Technology Inquiry Question

I put quite a bit of time on this task.  I looked at a lot of resources and picked the ones I felt were best and most helpful to me.  I also spent a lot of time on my Wiki as I had trouble getting the spacing to look correct after saving it.  The screencast took me a couple tries before I was happy with it.  But, overall I am very happy with my final Wiki and screencast.

This task has made me more comfortable with creating screencasts and hearing my own voice.  I also feel more comfortable with creating a wiki.  Creating this second screencast has helped me become better at writing my script and being more prepared than before.  I now feel confident that I can create a class wiki and look forward to adding to my current wiki so when I start to teach, I would like to have a wiki with resources for my students, such as the math podcasts and different sites they will find helpful when at home.  

Final Exit Slip

After this course, my thinking about using technology in the classroom has changed drastically.  Throughout my years in school, I have never had a teacher integrate much technology into my classes besides the usual powerpoint.  I feel that the way I was taught has kind of formed my thoughts on teaching.  After taking this course, my thinkinghas totally changed.  I now will integrate technology into my future class.  There are so many more ways I now know of that I can integrate technology into my teaching.  I am now more confident with my skills using certain types of technology. 

New Thinking From Class

3 ways I will integrate technology into Ella's class:

My class is a 6th grade math classroom.  In our classroom we use an interactive white board which the students are actively using almost daily.  Somedays the warm up problem is using the interactive white board, other days the students have to solve problems using the interactive white board. 
As a class, we have a blog that we update daily.  The students in the class are responsible for blogging about what we did in class and new concepts they learned.  Once a week we will create a video about what we learned and how it relates to the world around us.  How the students will use this out in the real world.  This video is then uploaded onto our blog for others to see.  Throughout the year, students will have responsibilities; some students will be in charge of updating our blog, others will be in charge of taking pictures and uploading the pictures to our blog.  The responsibilities will rotate through the students so each student will actively be involved in the blog. 
I will also have a class wiki where parents can find information about the class and what we are learning.  I will include our assignments and daily plans.  The wiki will also be a resource for my students to access my delicious account where I have a tag called studentuse so the students can access websites I have found helpful to help them with homework or fun math games for them to play. 
I would also create some iRLO's with Scratch which my students could use to practice math skills.  Instead of practicing their math skills with paper and pencil and being timed, the students can play the Scratch game to practice their math facts if they are not up to the level they should be. 
Alright, so I couldn't keep it to only 3 ways I will integrate technology into my classroom.  There are just so many ways and things I can and want to do. 

I'm sad this class is over.  I feel like I have learned so much!!  I am taking away so many good resources.  I may have dreaded the assignments at the beginning of the semester, but I am glad I learned to do all these things!!  They will definantly help me as a future teacher.  Thank you!!!

PSA Reflection

As with most of the other projects we have had to do, I was not looking forward to making a PSA.  I have never made a video where I had to edit and add things in.  I also do not like acting and being filmed.  But, as with everything else, I am glad I did this and it was not as hard as I thought.
My group spent quite a bit of time on this.  We were not sure what to do our PSA on, but once we figured out our topic, the filming went fast.  The hardest thing was uploading the video from the camera to the computer.  We did not have the correct cord, so that was our first battle.  Once we got the correct cord and imported it, we had to learn how to use a MAC.  None of us in our group are very familiar with MAC's.  It took some playing around and just trying different things to figure out what we need to do to edit the video (take some stuff out and put different parts in the correct order).  Once we got this done, the adding of text was pretty simple.  I actually learned a lot while doing this.  I feel more confident using a MAC now.

Now that I know how to create and edit a video, I think I could easily incorporate this into my class.  This is something I would want to have my students help with and actually have them create a video on something they have learned and edit it and then have them share the video with their peers and on our class blog or wiki.

PSA- Texting While Driving

New Thinking from Class

Some ways one teacher integrates technology in her classroom:

• computer
• Internet
• student laptops
• SMART Board- cooperative learning and actively engage students, participation
• online collaborative projects to work with peers and connect with other students around the world
• reaching out to experts in the field
• keypal/epal- different languages
• daily blogs to inform parents and assignments online for students, student recognition (others outside of the school), "open classroom"
• Students write blogs about current events(paper journal, now even more current), sharing perspectives, global citizen

could do before
couldn't do before
could do but better now

If the technology is allowing us to do something we couldn't do before or we could do but now it is better, that is the technology we should be using. 

Don't use personal technology tools in the classroom, don't put it at risk.  There needs to be a seperation between personal and professional. 

Rethinking Education- Chapter 10

This final chapter did a good summary of everything that was discussed in the book.  The chapter really made me think about what I need to do as a teacher to keep kids in school and interested in learning.  There are so  many different ways for individuals to get the information that they do in school, if schools do not keep kids motivated and provide them with the learning they are looking for, they will turn to other places to learn what they want.  The learning that is taking place in schools needs to relate to what children will need to know as they become working citizens.  The learning needs to be meaningful and help our students succeed.  The book makes a good point on page 135 that "people need to develop new learning skills rather than acquiring more information."  I think this is very true.  It is not as important anymore to memorize facts and information because it is so easy to look these things up on the internet.  Today it is more important for our students to learn skills that will help them find the information.  Students need to learn where to look for information and how to evaluate its reliability. 

The book makes another good point that technology needs to be used in education to help those who are having trouble with the material.  There are not enough teachers per child or hours in the day to give every student the help they may need.  I have seen this, especially in math, that students struggle and don’t receive any help.  There are so many online math games that teachers could show their students and have students use during their study halls or at home to help them with their math or other areas that they may need help in.  Technology needs to be used to its fullest capabilities.  Instead of having students struggle and never receive the help they need, why not use what technology has to offer us.  We already know that students are using technology and seem to prefer technology learning over the traditional classroom learning, so why not incorporate that into and use it to help where teachers may not have time to help. 

As a future educator, this chapter really made me realize what I need to do as a teacher to make sure my students are interested in what they are learning and motivated to learn.  I think it’s going to be important to incorporate technology into my classroom to keep my students interested and motivate them with new ways of learning.  I also need to help my students learn what they are interested in while sticking to the curriculum.

