Grabe Post

#1 What is the Big Six and how should it be used?

Well the big six are: Task definition, Information Seeking, Locating and Accessing, Use of Information, Organize and Communicate, and Evaluation.

How they should be use is in order for one thing (it makes it much easier). Grabe talks about this six skill and their relationship with the internet. With task definition you really should decide what you need to know before you start your internet adventures. You really start this "adventure" with information seeking, students really need to be familiar with internet sources to be able to seek information using them. With locating and accessing Grabe mentions scaffolding and integrating skills into authentic tasks. He talks about how to use each skill with the internet and emphasizing you should teach your students how to use the internet and how to use it in a academically beneficial way.

As with an source the information on the Internet needs to be processes and then used according to the problem solving task or assignment. Critical thinking skills come into play here, what is important and what is not.

The last of the six is evaluation which I believe to be the most important really. As the rest are important as well evaluation is the task were you make sure all of your sources are correct and the information is as well.

The big six can be used in things such as research papers and assignments such as photo stories. These skills should be taught and used with teacher support so the students learn and engage in the activity with the proper academic outlook.

Gabcast! Tl5141 #0

Harris Post

#1 Harris (1998) lists eighteen activity structures for Internet projects as well as numerous examples. Are these learning projects prevalent in today's classrooms? Why or Why not?

I read 'An Illusory Dilemma...' and it groups the eighteen activity structures for Internet Projects into three categories, Interpersonal exchanges, Information Collection and Analysis and Problem Solving activities. These to me sound like skills that teachers want their students to learn. The Internet is a vast resource to teach these skills. These 18 activity structures for Internet Projects are absolutely prevalent to today's classrooms. The Internet is here to stay and we should take advantage of it capablity of being a great learning tool and catalyst. Of course like any learning it should be monitored because of some content found on the web, but if the instructor prepares for the lesson and shows the students how to use the Internet as a learning resource it can and will be productive.

PODCAST

So my podcast will be posted soon, I just got access to Gabcast today! Yeah!
I should have it up in the next day or two.

Photo Story 3 Project

CPB Post

#2 How can teachers use video to promote student achievement?

Teachers should select a relavent video and watch it before showing it to their class. The teacher needs to be prepare with a post video activity(s) so to allow the students to get the most out of the video. More students will benefit from watching and hearing the lesson. Visual learners will be able to work and understand the material better and then auditory learner will still be able to function in a learning capacity. Those students that fall in the middle will be better suited to learn also with the choices between visual and audio. As we discussed in class students when they hear and see tend to retain 50% of the material as where just to listen is 20% and to see is 30%. Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory is a supporter of the use of video in the classroom and video helps you "accommodate" Gardner's theory as the article states. The more I think the more I will write.

Reiser Post

Ok so I read the article and I think that TEAMS is a wonderful idea. It will take sometime to put together units with other teachers but I also think that it is worth it. One problem I did see is lining up all the curriculum in the different areas all year. I may no be able to go through all of my core curriculum in Social Studies if I am trying to relate my units to other disciplines. I think that TEAMS is great but should not be used all year, but integrated throughout the year.

As for the lessons that we were to review that used the teams method, some where effective others didn't have enough material to explain the topic integrations. The lesson on classification confused me a lot. But ones like the Micro biology or healthy lifestyles gave me enough information to understand the topic and how it would be integrated.

I believe that the TEAMS method would be very effective if the teachers take time to put together the unit properly.