Exit Slip 12/9/10

Three Different ways I will integrate technology into my future 3rd grade classroom!

1.) I will keep a blog that I will update daily, informing the parents of my students about the things that we do in class and any news our updates they should know about. 

2.)  I will have a smartboard where I will create and share actively engaging lessons with my students. 

3.) I will have my students share their stories on our classroom wiki, so that their friends and family will have the opportunity to see them.  This will also give them the opportunity to become more familiar with computers and working with them. 

4.) I would love to also integrate the Scratch Program to help give students a fun way to learn and review material. 

Here are some more options...

§  Interactive Whiteboards

§  Video Streaming

§  Blogging

§  Scratch

§  E-pals

§  Stimulations

§  Online White boarding

§  Course Websites

§  Podcasting

§  1:1 Initiative

§  Wikis

§  Screen casting

§  Video Editing

 I really liked this class today because it allowed us to look back at all of the things we have accomplished over the sememster and connect it to how we will integrate it into our future classrooms.   I have thought a lot about how my views have changed throught out this class.  When I first started, I pretty much thought you were crazy for wanting to put that much technology into the everyday classrooms of our youth.  But now I appreciate what I have accomplished this sememster and I am actually very excited to use it in my future classrooms.  I think that you did a great job as a professor this semester and hope that you dont hold it against me for thinking you were crazy. 

Exit Slip 12/2

Today in class we started by watching a short clip of a teacher in Canada and how she integrates technology into her classroom.  While watching the video, we were asked to jot down notes of some of the ways the teacher integrates technology into her classroom. Here are some of her ways!

·        SMARTboard – engage participation, cooperative learning

·        Online collaborative projects – peers worldwide

·        Classroom blogs – lets parents know what’s going on in class, posted homework online

·        Student blogs – connect with others around the world

·        Computers and laptops – allowed many students access to computers

Next, we discussed together as a class and put into categories what she as a teacher could do before, couldn’t do before, and what she could do before but better now.  This really got me thinking as to how technology really affects our teaching and the students in our classroom.  It really helped me to justify when I should and should not use technology in my future classroom. 

After that, we used the jigsaw method to read parts of an article and then collaborate and talk with other people in different groups.  I really liked this because it allowed me to get to hear a variety of other people’s views and opinions.  Also because it really allows for everyone to participate and share their views with small groups.  I really liked today’s class. 

Exit Slip 11/18

In today's class, I thought that the discussion guides did a really good job.  I really liked how they tried something new using the Jigsaw strategy towards discussion.  This was interesting to me because this strategy was new to me and so I liked learning and trying it out so that I can hopefully try it with my future classes someday.  I am also kind of sad that this was our last discussion group for this semester, because I have always liked watching and participating in these discussions because I feel that not only do they help me discuss what we have read in our books, but also gives us good examples and ideas of what we can do in the future with our own students.

Chapter 10 and Epilogue of Rethinking

The end of this book was the most influential for me than any other chapter.  It really gave me that push to want to go out there and make a change in the world and in our education systems today.  I really liked how at one point the authors gave their ideas and feelings on the subject.  This made the book a lot more personal and more easily able to relate to.  One of the statistics they talked about that really made me think and definetly want to get out there and do something about is the fact that only a small percentage of people with a C average graduate from college.  This really got me thinking and made me want to do something about it.

This whole book has impacted my views not only on technology but also on education.  It has made me realize that change is hard and not always eaily welcomed, but that sometimes it is for the best.  The biggest thing that this book has made me realize is how sometimes we as teachers might not always want to or be willing to do something (example: welcome change) but as teachers we give up that right to only think about ourselves.  Instead we are expected to think about our students and do whats best for them.  And that is one thing I plan to always do in my future teaching career: always try to do whats best for my students. 

PSA

                Creating this PSA was a hard task for me, mostly because I had never done anything like this before.  I felt like I had many ideas that were either too complicated for me to figure out how to do it, or I didn’t have the resources to do it, or my other group members didn’t like it.  I felt like our PSA could have been more exciting or involving but that it still does the job.  A link to our PSA is attached below.

                As a future teacher I think that this is a creative way to assess students on their learning.  I think that I could have students do a PSA type video or something similar to assess what they have learned.  Also many times as teachers we like to use different videos to get points across and although youtube and other sites have a lot of resources to choose from, they don’t always have what we are looking for.  That is why I could make a video to help my students to understand some of the things I am teaching about. 

