Brainpop Video

I watched the Brainpop movie on Roman Numerals.

 The purpose of the video was to teach students the basics behind Roman Numerals. It teaches the students about the basic numerals; I,V,X,C,M and then shows them exactly how it works. Here is a brief run down of the order in which the information is presented:

  • Intro screen pops up with a bunch of Roman Numerals appearing randomly on the screen
  • Tim and Moby walking down street (background is moving and only arms of people are moving)
  • Moby's wrist malfunctions and they disappear from the screen and are transported to Ancient Rome. New background appears of Ancient Rome
  • Tim looks at Moby's wrist, pan of Ancient Rome bkg ensues.
  • Switches to clock on ground. Split screen with clock on left and on right the Roman numerals appear with with the hindu-arabic numbers we use next to them.
  • Screen flashes on as Tim explains how VI = 6. Shows one step at a time V then + then I then = then 6
  • Moby puts out wrist and clock is in Roman Numerals. Split Screen again and Time deciphers numbers and on right screen the Roman Numerals pop up and Tim decodes them into the numbers we use today.
  • Tim walks up to stationary newsboy holding up a newspaper. When Tim says there weren't newsboys in Ancient Rome, newsboy stays still but eyes turn to angry slits.
  • After decoding date on paper it switches to a view of a library with a Built on Date in Roman Numerals. Split screen again, this time on right are the basic Roman Numerals to help decode. On left is the number written out and math ensues. Finally the answer appears.
  • Moby returns on a donkey but in reality the image is just bobbing up and down. Tim says give me your arm and starts punching in new date on Moby's arm. They disappear like in beginning and then reappear in front of their house.

 Response to Personalization Principle

  • The introduction scenario is one that I am faced with in school very often. I am one of my school's webmasters and we have just rolled out a new website. We are going to need to teach our staff how to create their own personal pages and I can only imagine how difficult it will be. The staff are majority veteran teachers who are open to using technology but not fond of any added work on their already full plates.
  • I disagree with the ideas behind the Psychological Reasoning for Personalization principle. I don't think that you lesson the importance of an issue by using a conversational tone. An informal tone does not mean something is less serious. I guess it may depend on the topic but if I were doing technology training at a school I would use more of a conversational tone so that the audience can relate and use what they learn. Too often, formal presentations are boring and people tune them out. A conversational tone keeps the audience engaged. 
  • I agree that you need to be cautious of how conversational you make your speech as you don't want to sound like you're not a professional on the topic.
  • The on-screen agents remind me of Tim and Moby on Brainpop. Very helpful and help keep students engaged.
In regards to how this may help my instruction:

  • I use Brainpop on a weekly basis. I use it in all subject areas but it is very helpful in science and social studies. I find these to be the most impacted areas because a lot of the text the students are presented with are in a formal setting and are hard to comprehend. Using Brainpop helps the students receive text and information in an easy, enjoyable setting. The students relate more and are motivated to learn more. I use interactive clickers with my students at the end of each video and we complete the quiz. I find that the majority of my students score between 85-100% on the quizes. I attribute that to the effectiveness of the video.
  • One subtractor from this is related to their discussion of not getting too informal. The creators of Brainpop like to add a humorous interaction between Tim and Moby. It is usually held to the beginning and ending of each video. However, there are some clips where the humor is included mid-way through the clip and my 4th graders get side-tracked by that. They start to laugh and make comments and miss out on any information from that point on. I feel that is an area where they need to be careful with their on-screen agents.
  • Finally, I can see myself using the conversational aspect in teaching my staff how to use the enw website. I have to create a small user-guide and I can see myself using an on-screen agent or informal language to help convey the message and info. 


Learning With Media 

  • Learning through books is greatly helped through the use of pictures. I find this to be true with my struggling readers. When they have a picture, they can gain comprehension of what is occurring in the text.
  • I also found it interesting how it talked about fluent readers slowing down because of awkward phrasing or higher level terms. I found myself doing that with this article many times. I got hung up on select areas and found myself distracted and lost at times.
  • Learning through TV can be important because viewers have both the visual and audio components. This is important because it provides two means to stimulate learning.
  • Finally, Learning through Multimedia is very important because it has great value to the learner.
  • Multimedia provides many outlets for the learner to stimulate their learning styles.
  • The research provided in this article shows the importance of computer-based instruction. It shows how powerful it can be and it also shows how it can help learners of all abilities. Multimedia has a multitude of ways to display information. The example of the boulder rolling down the hill on page 23 was a great example. Not only are you seeing the boulder roll down the hill, you can provide an overlay discussing force and other aspects of it's downward movement.
  • Multimedia is very powerful and using it with computer-based instruction can be very powerful when used properly and with a purpose.

