PSA Reflection

The PSA was one of the most challenging assignments yet, comparable to using Scratch.  Choosing a subject and writing a script was no problem.  We recorded in one of the library's group study rooms using Courtney's Polaroid camcorder.  It's very similar to a Flip camera, the USB plug pops out of the side and connects directly to the computer.  The most difficult part about video tapping was the sound.  The small room made our voices echo and because the person behind the camera was also the narrator, she had to talk very quietly to get her voice at the same level as the rest of us.  After connected the camera to a Mac computer, we weren't sure how to use iMovie.  It was difficult to figure out how to import a video, or even how to save the video off Courtney's camera onto the computer.  Luckily we were in the computer lab in the library, so we asked one of the lab assistance to help us.  All we could figure out how to do, even with his help, was to add title pages.  We looked into adding music and sound, and couldn't figure out how.  Also, after I uploaded it to Blogger, our voices are very quiet, almost too quiet to even hear with the computer volume turned up all the way. 
If I were to try to make a video in my classroom, I would definitely need to become more experienced in using iMovie.  I see the most potential with this tool in using it as a kinda of assessment for my students, or using it to keep parents up to date on what we are doing in our classroom.  Either way the students would be acting.  I can't see how this technology could be a one-person tool.  I could not be filmed and be holding the camera at the same time.  So, if I wanted to be on the screen to send my students a message, I would need to find someone to help hold the camera. 
Because I do like the idea of using video in my classroom, I will not let my lack of current knowledge on the technology hold me back from using it in my classroom.  I know I will have to explore iMovie's features before I use it, but I like opportunities that it gives students.  For example, if they did create a script and video documenting what they learned on a certain topic I would be confident that they understand the material well since "creating" is on the top of Bloom's Taxonomy of learning. 

Public Service Announcement

Reflection from class 11/18

After the group presentation we revisited some of the ideas about how education is going to change in the future.  One of the ideas that came up was the new three R's of High school education: Relevance, Relationships, Rigor.  However, these characteristics can also define elementary education.  In order to motivate students they need to be able to connect relevance to their material.  Also cross-curriculum relationships are important to foster when planning our my learning structure.  If children can identify relationships between material across a number of different subjects, the probability that they will find it meaningful and remember it will greatly increase.  Lastly, rigor is also important because I think that many elementary schoolers aren't being challenged enough.  Teachers are too often just transmitting knowledge to them instead of challenging them to discover their own.

Idea of learning and school are too closely related.  People assume one applies the other.  But, just because students attend school does not mean they are learning.  Professor Boyer said "I'm in favor of the idea of learning over the idea of school."  Learning should be the focus, the the physical school building.

Attitudes about technology have not changed since they emerged.  When cell phones came out, they were instantly banned, as they still are today.  I understand that personal use of a cell phone in class could be distracting, but now with all the functions of a cell phone, it could actually be a resource for students.  Same with other technologies.  We need to think about what medium we are providing knowledge and if it what this generations students will relate to the best.  Could we provide a more effective mode of learning through technology?  And, wouldn't that better prepare them for their jobs and future learning outside the classroom?

Chpt 10 Rethinking Education

This chapter is interesting because it acts as the conclusion of all we are learning.  Basically, we need to rethink how and what we are teaching in schools in order to make our children successful beyond the classroom.  Since the world around us is constantly changing, why hasn't education?  The introduction makes the case that the U.S. used to be a global leader in the worlds resources.  Now technology brings information across the world, and levels the educational "playing field."  Millions of students have the same information on how to be a successful engineer, doctor, technician, etc.  So how can our students out-compete them in the global job market, especially since the links/communication of technology make it possible to hire a person from across the ocean to do an "American job."  The greatest advantage we can give to students is how their education is structured.  We need to rethink learning.  Learning can be done outside school and we must give our students the resources to learn by themselves.  This allows education to become a live-long process.  Motivating students to continually seek new knowledge through the new available technology will make the successful people beyond my classroom.
The biggest change as an educator will be to rethink what a teacher's role is.  For me, it will be much different than my elementary school teachers, or even the teachers I study with for practicums and student teaching.  I have to create a whole revolutionized job description in order to help this generation's students succeed.  I need to act more as a motivator and empower my students to seek their own information.  I will be a supportive resource and still provide the necessary scaffolding to ensure their success and growing knowledge.  But if I want my students to succeed globally, I must be the leader that reexamines education and it's goals.

