Today's Class

This is the last class of the semester!

Three different ways that I am going to integrate technology into my second grade classroom:

1. The first way that I am going to integrate technology into my classroom is that I want to have a class blog. I am going to keep both my students and their parents up to date on what is going on in the classroom. I think it is so important to keep parents informed, as well as letting them see what their child is doing throughout the day.

2. The second way that I am going to integrate technology into my classroom is to use and interactive whiteboard. I think these tools are so amazing, and I know second grade students would be so excited to use something like this. Now that I know how to create a lesson and that I have access to SMART Exchange, I can really change up my lessons and keep my students excited to come to class and learn!

3. The third way that I am going to integrate technology into my classroom is too use computer and video games to help my students learn. I think that when a student is excited to do something, they will get the information that I am trying to get across. After being in 331, I now know of games that my students can enjoy playing while they are learning.

The main thing that I learned in this class is to always try something new to relate to students. Technology is such a big part of our lives, and it isn't going to go away. It is important to get our students used to using it as well as letting them enjoy what and how they are learning. I learned so much this semester and it has changed my outlook on technology and its use in the classroom. I thought that you had to be a technology savvy type of person to do a lot of the things that we did in this class. I am most definitely not that good with technology, and I was still able to complete all of the course tasks so I am proud of myself! I know that i can take this information and use in my future as a teacher!

We ended class with a great discussion and wrap up of the semester! I loved this class! I really learned a lot! :)

Today's Class

Ways that the teacher integrates technology into her classroom from the video:

- SMARTBoard
    cooperative learning
    engagement and participation
- Mac Computers
   laptops
   large number of computers
   mobile lab
   access to computers
- Online Collaborative Projects
    connect with peers (world-wide)
- Daily Blog
     assignments posted for parents and students
     open classroom
- Students write blogs
    current events and classroom activities that can be shared
    global audience

We then divided this list into things that we could have done before technology, things we couldn't do before technology, and things that we could do before but can now do better now that we have the technologies. It is important as teachers that we use things that will help our class even if they can only be done with technology. We then did a jigsaw activity with information from two articles about how and how not to use technology in the classroom. I thought this helped because we were able to hear about all of the other ideas, but only being an expert on one of them. I think this would be a fun activity to use in the future classroom.

I know that I need to get going on my Technology Inquiry Wiki! Fun class period! :)

iRLO

I thought this was very difficult to complete. I had a very hard time figuring out how to use Scratch. It took me forever to get the final project completed. The thing I didn't like about Scratch was that every little thing that I would change with my script would change everything. I was getting very frustrated, and I am happy that I am done with it! I definitely took my time, and created a project that I think is satisfactory.

I honestly don't know if I would ever use this in my future as an educator. I think that it is a cool program, and I would have my students use already created Scratch projects. I just think it is way to time consuming and complicated to make these games. I think that this would be fun for the students to play around with and try to create their own. I am happy that I was able to try using Scratch this semester because it gave me more of a background in different things I could possibly use in my future classroom. I also have something to show other colleagues and administration in my future. I'm sure there will be some people who love using Scratch and will use it in their classrooms!

Public Service Announcement

Link to my PSA!

This was a very fun project to complete! Ashley and I had a great time filming this video! We put in a good amount of effort planning the video, getting the props and setting right, and editing it to make the finished product. We had some glitches along the way including not knowing that we had to keep the flip camera vertical when filming with it. This mishap forced us to film a great deal of the clips again. Once everything was filmed, we had some issues editing. Our problem was that we had the video maker on still-shots instead of moving ones. Once we had this figured out, the rest was fairly easy. I love how the video turned out! I personally think it is hilarious while still getting a very important message across. Very time consuming, but well worth it!

I think that knowing how to create a video will help me a lot in my future as an educator. As a teacher I can not only make videos for my students to watch, but I can have them create their won videos for projects. This can make things so much more interesting for the students. I think that this will just add to the fun that students can have when learning something new as well as reviewing older material. Now that I know the steps and a lot of the details, I will be able to easily use videos in the classroom! Very cool project! :)

Today's Class

Today we started out class with the discussion on chapter 10. The group did a great job with their presentation. They used the jigsaw strategy, which was very beneficial to us coming to a consensus as a group about what our vision for our future in education. One thing that we learned is that when we use a specific strategy, we should straight out tell the class what strategy is being used. They all did a good job using multiple technology to make the presentation flow more nicely. Once again, we really need to think through the directions to make sure that the students understand what is expected of them as well as the materials they may need to use. I also am starting to really think about the importance of lifelong learning. It is such and important concept. We then did an activity to see how many different types of technology we could find that relate to our future careers in education. I found some very cool activities and resources that I can use in my future classroom! We then saved them on Delicious so we could use other students findings as well. This really helps with resources and saving time trying to find something useful for our students to do in class. Once again, the was a very informative class! :)

Interactive Whiteboard Lesson

I thought this was a very fun project to complete! It took sometime first of all deciding what I wanted to do. When I decided on creating a second grade math lesson, I thought that measuring would be fun! I then picked out different backgrounds and other fun things that I thought second graders would relate to. Once I had my idea, using SMART Notebook was actually pretty easy. After I got my peer feedback, I was able to fix up my mistakes, and hopefully met the expectations with this assignment! It took me quite a while to get comfortable with the program, but after that I think that everything else went very smoothly!
I think that knowing how to make a lesson in SMART Notebook will help me make things more interesting for my students in my future classroom. Interactive Whiteboards were something that I have never worked with until this class, and I am so happy that I finally did! I have fun using them, I can only imagine how younger students must feel when they get to use them! I know that in the future I want to use activities like the one I created to get my students excited and ready to learn. With just a little extra effort on the teachers part, they can really make a difference on what the students pay attention to and will hopefully retain better. I am excited that I now know how to create and interactive whiteboard lesson, and I plan on using more of them in the future.

