Hello everyone,

This Matthew Callaghan, bringing you one more smakeral of information concerning all of the different people that blog for ED-Tech.  Here’s a link to the site…

http://gman.edublogs.org/2007/06/17/what-does-ed-tech-really-do/#comment-191 

or you can go to:

http://gman.edublogs.org/ 

and look for “What does ED-Tech really do?”

That is all for me my friends of the blogging world!

Matt Callaghan

I recently came across a site that has the URL: http://www.martinlutherking.org/

The group that created this website is a white pride group that is looking into a completely different side of Dr. Martin Luther King’s life.  It makes King out to be a horrible person and it shows a lot of articles that show that blacks write lyrics that tell others to rape and kill white women.

I would never use a site like this in a classroom setting.  This kind of angry material is not what we should be teaching our children.  I believe that this information is of personal beliefs and that this is not the history that we are studying with our students.

This shows students to gradually not be as trusting with searching for information on the internet because if you were looking for information on Martin Luther King, this is not what you would be trying to search for.  You would see Martin Luther King and think…”oh, this is about his life”…but it isn’t…it is about the “bad” part of Martin Luther King and who he “truely” was.

I did a google search for “Martin Luther King” and I found this site at the 7th spot on the search engine.  The only reason why this got so high on the search list was because they falsely advertised the information with this direct quote from the synopsis of the site…”The truth about Martin Luther King: Includes historical trivia, articles and pictures. A valuable resource for teachers and students alike.”

Of course this is false advertisement considering what I stated about this website.  I feel as thought this is inaccurate information and that is has no place in our school society.  People have the freedom of speech yes…but this false advertisement could pull a kid into reading it and it could possible change the child’s point of view of black people completely (with this false information).

Unfortunatly…the WEB is a place were there is a lot of information and a lot of different opinions, and the only way that we can sift through the poor information is to take what we know and realize that this information has not credibility…It is an individual choice whether or not to believe the information that is put in front of you.

That is all I have for today,

Matt

Here is another blog entry from yours truly.

I was asked to once again respond to another’s blog and comment on one of their blogs on ed tech.

This author protected the comments (so he has to view them first before posting them) but here is the link to the preview of what I wrote to this author.

https://www.blogger.com/comment.do 

And if the author approves of my comment…here is the link to his blog page were my comment should end up!

 http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/blogger.html

The title of the blog that I responed to was New bill would revamp ed-tech funding – Laura Devaney, eSchool News

I signed my comment with “callaghm205″

That is all my good people…until next time!

I believe that there are some applications that every student should have a basic understanding of before they leave the K-12 system.  Here is what I believe (I have ranked my choice from 1-highest priority to 5-Lowest Priority):

1. Microsoft Word (word processors)

I believe that this should be one of the first programs taught to students.  I would say around the 5-6th grade.  This is an important software to master after learning how to type on computers and learning research methods.  This would be a great reinforcement to those basic skills.

2. PowerPoint

I think this is the next step for students.  This is a great way for students to express themselves and they can also reinforce their knowledge of word processors.  This would be great for something like an 8th grade research project.

3. Excel

This should be right after PowerPoint (9th grade).  This can help students gain a knowledge of organizing information on spreadsheets.  A great project for this would be a make-shift budget.

4. Outlook Express

This should be used and learned in the 9th or 10th grade.  This would be a great introduction to teaching students to organize and compose messages for others.

5. Access

This would be taught around the same time as Outlook.  This a nice little program to know for making lists and learning how to organize and search for certain keywords in it.

This is how I feel about it and nobody can tell me otherwise

Until next time,

Matthew Callaghan

I was asked to research a solution to this scenario:

The school where you teach participated in a technology pilot project four years ago. The entire school was networked, and each classroom received three multimedia computers to be used as student workstations. The applications your students can access at the workstations are not multimedia software applications, instead they are older, text-based programs. While you see the benefit of skill reinforcement that these text-based applications offer, you would like to use more multimedia software and would like to explore some options. You are not allowed to purchase software on your own; you must have the approval of your principal. How can you convince your principal that educational software would benefit your students? What would you say? Can you provide any research to support your position? In fact, I would like it if everyone could try to find some research that shows that technology IS beneficial for students in the classroom.

