Monday, March 30, 2009

Reflections Journal, Week 10

Mashups!

This is a brand new concept for me - I have never heard this term let alone do I even have a clue as to what it means. I have found some resources on it and I am attempting to gather my thoughts collectively on it. I have found some excellent examples of Mashups including YouTube. But I'm still unclear as to what really qualifies as a Mashup. I have a lot of work to do over this next week - hopefully I'll be a wealth of knowledge soon!

On another note, this is my first week working as the editor. I haven't had the pleasure of being the grader until now - I'm interested to read my fellow classmates responses to questions. I'm very interested in seeing how this experience goes as well.

Hopefully by this time next week, I'll have a lot of interesting facts to rehash.

Resource Log, Entry 51-55

#51 - http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-mashups.html As stated on the website, "Mashups are an exciting genre of interactive Web applications that draw upon content retrieved from external data sources to create entirely new and innovative services. They are a hallmark of the second generation of Web applications informally known as Web 2.0. This introductory article explores what it means to be a mashup, the different classes of popular mashups constructed today, and the enabling technologies that mashup developers leverage to create their applications. Additionally, you'll see many of the emerging technical and social challenges that mashup developers face."

#52 - http://www.serena.com/mashups/understanding-mashups/faq.html This website is about, "Mashups FAQ - Mashups 101."

#53 - http://www.answers.com/topic/mashup-web-application-hybrid This website is about,
"Wikipedia: Mashup (web application hybrid)."

#54 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup_(web_application_hybrid) This is a Wikipedia site all about Mashups and examples.

#55 - http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/119466/make_mashups_secure?fp=16&fpid=1 Directly from the website, "Mashups offer unprecedented agility in developing lightweight Web applications for the enterprise. Here’s how to keep them from becoming a security risk."

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Reflections Journal, Week 9

Boy have I been out of touch with blogging. With chapter writing and editing, this has been the furthest thing from my mind. It wasn't until recently that I started to really understand the true purpose of this blog (and hopefully I understood this correctly). This is a glorified notebook for our research during the course of this class. First of all, what a fantastic idea! Secondly, here I was attempting to search the internet for misc. websites that applied to constructivism on top of my chapter research. It was becoming too much to try and balance. I went ahead and decided to put the blog on the back-burner, as the chapters are dealing in groups, and I don't want to let my group members down. A few weeks ago, I read an announcement in BlackBoard. It stated the notebook method for the blog. Talk about eye-opening. That made so much more sense! So I've spent today looking back the research that I've done out on the internet and I went back and revisited those sites. If pages were miles, I think I'd have a good start to Florida! Although it would have been ideal to have kept up with blogging along the way, it was nice to look at everything again. I think that I've taken in a lot, but I also think there's a lot I'm not going to remember, but now I don't have to - It's In My Blog! I guess I can call this my Ahh-Haa moment!

Reflections Journal, Week 8

I was visiting a blog, http://scienceguyblogs.blogspot.com/. I noticed a link on his blog for http://mywebspiration.com/. I just recently have been introduced to this website, and boy do I like it. Any type of concept map I've tried to create has always been in PowerPoint. Anyone who's tried to creat anything in PowerPoint know how teadious making changes or alterations can be. This is not the case in Webspirations. The last time I checked into a program like this to purchase, it was well over $100.00. I was shocked to see this on the internet for free! I was expecting this to be a trial version, or in a limited format. If it's limited I sure can't tell. It has everything I need to incorporate this tool into a classroom.

Resource Log, Entry 46-50

#46 - This is a Wikipedia page on, "Constructivist teaching methods." It has concrete definations as well as a discussion of theory. There are links for additional research. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivist_teaching_methods

#47 - This page is titled, "Assessment in a Constructivist Classroom." It is all about assessments that are based in constructivism. http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/assment/as7const.htm

#48 - This article is called, "Using Technology Tools to Engage Students with Multiple Learning Styles in a Constructivist Learning Environment." It is summarized on the site by, "students’ perceptions of their learning experience and understanding of course content were considered in
analyzing the effectiveness of technology used to address multiple learning styles in a constructivist environment." http://www.citejournal.org/articles/v7i2languagearts1.pdf

#49 - This page is simply entitled, "Constructivism." The article written is an indepth look at constructivism - definitions, examples, theories, etc. It also has a technology tie-in. http://www.rr1.net/users/dsmbrown/Constructivism.htm

#50 - This web page is titled, "Constructivism Learning Theory." This page focuses on student responsibility in a constructivist classroom. The role of the student, and student responsibility, magnify when they are in control (to a degree) of thier own learning. https://www.msu.edu/~purcelll/constructivismlearningtheory.htm

Resource Log, Entry 41-45

#41 - This web page is a paper called, "Constructivism, Instructional Design, and Technology: Implications for Transforming Distance Learning." It is an in-depth look at distance learning under the umbrella of constructivism, instructional design, and technology. http://www.ifets.info/journals/3_2/tam.html

#42 - This paper is called, "Constructing on Constructivism: The Role of Technology."
The purpose of this paper, as noted directly in the paper, was to "examine the interrelationship between constructivism and technology as revealed by empirical research." http://ejite.isu.edu/Volume2No1/nanjappa.htm

#43 - There is a google book called, "Educational Foundations: An Anthology of Critical Readings." Accorging to the book discription it, "provides an exciting alternative to foundations texts currently on the market. This anthology is aimed at students about to enter the teaching profession, those new to the profession, and anyone interested in carefully examining schools and schooling." http://books.google.com/books?id=sgH97wbGEVAC

#44 - There is a website called K12 Academics. On one of the pages there is a great resource on the thoery of constructivism and constructivist learning intervention. http://www.k12academics.com/constructivism_theory.htm