Chapter 10! Rethinking Education in a Technological World

This chapter was a recap of the previous chapters. It also brought all of the main points together, leaving the reader with a powerful message that technology is where this world is going, and we need to do whatever we can to make sure we prepare our students for this new society. There were many things that really stood out to me in this chapter. First of all the fact that we were all raised to believe that all learning takes place in school. We are all so used to the idea that school is where all of our learning occurs, and our teachers are the sole source for information. Now with technology involved, learning is more a lifelong endeavour. Individuals can now take learning into their own hands, and learn more about what they want to know more about. Thing such as technical schools and homeschooling are giving people the chance to start doing this. When someone is able to learn a deeper understanding of something they are really passionate about, they are more likely to gain more knowledge and retain the information better. This chapter also discussed student motivation toward education. Students will once again be more apt to learn the material if it is something they really enjoy. This way they will be more motivated to learn, which is so important to gathering and retaining any type of knowledge. Something that also caught my attention is the fact that what is important to learn is changing. Instead of students focusing on memorization of facts, they should have the knowledge to be able to go out and find the information that they need. This makes students more accountable for their learning. It is also evident that many of us will be switching careers throughout out lifetime. This means that people of all ages should be comfortable and willing to go back to school, and do something new that they are interested in. Once again, making learning a lifelong endeavour. It was also discussed how leadership and the government support of technology in education need to change. We need someone that is willing to take this inevitable change, and make it reality. Someone like Horace Mann who did everything he could to change education into what he thought was the best for students to learn. The government also needs to step in and make technology in all school equal, giving all students a chance to succeed on an even playing field.
All in all, this book really taught me a lot about being a future educator. I now realize the supreme importance of incorporating technology into my classroom, as well as giving my students academic choice.With all of my students most likely going in to different work areas when they are older, I don't think they all need the same exact information. This book really showed me a different way to view technology in the classroom, and I plan on using the information to make these visions a reality for my students!

My Podcast!

I thought this was a very cool assignment to work on. Once again, I completed something in this class that I never thought I would be able to do! Finding the article and creating the script wasn't actually as difficult as I thought it would be. I found a very interesting article that really related to what this whole class has been centered on. The script really came together nicely. Recording the script was easy because I had the sheet right in front of me and was able to just read! Adding the music effects was also fairly easy because I used the website that we were given in class incompetech.com to find music to download. Organizing all of the sounds were actually not too bad either. The one thing about this project that took me forever was exporting the podcast as a mp3. It was not working, and I got super frustrated! After quite a while I figured it out, and then was able to turn it in! I spent a fair amount of time and effort on this project, and I am happy with how it turned out!

I think that knowing how to complete a podcast is going to not only benefit me in the future, but my students and their parents as well. I think this is just another tool to help students if they are not in class, or if they need more help on something. This could also be a very cool project or assessment for students to complete. There are just so many possibilities with podcasts in the classroom is amazing! I am really glad that I know how to create a podcast because I feel like the more knowledge I have in technology, the more my students will relate and want to come to class! :)

Today's Class

Today we started out class with the discussion on chapter 9. I thought this group had a great idea with trying to use scriblink to facilitate our discussion. It was a bummer that it didn't work out, but I still think they did a great job with their back up plan. This just goes to show again the importance of always having a back up plan when using technology. I think that scriblink would be a great tool to use in the classroom. I want to see if I can figure this out to use in other presentations in the future. Another thing that we talked about was how to make sure that when you have students give their responses that they need get to the point. This group told us to give our responses in five words or less. This made us be specific with what we needed to share with the class. We then had time to work on other material, which was a great help! I think this is important to do this when students are feeling overwhelmed to give them time to catch up! It was much needed!

Chapter 9: What Does it all Mean?

This was a very interesting chapter about how we as parents and teachers can start to bridge the generation gap and integrate new learning technologies into existing practices. It is one thing to say that teachers should integrate technology into the classroom, but if they don't know how to do it, what can they do? There is an obvious gap between where young people and older people are in terms of technology, and it is important for everyone to try and stay on the same page, especially in the field of education. I really like the example where a child who was really into a video game was able to teach their parent how to play the game. This is one way that parent can bridge the gap. I also like the idea of a parent getting an account somewhere where they could chat with their child, which would be another good way to communicate. We were all young, and it is important to keep that in mind when we are educating the youth. We need to find ways to connect to them, and make learning more meaningful. Technology is the way that education is going so we as teachers need to make sure that we are taking into account our students. We need to do whatever we can to help the children learn to the best of their potential. I know that as a future teacher that I will need to make adjustments to how I teach based on what will get through to my students. Teachers need to be flexible, which I think is a good thing to be. There are too many teachers set in their ways, which is exactly the type of teacher I didn't like having. All in all, I think that teachers need to relate to their students to better understand what they can do to help the be successful in the classroom.

Chapter 10 and Epilogue

I thought this Chapter was a great wrap up to the book that I read. It did a great job of bringing everything together, and stating the main points that the author wanted to get across. The two main trends in the use of technology were stated as that more and more content is being added to the web very fast, and that more an more of the content on the Internet is collaborative. One quote that I found to be very interesting was, "If we fail to graduate students who are not able to create, sustain, and participate in these networks in a safe, ethical, and effective ways, we've done them a disservice." I think that this statement is so true. We as teachers need to realize that technology is the way our society is going. If we don't incorporate technology into our classrooms, we aren't doing our jobs because students won't be going out into the world prepared for what they will face. Even if some teachers don't want to change their ways of doing things without technology, they have to realize that in this day and age it is so crucial to the success of our students.

This chapter also discussed many shifts that we as teachers need to recognize in order to best educate our students. These shifts include things like the open content that the web has to offer, the opportunity for 24/7 learning, the construction of collaborative and meaningful knowledge, that teaching is a conversation and not a lecture, to know "where" learning, that reading means more than just being a reader, the web and its use as a notebook, that writing is no longer limited to text, that mastery is in the product, not the test, and lastly that contribution, not completion, is the ultimate goal in learning. Teachers need to consider these important ideas when they prepare their students for the real world. Teachers need to connect their students, they need to be content creators, collaborators and coaches for their students. They need to test out the technologies first, and make sure they know what they are doing before they tell the students to do it. I think it sounds like a challenge, but it is something that I am willing to do for my students!

I also thought that the Epilogue was very interesting. This teacher used so many technologies that made his life so much easier! I think it would take a lot of organization and planning to run a classroom like this, but I think it would be time well spent. Having such an organized classroom kept everyone involved in the class updated on what was going on. Everything was current too, which is relate able to the students. Overall, I thought this was a very cool organizational way of running a class!

