Geocities (CA)

when you want to connect with VAX computer Host name and host name for geocities for VAX ack.wcu.edu and Host FTP.Geocities.com

User name and password same on both computers if you want it.

User ID and password.
On the Vax computer need to upload with a sub folder.  Tab that says startup  www
No special sub folder on Geocities.
Next important step in keeping things straight is to have a map. Each box is a file.
index.html is home page by default.
Be careful which links your using and be consistent with htm and html.
How big is web site on vax 2 megabytes maybe four megabytes.
Different address on each computer
http://wcuvax1.wcu.edu/~de21849
http://www.geocities.com/de21849
 

How do you make this work better so that it does not dominate when nothing is on this side as far as comments or thoughts?  I changed the table properties from pixels to percentage but that still does not make them all line up the same.

Five key steps

1.  find file

2. edit file

3. save file

4.  upload file

5. test file

Testing may need to go to more than one location.
Always send it to both computers by uploading.
Check with Charter to see about there web site.

What he needs by next week is to get things working on your web site.  Needs a copy of your map and grading rubric in Chapter three.  We are grading your own web site.  See how good you are at evaluating yourself.      

Take beginners to territory give them something to work with so that they are not working from blank territory.

Intense communication with parents helps.  Notes to parents.

He is worried about Page Author and links working.
The reality of teaching is we will take the technology and spread it along many unit plans.  For this class we are going put it all in one unit plan.
It will total up score for you so that you can have a pretty paper.  He has imbedded Java script in there.
Open frame in new window helps to get a better print page.
Digital books read and write in cyberspace. 
Most operating systems has the same commands and this uniformity helps us.  They are also straight jacks because they restrict us.
Talk about wonder web - we are on a course team.  We are going to have an opportunity to trade email and post questions.
I am on team TS1; Go to link add a new problem. 
White questions;  If answer is correct then it is gray.
If you want to just search for one person can do an automated search.  Manual can if automated can't.
Class teamwork you stay on your own team.  Add a question and a contribution once a week.
If you stump everyone on team go to teacher.  Ask three before you ask me.
    Test headphones sets at home.

Classroom Notes Continued

There is a set of readings that build to some hands on activities.  Computer can be a tool to enhance it. What models to do we have for problem solving LEAP Look, Evoke, Assess, and Publish.

Weaknesses Limitations of computer technology.  What tools can we use?  Remedial word processing  is a requirement. The outlying processor in microsoft word.  Search for information on the internet.  Six pieces of information.  Top of the pyramid we get the best view.  High quality information encyclopedia Britannica, source you can trust.  The next layer is cataloging search engines Yahoo similar to when you do researchat the library.  They do not evaluate the web sites good, bad, indifferent.  The third layer is google robot cataloging.  Crawl across internettwenty four by seven.  List in some kind of order.  Counts how manytime the word appears and then they think that will most likely have the webpage you want.

  If there is to much information will blow you away.  Start with the referee systems.  Each one is a step down.  This is a skill that needs to be taught to students so they have a sense of what to search for.

   Eric is a collection of the abstracts and their citations.  The best organized database on the planet earth. Has a thesaurus of key words.  All articles have key words major descriptors and minor descriptors.  Stay focused on the major descriptors. Go to the reference desk of the library.  Find a book called the Eric Thesaurus key words to describe all the wordsin Eric database.  Two columns of key words  closest to your needsas a graduate student at wcu.  Maybe looking for entries for middle school.  What are the words?  That apply to me have to find the first one.  List of things that about your content area.  Make an exhaustive list.Second column would be computer technology.  Exhaustive List of computertechnology.  Content of graduate degree and content of this class. Something about the themes of this class.  This is step one. Go to the library.       

   The end result is a bibliography and include the abstract to your bibliography.  20 to 30 citations.  It must be related tograduate level content area and computers.  Need three of those articlesand find them.  Do not wait to long to get your article at least a monthbefore.

  They have an lcd database.  The sooner you get to them the cheaper it is.

Read this and bring questions to him.