eLearning

  •  I don't find eLearning to be a very effective way of learning. All too often I find that it's a cost-effective way of teaching but the students don't learn as much as they would if they were in a classroom.
  • There are two types of learners and they can learn best in different ways when it comes to eLearning. One type needs to be in the classroom without outside distractions. The other, can be sitting on their couch on a computer meeting in a virtual classroom. I fall into the former category.
  • I took a summer class last summer and it was on-line. I felt that I didn't get nearly as much out of the class as I would if I was in the classroom. Too often I found the TV or other websites on the computer to be too tempting to take away my attention. Since the teacher can't see you, they can't prevent you from not paying full attention.
  • The other problem with eLearning is that some of the software doesn't always work and so the learning is interrupted and is choppy. For instance, the summer class I took used a virtual classroom program that only worked for chunks of time. It was a running joke with students on how long it would take until the system crashed. I found that to be highly ineffective. It would take 2 minutes for everyone to re-log back in and for the professor to come back on-line.
  • My final reaction is that eLearning can be great for companies. My wife works for a company and she is a regional manager. She manages the Mid-West and is expected to meet with 80% of her clients each fiscal year. In order to save her company money and save herself the travel time, she has begun doing WebX seminars. They have been highly successful and the clients enjoy them because they can ask questions they have while seeing her screen. A lot of time clients don't need to see her for a long period of time and the WebX allows her to use short meeting times without costing her company money to travel and stay overnight.

Interview with Richard Mayer 

  1. "Overall, it is not fruitful to ask whether a particular technology is better than another. Asking whether computers are a good instructional technology is like asking whether books are a good instructional technology. It all depends on how they are used, that is, on the instructional method."

               I felt that this quote was really powerful. So often principals and other administrators believe that just having cutting edge technology would result in better learning. Unfortunately, this is not the case. If the staff do not know how to use the technology successfully, then it is ineffective. It can almost be said that these teachers would be better served with sticking to the paper and pencil method. I am not saying that teachers should not be pushed to advance with technology but that effort needs to be placed into training and implementing in the best way.

2. "I have argued that on-line instruction should be designed in ways that are consistent with what we know about how people learn and with research-based principles. For example, concerning research-based learning theory, we know that people have a limited capacity for processing incoming information, so on-line instruction that presents too much material on the screen at one time (such as multiple graphics) may overload the learner’s cognitive system."

         This is a really powerful quote too. Going back to my previous discussion on eLearning classrooms, I feel that you can have sensory overload with some online learning. On top of that, if it is an online learning class, you may not have the extra support needed because the teacher is not present with you during the learning. It needs to be kept simple and not try to use all the bells and whistles available to you. This is definitely a key factor in Virtual Classrooms.

3. "Games can be designed and used in ways that teach or they can be designed and used in ways that do not teach. A major chal-lenge in using games as instructional devices concerns how to encourage the learner to engage in reflection and other forms of deep cognitive processing while learning."

         This final quote is one that I find interesting because I use online game programs to help my students learn math. We have a program we use at school that teaches students different objectives in a game format. However, it is more based on the concepts and only adds a cartoon character as a guide. So the students see this as a game but in reality, it's more focused on the concepts. Contrast this to another website I use that focuses mroe on the game aspect while teaching students basic concepts. My students enjoy this site more but there is no teaching as much as application of facts. So games can be very powerful but also need to be taken with a grain of salt.

 How to Steal Like an Artist

1) Steal Like an Artist - I feel like all teacher's do this. We may not call it stealing but instead "borrowing". There's no point in reinventing the wheel and so we all borrow ideas from each other. It's a very important part of being a teacher. We use what others come up and pick and choose what we want to use. 

2) Fake it 'Til You Make It - I feel that I do this occasionally while teaching. Sometimes students ask me questions that I don't always know the answer to but I will answer it to the best of my knowledge and with certainty in my voice. I will then look it up later that day and if I was incorrect I'll tell the students. Usually it works out!

3) The Secret: Do Good Work and Share it With People - I feel that this is the central part of being a teacher, outside of educating children. If you do something good, be collaborative and share it with others. If it worked for you,share it with other teachers so they can do good as well! This is a very important technique to use to help not only yourself, but others. For everything you share, others will share as well!


Things I'd like to do

1)  Side Projects and Hobbies are Important - I don't feel like I do enough outside of my job. I'd like to explore more hobbies and get outside more. I find I spend too much time inside and don't expand my horizons. I always have grand ideas but never follow through.

2) Be Nice - So I don't always do this. I try my hardest and am sometimes too nice to others. But I can also have a mean streak in me. I think I really need to work more on Being Nice all the time and not just when I'm around children at school.

3) Write the Book You Want to Read - I am too often a follower. I find that this quote is directed towards being more of a leader and not a follower. This is my biggest fault and one I'd like to work harder on. Whether it be in my profession or my personal life. I need to accept that change can be good!

FInal Project Ideas

  •  Students will be able to identify geometric shapes and their properties.
  • Students will be shown different geometric shapes and have to select from a group of definitions which ones match the shape. They will also be able to learn about the properties of each shape.
  • Going to have a Square be my speaker since it is the highest order shape. It would then go back to talk about a closed figure to polygon to quadrilateral to parallelogram to rhombus to rectangle.