byu katy's world

IP&T reflections

2004-12-08T07:09:00.000-08:00

What has been the best aspect of this learning experience?

I have really enjoyed becoming more knowledgeable about technologies. I didn't even know wikis or blogs existed. So it has been challenging, but fun and interesting to discover new technologies.

What has been the most challenging aspect of this learning experience?

The most challenging aspect of this class was to learn new technologies for our lesson plans. It was very benneficial, because now I know how to use 3-D Home Design software and also a monograming sewing machine. Nevertheless, it was the most difficult, because I had to teach myself.

How has your attitude changed regarding technology and education?

I came into this class so scared the first day. The teacher was talking about blogs which I had never heard of before. The class was seeming to me a little overwhelming. Each day we were learning a brand new technology. However, I look at it now, and my attitude changed. Instead of being scared, I was excited, because I was learning so many new skills that my friends had never used. It became exciting instead of feraful.

What are your top two takeaways from this experience?

One thing I took away was a changed attitude. Now I believe that I can learn new technologies. It just takes patience and time to play around with the technology.

Another thing that I have takenaway from this experience is a working knowlege of blogs. This is a neat tool to know how to use. It was difficult to learn, but deffinitely rewarding. Now I know a great group collaboration tool.

Lesson Plan Overview

2004-11-16T20:51:00.000-08:00

What your proposed lesson plan is all about (the focus):

I plan to introduce new software to my students. It is an interior design program called Total 3-D Home Design, by Broderbund. I don’t know too much about the software right now, but my reading and playing around with it has helped me to see its potential to aid in effective and creative teaching. It allows students to do simple activities such as design the patterns and furnishings for previously created floor plans. It also goes more into depth and allows students to create their own floor plans. The general idea of this project is to have students create their dream home. Then, they will write a two page write up about how this house fulfills the physical and psychological needs of their future family. This activity allows them to use new technology to incorporate the topics that they have already studied in class. This will be a two week activity ( That is if the class meets three times a week for 90 minutes.)

The subject matter and grade level for which your lesson plan is appropriate:

This is an activity for interior design students or housing the family students. This demanding project is geared toward the high school age group, but could be adapted for junior high home economics.

The Utah Core Curriculum Standard you're addressing

Objective 20.0110-0401Compare the characteristics of floor plans and zoning to family activities/needs. National Standards 11.4.1, 11.4.4

The technology or technologies you'll use within the lesson plan

We will be using a program called 3-D home design. It is created by Broderbund. We will be using computers of course, but the new concept of the lesson is this software.

The kind of example you'll create for your students as a model

I will create for my students, just what I desire them to complete. I will design and develop my own dream home, and then I will write a two page paper about how this home fits my desired future family. I will also include a general run down of the skills I learned with this software, and how it helped or hindered my desire to design.

What ethical issues you will address in your lesson plan

Ethically, I will have to be careful about how much software I buy. I will need to research to see if I must actually buy a program to install for every computer available, or how many copies I will be able to make. I will not have to worry much about other ethical considerations, but this one will be costly enough.

Teaching to Become

2004-11-10T07:09:00.000-08:00

Wow, this quote is extremely empowering. I truly believe that teaching by example is the key, so we must keep a presence that radiates our beliefs that we are children of God. I had never considered the portion of this quote that mentions "Who are we not to shine, or to be gorgeous and talented." I think that is an amazine message. Because everyone is talented and beautiful in their own way. I hope that as a teacher, I can really help my students come to the knowledge that they are wonderful people. I think that if they feel the support and expectations of and adult, their self-esteem will increase, and they will be better people because of it. I also liked the portion of the quote that establishes that "shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you," is a mere excuse for falling below your potential. Thus, I hope to promote my students to believe in themselves and be all that they could be. I also hope to break the cycle of mediocraty by pushing my students to learn new concepts and show them their potential.

Ethics Reflection

2004-11-09T21:42:00.000-08:00

Through this assignment, I learned so much about the rules and regulations of copyright. In our teaching groups, I was the first one to teach. I taught about the whens and when not tos of copyrighting. One interesting thing I learned is that software cannot be copied and shared openly, even within a school system. This is why there is educationally priced software.

As far as flexible copyright is concerned, I learned that many of the practices that teachers have done all through my formal schooling is borderline against flexible copyright. I learned that it is okay to copy a poem to display on the overhead, but not to pass out to each student. It is also okay to show a movie about the subject matter, as long as students aren't charged. In fact, a teacher can get away with a lot, as long as she doesn't try to make a profit with her efforts. Lastly, I enjoyed learning that if a teacher is teaching Mozart, she can even make cd's for everyone in the class of Mozart's music. However, she must collect them after the unit is over, so they aren't circulating out of context.

