Technology Inquiry

The technology inquiry was a big project and I’m glad that we had most of the whole semester to work on it. It was not a hard project, just one that took a lot of work to complete well. Since we had so much time to work on it, I was able to work on it bit by bit while working on other projects for this and other classes. I probably put a total of four to five hours of work into this project to make it meet the standards I expect of myself. I spent a good chunk of that time looking for resources to use because I wanted to make sure I had information that really answered my question. After I found all my sources, it was easy to write the annotated bibliography because I had read through my resources to decide if they would even make the cut. My screencast took a little longer to do than I expected because I kept fumbling over my words. Finally, I wrote some key points on a note card so I could keep track of what I was talking about. I think this was a helpful project because as teachers we are going to need to go through enormous amounts of information and decide what is and isn’t relevant to a certain topic. Doing the research for this project taught me how to use advanced features in Google Scholar and the resources available to me through the UWSP library website. This project was helpful in refining the skills needed to write an annotated bibliography; which may be used while doing research as a teacher. The technology inquiry was also helpful because I could use this idea in my own classroom as a project for my students. By doing a similar project, it increases my knowledge and gives me the base needed to explain and help my future students with a similar project. I did my project on wikis and learned a great deal about how they can effectively be used in a classroom. I want to incorporate wikis into my classroom some day either to be used for projects or as a place my students can go for information. I think creating a classroom wiki is a great idea because it is an easy way for your students to get a hold of information they need or may have missed due to illness. It’s also a great way for you to stay connected to your students’ parents and let them know what their children are doing in your class. Getting parents involved in their children’s education is a great way to keep students on track outside the classroom. If their parents know what they are working on and when it is due, they may be more likely to ask questions and make sure students are getting their homework done. This was a great project and really opened my eyes to the ways a wiki can be used in a classroom. I’m glad I have access to my peers’ wikis so I can learn ways to incorporate other types of technology into my future classroom.

Exit Slip

During this semester I have learned a lot about technology and become much more comfortable with it.  Before this class I depended on other people to help me figure out things when it came to technology, but now I am able to figure things out for myself and feel confident doing so.  I have learned that using technology in my classroom is something that will be important in helping my students learn.  I want to keep my students engaged and get them excited to be in my class and learn what I am teaching them.  I am excited to introduce my students to new technology or help them learn how to use the technology they are already using for academic purposes.  I feel like teaching students to use technology is almost more important than teaching them the actual content that I have to teach them because not all students are going to be science majors in college, but all students will be using technology in the future.  I'm glad I worked toward the A contract because I learned so much about technology by completing those assignments and how to use them in my classroom.

Integrating Technology into My Classroom

I'm a high school science teacher and these are some of the ways I will be using technology in my classroom.

1. Using wikis - wikis can be used to communicate with parents, teach students to collaborate on projects, or develop the skills needed to design their own projects that can be viewed by people other than their classmates and teachers
2. Using blogs - having students reflect upon what they are reading in a blog post gives them access to feedback from outside sources.  These sources are another pair of eyes and may be experts in the subject the students are writing about and can give better feedback than you as a teacher who may not be as knowledgeable about a certain subject.
3. Using a smartboard - helps students stay engaged because it is less boring than a teacher using a regular whiteboard.  It is more interactive and students can watch the teacher use it, students can use it by themselves or with a group of students.
4. Make podcasts - I can make podcasts of my lectures so that students who may have missed class can listen to and not miss what happened in class.  I could also have students make their own podcasts about content that we are learning about in class.  This could be a way to assess what they know about the subject instead of making students take a test on the content.

IRLO Reflection

Creating my IRLO was an interesting process.  I looked at the program a few times after being introduced to it, trying to figure out how to use it, but had little luck.  I watched some of the tutorials that Professor Boyer suggested we watch and that helped a little bit, but I still felt lost on where and how exactly to start.  On one of my rare Saturdays off, I spent six or seven hours figuring out how to use the Scratch program and designing my IRLO.  The easiest part about this whole project was deciding the topic I was going to use for my IRLO because I had already done my interactive whiteboard lesson; I used the same topic.  Once I figured out how to use the program and what the different blocks actually did when I inserted them into my workspace, I actually enjoyed designing the IRLO.  I admit that it was tedious work the way I did mine, but it was worth the time and effort I put into it.  Sharing my IRLO with my peers helped because they gave me good feedback about ways to improve my IRLO and make it a little more interesting.  One suggestion I received was to insert music, which after I thought about it was a really good idea because it was pretty boring otherwise.  Getting feedback from my peers also prepared me to take constructive criticism from colleagues once I get a job teaching.  I may not always agree with the feedback I get, but I have to be able to take it and use it to improve whatever it is I am doing.  I never would have thought about designing my own question game on a computer had it not been for Professor Boyer assigning us this project.  Now that I have done it and know I can do it, I will be more likely to use a program like this in the future to create learning tools for my future classes.  I may also have my students design their own since I would now be able to help with basic problems that they may run across.  My design would make it easy for me to adapt it to any topic that I may be teaching in a science class.  I just asked questions and the students have to type in their answers, so I could easily just change the questions and answers that appear.  I’m glad I decided to do this project, along with all the other things that were part of the A contract because they took me outside my comfort zone and introduced me to new technology.  I also had the most fun with the projects from the A contract and I feel like that is something that I can take to my students if I want them to do projects similar to the ones I did in this class.  School should be fun for kids because if it’s not, kids are going to be less likely to pay attention and won’t learn anything.  This IRLO project especially has taught me that using technology in the classroom helps students stay engaged and makes learning fun.

 Background music by Kevin MacLeod

Exit Slip

We talked about grades today and how Professor Boyer resolved the situation between his grading system and the traditional way of grading.  I like the way Professor Boyer grades and thought it was a good example of how to problem solve to make his way of grading work in D2L.  We also discussed how a teacher in Canada has integrated technology into her classroom.  We talked about the different ways she integrated technology and how it can be used to increase student engagement in the classroom.  It was nice to see a teacher integrating technology into her classroom, it shows me that it is possible and that schools are trying to incorporate more technology into the school setting.  Professor Boyer gave us a strategy to use when deciding whether or not to integrate technology into the classroom.  If we can do something better or something now that we couldn't do before without technology then we should integrate technology into that activity.  This way we aren't unnecessarily adding technology into something that doesn't really need it.  The new things I learned about today will be helpful later when I want to integrate technology into my future classroom.

Exit Slip

We learned about using each others Delicious accounts to add to our own.  We can network with each other to find more resources and have more resources available to us.  Networking with your peers is a great way to learn new things and find information in easier ways than just Googling things and picking through it.  By networking, you can find information that you know is good and not have to look through it yourself to see if it is relevant.  People that we are networked with have already checked out these resources, otherwise they probably wouldn't have added them to their Delicious accounts.  We have access to these same sites and can use them in our own teaching or in our personal lives.

