Introduction To Technology For Educators was an extremely informative and valuable college course for a potential high school teacher. Understanding and appreciating the critical role of technology in the classroom will guide my methods of teaching for the duration of my career and help me connect with my students to a higher degree.There were multiple areas to gather Transforming Learning With New Technologies by Maloy, Verock‐O'Loughlin, Edwards, and Woolf. The "Learning Outcomes" section of the syllabus were accomplished fully and learning APA style citation was made possible. All of this and more was made possible through taking Introduction To Technology For Educators.
The "Discussions" section of the class portal was a great area to discuss information that was leaned and to share ideas with other students. I was able to learn about the other students' plans for teaching, where they were born, where they may have worked or are currently working, and what drew them to teaching in the first "Introduction" discussion. In posts that followed I learned about the the most informative teaching websites and the most effective technology to use in diverse classrooms where students with disabilities my attend. I was also able to learn about what technology may help with students who have English as a second language and what ethical or legal issues students may encounter without using proper citations, privacy issues, or cyberbullying.
Class projects were also a major source for gaining information from how to accurately evaluate a website, to creating a lesson plan while including multimedia resources, and creating a Wiki and Webquest. Learning how evaluating a website was hugely important because it instructed the class what to look for in a valid website. Knowing to check for an author and reputable sponsor, information that is reliable and fact-checked, unbiased and updated facts, and a wide range of topics with unique insights is vastly helpful and important to know. Understanding how to create a lesson plan with multiple multimedia resources was crucial to learn to ensure students have crystal clear instructions and expectations. Finally, collaboratively designing a Wiki will help considerably in creating a personel class Wiki in the future and learning to create a Webquest was extremely valuable when constructing creative innovative and stylish lesson plans for the students for the future. Transforming Technology With New Technologies was surprisingly a very good read with great quotes and useful information; albeit with information overload. There was great insight on the different teaching methods and the benefits of multimedia resources to enhance lesson plans. Useful information on how to exactly gauge a student's progress without having to rely solely on tests. Great suggestions on how to use technology to assist a lesson plan and not let technology control it. Finally, the book offered beneficial informative on hoe exactly teaching may be evaluated and how to institute a "Democratic Classroom".
Through the projects and discussions I was able to complete the lesson goals that were stated in the syllabus. The information in the discussion posts made it possible for me to understand the link between technology and strategies for effectively teaching students with English as a second language. I am also now capable of creating a portfolio online with samples reflecting ways technology can support classroom management. Lastly, I can now evaluate and critique various software and hardware tools determine effectiveness in the classroom setting. All while using APA citing for the information that was used.
Introduction To Technology For Educators was a very informative class to take and the information I gathered will be useful for many years to come. There were however some areas of improvement that may enhance the class. Less range of information could be viewed as an improvement. There seemed to be too much data about too many topics. More information on fewer topics could make the book less overwhelming. Also, the amount of assignments, journal and discussion posts, and projects was a tad on the extreme side. It would have been preferably to work on a single project or assignment for a longer period of time to really get a good understanding on how to use it fully. It seemed that it was one thing after to another with little time to breathe. All in all the class was very good but the workload could have been less life consuming. Thank you for everything.
Resources: Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B. P. (2010). Transforming learning with new technologies. Allyn & Bacon.
Student can use participation systems, such as remote control devices known as clickers, to allow members of a class to respond collectively to questions posed by teachers. Participation systems are ways to actively engage students with academic material and to conduct quick assessments of what students know or still need to learn about a topic. Designing interesting open-ended questions is key to using student participation systems successfully with your students.
Tech Tool: Survey Monkey Survey Monkey is a very innovative tool to gather results of a poll that the user created. It can be used to gather information, opinions, feedback, or results on certain personalized questions. It can also be used as a great tool to get students involved in lesson plans and determine what students may already know prior to a lesson plan. Survey Monkey is easy to use and apply to various websites, blogs, or Facebook. Although I am using the free version and assume there are limitations that I have yet to run into, I would be more than happy to pay for the upgrade once I have a larger need for the online tool.
Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.
Summary and Connection:
Chapter 10 of the text book had great information on how teachers will be evaluated and how closely that evaluation is to how students are evaluated. The most important and interesting section of the chapter however was on "Democratic Schools and Classrooms". The text offered information on how to adapt to a more democratic system in the classroom and that I plan to use in my classroom to some extent.
Shared decision-making among the students and the staff
A learner-centered approach in which students choose their daily activities.
Equality among staff and students
Using the community as an extension of the classroom
I will definitely attempt to institute these methods while maintaining my own identity and strong opinions for what I feel is important for the education of my students. Another topic in the chapter that I felt was interesting was how to use technology to assist students to participate more in the classroom. The use of a clicker, more specifically the CSPulse, will help students become active and enthusiastic when questions are asked and a "game" format is used to get the competitive juices flowing and results are shown immediately. Finally, the information on preassessments was also useful because it reiterated what I believe to be important; to build on knowledge that students already possess about the lesson that is being taught. To get to the core of what the students already know the text book recommends to use surveys, which can be taken from online tools, pre-tests, and basic questions and discussions.
Focus Question: How can teachers use technology to create universally designed classrooms?
Creating a universally designed classroom using technology involves designing learning environment and/or changing the way curriculum is delivered. A teacher's technology choices for universal design can be organized in three tool kits: Low Tech, Middle Tech, and High Tech.
Tech Tool:Extra Large and Online Calculators
There are many, many online calculators to choose from on the internet. Whether solving or graphing equations, addition or subtraction of simple numbers, or ascertaining a quarterback rating using the NFL standards there is a calculator to help. Fooling around with these different online calculators is actually pretty fun and could be useful when the Windows or Mac calculator is not enough and splashing out $100 for a graphing calculator is out of the budget.
Photo Credit to Youssef Abdelaal
Summary and Connection:
Chapter 10 was another really informative chapter that will come in very handy when I have my own classroom and want to implement my own technological resources. Differential Instruction, the idea that there are multiple options for taking in information and making sense of ideas, was interesting to read about and than contemplate how I can help my students who take in and assess information differently still understand the same subject matter. The chapter referenced a great quote by Thomas Hehir, "Minimizing the impact of disability and maximizing the opportunity to participate in the world" which I plan to instill in my students daily. There were great charts, such as the "Classroom Organization Tools" that offered great examples of how to utilize Low Tech, Middle Tech, and High Tech in the classroom and "Writing Process Fit For Young Writers" chart offered useful examples of a particular writing process stage and how the teacher's role using technology or no technology will associate with the process.
Resources: Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B. P. (2010). Transforming learning with new technologies. Allyn & Bacon.
Focus Question: What is multimedia technology and how can teachers use it to effectively create and share visual information dynamically in their teaching?
Multimedia learning happens when multiple media (text, data, voice, picture, and video) are used to communicate information. Schools have largely emphasized single media, non-interactive modes of learning. A multmedia classroom interprets multiple technologies for teaching and learning.
Tech Tool: NTTI
The National Teacher Training Institute provided teachers with the proper training to efffectivley use modern technology in the classroom. The Institute also offer extremely well developed lesson plans for all the core subjects (very handy for new teachers). The website also offers great tips on how to utilize the internet and videos in the classroom and very informative online workshops. I looked into file management and found some great ideas about how best to transfer information from school to home and how to effectively store student files. The website also offers really good examples of how best to utilize technology with student created videos. The NTTI was a wealth of information and a website I will definitely visit often if just for lesson plans.
