The Digital Classroom

The Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning offers an Experimental Digital Classroom (CCNMTL) so faculty can experiment with “classroom technologies and new pedagogical strategies”.  CCNMTL will provide training for faculty to use the classroom. The main feature of the classroom is a SMART board that can be manipulated by both faculty and students. Though I have heard of the SMART board through research, I have yet to see one in action.

The reason I chose this project was for obviously for the technology education related aspect of the project. Though my major and most of my classmates’ majors are technology related, it is but just one field in education. This special classroom, located in 308 Lewisohn Hall, is not just for technology teachers and students, but for everybody. Experiencing new ways to both teach and learn is always of great value to all those interested in education, which this project promotes.

Let’s Count Money!

As many of you know, we use quite a few educational websites in our house. One of the newest is abcya.com. I know I mentioned this site a few weeks ago, but I would like to mention it again, because I really do believe it is helping in the areas my daughter needs to practice.

One area they are working on in school is counting money. This site has a great game for this. Here is the link: http://abcya.com/counting_money.htm.  The biggest thing that I, as a parent and educator appreciate the most is when your child puts the money onto the screen (the amount that needs to be put there is given at the top of the screen) it doesn’t count it for them. They have to place the money in, then hit the check button to see if they are correct. I feel this really teaches the child to count the money, instead of the screen displaying the amount of money they have in, which the child could just keep guessing and put in and take out as needed. So the way it’s actually set up, the child needs to keep track themselves the amount of money they are putting in. After they press CHECK, another screen appears and the child either gets a fish or loses a fish. It will tell them if they have too much or too little.

After a week of playing this game, my daughter became much better at counting money and is counting it all the time. She goes online by herself and usually goes to abcya.com as her favorite place to be. She practices homework skills without me nagging her and that is a beautiful thing! If you have little ones, check it out. The site is for Kindergarten-Fifth Grade and my daughter’s school uses it.

Static or Animated?

During my master’s program, I took a very interesting test, which told you at the end what type of learner you are. Before I took the test, I would have thought I was a visual learner, but as it turned out, I’m not. I am an auditory learner. This finally explained to me why I have so many issues with those stupid diagrams that come with all toys, cribs, and everything else baby related.

So as for static images, they don’t do much for me. I can usually figure them out, but I would rather just read a line that said “put part a into part b and screw it tight” or something to that affect.

However, I feel the complete opposite about graphic animation. When looking for a tutorial a few weeks ago and comparing a static image of how the heart works to an animated graphic, the difference in my level of understanding was amazing.

In the article we read for class this week, Animation: Does it Facilitate Learning?, the authors both hinted that graphic animations are not really all that better for learning than static images. On this point, I have to argue. I know I haven’t spent years researching this, and this is my own point of view, but watching a video-based or animated tutorial is really a whole lost easier than trying to figure out a static image.

Video Tutorials Are Great!!

As some of my blog-followers know, I’m taking Java this semester and to put it mildly, it ain’t easy! For some reason I haven’t Googled video tutorials for Java, although I have stumbled upon a few which I very much enjoy. Well, now I have pages and pages of them. My favorite one this week is this one http://www.javavideotutes.com/lessons/play/9/

The author has a huge list of tutorials, which would have come in handy earlier in the semester, but I will be sure to make use of them now. I like the step-by-step approach the author uses. I found it helpful that he shows different variations of code, compiles and prints out again so we can see the program’s output.

There were two things that stood out as well. The author made a couple minor mistakes which made the code not compile, so we got to see what the mistakes were and how they were corrected. Also at the end, he stated that it would take watching the tutorial about 10 times before the information would sink in, unless of course you were a genius. Which, well, I’m not. 😦

So it made me feel good that I’m not the only one that needs to read the same things over and over…and over. Video tutorials are a wonderful way to learn and very important in education. If we are in class, there is really no way to remember everything our teachers say and do. Being able to re-watch specific and pertinent information at anytime we need a review is very empowering. How many times do things look easy when the teacher is doing it, only to find out later when attempting to try on our own, that it is, in fact, very difficult?

If this week has taught me anything, it is the importance of video tutorials. Our own professor has wonderful step-by-step tutorials that are very easy to follow along. Never will I forget to create a tutorial for my students so they may review if they wish!

