Student Supply/Demand Videos

My junior/senior economics class was tasked throughout this quarter with creating a business, deciding what product to sell, finding out the market demand for the product, and examining how market factors shift supply and demand. The most recent project was to create a video that displayed their product, the equilibrium point, and shifts in supply/demand. I have posted links to their videos below. Please take some time to watch the videos and post your comments in Youtube for the students.

Thanks

Jim

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4


Also, if you have a moment, take a look at the following Wiki created by a group of Honors juniors for a Modern American History class. Please leave any feedback I can pass on to the group: Art as Propaganda

Blog Post #2

The other day, I was confronted by the following opinion of another high school American History teacher involved in the CFF program. This is the gist of his concerns:

“I do recognize the need for 21st Century learning. I believe students need to learn how to function in a 21st Century world. However, there are several obstacles that make the change difficult. It is incredible the amount of curriculum I have to cover as a history teacher. I need to cover over 130 years of American History. I end up cutting out sections as it is. The use of 21st Century learning would have to be done in moderation. Otherwise, they will simply not learn how to sit in a classroom and take notes, which is still the primary method of instruction in college.”

These concerns really got me thinking about how Web 2.0 has changed the classroom environment and how it has begun to impact higher education. While sitting in class taking notes is still the main method of instruction in introductory history courses, higher level courses require vast amounts of research and analysis of information. Mindtools such as Inspiration can help students take notes in lecture classes or even Word notebook with the audio note option (Mac’s only). Students can become familiar with open courseware such as the material from MIT and actually have a comparable course outline up during a lecture for comparison. For that matter, why should a student engage in one-way transfer of information in a high school classroom when they have access to all the content the teacher has and more. Shouldn’t the role of a history teacher be to help students understand the core ideas and then evaluate sources for credibility? Yes, you will have to drop a lot of classic content, but as long as the teacher creates a learning environment that focuses on the essential ideas from a historical predicament, students will get the main ideas that really have an impact on the larger picture. Do students have to know every one of the relief, recovery, reform acts of FDR? Or do they have to understand the principle of what they were, details about a couple, and how they shaped American history? It truly comes down to your educational philosophy.

Being able to follow the blogs of historians, politicians, and economists opens students up to a vast network of content area experts. Social book marking sites such as Diigo are a godsend for history students! Google documents allows students to collaboratively work on research papers. Web 2.0 tools remove so many of the barriers that made lecture necessary. Does this mean the teacher has no role? Quite the opposite! The teacher is that much more important. They need to help guide students, as they are the expert researchers. Students are good at researching topics, but often fail to conduct 3 dimensional research that makes the bigger connections or asks the important questions. It is our job to help students become more thoughtful, critical, and empathetic citizens. 21st century learning environments and technologies remove the obstacles. We are now only affected by self-imposed limitations.

Please don’t get me wrong; I don’t think Comic Life or the other catchy applications make students better researchers. It is the problem-based learning involved in the assignment that challenges students. The final product should help motivate students, but should not be OUR focus. It is the process and content necessary to complete the assignment that is so important and it is our job to teach within that environment. That way, when they do have to sit in a lecture hall, the effort that is required of them is so much less than what they are used to. College students will (and are) quickly finding ways to bypass the more ineffectual teaching methods at the college level and college professors (and I know quite a few) are feeling the pressure to change how they instruct.

"Tag you're it!" Social Bookmarking

As I have become more accustom with using Delicious as a social bookmarking spot and not just a place to store bookmarks, I have been struck by the importance of tagging. I didn't originally tag or just tagged with one or two tags, however for the bookmark to be useful to others and in order to help sort my own bookmarks, it is important to include as much detail in the tags as possible. I find I am now going back through my bookmarks, re-tagging and reorganizing. I think reorganizing and focus on proper tagging (along with adding networks) is all part of using social bookmarking at the next level. I look forward to seeing how Diigo ups the ante.

Response Blog #1

Brown and Adler discuss that at the root of Web 2.0 is social learning.

"[U]nderstanding of content is socially constructed through conversations about that content and through grounded interactions, especially with others, around problems or actions. The focus is not so much on what we are learning but on how we are learning."

