iRLO Reflection

I worked so hard on this assignment, probably took more time on it than I should have before asking for help. I enjoyed doing it because I can see so many possibilities for it. I am hoping to teach a younger grade such as third and I would be so thrilled to be able to make more games on Scratch to be able to share with my students and personalize it to our current lessons in the classroom.

IWB Reflection

I really enjoyed doing the lesson for the IWB. I think that having the knowledge to make a lesson on the IWB will be very useful in my future classroom. If I am fortunate enough to have an IWB in my classroom I plan on using it often as it give the students the opportunity to become involved in their lesson and the younger students especially are so interested in the wonders of it. I am looking forward to learning more about what all I can do on the IWB and am also hoping to be able to use it more in the future.

Exit Slip 12-9-2010

Teaching Ella:

• Interactive lessons on an interactive whiteboard.
• Computer games (Scratch) used for reading and or math lessons at least once a week, each student has their own computer on which to work.
• Blogs will be used not only by myself as a way to communicate with the parents, but also by the students as a way for them to write about their day and they can share their reports and other assignments online.
• The students can have E-pals and write online to other students from other countries and learn about another culture and lifestyle that may be very different from their own. They will be able to collaborate and work together on projects.

When I first came to this class I thought of technology in a classroom as having a computer in the classroom and maybe an IWB. I have definitely changed my mind on that as I am much more aware of so many different types of technology now that I didn't even knew existed before this class. I still think that having computers and an IWB in the classroom would be great but now I know several different ways in which I can use them.

Exit Post 12-2-2010

From video:

• Uses SMARTboard for interaction. Used for cooperative learning. Actively engages students.
• Online collaborative projects with other classes around the world. Connect with peers.
• Teacher daily blog, posts assignments online. Open classroom concept.
• Parents can see what students are doing by checking online.
• Students daily blog. Exposed to current events. Share their opinions. Idea of being a global citizen.
• All students had laptops. (all the time or on occasion?) There were several desktops in the classroom.

I'm really happy that we did this exercise in class today because during this class I feel that I have been getting the sense that if I don't add a ton of technology into my classroom I am going to be considered a bad teacher. While I have never believed that to be true, I am happy to see that it is finally being said out loud in class by the prof. himself so that the others in class that have had that same impression will feel better about it as well.

PSA

I think that there could be a lot done with Movie Maker for the classroom and the kids could have a ton of fun using it and watching themselves. I am looking forward to using this with my future students and even with my kids. I think that kids would have a blast seeing themselves, in fact my partners son was thrilled to see himself and it was just the back of his head! Kids would really have a blast and just the endless possibilities make me excited to use this in the future.
I felt that the entire process went rather smoothly. I liked using Movie Maker and think that it was relatively easy to use. The hardest part of this process I think was just coming up with a concept and then making sure that we had a storyboard that we were happy with. After we had our concept I think that it went rather well and came out as we had expected.

Chapter 10 Rethinking Education

I like how the chapter was split up into sections and that each section was about rethinking different aspects of education such as education in the work place or government involvement in education. I did not agree with everything that was said in the chapter but that is to be expected, you can't always agree with everything that one person says, it is just one persons opinion after all. I am disappointed that the tone of this chapter leaves you feeling that if you do not incorporate technology into every aspect of your classroom that you will fail to be a successful and effective teacher and I do not feel that is true.

Chapter Discussion Guides

We met twice as a group and prepared well in advance for our group discussion. I felt that we were prepared and did a good job with our presentation. The one thing I think we could have done better with is time management so that all students could have had their ideas shared, I feel that that was a downfall in our presentation. I think that facilitating a discussing can be beneficial because we are then able to see our peers perspective on the subject at hand and therefore maybe get a fresh look at the same material.

Exit Slip 11-18-2010

We need to make sure that directions are clear and concise, make sure that everyone understand the directions.

We can find many resources in a minute online if we know what we are looking for.

