6-18-2012 I've spent almost the entire day picking carefully through my list of potential sources for the WebLab AEE paper. Is it slow going, but as my dad taught me about building a building, the foundation shouldn't be rushed. It MUST be sound or the entire building will certainly come crashing down. I am certain that we can establish WebLab as a self-sustaining entity. We are using seniors' projects as the topics of WebLab broadcasts. That will go on and on. We need to find money to fund a scholarship for them (for their future masters work). It is a good idea that Dr. Acevedo has come up with: select the better projects for WebLab broadcasts, granting the best one(s) a scholarship for their efforts. It will encourage them to stay on for their masters the same way I taught my kids to do. They did it and don't regret it.
At 3 pm, we viewed several short videos on LabView. Got to hear some vocabulary and saw a few functions. It is in preparation for tomorrow's seminar on LabView. Time to go home, cook some sausages and eggs (good thing my son works at the sausage factory in Snook, eh?).
Monday, June 18, 2012
Friday, June 15, 2012
6-11-2012 Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Orientation at the University of North Texas (UNT) College of Engineering (CENG). Four teams have been established: Aquatic Sensors, Ride Share, Robotic Vision and Indoor Air Quality. I, as a Master Teacher, have been assigned the task of writing, with the assistance of Dr. Miguel F. Acevedo, CENG, UNT, Dr. Christina Wasson, Anthropolgy, UNT and Jennifer Williams, Master Student at CENG, UNT, a paper for the journal Advances in Engineering Education. We will jointly submit this paper to AEE . My deadline is 6-29-2012. I have to write an outline and assign writing assignments for each of the three people mentioned previously.
The WebLab project began in a discussion during the prototype RET in 2010 with Dr. Acevedo and I about how we could expose and connect high school students to Discovery Park (the location of UNT's CENG) in Denton, Texas. We have had two pilot broadcasts from UNT's CENG to Krum High School, in Krum ISD, Krum, TX during the 2011-12 school year. We used the software "Wimba" for the first broadcast and found it somewhat ackward. Jennifer Williams searched for other software to use to connect the schools and selected Adobe Connect. This software worked so well that we actually saw spontaneous interaction between the presenters and my high school students. Since this is the heart of WebLab (allowing presenters and students to freely interact spontaneously during the entire presentation) we were thrilled to see these results.
6-12-2012 I am harvesting references for the AEE paper from my last year's RET paper on the initial development of WebLab. I have been able to also use some of the abstract, modifying it to suit the present state of WebLab. This project is being developed as we continue to use it. We learn about what works or doesn't work each time we broadcast a session. I have selected three key words (as the AEE staff requires) and have emailed requests for information for biographical sketches (including pictures) of the three coauthors mentioned in my 6-11-2012 entry. I have identified the sections required for the paper by the AEE staff. I've written my own biographical sketch text, but need to add a picture.
6-13-2012 Dr.Varanasi introduced himself to the RET 2012 staff. This begins my 5th year of working with him. He and Dr. Oscar Garcia started the CENG at Discovery Park, UNT, Denton, Texas literally from the carpet up. Dr. Garcia was the founding dean of the CENG here at Discovery Park. They have helped to bring the CENG a long, long way in the seven years it has been in existence.
I have developed an outline for the AEE paper (simply used the AEE sections required for this paper) and have tentatively given writing assignments to my coauthors. I emailed a copy to each of them. I have received favorable comments from all three coauthors. I have worked with all three of them since RET 2011 (the initial development of WebLab).
Dr. Acevedo sent me a copy of the AEE paper that Dr. Garcia and he submitted to AEE explaining the development of UNT's CENG, focusing on the development of the Electrical Engineering Department. Many wise choices have been and are being made in the ongoing development of the CENG.
After lunch, we went to the CENG library. We were introduced, by Beth Thomsett-Scott, to data bases that will assist us in searching for references. We need to determine what others are doing in the areas we are working in and support our papers with reference sources.