New Thinking From Class

Today for discussion, we used the jigsaw strategy for discussions.  I really liked this because we were able to talk to more individuals and we really had to pay attention and contribute in each group.  But, when these strategies are used, we should make sure to call them the correct term and introduce the students to it.  This will create learning and increase students vocabulary.  Relevence, rigor, and relationships are the three r's we want in education.  Education is dealing with attitudes toward technology.  In 10 years, the amount of technoloy used in the classroom has not changed that much.  Media is huge in our lives and our students' lives.  After searching for the media online, it is amazing how much is out there.  There is so much technology we can use in the classroom and there is so much available material on the internet that we can use as future educators. 

Rethinking Education- Chapter 9

As chapter 9 talks about, video games and online gaming communities are becoming more and more popular.  The chapter talks about how students are reading less out of books and spending more time on the computer or playing video games.  I do believe that reading a book is very important, but if students do not read regularly because they do not enjoy it but they do enjoy playing online games, some games will require them to read or work other individuals to strategize.  I think this is also very important.  I think the book made a good point that if parents have a problem with their children playing a lot of video games and to ensure parents know what their children are doing; parents can play the video games with their children. This will not only allow the parent to see what their child is playing, but also it is time to spend with your child. 

As a future educator, I think it’s important to learn from your students what they know about technology since they usually know more than we do.  As we learn from them, we can teach them how to use technology safely.  Parents and teachers also need to monitor what their children/students are doing with the technology.  I also think as a teacher it’s important to model safe technology practices.  As a teacher, I could keep my students parents informed about the technology we are using and some internet resources that they could show their children which would benefit them in the classroom such as learning games.

New Thinking from Class

Today during class we discussed the positive and negatives to using technology and social communities.  It was good to bring the negatives in, because as the group said the book only brought up positives.  But as teachers we need to look at both the positives and negatives and weigh them out.  It is always important to have a back up plan when using technology.  The group had inteded to use a new tool which would have allowed us all to try the tool and meet the needs of different learner types.  As future teachers it is important to think about if we fill the mold of a typical teacher or if we will be an innovative teacher and bring new ideas and things into the classroom. 

Podcast

For my podcast, I used a newspaper article. You can find the article here.  For my lead in and lead out music, I used music found on incompetech.com by Kevin MacLeod.  I found my sound effect on the website A1 Free Sound Effects. 

This being my first time working with Audacity and creating a podcast, I spent quite a bit of time working with Audacity to get my music and sound effect lined up with my audio.  I also spent quite a bit of time looking for my article. I wanted to find one that I was interested in.  After finding my article, I spent some time writing my script.  I recorded myself twice and was happy with my second recording.  I had a hard time moving the music to where I wanted it, but once I figured out how to move it, it did not take me long to adjust the fade in and fade outs and finish the podcast. 

As a future teacher, this project helped me learn how to create a simple podcast.  Since I know the basics, as a teacher I can create more podcasts and maybe even a video podcast to help my students with math concepts.  By creating this podcast, it has also given me the confidence that I can use technology and it may seem hard, but once you start doing it, it is fairly easy and fun.

iRLO

I will admit, I put the most time into this project!!  I really enjoyed creating this iRLO.  I started by looking at some examples to see what could be done with Scratch.  I came up with my idea and then just started  playing around with what I could do in Scratch and seeing how you pieced things together to get something to happen.  I came up with an iRLO that I was pretty happy with, but still wanted to add more.  After my peers gave me feedback, I decided to change and add a few things.  I did not take all their suggestions.  One suggestion was that I have the students pick either addition, multiplication or subtraction, but I wanted this to be more of a review where they had to do all different types of problems.  This also made it so a student didn't pick what they were best at and never get practice with what they may need most.  I learned that with Scratch, you can just keep adding to the iRLO, so I decided that enough was enough and it was time to submit! 

After designing this iRLO, I now have a better idea about how I could use this in my classroom.  I could create so many more iRLO's for my students.  I also learned how much time can be put into these and how much you can do with Scratch.  As with the IWB, after having my peers review, I learned that you need to consider their input but it may not be what you had in mind for your lesson.  Also, by having peers give you feedback you can find out what problems may occur that you did not realize or just that getting another opinion is very helpful. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this assignment and am very happy with my end result.  At the time when I started this, I was dreading having to do it, but now I am so happy and proud of what I have done and knowing what I potentially can do in the future.

Interactive Whiteboard Lesson

Before creating this lesson, I spent some time looking at the pictures and templates that were available for the Smartboard. I also played with some of the capabilities Smartboard has to offer.  I enjoyed coming up with the different pages and just kept adding more pages with different things the students have to do that use the SmartBoard's Capabilities.  After getting feedback from my peers, I made some changes and added a few word problems.  This lesson is one that you could keep adding to and making more changes.  I feel I spent a significant amount of time on preparing this interactive lesson.  A lot of the time I spent was trying different things to see what I could do with them and working on getting things grouped together. Once I figured out the basics and a few tricks, creating the lesson went pretty quickly.

By designing and sharing my IWB lesson, I learned a lot about how to design a lesson using the Smart technology and the capabilities the SmartBoard has to offer.  I learned how easy and fast  you can design a lesson once you know what you are doing, but also how time consuming it can be if you let it.  A few times I started working on it and lost track of time because of everything you are able to do with this.   By having my peers look at and provide feedback on my lesson, I have learned how much it can help to have someone review something for you because they will catch mistakes, may interpret something differently than me and may come up with new ideas that I did not think of that would add to my lesson.  I also think that by having my peers review my lesson, I am learning how to take constructive feedback better and also evaluate their ideas and if that is something that I really want to do  or if I did not do that on purpose for a specific reason.

