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Thursday 4/22/04 Reported & Photographed by Dan |
Class
Log |
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I can’t believe next week is our last class! There is so much to learn, so many applications to explore, so many…..hold on……I can’t think about all that right now, I should be getting dinner ready! Yes, the dreaded night had arrived for me to bring dinner. Since I don’t do much cooking of my own, the task seemed daunting. Luckily, my expertise on browning hamburger allowed me to whip up a batch of homemade sloppy joes! Alright, who am I kidding? They may have been from a packet, but it was the love and care that made them taste great! Anyway, back to Tony Vincent’s room. Class started as usual with UNO students trickling in from their busy day of teaching. Tony gave each of us a sheet stating how many points we had earned during the class so far. Next we reviewed expectations for our lesson plans. That’s right folks, if you’ve procrastinated on your lesson plan you may want to get cracking because they are DUE NEXT WEEK! Each student will be expected to give a 10-15 minute presentation describing their lesson plan. An emailed version, along with a hard copy and self-addressed stamped envelope, are also required for this assignment. After answering any lesson plan questions, we moved to a slideshow on troubleshooting. The slideshow centered primarily around hard and soft resets. This review was important because several handheld related issues had occurred throughout the week including: Janet’s handheld “wiping itself”, Sheila’s issues with the UNO handheld digitizers, and the unfortunate loss of Tony’s dear cat pictures. Remember, synching often can make issues such as these less frustrating and easier to correct! Upon completing the slideshow, Tony began loading us up with application after application. People Counter allows students to record how many taps they can complete during a certain amount of time. Tony uses a spreadsheet in Sheets To Go to help students calculate different lengths of time and how many taps could be completed. Fall Timer allows students to record the amount of time between the dropping of an object and when it hits the ground. Could this be used to measure how deep a well is? What do you think Tony? FlashBoom! allows students to calculate approximately how far away a storm might be. Students click their handheld when they see the lightening, and click again when they hear the thunder. A measurement in miles is then given depicting the distance of the storm. Crick-O-Meter helps students calculate the temperature of a room by counting how many cricket chirps are heard over time. Abacus provides hands-on experience with an ancient method of calculating math problems. Students move pieces of the abacus and are then told what number they have created. They can also enter their own number and the handheld will move the abacus pieces automatically. BeepMaker allows students to measure the duration and frequency of beeps. Prisoner’s Dilemma is an interactive game that requires students to earn points based on defecting or cooperating with their partners. The player with the most points wins. Day Trader is a stock trading game that allows students to buy and sell various stocks. This application requires concentration and skill if you are to make big bucks! InflationMaster lets you enter a start date, amount, and end date to calculate how inflation rates affect certain monetary values. Silly Stories is a mad-lib type application that allows students to enter various nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc., into a prewritten story. Stories can be created by teachers and beamed to students as needed. Geney was one of the most interesting applications. Students must breed alien creatures in order to create the perfect offspring that can save the species and return them back to their planet. Students love this program and could play it for hours! Though we did focus mostly on applications, we did take time out to eat and watch the night’s video: “High Tech Tools – Hands-On Learning”. The video reinforced that technology isn’t always the best method of instruction (I know this seems hard to accept). As the night drew to a close, we eagerly anticipated the nights game, Vexed. This is a strategy game in which blocks must be moved sequentially to eliminate them from the board. A few of Tony’s students helped explain how to play the game via video. All in all, it was a busy night….especially for me! Being the roving reporter AND providing dinner was a lot of work! Don’t forget that lesson plans are due Thursday, April 29. Reviewing the assignment rubric will help ensure you have created a product that meets Tony’s expectations, as well as your own! I look forward to seeing all of the creative ideas produced by this group of skilled and talented teachers. Good Luck! |