exam review

COURSE REVIEW: Teacher and Technology


CONCEPTS / KEYWORDS

• Documentary. “Creative treatment of actuality”
• (TRIAD-MC)
• Communication theory: ABX=X’
• Synchronous / asynchronous communication
• Information/communication websites
• Web 2.0
• “social networking”
• “digital citizenship”: cyberporn; plagiarism, cyberbullying, etc
• ICT: Information and communication technologies
• Educational technology
• Blog
• Podcast
• Media. “extensions of man”. (senses). (popular definition: news media. ) Mcluhyan.
• Font: serif and sans serif. (body text vs presentation.
• Font size: 12 pt.
• Plow the broke the plains. Virgil Thompson.
• A35 only: Film music: mood, signature, titles, mickeymousing…
• A35 ony:Film composers: John Williams, Mancini, Eric Korngold, Bernard Herrmann (hitchock films, Gulliver)
• Importance: lies at the intersection of classical music and popular culture. Makes music approachable. Background.
• Powerpoint / keynote
• “Film Tactics” 1945 US navy Training film. Narrative.

SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE
List and identify key individuals whose names have been mentioned or discussed

• Marshall McLuhan
• Norman McLaren.
• Jimmy Wales
• (Leslie Halliwell)
• Al Gore
• Michael Moore
• John Grierson
• Ken Robinson
• (Garr Reynolds)
• Roman Kroiter
• (Eldon Rathburn)
• (Richard Dimbleby)

LABORATORY ACTIVITIES

• Blogger.com
• Google docs
• Nicenet.org
• Google notebook
• Google Scavenger Hunt

BIG IDEAS
Identify major themes developed or introduced in this course.
1. “Medium is the message”
2. Technology is ubiquitous.
3. Technology is more than computers.
4. Technology should be low cost or even no cost
5. Technology should have a low learning curve. You are not becoming programmers, or computer scientists or technicians.
6. Technology has a dark side. (cyber bullying, cyber porn, plagiarism.
7. Beware the technology hype.







SOME CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGIES IN SCHOOLS

• Computers: PC and Mac.
• Document Reader
• Overhead Projector
• Video Playback (VCR)
• DVD
• Digital cameras?
• PDAs?
• Cell Phones?
• Smartboards

Some Social Networking programs potentially available
∑ Blogger.com
∑ Nicenet
∑ E-Pearl
∑ Wikis
∑ Podcasts






VIDEO / FILM / DVD PREVIEWED
1. Opening Speech (1961) Norman McLaren. Canada
2. Begone Dull Care (1949). Norman McLaren. Canada
3. Paul Tomkowicz: Street Railway Switchman. (1950) NFB. Roman Kroiter
4. How to fold a shirt. Youtube.
5. Film Tactics (1945). US Navy
6. Ken Robinson. Creativity. TED
7. McLuhan’s Wake. (2003) Canada
8. Jimmy Wales. Wikipedia. TED
9. What is a documentary? National Film Board. Canada.
10. City of Gold. NFB. Canada.
11. Inconvenient Truth. (Excerpt) Al Gore. USA. 2006.
12. Bowling for Columbine. (Excerpt) Michael Moore. USA. 2005
13. Spaghetti Story (1957). “Panorama.” UK.







CLASSROOM RELEVANCE
Explain the classroom relevance of ideas introduced so far.

How to prepare for the exam (Thurs March 6)

Some hints to help you study...


The exam will ask you to write short notes on a series (perhaps ten) terms dealing with the course content. There will be choices. You don't need to know everything.

Be prepared to write at least two statements about each concept or name you select. For example, how many things can you say about Bowling for Columbine? That it was produced by Michael Moore. That it is documentary, in the contemporary style. It is characterized by the filmmaker appearing in person. That it is often "staged". That is uses humour to get its effect across. That it has moved a long way from the contemporary tradition. That is more than enough!

Be prepared to cite McLuhan's four laws and to demonstrate how they work. For example, what does a digital camera enhance? immediate photographic results. What might it make obsolete? Film. Also wait time to get pictures developed. What might it retrieve that we used to have? the picture album that we used to carry around, only now it is on FaceBook. Or Flickr. What does the digital camera reverse into? Spying.

