Exist Slip Week 14

This week we wrapped up the class by brainstorming ways in which we WILL use technology in the classroom.  The idea was brought up of how we should be spending time teaching people how to act appropiately using technology, instead of wasting time thinking of how to prevent anything bad from happening.  I agree with this and have thought of some ways I will use technology in my classroom.  Some ideas include:  using blogs or e-pals to communicate with other people to find information for our class musem; create a classroom site to post reminders, assignments, what we did in class, and much more; interacting with other classmates and myself through blogs to discuss current events or books we have read; using podcast to record students reading aloud.  All these ideas will help students learn because they are able to actively explore the material.  Coming to this realization about how many tools are available to improve student learning through technology my viewpoints have greatly changed.  At the beginning of the semester I just never realized the potential technology could have, but with my new knowledge I am ready to incorporate technology in my classroom.

PSA Reflection

Creating the PSA was much easier with a partner.  We both brainstormed ideas on a topic and thought of the idea about cyber bullying.  I found some articles online about kids who were affected by this, but we decided to use news clips instead.

Creating and sharing our PSA with my peers impacts my future teaching because I learned more about digital citizenship without having to do research on every signal topic.  The main way it will impact my future teaching is that I now know one additional project my students can use to learn.  I will be better at informing them on how to create video clips that could be used for any subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdlDGoJRcU8

Exist Slip Week 13

This week I took many ideas of a real life example of how to incorporate technology into the classroom.  These ideas are important because it can encourage cooperative learning and increase engagement.  Some of the ideas are as listed:

-- Whiteboard-- Online projects with other students-- Daily blog and assignments online to create open classroom-- Students write blogs about current events and events in classroom to share perspectives and become global citizens-- e-pals

The two articles we read in class also reinforced the message of using technology in the classroom.  The tips this article provided was a good reminder of what great teachers are doing and what to avoid doing.

Technology Inquiry Reflection

I exerted quite a bit of effort on this task.  It took awhile to find the resources, actually read through them all, and create a synthesis on the material.  On top of that, we had to use and apply this knowledge to create best practices and produce a screencast.  All of these tasks each had their own requirements that had to be met, so it took some time making sure they were all up to standard.  I feel that this project should have been on the A contract, instead of the C contract because I feel that it took more effort than almost all the other projects.

There are many values in completing this course task.  The most important value I gained from this was that I became much more informed about how to use weblogs in my classroom.  I also learned more in depth about creativity and critical thinking, how to use them in my classroom, and the importance of these skills. 

Completing this course task impacts my future teacing because I became more informed of teaching strategies to use.  Not only did I take away knowledge from my own research, but I also have the research of all my peers.  I can use my classmates as a resource to find additional information on specific topics related to technology and can use this in my classroom.  By completing this assignment, I have also became more aware how much students can learn if I have them apply their knowledge, just like we had to do.

iRLO Reflection

I exerted quite a bit of effort creating this iRLO project.  It didn't take long to think of an idea, but the actual creating the game was pretty difficult.  I watched some tutorials, played around with all the different tools, and got some ideas from other people's iRLO.  Once the basis of it was created it, it didn't take that long to brush it up.

Designing and sharing an iRLO impacts my future teaching because I learned how to use one more additional resource to use.  Many students enjoy playing video games and this is an interactive way to engage them as learners.  By designing an iRLO I not only learned how to create a game, but I also realized the importance of using resources.  Without the tutorials, fellow classmates, and yourself I would't have been able to create as an effective iRLO as I did.  In the future, many new technologies will continually be developed and I won't be an expert on using them right away so it is important that I am able to communicate and find other resources that can help me incorporate it into my classroom.  By sharing our iRLO's, I now have many more lessons that I can use in my future classroom.

Book Chapter Project Reflection

As a group we spent a fair amount of time planning our project.  We met together on two occasions to ensure our success.  Members in our group also spent time creating a slideshow and making cut outs. 

Facilitating course content to my peers is valuable because I get pratice teaching and talking in a professional way.  By allowing us to teach, we also have to learn and comprenhend the material in order to facilitate a discussion.  We learn the material in much more depth because we have to know it forward and backwards.

Discussing course content with my peers impacts my future teacing because I get practice communicating with others and how to share information.  It is the start of social network that allows me to expand my ideas. 

Exist Slip Week 12

This week I learned about the importance of using consistent techniques so the students have a familiar activity that they can fully participate in without having to question what the expectations are.  I also learned about the R's of relevance, rigor, and relationships.  I agree with these three and will work to achieve these in the future.  This brings me to my next point that was brought up in class about whether I am just saying I will use technology in my classroom or if I actually will.  It will be easier to carry this out realizing that I can use other resources and can work together with other teachers to enhance my lessons.

Exist Slip Week 11

These week I learned about some of the benefits of using tools such as scribble in the classroom, instead of using face to face interaction.  I liked the idea of how all the students need to discuss about the ideas and not just the same people who normally do in groups.  This also ties into the question mentioned about whether or not I will be an innovative teacher.  I do have a lot of ideas that I want to carrying out and with all the information I'm learning there are new tools I would like to try.

Interactive Whiteboard Reflection

I feel that I exerted quite a bit of energy on this assignment.  I spent time looking at examples on Smartboard Exchange and playing with the various tools that are provided in notebook.  It was somewhat difficult figuring out how the different tools worked and which ones would be the most beneficial for my lesson.  The peer reviews were useful with determining which tools were developmentally appropriate and taking time to lock everything in place.

Designing and sharing my interactive whiteboard lesson will impact my future teaching because I learned how the Smartboard can create more problem-based lessons.  The students will be more motivated to learn because these lessons are more hands-on and fun.  By sharing all these lessons with my peers, I can build a great resource for myself.  In the future it maybe beneficial to use some of these lessons, depending on the grade level I teach.  It was also a good way to learn about new tools, what works good, and what doesn't.

