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For my scholar blog post, I would like to talk about what I believe actually causes the digital divide. I took interest in this topic after seeing the importance of technology in all aspects of life, especially in education. In Delavan, the students are given Chromebooks for the duration of the school year, and in the health class I observed, videos on the different health topics were a big part of the curriculum. I got me thinking a little bit more about this topic, which is why I decided to post about it. TO get you started, here a quick video defining the digital divide

The digital divide, as defined by  Dr. Schloman, is “the gulf between those who have ready access to current digital technology (esp. computers and the Internet) and those who do not; (also) the perceived social or educational inequality resulting from this” (Schloman, 2004). Many things can result from the inability to access technology. It could be money, resources, or maybe those who don’t have it don’t want to use it. When Dr. Schloman talks in her article, she mentons that it is very wide on a global scale, which makes sense, as there are many first-world countries who only have technological access from other countries, but also very deep because it affects the underprivileged negatively.

Of course, one man felt that the digital divide isn’t as simple as some of us make it out to be. According to PhD candidate David Nemer, “It does not necessarily offer nuanced understandings of socioeconomic conditions under which the marginalized live. ” (Nemer, 2015). He actually felt the term “digital inclusion” would be more useful under the circumstances. A very interesting take on this subject.

Another student gave one concrete reason for this phenomenon, stating “Inoperable equipment is another reason for the digital divide.” (Smith, 2015). Inoperable equipment, of course, means either outdated to the point where it doesn’t function like it used to, or even new equipment that could never get the job done in the first place.

As you can see, all three of these people believe that the digital divide is a big a big problem in today’s society, especially with how important technology is in the 21st Century, and must be fixed in some way.

However, all three of these articles have different goals in their papers. Dr. Schloman’s paper discusses that health care specialists need to support their patients that can not access technology, and get them to collaborate with public libraries for internet access. Mr. Nemer’s paper wants us to know about what goes into the digtal divide, and that our answer to solving it has nothing to do with technology, but it does require us to fix the economic and social issues behind the divide. Finally, Ms. Smith’s goal from her paper is similar to Dr. Schloman’s, in the fact that public libraries need to get involved, however, she is talking to the general public and wants her audience to get help from public librarians. and calls them (the librarians) to help as well, by adjusting their collection and providing their libraries with proper technology.

As shown, the target audience for each paper is different. Dr. Schloman’s paper is directed towards health-care professionals, such as doctors, nurses, and other people who work in the health care field, Mr. Nemar’s paper is directed towards the general public, and Ms. Smith’s paper is directed toward public librarians. Although, anyone could read this paper to learn something.

After looking over these journals, I saw that all three of these papers had excellent points, discussing the problems, stating their views about the problem, and finally, how they believe their target audiences can fix the issue. From this, I learned that there really is no one issue responsible for the digital divide. There are many things that can contribute. For example, poverty plays a big part, since some people may not be able to afford technology.  Another thing is improper access to the internet, because even though some people can’t access the internet, there are places that provide free WiFi, but not every public building has it, and some places may not let the public access it. Another problem is people who may not know how to use it, especially if they are older, had have never seen that kind of technology before and have never been taught how to use it.

The way I think we can solve this problem has more to do with technology, since I don’t know how to fix this problem within the economy, is to teach our older generations how to properly use it, so they don’t have to get frustrated every time they use it. We also need to increase public WiFi Hotspots within a few establishments, so people can go to more places to access the internet.

I know that technology can be a distraction in many ways, and we can get a little too engulfed in it at times, but if we learn how to control it properly, it can be a valuable tool for work, school, or connecting with others. After all, shouldn’t we be able to master technology, instead of having it master us? However, how can we do that if there are people who can’t utilize it in the first place?

