LAD Documentation Post #1

This week, we have made a lot of progress on our LAD project. As a group, we’ve started putting our site together, including the home page, introduction video, and the hook page. We’ve begun researching for our topic and putting together Power Points that inform parents about hearing disabilities and speech impairments. We have started making plans for what the rest of the project will consist of in regard to the I +1 Zone, standards, and assessments.

We began working on our introduction video at the end of class on monday. In order to incorporate creativity within the video, we decided to learn our names in sign language as well as how to say, “Hello, my name is.” Our video is not quite complete yet, due to time constraints difficulty in learning how to sign, and collaborating with each other on the best way to create our video.

Gaming: a Means To An End of Real-Life Problems (Reflection #8)

I’ve only had one true experience with project based learning in my prior schooling. It was sophomore year in high school. We had to take what we learned in class about the French Revolution and go and research even more and turn it into a children’s book. We had several months to work on the project and the finished product was really awesome. My group had a lot of  fun making it, but more importantly we learned a lot in the process. I don’t remember a whole lot from that class, except for about the French Revolution.

 

“Johnny: The Mediocre Human”

 

I think that, from a student’s perspective, project based learning is really fun and helps us truly learn the material instead of temporarily remembering it for the test and then forgetting it. However, if the work-period isn’t long enough or the project isn’t explained well then project-based learning can be really stressful. If this is the case then the stress factor can be distracting and inhibit the learning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a teacher, I would imagine that the project designing process would be  very time consuming since it would have to be a detailed plan. And having to answer student questions and provide help when necessary may be arduous. But the finished product, the excitement from students about learning, would be so gratifying that all of the work and time spent would definitely be worth it, like in the video about the school-design project (http://www.edutopia.org/mountlake-terrace-geometry-real-world-video).

Reflection #7 (10-7-13)

• Describe your experience as a user of the tool/ app/ website.  What is your opinion about using this tool/ app/ website to teach someone something?  My stop animation project focused on an app called AllRecipie.Com. This is an easy-to-maneuver cooking app. You can tell it what main ingredients you want to use, what meal you’re cooking, how long you have to cook/prepare, and the way in which you want to cook it. It gives a lot of recipe options and is very simple and easy to use, especially for those who are new to the kitchen. I, being a novice myself, found it very easy to navigate and find exactly what I was looking for. The directions are simplistic so it is a very good tool for teaching someone how to cook.

AllRecipe.Com Logo

•  You have at least learned 5 different tools/ apps/ websites from your peers.  What is your opinion about using these emerging technologies in 21st century learning?  I think that using these technologies in the classroom can be beneficial but should not be used at a main learning tool. I think that the most efficient usage of them is for a side-tool and to assist teaching, or for at-home practice. Many people find it difficult to learn without face-to-face assistance from an instructor. Technology is good but it cannot replace human interaction.

http://blog.alleducationalsoftware.com/files/2013/08/Children-using-digital-tablet-with-teacher-300×200.jpg

• Describe your experience in making a stop animation video.  What are the pros and cons of this technique?  What suggestions will you give to others who want to try this technique?  I had some issues with my stop animation video. Since my project included cooking, my hands were dirty and thus it was difficult to take pictures as frequently as I needed to. I also spent a lot of time fighting with iMovie, since I had never used it before and was having a lot of trouble learning how to make it work the way I needed it to. The finished product was somewhat choppy and, honestly, a little boring. But, I think that it overall accomplished what it was supposed to accomplish, which is giving information about the app and showing how it can be used as a learning tool. I would suggest to take a LOT of pictures to make it flow smoothly, because otherwise it will be choppy and resemble a slide show instead of a movie.

The Finished Product

http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/4b1f17440000000000e78729/cameras-are-about-to-get-1000-times-better-at-taking-low-light-photos.jpg

 

Reflection #6 Augmented Reality

 

“Augmented Reality… is the fusion of digital information with either live streaming video or the viewer’s real environment” (http://augmented-reality-in-education.wikispaces.com). Augmented Reality (AR) is gradually becoming more and more commonplace, be it in sporting events, walking down the street, gaming, and even in the classroom.

 

AR tools are great tools for teaching, if used correctly. They open up the door to a whole new realm that takes knowledge and learning from the textbook and turns it into something real and tangible. Students now have the ability to use their phones

and go out into the community. With the   use of AR apps, students can learn about almost anything by simply scanning a building or picture.

 

There are, however, some issues surrounding AR technology. The main issue that I can see would be that although most students have smartphones and/or tablets, not all of them do and it is unfair to those that don’t to do activities in class that they cannot partake in. Another issue is, as pointed out at

http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/feb/11/augmented-reality-teaching-tool-trend, “the longevity of each provider, and as each captures its share of the market the transition to subscription with no consideration of what education has in terms of financial resources”, which somewhat goes hand-in-hand. 

 

 

 

There is a definite upside though. They are great tools and really get students involved and (here’s the key:) interested in learning. http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/feb/11/augmented-reality-teaching-tool-trend says that it is “a new platform on which providers are emerging and allowing access for free as a means of capturing their share of the market”.  Many of these AR games even allow teachers to put their own spin on the games and make them more custom-made to their classes, which is awesome.