Week 6 - Mid Term Assignment

Week 6 - Grading Chart

Week 6 - Flyer

Week 6 - Quiz


This has been a very difficult assignment for me. I reiterate, that this is my first online class and first IT class. I was and still am very apprehensive about this assignment. I know nothing about creating flyers first and foremost. I am not a very creative person. I am a very straight forward person as you may can tell from my flyer. Creativity was the most difficult part of this assignment.


I really did not have any trouble with setting up my grading system, but I did stumble on the way in which to present the information to the parents. Again, creativity isn't one of my strong points. Other than that the assignment was time consuming because I just did not know exactly what or how to format my 3 documents in a way that would be most beneficial to the parents.

Now, I found I that I was wrong. The hardest thing about this assignment was getting the documents to post in both Blackboard and this blog. I tried for hours last night to get the documents uploaded with no success. Now this morning at work, they uploaded with no problem in Blackboard but still having some difficulty with the links to this blog.

Week 5 - Question 1

Week 5 – Chapters 5 & 6
Question 1: What is productivity software? How can it be adapted to benefit and learning? What are the advantages and features of electronic spreadsheet? How do you see them as a benefit in an educational environment?

Productivity software is a type of administrative software. This type of software can be used by educators for administrative and professional purposes. Examples of productivity software include word processing, spreadsheets, and data base management. Word-processing software is the most commonly used computer based application and has all but replaced the typewriter. The word-processor is cable of creating, editing, and printing document which the most advanced electronic typewriter is limited to creating and editing. Word-processing data is stored in electronic format which makes it easier to edit at any given time. Once the electronic information has been edited to the user’s standard, it can be printed at the push of the mouse. There is no need for the manual lining up of the paper as with the electronic typewriter. Most word-processing packages share common features which makes it easier for the user to use when editing, desktop publishing, archiving and printing.

Electronics spreadsheets are the numeric version of word-processing. Electronic spreadsheets offer the convinence of organizing, inputting, editing, charting data, producing accurate professional reports for any administrative tasks that deal with extensively with numbers. You can create a template where you only have to input numbers and await answers because the necessary formulas have already been created within the spreadsheet. You can create charts and graphs from the numeric data inputted into a spreadsheet.

These spreadsheets can be utilized in the classroom for class role, grading charts, classroom budget, assignment log, and other administrative or classroom purposes. A teacher can give a parent an overall view as to how a student is doing compared to the rest of the class by taking the information inputted into the grading spreadsheet and creating a comparative graph. Spreadsheets can be utilized to show the individual student what grade needs to made on any given assignment in order to obtain a certain grade. The teacher can create graphs to compare the class against class and student against student with the input from the spreadsheet. Spreadsheets can be used to formulate any numeric outcome possible while having the ability to transform this data into various charts and graphs.

School administrators can use spreadsheets to track teachers’ leave and sick days. Administrators can use spreadsheets to track school budgets, bus schedules, and other school activities. Spreadsheets can be used all throughout just about every aspect of the school system.

Week 4: Question 3 - Chapters 3 & 4

Week 4: Chapters 3 & 4 : How do increasing computer power, decreasing size, and wireless communications make technology-enhanced classrooms more flexible? What is a virtual environment? What potential does it hold for education?
First, by increasing computer power is often times synonymous with increasing the speed which allows the teacher more time to teach and less time waiting on the computer to boot up, search the web, or produce results. Decreasing size allows the teacher more room in classroom for the students and other needed resources. Often times the classrooms are to capacity with the students alone. The addition of computers need not be cumbersome, but rather convenient as they were intended to be. The use of wireless connections opens schools up to bigger and often better opportunities. Wireless connections allows the teachers the freedom to be connected to the web at almost any location within the classroom. So students don't necessarily have to be seated at a certain computer located in a specific location in the classroom. Students can utilize laptops in the classroom with wireless connection while reducing the space needed for a PC and CPU.
Wireless connections can also be connected to a main server which allows students to be connected to and share with others within the school as well as in the school district. The server allows for teachers and students to be connected to one another and it does not limit their access to one computer. As long as the teachers or students are able to access the server, they would be able to access any saved files on the server. Many schools are going to the wireless option because it does allow for the freedom of both teachers and students not to be tide down to a central workstation. Wireless combine with networking allows for the sharing of software, applications, and information. The only real downside to the wireless connection with the server is the security risks. Wireless connection is more susceptible to security breach than the traditional Internet connection.
Moving on to the virtual environment. Virtual environment is "the creation of a digital environment in which you can interact". Virtual reality "can range from very sophisticated to relatively simple process of stitching together successive images to create a 3D space". These images allows the teachers as well as the students the opportunities to experience things and places they may never visit in their lifetime. Virtual reality can help prepare students for situations in which they may experience in their future careers. The military along with NASA now uses virtual reality in their training processes. Virtual reality holds endless possibilities for the future.

Week 3 / Chap 2 / Question 2

Chapter 2: Designing and Planning Technology-Enhanced Instruction
Question 2: What is the difference between formative feedback and summative feedback?

The difference between formative feedback and summative feedback is the timing in which the feedback occurs. With formative feedback, feedback is giving continuously within the teaching-learning process, and where summative feedback occurs at the end of a process. As chapter 2 points out, both methods must be utilized in the instructional design process to reach the student’s ultimate potential.
This chapter illustrates how critical formative feedback is in the DID process. With formative feedback the teacher is continually making improvements to her lesson plans in order to maximize the student’s learning. Lesson plans are written well in advance of meeting the individual student. So once in the classroom if something isn’t going according to the lesson plans, the teacher is able to adapt and change her plans as needed. Formative feedback allows for a great deal of flexibility in the actual implementation of the lesson plans. Formative feedback also provides teachers with the ability to know when to proceed to the next step in the lesson plan. By the same token, it signals when teachers may need to slow down in certain areas.
While formative feedback is continuous within the teaching-learning process, summative feedback occurs at the end of each process. When a teacher has made all of the necessary adjustments identified by formative feedback, then she has the task of possibly improving the process as a whole. Summative feedback may show that a teacher needs to extend or either condense the timing of a particular process. It may even show the teacher that she may or may not need to include certain types of educational technology in her plans.
Summative like formative feedback is used to continuously improve the teaching-learning process. As this chapter clearly points out, “no design is perfect”. So teachers must continue to improve their process in order to maximize the quality of their output. Summative is used to evaluate the process as a whole. Did 95% of the class learn how to do the distributive method in math this week? This is a question that can be answered by utilizing summative feedback.
Teachers must figure out how to obtain both kinds of feedback. Whether it be by taking the class average as a whole for a particular set of lesson plans or giving the students a end of lesson form to determine their learning competency, the teacher must be able to measure her success or failure. No teacher wants her teaching to be considered ineffective. So teacher should make use the steps in the DID model in order to achieve the fullest potential of the student.