Rethinking education in a technological world

This chapter was all about rethinking how our education system is set up.  We need to rethink what learning is, what is important to learn, how to motivate students, the role of government, students’ future careers, and how to prepare them for the future.  Learning is becoming life-long and we need to teach students how to continuously find new information.  This is important because information is changing so much lately and as soon as we teach a topic, many aspects will probably be changed already.  This brings up the topic of what is important to teach.  I feel that it is important to teach students the basic subjects, but the way, in which, we teach them should be altered.  We should have students solve large problems or complete projects that involve them learning about the various subjects.  This information should be integrated into the project so that the students are learning how to apply this knowledge, instead of just memorizing it.  I think this would also be helpful in motivating students.  Kids will be more excited to solve these meaningful tasks, instead of completely boring worksheets.  I also feel that by completing these large projects, educators can grade students differently.  Instead, of the usual grades, we could begin to use written assessments or some other form that is geared away from grades.  This would help remove the competition between students and help them focus on competing with themselves.  They can work on beating personal goals and improving their own knowledge.  This would increase their motivation too because, not only do students like to obtain goals, but their learning would become more intrinsic. Students often get stressed out about earning high grades and their interest in learning the material decreases.  When students learn to just learn they will be more rewarded.

                As a future teacher, I will put this knowledge and rethinking into consideration.  I will create lesson plans that allow for problem-based learning.  Although, I can create great lessons, I can’t necessarily avoid grading.  The government has a big part in education and schools have to comply in order to obtain support and money.  This is the topic on rethinking government in education.  Even though, it may be nice for education to regain power from the state, the government is gaining more and more of a power hold on schools.  They can help provide equal opportunities for all students by providing this public institution and supplying technologies, along with other necessities.  Not everyone may be able to finance individualized education or afford to stay home and home school.  The school system is important to provide social interactions, along with all the extracurricular activities it can offer.  I feel that the foundation of the educational system that was formed years back is a strong platform.  We just need to reform some of the bricks that can help the educational system become the most effective.

Contemporary Issues Podcast Reflection

Creating a podcast was a little difficult at first.  It wasn’t hard finding an article and writing a script, but actually figuring out how to create a podcast was more challenging.  It took me a little while to figure out how to move the various tracks and export it as an mp3.  After I watched some tutorials on Lynda.com, these tasks became fairly simply.  If I knew all the features and how to work with audacity, it would be fun to create podcast and the actual writing a script would become the most challenging and longest task to complete.

                Creating and sharing a podcast with my peers, impacts my future teaching because I became more aware of the potential it can have in the classroom.  My students or I could use podcast to create lessons or projects and share them with each other.  This would be effective because it is more interactive and more fun to develop and listen to.  In this technological era, sharing information is becoming more interactive, as such, because we are using our voices, videos, pictures and other tools that can enhance the quality of our products.  The more engaged we can keep our audience the more they will think about our message and understand our viewpoints or concerns.   

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/education/09ipod.html?pagewanted=2

Exist Slip Week 10

This week I became more aware about the capabilities of scratch and the interactive white board.  I learned about how to make sprites moveable, how to make it more reusable, and that directions or text should be on the screen for twice the amount of time it takes me to read it.  I also took away the importance of representing myself in a professional manner.  I need to complete my projects to the best of my ability including, correct spelling and grammar.

What does it all mean? Chapter 9

This chapter sums up the idea that we need to see the potential in technology, if not totally except it into education.  For example, the chapter mentioned how many parents are hesitant to letting their kids play video games.  They fail to see the possibilities these games have in developing critical thinking and communication skills.  Parents need to begin to be more optimistic about technology and how it can be helpful.  If we can get kids to play educational type games and remove all the violent ones, many positive outcomes can occur.  Another reason parents maybe be hesitant in using video games is because their kids won’t be getting as much exercise.  I think this is an important issue to address, especially because obesity is on the rise.  As much as we stress students learning about technology, I think we need to just as much, if not more, stress the importance of exercise.  It would be neat if we could continue to develop more active games such as the Wi to get kids moving, learning, and gaming.  I also think that parents need to become more involved to understand this potential, which can help quicken the change.  They should be learning how to use all the technology or programs their kids are for a couple of reasons.   One, it would be a good relationship builder and two, it can help the parents keep track of what the kids are doing for safety reasons.   

As a future teacher, I will need to continue to understand and explore more deeply all of the possible uses of technology.  It will be interesting to see how much things will change in the upcoming years regarding education and student dynamics.  The way students interact and present information or ideas to others may drastically affect who and how they grow up to be.  What values will they learn and how will their respect for others grow or change?  Will they be better critical thinkers and communicators?  So many unanswered questions that I feel in time will unravel, but they all point back to the same source of change – technology.  One topic that was brought up in the chapter was about how kids can develop their interests and become more encouraged to learn about it because they can communicate with people who have similar interest.   I think this is very beneficial because it is one way students can take pride in the things they like and can be proud of who they are.  They can develop their self-esteem from different sources, besides just the classroom.  This is powerful because with the pop culture and kids just wanting to fit in, their communication and friendships with people of similar interest can decrease the cases of depression.  I feel that because they have this one place where they fit in, their self-esteem may rise and they will be motivated to learn and come to school.

What it all means

This book has brought to life many topics and ideas of how and why the educational system should begin to change.  Chapter ten sums this up fairly well and helped me determine my goals for my future classroom.  I think it will be important to incorporate technology because it is becoming a way of life.  When my students enter the work force, they will be asked to collaborate with many others across the globe.  They need practice in school of how to work with others and what it is like to have their work reviewed by many others, besides just the teacher.  This is where technology, such as weblogs, can make this a possibility.  Students will also have to learn how to be critical thinkers when assessing articles or information because anyone can publish their thoughts online.  Building off this, students will need to be taught how to interact by responding to and discussing their ideas.  This makes me wonder if we should be teaching students how to type at a much younger age such as when they are first learning to write.  One day the only think they may have to actually write is their signature and I feel that we should be stressing typing more than writing.  Another reason why I think technology is important is because it will motivate and engage the students more.  One strategy that I am surely going to use is primary sources or having guest speakers come in.  This will give the students the opportunity to realize that there are other resources available to find reliable information and begin to build a network.

