Reflection- Inquiry Wiki

I put a considerable amount of effort into my technology inquiry wiki. Although I could have put more effort into working on it throughout the semester over the past few weeks I have been working on it semi regularly. I think that the value of completing my wiki is less than the value of everyone completing their wikis as a whole. Although mine helped inform me as the the answer to my inquiry question I think the overall resource to access everyone's wiki's in the future will be much more valuable to me as a teacher. Although I wouldn't really assign this exact assignment to my future classrooms, I think that wiki pages in general would be really beneficial. In fact, i learned about this specifically in my inquiry investigation. I found that students are most likely to respond positively to social networking that allows for individuality but group cohesion at the same time. Since wiki's allow students to create their own pages but still be apart of the classroom page I think they would be very beneficial in the classroom. One way that I might implement them would be in a big topic unit study assignment. It would be neat to have a page on the basics of the unit and then branches of the page assigned out to each student to investigate more specific aspects of the unit. For example on a unit of animals there could be groups assigned to pages on the types of animals and then each group member could have their own page on a specific animal as well.  

One way that I think this assignment could be improved upon in future courses would be to have required benchmarks along the way. I think that if i had felt like I was required to be working on the project as our class progressed I would have been more on top of it before the end of the semester. I know you told us we should have been working on it but I admit that I procrastinated anyways. I was also surprised how quickly you graded them and really appreciate it because it lived a big weight off my chest about if I had anything else to do for the semester. Thank you for a wonderful semester Jeff, i truly learned a lot of really helpful technological resources from you and hope to continue learning more in the future.

Final Last never again reflecting on this blog post

Class is OVERRRR and that's really exciting because it means that summer is nearly here. I really enjoyed this class and I'm sad that I wont be learning fun new technology tips and tricks every week from Jeff but I'm positive that my technological horizon has not been reached by a long shot. I really hope to take what i've learned from this class and apply it to my future classroom because I know how much studen't love technology. My thinking about technology hasn't changed too much throughout this course because I've always though it was necessary for teachers to untilize the technologies that were available to them. I still think that there's a lot that can be done in schools to familiarize teachers to the resources that the school has to offer. Obviously this process has begun by exposing perservice teachers to the benefits of using technology to teach. There are a bunch of teachers who, for lack of a better word, are old and resistant to technology because they aren't used to it and the idea of changing the curriculum that they've had for years is scarry or unappealing to them. I think that once this group of teachers retires and the fresh more accepting of technology teachers take their place our school systems will change dramatically. Until then I plan on using, learning and teaching others about things that our technological world has to offer.

Reflection- Podcast

I always thought that in order to create a podcast you had to have all kinds of expensive tools and lots of sound editing skills. After creating one, however, i realize that anyone with a microphone can make one easily and fairly quickly. In fact I spent the majority of my time working on the script for my pod cast and hardly any time actually  putting it together. I think podcasting would be an effective tool for a classroom because it's a very creative and fun way for students to explore various topics. I think an assignment involving podcasting could be for just about any subject whether it be creating a story, reporting on a recent news event,  or exploring a science topic. I think students would really enjoy creating podcasts because they could show off what they learned to their peers with a presentation of all the podcasts that the class made.

I think there are other ways podcasts could be beneficial in a classroom as well. It would be pretty easy to make announcements to parents via podcast that are a lot more personal than an e-mail or a letter home. Also, it would be a good way for teachers to post their lectures online so that students who missed class could have access to the material. This may be more beneficial for older students but it's similar to the e-learning tool that several classes at UF have. I'm sure teachers spend a significant amount of time trying to get students who miss class caught up where as a podcast of the day would be a fairly easy homework assignment that could be posted hours after a schhol day is over.

inquiry question information

for the best practices I should focus on what are the best ways to use social networking sites to promote collaborative learning in the classroom. It's a synthesis of the sources we've found and the tools we've discovered and how they will be used to answer our inquiry question. Most important part of the paper.

