Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Thought Proking Quesion on ePortfolios

Can ePortfolios really make students better understand there self or better explain what they are really tring to say?

Being Creative with Eportfoilio

Designing ePortfolio 2.0: Integrating and Coordinating Web 2.0 Services with ePortfolio Systems for enhancing User’s Learning
Have through reading this article it is pretty neat how a student can possibly express their self in an ePortfolio. If a student is shy about explaining their self to other people he or she can make an ePorfolio using on the technology we have today on the Web and using Web 2.0. Some people are saying that possible these portfolios are lacking flexibility, peer review and group collaboration. This article showed new ways to integrate a new design that coordinates using Web 2.0 services into ePortfolio to enhance the learning experiences for individuals as well as the community. The article conducts a preliminary survey study to show perceived values in ePortfolio and Web 2.0 services. With using this survey they can better understand what people are thinking of the way of the way Web 2.0 can better our ePortfolios.




With the use of ePortfolio’s students have a variety of ways to express their selves these days. A student can use so much technology on the Web and using Web 2.0 to come up with many different things. Using a portfolio tells a story about a person, place, thing or something the student might enjoy doing. The video showed many different scenes that can be used to make a portfolio look the way a student wants it to look to explain a certain event that has happened in their life. The students can use a Movie Maker, Photo Story, Blog or even a Wiki. I can recall back just drawing pictures of events that had happen in my life to tell a story, now a days you can take a picture or even shoot a video. It is pretty awesome how technology has grown in the last few years. The video also said the art of the portfolio is in the eye of the beholder. When making the ePortfolio make sure you use “authenticity” make sure it is your work and not some else. There was a great quote in the video “we do not learn from experience...we learn from reflecting on experience”-Dewey
So the real question we can ask ourselves is. What is our Story?

Thought Provoking Question for Ethics.

Do students really understand Copy Right Laws? And do they know what might happen if not followed correctly?

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Ethics of Copyright Laws

Do Students Respect Intellectual Property?
Is it right to use someone’s information without having permission? That question has been going been going around for many years. In today’s classroom’s students are assigned projects that call for looking up information on the web these days more than back in the older days of using books, magazines or encyclopedia’s. Students sometimes do not see the wrong doing of not getting a copyright approval from the person who either made the video or wrote the article. Even teachers are sometimes in fault of doing this even without thinking or just don’t care. So if teachers are not following the rules then students will think, if the teacher is doing this so can we. It is the teacher’s responsibility to make sure they and the students follow the intellectual property of using a copyright.



In response to this video and its relation to the article, I think students should know it is very important to have standards and a “code of ethics” about the internet when using someone else’s work. Even though this video may not pertain to the “code of ethics” discussed in the articles we read students still need to know right from wrong. The video showed how Web 2.0 and the internet are used into day’s school and students need to understand these standards of copyright laws. The internet has become so important to our society today. The internet is not just for chatting with friends or find long lost lovers anymore, it’s used for writing papers, conducting interviews with other people or clients and even talking to people in other countries that we do business with. Mostly students are hopefully using the internet and Web 2.0 for educational use since they are the future of our next generation. If students are not taught at a very young age the right way to use the computer they could be putting their self into jeopardy. The video suggested that students have the technology to use, but the “how to” is not taught in classrooms or university’s these days. Students need to be taught to be respectful of other people’s property and use honesty when using the internet for sourcing out information.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Thought Provoking Question

Should teachers be resonsible for knowing which assistive learning techniques to use in the class room with there studetns?

Assistive Tech

Use of Computer Technology to Help Students with Special Needs
by: Hasselbring,T., Glaser, C.
The Future of Children
CHILDREN AND COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY
Vol. 10. No. 2 - Fall/Winter 2000

The use of computer technology has come a long way since computers were first built. The technology we have today there seems to be no problem finding what we need on the web, just type it in and there are thousands of web pages that pop up for you to look at. Even though we have come so far we still need to look and search harder to find ways the help children with either learning disabilities or special needs to find away to learn. Have you ever asked yourself what if I was born with a disability that stopped me from learning what might I used to help me further my education? Just because someone is handicapped there is ways for him or her to learn. Upon reading this article I did not know that more than half of all the students receiving special services were males. Why is that? Word processing software has helped students with disabilities to be able to write, it helps the ones who need to spend a significant amount of time rewriting a passage to communicate and idea clearly. It also helps students fine-tune their ability to write legibly. Word prediction software helps the student’s type much faster, by typing part of the word and then spelling out the rest. In communication technologies the student can type out a question and it is read aloud to the teacher. This device is called augmentative and alternative communication. This helps make it possible for individuals with poor speech or no speech over come their communication problems. There are many kinds of special devices that students can use today to learn the skills they need to excel in the classroom. As teachers or future teachers we need to understand these devices more. The big question are we willing to learn and help these students succeed further in there and abilities to learn?





After watching this video I know a lot more about people with disabilities that can use computers to learn. It shows different screens, keyboards and many more applications dealing with computers.