Book Chapter Presentation

This was a good project because it gets us up in front of our peers to discuss with them something they should have read.  I like projects like this because I am shy and have a hard time getting up in front of people and talking sometimes.  I feel the more often I have to do it, the more comfortable I become and since I want to be a teacher I should probably learn to be comfortable talking in front of people.  I may not always enjoy doing the project itself, but I am always grateful for the experience and practice I get from doing the actual presentation.  My group and I spent about two hours going over the chapter and deciding what we wanted to incorporate into our discussion.  This chapter was quite long so we knew we wouldn’t be able to cover everything, but we wanted to make sure we touched on the bigger points and pick topics our peers would find interesting and relevant to their future as teachers.  Like I mentioned earlier, facilitating course content prepares us to get up in front of our future classes and teach.  We must learn the content and be confident in our knowledge of the material before we can teach it to our students.  Having to do this project prepares us for that task.  We had to read the chapter, make sure we knew what we were going to talk about and then put it together and present it in a way the rest of the class would understand.  Discussing this content with my peers prepares me to discuss content with my future classes.  It makes me a more confident speaker and helps me to practice my ‘teacher voice.’  It also teaches me to use different technology and not only rely on the familiar, but get me out of my comfort zone a little bit.  If I’m not willing to make mistakes in front of my students, I shouldn’t expect my students to take chances and potentially make a mistake.

I thought our presentation went well.  We had a good discussion with the class and many different people participated and gave their ideas.  I know personally I had some uhms, but tried to fix them once I realized that I was doing it.  I thought that we did a good job of getting the class to talk about the chapter and think about how these things will affect them as future teachers.  I was a little nervous before we started and at the beginning, but after I got going I felt better and was not as nervous.  I thought the discussion was really good, especially for the last question.  Overall I thought our presentation went well and that the class participated well.

Interactive Whiteboard Lesson

Putting together this interactive whiteboard (IWB) lesson was a good experience for me.  I had not used the SMART Notebook software before so it was nice to learn how to use a new tool.  I think this was a very relevant assignment because I’m sure some of us will be working with IWBs and we should probably know how to use the software that coincides with the board.  We may not have the same board or software in the school we end up at, but at least we have used a type of program that is most likely similar.  I probably spent a good three to four hours from start to finish on my IWB lesson.  The hardest part was figuring out what to do it on and make sure it met the requirements of the science standards.  Once I found all the pictures and interactive pieces I wanted to use, it wasn’t very difficult to put it all together.  It reminded me a lot of power point, but with more options.  Learning about the tips and tricks Dr. Boyer went over in class was also helpful.  I have a part of my IWB lesson where you match words to definitions and the answers are covered by blocks.  If he hadn’t taught us how to lock down pieces that we didn’t want to move, I probably would have had issues with showing answers and things moving when they weren’t supposed to.  I think the lesson that I made could easily be adapted to teach a higher grade level than it is targeted for right now.  A few minor changes could make it a more in depth presentation; making this a very versatile lesson.  Creating the IWB lesson has showed me that as a teacher I need to really consider using technology in my class room.  I know that I would have much rather listened to my science teacher lecture if there had been a chance for more class interaction.  The IWB makes that interaction possible without the teacher having to make a lot of changes to the lesson or having to do a lot of extra work.  From all the other tools I have learned about in this class, this one seems to be one of the easiest to use.  If the school I teach at has IWBs in their classrooms I will definitely use mine to keep my students engaged and to enhance their learning. 

Digital Storytelling PSA

Creating this PSA was a blast.  I have never had more fun working on a group project than I did while making this PSA.  Granted our subject was a little somber since our topic was cyber bullying, but we still had fun and learned some along the way.  I don’t have a Mac and that is what we used to put our video together, so I learned a little bit about some new technology that I had never used before. Our group spent about two hours planning and producing our PSA.  Once we figured out what we wanted our topic to be it didn’t take long for us to decide how to make the video.  We decided to take still photos and put them together to make our movie.  I think that was a good idea for us because we probably wouldn’t have stopped laughing long enough to make an actual video on this somber subject.  I think this project was very relevant and helpful to us as future teachers because it taught us how to collaborate.  We didn’t always have exactly the same idea on how to do something, but we talked it over and as a group decided what the best route to take would be.  As teachers, you may not always agree with your colleagues on something that you are working on, but need to come to a place where you are all happy with the end product.  I didn’t necessarily enjoy being the victim of the cyber bullying in our video, but I knew someone had to do it.  We were all happy with the way our PSA turned out so in the end that is all that really mattered.  Putting together this PSA also taught me a little bit more about cyber bullying and digital citizenship in general.  I didn’t realize quite how prevalent cyber bullying was or how long it had been a problem.  Now I can use what I learned while doing this project to teach my students how to be good cyber citizens and how what they say online can hurt just as much as saying it to someone’s face.  Sometimes I think kids don’t realize that it doesn’t matter how you say it or where you say it, it’s just the fact that you said it that hurts.  PSA’s are great projects to have students do on a subject that they may be learning about in school.  Now that I have had some experience using the technology I will be better equipped to help students who may have questions about how to proceed.  Over all this project was a lot of fun and even though it was a lot of work I’m glad I did it because I learned a lot.

Link to our PSA

Rethinking Education (ch 10) Reflection

The last chapter of Rethinking Education went through and summed up all the ideas that the previous chapters had touched on and added a few more.  The most interesting thing I read in this chapter was the idea of letting students choose whether or not they wanted to enter the work force or go to high school after completing middle school.  I know it said that the students would have to be evaluated to make sure that they had learned the necessary skills to do this while in middle school, but I don’t think at the age of thirteen or fourteen kids should be deciding whether or not to continue school.  I know when I was in eighth grade I would have been happy to have not gone to high school and started working somewhere.  Who doesn’t want a little money in their pocket or money to put away so they can get a car when they are sixteen?  I think if students don’t go to high school after middle school they will be less likely to go back to high school at all.  In the world we live in today, it is increasingly harder to find a good paying job without at least an Associate’s Degree.  The book is suggesting that students don’t even need to get a high school degree, but to use technology and learn while working.  While I agree with the idea of lifelong learning, I think it should start after high school when kids are more mature and better able to make decisions that will impact the rest of their lives.  I think if this would come about and students were given this choice that the students that decide to go into the work force should have to take classes online to work toward their diploma.  I don’t think it would be a good idea to let them completely off the hook because unless highly motivated, most won’t re-enter high school or make an effort on their own to take classes online.  Most students lose interest in school because it’s not interesting enough, but if teachers incorporate more technology into their teaching students will stay more engaged.  Students who are engaged and enjoy learning will want to continue to go to school and won’t want to go work and then maybe come back to school later.  As a potential teacher at the middle school level, I want to prepare my students for life after middle school.  I know that as high school students some kids will get a part-time job and I want to prepare them for that job by teaching them the skills they will need to function in the real world.  I also want to instill in them the importance of education and how it can help them get farther in the world.  Without an education, it will be harder to get a good job or the job they may want.  I will answer questions for my students, help them decide what they may want to do after high school, and prepare them for whatever path they decide to go down.