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts: Wikis (Chapt 10 & Epilogue)

Chapter 10 did a good job of discussing what the role of teachers will be as technology becomes a more widely used resource in the classroom.  The Big Skills the author mentioned really tied everything we learned in previous chapters to what it means for our students and using the resources in our classrooms.  By incorporating technology into the classroom, students will have a purpose for writing and will have a larger audience than just their teacher.  Instead of writing their research paper for their teacher to read and grade, they could put their research paper on their wiki and have a very large audience who could potentially read it and give the student feedback.  Students today have so much more "knowledge" available to them then even I had 15 years ago!  I remember using Encyclopedias in elementary school to write my research paper and physically having to go to the library to find books on my topic.  Today, if you ask students what an encyclopedia is, most probably would not know.  They know the internet is the place to go to find information. 

As a future teacher, I think it's important to know what our role is to help our students use technology that is available to them.  As technology changes, so does education.  If education doesn't progress with technology, people will look to other places (internet and online schools) to get their education.  I think by using technology in the classroom, you are benefiting your students and yourself.  Your students will hopefully be more excited in learning since they have grown up with technology and it has become a large part of their life. 

After reading the Epilogue, it is amazing all that Tom did in such a short amount of time.  Technology is a great tool and when you take advantage of all it has to offer, it can be a great timesaver and a great resource.  But the first step is to get started.  After reading this book I know so much more about the technology available and am interested in trying what is out there and by the time I'm ready to teach, I will be familiar with some of the technology resources and can incorporate them into my classroom.

New Thinking From Class

The new curriculum design is using technology to help students focus on their goals and interests and is skill based.  From the presentation it's important to give directions before getting into groups.  Once we are in groups, people start chatting and are not paying attention to what is being said to us. 
The article that we looked at during class really made this chapter come alive.  The article made me realize that this is something real and can be done.  Click here to see article.
It was very helpful to go through some tips with using Scratch and what we need to double check on our Technology Wiki page. 

Rethinking Education- Chapter 8

The topic of this chapter and having specific certifications is very interesting.  I think this could cause problems, because as they mentioned in the book, if someone doesn't really know what they want to do, they would go to a high school type of school to take general courses and find what they may want to do.  But, by having some students going to a school type of place, would these students feel like underachievers and feel that they are behind.  I know some of my high school friends who did not go to college feel like they missed out and I think there is some negative stereotypes for these individuals.  Would those students who do not know what they want to do also have negative stereotypes and be referred to as underachievers? 
Also, students would not have the same experiences as we do now in the classroom.  There would probably be online interactions, but I think the in person interactions are very important.  The chapter also talked about different curriculum designs.  They mentioned how students along with their parents would choose their curriculum and would be encouraged to stick with it.  Well what happens if the parents want a child to do something but really the child would like to do something else.  Would the child end up doing the curriculum the parents wanted and what happens when the child decides to change their curriculum.  Can they switch and would that put them behind?  The chapter also discussed technology and using that more in schools to help student's learning.  I think we are on the path to doing that.  People are realizing more than ever now how important technology is to students and how it can aid their learning. 

As a future educator, I want to make sure I am using technology to help my students learn.  I also want my students to have access to technology so they can use it if it is not available at home.  As for the specialized curriculum, I think it's important to teach all students the basics.  I don't think it's wise to have young children picking out their curriculum or having their parents choose it for them.  I can't see that working very well at all.  So as a teacher, I will make sure my students are learning the basics and being introduced to relevant subjects.  Instead of having specialized curriculum, I will make sure my students have choices so they can learn about things that interest them which will also help keep them interested in learning. 

Cool Tools Screencast- BrainPop

To watch my screencast, click here!

I did my screencast on BrainPop.  Overall I put quite a bit of effort into my screencast.  There is so much on BrainPop that I spent a couple hours just exploring the site and ended up watching quite a few of the videos!  They are very informative videos and I learned quite a bit from them.  But, after I explored the site and signed up for a free trial, I started working on my S.W.O.T. analysis.  Once I completed the analysis, I went through what I wanted to say during my screencast, made notes and decided what I wanted to click on and through to show.  Once I felt prepared, I made my first screencast.  The first one I had a few mistakes I wasn't happy with and I also ran out of time.  So, I redid it two more times and was finally satisfied with my third attempt. 

At first when we were told about what we had to do for the screencast, I was not liking what I was going to have to do and wasn't looking forward to doing it, but now that I have done it, it wasn't bad at all!!  I didn't think I would be able to fill up 5 minutes, but actually, I could have used more time! 
By making this screencast, I now know how to do it and could create more for my students or others.  I also think this helped me get over the nerves of "talking into a microphone to myself" and then having to share it with peers.  Now that I have done it once, the next time won't be so bad.  Creating this screencast also made me familiar with a resource I could use with my class (both BrainPop and Jing).  By sharing with ppers, I also get to see a lot of other great resources that I can use in the future. 

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts: Wikis (Chapt 9) Social Networks

This chapter about Facebook brought up some really good points.  I like how the author said that we shouldn’t just not use it because most schools have the site blocked.  The examples he provided In the book are very good examples about how Facebook can be used appropriately. Students now probably know a lot more about Facebook than most of us do, so I think it’s important to take the opportunity to teach students how to use Facebook appropriately and safely.  Some parents may not have Facebook or even know much about it, so as teachers, we need to take the responsibility to make sure our students know what they are doing and doing it safely.  From experience, I know how addicting Facebook can be and I know that a lot of people are on Facebook whenever they are home.  Since students are on Facebook quite a bit, I like the idea of having a “secret” group for your class where they can discuss different things.  This would make it very easy to accomplish classroom tasks if students are already on Facebook while at home.  I think it can also be a great way to build your class community by having an open discussion where students can talk to each other and the quiet students can even contribute and maybe not feel quite so much pressure as when they are in class and talking. 
I am not familiar with Ning.com, but this also sounds like it could be nice to use in a classroom.  I liked the examples the author gave about how teachers are using Ning in their classroom.  I think social networks can be a great way to help build a classroom community and at the same time you can teach your students how to be a safe online citizen.  You could also use these resources to help teach about bullying and how to prevent cyber-bullying or what to do if they experience or see cyber-bullying happen.  I think by using these Social Networks in the classroom there are a lot of teachable moments to take advantage of. 
As a future teacher, I would definantly play around with these two resources and see which may benefit my class.  I would want to incorporate this into my class so I can take advantage of the other teachable moments, especially cyber-bullying since this is a very hot topic right now.  I feel that by having an online classroom community, students can express themselves who may not otherwise do so in the classroom.