                As a future teacher, I will follow the five C’s mentioned in the chapter.  These include being a connector, creator, collaborator, coach, and change agent.  The first three C’s I feel are necessary to carry out because that is what I’m expecting my students to learn and do.  If I can’t follow through with these three components then my students will feel the same worthlessness about them.  I have to show why they are so important.  The coaching component I feel is the most important and really pertains to what my job truly means.  The concept of a teacher isn’t what it used to be, in that, they provide information to students.  Now teachers are more of a middle man and have to, not only, teach students skills, but also teach them how to find resources to discover new and valid information.  We are they to motivate and demonstrate, but not to give answers or facts.  The last component, change agent is necessary because the world we live in is constantly changing and so is our educational system.  We need to be open to new ideas and strategies.  For example, I feel that although schools are big on testing to get money from the government, teachers need to stand up for their beliefs against this.  Testing students may show if they know the information, but does prove if they actually know how to apply it.  As technology is advancing, applying our knowledge is becoming more important than ever before.

How schools can cope with the new technologies

The way our educational system assesses students is a topic that is under much debate, especially since technology is bringing in new ways or viewpoints on what assessing means.  One question raised is whether students should take exams when they feel ready based on their own interests.  Education is becoming a more individualized curriculum, in which, students can study their interest and become more specialized in their future career.  The dilemma with this is what about the student’s who don’t know what they want to be and can’t study a broad range of different topics/subjects.  Another dilemma is when the chapter mentioned how classes could be based on interests and not age.  Although, there are some pros to this, the one aspect that I was unsure about was having the older students teach or be the lead role in the projects.  This would be great for developing leadership skills and having a mentor, but what if that person isn’t a good role model and can’t help the students learn?  Will there education and learning be in jeopardy?  I do like how our educational system is moving towards problem-based approaches and completing projects that relate to real life and integrating in the basic subjects.  I think that if students can see a connection and now why the material they are learning is important, they will be more motivated to learn.  Another question I raised was that with these individualized, interest based classes will there become a greater need for more teachers who can educate on all these specific areas?  This could be a problem for many schools that already have financial troubles to pay for more teachers.

As a future teacher, the biggest adjustment I will have to make is how I teach my lessons.  With the students becoming more involved with technology, I will have to think of more creative ways to engage the students.  This is especially true for in the educational system because technology is offering customization, interaction, and learner control.  By not meeting the needs of each student, they will find different ways of learning the material or simply become less motivated to learn.  Since the educational system is still using the standard classroom and not creating classes based on interest, instead of age, we need to take into consideration the changes that are occurring.  As I said before about my support for using problem-based learning, I think students will have to learn this way because otherwise they will become bored since they can just look the information/facts up.  They need to see the connections and learn skills for in the future.  As for assessment, I want to move away from grading to prevent kids to just study for the test and redirect think time and effort studying to actually learning.  I also think that if I involve more hands on activities that are problem-based, it will be hard to grade the students when it is more of an observational assessment.

Screencast -- Parentella

For me creating the screencast took longer than completing the SWOT anaylsis.  It took several takes to conduct a screencast without many mistakes and creating a script that was more interactive with the site.  Besides that, I thought this project was much easier and less time consumering than some of the other ones completed. 

Creating and sharing a screencast with my peers impacts my future teaching because it is one way that I can share information.  It could have many purposes from communicating with others from a distance and still being able to see the same things, which helps so that we are on the same page or understanding as each other.  I think it could also be useful to teach students about particularly sites or conduct so students can watch if they missed class one day.

screencast link

Social Networks

The social web provides a great place for people to interact and communicate with one another.  This purpose allows people to share their ideas and thoughts, which can help solve problems.  As mentioned in previous chapters, many people are smarter than one person by themselves, because we can share and expand on each other’s knowledge.  In an educational setting, this is beneficial because students can use facebook or ning to discuss homework assignments or ask questions.   Part of me feels that a teacher could use any other form of technology, such as blogs to do this same task.  On the other hand, though, I feel that facebook may be more beneficial because everyone is familiar with it and therefore will be more motivated to use this in the class for various tasks/projects.  They will already have accounts set up and they won’t have to take up more time learning how to use a different site.  Since so many people have accounts, a neat idea would be to contact other people who specialize in certain topics.  This would not only bring in new information and motivate the students more, but can give the students another resource that they could use to find additional information.  This is particularly important in today’s classroom because teachers shouldn’t just have students memorize random facts that they won’t remember when they can always just look it up.  The chapter gave an example of how one classroom that used facebook, the classroom enrollment went up.  If I can motivate just one student to come to class because of this, it would be in my best interest to use facebook.    

                As a future teacher, the main reason I would like to use facebook in my classroom is not only for the fact that they can share information, but because it could create more of community.  The students can learn more about each other, their dislikes and interests.  They will become more respectful of each other by knowing this information and therefore will be more likely to work better with each other in the classroom.  They won’t be afraid to discuss possible solutions even if they may be wrong and express their creativity.  Using facebook for this purpose would have its perimeters, though.  I would have to teach students about cyber bullying and work with them to prevent any teasing from occurring.  It would provide a great opportunity to integrate this with a health lesson too.  I feel that it is also important to incorporate facebook in the classroom because they should be shown how they can use it to share information, instead of just talking with friends.  It could also be neat to involve parents and teach them how to check what their kids are doing and how to make sure they are safe. 

