Final Class Period!

Really appreciate the thought that we can always contact Dr. Boyer, even in the future when we have our own classrooms.

3 Ways I will integrate technology into Ella's Class:

• This is a third grade classroom and I will integrate technology in many ways. I will create a wiki that will allow me to post pictures, homework assignments, class discussions. This will allow the students to have access to what happened in the classroom after they leave and also allow the parents to see on a regular basis what their child is doign during the school day.
• Secondly,  I will have a SMART Board, I think allowing the students to be up and active in the lesson allows for a funner learning environment and the kids want to come to class more because of it I think. You can use one of these tools with any lesson.
• Finally, I will have my students have "penpals" from across the world. I think it would be a good experience for them to see how other students learn, and be able to become global without actually leaving their classroom.

I appreciated how Dr. Boyer allowed us to ask questions at the end of the class period about anything we had thoughts or concerns about.
I wish we didn't have to have lecture for this class, I don't feel like it is necessary.
I don't understand why they are changing the way portfolio is done, we finally just learned how to use Dreamweaver and now their changing it.
My attitude towards technology has changed over the course of this semester a lot. Before this class I had never put any thought into encoorporating technology into my classroom and now there are so many options I don't know if I can use them all! I throughly enjoyed this class, as it was a lot of work but I think that it was well worth everything! I was able to learn about things that I may never have before such as scratch. I really do think I will use this in my future classroom along with many other options I learned about from this course!
THANK YOU :)

Podcast

This is the one assignment I had so much trouble with! Wouldn't have been so bad if I wouldn't have erased my only copy of it! But thats besides the point. I wound up having to redo the whole thing, and I thing that it still turned out great! I actually found more information on the topic to backup my argument so that was nice. I still really like the idea of making a podcast for my classrooms, their really easy to make especially if you have the information that your going to use. For example, if your just going to record your classroom lessons of the day, then you just have to record while your talking in class. Thats not hard at all! So although, I had issues with creating mine; only because my computer crashed, I will still use podcasts in my classrooms because i think its beneficial for students. They already have ipods so why not?

End of Class Slip

Technology Integration:

Teacher integrates technology in her classroom:

• SMARTBoard; active lessons
• Engage students in coopoerative learning.
• Actively engage them/participation.
• Online Collaborative projects;
• Learn from students in different parts of the world
• Reaching out to experts in the field.
• Virtual Penpals (epals.com)
• Daily online blog
• Use for students AND Parents.
• Online Assignments
• Open classroom (trasnparent teaching, document what is going on in the classroom)
• Recognition- Student accomplishments and success.
• Students have their own blogs to share their opinions. (more intersted in writing)
• Being exposed to current events
• Sharing their perspectives - in and out of class, global citizen.
• Laptops in the classroom
• Having laptops in our classroom allows us to blog and do online collaborative projects.

Students get to enjoy a more collaborative learning environment and share their work with the world!

Some ways to get collaborative projects could be to reach out to experts in other countries via skype, and wikis. Bring them into your classroom!
Writing assignments become more meaningful to students when you give them a global audience (audience outside of school, writing for more than just the teacher).

Somethings we could do before technology:

• Send home assignments (write in the planner,newsletter)
• Collaborative projects (different grade levels, other schools in the same city)
• Effective classroom management plan can allow student engagment.
• "Open Classroom" sending home a newsletter, call home.
• Students keep a journal about current events by looking at a newspaper.
• Sharing perspectives (within our own classroom)

Things that we couldn't do before technology:

• World-Wide collaboration
• Active blogging
• Online (Only within the last 10-15 years)
• SMART Board and Laptops.
• Recognition of student work.

Could do better:

• Engagement/Participation - Not solely responsible but increases it.
• Cooporative learning
• Open Classroom - don't have to "kill all the trees"
• Could tweet, blog, maintain wiki.
• Collaborative projects.
• Sharing perspectives - can go beyond the classroom
• VERY current, current events.
• Assignments

Technology makes classrooms much more effective!
Which technology do I use? Trying to find the perfect fit between the most effective technology and what your trying to create takes some time and thought.

Reasons to use technology
1. Use technology to reinforce learning
2. Be creative in using different kinds of learning (homemade elmo, named it grover.) Creative ways of asking for funding.
3. Communicating with your parents all the time, not just for parent/teacher conferences.
4. How students can stay connected wtih other people of the world.
5. Teachers admitting they don't know everything.
6. Use technology that students already have.
7. Use technology to engage your students not to entertain them!

Distraction is not a new concept! Technology may increase this concept.

Should you use your personal technology in the classroom?

• No, don't put your personal stuff at risk! Seperate those two worlds!

Week 12 in class assignment

http://www.watchknow.org/Video.aspx?VideoID=20120&CategoryID=2595
Third Grade Online Video

http://www1.gcs.k12.al.us/~podcast/audio/christmas_08.mp3
Third Grade Podcast

http://www.exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=x773f0c21e79547458e18f84a5e9e55e0
Grade 1 and 2 Spanish Smart Board Lesson

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/samurai768/1379954
Scratch project

http://www.primarygames.com/math/numbereaters/index.htm
Online Math Game

Chapter 10 Rethinking education

This chapter allowed us to consider all different aspects of technology in the classroom. I liked how the author's included their own opinions in this chapter. Its scary to think about all the changes that can be made just in the short time of me still being in school and also while i'm in the classroom teaching. How much will the technology part of this world evolve and change over the span of my career? But the thing is, is i'm in school now learning all this what about the teachers who aren't in school and are just thrown into a technology world like this. How do they cope with having to evolve technology into their classrooms? I know before taking this class I didn't know how to do a good portion of things I have learned. I didn't even have a blog or twitter, now I have both! Although, there is still so much to learn, after reading this book and taking this course I believe taht I am a step ahead of current teachers in the technology world. I am glad that I read this book and have a different perspective on technology and all the aspects it entails.