Exit Slip 11-11-2010

Few ideas from todays discussion
1. Have class answer in certain amount of words.
2. Have a back up plan.
3. Don't forget students if you break them into groups before hand

Chapter 9 Rethinking Education

I like in the chapter that it suggests sitting with a child that plays video games and have them explain to you the purpose of the game while you ask questions in regards to the strategies used. I think this is a great way to gauge the way in which the children are focusing and using the games in their minds. I also like how it talks about getting kids involved in communities or groups of other kids that are interesting in the same thing they are where they can explore their curiosity, all while having a parent or adult mentor monitoring in the background of course. I was also happy that it talked about vocabulary development and the fact that many can acquire vocabulary at an accelerated rate when it is in a game form or in a meaningful context.

Contemporary Issues Podcast

How much effort did you exert preparing for the podcast?


I did a lot of research before finding a website that I felt was credible and had a lot of really usable information. I rewrote my script a few times and recorded a few times until I was able to go through the entire thing without stumbling over my words. The research, writing of the script and finding the music was the most time consuming part of the assignment, second would be the actual putting together of the podcast with the recording be the least time consuming.

How does creating and sharing a podcast with your peers impact your future teaching?

I am happy that I know how to make a podcast now. I think that this could really come in handy if I wanted to post something online for future students or even just have them listen to it in class.

References for podcast:

www.cyberbullying.us
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070907221530.htm

sound effect from: www.PartnersinRhyme.com

Lead in and out music from: www.incompetech.com

Chapter 10 and Epilogue Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts

I honestly didn't care much for this final chapter. It felt almost as if the author was stating that you have to make everything strictly electronic and online otherwise you will completely lose your classroom and I don't feel that that is so. While I like his ideas of having the students work put online for others to see and giving the students a feeling of ownership over their work, I do not feel that all of the work that is done is always something that necessarily needs to be shared. I do not believe that all work needs to be done online and shared and some work can still be done on paper and ultimately thrown away in the end. I for one do not feel the need to do a math assignment  online and post it for the world to see, nor do I have the desire to look at others math work online. I just feel that the author goes a little overboard with his ideals in this chapter.
In the epilogue I think it shows that you can do a lot on computers in a short amount of time. Computers are definitely efficient time savers. I like how the author goes about exploring all the different ways the teacher was going to share different information with students and parents and that made me think about the different ways that I could share with my students parents in an efficient manner.

Exit Slip 11-4-2010

Good ideas for a better presentation:
1. Give directions before breaking up the groups.
2. Having the directions on board in print.
3. Don't make pages too confusing or busy. Use separate pages rather than have too much on one page.
4. Color coding reduces cognitive load.

Chap 8 Rethinking Education

I found the Performance Based Assessment section of this chapter really interesting. I really like the idea of "tying certifications to the specific goals of learners"(114). I think that it is nice how it would be all set out online so that the students and the parents could follow it and clearly see which certificates they would need for their desired career. The new curriculum design was different in the fact that it wanted the students to almost become experts in a particular subject before moving on. In this chapter was I was mostly drawn to the Performance Based Assessment and felt that it had a great outline drawn out within the chapter.

Reference: Collins, Allan and Halverson, Richard. Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology. 2009. Teachers College Press. New York.

Cool Tools Screencast

How much effort did you exert preparing for the screencast?

I worked for sometime on a script but found that it ended up being too long. After my 4th recording I ended up using the script as more of a guideline and tried to speak a little more relaxed as all previous recordings sounded mechanical and rehearsed.

How does creating and sharing a screencast with your peers impact your future teaching

I think that being able to create a screencast will be an excellent skill to have. Being able to share how to do something while showing it online could be really helpful to many students. Students having access to this information may make the difference on whether or not they are actually able to understand how to do something or not.

Chap 9 Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts

I thought this chapter was interesting because I honestly never really thought about how you could possibly use Facebook in a classroom. While I liked their ideas I kind of liked the idea of using Ning better because you can design it yourself and make it more personalized and have it work more towards your individual needs. While this may work best for the teacher, using Facebook may work best for the students since they are more familiar with it and will probably feel more comfortable using something that they have already had a lot of experience with and use on a daily basis.

Exit Slip 10-28-2010

Today I think I learned that it is important to make sure that you keep your discussion group on topic. When the topic drifts away from the main idea you need to refocus the group as soon as possible. I did like that the group had us face to face with other people in the class for the discussion and had us speaking directly with each other as opposed to speaking in larger groups. I am happy to hear that there are grants available if we go out and look for them for our classroom. Elluminate was really interesting. I'm g lad I got to learn how to use that program. I hope I am able to use it sometime.