Here is a link to our PSA

Exit Slip 11/11

During today's class we had a very interesiting discussion group present.  I was very interested in today's  presentation group because they tried something new using scriblink.  Although this program did not work for them, the group worked quickly moving to their backup plan of having us get into groups.  I do wish that we would have been able to do group work this way, because I really was excited to try this program out.  I give this group a lot of credit though for trying something new like this and being prepared when it did not work.

Also I liked that Dr. Boyer gave us time to work and ask questions. 

Podcast

In the beginning I started off thinking that creating a podcast would be one of the easier assignments on the list of assignments on the contracts, but once I started creating it, I started coming across more and more problems along the way.  At first I couldnt get Audacity to work on my computer and spent along time recording and re-recording my podcast to find that I was not able to save my podcast.  I ended up having to re download Audacity before I could get it to work properly.  Also because I was using Audacity, I had to find my own audio to use. This created another problem, because I had a hard time finding audio to use. However, now that it is done, I am proud of what I have done and feel accomplished at the fact that I was able to achieve creating this podcast. 

To be honest, I am not sure if I plan to use this in my future teaching.  If I do however, I think it would be useful to record lectures I do or classes, so that my students could have the opportunity to go back and listen to them on their own time just in case they missed parts the first time through. 

iRLO

Creating an Interacting Reusable Learning Object was easier for me than I originally thought it would be.  I had a hard time at first trying to think of an idea and getting going at first.  I think that it was hard to get going with this project because using Scratch really requires you to use a new way of thinking (a way that I had never done before.)  I did spend a lot of time at first playing around with the program trying to get it to do what I want, but eventually I ended up going in to meet with the proffessor and had him help me with learning the program and once I did that it was much easier for me to manipulate the program and therefore fully finish my project.
I plan to use this program in my future teaching to allow my students to practice, review and learn new facts in the classroom and at home on their own.  I think that this will be fun for them because it is engaging, interactive, and I like the fact that they could possibly even design projects themselves and share them with each other. 

Chapter 9 of Rethinking

This chapter talked a lot about how technology is everywhere, and how kids and our students will use technology whether we want them to, encourage them to, or prohibit them to.  I really liked how the chapter talked about how parents should engage in the different technologies their children are interested in with them instead of dismissing them or automatically getting the wrong impression of them.  For example they talked about video games and how some parents automatically dismiss them as bad or wrong and having no educational value, but in reality, many video games do have a lot of educational value to them.  It is important that parents become involved with them and their interests not only will they be spending time together and sharing that interest, but that the child will be learning more because they will learning even more about the technology by having to teach it to the parent. 
I will use this in my future teaching because not only will I try to learn and becomem interested in the new technologies that my students are interested in, but I will try to encourage the parents of my students to do the same so that they too can actively participate in their childs technological learning. 

Chapter 10 and Epilogue of Blogs, Wikis...

In chapter 10 we read a lot about the different shifts taking place in the world of education today.  I really liked going in depth to some of these especially when they started talking about tests.  And how administering tests to students might not be assessing their ability to apply this information to a real life situation in the future.  Instead we think that just because a student recieved a "passing" grade on a test, it means they know or "mastered" the material and are able to apply it independently in real life situations.  This however is not the way it is, and we should be doing something to change that.  Reading this chapter also allowed me to really think about all of the different tools and technology we have learned about and how and which ones I will or want to use in my classroom someday.  I was very intrigued by the epilogue and how it explained an actual teacher who uses technology in his classroom.  I felt like this was very helpful to me becuase not only was it a good example to compare and think about as a future teacher, but I was shocked at how many of these different tools he was using in his classroom and how he used them all in a relatively short period of time.  This showed me that with practice, I too will be able to master these tools and bring many of them into my future classroom. 
This reading obviously affects my future teaching because it is having me do critical thinking about what I want my classroom to be like and what kind of tools and technology I for sure want to bring into my lessons and my classroom, and it gave me more confidence as a future teacher that I will be able to not only use this technology and these tools, but I will be able to teach my students about it and use it in my classroom. 

Exit Slip 11/4

I really liked today's class and the group that presented today.  I felt that the presenters did a great job of creating a good discussion and facilitating the discussion of connecting the ideas we read about in the representation of a venn diagram.  I felt like this way of discussion was one of the more powerful ways of facilitating a discussion we have seen so far this semester in this classroom. 