PSA

Our PSA really wasn't that hard. I think the hardest part was matching all of our schedules together to be able to film it. We figured out a topic no problem and it all fell into place. We sat down, filmed the video and then put it on the computer and made magic happen.
I think it was something new for me to do first of all, I made my youtube debut. That was pretty awesome I must say. But overall, I think this would be a good lesson for students to partake in. I feel like you could use any topic and its something that gets the students out of their seats and thinking about other topics. I think depending on what grade I teach, I will use this activity!

Out of class slip 11/11

Today is a work day! WOOOO.

Chapter 9 was presented today:

• Liked that they started wtih a quote, and explained the quote in their own words.
• Had a good idea about using scriblink, did a good job of exhibiting plan b
• Not equal distribution between talking.
• New Grouping.
• Assigning the perspective.
• Summary in 5 minutes or less

Its interesting in class when Dr. Boyer said that we are coming into the education community under a lot of scrutiny. We have to show and prove ourselves as to what how were going to be different and be able to interact technology into the education community. I think this is one of the things that TERRIFY me about becoming a new teacher. I am terrified that I will not be able to live up to the standards of a new teacher in todays world. I would hate to go through 5 years of school to not be able to ever get a job.
I think my last post said that I was overwelmed about this class because there is just oh so much do. Well because I was a productive student last week, I am well ahead of what is due, I need to continue working on my inquiry wiki but hopefully that will be complete by next week. I then will only have to focus on a PSA.
That being said, I am greatful to have a work day to catch up on anything else also.

Chapter 9 Rethinking Education

This was a short chapter, but it had some good points. I'm not a parent, but when I see kids playing video games I still question its relevance to the real world. Especially the games that consist of shooting people and what not. I've always saw it as negative, but when they said that those games are problem solving, they make a valid point. I'm not saying the shooting thing is still a good idea but games that include problem solving and reading and what not are useful. As far the excersise aspect of it though, I think kids need to find somehting a little more engaging as far as physical fitness goes. I did just see a commercial for a toy for little kids that is a bike, you have to petal and you follow it on tv and what not; I don't know it looked cool. Anyways, I like the idea of parents sitting down and playing a video game with their child, and the child has to teach them how to play. I think that is awesome, becacuse 1. it allows parent/child interaction. 2. Teaches the parent why the child plays specific games.

chapter 9 Blogs,wikis, podcasts

Social networking in schools is not something I have ever thought about. I know when I was in school is was always blocked from ALL computers in the school. You would get in trouble if you somehow found a way around the blocking and got onto facebook,myspace etc. But to actually read about ways that teachers are using Facebook and Ning (i've never heard of that before) was interesting. I liked how the one class that used Facebook helped the student that became ill to stay in touch. I think that it was also interesting to see that it made the classroom relationship a lot stronger because everyone was able to participate in this experience. I think that as a future teacher it could be a definite possiblity to use a social network in my classroom. I would obviously have to have all my ducks in a row in order to allow this to happen with teh school district. I would have to have set guidelines, reasons why I can use social networks vs. some other form of technology, etc. Facebook is very popular amoung kids these days, I think if I were to present the idea of using facebook in the classroom they would be overjoyed. But there would have to be very specific guidelines on what is acceptable and what is not. Overall, I like the idea of using social networking in my classroom.

Screencast

http://www.screencast.com/users/Crutl914/folders/Jing/media/cd5a7266-b3b2-4778-a15b-0b1729464f72

Sliderocket.com was my cool tool. Once I finally sat down and checked out the website, played around on it for a bit I thought it was a sweet tool. I wish I would have been on top of my work because I totaly could have used it for my presentation in 381 but thats besides the point. Anyways, it took me awhile to actually record because I kept having to redo it. I would stumble on my words, or have dead air for way too long, etc. it was pretty bad. But once I got it and recorded it for the fifth time I had a good idea of what I was supposed to say. When I listened to the final recording, I still noticed some errors but I don't think they were too large that it was in need of being recorded again. I really liked the tool that I chose as well, it was fun.
Creating this screencast initially I was nervous, I think thats why I procrastinated but again thats besides the point. I was nervous because I had no idea what I was doing, I had never done one before, and then I had also never used the cool tool before, it was ALL new. But after I actually did it I realized "wow that was easy" and also it was a great way for me to learn how to use something new. I think if I work with older grades such as 4 or 5th graders, I would definitly incoorporate a screencast lesson into my agenda. I think they would enjoy being able to learn something new and they can do it by creating a screencast. I like it a lot.

Exit slip 11/4/10

What did we do in class today?

I can't imagine having a school that doesn't have teachers. I have never thought that is where education would turn too. Years ago we would say that it was impossible, now anything is impossible apparently! I guess as long as the students are learning, and becoming educated in their area of expertise then I guess there is nothing wrong with that. In the end its all about the students and to make sure that those students learn what they are supposed too. Its funny to see a "one room schoolhouse" I feel like education is going back in time with an updated technology aspect.
Presentation:
Good:
Selected who was going to respond.
Relationship of the main themes
Venn diagram; looking at the interactions between everything, was a great idea, it allowed us to see all aspects of the strategies.
Student creating content is much more powerful than teacher creating content.

Bad:
Recording venn
Give directions before students break into groups. ; I know I like to socialize, and if I don't have specific directions beforehand, then yeah, I will talk to my group members, especially if I know them really well. Good tip!
Group sizes need to be taken into account. Things might not be as productive in larger groups than if you break them up into smaller groups.
Use diffferent colors.
When summarizing; students have to come up wtih 5 words or less.

