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.