Kids and Computers

Before reading on, watch these two fascinating YouTube videos. Not only are they very entertaining, they are so very true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEFKfXiCbLw&feature=related

 As most of you know by now, I am a firm believer in Educational Technology (thus, my major!) and practice this in my own home, with my own children. My 3-year-old can use the iPod Touch faster than my husband can. My 6-year-old can conduct her own Google searches and find what she’s looking for. She mostly plays on educational websites, Uptoten.com is a big one that has been in our lives for quite a number of years, but my daughter just found a new one at school the other day and I love it, ABCya.com. I haven’t spent a lot of time on it yet, but the kids were on it quite a bit yesterday. My daughter was practicing her money skills (introduced in school this past week) and everytime she put the correct amount of money on the screen, she got a new fish in her fish bowl, and boy, let me tell you, that was exciting!!! My point is, that the above videos are so true. Students learn so much more through technology than any one person can teach them. And one of the most important things I feel they are learning? That they have a world of knowledge at their fingertips and can learn anything they want to know. We have this “game” in our family where one of the kids picks something they want to Google. We Google it and find out all we can about whatever subject it happens to be. For example, one time it was seals (the animal), another time it was Paris, and so on. Obviously we try to stick to kid-friendly facts, but the point is, it’s showing them that we can learn anything. It’s a wonderful age for students to grow up in, with all the information available to them. My local school district has undergone a complete turn-around over the last few years. They have a new computer lab and elementary students go two times a week in addition to the computers they use in their classrooms. When I began my first master’s program, I did so because I was actually scared to send my daughter to this school, so in a few short years, they have transformed themselves, and I must admit, I’m impressed. See, I know we are already in the technology age, and I need to make sure my children are technologically educated and ready for the world ahead. They are learning reading and writing at school (not that we don’t practice this at home as well), but I make sure they are getting all their “technology-world-skills” at home. It has become my life’s mission, at least for the next 20 years or so!

Better Than I Can Do…?

When I first came up with focusing on Preschool ABC’s for my website, I purposely didn’t look at any others. I do this whenever I have to write and/or create, because I want the ideas to be my own. However, with this week’s assignment, we HAD to look at other website designs and I must say, I was impressed. Not that my ideas were in anyway lacking, I still believe they are good, but it is obvious that my site will be created by a “newbie” as opposed to a more experienced designer.

The first site I looked at, and my favorite, caught my attention right away, made me smile and laugh, and was just overall impressive. http://funschool.kaboose.com/preschool/learn-abcs/index.html was engaging, interactive and easy to use, and had fun games that my 4- and 2-year old sons liked.

However, when I delved further into the site, I found things that I really did not like. First, there is no easy way to get back to the home page without pressing the back button. In order to navigate to the other pages, you have to scroll down first, then click the appropriate link. I think it’s easier for younger children to have them visible on the screen they see, but these spots are taken up for advertising.

There was nowhere on the site that said the sounds letters make, which I feel is important when teaching children their alphabet. When speaking the letters, it’s a grown-ups voice, which I feel should be a child’s. Also on this same game, a different “movie” has to load with each different letter, and if the internet isn’t very fast, the children have to wait.

Overall, like I said before, I like the site. This can be a good model for me to use for both good and bad design. I can take the things I like about the site and try to work them into my own, and fix the things I don’t like. So maybe, just maybe, I can come up with something spectacular!

I Hate JAVA!

Ok, I don’t really hate the Java language. In fact, up until this past week I was having a lot of fun taking my project-oriented theory class, a.k.a. Programming I. But this past week, well…it knocked me on my butt. Oh everything started out alright, but by the time I got to the end…forget it. I was lost and my program wouldn’t run. Hours upon hours of trying to get help, re-reading, re-watching tutorials, and reviewing older programs I had written didn’t work. In the end, I had to turn in a non-running program, but in my defense, at least it compiled!

So why I am telling you all this? Because, when it came to this week’s assignment for our Hypermedia blog, and it was to look for an audio or video pod cast on an educational subject, I thought Great!! I can look for a podcast on Java, which I did and found, although it wasn’t as easy as that, but in the end, I found one (actually a series) that would work for me.

The url http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtfJxA1J3h8&feature=fvw features a tutorial on object oriented programming. I watched the podcast and enjoyed it. It gives examples that are easy to understand using morphograms, pictures, text (both written and verbal) all on one page. Although it is basic (looks like it was created on PowerPoint) and the voice sounds computerized, it got to the point quickly. One (of many) problems I had last week was with “method calling”. This podcast easily put it in perspective for me in two slides that took about (I didn’t actually time it) ten seconds. I will watch the rest of the podcasts, and I did subscribe to the feed.

I did watch (or begin to watch) many other pod casts in search of one that would actually help me. Many professors created pod casts of their classes and posted them on iTunes. While I can’t speak for all of them, the ones I did watch were overly long and distracting rather than helpful.

Back to Good and Bad

Ok class, we’re back to the Good, Bad and the Ugly…oh wait, that’s a movie, just the good and bad then, although I did find a few ugly along the way. This time the focus in on good and bad visualizations. You know, the pictures, animations, or videos that go along with the textual content.

