Blog #15

Everything that I learned in this class was valuable to me. I came into this class having very minimal technology skills and now I feel like I know a little bit of every kind of technology that I would use in a classroom setting. Many of the skills that I learned throughout the semester I used in other classes. I made very nice and clear power points for several presentations that I had in other classes. Also, I used the graphing aspect of Excel to create many graphs, which I used in association with many other classes. I also used the video editing lessons to create a video for a presentation in another class. Overall, I got great grades on any assignment in which I utilized my technology skills learned in this course. Another positive was using MACs, I previously had no experience with using a MAC computer and now that I do have that experience, I actually want a MAC as my personal computer.
I will use all of the skills that I learned in this class in my own classroom in the future. There wasn’t one lesson where I felt like the material wasn’t relevant to my future as a teacher! Therefore, there wasn’t anything that didn’t have value to me :)
The only place where I could see a need for improvement was in the actual assignments themselves. I was confused on many occasions as to the requirements and procedures of the assignments. I realize that there are a lot of assignments but a different approach to the presentation of assignments would have been very helpful to me. A suggestion on that note might be to always provide an attachment with each assignment outlining the exact steps that need to be taken. I know that on most assignments you did that but there were several times in which the attachment outline differed from the WebCT assignment outline and that was really confusing. Another thing was that you went really fast when explaining the processes of the technology. Maybe going through those same explanations twice would be helpful, the first time to take notes and the second time to actually do the processes with you.

Blog #13 / #14

I had a terrible time with the video making process, mainly because my iMovie software and/or the computer that I was working on didn’t work properly. To make matters worse, I was really pressed for time in editing my movie because there weren’t enough fire wires for everyone in the class, so my group had to wait two additional classes until we could upload our video. Furthermore, once we attained a fire wire, it took almost the whole class period to upload the video onto three computers. I am not going to go into details about what specifically went wrong with the technology but I will say that the technology problems seriously affected the quality of my finished video. I was not at all proud of my work and I had to show it in front of the entire class, which was humiliating for me.
I would guess that the problems that I encountered during my movie making process are probably typical to the experiences that my own students can have. Many schools do not have enough technology for every student to “have their own” of everything, and so I will need to be creative in planning projects involving limited technology access. Also, I will need to pre-check that the technology that my class odes use is working properly so that students are not limited in their creations by faulty software. Another thing that is common in classrooms is students being embarrassed to present in front of the whole class. Personally I think that this is an outdated method, which is more likely to create insecurities within students rather than aide them. A way that I can ensure that students remain comfortable in my classroom when presenting their work is to offer the option of more than just one way to present. Students that are really proud of their work and enjoy being in front of an audience can volunteer to do so and students that are maybe a little more shy and/or insecure with their work can choose a different option where students will view their work and provide positive feedback, thereby fostering confidence.
The ISTE article demonstrates the direction that education is going, technology is becoming more and more important for students both in and outside of the classroom. I think that video projects are an excellent way for students to have a fun, hands on learning experience. Furthermore, this type of technology might help students, who are surrounded by technology in their everyday lives, to better relate to the material that they are learning.

Blog #12

My group chose third grade science as our standard for our video project. We thought that science would be a fun subject to cover, considering the context of the assignment. We chose third grade because the majority of our group is looking to teach that specific grade, so we felt that it would be appropriate to work with the associated standards. We are going to do a cheesy version of a child science explorer show. In our video a struggling student is whisked away by a knowledgeable explorer who teachers her all about the desert, oceans, and rainforests. I thought that the storyboard process was a necessary step in creating a video. If we hadn’t done the storyboard we probably wouldn’t have come up with half of the ideas. Making a storyboard forces you to have to picture your ideas and concepts and from there the script kind of just falls into place.

Blog #11

No Blog This Week :)

Bog #10

I thought that the filimentality assignment was interesting and fun. I did notice that there were a lot less available resources on the internet than I originally thought there were, fun ones at least. Most of the sights that I found were just the boring read and learn strategy. I think that a Hotlist is a great way to guide students through independent learning. Using the internet to study a subject opens up the possibilities about what can be learned. Meaning, there is a lot more variety on the internet about one subject than in a text book. I read the articles and thought they had a lot of good information. However, my uncle passed away this week and I am having a really hard time concentrating and being motivated so this is the end of my blog for this week.