Here is my response:

Educational Software would be a benefit to the students of my classroom because it would give the students another way to experience learning. It can also be an effective tool for learning with children who have certain disabilities, like attention disorders. There are times in the educational curriculum, where the lessons do not reach some of these students, because every student has a different style of learning. To help understand this, I will turn to students with attention disorders and a type of technology that is being used to help students with this disorder, achieve academic success. Here is an article that describes the benefits of a type of software that helps with reading for students with attention disorders.

Title: Benefits of Assistive Reading Software for Students with Attention Disorders.
Author: Hecker, Linda
Source: Annals of Dyslexia v. 52 (2002) p. 243-72 Journal Code: Ann Dyslexia (found in “WilsonSelectPlus”-GVSU Database)

This article speaks of an assistive reading software that has been created for the purpose of helping students with attention disorders, obtain an understanding of reading and retaining the information. An experiment was conducted were 20 students with attention disorders used this assistive reading software (which from now on, I will call “ARS”). This ARS was used throughout a semester to assist students in reading texts for english classes. The software provided a visual and auditory presentation of text. It also added study skills tools for highlighting and note taking.

Attention, reading speed, comprehension, and attitude questionnaire responses were obtained during the sessions. The results of the experiment showed that ARS helped the students complete their reading faster. It helped in reducing their distractability, and they were able to read for longer periods of time because of the software. Overall, the students who used ARS were able to complete readings in less time and it helped students whose comprehension is poor.

This article clearly shows that educational software is a benefit to students in the classroom. Educational software not only helps children with normal reading, studying, and test taking habits…It can also help student with special needs that cannot always learn class material the same as their other peers.  Yes, the basic programs that can be found on computers are a reinforcement of technologies that students already know, but with other educational softwares, we will be able to open up a whole new way of teaching to many students of different learning styles in the years to come.

I was asked to look for and comment on a weblog on ED Tech.

I found a blog that focused on an issue that we recently talked about in group discussions…Students blogging on the internet.

The name I used was my own.  At the end of my comment that I posted I signed it with Matthew205.  As far as I know, I’m the only one that commented on this particular subject in this blog.  The link to the blog and my comments in below.

http://sandy1v.blogspot.com/2007/05/are-your-students-blogging.html

My best,

Matthew Callaghan

Hello all,

This question was brought to me and I wish to answer it as one of my first blogs.  I believe that this is a great started question so that you as my readers can get to know me better.

Describe the computer-related technologies that you have available in your living environment and/or work environment. How have you used technologies in your previous educational experiences? How have teachers/instructors used technology to help in teaching you? What do you hope to learn in this class? Finally, provide your definition of “educational technology.”

At home, I have many different types of computer-related technologies available at my disposal.  I own a macbook and a pc laptop.  I also own many different types of technological add-ons like a printer, external hard drive, and a digital cameral that docks onto a USB to the computer.  In other educational experiences, the only times that we used technologies were in our basic computer application classes.  In these classes we learned practical applications of microsoft programs and how to use simple technologies like cameras and recording devices.

When I was in school, my teachers used a lot of computerized technology to teach the classes.  The teachers mainly used powerpoint and we also fiddled around with video and audio recording technology on Macs.

In this class, I hope to learn exactly what it teaches.  I hope to become better skilled at intergrating technology into my lessons when I finally become an eduator.

“educational technology” to me is the technology that can be used to aid students in the learning process.

That answers the questions that were posted.

Also I was looking online and I found a weblog that another fellow educator has.  She uses this blog site to help answer questions about educational technology and all of it’s components.  If you would like to have a look, here’s the link below

http://anne.teachesme.com/

Take care until next time!

Matt

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