Inquiry Question

This project took a long time, but I enjoyed learning about a real question that I was curious about. I spent a long time looking for resources that related to my question. Unfortunately, I felt as though more of my informal resources were helpful that my formal ones. I believe that this was a very beneficial assignment. It tested our skills in many ways. It pressed us to show our researching skills, our ability to work a new program, our patience when the web page wouldn't let me un-underline something or create a space between paragraphs, and our ability to synthesize new information to answer a question about technology. I believe that I am a horrible speaker no matter is someone is watching or not so I hope that my screen cast doesn't sound too terrible but I tried to summarize as best as I could with out reading directly from the script.

Ch. 10!!!

This chapter does a great job of tying in all that we have learned about technology. Overall it focuses on the idea that technology is causing us to rethink everything from “ how kids learn” to “ rethinking careers”. Life long learning takes place everyday in both the classroom and outside of the classroom. It is the job of the teacher to motivate and encourage students. Motivation is key and technology is a way of both meeting their interests as well as keeping students motivated. This in return will keep the students more engaged in learning. Technology is changing the way we do everything. It’s changing they way kids learn, changing what should be learned, and how it should be taught. As a teacher I intend to keep up with the new age of technology as much as possible so to provide my students with the more beneficial atmosphere. This era proves that teachers need to find ways to motivate and excite children about learning. This can only be done by keeping up with the times and catering to children interests. Doing this is not entirely too difficult it's just a matter of want in the teacher.

Ch. 9

What does it all mean? Well as the first quote states, “The future is already here, it’s just unevenly distributed. I believe that this does a great way of explaining a lot of what we have talked about in class this semester. It explains simply and perfectly exactly what the debate of technology is today in our schools. It explains how technology is being integrated in to our schools but inefficiently. It is being done at an uneven pace. Along with this, because there is a great debate over the pros and cons of technology, teachers and school boards are also hesitant to integrate more of it into our schools. It is true that we cannot force technology into classrooms immediately, but steady exposure and implementation of different small types can continue schools to be on their way of transitioning into this new age of technology. Not all schools are even able to afford this new technology. This is when it becomes a threat to socialization. As a teacher I will try to insure that I note the fact that when introducing children to new technologies, that not all of them are familiar with them. I will be sure to teach them how to safely use and understand these new devices as well as strive to provide extra opportunities for interaction with the technologies for children who are less familiar and whom do not also have contact with them in their homes.

Exit slip 3/29

Today we discussed some final digital autobiographies. I even presented mine. The class was interested to see how I used an additional application in the program to explain my pictures in more detail. Jeanee and I presented chapter 8. We had the groups discuss the pros and cons of embedding different types of technology into the classroom. Some contemporary issues that I found interesting were the: Ipad- Essentially a giant Iphone made into the size of a tablet. Supposedly going to replace other technological books. Can be used to download stories and other academic networking games and that Social networking sites can be detrimental to your job and future. Public employees have the responsibility to keep their private life private and not posted for the public to see. Cool tools: OOVOO- Similar to Skype. Allows for contacting other people, phone calls, videos, messages, and sending files.
Kadoo- Similar to facebook. Photos, network, ( Shudderfly, Flicker)
Woome.com- Dating website. DO NOT USE IN CLASSROOM. This was so funny.
Scratch inquiry- We need to upload our proto types as well as list the benchmark, standards, grade, and how it is developmentally appropriate. I still need to work on mine. I've been having problems with loading different sprites. Hopefully I can finnish it by getting help after class.
We went over scratch some more and also talked about homework and the schedule for the rest of the semester.

Ch. 8

Chapter 8 provided me with more ideas about schools should and can incorporate new technologies. With all of the information that is required to teach students sometimes it can be difficult to find new ways of using technology to the classes advantage. Customization, interaction, and learner control and three major things that need to be remembered and considered when teaching children and using technology. The chapter introduced 6 ways for how technology can be used but I felt that I found many cons for some of them. I don't believe that as a teacher I would ever consider using video games in my classroom to teach a concept. I think that they are a waste of time and wouldn't directly hit on the subject at hand. Similar to these video games are something that I would include in my classroom, are computer games. Even though I believe that video games would be a waste of time, I have witnessed the usage of many academic computer games to be a great asset to the classroom. I find this especially beneficial to children in the subject of mathematics. As a teacher in the future, I will do my best to use technology to my advantage so to have my students familiar with its usage and to help them become more interested in subjects and ideas that are being taught.