Scratch:
Randomize the problems, score.
Do I know what to do when I use your problem? Students may not know what to do, give specific and clear directions.
Text on screen should be visible for the time it takes you to read through it twice. *****RULE of Thumb!

Chapter 8 Rethinking Education

How schools can cope with the New Technologies was an interesting chapter. I was suprised when I read that under 70% of the students entering high schools will graduate on time. I want to change that! In Beloit, I know that the graduation rate can be higher than what it is, and I want to go home and teach and be the teacher that pushes those children to know that they CAN do it! If I was able to move to the south, I would love to work with the schools down there to raise their graduation rate! I think that all kids need to know and believe that they CAN do it just like anyone else! But there are so many students out their that don't believe in themselves and it saddens me! I completely agree when it said that "designing a better education system means understanding where the existing pieces can best be reshaped, brought together, or played down. I agree, you can't fix something if you don't know where to begin! I think that, using this strategy, people will know their information and majors really well. You obviously can't become a doctor if you didn't receive all the other certifications needed to aquire that. Also, with this strategy, I think that students wouldn't be able to barely get by, it would take a lot of work and studying otherwise they wouldn't get their certifications to reach their dreams. I cannot imagine a child go off to college at the age of 15 or 16, I know that it has happened but I can't imagine. I was terrified to come here at the age of 18, I don't think children are ready to experience that at such a young age. The one thing about all these strategies to improve the education system that bothers me is that we are so worried about starting our children on their journey of a career and becoming an adult at such a young age are we forgetting about them being children first? They need to experience all the troubles, stress, entertainment, friends, etc, everything that school has brought me over the years I hope that my children get to experience as well good or bad.

Chapter 10

People don't use cds anymore, music is downloaded onto an ipod mainly and played off of that. Now, they are putting books online as well that you can download. I don't like that idea, I want to have a item in hand that I can read, I don't like to read off of a computer screen. Its crazy to me to see how far the world has come in terms of schooling. It used to be you had to look everything up in a book at the library, etc. Now, you just google everything. Weather one way is better than the other, I don't know but I know that google is A LOT faster than book. When i'm a teacher I will for sure use the web to be able to connect with other teachers, I think that it is awesome to be able to connect with teachers from different states and countries. Its also nice that you can get different ideas on a specific lesson. I will also use the web so that my students can present their completed assignments. I think that it allows students to be proud of themselves and their work because they have a larger audience to present to. One thing as a teacher that I have always enjoyed doing for an english class for example is to give my students a notebook that they can write down their thoughts,ideas, etc. in any form, just to allow them to have that one security in their life that they can tell anything to. But after takin this class I don't have to use a notebook, I can use a blog for example and still be able to document that my students are doing their assignment. I think that students like having that one thing to turn to when they need to get their thoughts out and maybe their home life isn't so great so they can't tell someone their. I want my students to know that NO MATTER WHAT they are always welcome to talk to me about anything. Granted, i'll be working with elementary students but I want to work with 3-5th grade so about that age they can start having issues and being able to express them openly i think.

Class 10/28

First and foremost I want to say that IT IS TOO COLD!
After seeing Nicks' deilcious account, I realized I needed to step it up a little bit. He had over 100 links saved. Thats crazy!
The group that presented today did a good job of conducting a student to student interaction. Also, they allowed us to see what everyone thought and both sides of the sepctrum. One thing that I think they did that none of the other groups have done was to bring the whole class together and recap what was said during the discussion. They had really good enthusiasm for presenting this.
Some things that they could improve on were to watch the uhms, anticipate group sizes (more for for vs. against), clearer expectations/directions for discussions, and DON'T say the end.
Funding is available for those with initiative. The government obviously is not going to give you the money without a little work! You have to lay out a game plan that you can receive money or funding for technology.
If you don't have initiative then the students aren't going to have initiative. *****
I thought the webinar was AWESOME! It was so interesting being able to interact wtih EVERYONE in the class at one time. Thats really cool that you can talk to people to or atleast that they can hear you, i'm sure in the next few years it will be upgraded so that you can interact with eachother with talking.
Podcasting:
I really like the idea of podcasting and I think this is one of the activites that i'm very excited about.
Contemporary issues
k-12
Articles can be paper based but online based might be better and will have more resources.
Once you find an article you need to write a script.
1. Big Picutre, why is it important?
2. What is the point of the article?
3. Your commentary, what do you think, what does that mean as a future teacher?
MUST have clear, audible speech! Its a waste of time if we can't understand what your saying.
We are supposed to be spending 9 hours on this one class, if we have 5, 3 credit classes that is 45 hours all together! THERE AREN'T THAT MANY HOURS IN A DAY!
Dont' get me wrong, I really like the lessons that we have to do in this class, but it becomes overwhelming when they all start overlapping with eachother and each week, we get another one piled on. Sometimes I feel like you should let us fully complete one assignment and then add another. Its fine if a coupel of them overlap but haveing 5 of them all at once to work on, and also having a million other tings to work on in other classes, that is when stress starts piling up, tears come out and being frustrated takes over!
Looking at all the assignments that we have assigned for this class, I could spend an entire week just working on this class!
SWOT Analysis
Strenghts
opportunities
weaknesses
threats

