Trends & Issues Ch.4

Application Questions(P.42,1)

Teach how to calculate and compare the unit costs of various sizes and/or brands of the same product. Select three of the theories of learning discussed in this chapter. For each of the three, describe the nature of the instructional activities that you would design if you were adhering to that theory as you were planing the instruction.

<Cognitive Information Processing Theory>

This theory is process within the learner. Stimuli that become inputs cause learners to show behavior as output. First, learners need to get attention to what they will learn. (Attention)

1.      Prepare for two pictures that are printed boxes contain 10oz cookies for $9 and 5oz cookies for $4. And, have learners choose one they want to buy by the first impression. Have them imagine when they go to a grocery shop and chose one.

Next, learners need to make the personally meaning. (Encoding)

2.      Have students answer which one they chose and why in the class. Also, have them think how they should find out which one is more reasonable to buy.

3.      Guide them the idea to cultivate the unit cost per oz of each box for finding out which one is more reasonable. And, make them be reminded of division’s meaning.(Make them care about unit of each number.), and think how to divide the problem of 10oz cookies for $9 and 5oz cookies for $4.

4.      Have them make sure which box is cheaper per oz after calculating each. 

Lastly, they need to recall the new information from memory so that it can be applied in an appropriate context. (Retrieval)

5.      Give leaners some similar questions like calculating the unit costs of several sizes of same products and compare them.

6.      Also, they should have feedback of each question in the class for making sure they understand the new style correctly. Have make some learners share their answers verbally in the class with the way how they calculated and compared each question  

<Gagne’s Theory of Instruction>

This theory is based on Information Processing Theory and Gagne’s own observations of effective teachers in the class. He offered five major categories of learning that define instructional goal in each condition of learning. In this Application Questions case (p42,1), “verbal information” to understanding  the meaning of the unit costs, “attitudes” that learners conduct correct side divided by the another correct side, an “intellectual skill” to solving arithmetic problems should be the mainly goals in this instruction. 

First, gaining attention as similarly as Cognitive Information Process. (I use same examples for  making it easier to comparing between Cognitive Information Process and Gagne’s Theory Instruction)

1.      Prepare for two pictures that are printed boxes contain 10oz cookies for $9 and 5oz cookies for $4. And, have learners choose one they want to buy by the first impression. 

Second, Informing the learner of the objective. And, third, stimulating recall of prior learning.

2.      Show the question. “You go shopping to buy cookies for a birthday party. Which one is a cheaper price cookie per 1oz? And how much cheaper than the another one? ”(intellectual skill)

3.      Make them be reminded of division’s meaning(verbal information) and care about the each unit to understand which number should be divided which one (attitude).

Four, presenting the stimulus.

4.      Make some groups within the classmates, and have them have discussions for the solutions. 

Fifth, providing learning guidance.

5.      If there are a group that have problems, give a cue or hint to make them clear.

Sixth, eliciting performance.  And seventh, providing feedback.

6.      Make some students share verbally how they thought and solved it in the class. Make sure all learners understand in the end including the meanings of division and unit. Also, ask any question.

 Eighth, assessing performance.

7.      Demonstrate what learners have been learning in front of the class again 

Ninth, enhancing retention and transfer.

8.      Give more similar questions and approval ones to go beyond the immediate context of the instruction.

Conference in Kyoto,Japan next month! I post the map around there just in case!

大きな地図で見る

A way to integrate interactive whiteboard into a kindergarden class

Homecoming Day!

The opening of Homecoming Game at WMU. 

We held National Flogs in a line. 

24/7 access to laptop in learning

<Trends & Issues, Ch3 p28(1.a)>

The three reasons why 24/7 access to laptop which the curriculum materials are installed on with wireless in classes have very little effects on the instructional practice.

The first reason is teachers’ poor skills and knowledge to integrate these software and the materials installed on the laptop into classes. Instructors who haven’t cultivated the systems, knowledge, and skills of handling laptops and software for instructional practice might have problems to make up classes’ schedules and effective contents for learners to be able to learn positively and effectively in the classes. Also, it should take a ton of times for instructors to make use of the installed materials so that it makes easier for learners to understand complex contents in all subjects, especially Math.

