The article that I found regarding One Laptop Per Child is titled “The $100 Laptop and the Creation of Social Structure”. I found this article be interesting because it was looking at the social aspect of this project. Most of the article’s I found were regarding the benefits of learning that apply to children. However, I was wondering whether or not having children using a tool such as this would create difficulties in their ability to socialize with others. Sometimes it is thought that individuals who spend a lot of time on the computer or playing video games keep to themselves. Keeping this stereotype in mind I began wondering if children who frequently use the laptop would have difficulties socializing with other children. The article states that OLPC “supports the creation of new relationships among human beings -- relationships that promote learning but also engender political, economic, and social frameworks” (Maza, 2006, p.1). When I was researching OLPC for the Google lab I learned a great deal about its features and allowing others to discuss ideas with others. I was astounded to see that this laptop allowed children to interact with others. It makes me believe that there is more than an “educational value” to this learning tool. I do believe that social development is part of education but I placed brackets around it because some unfortunately do not. When children are given the opportunity to discuss concepts and ideas with others and evaluate other’s perspective I feel they have a greater chance of developing their own sense of self.

                Throughout the entire article there was one quote that stood out in my mind as a valuable point for OLPC to express. “The OLPC lets people find each other, help each other, support each other, and work with each other. The OLPC is a relationship enabler” (Maza, 2006, p.2). This quote also made me think about how useful a tool such as this will be for children who may be shy. When I was younger I was often shy talking to people I didn’t know very well. I found it hard to further my learning when we had people visit the school or when we went on field trips because I became very nervous and anxious about asking questions. With the OLPC project, children who have one may feel more comfortable asking questions or saying what is on their mind in an online discussion rather than face to face, allowing them to further their knowledge.

To further this idea I also feel it can be difficult to build a relationship in general for children. The fact that she mentioned this is a “relationship enabler”, made me wonder about the difficulties children have creating relationships. I think that both adults and children have difficulties building relationships for a variety of reasons and a tool like this will take off some of the initial pressure of creating a relationship.

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                The article I found regarding One Laptop Per Child is titled “India rejects  One Laptop Per Child”. It is more of a “news” article than a scholarly piece but there were many good ideas that this provoked. I began thinking about the financing aspect of this project and how it would impact a country if they participated in OLPC. The first thing that was mentioned was from The Indian Ministry of Education, Sudeep Banerjee. He stated that “we need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools." Unfortunatly I think that sometimes this is the case. Although every child having a lop is a fanstastic idea my wonder is who would assist them and facilitate their learning if they have a question or need to build on their knowledge. Their parents may not have the knowledge or skill to act as a teacher so my wonders are which would you consider more important, the fancy tools or classrooms and teachers? To me it is a toss up. Without teachers and classrooms the children do not have someone to push them further or help them build on their knowledge. However, without the “fancy tools”, as Banerjee calls them, I wonder the obstacles the teachers and students would have to overcome in order to build their knowledge. However, we have often learned about allowing a child to use their own strategies to develop their learning.With all of the “fancy tools” we have now a days in Canada, learning has only improved.Does this apply to every country. I would love to hear anyone’s thoughts on this because to me it seems difficult to choose which is “better”.

                The Indian Ministry of Education also said “if money were available it would be better spent on existing education plans”. Do you think that it would be better for Canada to apply its finances on the exisiting education plan instead of “fancy” tools. Our existing education plan is currently taking out useful tools and sessions for children to use and attend in order to further their development. A specific example I am thinking of is the after school Literacy programs that they are thinking of getting rid of in the Toronto District School Board. Would it be better to get rid of this program and bring in laptops that may assist the child or would it be more beneficial to have the program? I feel that when it comes to literacy, having a teacher facilitate your understanding of strategies would be more useful than a laptop.

                This article was from 2006 and may be a little outdated, meaning that India may have jumped on the bandwagon. However, this article allowed me to realy think about which is more important, more classrooms and teachers or fancy tools that assist the teachers. If an individual wants to become a teacher he/she should be able to use the tools they already have in the classroom as best as they can.

