Motivating Students with Robotics

Motivating Students with Robotics is a fun way of learning and by this program we can get the students involve practically. The robotics program engages students in their particular subjects through a different kind of approach, as students explore the field of robotics as a real-world discipline in which the fundamentals learned are put to practical use. This program helps on the student excitement generated by participation while providing them to increase their skills, self confidence and as well as their behavior and attitude toward learning.

         Students have the unique opportunity to apply their science and math skills to robotics design through a series of short courses. They have to work on their project in a group; they usually solve their problem and create an object from ground up that includes design etc. Students start from brainstorm to sketch a robotic model that will function properly. Students are divided according to strengths in their field of expertise.  This method helps student team-building, and also helps them to learn every tool and develop reflexive safe shop behaviors. Hands on project also help them to know the difference between machines and robots. Students learn how to create something through engineering process that makes them ready for the real world. It also helps students to design something that is going to be functional and just to have a design to look at.

         The objective of this program is to teach skills for leading and participating in teams and to teach strategies for facilitating problem-solving activities. So it comes to the conclusion that the program FIRST helps students to learn and build and at the same time as well as to realize the value of mentorship and teamwork. Program FIRST motivates students, which can increase their interest in pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

         Brenda Brand is an associate professor of science education and Mary Kasarda is an associate professor of mechanical engineering, both at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia; Michael Collver is the lead teacher of robotics for Montgomery County Schools in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Brand, Brenda, Kasarda, Mary, & Collver, Michael. (2008). Motivating students with robotics. The Science Teacher, 75(4), Retrieved from: http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/News/Science_Teacher_2008_Reprint.pdf

         

Three Roles for Teachers using Technology

The author of this article, being a history teacher, introduced integrated media and technology in his class. After considering his role as an instructor he propounded three role models. First, as a role model, second as tech support, and third as a cheerleader.

Instructor as Role Model:

The author believes that instructors should be role models for using technology in the class, which should be used for the maximum benefit of achieving their goals. He did an experiment with his students by adding links to his blogs, Face book page, and Twitter; to encourage his students to communicate with him and explained them how a blog and twitter are used, to share information. He uses technology in an efficient and responsible manner.

Instructor as Tech Support:

He found himself as a tech supporter for his students when they were facing technological problems. As it takes extra time to solve problems, he believes it is very important for him as an instructor to play that role. It makes his students confident about his technological ability, which can also go under instructor as a role model.

Instructor as Cheerleader

Cheerleader is also the most important role as an instructor; he believes that cheerleading is lacking for teaching technology to higher education.  The writer found that the students who entered his class in the starting of the course became more proficient in technology than ever before.

Author has made some very good points, regarding roles/ characteristics teachers need to reflect.  It is my strong belief that all teachers should follow this model, not only for the benefit of their students, but also for themselves as instructors.

  Boggs, Jeremy. (2009). Three roles for teachers using technology.

Retrieved from:http://clioweb.org/2009/02/07/three-roles-for-teachers-using-technology/

Weblog as a Learning Tool in Higher Education

The article Weblog as a Learning Tool in Higher Education describes a study to understand the ease of use and usefulness of weblogs for learning in higher education. Learners are benefitted by the weblogs which offer a number of possibilities for student-centered learning in higher education. The author believes that learning is cooperative when it involves a group of people working together on a particular issues or task and it arises from collaborative interaction between participants. Weblogs not only accelerate the learning process but also provide opportunities to work and activity as a group and out of conventional classrooms. Students could share their ideas with friends without any fear, even students with disorders and disability could cooperate with students, while this is not possible in conventional classrooms.

The author Yousef Namvar is PhD student of Islamic Azad University, Research and Science Branch, Tehran, IRAN. He is also a faculty member at Islamic Azad University, Ardabil Branch. He received his B.A. degree on educational science in 2002 from Buali Sina University and M.A. degree on educational science in 2004 from Teacher Training University. His research interests are e-learning, web-based learning and computer assisted teaching environments. The author believes that blogs and other social software are enabling us to integrate learning as a natural part of everyday life.