#45 - There is an article called, "The Influence of Constructivism on the Instructional Practices of Teachers." This article discussed the viewpoint of the constructivist teacher, and how curriculum is effected by thier views. http://www.bsu.edu/web/jmschall/edpsy3.html

Resource Log, Entry 36-40

#36 - This web page is called, "Learning and Teaching Styles." It is a paper that addresses the idea that all learning styles cannot be reached with technology inclusion and that curriculum must reach all forms of intelligence in order to reach all students. http://www.ucalgary.ca/~jwhunter/ict/Rationale/styles.htm

#37 - This is a great Wiki entry on Learning Styles. It is ver discriptive and has a lot of links to go further with research. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_theory_(education

#38 - This is a blog by Peter Levine. He has a great commentary on constructivism in education. http://www.peterlevine.ws/mt/archives/000039.html

#39 - This website is called, "JEAN PIAGET - INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT." This website gave a brief history on Piaget and then dove right into Piaget's theory on intellectual development. http://www.sk.com.br/sk-piage.html

#40 - This website is called APA Online: Psychology Matters. The article is called, "Think Again: Men and Women Share Cognitive Skills." This article is about the cognitive dofferences and similarities that men and women have. http://www.psychologymatters.org/thinkagain.html

Resource Log, Entry 31-35

#31 - I found a website called Constructivsm: Knowledge Building in the Secondary Classroom. On one of the main pages there was a page called, "Constructivism as an Epistemology." This page contained a bulleted history on several theorists. Also, there were links provided that offered more information on each. This is an excellent resource for theorists. http://www.saskschools.ca/curr_content/constructivism/what/philosophy.html

#32 - I found a website on Seymour Papert. On the website, "Today Papert is considered the world's foremost expert on how technology can provide new ways to learn. He has carried out educational projects on every continent, some of them in remote villages in developing countries." This guy knew how technology was going to bew an essential classroom tool before anyone. http://www.papert.org/

#33 - This is a great Wiki entry for Consructivism. It offers a through defination as well as tons of external links. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructionist_learning

#34 - This website is called, "Constructivist Learning Design." The site says, "This paper represents a collaborative effort of two teacher educators to articulate a constructivist approach to "designing for learning" rather than planning for teaching. The "Constructive Learning Design" we are using now has been through a variety of revisions in the past seven years and now emphasizes these six important elements: Situation, Groupings, Bridge, Questions, Exhibit, and Reflections." http://www.prainbow.com/cld/cldp.html

#35 - This website is called, "Institute for Inquirn." The page I was looking at was called, "Constructivist Learning Theory." This page discussed Constructivism in regards to museum education. http://www.exploratorium.edu/ifi/resources/constructivistlearning.html

Resource Log, Entry 26-30

#26 - There is a website, http://www.cpsimoes.net/artigos/art_edu_psi_eng.html, that discusses the dawn of Educational Psycology and the impact it has has on the field of Education. While I realize that this isn't exactly what we're looking for, I see a parellel in what we know and think of cirriculum today and the impact that has occured since educational psycology has evolved. I didn't paste pieces of this website into this document because I would have ended up pasting the entire thing here. It had a lot of really good information for the impacts ofpsycology in and on curriculum.

#27 - There is a website called Connecting Student Learning and Technology. This is an interactive guide on technology intergration. From the site, "Constructivism, a learning theory informed by cognitive psychology, educational research, and neurological science, views learning as the product of experience and social discourse." http://www.sedl.org/pubs/tec26/flash.html

#28 - There is a website called Concept to the Classroom. It has a workshop on it called, "Constructivism as a Paradigm for Teaching and Learning." This workshop has a great look at the history of Constructivism, the website says, "The concept of constructivism has roots in classical antiquity, going back to Socrates's dialogues with his followers, in which he asked directed questions that led his students to realize for themselves the weaknesses in their thinking. The Socratic dialogue is still an important tool in the way constructivist educators assess their students' learning and plan new learning experiences." http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/index_sub4.html

#29 - I found a website called, "The Socratic Method and Doctrine." This was about Socreties and his foundations of instruction that mirrored what we call Construnctivism today. http://www.2020site.org/socrates/method.html

#30 - I found an online journal called, "Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education." The article was called, "You Can’t Think About Thinking Without Thinking About Thinking About Something," and it was a wealth of information on teaching children to think. The entire article focuses on cognition. http://www.citejournal.org/vol5/iss3/seminal/article4.cfm

Resource Log, Entry 21-25

#21 - This website is a paper that is on the fundamentals of curriculum development. It covers a lot, but in a very condensed way. http://org.elon.edu/catl/documents/Curriculum%20Development.pdf

#22 - This website is on Curriculum Theory and Practice, stated from the website, "The organization of schooling and further education has long been associated with the idea of a curriculum. But what actually is curriculum, and how might it be conceptualized? We explore curriculum theory and practice and its relation to informal education." http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-curric.htm

#23 - I also found a site, http://www.answers.com/topic/the-changing-role-of-government-and-education. This site also had a lot of good information on it, but nothing I think I would cite directly. I did find the below paragraph that fosters some political-based answers.

#24 - I found a fantastic site called Answers.com. I has never heard of this site before, I had a question about the changing role of govenment in education and I found a great answer there, "The debate will continue about the changing role of government in education, but there is considerable practical innovation and experimentation taking place globally that points to an acceptance of the changing role for government in educational delivery." http://www.answers.com/topic/the-changing-role-of-government-and-education

#25 - Encarta has always been one of my favorite sites. This time I was looking for information on the history of education. Now this can be a huge topic, but the page I found was clear in discription and very helpful with factual information. http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761561415_5/History_of_Education.html