Wanda+Faust

=Welcome to Wanda Faust's Wiki! = =Advanced Educational Psychology  = =Fall 2009 =

 Brain Games  [|Are you a right brainer or a left brainer] [|Take the brain tests]

 In Lawrence A. Baines book //A Teacher's Guide to Multisensory Learning//, Baines emphasizes that techniques such as working from the textbook, daily quizzes, and desk work do little to motivate students or poor readers. A willing and eager student will be intrinsically motivated to participate wholly in the learning process. By using technology in the classroom, a teacher might inspire unmotivated students to create, imagine, and believe in themselves. The new emerging technology that I have chosen to showcase could easily be incorporated into a classroom setting. Each technology used could enhance creative thought, help develop diverse learning groups, and help the teacher accomplish goals of teaching.

  Baines, L. (2008) A Teachers Guide to Multisensory Learning. Washington D.C.: ASCD Pink, D. (2006). // A Whole New Mind. // New York: Penguin Group.

Check it out! **  1. [|Project Natal] 2. [|Meebo] 3. [|Flickr] 4. [|SecondLife] 5. [|Twitter] 6. [|TakingITGlobal] Project Natal ** ** Natal is new game software that is set for release soon for the X-box 360. This game software has the ability to recognize facial features, movement, and motion of an individual without the use of a controller. You can “hand” items to Natal and the figure (Milo is in the example) will take it from the top of the screen. Natal will enable educators to bring science, travel, fun, and learning to the student in a very new and innovative way.
 * New Technology for your Classroom.
 * __ What is it? __

Teachers want to motivate students, create an exciting and creative learning experience for the student, and have fun doing it. Can fun and education go hand in hand?
 * __ Educational concepts of Natal __**



Researchers (Marantz 2008, Shiner, Masten, and Roberts 2003; Singer and Singer 2005) have found that play can enhance creative thoughts, can develop trust, and can expand critical thinking. All of these attributes can lead to increased learning in the students. The theory of Constuctivism has two general ideas; one is that the learner is active in building their own knowledge and that social interactions are important in this process. The theory allows for each individual the opportunities to create new ideas through experience. Play can give students a new perspective on the educational process while developing distinctive critical learning skills.

Vygotsky’s Social constructivism states that by working together, learners can produce new strategies and knowledge. Play can encourage this type of generated collective building of knowledge. The American Academy pf Pediatrics stated that “Play is essential to development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth” (Woolrich, 182). Play is one area in education that can mesh mind, body, and spirit. In the philosophy of Progressivism, the whole child is educated. We as educators must remember to balance work and play, and put emphasis on both to create new learning experiences for our students.



<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Daniel Pink in //A Whole New Mind// states that one of the six senses that need to be developed in the new conceptual age is play. Play has moved to the mainstream in regards to importance in life, business, and education. Pink notes that invention and play have many common traits and play can encourage invention and learning without the trappings of a “this is boring” thinking. Pink states that in the United States more money is spent on the video game business than the motion picture industry. Video games are mainstream for this generation and education must incorporate this type of technology into the classroom. Pink notes that playing video games can sharpen many skills that are important in the Conceptual age.

Any new technology can bring interest to the classroom. This technology merges “Wii with Nintendo” and no controller! You are interacting with the computer screen; when you move your hands over an area of water, the water moves. Students could swim in oceans, travel through the rain forests, and hike trails and mountains. When the technology is available, this interaction will become critical in education, health and fitness, and sports interaction via computer. Natal has the possibilities to connect play, video game skills, group interaction with learning in the classroom. It’s a win win situation!
 * __ How could this technology be used in the classroom to promote learning? __**

<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial;">Baines, L (2008). //A Teacher’s Guide to Multisensory Learning//. Washington, D.C.: ASCD <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastlanguage: EN-US;">Pink, D. (2006). // A Whole New Mind. // New York: Penguin Group. Woolfolk, A. (2010). // Educational Psychology (11th ed.) //NewYork:Pearson Education, Inc.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 140%;">**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Meebo ** In today’s tech savvy generation, communication via cell, text, email, twitter, and blogging is a very important way to connect to others and vital in the education field, a way to teach using different media to reach students. Meebo effectively organizes a contact list for all types of instant messages platforms to reach each one in different venues-real time. Meebo has the ability to move your message, video, pictures to groups of people in the medium that they wish to receive it.
 * __ What is it? __**

__**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Education Concepts of Meebo **__

In the new conceptual age according to Daniel Pink, one of the six senses is design. Design is a combination of usefulness and importance. Design in teaching merges information with delivery. Delivery of information is an important component of learning. How can we as teacher best teach out students? Can we reach more students by using different methods of delivery?