Chapter 8 Rethinking

This chapter really focuses on how schools can cope with the new thinking and technologies that are being introduced into the schools.  In the beginning I like how they really connected technology to how much the average child uses it outside of school and why shouldn't they be using it inside of school. I also like the idea of doing standardized tests on the computer, allowing them to take them when they feel ready and allowing the tests to be more focused on a specific area.  Technology also allows for new curriculum designs allowing students to learn a certain subject deeper understanding it more than they maybe would have before.  This kind of goes with the fact of how sometimes we teach many things but only a little bit about them.  This would allow students to pick the subjects that they want to learn more in depth. 
 I like this idea of students being able to learn certain things more in depth.  As a future teacher, I dont want to just teach a bunch of things an inch deep but rather teach fewer things a mile deep.  I think this approach will help students remmeber the important information and the stuff we did teach.  Whereas when you teach a bunch of things only an inch deep, your students are more likely to forget what they have learned becasue they have not spent as much time learning it and making connections.  I feel like technology will help us as teachers to teach students more indepth. 

Screencast

I spent a lot of time creating this screencast.  I felt like this was our hardes assignment yet not only because it was new to me, but because I am very picky and it was hard for me to record the screencast.  When I thought I was done and it was good enough, I would always find something wrong with it and want to go back and change it.  I think I spent just as much or more time recording and re-recording the screencast as I did doing my SWOT analysis.  Eventually I just needed to accept that I would probably not be able to create what I feel is a perfect screencast and move on. 
Although this assignment was very difficult for me, I am glad that I did it becasue it has helped me to broadent my horizons and show me more possibilities as to what I can do in the future with my students.  I am also proud of myself that I was able to complete this, what I initially felt was an impposible task, and I now know that I can do anything I set my mind to. 

My Screencast of Jogtheweb.com!

Blogs Wikis Podcasts Chapter 9

This chapter talked about social networking including Facebook and Ning.  I found this interesting because I had only ever thought about these networking cites as personal tools and social purposes.  I have always thought as Facebook as a teacher's worse nightmare, their students sitting on facebook talking to friends and things instead of learning.  But this chapter really talks about Facebook as a means for education.  It gave me a new way of thinking and teaching.  I really liked how they give examples of how to use this in the classroom and some of the benefits of doing this.
As a future teacher I hope to be able to use these networking sites in my classroom.  The thought of attempting this is kind of scary for me because I am afraid students will take advantage of this and use it to talk to friends and things instead of doing what they are suppose to be.  I would maybe try to avoid this by having them do things on facebook outside of class so that if they do decide to talk to friends and stuff they would not be wasting classtime. 

Interactive Whiteboard Lesson

I really enjoyed doing this lesson.  It was hard for me at first because it was a new way of thinking for me and I really had to think outside of my normal box.  However, once I got started it did not take me as long as I had assumed to finish the lesson.  I really enjoyed doing it.  Another thing I really liked about doing this lesson is that we each got to recieve appropriate critical feedback on our lesson.  This proved very helpful especially because this type of lesson was new to me and I was able to see how others went about it and bounce ideas off of them and see their work. 

Completing this lesson will affect my future teaching because it has really showed me that it is good to think out of the box and try something new.  I was surprised how much I really liked doing these types of lessons and I am sure that I will try to use them when I finally become a teacher.  Also, I have decided to go into a local school and test my lesson I designed on real students, so that they too can give me feedback and I can see how well this lesson worked or didnt work.  I am very excited to do this and hope it goes good.  Wish me luck!

Exit Slip 10-28

During today's lab I really liked learning about elluminate! I find this to be very interesting and gave me a new way of learning.  Before today I had never really thought much about having online classrooms, and when I have thought about this, I have only really considered Sype, but this software seems very beneficial and helpful when doing online learning or classrooms.  I am actually excited to hopefully use this sometime soon because I think it is a new way of learning all in itself. 

Chapter 7 of Rethinking

In this reading we learned about how technology is changing our entire society as a whole.  I found it extremely interesting to learn what the book talked about as being the gains and set backs of technology in the schools.  Some of these I agree with and others I don’t.  One of the losses they talked about is that the gap between students academically will become wider than before, especially for students of different financial standings.  Some say that students who come from a wealthier family may have a higher advantage because they will have more opportunities to buy newer technologies, whereas those students who come from poorer families may not have the same opportunities and will therefore be left behind in the dust.  Another negative to allowing so much technology in the classroom is that students will loose the healthy interaction between two people.  It is said that students might become too use to being behind a computer screen that they will miss out on person to person interaction with peers and others. It were these and some of the other negatives to technology that I focused on during this reading because it was something new to think about.  Before this reading we mostly focused on all of the pros of technology and virtual classrooms. 

As a future teacher, I found it helpful to really consider both sides, the negatives and the pros of this new way of teaching and the impacts it will have on our students and our society.  And although I have not yet made up my mind on how I feel about this yet, I know that I will continue to ponder this idea so that I can make the best educated decision so that I may become the best teacher I can be. 