Paragraphs are fine but a bulleted list would work as well. It doesn't have to be written like a traditional resource paper and wikis traditionally are not that way. organize it in a way that makes sense. Just make sure the information is conveyed in a way that I want them to be shown.


Additional Resources: websites that list resources, If reader wants to learn more where can they go to find more information, best sources, could come from formal/informal sources but they shouldn't be the same list. Just the best ones.


Informal: Teacher blog, something from a website, podcast. Not formal b/c there's no peer review or review process
Formal resources: scholarly sources found in articles, journals, etc.

Screencasting:
use jing

30 seconds on introduction
no more than a minute on additional resources
bulk of presentation on best practices

Exit Slip #10 - What did I take away from class today

We learned about some pretty cool things today. I liked working with the clickers but Sarah and I had covered most of the information about them that we covered when we were doing our chapter presentation at the start of the semester. I bookmarked a ton of things in my delicious account. I'm glad we set those up. It's obvious that using it thoughtfully will result in me becoming a better teacher in the end because of all the handy and FREE resources that we store on it. I liked the cool tool presentations also today especially wordle because it let me create a word cloud of whatever I want. I saved my picture to drunken llama but here it is

Pretty neat. Amanda's presentation was very entertaining but she's always pretty entertaining. Then we learned about stopmotion animation and worked on our awesome animation project together.

Chapter 10- A reflection

Chapter 10 “assessing meaningful learning with technology” is about how technology can be a means of conducting learner assessment. I feel that I’ve experienced a lot of technological assessment since I’ve been in school but this chapter did introduce me to a few that I never really had thought of before. The chapter emphasizes that technology can allow teachers to assess more frequently and provide more and better feedback to learners to improve their performance. I like this idea about assessing more frequently although I don’t think traditional ways of assessment, or tests, should be more frequent but rather an overall process of gathering and analyzing data to determine if the students have achieved the learning outcome that was desired.

From reading this chapter I have definitely learned that assessment in school is not an option. It's something that has been occurring since schools first started but since the big hype over standardized tests has started assessment has gotten a very bad wrap in school systems. For a parent, teacher or student to say that assessment is bad would be foolish. There are better ways to administer assessments though than the traditional way. This chapter offered ideas for assessing what students know using different applications of technology. All of them were given with the potential to harness meaningful learning. Perhaps more important than this, however, was the fact that these ideas are meant to provide a window into discovering what learners really know while providing rich information that can be organized into meaningful feedback to learners that can improve performance. I agree with the chapter that this type of assessment would be much more beneficial for students in the long run because it assesses long-term information rather than how well they can memorize in order to pass.

Exit Slip #9 What did I take away from class today

-Jeff looks funny in animation
-the chapter presentation gave me some great resources for my math class and future classroom.
-you can use your ipod to cheat! Why that never occured to me before I have no idea. in 7th grade my friend Lindsay would listen to the radio on her walkman by putting the headphone up the sleeve of her sweater and then leaning her head onto her hand. I bet this would be effective to listening to a podcast will all the information to a test also.
-e-mail etiquette is something that has to be covered at some point or everyone will start writing e-mails with lol's, omg's and wuts up in them.
-twiddla has a fun sandbox tool that lets us draw to one another
-live mocha is an interactive language learning website
- Inquiry question is looming over me. I need to get to work on that

Chapter 9 Reflection

Chapter 9 "visualizing with technologies" is a presentation of five kinds of visualization tools: digital cameras and mobile phones, video productions, video modeling and feedback. I can see myself using many of these tools in my future classroom. Since i want to teach high school biology I think that programs like McSpartan would be especially beneficial for my students. This program enables learners to visualize molecules using five different representations but it is also very interactive because it also enables the student to test different bonds to create ions and new molecules. This type of program could help foster understanding of chemistry among students who many not be able to grasp it otherwise since it is such an abstract subject and idea. The chapter also discusses various ways to visualize mathematical ideas with technologies which i can imagine being very helpful for all students, not just students with difficulties in math. I was fortunate enough to have a graphing calculator in school and this allowed me to visualize the complex formulas and problems we were working with in math. I believe the fact that graphing calculators have a positive influence ons students understanding of math because i experienced this. This book has an overlaying point that any technology can become a powerful learning tool when students are critical users and producers rather than consumers. It's apparent to me that technology can function as visual protheses and I hope to foster all of the ones available to me in my classroom to their fullest extent in order to benefit my students as much as possible.

