Webquests

So we've been spending quite a lot of time on webquests lately. I can't complain. I really enjoy learning about them. I think they have a very hopeful future in pedagogy and education. Especially in the lower grades. Higher grade students can benefit from them as well, but I think a full online class platform is more beneficial for secondary students. Consider this, if we are trying to prepare these students for college, which is the mission statement of almost every district, and colleges are relying more heavily on electronic classes, shouldn't we be integrating sample platforms into high school so the students are prepared for this? I believe so. Webquests are nice, high school students learn, but it's not enough anymore. Not if we want to fully prepare high school students for what they may face in college.

Tech Standards

There are quite a few technical standards for teachers to show "proficiency" in as an educator. I know from my experience last year that most teachers are nowhere near proficient in these standards, so I had to do things for them on the computer sometimes. Is this a wish list? Why does the public school system set standards that set people up for failure? The TEKS certainly seem alright in many suburban districts, but there is so much failure in the urban districts it seems like the standards do not match the situation. Is this another case of raising the bar even though we know many schools and educators won't reach it? It seems to me that if these standards were taken seriously, there would be a greater emphasis and effort by state and federal government to train teachers in this field. We cannot expect educators that are trained in the fine arts to be proficient in all of these standards without considerable time, effort, and training after college.

Reflections on Copyright laws

Boy what a topic. I never considered the possibility of infringement as a teacher. I respect the fact that business want to protect their investment but I'm glad for the Fair Use laws that give educators the freedom to collect media for educational purposes. However, I still think there are too many restrictions placed on us. And I am appalled at the efforts of DVD and VHS media producers to prevent people from accessing or copying their media; I mean I can understand they want to protect their product but they should have some venue in mind to allow educators free access by rights of the Fair Use Laws. Teachers need to be more organized and aware of their rights in educating our country.

Reflection I

So I have a much better understanding of what I need to do to be caught up in my class now that I was able to visit the lecture today. Last week and this week have been incredibly busy but I'm glad for the Calculus AP institute last week. I learned a lot. What have I learned in here? Well I am learning a lot about the features of Google that's for sure. I didn't know about Blogger or the documents page and the file sharing capabilities. I'm sure I'll get some more out of Google as well. It seems like a great place for students to do work on projects and share resources. There is a wealth of online and electronic resources for me to use in my class next year. Looking back at last year my class seems so dry. I hope to really liven things up with support tools next year, I'm glad I still have a month to prepare.

Etec 557

I'm trying out this blog site for a class I'm taking. ETEC 557 at Texas A&M Commerce. I don't even really know the assignment because I wasn't in class, but I know it has something to do with creating a blog account; so here I am.