New Thinking from Class

One key idea from today’s discussion is that with change there will always be a loss and gain.  Public education needs to become more competitive.  The technology debate isn’t one that is black and white.  There is a lot of gray area.  What it all comes down to is how you feel you can best serve your students.  Funding is available for those with initiative who go to find it.  Don’t just give up, go and find the funding that you need.  As most of the resources we go through in class, Elluminate is new to me.  But it’s always nice to learn about new resources.

For our podcast, we need to address a contemporary issue related to technology and PK-12 learners.  The article can come from online or from a magazine or newspaper.  Once the issue is determined, a script should be written that provides an overview of the issue which summarizes the resources and also share our reaction or reflection related to the issue.  Be sure to have very clear audible speech. 

Rethinking Education- Chapter 7

In this chapter, they discussed that as parents decide to take their children out of the public schools and take over their education, the schools will be left with uninterested students.  I can see this as a good and bad thing.  If the students that are left are really uninterested, by having only them in the school, the teachers can devote more time to them and possibly get them more interested in school and the subjects.  Some of these students may not be interested in school because of some of the other students.  These "uninterested" students may be intimidated by the more advanced students and without them the "uninterested" students may become more interested and actually do better in school.  But, it is a large problem when some students do not have access to the same educational tools and resources as others.  As the book stated, students that do have access to the educational tools and private educations pull ahead in life and there is no competing.  Sometimes I worry that everyone is so competitive that children can’t even be kids anymore.  Parents are educating their kids as soon as they can talk and preparing them for school.  But unfortunately, not all families can afford the most prestigious schools and educational tools.  This creates a problem for the lower income families.  Access to computers and internet is another big problem.  If teachers require students to use the internet for homework or listen to podcasts at home, they are creating a problem for those students who may not have access to the internet or a computer at home. 
Another interesting point the book made was that if students are able to choose their course of study, they will chose subjects that interest them.  They may not choose the history class and will not have some of the basic knowledge that all individuals should have.  But then again, the individual will be learning what interests them and they will therefore be more engaged. 
One very positive gain to a more individualized education is that there would not be as much competition in school between students.   Students would be less likely to compare themselves and focus on their studies and what they are learning and how they are doing as an individual instead of being ranked in their class and feeling like a failure. 

As a teacher, I will make sure that all my students have access to the technology they need to succeed.  I will make sure that if students have to use a computer or internet, I allow time during the school day for them to work on this so those without access can complete the task and not have to feel ashamed or fall behind because they do not have access to the technology.  I will also work hard to try to make all my students feel confident in their work.  I do not want to have a class where students are comparing themselves to others.  I want students who focus on their own learning. 

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts- Chapter 8 (Podcasting, Video and Screencasting, and Live Streaming)

Podcasting, video and screencasting, and live streaming are all new to me.  I do not know much about them at all.  I just remember last year my brother who was a freshman in high school had a class where the teacher used podcasts.  The students had to listen to his podcasts a couple times a week and do assignments and then class time was used as a lab.  Unfortunately, my brother did like this.  He said he did not like the teacher, so having to go home and listen to him for another hour was hard and he would rather have read a chapter instead.  But after reading this chapter, I learned that you can't just use one teacher's podcast and base your opinion on that.  I think there are a lot of cool things you could do with podcasts.  You could create podcasts as a review for your students so it is not mandatory for them to listen to, but if the student is studying and decides he/she needs more review they could listen to your podcast as a review. 

A lot of times, I think notes or announcements get sent home with students and the students either throw them away or lose them so parents do not receive important information.  Podcasts would be a great way for school personnel to get in touch with parents and make sure they receive all the announcements and important information. The schools website could have an area devoted to podcasts for parents so parents could check it or use their RSS to subscribe to and keep them in the loop. 

In today's society there are a lot more parents who are out working (less stay at home parents) and parents who are overseas fighting for our country.  As I was reading about the podcasts, video and screen casts and live streaming I was thinking how all of these could be used to record and capture things that are going on in your classroom to share with parents who can't be there.  If your class is putting on a little play or talent show you could do a podcast, video cast or live stream it so those parents unable to attend can still take part in it and enjoy their children. 

I also really liked the idea the author used about connecting with students in another country or even another state and creating podcasts or video casts to learn about each other and if learning a new language, having the students help each other by creating podcasts for each other. 

As a new teacher, I want my students to be able to use new technologies in my classroom so they are ready and willing to try new things instead of being scared.  I also want to teach my students how to use these tools appropriately. 

New Thinking from Class

This week from the class facilitation it was emphasized again that we need to use our teacher voice.  The group did a great job of circulating and checking in.  They asked great questions to make us think of other things within our group.  The group was well prepared, knowledgable and did a good of grouping the students.  The timer was a great way.  This helped the groups know how long we had but also allowed the facilitators to not have to be watching the clock. 

To consider: ways to share out the information, not just verbally but visually to help all student learners.  One way to do this would be jigsaw grouping.  One person from each group would form the second groups so that there is one expert from each initial group in the second groups. 
Provide a summary frame to summarize your discussion.  This makes everyone focus on a clear summary which makes the group summaries go very quickly. 

During class it was helpful to go over the SMART Board tips and tricks.  Make sure to check that objects are locked in place if you don’t want them to be moved.  Also be sure to group objects so they are one object and not individual objects to move.  If you want a bunch of one object so that if they drag one away, there is another, you can use the infinate cloner.  Be careful and sensitive to color choices.  On your monitor the colors may be fine together, but when projected the colors may be totally different and make it hard to read.  Smallest size text you want to do is 24, but 36 plus is ideal.  Rule of thumb for number of words on one slide or page is 6 lines with 6 words per line so a total of 36 words.  Also take into consideration the grade level.

