Technology Autobiography, part 2

I have always felt that I knew a lot about technology but I never realized how much I didn't know until I took this class. Now, I feel like I am way more technologically savvy than I have ever been! (I have been showing off the newly found ideas that I have been introduced to, to all of my friends.) I feel very lucky that I have been using technology since I was in middle school. Now that technology can be so useful and beneficial to what I'm going to be doing, I am even more grateful to being introduced to technology at a fairly young age.



Since I took this class I have learned about many new and fun ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. Best of all, they are all free ideas! I never knew that there were so many opportunities to use technology, and in such a beneficial way. I hope that my experience with technology and the resources that I can pull from will only grow as I continue on my journey to be a teacher.

Chapter 9 Response

This chapter discussed the importance of making sure our students know how to operate things when it comes to the read/write web. The book said, "If we fail to graduate students who are not able to create, sustain, and participate in these networks, in safe, ethical, and effective ways, we've done them a disservice". I could not agree with that statement more. I believe it is our responsibility, as educators, to prepare our students for the real-world. The real-world is becoming more and more dependent on technology and the internet and we truly would be doing our students a huge disservice if we didn't prepare them for that.

I love that when our students complete work that it doesn't just have to be finished. The idea that they can display their work for people all over the world to see is not only fascinating but exciting. I like the idea that learning can be a conversation and not just a lecture, and it can be collaborative instead of independent. Ultimatly, I think our students are going to benefit from all of these ideas and advancements in our society, and to me, that is exciting!

Chapter 8 Response

Before reading the chapter and creating our own podcasts in class, I barely knew what a podcast was. I had a general idea but I didn't know exactly what they were and that they were becoming so popular. I was very excited to read about the free podcasts that you can subscribe to through ITunes. After doing as the author suggested and looking through some of the top podcasts in Education, I found some that I think could be very beneficial to a teacher in the classroom. What I love even more is that I can subscribe to these podcasts and they will just automatically come to my account, almost like the RSS feed. It makes things a lot easier and we all know that teachers have A LOT on their plate, so anything that can help make the load lighter, is a really good thing!

Chapter 6 Response

I was really surprised at the idea of using Twitter in the classroom! I always just thought of it as a social networking website, and nothing more, but the author gives several suggestions as to how Twitter can be used in schools. My favorite is how a teacher used twitter as a journaling place for his students during a field trip. I like the idea that students who were unable to go could get live updates on how the trip was going. The only problem with this is that you would have to have a phone or computer for each student and that doesn't seem like it would be very likely to work, especially in elementary school. If you could provide phones for groups of students then that might work, but that would require a lot of trust in your students, as well, to only do what you are expecting them to.

The author convinced me, as I read, to set up an account with a social bookmarking site; Delicious.com. I went through and tried the things that he suggested to try and I found the website very helpful! I think it is great to be able to bookmark websites that you might find useful later on in your teaching career, and be able to access them from anywhere. I like that you aren't limited to the sites saved on just one particular computer. I recommend that everyone do this!

Chapter 4 Response

I REALLY like the idea of using a class wiki. Obviously, I think that whether or not your students will actually be able to contribute to the site, will depend on the grade that you are teaching, but if your students are old enough I think it is a great way for students to collaborate with each other. I also like the idea of having a class wiki, even if your students are too young to be able to handle the responsibility of editing. Being able to have a place where you can update the things that are going on in your classroom is great for parents, grandparents, etc. Although this seems more like just a website, I think that you could still have students editing the page with you. With the permission of their teacher, you could ask an older grade to collaborate with your class on a class wiki. This way the older students are involved in editing on an individual basis and the younger class can maybe edit the page as a group, with the teacher helping. It could be a collaborative effort amongst both classes, and both are still getting that sense of responsibility when it comes to their class wiki.

I am still unsure about whether or not I feel that Wikipedia is a reliable source. The author makes many good points as to why we should be able to use it, and trust it as a good source of information but I have a hard time forgetting that people can edit the information any way they want to. It seems like there are many pros to wikipedia, which even just one pro is more than I thought there was before I read the chapter!

Choose Your Tool- Jing

To Whom it May Concern,

There is a GREAT tool that I think every school should be taking advantage of; it's called Jing. Jing is free and can be used as a very effective teaching tool. Jing uses a tablet computer or smartboard for students to write or draw on and records their voice, as well. After you finish recording everything, you can then play back the video, which will show whatever was drawn on the tablet or smartboard and plays the voices along with the video.

