Answers are due by October 20th at 12 noon. Choose one question.
Question 1: Do you agree more with the criticisms or the praises of "drill and practice" software discussed in the book? Please explain when (if ever) you think that drill and practice software can help support deep understanding in the classroom. (Be specific.)
Question 2: A number of students in class have noted that they favor "hands-on" activities using technology. One example of a hands-on activity is online simulations. Explain how you could use simulations in your classroom using integration strategies discussed in the chapter while minimizing the misuse of simulations that Roblyer presents.
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17 comments:
question 2
Online simulations are I think the perfect idea for hands on activities I have been looking for hands on activities integrate into my classroom learning. I love the idea of letting the children go on a tour of the white house because it is very much out of our reach in the state of Utah. In my classroom I would use a simulation of the moon. You could show students how the moon changes according to the earth's orbit. This would be important because it could speed up time and also show how the position of the earth and the area of the earth therefore giving students the opportunity to manipulate variables in the moons changes.
(side note the simulations given in the book are not free. This to me is a problem because as a teacher the money factor is a big deal. In addition I would have to go through a lot of time and effort just to get the simulation in my classroom. Sometimes wondering if it is worth it in the end. I was frustrated that I could not try the simulations given in the book. The url they gave did not work and then when googleing the name I found the site but not any way to try it out. I think as a teacher an online resource to find free simulations would be a great asset!)
Question #1:
I agree with the praises of "drill and practice" software found in Roblyer's Chapter 3. The book praises this software for a few reasons. It provides immediate feedback which helps with "debugging" and retention of knowledge and skills. This software may motivate students to do the practice they need. It also saves the teacher alot of time because they don't have to present or grade drill and practice. There are alot of areas in the curriculum that can be benefited by this software. I especially think "drill and practice" is useful in math skills. Math problems usually just reply a simple numerical answer and this really shows whether the student understands what is being taught or not. It helps the student retain knowledge so it can be transfered in deep learning. It is a great form of formative assessment. I also think drill and practice will help prepare students for tests in the future, like admissions tests, like the book describes. I do think that the book's suggestion to have groups of students compete with eachother for the best group scores. This way each student can practice and feel like they are contributing, when there is a limited amount of computers. overall, I agree with the praises of "drill and practice" software.
Question 2.
I personally love the idea of online simulations for hands on activities. There are so many places that are talked about in school, and it not financialy stable enough to take every student to those places. It is always wonderful to talk about a certain place or subject, and then take your students there to see exactly what you were talking about, and help them get a better understanding of the concept and maybe what went on there. You could use this software in geography. Lets say you are study all the contenants and there suroundings, well with this software you can take the students there on your computer, and they can see what each cont. looks like and why they only grow certain foods there. On the downside though would probably be cost. As williams said, teachers and schools don't have enough money to support such a wonderful software. schools can't even make sure every student has a book let alone a highle expensive software tool.
Question 1
I agree with the praises of drill and practice software discussed in the book. Students receiving immediate feedback helps them correct their mistakes rather than continuing to do the same thing for a week or more until they get their tests/assignments back from the teacher. Using a computer also gives students a break from writing everything all the time, which increases motivation. And we all know that teachers do not have enough time as it is, so software that saves time is a wonderful tool. I think that drill and practice software can help support deep understanding when it is used after the concepts have been taught and the students have completed and gotten back at least one assignment using the concepts. If drill and practice is used too early, I do not think it would be as effective.