Exit slip: 3/22

Today our chapter review was on chapter 7:

Cons- lack of social cohesion (cultural zones), isolation, digital divide (social capital), equal standards, liberal arts, parental influence,

Pros- engaging, individual responsibility, universal access, customized learning (inclusion), caters to all learning styles, decrease in completion

How can we take this information and maintain a good balance in our current education?

Teacher's need to find a balance between what's usage is appropriate and needed to be incorporated into lessons. They need to observe and decide what is truly necessary. For example instead of writing an opinion in a blog students may gather in a group circle to discuss ideas.

Today we had some very interesting issues to talk about. Two of them that stood out to me included discussion about harassment. Online harassment has in some cases lead to child suicide because they have been hurt so bad. I find this to be very scary. " what is cyber bullying" is a great website that I can look on to learn more about this issue. The other issue that we discussed was "sexting". Parents and teachers need to be aware of the issues that arethis children sending sexual pictures and text messages to each other via cell phone. occuring

Cool tools- Wordle: create a word cloud, livemocha- practice another language, WiziQ: helps with a language barrier in classrooms.

We also discussed scratch once again. Jeff showed us more applications on scratch and how to advance our projects.

Chapter seven

This chapter discusses what skeptics and enthusiasts feel about the influence of technology and what it means for education. The chapter focuses on losses and gains from technology. Enthusiasts believe that this wave of technology is going to make the education system greater through customization and individualization. Some argue that students will become dependent on technology if it becomes fully integrated into the school system. Because knowledge can be accessed instantly at the touch of a keyboard, the way children learn has been completely changed from those who lack access to technology. If technology is going to make education so much greater, how will the students who don’t have these technologies at home as well turn out compared to those who do? The chapter states that “children are always comparing themselves to other students, and it is only the best students who feel they are successful.” Education has become a thing of competition. This ends up causing an overwhelming sense of stress and insecurities among many students. As a teacher I will try to stay aware of the fact that not all of my students may have access to technologies such as the Internet or computers. My students will be allowed to use free time to use the Internet for their homework, project, or miscellaneous studies. This will include time before and afterschool during planning times.

Exit slip: 3/15

Today we talked about some more digital autobiographies. I wanted to show mine but I still need to figure out how to change the song that I have on it. I'm pretty sure it's too loud and might contain a few bad words on accident :/

Our chapter discussion talked all about the progression of education through out the ages. I thought that the presentation did an excellent job of discussing the different generations of educational development. They even showed picture examples of every stage from apprenticeship, Universal, and Now and life long learning.

The first cool tool that we looked at today was flauntr.com. It is a picture website where you can use many pictures and tools to create them, edit them and do more neat things such as blending pictures as well as create cellphone backgrounds.

The second cool tool was dweeber.com. Dweeber is an educational website where children can talk and discuss their interests and educational subjects that they have in common. It's essentially a study resource where people can help tutor each other in different subjects.

The third cool tool was sliderocket.com. This is a website where you can create a presentation similar to a powerpoint but with much more application settings and tools to make the presentation much more lively and interactive.

The fourth cool tool is parentella.com. It is a website where parents and teachers can interact with each other and coordinate and update with each other to stay in communication so that they are aware of what is going on in their students classrooms.

Today for contemporary issues

Another issue that was discussed was poverty and the effects on opportunities on students of lower socioeconomic statuses in the digital world and their societies. It is important to think about how much our society depends upon technology and how great of a disadvantage that lacking access would provide for students.

The final contemporary issue was the idea that teachers are bringing video games into the classroom. I believe that this is an absurd idea. Video games, although do have a small story line, would mainly act as distractors and would take up unnecessary time. I believe that interactive learning is a great idea for example math computer games, but I strongly deem that it would depend on the type of video game and the style of implementation into the curriculum.