What may be lost and what may be gained

This chapter had a lot of good points that were brought up. I think one of the main points that it brought up, that I will incorporate as a teacher is to keep the students motivated to learn. If the students are motivated and want to be there rather than because they have to be there then thats where a lot of the behavioral issues and the drug problems decline. You have to show to your students that you care, that you want them to succeed in life, and that you will do anything for them to reach that goal. There are a lot of parents out there who don't care about their childrens' schooling which is very sad to me. But since I knew I wanted to be a teacher that was my main philosophy; to be that one person that those students turn to when the rest of the world has shut them out. I want to be the teacher that they look back on in life and say "she is the reason why i am the way i am today" I think that if parents want to take over there children's learning environment by homeschooling or private tutors, etc. then that is their perogitive, but I feel that they should look at all aspects before making that decision. Will their child be socially awkward? Will they succeed even more than if they were in public schooling? etc. What really frustrates me is the parents who think they can just buy everything to get ahead in the world. This goes for everything, while I was in school both of my brothers played hockey. They played youth hockey all the way through high school and when try outs came around the kids whose parents had money always wound up on the A teams weather they were good enough to be there or not. The same is true in the classroom, students whose parents have money, will spend it on all the technology that they possibly can so that their student can get ahead. Don't get me wrong i'm glad they care, but are they doing the work for their student, is their student actually learning something, or are they just blowing their money away? I think that too an extent students should get an option of what they want to learn, but I also believe that they need to have the fundamentals to get them through life even if they are boring.

Chapter 8 Blogs,Wikis, Podcasts

I am so intrigued by podcasts. I don't know why, but I think they are so cool. I think its awesome that anybody and everybody can just babble on about nothing if they wanted, turn it into a podcast and post it for the world to listen to. I mean I can babble about a whole lot of nothing for people to listen to, give wonderful opinions on any topic, I think thats right up my ally. On another note, I also like that you can use podcasts in the classroom, you can just record the whole class so whoever misses it can hear what happened, or you can use it as a tool for your students in other ways as well. I never heard of teachertube.com but I like the idea. I think when I become a teacher, I would like to use videocasting. I think that the students would enjoy it, and if I say gave them assignment that they had to present on a certain topic, they could go back and view themselves. One of my biggest fears is public speaking. After I took comm 101 that fear was lessened because 1. I had no choice but to overcome it otherwise I fail! 2. They taped every speech and you were able to view yourself after the fact, and I got to see how many times I said "Um, like", played with my hair, fidgeted, etc. It was a great way to get useful feedback on my performance. Next, I LOVE THE IDEA OF LIVE STREAMING! I think that working with elementary students they are so open to do anything and try anything. Especially to tell them were creating our own tv show, HOW COOL IS THAT!? They wold love it! This chapter was useful because it gave me more interactive ways to interact with my students in and out of that classroom and I love that!

Get out of class slip

At the beginning of the semester I didn't like the idea of not having point systems for grading. Now that we are half way through the semester I have decided that I really like that its all about expectations and the work that you put into the project vs. points. I think that it allows us to fully expand our thinking and know that we will get graded based on the hard work that we put into the project. Is it possible to incoorporate that into an elementary classroom?
The group that presented today did a good job overall, I had a hard time hearing them sitting in the back of the classroom. I liked the way they split the groups with different flavors of suckers, that was very creative. They did a good job, going around and talking to the groups, and also they were very prepared and you could tell! They also did a good job about integrating their background knowledge into the presentation. Used the timer. Jigsaw, allows the students to interact more with each other than teacher student interaction. Each student becomes an expert in something and each student gets to share their expertise wtih each other.

We then moved onto tips for the SMART board. Locking an object allows it so that objects can't be moved. When I go back to revising my interactive white board lesson; lock any objects that is appropriate. Next, grouping objects together, high light both objects and use the drop down menu and click on grouping. Cloner, drop down menu, click on infinite cloner. Think about color choices; bright colors are not projected as bright like on  the computer! Watch out that you didn't put too much text on your pages; especially depending on the grade level that you chose. Rule of thumb for text size; smallest would be 24-36+. No more than 36 words on the slide.
I really appreciated getting help wtih my IRLO, you were very helpful and understanding. I really like that you don't treat us like "idiots" because we don't know how to do the technology that you do.

Scratch

Oh my goodness where do I begin? Scratch, is very complicated but exciting at the same time. I had a great idea but it turned out to be too complex. I was going to work work on Area teaching third graders and the game that I wanted to create was tetris. But, that was too complex for this assignment so I broke it down with Jeff's help into creating shapes and asking the students to figure out the answer. If the students get the answer correct then it says "nice job" if they get it incorrect it says "oops try again." Once I got started and knew how to create everything I went to down and it went really well. But when I first started it took me a long time to figure it out and fully understand it. I think that if I were to take this into a job interview I think that it would boost my chances of getting a job; first because its using a different program that many teachers have no idea how to use. Also, it shows that I have interactive ways of teaching the children. I do think that I would use this in my classroom and just tweak it so that it was developmentally appropriate for whatever grade I get to teach.

Interactive White Board Lesson

I really liked creating my own interactive white board lesson. At first, I had an idea of what I wanted to do; work with language arts. But I wasn't sure what to do, so I put many different activities together and said I was done. But then once, I thought about it I decided to make a lesson that I can actually use in my future classroom. So I chose to work with subject and preticate and present the information that I would explain to them what it is, give examples, etc and then I created some different activities for them to complete. It took me a while to create all this but I am very happy with the outcome. This impacts my future teaching because it allows me to think about the different steps that I'm going to have to take to teach these children something new, Its different because I know it so I have to think about all the different ways that they may not understand, etc.

Chapter 6

I don't like how they kept saying that homeschooling its making its way back to be the social norm. I understand and agree that people should learn what they want to learn, but at the same time, some of the things that a parent will teach their child may not be as useful as what they wold learn in school for example, if parents start teaching their children about farming and house chorse like back during the american revolution, that does not benefit society in a large way at all. I think that children should have to go to Elementary school to get the basica knowledge of life; writing, sentences, A,B,C's, etc. and then after that if their parents feel it neccessary to still homeschol htem, then that is their choice. I also agree, when it says that as a teacher you need to show them how to do it and then let them do it; you need to be their to offer assistance NOT to do it for them. Then you test them on what you worked out to make sure that they understand and are learning. Today in 381 we went over standards and what not and he said that you need to teach and then you have yoru assessment and I always hated tests but being the "teacher" now, I understand why you give out tests, I don't think it will be my sole way of assessment in my classroom but its nice to understand it now.