Exist Slip Week 9

I learned that there are many resources available to help me create an ideal classroom.  If I have the intiative I can find a way to receive new and updated technologies or other tools that could benefit the students.  Through our class discussion, I became more aware of my thoughts on competition and how I think, in moderation, competition is a positive thing.  I also thought about how much of a work load I should give my students.  I think it is important to keep my expectations high and push them so that they have to work outside of their comfort zone.

What may be lost and what may be gained

This chapter made me think about all the new dilemmas that will arise in education and society because of our technological advancement.  Its scary to think that in the future many children could be left behind because they can’t afford the technology or individualized education.  Not only is this one factor that could develop, but without our standard education system, it will become even more challenging for immigrates and minorities to become a part of our American culture.  Our educational system is a means for students to interact with others and learn about each other’s difference.  Without this, students will begin to become more and more socially incompetent.  The chapter mentioned how more kids may develop depression because they will begin to feel lonelier without as much interaction.  This is one topic that I am especially worried about because a child’s self-esteem and motivation is so crucial to their learning and simply living to their fullest.  I feel that this also may develop because as students begin to study only their topic of interest, many will disregard even learning about liberal arts.  This knowledge helps people become more aware of other cultures and helps us understand different viewpoints.  Becoming more whole people, we can work together more efficiently as a society, with this information. 

                As a future teacher, I do think we should make strides in helping everyone have some contact with technology.  The one laptop per child movement would be great because I see the importance of having laptops in the classroom.  I would love to have students write reflections about class, post assignments/projects, and begin typing as soon as possible.  This would be very challenging without computers in each classroom or trying to share them between hundreds of students.  I also think technology could be great, in that, it could remove the competition between students in the classroom.  I feel that if technology becomes even bigger, there will be less pressure put on teachers to record grades and spend more time teaching about the more important things happening in students’ lives.  Without the pressure on students as well, they won’t feel like it is a chore to learn and can find more joy in the education.  This is especially true because without the burden of grades, teachers can complete more projects and hands-on activities that allow the students to have more fun and learn while doing it.  Another positive in that the students will be more engaged and this influences the amount of behavioral issues that teachers have to waste time dealing with.   Students will be so excited to be at school that they won’t become bored and cause trouble allowing the teacher to spend more time with the students.

Podcasting, Video and Screencasting, and Live Streaming

There are many possibilities that podcasting, video, screencasting, and live streaming can have in a classroom.  One potential that I am particularly excited for is that these technologies can allow students to become teachers themselves.  I think it would be such a neat idea to have students post their own lessons on certain subjects on the web.  Having the students interact with this, they have to gain a deeper understanding of the lessons because in order to teach it, they need to know the topic forward and backwards.  Originally I thought about having the students in front of the class, but with podcast or video, they could complete this on their own and I would have more time to teach the class.  This ties into the idea of the radio for kids, by kids on podcasts.  Not only could my students create their own posts, they could use it to seek advice when they need extra assistance on school work.  I think this is great because I feel that sometimes students can teach students better than teachers could because they may have a better understanding of their thought process and can explain information in kid terms.  This would also be useful if the student is hesitant to ask the teacher and just needs someone else’s opinion or advice.  The other topic I liked about podcasts that the chapter mentioned was how politicians use it to gain votes.  This could be a great way for students to learn more about politics and become more involved in government. 

                As a future teacher, the main thing I took away from this chapter is that I need to practice this technology first, before I use it in my classroom.  I don’t have a real clear understanding of how to use podcasts and I need to become more active to learn all of the potentials it could have in a classroom.  This may be the case for podcasts, but I’m pretty familiar with YouTube.  I think this could be useful in lessons even though there is a lot of controversy over using it in school.  I feel that students are going to be exposed to it at home if they aren’t in school and I figure they mine as well learn proper ways of using it from reliable adults, instead of discovering it on their own.  Either of these technologies will allow students to become more interactive and communicate their ideas to millions of others.  It is essential to teach students how to use these new forms of communication because that may be the sole form in the future.  Newspaper and print sources are becoming scarcer as people just read information online.   Without teaching students places where they can find reliable information they will fall behind in the way of socialization.

Exist Slip Week 8

This week I the topic came back into my mind about how much education, parents, and other factors are intertwined.  Parents greatly influence a student's motivation about their willingness to learn.  In turn, how the school communicates with parents can affect how much they become involved in their child's learning. 

The Three Eras of Education

The educational system has gone through various phases and changes and is slowly continuing so today.  Some of these changes I agree with and some I’m unsure about.  I agree that students need more one on one attention.  These days it seems to me like we are discovering more and more disabilities or reasons why some children especially need more attention.  Being in a classroom with at least 10 kids can be challenging to ensure that they are all getting the most out of their education.  The idea of standardized tests also fits in with this because since there are so many kids, using tests is supposedly the most accurate way of knowing whether they are learning.  This is one thing that I think needs to be changed because this can create feelings of failure and rankings among the students.  I’m not sure though if moving towards using computers to teach is the most effective way, however.  The example the chapter used about giving hints to students seemed to me like it would just create learned helplessness.  Many students wouldn’t be motivated enough to figure out a problem by themselves if they got stuck and would simply keep asking for hints.  They wouldn’t learn anything about problem solving or critical thinking.  The one good thing about using computers to gain that apprenticeship environment is that students can learn what they are interested in.  This is important because with all the information available a person can’t learn everything.  Even though one can learn about their interest, what about those who aren’t motivated to learn?

                As a future teacher, I will be more aware of how students rate themselves based off tests and other assessments.  To avoid any of this from occurring, even though it will be very difficult, I will keep their scores unanimous.  I will also become more aware of how I try to gain respect in my classroom.  With more and more diverse backgrounds in every classroom, I will have to be more sensitive to their beliefs and cultures.  Each child will have different expectations for me and how I rise up to them will determine their respect for me.  This will create more work on my behalf that I am more than willing to except because I would love getting to know each one of my students at an individual level and learn about various cultures.  This is one example of how the school system is changing and how teachers have to adjust to the many adverse learners.  In the book, it mentions how we try to make education fit into the school mold even if it doesn’t make sense.  I think this sums up many dilemmas that teachers face and it makes me more motivated to make changes that may even seem out there.  I feel that there is still so much we can discover about how children learn and we need to experiment with our beliefs and research.   