Articles Used

• Schloman, B. (May 7, 2004). Information Resources Column: “The Digital Divide: How Wide and How Deep?” Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. Available: www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Volume92004/No2May04/TheDigitalDivideHowWideandHowDeep.aspx
• Nemer, D. (2015). From Digital Divide to Digital Inclusion and Beyond: A Positional Review. Retrieved from http://ci-journal.net/in.dex.php/ciej/article/view/1030/1131
• Smith, T. M. (2015, August). THE DIGITAL DIVIDE AND ITS EFFECT ON STUDENT LEARNING. Retrieved from http://centralspace.ucmo.edu/bitstream/handle/123456789/426/Smith_LIBRARY%20SCIENCE.pdf?sequence=1

As the semester wraps up, there are a few final beliefs that I picked up from this class. The first topic is what makes an effective teacher. I believe than an effective teacher is someone who is very knowledgeable in their content area as well as one who is good at understanding all kinds of mindsets, since everyone is different. You can’t effectively teach or coach if you don’t know about your content and/or can’t manage a classroom properly.

One standard that this class prepared me for was that “Teachers Know How To Teach” (Weber, 2017). Educational Psychology prepared me for this standard by teaching me the idea of using backward design in lesson planning. It helped me to find ways to draw up a lesson plan for different units and will be a big help in my teaching and coaching career.

The biggest thing I learned from this semester was that there is are so many developmental theories concerning children. Sure, I knew Piaget and Freud, but I was not aware of Brofenbrenner’s Ecological Model, Conservation tests, or of Lev Vigotsky, but of course, since Vigotsky died young and unproven, he isn’t as relevant. Also, the importance of technology in teaching was an important lesson. At my high school, some students got iPads, and they were nothing more than a distraction. Here, I learned that with proper control and moderation, technology can be a big help in many subject areas, even physical education and health.

My online identity from here will consist of possibly publishing a website with inspiring quotes, lessons, and other educational and sports-related material. I could also make another blog, which is practically the same thing. I haven’t decided yet. If anyone want’s to create a site, here’s a Wix tutorial.

Wells, that’s all, aside from the Scholar Blog Post. Good-bye!

There are many ways to use assessment techniques, motivation, goals, and learner-centered teaching methods into my teaching methods. When assessing students in physical education, I can use exit slips, surveys, I can observe a modified game  and utilize a checklist to see if they have mastered certain skills, filled out either by me or a peer. When I taught somersaults for a tumbling lesson in Assessment in PE last semester, I printed a checklist with cues to look for and had the students partner up, with one student performing the somersault and the other evaluating the somersaulter’s performance, and then switching roles. Motivation isn’t an easy concept to teach, as some students may have more motivation than others, something I will have to come back to. There are quite a few ways to incorporate learner-centered instruction into the curriculum. for example, during a unit on baseball, ask your students to attend a high school, or if they are lucky, college or professional baseball game, or just watch an old rerun if they can find it, and have them report on what they learned about the sport.

Design principles, such as Backward Design,  can really influence instruction. For example, Backward Design identifies the desired goals and works out a plan from there. Watch the video below to get a better idea.

I have done it before, with a flag football plan, as you can see below:

Since this was my first attempt, It felt hindering working backwards, but after some work, I adjusted to came out with a product. It may not be the greatest lesson plan, but it is a start.

Today, I will be talking about diversity within the education field. You are going to encounter all different kinds of people throughout your teaching career, from black to white, rich to poor, tolerable to intolerable, regular kids to special needs kids, etc. The best thing you can you can do is try to adapt to each of these students. Watch the video below to learn a few strategies for teaching culturally diverse students.

To identify how these students are different, the best thing I could do is observe their behavior and actions in class, if I am looking for attitudes and in some cases, special needs. Facial appearances also differentiate people from different culture and other special needs cases.
There are many differences between students that I could discuss planning for, but for the sake of time, i’m going to chose dealing with a student who is impoverished. Students who are living in poverty may not have the energy to compete since they don’t eat much or help to succeed since their parents have to work endlessly to survive, which is something I learned from the poverty simulation my teacher showed us in class.

Here is the link to the simulation: http://playspent.org/

It is important to plan for teaching impoverished students since they are the students who may need the most help, since they may not have the support of family members. The best way to teach is to make sure they are included in class and that they make connections with other students. Those students could soon become friends and could lead to a sharing of resources, and perhaps some time away from the home. Making new friends and  spending time studying with others are two ways to improve performance in school, as it leads to more feelings of self-worth and reduction of stress and anxiety.