Question 1
I agree with the praise more than I do with the criticisms. I would use it in multiplication problems as they require a lot of memerization and you are able to build up math skills based on them. In a class I am observing they do not have access to computers but they are doing the same kind of thing just on paper. They are doing their times tables so that the teacher can then teach them how to do double division. I think that this is a good idea. I also liked the idea that you can use it for test prep. Before a test you do need to know all the information and doing a drill and practice will help the students to remember all the information. I would use it for the test prep also and before I go on to another subject where I can build on previous knowldge.
question 2
While reading about simulations in teaching, Roblyer highlighted 6 different situations that you could implement computer simulations. While teaching special ed in high school, most classes will not allow any funding for lab equipment outside of the biology labs themselves. Simulations would be a great and valuable asset for the same function of some of the lab equipment. I also could use simulations to reinforce group work, some special ed students do really well when they can have organized group cooperative work, and spell check is of extreme importance with most of my students. The importance of completion of difficult assignments that use technical or fine motor control is more possible with computer-aided simulations.
Question 1
I side more with the praises of "Drill & Practice" measures. If they are used appropriately, with specific objectives in mind and are not used too often, they have an extremely practical and beneficial use for student learning. I would use these drill and practice programs as an aid to learning. In other words I would never use drill and practice to TEACH concepts, but rather act as a support system for the learning that has already occurred through thorough classroom instruction. This would help me, as a teacher to observe students as they are practicing their knowledge retention of subject matter while providing the students with a fun learning activity that will provide freedom of time, less pressure as feedback comes from the automated program rather than a teacher or peer and opportunities of practice. Used as a facilitator of learning, drill and practice can be used to meet the learning styles and needs of a variety of learners. It can aid and assist the learning of struggling students as well as provide deeper and more challenging activities for excelling students. This opportunity could also be used to pair more advanced learners with those that are struggling to practice these activities together. The immediate feedback from these activities is beneficial; with worksheets, time has passed where they may not be able to understand feedback because they cannot remember how they came up with their answer. Immediate feedback would help this problem.
Question 1
I agree more with the praises of "drill and practice" software. It can be a great tool to help solidify concepts for students. It doesn't usually directly encourage deep learning although the deep learning can only come after the student understands the basic information. If they don't have a good basic grasp of the concept we can't expect them to relate it to other issues. So in that manner it does help to support deep learning.
Question #1
I agree with the praises of drill and practice software. I think that the idea of immediate feedback is very important because children should know if they have completed tasks incorrectly as soon as possible. I would have liked this when I was in school because a lot of the times I did not find out that I was doing something wrong until I took the test. By providing immediate feedback, the children will learn what they are doing wrong and be able to fix their mistakes. I also agree with the idea which they site in the book, "Computers don't get impatient or give disgusted looks when a student gives a wrong answer." I think that is very important,too, because students will get less discouraged when they do something wrong and they will just be able to learn from it. I also think that using drill and practice methods will motivate children more because it is good variety and gives them a break from worksheets. This also saves teachers time because they don't have to grade or present anything and then the teacher can focus more on going around and checking to make sure the child really understands the procedure.
Even though drill and practice software does not always help students deeply understand the subject, I think that if the software is well structured it can be very beneficial. If the software has practices that the children can relate to in their daily lives, it can also be more meaningful. I had an example with this where I learned how to type using a computer taught program and it was very beneficial to me. When children can remember facts from drill and practice software and incorporate them into their daily lives, it enhances their deep learning.
Question 2:
I had a teacher in high school that had a computer system in her classroom where she used a tablet computer that projected on the overhead and she would walk around the class room. At one point in the year she had to be gone a couple of days and she didn't want us to miss any information so she sat at home a couple of nights with her tablet and recorded the lectures on to DVDs. It was kind of strange but looking back that would be a great way to prerecord lectures for students and have them check them out when they needed to review a lesson or for those students that are a little more advance than the rest of the class. It would be a little bit of work at first but could have profound impact on the students who struggle in certain areas.
Question 1
I agree with the praises of
"drill and practice." Obviously, this isn't the method that a teacher should use to teach a subject or topic, but would be a great way for children to go back and practice what they've learned. I think another attribute to drill and practice is that you could use it for multiple subjects. You could design math problems and have the students work through them, you could ask science, Social Study questions and have the students answer those multiple choice, and this would be a really good way to test and practice with reading comprehension. I don't think that a teacher should constantly use this method every day for every subject, but using it often will save the teacher time, and give the students another way to show what they've learned. I know, even as a student now, I love immediate feedback. Waiting to find out how you did on an assignment or project is stressful, and this way students can understand better, the mistake they made in answering right away, while the information is still fresh in their minds, not in a few days, when that konwledge isn't as present.