Jeff showed us qtl.org, quest to learn. This is an online video game based learning site. It discusses and shows studies on how children can learn from video games. It is essentially based on a 6th grade study school for children.

Towards the end of class we went through scratch and learned a lot about how to create objects and make them move around. I'm looking forwards to making my scratch project.

Ch. 6

Chapter 6 has given me an interesting insight to how education has progressed from it's very start all the way to how it is done today. I found it very gripping to read about the apprenticeship era and how it has changed and developed to become what we call education today. Although education has become a completely different atmosphere from what it used to be, I believe that the apprenticeship part of education still exists and should continue to exist in the homes of students today. Parents are teachers. They teach specific trades such as domestic skills, working skills, and social skills. Learning takes place in the home as well as in schools. I found it interesting to see how our nation has gone from children all learning the same thing with education geared towards the average students to now becoming specialized and customized with adaptations and accommodations to the common curriculum for individuals.

In the beginning expectations for education were set by social stamina. Children learned what their parents knew. Later a common school system was offered to provide all students with the american dream so that all students can succeed and have a common social atmosphere. Over all education has developed to uphold the goal is to have success for all. Although I believe that this is a great benefit for all students some parents and students unfortunately are now less willing to accept the states expectations. Parents and children are beginning to customize their own educations and futures. They do this by rejecting what they believe is "unnecessary" whether it be so or not. They begin to practice in their specific trade and or continuing their education through home schooling. I believe that as a teacher I will strive to share with my students the importance of all subjects as well as try to instill a want in my class to learn everything. I hope to develop an interest for learning in my students. I want them to be able to identify the fun and necessity in every skill taught to them. In addition, because I believe apprenticeship is still important I will encourage parents to be involved in my class room. I will also try to help my students parents to see how much they can actually teach their children just at home. For example, If we are learning about cooking in school I will encourage parents to cook with their children at home and interact to help teach them lifelong needed skills.

Exit slip: 3/1

Today we began by showing some more digital autobiographies. Following this, we listened to a presentation focused on chapter one. Some of the main topics that they talked about were homeschooling, distance education, and educational television & video. We conducted a group discussion focused on these topics and the pros and cons of each. My group was to focus on educational television and video, the pro side. I believe that educational television is a great idea as long as it is strictly created to enrich the minds of children. There are however, T.V. shows that parents believe to be educational but are actually in fact created to sell advertising products. These products include a multiplicity of merchandise featuring the cartoon characters in the show. Parent's encourage their children to watch these shows and then as a result are pressured to buy these products. We also talked a lot about a bunch of really neat cool tools which I wrote about in here previously but my blog decided to delete it and make me retype the entire learning log. I book marked all of the cool tool webpages in my delicious so that I can revisit them in the future.

Chapter 5 reflection

Through reading this chapter I have become much more informed about all of the different ways that people can benefit from technology and all that we take for granted in technology. Especially in places outside of the educational setting, technology is used as a daily tool and is sometimes over looked and taken advantage of. Working offices for examples use many diverse technologies (i.e. fax, printer, telephone, intercom, etc.) Even wifi friendly restaurants are starting to pop up everywhere. People live their lives daily not realizing how much they are benefiting and how much they are learning from all of this technology. People daily experience and interact with so much technology that ultimately we will be life long learners. One of the things that I found to be very interesting is how adult education is becoming a much more popular thing to do as adults are living longer now days. Because of online classes adults are able to plan their schedules according to their work and daily life routines. This is an amazing thing about technology because it enables adults to go back and finish or continue their education. It is a wonderful example of how great technology is and how incredibly it benefits our lives making it easier for us to succeed.

Exit slip: 2/22

Today in class we began by sharing some digital autobiographies. We talked about how what the precentors thought of each program. Jeff provided us with a tutorial about how to create pod casts through the programs such as audacity and garage band.