Blogs, Wikis, Chapter 8

I really liked learning about podcasts in this chapter because I never really knew much about them.  I was kind of nervous about the whole idea of bringing podcasts into the classrooms, mostly because I didn't really know what it was about and how much it could help in the everyday classroom.  I really liked how the book gave different sites that anyone can go to to get examples and listen to some of the great ideas that are out there. 
After reading this I plan to try to incorporate podcasts into my classroom by having my students create their own podcasts to share with eachother or maybe even students in other schools.  I think this will help them develop better technology skills, share ideas and learning and much more.  For starting out a skeptic, I am definetly sold on the idea of putting podcasts in the classroom. 

Exit slip 10/21

Today in class we started class by participating in the chapter 6 discussion. Today’s discussion went really well.  I felt like the group did a great job of facilitating this discussion and was very organized and knowledgeable.  Plus the obvious fact that they gave us suckers was a great advantage.  After the discussion, Dr. Boyer talked about different ways to facilitate a discussion, giving an example of what he called a jigsaw.  This seemed very interesting and something that I would love to try in maybe one of my other classes. 

What I really liked about today’s class is how we went over the SMART board a little better and talked about Skype which is something that is really great! I love using Skype and I am very excited that Dr. Boyer is willing to incorporate it into our learning.  I feel that this will be very helpful to me and with my peers because it will give us easier access to Dr. Boyer and we might be willing to ask more questions.  I love using Skype and I really hope to incorporate into my future classrooms. 

Chapter 6 of Rethinking

I found this chapter be sort of boring at first just talking about the history and how immigration changed how viewed and conducted education.  But as I started to think about this more in depth, I realized that this change in the way we educated our students during immigration is a lot like the change we are going through now with technology.  Again we are changing how we educate our students, letting them agian have a bit of a choice in what they learn and how they learn. 
This affects my future teaching because it has helped me to realize that I should be more accepting of this new way of teaching.  I sometimes find myself feeling a bit anti technology, because sometimes I don't always agree with the ways we use technology in the classroom.  Reading and thinking about this, I realized how important it is for me to get on board with this new way of thinking so that I can educate my future students to the highest ability I can. 

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts Chapter 7

For today's reading we learned a lot about the site Flickr.  I have heard of flickr before, but I never really gave it much thought.  I mostly just thought that it was a website where you could personally upload pictures and edit them.  I didnt even know you could share them with others.  In this chapter, I liked how the book gave directions on how to use flickr, which makes it more appealing and easy to use.  If it didnt have these esasy directions, I would probably never use it because I would be worried that it would too hard to work.  I loved how it also gave many different ways and examples that you could use this in a classroom.  My favorite thing about flickr that I read about is probably the fact that you can annotate certain parts of a picture, so that you can direct a disccussion for people who are looking at your photos.  This I think will be very helpful in a classroom, especially a younger aged classroom. 
In my future teaching, I plan to use Flickr to facilitate different discussions about pictures, and to also allow my students to post pictures we take in and outside of the classroom.  The one major concern I would possibly have about Flickr, is whether students' faces should be allowed in any of the pictures.  Although I think it would be cool at times to have their faces,  it might not be a good idea because of safety of the children, and because maybe their parents/gaurdian wouldn't want them to.  But even then, I still believe Flickr will be a great asset to my classroom someday. 

Exit Slip 10/14

Today in class, we spent most of the time discussing our iRLo assignment, mostly focusing on how to work scratch and design a model of what we want to do our assignment on.  I found this to be very helpful because before this class I was very scared and nervous about doing this assignment and using Scratch.  After this class, I am still nervous about doing this on my own, but I feel better about working on this independently.  I now have the feeling that I might actually be able to accomplish and complete this task, whereas before I was afraid this task would be impossible for me to do. 

Chapter 5 of Rethinking

I found this chapter to be very interesting.  This chapter is probably the chapter that has changed my thinking the most so far.  I started out this class and reading this chapter with a somewhat negative perspective on “nontraditional schools” including home schooling and virtual schools.  This chapter however changed my thinking for the better.  It proved to me that these schools can be just as good or even better than our standard public schools.  When students learn in these “nontraditional” ways, they have more control of their learning and I feel like they really get out of it what they put in.  And although my overall opinion on these types of schooling has become more positive, I do still believe that we need both public schools and “nontraditional” schools, because not all students are the same and learn the same ways.  I believe that certain students will do better in each school.  Sometimes the traditional public way is what is best for a certain student, but also there are students who do better with these “nontraditional” ways. 

