Task 3 Reflection

1.   Share the web address url of your groups ScreenR presentation.
       The web URL for our groups screenR is http://www.screenr.com/uHh7.

2.   Reflect on your contributions and how you contributed to making your group a success?
      This week we had a bit of a late start. Since its the end of the semester all the Pandas had a lot of things happening for us. But I contributed by in putting my opinion on how we should complete the screenR. I gave support to our facilitator and provided feedback on the screenR write up and presentation.  During the course of the semester I contributed to my groups overall success by helping others who were lost, and also provided feedback and input for all assignments. 

Task 3-6 Reflection

1. Why is it important to use teams in PBL?
• In problem based learning it is important to use teams because teammates can work together to come to a common goal, in today's world there is a need for collaboration in future careers. With problem based learning others can contribute ideas or view ideas of others and suggest ways to improve upon those ideas. 
2. What are some of the problems you see in student teams?
• Some problems that I see in students teams is that the less structure there is in the group, the less likely that the group will succeed. When students are placed in a group, they come together to reach a common goal. With out structure  or job roles, the group can suffer. If each member in the group does not have a specific job to do, the group will be confused on what is done, and what still needs to be done. This can create conflict in the group, as well as others doing more work than originally assigned  leaving some group members getting a free grade on a project that they have not contributed to. 
3. What strategies can you use to manage conflict in student teams?
• Some strategies that I can use to minimize conflict in groups is to set up a strong student structure that holds each group member accountable for their work. This structure minimizes the groups conflict of "who's going to do what". With each student knowing exactly what is expected of them, the group can hold that person accountable, instead of the job being placed on other group members. 
4. Did the group have any questions or problems this week?
• This week we had a bit of a problem finding a facilitator. But we over came that obstacle by the other members being open and willing to take the role. Other than that, our group had no other problems or concerns. 

Task 3-5 Reflection

1.    What ideas have you contributed to your team this week?
       Some Ideas that I have contributed to my group was some insight of the grading rubric that we will be using on our students as well as what questions we can ask our students to reflect on their experience creating the cyber bullying commercial Ad. 
2.    What role did you play on your team this week?
       This week I volunteered to be the leader for our team so my job was to facilitate meeting times and creating the new google doc for the final write up.
3.    How did you encourage and support your team members this week?
       I encouraged and supported my team members by communicating with them via Laulima and providing them updates of what we were expected to do complete for the week.
4.    Did the group have any questions or problems this week?
       The only questions that came up this week was what additional information was needed to complete the write up for the activity. I thought we were creating a whole new write up, but I found that mostly everything was covered from completing our previous tasks. 

Task 3-4 Reflection

1.    What ideas have you contributed to your team this week?
       This week I contributed a resource for my team on how we can integrate authentic assessments in lesson plans. 
2.    What role did you play on your team this week?
        This week my role was to help provide resources on what authentic assessments were, and how to use it in a lesson plan.
3.    How did you encourage and support your team members this week?
       I encouraged and supported my team members by providing feedback on their resources and also communicated with them in the forum about the task topic.  
4.    Did the group have any questions or problems this week?
       We did not really have any problems, but some questions came about on how to post the ScreenR and post the response with the google doc. We over came the problem by other group members helping guide our Leader on what to do. 

Task 3-3 Reflection

Task 3-3 Reflection Questions

1.    What ideas have you contributed to your team this week?
       Some ideas that I helped contribute this week was what I would expect out of our students as well as provide feedback on other group members contributions as well. 
2.    What role did you play on your team this week?
       This week I served as a feedback person as well as information contributor  I helped add insight on what I believe is good for parents to know and what students should know and what we expect from both parents and students when it comes to PBL.
3.    How did you encourage and support your team members this week?
        I helped encourage and support my team this week by helping all of our group members stay positive.    We all had family and school issues this week and we all felt a little down since we all were unable to come together before Friday. Even I felt down, but during our online discussion, myself, and all the other group members provided positive and motivating words of encouragement t help our members push forward so we could complete our tasks this week.
4.    Did the group have any questions or problems this week?
       The only problems in our group this week was not being able to meet earlier in the week. We were a bit crunched on Friday doing the task since all group members were unable to meet before then. But we over came those problems and finished what we set out to do. 
      

Task 3-2 Reflection

Task 3-2 Questions

1.    What roles did the members of your team have this week?

        This week, our group members did not really have set roles. Our team leader this week was Yolanda. She volunteered and helped facilitate the schedule for our group meeting for the week. All of the other group members contributed to the overall assignment. We each discussed an aspect of the letter as a group and we each contributed our own thoughts that went into the final product that Yolanda created in the google doc. 