We discussed different contemporary issues such as web cameras in school, virtual schooling and virtual field trips. I believe that web-cameras in schools are only a recipe for disaster. Unless the children are extremely supervised they are bound to record things that are inappropriate. On the contrary, I hold the opinion that virtual field trips are a good resource. It is difficult for some schools to travel and afford trips for classrooms to engage in different thematic units. I believe that it is better to visit somewhere online rather than not at all. It is a strategy that can help children to understand a learn about a certain topic.

In between these two topics is where my opinion on virtual schools lays. I believe that online classes are great in some ways but negative in others. For some people, their schedules are hectic and random weekly therefore, to work and take classes online schooling is the best answer. The negative aspect of this that I see is the laziness that may occur. The copy and pasting along with the slacking and procrastinating that occurs can be a negative aspect that may occur.

We also began introducing our cool tool webpages. My favorite on was the national geographic webpage. It introduces an animal of the day, shows videos, stories, and lots of games. It integrates math, science, reading, and social studies all into one in an engaging way. We also talked about many other sites such as twitter and dropbox.

We discussed examples of our inquiry questions and how they can be enhanced. I learned that they should not be yes/no questions and how to make it narrowed down and not too broad. Jeff also showed us the web page where we are to post our questions. Im glad we went over this because I was very unsure about where to begin.

Ch. 4

Reading chapter 4 gave me a great insight to how school and education began and has progressed. I found it to be quite remarkable how we are able to compare the shift from apprenticeship to universal schooling and the transformation that schools are undertaking today. After reading this chapter I have created the opinion that the shift between the two situations are slightly different. I believe that the shift from education being the parent’s responsibility to being a formal school environment is a much greater as well as gradual shift in society rather that the technology integration, which has been seen to be much faster and discrete. While others believe that technology is interrupting the classrooms environment I suggest that it is only helping. I cannot comprehend how the switch of a smart board from a chalkboard interrupts the curriculum. I believe that it only makes teaching and learning come at a greater ease. The problems that I see with it are centralized in the controversy that has been developed by skeptics. Educators and policymakers have begun a separation as they take different sides of this debate. This controversy has only created a sense of competition between schools and is resulting in certain school districts who are behind in education standards of where they could be.
The ultimate purpose of education is to teach students and prepare them for the future in a most beneficial way. The future of these students is centralized more now than ever around technology. Since children today live in a technology based society that it is only continuing to grow, and the goal of educators is to prepare them for this world, it only makes sense that technology would be a major part of their schooling. As a teacher I intend to do my best to help my students have the most beneficial learning atmosphere. This will include as much technology that will be developmentally appropriate and beneficial yet still appropriate to their learning experiences.

Ch. 3

How does the technology skeptic's argument impact your thinking about technology's role in teaching and learning?
What will you do differently as a future teacher as a direct result of this new thinking?

Before reading chapter 3, regarding the skeptic’s argument, my ideas about technology in the classroom were opposed to the opinion of less technology in the classroom. Even after reading chapter three, because I have been introduced to the new ideas and similar opinions of my classmates, I still possess the same beliefs. The main points that have come up for which I disagree involve, classroom management as well as the idea that relying on computers will put students at a disadvantage.
The skeptics mention in chapter 3 that classroom management will ultimately become an issue when placed in the classroom. I disagree. Classroom management is controlled by the teacher’s strategies and relationship with her students. Computers may be seen as an extra distraction but children in reality are capable of making anything a distraction, therefore they are not different than say a book sitting on a desk.
The second disagreement that I hold is computers will benefit classrooms not hold them back from learning. The skeptics say that computers cannot teach everything. Well of course this is true, it is not intended that computers shall replace the teacher.
Integrating computers in our classrooms will not teach everything to our students but rather it will be used as a tool to enhance student's learning.
I believe that by reading this chapter my opinion of technology in the classroom has changed very little. I still feel strongly that technology is a beneficiary that can only help our education systems. As I do consider this to be true, this chapter has provided me with other beliefs to consider as I become a teacher and begin to witness the usage of technology in the classroom. I deem that I may have a certain opinion now regarding the usage but when I enter the classroom I shall try to hold an open mind to any let downs that technology may conduct or develop as being intrusive and non beneficiary.