Second factor is that more new models of instructional practice for it. The curriculum materials installed on the laptop should have lower quality depending on subjects, and teachers need to more ideas to integrate them into classes effectively in all subjects. They might help for students to have more concreter ideas with digital pictures and informed website, though administers and teachers should have resistance to perfect change in the process that new models and theories for appropriate use this style are developed.

The most important one is lacks of communications and interactions among learners and instructor. If they access laptop for 24 hours a day and every day of the week, it can’t be said that there are high communication processes and interactions among them even if the users are connecting via the internet. Communications and interactions via direct physical activities between students and students, students and instructors, and sometimes students and the instructional contents are necessary for cultivating human qualities and “alive knowledge”.

<Trends & Issues, Ch3 p28(1.b)>

Here, I give two strategies to mitigate these factors I presented above.

First, the professors need to have more lectures that give the basic ideas and trainings to active teachers and even post-teachers so that they can stand on an equal footing with the project and be ready for handling these materials and software in the classes.

Second one is Web2.0 that users can communicate and learn by speaking actives on the laptop like Voicethread should be adopted into the project not only communication on the screens. If so, the users recognize the classmates’ voices and can have more effective interactions among them, and they are also more motivated by the voice instructions from learners. 

Photo Sharing!

Here is my Flickr page, SayuriKo Theater! :)

I will keep posting my memories in U.S. as a grad school student!

Sicial Bookmarking(Delicious), Trends & Issues Chapter1

<Social Bookmarking> What value (if any) do you think social bookmarking might hold for teachers and/or students? You may think about students sharing with each other, teachers sharing with their students, teachers sharing with other teachers, administrators sharing with teachers, sharing with parents, or any other scenario(s) you can imagine.

The most excellent part of Social Bookmarking is bookmarked WebPages are not tied in only a computer. Usually, we can bookmark our own favorite pages in a bookmark toolbar on our own computers for checking them easily and quickly for just ourselves. However, we can share pages that we often connect or are appropriate for some objects to everyone if we use Social Bookmarking, as we know. If I think about this point, there are valuable ways to useful this. It means we can make some kind of connections like teacher-teacher, teacher-students, student-student, and teacher-parents via this. For example, teachers don’t have enough time to share each other’s happenings in classes, students’ situations, and class environments. Also, parents want to know the school lives of their children. So, first of all, the class teachers set up their own class homepages. Then, if all teachers and parents set up Social Bookmark, add the all class homepages, and tag each page as the name of schools, teachers can know each class situation easily by clicking the website and parents can understand what kinds of teachers work for the school even if they are not their own children’s class teachers. Also, parents can have expectation for the coming years for their own children. Moreover, in Japan, teachers publish class newspapers about once in a week, though teachers can’t hear the readers’ opinions. Just they finished publishing them. If they use this, they can communicate with them in a blog easily at the same time.

I guess it triggers the situations that schools, teachers, and parents become much closer and parents might have more credibility to the schools and teachers. However, RSS system in Google Reader seems to be much easier to find new posts, I guess. But, Social Bookmarking is easier to see the each page individually and organizing the added WebPages by themselves.

Here is my Delicious page.

<Trends & Issues reading> What degree do the definitions in this chapter correspond with what you have thought about this area and what it is you hope to do in your line of work (or in a future career)? Does is there anything surprising or very new you read in this chapter? Does something seem to be missing?

Actually, I knew the specific definition of Educational Technology hasn’t decided even now. Both of technology and education have changed in every generation. I’m not sure what are the right definition and ideas for this area, though every book involved in Educational Technology that I have read are written based on the idea that interaction between learners and collaboration study are necessary for improve their own motivation and make appropriate environment. Since I started studying about basic ideas and philosophy on Educational Technology, I have believed the philosophy of Vygotsky, L.S, Social Constructivism, which focus mainly cooperation and communication study among peers. Also, learners need to cultivate problem-solving skills, thinking skills, critical skills, describing skills, and more for learning to fit into society. So, I like to integrate technology into classes based on ideas involved in the definition after 1994, in Trends and Issues, that had appeared over the past long years piling up the observation and examinations. According to the result of my research papers that I wrote when graduated from University, it’s clear that we need to integrate technology into classes with textbooks depending on situations. I mean teachers need to care about each learner’s situation, each environment in the classes, and learners’ reactions, and then make use of appropriate technology paying attention the timing of the integrating.