Namvar, Y. (2008, July). Weblog as a Learning Tool in Higher Education. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE July 2008 ISSN 1302-6488 Volume: 9 Number: 3 Article 15. Retrieved November 30, 2010 from   http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde31/articles/article_15.htm

Educational Blogging

The phenomenon known as blogging, or web-logging, is sweeping the Internet especially in the field of education and the number of educational bloggers is growing daily. The article Educational blogging by Stephen Downes portrays the emergence of blogging and the use of weblogs to support learning. It also provides some good examples of how educational institutions are using blogs in order to help improve their learning process. The author believes that blogging is a way, an opportunity of expressing thoughts and exchanging different ideas with the rest of the world. Henry Farrell who is another contributor to this article identifies five major ways how blogs are used in education is also very informative.

Stephen Downes is a Senior Researcher with the E-Learning Research Group, National Research Council Canada, Moncton, New Brunswick. His research appears well thought out and well organized as he used many sources for the information provided in this article. Although he points out concerns and weakness regarding blogs in education, he feels that blogs not only encourage students to read and write but also bring life into learning.

Downes, S. 2004. Educational Blogging. EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 39, no. 5 (September/October 2004): 14–26. Retrieved November 30, 2010 from

http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume39/EducationalBlogging/157920

Barriers To Online Teaching In Post-Secondary Institutions: Can Policy Changes Fix It?

This article portrays the advantages and barriers of Online Education. Increasing access to quality education has been one of the main justifications for the use of distance education. Use of the Internet in education is to provide an efficient way to collaborate with others. Experts and educators all over the world can become collaborators with the teachers and students in a classroom. But even with the advantages that occur under certain conditions, there are still critical barriers to distance education and specifically to online education at a distance. Many barriers to learning and teaching at a distance are caused by lack of access to resources and people, difficulties in assessment. The barriers reported in this article indicate that an additional area of policy interest should involve technical or infrastructure needs in the educational system. Author says that online teaching and learning will fail without strong administrative leadership to support the many changes necessary to fully implement online educational activities and to overcome the barriers expressed by the teachers and by other educators.

Berge, Z.L. (1998). Barriers to online teaching in post-secondary institutions: can policy changes fix it? Retrieved from

http://www.westga.edu/~distance/Berge12.html

Prepare for Impact

This article ‘Prepare for Impact’ is related to anyone connected to K-12 education and mainly focuses on the growing use of open source software by schools. Especially in these hard economic times when our schools are hit hard by the budget cuts and irregular fundings they can still integrate technology with the use of open source programs which are available at no cost. One of the major things that drive up school district costs is running proprietary software on proprietary operating systems. Schools can save lots of money with this free software. Even in the richest countries, schools are short of money. Free software gives schools, like other users, the freedom to copy and redistribute the software, so the school system can make copies for all the computers they have. Apache is the most used web server and Moodle is the leading course management system for districts that cannot afford blackboard. OpenOffice is another most talked about open source alternatives of Microsoft Office.

This article ‘Prepare for Impact’ is very useful and informative. But the Author of this article also makes a point that although open source applications are free, the cost of staff development, implementation cost, and training may make the no cost option more expensive in the long run.

Waters, John k. (2010). Prepare for impact. THE Journal, 37(5), 20-25. Retrieved from

http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.chapman.edu/ehost/detail?vid=5&hid=108&sid=8f74c367-3a42-4b0d-8e65-7061ea5f7dbe%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=50504174#db=aph&AN=50504174

Adolescent Learning and the Internet

This article ‘Adolescent Learning and the Internet’ is a useful article because this is what all the educational institutions and we all teachers are struggling to implement in our classrooms. Adolescents have different attitudes regarding the use of internet and for them internet is the most important resource for learning rather than learning through books or other resources. Most of the schools have internet access but only fractions of students are using it in classrooms or for their homework. The article suggests urging educators to explore ways the Internet can contribute to learning in a digital world. The authors of this article show that it is well researched and concluded that that Internet homework is helpful because assignments increase understanding of topics. Students also seek Internet training for research. It was found that parent involvement and teacher readiness are important factors of achievement as well.

Strom, Paris, Strom, Robert, Wing, Charlotte, & Beckert, Troy. (2010). Adolescent learning and the internet. Education Digest, 75(6), 10-16. Retrieved from

http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.chapman.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&hid=111&sid=1255ea41-6635-4259-999c-c785374397e6%40sessionmgr113