Question 2
I would think simulations are an almost ideal resource available on computer technology. Of course, you're limited by the availability of simulations, since it's not likely you can program your own. However, even subjects like art and music can be effectively explored using simulation with things like home painting sims or online "player bands" that feature different instrument sounds and styles. It's a wonderful way to explore things that are not readily available to explore or would be impractical without the technology.
It would, of course, take a lot of work to find valuable sims that could be used, and preferably for free. But once it's done, it could show visual experiences that students wouldn't normally be privy to.
Question #1:
I feel that I agree with the praises of drill and practice. It is very beneficial for students to repeat exercises over and over to gain a deep understanding of certain curriculums. Keep in mind, a teacher must decide which area of the curriculum the students will most benefit from using drills. Learning math facts is a great example of how drills can be extremely beneficial. Math facts can be drilled on a computer just as easily, if not easier, than off a computer. With this method students get instant feedback which allows them to learn immediately of the mistakes they may have made. They will begin to memorize and learn the facts well enough to apply them in their work elsewhere in their class time. Another great example of drills that are used for deep learning can be found in typing programs. We all know that repetition and drills are used to teach people of all ages how to type. The repetitive programs allow for long term memorization. Needless to say, drill and practice, when used appropriately and in the right amount, can indeed be very beneficial for attaining deep learning.
Question 1
I agree with the praises in the book of the drill and practice software. The book discussed how drill and practice can help students' master lower order skills. I think that this can be very helpful with multiplication. Students need to be able to do this lower order skill and be able to automatically recall multiplication facts in order to do higher order math problems. There are many cases where drill and practice can be very helpful.
However, I do not think that drill and practice supports deep understanding. Students only learn the surface content of an area with drill and practice. I think that teachers should use drill and practice supplementary with other teaching techniques that do encourage deep understanding.
Question 1:
I found this chapter interesting, especially the drill and practice section. I have often thought that when I have been in the computer lab, teachers were making us play these drill games because that's all that they knew how to do with our computer time. I think that some of the games were fun, but a lot were boring. I thought the book made good points on both sides. It is important for the teacher to make sure their students know the concepts before playing these games. I like the suggestion of limiting the time to 10-15 minutes a day. This would ensure maximum effectiveness of the review, and keep the children's interest. I think these drill games would be a fun way for the kids to practice, but in small doses so they don't get bored. I also agree that this allows teachers the time they need to provide more support for some of the kids who are struggling with that concept. They are also effective when reviewing for tests. I think using teams to compete for the highest score is a fun way to utilize these drill activities.
I think the drill and practice software could help support deep learning in the classroom by helping the students to apply their knowledge to a different format. It will also help solidify the skills they need to be able to apply them to other higher learning skills we do in the classroom.
I agree more with the praises of "drill and practice". I believe drill and practice should never be used to introduce new topics, but can be very helpful in reinforcing topics already learned. I also like the idea that it gives immediate feedback, and as the book describes, some give extensive feedback on why a student got a problem wrong. This is one way I believe drill and practice could promote deep learning. Generally I don't believe drill and practice should be used for deep learning, but in certain circumstances it could. Other than the reason listed above, another way it could be used to promote deep learning is branching drills. If they asked more advanced questions on the same subject it could possibly create deep learning. Overall I think drill and practice is a very useful tool to use to reinforce topics already learned, but should not be used as a main teaching tool.
Question #1
I agree more with the praises of "drill and practice" software discussed in the book. When (if ever) I think that drill and practive software can help support deep understanding in the classroom when students are learning to take what they are learning and apply it to real life situations that they would use it in.
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