Today's Class

We started off today with the group discussion guides. I thought the discussion guides did a great job with the organization of their presentations. Professor Boyer also shared with us a link to a charter school that used computers as their mode of learning all day long. I thought that this is a very interesting idea, and would be something very neat to look into. One thing that professor Boyer suggested we do when facilitating a discussion is to make sure you give the directions before you have the students get up and move. Also it is important to keep things simple when they are displayed on the screen. Sometimes too much on the screen can be overboard for the audience to look at. We also then went over some Scratch helpful hints. I definitely need to fix up my Scratch and get help! I also need to go over my annotative bibliography to fix it up and make it look better. I like that we are able to go over things that we are expected to do in class. I really learned a lot today that I didn't know before class and when i was making my bibliography. Even though I am stresses out with the workload in this class, I know I will be thankful that I know how to do all of these things when I am out in the world of teaching! :)

Cool Tools Screencast

My Screencast!

This screencast took me quite a while to do considering I kept making mistakes when I was recording it. I still have some mistakes, but I was getting a sore throat from doing it over and over again, so I think a few mistakes it ok! :) I also really enjoyed my website, so it took me quite a while going through it and finding the best things I could talk about in the 5 minutes that we were given. I also had a rough time staying in the time limits. I had too much to say, and kept running out of time! I think I put a good amount of effort into the project, and I think the final piece proves that!

Overall, I think this would be something very helpful to students. When they are able to see the steps that they need to take in order to do something, they will most likely be more successful. I think that this would be something that I could link to our class blog if it was something I expected them to do for homework. I think this project for 331 will help me in my future as an educator because I will be able to use this technology more easily. I had never really thought I would ever be able to create a screencast because it sounded far too tricky, but now that I know I can, I will hopefully use it! Even though it took quite some time to complete, I am glad I had the experience of creating a screencast! :)

Chapter 8: How Schools Can Cope with the New Technologies

This chapter starts off discussing the three imperatives to using technology in schools; customization, interaction, and learner control. It is important for students to be able to have the choice of the knowledge they want to learn individually. Interaction means that computers can give immediate feedback to learners and to engage them. Learner control refers to the choice of learners putting their own understanding and learning into their own hands. Then the chapter goes on to discuss three main ways that technology can bring together new and old ideas on technology. The first of these ideas is performance-based assessment. This involves national certifications and skill-based assessment systems. Students would be able to get certifications that direct them to their specific career goals. They achieve as many of these certificates that they need to to be qualified to work where they desire. This gives learners more choice, and hopefully keeping students interested and keeping up with education. I think this is a super idea, but I still think it is important to get those other important aspects into education. I don't think that it should be so directed because students will be missing out on so much important information that they can use for the rest of their lives. The next idea discussed in this chapter is curriculum designs. This type of curriculum can help students focus their learning around their goals and interests. Once again I think this is generally a good idea, but it takes out a lot of other important aspects of knowledge. Lastly, new approaches to equity in a digital world was discussed. The hope of technology based schools is that it will keep students interested because they will study things that interest them. The drop out rates will hopefully decrease. As a future teacher, once again, I plan on making sure to let my students have academic choice. I think it is very important for students to study what they enjoy, but I also think other knowledge is imperative to be good citizens and other things like that. I wouldn't like to have schools like this because I am much partial to the ways schools are run today, but some aspects would be nice to slowly incorporate into the classroom I will though be open to change based on what these new technologies are bringing, and if they are included in the district I end up teaching in.

Chapter 9: Social Networks

I have never thought of having Facebook as a part of my classroom, but after reading this chapter, I think it would be very cool. I have had a Facebook account for a couple of years now, and I love it. I love being able to keep in touch with my friends from High School as well as relatives I don't get to see that often. I know its capabilities for personal reasons, but using it in the classroom is something I would have to work on. Like the book said, integrating Facebook in the classroom not only can teach academics, but it can also teach students how to be a part of the society. They can learn how to work with others as well as communicate their ideas and have conversations with others. I think Facebook could be a great way to get my class to be connected even more. I also like the idea of creating a class Facebook page. It could be a general way that my students could keep in touch, whether it be about a homework problem, or to see if they want to go to a movie together! It would also be a good way for parents to keep up on what is going on in class. I could post pictures on things that we are doing in class as well as class news. This way it can be one big community of parents, students, and I to all keep on the same page. I also just learned about Ning. This also has many of the capabilities of Facebook, and it may be easier to work with administration to get this idea approved. This is an actual website that the teacher can set up. The book gave very detailed directions how to set it up, and I think that I could figure it out! It is much like Facebook in the way that I could be able to have one place to keep all of the students and parents informed. It could really be a great communication device. I think as a future teacher I would really love to set up some kind of site like this. I think there would be so  many benefits of having a network that it would make the classroom environment so much closer on all aspects.

Today's Class

Today we started class by discussing that we should be adding pages to our delicious more often, and to keep up with it. At week 8 we should be around 40 pages. The group that led the discussion did a really good job! Some things that they need to work on are to anticipate group sizes and to give clear expectations. I think that some of us were very confused with the expectations for our group discussion. They did a great job using real life scenarios and to use the Smartboard to its potential. I thought Jim did a good job bringing the class back to the discussion topic when there was starting to be a very heated classroom. we also discussed how teachers shouldn't be afraid to ask and go and find things for your classroom that you need. You have to take initiative in getting the best things for your students. We then went over the Ellumionate, and the cool things that can be done with it. It is a great tool for web conferencing and other things like that! This is a very cool tool! We then started talking about the steps for doing podcasting. More of the technology is going to be discussed in Monday's lecture. We need to be sure to find a contemporary issue that relates to PK-12 learners. We need to then write a script that maps out what we are going to talk about. We need to have an overview of the issue, a summary of the resources, and our reaction to the issue. If I need a microphone, he has some! I have to admit i am feeling really overwhelemed!!!!