Exit Slip

Blog Question: I would teach my students how to use the new technology; I wouldn't expect them to figure out how to use it on their own.  If I knew that I was going to be using a type of technology in my class, I might send home a note to parents of students I would have the next year so they could get acquainted with the new technology over the summer if possible.  I know all students don't have access to technology at home, but maybe they would be able to go to the library or a friends house and learn it together.  If their parents don't know how to use it I might offer a class for parents to learn the basics so they can help their children at home. 

Exit Slip: We talked about chapter 9 in Rethinking Education.  It was interesting to talk about how to teach our future students and their parents about technology being used in the classroom.  I think getting parents involved in what their children are learning is a great way to encourage students to continue learning even after they leave the physical school.  We also discussed if grades really matter in the grand scheme of things.  Do grades really tell how much you learn or how smart you are?  Something to think about and decide how you feel about the topic.  There are alternatives to "regular" grading.

Contemporary Issue Podcast

Making this podcast was an interesting experience for me.  I wasn't sure how to put it all together once I had it recorded and my music and sound effect imported.  I used Audacity because I have a PC at home, but from what Professor Boyer showed us in class, I wish I had a Mac.  The Garageband program seemed like it was easier to use than Audacity.  I couldn't remember exactly how to use the program so I ended up doing a lot of cutting and pasting to get my tracks to all line up and flow smoothly.  I thought there was an easier way to do that, but I couldn't remember what that was.  It took me about an hour to complete the whole production of making the podcast.  That included writing my script, recording, and putting it all together so it flowed smoothly.  I'm glad I wrote out my script before hand because that took probably the most time.  Once I started recording it was easier to not get so caught up in the uhms and likes that seem to plague most of us when speaking in public.  I think making a podcast is a good way to present information without having to stand up in front of people.  Personally, I get a little afraid to stand in front of people and talk.  Doing a podcast is like giving a presentation without having to stand up in front of people, if you mess up no one can see you so its less embarrassing.  I think this would be a good way to get students used to talking and giving a presentation without the pressure of standing in front of their peers.  Since you are able to upload it to the internet it is a great way for students to get feedback from people other than their teacher or classmates.   I think this was a good project to do because it introduced me to a new technology that I haven't used before and I could see using this in my future classroom.  In the classroom I'm observing in now, the teacher made making a podcast an option for a project the kids are doing.  Doing a podcast myself prepares me to answer questions for my future students if I decided to do a project like this.  The only thing I would personally do different is to use a Mac because I think the program is easier to use and it has a library of music and sound effects.  I think that would have also made things easier because I wouldn't have had to go looking for music and effects and wouldn't have had to worry about copyright issues.

Podcast music by Kevin MacLeod

Link to article

Rethinking Education (ch 9) Reflection

Students are learning just as much on their own as they are learning from teachers in the classroom.  We need to embrace the information they are learning and help them to use technology in ways that will supplement what they are learning in school.  This chapter talked about getting parents and their children on the same page when it comes to technology.  Parents said that they allow their children to use the new technology that is out there, but most parents don’t know how that technology works themselves.  Instead of just telling kids that they are wasting their time with video games and the internet, the author suggests sitting down and learning how to use these new technologies with them.  Most sit down with their kids and read with them, why not sit down and let them teach you how to play their favorite video game.  Parents can encourage their children to join online communities that have to do with something they are really interested in.  This will allow students to learn more about something they are passionate about from people other than their teachers.  It can give them a new perspective on a subject from someone who may be an expert.  Most parents and teachers worry about kids spending too much time on computers and not getting enough exercise.  In the country we live in, that is a legitimate concern because of the large number of individuals who are overweight.  I think parents can still encourage their children to use the new technology they are using, but limit the amount of time kids are allowed to spend on the computer.  Interaction with people over the internet about topics that kids are interested about is a great way for kids to become more knowledgeable on a subject they are passionate about.  It’s a great way for kids to find out if the subject they are interested in is a possible career path, but I think there is something to be said for actual human interaction.  I you can Skype and see the person you are talking to, but most communication on the internet takes place in the form of blog posts and comments or instant message.  There is not a whole lot of actual talking going on.  People need this type of interaction so they can function in the real world.  If students don’t learn to have actual conversations with other people, how are they supposed to go to a job interview and talk to a possible employer?  Encouraging students to use technology and expanding on the knowledge they receive in school is great, but I still think students need the school setting for the social aspect of education.  I will promote the use of technology and try my best to prepare my students for that aspect of their futures.

Exit Slip

Blog Question - I don't think these curriculum changes are a good idea because kids at a young age change their minds quiet often.  If students were to decide to get a certain certification and then decide after high school they didn't really like it, they may not be prepared to get a degree in their new interest area.  The way curriculum is set up now prepares students for college no matter what subject area they want to go into.  Most schools also offer students elective courses that they can take so they are able to learn more in an area that interests them.

Exit Slip - We went over some tips and tricks for Scratch so we can revise our IRLO's.  Need to make sure that our IRLO is reusable.  Having Sprites back in the right place when the game begins and having a variety of different questions for students to use.  Make sure there are directions so students know what to do when they begin.  Need to make sure students have an interactive part in the IRLO, not just watching the screen while it does something.  Scratch is an easy program to use, but can be challenging to get started and figure out how to put everything together.  These tips and tricks will be useful in revising my IRLO.

Cool Tool Screencast

Creating this screencast was a really good learning experience for me.  It was fun and challenging trying to figure out how to best say everything I wanted to in just five minutes.  I liked how easy the tool was to use and download.  It’s also handy to have it right on the desktop all the time.  I spent a good thirty minutes trying to record my screencast because I didn’t like how it sounded or said something that really made no sense.  It would have been nice if there was a way to save it and then edit it instead of having to start all over again.  It’s also possible that there is a way to do this, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it.  I also spent about an hour going through the site figuring out how to use it and what the strengths and weaknesses were.  I thought my tool was easy to use and easy to find the information that I needed to make my screencast.  Making this screencast was a way for me to share information with my peers in a new way.  It also taught me how to use a new tool that I can use in my future classroom.  I could use this screencast to introduce my tool to my students or make different screencasts to show different tools to my students.  I can also teach my students how to use Jing or another screen casting tool so that they can create their own screencasts.  My students could make screencasts teaching their peers how to use a cool tool or how to navigate a certain website to find information about a specific subject.  Jing can also be used to capture an image that students could use to share information with their peers or with me as a teacher.  I will use technology in my classroom and completing this project helped me to become more confident using this tool. 