There is a validity in recognizing the different learning styles of students. This recognition allows the teacher to help the students become aware of their preference styles and also help the teacher accommodate different methods of delivery of teaching. When a students becomes aware of how they learn, they can develop self-monitoring and self-awareness of the learning process.



<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Richard Mayer has found that there are three facets of the visualizer-verbalizer demension of learning styles. The cognitive ability has high and low spatial ability. The cognitive style has visual and verbal types of learners. The learning preference is also visual and verbal. Although Mayer states that learning styles are a minor factor in learning,it still is an important piece of the whole schema of learning.

Using technology for the sake of technology is not effective. Choosing different methods of delivery of topics can enhance learning. “Learning strategies are ideas for accomplishing learning goals” (Woolfork, 272). The teacher has a role of matching learning strategies and linking them with the learning goals. By using the technology of choice of students, a learning goal could be enhanced if delivered in a preferred way. We have all checked the preferred method of contact on order forms, applications, questionnaires. We all have preferences. We as teachers need to be open about enhancing learning in our students by thinking about delivery methods of instruction. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;"> __**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">How could this technology be used in the classroom to promote learning? **__ <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Connecting as a group is important in a learning community. When you make students feel a part of a process, accountability is a byproduct. Accountability in education is an essential goal for students and teachers. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">If students feel an accountability to the class, self awareness and self monitoring become a natural part of the learning process. Meebo could be used in the classroom to help motivate students by delivering information in a new and innovative way. Groups could be constructed from the classroom to work on different aspects of a project. These groups could send out reports to the whole class to via different types of delivery. As this delivery is novel in an educational setting, it may serve to help spark imagination and excitement among the students.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial;">Baines, L (2008). //A Teacher’s Guide to Multisensory Learning//. Washington, D.C.: ASCD <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Pink, D. (2006). // A Whole New Mind. // New York: Penguin Group. Woolfolk, A. (2010). // Educational Psychology (11th ed.). // New York: Pearson Education, Inc.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastlanguage: EN-US;">. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">**Flickr ** <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> Flickr is a photo sharing website that allows you to tag and send photos or videos to someone-on any platform that they would like to receive them. Flickr is also a community platform for chat, tagging photos, or telling stories. Classes can organize projects on Flickr by theme or purpose. Students have the opportunity to showcase work and projects and share with a select group or for all to see.

__**Education Concepts of Flickr**__ In the early 1970’s in Rabun Gap Georgia, a teacher decided to get his students to ask their friends and family about their life when they were young. The students recorded and wrote down their stories. These stories were compiled into a book called //Foxfire//. The Foxfire series went on to produce over 15 books of stories. In the new conceptual age according to Daniel Pink, one of the six senses is story. What is story? “Story is who we are and what we are about” (Pink, 115). By telling someone your story, you are connecting to that person on a different level.

In education, we as teachers want to connect to our students in order to help the student reach his or her potential. Maybe part of our story can help the student with his or her story. "The sociocultural conceptions of motivation encourage participation in communities of practice" (Woolrich, 293).By encouraging participation in a group, the teacher is helping a student gain a stronger and broader sense of self. A group that is engrained in a technological medium might be safer for the student that finds it hard to relate to others.



Maslow’s hierarchy of needs addresses the need for belonging as a lower-level need for survival. A teacher can help address this need by forming groups within the classroom. These “small schools” or small learning communities can help students feel a part of things-feel like they belong. One such learning community could be group projects developed by using the software Flickr. One way of telling our story is through pictures. Pictures can tell where we are and where we were. By sharing pictures with students, and students sharing pictures with other students, we are in a sense trying to tell our story.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> __**How could this technology be used in the classroom to promote learning?**__ <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Examples of Flickr for your classroom

 * [|Wilbraham & Monson Academy] - photos from library activities
 * [|Unquiet Library]
 * [|Pine Point - CT] - Great Slide.com show of library, with music. And a slide.com show of the school book fair.
 * [|Vocabulary Pictures] - Springfield Township High School Library
 * [|Math photo project] - [|blog post about the project]
 * Northfield Mt. Hermon Library
 * Everett Middle School Library
 * Miss McLaughlin's photos
 * [|Mrs. Cassidy's Class Photos]
 * Pesky Library
 * Student project with comments