Current Mood: cheerful

The article I found discusses the idea of incorporating all “non traditional” core subjects into the curriculum. The article uses the term “encore subjects”, which I found incredibly interesting because unfortunately that is how the arts, subjects such as music, visual art and drama, are usually treated within the school system. As I had mentioned in my blogs last semester, the schools I attended were very traditional, using a lot of paper and pen activities. I also did not have much musical training in school, nor did I get the chance to sing songs after kindergarten. I think that is why this article stood out so much to me, because the arts really have been left out as if they are not important. What I am really having trouble understanding is that even in this day and age, where there is a variety of research backing up that the arts are beneficial and can be integrated, there are still teachers who never use music in the classroom and only do art on Fridays. When they do have art or music within the classroom it is used as a bargain tool for the children to behave during the week. In my opinion I find it sad and it is no wonder that we have individuals, myself included, that have no understanding of basic music concepts.

This idea of integration was brought up in the podcast regarding the positive effects that music can have on children’s social skills. This article also draws upon the idea of social skills and some other benefits that the incorporation of music can create. This includes cooperative learning and performances. According to the article, “music groups are perfect examples of cooperative learning at work, and music teachers possess exemplary skills in cooperative teaching” (Larson, p. 29).  It also states that “performances show peers, parents, and the community what middle level students can accomplish. Moreover, they show that students at this age, who have unbounded energy and continually shifting interests, really can concentrate and produce a fine musical product if given a chance” (Larson, p.29). If teachers integrate these ideas then maybe we will help individuals understand the “authentic voice” that Danny and Jason had mentioned on the podcast and of course potentially become less timid to share their own voice and ideas.

The article also mentioned that “encore subjects, such as music and the arts, should not be given second-class treatment, nor should encore teachers be treated any differently than core teachers” (Larson, pg.27). It has been my experience that the music teachers are often looked upon as different, or even in some cases, not an actual teacher because he/she only teaches music and nothing else. However, I think it is the exact opposite because although they are “only teaching one subject” they are responsible for teaching the entire school their knowledge and understanding of music. There is a lot of pressure that comes with that and unfortunately they are not always appreciated as “teachers”.

Music Programs at The Middle Level: Scheduling for Success Bill Larson

http://bul.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/76/544/27

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Current Mood: curious

                The article that I decided to talk about for this week’s readings is called “Music in Early Childhood”. This article was fantastic to read and inspiring for future teachers. It showed the variety of benefits that music plays on children and their development. Although there is a lot of recent strong research being done on music and its impact on children, what struck me the most about this article is that it was written in 1990. This was the time period when I was in school.  My wonder is regarding the fact that music was absent during my school years. If they had this information and knowledge in 1990 why was it not used? I’m not saying that it wasn’t used at all but very rarely because myself and everyone else I have met had the same experience, non existence of the integration of music.

                The article had also touched upon the integration of music into curricula. The article states that the integration of music “benefits in the areas of social, cognitive, motor, affective, and creative development” (Feierabend, 15). This is something that is being seen more and more each day and I think because of this children are able to understand concepts better. Incorporating music can reaffirm or introduce concepts they have learned or will learn in other subjects. An example that the article touched upon was looking at the impact that music can have on physical development. Children’s song’s can not only help the move about and gain better gross or fine motor control but it can also help them learn about their body. Body awareness can be seen in songs such as head and shoulders. In kindergarten, body awareness is a part of the physical education curriculum. Therefore, if teachers introduced and used songs such as these children would have a better learning experience and opportunity.

                After reading this article it made me think about the importance of music teachers. In my personal experience, at a Catholic School, music was taught by our regular teacher. We did not have a different teacher come to our class to teach us music. This is one of the main reasons as to why my musical abilities are almost nonexistent. I do think that main teachers should have musical knowledge. However, if schools were to incorporate actual music teachers into the school then music class would be much more beneficial. I am aware that most public schools have music teachers, but in my experience some of the music teachers do not have any music experience and take the job because it is all that is open. In my recent placement the children visit a music teacher once a week. The music teacher they have is working on concepts and terminology that I have been recently introduced to by the music course I am taking offered by Ryerson. This teacher has an extensive musical background and this is one of the reasons those students are so successful.