Chapter 9 offered great information on how best top use technology in the classroom and what applications work best. The assumption made that multimedia in education will enhance a students learning if more than one mode of learning is used in teaching is, in my opinion, a safe assumption. The chapter recognized that schools, more often than not, tend to emphasize single media, non-interactive learning, and how today's teachers much break this habit. The chapter suggested that if a video is used that another form of media would be greatly beneficial such as a Prezi presentstion. The chapter also suggested to use more interactive and visual presentations even when beginning a class discussion, very interesting. Another great idea I found helpful as a potential history teacher was to use video for mock historical trials, re-enactments, and debates.
Resources: Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B. P. (2010). Transforming learning with new technologies. Allyn & Bacon.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Chapter 8: Communicating and Networking with Websites, Blogs, Wikis, and More Focus Question: How can teachers use wikis to promote collaborative learning?
Wikis are web pages that are created and maintained by multiple users. In schools, wikis enable collaborative learning environments where teachers and students work together to investigate topics and share information. A wikitext is a book or booklet that teachers and students create together as part of a class study of a topic.
Tech Tool: Moodle
Moodle is a free web application that educators can use to create online learning sites that help promote students to pursue knowledge outside the classroom. Moodle can be used to create fully online courses or to simply blend the classroom with the student's home through teacher designed websites, blogs, wikis, forums, or online tests or quizzes. To install the program there are 4 easy steps:
1) Move the Moodle files into your web directory. 2) Create a single database for Moodle to store all its tables in (or choose an existing database). 3) Visit your Moodle site with a browser, you should be taken to the install.php script, which will lead you through creating a config.php file and then setting up Moodle, creating an admin account etc. 4) Set up a cron task to call the file admin/cron.php every five minutes or so.
By easy I obviously mean ridiculously complex for the novice like myself. I thought there was a lot of potential with this application and I really agree with the philosophy of constructivism and constructionism being at the forefront of education but unfortunately I had neither the time nor patience to figure out just how to download it....I can't imagine how lost I would get in trying to actually use the product. Summary and Connection:
Online communication is a practice I am going to adhere to the fullest of my abilities and to the extent at which my students are participating in. Teacher and classroom websites, blogs, discussion boards, email, and instant messages are all great tools to get the digital student involved in academics outside the classroom, which I feel is very important. Whether it be synchronous or asynchronous communications I feel an electronic correspondence between the instructor and student can be vital in a student's academic growth. Creating a place for students to learn classroom material outside the classroom and creating an online dialog with the students displays the teachers hard work and communion with the student and a student's willingness and enthusiasm for knowledge. The eighth chapter of Transforming Learning with New Technologies was a very informative portion of the book on a subject I find will be crucial to my teaching career. I especially like the idea of publishing students work online on the classroom website. A great way to encourage to students to do their best and see their hard work pay off.
Resources: Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B. P. (2010). Transforming learning with new technologies. Allyn & Bacon.
As instructional tools, intelligent tutors present topics in a discipline, track a student's performance in achieving correct answers, and then adjust their teaching approach based on the student's learning needs. The use of story, characters, and feedback are the primary ways that intelligent tutors promote inquiry learning and problem solving
Scratch is a programming tool that enables it members, from children to adults, to create games, animations, and other creative projects through a user-friendly interface and a very helpful online community. The website also offers tutorials, examples of completed projects, and a support forum to answer any other questoions a novice like myself might have. The idea behind Scratch is the belief that young children can enhance their computer literacy and general knowledge by creating personalized computer programs, games, and animations. Scratch is very cool program that can provide children and adults with hours of creative fun and learning but does require a fair amount of time and practice to grasp the basics of the program.
Chapter 7 of Transforming Learning with New Technologies was a very informative chapter about the benefits of educational software, programs, and games. The chapter gave great suggestions on which software programs offer free and comparable alternatives and what to look for when choosing educational games for children. Low quality programs will control the child as opposed to the child controlling the program, promote competition, stereotyping, or violence, and the program will favor quick reactions over long term thinking. The chapter also suggested to avoid games that teach isolated skills; games that only ask specific questions to one topic instead of a wide array of problems that encompass multiple subjects. Chapter 7 also provided great questions to ask oneself and an informative rubric to use when determining the quality of educational games. It also explained the importance of "digital writing" for educators who must know how to effectively communicate using websites, email, instant messaging, and blogs. One thing that I am taking away from this book is the surprising high quality of writing. There is at least one quote per chapter that I feel will help me immensely as I become an educator myself. "Does the child program the computer or will the computer program the child?" is one such quote.