                As a future teacher, I plan to use this in my teaching to help my students realize this same thing that I realized from reading this chapter: that different students learn better in different ways and different schools.  This is important to me because I remember that as a young student, my classmates and I would often stereotype or categorize all students who were homeschooled as “weird” or “different” from us, and that homeschooling was a bad thing.  As a teacher, I hope to steer my students away from these thoughts and show them that neither school is better or worse, just better or worse for each individual. 

Chapter 6 - Blogs

I found this chapter of reading to be a pretty controversial section.  Even as I read this section, I found myself shifting positions on how I feel about the “Social Web.”  I do agree with statement that almost everything on the web is becoming more and more social.  As a regular internet user, I do use Facebook and delicious, but refuse to use Twitter.  It is not that I think Facebook doesn’t have any faults, because I don’t agree with many of things that go with it, but I do think that between Facebook and Twitter, Facebook is the less of two evils.  I do not like Twitter because I feel that it is just a huge gossip chain.  Many people use Twitter to follow what others are doing, especially celebrities, and I guess this probably is a great thing for those of us who are obsessed with celebrities and their opinions, but as a common U.S. citizen, I find that some things don’t need to be shared with everyone around the world.  I see Twitter as more of a form of stalking than anything else. 

As a future teacher, I do not plan to use social networking sites in my classroom.  I feel that these sites do have some great advantages to them, but also many scary things come along with these sites.  And as a teacher, I will not introduce my students, or require them to use something that could be potentially harmful, or that I do not agree with myself. 

Exit Slip 10/7

Today in class, we started off by having the chapter presentations.  My group presented today on chapter 4.  It was very nerve racking, but I think we did good.  Next, we talked about the iRLo lesson that is due for next week.  I am pretty nervous about this lesson, but also intrigued all at the same time.  Creating this lesson will be something new to me and probably hard to get started, but I am hopeful that it will be fun and it allows me to be creative.  I am also very relieved that Professor Boyer will be going deeper into this assignment more next week. I can’t wait to go home and download it and start “playing around on it.”

Chapter 4 Presentation

Today my group presented chapter 4 to the class.  I was very nervous to do this because it was a difficult chapter for me to get into and I felt very stressed this week because of this presentation and other exams and projects I had do. 

                As a whole, I was pleased with our presentation, and felt like we did a good job presenting and conducting our activity. And although I was afraid that they wouldn’t become engaged with what we were doing, I liked that our peers actually seemed to get into what we were talking about.

                Another thing that I really liked about the presentation process in this class was how we as a class debriefed immediately after we were done presenting.  I thought it was helpful for us as the presenters to get immediate feedback on how we did.  Some of the things our peers commented on about our presentation, is that we did a good job using smart notebook, encouraging thinking, and diffusing our time and speaking.  Some of the things they felt that we could work on, was speaking up, how we group or peers (not doing it in rows), and setting expectations for how we want our groups to do and use their time.  These comments and suggestions really help me because it really made me think about our presentation from the students’ point of views.  I took notes on all of the comments they made, and I plan to incorporate them into my future presentations.           

        Even though I was nervous for this presentation, and we did find out things that we need to work on, I had fun doing this and learned a lot about my presenting techniques. 

Chapter 4 Rethinking

Today’s chapter talked a lot about the history of education and our American schools.  Although I found this chapter to be kind of dry, and hard to stay focused.  Although it gave us a lot of information, I found it hard to stay focused on what I was reading and felt like it was one of the more boring chapters that we read so far.  It was very informational and got me thinking about how our educational system and schools have changed in history.  I also thought a lot about the bullets on pages 60 and 61 that included: Compulsory attendance, graded schools, tests, textbooks, Carnegie units, and comprehensive high schools.  While thinking about these bullets, I considered them each individually and how each one was both a great thing, but could also be changed or tweaked somehow to make the school system better in one or more ways. 

            As a future teacher, I plan to incorporate what I have learned from this reading by always trying to remember where our education system has evolved from, and that change can be a good thing.  I think that great teachers don’t just follow the rules and examples laid out before them, but they take things to the next level, being extraordinary and sometimes for the common good of educating learners, they change things.  That is why I have taken the following message from this reading.. change is okay!

Blogs, Wikis, Chapter 5

In the second reading today, we learned a lot about what an RSS is. I had actually never heard of this term before and when I started reading the chapter I was very confused as to what it really was. I was surprised to learn that an RSS actually brings information to you, instead you always having to go to many different websites to get your information. This kind of reminded me of our delicious account but it seems to be smaller and more hands on, in that, you can’t have as much information and it is more accessible with one click.  One major thing that I really like about this chapter is that it goes through the process of how to have and use RSS.  This is very beneficial because I probably would not have tried an RSS without these easy to use instructions of how to set one up and how to navigate through them.