For A35 only: Why is film music significant? Answer: It is a technology itself. It enhances the film story. It provides an important intersection between cinema and music. Cinema is popular culture. Music is something learned in school. Cinema makes music more approachable because of its popular appeal.

For all sections: Be prepared to write a short essay (expect to spend about 30 minutes) In the first paragraph re-state the question and explain how you are going to answer it. Summarize you response briefly in a final paragraph.

There may (or may not) be a short section of true/false questions.

Feb 21: The greatest teaching aid: UFOs.

The session began with a look at the trailer / titles to a 1951 hollywood film titled "The Day the earth Stood Still". This classic film sets the stage for the traditional view of UFOs and visitors from outer space. The music for this film was composed by noted film composer Bernard Herrmann, who introduced a new instrument, the theramin, to provide the eirie mood of the tense setting. (Note how easy it is to find relevant clips on YouTube.

Chris Rutkowski then took over and spent an hour exploring UFOs as a "teaching aid". He argued that teachers need to take advantage of topics with built in interest ... such as UFOs. He demonstrated how issues of scale can be demonstrated with such simple "teaching aids" as a poppy seed bagel, where the poppy seed and bagel can represent in scale the earth and the sun. Several demonstrations expanded this idea.

The demonstration also drove home the point that technology is more than computers. When we move towards new names such as ICT, something gets lost (a la McLuhan). In this case, simple "non projected materals" and "teaching aids" get thrown out as we attempt to move towards a high tech definition of educational technology.

Feb 19: The documentary tradition

Documentary is defined by Canadian John Grierson as "the creative treatment of actuality."

Feb 14: From Riel to Review

The class began with a consideration of the upcoming first-ever Louis Riel Day, on Monday Feb. 18. Working on the assumption that if we are going to have a holiday, that we should know what the holiday is celebrating, we took time out to briefly examine Louis Riel with a technology twist. We began with a speech by Riel from a 1979 CBC film titled Riel. The excerpt we heard came from a 1979 LP.

From there we used Wikipedia to find a basic overview of Riel, and then switched to Google Images to find a photograph of the Metis flag: a white infinity symbol on a blue field.

We continued our search for Riel info by moving to DAI, or PROQUEST, a source of digitized dissertations from Ann Arbor Michigan. Twenty-three Louis Riel studies were identified. It was noted that one could obtain the abstract and the first 25 pages free. An entire dissertation could be downloaded as a pdf for approximately $40.

While on the University databases, we stopped over briefly at the massive Oxford English Dictionary Online. We searched for Metis and found, among other things, a useful timeline of the word, indicating its first use back in 1815.

The second part of the class went back to the Wikipedia phenomenon. The TEDtalks presentation by Jimmy Wales explained the theory behind an open encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone.

We concluded the session by turning to a first step in reviewing the course content.
Several questions were asked and that review is on-going.

Outline for Tues. Feb 12: Documentary

One of the major components of educational technology is the genre of documentary. This class focuses on that important domain for at least three reasons:

1. It is a genre that has re-surfaced in recent years. However, like the third element of McLuhan's tetrad, the documentary genre has been retrieved from its past usage, but retrieved with a difference. That is, the contemporary documentary, represented by the films of Al Gore and Michael Moore, are significantly different from the historic approaches. This class will examine several documentaries in order to gain an understanding of what the documentary is all about.

2. The concept documentary has at least an implicit, if not explicit tie to education and instruction.

3. The documentary today is subject to much misunderstanding.

4. There is a significant Canadian documentary tradition and contribution.

This class spent some time exploring the issue of documentary as a film form particularly relevant to educational technology.

Some of the key points were:

1. What is a documentary? This NFB film explored documentary as the "creative treatment of actuality" from John Grierson.

2. Several documentaries were viewed, exploring the breadth of the concept as well as the development of the concept:
Example: City of Gold. NFB 1961. Pierre Berton. Music: Eldon Rathburn. Producer/director Roman Kroiter (Winnipeger who also created I-Max. as well as "direct cinema" style." Three basic components: visual, voice, music. Visual is the photography; Every frame is a work of art. Voice is either narrator or actors voices. Music melds it together.