Cool Tool Screencast

Rethinking Education (ch 8) Reflection

Schools will have to adjust to this change in technology if they want to keep their doors open.  In class a few weeks ago, we talked about preparing kids for the future and how many kids starting school at age four or five already know how to use a computer.  If schools and teachers are not willing to make changes and embrace the technology that is available to them I think there will be many teachers without jobs and schools without students.  This technology can actually be used to help students who live in poorer communities to excel in school and then be able to go on to college.  The book talked about students who live in thriving cities, but rarely leave their neighborhoods because of a lack of education.  The technology that is available is not a fix for the economic problem that these children face, but it can bring in a higher quality of education for them.  Distance education is one example of a resource that could be made available to students in poor and urban schools.  This type of teaching is done over video conferencing and doesn’t require another teacher to be hired.  The students conference in and learn from a teacher who is teaching at another school.  Students could partake in AP classes and further their education, better preparing themselves for college.  Schools could also use technology to have virtual tutors for their students.  This would allow students who need extra help with certain subjects to get the help they need.  It would help them get better grades and hopefully give them the confidence they need to realize they too can go to college or tech school and get the job they want.  Bringing this technology into the poorer schools is a way to make education more equal among children from different socioeconomic backgrounds.  Technology also gives teachers a new way to teach.  Instead of always lecturing, writing on the board, and making your students take notes teachers can use technology to engage their students in other ways.  One of the most common ways would be to use simulations in whatever you are teaching.  In a history class for example, you could use a video game that has to do with war to show your students the different strategies that go into planning an attack.  There are many other games and simulations available for any subject that get students thinking in a different way, but still helping them learn the information.  I will use technology in my classroom because I want my students to think outside the box and actually learn what I am teaching.  Not just for the test they may have in two weeks, but to really learn it so that two years down the road they can apply it to a situation they may come across.  Introducing my students to technology not only helps me teach them and keep them engaged, but it is preparing them for the future.

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts (ch 10 and epilogue) Reflection

I have come to the end of this book and realize that I have learned a lot about many different tools I will be able to use in my classroom.  It is amazing what you can learn from a book if you actually read it!  The last chapter talked about ten big shifts that teaching is going through or will go through due to the new technology that is available.  The technology that is available opens up the door to new possibilities and ways of teaching many teachers probably never thought about.  One of the shifts is a shift to open content.  Most teachers get their content from a textbook that already has worksheets and tests that came along with it.  With new technology, teachers have access to so much more information and new resources that they can use to teach the same information.  The new information and resources will help keep students more engaged and make learning fun again.  I think there are a lot of students out there who don’t like to learn because teachers don’t always make it fun.  It’s hard to sit in class day after day and be expected to learn if what the teacher is teaching isn’t fun or interesting to you.  The technology we have now also gives students and teachers easier access to each other and other people who can help them learn.  Using blogs is one way your students can get feedback from their peers, parents, other teachers, and other people around the world depending on how you set up access to the blog.  This allows student’s access to many teachers and makes students teachers themselves.  Students have access to information in different forms that might make a concept easier for them to learn and also allows students to learn the information at a time and place that is convenient form them.  Technology also is allowing students to collaborate much easier on group projects.  You could have students design a wiki page and they would never have to actually meet face to face to do it because of the tools that they may have access to.  As a teacher, I want to encourage my students to work together and to learn from each other.  I want to teach them how to work together and use the technology that is out there so that when they get out in the ‘real’ world they are prepared.  I am a future secondary level science teacher and I realize not all my students are going to go to college and get a career in a science related field, but I still want to contribute to readying them for the future.  One way I can do that is to incorporate technology into my teaching style and teach my students how to use technology.  Giving my students access to technology and showing them how to use it will prepare them for the future.  I want my students to enjoy coming to my class every day and to be as excited as I am about what we are learning.  I think using and introducing to students the technology that I have learned about in this book will accomplish both those goals.

Exit Slip

Elluminate is a tool that allows people to communicate using web conferencing, webinars, or virtual office hours.  Professor Boyer went through the basics of how to use Elluminate to communicate with him and each other.  This program allows you to discuss things with people who are on the other side of the world.  It also allows the moderator to record what is going on so that if you want to go back later and watch it or hear something again you can.  The moderator is also able to upload files that can be shared with the rest of the people who are signed in for that session.  I think this would be a good tool to use if you were teaching an online class or for students to use so they could work on a project together.

Bloge, Wikis, Podcasts (ch 9) Reflection

Had this chapter been at the beginning of the book I would have told you that I don’t even know how to use Facebook. I would have said that it is a waste of time and a way for people to try and know everything about everyone. I would have said all these things because I was not on Facebook and didn’t like the idea of everyone in the world having access to me. Now I have a Facebook page and enjoy being able to be a click away from communicating with friends and family that I don’t get to see very often. I’m not sure how I feel about using Facebook in the classroom because I think it will create distraction in the classroom instead of promoting learning. I like the idea of being able to collaborate with just about anyone and having anyone post ideas, but I think there are other less distracting ways to do this. From what I read it sounds like you can make a site as private or public as you want and as a teacher you can decide who has access to what your students are posting. I know that Facebook can be addicting and I don’t think students need another reason to be on Facebook whether they are at school or at home. There may be some parents who don’t want their children on Facebook for whatever reason. This could cause problems because it wouldn’t allow all students to participate. I know this can happen no matter what technology you use, but I feel parents would be more willing to allow their children to use a wiki or blog instead of Facebook. I think that you could get the same results from using blogs and wikis in you classroom as you can get from using Facebook. You have just as much control over who gets to look at students work and comment on it by using a wiki or blog as you do if you are using Facebook. I think because there are so many other ways for students to collaborate that using Facebook isn’t needed. I find it weird to think about using Facebook as a tool in the classroom; I’m not exactly sure why, but I do. I do think if used correctly Facebook could be used as a great tool in the classroom, but I don’t see myself using it in my classroom with all the other technology that is out there. I would rather introduce my students to technology that they haven’t seen before or might not know as much about. It would benefit my students more to use a blog or wiki because these may be tools that they haven’t used before. In most cases, using Facebook wouldn’t teach them anything new about technology because most students are on Facebook and already know how to use it.

