Creative Commons picture

This photo is so amazing. It is under "living spaces" in creative commons and there is so much to take from it. The two stair ways lead to different living spaces, the space between could be a living space for someone. There is a gate to another stairway that may lead to another living space! The lighting here is beautiful too, it suggests comfort, solitude, siesta time, home. I could stare at this for hours.

Educator's innovative use of software in the classroom

"Microsoft Corp. has awarded its 2007 Pinnacle Award for Excellence in Education to the University of Indianapolis School of Business for its innovative use of business software in the classroom."

Associate Professor Jerry Flatto is being recognized for his use of the software Microsoft Dynamics GP inthe classroom. The software is an actual business tool an "enterprise resource planning system" that is a market leader. Flatto incorprated the software into his undergrad classroom by having students enter pretend data and actually build a virtual company Flatto says that the software helps model basic business concepts and shows how functions relate and flow together. The students also use applications that are common in the business world they want to enter someday, in many fleids including law, medicaine etc. The experience and familiarity goves these students and edge in the world after graduation!

Article about award and software can be found at http://www.uindy.edu/news/?p=422

Digital Story telling ideas

Interesting Instructional Software

I found a program called "English in a Flash" published by the Renaissance Learning company.
The hardware required is pretty typical, Windows 2000 or 2003, 1Ghz Pentium etc. There is also a required back up system process that isn't given much detail. A standard subscription costs $1499 and a complete subscription is around 19.95 per student with a minimum of 10 students.
The software is designed to help ELL students catch up to their peers in their handle on the English language. It is primarily a drill and practice program where students develop vocabulary and are exposed to grammar in context, rather than learning rules. On a first glance there seems to be a high control over presentation rate. Feedback is simple, you review the wrong answers immediately after the exercise. There are pretests that determine levels of knowledge and lessons are added and removed according to these assessments. There have been high reviews, and intense studies that show this software is effective in catching these students up so they can participate in the activities of the English speaking classroom.

Successful and Innovative Practices

The NC website offers some really cool things. Their lesson plans are very useful, they combine history with sense of self, they have opportunities for creativity and interaction, they seem to provide for the teaching of the whole child. They are all very original and innovative. These lessons are available to everyone and you can develop and contribute your own ideas too. THE Journal has articles about new ideas like using video games to teach math and collaborating across cultures by having technological relationships with overseas students. They also have information about upcoming technological advances and events for example; corporate companies have incentive to bring technology into schools because they are then provided with tech-savvy employees for the future.
There are all kinds of softwares available and being developed to help with learning and aid in teaching, everything from reading comprehension to science experiments. I wounder where teachers will be in ten years, will it even be necessary? But if kids have to learn from a computer screen, won't that effect many who don't have the kind of learning style required? What will happen to hands on instruction and exploration?

Classroom 2.0 Question

We decided to discuss and research how to teach media literacy effectively and creatively in English classrooms. We searched the web and found several resouces. One heplful website that we found was The Center for Media Literacy at www.medialit.com. We still have not recieved any feedback after posting our question on classroom 2.0, but we look forward to getting input from other people.

Holly Hershberger, Whitney Upshaw, Genevieve Barbour, and Sheryl Cubin

copyrights SCARY!

After reading the information about copyrights and how easy it is to break the law, even with the best of intentions, I realized how important it is to ensure you are very careful with what you use and how you use it. These sites will come in handy when I am actually in a class room sharing the wealth of information available these days. The technicality of all of it is a little intimidating but it is still good to know there are people and places where the rules are plain and available. The Creative Commons is brilliant! It is so good to see an organization like this bringing great people with their innovative ideas together under safe and fair circumstances. While I realize the importance of owner ship and credit, and therefore respect and support copyrights, I am glad there is somewhere available for people to branch out and connect. It encourages expansion through cooperation and what is technology better for than that?!