Exit Slip #8- What we did in Class today

*Feed bag- It's hard to stay up to date on the newest technology information but putting the feedbag right in our face on the course website is a great way to keep us informed. I find it's easy to get lost in blogs going from one to the other but it's a matter of getting to them to get involved.
*Sites from chapter 8- see delicious account
*Construtionism isn't a word
*Jeff can giggle like a little girl
*Symbaloo- good to present multiple links
*What might be a barrier for us may not be a barrier for others
*Senate Bill 6- they obviously don't want teachers in florida
*You need a mac to use garage band, unfortunately
*Royalty free music rocks
*when you're comparing 2 programs and 1 is uglier than the other, present the ugly one first

Chapter 8- A reflection

Chapter 8 “designing with technologies” is about the 4 contexts where meaningful learning in traditional subject areas can be enhanced with the use of design activities that are made more effective through learning technologies. These cases of designing with technologies include: drawing design ideas with computer-aided design software, testing and designs and building mental models with simulation software, developing programming skills while designing in the media arts, and designing music with composition software. The chapter discusses a few tools such as pro desktops and sketch up that appear to be useful for design, however, I’m having trouble thinking of ways to use them in the classroom. I do think that the simulation software discussed in the chapter would be interesting for students to experiment with, especially during science instruction. These programs “help students build casual links and explanations of how the systems work and how elements within systems interact with one another”.
The chapter also has a lot of useful technology recommendations of art and music classes. I think these can be linked to math as well since math is a major part of these subjects. The program Improptu keeps a running log of children’s log of their precess of designing music so that they can participate in a “reflective practice”. I feel that this reflection process is important and helps students develop compositions that are planned and well thought out.
This chapter helped introduce me to the idea of developing composition skills and writing literacy as a mission for all subjects in school. Design is a tool that can give an added measure of meaning to work done in the classroom. The tools discussed in the chapter will help in building transferable concepts and skills and a joy of learning and creating in students.

Exit Slip #7- What did I take away from class today?

-Epals- an online asynchronous discussion board that’s free for teachers to use to communicate with other teachers and students around the world
-I don’t like in-class homework
-NCLB is also called ESEA
-Using texting to ask a teacher to repeat something or to ask a question in a class of 400 students is a GREAT idea!
-Podcasts can be varying lengths
-It stinks when you need a mac to use cool things like garage band but audacity seems like a very easy to use program and I’m looking forward to getting involved in it. Luckily I catch on to programs like this fairly easily.

Kathleen and Loren's Prentation assignment

Podcasting
+ Anyone can make one, free, supposedly easy to use
- Could have inaccurate information, be biased or inappropriate
Video Conferencing
+ Gives you access to people that you would normally not be able to communicate with because of distance
- Could be abused by students to talk to bad people
Discussion Boards
+ Allows students to communicate with other students around the world
- Could be distracting in class
Instant Messaging
+ Fast connection between people
- Students may not know proper internet manners

Chapter 7

Chapter 6 is about ways that technology devices and internet resources can assist in the formation of collaborative work of communities. I got excited when I realized what the chapter was about because it is essentially what my inquiry question is about. It’s been obvious to me for a while now that the internet has become more than just a place to find information but rather a way to communicate with people all over the world as well as to receive information from these people and others. I have a lot of relatives and friends that insist that technology is reducing the meaning of relationships because nobody meets face to face anymore. I think the opposite of this is true though and feel that technology is facilitating the means for connecting us and increasing the opportunity for building relationships and social exchanges with one another.


As a future teacher I plan to use a lot of what this chapter discusses. I particularly liked the point the chapter made about how people often think differently. Although I feel class discussions are important and helpful in developing student learning I also think online ones would be beneficial as well. Obviously some people have a higher level of verbal intelligence than others and an online discussion would give everyone the time to reflect on an argument before carefully presenting it to others.