Fun With Flickr

Flickr has a lot of potential use in an educational setting.  For basic reasons, I would love to use flickr for communicating with parents or my school district by showing them what my classroom is learning about.  Going off this idea, to build further relationships with my students, it would be neat to always look at pictures they may post in the future or over summer break.  When using flickr in my classroom, though, I feel that the features that I would use could easily be done by a smartboard.   I feel that there is an overlap between some of the technologies and that I could just use one or two to fulfill all the things I could if I used all of them.  The smartboard could easily have students identify different parts of objects or the like, but the only reason flickr is more effective is because it actually has the content on it.  As a teacher, I would probably just paste pictures from it onto the smartboard and integrate it into a lesson from there.   Photography, however, is becoming more and more prominent in our society.  Many people are becoming their photographers and taking pictures.  It is becoming an important part of people’s communications.  I feel that it would be a fun topic for students to learn about and it would be something that they use for the rest of their lives.

  As a future educator, I will use flickr in my classroom.  I think that it provides a great opportunity for visual learners to participate more and take more from the lesson.  I also think that it will simply motivate the students in general because who wouldn’t love looking at pictures, instead of reading a textbook all day?  I am excited to use flickr in social studies to give more meaning behind the text and keep up on current events.  I think it would be a great learning experience to actually see what is happening in the world.  Students will take more away from it because it is a vicarious experience and they can relate it to.  This is especially easy because with tag words I can quickly type in an event that occurred and find lots of photos that weren’t published in papers and may tell a different side to the stories.  In a science class, it would be an excellent way to test students on parts of the body, for example.  The chapter also gave an example of how the students had to write a story about one of the pictures, which is another great idea.  Besides all the specific subjects flickr could be used for, it would be another tool for students to do research on.  They can use the pictures to analyze different topics and it could help them get their message across because a picture can say a million words.   

Exist Slip Week 7

This week I learned from class more useful information on scratch.  I think it seems fun to play around with this program, but even more I love the idea of the potential use of it.  I can't wait to create my own lesson and one day use it in my own classroom.

The Seeds of a New System of Education Chapter 5

There were quite a few topics brought up in chapter five that could influence the educational system.  The first topic mentioned was homeschooling.  Although this is gaining ground, I feel that it isn’t going to have as big as an influence as some think.  I feel that a lot of parents, for one, won’t be able to home school their children because they have to work and secondly, I feel that some parents wouldn’t care enough to teach their kids in our complex society.  I did find it interesting, however, that children who were home schooled did better on standardized test than most publicly educated students.  This information made me think about my role as a teacher and how I should be more of a coach.  Some teachers will give answers right away as if they want to show their students that they are smart, but I think kids do need to struggle on problems to learn how to think through them.  One other topic I found interesting, was the idea that children who are home schooled will become naïve to other cultures and personalities.  Their parents are going to instill in them values that they like and without the social interaction they would get at school, they won’t be able to understand others as well and maybe even disrespect them.  Learning centers was another big topic that I think will help the educational system for the better.  Some students need more one on one time and learning centers are a means of achieving this.  Not only will students develop academically, it is a great opportunity for them to heighten their self-esteem, become motivated, or simply a means of developing a friendship.  Another topic that was presented in this chapter was internet cafes.  My mind wandered about what the future may hold in this aspect, specifically the role libraries will have in the future.  Our society is beginning to rely less and less on text and more on the internet.  I believe that students will never need to learn about how libraries work and how to check out books because they will realize how much easier it is to just look information up online. 

                As a future teacher, it will be important to learn ways of gaining students’ attention.  This will be more difficult considering how much time they put into playing video games and internet activities.  Students would be thrilled if a teacher incorporated some type of video game into a lesson.  Although there are some benefits to this, such as immediate feedback, I feel that I will stray away from this and incorporate exercise with my lessons so it is more hands on.   I think that it would be beneficial, however, to create some games so that when kids go home they can play these educational games versus non-educational ones.  This will prevent the problem of kids learning unhealthy habits from television or video games.  The other topic brought up was lifelong learning.  I will encourage students to continually read and look up information and teach them proper strategies so they can carry on their thinking throughout their whole life.

The Social Web Chaper 6

Twitter and social bookmarking affects education because they are slowly creating a shift from individual learning towards collaborative learning.  They both encourage socialization with others and, in fact, won’t be effective unless there is communication between other people.  Teachers are going to have to reconsider how much they stress individual work and homework assignments in the classroom because it may be that in the future, our students will only be communicating in their careers and never have to complete projects alone.  Twitter is one tool that I could foresee students taking advantage of when trying to find information or answer questions.  They will simply pose a question on the site and from there read any responses they may get.   I also really liked the idea of keeping in contact with distant family members over twitter.  To relate this to a school setting, I feel that it could be useful in staying up-to-date with other teachers.  Whenever I have a question about a behavior problem or need an idea for a creative lesson I could always twitter with other educators.  As we have already learned about in class, social bookmarking is a very useful tool for multiple reasons.  One of the biggest advantages is that it is an easy way to keep track of numerous sites for references.  This will come in handy as a teacher when I want to find ideas for lessons plans or other information and all I have to do is go to my delicious account.  It is also a great way to share information.  If I can’t find any sites about a particular topic, I can look at other people’s accounts and learn from them.  Lastly, social bookmarking would be very useful in organizing information and all the various websites I like.  The tags allow me to quickly click on a topic I am looking for information on.

