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.