Out of class slip

I had to present chapter 5 today, and I was very nervous! But overall, I think that it went well. People said that they liked that we had a different way of grouping the people together, they got to work with other people that they might not have otherwise. While at the same time we should have chosen specific locations for groups to go. They also liked that we were loud and had good movement and interaction with all the groups. We also distributed the work fairly! The activity was very organized that we had paper and marker provided. We had them choose what they thought was important with each category. We did a great job of facilitating a group discussion! Needed to give the other groups more opportunity to put their opinions in on the other topics. Timing is key! If you have an important point maybe write it down if a teacher does not allow time to open the floor to other opinions. A little more in depth reaction to each of the topics and pros and cons. While we were having this discussion about what they did well and didn't do well, I know when we sat down to put this presentation together, we put a lot of thought into some of these categories like how we could split up the groups in a new way, spliting the talking fairly, using the elmo to change it up a little bit. Overall, I am very proud of my group and how well we did, and everyone else seemed to think it was overall a good presentation!
Next, we went into talking about scratch and our irlo projects. The main point Boyer said is that we NEED to make sure that it is developmentally appropriate! Don't put a lot of text if your intending this to be for a kindergarten class! Scratch seems to be intimidating because its new. To start you need to create any objects you want in your Irlo. One way to do this is to draw your own (star with a paint brush), you can also use the existing sprite library (folder and a star), lastly, you click the random sprite button (star with a question mark). This is a great way to put yourself into the project! Encourageing to create all sprites NOW! You then have to make some controls on what you want all these sprites to do or say. Then you need to put it all together! I liek that you can go on the scratch website and learn how someone else creaeted their project. I feel like that will be a very helpful tool.
Homework: Read the next chapter (6), create a rough draft of irlo, and review interactive whiteboards.

Book Chapter

My group did chapter 5 and we struggled trying to think of an activity that we could present to the class. This chapter was all about the new seeds of education such as homeschooling and education in the work place, etc. We wanted our presentation to be different than what has already been preseneted. I think that we found a new way than what everyone has done but our activity may be similar. I think that it is very important for peers to present to peers; especially because were all going into teaching it gives us an opportunity to experience the feelings of a teacher; nervousness, excited, etc. Also, it gives everyone were teaching a different perspective than what the professor may have presented.

Fun With Flickr

I like the idea of using Flickr to share images and learn different styles from around the world. You could have a cultural unit in the classroom and be able to talk, share photos and ideas from all over the world. Also, who doens't like photos, i love to take pictures, be in pictures and share pictures with people. So this is an opportunity to show parents what is really going on in the classroom; kinda like behind closed doors of a classroom. Children come home everyday and tell their parents they didn't learn or do anything in school that day, now this is living proof that they did DO something that day! I think that it is awesome that it works like delicious. You can type in a link and find pictures about it. In the reading they talked about pictures from main events in history, 9/11, hurricane katrina, etc. One of the activities I did in fifth grade consisted of creating a newspaper all about me; in the reasing they talked about being able to create a Magazine Cover by using Flickr Magazine Cover. I think that would be a fun activity for students to do, also a way for all the kids to get to know each other. A great beginning of the year activity. I think that I will use this in my classroom for presentations, and also allowing the students to create masterpieces.

Social Networking

The one question I have is, when do teachers find all the time to do all this technological stuff; Twitters, wikis, blogs, etc. I feel like I don't have time now as a student, I don't know if I'll have more time when i'm in my career but as I read these chapters its a lot of time! But as I read on further, I liked how they talked about using twitter to find information adn be a resource for students to use.
I never heard about social bookmarking until I took this class, but I really like using the delicious account. I feel that its more organzied that if I were to just save all the websites to my favorites. I will being using this in my classroom and teaching students about social bookmarking.

Get out of class slip

Today in class we got to write on the SMARTBoard for attendence.
The group that presented today did a good job, the activity that they used was helpful to find an alternative way to go about using tests, textbooks, etc. It also was a great way to encoorporate student to student interaction and also teacher to student interaction. The one thing that group could have improved was that they need to learn to be louder!! I sat in the back of the classroom today and I could not hear anything that they said.
The textbook is dead, i don't know if I believe in this, I don't like the idea of not having a text book. For me personally, I don't like to read things off of a computer, I would rather have it on paper so that I can make notes in/on it.
60% of students are graduating from high school. THATS TERRIBLE! If a high school is too big that students are getting lost, then we should fix it! Maybe they need to build another high school so that students can have smaller classes.
Debrief:
Positive:
Ums/likes
encourage deeper thinking
repeat and summarize what someone had said
New presentation tool
Filling out the table
Negative:
Speak UP!
How to group your peers
redirect peers
setting expectations
We then moved on to start talking about the iRLO and when I first read the directions for this assignment, I because nervous. I was unsure what this was, and how I was going to do it. Once Boyer showed us examples of some iRLO's I feel much better about this and feel that it won't be that complicated. I think it will be a fun activity to create. I think that I will for sure use this in a classroom; especially for students who are visual learners.