Rethinking Education- Chapter 6

Before reading this chapter, I did not know much about the history of schooling.  This chapter was very interesting. As they talked about the stages that education has gone through, I think we are getting to a combined stage, where we still have the formal education in a classroom, but we are also learning online and taking courses that interest us as individuals.  I also think a lot more teachers are giving students choices as to what they may research so that it is something they are interested in and want to learn about compared to being forced to research a topic the student may have no interest in.  Even with testing, in schools today you have the different types of assessments and then there are still standardized tests.  I think schools are working hard to combine different types of ways to test student’s knowledge and also to keep students interested and teach them topics they are interested in. 

As a teacher, I will try hard to keep my students interested and give them choices.  If the students are working on a research paper, I want them to research something that interests them.  No matter what they write about, they still have to do research and find information on their topic and they will get the writing experience.  For a history class, you could have students research a time frame, but relate it to something they enjoy.  Since I enjoy baking and cooking, maybe I would research foods during a certain time, how they cooked or if there were any movements towards different types of food. 

Book Chapter Project

On Thursday, Cassie, Cari and I facilitated the class discussion on Chapter 5 to the class.  Before our group met, I read the chapter so I knew what the material was and could start getting some ideas on how we wanted to facilitate this.  We met as a group to prepare.  We used Prezi as our main presentation tool and then used the Elmo.  Prezi was very easy to use and prepare our material.  None of us had used it before, but once we started using it, it didn’t take very long to create a presentation.  We all worked well together and it didn’t take us very long to come up with how we wanted to facilitate the discussion.  We wanted to group our peers differently than what others had used to discuss, so we grouped them into colors.  I think this worked very well.  The time constraint was an issue, but we just had to go with it and were not able to have a lot of large group discussion after the small groups discussed.  After our group prepared for the discussion, we met together the day of to make sure we knew how to use all the technology and make sure we knew who was doing what.  I think we all did a very good job of getting our material ready so on the day of we weren’t trying to get last minute things ready. 

By facilitating this discussion, we were able to experiment and see what works well with facilitating.  This also helped me personally feel more comfortable presenting in front of my peers.  Also, by doing this, as the facilitators, we had to know the material well so that if questions were asked we could answer them or if a group was on the wrong track, we could reguide them. 

As teachers, we will have to teach with administrators in our classroom observing.  I personally find it a lot more difficult to teach or present when a peer or administrator is in the room.  I was a substitute teacher for a year and had no problem going into a classroom and teaching, but when I had to start peer teaching, I found it very difficult to do.  So by teaching our peers this helps us get ready for not only teaching students, but also for having observers in our classroom.  Also, by discussing course content with peers, I think this helps you understand the material better.  If you can teach the material to someone else, that means you have a pretty good understanding of the topic and can actually help you learn the material even better. 

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts- Chapter 6 (Fun With Flickr)

I have never used Flickr before but as I was reading through the chapter, I was thinking about how this could be used in a classroom.  I think it would be fun to have students or as a class, we take pictures of Wisconsin and what we think of when we think about Wisconsin.  We could create a Flickr account for our class and then maybe find a class in another country who would also create a Flickr account where we could see pictures from their country. This would be a great way for the students to learn about different places and cultures.  Students see a lot of pictures in textbooks, but wouldn’t it be cool to see pictures that other students have taken.  This would also allow the students to decide what is important about the place they live.  Thinking about Flickr, I got nervous about having students upload personal pictures, but on page 103 the author mentions that you can have your pictures private so only those who are invited to see them will be able to see them.  I did not realize how much you can do with Flickr.  I thought it was just a site to upload pictures and share with others.  But, after reading the chapter, there are a lot of cool things you could do with a class. 

One important thing to remember when using Flickr, just like any technology is to use it a while yourself before you have your students try it.  This will allow you to know how and it works and be able to answer your student’s questions.  This will also help you determine if there are certain words to stay away from when looking at pictures using tags. 

New Thinking From Class

Today we presented for chapter 5.  I think it went better than I expected.  I was happy that we decided to form the groups how we did with colors.  I think one downfall we did have was we should have allowed more time for the whole class to discuss.  We could have offered more in depth commentary to the pros and cons given or built on the idea that the group gave us.  I do agree that we should have talked a little more about the quote given as our final thought, but it was meant to make the class think and it actually leads into next weeks chapter. 

Talking about the iRLO and how to get started was very helpful.  The first step is to identify a standards-based content.  We then need to design a developmentally – appropriate way to address the content.  We need to take into consideration what age level we are designing the iRLO for compared to the content we are focusing on.  The audience needs to be considered.  It was very helpful that Jeff took us through the process for downloading Scratch.  The only difference is that on our home computer we should install the program.  When we were first introduced to the iRLO, I was very nervous about it but now that we went through the steps and how to actually make it, I am feeling a lot more comfortable. 

Rethinking Education- Chapter 5

After reading this chapter, I learned a lot that I didn’t know about other ways people are learning.  I never realized how many students are home schooled. I do believe that students who are home schooled score significantly better on standardized tests.  When you are home schooled, you are usually only one of a couple who may be home schooled, depending on if you have siblings who are also home schooled.  This means that you aren’t in a class with 20 or more other students and you can move at your own pace.  In middle school, I had a friend that was home schooled and she actually graduated 3 years earlier than students her same age. 

I think a lot of these new ways of learning are very important.  As adults, we should always continue to learn and keep our brains active and working.  Adult education, distance learning, and workplace learning are all a great way for adults to learn something new and something that interests them.  Schools may not be able to allow everyone to learn just what they are interested in, but these other ways of learning can allow you to do that when the timing is right for the individual.  I don't feel that these new seeds of learning will hurt public schools and their intentions, I think they are here to strengthen citizens and allow them more opportunities to learn and allow individuals to learn in a way that works best for them and what interests them. 

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts: The Social Web (Chapt 6)

Technology can be very beneficial to educators.  As discussed in this chapter, Twitter can be used to connect with other educators that you may have never met or will never meet and allows you to learn from them.  We can learn what is working in their classrooms that we may be having problems with or cool lessons that they are teaching.  Twitter is just one of the many social sites that can be used to connect to others. 