Resources: Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B. P. (2010). Transforming learning with new technologies. Allyn & Bacon.
Information management is the process of organizing, storing, and administering academic materials and curriculum resources. This includes bookmarking websites, file management and organization, and creating personal school websites. Digital content is academic information that is delivered using Internet technologies. This includes every type of media that is accessed using the Internet.
Diigo is an effective tool for saving and storing anything that is found on the Internet. As someone who prefers saving to files and file organization Diigo is a nice tool to utilize for quickly bookmarking and highlighting websites. The tutorial is short to learn the basics of Diigo but there are add-ons as well that can be used for the more advanced Diigo-er. Drawbacks to Diigo and other website file organizers are having to access the website for saved files and folders and the fact that anyone can access those saved files and folders if they are using your computer or laptop. I prefer to have a minimal amount of websites open at any given time and anything that I save to have an element of privacy. Diigo seems as though it could offer quite a bit, downloading add-ons and possibly upgrading to premium might help, but website organization is not how I prefer to save information, images, and movies found on the Internet. I like my pictures of cats in the cat file and my movies of....movies in the movies file.
Summary and Connection: Chapter 6 of Transforming Learning with New Technologies was a breath of fresh air after reading the drivel that was chapter 5. The chapter offered a great deal of useful information (e.g. how important Internet organization is and will be for a future educator), a wide variety of websites to discover (e.g. proquest.com, readwritethink.com, and student-to-expert communication websites) and explained just how useful social-bookmarking and teacher websites can be for the parents and students. Chapter 6 also had a great line that really explains the joy of teaching, "gaining new knowledge and communicating it to others". "Teaching with Educational Websites and Other Online Resources" was a very informative chapter and something that I was hoping most chapters would be similar to; educational information and how it can be utilized using technology.
Food For Blog:
In 2002 five exabytes of information,which is equivalent to 37,000 libraries the size of the Library of Congress, was added to the Internet
Annually each individual in North America consumes 11,916 sheets of paper.
Seems to me that paper could be superfluous at this point but for some reason is still in use. At what point will we realized paper is better utilized in trees and information is better accessible in digital format. Can someone please inform the text book industry?
Resources: Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B. P. (2010). Transforming learning with new technologies. Allyn & Bacon.
There are many reliable search engines available but none so efficient as Google, or as useless as Bing. Google uses a system of ranking web pages by keywords, popularity, and cross-listing with other sites. Search resources can specifically provide age-appropriate information and valuable scholarly information for students of any grade level. Being able to evaluate web pages for authenticity or bias is also a very important responsibility that students need to be aware of.
Searching the internet involves three search strategies:
Free Text
Keyword/Exact Match
Boolean (and/or/not)
Tech Tool: Librivox
Librivox is a website that offers thousands of free audio books read by volunteers across the world and podcasts that review and discuss book, poetry, and music. Being as the audio books are free and the readers are volunteers, which often means the quality is less than professional, there is really nothing to complain about. I have used this website in the past and have been able to download Russian Classics to help me fall asleep at night and been able to download children's books and fables for my little ones. Unfortunately, if you are searching for a specific author the name needs to be spelled correctly, which is difficult with Russian names, or else there will be no results. Browsing the catalog is fun and discovering that hard to find book is rewarding but the catalog is expansive so the search might take some time. Librivox is a good website that offers free audio books but there is room for improvement and I would assume more funding is probably needed.