Rethinking Education (ch 7) Reflection

Chapter 7 in Rethinking Education talked about what could be lost or gained as a result of the new revolution in education. One of the things talked about was a loss in access to technology. Having a free public school system allows all children, no matter what their socioeconomic background, to have access to an education and thus technology while at school. Granted, the children who are from poorer neighborhoods tend to have poorer schools and not as many opportunities, but they are given access to some technology. Being introduced to new technology is very important in this day and age with more and more jobs requiring the use of technology; students need to be prepared to use it. With more and more people hiring tutors, homeschooling, or having their kids attend private schools it seems that those students already at a disadvantage are falling even further behind. Teachers need to prepare their students for the future, but have to be careful with the types of assignments they are having students do. This is because not all students have access to computers outside of school. If you expect students to do research for a report or project outside of school, you need to think about the access your students have to computers. Some students may not have a computer at home and may not have a way to get to a library or friends house where they could use one. The digital divide between students is something we as teachers need to think about when asking our students to do certain things. We need to prepare our students for the future and not being able to do certain projects because of access to technology could seriously inhibit that. As teachers, we may need to give our students other opportunities to work on a project. If this means staying after school for an hour to supervise and open lab time, I think it would be worth it. Showing students that you are willing to help them succeed is going to make them respect you more and believe you when you say that you want them to succeed. The chapter also talked about the positive impact technology has had on education. One of the gains talked about was that technology makes education more engaging. Using technology in the classroom can make a lecture more interesting because it keeps the students focused on what they are supposed to be learning. Something as simple as using an interactive white board instead of a normal whiteboard can make learning more interesting. The use of an interactive white board is more fun for the students and shows them different types of technology you can use in different situations. By using technology to keep your students interested, you are also preparing them for the future. Introducing them to the different types of technology that are available to them will give them options to use later in their own careers. As a teacher, I want to help my students succeed in any way that I can. I will use different technology in my class room so my students can learn how to use it and will be better prepared for college and future careers. I will also try to minimize the digital divide that might exist between my students. If that means spending extra time at school so that my students can have extra time to use a computer, then that’s what I will do. I want to give my students every opportunity to do things to the best of their abilities.

Exit Slip

We learned more tricks and tips for making IWB lessons today.  Some of these tips included locking objects, grouping objects, infinite cloning, page layout and inserting sound.  Locking objects - right click on object, go down to locking option and choose how you want to lock the object.  Now the objects can't be moved if you don't want them to be moved.  Grouping objects - click, drag, and drop box around both objects, right click and choose grouping from the drop down menu.  Now you can move both objects together.  Infinite cloner - right click and choose infinite cloner.  Now you can continually pull that object and don't have to clone it multiple times.  Page layout - watch size, color, amount and position of text on the page.  Inserting Sound - go into gallery essentials and choose sounds that you want to insert into your presentation.  You can also right click the item, click sound from the drop down menu and insert a sound you have already recorded.  These tips and tricks will be great when I start to revise my IWB lesson and will also be helpful when making IWB lessons as a teacher. 

Rethinking Education (ch 6) Reflection

In some ways, education has changed a lot since people started learning as apprentices and some things are beginning to look similar to how people were taught back in that day.  During the days of apprenticeship, parents were the ones who made sure their children were taught what they would need to know to succeed in life.  As more and more immigrants came to America, the government decided that children would have to go to structured schools.  The government and teachers decided what the children would learn and the parents were no longer the main educators.  Now in education we see a mix of parents, children and teachers deciding what children will learn depending upon where they are going to school.  Kids are no longer forced to attend an actual physical school, they are able to go to school from the comfort of their own homes if they so choose.  As a future teacher, I don’t want this to become the norm because then I will be out of a job, but I don’t think it is a bad way for children to learn.  I think in some cases children would be more successful taking classes online and learning from their parents than they would be if they had to come to a school and learn from a teacher.  I think life-long learning is going to continue to happen whether we as teachers want it to or not.  We as teachers have a choice to either support our students and the learning they do outside our classrooms or hinder it.  I want to teach my students how to go through information they find and figure out if it is relevant to what they want to learn about or not.  I think students would do better in school if we encouraged them to use the skills we were teaching them to research things that really interested them at home.  I feel this would keep them more engaged while in class because they know that they will be able to use the skills they are learning to do something they really enjoy.  I also agree with teaching students how to learn instead of just wanting them to memorize a bunch of facts that may or may not help them in the future.  If we teach students how to go through information and pick out the big ideas and important things, it will prepare them to pick out important things in all aspects of their lives.  Sometimes I think teachers get too caught up in teaching only the subject that they are supposed to be teaching instead of also teaching the students to actually learn the information.  As a future teacher I will not only teach my students about science, but I will show them how it applies to everyday life.  For example, there is an element of physics in everything that we do in this world.  Until I took physics in college I never really thought about why some things are possible, but because my professors taught us practical applications as well as academic ones I am better able to understand how some things work.  I want my students to be able to use what I teach them in the future, whether it be in college, a job, or in everyday life.  I will help my students succeed in all areas of life by making sure I teach them how to learn and use the resources that are available to them.

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts (ch 8) Reflection

There were a lot of different technologies talked about in chapter 8 of Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts that would be great to use in any classroom. The tools talked about all had to do with producing audio or video that could be shared with anyone in the world. The tool I liked the most was publishing videos to the web. I’m sure a lot of the students that I will teach in the future will have either posted a video to YouTube or watched a video from that site. As a teacher, I want to make sure that my students know how to use these sites appropriately so I would incorporate them into my classroom. One way to do this would be to tape students giving presentations during the day and upload them to the internet so their family and friends would also be able to view them. You could also tape announcements every day and have them on a wiki or blog that parents can access to find out the important events that are coming up. The chapter also talked about podcasting. I like the idea of podcasting because it could be used to tape lectures given in class. Once you tape the lectures you could post them to a blog, wiki, or to your own website so students would be able to access them at a later time. This would allow them to add to existing notes, or catch up on notes if they missed class for some reason. The only draw back for this would be that students may deliberately skip class because they know you will post the lecture online later and they will still get all the information as everyone else. You would have to think of a way to make sure that this didn’t become the case because it could punish everyone if you had to stop posting your lectures. As future teachers, I feel it’s our duty to learn about all the ways that we can help our students succeed so when we get into our classrooms we will have a big toolbox to use. I want to be able to solve any problem that my students throw at me, whether it is keeping them engaged or finding a different way for them to learn something. I want to help my students succeed in school as well as in life and I know that they will be asked to use different types of technology in whatever they decide to do after they graduate. By introducing them to new technology or helping them get better at using the technology that they already use, I am preparing them for their future as well as helping them learn the information they need to know now for the class they are in.

Exit Slip

Blog Your Thoughts - I think home schooling is a good alternative to the traditional classroom because it can help alleviate some of the pressure kids feel from other students while in school.  I think there are a lot of resources available to parents who want to teach their children at home and they would be quite easy to use.  It also allows parents to decide what their children are learning and how they will learn it.  There are also some draw backs, like not being able to interact with other students as much, but that might be what that child needs to succeed in school.  There are groups that parents can get into to help socialize their children, which I would recommend because it will make their transition into high school or college that much easier.

Exit Slip - We learned the basics of Scratch today.  It seems like its going to be a complicated assignment and I'm not really sure how well I will do at it.  I think it will be a good assignment and it will be a good thing to learn because it will help me help my students in the future.  Completing this assignment will help me use similar technology in the future and give me an alternative to lecture when teaching my students a new concept.  I think this will be a fun assignment, but it will also be a challenging one.