Social bookmarking is something new to me, but I really enjoy using it now.  Social bookmarking allows you to bookmark and tag sites you find useful so that you can access those sites from any computer.  Unlike the traditional bookmarks on your home computer, you can access these bookmarks anywhere.  The thing I like about this is that you can find sites with similar tags that other individuals have found helpful.  There are so many websites out there that you may never discover, until now with the help of social bookmarking. 

As a future teacher, I want to incorporate as technology into my classroom as possible.  Young children today are more attuned to technology than anything else.  They catch onto technology very quickly and enjoy being on the computer.  Social bookmarking is a great way to help your students start researching a topic.  As a class you can add links.  I really like the idea in the book where he talks about tagging links that each student may like.  So you would have a tag called “Meredith” with information you feel she would enjoy.  I think students would love to see what their teacher finds for them and have their own personal library of information and sites. 

New Thinking From Class

There are 4 main developments of American Schooling.  The first is the printing press which led to the Reformation.  During the Reformation schools were created.  The American Revolution was next, then the Industrial Revolution.   After today’s discussion, some things to keep in mind for other discussions is to encourage deeper thinking from our peers.  The presenters did a good job of restating comments for the group.  We also need to take into consideration how to group peers so everyone can be a part of their group. 

Our iRLO we will submit 2 drafts; one for our peers to review and then the final draft.  An iRLO is an interactive reusable learning object.  Interactive means it provides user control and appropriate feedback.  Many lecture classes do not allow for this, whereas video games do.  Reusable means it can be used repeatedly. Learning means users should learn new content, review previously learned content or practice a skill.  Object is a generic term, but it refers to the Scratch file that you will create. 

We were introduced to Scratch which is a program we can use to create an iRLO.  Scratch has an online community where students can access iRLO’s that you created.  They do not have to have Scratch downloaded on their computers. 

Rethinking Education- Chapter 4

On page 52, the author writes that “Taxpayers were reluctant to pay for education, and towns frequently reaffirmed parents’ responsibility for educating their children.  Yet, once schools were established, parents were quite willing to send their children to these schools, rather than teaching them at home.”  I thought this was very interesting.  It seems that even today, individuals may be reluctant for something, but once it is established and seems to be working fine, then everyone wants to jump on board and be a part of it. 

I also found it interesting that during the colonial years, when there were one room schoolhouses, most of the teachers were males.  I always thought of women as being the teachers and many years ago, it was uncommon to see males as teachers.  Gender roles put women as the teachers, but really, the earliest teachers were men. 

As I was reading the chapter, it surprised me how much of the education system is still similar to what it was when it was first created.  They talked about classes being 50-55 minutes long and that is still how most high school classes are, even most college courses are 50 minutes long. 

Before reading this chapter, I did not know much about the history of education and schools.  After reading the chapter, I understand better how school and education were created and the changes they have gone through, but also how some things have stayed the same. 

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts: RSS (Chapt 5)

Before reading this chapter, I knew nothing about RSS, or what it even stood for.  Now I know that RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and all educators should start using it ASAP and teaching their students how to use it.  An RSS will track all of the feeds that you subscribe to  and each hour will check for new feeds.  The new feeds will them be put into your aggregator and you can view them and decide what to do with them at your convenience. 

As I began reading the chapter, I wasn’t sure how I would use an RSS in my classroom. It seemed like a great way for me to keep up on new information and findings, but how could my students use this?
RSS would be a very easy way for me to keep up on my student’s blogs.  My students could create an RSS and choose something they are interested in.  They could then start getting the feeds from their RSS and write a paper using the information they received from the feed that they collected in a few weeks.  Maybe to introduce my students to RSS, as a class we could create one with a single topic in mind and see how the RSS works and what type of information we receive.  I could have each student look over the info we got for the day and determine what was worth keeping and if we should add other news sources. I think an RSS could become a great tool to first use as a group while everyone learns how to use it and then allow the students to create their own with a topic they are interested in. 

A lot of the resources we are learning about you can use through one account, such as Google.  I like that most of these are offered through Google.  As we learn about a new tool, I get nervous about how many different tools there are and each requires a different login.  As I learn that most can be accessed with one login makes me feel more comfortable with using them.

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts: Wikis (Chapt 4)

After reading chapter 4 on Wiki’s, I understand the concept of a wiki a lot better.  When I was in school, Wikipedia was just being started and we were taught to never use Wikipedia because anyone could add information and it may not be true.  After reading this chapter, I think it’s very important to teach our students about Wikipedia.  I did not know that there is a history as to what people change on a Wikipedia and if an individual deletes information, the information is not lost, it can be saved.  It was also reassuring to read that 4 out of 5 experts said the entries in their field of study were accurate, informative, comprehensive and a great resource for students.  I also like the idea that wiki’s are collaborative.  In schools and in many jobs, you are required to collaborate with others.  Wiki’s can help students understand and practice collaborating to create a wiki or add their expertise to another wiki.  There is so much you can do with wiki’s.  Students could have a wiki with another class in  another country and be able to work together to help each class learn more about where they are from. 

As a teacher, I will incorporate the use of wiki’s into my class and help students understand a wiki so they may contribute to our class wiki.  I feel that if students are a part of something and feel that they have control over the class wiki and it is their work in progress, they will be excited to keep the wiki current and keep it going.   I will also take some advice from the chapter and advise my students to use Wikipedia as a starting point to their research.  I also like the idea of using a wiki in the classroom and allowing the students to edit each other’s contributions.  I think this would be a great way for students to learn about editing and use their English skills to correct errors.  In another college courses, my group used Google Docs for a group paper.  I found this resource to be very easy to work with and allowed us to each to contribute our sections to the paper and allow each group member to edit the entire paper.  I think both a wiki and Google Docs would be an excellent way to have students peer edit papers.  If each student had a log in you could make sure another student had edited the paper and see what types of edits were done. 

New Thinking From Class

One important thing I took from class today was to always think about if you are teaching in your classroom or are you facilitating when you are using technology in your class.  I think it's very important to make sure you are teaching by using the technology, not just having the technology teach OUR students.  Even if technology is being used, it doesn't need to take the place of the teacher. 
A few things I'm going to take away to make sure our group does during our presentation is to be careful not to generalize.  Also to consider the structure.  We need to remember to conclude by retelling what was discussed/learned. 
I also started to think about what I would like to do for my IWB lesson.  After looking through the SMART website, I am excited to start working on the lesson. 

