November and Romano Chapter 2 Readings

1. One of the things I want to use that we have learned about in class is having other people look at and evaluate each other’s work. Many students would do just about anything to perform in the sports arenas around the nation. They perform to the applause of the many fans who come to watch their sports activities whether it be at the college or professional levels. November (2001) stated this principle:

The importance of a real audience to motivate students can be a very powerful and positive force. Ask any music teacher or football coach what would happen to student focus, motivation, and intensity if the audience was removed―no more performances and no more games in the stadium. Some of these educators will tell you that the effect of the audience or crowd is one of the strongest catalysts of student motivation. (p. 34)

This is the same reason that many professors continue to publish their research studies. It is the approval of the many individual’s who evaluate their work on a regular basis. If we can incorporate this into the learning environment, it could produce motivation that can not be reached in any other fashion. Using the Word Wide Web to produce collaborative learning would be a great way to incorporate this element into the learning environment. Even if we are teaching a face-to-face class we can have our students publish their work so that other students from different parts of the state, country, or world can evaluate their work which could produce greater motivation for completion and quality of work.

2. I will no longer worry about quantity of technology without first planning for quality of use of technology. If we have all the classrooms in the United States furnished with computers but have not planned on what ways they will be used to increase motivation to learn, then we have accomplished nothing. In addition, when I am creating a online class I will review the 13 factors that Notar, Wilson, and Ross (2002) have suggested during the process.

3. It is very important to use the Internet for connecting students to other cultures. The world we live in requires individuals to develop relationships with others in different cultures. If we as educators can help students develop this skill we will be preparing them for something they are most likely to encounter in the business world.

Romano (2003) made it very clear that a revolution in education is not likely to occur so it is imperative that we bring about an evolution in education with technology. One of the things we need to do is start adding both in the classroom and in the online learning environments ways to increase right brain learning. I have done this by incorporating images into the face-to-face lecture environment. There are many images that I use when teaching psychology that help the student use their right brain learning capabilities. These images help the students visualize some concepts that could be very hard to grasp.

Microsoft Word and Publisher

Word is a very powerful tool for creating documents, merging envelops and labels with addresses, and desktop publishing. I have used Word to do all three of these things and there are many other capabilities that it has besides these. I have used Publisher to create brochures for conferences when I worked in the Education Department at SFA. Since then I have not had a need to use it so it was good to get a refresher on it. I would hope that in the future I will get the opportunity to use Publisher again because I enjoy desktop publishing but just never have a reason to use it in the areas that I am working.

Since my vision/goal is to teach psychology/sociology at the collegiate level I do not see myself using Publisher but Word is something I intend to use quit often. I have already used the track changes part in Word when I graded my students writing assignments for the online course I taught in sociology. I have also used it when I write papers for school. I have a friend who edits my papers for me and I turn on track changes so when she edits it I can tell what she has changed so that I can make sure I agree with the changes. Word is something that I probably take for grant because I use it so much. I forget how powerful it is in other areas like desktop publishing and it was great to be reminded of all those features.

Bloglines and del.icio.us

Class on the 6th was the best class I have been in for a long time. I am completely amazed at the information that we were allowed to become privy too. The site www.bloglines.com will and has allowed me to streamline many things I am trying to accomplish on the Internet. I have enjoyed being able to get on the site and now what knew things have been added to other people's blogs and the new things that are going on in the news and sports. I don't have to wade through a whole lot of duplicated material anymore and in turn make use of my time more wisely. The site www.del.icio.us is another website that was introduced in class on the 6th that has improved my world (i.e., made my life much easier). I am very grateful for learning about this website and being able to centralize all my favorites so I could access them over the Internet. These two things that we learned about shows the vastness of computers and the Internet and how they open the door for never being able to learn all there is to know about them. These are things we can study for the rest of our lifetimes and never stop being able to learn something new. Technology is so exciting and rewarding. Thanks again to everyone who was involved in introducing these new tools into our lives.

Charlie