Quick Fluency Video

Open source eportfolio: development and implementation

My Summary

Portfolio is a concept taken from the world of architecture and the fine arts. Portfolio is a collection either of a number of actual pieces of work or representations of pieces of work. Portfolios are being progressively hyped in European higher education. Students use portfolios to present their intentions to people connected with them in the course. The portfolio allow students to make right and wrong decisions in forming their student-centered educational ideas. When a student uses a portfolio to show his or her competence he or she must give an account of the activities in which the competence is demonstrated. Competence involves all aspect of a student's functioning. Portfolios only informs us about the students competencies in an indirect way.

My Video Reflection

The video is an overview comparing the old way of portfolios to the new way of portfolios called eportfolios. With eportfolios students can use different kinds of technology. The video explains how multimedia materials such as drawings, photographs, and illustrations, sound recordings, and video materials are included in an eportfolios.

My Reflection

1) Portfolios is a concept taken from the world of architecture and the fine arts.

The financial world uses portfolios to show the spread of their investment or a block of shares. Portfolios are a very useful tool to help companies show the break down of their profits and loses to other investors during financial meetings. They also make it very easy for companies to track the progress of their new investment to help them determine if their business ventures are profitable.

2) Portfolios are being progressively hyped in European higher education.

Europeans are using portfolios to help teach students about the characteristics associated with using them in everyday life. There is a positive frenzy of experimentation resulting in a large number of projects enjoying differing degrees of success.

3) Student puts his/her portfolio together with the intention of presenting it to people connected with him/her in the course.

Students try to relate to other people through the use of their portfolios. The portfolios allows the student to make right or wrong decisions in expressing their views on various issues. This allows the student to be in control of what goes into his/her own portfolio.

4) Students want to use portfolios to show their competence.

Portfolios allow students to demonstrate their wide range of knowledge on various issues. Portfolios can be a representation of all the competencies with which the course aims to equip the student. Students benefit better when they focus on a limited area of competencies.

After reading the article and viewing the Web 2.0, my views changed about the new eportfolio. At first I was skeptical about what the eportfolio would actually offer. Now that I have gained more insight on eportfolio, I think the opportunities it provides are endless.

Question

Does the eportfolio offer more advantages than the traditional portfolio?

A Wider World: Youth, Privacy, and Social Networking Technologies

My Summary

The author stresses the need to know the rights of users under federal, state, and local law that encourages responsibility on the use of such technology. The author also speaks on the importance for the development of privacy policies that manifest usage of technologies on the internet. Many laws were passed to help protect youth from legal adult pornography. The laws were written with good intentions. The federal courts placed injunctions on these laws that prevented them from being enforced. They said that the laws violated the First Amendment. The new technology expose youth to a wide variety of information. Technology help create new social norms. Parents have to be very careful when it comes to their children having access to the new technology.

Video Reflection

Parent's philosophy of do not talk to strangers does not apply when it comes to social networking online. Enough information is given over the internet for you to hold a conversation. Because of social networking the traditional philosophy no longer makes sense.

My Reflection

1) Some laws established dangerous precedents that could be used to restrict creativity, technological advancements, and free speech. It is very important that we have laws that protect our youth from online predators. We just have to make sure that our First Amendment rights are not violated. I think parents should have more control over what their children do when they are online. This will help minimize the chances of children talking to predators.

2) The Federal Trade Commission requires any website that collect personal information to publish a privacy policy. This policy is needed to help protect users personal information. Even though websites have privacy policies, you should be very careful when giving personal information online.

3) Technology help create new social new social norms. Because of the technology, people communicate to each other more freely. It allows people to form relationships. This technology can also be dangerous if not used wisely.

4) Proper modeling by parents is also important. Parents should teach their children about the do's and don'ts when it comes to social networking online. Parents should be involved with their children when they use online services.

After reading the article, I disagree with the author about when she said, "don't talk to strangers no longer makes any sense", because you should always teach your children not to talk to strangers for their safety offline or online.

Question

Should we continue teaching our children not to talk to strangers?

Use of Computer Technology to Help Students with Special Needs

My Summary

This article explains the difficulties children with disabilities face in the technology world. More than half of the children receiving special services are male and most of them are in elementary school. The federal law requires that all children with disabilities receive special education services. Technology can be used to help bridge the gap between children with disabilities an children without disabilities. One of the major downfalls of using technology in the classroom is that most teachers are not properly trained to use it. Research has proven students with disabilities are more eager to use computer technologies to do their class assignments.

Video Reflection

The video reflects on inclusive education and how it expands opportunities for students with disabilities through technology. The speaker asked a question that stuck with me. He asked who would want to be excluded from anything. Inclusion education is challenging but can succeed where there is good leadership and strong school community.

My Personal Reflection

1) Children with disabilities vary with respect to the type and number of disabilities they have. Even though children have different disabilities they all should be given equal opportunity to learn all there is to learn. They should not be separated from normal classroom activities because of their disabilities.

2) Federal law requires that all children with disabilities receive special education services. This law ensures that all children receive the best education they can regardless of their disability or disabilities. One way to help special education students is the use of computer technology.

3) Most of the children receiving special services are in elementary schools.Technology training for teachers in elementary schools should be a top priority to help deal with the growing number of special needs children. Teachers should take advantage of the various computer software programs that are available to assist special needs children improve their learning ability.

4) Research has shown that children with disabilities are more eager to learn with computer technology. Special needs children attention span is much longer using the computer compared to the traditional style of learning. Computer technology has been proven to be very instrumental in bridging the gap of learning.

After reading the article I totally agree with the author of the article. Based on my classroom experience with special needs students this makes me agree with the author. I believe that all students with disabilities be given an opportunity to learn the best way possible for themselves.

Question

Why aren't there more properly trained teachers with technology?