The Spaghetti Story was a 1961 April Fools joke which used all the techniques of documentary to illustrate how the documentary conveys a feeling of truth and accuracy.

Contemporary documentaries were excerpted including :
Michael Moore. Bowling for Columbine. Style: in-your-face beligerent humour. One non-fiction film: Canadian Bacon with Alan Alda and John Candy.
Al Gore. An inconvenient truth.
TV reality shows demonstrate the latest post-documentary style.

Documentary modes may be grouped into four categories (Nichols 1991)
Expository (voice of authority) City of Gold, nature documentaries,etc.
Observational (fly on the wall) eg. Lonely Boy; most single camera student documentaries
Interactive (includes the presence of the documentarist) eg. Michael Moore
Reflexive (invents subject matter). Talks about itself. eg. Al Gore shows the making of Inconvenient Truth

A typology of information technology users: Where do you fit

The Pew Internet & American Life Project produces reports that explore the impact of the internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life."

This group has produced a typology of internet users. You can find out where you fit by taking their online test here

The study's pdf report is here.

Feb 7: Marshall McLuhan Parts 3 and 4

This class will finish McLuhan's Wake. A follow up discussion will apply the tetrad to specific examples.

Time permitting, a follow-up dealing with the previous class will focus on these issues:
1. Google Jockeying
2. Issues of copyright.

Assignment "Ideas worth Trying" is due today.

Feb 5: John Finch. Manitoba Education

John Finch is a consultant at Manitoba Education who consults in the Information and Communications Technology program. His presentation (Feb 5) covered three areas.

1. A continuum model for Literacy with ICT Across the Curriculum (available online)
2. Digital Citizenship. (Check online for 9 dimensions of Digital Citizenship).
3. EPearl: A process portfolio being introduced into many school divisions in Manitoba. EPearl is a Concordia University product.

A35 Presentations

Thur Feb 21

• Chris Rutkowski (UFOs.)
• Review for exam

Tues Feb 26

• Ruth, Jaclyn, Michelle (Using PAINT)
• Christina, Katie, Gabi ((Males in choirs)
• Alice, Christie (---)

Thur Feb 28

• Alain, Ellery (percussion)
• Cecilia, Karen, Erin (useful technologies)
• Christine, Shelby, Melissa (Garage Band)

A13 Presentations

Tues Feb 19

• Brett, Jamie (I), Jamie (II).

Thur Feb 21

• Ashley, Catherine, Amanda
• Carla, Anne, Lorraine

Tues Feb 26

• Kim, Michelle, Lisa

Thur Feb 28

• Pattie, James, Mary
• Laureen, Francine, Meaghan, Darin
• Langrill, Drew, Curtis
• Shawn, Karl, Dwayne

Tues March 4

• Stacy, Robyn, Crystal

A 14 Presentations

Tues Feb 19

• Kate, Keri and Brandi

Thur Feb 21

• Gavin, Eric, Paul: Podcasting

Tues Feb 26

• Amanda, Jeremy, Nate: Bullying
• Melissa, Charlene, Sandra: Louis Riel
• Andrew, Gavin, Kelvin, Andy: Space Travel

Thur Feb 28

• Laurel, Debbie, Nicole, Melissa: Movie Maker
• Angela, Athena, Sharon, Fleur: iMovie
• Olivia, Tannis, Richard: Brain academy
• Sarah, Jenn, Kristin: Sex education
• Tyler, Dan, Marco: Smoking
• Lisa: Adult Ed / Listening

Thursday Feb 7. McLuhan Part 3 and 4

This class will wrap up the McLuhan documentary with parts 3 and 4: Retrieve and Reverse.

Tuesday Feb 5: Manitoba Department of Education ICT standards

This class welcomes John Finch from the Department of Ed. John will take the entire class period to walk us through the (new) ICT technology standards for Manitoba.

Note we have already seen the ISTE standards (US based). If you do not have a copy of the summary, get one here.

In the days to come, we will examine one more set of standards (from UNESCO). These have just been released last month , January 2008).