http://pao.chadwyck.co.uk/imageConversion.do?method=viewPdf&id=3091-1990-091-06-000002&pdfPaperSize=letter&pdfFont=&pdfPointSize=&pdfHpadding=&pdfVoffset=&pdfHeadAllPages=false&pdfPageRange=1-6&pdfHeader=FEIERABEND%2C%20JOHN%2C%20%3Cbi%3EMusic%20in%20Early%20Childhood%3C%2Fbi%3E%2C%20Design%20for%20Arts%20in%20Education%2C%2091%3A6%20(1990%3AJuly%2FAug.)%20p.15

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I am glad that this chapter finally came into this course because I have been wondering how one would go about assessing the children when they are completing on line activities. My one concern was assessing the children and making sure that the assessment was not based on how much they finish but the means in which they create to complete the activities. I also agreed with the textbook and feel that it is important to make students “aware of the scoring system and the criteria used to determine the scores for the assessment of the activity” (p.219). Unfortunately some teachers do not address this point and it is often that the children become more overwhelmed and concerned with what the teacher is looking for instead of showing their skills.

After reading the chapter there was one idea that really made me wonder, and that is the idea of using technology based rubrics. I am not in any way against rubrics, I think when they are used properly they can be a quick and effective way to assess a child’s learning. However, with that being said rubrics can also create problems for some individuals. Throughout my experience in the field I have seen teachers create their own rubrics, which can also be beneficial to a child’s knowledge about where he/she needs to improve.  Nonetheless, some of the rubrics created by teachers simply lump the students into a number category of 1-4 and do not express how they can improve. This is where my problems with using a lot of rubrics to assess children’s learning stems from.

 Also, the text was discussing using an online rubric bank. My wonder with this is if teachers would just simply print them off and use them to assess the children. I would hope that teachers would “assess” and possibly adapt the rubric and make sure that it’s adequate for the group of children they are working with before incorporating it into an activity. However, as the textbook had mentioned in the beginning that is more work for the teachers and unfortunately some teachers do not have the drive or want to put in any more work. I do think it is important and valuable for the textbook to include the portion titled “Characteristics of a Good Rubric”. Teachers can use this as a checklist or guide to creating or adapting rubrics in order to make them adequate for assessing the children.

Overall, this chapter was able to clear up some of the concerns I had with implementing technological activities into my future classroom. In general this textbook has been an eye opener to me. I am hoping that through the concepts learned from this textbook I can not only implement technology into my classroom but help other individuals understand the value and benefits of learning with technology.

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Current Mood: accomplished

After reading this chapter, the other chapters began to click in, more than they had before. I was taking in the knowledge and ideas given by the other chapters. However, after reading this chapter I began to comprehend their reasoning to a greater extent.

In the beginning of this chapter the idea of multiple choice and standardized testing is addressed. This is an important area for me for many reasons. The first being, as a child I always felt a great deal of pressure because of tests. I would often have trouble, and ask many questions during tests because I was nervous and could barely read the questions. Although I was able to show my learning and understanding in other ways, tests often negatively affected my marks. The second reason this area is of importance to me is because of the variety of placements I have been exposed to. I have been able to see two types of classes, one that assesses on the basis of testing and multiple choice and another where assessment took the form of anecdotal records recording development rather than just the final product. This form of assessment encourages children’s view of themselves as well as allowing them to know where they stand and where they have to work. Multiple choice tests don’t often show that.

When the text book begins to break down the characteristics of meaningful learning there were some that jumped out to me as common sense to incorporate them into a classroom. However, they are often left out. The first characteristic was being active, when children are manipulating objects and working within their environment. Hands on learning is not just for younger grades, nor should it cease when children get into grade two or three. However, this is often what occurs in the older grades. Children are sitting at desks completing questions from text books. None of this is being active or manipulating, let alone working in their natural environment. There are many ways to use the curriculum and put it into context, which allows the children to relate it to their own life or to the real world. Unfortunately, this is not always the case in present classrooms.