I had 19 references in the 2011 WebLab paper and was asked by Dr. Acevedo to "beef up" the references for the AEE paper on WebLab. In this one day, I have added the abstracts of additional promising sources found by using the following data base searches: Engineering Village (1969 to present; sources were found in the range of 1980 to present), Web of Science (Knowledge)(1995-present), RefWorks (producing 0 references), Academic Search Complete (producing 0 references), IEEE Xplore (producing 0 references) and Google Scholar (1996 to present) (producing only vague references to this topic. I searched under the phrase "Use of the Internet for Live Interactive Teaching".
References that will be relevant must include work that involves a real-time connection between groups that allows the presenter and the students to have a spontaneous interaction throughout the entire broadcast. By no means is this a webcast, videocast or other style of broadcast that involves the lecture style of format that allows most questions to be asked only a certain points during the discussion or at the conclusion of the presentation.
I would appreciate any suggestions for data base searches or Journal Articles or thesises on this particular topic.
6-14-2012 At 9:30 am we took a field trip to UNT's water research center. We observed the simulated streambeds that Jason is setting up. He is powerwashing the rocks that form the bed of these streams. Jason is also studying a portion of the nearby stream.
While we were there, I had a chance to discuss with two of the R L Turner High School's MESTA
Acadmy about broadcasting WebLab # 3 and 4 to their classroom(s). Once they realized it would be UNT senior Electrical Engineering (EE) students that would present their senior projects to the students, they thought it would be appropriate for their juniors and seniors to participate in. They, too, do capstone projects during their studies. They told me to start by emailing their academy director, Tehrani Mansoureh, to seek permission to broadcast WebLab # 3 and 4 to the MESTA Academy. I am waiting to hear back from her as this blog entry is being written.
After lunch I continued the searches for references for th AEE paper on WebLab. I have acquired the abstracts of 55 more promising sources. I will read these abstracts, again, to see if they actually relate to the "Use of the Internet for Live Interactive Teaching". I will expect to continue this search to find all possible references that directly apply to this topic. Thus far, in addition to the 17 sources in the 2011 RET WebLab paper, I have added the abstracts of 55 promising articles that seem to be relevant to WebLab.
6-15-2012 We attended a brief seminar on lesson planning given by fellow RET master teacher Sharon Wood. She was one of the four teachers that began work in the pilot RET conducted at CENG, UNT, Discovery Park in the summer of 2010. She went over the lesson plan (she credited Barbara Lighfoot, a fellow Krum HS teacher of mine, with the development of the lesson plan) that her aquatic group developed during RET 2011.
Afer that, we received a brief discussion on how to set up a daily blog (each of the 11 teachers are expected to develop their own personal blog to show their daily progress in RET 2012 and allow students to access it so that they, too, can see what the RET process entails.
I went back to the RET lab and set up my own blog. I proceeded to transfer all of my entries from my RET notebook to my blog site. I will continue to record my progress, daily, in both the RET notebook and on www.blogger.com.
The WebLab project began in a discussion during the prototype RET in 2010 with Dr. Acevedo and I about how we could expose and connect high school students to Discovery Park (the location of UNT's CENG) in Denton, Texas. We have had two pilot broadcasts from UNT's CENG to Krum High School, in Krum ISD, Krum, TX during the 2011-12 school year. We used the software "Wimba" for the first broadcast and found it somewhat ackward. Jennifer Williams searched for other software to use to connect the schools and selected Adobe Connect. This software worked so well that we actually saw spontaneous interaction between the presenters and my high school students. Since this is the heart of WebLab (allowing presenters and students to freely interact spontaneously during the entire presentation) we were thrilled to see these results.
6-12-2012 I am harvesting references for the AEE paper from my last year's RET paper on the initial development of WebLab. I have been able to also use some of the abstract, modifying it to suit the present state of WebLab. This project is being developed as we continue to use it. We learn about what works or doesn't work each time we broadcast a session. I have selected three key words (as the AEE staff requires) and have emailed requests for information for biographical sketches (including pictures) of the three coauthors mentioned in my 6-11-2012 entry. I have identified the sections required for the paper by the AEE staff. I've written my own biographical sketch text, but need to add a picture.