Chapter 7: What May Be Lost and What May Be Gained

This chapter discusses how that this change in education change is not only affecting the lives of students, but of the society as well. It also goes into depth on the losses and gains of this educational revolution. I am going to discuss some of the gains and the losses as well how this is going to affect my future as an educator. One of things that may be lost is the hope that we can create a society where we have similar values, and where cultures are widely accepted. There is a concern that the divide between cultures will grow, and that society will break apart. Another one of the main losses is that the access to learning, and how this gap is going to increase. People who are not wealthy and able to purchase these new technologies will most likely be left behind. Students of wealthy parents are more likely to get their children more private lessons to get their child ahead in school. There is also a fear that the liberal arts program is going to become more focused on the individual. When students focus on only what they are interested in, they miss out on the general knowledge that is so important in being a informed person. I personally thing it is very important to make sure that students get a broad range of knowledge through schooling while they can still focus on things that they enjoy. One last concern is that people will become socially isolated from just sitting in front of the computer, and not getting to social interaction that is so important.
One of the gains that I found to be very interesting is that knowledge will become more engaging, as students can focus more on things that they enjoy to learn about. When something interests a student, they will be more likely to put more work into their schooling and really put their time into it. I think this is a good idea, as long as generalized aspects are added to it. Technology is also capable of customizing education to the needs of everyone. They can be in any environment and work at the level that is necessary to their success. Also their is hope that the academic competitiveness between students will decrease because they will most likely succeed better at things that they want to learn about! Learning is also becoming more of a family together, which can bring families closer!
I can see both sides of the issue, and think that some of  both will be important in my future as an educator. I think that it is very important to give my students academic choice with their assignments. I also think that is is very important to teach general, lifelong ideas that can help all of my students despite what profession they are going into. I also want to stress the importance of understanding each other culturally and personally. I think all of these ideas need to be kept in mind when I am teaching my future students!

Chapter 9: Podcasting, Video and Screencasting, and Live Streaming

This was such an interesting chapter to read! There are so many great ideas that I can use in my future classroom! The only complaint I have about this book is how they go over things step by step so if you aren't sitting right next to a computer doing it as they go through it, you get kind of lost. Also by the time I would need to know how to use it in my classroom I won't have the book anymore! At least I have some great ideas that I can use and research on my own time! I think that opening students up to things like pod casting to help them with their communication. They could use a podcast to keep up with current events or present something to their classmates. It seems like this would be easy to set up for the students, and it would also make them plan things out and take responsibility in their work so it turns out the right way. This would also be cool so parents could see some of the things that their children are doing in class. Students could also subscribe to a podcast so they can keep up with information that interests them. I am also excited to do a screen cast for this class because it sounds very cool. I like that we are able to do things in class so we are prepared to go use them out in classrooms. Like I said before, I think that these types of projects for students not only teach them about cool uses of technology, but how to have responsibility for learning how to use these tools, and how to make their work look fabulous! Things like pod casting, video and screen casting, and live streaming are where our school will be going in the future years. As a teacher, I know that I need to keep my students updated and fluent in being able to use these technologies that will be a huge part of their lives. This book always stresses the fact that teachers need to test out the technology first so they are able to troubleshoot with student problems and so they know what to expect. I plan on taking this advice to heart, and making sure that I stay caught up with all of these technologies!

Today's Class

Today we started class with the Chapter 6 discussion. The gruop that went did a great job with thier presentation. They really did a good job of being well prepared, and had a good command of the material. One thing that I would consider to have in some of my otehr presentations would be to have a time watch going so the students know how much time they have to finish whatever they are doing. Another thing to consider is ways to have groups share information in other ways than verbally. This will apply to all types of learners then. We can also try a organization technique called jigsawing. One group  becomes an expert on one topic, then the groups are all mixed up so there is an expert in the group from wach ofteh topics. I also think it would be cool to use summary frames so groups know how they are supposed to report the information they are discussing. We then discussed things that would help us with our interactive whiteboard lessons. One thing that I know I need to do is lock the objects that I don't want to be moved. I also need to use infinite cloner instead of copying and pasting a bunch of different objects. Color choice is also very important. We also should keep in mind that there should never be too many words on a slide, no matter what the age of students. We then talked about the SWOT ananlysis for our Cool Tool Screencast. As always this was a very informative class period! :)

Chapter 6:The Three Eras of Education

I thought this chapter was very interesting because it compared the three eras that education has gone through so far: apprenticeship, universal-schooling, and now to life-long learning era. As we moved through these areas many things changed including responsibility of education, expectations with school, the content taught, the pedagogy of schooling, how students are assessed, the location where schooling takes place, how it affects culture, and lastly how it affects relationships. In the apprenticeship era, children learned what their parents knew and what they did for a living. During the universal schooling era, students were taught a uniform content, and went to school to get their education. During the life-long learning era, students are beginning to be able to chose what they want to learn and where they want to learn it. It is crazy to think how far education has come, and what changes will take place in the years to come. I couldn't even imagine being born in a different era, because I love to learn, especially when I am learning about something that interests me. I would have never gone to college to pursue a career in education, which is my passion in life. I think that knowing how education has changed will help me in teaching my students. I want to give them choice with things they want to study. Some teachers I had would make students do reports on things that didn't interest them. I think it is really important for students to have academic choice. I also think that it is important for teachers to help their students thinking about that they want to do in their future. There are so many choices, and the possibilities are endless with what they can do when they graduate high school. I think that anyone can continue their education in this life-long learning era, which is so cool looking at where education has come from. As a teacher I will also have to be prepared for more changes in education, and I am ready to take on that challenge!

Chapter 5 Presentation

I facilitated the discussion on Chapter 5 with Amber and Cari on Thursday. I first read the chapter very carefully before we met as a group so I was prepared to contribute valuable information. We then met together to make our Prezi, and another time to go over the presentation. We knew that we wanted to do something different, so we grouped the class based on a color that they recieved. I thought this went pretty well. I also think that my group worked really well together and that helps make a successful project. I think I put in a good amount of effort into this project, and I think it turned out pretty well. There are always things to work on for next time though! For me, I think it is 10 times worse presenting in front of my peers rather that talking in front of kids. I feel so much more relaxed with young students! I think it really helps me come more confident in public speaking every time I talk in front of my peers. It is a terrifying thing to do, but I will have to get used to it. It also makes me more conscious of the language and presenting skills that I use. My peers are a much tougher crowd than kids, for the most part! I think that it is valuable to facilitate a discussion in front of others at my level. It makes me take responsibility for really knowing the information, and being able to relay that information to my peers. I also think this is just preparing me for a future full of giving presentations to others, for it is a big part of my career, and something I am going to have to get used to! I think this also effects my future as a teacher in the fact that what I am going to be doing as a living is to teach content to others. It helps to have practice with this as much as possible. I think that this was a great project, and I am pleased with how it turned out. I think that every time I present something, it gives me more confidence, which is something I need! I hope to get better with each presentation that I give!