The other characteristic was cooperative. Often teachers are worried about report cards for each child and have each child tested individually. A lot of teachers use minimal group work throughout elementary school because it is “easier” for them to asses each child and know which child completed which portion of the work. When children get older and are faced with group work in high school and post secondary difficulties arise and has stemmed from their previous knowledge of group work, which is almost non-existent.

If educators were to focus less on standardized testing and individual testing meaningful learning characteristics could be implemented. However, the issue of being accountable seems to be more worrisome for present teachers instead of the development of children in their classrooms.

Word count: 492

Current Mood: cold

                When I finished reading chapter 8 there were some questions that came to mind. The idea of using the CAD programs in a classroom and school concerns me a little. Although, I feel it is important for them to convey their ideas and have the possibility of designing, I am wondering how “light” these programs really are. I myself have tried to use a version of CAD that design students have a two semester course on. The program is called AutoCAD, and with this program you are able to create furniture, walls and pretty much an entire room fully furnished. However, the fact  that it took me over an hour to learn how to create a couch and it takes college design students two semesters to understand AutoCAD, how would children learn how to use this program? And how much are these programs simplified for the children. Maybe because I have such a negative experience with this program that it has created a bias towards using these types of programs with children. I am interested in reading others ideas as well as reading comments on this post in order to get some feedback. I am also wondering if the concepts in the earlier part of this chapter are geared towards teaching older grades such as high school.

                Towards the end of the chapter the book talks about programs such as scratch. After watching some individuals work with the Scratch program, it makes me wonder if this program in similar to Kidswork, a popular program used throughout the peel school board. I think it will be interesting to work with the Scratch program today and compare the two programs. However, Scratch seems to be a more musical based program where as Kidswork works more with images. Kidswork does include some sounds and the children are able to record a short message but the schools do not have microphones for them to work with. This makes me wonder about the cost factor. Although Scratch looks like a phenomenal program and may be beneficial would schools incorporate it in to the school?

                Throughout chapter 9 I liked that the text talked about visualization tools and the importance of visually representing what we know. In my opinion visualization tools are extremely important because not everyone is an artist. Personally, my drawings are not the best but it doesn’t mean that just because I can’t draw that I don’t know how to represent my thoughts. In my placement class the children are working n story writing and will soon be drawing pictures to represent their writing. It is often that the children will say “I can’t draw that”. They often feel their drawing skills aren’t up to par with others and would rather use a program like this to represent their ideas. Overall, I feel there is nothing wrong with that!

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Current Mood: sick

After reading this chapter I realized that my feelings towards my personal learning style were correct. Throughout this chapter I felt confident about the material and began to understand it. I believe that the websites listed in the text were a great deal of help. Knowing some names of the programs allowed me to research the topics and read other opinions of them. Even with just seeing that there were websites for me to look at I became at ease with the material and ideas put forth in this chapter. It again made me think about my professional practice and the importance of allowing children options for learning about concepts. It is extremely beneficial to a child’s confidence level and self esteem when they know that their learning style will not affect their learning outcome in a negative way.

I found this chapter reminding me of ideas discussed in our science course last semester and I feel that some of the programs will reaffirm previous learnt science concepts. These concepts include creating hypothesis or predictions and then testing them out.

This chapter also brought up an excellent point that I wanted to take even further. The idea that a “computer is an object to think with”. Often we use computers as a way to organize and simplify our lives. However, we do not often look at them with the thoughts of them helping us think. Especially when it comes to ages 4-12, computers are mainly used to type up projects researched at the library because there were not enough computers to complete the research. I am hoping that with taking part in a course such as this that I will be able to convey that concept to other faculty members as well as children.

My other thoughts on this chapter were regarding the idea of “procedural actions”. Unfortunately, this is still something that is occurring in schools. It is quite clear to me from my education at Ryerson and my experience in the field that not only are you not allowing them to think for themselves but you are impacting their self-esteem. It is unbelievable how many children in my placement class have the “I can’t do it mentality” and after observing the classroom it is clear why. The children are often explained steps of how to complete an activity. Especially when it comes to art this step by step process come to life. The children literally watch the teacher complete the art at the front of the room, sometimes on an overhead. When she finishes one step the children then complete the same step and she goes around and tells them if they are doing it correctly. It is discouraging for me to even watch so I can only imagine how discouraging it is for the children to be a part of. On a positive note this chapter and experience has made me make sure that I never repeat this mistake.