Rethinking Education (ch 5) Reflection

Learning is leaking from the classroom to home and as teachers we can either accept this leak or we can try to dam it up and stop it.  I think it’s a good thing that students are willing to learn outside the classroom in other than traditional ways.  Some students learn differently than others and as hard as teachers try, they can’t always accommodate every single learning style found in their classroom.  It is beneficial for students to have access to television shows, games, and computer simulations that will enhance what they were supposed to have learned during the school day.  Some students are more hands on and need to actually experience a situation for it to make sense to them, while other students learn better from watching a movie or just listening to a lecture.  The idea of homeschooling and technical certification is harder to swallow because it is taking students that would be in traditional schools out into a different environment.  Most parents who have their students take part in this type of education have specific reasons for wanting their children to learn in this way.  It most likely has nothing to do with the type of teacher you are, but has to do with the environment in which they feel their child is most likely to succeed.  As teachers we need to teach to the best of our abilities and use the tools given to us to make sure our students are learning things that will benefit them later in life and help them to succeed.  I feel that learning centers and distance education are other ways that only enhance a student’s academic experience.  Learning centers are great for kids who need extra help in a certain subject but may not qualify for special education classes.  Children can go to these centers and get help in whatever subject they may be struggling in so they can do well in school.  Distance learning gives students access to classes that may not be offered in the school they actually go to.  This is a good way for students to take classes that actually interest them and not be limited to only classes offered at the physical school they go to.  As a teacher I will encourage my students to use any resources that are available to them to help them learn.  I want my students to want to learn and if that means giving a student the name of a website or the name of a game that might help enhance what I taught in class that day then I will.  I know from experience that lecture doesn’t always work for kids in every subject, sometimes the best way to learn something is from trial and error, and eventually you find something that makes it stick.  I will make sure my students have access to multiple ways of learning the same information so everyone in my class can succeed.

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts (ch 7) Reflection

Flickr seems like an interesting tool and a great way to share your photos with multiple people.  I would find this type of technology most useful in finding pictures that people you went on a trip with had posted.  This way you can easily access photos of things you may have wanted to take pictures of, but were unable to for whatever reason.  From an academic standpoint I don’t know how useful this tool would be to me because I want to teach secondary science.  The examples given in the book were mostly about writing stories or illustrating stories with pictures you can find on Flickr.  In most science classes, there is not a lot of story writing going on and if pictures were needed to illustrate a paper or project you can always find images on Google or other websites.  There were a couple ideas that I thought could possibly be used in a science class and one was using the annotation tool to insert comments about certain objects into a photo.  This would be a good way to get students to use technology to explain the parts of a picture and how it is relevant to whatever they may be researching.  I also thought it was interesting how you could link pictures to Google Earth to see what other pictures had been taken at the same spot.  It would be interesting to see what other people had taken pictures of at the same site that you were at, or what other angles the same thing you took a picture of were taken at.  You could use this feature in a geography class to look at the different landforms that people thought were interesting in a certain place.  Flickr seems like a good tool, but honestly I don’t think that as a teacher I will use it.  I feel there are easier ways to find pictures and use them in projects or presentations and there are other programs that can be used to make presentations that I am already familiar with.  If I had to use this website I would be more than willing to learn how to use it and implement it into my classroom, but at this time I am not really excited about using it as I was with some of the other tools we have talked about in class.  I don’t think it will be as useful as some of the other technology we’ve discussed and would rather use a few tools to their full potential instead of lots of tools at minimum potential.    

Exit Slip

We were introduced to Scratch, a program used to make interactive activities to help students learn about a certain topic.  It looks like a fun project, but does look like it will be time consuming and quite difficult since I have no experience in programming.  I'm looking forward to working with this program because I have never used a program like this before and like to learn new things.  Using this program now will help me develop skills that I will be able to use later as a teacher if I want to make a learning tool for my future class.  I will also have one tool made by completing this project and will be able to add too it or revise it as needed.

Rethinking Education (ch 4) Reflection

Education has changed a lot since it first began, but the way schools are run and things are taught have remained the same for some time now.  In the 19^th century, many people learned by apprenticeships.  They watched other people do things and imitated what they did to learn new skills that would become their lives work.  People during this time probably thought that this would always be the way that people learned new things, but with the invention of the printing press, the Reformation, the American Revolution and the Industrial Revolution the way people learned changed.  Once the printing press was invented it made it easier for things to be put on paper in huge quantities.  This made it studying things more convenient, which led people to think that all people should learn to read and write.  Small schools were established and changed many times over the next fifty years to what we know schools to be like now.  It is amazing to me that the things we are taught in school, the way schools are built, and who becomes teachers hasn’t changed much in the last fifty or so years.  In the early 20^th century, there were not a lot of male teachers because teaching was considered a female profession.  Now there are more men teaching, but a majority of teachers are still female.  The core subjects taught in most schools are still the same and the book talked about how we may need to change what we teach to coincide with the changing world.  We may need to implement more technology classes into schools to help students learn and better understand the new technology that will be introduced as they go through school.  Being able to use technology well is going to be something all students need to learn no matter what type of occupation they want to pursue.  I think one way to make sure that students don’t fall behind in the technology department is for teachers to use technology in their classrooms while teaching.   Students will be introduced to some of the technology and will have examples of how to use some of the tools to look back on in the future.  I want to teach secondary science some day and feel that to really prepare these kids for the world that they will eventually be out in; I have to use technology to teach them.  I won’t be able to just use a whiteboard and power point presentations to make them learn the material I want them to learn.  Whether it is having students read articles or books and blogging about them, using a wiki to find assignments they may have misplaced, having a Delicious account where they can store all their cool websites or any number of other technologies, we as teachers need to introduce our students to the new technology that is out there.  In most cases we won’t even be introducing them to something new, but showing them how the tools they are already using can be used for academic purposes.

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts (ch 6) Reflection

Social bookmarking is definitely a good idea and a good way to have access to a lot of information in one place.  This chapter talked about Twitter and sites like Delicious, which would both be good tools to use in a classroom.  Personally I don’t really understand Twitter and don’t really like the idea of using it, especially for personal reasons.  Academically it could be a useful tool because you can post questions for others to see and get a wide range of answers from anyone who is ‘following’ you.  I think that using a blog is just as easy and you can get the same results because people can comment on your blog about what you have written.  At some point teachers have to choose what technology they will use and which technology they won’t because I feel if you use it all, it will become quite overwhelming.  Sites like Delicious or Diigo on the other hand I think are very beneficial for teachers and students.  Delicious or Diigo allow you to keep track of the websites that you find very beneficial when doing research on certain topics.  Instead of keeping all these websites in the favorite area on your computer, you can create your own website so you can have access to them at all times.  This way when you are at school or work and need to find a website you can’t remember the name of, you can log on to your Delicious account and find it quite easily.  If you just had the website saved in your favorites at home, you would have no way to access it and wouldn’t be able to get the information you needed.  A website like Delicious is something I would have my students start making at the beginning of the school year so that by the end they would have a really good resource to use in the future.  I would also give them access to each other’s accounts so they could see what their fellow classmates were researching or found interesting.  This would be a good way to get to know your students and what they enjoy to do or what they are interested about learning.  These accounts are very easy to set up and would be easy for you or a parent to check on to make sure that students were not adding sites that were inappropriate.  All the tools that I have learned about so far in this class would be beneficial to students in their own ways, but I feel that a tool like Delicious is one of the most beneficial I have seen so far.  Except for maybe RSS, this is the best way to put a lot of information about many different topics into one easily accessible place.  It can also be looked at by multiple people and you have access to other people’s pages so that you can find even more sites that might be helpful.  This is one tool that I will continue to use and either have my students each create their own or have the class as a whole keep one that all students will be able to contribute to.