            As a future teacher I know that I will use RSS to organize my resources because after reading this, I have actually already went and created my own on iGoogle.  And although I have not begun to fully use it on a regular base yet, I feel like I will use this a lot just because it is very convenient and even setting it up was easy to do! As a teacher, I can see how this would be a very beneficial way to organize your resources for your classes, so that they are more convenient and you can access them more easily. 

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts Chapter 4

Today’s reading really opened my eyes to some possibilities of using technology in the classroom.  I enjoy this class, but I find myself often times being very skeptical about some of the stuff we learn about and I am not sure I neccesarily believe in using so much technology in the classrooms.  Don’t get me wrong I think we need to use and teach technology in our schools, but I am not sure exactly how I feel about how much to use.  I liked this reading because it helped me to understand some of the real positives of using technology in the classrooms.  We have been learning about Wikis and how to use them, but it wasn’t until in the reading they used an example of having the class use the wiki to create a virtual textbook. I really liked this idea because it not only has the kids use technology but I think it will be more fun for them, and it is great to have kids create something like that because they have the ability to put things into their own words and they can feel good about the work they have done.
As a future teacher, I am almost positive I will use this example in my own classrooms.  I also feel that it would maybe be fun to have your students create this virtual textbook and use it to teach another grade or classroom what they have learned.  After this reading I finally feel like I truly believe there is some good of using technology in the classrooms. 

Exit Slip 9/30

Today’s class was very stressful for me. In the beginning it seemed fairly easy, in that, the way we had to sign in using the smart board to sign in saying where we feel on the continuum of are we a technology skeptic or enthusiast? After that, we went into the chapter discussion.  I felt that the group that presented today did a really good job getting the class involved with what they were talking about.  The part of the class that scared me or put a lot of stress on me is when we started talking about the IWB Lesson or Interactive Whiteboard Lesson.  I feel stressed out about talking about this, because I am not very good with technology and although I really want to earn an A in this class, I feel kind of skeptical about whether or not I have what it takes to create a lesson that is this technological advanced. I have been feeling very stressed this semester and although I really want to get good grades, I am starting to rethink my ability to get an A in this class.  But besides for the stress of this class, I thought it was an overall helpful and fun class today!

Rethinking Education Chapter 3

In the reading this week, it really opened my eyes to the controversy of technology.  I have always known that technology was controversy to some extent, but I never really thought about some of the things that were brought up in this chapter.  I feel that technology in the classroom is a very controversial topic.  I believe that technology can be a huge part of learning and is important (to a certain extent) to integrate it in with what you are teaching because society is changing and as educators we need to adapt to that change.  This article did bring up things such as time management and cost.  These were things that I had not necessarily considered when thinking about technology in the classroom.  Cost I believe is a huge thing, because most of technology can be quite expensive and if your school district is not willing to pay for it, how will you get the money? Are you expected to pay for it out of your own pocket? Another thing that I have been thinking about that is related to this topic is how do we know when we are using either too much or not enough technology? Right now I am also in an Environmental Education class and in that class we talk a lot about the necessity of getting kids outside and connected with the environment.  One of my professors in that class has even said, that students are becoming too attached or dependent on technology, and they don’t know how to use their natural resources.  I find myself very confused at times with these two ways of thinking, because I agree with both sides to some extent.  I understand the need of teaching technology to our youth today but I also agree with the statement that kids need to spend more time outdoors. 

          So thinking about how this affects me as a future teacher, I am not exactly sure how I plan to deal with this issue, but I do know that I want to find that fine line of having enough technology in my classroom, but not having too much.  I want to teach my students about technology and have them feel comfortable with it, but I also want to teach them the importance of our environment and the need for us to spend time outdoors.  So somehow between now and when I actually become a teacher, I will have to find away to teach the right amount of technology to my students  without having them become addicted to it (spending all their time using only technology) but instead having them find a good balance of working with and without it.  Because the last thing I want to do is create a world where my students are dependent on technology. 