Blog #9

I thought that the midterm was fairly easy. I was afraid of how hard it might be, considering the scope of what we have covered in the class up until this point. I felt comfortable in all aspects of the midterm. I think that the assignments that we have completed really helped me in preparing for the exam. I would have to say that the the Inspire portion of the test was probably the hardest only because I had to try and summarize what the three different programs were used for. This was only challenging because I had not studied for that. Otherwise, I would have to say that the exam was pretty easy. Don't get me wrong, it was fair and comprehensive. I guess studying the right material and having done quality work on all of my assignments was all I needed to do, to do well on the midterm.

Blog #8

Each of the readings this week focuses on the use of databases in education. The first article, “The World Wide Web: Interfaces, Databases, and Applications to Education”, offers a more technical view of databases. This article points out that a common interface, such as the Web, allows for a more wide variety of accessible databases. It is explained that there are three different parts involved in entering information into forms on the Web. The three components are: database, interface, and the actual Web form. Information gets from the Web forms to the host’s database through a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) script. It is a complicated process but there are prepackaged CGI scripts available. Prepackaged CGI scripts help teachers with the creation of databases without knowledge of the “complicated programming techniques” (p. 41). This article also points out that databases can be used for forums, which can be used to hold online class discussions of pre-determined topics. Also, databases can be used to “hand in” assignments using the computer and conduct online class evaluations.

“The Database: America’s Presidents” talks about how databases can be used to create in class group assignments. This article highlights the shift in fundamental skills from the three Rs to the six Cs. The first four of the six Cs focuses on problem solving and includes: computing, communicating, concluding, and confirming. The final two of the six Cs focuses on information management and includes categorizing and classifying. Managing information found is an important skill needed in relation to the abundance of information that can be accessed through technology. In addition, databases play on the students’ natural tendencies to want to categorize items and information. This article suggests that a database activity be used to introduce the new skills involved in the use of databases. This type of activity is best as a group activity in order to enhance cooperative learning. Databases allow students to “arrange, sort, view, filter, and manipulate data in a variety of ways” (p. 10). The hands on aspect of this type of information based activity helps in the retention aspect of learning.

The final article, “Bells and Whistles: Organizing Data for Whole-Class Use”, also focuses more on the in class uses of databases. It is pointed out that database activities are great for one-computer classrooms. The class is given the task to research a certain topic, enter the found data into the one computer, and then discover relationships between the data. Databases are good for classroom learning for four main reasons. One, it involves working with electronic information, which there is more and more of everyday. Two, creating, defining, and categorizing information involves higher order thinking skills. Three, database use involves such critical thinking skills as: classifying, defining, categorizing, inferring, comparing, and contrasting. Four, the different formats available allows for greater flexibility.

Blog #7

The Wiki assignment has interesting because it is a “behind-the-scenes” look at how multiple author sites are made. I have always been told that Wikipedia cannot be trusted as a credible source, which to an extent is true. However, I was under the impression that just anyone on the Web could contribute anything that they wanted to the site. I found out, through the course of this assignment, that any additions or changes to Wikipedia have to be preapproved by the original author before the actual page is altered. Through this assignment, I have also been given the opportunity to experience how a web page is actually made. In addition, I have been researching the acceptable use policies and common computer lab policies for different schools, which will give me a head start for when I get my own classroom.

The article, “Bridging the Digital Divide: A Building Block for Teachers”, is full of important information. In fact, all of the articles that we have been assigned to read have been helpful and eye-opening in a lot of ways. I have created a folder on my computer in which I have been saving all of the assigned readings so that down the road I can reread them and refer back to them as needed. I think that the authors made an important point in saying that, as it pertains to classroom technology, there needs to be equal access to in addition to equal educational experiences with technology (p. 11). In my opinion technology is as important for students to learn as any other skill or subject. I believe that our future will be even more heavily based on technology than it is now. Therefore, students who are not given the opportunity to learn about technology will be at a serious disadvantage in higher learning and in the job market. Unfortunately, in this day and age, school funding is severely limited in most cases. Even worse is that fact that unequal school funding, and subsequent unequal technology access, follows along the same social hierarchy that is already in place; meaning, the schools that have less resources are the school that need them the most (usually the low socioeconomic and minority communities). In America we need a drastic shift in our political priorities that would allow more of our nation’s wealth to be designated for education. Having said that, I really like how the article both recognizes this problem but then shifts the responsibility back to educators. It is, after all, our job as educators to give our students the best education possible regardless of how much or how little we have access to resources.