Exit Slip

We learned how to use an interactive whiteboard to make a lesson.  I have only been exposed to using this software since I have taken this class.  It is amazing to me how much technology has changed just in the last five years since I have been out of high school.  When I was in high school, we didn't have interactive whiteboards so getting the chance to work with them in school is a great new learning experience for me.  I'm glad that we went through tips on how to use the software so I will be able to use it in the future in school and as a teacher in my own classroom.

My Motivation

My motivation comes from my high school teachers.  I don't have a specific one, each one motivated me in different ways and helped develop my thinking.  They all let me know that I could accomplish anything that I put my mind too and were there to help me when things got tough. Even if I didn't think I could accomplish something during class, they always told me I could and would help me figure out a way to get things done.  A lot of how I go about solving things is because of how they taught me to figure things out and to not give up too easily.  I want to motivate students by letting them know that they can do whatever they put their minds too.  The only thing holding them back is themselves and that if they want something, there is always a way to get it.  I would let them know that I am willing to help them with anything so that they can accomplish their goals.

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts (ch 5) Reflection

Before this class I had never heard of RSS or Really Simple Syndication.  If someone had come up to me and started talking about RSS I would have been totally lost and really confused.  Now I realize that RSS is a very helpful tool and not too hard to use once you get the hang of it.  I think this technology would be very helpful to students and teachers because it concentrates a lot of information in one easily accessible area.   Having a student set up an aggregator where they can subscribe to feeds from different sites would be helpful when students want to find new information on a certain topic.  I think in terms of students using this technology it would be most helpful in a high school level classroom where students have to do a lot of research for projects or papers.  It would also be an advantage to students who already are very passionate about something and want to know when new information about that topic is written about.  As a teacher, an RSS feed would be helpful in finding new ways to teach certain information or just keeping up to date with new information that is being published on the topic you are teaching.  It would also be a good way to keep up to date on current events in education as a whole so that you can make sure that you are still following all the rules.  Having students set up aggregators so they can receive their own RSS feeds would be a good way to teach students how to evaluate websites and decide which ones have good information and which ones don’t.  Once they subscribe to a certain feed, they will still have to sort through their aggregators and decide what information they get is important and what information is not.  I think as a future teacher I would either have each student set up their own aggregator or have the class make one as a whole.  I want to teach science, so I would have each of my students find information on a certain topic we will be discussing that year and subscribe to and RSS feed for that topic.  It would then be that student’s responsibility to check and maintain the feeds that come in on that subject.  This would be an introduction on how to use the technology so that maybe later in the year they each set up their own aggregators and maintain their own personal information.  Either way I think this RSS technology is a good one to have because you have access to a lot of information in one area.

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts (ch 4) Reflection

I am a nontraditional student who already has a bachelor degree in clinical laboratory science and while getting that degree I was told never to use Wikipedia as a source.  My professors told me it was not a credible source because anyone could add false data or delete things that were very important.  Basically it was bad because anyone in the world could write what they wanted and you wouldn’t know what was true and what wasn’t.  After reading the chapter about wikis in Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts I came to realized that my professors were quite wrong and Wikipedia is actually a great source that is really easy to use.  The author of the book talks about how there are many more people who want to make Wikipedia accurate than there are people who want to vandalize it.  He talks about one teacher who purposely put false information into thirteen different entries and within hours all of them were fixed.  This leads me to believe that the information you find on Wikipedia is just as accurate, if not more accurate, than the information you would find on a more ‘credible’ website.  I think the thing that scares teachers the most is not knowing if the information that their students are finding is accurate or not.  Wikipedia or any other wiki that is used should be treated just like any other website you come across when trying to determine the accuracy of a source.  Compare the information to that which you find on another site and look to see how often and how many times it has been updated.  I think using wikis to find information on the web is a great idea, but I like the idea of building your own wiki in your classroom so students can display their work or have access to class information.  I think as a teacher I need to be open to the technology that is available to me.  I may not like it all or understand it, but I need to be willing to learn it and incorporate some of it into my future classroom.  The best way I can think of for using a wiki would be as a bulletin board where I can post worksheets or handouts that I have given in class.  I would also list due dates for assignments or projects the students are working on and it would be a place where parents can go to see what their children are doing in my class.  I would assign a different student every week to daily post what we did in class, kind of like we do in lab for Education 331.  I like the idea of having one place where students can go to find all the information they need about a particular project or assignment.  This way they don’t have to worry about losing handouts and missing part of an assignment.  It would also be a good way for students who are sick or missed class for some reason to catch up and even get their homework done before coming to class the next day.

Rethinking Education (ch3) Reflection

I just finished reading the technology skeptics argument in Rethinking education and came across some things that made sense and some things that I felt were a stretch.  This chapter talked about how in the past new technology never made its way into schools like technology enthusiasts thought it would because many thought it would hinder learning instead of enhance it.  An example was used that discussed how when new educational programs came out on television, teachers were reluctant to use them because they didn’t want to change the way they taught.  The media at this time agreed with the teachers saying that television programs battled with learning for the minds of students.  I can see how many would believe this, especially now when students would much rather be playing video games or be on facebook talking to their friends.  The book also talked about how many teachers are afraid that if they use new technology they will no longer be teachers, but facilitators in the classroom.  They will no longer be passing on their knowledge and expertise on a subject, instead they are making sure their students are able to find the information they need on the internet or on another computer program that may be offered.  I can understand how teachers would feel this way, but I don’t think that we need to use technology in every single aspect of school.  Teachers can use technology to enhance their lectures, make them more interesting for students so they stay focused and learn more.  When technology is used appropriately, I think it is a huge advantage because it gives students different ways to learn the same information.  Not all students learn well from a lecture, some students learn better from reading textbooks or from visual forms of learning.  Incorporating technology into the way you teach is an easy way to include different teaching strategies so all your students can benefit, not just the ones who learn well from lectures.  As a future teacher, I want to incorporate technology into my classroom and going through this class has introduced me to many different ways I can do that.  At this time I haven’t quite figured out how to use the new technology that is out there, but I feel that by the end of the semester I will have acquired many new ideas on how and what to use.  So far I like the idea of using a wiki to post all assignments that are due and worksheets I have handed out.  This way they are all in one area and if a student loses one they can just go online and print off a copy.  I also like the idea of introducing students to blogs.  I think it would be really cool, but am not quite sure how to implement it into a middle school or high school science class.  Could be a good topic to do my technology inquiry on!