Click view go to outline get squares in front of processing.  Five key words for outlining

expand and collapse, promote and demote, move.

click on box and then left arrow it makes it a heading.  If you right click you demote to a roman numeral A.  If you demote everything moves over,   Double click to collapse.  double click to expand.  If you move one part of outline then everything moves with it.

The numbers let you see anywhere from 1 to 7 levels.

There is a whole web page of information on outline in homework.  Every idea is gold when brainstorming no critical thought.  Cover them up as you go.  Exhaust easy ideas earliest so best ideas come last.  Yes they are going to be exhausted.

Answering question one as a poet I feel that word manipulation is an art form, and that although I appreciate being able to put images into the text I find that images by themselves can be a distracter from the beauty of the words themselves.  Maybe because we are so television oriented  we require more distracters than we did before the time of simpler communication.  I do not want to go back to the dark ages of just one medium on a page as the way, but in this world where we think bigger is better and faster is ultimate, sometimes I feel like the words and the simplicity of just the words needs to be valued.  I want to instill that the power of word needs to be valued before adding themedia, because the media could become a crutch, and therefore our studentsmay learn to  hide behind it instead of enriching their work with it.  As educators there has to be an emphasis on quality in what ever we do.  My feelings are and I guess the question I am asking myself is How do I asan educator ensure my students get the basics and at the same time help themmove forward into the modern world?

    Answer to question 2 from text is that as educators most of us in the beginning are strapped for time and resources.  I think that as a new teacher there is a lot of pressure to conform to testing and text based pressures.  I think we are taught to be progressive, but in the classroom there is much pressure to make sure that are kids are ready on testday. My feelings are that in order to be successful both internally and externallythat a compromise will have to be in order.  How will this take placeinside my classroom.  Is there a way to teach the test oriented materialand incorporate the technology.  Is it possible that what we are tryingto teach our kids might even stay in their long term memories longer withthe integration of more media?  I think if it is found overtime thatchange is coming whether we like it our not then there will be more support for innovative change. I do not feel like schools will take innovative over test scores.  The money that is dwindling forces schools to become test happy and emphasis test over learning.  I feel that at this point this is not enough for me. I as an educator respect the guidelines that are given to me but feel that our focus on testing is hurting teachers and students.  My hope is that our need for change will dominate and win and that in itself will lead to change happening.  It seems that the educational system changes when it has to.

  I am not sure that I know the answer to question three.  I do see teachers using more concept maps in teaching now then ever.  I do believe the emphasis on fish bone diagrams and other organizers is hitting its peek. I think every new lesson has some kind of venn diagram and or other organizational tool.  Are the organizational tools being used I would have to say yes. Have we fully grasped the benefits of looking at other media to learn?  I would say no.  I think that there is a misinterpretation with media.  If you bring in objects for the students to touch that isa great form of textural learning, yet I feel that often it is misinterpreted as soft or fun verses solid learning.  I have my own inner battle with these ideas because I feel like a lot of emphasis was put on me being more solid in my learning strategies. If the kids are having fun and enjoying learning,I think there is fear that they aren't learning.  How do I as an educatorfind ways that make my work enhanced instead of seeming frivolous or thatI am wasting class time?

  I think with question four I tend to agree that we shape ourselves. I mean we are arrogant to think that we are always moving forward intellectually. Is it not possible that the minds that built the pyramids, or worked in the libraries of Alexandria, or the legends of Atlantis that we are constantly gaining and losing information and knowledge.  I think that the main differences of our time are accessibility and speed. Weare able to get information faster and we are able to see more of it.  Are we smarter because of this? I really don't know that we can be.  I mean to say that there are always problems with advances.  The drugcompanies are always proud when they can produce a new drug that will healthis or that, but the truth is one the germs are always advancing and twothe drugs always have side effects.  This is a round about way of sayingI love technology I am thankful for it but there will be side effects to it.  I would say to the questions of gains and loses.  If we are reflective people who learn and change from our mistakes then the loses will be worth the gains, but if we are blind to the fact that every stone in the pool changes the poolthen we will end up hurt and possibly damaged as we grow faster than our abilityto change.