Chapter 7: Fun With Flickr

Flickr was something that I had never heard of prior to reading this chapter. After reading about this, I think that there are some very cool ways to incorporate Flickr into the classroom. One of the first things that I found to be super fun for my class to do would be to randomly find a picture on Flickr and write a story about it. I think this would be a great way to get their creative juices flowing. I also think that it would be very cool to have students comment on someones photo that lives in a different country or something to learn more about the picture they are viewing. Students can also comment on each other's photos and create a discussion. This can help with student communication, which is always a good idea to work on. As a teacher I would love to have a classroom Flickr space. This could be used for class pictures, projects, field trips, guest speakers, and students doing good deeds. I think this would be a great way to keep not only the students connected, but also their parents as well. This is just another way that parents can keep in touch with what their child is doing on a daily basis in school. I also like the fact that there are security settings on Flickr, which can limit the people that can view the pictures. Especially if I am using this with my students, I don't want some inappropriate person looking at my class. I also think it is very important to go over safety with my students when they are using this site. Like the chapter discussed, these pictures get filtered but some inappropriate ones can get through. If students see something they know they shouldn't be looking at, I hope they would know to simply exit out of it. This is will always be a problem with the Internet, and I think teaching kids about online safety, there is so much to offer to them. I really enjoy reading this book because I am discovering so many fun ways to incorporate technology into my classroom! I really think Flickr can really add something special and interesting for the students in the classroom!

Today's Class

Today was my turn to present Chapter 5. I thought that the presentation went generally well, but there were definitely things that could have been improved on. One of the comments on how we could have changed things were to have our colored groups have a certain place to go so it wasn't so confusing for the members of the class. Also, we could have given the class more time to have a discussion about each of the topics, so one of the groups wasn't the only one talking about the topic. We could have also shared deeper commentary with the comments that the class shared with us. We could have also commented more on the quotation that we had in our Prezi. We should have told the class why we chose that quote, and why it was so important. We then discussed making iRLO using scratch. The first step is to identify standards-based content, the to design a developmentally-appropriate way to address the content, and next to actually construct the iRLO in Scratch. This looks pretty tricky, so I will see how this goes! I thought today was a very informative class period!

Chapter 5: The Seeds of a New System of Education

I am presenting on this chapter this week! I thought it was one of the more interesting chapters I have read so far. It is really interesting to see all of the different ways that people chose to get their education. One of the parts that really surprised me was the section on home schooling. I never realized how much social interaction home schooled students get with students their own age. Parents usually get their children involved in many activities so that they aren't socially unaware. Parents also realize when their children aren't catching on to the information, so they will get help for their child in any way they can. Students who are home schooled are also better on most standardized tests. They get more one on one attention than a lot of public school students. One of the negative aspects of home schooling is that these children will not learn common values and concepts that kids in public schools will learn. It can also lead to a lack of cultural understanding because home schooled students are less likely to meet others' of different cultures and races. Another aspect of this chapter that I thought was so cool was the section on adult education. I think that these older adults who want to continue their education is really aspiring. Why stop their education because of age. I hope that I am one of these people that never wants to stop learning! The whole focus of this chapter is that life long learning is what our society is moving toward. I love the fact that people are never to old or too educated to keep learning more, and enhancing their understanding in many aspects of their lives!

Chapter 6: The Social Web

This chapter had a lot of good ideas that I could implement in my future classroom. The number of people who use the web is incredible, so it only makes sense for this large group of people to share information and learn from each other. I have always heard about Twitter, but I never really completely understood what it was. Twitter is are short little updates(140 characters or less) that other people can follow. I always heard about the start twittering different things such as what they are doing at that moment. From what I understand, people can be a follower of whoever they want to get feed updates from. I think this would be a really cool way to keep my students connected. Whether it be homework questions or about things we did in class that day I think it would be cool to have them communicate through a twitter.This chapter also discussed Social Bookmarking. We have already started a Delicious account in class, but the other website, Diigo, has some other interesting aspects to it as well. One of the coolest parts is that Diigo can be annotated by important sections on pages you are interested in. It can also be used collaboratively. I think that Delicious is really cool too now that I have started to use it more. I think it will be really helpful later in my career when I am looking for lesson plans, or new ways to present information for my students. The sources that we have received in class I can forsee to be really helpful down the road. I think this website could be very benificial to use in the classroom with my students as well. I think that if we are doing a research paper, this would be a great way for them to keep all of their sources organized and together. I think all of the tools discussed in this chapter will be useful in my future classroom, despite the age of my students.

Today's Class

Today the discussion group discussed the Chapter 4, and the 4 main developments of the American School System. The first of the developments was the printing press and how this changed the orally speaking culture to a printed culture. Next came the reformation and how it brought in schools. The American Revolution brought new freedoms and liberties to the population. Then came the Industrail Revolution, and with that came the idea that children should go to school to be educated. It is interesting to think about where schooling has come. Some things that presenters need to remember where that they encourage deeper thinking, need to speak up, stop using uhms/likes, consider how to group peers, how they used the SMARTBoard in their lesson, and be knowledgeable with redirecting students when they go down the wrong path with their ideas. We then discussed the iRLO project. The project needs to be interactive, and have user control with feedback on their progress. It also needs to reusable, that it can be used over and over again. This creation will be an object in Scratch. The resources that we got to use will be helpful for how to use Scrach because it looks very confusing to me right now! This looks like a really fun project once i understand how it is used!