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Flickr could be used in the classroom for special projects in any area. Classwork is no longer delegated to the hallway bulletin board. Pictures of events could be shared for all to see. Students in small groups could work on sections of topics and when completed by the whole class, the entire project would be available to view. Photos are tagged in Flickr and can be easily retrieved either individually or as a group.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial;"> <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Pink, D. (2006). // A Whole New Mind. // New York: Penguin Group. Woolfolk, A. (2010). // Educational Psychology (11th ed.). // New York: Pearson Education, Inc.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">**Twitter

__What is it?__** Twitter is a free social networking service that allow its users to send and receive messages known as tweets. Tweets are text posts of up to 140 characters that can be delivered to the author’s followers. Senders can allow open access to their page or restrict delivery to certain people or groups.

__**<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> Educational concepts of Twitter **__

Twitter has the underlying foundation of belonging to a group-a group that follows a person in his life by answering the question what are you doing? As previously stated in the use of Flickr, by encouraging participation in a group, the teacher is helping a student gain a stronger and broader sense of self. A group that is engrained in a technological medium might be safer for the student that finds it hard to relate to others. In the concept of legitimate peripheral participation, identities of a small contributor and a large contributor to group effort is the same because each is caught up in the group of community. By using Twitter, which is up to 140 characters, each student could feel as productive as any other student in the project.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Twitter can be defined as a social network that educators can tap into to reach students. Rather than ask the question: what are you doing?; teachers could ask: what are you learning? Using Twitter is just another way they can help form good teacher student relationships without being physical present. Pink states in //A Whole New Mind// that the sense of symphony is the ability to put the pieces together. By trying new technology and expanding our boundaries, we become more diverse in thinking and creating.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">We become able to “see the big picture”. If you are attempting to see the big picture in your life, you decide what is important and what is not, you learn not to “sweat the small stuff”. In the new conceptual age, symphony “thinking” helps you sort out what really matters.



**__ How can this technology be used in the classroom to promote learning? __**

Twitter has many uses for the classroom. By limiting the tweet to 140 characters, this is a novel exercise in writing concise messages. Tweets by the teacher could include reminders of work due, students could tweet ideas and problems in course work to each other. Many times students will not ask for help in person, but will certainly “tweet it”! Twitter is a new technology that is novel to both teachers and students. Using any new technology is exciting and by using in the classroom may help to increase motivation and excitement in the classroom.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial; text-align: left;">Baines, L (2008). //A Teacher’s Guide to Multisensory Learning//. Washington, D.C.: ASCD <span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontfamily: Arial; msobidilanguage: AR-SA; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastlanguage: EN-US; text-align: left;">Pink, D. (2006). // A Whole New Mind. // New York: Penguin Group. Woolfolk, A. (2010). // Educational Psychology (11th ed.). // New York: Pearson Education, Inc.

**Second Life** __**What is it ?**__

Second Life is the largest “reality” website. Second Life gives students the opportunity for digital storytelling, role playing, learning digital media production techniques, creative writing, and playing. Many Second Life sites have been established to enhance literature readings by incorporating 3-D resources in the understanding of the story. In Dante’s //Inferno//, visitors descend into the inferno where interactive elements can visually enhance this piece of great literature.



**__Educational concepts of this technology__**

In //A Whole New Mind//, Pink states that the conceptual sense of meaning will “move to the center of our lives and our consciousness" (Pink, 244).The pursuit of meaning can make our life complete. Students who play and learn in Second Life actually can broaden their boundaries and expand life experiences by role-playing. Role-playing can give the student different views on life meaning. They can “try on experiences”, discard them and try on others. Computer simulation games can offer students experience in problem-based learning.



<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Problem-based learning scenarios provide students with realistic problems that do not have naturally “correct answers”. Problem-based learning scenarios give students different perspectives on problems and allow the student to evaluate their own personal beliefs about a situation. By thinking about what is important in a situation, the student begins to realize what it is that they really believe-what “they know for sure”. Any learning objectives that allow for intellectual thinking can help the student search for their own meaning-the thoughts, concerns, and decisions that make up their belief system. Second Life offers a virtual world in which the student can shop, learn, interact, and play in a safe environment. In Second Life, interactions can occur with literary figures, fantasy figures, and a combination of the two.