Help on McLuhan

Introducing McLuhan
Initial thoughts

In the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan predicted that education would be transformed as society embraced what he called variously “electric technologies”, electronic technologies, or media. His arguments were both provocative and controversial. He became a celebrity. Some thought him a genius; others a charlatan. His most famous statement was the provocative “the medium is the message.”

After his death in 1980, his ideas seemed to vanish quickly. But somewhere around the beginning of the 21st century, people began to look back and to realize that his predictions and theories were coming true. Contemporary technologies were indeed having a critical impact on contemporary schooling and contemporary education.

Sir Ken Robinson said that we have no idea what we are teaching kids for. The future, he says, is just too unknown. His answer: We need to encourage creativity. McLuhan’s answer: Teaching about technology is the only way we can avoid being pulled down by the vortex of commercialism, hype, globalization.

McLuhan and his Canadian colleagues argued that the growing information technologies would transform formal education.

The basic idea behind media theory is that communication media are not simply conduits for transmitting information. Instead the media themselves influence the meaning of a message and therefore the media shape our society. Therefore, the media ultimately shape our educational system. The medium is the message. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.

McLuhan argued that all media do four things: They enhance a human function; they extend our senses. They make obsolete something that we used to use. They retrieve a function that we previously had lost. When pushed to the extreme they reverse into unintended functions.

We live in spaces. If our vision is highlighted, then we live in a visual space.
When audio is highlighted, we are in an acoustic space. Spaces were assumed to be based on our senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch.
Today, there seems to be a new electronic space. Or, digital space. Being thoughtful about digital space is sometimes dubbed digital citizenship.

McLuhan’s Wake is a 90 minute documentary film that explores McLuhan structured loosely through his “four laws”.

See an excellent review at http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/mcluhanswake.php

The resource guide for the film is available at
http://www.nfb.ca/webextension/mcluhanswake/resource.html

Tuesday Jan 29: Lab 3

Hour One: Internet Scavenger Hunt. 20 questions presented. Students are asked to scan the questions before going online to see how many questions can be answered. Then, students are asked to think about where they might go in the library to find the answers, and how they might find the answers. Finally, google the questions! If you can figure out what to ask, you will get the answers instantly.

Hour Two: Here comes Marshall McLuhan.
The first of a four part examination of the contrubutions of Marshall McLuhan to the theory and practice of teaching with media and technology.

Thurs. Jan. 24: Assessment; Film Tactics

Part One examined the upcoming assignments. A clarification was attempted as to the "levels" of analysis of appropriate websites for the "ideas worth trying" assignment. In particular, A portal is an internet site which provides access or links to other sites. (Oxford American Dictionary.) That is not our interest. A Website identified (possibly through a portal) is the starting point: Gutenberg.com; cbc archives; Nicenet; Oxford English Dictionary; Kathy Shrock's guide to educators, etc. This is what we are focusing on at the first level for a description, pedagogic potential, potential problems, etc. The example takes the site one level deeper and looks at a particular text in gutenberg, a particular archive (eg. Foster Hewitt on hockey), a particular lesson plan, etc.

If you are confused, please ask.

Second, we explored some generic issues of assessment, in particular norm vs criterion referencing, and how the two get mixed up, which becomes the crux of the problem of grading: You cannot mix two methods, yet we continually do. There is also the separation of technical components vs academic components. In a class go-round, we identified A+ as synonymous with expert, wow!, scholarship, significantly above average, etc. The main point (with which there seemed to be generalk agreement) was that A+ is not equivalent to meeting stated technical criteria.

Third, we looked at the Halliwell Film Guide as a model for a brief descriptive (and evaluative) statement. We looked at Halliwell's evaluation of Begone Dull Care, which he rated as 4 stars (out of 4!) .

Finally, we previewed Film Tactics, a 1945 US Navy training film. The film (Originally in 16mm format) provided an insight into the sophisticated behavioristic model for the development of training films in the 1940s. Several implications seem quite relevant today (in spite of the age), such as prepare the class, review, discuss, test, ventilate, and so on. The film argued for "an hours worth of learning from an hours worth of training." In a class exercise, we explored the idea that "If you tell them what to look for, they will get it. If you don't tell them, they don't have a chance!"