                As a future teacher, I’m not sure how relevant this information will be for younger age children.  However, if we show them the general concepts of how it works, they will be able to use it more effectively in the future.  This information will especially be useful in high school and college when students are learning more about their careers and can connect with people of the same interest.  It would never harm someone to communicate with others online and teach them about safety.  I feel that as an educator, I will for sure use these tools.  It will make life so much easy when I can just go to one site to find information and find other sites that other teachers recommend.  It will save lots of time relooking everything up and finding information in general.  This will allow me to concentrate on more important issues occurring.

Exist Slip Week 6

Today's class brought up to my attention about the importance of being clear and precise.  Students need to know what their expectations are and how to go about completing their assignments or discussion.  I'm also really excited to learn how to use Scratch.  I think this is a program that I will use in the future and can help the students interact more with the lesson and become more engaged.

Exist Slip Week 5

This week I took away from the class the teaching strategy of tell the students, tell them again, and tell them once more.  This is an effective way to teach because it helps the students stay on task and help them remember the big ideas.  I gained a new excitment about using smartboards after viewing the math lesson.  It was really a great way for the kids to get involved and gives them a different approach of learning.

RSS

This chapter got me thinking about the difference between RSS and Social Bookmarking.  I’m not totally familiar with what RSS is and how it works, but my impression was that it was the same as social bookmarking.  The only slight difference I noticed was that it would warn you of when the site updated.  From this perspective, I thought that maybe it was more of a site that you put current event articles on because those continuously are changing.  If this is the case, it would be a great way to keep up on current events, which is particularly important in education.  It would be a lot easier and faster to have all the newspaper articles and other sites that I like all in one place to be able to read.  With this said, I also feel, in a way, that it only adds more information to keep track.  Since the sites are all at one place, one could keep track of more sites, adding more reading.  This is overwhelming because there is so much out there already the way it is that I feel like I could spend my whole life reading and still not even be close to keeping up with everything there is to know.   

                As a future teacher, I think it will be important to incorporate RSS or social bookmarking into class because that is how kids will find the majority of the information they need.  By adding sites that they know are reliable to their RSS they won’t have to worry as much about the reliability of the articles.  This would also be a good resource for students to learn about because they have to learn which information is most beneficial to them.   As technology is paving the way for digital reading, kids will have to learn how to skim through information to determine which articles aren’t valid and which ones are worth taking the time to read through more thoroughly.  Another idea that I think would be very beneficial for the students is to have them put our class website or blog onto their RSS.  This way they will know immediately of when there is a new assignment or class project due.  It would also be a good way to interact with the students.  Each student could take turns posting something we didn’t know about them or something new each day so we can relate to and become friendlier with one another.  This would be great for me as a teacher too because then I can know how the students are feeling and understand their thinking process at a deeper level. 

Wikis

This chapter on wikis made me aware of different resources available and how it relates to others.  With a new understanding of what blogs are like from the previous chapter, I got a little confused on what the difference was between the two.  Blogs are more so used for stating feelings, reflections, and allows interactive between people.  Wikis try to avoid people’s reflections and biases and have more content information.   With such an easy way of obtaining information that students use for research, I am a little weary of whether the students realize how the information gets on wiki and its validity.  I felt more assured though when the book stated that everyone is smarter than anyone alone and I do believe that together people can achieve more.  I would, however, suggest to students to just use wiki as a starting point for their research and make sure they back it up with more educated knowledge.  By allowing students to use wiki in school, it allows them to take on more responsibility when editing their page or other pages and gives them more pride and motivation to make sure their information is accurate.   

I learned that wikis could be very beneficial in the classroom setting.  They can be used for an array of different tasks, but the one I thought could be the most useful was performing activities, like we are in this technology course.  Students could each be assigned a different chapter in science, for example, and post a summary along with any other resources they may have found that could be useful.  Once all the chapters are compiled, they can use them for reviewing for test and future references.  In doing this activity, I think that the students will learn more because they really have to delve into a topic and will learn it in depth because of the extra research and having to explain it to the class.  The other task that I thought was interesting was having students become interactive on the site and post information they learned.  They can experience what it is truly like to publish something on the web and watch to see if their post gets edited or not.  This could also be a great way to check the validity of the Wikipedia.

The Technology Skeptics' Argument

This chapter really got me thinking outside the box when thinking about how the educational system may change over the next couple of years.  As technology continues to develop, it may be possible, as mentioned throughout a couple of chapters, that computers will be able to provide feedback, assessment, and curriculum to children.   Teachers won’t be needed anymore to actually teach students information.  Expanding on this idea is that in the past, kids sat the whole day at school and when they went home played outside, nowadays, they go to school and when they get home just sit on the computer some more.  A far stretched idea, is that what if when they went home, they learned information that would have been taught in school and when they go to school teachers make sure that kids are kids and organize playful activities that gets them exercising and socializing.  We would be able to implement healthy lifestyles that they will need to continue for the rest of their lives.  I know this is a way out there idea, but if schools can’t accept technological advances then this could be a possible solution. 

There are good reasons, though, that make it difficult for schools and teachers to allow technological advancements in education.  One reason that would affect me as a teacher the most would be keeping authority and classroom management.  If we are going to sit kids in front of computers all day and listen to whatever it says, why would they even care about listening to me?  It’s not so much this, which makes me feel reluctant to bring technology full swing into a classroom, but also because my passion for teaching would diminish.  All of my creative, fun activities that one day I hope to bring to students won’t be needed.  I would rather be attending college for a different profession if I’m just going to be computer monitor all day.  This chapter also mentions that students need to have the teacher there because computers can’t provide encouragement, motivation, or other forms of communication.  At first I thought that by the time I become a teacher, computers will be able to do this, but then I also thought that how much would this really mean to have a simulation tell you that you did a good job?  As a future teacher I will still create lessons that I can become involved and interact with the students.  Teachers need to get to know each individual so that they can understand their learning style and so that they feel comfortable expressing their ideas in class.  I want to have them discuss solutions to problems and work together with or without the use of technology.