    Question five One of the things I am really good at is collages. Lets cut up magazines and make something out of it.  This could be a page of something you are wanting to bring into your life.  A story page of a place you want to write about or any thing like that.  If you did a lesson on collages and then introduced the idea of cutting and pasting from the internet.  This would be a way to work on a subject in an artiest way and still incorporate technology, and the theme of whatever subject matter you are working on.

EDELCompEduc/Ch3/ch3overview.html     

    The way that meaning has changed in the age of technologyis that one not all information is good information.  The quick accessof information is good but on many levels now to get to the meaning of somethingwill require more thought and more investigation.  No longer is the printed word a sacred thing.  It is very possible that false information is morereadily and easily out there.  I think the first thing technology has done in looking for meaning is to make us more critical of what we are reading.  I think this ties neatly into the second point of requires learner's activeinvolvement and control of the process because no longer can we just take things at face value.  There is just to much information out there. Soto find good information means the reader has to be more active in what they are reading just to ensure the quality of the information given.

    I think that to understand what you are reading on some level you have to understand why a person might write in a certain way.  In other words we might think that the author is cold and in human in a newsarticle if we did not realize that the news article has to be written in thatway to fit the form.  Therefore structures may have come out of our emotionalneeds as well as the purpose of the author.

   The next point of requiring content that is appropriate in difficulty and interest I think we could even tie to video games.  If the game is to easy and repetitive there is no reason to play.  It may give some instant gratification of oh I can do this but does not have the long term value that comes from accomplishing something.  The same is true for reading if the child who lives in a video game world comes to book if it is to easy it will be a waste of time and they will soon bore.  Therefore it is very important that they learn to work with things that require more difficulty and interest.  You do not want it so difficult that the child turns away but at the same time you do not want it so easy that it doesnot stimulate them.

   Finally some of the basic skills of writing are learnedas you read.  It is like making a groove on your brain when you readsomething.  If the repetition is there it creates a paradigm for thechild to copy in writing.  I think there are a lot more programs availablefor children at young ages.  In this interactive world they may experiencewriting sooner than they would have in a traditional world.  I thinkthe fact that children are manipulating computers at younger and younger ages teaches them they can manipulate a mouse or a keyboard.  Since a lot of early reading is about sight and association.  Technology is bringing words and pictures to children a lot younger than ever.

   Reading and writing both consist of the use of words and being able to manipulate words in order to create understanding.  Reading is usually more stagnant because there is less creation in the reading process.  The creation has already taken place and you are reading the result.  Rather writing is a creation process because in writing you are the owner of the words coming out, and it is your job to bring those words to life.  Both have an element of feeling as you read and write you canfeel the power of words, and the feelings or emotions words evoke. Ithink there is a hidden world behind words and I think behind both processes a door can be opened into the imagination that can create a world, feeling, or life change that the reader or writer may not know about when they first encounter a work.

"Learning to Read is a process or constructing meaning, requires the learner's active involvement and control of the process, involves a knowledge of text structures, requires content that is appropriate in difficulty and interest, shares many similarities with learning to writes."  Question one is to "consider how computer technology has an impact on each of their points.  Compare reading and Writing.  How are they the same and different?"

   I feel like the main difference between the old andnew world is the ability to get information faster, and the variety of newtechnology that is available to the public.  I think it is very important that we take time to make this relevant to students and teachers because the economy of the future will expect us to adapt.  It is probably seen around the world that those who adapt to technology the fastest become rich the fastest.  The downside of this that we can see with the dot com companies that any thingthat happens to quickly can also fall quickly.  I think the role of the teacher is to provide stability for students in a never changing world.  In some situations school maybe the only stability that a student has.  I think this role of stability will be what teachers will do for students as information and things become available so fast common sense maybe ignoredin this ever changing time.