Web 2.0 allows dynamic interaction with other users and allows learners to construct their own understanding of specific domains. It provides schools with a powerful tool for sparking student interest and opening doors for life long learning. Several faculty members in my building are embracing 21st century learning environments and the positive effects of socially constructed learning. This is a move in the right direction for instructors, however some at the administrative level are attempting to "one-up" teachers by trying to structure entire curricular scope and sequence around social learning. While social learning is a wonderful tool for the classroom I believe it is dangerous to structure an entire curriculum (K-12) around socially constructed understanding. At the end of the day, a public school is expected to graduate seniors with a certain level of content and process proficiency. Colleges expect students to come with certain fundamental skills and we are expected to provide those learning opportunities. We can develop learning environments that allow students to socially construct their understanding of the American Civil War, however, if students socially construct their understanding of "War", they may never develop an understanding of the Civil War or how the Civil War was a product of its time and defined our maturing nation.

We looked at some NY public schools that use thematic approaches to developing curriculum that supports the NY state Regents Test http://www.regentsprep.org/Regents/global/global.cfm . The teachers we contacted who are working with thematic social studies curriculum stated that students were very confused at first by a purely thematic approach to history where students created their own understandings of events and their consequences. Schools had to modify the themes so the curriculum looked at regions of the world and examined how the themes played out in these specific areas. Based on these suggestions, we developed a curriculum that will combine thematic inquiry, within the structure of a regional approach, and utilize a combination of social, experiential, and problem-based learning.

CFH reflection

This post is for reflective thoughts about implementing my mindtool:

I was pleasantly surprised how at ease students were when I presented the project. I explained what a Cognitive Flexibility Hyperlink was and how they would approach the assignment. Not a single student in the 3 American History classes blinked! A month or 2 ago, they would have moaned and groaned, rolled their eyes, asked for a lecture instead. I believe they have become so accustom to trial and error, hard work and perseverance when it comes to using technology, that they know they can do it. I also believe that they have finally taken to heart my mantra: "Trust me."

We are only 3 days in to the assignment, but the groups have divided up their responsibilities and begin creating their perspectives. These projects will come out well and students will truly be intellectually engaged in learning. The CFH requires students to reflect on what they are researching and how to synthesize something brand new.

One stumbling block with the project: Google docs! It is a great program for collaboration, but it does not allow you to create slide-to-slide hyperlinks. These links are the heart and soul of the CFH, so we have reverted to only using Powerpoint. Perhaps in the near future, Google will create a presentation program that allows this flexibility.

I know this is a project I will use in the future, because several students who do not consider themselves "tech-savvy" have said they really enjoy this challenge and love creating the perspectives.

Classroom 2.0

I guess you can say we are piloting classroom 2.0 this year. The major difference is that we have all of this technology access but a classroom 1.0 curriculum. We do our best. Below is a Power Point illustrating some student work from one of my classes.

| View | Upload your own

Online courses

Last week's online class was my first experience as a student using online posts and discussions. I was surprised at how my reaction was different as a teacher verse a student. I have used online forums to host student discussions based on what we have done in class or based on their research. I found it to be a great way to get students to express their ideas. Students who rarely/never talk in class have a lot to say online and add valuable information to the discussion.

As a student, it was interesting to read everyone's thoughts about the mindtools and how they would use online lessons such as webquests. However, I found myself focused so much on the number of required response posts and trying to squeeze out a fresh idea for each of my postings that the process was very time consuming. It was also difficult to find a quiet spot where I had computer access and would not be bothered as I reviewed the posts and posted my reflections. I was intellectually engaged, but felt more estranged from the other students than I thought I would.

In Chapter 17, Jonassen notes it is important to keep these things in mind as online discussion boards are developed. He states that good rubrics and a well developed classroom culture go far when using discussion boards. The learning environment must encourage and embracing challenging each other. I would argue the classroom culture must also encourage authentic responses within the discussion board. It will be good for me to keep my own experience in mind and also follow Jonassen's advice when using discussion boards in my classes. While you can get greater responses from some students in online discussion boards, there is an element of communication and social interaction that is missing. Perhaps Web 3.0 will be all about making the virtual world even more lifelike (more than what is offered in secondlife.com).