Evaluating Software for Class Discussion

Greetings All,
1. Note:
*The following articles are what I submitted earlier this month. I have had problems with my laptop for the past few days and I am still troubleshooting, so I am using my husband’s laptop. Somehow my internet connection is not working on my computer.
*We are approaching the time to submit our work for discussion/presentation (Group #1: 3 / 4 to 3/10)
Question: What do you all think about a timetable?
2/24 Decide on Research Article & Web links for Presentation (Wednesday)
2/25 to 2/26: Work on Discussion questions; 2/28 Finalize questions for discussion;
3/1 Finalize additional reading for reservation for our assigned week.
Question: How and who will collaborate for setting the discussion within the classroom link?

2. Research Article Input:
Bernas, R.S., Gibbs, W., Graves, P.R., 2001, Evaluation Guidelines for Multimedia Courseware, Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 34:1(p2-17).
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=57&hid=12&sid=3e7ff489-37bf-4690-82b9-120eec4f4aee%40sessionmgr12
In this research study, participants in the evaluation process modified all but four questions in the study. The questions were as follows (see p. 13 in the document):
1. Do learners have a sense of positions within the courseware?
2. Is the courseware screen layout (screen elements-titles, text areas, navigation buttons, etc…)easy to understand?
3. Does the user guide or online documentation provide sufficient detail and complete indexes of the information available in the courseware?
4. Are instructions for software installation and operation explicit, accurate and complete?
According to this article, “ The increased availability of instructional courseware generally, and poor-quality courseware particularly, engendered attempts to develop methods for software assessment (Shell & Schueckler, 1989) and helped evaluation more common. The importance of evaluation is recognized , and it is vitally important for educators to partake in software reviews (Dudley-Marling & Owson, 1987; Zahner, Reiser, Dick, & Gill, 1992)…Evaluation entails methodical decision making about the value of a particular object and indentification of reliable methods with which to base decision or judgements (Gros & Spector, 1994) (Bernas,R.S., et.al)”.

Herring, D.F., Notar,C.E., Wilson, J.D., 2005, Multimedia Software Evaluation Form for Teachers, Education, 126:I (100-111).
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=60&hid=12&sid=3e7ff489-37bf-4690-82b9-120eec4f4aee%40sessionmgr12
According to this article, “ The evaluation of educational software has become a critical information skill for teachers. Based on the definition of ‘highly qualified teacher’ as charged in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), new teachers are “not qualified” in their program of study does not include an Instructional Technology class. It is recognized that the most successful technology-using teachers function with relative independence more as instructional designers that lesson planners (Herring,2005, p100) .”
“Multimedia, hypermedia training materials and computer based and aided instruction are part of the teaching profession. Teachers have for years been on textbook selection communities. Now teachers will be on software selection communities (Herring, 2005,p102).
3. Question Input:
What do you think about the following discussion questions:
a. What is the purpose of evaluation software? What are the benefits of choosing effective software versus using programs supported on the internet?
b. How can evaluating software be used to support your school? Your students?


Isabel

Blogging in the Classroom

Using a blog in the classroom had never crossed my mind until we began our discussion about it for this class. However, I am now much more excited about the idea of starting a classroom blog.

One of the primary ways I would like to use a classroom blog is to keep parents informed of what is happening in the classroom. Although I have an open door policy for parents to come to class, they never do. This often being because they have to work during the day which I can completely understand. I get lots of emails about what is going on in the classroom and upcoming quizzes and tests, mainly because at the middle school age their children aren't very good with communication! I am always more than happy to respond to parents, but it is a time consuming task. My hope is that with setting up an informational blog, I will be able to answer parent questions so that everyone can see the answer. This way I won't receive the same questions repeatedly via email. I would also use this blog to be proactive and inform parents of upcoming quizzes or tests. I would let them know what unit we are on and what specific topic we are studying so that they can help support their child at home. I do not expect that this will eliminate emails from parents, but I think it would help parents feel more involved in their child's math class, and it would reduce the time spent responding to emails. Of course, more personal questions about particular students wouldn't be asked nor answered on the blog, but the more general ones could be.

"When will we ever have to know this?!?" I am sure that every teacher has heard this many times throughout his/her career. As a math teacher, I think I hear it more often than other content area teachers. It is a consistently asked question by students that I like giving them the answer to. I challenge my students to come up with ways that they use math in the real world and I have them share them with the class. Having a blog about Real World Math would be a great way for students to post ideas they have about how math is used on a daily basis. This would be a great way for students to be thinking about math outside of the classroom.

There are many ways in which a blog can be a beneficial tool for a classroom. For me, I would like to begin with an Informational Blog for Parents and a Real World Math blog for students. I am curious to see how well frequented these blogs would be, and based on that I could see myself expanding my blog usage in the classroom. Although blogging was something that I had never considered, I am now looking forward to setting one up for my classroom.