Exit Slip 9/23/2010

Today in our Education 331 lab, we started out by signing in using the smart board.  Our task was to drag our name into a column telling our connection with twitter.  The three categories included: twitter..what?, Heart of it, don’t use it, and I tweet!  It was easy for me to figure out what category I fit into because I have definitely heard of twitter but I have never used it.  I have never used twitter for two reasons, for one, I don’t have enough time to twitter what I am doing , and second I find it kind of personal and nobody’s business what I am doing throughout the day and therefore I will not post things like that on the internet and I find quite ridiculous for people to “follow” what others are doing like celebrities.  However, I do understand that there could be a beneficial factor to using twitter in the classroom to keep your students and their parents involved with what you are doing in the classroom.  As a whole I am not sure how I feel about twitter inside and outside of the classroom but today’s lab definitely made me a lot more curious about this topic and I plan to research more about this. 

Chapter 2 Refleciton on "Rethinking Education"

In this reading they talked a lot about several different things, some that I agree with and some that I don’t.  One of the main things that I did not agree with is how the book talks about how by using technology students could have the ability to study lessons that are based on each child’s interests.  At first I thought this was a really great idea, I am all about giving the kids choices and letting them learn what interests them, but as I started thinking about it I realized that I this maybe isn’t as good as I initially thought it was. How is letting our students decide what they want to learn a good thing? How will be able to make sure they are learning what they need to? I know if when I was in school and I had been able to choose what I learned about, I would never have learned all the things I did or use now.  There were a lot of things back then that I did not like learning about and would not have done it without being forced to.  Also there were things in school that I was almost certain I would never use once I was out of school, but now that I am older and in the “real world” I have realized how wrong I was and that the things I thought I would never use, I actually use quite often.   That is why I believe that if we allow our students to choose what lessons they want to learn, what will happen if they choose not to do those things that they believe aren’t beneficial but actually are. 

I do like the fact that technology gives educators more techniques for teaching material.  Because the fact is, that not all students learn the same way and by teaching material in different or several ways, you have a better chance of more students actually learning the material.  As a teacher I don’t plan to do all the things that is reading talked about, but I do plan to use technology to teach material in different ways so that I can better teach my students because I know that they don’t all learn in the same ways. 

Chs. 1-3 of Blogs, Wikis, Podcastsir

        This reading has impacted my thinking about technology because it has made me more aware of the advantages as using technology such as weblogs when teaching in the classrooms.  Using weblogs when teaching are great because not only are you teaching students about technology and the things it has to offer us, but you are creating an environment online for them to share and communicate ideas.  This could be effective in many ways but one of the ways it could be effective is by having students hold online discussions.  This might make it easier for some students to participate, who would normally be reluctant to because they are shy, don’t like talking in front of large groups, ect.  By having your students communicate a discussion online, you are creating an atmosphere that might make it easier for students to communicate because you are giving them the opportunity to voice their opinions without having to talk in front of others.  By giving them the opportunity to participate in a world where they feel more comfortable, you are encouraging them to be a more active student. 

        When teaching with technology to my future students, I hope to remember this quote, “the possibilities are endless.”  I feel that this quote has a lot of truth to it not only for a teacher but also as a learner.  And if I remember one thing from this reading to use in my future as a teacher, it is to instill that quote in the minds of my students because the truth is that whether you are talking about technology or something out, the possibilities are really endless!

"Growing up Online" video

I found this video very interesting and troubling. I was extremely surprised with how much it “played” with my emotions.  I felt like it showed two very extreme sides of technology, especially the opinions of the two teachers.  Although I did not completely agree with either of them I did connect with some of the things each of them said.  One thing that caught my attention is how the teacher talked about is how students have a hard time concentrating on things in class because they are so use to technology moving so fast pace and it is hard for them to slow down and really learn from their class.  I found some truth to that and really connected it with the thought they mentioned in the movie that we are no longer teachers, we are entertainers.  One teacher even stated that students almost need to be entertained to be engaged enough to learn.  This shocked and troubled me because I do not think it is a teacher’s job to entertain the students but rather teach them.  And I am not saying that learning cannot be fun and entertaining sometimes but what are we teaching our next generation, that life is always going to be entertaining and fun.  That is not the reality of life.  If we as teachers always make things fun and entertaining for our students well then we are failing one aspect of our job which is preparing our students for the future and the “real life.” By applying this method to our students we are portraying that life is always fun and entertaining, when the reality of it is that sometimes life and our future jobs won’t be entertaining but sometimes you just need to be okay with that. 

This video has affected my plan for teaching someday, because it really enlightened me on the good things and the scary things of having our students use technology regularly.  As a future teacher and as an individual, I can see the advantages of integrating technology into the classroom, but I can also see its risks.  And although right now I do not plan to use technology in my classroom all the time and I may not use everything like podcasts, wikis or blogs, but I do plan on trying to keep technology integrated into my classrooms while also making sure my students stay safe from the potential “devils” of the web.  But mostly what I learned from this video is that no matter how much technology I decide to include into my classroom, I will definitely make sure to educate my students on how to be safe when using technology because I hope none of my students will ever have to face the dark sides of the internet. 