I spent a little bit of time going through the various technologies discussed in the chapter, some of which I was already familiar with, and especially liked the chart on page 158 about the videoconferencing ideas and examples. The list contained a lot of ideas that I had never thought of before such as town hall meetings or the idea of “a remote teacher or student role playing a historical or literary figure, sharing a special experience with a larger audience”. What a fun idea! I also look forward to creating a podcast after reading about them in the chapter. The idea of podcasting, where anyone can become an independent producer and distributor of audio and video content that can be offered worldwide, is very exciting to me because it gives teachers open access to hundreds of thousands of podcasts that they can use to help their students better learn in their classes. I have to remember to triangulate the information found in the podcasts before presenting them to the class since anyone can make one though.

Chapter 6 Reflection

Chapter 6 "

Exit Slip #6- What did I take away from class today?

Today I leave with
-More information on wikis and blogs
-A new outlook on social networking websites for kids
-The fact that Jeff watches 16 and pregnant
-More confidence in presenting
-Loving the idea of never using a flashcard again because I have my ipod
-A new group with a great idea about using a Llama to represent endangered animals in our stop motion animation

Chapter 5 - Reflection

Chapter 5 "Modeling with Technologies" is about using computers as mindtools for building models of meaning. I thought the chapter was a little less interesting than previous ones but informative none the less. I can't say that using mindtools to engage different kinds of thinking is a relatively new idea for me nor is the fact that simple computer recall questions aren't the most effective teaching tools. One thing that I did discover while reading this chapter though is that constructing technology mediated models is among the most conceptually engaging tasks that students can undertake. I find this incredibly encouraging because although I feel that technology is often encouraged to be explored and used in the classroom, i've heard very little debate about how technology is needed in the classroom in order to provide conceptually engaging activities. I bet that there will be a dramatic increase in studies surrounding the positive, and probably negative effects, that technology is having on our students. This thought caused me to wonder about how behind or advanced america is in regard to other countries use of technology in the classroom. I know our nation has been struggling at the bottom of the education list despite our high rank as an advanced first world country. I wonder if this development in education could be what we need to catch up to the higher ranked education countries. I look forward to hearing more about this in the future.

Exit Slip #5- What did I take away from class today?

- Information about when to ask for a letter of recommendation
- Prezi presentations can look like gloster one but with movement
- Wolfquest sounds like a really awesome game to use in class
- My delicious account will be really helpful to me if i use it appropriately and regularly. I have a feeling it would be easy to just let it go though so i'm going to try hard to maintain it.

Reflection- Chapter 3

For some reason my original posting of this reflection did not work on my learning log. That reflection was due over two weeks ago but I assumed doing something was rather than nothing. Also I foolishly did not save the original reflection from that week but rather just copied and pasted it from a word document to the blog website. This is the revised version of my reflection but many of my points will hopefully be the same, if not better, as before.

Chapter 3, Experimenting with technologies, is about how students can investigate or examine various technology in order to become proficient or able to use them effectively. Some of the types of technology discussed in this chapter include microworlds, simulations, video games and virtual worlds. I think I would definitely consider using some of the components of each of these types of technology in my future classroom although I would carefully consider the sources before implementing them. Although I am not certain which grade level I plan on teaching I would definitely have to take that into consideration before exposing my students to things such as various virtual worlds or video games. The video games we were shown in class involving Darfur and third world farmers were incredibly graphic or emotionally disturbing and would not be appropriate for elementary aged students. There are many games and simulations that would be beneficial for students though including types of simulations that can not be replicated in a classroom like ones that are expensive, dangerous or take too long to complete. One downside to these types of simulations though is that students may come to believe that every simulation they are shown online is accurate. This may not always be the case and hopefully students will learn from my teaching of credibility and accuracy (as discussed in chapter 2) will help students to understand that everything they learn online must be confirmed with triangulated sources. I may even try and prove to student’s that the information I show them from online is correct by showing how I triangulated sources every time I present to them online material. Regardless of age though I do feel that there are many types of technology that can be successfully implemented in the classroom and that it is simply up to teachers to research which ones work best and to ensure that the information and activities used by student’s are instruction is safe and accurate.