We have quite a bit to talk about from Module 4. Let us start with the differences between the behaviorist and cognitive perspectives of learning. The behaviorist perspective deals with teaching by rewarding favorable actions and punishing unfavorable actions, while the cognitive perspective focuses on learning by experiences. This video should help explain it better.

It is important to apply them to teaching because we need to teach our students not only how to behave, but how to think problems out for themselves, especially in my field of physical education and coaching. There are limitations to both theories. The limitations for behaviorists are that not everyone has the ability to perform certain actions and some people may feel left out. The limitations for the cognitive perspective are that some people may not understand how to solve problems, and takes a lot of time to teach to students.

When it comes to my personal beliefs, I know I need to have both in my teaching philosophy, as you need to know both how to act properly, but also how to think for yourself and solve problems on your own, but I don’t know which should be more important. Maybe neither should be more important than the other.

When it comes to times I will need to teach these philosophies in physical education, I can think of some examples. For the behaviorist theories, you will deal with some athletes who will want mess around during practices, and you will have to find set rules for practice and enforce any necessary punishments, and you can also apply this example to the cognitive theory, as you will need to find ways to keep EVERYONE on task, since some people don’t have as good of an attention span as others. As I mentioned before, I believe you need to master knowledge of both behaviorist and cognitive processes to succeed in teaching.

Hello, Everyone

Today I will be talking about Module 2. Let me start by discussing how I believe a person develops and constructs knowledge. I think of Bronfenbrenner’s model of human development when I think about this question (macrosystems and microsystems) because I think all of the systems in this model have some effect on your beliefs. One of these systems may have more effect than another. For example, my teachers and coaches teaching me to always give 100 percent in what I do had more influence on my beliefs than the friends that tell me to take it easy. Below is a video explaining Bronfenbrenner’s model of Human Development.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me7103oIE-g

The developmental characteristics from Erickson’s Eight Stages of Pyschosocial Development can also impact teaching and learning. Erickson’s eight stages involve different mental tasks a person needs to accomplish at certain ages. These can shape teaching and learning by giving a teacher guidelines of how to shape lessons to help students overcome the hurdle that is the challenge of whatever stage they are in. For example, a kid of 5 will be in the “Initiative vs. Guilt” stage of development, meaning they want to be more independent. A teacher could fit this knowledge into his/her lesson plan by having students wash their hands by themselves after snack time. Of course, you have teach them first. To get a better handle on Erickson’s stage, look at this video on examples of his stages within movies.

Next I will talk about the benefits and limitations of the models and theories. The benefits include having chronological structures within the stages. For example, look at the trust vs. mistrust, and the fact that stage happens when a child is between the age of birth to about 1 to 1 1/2 years. It provides expectations of what the student needs to accomplish at that age. Limitations include the fact that some people may progress differently, and that there can be negative consequences from the stages if you mishandle them.

Finally, I will discuss how the aforementioned benefits and limitations work together to inform my future teaching. Thinking about Bronfenbrenner’s model will help me understand how some people think differently than others, as some people come from difficult homes or don’t spend enough time on social media to be heavily impacted by it, and will give me the ability to find ways to make sure everyone learns something. Looking at Erikson’s Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development will help me  know what hurdle the student has clear and make sure to tailor my lessons to help them successfully clear that hurdle.

Hello Everyone,

Today I have a new post, which concerns the first module of EDFOUND 212, which focuses on research and teaching methods.

I view the relationship between research and teaching in education in a way that research is the process of discovering new and different ways to teach, and teaching is the application of those methods. Information literacy can be used for evaluation by researching different methods of teaching. What it means for my future job as a physical educator is that I may need to research different methods of teaching so I can find the right one that will help my students learn and keep them excited for class.

