Learn: The technological innovation of the telegraph caused a ripple effect in the system of systems of the Victorian era. The introduction of the telegraph in the technology system impacted all other systems, like the legal system for fighting codes, hackers, and cheats.

Know: The same is true with the technological innovation of the internet. It impacted our Intimacy/Family systems by bringing families across continents together with the click of a mouse. Not even the education system can stand apart from the changes brought by the technological innovation.Tom Standage's The Victorian Internet points out the ripple effect of the telegraph and the generalizations that can be made about technological innovation in the system of systems. My artifact compares the impact of both the telegraph and the internet and summarizes the generalizations that can be made when new technology is introduced.

Act: From this reading, I will keep in mind the impact of technology innovation on all systems and try to spawn a good ripple effect by using the education system to support technological innovation that will progress the system of systems in our nation.

Learn: I doubt when Alvin and Heidi Toffler sat down to write Revolutionary Wealth that they thought a class of instructional technology students would get much use out of their findings. Or, maybe they did. Regardless, there is a lot to take away from this book. The biggest being that the education system is running on an industrial one-size-fits all model that's far behind the times with what our students will need to be prosumers in a revolutionary wealth system.

Know: To take a look at some of the obsoledge that our education system is using, see my artifact. It is a reader's theatre created by a group of instructional technology students that highlights some of the major issues with today’s educational society and how this impacts other systems. Future learning should look more like an individualized, collaborative system than a one-size-fits all rigid school day.

Act: Since I can't change the entire system overnight, I will change my approach to things in my classroom by creating cooperative learning groups and integrating technology to teach authentic problems instead of obsoledge (obsolete knowledge and techniques).

Learn: According to Don Tapscott, I am a Net Generation kid. His book Grown Up Digital taught me more about myself and the students that come in to my classroom than I ever would have concluded on my own. 
Know: NetGeners have eight norms that wire them differently for the world than past generations. Norms like customization, collaboration, scrutiny, integrity, fun, speed, and innovation all define what they are and what they are looking for from the world. My artifact depicts these norms as apps on an iPhone which is one of the many mobile devices that NetGeners use to make their mark of the norms on the rest of the globe. 
Act: This reading told me that student's are natural collaborators who want to scrutinize the world to make it a funner place and they want to do it all quickly. I realized that my students don't see collaborating as cheating or a way of having someone else do their work for them, rather it is a way to put all their unique custom heads together and collaborate about solutions in a fun and innovative way. This allowed me to see that teaching fractions with multiple representation can be achieved with a lot less headache if you let the students collaborate and teach each other the multiple ways to multiply fractions instead of trying to lecture them all on it.

Learn: Larry Cuban predicts that a slow revolution in technology access, fueled by popular support and continuing as long as there is economic prosperity, will eventually yield exactly what promoters have sought: every student, like every worker, will eventually have a personal computer. His book, Oversold and Underused, talks about the slow revolution of technology in schools, not because of teachers being technophobes, but for various other reasons.
Know: Big companies, parents and school administrators like to blame public education's teachers for a lack of technology use in the classroom. The truth is teachers are willing individuals and realize the need for technology, but are often misguided or not guided at all in the affordance of technology in a classroom. My artifact is an essay stating some of the true underlying issues for a slow revolution instead of true overhaul of technology in school. It is in response to an article written by Roger Jorgenson entitled Teachers Slowing Reforms, Study Shows. My article defends teachers and puts the blame on the system itself and other outside factors.
Act: Cuban raises a good point about the slow revolution. My classroom has been undergoing a slow revolution in technology affordance since I started this graduate program. I am having to break away from my previous model of teaching and slowly put on a new hat as a true facilitator in helping students integrate technology in a way that will be useful for them in the future and not just in my classroom that day. I am working to create lessons that mold students in the proper use of technology.

Learn: The ability to evaluate critically what is found on the Internet is one of the most important faculties for successful Internauts. Critical thinking is the ultimate V-chip. Paul Gilster details the critical thinking necessary for students to evaluate the usefulness of information found on the World Wide Web.  
Know: Students think that if it is on the internet that it is infallible. Unfortunately, anyone can post anything and the web is not an experts only zone. To teach students to think critically and evaluate websites my group created a Snuggie with reminders of important skills needed when doing research on the Internet. My artifact displays me wearing the Snuggie with symbols for sifting information, looking at form and content, checking the validity against other sources, and judging the overall site for its usefulness.
Act: I often think students already know not to trust content just because it is posted, but then I look back at all the times I have let students answer a question they had about something just by going to Wikipedia. I never had them justify whether or not the information on a publicly updated site such as that was actually valid. Now, I see the importance of teaching our students to check their sources and make sure they have legit information. We must teach them so that in the future they can determine truth from tale and make informed decisions based on their findings and evaluations. I will now use a website evaluation survey when I have my students do research so that they can begin to obtain the skills needed to be life-long learners and evaluators of information.