  I think what question of two of the essay is trying to bring up is that the majority of us do not remember creating questions.  I think almost every class I ever took was about the answers.  I remember as a student that guessing what the teacher wanted was common place.  I think the reason that teachers of the past have been the question makers is because there is a certain amount of control involved when you are playing the role of the question maker.  It will take releasing control to our students in order to allow them to write the questions.  I feel like there is in place a lot more programs and templates for children to write questions now then ever.  I know especially with advanced groups that we are encouraging our advanced groups to write the questions for the rest of the class.  Actually student questions are often more difficult than the teacher's questions.  I think that this idea will become more prevalent because I think the trend is that we are teaching for our students, and as that emphasis of allowing them to work more and the teacher less then the amount of questions created by the students will increase as well.

   I feel like a great deal of the purpose of this classis for teachers to learn so we can answer question three.  Of course there are many tools that educators do not know, but I feel that there are some great resources in our education staff and fellow teachers to help find these resources.  I feel like the two methods I am learning about are the wonder web and the CROP model.  I also feel by learning the LEAP process I am going to have more of a sense of how to integrate questions into my classroom.  What I have seen working well in the schools is the questionstems that teachers provide for students so they can practice writing questions.  I feel like there is always more to learn as teachers and that we have learnedwhat we could learn for that time.  The thing is not to get stuck there.  For me, I want to keep expanding as a teacher and a person, and I am hopingthrough that process I will be more reflective with myself and that will carryinto my classroom.

    This was not the first time I have done the divided paper exercise.  We also did it in NC teach as we observed Beth's teaching practices.  It enabled us to take notes and at the same time record steps on the left.  These steps could have gotten lost in the notes.  It is amazing how much clearer your own thoughts are from your notes with this divided method.  What we learned in substitute class is the puzzle piece approach.  If every students name is on a puzzle piece this is a good way to call on people randomly and keep them accountable for thinking.  This could also be used during exchanges such as note taking discussions.  To see if the students are recording something in the left by randomly calling on them making them accountable.

In response to the first open ended question about higher order thinking question, I would say that if it is not measurable than it would be hard for a state or nation to find proper evaluation.  The terms of any studies are controlled by the moneys to conduct that study.  I think in my thinking How can we accurately evaluate higher order thinking curriculumwhen it would take much more money than the curriculum we are evaluating now.  I think that answers to higher order thinking are much more subjective, so how could we know the right answer.  Would not the person reading thepaper put their own influence into this open ended assessment.  I do not know that we have any model that accurately detects learning.  I think we can test if certain information is in a persons repertoire but how much do they know is subjective.  Einstein is a great example of that since he was such a poor student in school.

   I do not know the answer to the second inquiry regarding how many states and nations put the same emphasis on higher order thinking compared to basic questions.  I would think that the United States is fairly rigid as far as curriculum goes, but that impression could be from examining North Carolina's testing and policies.

   Again with number three I do not know.  I would think that if students learned how to make questions that this could be carried over to any subject, but I do not know that we are even at the place of emphasis where such research is done.  My concern would be that this would not be done, since most student success that has been recorded is with more direct instruction and scripting.  In these environments I do not believe students would have the time nor possibility for questioning.

   I think that the teacher would have to come up with a rubric of expectations.  Maybe the students themselves would be the ones to provide this information.  If we had them work on what they valued in the cooperative learning and how they grew in some reflective way we couldtake this information and create a rubric.  I think that some kind offormal assessment would have to be present in this case with a rubric and what could be added to this is teacher's observations of one or two things they saw the class get from the exercise.  That at least makes it possible.

   I think it is very important to work environments that employees be thinkers who can solve problems and help to make the company run better.  There is such a huge sense of competition in the work place in order to stay alive in the global market that employees that are not flexible and not willing to think out of the box are considered dead weight to a company.

   I think the SUP and FAQ's are ways that we track questions and answers but I do not know that other ways will not emerge in the future.

1.  "When if ever, was the higher order thinking skill curriculum of a state or nation evaluated by any group outside that government entity?  That is does higher order thinking curriculum ever receive adequate reviewand evaluation?"