I will also talk about how to find, share, and apply research with an example. This example takes the form of a teacher’s note, stating that homework will only be work that was not finished in class, that homework has not been shown to improve performance, and that parents should let their kids do any activities that are shown to improve grades. It seems like a good thing, as it has been said that students “did homework to please significant others or to comply with their expectations.” (Xu, 2009), and some people have homework to the point where “learning behavior seemed to be associated with low motivation and low conscientiousness” (Flunger, Trautwien, Nagengaust, Ludtke, Niggli, Schnyder ,2016), and online homework, especially assignments that give multiple tries, since “students do not profit from their previous attempts”(Kortemeyer, 2015). I know from class discussion that sometimes homework is not effective, yet there are classes such as math where you do not get a choice, but there was one study that showed that not all students needed the homework and  she stated, “To be completely honest, the results of the study quite surprised me” (Kimberley, 2013). The way I see it, you have to find the perfect fit for your students. I found a video that agreed with this principle, while researching for this post, I found a new concept, a “flipped classroom” approach, which was instituted by Clintondale High School in Michigan, once considered one of the worst schools in the state.

As you can see from the video, a flipped classroom approach means doing the homework in class and online lessons outside of class time, and student grades improved drastically, with failure rates dropping from 35 percent to 10 percent, and college admission rates rose from 63 percent to 80 percent within two years. One thing that resonated with me was that the principal explained bringing the coaching philosophy into this method, since he is the coach for a traveling baseball team. Whether or not this works with other schools still remains mystery, but as I said earlier, it’s all about finding the perfect fit.

These experiences have taught me that there are many ways to teach your students, and I can apply this knowledge going forward by going out and looking for the perfect curricular model for my students.

Sources Used:

• [NationSwell]. (2014, Nov 13). When This School Got Rid Of Homework, It Saw A Dramatic Outcome. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EceWjPUgWc8
• Xu, J. (2009, August 31). Homework Purpose Scale for High School Students: A Validation Study. Retrieved from http://libproxy.uww.edu:4195/doi/abs/10.1177/0013164409344517
• Flunger, B., Trautwein, U., Nagengast, B., Ludtke, O., Niggli, A., & Schnyder, I. (2016, July 17). A person-centered approach to homework behavior: Students’ characteristics predict their homework learning type. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361476X16300248
• Kimberley, L. J. (2013, June 04). Homework Usage in Mathematics: a study on the impact of optional homework in the math classroom. Retrieved from https://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/65806
• Kortemeyer, G. (2015, June). An empirical study of the effect of granting multiple tries for online homework. Retrieved from http://aapt.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1119/1.4922256

Hello There,

If you’re reading this (no, its not too late), it means you’ve found my blog for EDFOUND 212-Educational Pyschology. Let’s get started with an introduction.

My name is Jon Goltz. I come from Greenfield, Wisconsin,  a suburb of Milwaukee. I am studying Physical Education K-12 here at UW-Whitewater, with the hope of teaching and coaching at the secondary level to start, and then jumping to doing the same at the college level (If only I could get some experience at the college level)

My hobbies are pretty simple: Sports, Performing Arts, and Comic Book Heroes. You probably wouldn’t expect Performing Arts out of a PE Major, would you? I like to go watch Warhawk Athletic events. I even went out for baseball freshman year (and I don’t know why, but I gave football a shot). I think you can guess how that turned out (It’s fine, we got great athletic programs here, and I am club sport athlete for weightlifting). As for performing arts, I love to go see community theater shows, with hopes of being able to participate in more shows outside of summer following graduation, and I will be in Dancescapes ’17 in late March-early April (Go see it, I command you). For Superheroes, my favorite Marvel characters are Iron Man and Deadpool, and for DC Heroes, Batman and Watchmen (Go read Watchmen if you can, but I will warn you, its not for the faint of heart.)

I do work on campus. For work study, I oversee the computer lab in the Williams Center. On top of that, I work for the Center for Students with Disabilities, or CSD, as a tutor for PROJECT ASSIST, meaning I tutor kids who receive services from CSD.

I do not have much more to say on top of that. Until next time, this is the guy who wishes he had a iron suit saying “Good night and good luck”.

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