Fair use of intellectual property was the next topic of discussion. This lesson was focussed upon the fact that their has to be a leniency on some works to add creativity within the set boundaries of flexible copyright. She pointed out that it is a problem for many music and dance teachers to have cd's for their children, as well as spliced music. In the educational system, teachers often splice many things such as music or plays. The truth is that many times they need to obtain permission first before taking creative measures. They must give credit to the original authors, and they must also avoid receiving money for their services. Overall, we learned that the rules of fair use are still under construction, and often it is left to peoples own good judgment.

Concerning privacy and security issues, we learned about several ways to keep you students out of bad subject matter. In fact, he mentioned firewall, wich is a great way for blacking instead of filtering. There are also many types of parental controls and filters offered in the market. Most of all, we learned that you have to take some type of precautions, because there is some terrible stuff out there that kids can easily stumble into.

Lastly, we learned about technology base cheating methods. I learned that not only are camera phones a popular cheating method, but there are a plethora of other technologies out there. In fact, there are pens that can remember what you have written. As well as instruments that use laser beams to shoot to other kids in the classroom. There are also the classics, like a pager, or a graphing calculator. What caught my attention most, was the method of finding internet companies that will write research papers for you. This is crazy to me, because this might actually be a method that would be much harder to spot. In fact the boy that was teaching this topic said he called the number just to see the cost, and they said it would be 250 dollars. However, there are some students that will pay it.

In conclusion, I would like to state, that I really enjoyed this chance to teach and learn from others, it was really interesting to me.

- - - Katy Burch - - -

Lesson Plan Overview

2004-10-12T16:17:00.000-07:00

What your proposed lesson plan is all about (the focus):
My lesson plan will deal with the technology of modern sewing machines. The students will be introduced to the monograming capabilities of these machines. I will give them a brief overview of how the machine works. I will explain about the computer chip inside the sewing machine that allows it to sew literally by itself. The students will then watch me do an example. I will program into the machine the exact image that I want to produce. Then I will proceed. After looking at several examples, the students will proceed to monogram a scratch piece of fabric, as well as a nice piece of fabric. Then, they will take their monogramed fabric, and use their prior skills to sew a pillow that can display the monogram.

The subject matter and grade level for which your lesson plan is appropriate:
I believe that this lesson plan would be equally applicable for beginning or intermediate sewers in grades 8-12.

The Utah Core Curriculum Standard you're addressing:
Standard 20.0301-03Students will identify basic equipment used by consumers, as well as commercial enterprises. This lesson plan falls into play with this objective.

Objective 20.0301-0301Discuss consumer/commercial sewing machines. National Standard 16.4.1
Review basic information
Review parts and accessories for each machine
Review/perform procedures for decorative stitches
Perform standard operating procedures on all machines

The technology or technologies you'll use within the lesson plan:

I plan to introduce the students to the monograming functions on the sewing machine.

The kind of example you'll create for your students as a model:
I plan to have several examples of manograms floating around the group. They will be a variety of things, from letters to cartoon charachters. I will also model the process myself in front of the classroom, so that students will be able to see hands on experience before they begin.

Your plan for assessing the students' final products:

I will not grade too harshly on their finished products, because this is their first time. However, I will walk around and see how farmiliar each student (or group)is becoming with this new technology. I will also be checking to make sure that they are first testing their abilities on scratch fabric. I will also have them turn their new monograms into a pillow. This I will grade more cautiously, because they already have the knowledge and skills to sew a simple pillow. Overall, the grade is based on participation and the aesthetic appeal of the final project.

Weather and the world wide web

2004-10-01T15:42:00.000-07:00

By: Katy, Kate, Jen, and Wendy

As home economics students, we were interested in the child development section of this video. It was interesting to see the reactions of the children and to watch the intense lesson plan that the teacher created to keep the interest of the children. They created a pretend storm, using their hands to snap, clap, and beat the sound of the storm.

This was applicable to real life because the night before, they had just had a big thunderstorm. Thus not only were they able to expres their feelings about the storm, and what electricity went out, but they were able to express their emotions with a Paint program on the computer.
They used a program called Kidspiration to draw their pcitures of storms. This technology was very intriguing to the children. Since it was new technology, there was a little time taken to explain directions and demonstrate the program.

Then the children were able to use this technology as they discussed emotions, necessary clothing, and described their pictures. Then they reviewed what they had taken pictures of with the digital cameras the day before. Then the teacher showed a powerpoint review of the unit.

Thus they were able to tie the weather unit together with several forms of technology that enhanced their learning capability. They weren't simply learning new technology, they were learning new subject matter through the use of technology.