There are many ways that you can use this tool in the classroom. You can use Jing to assess what the students know through collaborative learning projects. Students could show what they have learned by creating a lesson to explain the concept being learned. Even better, you could have groups of students do the teaching by assigning each group different areas of any given topic and let them be the teachers. They could create a plan to teach what concept they have been assigned, record the lesson, and then play it for the rest of the class. It is a great way for them to self-assess as they explain their thinking and what they have learned. The more work that the students do, the better! That is, if it is productive and they are gaining something from the experience, of course.

The teacher could also use Jing to simply record parts of lessons that the teacher was wanting to show to the class, visually, and then play that for the students. This could also be done if you knew, in advance, that you would be absent from school. By recording parts of a lesson and having the substitute simply play the lesson for the class, would make the substitutes job a lot easier and more importantly, you know that your students would be getting the exact information that you want them to. Also, if you were to incorporate Jing into your lessons, it would be a great way to address both the visual and auditory learners.

Lastly, Jing would be a great way to possibly communicate with other classes across the country, or even the world. Anything that you have recorded could then be put up on the internet and you could, potentially, receive comments from other people. I believe this is a wonderful way to introduce students to knew ways of doing things, through technology. It would be disappointing if we did not take advantage of free, educational tools, such as Jing.

Thanks,

Susan Bale

Ch. 3, 5 & 7 Response

Chapter 3
If we expect our students to be able to do something, then I think we should at least have an idea of what we are expecting them to do. So, needless to say, I agree with the author when he says that if we want our students to be blogging then we need to have that experience, too. I think that goes with many other aspects of the classroom, as well. For example, the third grade classroom that I was student teaching in, had a couple of different literature circles during our literacy block. Each day, the group would read a chapter and then respond in their notebooks. I did not read the chapter in advance, or after the group was finished, I read the chapter WITH the students. If I was expecting the students to read the chapter then I felt that I needed to be reading it, too. The students would discuss the chapter, if they had time, but a great way to ensure that they discuss it and incorporate technology into the literature circles would be for each student to write their response to the chapter in a blog. This way the other students could comment and share their ideas.

Chapter 5
I had never heard of RSS until I was in this class but it sounds like it is a great tool to have as a teacher. I tried to set up an RSS feed reader but the author was right, it was a bit overwhelming. I've always felt that I know a decent amount about technology but after trying to do this, I was somewhat confused. However, if I can figure out how to set it up, the author makes many good points as to why it would be a good thing to use in the classroom. I think that blogs are a great tool for students to use and the RSS feed seems necessary if you are going to use blogs in your class. The idea of going through each blog individually seems very tedious and the RSS feed would be a great way to make that process go a lot smoother.

Chapter 7
I absoulely love the idea of using Flickr in the classroom, and I will use it when I have my own class. I think it is a great teaching tool for many reasons. I like the idea of using it to, what the author said as, "dissecting" the picture. Being able to use the notes to put more information on the picture is a great thing to have when you are learning about, almost anything! I also really like the idea of being able to search for pictures that may already be on Flickr and then being able to comment on those, in hopes to contact someone across the state, country or even the world. That would not only be exciting as a teacher but as a student, as well! It seems as though the ideas for using Flickr are endless!

Article Response: Syncing up with the iKid

I have to say that I was not surprised to read that young people, ages 8-18, spend, on average, 6 hours a day on electronic devices. I have worked at a day care for almost nine years and I can testify to the fact that a lot of children are addicted to these types of media. During the summer, we have what is called "by yourself time", which is basically a better way of saying rest/nap time. Everyday, the older children (3rd-6th grade) get out there music or gameboys or nintendo DS to keep them occupied for that hour. They even have an entire 20 minutes, called "Tech Lab", that is blocked out each day for every class to play video games or play on computers. The kids absolutely love getting to do these things, but it can definetly contribute to some children's dependence on technology.

However, I don't think that technology is a bad thing, I use it everyday. Towards the end of the article, it was mentioned that students learn best about the world they live in by helping create it. I completely agree with this statement but I think you have to have a balance. There are many productive ways that you can use technology at school but still teach students to not depend on it for everything.

