Primary Sources

Mendelevev's 1st Periodic Table

A primary source is a document, recording or other source that was created at roughly the time being studied, by an authoritative source, usually one with direct personal knowledge of the events being described. A primary source could be a first-hand source from the past including diaries or artifacts. Primary sources provide researchers with direct information about the information that is being researched. They may contain original research or new information not previously published elsewhere.

Primary sources allow students and teachers to access information about a topic by someone that lived in that time and recorded their thoughts and experiences. How awesome would it be to talk to Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev about the periodic table and know what he was thinking while he was developing this table. You can pull up broadcasts that people made in that particular time era. For example, students can hear the broadcast made when the first man walked on the moon. The NARA or National Archives and Records Administration is an excellent site that can be used by educators and students to find primary sources. This website is user friendly and makes it easy on everyone to do research. Students do need to have some Internet search skills, inferencing skills and need to know what a primary source is to be successful working with the Internet primary source sites.

Fears & Hopes

Some of the fears I have are keeping up to date with all the new technology that comes out everyday. Can I remember it all, can I learn it all, can I understand it all, are some of the questions that I ask myself.

I think the easiest way to overcome fears is to understand those fears. Knowledge is a powerful tool and keeping up to date with technology is very important. This can be very hard to do since technology is always changing and new technology is developed everyday. Workshops, professional development training, and classes can help me with this problem. I thought I was very technology literate until I took this class and learned about all the new technology out there, wikis, blogs, Photo Story 3, etc. It just showed me that I was technology literate 1 year ago and things change everyday! I think that by realizing that I will have to continually search for knowledge in order to stay technology literate it will put me closer to my educational vision of using technology to enhance curriculum.

I think that teachers, staff, technology coordinators, and administratorsion need to share technology ideas and validate why these ideas and tools can be helpful in the class. For example, I share powerful technology information with my teachers as I learn it, but I am also showing how it can benefit them and why it is important. Teachers need to understand why it is better to change and use tools that they have not already been using. Sometimes teachers believe that what they are doing is working and don't understand why they would need to change. I try to explain that they are not changing just adding technology tools to enhance the curriculum they already teach. Explaining isn't enough for most teachers and they want evidence and valid ideas that they can see and use. Teachers are busy and dealing with state objectives that are always changing. It can be very overwhelming for veteran teachers as well as new teachers. I understand this and I only hope that I can help them and make their job a little easier

Distance Education

Distance education is allowing teachers to present students with opportunities that were not offered before. Video conferencing is one of these examples. Video conferencing can provide students with the opportunity to interact with other students around the world or people that could not come to the actual classroom. I did a video conference with my 7th grade students in which they were able to interact with a criminal forensic investigator. The students were able to ask questions and here questions asked by other students in different schools. The investigator also played a mystery game to see which school performed the crime. It was awesome and the kids loved it. They also learned a lot of information that could not have been learned from just me and their classmates. Hearing comments and questions from other school was an extraordinary benefit. The only disadvantage to this was that it was only offered at one time and I had to combine all of my 7th graders into one class and they missed their other classes for that time period. The time it was offered was not during our regular bell schedule so we had to switch the class time around some as well. However, the advantages well out weighted the disadvantages. I have also used virtual dissection in the classroom. My school could not afford real frogs for the class to dissect, so I found a virtual dissection site. It was great. The kids learned the same information with out the squeamishness some kids have, the cost, or the clean up! Some teachers have made the comment that technology is getting so good that they may eventually replace us. I think that distance education is changing the world of teaching, but it will never completely replace the added benefit of a real teacher. I believe that they need to go hand in hand and that the technology should enhance curriculum not teach it.

Check out this virtual 3D environment www.gogofrog.com. Gogofrog allows you to experience the ultimate 3D world in your browser. You don't need to download anything to your computer, just sign up to the site and create your own 3D place with unlimited online space. At Gogofrog you can share your art, photos, journals and interests with an ever-expanding network of friends and visitors. Chat with your site visitors, furnish your environment and change the space to suit your mood. Think of what you could do with this as a teacher. Assignments could be posted, students can interact with each environment, historical reenactments can be designed, experiments performed all in 3D.