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.