Reflection- Chapter 4

Chapter 4, supporting writing with Technology, is about how technological tools can be used to support both individual and collaborative writing. One of the tools discussed in the chapter was concept maps. Fortunately I have had an opportunity to work with digital concept maps this semester already. The program we used was called CMAP and was surprisingly easy to use to create a concept map with. I think I will definitely use this type of technology in my classroom to promote writing because concept maps can help students to organize their information both individually and collaboratively in an easy to see kind of way.

A topic I thought was interesting in the chapter was how technology can support creative writing. I have seen how the promise of publishing has helped to motivate students to write and I can only imagine how something such as a class website where everyone can be published would help in encouraging students to want to expand their creative writing minds. I love the idea of this and definitely plan on using it in my classroom for any subject that I end of teaching because students definitely deserve to feel that their work is more than just words on a page. I would of course have to take into account the type of student that would not want their work published and although I would try and persuade them to share their work with the world I certainly would not want to do something that they do not want me to do since it is their work after all. I think a way to overcome this type of resistance would be to begin the publishing by selecting a piece that was written by a student that does want to be published. Hopefully the excitement that this student brings to the idea of being published would help persuade others to want to be as well. Making publishing a reward for hard work could also be a way to help intrinsically motivate students as well.

Exit Slip #4 - What did I take away from class today?

Today we saw several more digital autobiographies. It was nice to have a change in music. Then Tassie and Marissa presented their Chapter 3 project. I liked the way they presented using glogster. I didn't realize you could use it that way and I think I'll give it a try in the future. The add they showed us for sim city made me want to go and buy it. I'm excited about my inquiry project because I'm interested in finding out about how i can safely use social networking in my classroom. I am a little nervous about the final project presentation but I know I'll be fine. I'm really enjoying working on scratch. I learned how to use the broadcast button today which will make my project a lot smoother and I just learned variable too which is also really helpful. I think i'm going to be very proud of my scratch project by the time i'm done.

Exit Slip #3- What did i take away from class today?

Today I learned more about Racheal, Marissa, Tassie and Kelsey in their digital autobiographies. Then Tiffany and I presented chapter 2 which went really well. I need to work on slowing down when I am presenting information but other than that I think I did great. We came up with our inquiry questions and it became obvious to me that getting the input of 17 other people really helped to reassure me that I choose a good one. Scratch seems like it will be something I look back on and say "why did I think this was going to be so hard?". Right now it seems a little over whelming though. My character got stuck upside down at one point and then i accidentally deleted it. I plan on watching the resources in order to become better acquainted with the program.

Inquiry Question

How can teachers use social networking communities (SNCs) to promote cooperative learning?

Chapter 2 Prezi Presentation

Prezi Presentation

Visit these web sites and then answer the following questions:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Link 4

Link 5

1)Who is providing the information? Why?

2)Does the site author have an authority in that field?

3)Is it clear when the site was developed and last updated?

4)Are there references used? Are they used with correct citations? Are they credible?

5)Is someone trying to sell a product or point of view?

6)What kind of site did it come from?

7)Is the language used inflammatory or extreme?

8)Is this a credible website?

Reflection- Chapter 2

Chapter 2 is the chapter that Tiffany and I will be presenting on so I feel that I learned quite a bit more from it than I would from a typical chapter I read in a text book. This is most likely because I’m only comfortable presenting something if I feel prepared, therefore I prepare myself for presentations fairly well. Basically this chapter was about how teachers should utilize the resources now available in their classrooms in order to promote effective, reflective, comprehensive learning with technology.