Exit slip

Today we talked about Animoto. Some other student's besides myself used this to create their online autobiographies. It thought it was interesting to see how other people created theirs. . We went over our delicious accounts and talk about how they need to have more sites added to them. I realized that I can no longer enter my delicious account. I tried to reset it but I am having trouble. We were presented a presentation about our class readings was done through Glogster. This is a site that they used to present, which is slightly like an online scrap book. I thought it was very interesting to see how it works and all of the different ways it enables people to present. Jeff talked about the presentation and it's "looks". He showed us how some things can be distracting and wordy. He also reminded them to introduce themselves. We discussed in groups the skeptic views of technology vs the enthusiast opinion. My group concentrated on the idea of cost and access of technology in schools. We concluded that there may be alternatives that schools are not considering when it comes to purchasing technology. In the end, the conclusion was slightly not concrete. Jeff suggested that a closing should more obviously presented and a wrap up of the content information. Also we need to be careful of "likes and ums" as well as reading verbatim from the screen.

Exit slip 3

This week we talked all about a lot of things. We discussed our autobiographies and were able to view a few of them. The presenters explained the program that they used and the pros and cons of it. We also talked about our book talks and what will become of them. We discussed a lot about credibility of web pages and visited many that are not. I learned about comparing web pages and how it can help you to discover which sites are most credible. We discussed our course web page and learned a little about cool technology tools wiki. Jeff introduced scratch to the class and showed us an example of the similation.

Chapter 2

In chapter 2 the argument of the technology enthusiasts is that the traditional school systems are not working to our full advantage. They argue that is it actually the opposite, and is in fact to our disadvantage because it essentially instills a dislike for school with in the children of today. It turns them away from wanting to learn. After reading this article I believe that I do not entirely agree with the enthusiasts. I consider that children in no matter the circumstance will always find something to not like about learning. The bottom line is, learning, doing math, and reading, is not playing out side. It’s not playing Barbies or video games. Children do not see it as fun and I believe that by making schools a “technology-rich workplace” will only disguise the school work temporarily. Eventually children will become spoiled with it and come across the same feeling of dislike towards school. Another argument that the enthusiasts hold is that children are not growing up in schools learning the technology skills that will be required of them as they enter the workforce in their futures. With this point I do agree. Children need to be prepared for their futures outside of school and technology holds a giant role in that future. Overall I feel that there is room for improvement in our schools use of technology. In the future when I have my own classroom, I intend to make sure each student has several chances to become familiar with the different types of technology in my classroom. I will encourage children to use the internet to research and discover, dictate their writing on Microsoft word, and even help to do simple things such as turn on the projector.

Website Credibility

Teaching students how to verify website credibility is a very important task. This may not be a job that we can expect young children to be able to master but children of the ages 1st grade and up are fully capable of being introduced to this skill. When teaching children how to check for credibility the first thing that you should introduce is the suffix of the website, (ex. edu, com, org). Explaining to the students the meaning of each of these suffixes will help a lot in itself. Edu means education, which typically means it is research based and often created by a University. Org means organization. This could mean nonprofit or funded. Organizations can be created for almost any reason. And finally it is important to inform the students that anyone can create a com website, therefore, they are most likely to not be credible. The second step that I would teach my students is to verify the credibility of the author. Who is he? Is it even a real name? By simply researching the name of the author a person can discover whether or not they are credible to learning about their history. As a final step in teaching children to check credibility I would encourage my students to use their common sense when reading over the content of each website they visit. If something doesn’t make sense or is literally impossible, such as an octopus living outside of water in a tree, than more so than likely the website is based on false information and should be discarded when collecting research.

Booktalk

My book talk took a lot of time to make. It was difficult to discover and learn how to use the program imovie all on my own. I spent a lot of time working to decide how I would portray my book and I finally decided to use pictures instead of embarrassing myself with film. It took me a long time to find out how everything works. It was especially difficult for me to figure out how to use the voice over application. Even though I didn’t want to embarrass myself through film I still feel weird about listening to my voice. I believe that this assignment is very valuable to our teaching skills. Not only can I now make book talks for my children but also I can even redo my students’ favorite books. As a class I could have my children act out the book on film or even publish their own work in a book talk. In the future I can use my newly learned skills to make my classroom more exciting and reach towards meeting the children’s’ interests and wants.