Chapter 4 of Rethinking Education

This chapter was about the development of American Schooling, and how schooling went from apprenticeship to universal. Apprenticeship was when parents or other family members taught the children skills they needed to succed in the family business. For example, in the 19th century most people were farmers. The children learn from the older people in the family how do things such as plowing the land. The book says that these children learn from observation, imitation and guided practice. A man named Horace Mann then led a movement that took schooling from families teaching the students to the state being responsible for the schooling. There were many factors that contributed to the shift of schooling that include the printing press, Reformation, the American Revolution, and the Industrail Revolution. The Industrial Revolution changed the role of children. According to Fredrick Carlton, there were only three things that children during the Industrial Revolution 1. work in factories 2. get into trouble on the streets and 3. learning in schools. When the Child Labor Laws came into play, the choice was obvious that children needed to get into schools. The shift went from family to state education. Another part of this chapter that I found to be interesting was how the school system has evolved. Each thing in the school system that has become so routine to us these days really took a lot of thought and time. These things include cumpulsory attendance, graded schools, tests, textbooks, and comprehensive high schools. Things like diversity in chools are making the demands of schools change. Teachers have to work with children who don't speak English, and have to accomodate to students with differnet needs. The chapter ended saying that the schooling system has undergone so many durastic changes in the past, but it is being resistent to the changes that technolgy of today has to add. There will most likely be another change soon to how we know schooling. I think this affects my future as a teacher just in the fact that I have to be ready to embrace change. Things in my future profession will always be moving forward, and I ahve to be ready to learn new things and be able to pass on the information to my students. I thought this was an interesting chapter to see where schooling has come over the years!

Chapter 5: RSS

This chapter discussed somthing that I have never even heard of before, RSS. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. A RSS makes it easy for readers to be constantly updates wth new information on a particular website or issue they are interested in. The example they used in the book that helped me understand this idea more was a political science teacher has 20 or 30 Weblog and media sites on the internet that they are really interested in and continually check on them. With an RSS, when these sites are updated, an aggregator will collect the new imformation to the websites that you subscribe to. This way you don't have to go searching for these updates all of the time. The easiest aggregator to sign up for according to the book is google reader. The book gives step by step directions on how to set up an aggregator, which I think is really useful. When you have an aggregator set up, you can then subscribe to RSS for weblogs or media that you use a lot. A teacher can use RSS feeds in the classroom by having all of the students' blogs be in them. This way the teacher doesn't have to go through each students blog to see if they updated any new posts. I think this is a great time saver. Teachers can also have their students create their own google reader accounts for things such as current events or new reasearch on a topic that the studnets are working on. I think that if I have older middle school students in my classroom, this will be beneficial to use. However I don't see how this would benefit younger elementary age students. If I do teach the younger age students I as the teacher will still use it to keep up to date on new ways to teach my students. There were many other tools that RSS can assist people with such as combining RSS feeds. You do this by going to RSSmix.com to reduce some of the work it would take to do this on your own. This chapter was very interesting, and I think this is a great resource that will save a lot of time!

Chapter 4: Wikis

This was such a great chapter because it gave me so many ideas on how to use a wiki in the classroom. First the chapter started with the author using a very powerful example of what a great tool a wiki can be. The example of the 2004 Tsunami that killed more than 175,000 people. 48 hours after the first wikipedia post, there more over 1,200 edits and more than 6,500 words. I think this is just amazing that anyone can add their findings on a website to keep others informed. These are wods of many people contributing to the website to give others the more up to date an hopefully accurate information. Seeing as how anyone can update and add information to a wiki, there are a lot of challenges with using wikis in the classroom. It is hard to know what sources to trust on a wiki, so the book suggested telling their students to use wikipedia as a starting point for research, but not as a sole resource. There may also be a chance that students come across inappropriate things on a wiki, but the cool thing that teachers can do is wikis that require a login and password system, which can make it easier to use in a classroom. One of the most common ways to use a wiki in the classroom is to create an online text that both the students and the teacher can contribute to. Students can add posts that contribute to a specific topic that would benefit the whole class. The book also discussed some very cool examples of wikis that are being used in schools. One of these examples I found to be so cool was the one where a teacher connected with a teacher in Bangladesh, and their classrooms got together to do a two week investigation. This site they created contains usful informaion such as essays, audio and video files that focus on their topic. What an amazing experience for these students! Other teachers make their classrooms' wikis to be viewed by anyone, but can only be edited by  their classroom. This is how I would most likely use a wiki in my classroom just to be safe! There are just so many possibilities in using a wiki in the classroom it is amazing. I most definately want to use a wiki in my future classroom. I think that it can teach students some very useful ideas on the internet as well as how to share their information with others. I enjoyed how the book explained how to start up a wiki so it makes it easier for teachers to start one on their own. Students work and contributions can also be monitored, which is a great tool. I never knew their were so many possibilities with wikis until I read this chapter, and now I am excited to use one in my future classroom!

New thinking that I have after class today!

We started out class today discussing if we were more like a technology enthusiast or a technology skeptic. I found myself right in the middle of the two groups. I can side with both sides for different reasons, but as we discussed in class, that is fine. The discussion leaders led us in a discussion about technology skeptics. We discussed a lot of the ways in which technology can fail or how it can take away from the person to person interaction. Someone brought up an example of how technologies change so fast and how they can be outdated and never used again once they are replaced. Such as a compass being replaced by a GPS. It is such an ever changing area, so this leads to teachers having to be very flexible and willng to learn and incorporate new technologies in the classroom. I don't think I will ever be strictly an entusiast because I still believe in the importance of face to face discussion and the thought that the teacher is there do help and be a positive role model in the students' lives with more than just academics. One other thing that we talked about that I think was important for my presentation is how to have more than just student to teacher discussion and have more discussion beween the students. We then went over how to create an interactive whiteboard lesson. I first need to find a WI Model Academic standard that I want to use for my lesson. I want to use the SMART exchange website to find ideas for my lesson because the website looks really creative with their lessons! I am excited to create my own interactive white board lesson!

Chapter 3 of Rethinking Education

There were actually a lot of points that I agreed with the skeptics in this chapter compared to the last chapter on the technology enthusiasts. One quote that really stood out to me was on page 48, "School Fosters just-in-case learning while technology fosters just-in-time learning." They say that the idea behind schooling is to teach students the things that they will need later in life. Technology skeptics believe that technology stresses the point to learn what you want when you need it. To an extent I can really agree with the skeptics. I think that the traditional structure of schooling is to teach students important things that they wouldn't learn on their own. These topics are important for later in their lives. Whereas if technology overtakes the schooling, and students get to decide what they learn about, I think that they will be missing out on a lot of important things. For example if I had the choice to not learn about American Politics in school, I probably wouln't have. The fact that I had an expert teach me about it and use examples that I could relate to, I got really interested in Politics.