Exist Slip Week 4

I'm so grateful for the site with interactive whiteboard activities on it.  This will be very useful in the future for not only finding lessons, but also for supplementing me with great ideas to incorporate technology and other fun activities for the students.  I was again reminded this week about how I need to become more professional in my language.  I was also reminded about becoming more concise of ways to involve students in the classroom, such as wait time.

Rethinking Ch2

From reading chapter 2, one of the biggest concepts I came away with was stated in this quote, “Enthusiasts argue that trying to prepare students for the 21^st century with 19^th-century technology is like teaching people to fly a rocket ship by having them ride bicycles.”  Although I still have many uncertainties about integrating technology into the educational system, we need to keep in mind that we are going through the Knowledge Revolution and life will be different for students in the future.  With this said, I contemplate what material should be taught in schools.  I said before that I think as educators, we need to teach students different skills that can enhance their creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving, so that they can adapt to new technologies and way of life in the future.  The book calls this just-in-time learning and I think this will be crucial.  If we teach students facts that they won’t need to know for everyday life they aren’t going to remember it and they will get into the tendency to just look information up online when they may need.  This could also free up space to teach more about technology in the classrooms.  There would be many benefits to including this during or for lessons because it would engage the students more, allows everyone to interact, provides feedback and scaffolding.  I think it would be great if students could get constructive feedback and scaffolding because the teacher can’t help every single student at once.  If this would become an efficient way of providing different teaching styles to students and accurately assess them, I begin to wonder if there will even be a need for teaching in the future.  All parents would have to do is set their child in front of a computer and let them learn.

                As a future teacher, I don’t think setting students in front of a screen is the way for them to learn.  They miss out on so many other social and hands-on interactions.  I think that we should avoid having students memorize facts and implement technology more, but it should be done in a correct manner.  How great would it be if we allowed students to complete community service projects through the use of technology to better their surrounding environment, such as planning and constructing bike paths, as the book stated?  This would insure they are still using advanced learning, but at the same time allowing them to develop a healthy relationship with community members and friends.  Going back to the idea of teaching traditional subjects or not, I feel that along with completing engaging projects with technology, students still need to be taught proper writing techniques and reading.  If we are going to blogging and etc. all the time, we need to ensure that students can express their ideas in way that others can understand.  It will be important to use a little bit of both the traditional and advanced approaches to teaching.

What is Technology

1.  Technology is any electronic device that can create a shortcut or make it easier to accomplish a task.

2.  Technology integration is when someone uses any of these devices in accordance with another purpose in mind.  For example, a teacher is completing a history lesson, but to make it more worthwhile, she uses sites from the internet to help the students relate with how ancient people may have felt during that time period.

Exist Slip Week 3

Today's class made me look at different perspectives or ways of teaching.  Not only did we as a class interact in a new way, but we also discussed various ways of what learning could and should be like.  Mainly, how much technology should be involved.  It made me look at both sides of things and helped me to realize that we do need to embrace it somewhat.  Class today also reminded me that now is the real deal and that I definitely need to start thinking like a teacher.  It still seems so far away when I will be teaching my own classroom, but I need to start talking how a teacher would now so by then it will just be natural.

Growing Up Online

This video made me feel even more indifferent about the role technology plays in the lives of young learners.  I still think that even though I may not agree with using so much technology, it is still a topic that needs to be taught in schools.  We need to teach students how to be safe and smart ways of communicating online.  The earlier we inform kids of this and the dangers online the better they will be at knowing what to avoid in the future.  It would also be important, especially at a young age, to try and involve the parents with any online activity that their child is participating in.  I feel that if we can accomplish this, students maybe somewhat more willing to let their parents know about their internet usage in the future.  If we can create a safe environment for kids, the internet is a great place for them to explore their world and life.  On the video, it mentions how many students use the internet to test different identities they may like to have for themselves.  This is a great opportunity, if we knew that everyone would respect their values and somehow we control who could access it.  This goes for the same topic about how many students post information on the internet because it is always there and someone out there feels the same way or is listening.  It would be a great way to help a student’s emotional wellbeing if only we had a little more control.  

As a future teacher, I will integrate technology in my classroom, but I’m still indifferent to what extent I will do so.  There are many pros, some of which are stated above, but there are also many cons, such as safety.  Part of me agrees with the English teacher in the video, who stated that she tends to avoid using technology.  She mentions how students have a hard time concentrating in class because their minds are so use to going at hundred miles per hour.  It is a shame that students can’t just sit down and discuss problems in class or read a book.  How are they supposed to learn and make connections if students continually just read spark notes?  I also feel that kids aren’t being kids anymore and aren’t living their lives.  I think that kids can learn a lot by going outside and experiencing the world around them, instead of sitting in front of a computer screen almost 24/7. Another negative effect I think will happen in schools is that students are going to struggle even more than before because their expectations are so different for each class.  Some teachers embrace the new technology and others don’t so how are students going to adjust from one way of teaching to the other.  In either case, teachers are going to have to sway a student’s attention from their personal lives in order to teach.  I like how one teacher in the video stated that teachers aren’t educators anymore, but entertainers.   We will be spending more time thinking of creativity and attention grabbing techniques to teach, instead of focusing on the quality of the content or how students learn best.