Summary and Connection
Chapter 5 of Transforming Learning With New Technologies was comparably less interesting than the other four chapters of the text book. The information on how to properly search the Internet is very important and plagiarism is a very serious issue in schools today, both topics covered in the text, but most of the information was already known and the authors seemed they were just getting this information out of the way. Wikipedia is a great website for information and resources but college students must already know to take it's information with a grain of salt and to not use for research purposes. The chapter did have some useful information, specifically there lists of search engines/data bases and search resources for children but all in all the chapter seemed a little lacking.
Resources: Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B. P. (2010). Transforming learning with new technologies. Allyn & Bacon.
Teachers must be prepared to utilize the technology they already have in their classroom. Whether those classrooms are up-to-date and the teacher and students have the ability to use high-speed WiFi on their personal, touch screen tablets or out-dated computers with pre-programmed, out-dated software all technologies should be used to its fullest abilities. Smart boards are very impressive but even a single computer connected to a digital projector can be beneficial to holding a student's attention. Personal computers with powerful processors and intense graphics are incredible but watching a short documentary on an old tube television and VCR then creating a group activity revoloved around the program that was watched could be just as engaging.
Tech Tool: Edutopia
Simply put, I was hugely impressed with Edutopia. The amount of extremely useful resources that are made available were staggering. The video An Introduction to a Project-Based learning was inspiring and intriguing and the the video Collaborative Learning Builds Deeper Understanding showed the many benefits to group work. The message board on teaching Social Studies was right up my alley and very interesting to read. Just being able to watch extremely talented teachers do what they do best was great fun to watch. Edutopia was a wonderful website to visit with endless information and ideas on teaching and somewhere I could see myself visiting very often.
Summary and Connection:
Chapter Four of Transforming Learning With New Technologies
by Maloy, R.W., Verock-‐O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf,
B. P had great information on how teachers can integrate technology into the classroom and their professional career. "Teacher Mindset" was an interesting subject that states how instructors must understand how technology can enable students to find success in the classroom and how technology should be seen as an essential tool to enhance the curriculum but not be totally controlled by it. Technology should been seen as seasoning to enhance the flavor of the lesson plan not as the main course. The text book asks, "What can teachers and students do with technology that can not be done with out it", and I believe our teaching method when partnered with technology should reflect this question. The text book has great information how technology can be utilized in the classroom to best present academic material and create interactive learning but also how technology can be used to complete administrative tasks (e.g. email, networking, grade and attendance record keeping).
How Technology Can Enhance a Student's Learning Experience
Amplify the learner's thinking and transcend the limitations of the mind.
Engage and facilitate cognitive processing
Serve as critical thinking devices
Act as intellectual partners
Engage learners in representing, manipulating, and reflecting on what they know, not reproducing what someone tells them.
Food For Blog:Students who do not have the same level of access to computers and high-speed internet as their peers in school will often times participate in class far less and fall far behind in terms of skills and competencies with technology. A chilling fact that will no doubt increase the gap between successful students who have the privilege of having permanent access to the latest advances in technology and those who do not and suffer academically for it. Maloy, R. W., Verock-O, R. E., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf, B. P. (2010). Transforming learning with new technologies. Allyn & Bacon.
Focus Question:How can teachers evaluate and assess their students? For the majority of teachers, tests, quizzes, work sheets, and writing assignments are used to assess the performance of their students. In terms of tests there are norm-referenced tests, which compare a students performance to other students of the same demographic and criterion-referenced tests, which compare a student's performance to a set of specific objectives or standards. Within these parameters there are also standard-based assessments that measures a student's performance in terms of national, state, or local standards, almost always from standardized testing, and instructionally supportive assessment that involves the use of multiple forms of evaluation data, participation, timeliness of finished assignments, portfolios, and rubric completion and adherence to enable a teacher assess the progress of the students.