Chapter 4 Rethinking Education

This chapter I think was very interesting because it gave the background on where the education system came from, the struggles that it went through, and how it has changed and evolved. I liked how it showed that history always repeats itself, in the 19th century there was a transformation in education and now we are experiencing one ourselves; the technology transformation. My thought on technology's role in teaching and learning is that you need to role with the punches. Times are changing, you must change with it or you WILL get left behind. Its as simple as that. Times aren't going to wait for you to make up your mind, its going to happen with or without you! Children are coming into the classrooms already knowing a good amount of technological advances and my thought is that as a future educator I want to be at least a step ahead of these children, I don't want to be the teacher that the students are waiting on to learn how to do soemthing. The one thing that scares me, will schools eventually go back to being based on the homes because of the violence, drugs, etc? Will their always be room for human teachers? Something that I will do differently is not only be the teacher that has to show up and work 8-5 to get my hours, I want to teach these children the curriculum, life skills, and be that support for children that a lot may not have at home. I want to encoorporate technology into my classroom because that is what is happening in the world, my students can work with students in other countries because of technology. I feel that these are experiences that if there not in the classroom they won't ever achieve! Its important!

Wiki's

I found this chapter really useful. It gave a lot of detailed background knowledge on where wiki's started from, how they are changing, and what type of people are using them. I liked how it gave a lot of resources to create your own wiki in your classroom. I really liked how it answered the question "if anyone can edit anything on the site any time they wan, how in the world can you trust what you read there?" I believe that is the question everyone asks to themselves. Professors and teachers say not to use Wikipedia but in here it says that its one of the best resources you will find!? And I was astounded when I read that wikipedia edits
appear as a rate of around 400,000 a day! Thats incredible. That also means that is a lot of people sitting on a computer and doing a lot of research! I didn't know that wikipedia offereed wikitionary, wikinews,wikispecies, and wikiquotes. I guess I have never spent that much time on wikipedia. Also, I didn't know that there is a discussion tab where you can chat with people about the information that you read in wikis. I thought it was funny when it said that teachers should spend some time checking wikipedia's accuracy on their own, because teachers have all the time in the world to be spending on wikipedia right? I think not, I mean if its a site that you think would be useful for your children I guess I would check the accuracy of the information but just to go on there and look over a ton of different pages, no thanks! I think students should be encouraged to contribute their own accurate information to wiki's, I think that helps them to be responsible and be more confident in their learning. Its a way fro them to see what other people think . I really liked all the websites they provided for different wikis. And I really liked when they talked about the teacher that is working with another classroom in bangledash. Thats awesome that we have to opportunity to work with kids and classrooms all over the world!

Out of Class Thoughts

We started class today discussing  how we all felt about technology and I liked how Boyer explained that he wants to push us to enjoy technology and work it into our classrooms. But that some teachers are obviously not going to always use technology or like to use technology in their class because of many reasons.
I think as a future educator the thought of using technology in my classroom is kinda scary but that with enough practice it can be handled.
While the group was presenting a good point was made about "what is going to be the next step down the road from a GPS" Why would we want to learn how to use a compass when we have GPS? What are you going to do when your computer crashes? Also, Are you teaching or are you facilitating? Thats a good food for thought. Teaching is the skill but how do you teach? Are you going to be the lecturer? Will you be more of a facilitator?
What went well for discussion:
encouraged peer discussion
Balanced responsibility
Movement
Teacher voices (Loud)
Introductions
What could have been changed:
Presenters could have talked more
set us up, do it, wrap it up
other ways to encooporate movement
what ways we can get everyone's attention
Don't generalize
Don't offend
Student to student conversation
We have to think about the person who offended and the person who is offended; their both at fault, and you have to make sure that your not generalizing to all students.
You can throw your opinion in as a teacher towards the end of the discussion because no one will disagree with the teacher. I know that is very true because many students don't like to "challenge" the teacher.
The idea of student to student conversation instead of teacher to student conversation is something to think about. How do you encourage student to student conversation?
I was very happy that I chose a good question for the technology question!
I can say that I am nervous about creating lesson plans on a smartboard and what not, but I will not accept anything less than an A in this class. I think it comes back to being nervous about encoorporating technology into classrooms, i'm afraid of failure. I'm glad that we get many drafts to perfect this assignment instead of just haivng it thrown at us and told "do it!" I'm glad that our peers get to review our lessons as well, its nice to hear different feed back from not only the teacher but from peers.
"The best teachers beg, borrow, and steal" great quote, shows me that its acceptable to use soemone else's lesson and put my own touches too it!

The Technology Skeptics Argument

I think that schools have always been afraid of change. Its apart of the American culture, we don't like change and its happening now more than ever. Especially in schools, there is a huge change from going with traditional schooling to technology advanced schooling. But, it was also interesting to read about the 1950's when televisions were brought into the schools and the arguments they had against those are similar to the ones people have against the new technology today. For example, page 36 says "in that they battle for the minds of students between learning and entertainment." If you bring in for example podcasts and allow ipods and cell phones in your classroom will this be educational or entertainment?
It was intersting to read that writing on computers leads to decerasing scores on pen and paper. That is somthing to seriously think about. Although, I believe that computers are always going to be apart of our world now I still don't believe that you should write off the pen and paper method. I believe that it is very important to teach a child how to write; call me old fashion.