Chap 7 Rethinking Education

I think that the losses are evident and very sad. The loss of a liberal arts education and the "digital divide" with limited access to computers for poorer children are serious issues. "Finally, will people become more isolated, witting at home in front of a computer and interacting less with other people socially? It is by interacting with supportive mentors and teachers that people are inspired to work hard and learn difficult topics."(107) I can see how there can be gains with customized education and increased engagement in learning. However this does bring up again the issue of the "digital divide" and would not be possible in many households. I like the idea that is brought up in  the book of the One Laptop per Child effort but of course seeing this as being very costly and with all of the cuts in education lately probably not possible at this time.

Reference: Collins, Allan and Halverson, Richard. Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology. 2009. Teachers College Press. New York.

Chap 8 Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts

I really love the idea of screen casting and pod casting. I think that screen casting is great because you can actually show in real time what you need to do or what you did while you are explaining what is going on. I like that it is so visual and you can see exactly what is going on. I think that pod casting is also a great resource for the classroom. You can record different lessons so the students can listen to them again later or have the class do their own recording about thing that they have learned.  like the ideas that the books gives including ""pod tours" of the campus on back-to-school nights (perhaps created by students), or tours of art displays narrated by the artists. You could record assemblies, do new teacher orientations, have supervisors record descriptions of their departments, and record board meetings for students, teachers and parents who are unable to attend. Principals could record weekly or monthly messages to the community, teacher or even students." (117) I think that since the communication is done with a recording of the persons voice it is more personal and it is easily accessible for many people to just listen to even if they do not have strong reading skills.

Richardson, Will. Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. 2010. Corwin. California.

Exit slip 10-21-2010

I really liked how the group today splip up everyone into groups for discussion and that makes me think of ways that my group can split people into groups for discussion when we do our lesson. I also really liked that the group today was really prepared and circulated well to keep everyone thinking about different things while they were in their discussion groups. I really want to do that now as well.
I'm glad that I learned how to lock things down in the whiteboard software because I need to do that with my iWBL. I am also happy I learned about Skype. I think I will use it often.

Chap 6 Rethinking Education

I found this chapter really interesting as always. I think that it seems to be a very natural progression that the education system has gone through. It seems like apprenticeship was the first form of real education in children's lives and it was very informal in the fact that it was done by watching and doing and just learning one particular skill, although it was very effective and it did seem like a great way for the children to learn. With the progression into public mandated schools I almost yearn a little for the one on one apprenticeship days of our pasts. I think that the ideals of back then would be a wonderful way to run a classroom, although it is not really very practical in the fact that you can not have a 1:3 teacher to student ratio. I can see in this chapter why some parents may opt for homeschooling to achieve more one on one attention but still feel that they would be more well rounded culturally if they were to be in a public school.

Chap 7 Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts

From all of the different ways of communicating with different classrooms across the globe, this is the one I feel would work the best. I think that Flickr is an amazing way to share pictures, video and in depth information with another classroom and how interesting would it be if it were one that were across the globe? I love that you can pinpoint things in the pictures and explain what they are, that really make the pictures come alive! I believe that this tool is the perfect way for our students to learn about other cultures and places first hand. Since they are also so involved in the process I think that they will find it extremely enjoyable as well as informative.

Exit Slip 10-14-2010

I am really excited about doing this iRLO in Scratch. This program I think is one that will be extremely helpful for me to know and I am looking forward to using it in my classroom. I believe that knowing how to use this program will set me apart from other applicants in my perspective field.