2.  "How many states and nations put the same emphasis on higher order thinking evaluation that they put on testing the learner's capacity to answer the basic questions of who? what? when? where? and how?"

3.  "In school district and college classrooms that show higher levels of success in teaching students to answer such higher order questions, do we have the data to determine how well these students could generate their own questions in these categories when encountering a new subject or question area?  That is, is the ability to answer such questions sufficient to stimulate thefluent production of such questions?

4.  "How can we determine (quantify or qualify) learner capacity for collaboration and cooperation in using these higher order thinking skills with our information age tools, e.g., the online Problem Solver's Home Page (Houghton, 1995b)?"

5.  "How do employers feel about graduates from our educational systems in their ability to determine key questions in their place of work and act on their judgment in the context of work teams?"

6.  "What systems do we have to track and measure the problem sharing development of a community (of whatever scale) as it articulates, shares, and solves its own questions."

    I think this is useful because it provides a way to take a type of thinking and integrate into different subject matters.  It puts less distance between what we are doing with technology and what we are doing in the classroom.  If communication is important to us then it would be only natural to use the tools available for us to expand on.  I am seeing that the idea is to give students a more deeply imbedded way ofthinking.  If they are thinking deeper than the purpose would be thatthis could translate into a product.  By having a product that can justifywhy I am doing what I am doing.  I find it difficult to be the new kidon the block when it seems like everyone knows more or has a more effectivesystem.  I feel like this system could give me a formula that would keepme from getting sucked into the ideas of others to the point that I lose myidentity as teacher in the classroom.  I think this is a big issue asa first year teacher to be able to have your identity in the classroom.  One of the weakness is with out a plan it is very difficult to assert this.  I like this model because I feel like it could give me a back drop to build on my own ideas and at the same time show a level or process of thinking thatI could create with my students.

I guess now that I am working with this process of learning.  I will need to find how I can fit this into a literature structure and make it a part of our everyday process.  Can I in the classroom go through this formula and make it work with literature and language?  On what scale do I have to do this to make it successful?

  I think these techniques are useful, and I also believe that it is important for the children to work in order for them to learn.  What is difficult in the real classroom is finding ways to get them to take responsibility for themselves, and to want to do the work.  Is the we that has failed the student really just the student or is it the society at large?  What about the structure of school could change to make it work better?

First Principle or idea:  "If the student cannot demonstrate learning or achievement, the student has not failed-  WE have failed the student."  The main idea the only reason teachers are there is to help students achieve.

The three major characteristics of effective teachers

1.  Teachers have high expectations that all students will succeed.

2.  Teachers are good classroom managers.

3.  Teachers know how to design lessons to help students master the subject matter.

Philosophy of pages "There is only one way for a student to learn anything.  The student must put in effort.; the student must work to learn."

Allocated time- the time given to a student for learning (the school calendar approved by the board.

Instructional time- is the time you can observe the teacher instructing.  This is the time the teacher is talking, orchestrating or working. For many teachers this is 90 percent of time.

Engaged Time- is the time you can observe a student involved or engaged in a task.  The students are focus of room and teacher plays role of helper.  Students are working.  75 percent of time because often teachers students are working together.

Academic Learning Time-  is the amount of time that the teacher can prove or demonstrate that the student comprehended or learned the content or mastered the skill.  This takes about 35 percent of time.

There are two ways to assess whether teaching was effective.

1.  "Did the student learn what you wanted the student to learn?"

2.  "Can you show that the student learned what you wanted the student to learn?"

The effective teacher has Bell work a classroom procedure where students have an assignment and they know what to do.

Another main idea of the book "Increase the amount of time the student is working, and you increase learning."  "The person who does the workis the only one who is learning."

Three ways to increase student efficiency

1. "Have an assignment posted daily to be done upon entering the classroom."

2.  "Teach procedures and routines to minimize interruptions and maximize uninterrupted learning time."

3.  "Constantly monitor students so as to keep them on task."

An effective teacher does two things well.

1.  "You must have an undying belief that every student can and has the ability to learn."

2.  "You must persevere."

Academic Learning Time