Learn: Computers have transformed our workplaces and our lives. According to Allan Collins and Richard Halverson, the technology age should also be adapted to transform American schooling. With customization, interaction, and learner control students can bridge the gap between their education and the real-world. Customization can give learners what they want when they want it, interaction can provide immediate feedback through computer technology, and learner control puts a student in charge of his/her own learning. Using technology to accomplish these leads to off-loading teaching on to software and scaffolding to accommodate all learners.
Know: Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology really makes one rethink the model of education in general. Is industrial age schooling really what the NetGeneration needs? With the old way, much of what is taught is basic facts and skills that technology can do for students. It is more important these days to teach students how to use technology to enhance their learning and turn them in to life-long learners. My artifact rethinks the factory model of education and creates a new model in the form of a wondering cruise ship. On this cruise ship, students spend the mornings with mentors and computer software, having their learning scaffolded for them. Students can customize their learning by choosing what career avenues to learn and be guided in. In the afternoons, students take what they have learned and run the ship/school themselves. They provide food, energy, and even discipline to live what they learn.
Act: Unfortunately, the factory model of education isn't being replaced quickly enough by a new model. Teachers must do the best they can with what they are given. In my classroom, I will make use of simulations and WebQuests to scaffold learning and connect it to the real-world workplace. I have already created a WebQuest where, through off-loading, students can apply the basic principles of area and perimeter in designing a house. They also learn emergency preparedness within the same WebQuest, something I would not have been able to integrate without rethinking the use of technology in my mathematics classroom and thinking outside the box to have students learn what they live and then live what they learn.

Learn: Aliens have attacked Earth twice. To make sure humans win the next encounter, the world government has taken to breeding military geniuses and then training them in the arts of war. The early training takes the form of 'games' and then develops in to a world of computer simulation. Ender Wiggin is a genius among geniuses who wins all the games. He is smart enough to know that time is running out. But can all his training prepare him to save the planet?
Know: This book was an amazingly captivating read. I won't divulge any more of the story in case you have interest in reading it yourself, but I will say that Ender's Game is a futuristic look at a totally new education system built on the foundations of technology. Ender Wiggin spends most of his study time in a virtual world using a tablet I envision to be much like an iPad with simulation video games on it. As we look at remodeling the future of education, we should look at the advantages of using computer simulation technology. Teaching can easily be off-loaded to the software and student learning can be scaffolded making it more customized for the individual's needs. My artifact delves more in to the details of this. It is a chat discussion about the book with a group of grad students from Integration of Technology.
Act: Although our current education system is far from using complete computer simulation to teach students, there are many things I can initiate in my classroom to integrate technology in an effective way. Using an authentic problem in my lessons allows students to connect their learning to the real-world. Using telecommunications techniques such as simulations and WebQuests can scaffold learning and allow students to take control of their own learning. I try to use at least one authentic problem for every unit I teach. I enjoy having my students solve real-world community problems and having the sense that their solutions matter and therefore it is important to them to take the time to develop the right solution.

Learn: Norton and Sprague'sTechnology for Teaching introduces ACTS for a database using educator in Chapter 5 - Databases. ACTS is a mnemonic for authentic problem, clear outcome, thinking skills, and software skills. Using one of three kinds of databases, a teacher can create an authentic problem that has a clear, gradable outcome where students search, sort, create, and communicate that outcome using their software skills.
Know: My artifact for this reading is a pamphlet that explains databases and ACTS in more detail.
Act: As I learn to use databases myself, and have been shown many examples of lessons from Professor Norton, I am slowly starting to integrate part of ACTS in to my curriculum. My students have seen an authentic problem dealing with eggs and chickens and were able to create and communicate a solution for the problem to the Agriculture teacher. They have also sorted data to order scientific notation from least to greatest. As I continue this class, I see the need for databases in my designer's bag of lesson tools.

Learn: Communication is at the heart of all human behavior. Telecommunications is "communication at a distance." The best way to use telecommunication is through a computer. There are two types of telecommunications, asynchronous (can be done at anytime of the day or night [i.e. email]) and synchronous (occurs at the same time [i.e. chat]). Using telecommunications in the classroom makes the world cumulative knowledge come available for teachers and students. The teacher is no longer required to be the sole deliverer of information, but a facilitator of on-line learning.
Know: Telecommunications can help teachers off-load and scaffold learning experiences. It can provide more in-depth and current resources and information than having the teacher be the sole deliverer. More importantly, it brings learning alive. Through the use of ACTS and telecommunications, learning experiences are more relevant and realistic which actively engages students in the learning process. My artifact is a perfect example of this. It is a telecommunications lesson plan that integrates online surveys and email to help students understand the effective use of a variety of graphs to display different sets of data. In this lesson students use the Internet to create a survey and respond to other surveys to both make and collect data. With the real-world data they receive, they can analyze it and create graphs for a magazine article.
Act: As I integrate the use of telecommunications in my classroom, I see its many benefits. Whether students are just using a simple web resource or completing a WebQuest, the Internet has much more information than just I as a one man show could teach my students. It is important that students learn to shift through that information by becoming digitally literate and apply the correct information they receive to solving real-world problems in their community.