My search was easier this time. Instead of Googling the entire universe, I searched for how blood was pumped through the body. Surprising enough, the first site I found had an excellent animation that showed exactly how the heart pumps blood through the body. Included in the animation were morphograms, text, key point highlights, and voice that explained in detail what was happening. This animation had everything I was looking for. It was the perfect example of dual coding theory at work here; The animation met the demands of the task, explanations were provided along with the animation and the animation was correctly timed with the text and explanation. Here is the link to this oh-so-perfect example: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/hhw/hhw_pumping.html.

And a little while later, I came across this one. Check it out: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/blood-flow-through-the-heart-diagram.html. Ok, I admit, it’s not all bad. But look! It’s labeled “For Kid’s”. Now my issues with this diagram are quite obvious, I hope. First off, if we just wanted to learn about the heart parts, I can see that is a pretty decent diagram. Everything is labeled, and I assume it’s correct. (Not being a medical doctor myself, I am going to assume it is properly labeled). However, we are trying to learn how blood is pumped through the body. While reading the text, we have to keep jumping below or above to check out exactly where the particular heart part is. Once we finally find the correct heart part, we then have to remember where in the text we were reading. Can anyone say The Principle of Apprehension?? And then, by the time you scroll down to Circulation into the Body, the diagram is off the page. There are too many links to follow, instead of everything being right there in front of you.

This week has taught me quite a bit about the proper use of visualizations. I hope in the future as I start designing my own sites and lessons, I will remember all that I’ve learned!

Traditional Text & Hypertext

We all know how traditional text reading works; we start at the top of page 1 and read from left to right to the bottom of the page. But what about hypertext? If we are reading on a website, we still start at the top of the page, and read from left to right, but we may never get to the bottom of the page. Why? Because of all the links we have to choose from. And we might choose a link, then choose another on the next page and never even see the page where we began.

However, this of course depends on what we are reading. When reading a novel, there never are sidebars on the page for “quick tips” or a review of a main point. But in a text book there are. In fact, for another class I have right now, our professor made a point of saying “pay attention to the side bars” because they offer good information. Also in text books are pictures. They can be pictures of WWII in a Social Studies book, or a picture of the output of a program in a JAVA for Dummies book (which, by the way, I am reading now).

These pictures or sidebars can very easily be embedded into hypertext when reading online and offer the same advantages that they do in textbooks. In textbooks you never actually leave the page you are reading, you just have to glance to the left to see the sidebar, or the bottom of the page to see the picture for instance. This can easily be duplicated within our own websites using hypertext and pop-up windows.

There’s a reason I like the pop-up window. Student can click on a main point for more information, or a picture (or short video if we got fancy) and still be on the same page where they began without worrying about getting lost by clicking on link after link. After the student reads the main point information, they can easily return to the main page by just closing the window.

Hypermedia – Good and Bad

In today’s world many of us turn to the Internet when seeking out information. It may be for educational purposes, or to plan our next family vacation, or it may just be to waste some time watching a movie or playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook (my favorite time waster)! In the last few days, however, I have turned to the Internet to look for something different; websites containing good examples of hypermedia and websites containing bad examples of hypermedia.

What is hypermedia? Hypermedia is the joining of multimedia (graphics, video, sound, etc.) and hypertext (clickable text leading to further information). I must admit this was not an easy search to conduct. Oh, it was easy finding great examples of hypermedia, but bad ones? Not so easy, but I’m taking that as a great sign for the future of our Internet!

One of my children’s favorite websites is www.uptoten.com. When first thinking about good vs. bad sites, I thought of this one because it is used daily in my house. This educational website has it all, games, videos, songs, and animation for children (you guessed it) up to ten years old. When the page first opens, displayed is a menu with each link wrapped around a colorful balloon, six in all. When you roll your mouse over the balloon, it pops and gives further information about where the link will take you and what age group it is appropriate for. My three-year-old quickly learned to navigate the site after a short lesson from my six-year-old daughter. Our entire family enjoys the silly songs, sound-effects and video animation and I especially appreciate the educational content.

As I mentioned earlier, finding a bad example took a few hours. In the beginning, I cheated a little and Googled awful websites. Try www.purple.com and let me know what you think! Anyway, although I enjoyed a few laughs, I did want to stick to an educational theme, so I continued my search and finally struck gold! The website is titled Bad Science and here is the link: http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/BadScience.html. First off, the page is unattractive. The print is small, and even trying to read it on my 22” computer screen is quite a bit of work. As to the hypermedia aspect of the page; to put it simply, there isn’t any. Where are the graphics, the videos, and sound? Where are the animations? Nothing breaks up the text. There are a few links on the page that one can click; however, the actual words are highlighted, instead of just a different color. The site is not engaging nor welcoming and definitely not a place where anybody would be tempted to spend any amount of time.