Reflection from Presentation

My presentation didn't take as much work to plan as I anticipated.  It took our group about two hours, plus practice time.  I enjoyed using Scribble Link in class and suggested to my group that we utilize that tool in our discussion.  This tool appealed to me because I am more of a visual learner.  So far, the class discussions have all been verbal.  Instead, students who don't usually speak up, will be more willing an less intimidated to share their ideas.  Unfortunately, the links did not work in the classroom five mintues before class started.  We created the pages on Monday, then re-tested them Wednesday, so we could not figure out why the links didn't work on Thursday.  But, luckily we discussed a back up plan on Wednesday just in case, since this was a new tool for us.  So, instead we conducted verbal group discussions like previous groups.  I think our lesson would have been more creative if the links would have worked, but the back up plan still helped our classmates get the main ideas from the chapter. 
This set back will not hold me back from testing new technology in my future classroom.  I will still experiment with new tools and now I understand the importance of a back up plan in case technology fails me.
Since we were not the first group to present, it was less pressure, espeically since the students' discussions make up the majority of the lesson.  The same can be applied in my elementary classroom.  Giving them enough time to discover their own information will allow me to do less prep work and help them more. They will be in charge of designing their own learning.  I must be prepared to guide the discussions, but not totally lead them.  Also, after my first couple of lessons on the first day of teaching, it will get easier to design lessons, just as it was easier because my peers went before I did.

Reflection from class 11/11

Today was my presentation.  Most of the feedback will be on my reflection from my presentation post.  Professor Boyer did add to our last, closing quote.  He asked us whether we were going to be innovative teachers.  Are we striving to fit in, or stving to be the best teacher we can be to benefit the students?  The design of my presentation proves that I am going to try to be an innovative teacher.  We tried a new technology tool, Scriblink.  Also, I keep a list in my notebook of ideas that I could see myself using in my classroom.  When a good idea arises in class, I make sure I remember it by writing it down.  If it is just a gerneral tool, I brainstorm ideas on how to specifically implement it.  For example, a blog can be used by students to document thought in journal form, it can be used to answer a specific homework question, or I can use it to record what we did in class for parents and other educators to access. 

Also, Profressor Boyer shared some more links on the D2L home page, all pertenant education topics dealing with technology/learning or teaching on Wisconsin.  I will read and add these to my delicious account.

After that, we have work day for the rest of the hour.

Chpt 10 What It Means (Blogs...)

The last chapter in Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts was more like a chapter from Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology.  Instead of introducing another new tool for the classroom, this chapter was more of a wrap up, hence the title “What It All Means.”  Similar to our other textbook, it talked about the major changes in the education world is partly due to changing technology and the new possibilities for learning.  It states that the most important aspect of education now is for teachers to examine and use all the knowledge effectively.  There are so many new tools, that all provide a huge variety of information.     Teachers cannot just make all of this technology available.  They must conduct enough research to find the most effective tools for learning for their specific students.  For example, if my class is full of visual learners, I would want to include interactive media via a SMART and photo examples via Flickr.  However, a podcast would not be the most effective method of teaching for these students.  But, as I know, not all my class will have the same learning style.  Technology will allow me to vary my instruction to reiterate a concept in a number of different methods.
Another big idea is that education now has the possibility to be collaborative.  This will prepare students for their future career and teaches teamwork.  However, because information is collected, compiled revised, build upon, etc, students need to be more aware of inaccurate information.  The Internet can be a useful tool for research, but students need to actively review all their information for accuracy.  Also, as I said above, with all the information available, it is unrealistic that students will be memorizing as much anymore.  They have valuable tools available at their fingertips.  Instead we need to teach students how to search, collect information, and evaluate it effectively.  These are some of the new ideas what education is moving toward in order to mesh with modern society.  We need to provide students with a more relevant and applicable education than the only outdated option now.

