What you know and don't know about Islam

After you have completed the sections in the lesson on Islam, please respond to the following question as a comment on this blog entry.

What are 3 questions do you still have about Islam that were not answered in the learning? After you have thought of your 3 questions, do a simple Google search and see if you can find an answer and share the link in your comment.

Then read some of the other questions and answer your classmates have posted and decide if those answers are sufficient and accurate or offer a new answer and post a link to support your new answer.

Chritianity in the USA

After you have completed the e-learning sections on Christianity, respond to the following question as a comment on this blog post.

The USA does not recognize an official religion, but many of the laws and habits are built around Christian ideas and holidays. Can you identify 3 ways that the Christian religion impacts non-Christians in the US? Think about things like holidays, important events, buildings, etc when you are writing your response.

Judaism Today

After you have completed the assignments on Judaism, respond to the following question as a comment on this blog.

What are 3 ways that you can find examples of Judaism in your life?

If you are not Jewish, think of ways that you have encountered Jewish practices, habits, rituals, and people.

Ignorance is the enemy!!

In recent weeks I have had the opportunity to work in several schools at the secondary level and have experienced an interesting amalgamation of teachers and their respective attitudes towards technology. Being a technophile, I thought I would weigh in in their collective perspectives, categorizing them into a few groups.

Group 1: Where's the "Any Key"?

This group has given up on technology somewhere around 1989 and are perfectly content to use a computer exclusively as a machine to take attendance and read electronic mail that they will then hand write a response to and send via messenger. These people seem to be terrified of the possibilities of tech, and incessantly bring up the problems computers present, i.e. crashing, power outtages, impersonal contact. What this group has missed out on is the flood of "idiot proofing" computers have undergone. Even plugging cords into the correct slots has been simplified:

Even if you don't know what ANY of those words mean, everything you will need fits into only one slot, OR, is color coded. Putting together a model airplane requires more skill and savvy than hooking up your PC. Mac makes it even easier:

Two cords, keyboard and mouse, push the power button(hidden on the back, I know, silly Apple) and watch it go!

Teachers in this group don't need to jump into using SmartBoards and webquest, but they are missing out on new, awesome tools like Google, Wikipedia, and PowerPoint.

Even if you were terrified of using a new program, Microsoft offers a guide on how to use every version of PowerPoint you could possible own. Just follow the above link and its on the left, just like in the picture!

So to you who may fall into the "Where's the Any Key" Group, try something new, it won't hurt. Even if you know nothing at all, there is almost nothing you can do, aside from taking a sledgehammer to your desktop, that will render your PC irrevocably damaged. Both Microsoft and Apple are designing computers with you in mind. So instead of standing at the head of the classroom and lecturing to students like they're cattle, show them you are "leet" by using something new. It might be so easy, even a caveman could do it!.

Next time Group 2: The "I tried it, but can't remember what I did to get it to do that" Group.

Some helpful websites:

Atomic Learning - It costs, but your school might just have a subscription

Microsoft Office - Free but only useful if you use Microsoft, so 10% of you can ignore this.

Apple - Need to know how to use your new Mac? There's a website for that!

Adobe Flash - Useful to tech savvy people, but, I put it here to show what you could get into. I'm currently teaching myself how to use this program and this website has become my personal blueprint.

Need help studying for a test...there's an app for that!

We are all undoubtedly aware of the monumental success of Apple and their iPhone/iPod lines of mobile devices.(I'm still singing the song from the commercials) Stories have come out about individuals striking gold with neat apps that sell for pennies to thousands of people around the world. What might be unknown to some is the education application of the Apps store through iTunes.

Unfortunately, the only way to see the app store is to download iTunes and create an account or to gander at the preview via the iTunes website. Also, I am not one of the proud owners of an iPhone or iPod touch, so my ability to use the app store currently is limited to...not at all.

But I do have an active imagination and an open mind to possibilites...so here goes.