6-13-2012 Dr.Varanasi introduced himself to the RET 2012 staff. This begins my 5th year of working with him. He and Dr. Oscar Garcia started the CENG at Discovery Park, UNT, Denton, Texas literally from the carpet up. Dr. Garcia was the founding dean of the CENG here at Discovery Park. They have helped to bring the CENG a long, long way in the seven years it has been in existence.
I have developed an outline for the AEE paper (simply used the AEE sections required for this paper) and have tentatively given writing assignments to my coauthors. I emailed a copy to each of them. I have received favorable comments from all three coauthors. I have worked with all three of them since RET 2011 (the initial development of WebLab).
Dr. Acevedo sent me a copy of the AEE paper that Dr. Garcia and he submitted to AEE explaining the development of UNT's CENG, focusing on the development of the Electrical Engineering Department. Many wise choices have been and are being made in the ongoing development of the CENG.
After lunch, we went to the CENG library. We were introduced, by Beth Thomsett-Scott, to data bases that will assist us in searching for references. We need to determine what others are doing in the areas we are working in and support our papers with reference sources.
I had 19 references in the 2011 WebLab paper and was asked by Dr. Acevedo to "beef up" the references for the AEE paper on WebLab. In this one day, I have added the abstracts of additional promising sources found by using the following data base searches: Engineering Village (1969 to present; sources were found in the range of 1980 to present), Web of Science (Knowledge)(1995-present), RefWorks (producing 0 references), Academic Search Complete (producing 0 references), IEEE Xplore (producing 0 references) and Google Scholar (1996 to present) (producing only vague references to this topic. I searched under the phrase "Use of the Internet for Live Interactive Teaching".
References that will be relevant must include work that involves a real-time connection between groups that allows the presenter and the students to have a spontaneous interaction throughout the entire broadcast. By no means is this a webcast, videocast or other style of broadcast that involves the lecture style of format that allows most questions to be asked only a certain points during the discussion or at the conclusion of the presentation.
I would appreciate any suggestions for data base searches or Journal Articles or thesises on this particular topic.
6-14-2012 At 9:30 am we took a field trip to UNT's water research center. We observed the simulated streambeds that Jason is setting up. He is powerwashing the rocks that form the bed of these streams. Jason is also studying a portion of the nearby stream.
While we were there, I had a chance to discuss with two of the R L Turner High School's MESTA
Acadmy about broadcasting WebLab # 3 and 4 to their classroom(s). Once they realized it would be UNT senior Electrical Engineering (EE) students that would present their senior projects to the students, they thought it would be appropriate for their juniors and seniors to participate in. They, too, do capstone projects during their studies. They told me to start by emailing their academy director, Tehrani Mansoureh, to seek permission to broadcast WebLab # 3 and 4 to the MESTA Academy. I am waiting to hear back from her as this blog entry is being written.
After lunch I continued the searches for references for th AEE paper on WebLab. I have acquired the abstracts of 55 more promising sources. I will read these abstracts, again, to see if they actually relate to the "Use of the Internet for Live Interactive Teaching". I will expect to continue this search to find all possible references that directly apply to this topic. Thus far, in addition to the 17 sources in the 2011 RET WebLab paper, I have added the abstracts of 55 promising articles that seem to be relevant to WebLab.
6-15-2012 We attended a brief seminar on lesson planning given by fellow RET master teacher Sharon Wood. She was one of the four teachers that began work in the pilot RET conducted at CENG, UNT, Discovery Park in the summer of 2010. She went over the lesson plan (she credited Barbara Lighfoot, a fellow Krum HS teacher of mine, with the development of the lesson plan) that her aquatic group developed during RET 2011.
Afer that, we received a brief discussion on how to set up a daily blog (each of the 11 teachers are expected to develop their own personal blog to show their daily progress in RET 2012 and allow students to access it so that they, too, can see what the RET process entails.
I went back to the RET lab and set up my own blog. I proceeded to transfer all of my entries from my RET notebook to my blog site. I will continue to record my progress, daily, in both the RET notebook and on www.blogger.com.
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