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Current Mood: cranky

After the first page of chapter I began to feel like it was starting off the same as the other chapters did. I felt as if I had heard it before. However, I got a different feeling after continuing the chapter. I began to feel as if some of the information was over my head and even after reading the section twice it just wouldn’t sink in. The text began to talk about “knowledge form”, something I have never heard of before. I think the reason I was having so much difficulty understanding exactly what it does is because I am a visual learner.  I need to see something before I can picture it in my head and try to understand how it works. I would need time with it to search through it and play with it before I could understand the concept let alone incorporate it into a classroom. Due to the fact that I have never worked with a “knowledge form” before I was unable to understand the concept of it. If there are any others who may have understood it and feel they could explain it that would be greatly appreciated. However, when the chapter began discussing the concept of WIKIS I found myself not only more interested in the section but that I was able to focus and pay attention to what the text was discussing. I have had many experiences using a WIKI because of the music course I took last year with Danny Bakan. I was given time to search through the WIKI and see the different ways it could be edited and used. Therefore, when I was reading about the WIKI I felt confident and could comprehend the text. I think what I have taken most from this chapter is to allow children exposure to the technology before having them complete a project or complete anything that is being used for assessment. Some children will not understand the content or ideas unless they are looking at or browsing through the screen themselves. Even at the age of 21 I need exposure to certain technology because I have never seen them before. However, I have come to the realization that just reading the chapters may not be enough. That is where these unmarked labs come into play. I felt before that it was almost a waste of time to be doing work when we aren’t getting a mark for it. I felt this way simply because we are so mark oriented in University and so bogged down with work. I am obviously wrong because completing the Google lab, and browsing through all of the different types of search engines made me realize that it’s beneficial to my grades simply because I am now better equipped to research ideas. I feel confident that my research time may be cut down because I spent a little bit of time becoming familiar with different tools. 

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After reading this chapter it made me think back to the type of communication that occurred through technology. I began to think about my past experience with technology and all the ways I kept in touch with friends or family who has lived far away. However, a lot of the communication that occurred was through letters. It wasn’t often that I sent emails or talked on msn. Whereas now, looking at my younger cousins, email or MSN sis often their means of communications. The text made a comment about “connecting scattered people”. A comment such as this cannot go unnoticed because computers and technology really does connect scattered people.  This made me think about my 10 year old cousin who has Facebook and my mom’s family from Peru who also keep in touch with us through Facebook. Having this technology has allowed them to not only keep in touch with us but view pictures of our dogs and ultra sound pictures of my sister’s baby. Connecting people can be important on so many levels.

 There was another comment in the text that stood out to me as “interesting”. The text talks about “worries regarding face to face contact”. I feel there is more than one way to look at that comment. If teachers only interact with children through computers and do not include that face to face interaction in classrooms than I feel it could become a problem. An example of this that comes to mind is certain university courses that are strictly online. For a university student I don’t feel that is a problem. However, where do you draw the line, will they begin to make high school courses a DVD that you hit play and listen to an instructor talk? I think in order for a class at that age level to be beneficial there should be someone there to facilitate each child’s development.  However, after all this is said I do think that possibility of face to face contact can be improved through technology. A key example of this is using a video phone. Although extremely expensive at the moment it allows family and friends to connect and have that face to face interaction even when they are countries apart.

Towards the middle of the chapter the text talks about video conferencing.  The text states that “video conferencing overcomes barriers of cost and distance since physically transporting a classroom of student to another location is often impossible” (pg 153). I feel that it is not only often impossible but often expensive so some schools tend to minimize field trips. In the long run adding computers may actually be less expensive and more beneficial because children can replay the conversation or recording over and over. I am not implying that videos are better than the real thing but in some circumstances it works out best for all.

Overall, technology can play a huge impact in communicating with everyone.

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Current Mood: confused