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.