Workshop Six Blog

• What role could multimedia instructional materials and student multimedia projects play in bringing about this culture?

Multimedia instructional materials are able to showcase cultures all over the world and given an identity to cultures that may not have the same ideals or freedoms that America has. It is because technology brings about democracy, freedom of expression, tolerance, diversity, and complexity of opinion that technology is limited in some countries, including the one I reside. Giving students multimedia projects allows them to put more of their own identity into the project. It gives them the freedom to take ownership of it, instead of them being owned by the bounds of the project.

• How can teachers' use of multimedia support the development of such a culture?

Multimedia can help teachers bring the world to the classroom in such a way to allow students to grasp the similarities and differences that can be found in cultures around the world. From what is values – free speech, human rights versus unshakable trust in the government... The culture of my school isn’t shaped by what projects we do or concepts we study, rather it is shaped by the students and teachers and the interaction that learning brings through whatever medium. The quote about the culture listed above is a very American approach to technology. It’s difficult to quite apply it to my classroom that teaches students from over 15 different countries within the walls and boundaries of China, the world’s largest communist country.

• What are the challenges in your classroom?

The challenges in my classroom? As in with multimedia projects? I have challenges because the technology available in our school isn’t that available. So instead of going through the trouble and extra work to do more with multimedia, I often don’t because the value that the multimedia materials may bring usually isn’t worth the trouble it is to make it happen. There are some cases where this isn’t true, but for most part, it is what it is.

Workshop Five Blog

1. After you have explored the Questioning Toolkit websites, what types of questions do you generally use when you teach students?

I use a variety of questions depending on how the students are interacting with the content; including essential, subsidiary, planning, clarifying, sifting and sorting, and probing questions of the logic, prior knowledge, and trial and error type

2. What kind of questions would lead students to think critically and at higher levels?

Probing, planning, strategic, elaborating, and unanswerable questions would lead students to think at a higher level.

3. What kind of questions would complement the integration of technologies in your classroom?

Hypothetical questions would work well with integrating technology with math problems because of the simulations that can be found to help figure out hypothetical situations. Planning questions would also help with organizing students thoughts before they use technology to solve problems or research more.

Workshop Four Blog

So far in this course, I have learned to look at common technology and social networks as educational tools. I used to just think of software marketed as educational to be useful in the classroom. I would have never thought of blogs, social networking, podcasts, and the like to be able to streamline communication with parents and students. I think of all tools we've discussed, having a central site for our students and their parents to be able to get the information they need about what's going on in class. For my math classes, I think that this would be helpful. Our lead teacher is looking into a way for our secondary team to set up websites next year. Wikis also would seem useful not necessarily for my class, but for student organizations like student council. I think this would help them become more organized, especially over breaks as they plan and discuss. It will also ensure that everyone's voice is heard, especially for some of the students who are more quiet but are on the council. I think that will be a great tool for student development.