January 22: Lab 2

The first hour today was an open lab to explore information sites.
In the second hour, we focused on getting together the presentation groups.

TED.com was introduced as a "think tank" in which "the best and the brightest" have an opportunity to present their thoughts in a 20 minute presentation. We previewed the presentation by Sir Ken Robinson on creativity in education. His presentation is a challenge for teachers everywhere. He says we are training them for the future, but we don't have a clue as to what that future will be like. He argues for creativity as one thing that can be useful for an uncertain future. His examples of Shakespere as an early and middle years student, and the woman dancer who created Cats! are useful. His definition of creativity: the process of having original ideas which matter. intelligence he says, is diverse, dynamic and distinct.

Getting Ready for Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan is arguably the most important University of Manitoba alumnus. He spent his formative years in Winnipeg, attending elementary, secondary and post-secondary schools. He received both his Master's and his PhD here at the U of M.

And yet, we seem to ignore him. Or, at the very least he has been forgotten. Too bad.

McLuhan's contribution to educational theory and practice may seem is tenuous at best. Or is it? If technology is a major driving force of today's society, we as teachers, need to be very aware of what is happening. Mcluhan mahy provide us with the tools for such an examination.

What McLuhan said was that there are four laws the govern how media/technology influence us. They happen all at once in a kind of a tetrad. In order to understand our global world, we need to ask these four questions simultaneously. They are:

• What does the technology enhance?
• What does the technology obsolesce?
• What does the technology retrieve (that we have lost)?
• When pushed to the extreme, what does the technology reverse into?

We are going to explore McLuhan's contribution to understanding technology in education.

Our explorations will begin with an old program (produced for schools) called Media and Meaning. This 20 minute program will set the stage for a 90 minute DVD called McLuhan's Wake.

January 17: About Classroom Presentations and "Ideas Worth Trying"

Assignment #1
This class examined the two major assignments. "Ideas worth trying" is a portfolio of five sites (either communications oriented, information oriented, or "ideas for teaching". One site must be Canadian. For each site, students are asked to give its title, URL, pedagogic potential, potential problems, and a concluding statement. Finally, the entire package should include a title page, an introductory page, a table of contents (listing each website and URL), and a concluding statement.

Note: One item has been changed from the original criteria set forth in the Day One course handout. Omit the section of McLuhan's tetrads. That will not have yet been covered in class.
The assignment is due on Thursday February 7.

At this point, we examined selected websites. Questia was introduced as a subscription database which calls itself "the world's largest library."

Google Images was examined, not as a website, but as a database aggregator. Whatever it is called, it can provide images of literally anything. The danger of google images is that the user can equally well pull up images that are not pedagogic, but in fact unsuitable for school children.

It needs to be reiterated that the internet was not made for teachers and learners; it was made for the rest of the world. We can adapt it to pedagogic purposes, but we need to be aware of its intended focus. and intended audiences. In the world of the internet entertainment and commerce come first. Whether in the near future we can successfully adapt it to our purposes has yet to be determined.

An AUP, or acceptable use policy should be available in all schools or divisions. Teacher candidates need to ask the appropriate school personnel to see the AUP, and find out what is allowed and what is not allowed, before using the internet as a teaching resource. Do you need parental permission? School permission? Which sites are locked out or filtered out?

Another issue is website evaluation. It has become a mantra to say that we need to teach students to be critical users of the web. There are many online sites that provide such critical guidelines. One such popular list asks the user to explore the five W's.
It is an interesting concept. But if you take a look at the page you have just been sent to (the Five W's, note that you cannot quite make those criteria work to satisfy its own page!

In class, we looked at the just released Encyclopedia of Manitoba. In that book, several errors were noted, including a price tag on a Ukrainian Easter egg (1) photo, and an article on a Mr. Simpson that was meant to be a put-on, or an in-joke. The entry on Mr. Simpson is probably the only one in the entire encyclopedia that was tongue-in-cheek and not to be taken seriously. The same article included a deliberate error, a deliberate misuse of the word mentor (instead of creator) and finally was merely initialled, even though the publisher promised that this encyclopedia was NOT like wikipedia: authors are not afraid to sign their names!

