Week One

According to Howard Gardner, the theory of multiple intelligences include many aspects like linguistic intelligence, logic-mathematical intelligence, musical intelligence, spatial intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, naturalist intelligence and existential intelligence.

In the first half video, the teacher actually realized that different students might have different means of taking in the knowledge and she provided different ways of getting at the topics of materials or concepts. For example, she drew some questions on the blackboard and asked students to think critically whether the information is correct or not. She also asked them to read and find out the answers. Vocabulary sheets were also provided so that students can write and get familiar with the vocabulary.

In the writing part, she could find a variety of ways to ask students to report back what they have learned, like asking them to draw pictures to express if they had problems in writing. In the second half, the teacher also well used the theory of multiple intelligences. She tried to make students connect what is being learned with their own experience. For example, in learning the words, students may be encouraged to use picture or personal example to show the meaning of the word rather the definition.

Besides all these activities, teachers could also adopt other means. For example, when students, especially ESL students are learning new words, they can be shown with films or songs, from which they can reinforce their knowledge of words or expressions learned before as well as the interest in learning. Students can also be asked to make dialogues or conversations between each other using words they have learned to get a deeper understanding of the words or phrases.
Personally, I believe inspiration is a very useful tool for teachers to use. Teachers or students can easily use this tool to create concept maps or organize graphics, etc to put forward their creative ideas. Visual learning can greatly help students improve academic performance and achieve success across the curriculum.

About Me

Hello, this is Guoqiang Cui. This blog is dedicated for IT 645 in Summer, 2008. I am currently studying in University of Southern Mississippi as an IT graduate and this is my second semester in USM. Before I came here, I worked for three and a half years in China as an English teacher. I took IT 650 online last semester and have more expectations in the three online courses this term. I really love the online experience for this gives me more freedom and I feel more comfortable with the online environment. I think I am quite familiar with Office, especially word, Excel and Powerpoint for I used them all the time. I also got the chance to learn some other useful software last semester like Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop, and Indesign. I love playing with all the software for this gives me a sense of accomplishment after each project. I also would rather play with the software for days rather than sit to read for hours. But since all those software covers a lot and I still have a lot to learn before getting to know every feature of them. The electronic communication tools are really useful especially for online learning and I definitely enjoy this kind of communication for they offer me more time and space before giving the answer. I also learned the new technology tools in education like blog, podcast and wiki. As assignments last semester, we were asked to set up blogs and create our own podcasts and wikis. We set up our own blogs in Wordpress and used them as blogfolio to summarize and reflect on what we have learned. In podcast project, we learned how to create XML file and subscribe to it. Wiki offered us a good chance to collaborate and work. Though I have learned many software and computer applications last semester, I did not have enough chance and time to think about what is exactly educational technology. This course offers me a good chance to learn and I am sure that I will get a good idea and vision of the technology education as well as a solid theoretical foundation of the field.