Tech Tool:
I have always been an advocate to end the unfair and biased use of standardized tests that are used throughout the country. FairTest is an advocacy group that works to do just that: "...end the misuses and flaws of standardized testing and to ensure that
evaluation of students, teachers and schools is fair, open, valid and
educationally beneficial." The website fairtest.org is an unbelievable source for information on the disadvantages of using standardized tests and how harmful they could be to measure a students development and a teacher's assessment . The website explains just how to fight standardized tests and great information on why standardized tests are wrong and ineffective. The website offers many articles and newsletters that reference countless amounts of evidence that prove the abuses of using standardized tests to determine a student's progress a teacher's evaluation. FairTest states their mission perfectly, "We place special emphasis on eliminating the racial, class, gender, and
cultural barriers to equal opportunity posed by standardized tests, and
preventing their damage to the quality of education."
Summary and Connection:
Chapter three of Transforming Learning With New Technologies
by Maloy, R.W., Verock-‐O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf,
B. P was nice break from the overload of information that the first two chapters provided. The chapter clearly stated what a lesson development was and what exactly goes in to creating a lesson plan. The chapter explained the many methods uses to evaluate a student's progress and development and the advantages and disadvantages of each method. the chapter was easy to read and straight to the point. I was pleased that the text appeared to sided with the belief that standardized tests were harmful if not at least ineffective. One statement the chapter made that stuck with me was that "teachers will teach how they were taught". It was interesting to think about how I can personally break away from the lecture dominated lessons I was taught with and bring more discussion and creative thinking into my teaching technique.
To access information using technology students use internet sites such
as official government, university, museum, and online encyclopedia
websites to access unlimited information. Search engines guide students
to the information they are pursuing and offer countless websites for
the students to choose from. Students can also use CD-ROMs and DVDs to
educate themselves on the infinite amount of subject matter that these
discs can offer. To assess the information that is found students can
primarily reference the information only from .org or .edu websites or
the students can check the references that are posted on other privately
developed websites.
H-Bot is an online tool created
by the people at Center for History and New Media at the University at
Mason University. This tool encourages it users to ask a who, what, or
when question into the space provided and H-Bot will answer it within
seconds. The answer that is provided is general, sometimes to the point
of it being useless, but if general information is all that the user is
seeking then the website is very useful. The Center for History and New
Media does however have it's own website that offers information in
archival form where information is in abundance and plentiful. H-Bot is a
great tool to play around with but really begs to be developed more,
with more information accessible and a higher artificial intelligence.
Summary and Connection:
Chapter two of Transforming Learning With New Technologies
by Maloy, R.W., Verock-‐O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S. A., & Woolf,
B. P was another chapter stocked to the brim with information on
different teaching techniques and how to apply those techniques using
technology. Last semester I took Introduction to Teaching and recognized
the teaching philosophies listed in this chapter and remembered a
couple more, e.g. Progressivism and Essentialism. The chapter really
reinforced my belief that students will learn best when the students are
most involved in the direction of the class. A student-centered class
help students learn through assembling knowledge within groups or
discussions and helps the students discover information and how it
intertwines with other questions and obstacles. Expanding the curriculum
to include active learning, creative problem solving, and reflection
and experiences also helps the students broaden their minds. The chapter
also focused on the benefits of multi-media education as opposed to the
flat and static text on paper that is used in the classroom books
today. The idea to integrate music and podcasts with panoramas, time
series graphs, and high resolution images and connect them in two and
three dimensional space is ground breaking. To "recreate the past, view
the present, and envision the future" a teacher must use the best
technology has to offer to better engage the student through this
journey.
Food For Blog:
It
is understood that almost all information that is gathered for research
purposes is found on the internet. Everyone from 2nd grade students to a
Professor pursuing a Doctorate Degree is using the internet to obtain
information. But is this information reliable? A study conducted by
Teaching Internet Comprehension to Adolescents (TICA) found that fewer
than 10% of students in 7th grade checked the accuracy of the
information they found on the internet. If information is power is it
any wonder why our education has become our weakness?