Exit Slip

Twitter can be used to communicate with parents or students in your classroom.  I thought this would be an interesting and new way to use technology in the classroom.  I had never thought about using Twitter to communicate in a classroom environment and it seems like it could be a helpful tool.  Learned about a new website (brainpop) that could be helpful in the future classroom by engaging students in a different way.  Also we were introduced to SMART Exchange, which is a website that I can use to get examples of what an interactive whiteboard lesson looks like.  This will be helpful because in the future I may need to make lessons for an interactive whiteboard and this site will give me a starting point.

Rethinking Education (ch 2) Reflection

The second chapter in Rethinking Education talks about the reasons that using technology in the classroom is a good thing.  The technology enthusiasts make two arguments: the world is changing and we need to prepare students for that changing world and that technology can enhance education.  I agree with both of these statements.  I feel as teachers it is part of our job to prepare students for the world that they will enter after high school.  I see technology as a tool that will make my job easier because it gives me a variety of ways to present information to my class.  The chapter also talks about some of the advantages of the different types of technology that are available to teachers.  I’m going to school to become a secondary level science teacher so one of the advantages they talked about was using games and simulations in the classroom.  I thought this was a good idea because it allows students to experience things in life-like scenarios without the possibility of causing harm to anyone.  An example would be a program that simulated the dissection of an animal.  Although not as exciting as the real thing, it would still help students learn the parts of the body without the nervousness of having to cut up an animal.  This could help students who may really want to take a science class that includes the dissection of an animal, but are afraid to actually do the dissection.  Technologies such as games also allow students to work at their own pace and control what they are learning.  Not all students learn at the same pace or in the same way, so a computer based game or program would allow all students to learn the information in a way that is best for them.  As a future teacher, I think technology in the classroom is a great advantage for us and our students.  When I went through school we didn’t have access to the technology that kids going through school now have access to.  I would have loved to be able to use games, podcasts, and other technology to learn what we were taught.  I want to give my future students the best possible environment in which to learn the information I am presenting to them.  In some instances, that environment is going to be better achieved using a computer program instead of lecturing for an hour on a subject.  I want to be able to keep my students engaged and focused on the task at hand, I don’t want them daydreaming or thinking about what they are going to be doing after school.  As a future teacher, I will begin now to look for technology I can integrate into my classroom.  I want to be ready to be the most effective teacher I can when I start, I don’t want to have to waste my students time trying to find things when I first become a teacher.  Technology is a new necessity in teaching and I look forward to using it and learning how to use it.

Exit Slip

I learned some tips for using the SMARTboard, how to evaluate websites, and how to use the Prezi program in place of PowerPoint.  I also realized that using technology doesn't always make a teachers life easier, but in the long run I think it is beneficial for both the students and the teacher involved.  I also agree with cross checking websites you are using for credibility, I think that would be the most helpful thing to teach students.

Growing Up Online Reflection

Kids that are going to school now have grown up with technology all their lives.  Most of the students we as future teachers will come in contact with will have been using computers since they were two or three years old.  Cell phones and the internet are almost like life lines to many of these kids.  They get home from school, do their homework, and then head right to the computer or the video games that they can now play online.  This technology can be a good thing for students from an academic standpoint and I also think it is a good way for kids to be creative and express themselves, but kids also need to really understand the dangers of this technology.  The video said that most kids who are online know about predators and are very smart about what they say and who they talk to.  I think parents need to take the initiative to talk to their kids and lay down rules about how the internet is to be used whether at home or not.  Then it’s up to the parents to trust that their kids will follow the rules.  As a teacher, I want to make sure that I let the parents of my students know what their kids are doing with technology in my class.  If I am going to be using the internet for a project in my class I would send a note home and make sure I get permission for their son or daughter to participate.  I would make sure that the students are not giving out personal information or using their full names when posting things online so their identities are kept safe.  I would put security measures on what I was using so only certain people could have access to what the students are writing.  I know that the students are going to use the technology regardless of what safeguards I put on it, but I want the parents to know that I am doing whatever I can to keep their kids safe while on the internet in my class.

Evaluating Websites

As a teacher, I want to be able to make sure me students are being exposed to relevant information about the topics I am teaching them.  One way to do that is to make sure they know how to look at a website and know if the information given is true or made up.  The first tool that they should use to decide if a website is credible is to use the knowledge that they already have on the subject.  By using what they have already learned in class, they will be able to evaluate the information that is given on the website.  You could use this strategy when evaluating the All About Explorers website.  I looked up Christopher Columbus and found it to state that he was born in 1951 and died in 1906.  First of all, I know that Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 so it doesn’t make sense that it says he was born in 1951.  Also, he can’t die before he is born because that’s just not possible.  Another tool that can be used is to look at the bottom of the site for a link that tells you a little more about the site.  The All About Explorers website had a link to more information and it told you that the site had bogus information on it and was used as a tool to help students determine credibility of internet sites.  This information may also tell you who puts on the site and who they may be affiliated with, making it easier to determine if the site is credible.  Knowing if what you are looking for has another name is another way to determine credibility.  Dihydrogen Monoxide is also known as water.  When I was looking at that site, much of what they were saying about water was true, but if you didn’t know they were talking about water it sounded like they were talking about a toxic substance that really is harmful to you.  I would also use websites that you already know to be credible to determine if another site is credible.  The Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus site is mentioned on Wikipedia for example as being a hoax because there is no such thing as a Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus.  The most important thing I think to tell students is if they really are in doubt about a site to ask a teacher or parent to look through it with them to determine the credibility.  Using the knowledge they have on the subject, other sites, and information about who puts on the site are all ways to determine credibility of a website. 

Rethinking Education (ch 1) Reflection

In this new age of technology, where almost every student has access to a computer outside or school we have to be ready to use technology to teach.  Students who are going through school now have grown up with technology and don’t know any different.  A lot of us who are going into the teaching profession at this time have grown up with technology for most of our lives and have probably been using computers since we were quite young, I know I have.  This reading made me think that students are learning just as much outside the classroom as they are inside.  With the access that kids have to the internet and educational games made for computers, it is very possible that they gain a bulk of their knowledge at home and not in the classroom.  As a future teacher, I don’t want to be replaced by computer games and internet sites.  I want to be able to use that type of technology to enhance what I am teaching my students in class.  Technology is a great tool to use to more clearly explain something to a student or even show students how something that you are talking about works.  For example if you were teaching a science class about how motors work it would be hard to show students a real motor at work because they are usually hidden inside the machine they are in.  If you were a teacher who used technology in your class, you could find a website, video, or program that shows how a motor works.  This would give the students something visual that they could link with the information you have already given them.  I want to teach secondary level science and from my own experiences I know that hands on learning is a lot more fun than listening to a teacher talk about science for an hour.  I want to be able to engage my students’ minds and make them think and really learn the information.  I think that by using blogs to write about how an experiment is going or requiring technology be used in a project it will give them a new perspective on how science can be done.  It doesn’t have to be the same all the time and can be quite fun when using the right tools.