Video Analysis

2004-10-01T15:23:00.000-07:00

Katy, Kate, Jen, and Wendy

We watched the video Great Team, Great School. We located this video at http://glef.org. We chose this one, because we couldn't find any that related directly to Home Economics.
In this video their was a mock hurricane simulator. This emergency simulator allowed students to interact and feel the stress and responsibility of a real life crisis. The students were using the technology and they were so engaged in the learning process that the class was managed by itself. The teachers commented that in the classroom, activities are used to gain knowledge, and in this real life simulation their goal was to save lives.
This lesson was focussed more on the subject more than the technology. This is seen because the student were answering phones, watching the simulated storm on a big screen, and making quick decissions, rather than learning how to use this technology.
One bad use of technology was the motion sensitive detector that graphed onto a calculator. This technology was intersting and the children were excited to see how it worked. However, it didn't really teach them subject matter, but simply made them more informed about the technology.
The video also abided by our rules of thumb, because the students were engaged, and they were also learning real life applications. This was evident as the students built mini cars out of recycled materials, went to car dealerships to evaluate their sales techniques, and had business members come volunteer as mentors.
Overall, this video was a great example of how teachers can work as a team and create real life engaging situations that can not only intrest children but teach them.

Wow...Wiki!

2004-09-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe that I am actually beginning to understand this new technology. It's great! I really liked having some time in class today to work in our groups. It really helped us delegate, and get things accomplished. Our page is looking great, and I can't wait to see the finished product. Well guys, if you have any questions about the definitions or education links that I put on the pages, just holler. Y'all are great, have a wonderful evening!

Did you know?!?!?

2004-09-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

Guess what, I stumbled across something fun. If you have some time on your hands...then you might look into this. If you fill out your extended profile, you can list your interests and hobbies. I did this, and then viewed my updated profile. It sets apart your interests and highlights and underlines them. If you click on them, then it brings up every other blog that has the same interest as you listed. Thus you can find people from all around the world with the same interests as you. I just thought it was pretty crazy!

Educational blog resources!

2004-09-09T19:51:00.000-07:00

Holy cow...there are so many available resources out there. I just searched for blogs about home economics and was nearly blown away. There is tons of information out there...more than you can imagine. I found recipes, lesson plans, interior design techniques and pictures, as well as direct links to websites for buying all sorts of text books and helpful how to's. This stuff is great, and I didn't even know it existed.
- katy -

Excited!

2004-09-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

I am so happy that I have finally figured out some of this blogging business. If anybody ever has a comment, feel free...because I would love to correspond!

Rules of Thumb for Technology Integration!

2004-09-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

My Rules of Thumb

1. I believe that students must be able to relate technology to real world experiences around them.

2. I also believe that students' attention must be captured, so they want to become actively engaged in a technological experience.

***I also wanted to state that I read the Roscelle article and scanned the Jonassen article.***

My Experience With Technology

2004-09-09T18:17:00.000-07:00

With the knowledge I have gained from these articles, it is interesting to reflect back on the technology that teachers used in my kindergarten through twelth grade schooling. I feel that in high school, teachers did a fairly good job of incorporating internet, powerpoint, and other presentation material to emphasize certain elements in the curriculum. However, I feel that in elementary school the intergration of technology was lacking. Whether the funds were not available or the teachers were unsure or uncomfortable with bringing technology into the classroom, I do not know, but it certainly has impacted my view of how I can change things when I become a teacher.
One particular elementary school experience that I recall, is playing a lot of Oregon Trail, and Where in The World is Carmen San Diego. I am not saying that these are bad programs, because I have fond memories of those hours in the computer lab. However, I think there might have been other ways of complementing technology that might have been more educational than simple fun. Some may argue that these games must have been successful, because I still remember them, whereas memories of an ordinary day in elementary school have faded. This is partially true, but I feel that additional work on the teachers part could have incorporated more applicable learning into our games.
If I were to go back into time, I might suggest and help the teacher to pull certain concepts from the game and represent them in the classroom setting. One possibility might be to create a real life game that was similar to the Carmen San Diego game. Each child could have a cut out of a particular state, and the teacher could dress up as Carmen. The teacher could use a cord to connect the computer to the T.V. , and have states pop up from a power point onto the T.V. screen. When the Texas shape popped up on the T.V. screen, the child holding the Texas cut out would stand up. Then "Carmen" could travel to the desk of that child and give an information fact about that state, like the state capital, flower, or bird. As the teacher recites the fact, a picture of this fact could pop up on the T.V. screen, and so on. This lesson plan would take a little more work than a simple computer game, but creativity combined with hardwork and the integration of technolgy, can not only capture short term interest, but it can really help children to retain valuable information. As a future teacher, I know that technolgy integration is necessary, and worth the work.