Lab - September 16, 2010

 In today’s class, we started off by signing in using the smart board.  When doing this we had to slide our name to under the search engine we use most.  I was surprised that almost everyone said that they use Google compared to other search engines, especially Bing.  I really thought that more people would say that use bing, just because it is becoming so popular and you are hearing so much more about it. 

                My favorite part of the lab was when we talked about the book chapter project, not only because it clarified a lot of questions I had about the project, but also because he gave us a lot of tips on how to give a successful presentation.  This was very interesting because not only does it connect with this class and the project we need to do it for, but it also helps us to become a better all around speaker and hopefully a better teacher.  I plan to implement these strategies for good speakers as often as I can in my professional and personal life. 

                We also used a game to discuss Chapter One of “Rethinking Education” that was called “get off the fence” in this game we were able to get up and move around the room while voicing our opinions about certain things.  I really liked this game and I hope to be able to use it in my classroom someday!

Checking Credibility of Websites

When having students use the internet to look up information or learn valuable information it is important for a teacher to talk them about the credibility of websites, because not all websites are credible.  One major way that I have found to check a website’s credibility is to check its URL address.  If the URL address starts with http:// and ends in .gov, .us or .(a state abbreviation) it is most likely credible.  This is a good way of determining because only information that has been processed and okayed by panels of either the government, state or country are able to be posted on these websites.  Often times people think that just making sure the website ends in .org, .net or something besides .com automatically makes the site credible, but only the above examples are most likely a guarantee to be credible.  Another way to check if websites are credible or not is to look at their resources.  Most often, if a website is credible, it will have credible resources listed.  These are only two ways to check if websites are credible and I am sure there are a few more, but the important thing is to make sure that your students understand that not everything on the internet is “true” and to make sure they know ways to check the credibility of their websites. 

Chapter One Reflection from "Rethinking Education"

When reading chapter one of “Rethinking Education” I thought a lot about the role technology has on teaching and learning.  Technology is no longer a luxury but more often a necessity in everyday career and school life.  Chapter one demonstrates the importance of teaching with technology and how if you don’t, you are leaving your children behind and often times the parents will move them into an environment where technology is more integrated into everyday lessons.  This has made me think differently about what kind of teacher I want to be and what I want my approach as a teacher to look like, and I really want to keep technology a big part of everyday activity.  I believe that if you don’t embrace new technology you will be left behind, and as a teacher if you don’t let your students embrace it, you will be the one responsible for holding them back and not helping them to progress in the never ending progression of technology.  Looking back, I never had many courses on technology and very few of my classes included technology beyond Microsoft Word or Power Point, and now I feel lost often times when trying to work with technology.  I get frustrated easily and often times feel as though I am behind my peers; I can’t help but wonder if I would have had more opportunities to use and learn about technology at a younger age I wouldn’t feel this way, and that is why as a teacher I am going to try my hardest for my students to never feel as if they aren’t as “good” as their peers in anything especially technology.

Lab - September 9, 2010

Today in class there were two key parts that interested me.  First we were able to sign in using the SMARTboard which was really interesting and took me awhile to get use to, but I was finally able to get the hang of it and I am hopeful that maybe someday I will be comfortable using it on my own. 
The second thing that I found very interesting was the delicious account that we created.  I am very excited about this website and I am extremely excited to start adding websites! I think this website will be very helpful for me in the future personally and professionally.  Well here I go off to add more sites!

Digital Autobiography

This is my Digital_Autobiography that I created in PhotoShow. I put forth more effort in this project than I had originally anticipated I would. When I first learned about this assignment I thought the hardest part of it would be figuring out what I wanted to do it on and finding the pictures for it. But as I started constructing my slideshow, I realized that I was actually quite picky about it, and was willing to spend extra time creating it and adventuring out and trying each program.


I think that there was some values in having me do this task because it made me try something new and forced me to leave my comfort zone, and take a risk. Completing this task has impacted my future teaching strategies because I learned that it is okay to require your students to step out of their comfort zone and try something new. It also has made me more willing to try new things as a student and as a future teacher.

Technology

(1) Technology refers to advancement in particular areas that are designed to help people and to make different tasks easier and more efficient. Often times people they have to do with electronics. Different examples include: computers, machines,


(2) Technology Integration is when technology is used alongside other methods of education in the classroom. Effective technology in the classroom would be students learning about and using technology correctly to aide them in their studies and to broaden their studies.