifically when its referenced to a classroom setting, is generally meant to mean computers, interactive white boards, and most recently tablets.  The late 90’s gave birth to a plethora of studies regarding the use of technology in the classroom and while most of these studies found that students who used technology generally scored higher in math and science, overall they scored worse on standardized tests than those who were not taught using computers as instructional tools (Kozma).

            Most of the problems with using technology stem from the lack of proper implementation.  Proper use of technology in the classroom can boost student achievement and provide students with a powerful avenue for learning.  So first and foremost educators need to put forth the time and effort to be able to use technology in the classroom.  Also educators need to work on shedding the idea that “technology” means “computers”.  Technology includes a broad array of devices in the classroom, some that educators may not even realize.

 Cameras and microscopes are pieces of technology that have been used in classroom instruction for years and are constantly evolving to keep up with the technological world.  Speaker and sound distribution systems are become more sophisticated as well and give educators the ability to reach students in the back of the classroom or auditorium without raising their voice.  Technology is slowly helping to overcome the hurdles that have plagued the educational system for so many years.  Recording software and video conference allows students to continue their learning experience even when are away from school for extended periods of time.  And let’s not forget the internet, the biggest source of information in the world today.  Technology is everywhere.  For educators its just a matter of taking the time to brainstorm about how we can use these powerful tools to help boost the educational experience of our students.

Resources:

Arends, R., & Kilcher, A. (2010). Teaching for student learning: Becoming an accomplished teacher. New York: Routledge.

Kozma, R. B.  Technology and classroom practices: An international study. Retrieved from: http://robertkozma.com/images/kozma_jrte.pdf