Sign out: Class 2

Today I learned a lot about how to use different types of technology such as the Activboard and the ActivExpression "clicker". I also found it interesting to learn and search about technology and learning with it vs from it. I'm still slightly confused as to the fine line that is drawn between the two but I am starting to figure it all out. Today we also discussed and learned how to use Delicious :) I think it's going to be a great help for me for bookmarking important websites. I've already marked several! I'm excited to begin my book discussion. I'm glad that today we were able to see an example and discuss how it should be done.

Preface & Chapter 1

-How does this reading impact your thinking about technology's role in teaching and learning?

After reading the Preface and chapter one, I have been instilled with the belief that technology is a major component of teaching and learning. The importance and benefit of integrating technology into our curriculum and exposing children to it is great. It is critical for future educators to actively integrate technology into the classroom as much as possible so that both the children and teachers are at a full advantage. If this is not done the school systems will in be at a huge disadvantage and ultimately behind. Technology, in a broader sense, is a tool children can use to continue learning outside of the classroom as well as inside the classroom. I also learned that it is more typical for a student to have greater access to technology outside of school rather than within it. In our modern day society this needs to be acted upon. Especially to keep our tradition of attending schools every weekday. Because technology isn’t as great in schools as it is outside, many parents and students are resorting to things such as home schooling and online classes.

-What will you do differently as a future teacher as a direct result of this new thinking?

As a future teacher I will do all that I can to fight for proper technology in my classroom as well as my school. My new thinking has opened my eyes to not only the advantages technology can provide in teaching and learning but also the need we have for it in schools versus outside. Schools need to be a convenience factor for students. For example they shouldn’t have to wait to go home to do research. Computers and Internet should be available at hand during school hours for each child. I will see to it, as a teacher, that at the very least my classroom is equipped with the most appropriate technology that it available to me and my students so that we may have the greatest advantage for teaching and learning.

Autobiography: Reflection

1. 
   
• How much effort did you exert on this task? I believe that I put a lot of effort into this assignment. I spent a lot of time deciding which video picture webpage to use. I experimented with them all until I found the one that I liked the best for this assignment. I decided that I wanted to talk about each picture and vuvox gave me that ability.
2. 
   
• What is the value in completing this course task? I think that the value behind this task was to not only get to know each of our classmates a little better but to also learn to how experiment with different programs and learn how to use each. I found it interesting how each program did similar things but each were very different in the approach of which they set up and provided the tools for users.
3. 
   
• How does completing this course task impact your future teaching? After having done this assignment, I have come to believe that this task will help me as a future teacher get to know my students and have them get to know me as well. On top of this I believe that it will also help me to be open minded to new programs. It will help me to have experience with these video making programs so that I may make them in the future either for lesson plans or just introducing my students to the classroom.

Growing up online

• How does this video impact your thinking about technology's role in the lives of young learners?

The Video Growing Up Online has helped me to start thinking that technology, specially and mainly the internet, is a very big source from which young children are learning in today's society. Technology has become a main source for communication, socialization, and information gathering for these young learners. I believe that technology, for younger children, holds the role and purpose for communication with friends through texting, online chatting, and facebook, a way for them express themselves through things such as music, video,and blogs, and an outlet for research, and small discovery for their random curiosity through online searches.

What will you do differently as a future teacher as a direct result of this new thinking?

As a teacher I believe that I will incorporate technology into learning as much as possible. Young learners enjoy the easy access and fast pace of technology. It is important to meet the children's interests as much as possible appropriately and this is a great way to get students to enjoy being involved. Ways that I would be able to involve technology in my classroom would be through having children research online different topics for story writing, social studies research, and even science questions. On top of incorporating technology into research purposes I will do my best to insure that my classroom is prepared with all of the appropriate teaching technology appliances such as a DVD player, a projector, computers, and even possibly a smart board.

Autobiography

http://www.vuvox.com/collage/detail/01e0d3ccb2