Blog #6

Using Excel to create spreadsheets is an extremely valuable tool for teachers. There are so many things that teachers are responsible for these days that they don’t have time to track grades manually. Furthermore, using a computer program, with its automatic formulas, makes it so that there is less of a chance of error. I like the fact that you can create one type of spreadsheet and then reuse it year after year. It is also very useful that you can isolate certain data to make into graphs. I had to learn a little about Excel to pass the CCR exam but I have to admit that I was still very uneducated about how and for what to use Excel. I liked that, as a class, we went through Excel and practiced using it right then and there. I feel that I have a much better grasp of Excel and all of its features and tools. I took the Excel quiz and got one hundred percent (9/9), a good sign.

I found the article, “Teaching Students to use the Internet as a Research Tool”, very informative. I will use the information found in the article, not only for educating my future students, but also for my current status as a student. I have always used the Internet as a research tool but have also always had trouble isolating what information is appropriate and what web sites might prove less reliable. I wasn’t aware that different search engines will produce different results, so in the future I will be sure to use more than one search engine and/or to use the search engines suggested in the article. Also, I didn’t know that each search engine page has a “how to” feature that will describe the best way to get the best results for a search. It is interesting to learn that there are search engines just for kids, knowing about those search engines will prove useful in my future classroom. The web sites for teachers section will be very practical for my career as a teacher. Being that the Internet is used more and more for research, it is important for teachers to know, and for students to be taught, the most effective ways to search for, validate, and cite Internet information.

Blog #5

I loved learning about power point this last week. I was kind of familiar with the basics regarding power point but was not aware of all of the great features available to me. I have already put what I learned to use in a few of my other classes. I have used power point to make presentation before but, now that I have learned more about it, I realize that I had made previous presentation too wordy and distracting. Power point can be used many ways in the classroom. Of course, it can be used for lectures so that all of the students can see as well as hear what I am teaching. It can be used to create fun games that relate to classroom material. Power point can be used to create a visual agenda for each day so that students can know what the day will be structured like. Also, students can be taught how to use power point for their own presentations. The Inspiration software was also really neat. I think that Inspiration will be very valuable in helping students to organize their writing. For both teachers and students, the technology that we learned about this week will provide a more fun, more engaging, and more interactive learning environment. Bloom’s taxonomy was interesting, I’m not sure that I really understand how it can be used as a study guide for students but I think that it is a great template for teachers to use when creating tests and assignments.

Blog #4

I loved the idea behind the assignment presented in the article, “Mapping Student Minds” by Ariel Owen. I was amazed at how this one assignment gave every type of student the chance to use their personal strengths and improve upon their weaknesses. It is an assignment that every student can be successful at and that every student will be able to learn from. Furthermore, by observing the students at work and grading the finished assignment, teachers are given the opportunity to evaluate each individual student’s learning style and intelligence strengths. The outcome being that the teacher will be better prepared to tailor future assignments, for each individual student, based on his or her dominant learning intelligence. As we learned in class last week, there are many different types of intelligences that students may possess. The multiple intelligences include: kinesthetic (body smart), logical (number smart), intrapersonal (myself smart), visual/spatial (picture smart), linguistic (word smart), interpersonal (people smart), musical (music smart), and naturalistic (nature smart). The assignment in this article incorporated nearly every type of intelligence and promoted critical thinking skills at the same time. Much of the assignment is completed as group work, which covers interpersonal intelligences. The students go on at least two actual field trips and observe the natural environment, which touches upon naturalistic intelligences. Students use logic to debate and agree upon causal relationships. The causal relationships are displayed as a causal maps, using word association, which benefits both visual and word smart students. Students are encouraged to self-correct their work, which might be beneficial to intrapersonal learners. Finally, students present their projects to each other, which will help auditory learners to better absorb the material. If you add appropriate music while the students are working in the classroom, it might benefit music smart students. There are countless other ways in which this assignment touched on various learning intelligences. The most impressive thing about this assignment is that the basic outline of how the assignment is done can be used for a variety of different subjects and topics. This assignment also took advantage of the many forms of technologies that can be used in the classroom to enhance student learning. They took virtual field trips, used online databases, incorporated causal mapping tools, and conducted research on the web.