I thought it was very interesting that the original purpose of computers was not for business, but for learning. It is interesting to know that now, and also know how the education world is behind in many aspects when it comes to technology and incorporating it into the classrooms. From what I have read recently, though, it seems as though we are improving in that area. I liked what the teacher at the end of the article said about the use of technology "speaking their language". That is very true and, I believe, will only continue to be "their language". Technology is a wonderful tool and I definetly think that we should be introducing it to our students, but if we can find a good balance between using technology and doing things the "old-fashioned way" (which will provide students with even more options on how to do things) then we should have successful classrooms and successful students.

Flickr presentation

Multiplication Introduction for Third Grade (Flickr presentation)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38350732@N02/sets/72157618104780296/

MA-EP-1.3.1
Students will analyze real-world problems to identify appropriate representations using mathematical operations, and will apply operations to solve real-world problems with the following constraints:
· multiply whole numbers of 10 or less

DOK 2

Chapters 1 and 2

It is hard to believe that the world wide web is only 15 years old. I can remember when my family got our first computer and first got access to the internet. To think of how much computers and the web have changed since then is mindblowing. Yet, it is an important reason that teachers learn about new technology and use it in their classroom.

I do agree with what the book was saying, that the technological world is evolving quickly but schools and education are having a difficult time keeping up. I was in a kindergarten classroom during my student teaching that used very little technology. This was something that I wish those students had been able to experience more.

The book discussed a lot of safety issues concerning the internet. I think it is extremely important to get parental consent before allowing students to publish any personal things on the internet. It can be a great way for students to showcase their work and then possibly discuss it, but it is more important that you have the permission of their parents before they do it. The author also said that he had a discussion with his class on what to do if they accidentally came upon inappropriate material on the internet. This is something, in my opinion, that needs to be done at the beginning of the school year, before students even get on the internet. By doing this, the students are prepared in case something did come up while they were on the internet.

I was suprised to find out that weblogs are not necessarily where people can write about their feelings and what happened over the day. I always assumed that a blog was exactly that. I completely agree that a lot of teenagers use blogs and other websites as social networking opportunities as opposed to letting them be used as instructional tools. Unfortunatly, I think this is something that is going to be hard to change but hopefully teachers can show them new, productive ways of using weblogs and other social websites.

I love the idea that students can interact with other people in different states or even in different countries. The idea that students can share their thoughts about a book or results of a certain experiment, and then have the author or scientist comment on what they have written, is extremely exciting. To me, weblogs seem like a win-win situation to teachers, students, parents, etc.

How I Do Research

When I go to research I usually depend a lot on the internet for resources. If I am researching for school purposes, I try to find resources that I know are reliable. I also use a lot of journal articles through databases. I know that I should use more "in print" resources and not depend so heavily on the internet but I tend to find it easier to use the internet when I am doing research. If I am doing research just for my own interest, I usually use Google to find my answers.

Technology Autobiography

Thankfully, I was fortunate enough to grow up using technology on a daily basis, whether at home or at school. Therefore, I know how to use different types of technology as an adult. There are still areas of technology that I am unfamiliar with but for the most part I know how to use a lot of different types of technology.

I am especially grateful that I have had these experiences with technology because it will be extremely useful as a teacher. I was lucky enough to be in classrooms during my student teaching that allowed me to see how technology can be used, and be used effectively in the classroom. Everything from powerpoints to an Elmo machine to morning messages written in Microsoft and projected onto the screen for all the students to see, there are many ways to incorporate technology in your classroom.

Technology has grown tremendously over the past couple of decades and it will only continue to advance. As teachers, we should be using technology in our own classrooms so that students are well-equipped to use different types of technology as they get older. I believe a teacher's ultimate job is to prepare a child for the future and for the real world. The real world is saturated with all kinds of technology and it's important that we introduce these things to our students so that they are well prepared for anything they might encounter in the future.

A perfect example is that a friend of mine was searching for a job a couple of months ago. She went for an interview at a local school, in hopes to work in the front office. She was told that she had a great interview, they really liked her and that they would hire her, except there was one problem; she wasn't familiar enough with computers and the programs they were using. That is exactly what I don't want to happen to my students when they get older and search for jobs. Introducing them to technology seems minor, but it is just one more way that we can help them to be successful in life.