Learning Signs

iPhones Enhance Learning By: Alexander Fryer

Brother — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:27:31 +0000

This is a paper I wrote for school.

iPhones Enhance Learning
By: Alexander Fryer

Some schools are buying iPhones for students hoping to enhance learning. Apple came out with the iPhone in 2007 and is in its third generation.1 Digital learning consultant Wesley Fryer comments, “Modern cell phones offer a variety of capabilities, which are being used effectively by educators in different schools to support curricular learning objectives and boost student achievement.”2
For example, you can use a free service by Poll Everywhere to conduct a classroom poll. Thirty people can respond to and vote on your poll by texting their information in. There are many useful applications that you can use for learning such as: a graphing calculator, flash cards, and a dictionary. The iPhone can also be used for converting measurements, and taking notes in class. The camera is a useful tool for recording data. There are hundreds of educational applications being created each day.

The iPhone has a built-in iPod. This means that you can watch videos or listen to recorded lectures as podcasts. “Lectures are the worst possible learning format,” said Associate Dean Brian Brooks, according to the Columbian Missourian. “There’s been some research done that shows if a student can hear that lecture a second time, they retain three times as much of that lecture.”3 This will require teachers to record their lectures, but if a student will remember and retain the information it will make the extra work pay off with better test scores.

As a result there are many educational applications, and you can remember lectures three times better the second time. So, contact your school principal and technology director and tell them that you want iPhones in school!

Footnotes
1. Wikipedia article iPhone
2. Teach digital: Cell Phones for learning
3. Columbian Missourian: School of Journalism to require iPod touch or iPhone for students

Sarah’s creation with Animation-ish at ACTEM09

dad — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:06:48 +0000

Deborah Barrows’s took the following short video of Sarah at ACTEM09, sharing a quick animation she made for Cheryl Oakes using the software program Animation-ish by FableVision.

Way to go Sarah! Now I’m going to need to find time for Sarah to show me how to use Animation-ish, as well as her brother and sister!

Technorati Tags:
animation, creativity, fablevision, learning, software, sarah, Animation-ish

Driving along Scenic K-177 in October

dad — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:59:43 +0000

I took the following four, 90 second videos yesterday driving north along K-177 between Cassoday and Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, enroute from Wichita to Manhattan. This national scenic byway is one of my favorite roads in Kansas. The low clouds and lighting in these videos don’t do justice to the autumn colors of the prairie, unfortunately, which are quite spectacular even though the “peak” of the fall colors seemed to have already passed.

I added these videos to my Flickr set, “Manhattan Fall Colors,” which includes lots of amazing images of autumn colors taken later in the day in Manhattan. These include three panoramic photos from the day, which I linked and discussed in my post, “Beautiful Kansas fall colors and more iPhone panoramic picture fun with Pano.”

Technorati Tags:
colors, fall, kansas, highway, k177

Rachel gathering acorns and acorn hats

dad — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:45:44 +0000

Yesterday Rachel and I gathered some acorns and acorn “hats” in the Sunset Cemetery in Manhattan, Kansas. She has been wanting to collect acorns for some time, and I remembered that the oak trees in this Manhattan cemetery produce LOTS of acorns each year, both large and small.

Technorati Tags:
kansas, manhattan, acorn, acorns, collecting, collect, find

VoiceThread about The Gingerbread Baby

dad — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:23:56 +0000

Rachel created the following VoiceThread today about Jan Brett’s book, “The Gingerbread Baby,” during the 2009 KATE Conference in Wichita, Kansas. She recorded the first three pages’ comments during the actual conference, in front of about 150 English teachers! She recorded the fourth/last page right after the conference keynote was over. We planned this VoiceThread last night, with Rachel selecting the Creative Commons photos she wanted to use from Compfight. She also practiced what she would say with each photo. Great job Rachel!

I added a link to this VoiceThread on the Great Book Stories project and wiki.

Technorati Tags:
kansas, kate, voicethread, gingerbread, baby, jan, brett, kate09

Marco’s Maine Photos

dad — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:32:15 +0000

Marco Torres took some AMAZING photos yesterday and today, when we were able to have dinner and hang out with some other great Maine educators. These are a few of my favorites, see more in his October 2009 Flickr set. My photos from today are also available in a Flickr set.

Enroute to Maine

dad — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:41:32 +0000

Sarah recorded these thoughts in the Baltimore airport enroute to New Hampshire and the ACTEM conference in Maine.

This video was shot with an iPhone GS and uploaded via email to Flickr. Mobile blogged with Wordpress for iPhone.

Lots of Fun at Fright Night 2009

dad — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:10:30 +0000

One of our favorite October traditions here in central Oklahoma is going to “Fright Night” at Frontier City, a theme park located on I-35 in Edmond. Generally we go later in the month, but this year we needed to go early because of travel schedules. As usual we had a great time, especially watching the show, “Dead Man’s Party.” In the third video below, you’ll see Sarah get up on stage and dance as the construction worker in the song “YMCA” by The Village People. We stayed and danced after the 2nd show– we actually saw it three times! This was a lot of fun! It’s also great that when you order your tickets to Frontier City online in October, they are half price. It’s still expensive at $17.50 each, but much less than “normal” price.

Each of these videos is 90 seconds long, which is the maximum length permitted by Flickr. Some of these songs and the acting in the performance was a little scary, but “a little scary” in moderation can be fun and even healthy. It’s definitely a lot of fun to have a chance to dance like this as a family. We don’t get these opportunities very often!

I shot these videos with my iPhone GS. I apologize for the distortion in the audio at some points. The sound was definitely VERY loud where we were sitting!

This visit to “Fright Night” marked the first time both Sarah and Rachel chose to ride a rollercoaster! We actually all rode the “Steel Lasso” three times, and it was a lot of fun. This was the photo of Rachel and Mom on their last ride. Rachel was pretty excited by the experience!

Technorati Tags:
city, edmond, family, fun, oklahoma, frontier, october, fright, night, rollercoaster, halloween

Hobbit Room

Brother — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:21:44 +0000

At my school in english are curriculum is The Lord of the Rings and we just read the part when they meet Tom Bombadil in the Fellowship of the Ring. We had to do a project on one of the scenes and make a miniature on it, I did the scene when they looked into their room at Tom Bombadil's house. This is the passage describing the scene and pictures of my project are at the bottom so you can see how I did:


Its walls were of clean stone, but they were mostly covered with green hanging mats and yellow curtains. The floor was flagged, and strewn with fresh, green rushes. There were four deep mattresses, each piled with white blankets, laid on the floor along one side. Against the opposite wall was a long bench laden with wide earthenware basins, and beside it stood brown ewers filled with water, some cold, some steaming hot. There were soft green slippers set ready beside each bed.



What Is your favorite Girl Scout Cookie?
Sister — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:25:21 +0000
I’m doing a survey for math and my survey is on What Is your favorite Girl Scout Cookie. I thought it would be cool if I could see the worlds point of view. The different kinds for my survey are Tagalong; Thin Mint; Trefoil; Samoa; Lemon Creme and Dosidos. I’m a junior Girl Scout. I have been in girl scouting since Kindergarten or a Daisy. If you have any questions about the taste of the cookies or if you have any questions about anything please feel free to leave a comment.