**__How this technology could be used for leaning in the classroom? __**

Second life could be used in the classroom to interact with others in the class to foster a sense of community. Second life could help students visually interact with literary figures and literary places. In Second life, you can shop, explore, chat both text and audio. You could work on projects with students in other countries. Many Universities have set up Second life sites to enhance literature classes. Second life can be a fun way that visually represents people, places, and things that we read about.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Pink, D. (2006) //A Whole New Mind//. New York: Penguin Group Woolfork, A. (2009) //Education Psychology//. (11th) Edition. New York: Pearson Education, Inc. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> TakingItGlobal is an social network organization focusing on global issues for youth. The aim of TakingItGlobal is to raise awareness of global issues and encourages youth to take action in the community for positive change. In Daniel Pink’s //A Whole New Mind//, he describes the sense of empathy as “the ability to stand in others’ shoes, to see with their eyes, and to feel with their hearts” (Pink 159). By reaching out and talking with youth around the world on important global issues, students can learn empathy by connecting with other people. Education, awareness, and action concerning issues that affect others in the world can lead to having empathy for others and also having meaning in your own life. A cooperative group is a way of working with others for a common goal.
 * TakingItGlobal**
 * __What is it?__ **
 * __Educational concepts of TakingItGlobal__ **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Studies have shown that cooperative groups can have positive effects on student’s empathy, tolerance for differences, and feelings of acceptance. Working together to make changes on global issues cannot only help global causes, but can help students realize the importance of “power in a group” but also “the power of one”.



TakingItGlobal use in the classroom can expand student’s perspective on global issues. Since this is a social networking site, students can connect with others all over the world who can share issues in their country or community. Students broaden their horizons by uniting ideas and discussing issues with peers all over the world. Research can be done on specific topics and can discover the impact of these issues on the people who are affected by them. TakingItGlobal can increase a students perspective of the world. It can also provide an opportunity of awareness of culture and diversity, yet common thought on global issues.
 * __How can this technology be used in the classroom to promote learning?__ **

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; msobidifontfamily: Arial;">Baines, L (2008). //A Teacher’s Guide to Multisensory Learning//. Washington, D.C.: ASCD <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Pink, D. (2006). // A Whole New Mind. // New York: Penguin Group.
 * Examples of TakingItGlobal for your classroom**
 * <span class="ted_image">[[image:http://takingitglobal.cachefly.net/images/homepage/content/classroom/tobacco.png caption="Virtual Classroom on Tobacco Control" link="http://www.tigweb.org/tiged/projects/tobacco/"]] <span class="ted_text">[|The Virtual Classroom on Tobacco Control]
 * <span class="ted_image">[[image:http://takingitglobal.cachefly.net/images/homepage/content/classroom/hiv.png caption="TIG Xpress - HIV/AIDS" link="http://www.tigweb.org/tiged/projects/tigxpress/"]] <span class="ted_text">[|TIG Xpress - HIV/AIDS]
 * <span class="ted_image">[[image:http://takingitglobal.cachefly.net/images/homepage/content/classroom/ayiti.png caption="Ayiti: The Cost of Life" link="http://www.tigweb.org/tiged/projects/ayiti/"]] <span class="ted_text">[|Ayiti: The Cost of Life]
 * <span class="ted_image">[[image:http://takingitglobal.cachefly.net/images/homepage/content/classroom/orange.png caption="The Orange Revolution" link="http://www.tigweb.org/tiged/projects/orange/"]] <span class="ted_text">[|The Orange Revolution]
 * <span class="ted_image">[[image:http://takingitglobal.cachefly.net/images/homepage/content/classroom/grub.png caption="Youth perspectives on food choices and food systems" link="http://www.tigweb.org/tiged/projects/grub/"]] <span class="ted_text">[|Youth perspectives on food choices and food systems]
 * <span class="ted_image">[[image:http://takingitglobal.cachefly.net/images/homepage/content/classroom/tl_logo.jpg caption="A secondary school resource for a more sustainable future" link="http://www.tigweb.org/tiged/school/getstarted.html?SpecialID=15"]] <span class="ted_text">[|A secondary school resource for a more sustainable future]

Woolfolk, A. (2009). // Educational Psychology (11th ed.). // New York: Pearson Education, Inc.