Chapter 5 Rethinking Education

This chapter showed several different ways in which people are able to learn without going to a public school. I really enjoyed the section on seniors taking learning trips that are meant to teach them about the places in which they are visiting. The section on homeschooling I found to be the most valuable. I always hear people argue that children that are home schooled are not properly socialized and I do not feel that is always the case since they have programs now that involve several home schooled children t hat helps them to get together and go on field trips together and become involved with each other. In this chapter the most compelling argument for me against home schooling was the following quote: "Home schooling goes against the spirit that moved Horace Mann and his colleagues to advocate universal schooling in order to integrate people from diverse cultures to share common knowledge and values"(70). This quote clearly states what I fear is the biggest problem with home schooling. The students are sheltered from other students that hold different beliefs from themselves in which they could grow as people and individuals. By having this complete separation and the parents having complete control over what the children are taught and whom they are exposed to, cultures, religions and ethnicity's, they are essentially robbed of the education of diversity.

Reference: Collins, Allan and Halverson, Richard. Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology. 2009. Teachers College Press. New York.

Chap 6 Blog, Wiki, Podcasts

The section on Twitter didn't change my mind on it at all. I understand the purpose of it at it conception was to help keep people in contact with one another, but what it has become to me is just a place for celebrities to speak their minds about every mundane thing going on  in their day, and then the media reporting on it. I do not believe that Twitter is being used for its original purpose anymore and is more of a nuisance and annoyance than anything else.
The section on social bookmarking services I found very informative. Since we have been using delicious.com in class this section was easy to follow. I have found this service to be very beneficial and I believe it will be a wonderful asset to have in the future as an educator. As I come across different sites now that have do to with education, I add them to my delicious account and tag them appropriately, I then will be able to go back to them by their tags in the future and use them for teaching different lessons and or for different resources to help with lesson plans. Having everything in one place that I can access from any computer with Internet access is a great asset to have.

Exit Post 10-7-2010

I'm glad that we went over the expectations for the iRLO assignment. I think that Scratch is a very interesting program. It seems easy to use and could come in handy very well in a classroom. The examples that were shown were really great and gave me some really good ideas. It doesn't seem as bad as I was thinking it was and I am really looking forward to getting started and making my iRLO.

Rethinking Education Chapter 4

I never really thought about how public schools came to be until I read this chapter. I find it especially interesting that the first public kindergarten was in Wisconsin in 1856. I like the evolution of the textbook so that all teachers would be teaching the same material. I never really thought of schools without textbooks, so to think of teachers teaching without them just seems mind boggling to me. I really like how the chapter goes through the history of public school and how it was not needed, then was very much in demand, and how now it is in decline with so many options available. I think that the author did a really great job of making the whole chapter really cohesive in his message. I am fascinated with the idea of compulsory attendance as a way to educate people so that they "make wise political decisions, since the control of the government in this new republic had been turned over to the people." (60) This is another concept that never crossed my mind, that public schools were opened in order to further peoples educations in order to make them better voters, but I can really see how this would be beneficial and very necessary.

Reference: Collins, Allan and Halverson, Richard. Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology. 2009. Teachers College Press. New York.

Chapter 5 Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts

This chapter left me so confused that I am not sure that I have any idea what the author was writing about. From what I gathered you can filter different websites for specific articles to be presented to you by certain keywords that you have entered into the program. I'm not exactly sure how this can be incorporated into the classroom and due to my entirely confused being right now I don't feel that I am in the right frame of mind to make an informed decision as to whether or not this is a technology I would utilize in my classroom or life. I am hoping that we will have a hands on explanation of this RSS platform in class so that I will have a better understanding of the program and can make a more informed decision.

Chapter 4 Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts

This chapter really got me thinking as to the infinite possibilities of the wiki format. When I thought of using a wiki in the classroom I previously only thought of using it as we do in class currently. We could post our classroom assignments and talk recap what we did in class. I love the different ideas of having different wikis for different books read in class or different subjects. I also love the idea of having the kids do research on different subjects and editing wikipedia.org as a class. I think that working together as a class the knowledge that would be gained by that experience would be phenomenal. The teacher that used the wiki to connect to another class in another country I thought was a brilliant idea. What a great way to get the kids to interact and work together on different research projects. Not only do they learn from each other about their living situations and cultures but they also see different perspectives on the same subject in which they are researching.

Exit Slip 9-30-2010

I liked that we went over how to do things with the SMARTBoard. I am aways interested in the different aspects of the SMARTBoard and am always fascinated by the different ways we can incorporate it into the classroom and all it can do. I'm glad we went over the iWBL assignment more in depth as I was feeling overwhelmed by the whole thing at first. I'm enjoying the different groups teaching the different chapters of the book. I like their different styles and I get different ideas after each group goes.