There were also a lot of barriors to using technology in schools that were discussed in this chapter. One of the main ones is the cost and access to computers. Computers are expensive, and not every student has the access to one of them at home. There are also schools that don't have enough funding to give every student a large amount of use on the computers. It really isn't fair to the students who don't have as much access to computers as their classmates do. Technology can also disrupt classroom management. Computers can be distracting, espeically if not all of the students are on them at the same time. The clicking of the keyboard and the mouse can make it hard for other students to focus. Also goup work on computers tend to lead to a loud and chaotic classroom. Teachers are also there to teach information to the students that computers cannot. Like the book said, "The best teachers inspire their students to believe in themselves , and to work hard to accomplish their goals." I, in no way, think that computers are more important than teachers to a student's learning. I agree with the skeptics that technolgy based learning takes away from the richness of the classroom instruction and interaction. All in all, I think that technology should be included in the classroom but it shouldn't take away from the general idea of schooling.

What I Got Out of Today's Class!

We first listened to the discussion on the enthusiasts point of view on technology. We then discussed the things that went well and things that could have been improved on during the discussion that was led three of our classmates. I learned during this discussion that whenever a link is posted, you need to be signed out of the site that you are using so it isn't in edit mode anymore. Some good things to do when giving the presentation is to have a good introduction, interaction, and a conclusion. To also have a back-up plan in case something goes wrong. We also talked about how to search effectively searching. This related to the activity that we were assigned last wee. Google Advace is a nice tool to use to make your searches more effective. We also leared more about SMARTboards. Professor Boyer shared with us a really cool website that had different SMARTboard lessons that we can use as future educators. These lessons can be 381 course. downloaded for free, which is a cool resource to use. I think that I really want to use this for my Education  I really hope that I can have a SMARTboard in my classroom some day! There are just so many fun things to do on them! I thought this was a very imformative class session!

Chapter 2 of Rethinking Education

This chapter focused on the enthusiast argument on the role that technology should play in today's classrooms. Enthusiasts believe that teachers should be using the technology of the 21st century to teach our students than to continue to use 19th century techniques. They believe that any type of technology that can be used instead of a textbook or lecture should be. Everything in our world is changing with technology, including the way we think about things. When students are assigned a research paper, pretty much all of them will use the internet as thier first resources. This is just one example of how our lives are dramatically going toward more technological based tools. I have no doubt that this society is changing, but I still don't agree completly with the enthusiast view discussed in this chapter. Yes I think it is important for students to be able to enhance their learning through some computer use, but I don't think that this is the only thing that they should be doing. The part of this chapter that discussed video games really didn't sit well with me. They say that a student playing Madden is teaching more math than a teacher teaching their students math. They say that self-guided exploration is currently out of reach of our current schooling system. I would disagree with this because I think their is a time and place for self-guided discovery. I don't think a child's whole schooling should be them sitting on a computer, with the computer telling them what to do. I think this takes away a lot of important communication and other skills that should be taking place in the classroom. As a future teacher, I plan on including lessons that have my students explore and discover new things on their own, but not soley on the computer. There are far more other ways to teach than just with technology. I will always make sure that my students get their technology fix and understanding in, but I still believe in a lot of traditional schooling. There are still some teachers that refuse to use technolgy in their classroom, and this I can see a problem with. However, for completely basing school off of the computer I don't see myself doing in the future.

Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts Chapters 1-3

After reading these very interesting Chapters, I came away with new learning and new ideas for my future classroom. With technology becoming so abundant in our society, I think it is so important that it is incorporated in the classroom. One of the ideas that I really enjoyed was how I could use a personal blog as a teacher and keep track of successes and failures. I think this would be beneficial for me to see where I have come as an educator, and things that worked well and those things that didn't. Maybe my experiences could help other teachers as well. I also learned that if special technological tools are being brought into the classroom that they need to be tested by the teacher in great depth before the students get to use them! You want to make sure there are as little complications as possible!

One of the items discussed was how students could create a blog for class, much like this one. I think it is a cool way for students to work on their typing skills and to get some internet experience. It was also discussed how blogs can be used as an online filing cabinet, leaving out the possibility of losing paper copies of important papers. I think it would be so cool to have the students use blogs as their daily reflective journals too. Another neat idea was to have a collaborative space that all of the classmates can write on together. They can share their ideas and essentially learn from each other! I also know that I want to use a blog or a wiki to have an updated schedule of what goes on during the day in my class. Not only for the students, but for thier parents as well.

This book contains some useful informaion on how to use blogging in the classroom. There are instructions on how to set up the blogs, and the importance of how students need to start with small steps when they are introduced to this new concept. It also stresses the importance of using internet safety with students. I think when blogging is used right in the classroom, it can really add to the class and make it very exciting for the students!

Growing Up Online

Even though I am part of the group that has "Grown Up Online," this video was still shocking. It is crazy to think that these teens think that the only place that they can be themselves is when they are online. The one girl in the video who acted happy go lucky in school and was very intellegent said that the only place where she could talk about her eating disorder was online. She would go on websites to discover ways to be anorexic, and how to make things like purging less horrible. Her parents had no idea about any of her issues, only her online friends did. Another story that shocked me was the online bullying of a kid named Ryan that ended up in him taking his own life. One of the breaking points of this kids decisions was when a popular girl in school flirted with  him online and then said later that she was just putting on an act, leaving him humiliated. It is hard to know how to trust someone online. The stories about girls sending naked pictures to boys they don't even know over the internet are just disgusting. It's had to imagine that these kids think that this type of behavior is ok and that it is safe. These kids find it far too easy to lie to their parents about this type of thing. As a teen, I felt like I could share mostly anything with my parents, because I had nothing to hide. I have parents that give me space, but not enough space where they wouldn't interfere if they knew something suspicious was going on with me.

