Journal Number Nine

“Adventures in Electronic Constructivism”
Maureen Brown Yoder

Maureen Brown Yoder discusses how good lessons can be changed slightly to have an even greater learning opportunity for students. My modifying lessons, teachers can make content more relatable and meaningful to students. This lesson modification, from the constructivist approach, can be used in any subject matter and allows students to take greater responsibility for their own learning by actually doing research rather than having the information spoon-fed to them by their teacher. The examples of lessons used in this article make students really dive into the topic or person they are learning about, so as to form a more personal relationship with the material. Students must ask themselves, and answer, more critical thinking questions than other activities might require. Some of the assignments presented require students to take on the characteristics of an important figure in history in order to participate in a discussion as that person while others allow students to see and address how issues of the past are ever-present in today’s society.


1. What is my opinion of the constructivist approach to teaching?
I believe that this approach to learning is extremely valuable in the classroom. I want my students to be able to think critically about information they are given and break it down into knowledge they can personally use. I believe that this form of teaching also allows students to become better problem solvers in today’s world.

2. How can I effectively apply some of the strategies presented in my own classroom?
One way I can effectively apply some of these strategies in my classroom is to allow my students to collaborate with fellow students in our class, and even with students in other classes. When students are working critically and collaboratively they learn two important skills: problem-solving skills and the ability to work with others in a group. In order for me to really utilize constructivism in the classroom I must train my students to look at all situations from a different point of view—this way it becomes natural and students will be able to use it in many aspects of their own lives, not just academically.

Journal Number Eight

An Evaluation of Google’s Education Portal

Google has announced a new education portal for teachers called Google for Educators. This new portal provides eleven programs that will help bring more information and technology into the classroom. The website also provides information about each of the tools and lesson plans that might help incorporate these technologies. Educators can share their opinions of the products and how they use them with their own students.

Google Earth is a program that can be used to view different places all around the world, using satellite images. You can view the whole Earth, specific countries, buildings, roads, and even plant and animal life. The user can even find out specific information about specific areas, such as population, and with specific tools you can make your own graphs. This would be an amazing tool for a geography class.

Google Book Search is a program that allows teachers and students to search the full-text of books to find information. This allows access to information that may no longer be available because it’s out print, or may not be available in your area. This tool can tell you where to find the actual book in your area and allows students to search thousands of books that can help their research projects.

Google Calendar is a tool that allows students, parents, teachers, and administrators to have a community calendar that is available online. Teachers can make a calendar for each of his/her classes and any changes he/she makes are visible to those who subscribe to it. This is a great place to post information regarding school holidays, fieldtrips, and assignments. This way if a student is absent, they can still get the assignments they missed!

Picasa allows students and teachers to “find, edit, and share pictures on your PCs.” Once installed, the program automatically organizes all the pictures in your computer into albums. You can always create new albums and students can access the pictures to use in various class projects. Web albums can also be created to allow access to the pictures from home.

Journal Number Seven

“WebQuest in Wonderland”
Paul Aldridge

Paul Aldridge addresses the multimillion-dollar technology program that has been implemented in his school, Pine Crest School. This program requires all students to own a laptop and bring it to school daily. For this campaign to be successful all of the staff needed to be technologically prepared so they could teach their own students who would be looking to them for guidance. All of the faculty, some more reluctantly than others, began taking courses to become proficient in technology and they all became knowledgeable in the area. The school held daily faculty meetings that allowed all staff to be in contact with each other continually for support—this also allowed for collaboration across multiple subjects. What eventually came about at this school were WebQuests that were to be created and completed by students each year. These WebQuests are web based activities created on a topic chosen by the students themselves and approved by their teacher. The WebQuests are continually added to an academic electronic portfolio that isn’t completed until graduation.

1. What are some projects similar to WebQuests that I can do with my students?
A great program that would allow my students to projects similar to the WebQuests addressed in this article is the Filamentality website by AT&T. This site allows students and teachers to create an interactive website on a topic that can be accessed by anyone from a computer. With Filamentality, students would create a list of sites related to the topic they are covering that would teach the person using their site about the subject.

2. Is a technology program, like the one implemented at Pine Crest, practical?
I believe a technology program could, and should, be implemented at every school; however, the program doesn’t need to be on as grand a scale as that of Pine Crest School. A technology program is limited by the amount of resources available to any given school or district. Schools in areas with lower socio-economic status will be more limited in their resources than those schools in more affluent areas. This being said, all students need to have the opportunity to become technologically proficient to survive in our society.

Journal Number Six

“Wikipedia: Ban It or Boost It?”
Doug Johnson

The website http://wikipedia.org in an online encyclopedia; however, this encyclopedia can be revised by anyone at anytime. To most people this fact would make one question the validity of this resource. In this article, Doug Johnson points out several experts who have evaluated entries on their areas of expertise and found the information presented to be highly accurate, with very minor, if any, discrepancies. This article seems to show that Wikipedia is an extremely useful source because it has more information, and articles, than the Encyclopedia Britannica on many more topics. The topics that are found in Wikipedia, rather than the Encyclopedia Britannica, are of topics one might not always think about, things like “the Boston Molasses disaster, the Rhinoceros Party of Canada . . .” or even “a definition of Philadelphia cheesesteak.” In addition to the wide array of topics covered, Wikipedia is updated more regularly than printed resources and, because of this, can cover more current issues and technologies. Pages that do contain controversial material are noted as such and offer opinions on both sides of the issue so the reader can understand the controversy.

1. Will I allow my students to use Wikipedia as a reputable source for information?
I will allow my students to use Wikipedia as a reputable source only after they’ve learned how to evaluate the validity of websites and compare the information with that found elsewhere on the same topic. If my students are able to evaluate the information on their own it will be an extremely valuable tool for them because our world is becoming more technology-centered and a lot of information can be found online. I’ll allow my students to use Wikipedia as long as it is not their only source for information.

2. What do I think of Wikipedia?
I personally believe that Wikipedia is a valuable source as long as it is used with scrutiny. If I’m doing research on a more recent issue, I may not be able to find a lot of information elsewhere. As a student, I turn to my peers for more information and a better understanding on many concepts; the same is true with Wikipedia, it’s like turning to a peer that is wiser on a given topic than you are.