Journal 4- Collaborative documents

Collaborative documents are communal documents that multiple people who have been invited to contribute have access to and are able to make changes. These alterations can then be seen by all the other contributors without the need to email.
Through the forums on classroom 2.0 I learned that there are many different websites offering collaborative documents and that for students and schools with limited resources this is a very useful tool. Adobe has buzzword.com which seemed to get points for style but in terms of tools and usefulness was not as good as many others. Zoho.com is an extensive site that along with collaborative documents there are wiki’s, chat, and spreadsheets. Yourdraft.com is a very basic site that does not save older versions of a document where as writewith.com is much more extensive with the ability to have side discussions with your fellow contributors. Although it does not have as many features as other sites, the most used site for collaborative documents by far is google documents. This is because of its integration into other applications such as search and email along with its ease of use. Teachers used it to post assignments, schedules, have students submit assignments and input comments and grades. This all negates the need for printing, hard drive or flash drive memory, or working at the same computer.

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Journal 3

Heller McFarlane, Sarah (summer, 2008). The Laptops Are Coming! The Laptops Are Coming!. Rethinking Schools, 22, Retrieved July 21, 2008, from http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/22_04/lapt224.shtml

Question 1—Is having all the worlds information at your fingertips at all times beneficial for education?—I graduated from high school just prior to the internet taking over and I believe that my education was just as good if not better than what the most technological school of the present day could give. While computer skills as a whole are integral to much of life in general, their use in the classroom and in learning as a whole is not so cut and dry. I had a hard enough time memorizing, processing, and understanding the information contained in the textbooks, and that was without having the world of information/distractions to contend with.

Question 2—Who benefits and who loosed with this heightened expectations and reliance on technology in education?—One thing that this article reminded me of was the theory of multiple intelligences in relation to types of learners. My first thought was that the “Intrapersonal intelligence”, those who learn best on their own and have a good understanding of their own thinking, would be those coming out on top but with the onslaught of interests vying for attention and the mobile infiltration of entertainment and information, especially in these formative years, it is next to impossible to understand your thinking or even know what it is your are thinking.

Heller McFarlane discusses how lessons and life became more about technology, its supposed benefits, how to use it, and continually learning new technological skills as opposed to the technology actually being used to learn things about the real world. There is no real discussion or debate over what, why, and how all this technology is contributing, or not, to understanding or actually altering the curriculum itself. This overall encroachment of the computer in every aspect of education has led to an overall detachment from students and of students which has led to more of a monitoring of students and less trust.

Journal 2

6:15 – 7:30 “Restructuring for caring and effective education: The possible futures of education” Richard A. Villa (President, Bayridge Consortium Inc., San Diego)

Question 1—Mr. Villa asked for reactions to the poem that contained questions such as, “who is in control, who’s school is it…”

My reaction to this was more political being that the dropout rates have recently been reported. Being that 30% of Latino students and 41% of black students between 9^th and 12^th grade will dropout of high school as opposed to only 13% for white students (Union Tribune July 17 2008) it seems fairly obvious who is in control and who is being served by our schools. Obviously the schools and teachers don’t have the sole responsibility for these disparities but they do play a part in recognizing those students who are more likely to dropout.

Question 2—Why has there been a drive towards “Mastery” in our public school system?

Mastery is basically a regurgitation of information in the same way it was presented. Politically this is appealing because it presents the aura of commitment to education because it advocates quantifiable and narrowly measured “accomplishments” of students. This ties in with the dropout rates because those students who are not as apt at these standardized tests, for a myriad of reasons, will be much more at a disadvantage and less likely to be missed if they leave the system.

Mr. Villa’s presentation addressed the state and course of the educational system. He asked questions such as: What is our destination in education, Who has been invited to this journey, What routs have been taken to get us there, How will we know when we’ve arrived? In discussing these questions he brought up issues of education as being simply mastery or having only excellence with equity, or not addressing generosity or belonging. Ultimately we will know that we have overcome these obsticals when the educational system where caring and character is esteemed and diversity, in all it’s forms, is embraced and not tolerated.

Journal 1

Shifflet and Toledo, Rena and Cheri (2008, July). Extreme Makeover: Updating Class. Learning Connections, Retrieved July 14, 2008, from http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/pdf2html.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fjheil65.googlepages.com%2FJournal1.pdf&images=yes

Question - With the interaction occurring online, such as with the example of the newsletter, how can students maintain interpersonal and collaborative skills in the physical world?—

One way that students could maintain and develop these skills of dealing and negotiating with others physically and verbally is to have them use a use a computer as a group in class as well as on their own outside of class. Discussing the nature and course of a project in the presence of your collaborators is very different than responding to text on a screen. Once expectations and roles have been determined then the interaction online will have that much more depth and weight.

For the most part I was a shy student so my interaction and contribution to the classroom was very minimal. I would have benefited from these networking tools because the comfort level would have been greater with time to formulate and construct my points. I usually had something to add in class yet didn’t feel confident enough to raise my hand so even if I received some negative feedback online I feel that I would have been more in my element and able to have a dialogue as opposed to all those eyes bearing down on me in class. Ultimately the hope would be that comfort online would foster comfort in the physical world and the human element of exchange would be made that much better.

Mader and Smith, Jared and Ben (2008,July). Blogging Right Along. Learning and Leading with Technology , Retrieved July 14, 2008, from http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/pdf2html.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fjheil65.googlepages.com%2FJournal1.pdf&images=yes

Question- How could you maintain a degree of consistency and completeness in these summaries of class material?—
I could see this rotating log of the material and lessons covered in class having swings in its depth and thoroughness so some sort of rubric or length would have to be required. Some basic areas of the classroom activities would have to be addressed, such as, what was the purpose of the lesson? What did you learn? Define some of the term used in the lesson.

I like this idea of having students write what they have brought away from a particular lesson because it shows how effective the lesson was in presenting the material but it also shows what the student took away from it and then what they thought of it. As opposed to conventional testing where the aim is to determine specific pieces of retention, these summaries and reflections that are read by the whole class show how the student interpreted and then expounded on the material and how they may apply it to other areas of their lives. These differing perspectives being disseminated to the whole class and having the lessons reproduced in this form is helpful to the students and to the teacher because if the students are not quite able to interpret or retain the lesson then the other students will not feel so alone in their confusion and the teacher will see that a new lesson or tactic is needed.

Intro letter

My name is Justin Hoskins and I am from Fairfield CA which is in northen California about 45min east of San Francisco. After gradating from Fairfield High I attended the local community college for a couple years switching majors most every semester. Moved to San Diego and attended Grossmont CC where the same indecision followed me until I took a job traveling. A couple CC's later I finally quit traveling and arrived her at CSUSM.
My experience with technology is not that extensive but through college I have become comfortable email, research, and word processing. Having friends and family all over the country I use the internet daily to communicate and until a couple years ago I didn't have a TV so it also became the center of my entertainment. For school I spend the majority of my time on MS Word. At home I have the older version and at school I use the 07 version. I've had many friends try to drag me over to bright, happy, and virus free world of Mac but I couldn't stand to part with that much money and it wouldn't be computing without a frozen computer now and then. Outside of that I have a fairly basic cell phone and digital camera that I've grown attached to.
The inclusion of a commitment to "ongoing service" I think is important because the profession of teaching is not just a job, it's an adventure that is contributing and shaping either peoples lives or their experience or conception of education. Education is one of the most determinative aspects of a persons life and if they have a negative view or experience of education then they are all the more likely to avoid it. A commitment to "social justice" is also an important approach because without addressing the underlying inequities that hinder education in society as a whole, effective instruction is made that much more difficult to the individual students.