One of the biggest points in the chapter was about how to get students to successfully complete intentional information searching. According to the book students must first plan, use strategies to search, evaluate and triangulate sources in order to become competent in using the internet for information searches. I never really thought about having a lesson to teach students how to do research on line but it makes sense to me that this is a very important thing that must happen. There are so many crazy websites on the internet that I could see a naïve student being fooled into believing an outrageous accusation or simply an incorrect fact. Teaching students how to differentiate between credible and non credible sites will help them not only when doing research but in real life as well. Just as you shouldn’t believe everything you read on the internet, you shouldn’t believe everything people tell you. I feel that a strong background in checking and double checking facts and information will provide for a smarter, less gullible, future generation of students.

I’m not really sure how I feel about the idea of firewalls. Although I know there are many offensive, inappropriate websites out there I also agree that we are not “protecting” students form them by blocking them. We are, however, helping them realize that they shouldn’t be trying to get to them in places like school or the library. Maybe it would be a good idea to have a type of firewall that is given on a punishment basis. Provide full access to the internet for all students. When a student is caught breaking a rule then turn on the firewall for that particular student’s account. I can see how this would be an issue though since it would require each student having their own account and password although I foresee this happing in most schools in the future anyways.

Reflection- Digital Book Talk

I put quite a bit of effort into this digital book talk project. My first decision I had to make was which book to choose. I considered using an older children’s book because I hope to teach an older grade but I had a lot of difficulty coming up with ways to present a book digitally that didn’t have any pictures. This caused me to switch over to a children’s picture book for lack of a better reason than feeling like it would be easier to work with. I laid out all my books on my bed and slowly ruled them out one at a time until I was left with 2, The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash and Hey Al . Most of my books are from when I was a child and I treasure each one. I went with The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash because I felt that Hey Al was a little too strange of a book for me to be able to describe in 45 seconds.

This task gave me some more experience working with video makers, Windows Movie Maker to be more specific. I feel this is a valuable skill to have because it could help me in the future to create valuable lessons that I will be able to use in my classroom. These types of lessons could be helpful for my students because they will provide them with differentiated instruction. Using various mediums to teach helps to keep instruction more interesting and I feel that movies are a great way to mix it up. Also, the more I use these types of media creators the better I will become at making videos and the more I will learn about how to make the videos interesting and effective In a classroom.

Overall I enjoyed doing this project. It was surprisingly easy to use the Windows movie maker and I would be more than willing to try and use a different type of movie maker some time as well. I can already tell that I’m going to like doing most of the projects for this class and I look forward to learning about what it is we will be doing this week. One thing I didn’t like about my book talk was that I couldn’t figure out a way to use a music file as well as my audio file. I think I may have recorded my voice in the wrong file type and that’s why the program wouldn’t let me use more than one audio file at a time. If I had figured out a way to add music to the background of my digital book talk I would have been a little more satisfied with it. Other than that little bit, however, I felt that the book talk project went very well and I am happy with my work.

Reflection- Credibitily of Websites

I probably do not think about the authenticity of the websites I view often enough. To be honest though, I typically do not have a lot riding on the information I collect from the ones that I should be doubting more than I am. However, I do usually take websites with endings like .gov or .edu as more reliable than ones that end in .com and any information that I collect for things like school work or research I usually take from peer reviewed articles or authentic websites. I could not really think of a list of things I do to make sure a website is authentic so I did a little research by simply typing in “checking website authenticity” into a google search bar and thousands of pages came up. One such page was a yahoo answers page in which a person asked “How can I found out if a website is credible and accurate?” (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071212122051AAD1B7x). As unimpressive as the grammar and wording in the question was, yahoo user “liz t” received half a dozen responses to the question. One response that I particularly liked that I think I would use to help teach young learners about evaluating websites for credibility is for them to ask themselves the following questions:

1) Are there none or only a few advertisements?
2) Has the author of the article/webpage famous/heard of/reliable? Does the author have experience?
3) Is grammar and spelling correct?
4) Do they list sources or links to support this? Do they provide any follow-up websites for more info?