Chapter 3 Rethinking Education

I believe that the biggest reason why there is such an argument against having technology in the classroom is just peoples fear of the unknown and how it will change the school atmosphere. I also believe that a lot of adults are afraid of their children learning technologies that they themselves are not fluent in and they fall further behind. Just as the beginning of the chapter started out, there has always been change within the classroom and there has always been resistance and fear that went along with it. Simple things such as using paper rather than slate boards and using disposable pens were big issues in their time, so it is no big surprise that some people are up in arms over big budget items such as computers and SMARTBoards being integrated into the classroom.
On page 39 it talks about classroom management and I honestly do not believe that braking the class up into groups and having them work on different things at one time and rotating to different stations is an problem. I have seen this done first have on numerous occasions and actually find it to be a great way to keep the children interested in what they are doing and able to stay on task. By doing this it is also not necessary to have a 1:1 ratio of computer to student as it states on page 37 since the children do not need to be using them all at the same time. So not only does this keep the children focused but will also help with the cost issues that may arise from incorporating the new technologies into the classroom as well.

Exit Slip 9-23-2010

I liked that we went over how to calibrate the SmartBoard. I know it is such a small thing to know how to do, but since it has been such an issue so far in this class already, it is such a relief to know how to do it now! I had looked into the Smart Exchange website before class and after finding out more about it during class I am really excited about being able to use it in my classroom. I think that the possibilities are endless and could really keep the kids interested and help maintain an interactive environment.

Chapter 2 Rethinking Education

I thought that this chapter was very informative and helpful as it broke down the different ways that children learn with different technologies and how they can be incorporated into the classroom. I found a quote that I thought really summed up everything extremely well as far as why technology in the classroom is a crucial part of education.
"Just as reading was made necessary by the printing press and arithmetic by the introduction of money, so computer technologies are changing the very way we think and make sense of the world." (11)
I feel that this is very true and therefore we need to prepare our students for the world that will expect them to be aware of the technologies that they will face in their lives outside of school. Not only will this help prepare them as far as being aware of the current technology, it will also wire their minds to think technologically, which is the mindset of the current world.

Reference: Collins, Allan and Halverson, Richard. Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology. 2009. Teachers College Press. New York.

Chs. 1-3 of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts

The reading helped to open my mind as to how different technologies can be utilized in the classroom. I particularly like the idea of blogs and think that the children would really enjoy that idea also. I do think that different technologies are more appropriate for different age groups and therefore it is up to the teacher to make the decision as to what would be best for their classroom setting and situation.
I will do the best as I can to incorporate technology into my classroom as I see fit for the situation, but I will not just use certain technologies just to use them even though they will not be very beneficial just because someone says that I should use it.

Growing Up Online

I found this story to be very interesting but not at all shocking. Being a member of facebook myself, I have seen many profiles that are similar to the ones that are talked about in the video. Being a mother, when I connect with my friends on facebook I would expect to see their picture albums to be full of family pictures from different vacations and family evens like mine is, but it seems like so many of them are becoming more and more self involved and are just becoming websites full of pictures promoting themselves and not at all the way that I know them offline. This doesn't just happen to the teenagers that are talked about in the video, and I think that a lot of adults are setting bad examples for the children.
I also was not shocked what-so-ever about teenagers spending so much time on facebook and myspace. Many times I have been in class and will be next to a student on their laptop pretending to be typing notes but is actually on facebook. I personally can't fathom why this would be more important to them at this moment than learning what we are in class to learn and what we have paid good money to be their to learn.
I think that a great way to help monitor our children online is to have the household computer in a common area and not allow them to have computers in their bedrooms. This way they are less likely to look at risky selections and or post risky things about themselves online as they may be caught easier. This is in no way fool proof of course,  but it is a strategy to help detour some of the behaviour. I do think that the one mother of Cam is somewhat overboard at times, such as the concert story. Of course some things that happened at the concert happen, and just because their is documentation of it doesn't mean that everyone there was involved. I don't know exactly how I would have handled it but I do feel that she was out of line to contact all of the parents.