Chpt 9 Rethinking Technology

This chapter talks about the how the advanced technology will impact learning (positive or negative.)  It gives examples of positive and negative impacts of students learning from technology, currently assuming there is a lack of adult guidance.  Technology can include video/computer games, social networking sites, Internet use, etc.  The chapter asserts that for the first time in history, children know more than their parents on an important aspect of culture.  Adults, including parents and teachers may not understand and consequently cannot provide the proper assistance to young technology users.  Since this area isn't under our direct control, we need to be aware of what students are learning from this aspect of their lives.  After studying the impacts, like problem solving skills, communications skills, violence (and other negative effects from uncensored media) educators need to understand how to utilize this technology in a way to benefit students.  Right now students experience a gap between their reality and school experience.  They are uninterested if they can't find a connection or learn useful lessons that apply to their lives.  In and out of the classroom life should be consistent since the classroom should be preparing students for life after their school years.  It is inevitable that thier lives will be closely intertwined with technology and home and in their future careers.  Right now there are seperate pieces, like interactive learning games, distance learning, learning through socail networking, and many more ideas some teachers have to integrate technology sparatically into a child's education.  However, as educators, we need to be leaders and pull all the pieces together to be consistantly education through updated, relavant technology.  It will give our students an advantage in learning traditional education concepts (math, language, science, etc.) as well as build their experitse in technology tools that will give them an advantage in a global, technology literate job market.

Podcast

This was a surprisingly easy assignment.  I will be more likely to use the quick, simply tools in my future classroom because of limited time.  I anticipate preparing for my lesson plans to consume most of my time, especially in my first year.  I am not going to simply adopt a previous teacher's or goggle "lesson plans" to form my whole curriculum.  I have no problem taking parts from all different sources and compiling the most effective activities and ideas.  But that requires research and critical evaluation, which will take a lot of time.  After a few years, I will have a repertoire of great, effective lessons suited for a variety of learning styles.  But as my class, and their needs change, I must continue to actively critique my lessons.  I want the majority of my time to be devoted to this research and preperation.  Along with grading, assignments, assessments, parent contact, etc, I will not have a lot of time to address "extra" projects.  Podcasting, however, is a quick, painless tool that can update and integrae technology into a traditional lesson.  Even though the information will be still coming from me, the teacher, it will vary my methods of instruction to keep the class engaged.  It is important that the teacher is not the only source of information.  Since this is not me in person speaking, it can act as another source for the students.
Also this tool is easy enough for the students to use themselves.  The class can work individually or collaborate in groups to create a podcast.  This could be a form of assessmet at the end of a unit or be used to report a research porject. 
It would be nice to make a monthly podcast, or even weekly if the class is really interested in it, to chonicle the classes favorite lessons and what they learned.  These could then be posted on a class website or blog and parents, community members, or other educators.  Although these are just a few examples, I can see a lot of possibilites for podcasting and since it is simple to use (I used garageband on a Mac) it will be easy for my to integrate this technology into my classroom frequently.

Chapter 9 Social Networks

This chapter was interesting because it said to consider Facebook for our own personal use instead of using it in the classroom.  It is a great tool to network with other educational professionals.  Many school Internet security filters will not even allow users to access Facebook.  But, I did not get any new insight about Facebook's possibilities since I already am a memeber.  I understand a lot of the networking possibilities from the social site.  Even though that section of the chatper did not provide any new suggestions, I still plan to continue to use the website even as I enter the educational field.  As i already planed to do, I will add fellow educators and be very hesitant to add students.  I am already careful to make sure my profile is very professional and tasteful in everything from posts to pictures.  I keep my profile, information and pictures on the highest privacy settings so others, including my future students cannot "creep" on their teacher. 

I did enjoy reading about the idea of using Ning in the classroom.  I think my students (hopefully grades 2-4) will probably be too young to use the site, but if I get a job in 5th grade or above I think it would be a very appropriate class website.  It can teach the students internet safety, which too often doesn't come from parents.  It can help them learn to effectively use social networking for learning purposes instead of purely social motives.  Students would be more likely to use this technology for out of class learning because it is presented in a format they are familiar with and already use. 

