Lumberjack

One side of the Endangered Species Act

EDUC632 Project Proposal

I'm designing a curriculum lesson for a high school Advanced Placement
Environmental Science Class. The lesson is on grass roots support that
leads to the passage of environmental laws. Students working in pairs
will research the historical context that has produced major
environmental legislation in the United States. In many cases it takes a
crises and public outrage to get congress to act. Each group will
investigate one law. Student groups will also investigate the key
provisions of the law and research the government agency charged with
upholding the law. There final task will be to research and share a case
study that demonstrates whether or not  the law is functioning as
intended. The final product will be shared with the class in fish bowl
setting.

At this point I'm not sure which format will work best. The webquest
format may be a best fit

Final blog for Pat's class- but not my last blog

The new world of social networking gives me anxiety. After spending 2 weeks learning the potential of web 2.0 tools I feel unsure of my ability to use some of them. I will never be able to master all of the tools, both present and future, that will continue to help students learn. I don't have the same intuitive thinking that allows younger generations to use web 2.0 tools effortlessly. I will have to work harder to understand and make use of web 2.0 tools than most of my students.

Should I pack it in and give up? Hell no!

I'm ready to start making some mistakes. I expect to be corrected and instructed by my students. In the future I anticipate that they will be the ones showing me the web tools that will allow our class room to move forward. As is always the case it will be hard to give up old methods and start making the best use of new methods. It must be done to give students the best chance to succeed in time of economic change.

Friedman's The World is Flat gives historical context and immediacy to the notion that our children will be competing and living in very different economic climate. One thing made clear in the book is that in the capitalist world of globalization many people will work in different ways. Even knowledge jobs such as programmer or engineer may not pay very will if there are 350,000 people graduating with those credentials from Indian Universities every year. If an American student doesn't possess special talents valued by others or skills that can't be outsourced they could be in for a long and frustrating life.

Unless the fiber optic cable is cut, students today will need web 2.0 collaborative skills to compete. They need to practice these skills in the context of learning in school not just outside of the classroom. Many students in the flat world today already exercise those skills. We need to make use of the tools in school as well. Teachers must also be able to make the most of web 2.0 skills. I hope I continue to be amongst the ranks of teachers that use technology to help students learn. Todays social networking tools make it clear that powerpoint is no longer good enough.

I plan to use wikispaces this fall for student collaboration. I plan to use blogging as a way to assess learning and give feedback. My students will use pageflakes and protopage to display and share their efforts with a larger audience. I plan to make mistakes and fail as well as succeed. I will not know all the answers. It may be more than a little frustrating but to teach students of the 21st century I need to use the collaborative tools that will give them the best chance at being competitive in a global marketplace.

Day Eight

I need to write fast before the cable goes out. I can hear loud thunder nearby. Mother nature can put you back in the 2oth century with one bolt of lighting. I'm hoping the project that Carol, Brian and I come up with looks something like what is the horizonproject page http://horizonproject.wikispaces.com. They include a lot of what we have been talking about in the past week.

Day Six

My experience in and out of the Fish Bowl:

Out First- This was the first time I've used the fish bowl format. I found it hard to be both an active listener and commenter. I felt like I was in a chat room with a lot of experienced pros. I imagine that if I was a high school student this format would be right in my comfort zone.

In- The thought that other people are going to be commenting in writing on your presentation definitely makes you feel more like your in the spot-light. It makes you put more thought into your preparation. It definitely makes the task of reading a book in order to share it with others seem more meaningful (almost as if you arecollaborating) .

I have assigned summer reading books to my A.P. Environmental Science Classes for years and have never felt satisfied with the review sessions that we have. I plan to use this method this fall.

Thanks Pat

Day Five

Highlights from this weeks learning:

Use googlepedia plug in along side of google to get better search results.

Use Yahoo groups to enable a on going conversation between participants

Use Delicious for social book marking that can be accessed from any computer and shared with others

The mysterious rrs icon on my computer actually has a purpose and allows me to subscribe to a variety of media sources

A wiki is a group blog that anyone can add to or edit

pageflakes can be used to bring together many types of rrs feeds that can be shared.

The www can be used as a project tool for presenters, for shared communication, and a proof of truth clarifier.

Googledocs is similar to wiki but feels more like microsoft office

Wikispaces easily allows for links, revisions, extensions to other sites

Podcastalley is a podcast aggregator organized by type. Its possible the just subscribe to one subpart of the NYTimes

Gcast allows for podcasting via a cell phone for free!!

Protopage.com is similar to pageflakes

To get a free wikispace you must first sign up with edublogs

Myspace- social networking

Utube- user created content

Digg - collaborative decision making as to what is important news on the web

Horizonproject.wikispaces.com has great ideas for collaboration

wikimapia.org is a source for thematic maps

Eyespot.com allows you to add narration to videos

bubbl.us is an online concept map maker (inspiration)

Ted.com is a great source for speaker on recent topics ( wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales filmed 7/05, posted 8/06 discusses the strenghts of a collaborative encyclopedia)

Surveymonkey can be used as a rater

Summerizing all this information will greatly increase the chances that I will use these great resources with my students.

Day Three

Today was another eye opening experience. Who knew that ordinary folks like myself have the power to podcast and using a cell phone! Amazing. It was also a relief to see that wikis can be a good source of information when people care enough about topic. The evolution of heavy metal symbols was a good example. Wikis are powerful democratic tools that can give anyone who cares a voice. Our class rubric seems to be holding up when tested.

I listen to pod casts while running. I download audio related to mostly the environment and politics. I've been a political junky for years. This morning I listened to Living on Earth. It is a weekly public radio program not available in our area but easily accessible as a podcast. It's useful for staying in touch with current environmental topics. I'd love to blog more but I'm only on page 25 of a 550 page book that I need to have read by Monday.