Learn: Situated Cognition poses that knowing is inseparable from doing by arguing that all knowledge is situated in activity bound to social, cultural and physical contexts. The act of cognitive apprenticeship allows students proper enculturation needed to live and contribute to a visual culture. By showing students how to think and act, one off-loads the hidden agenda of enculturation on the act of learning.

Know: Posing students with an authentic task and leading them to a clear outcome with cognitive apprenticeship using the tools with proper affordances allows students a higher success rate than just teaching rules and methods out of context. Cognitive apprenticeship can model to students through authentic means the use of tools in enculturation. I sum these important terms up using an acrostic poem to easily help others understand the meaning of some of the important words in the article.

Act: What I take from this article, is the need to find proper affordances in tools and create an authentic problem that allows for cognitive apprenticeship. Doing all of these things will in sum allow enculturation in the proper context so that students can succeed within the walls of my classroom and further. Showing students basic techniques such as basic paint tools for creating their own clipart in a project can allow them to excel in an exceeding visual culture that relies heavily on visual language.

Learn: The use of graphics dominates in a visually driven culture. Graphics can allow one to express emotion and realism better than just words alone can. There are several different types of graphics that students can create. The main ones used by schools because of ease of access and instruction include Print, Drawing, Painting, and Idea Processors. Each has its own set of affordances, such as painting being a way for students to create original works and Idea Processors having a talent for organizing thought processes. All graphics programs have some basic tools that make up their commonality like Line, Rectangle, and Eraser. If there is no time to create original graphics students can find clipart, use web-based graphics, or take photos with a digital camera.

Know: Any way students go about creating or obtaining graphics, there are five purposes for using them in a classroom setting. Since all graphics share a common visual language like use of shapes, colors, and placement, teachers can use cognitive apprenticeship to teach these elements while giving students authentic reasons to create or use representational, explanative, organizational, transformational, or decorative graphics. To see more about these five purposes and practical uses of them in the classroom, please take a look at my Computer-Based Graphics Tools Handout.

Act: It is time for me to step up my game and become more that just a math teacher. All teachers should be trying to model and enculturate the design of visual graphics. It is important that students can express ideas using both words and graphics. Having students explain an authentic concept using graphics as a visual process solution is the first way I will start to integrate computer-based graphics in my classroom.

Learn: Visual language is the act of forming, coordinating, or blending words, images, and shapes in to a single communication unit. Visual language has come about because of the affordances technology has brought to use. The use of graphics and automatic charting software allow even a youngster in our culture to express feeling and emotion far better than words on a page alone could ever do.

Know: We are inundated with our visual language from the time we can identify and see objects. What American, be it 2 or 82, doesn’t see a golden arch and know it’s time to eat some tasty fries? This is due to the enculturation of visual language in our society. People associate words, images, and shapes with certain processes and emotions. Before visual language, data was a mute point, especially when there was loads of it. Now, one can use visual language with the affordance of computer graphics to take that data and mold it in to a solution to a problem.  For some visual language that tests your understanding, see my artifact.

Act: Visual language is important to understand and incorporate in daily lesson planning. One should always think of ways to teach students to “read and write” in a visual language because it allows for the vastest and exceptional understanding of a concept compared to other languages that just incorporate words or pictures. It is important that I as a teaching have my students practice cognitive apprenticeship when we see visual language and learn to authenticate what they are seeing with the culture surrounding them.

Learn: “Since fruitful thinking involves building simulations in our heads that prepare us for action, thinking is itself somewhat like a video game, given that video games are external simulations.” James Paul Gee spends many chapters explaining mind provocative concepts such as the one above to ultimately explain the connection between learning and video games. He uses mainstream games as examples and makes a compelling argument for using gaming to promote literacy. 

Know: Video games, by design, are much more intricate and player driven than any novel. Using video games in the classroom can promote authentic activity and allow students to work through skills using a medium they understand and feel comfortable with because of the no-risk aid of restarts and save points. The personalized learning experience of simulations and strategy games frustrate students in a challenging manner, but not to a breaking point. Student self-interest in games will drive them to continue on and problem solve until they have adapted the skills necessary to beat the game which, as a designer, a teacher should institute based on content knowledge. James Paul Gee pioneers many more concepts about video games and learning as you can see by my artifact, a group of quotes from his collected essays on video games, learning, and literacy.

Act: Games provide an ability to learn within a situated context. This allows students to construct meaning through consequence-free activities that have real life connotations.  Highly criticized yet popular games such as Grand Theft Auto commonly employ critical thinking skills that allow the user to develop possible outcomes for a variety of situations. Though many outcomes are unrealistic the types of complex problem solving are rarely developed within the confines of a classroom. Although I am far from agreeing to let students play Grand Theft Auto in the classroom, I am very open to using strategy, simulations, and even fiction games to boost students’ problem solving, literacy, and real world relationship skills to mathematics.