Weblogs

This reading impacts my thinking about technology’s role in teaching and learning because it made me aware of all the different avenues weblogs alone could provide.  They would not only be great for allowing students to analyze and write about certain topics, it would also be an effective way to help them and their parents know what we did in class or upcoming events.  It keeps everyone on the same page, while removing the hassle of printing off so much paper.  Weblog’s goal of interacting with others is a new approach to teaching in itself. Our education system and society has a very individualistic approach, but the way in which we are using weblogs is the most beneficial when we work together and communicate our ideas.  To me it seems like we are slowly moving towards a more community environment where we can work together to further advance our knowledge and accomplish more tasks than we could by ourselves.  I also feel that by having others play a part in sharing their thoughts about topics that a student may have wrote about gives them an additional source of motivation to continue their homework.  They will take pride in having their own webpage that they are the creators of and when someone gives them a positive response to it, they will want to continue blogging.  It is great that kids can keep in touch with others and stay on top of current events happening by talking about or viewing links they can interact with.  Kids will use technology regardless if they learn it in school or not so it is up to the adults to teach them safe and beneficial ways of using it. 

                As a future teacher, I need to embrace new changes in technology and not just learn how to use it, but to continue to do so all the time.  Students need a role model when learning the technology because if I don’t feel it is necessary to continually update my blog then they are also going to share the same feelings of worthlessness towards it.  It will also be essential to always keep in mind what I want to accomplish as a teacher.  Just because there are new ways of teaching doesn’t necessarily mean that they are all beneficial and I have to decipher what tasks I feel will most help the students.  One activity with blogs that I anticipate the most is being able to communicate with different people.  In the reading, there was an example of how they invited the author of a book they were reading to join in on their responses.  I think this would be an awesome way to learn and it would get the students more excited.  I think it would be a great experience to integrate weblogs into a history class, for example, by communicating with a fellow student in another country and compare it to their own lives.

Website Reliability

To help students determine which sites are credible, there are numerous steps they should take. The first step involves checking the authority of the site. They look at who the author or organization of the site is and check what the site ends in such as .com, .org, and etc. By checking this, students should be able to determine right off the bat that the website about explorers is invalid because it was created by teachers to inform kids that not all websites are reliable. The second step would be to check the technical and visual aspects of the site. This step involves students looking at the format of the page and determining if it is well organized, the pictures are meaningful, or if spelling and grammar are correct. This was evident on the websites about dihydrogen monoxide and the tree octopus. The dihydrogen monoxide page was unreliable because it wasn’t very organized and cluttered, along with other factors. One reason the website about the tree octopus wasn’t credible was because it contained fake pictures of stuffed animals. The third step would be to check the content of the site. During this process the students should check if the content is factual, if the content is up-to-date, or if the information is useful towards the site’s purpose. The website about Martin Luther King portrayed this because the links weren’t about what they stated and gave very bias, false information. To help the students remember so many steps and ways to determine the quality of a website, I would give them a check off sheet to follow that they could use throughout the year. This way, they can refer to it until they begin remembering various techniques of their own and hopefully can learn how by the end of the year.

Technology in Schools

This reading impacts my thinking about technology’s role in teaching and learning in many ways. First of all, it makes me contemplate what the most effective way to teach children is and the content that we are teaching them. Since we are in the Knowledge Revolution, part of me feels that we should completely change our way of teaching. I feel that technology is changing so fast that by the time we would teach students how to use any form of technology, it would already be outdated and they would have to learn to use a different version. In order to help students adjust to so many changes, I think that as educators, we should spend more time helping kids learn problem solving skills, creativity, and more general area concepts. In doing so, students can think their way through any challenges about future technologies or jobs that we don’t even know about yet. I also feel that we should deviate from making students memorize facts when they can just look information up online. We should integrate technology into the classroom and begin to teach students more about how to find reliable information, repair computer problems, and various ways of communication. The book also mentions how homeschooling and earning degrees online is becoming more popular. I don’t agree with this and feel that we should keep the traditional classroom setting for young students. There are so many advantages to schools that children need to have, such as learning socialization skills and other values like leadership. Another reason I feel that it is important to maintain the traditional school structure is because what if students or families can’t afford the technology to educate themselves. Schools, however, have this same dilemma and many would have a hard time purchasing and updating all the technology.

In the future, I think it will be essential to integrate technology with the basic subjects. Schools can’t ignore teaching technology to students because it is involved in almost every aspect of life. To teach students such skills, I will teach the basic subjects and work in mini lessons to make sure they learn as much as they can. Not only will their homework involve using computers, but during my lessons I can also work in the Smart board or other online sources. I feel this is how I will incorporate technology because I feel that there simply isn’t enough time to teach kids everything that is being stressed these days, such as healthy lifestyle habits, social skills, emotional well being and many more. By working technology into the lessons, the students will be able to learn more on a continual basis throughout the whole year. As a teacher, this will also require some extra work on my behalf. To keep up-to-date with modern technology, I will most likely attend workshops or look up additional information to keep up with the latest improvements.

Exist Slip Week 2

In today's class I had a lot of questions clarified for me.  I feel more comfortable now with the calendar added to our syllabus and knowing exactly what is due for next week.  I also think the idea of exist slips are handy.  I learned about them in previous classes and think that in the future they could be effective in helping students recall learned information and understanding the big ideas.  Delicious, on the other hand, was a totally new concept to me.  I think that it will be very useful, not only for collaborating with co-workers in the future, but especially since I'm gathering so much information now.

Digital Autobiography

1. This course task was a new experience for me because I have never used or heard of any of those programs before. With that said, it took me awhile to learn how Vuvox worked such as how to edit the pictures, text, and music. Once I got the gist of how all the features worked, it was more fun to experiment and play around with.


2. I think that by completing this lesson, I gained a greater understanding, in general, how to download pictures and music. I usually don’t spend a lot of time on computers and never was certain on how that was done. I learned more than just how to put together a slideshow of pictures and any little activity can help others develop greater technology awareness. I also think it was valuable because one day I may use this or something similar to it in my classroom.

3. This course task will impact my future teaching because I am more aware of other programs on the web, if I ever wanted to put together some type of collage. A couple of ideas of how I could integrate this into school is that I could put up pictures of field trips, recognize good work and post their completed homework, or for the same reason we were assigned it; to get to know everyone.

Link:  http://www.vuvox.com/collage/detail/02cca2bfd0