Even though these questions will help students determine whether or not a website is credible I feel that the most important thing that students can do to determine if a website is credible is to use their common sense when reading the information given to them. Taking the websites given to us, for example, a Northwest Tree Octopus is ridiculous. Also, checking facts against other reliable resources is a very important step for all students to take. I imagine we’ll be covering more on this in class because I feel like I should know more about it. I don’t really consider myself a fool for fake information and I even question information given to me from sources other than the internet such as magazines or conversation. One thing that is extremely convenient about the internet is that you can check the information you find against other websites with just a few clicks where as before the internet this process was much longer and more difficult to do.

Exit Slip #2- What did I take away from class today?

So today I decided to start taking down notes of things I thought were interesting. I easily forget information that I feel I should remember but oddly enough I always remember that there was something I didn't want to forget. It's a terribly frustrating feeling knowing you once knew something but not knowing what it was you knew...anyway, here are the notes I took and things I'm thinking about them now:

NOTES
Kindle in every backpack- replacing textbooks
Texas and California leading the way
-It would be so cool if i could have access to every textbook i've ever used. I do think there would be some sort of time limit on accessing certain books although book companies could just come up with newer editions and sell those.

Kidsonline video-
Kids are engaged in different ways
Instruction about how to use the Internet appropriately
Line computers up along outside walls
Kids find ways around firewalls- know your students and teach them to have online edict rather than being responsive-cyber ethics, cyber safety
Club penguin- online dangers start earlier than most think

Clicker-audience response systems
Spelling test via clicker
-I hope to be lucky enough to have this sort of class interaction tool. I'd want to ask all sorts of questions from my students. I would either keep the fact that i know who answers what to each question a secret or I would find a way to make submissions anonymous so that I could ask more sensitive questions. This way students would not answer how they think I would want them to but rather how they really feel.

Reflection- Preface and Chapter 1

I think it’s amazing how much our classes seem to be overlapping in regards to how education In Florida has changed to be directed toward “teaching to the test”. It makes sense to me that technology is no exception to this sad reality. However, there’s no avoiding the fact that standardized tests have a lot of power in our current school systems. Rather than resisting this though many of our textbooks, including this one, are coming up with creative ways of incorporating the skill necessary to learn the material required by the standards while at the same time maintaining influential, effective, creative and interesting instruction. I liked the example given in the preface about how to incorporate multiple standards in one lesson. The lesson they gave was obviously a very well thought out plan since it included every standard that had to be met. I hope to be able to use these types of lessons in my classroom because they seem like an effective way to teach the standards but at the same time maintain student interest and creativity.

One section of chapter 1 that I particularly liked was under the constructive (articulative/reflective) attribute. In this section Jonassen et al say that it is essential that “learners articulate what they have accomplished and reflect on their activity and observations to learn the lessons that their activity has to teach”. Earlier today I was complaining to a coworker about having to reflect on everything we do in this class. My coworker thoughtfully paused and then told me how she wished she was made to make time for reflection of each of her assignments. This really hit home for me and made me change my opinion right there and then and realize just how much I have taken reflection for granted! I think that I will have my students contribute a similar type of reflection that we are doing following the assignments I give them. Not only so I can see their reaction to the assignments but so that they can benefit from the lessons to the fullest.

I also enjoyed reading the part of the chapter about how technologies foster thinking. It helped me realize that technology use cannot be productive and meaningful if it is taught in the traditional way and that “Students should learn with technologies, not from them”. This statement made sense to me because it would be a waste of time for teachers to spend a year teaching students how to use a particular technology when a new and improved version comes out just about every year. Rather, if we teach our students how to learn technology then they will become much more self sufficient after they’re done with school and thus more likely to succeed.

Reflection- Digital Autobiography

I put about 30 minutes into completing my digital autobiography. I know that time and effort don’t have the biggest correlation though because I’ve spent hours reading and rereading the same page of a book before with little to no effort. For lack of a better way to measure effort, I would say I put about 65% effort into completing this task. I took a few minutes to look at all 4 options that were given to us to create the autobiography. I had used voice thread before and I hate hearing my own voice so I decided against that one. Photoshow seemed like a good enough website and I liked the options for editing each image. Vuvox required a login name and I didn’t want to make an account so I just glanced at the main web page before I decided to not use that program. I ended up choosing Animoto because I was really impressed with the video that Jeff showed us during class and it seemed like the easiest program to work with.

