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.

Blogs, Wiki, Podcats (ch1-3) Reflection

After reading the first three chapters of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts...etc I realized that there is a lot of technology in the world that I hadn’t even considered using in a classroom.  As I continued to read I also came to the realization that if we as future teachers don’t learn how to use this technology as students, there is no way we will have the time to learn it while we are teaching.  The author talks about being selfish before we introduce these technologies into our classrooms and I completely agree with him.  By using these new technologies in our personal lives, we will better be able to teach our students how to use them if they don’t know how they work already.  We will be teaching a generation of students who has grown up with technology that is constantly changing, forcing them to learn how to use many of these new technologies on their own.  As a teacher I want to be able to help my students with problems they may encounter when using technology, not the other way around.  I feel the new technology that is being introduced into classrooms is a good thing, not a bad one.  Teachers who may already be in the profession may not like having to learn new ways of teaching, but I think using technology will be a way to keep more students focused and make it easier to teach different concepts.  This new technology is almost a necessity in some ways because it gives the students a feel for how they will encounter things in the real world.  This section of the book focused mostly on blogs, so I will use that as an example.  As students get older and graduate they will have to be on the web all on their own trying to figure out what sources are good to use.  By using blogs, they can see what other people have said about certain sources and make a determination about how valid that source is and if they should use it or not.  Reading these few chapters has shown me that I need to use technology in my classroom, whether it is a blog, wiki, social bookmarking, or other technology that is out there.  I will use this technology in my classroom because I know if I don’t, someone else will and I will be out of a job.

Exit Slip

Today I learned about delicious accounts.  I had no idea there was a place other than your personal computer that you could keep all the websites that you use on a regular basis.  It was also cool to learn that I can share those sites with other people and find new sites that others have already checked that may help me in the future.  Learning about wikis was interesting too.  I liked the idea of using a wiki to keep the parents of your students informed with what is going on in the classroom.  I think both of these tools will help me in the future when I have my own classroom.

Digital Autobiography

The digital autobiography was an interesting activity. I had never made a slide show on an internet site before; the closest I have come to doing something like this is making a power point presentation. I had fun with this project and tried my best to make it interesting. The thing that took me the longest to do was pick the pictures I would use. Once I figured out what part of my life that I wanted people to know about I thought using the actual website and the technology aspect of the project were quite easy. Total for this project it probably took me an hour to find pictures, put them in the order I wanted them, and then choose backgrounds, music, and captions for the pictures.

I thought this was a good introductory project for the course. It wasn’t too difficult and got me used to using a program I had never used before. It also forced me to decide which program would work best for what I wanted to do; I didn’t have to adapt what I wanted to do to a certain program. I was able to find a program that would do exactly what I wanted it to do. This was also a valuable project because it showed me there are other ways to present information than just using power point or a poster with pictures on it. I thought this technology was just as easy, if not easier, than using power point.
Completing this task has forced me to look at how I will use technology in my classroom when I become a teacher. As someone who wants to teach science at the middle/high school level, this type of technology would make presenting information to my students more interesting. This project took me less time than it would have if I was going to do the same thing with a power point presentation. I think this was an easy way to get all my information in one place and present it in a professional way. The technology has step-by-step directions and is easy to use even if you are not very tech savvy (which I am not). I would consider giving my future students the option to use programs like this to make visual aids when they are doing projects or use these programs as a way to simply present information. I think using technology like this makes your students think outside the box about how to complete a certain assignment.

Digital Autobiography

Technology Questions

1. Technology is advances in instruments or tools that we already have that help to make our lives easier. An example would be that a cell phone makes life easier because people can get a hold of you where ever you are; where as if you had just a landline they could only reach you at home.



2. Technology integration is using technology in a classroom to complete an activity, teach a lesson, or give examples to help kids better understand. An example would be using a smart board instead of a regular chalkboard or white board. It is easier for the teacher and makes in more interesting for the students.