Blog #3

I found the article "Oh the Changes" very interesting. I think it is crucial for every teacher to know the difference between first-order technology integration and second-order technology integration. The first-order is known as amplification and is considered more "old fashion" in that it uses technology to perform tasks that are used in the classroom already, such as flash cards (p. 7). My early educational experiences focused on first-order technology integration, which was effective in achieving repetition and fact memorization but wasn't nearly as exciting as second-order technology integration. Second-order integration uses technology to actively engage students in their own education and allows for more student independence and critical thought; aspects that benefit both student and teacher. Overall, the progression of technology in the classroom has moved towards a constructivist approach where the learning becomes student-centered and the teacher's role moves from being "Sage on the Stage" to "Guide on the Side", which encourages students to become motivated learners. The most interesting part of the supplemental article was the concept of multi-age student grouping where a teacher is responsible for two consecutive grades of students. This classroom concept allows for teachers to get to know their students better and allows for the older grade students to act as peer tutors to the younger students. I think that the implementation of multi-age classrooms would allow for more quality instruction and student collaboration since there would be a much smaller learning curve for both the students and the teachers. In class this week, I learned about the advantages, for students and teachers, of providing rubrics for all assignments. Rubrics provide a guide for students while they are working on projects and assignments; thereby, allowing the student to better focus their work. For teachers, rubrics keep the grading process more fair and precise. Furthermore, rubrics provide a solid reference point for teachers to stand behind if parents and students feel the need to argue a grade. I thought that the web site we visited in class was of great value. I am sure that all of us in the class will be using this site to create rubrics in the future!

IMPORTANT: I posted this blog on Sunday (2-10-08) but I accidentally posted it as a "new blog" instead of a "new post" (I e-mailed you about it). So, today I moved it here (in the correct place) and deleted the old blog (2-12-08).

Blog #2

I found the tools that we learned about in class very helpful. I especially liked Yahoo Briefcase and Yahoo Groups. I think that being able to create a web page that parents and students can go to for information about our class will be very useful in the future. I will definitely be using the Yahoo Groups tool in my career as a teacher. One of my biggest fears about becoming a teacher is the possibility of not knowing what the heck I am doing, so Yahoo Groups will be an extremely valuable tool in getting advice and ideas concerning curriculum and classroom management.

The "Teaching for Understanding" article made a lot of sense to me. In my past a lot of the information that I learned was just that...facts that I memorized and then immediately forgot after I was tested on the information. This article stresses the need for students to understand information in order to be able to put their knowledge into action. Prior to reading this article I hadn't really considered that preconceived notions affect how and what a student can learn. I like the idea that by using technology in the classroom you can reach and then challenge every student. The technologies outlined in this article make it possible to relate the material being taught to every student in a way that is relevant to then; thereby, reaching every student regardless of their background and learning style. At the same time, once a student's learning style is assessed you can use technology to make sure that each student is challenged in an engaging manner. I intend to save this article so that I can refer to the various programs mentioned when planning my curriculum in the future.

I also learned a lot from the "Netiquette" article. Although I have always found chain letters annoying, and so never inflicted them upon my friends and family, I never knew that they were illegal. Furthermore, a tip that I found useful was to, when replying to an e-mail, always include the original message so that the receiver has some way to reference what you are talking about. Also, I think it is a great tip to always include some form of signature when writing an e-mail to someone so that they can quickly assess who you are and in what context you are writing to them. Finally, and most importantly, I will always re-read my messages before sending them to make sure that I am portraying myself the way that I intended in order to avoid misinterpretations and to always put my best foot forward.

Blog #1

This week I learned about business letter etiquette. I think that proper letter etiquette is an important skill to have in any career. I have learned the hard way, as I believe many other people have, that written communication can be very easily misinterpreted. In the article that I read, “Business Letter Etiquette” by Neil Payne, he stresses that exact point in writing that the “failure to observe correct business letter etiquette can result in you adopting an inappropriate tone, causing offense or misunderstandings, lack of clarity or purpose and hostility or soured relations” (http://ezinearticles.com/?Business-Letter-Etiquette&id=12040). I think that correct letter etiquette would prove just as useful in the teaching profession as it would in any other profession. Social politics are an important part of the teaching profession so any written correspondence within the profession should be done correctly. The goal of proper letter etiquette would be to impress those who you correspond with and to build positive relationships with those who you work with and for. In writing a professional letter, one must consider the style, content and structure of the letter based on who it is for and why. I learned that professional letters should be very clear, consistent and always polite. It is important to keep the letter formal even if you are familiar with the person you are writing to because it may be shown to a third part with whom you may not be as familiar with. Another important tip that I learned from the article was that you should avoid humor at all costs because there is a good chance that humor will be misunderstood or badly timed. Addressing the letter is also of great importance. It is worth the time to make sure that the person’s name is spelled correctly and that you start the letter with “Dear…” and end the letter with “Sincerely…” in order to keep the letter professional without being too informal.