Other internet worries lie in the way that students are using the internet for their education. Far too many students are relying on websites like Spark Notes to get a summary of their class readings without actually reading the books, which is totally defeating the purpose. Teachers need to find ways like to make students write essays in class to make sure that students are really doing the work without relying on these internet sites. I also think it is really important for educators to use things like turnitin.com to see if students are turning in original work. It's  really kind of sad that teachers have to take all of these precautions to make sure that their students are really putting a good amount of effort into their school work.

I think that it is so important for teachers to teach their students how to be safe on the internet. It is ridiculous to think that we can ban students from things like Facebook and My Space. The main thing we need to accomplish is to find a way to get it through to students on how to use these websites with caution. Things like only adding friends on Facebook that you already know could work. This eliminates most of the worry about them being an online predator. One bad judgement could lead to something horrible that could change a student's life forever. Overall, I thought this was such an interesting video that I would reccommend to anyone interested or concerned with inappropriate internet use.

What New Thinking I have After Today's Class!

After today's class, I came away with some new and helpful ideas about technology. One of these things that sticks out to me is the most important way to deduce if a website is credible, which is to use triangular. This means to compare the information on one website with others like it to see if the information matches up. If the website you have been looking at has information that doesn't match up with a lot of the other websites on the same topic, then it is most likely not a good site to use. Another way to decide if a website has credible information would be to look into the author. If you can find information on the author that gives him or her some credibility, then it is probably good to use. Other things like the date, the most common being the most recent, give information on if the website should be used. Another thing we talked about in class today was how to use the SMARTboard. There are some really cool things to use on the board that can add to presentations not only for now during school, but for my future as an educator.  I also really enjoyed the discussion that we had today on the topic of the importance of technology in today's schools. The discussion forum was really neat, and it is something that I would use again. We had to respond to the statements by standing either in the agree group, the disagree group, or in the undecided group.This was a good way to see where my fellow classmates stood on some reallly interesting questions on how important it will be for us as future educators to use technology in our classrooms. It was overall a really informational class period!

Website Credibility

When having my students evaluate the credibility of websites, I plan on using one of the techniques that I found called the 5 W's of website evaluation. The first question that the students need to answer when evaluating a source on the Internet would be who wrote the information. They need to find out if this person is an expert by looking more into the author's information. Maybe the website includes a biography of the author showing their credibility. As for the Martin Luther King website, if you look at the bottom of the page, it is written by a white supremacy group, obviously making the information on the page biased. The next question that needs to be answered is what the site and information on the site is about. Is this the same information that is found on other websites? What is the purpose of the site? Is it fairly self explanatory and easy to use? Next, students need to evaluate when the information on the site was created and when it was last updated. More recent information is more relevant. Then the students need to discover where the information on the site came from, and if they can discover more about the sponsor of the website. Lastly, students need to ask themselves why. Why is this site better than the other sites? Why should they use the information on the page. I even have difficulties seeing whether or not some websites are credible sometimes, but I hope that these steps I found on kathyschrok.net will help students to start critically evaluating the websites they use for information. As for the wesites we looked at for class, with looking at these rules, it is easy to see that none of these sources are credible. Whether having authors that aren't credible, or information that is obviously false, readers are sure to find out that these sites should not be used for correct information.

Chapter 1 of Rethinking Technology Relection

After reading chapter 1 of Rethinking Technology, I have a new outlook on the role that technology should take place in the classroom. It's one thing to use some technology during the class, but is another thing to use it as the core of what is being taught. A lot of teachers are not willing to change their beliefs of how general classes should be taught, and with times changing more toward technological based studies, they are having a time adjusting. Technology is where education is heading, and if a teacher is not willing to use it in their classroom, they can be replaced by someone that will incorporate it. I plan on using as much technology in my classroom as possible. Being a student, I hate the classes that we sit and listen to a teacher lecture. I want to do something that will keep my interest. The classes that I am in that teach me a new program, or some kind of new technology, my interest is all there! I think it is not only a learning tool for the students, but also for the teacher as well. I think when a teacher can learn along with the students, it adds to the richness of the lesson. Another part of this chapter that I liked was all of the stories that were shared about people who took their careers into their own hands, and used technology to make a living. It is so cool the power that technology really has. All in all, I still believe that a teacher is still important in a students learning, but including technology into the classroom can add a whole new dimension to education.

What new thinking I have after today's class!

During today's class I learned a lot of valuable techniques that I can use in my future as an educator. One of these things was how to use a wiki and what a wiki actually is. A wiki is an Internet site that anyone can add information to. The cool way I learned to use it for my future would be to create a wiki on what I do on a daily basis with my students. Sometimes I can sit through a whole class, and totally forget some of the things we did during that period. So I will understand when a student doesn't quite remember what I did throughout the day with them. With a what we did in class wiki, not only can the students remember, but the parents can look at it and see what their child does at school that day. It will really help with organization and hopefully impress the parents! Another thing that I came out of class with better understanding today would be what social bookmarking is. This is a cool way to keep all of your favorite websites organized and in one convenient spot to locate them. The website we used was called delicious. It excited me to learn about this because it is a way, like Professor Boyer said, to keep materials for the future organized and to save a lot of time. For example when looking to write a lesson plan, I will have websites all organized and in front of me that will make the process go a lot smoother! I really love this class because it has already taught me so many techniques to use with technology that i had no clue of before I came into this class.

My Digital Autobiography!

http://animoto.com/play/C3UXJOzEhrlkRTJsqDe5sw?utm_content=challenger



I put quite a bit of effort into this project. I picked the photos that best represent the things that mean the most to me in my life. I had never worked with any type of program like this before so it took me awhile to get used to using it. I think that this is something that I could definately use again in the future! I think it was a very useful assignment for us to complete in this class, and I am excited how it turned out! This would be a very cool way to get my future students to either know each other or to get to know me as their teacher. I think it would be awesome if the student could make one of these on their own, and then share it with thier classmates! I just think this whole assignment was very useful and fun to complete!

What technology is to me!

 Technology is the use of things like computers that help to make things easier or faser than doing it by hand. It adds possibility to mostly everything in our world today.


Technology integration is when technology is used to add to the classroom. When people can use technology, it opens up a whole new relm of possibilities with teaching.