Rethinking Education- Chapter 3

I think it’s important to incorporate technology into the classroom and help your student’s learn about technology by having it available to them and teaching them about it.  But, I have to agree with the author’s of the text that technology is very expensive.  It’s not just a buy once, but you have to keep them updated and all the software has to be purchased.  With technology you then have to hire individuals who can keep it updated and fix it if something happens.  This can be very expensive.  In today’s economy, schools are having a hard enough time trying to get referendums passed so they don’t have to lay off teachers.  I would hate to see it come down to laying off teachers so the school can have the newest technology. 

I do not agree that having computers will create a noisy environment and that makes using computers risky to teachers.  Yes, the students may discuss their experiences with the computer, but I think students can be taught that at certain times, the computer time is quiet.  In Ed 302, we are discussing a technique called the Daily 5; where students build stamina to read to themselves for a certain amount of time.  Even if the students are making noise while on the computers, I think it’s a positive thing that the students are sharing their experiences or ideas with others. 

Throughout this chapter, I felt like each argument was created like technology was replacing the teacher.  Personally, I don’t think this would ever happen.  I feel that technology is just going to strengthen our teaching by allowing us to show our students what they can do and teach them how to use technology properly.  Students can go home and use the computer and internet, but are they going to learn what is appropriate and safe? Maybe, but maybe not.  But, we as teachers should feel privileged that we will be helping our students learn this, and we will also be learning it ourselves. 

New Thinking from Class

Today, I learned how to callibrate the SmartBoard.  To do this you go to the Start Menu, to Smart Technologies, then Orient.  You then press the center of the target to callibrate.  During presentations, make sure to have a back-up plan in case something doesn't work.  Be sure to involve the class with interaction instead of just lecturing.  We need to include a wrap-up or conclusion.  Presentation should have three parts.  First tell us what you're going to tell us, then tell us, and finally tell us what you told us.  Make sure to speak-up, if you are the presenter or just contributing to the conversation.  At the beginning of presentation be sure to introduce yourself.  When you ask them to navigate to a website, be sure to walk around to check and make sure everyone is at the correct place.  Also walk around to check progress during discussion times.  Watch the uhms and likes when talking.  Be concise of time and ready to improvise if you need to. 

Google advanced will give you a better quality of search. With Google advanced you can find similar websites to a website that you have found helpful. 

Smart Technologies has a website called Smart Exchange, where they have SmartBoard lesson plans which are available to use.  On this website you are able to search for a lesson that meets the Education Standards for whatever state you are teaching in.

Rethinking Education- Chapter 2

This chapter reinforces how important it is to teach and incorporate technology into our schools.  There are so many different ways for individuals to get information.  They no longer have to go to school to become educated.  There are a lot of different ways to get the information you need by using technology; the most common probably being the internet.  Because of this, we need to use technology within the classroom to help prepare our students and keep them interested in the lessons.  Young people today are so attached to all their electronics and technology; we should use these to our benefit.  They should be incorporated into the lessons so the student is excited to learn because he/she gets to use his IPOD instead of having to listen to his teacher lecture for 30 minutes. 
Since information is so easily accessible, the learning environment has to be interesting to the students.  If a student isn’t interested in a subject, they won’t care and may not try very hard to learn about it.  Video games are very popular.  As the book points out, in video games, the gamer is put into scenarios where he/she can take chances and see what happens without repercussions. 


As a teacher, I will incorporate technology into my lessons and classroom so my students are interested in learning.  I will allow them to have choices so they can learn things they are interested in.  This may be accomplished by picking a large theme and then allowing my students to choose something smaller within that theme that interests them to research.  I will also incorporate games (such as video games) to help teach my students about different topics. 

Growing Up Online (Frontline)

Technology does play a large role in young adults.  I have seen this first hand and have witnessed it.  I remember being in middle school and wanting to be on the internet all the time talking to my friends.  Now, I see my brother who is a sophomore in high school and how he is also texting his friends.  Also, being a substitute teacher 2 years ago, I witnessed the importance of technology to the students.  They couldn’t wait to use their cell phones and get onto Facebook. I think as teacher’s, it’s going to be critical that we teach them how to be responsible when using technology and what they should do in certain circumstances.  I think every teacher at every grade level needs to address this with their students.  We all know that as teens, we don’t want to listen to our parents, and we’ll do the opposite of what they say.  Because of this, teacher’s need to take the responsibility to inform their students about being responsible and safety on the internet.   I know student’s who are very close to a teacher, and that teacher may be the only one who that student listens to.  I also think that as a teacher, I  need to be aware of my student’s attitudes and watch for changes in them that may be from bullying.  Teacher’s sometimes see their students more in a day their parents do.  We may notice changes that their parents won’t and be able to help them if they get into trouble with cyber bullying. 

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts (Chapt 1-3)

Before this class, I thought I was pretty up to date with technology, but the more I read and learn in class, I am realizing how much stuff there really is out there in regards to technology that can be used in the classroom.  As a teacher, I think it’s important to stay on top of what is available to us to use.  As I was reading the first chapter and read all the stats about technology, I realized that most likely my students will know more about technology than I will.  I will try to learn about new technology as I can, but thought it might be fun to have my students show me some of the technology programs they are using.  I would have to check them out first and make sure they are safe to share with the class and have my student’s using, but this may be a great way to also teach my students about staying safe online.  I think it’s very important to teach students how to be safe.  Kids usually access the internet from home and that is where they do most of their socializing, but I think sometimes parents don’t know what their kids are doing online.  As a teacher, if I am having my students create Wiki’s or Blogs, I will make sure they know how to stay safe on all social sites. 

Since I now have a blog, reading chapter 2 just reinforced how easy a blog is to use and the use of blogs within the classroom.  A blog is a great way to have students share their thoughts and ideas on classroom topics.  A blog would also be a great way to organize class materials so they are online and available to your students whenever a computer with internet is near. 