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Out of Class Slip

During class today, I really think that the group that presented chapter one did a great job! I really enjoyed the quotes that they chose from the chapter. While, I was reading the chapter I missed those two particular quotes and I really liked "trying to prepare students for the 21st century wtih 19th century technology is like teaching people to fly a rocket ship by having them ride bicycles." I liked how someone said that bicycles are still working so why change something when its not broke? But, we also have to roll with the punches I guess you could say. Times are changing, technology is changing and becoming very important in the world, and I guess I never noticed how MUCH it was changing until I took this class. I knew that it was changing and there are always new tools out there that I hear about, but I am learning about so much more in this class. I think it was great that we went over the things that went well, and that can be improved during the presentation; I can take that with me for when I have to present and for future presentations in any of my classes.
It was great to be able to watch you calebrate the smart board, because I know that its frustrataing when you use the smartboard and its not working out the way it should be! Now I know how to fix it!! :) Also, while Jeff was trying to show us that once we wrote something on the SMARTBoard, you can move it around and it didn't work, it was nice to see that, its not always going to work and that you can just move on and or act like its not a big deal.
Since taking this class at day one, I pay attention to the way people talk while their presenting and it BUGS me so bad when I hear someone say "um or like" a million times while their talking or presenting. I am very aware of it now!
I was unaware of google search, so when we did that activity I was excited cause I had never knew that was available. Also, I think its awesome that you can find web pages that are similar to ones that you really like!
There are some parts of this semester that I am very nervous about. For example, every aspect of the A Contract, I really want to recieve in a A in all of my Ed classes this semester and after leaving class last monday after going over majority of the contracts, I was nervous. I know that I should "Not Panic" because we will go over everything that we will need to complete all the assignments, I am nervous that my work will not meet expectations. While at the same time, I do like that some of the assignments are all about what you think, the technology wiki allows me to take something i'm interested in that I may not know a lot about and go more in depth with teh thinking and how I can incoorporate it into my classroom.
I really like the resource of SMART Exchange. I think that its really useful to fall back on a source when you need an idea. I also, enjoyed that their is a jeopardy activity on their, jeopardy is such a fun game and a great way to review in classes.
The one thing about this class that interests me is that there is a lot of homework assigned, reading, blogging, reflecting, questions to answer, etc. But it doesn't feel like it. I enjoy reading the books, and I am really enjoying having a blog! Its fun and I love being able to just write down or type out everything that i'm thinking!

Rethinking Education Chapter 2

First of all, I want to start off by saying, I really like this book. Its an easy read, and it is actually very fascinating. Next, my thoughts about chapter two are as follows. I understand that technology is where the schools are headed and obviously thats a smart move because that's where the world is headed. But my question is, what happens if some school districts can't afford to keep up wtih the new technology? Do those children in that district just get forgotten and are behind on the world of technology? Also, it still blows my mind that we are able to talk to someone in Europe from the comfort of our own home. The whole idea of all this technology really excites me, but it also sets me on edge a little bit. What if I am unable to stay on top of all the new technologies? Am I always going to have to go to technology conferences for the rest of my life in order to try and stay ahead of the game with my students?
Next, I don't understand what just in time learning is, but I totaly agree when they say that most of what we learn throughout our schooling years we will forget. I have always said that, or questioned my teachers on the relativity of having to learn a specific topic.
"Computer based learning environments are likely to make education much more engaging" (19) I agree with this statement, but at the same time do you think that its going to be a distraction? I think with any teacher, its all in the way you present information. If you hand a child a history book and tell them to read the first 3 chapters and take a quiz online, their not going to get a lot out of it because I don't think much will be stored in their long term memory. I think that if you were to reenact an event in the chapters that they have to read they will get a lot more out of it and be able to read it a lot more. Although, I feel technology is important to bring into schools, I still believe that the "old school" way of teaching is also very important and its all in the way the teacher presents it to her students! My other thought on technology is that it has a tendency to not work, or crash. For example, today D2L was down state wide. Some classes were unable to access their quizs (even though they should have already been done) but that is just a downfall for technology, what do you do if your relying soley on a specific technology tool?
Lastly, I loved on page 28, last paragraph where their talking about students sitting still, listening to a teacher talk all day, and then having to regurgitate it back onto a test. For me personally, this is how I have always felt, I am a much better learner hands on, and I know most students are not all like that, but I feel that in the teaching society today, many more teachers teach lecture style than hands on. When I become a teacher, I will for sure add in a lot of hands on learning to get students up, engaged, and moving around. Also, I feel like the competition to get good grades ruins students ability to engage thought processes, I think if a student puts all their effort into their work it will be shown, but I think that grades should be the least of their worries.

Wiki's, Blogs, podcasts

As a future teacher, I see the importance of encoorporating blogs into my classroom. I really like the idea that students can post all their work on their blog much like we do, this keeps me from losing any of their homework assignments and like it said in the reading it keeps their excuses to a minimum; either you did it or you didn't. Also, I like that parents can be apart of their child's work as well, they can go online and see everything that is due, maybe a calander of events for the classroom, the syllabus, etc. Speaking from the experience with my parents and my brothers, my parents would always ask "do you have any homework" and sometimes my brother would say "no" when he really did have some. Now, this is a way for parents to find out for themselves. I like the idea of parents staying engaged in their children's schooling; not saying all parents will, but there is always the opportunity for them to. Its also a great curriculum, teach kids the safety of the internet, the credibility of internet sites, etc.
As a future teacher, I am seriously considering trying out blogs with my classroom, obviously it will have to be age appropriate for an elementary school, and their will have to be a lot of instruction to begin with I think, but once the class gets going I don't see any problems. Like I said above I like the idea of getting parents involved, and also always sending home 50 pages of memos to the parents every other night, gets old, now I can just post it to the blog and parents can go on and check it out themselves.

