Adrian's Week 10 Feedback Posts

For this week, I posted on Adam's and "Bfitzg's" blog postings.

Second Life: Keeping Users Engaged.

This video called "Orientation in Second Life" proved a good point in my opinion. A lot of teachers try and teach in one direction, while students have different styles of learning. If we as teachers can not adapt, what a student takes away from a classroom may be affected negatively. In the video, users were having problems with using Second Life. Some new users would even get frustrated and stop using after their first attempt. The narrators in the video found that instead of reading material that guided one through how to use the program, "elearning" while actually playing and giving instructions and advice actually on second life was more successful.



The biggest takeaway I gained from the video is that as teachers of any kind, you must adapt to your learners.

In my own personal experience, I have dealt with this issue. In middle school I was starting to get bad grades due to my lack of "self explanation" skills. Once I made it clear to the teachers (who in turn just sent me to tutors) that I needed to actually be taught, my grades improved thanks to tutors who laid out the info for me step by step.

As a teacher, i want to make sure that I appeal to all of my students styles of learning. I do not want to be one of those "my way or the highway" teachers, instead I want to be an open minded and flexible teacher.

Adrian Rosado's Screen Cast

I just got done with my screen cast, my first one so it's kinda rough...but here is the video, the earlier hyperlink, and the actual direct link...enjoy!




http://screenr.com/mwg

Sam: Gamer, Friend, & 13 Year Old Technology Guru

Sam is one extraordinary 13 year old girl. For one she basically learned everything she knows about technology by herself, and she even uses it to solve many of her everyday problems. Sam spends a huge portion of the day using the computer, playing interactive games like World of Warcraft, making videos, and so on. "Sam's Digital Portrait" is a good video for teens to watch, in that is reflects on all the technological possibilities that are out there for a young teen.



In my own experiences, being that i am not very technologically gifted, I value having people like Sam who are helpful and know what they are doing. In one instance, i had a fifteen year old teach me how to use PowerPoint for an assignment, and I don't know how I could have done it without them.

The most valuable thing that i will probably take away from this video is the notion of never underestimating what kids (students) are capable of doing with technology.

In my own class, i will try to give my students every opportunity I possibly can to make use of technology. I don't care if its as simple as teaching them how to use Flickr to find copyright friendly images on the web, as long as they are gaining knowledge. In general, students and teachers need to somewhat keep up with today's technology because with that knowledge one can find new and endless opportunities.

Adrian's Survey

i really enjoyed creating this survey,I got a chance to learn a lot about my classmates. Google made the process of making the form very easy. The results were as follows:


What Is your favorite place to eat, and what do you order? Do you think you get enough sleep? What is most important to you when looking for a potential mate?
At the moment it's Ted's, I've been on a Mexican food kick. No Personality
No place in general, but I love anything involving pizza. Yes Personality
My favorite place is Matito's and I get the sour cream chicken enchiladas No Personality
Anywhere that has Thai food. Tom Yam Kai Soup. No Personality
Louie's; Macho Chicken Nachos No Personality
Red Lobster/ Any 2 Shrimp Your Way Yes Personality

Adrians Week 7 Classmate Comments

Hello, for week 7 I did my comments on Sammy's and Kara's blogs.

Wikis: Doing Away With The Rip Van Winkle Effect.

The main takeaway from this video being that I am fairly inexperienced when it comes to using a wiki would be the idea that when we are planning to use wikis as teachers, student engagement and collaborations need to be a top priority in order to keep our kids interested, and from from basically falling into a "Rip Van Winkle" like dormant stage when it comes to learning. I must completely agree that if we simply have our students "going through motions" while they are using a wiki, that they are not benefiting to their full potential. The idea that children and adults alike will do better with just about everything when they are actually interested and engaged is not new, but i think it is great how Paula White correlated learning success with this idea when it comes to wikis. Another important point was that we should let students collaborate on wikis with students as well as the teacher. When doing this, you are definitely keeping the students engaged for one, and you are also creating an environment of shared understanding and diversity.




In my own experience, I can tell you that I have never had a teacher attempt to use an educational wiki for shared and or collaborative learning. I think I would have benefited because I was always a smart kid, but I was constantly getting bored because I was just "going through motions". If I would have been allowed to collaborate more when learning with both my peers and my teacher, I believe that I would have had both improved education, as well as an improved disciplinary record.

In the end, the most important thing I learned that I would have to implement into my classroom are a basic set of ideas when it comes to forming wikis that are collaborative and engaging, which can be seen on the site called Wikithink. It outlines some useful question to think about and explore. In my opinion this site serves as a wonderful basis for questions to consider about your wiki as an educator