2.    Given your role in the group this week, how did you contribute to group?

       This week I contributed by providing feedback on the SLO, as well as had a voice in what subject that we would focus on. I had also helped contribute to answer a of the assignment for the google doc. 

3.    What worked well this week?

       This week our group communication worked very well. Although we had a busy week this week with our other group members, we all tried our best to provide our input for this assignment.This week we all tried our best to meet and help contribute to the final SLO as well as answers to the questions.
4.    What will you do differently next time?

       Next time, I will hope to contribute more to the group assignment so that it will not be harsh on the group leader for the week. 

Task 3-1 Reflection

Task 3 Questions

1.    What roles did the members of your team have this week?

        This week, from my point of view, our group did not really have assigned roles. But everyone contributed certain information. Sarah and Randy had provided resources on Problem Based Learning as well as brief descriptions of their resources. Landa took their resources and combined them to create one overall summary of  Randy, Sarahs, and Landas own resources. Rose, Landa and I also wrote the paragraph together and we took the information from Randy, Sarah and Landa, and created the paragraph that answered our principals letter. Each member had certain information to share, and we came out with a great product. 

2.    Given your role in the group this week, how did you contribute to group? 

        Since I was nominated leader of the group, I contributed by setting up a meeting time for the group, as well as editing the google doc. I had created a new forum in typewith.me for us members to meet and collaborate with each other to create the paragraph. Then after our paragraph was written, I edited the paragraph with graphics to make our paragraph visually appealing. I felt that I had contributed by talking the first step to setting up more group collaboration. 

3.    What worked well this week?

       What worked well this week was our groups constant communication. We talk constantly through our forum through the week, and if it was not for each group member checking our Laulima forum, we would not have known what needed to be done this week. Also each member knew their limitations, and stated if they had prior commitments, and we worked around them together as a group to make sure each member contributed rather than was left out of the group. What also worked was the typewith.me application. It worked with no flaws and helped the group members create the paragraph together and instant messaging  helped with with all the group members communicate while creating the paragraph. 

4.    What will you do differently next time? 

       Next time, the only thing I would want to do differently is maybe incorporate a voice chat, rather than an instant message chat. That way communication can be more efficient and the discussion of the assignment can continue smoothly. 

Ala `Ike Task 2 Deliverable Part II

Debrief Activity Questions:

• Having completed this review of a web 2.0 tool would you use this tool in your classroom?
• After completing my ScreenR about typewith.me, I definitely plan to use this tool in my classroom. It gives me proof that my students are collaborating together to complete a common goal. Not only am I able to see a final product, but I am also able to see how much each student contributed to the document. It gives me a reassuring feeling that in a group, not only one student did the whole project, but there was an equal amount of work done by each student which will help me in the end determine a participation grade for the group and group members. 
• Prior to this activity, how did you typically select website or tools to use?
• Prior to this activity, I actually never have used online websites or tools. If I was to research tools or websites, I would actually go and Google a certain criteria that I am looking for. I never knew that there were websites that were dedicated to online websites and tools to use for student learning. 
• Do you have any ideas, comments or feedback on improving the web 2.0 tool selection process?
• When selecting a web 2.0 tool, I would only suggest that as teachers we should check out the program first before introducing them to students. One problem I ran into with the typewith.me, was that it was not an updated version. After I did my ScreenR, I found that there is a better site that operates just like Typewith.me. It allows users to communicate on a faster interface, as well as holds a history for the teacher to view. So in the process, teachers should try out the tool first and make sure it works properly before bringing it into the classroom. 

Week 9 Current Event: Academic Software

Group 5: Pandas
Sarah, Yolanda, Kortnee, Randolph, Mary Rose

Academic software comes in many forms. The different forms that academic software comes in would be Desktop Publishing, Graphics, Reference, Tutorials and Drill-and-Practice, Educational Games, SImulations, Authoring Systems, Special Needs, and Integrated Learning Systems. The purpose of academic software is to improve student learning through various mediums. Thgrough the mediums, the students are more engaged and interactive in the content and lesson, rather than sitting and reading through a book.

This week in Pandnation we have decided to focus in on Simulations. Simulations not only create a safe enviornment for student learning, but also serve as a medium for students to interact with their content,rather than learn skills from a textbook. Each member in our group has never really had experience in a classroom using Simulations, but we all see the benifits that simulations can have on student learning. One of the benifits include students being able to interact with enviornments that may be out of reach for some students. One example of this, would be flight simulations. Most companies will not allow new piolts to fly a $500, 000 plane, but with flight simulations, the new piolts life is not in danger and flight schools can save on money if the piolt crashes the plane during simulation, there is no actual damage done to the practice planes. Real life simulations can also be used in the classroom.One way to show the students the effects of natural disasters is through Simulations. The students can learn how weather can destroy lands, with out actually going out and destroying property. This can help the students visualize what it would be like to go through and live through a natural disaster.