I also learned how blogs can be used to benefit groups of teachers or whole school districts.  Teachers can share their ideas with others on their blogs, school committees and groups can post their minutes and contribute to the blog between meetings, and schools can create whole school web sites.  School blogs could allow clubs, sports teams and school activities to update their own pages so they are always up to date and relevant. 

Chapter 3 gave some great ideas as to how to start a blog yourself, and then take it into the classroom.  I think it’s very important to try something yourself before you have your students do it so that you know what you are doing and are able to help them if they need it.  I liked how the author said to start small.  I think a lot of us get so excited to do something that we jump right into it and get up over our heads.  So starting small allows the students and us as teachers get used to the process and what we want to achieve with our blog. 

New Thinking From Class

From class today, I learned about Prezi which is an online presentation program.  This seems like a very good resource to use when making presentations.  Because it is online you can easily put it on the class wiki or your blog so it can be viewed by others.  Unlike Powerpoint, you don't have to have a special program on your computer to view this presentation. 

I also learned some additional ways to check for a website's credibility than I had listed in a previous post.  I learned a new word: Triangulation.  Triangulation is one way to check websites credibility.  You would check various sites and sources to make sure the information is the same.  If the information differs, then you know it is not credible.  
I also learned that you can shorten up the URL to see where it takes you and how far back you can go.  This is another good way to check for a sites credibility. 

I have not used the Smart Board very much, so I learned a lot in the few minutes that we took to go over some of the other things you can do with the Smart Board. 

Evaluating Websites for Credibility

After looking at the websites I came up with a few ways to help my students decide if a website is credible.

First check the website to see if you can find an author of the website. Check the author and see what their title may be.  Do they have a  PhD or are they a high school student?  Maybe look for a biography of the author.  Check to see if the website is affiliated with an organization or university, then research to make sure that is a real organization or university.

Also, check the date that the website was last updated or posted.  This can usually found at the bottom of the website, sometimes near the author or affiliation.  Make sure it is a recent date so you know the information is up to date and not outdated. 

Read through the website and then compare that information to a couple other websites about the same topic.  If you find that the information differs, then one of the websites may not be credible.  You then need to compare with other sources to find out which is correct. 

You can also look at the URL.  This will not guarantee that the website is credible, but if it ends in .gov or .us, it is most likely credible.

These are just a few ways I will teach my students to check for the credibility of websites.  There are probably many more ways which I am not aware of yet, but as I learn them, I will add them to my list for my students to use. 

Rethinking Education- Preface & Chapter 1

Chapter 1 made me realize how much technology is out there and the different ways students get information.  Technology used in schools has advanced from the textbook and blackboard, to overhead projectors and now ELMO's and SmartBoards.  I liked how they related the advancement in technology, known as the Information Revolution or the Knowledge Revolution, to the Industrial Revolution.  As technology changes, we as teachers need to help our students learn how to use the technology so when they get out into the workforce, they are ready for the advancements they will see.  To do this, we need to keep up with the changing technology and incorporate it into our classrooms.  We also need to be aware of the technology our students are using, and making sure they are using it correctly.  Technology can be a great thing if used properly.  As a teacher, we need to take into consideration our students and their access to technology to help them learn.  We can’t assume that everyone has a computer at home where they can do their homework.  Even though technology is advancing, there is still an economic gap that we need to be aware of and find ways to help those who may not have the resources available to them. 

As a teacher, I will incorporate technology into my lessons and teach my students how to use the technology.  I want to prepare my students for their future.  I will make sure they have hands on opportunities to use the technology.  I think it’s very important to not draw attention to students who may not be as well off economically as others.  I will try to help those students who may not have access to the technology at home so they can complete their tasks.  I will work with them so they will know how to use the computer or internet as well as another student who has access to a computer at home. 

New Thinking From Class

Today during class I learned about social bookmarking, how to use Delicious, what a Wiki is and how to use a Wiki. Before this class, I did not really know what a Wiki was or how I would incorporate it into my classroom. I now know that a Wiki is an internet site that can be edited and added to by anyone. In our course, the Wiki will have information about what we did during class. This is a very neat idea so if you miss something or don’t quite remember what we went through, you can look at the Wiki and get all the information. I also really enjoyed learning about social bookmarking and using Delicious. I get so frustrated with bookmarking and adding websites as my favorites because I end up with so many. Then I go to delete some and later on wish I wouldn’t have. Delicious is a neat program where you can bookmark websites, add tags so you can easily find all your favorite websites in a category and even share the websites with others. As a teacher, this will be a great way to find websites that other teachers have found useful. I learned how much is out there on the internet and available to us for free. I think it’s very important to keep up with technology and use these resources. They can benefit us as teachers and help our students. I look forward to finding out what other programs are out there that will benefit me as a teacher and can’t wait to start adding bookmarks to my Delicious.

Reflection on my Digital Autobiography Experience

How much effort did you exert on this task?
I spent a few hours creating my autobiography.  I looked at the 4 different sites to determine which program I liked the looks of.  I then chose one and began uploading the pictures I wanted to use and deciding on the music.  Once I created the autobiography, I redid it about 5 times so that I got the music just right to allow all my pictures to be included and took some pictures out.

What is the value in completing this course task?
By completing this task, I was able to learn about programs that are out there available for me to use.  This also made me think about what was important to me and what I wanted to include in my autobiography since I only had 30 seconds to tell my story. 

How does completing this course task impact your future teaching?
By creating this, I learned about programs and resources that can be used in my lessons to add to the material and lesson being taught.  This could also be a fun way for me to introduce myself at the beginning of the year, or for older students to learn about each other.  By completing this task, I learned that technology can be easy to use and incorporate into the classroom.

My Autobiography

This link will take you to my autobiography which I created using Animoto.  Enjoy!!

http://animoto.com/play/zmgleH4b2QdpMj9Dl4C8Yw#

Technology

1. Technology is a tool or resource which can be used to help make a task or activity easier.


2. Technology integration is to bring and use technology along with something else, in our case into a classroom or lesson. In a classroom, this may be done by using computers to type an assignment, using the internet to research a topic, or using a calculator to help solve math problems.