For this course, Blackboard has been an excellent tool to use. And viola, Blackboard has an app that allows you to access courses using the software. Although the customer reviews are not kind, the app is free which makes almost anything worth a shot.

For math teachers there are flashcard apps to help memorize what 12x12 is.(144 if my TI-85 is still correct) There is also an app called Quick Graph that has rave reviews from users and appears to do everything my $150 calculator did, but in color and with touch ability.

History teachers have some options in using the newest and trendiest gadget. The History News Network details a few apps that range from daily historical calendars, to history hangman, to access to encylopedic works. Now if only I could convince my wife to let me get an iPhone...

Of course purchasing an app comes with inherent costs. Space on your device is usually limited and may require shuffling apps to suit your current situation. Also, even if the app is "free", iPhones still use AT&T's network and must purchase the requisite data plan which is, unfortunately, not free. However, the popularity of the iPhone and its apps store has created a growing market of competitors, including the tag team of Google and Verizon's Android phones. Competition always benefits the consumers, so perhaps soon, data plans will become cheaper, devices more useful and cheaper, and champagne will rain from the sky.

Well, one can dream, right?

Inspiration

Graphic organizers hold a crucial place in education and are all too often overlooked as "simple" tools. However, these useful tools allow teachers a great amount of flexibility in what and how we teach. I recently was able to reacquaint myself with Inspiration, via a 30 day trial.
The overall program appeared simple to use with templates and tutorials to get the novice user started. I skipped those and immediately adapted an old lesson to this new software and was blown away with the possibilities.

An Inspiration Organizer created and exported to html

If available, Inspiration allows us to prepare an organizer to help students make sense of learning, or to create one on the fly or with student involvement. It would also be a useful tool for students to create their own organizer, based on how they best remember information and the connections between different aspects. The ability to create hotlinks, add pictures, create a text only outline, or to even upload it for remote viewing makes Inspiration a luxury more schools and educators should indulge.

On a side note:
In using it, I discovered an all too common problem in technology, compatibility. In my efforts to export the organizer to html and upload it to a website, I was stonewalled by a problem beyond my knowledge. Thankfully the tech support people at Inspiration knew a work-around and it was simple to solve. It appears that Inspiration works wonderfully, if you use a Mac. My PC had some difficulties.

As teachers, using the latest, greatest technology can be fun, but also frustrating if the program does not work correctly or at all. Luckily, I haven't seen this for awhile:

Regardless, teachers need to verify, usually through trial and error, that programs work as intended. After all much of mine, and perhaps yours as well, technology is one internet outtage away from being nearly useless.

Easter Egg: With the current debate over healthcare, and the benefits to organization, perhaps our government should find Inspiration useful...or maybe they already use it.

Google really is taking over everything...

Google has invaded my PC and my classroom...

I have abandoned browsers like IE, Firefox, Opera and now use Chrome.
Google is the new vernacular for "to inquire or ask".
Now Google Earth has invaded my classroom.

Not only does Earth allow you to get directions and satellite photos, it allows my students to visit places around the world without the annoyance of airlines.
In my unit on Europe in Geography, students created a fantasy vacation with no limitations except to stay in the continent and the allotted 10 day travel time. What they found and showed blew us all away.
I used Earth to give mini-tours of places using a common theme like castles or cathedrals to help students think of sites to see. They not only used Earth for basics like distance, direction, and travel time, but they also used it to show pictures of places they were "visiting" and often discovered amazing off the beaten path sites that a regular textbook or Google-ing would have found. Then to top it off, several used Earth's tour option to share their learning with the class via a projector and Smartboard.
The user submitted and maintained content gave my students ample resources to draw from, including links to hotel websites and reviews of resturaunts to the best best time to visit Plaza de St. Pietro in Rome.
As a caveat, however, I had a few parents complain that the program had created an internet hog in their student and they asked about how to troubleshoot the problem.