Overall, us Pandas believe that simulations are a new type of academic software, but it is most benificial to student learning because the students are able to learn through simulated experiences.

Ala `Ike Task 1:Deliverable Part II

Debrief Activity Questions: 

• Prior to this activity did you use any of these software tools?  If so which ones.
• As I stated in my narrative, I did not use these tools before. I was unfamiliar with that Diigo was, Twitter, Google Reader and IGoogle. I thought that they were just used for social networking, but not necessarily to be used to find educational resources, or organize educational resources. So finding these tools are very helpful in gaining information, and sharing information. 
• Do you plan to continue managing the news resources that you have gathered in your personal learning network?
• After gaining all the news resources from Google Reader, Diigo, and Twitter, I will definitely use it within my personal learning network. I have been out of the news loop since being in school and working a lot, that with constant news updates pertaining to education will be very useful in my own personal network. 
• Do you think that a refined personal learning network would be valuable to a new teacher? 
• A refined personal learning network should be very valuable to a new teacher. Education systems are changing with new regulations, technology and student demographics. Even though teachers can have meetings about the changes, having the instant notification of change can help the new teacher prepare for what will be happening in the future of their career  Not being informed will only hurt the new teacher, and may even lead to the new teacher to burning out early in their career. 
• Share the web address url of your ScreenR presentation.
• I believe that my web address url for my ScreenR Presentation is http://screenr.com/Cri8.

Week 4 Current Event

Group 5: Pandas

Sarah, Yolanda, Kortnee, Randolph, Mary Rose

When we think of becoming a teacher we usually think about how to plan lesson plans, how to integrate technology, and how to have successful classroom management. However there is another important component that we as teachers should consider, and that is classroom layout. Classroom layout is very important in student learning. We as teachers should be cautious of traffic patterns, clusters, and not enough movable space in our classrooms. Teachers should be mindful of how the students are to be placed in the classroom that can have the greatest benefits for the students and less stress on the teacher. So this week, our current event resource is Classroom Layout. 

This week in Pandnation, we have decided that classroom layout is important for the success of our classrooms. Thanks to our fellow Panda, Sarah Ramsey-Jardolin, our group became aware of the website 4teachers.org. On this website there is a lot of resources for teachers to use and incorporate into their classrooms from integrated lesson planning to articles that talk about recent happenings in education technology. One application in particular is Classroom Architect. You can access this webpage directly here, http://classroom.4teachers.org/ or head to www.4teachers.org, scroll down on your right hand side, and click Classroom Architect under 4teachers Family of Tools. Once there, the website provides you with simple instructions on how to get started on creating your classroom layout. While creating your classroom, us future teachers can see how our classroom has the potential to look, without actually having to move all the heavy furniture.

 As teachers we do not have that much time to prepare for the beginning of the school year, so with this online application, it is very easy to create a classroom that not only benefits us as the teacher, but as well as maximizes the options for collaboration between students.

Self Introduction

 

My name is Kortnee Ryan

Currently my favorite gadget, or gizmo would be my cell phone which is an HTC Desire. On my phone, I can do almost anything. I like to use my phone to check bus schedules, listen to music, and look online for up coming assignments as well as check my school email to see updates.

 My work style is cooperative and open. I like to have various feedback from my group members. I hate it when I ask my group members a question, or ask for their input and all I get is one word answers. I really like to be a facilitator that helps other members where they seem to be lacking and work with others to have a finished product to be proud of. Two things that I bring to my online group is flexibility and understanding. I try to be available when ever, and even if I cannot meet online I will always try to have a phone conversation to keep in touch. I also try to work around others schedules because I know as students and adults, we have jobs and other things other than just class. So I also try to work with my group members to make sure that they are on the same page regardless if they missed a meeting or anything. 

 The video link I have provided is a montage of how classrooms have changed through out the years. As 21st century teachers it is important for us to realize that times are changing, and that the upcoming generation of students have already been exposed to technology such as the ipad, laptop, smart phones, and computer desktop. If our students can relate what they use at home in school, they they can be more accustomed to learning while having fun on the gadgets that they use all the time. 

http://www.youtube.com/embed/wuyrP_HhWEg