Skip to main content

Microsoft's Mouse Mischief is Good for Democracy in the Classroom

Johnathan Masters
Mouse Mischief
August 21, 2014

Microsoft's Mouse Mischief (for Power Point)

Being a man of Freedom and Democracy, a Web 2.0 Tool I would use is Mouse Mischief. I haven't actually used it yet, and since it's Microsoft, and I do not have the funds for it, I will have analyze the reviews for it. I stand corrected with Microsoft Power Point, since Mouse Mischief is a Power Point 2007 and 2010 product, which means it has to used in conjunction with each other. On Microsoft's webpage about Mouse Mischief, it boasts that teachers can “insert questions, polls, and drawing activity slides” into our lessons, and “Students can actively participate in these lessons by using their own mice to click, circle, cross out, or draw answers on the screen.” (Microsoft). There's so many tools being presented here. Every student has wireless mouses, and “questions, polls, and drawing activity slides” are presented to the class, and they can vote on the question, or point to the right angle, or circle the right answer, or write what they think is the write answer on the board. Or, like at BW3s, there can be trivia competitions, where everybody gets a score. We can have classroom quizes and exames in the same way. It can be used for practice up until the final game.

There's so many devices out there. Really I feel like a kid in a candy store, deciding what technology I would want in my classroom. The democracy I speak of is only incidental to the actual learning of the curriculum, and so my students will need to get used to using democratic tools, and how to peacefully and intellectually assert themselve. The democratic tools that Mouse Mischief adds is the ability to have polls. So the will of the students will reign supreme. Does the class want to do Activity A, or Activity B? By deciding which activity, they “buy into” the lesson plan, and become a part of it. This gives us greater retention rates. It's also fun for students, and it respects the student's individual sovereign autonomy. The class can be used as it's own focus group. They can learn what their learning styles are, and see if there's a pattern in the room, so we do more “hands-on” learning, or whatever method works best for most of the students. With democracy, we can also, with careful guidance of the general discussion from the teacher, work on lesson plans for the class in order to complete the state's required curriculum. The curriculum standards can be shown to the students, and once the student's sees the goals, then they get to decide how they want to get there.

Another great tool Mouse Mischief has, since it has the ability to poll, that means it has the ability to throw elections. Elections are the bedrock cornerstone to all functioning democracies, and therefore, this makes Mouse Mischief an invaluable learning tool.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Books Read By Anne Frank

2 outta 5 Kyians can't read, according to a 1999 Paul Patton Task Force commission report. “44% of Kentuckians struggle with minimal literacy skills, and 37% of the Kentuckians age 25 and older do not have a high school diploma.” http://www.lrc.ky.gov/lrcpubs/rr296.pdf But hey, Kentucky, don't lose heart. Just look at the good side. If 44% of Kentuckians CAN'T read, then that means that 56% of Kentuckians CAN read, so let's look at the positive side. Here's Wendy, a Kentuckian, from Letcher County, who I met the other day:  Many Kentuckians, especially the backwards, racist, and illiterate, love to fuck up their words as bad as they possibly can. “Taters” isn't only stupid... it's childish. Plus, potatoes aren't that great. Potatoes were responsible for killing off a huge Irish population... sure it's one of the world's main basic food staples, but rice, pork, beef, wheat, sugar, etc., are so much more important, and more d

Haiti's Revolution 3

alex hamilton repn hte US while gw was away gave France $$$ for US repayment of Revolutionary War loans from the US treasury, which amounted to about $400,000 and 1,000 military weapons. N the period b/t Sept 1791 - June 1793, 22 months … US gave $726K to French white colonists. GW was a slave owner. He joined the US rev to protect his slaves from Lord Dunmore's Emancipation Proclamation; GW loved havn slaves, too much. That's why he helped France fight their rebelling slaves. Escargo & frog eatn French. French kiss... french fries... frenches mustard & ketchup french toast deja vu; cest la vie; jena ce qua; ew-lala vis a vis … viola! sacrabeau! ; a propos; au courant; au contraire; blasé blasé blasé Bon yovage! Bourgeouis!; cache cafe! Chueffer! Clique! Cliché! Critique croissant; cul de sac escusez moi; extraordinaire; facade; faux, faux pax; hot shots, part duex; gaffe, genre Grand Prix voyeur boutique cause celebre, laisse faire; madam malaise

100 Greatest Works Humanity Has Ever Made

A Great Books Canon “To ignore the leaps and bounds we've advanced in the fields of technology and science is to forever play patty-cake to the cavepeople of yesteryear.” Podcast Explanation for the first few Great Books of the Freedom Skool: http://youtu.be/7jD_v4ji1kU This is the Freedom Skool's 2015 list of the 100 Greatest Works Humanity Has Ever Made in the order of most important to least. Books are too limiting in their scope for what ideas can cloud the brain, and folks from all over the world, yesterday, today, men, women, atheist, spiritual, white, black, straight, gay, transvestite, have all helped in the collaboration in the making of this list. Out of the great pool of ideas, the best ideas should prevail. Thus, the 100 greatest works ever are nothing more than the 100 greatest ideas ever constructed. For all intensive and respectful purposes, consider this my own personal 100 “great books” list. For all kinds of culture, things which please the eyes, su