I really liked how Animoto let you upload photos from various locations, including facebook, and I used this feature to choose several photos from the album I had from my trip to Ireland. I think I spent the most amount of time on looking for music to accompany my video. I had an idea that I wanted an Irish drinking song to play with my video but most of the ones I could find online were poor quality. Luckily my mom knows just about every irish drinking song there is and she recommended one that I had learned to play on my violin when I was younger, the Irish Washer Woman. Once the music was picked the program made the video for me and it turned out way better than I expected.

Completing this task was valuable because it introduced me to several video design programs that I had little to no knowledge of before. This alone, I feel, was a beneficial impact on my future teaching because it added to my list of technological resources that I am familiar with. In order to use technology effectively, teachers must have a wide selection of technological resources that they are comfortable using. It’s one thing to know what a program can do but only through experiencing the use of a program can someone truly have competence in using it in instruction. I look forward to using more programs and technologies that I have not used before in this class. I also think that by giving assignments that require us to use these technologies is a great start in becoming fluent in them.

Reflection- Growing Up Online

This wasn’t the first video I’ve seen about how the internet is changing the way kids grow up. We’ve been exposed to several since our first semester in proteach and I’ve seen many TV shows regarding this ever growing issue. The fact that 90% of teenagers have regular access to the internet is not surprising to me and I expect this number to increase by the time I become a teacher. There’s no doubt in my mind that many people feel this is a bad thing but to me, that’s irrelevant. The fact is that kid’s love technology and they’re really great at using it. Therefore, I hope to use this love of the internet, online games, chatting, text messaging and everything else to help my students enjoy learning when in my classroom.

This video didn’t impact my thinking about technology’s role in the lives of young learners all that much because it’s been a hot topic for some time. It did, however, give me some more great ideas about how to incorporate technology into my future classroom. I absolutely love the idea of podcasting lessons so that students can refresh themselves on the material. Also, answering questions via the computer or text message sounds like so much more fun than “raise your hand if you think it’s A”. Also, although the internet has made it easier for students to find sources to plagiarize from, websites like turnitin.com have really helped teacher combat this. My high school teachers used turnitin.com for a majority of our papers and the fear of being caught “in the red zone” really encouraged me to cite my sources and choose my paraphrasing wisely.

The mother in the video hit the nail on the head when she said “online is a continuation of [our kids] existence”. I think it’s really important that parents realize this. Young people love myspace, facebook, youtube and all of the current hot spots on the internet. One thing I don’t understand is why more parents are not taking advantage of this knowledge and using it to achieve whatever it is they’re looking for from their children. Resisting technology is useless and the sooner a person hops on board with the current advances the less behind they will be. Although this type of relationship may not be exactly what some parent’s had in mind, I feel that parents and teachers should embrace what the future generations are interested in because they’re living in the same world and technology is not going away. As the video said, the internet “has created the biggest generation gap since rock and roll” and rock and roll doesn’t seem to be fading any time soon.

New Thinking from Class today

-Game boys are more than just brain rotters, mom
-I have a lot to learn about using technology effectively in my classroom
-I want to check out video podcasts
-In plain english-helpful tool
-Delicious seems useful but use it or lose it
-It's easy to stay awake when you're freezing
-They're not all called smart boards

What is technology’s role in teaching and learning?

Technology plays a crucial role in teaching and learning. Just as teaching practices have evolved throughout time to better assist student’s learning, technology has evolved to do the same thing. Teachers who avoid technology are doing their student’s an injustice. At the same time, however, teachers who are not prepared to use certain technological advances can actually hinder their students success if they try to use them. Wasting time during class to try and “figure out” how a specific technology works is just as bad as showing up to class without the correct class materials. Therefore, teachers should be exposed to technology training and be encouraged to investigate technology on their own. This training will help teachers use technology in a positive way.