Growing Up Online

This video was very eye opening, I feel like children now a days are losing their way of being social in reality. They don't talk to their parents, they don't know how to talk to people face to face because all they ever do is online chatting, etc. One parent in the video said that it was easier for him to email his son rather than go interrupt him while he's upstairs on the computer. Another family said that they can't go on a family vacation without their children texting constantly and always having to be in the loop with their friends and whats going on back home. Children do not know how to disconnect from the internet, they don't have a boundry line. They come home from school and they are immediately on the computer. I did like that one family only has one computer in their home and they keep it in the kitchen so that their mother could track what her children are doing.
Also, children hash out their conflict online now, they don't know how to confront people face to face and say "hey i have a problem with blah blah blah." Online they don't have to care about what they say, they don't have to think twice, you can say and do as you please and its not an issue. Face to face, you may get punched in the face for what you say, you may cry and then get made fun of, etc. you are invincible online. Then there is the idea of pictures and videos being posted about you on facebook,myspace, youtube, etc. it may seem harmless to post a video showing you fighting at the time, but colleges and employers are turning to the internet to research their candidates now a days, later on that "harmless" video could ruin your chances of getting a job or being accepted into a school. Your actions today reflect the rest of your life.
As far as the teaching and learning with technology, again I think its a great source to use, but I don't think it should be the ONLY source that is used in the classroom, I think that students need to still hand write things, read books, and have interaction with their classmates.
As far as reading books, there is sparknotes so students don't have to read the book, but their is also turnitin.com where you can find out if their papers are plagerized. I think there is a fine line between too much technology and not enough. Students growing up in this world now, thats all they know, is how to use a cell phone, ipod, computer, etc. we can't teach them the way we have always been taught and have that be our only way of teaching. But I feel like if we don't teach them at times the way we have been taught then they are going to miss out on fundamentals of life, like being able to talk to people face to face.
I think that parents need to become much more involved in their childs lives, the one girl had an eating disorder and her parents didn't know, another had inappropriate pictures and didn't know, and one child lost his life because he was being bullyed online. Is there a fine line between parents being in their childs business too much and not enough? Yeah, i'm sure their is, but I would rather be in my child's business to much than to have them lose their life beccause I didn't know what was going on. 

Technology

1. The word technology has changed over the course of years, it has evolved into computers being a focal point of everything we do whether it is work or leisurely based.


2. Technology integration has evolved into smart boards and computers and I feel like in the next generation or so, ipads or some form will be making its way into classrooms all over the world. It’s crazy because when I was in elementary school we had old school computers that were just becoming popular and now a child the age of 7 knows how to work their parent’s cell phones and knows how to access the web and what not on a computer. Technology is a huge part of society now in every aspect of life.

End of class slip 2

Today in class I liked how we divided up into groups of agree,disagree, no opinion to see everyones take on different statements. Also, being able to listen to everyone explain their reasoning for the choice. I think that technology is going to be difficult at first if it's something new that I haven't been exposed to yet, but I think just like with anything else, with a little practice you can get a good handle on it no problem. I still really enjoy the attendance and being able to use the SMART boards, I think those are good tools and I really look forward to using them more as I further my education and also getting a teaching position in a school. I also like how you went over different tools and ways to use the SMART board because I did not know any of that before.

Rethinking Education

I was very intrigued by the preface and chapter 1, it made a lot of good points but also made me think.
I agree that technology should be incoorporated into classrooms because that is the day and age that we live in and that children now a days are growing up in. But at the same time if when children go home they sit behing a computer screen and or television with their cellphones in one hand and ipod in the other and then they go to school have the same thing going on, are we not allowing our future children to become anti social? They don't know how to talk face to face with people because they either text or chat or online gaming, etc. Also, we have a high obesity rate in children already how do we encoorporate physical excersise into classrooms more, we know their not getting it at home because of all the technology. I think that we are losing the basic fundamentals of learning. Like I said previously I agree that technology needs to be in classrooms but we also need to remember the fundamentals like writing, and talking, and being active as well.
As far as in the future what I plan to do, I will definitely incoorporate technology into my classroom, i really like the idea of podcasts, and I actually didn't know that you can get podcasts for educational use, so that was something new I learned. I don't think I will use cell phones because I feel that is more distracting, unless I did a text message scavanger hunt or something like that. To be honest I really don't know specifics yet because the idea of using technology like podcasts, etc. never occured to me. So as I the semester goes on I look forward to learning new ways of incoorporating technology into my classroom.
I look forward to reading this book to see what kinds of ideas they have for incoorporating technology into classrooms and maybe some of my worries will be answered as well.

Website Credibility

I think first and foremost a credibile website will have publishing dates and resources on where all the information on the page came from. Determine if the content on the page is fact or opinion, is there a lot of advertising on the page, and does it post the name of the institution or organization that has created this page.

The Martin Luther King website has an inappropriate quote that if it was for educational purposes I don't believe that would be on there. Also, the layout of the website does not look credible, it looked as if someone off the street put it together.

Dihydrogen website is asking for money and also has advertisement for babelfish, this obviously is not a very credible source.

End of class slip

I really enjoyed class today, I felt like I learned a lot. Writing on the smart board was very complicated, my name turned out to look like "Carl" instead of "Cari" because I couldn't figure out how to get the dot about the i. I was very thrilled about that let me tell you! Then, I really liked the "delicious" website because I know I like to "favorite" websites when I find a good one, but I can only do so much to keep them organized. I think this is a very usefull tool and I also like that you can see other peoples, teachers can share and I love that! Overall, I am very thrilled about this class because I am not very smart when it comes to technology so I look forward to learning new tricks and hearing the different suggestions that Professor Jeff has to offer us along with the other students in the class.

Summer 2010 Collage

http://animoto.com/play/NVis4c7rJ6rxh3aCM6TxhA


This task took me a lot of effort because I started using Vuvox and I decided that I didn't like that program and it was really confusing to figure out. As soon as I started using Animoto it was so much easier. I enjoyed it a lot more because I was able to add music and I liked the backgrounds on Animoto better.

The value in completing this course task was because it allowed me to try something new that I didn't even know existed before. It was complicated at first because about the only thing I could figure out to do was how to upload my photos. I wanted to add music but I couldn't figure out how to do that on Vuvox and the text wouldn't type in the style I wanted. I became very frustrated so I decided to try a new website. The other value that I had for completing this task is because I wanted to recieve the best grade possible.

I think that this impacts my future teaching because as a teacher i'm not going to know how to do everything right away, but I have to keep trying and ask questions when needed and I will get through it. With all the technology that I will need to know as a teacher this will have to be my approach; try myself first and ask questions.