Reflections from class 11/4

Note: Get article off Professor Boyer's twitter (Experimental school gets rid of classes, teachers)
From group disscusion remember to set expations of assignments before people move or start an activity. But the group did a great job with visual aids.  They used a venn diagram to organize the information.  (Sciblink can b used to have everyone organize info at the same time if u share the same link.)

I found the article  about experimental school very interesting.  This idea is school-wide.  But I like the idea so much I think it's possible to use one classroom within a school.  It might not be possibe to structure the whole day in this way since it has to be cohessive with the rest of the school's schedule to a point.  I like the asspect of viewing the teacher as an advisor, much of the information is accessed directly by students, the work-like structure of the classroom, and the length of a subject's study is flexibile. 

We also discussed the iRLO, and I need to see Prof Boyer in order to make it more "reusable" and also help the directions to be followed even while speech bubbles are up.

I need to link my wiki page and finish my annotated bibliography.  Make sure to review the requirements on the week ten lecture.  Also, view a classmate's as example.  For this assignment I would want to organize this the information carfully since it's all on one long page.  Images are accpetable and indenting would help as well.

There are many delicious worthy pages to go through, inculding all of the cool tools. 

Chapt 8 Rethinking Technology

In the introduction that the ideas of customization, interaction, and learner control are driving the revolution of education.  I agree and additionally think that all of these features will be great advantages to students who are products of this new education.  I wish these opportunities would have been or could even be available in my current/past educational experience.  I think it's very contradictory that some university professors do not practice what they teach.  In our education classes we are told to always make things more hands on or have activities to reinforce lecture since auditory is only ONE type of learning style.  However professors teach as though that information doesn't apply to college students.  When has our learning style changed?  Just because we graduated high school doesn't mean we all become auditory learners, excited to sit through long lectures.  The idea of customized, interactive, and learner controlled education applies to every level of education.  I'm not sure what learner wouldn't want any of those three words to describe his/her learning experience.  And, as was the chapter's point, technology can help achieve all of those new objectives.

Also, I really identified with the paragraph on page 113 that talked about not having to completely build the classroom's technology repertoire.  The district I would ideally like to teach in, as I've repeated many times in this blog, is a low income, rural area.  We definitely do not have the funding available to secure all of these technologies in my classroom.  I am planning to accommodate my students infrequent Internet access and lack of advanced tools like SMARTboards.  I know there are many grants set aside for technology which I plan to apply for, but in case I have to work with what I'm initially given, I try to pick out tools that would give my students the same benefit as more technology advanced districts.  In this section of the book it says "We do not need to start a new education system from scratch," we just need to learn to design the system to reshape, combine and utilize the existing technology.   The rest of the chapter includes ideas on how to take the current assessments and curriculum and redesign them to meet the goals of customization, interaction, and learner control.  I enjoyed this chapter because for the first time, I felt like I could apply the idea of the education revolution even without the newest, most expensive technologies. 

Screencast

Creating a screencast through Jing was very easy.  Although, even though I wrote out my script I still could not get it recorded perfectly like I wanted it, or couldn't get it the perfect length since each time would not be word for word the same as the take before.  I can see how this would be helpful in my future classroom, especially since I aim to use much more technology than I was accustomed to.  I understand that students will have much more technology "smarts" than I had growing up, but they may not be as familiar with educational or learning tools.  These are the products I would create screencasts for.  For example, if I have the students create a blog in journal-form for language arts I could cast an example of how to post and what requirements I am looking for in the posts.  I would be more willing to implement this tool through out my cirriculum especially as an alternative to giving oral directions because Jing makes it so easy to do.  With a few simple clicks, I can record exactly what I expect my students to do from the website and then easy upload it to them, either to a classroom blog or as a link to a classroom website.  The biggest limit with Jing is the 5min time limit.  Some of the longer instructions my classwill need will have to be recorded in chapters and viewed seperately.  However this also helps my monitor what I inculde in the screencast.  I will really have to evaluate the importance of the content of my screencast because it will have to be clear and very concise.  Also, since I plan to teach elementary school, if the screencasts were much longer, it would be hard to keep their attention.  So, although a longer time limit would make it easier for me, it is an advantage to my students to keep it short. 

Podcast

http://internetsafety.trendmicro.com/internet-safety-whos-teaching-our-kids