Response to Chapter 5

Chapter 5 was a much more challenging chapter in my opinion and much less relevant to the elementary curriculum compared to the previous chapters we have read. I believe that understanding the different Mindtools available is very important and having a firm grasp on the way they work and how they can benefit students is imperative as well, however, the author even notes that some of the tools listed are too far advanced for elementary schoolers. I feel as though I agree because I was even confused by a few of the tools. Overall, the chapter offered a variety of valuable information that could and should be used to professionally develop as an educator. I am just concerned that I could not effectively work them into an elementary aged classroom.

It is interesting that this chapter focused heavily on models. I have felt since the beginning of the semester that this class and our science class appear to be working hand-in-hand. For example, today we focused heavily on models and what they represent and last week we looked at concept maps, which is what we studied in here. It has been a great reinforcement to be able to use the technological tools that we are gaining in this class to further our knowledge in other classes. Aside from that, this chapter’s explanation of models varied but was also related to what I discovered in science. In science, we viewed models as simplified versions of real world processes and how we can learn from them. In the chapter, the author discusses how we can learn by building those models. One of the most interesting but true statements from the chapter stated that we need to allow students to do what they are good at, such as conceptualizing and organizing and computers to do what they are good at, which is storing and retrieving facts. I had never even considered this before, but it is very true. Teachers often expect students to memorize facts and then retrieve them later or during assessment, but many loose the conceptualization factor along the way. Computers are often used to judge, organize, and conceptualize the answers inputted. However, each is much more skilled at the other task. It took me some time to fully comprehend this concept, but, I feel as though it is extremely important to remember this in regards to my future as an educator.

The idea of using concept maps was expressed in chapter 4 with regards to writing. I feel like many of the same ideas and main points were reiterated in this chapter, even citing the same commonly used technological resources available to students. In my opinion, this was the only tool of the five illustrated in the chapter that could be used effectively by elementary students. Although the other four tools would be useful to teachers and older students, I feel that concept mapping is the only tool that elementary students could take ownership over and create on their own, with little help from the teacher. Again, reiterating from last chapters response I have some experience with Webspiration, which is the free online concept-mapping tool from Inspiration as well as IHMC CMap Tools. Both of these sites are very user friendly and easy to navigate around but most importantly allow for the labeling of the linking and relationships between the different nodes.
http://cmap.ihmc.us/conceptmap.html
http://mywebspiration.com

The systems dynamics tools concept was very confusing to me. I did some further research on the topic considering I was still unsure after reading the book and concluded that it is a model, really more like a simulation, that models the behavior and interrelationships of systems that interact with each other over time. I looked over the examples that the text provided including Stella and Model-It. The Stella model, although very useful in higher education, including high school and college, was even baffling to me. I looked at the site and viewed sample models but had trouble following one, never mind creating my own. The Stella example of the systems model of the sun in the book was very overwhelming to the eye. I think that if I were to present that information in that model to a group of elementary schoolers they would have no idea where to begin or how to even follow it. I understand that this may be an extreme illustration but even after looking at the more scaled down site of Model-It I was still overwhelmed. I went through the example on this site and it is a very involved process to create a model and much prior knowledge is needed in this arena before going on to actually create the model. I think that if something like this were going to be used in an elementary classroom, it would need to be a long-term project that was whole class structure and heavily scaffold by the teacher. Although the idea of using these types of models may be a very good tool for higher education, I just do not understand its place within an elementary setting.

The idea of spreadsheets is a fascinating concept to me. I have always used Microsoft Excel for very simple tasks; such as organizing t-shirt sales for an organization I am involved in or just as an organizational tool. I have never taken full advantage of the calculating features they offer. Although Microsoft Excel offers a great option for a program, with everything becoming easier and more accessible online, I explored Google docs and used their spreadsheet tool. I have had very little experience with this. However, my boyfriend lives in a house with 4 other guys and they manage their finances of what they owe each other through this tool. They all have access to it and can see and adjust it as needed. What is another really cool feature is that it will create a graph based on the input data. Going back to the example of the guys, they have the spreadsheet that they can alter but they also have a bar graph, using piles of money as a bar, to see who owes who how much and who owes the most. Another really cool website I found was Blist. Blist works similar to delicious in that it is a social environment where things can be shared and tagged, however, it works specifically with spreadsheets. It works in tandem with Excel, a tool that can be used and accessed anywhere rather than just from the home computer. Excel documents can be uploaded and altered from anywhere. Also, Blist offers its own spreadsheet tools, where they can be created, altered, saved, shared, and tagged. These sites could be used in an elementary classroom, with the help of a teacher to create charts and graphs and compare data. The cool thing about using sites like Blist and Google Docs is that it could give content a more global perspective, allowing students to share their findings in a spreadsheet with other classes or students around the world. I think the idea of using spreadsheets in classrooms would be very effective but I think that it is very important for students to be heavily scaffold by teachers in this circumstance to familiarize them with the spreadsheets and how they work so they can more focus on the concept involved.
http://www.blist.com

I think that Expert Systems would be good to use as an educator, I just am not quite sure how it would be used with students. Again, I will reiterate that I feel that many of the tools offered in this section were not very useful for students in the elementary arena. However, the idea of an Expert System reminds me of the digital 20 Questions game. I believe this to be a very simplified version of the systems. The game has a series of questions or the “shell” that outlines and points to a certain answer based on the other answers to particular decision. I don’t think that I am underestimating student’s ability, I just really think that this may be challenging for students to learn, especially if we are trying to get students to learn with technology, not just from technology. The chapter mentions that Expert Systems are good to use for metacognition with children, however, I personally feel that the systems seem to do a lot of the thinking for them. How can students think about their thinking, if something else is doing the thinking for them?

Looking at the databases, I think it is very useful for students to become familiar with databases and their searches because they will absolutely need it later on in life. I had never had experience with online databases until I came to college and took a library seminar. Now, however, I feel that I have a much better understanding of how they work and how useful they really are. The only databases that I have really had any experience with include those on the George A. Smathers website. My favorite is definitely Academic Search Premier. I have found that when looking for scholarly articles this has definitely been most useful to me. As a student at the University of Florida, I am very blessed to have access to many journals and magazines and articles at my fingertips that usually cost money to subscribe to. As a teacher, I plan to be proactive about getting my school to subscribe to educational journals that are relative and helpful to my future students. I also often think of Google as a database. Using Google is all about how you search and I think searching within that engine could equip students with the proper skills of later using more involved and in depth databases. http://www.kidsbiology.com/animals-for-children.php is a cool site that I found that contains an animal database that would be very helpful and interesting to use with students. I think that database work definitely is important I just do not know how in depth students would be able to get into it. I think that introducing students to simple databases such as this would be a good way to get them in to thinking about creating their own databases. Students could create their own online databases for all of their school work. Having an “online filing cabinet” of all of their greatest work would be a great resource for students to have as they continue through their education. I think that this is one way that I could incorporate the use of student-created databases within my future classroom. Looking at my own life, as much as Delicious is a social bookmarking site, I think that it works similar to a database with its tagging systems and compilation of valuable resources. The more that I learn about different technologies and technological resources the more I realize how much they overlap.

Unfortunately, this chapter was not as helpful for me as previous chapters. I think that the more advanced tools are good for me to learn about for my own professional knowledge, but I am still dealing with processing how I will work them into my future classroom. I know that learning is an ongoing process and that excites me because hopefully, as time passes, I will get a firmer grasp on these specific tools.