In short, to say that we need to teach students "to be critical users of the web" falls short. In fact we need to teach students to be critical users of information, wherever it comes from.




Assignment Two:

Teachers teach. Teachers teach with technology. Teachers teach content with technology. This class will provide an overview of presentation techniques.

In education, this is traditionally called "lesson planning". In the world of business, this is simply called presentation techniques.

There are three steps.
First you need to organize and prepare your presentation. Second, you need to understand the strengths and limitations of powerpoint (or whatever technology you are using. Third, you need to know basic delivery techniques.

One useful site which summarizes these is by a professional consulting company called Garr Reynolds. Their online links are useful:
Planning tips
Slide tips
Presentation tips

January 15 Lab

This class was an introduction to "social networking" and "web 2.0". The latest iteration of the web supports collaboration. Interestingly, this is in line with current pedagogic thinking characterized by constructivist models of learning.

Be sure you know these three terms: social networking, web 2.0 and constructivism.

The sites we explored were blogspot (blogger), Nicenet, Google Docs and Google Notebook. All have pedagogic potential. But all are potentially problematic. In times in which cyberbullying and cyberpornography are rampant, these tools can be warped as sites to contain the worst of humankind as well as the best. Be careful and be vigilant.

On the sidebar of this blog, I have posted a survey. Please respond...

Reading: 7 things you should know about blogs

This reading is a useful overview on the topic of blogging. Here is the document.

Functions of Media/technology

What precisely do we need technology for? Seven functions stand out. It must be clear that one does not merely add technology to the teaching and learning situation. One adds technology for a purpose. Here are seven purposes; seven things that technology can do for education.

1. Technology can be used to solve a particular identified TASK

• Internet: wikihow
• YouTube: How to fold a shirt

2. Technology can provide REALISM

• Film: Paul Tomkowicz.
• Internet:

3. Technology can provide INFORMATION

• Video: Video courses,
• Print: textbooks
• Internet: ubiquitous
• Training videos

4. Technology can provide an AESTHETIC function, and become a work of art in its own right.

• Begone Dull Care featuring Norman Mclaren with a sound track by the late Canadian jazz great, Oscar Peterson.
• Audio: Music. (eg. archival recordings)

5. Technology is a DELIVERY system

6. Technology provides MOTIVATION. Media Motivate. Technology motivates. Potentially, kids like working with media and technology. If it can be integrated in pedagogic functions, it makes learning fun too.

7. Technology is a tool for COMMUNICATION.

• Blogger
• Nicenet
• Google Docs
• Google notebook

Class one

Several guiding questions will focus this course over the next few weeks. The fundamental question is simple: What do middle-years teacher candidates need to know about educational technology, The corollary question takes us a step further and asks: What do middle years students need to know about technology?

Teacher and Technology

Welcome to the blogspot for EDUB1990 Teacher and Technology at the University of Manitoba for January - March 2008

Several guiding questions will focus the course over the next few weeks. The fundamental question is simple: What do middle years teacher candidates need to know about educational technology? The corollary question takes us a step further and asks: What do middle years students need to know about educational technology? What do they need to know about technology? In spite of the similar "look", these are very different questions with very different answers. Each is important, but it is the first which must remain the focus of this course.

The first class begins with a video/film: Norman McLaren's 1961 classic Opening Speech . The short film asks more questions than it answers, though its ultimate question is indeed answered. Within the short film lie the germ of the idea of educational technology.

At the outset, it is important to state what this course is NOT, and at the same time what educational technology is NOT. This is important, because it is almost always misunderstood. The question about technology, the philosopher Heidegger famously said, "is nothing technological." The question about educational technology is not to turn teachers into technicians. You are teachers. You are NOT techies. For those of you who are teachers and who are also techies, we will try not to hold that against you. Nor is educational technology about becoming computer scientists, and understanding how to use Java, or how to program in html or how to set up a website.

Then what is technology about? Technology is a complex system that involves cultural, political, social, economic and aesthetic issues. These shall form the foundation for this course, but all funnelled through a pedagogic or educative filter.

Names to remember from Class One:
Norman McLaren
National Film Board of Canada
Opening Speech (1961)