Pros and Cons of Blogging as a Collaborative Tool

Collaborative software is software intended to help people participating in a shared project to accomplish their purpose. Blogging has the dual capability of supporting maintaining growth by the sharing of ideas as well as causing division in organizations.

The many benefits of blogging in various sector of society are gaining significance as it becomes more acceptable by individuals. Blogging can promote critical and analytical thinking among its users as they share experiences and ideas. Its features makes it capable of promoting exceptional and insightful thinking when it is being used as brainstorming tool, as a resource for sharing group ideas and commenting on these ideas. It can also encourage figure of speech in explaining ones thinking since it is less restrictive in its use of sentence structure and verbal communication. There is also a greater chance for increase in access and exposure to quality information due to the fact that individual may rather use this informal means to share thoughts. Blogging can facilitate both isolated and social interaction among individuals. In a classroom setting blogging can allow learners to self-regulate their time and place of learning. The users of blogs are expected to be active participants in a sharing environment and requiring each participant to focus on the topic of discussion. Hence in the classroom setting, there is likely to be a frequent active exchange of ideas between each member of the class. Blogs also provide a convenient way to help students improve their writing skills, and develop ways of expressing their thoughts in an informal setting. This collaborative tool provides a means for remote individual to share ideas thus changing level of correspondence to include a wider section of a group of people. Users of blogs can communicate at a low cost thereby supporting ongoing exploration of ideas and creation of new thoughts.

Some disadvantages of blogging include the fact that articles published publicly can be viewed by many bloggers and it may be difficult to change your expressed view. Unsuspecting users may be at risk of encountering devious and cruel individuals who my take disadvantage of their correspondence. This may result in inappropriate display of graphics or comments that may cause someone hurt. An individual may be isolate or lose some opportunities because of their expression of an idea in a blog. Some organizations may be opposed to the sharing of sensitive information relating to the running of the organization in blogs. Also, many individual find it difficult to identify something interesting to share and even when they do, they have unable to express themselves in a clear and convincing manner. Some individuals may be interested in blogging but cannot find the time to update their blogs due to time constraint.

My First Blog

This is officially my first blog entry. However, I do read many blogs that deal with my profession. As an art teacher, I spend many hours trying to come up with and find new and exciting lessons for my students. In my searches I have come accross many blogs that I now follow of art teachers from around the world who post thier lesson ideas along with pictures and detailed instructions. It has been a great enhancement to my own curriculum. Other than reading blogs, I have never created or posted one myself. As a professional, I find it a little nerve-racking to post personal information/journal in a place that is public for all to see. So far, that has been my main reason to not create a blog.
During this course, I am looking forward to learning about using a blog and seeing how easy it would be to maintain. In the future, I would be interested in starting my own blog about my art lessons to share with other teachers/artists. I am also interested in learning or reflecting about how my students could use a blog or how I can integrate using a blog into my curriculum. Since I teach at the elementary level, I have not yet heard of how other teachers have used blogs and am interested in learning more.

Thank you to Sarah for setting this blog up for our group assignment! I look foward to working with everyone in the group and learning from you all :)

My Experience Using the Blogging Tool

I have had very little experience using the blogging tool before this assignment. One of my group members was kind enough to create the blog account and allow the other members to get started on our blogging experience. I have previously read blogs posted on the web by individuals about various discussions about current issues. Recently, I chose to listen to some suggestions as to how blogging can be used to extract ideas from students about way to that teachers can better facilitate their learning experiences. It was explained that as they share ideas among themselves, I would be able to better understand how I can provide more appropriate teaching strategies to get the maximum learning taking place for each student in my classroom. I then began to seek more information about how blogs work and how I may tap into this resource to help my students.

I am therefore happy to have the opportunity to participate in the blogging experience so I can better understand and guide students who may be new to this concept, as I am presently.

Setting Up a Blog

Create a paragraph on your experience setting up or using the blogging tool.

I was really surprised at how easy it was to set up a blog. I was expecting the set up to be more difficult than it was. This site makes it extremely easy to create a blog and to add postings. Providing simple layouts to choose from takes away the difficulty of making the blog look appealing. Although you read a blog for its content and not its appearance, it always helps to have an appealing layout. Just like we don't really judge a book by its cover, it always helps to have a good cover. And as a child you do tend to judge a book by its cover, so if a blog were to be used as part of your classroom, it would be beneficial for it to have a nice layout. I have read blogs before and follow some quite regularly, but this is the first time that I have ever written an entry for a blog. I am looking forward to exploring its features so that I will be able to use this site again in the future.