Exit Slip 9-16-2010

I found it interesting how broad of opinions we had in the class regarding the same issues. It was also nice to see that we have people that feel the same way we do and share some of the same view points.
I really liked the Prezi website and found it to be really interesting and a great alternative to doing a PowerPoint presentation. I like that it is on the Internet therefore we don't have to pay for the program and can find our presentations on any computer that we are on.
The bit.ly website was also really interesting. I have never heard of a URL shortener and I think that it is really nice to be able to shorten a URL in a presentation or a wiki page as to not have to take up so much room for the link.

Website Credibility

I think that it can be extremely difficult to know if a website is legitimate or not, especially for younger students. The biggest thing that I can think of would be to see if the information on the site correlates with information that you have found from other sources. You need to always check the facts with more than one source. I also would dive into it more and see if the site seems to be bias or is ran by an organization that is biased to the material. You may be getting more of an opinion than the facts if the site is biased to someones views. There is no sure fire way that I can think of to tell if a website is credible. The best think to do is to have several sources, check your facts against each other and make sure that they all match up to each other.

With the websites that we looked at it was obvious to me as an adult that the MLK Jr. website was extremely biased, and as I looked deeper found that it was connected to a blog ran by a white power group. This would be more of an opinion site to me and not based on historical fact and therefore not credible. This would be difficult for a younger child as they would not have as much information about him and therefore it would be very important that they had more sources to cross reference to make sure that they have accurate information. The website about explorers looked great and extremely credible but the information was full of errors. This was found by having cross references as well. I still believe that the best way to get accurate information is to always have several sources in which to reference and make sure your information correlates.

Chapter 1 Rethinking Education

This reading I found to be really interesting. I have always had an internal fight about how much technology should be used in a classroom and how much of it is needed and or warranted. After reading this section I still do feel somewhat of a struggle but do feel that there is a huge place for it and that we are not just sitting our children in front of computers to learn all day long. But integrating different technologies into the classrooms, not completely replacing the ways we already do things, we are progressing into the future but yet maintaining a lot of the values of just learning and teaching in person. I know that I will continue to learn about the newest technologies as they become available and see which ways I cam implement them into my classroom. I never want to feel that the students are not able to have access to current media that would help them in their futures. I do however want to always make sure to have a lot of personal time with the students and not just have them learn from the computers. I do feel that this is achievable and will only help the students in a very positive way in their currents lives and their futures.

Exit Slip 9-9-2010

I feel like I learned a lot today. I have never heard of Social Bookmarking before and I think that it is an amazing resource! I have always been frusterated by the fact that when I am not at my home computer I can not get to my "favorites" that have been bookmarked on my home computer and by being able to access these bookmarks on any computer is a great resource to be able to have! It is also really great that we can share them with others and also search through other peoples delicious accounts and find other resources that can be helpful to me. The discovery of this website alone today was really great for me and will be an amazing resource for me to have in my personal and professional life.

Digital Autobiography

http://animoto.com/play/7O0nE5GDVlRAzudSa0oAkQ?utm_content=challenger#

I honestly didn't have to put a whole lot of effort into this assignment. I knew what event I wanted to do the assignment on right away. It was just a matter of deciding which pictures to use and finding the right music. The music was actually the hardest part of the assignment as I wanted something that really fit the mood and I was not familiar with any of the songs available.
I think that there is a lot of value in completing this assignment. I have already shared the video with several of my friends and family and received great feedback. It is a great way to share special moments in life and add a different element rather than just looking at the pictures.
Completing this task has made me aware of products that I did not know existed. I look forward to using this in my classroom and making short videos with pictures from field trips and other special occasions in class that the students will really enjoy reliving through the videos.

What is Technology?

1. Technology is a word that is really difficult for me to define. When I think of technology I think of new ideas in the way we do things whether it is the way we perform surgeries or the ways in which we broadcast television or listen to our music. It is continuous and on-going and the process never ends.


2. Technology integration is when you integrate the latest technologies into the classroom. Examples of this would be the use of a SmartBoard™ or a computer while teaching. You could also teach the children to use these items in their classroom assignments.