Blog Post I. Chapter 6.

Chapter six was filled with great information, it was crazy to see how it related to what we have been learning through the semester and just this past week. One thing that we have been using this semester is a social Bookmarking, we are using a site called Delicious this has become one of my favorite tools to use. I am big on writing things down to save them, but I often lose them because of the amount of books and scraps of paper I write them on, this tool allows me to bookmark all of the websites I may need to go back to, without losing them. And with social bookmarking you are able to also find other sties that are saved through tags that other teachers may have posted. This is probably my favorite tool because this is a social thing, you often find other great sites to use, from other educators.

Felt flower bookmark. By Teresa DownUnder. Uploaded on October 5th, 2014

WebQuest is what our assignment was this week. The definition of a WebQuest is an inquiry - oriented activity in which some or all of the information that students interact with comes from resources on the internet. The WebQuest I created this week was directed towards second graders, they were asked to chose a State, from a recourse provided, then draw out the State chosen, then with further searching they were instructed to find the State bird, flower, and flag, along with three fun fact they found on their own. At the end of the three days given to them for this Quest they will show their drawing to the classmates and share the three fun facts they discovered. The book has described as an online tour, I also think of it as a scavenger hunt.

Direction, By Ram Karthik, taken on September, 19th 2009 

Videoconferencing, is a new concept for me. I am familiar with Skype, and FaceTime, they are both a great way to communicate with someone. I usually kept the conversations on these communication tools strictly for socialization. Although that is what this is for, I never thought about using it for an educational use. I think that using this for online classes could give a similar experience for the involved and interested feeling between student and teacher.

VideoConferencing works for dogs, too. By Amber Case. Taken on February 26th 2010 

Resources: 

VideoConferencing works for dogs, too. By Amber Case. Taken on February 26th 2010 

Direction, By Ram Karthik, taken on September, 19th 2009 

Felt flower bookmark. By Teresa DownUnder. Uploaded on October 5th, 2014

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Blog Post H. Chapter 9.

After reading chapter nine, I feel that my knowledge has been expanded, on what types of technologies can be used to help students in a classroom. Whether its ways for teaching them or helping them learn with the technology.

One of my all time favorite tools is the Power Point; with this tool a teacher is able to display questions or comments for short writing assignments. For elementary students this tool could be used as a way to give direction to the students on what the assignment may be. Or could even be used as a way to help a child learn a subject, with pictures and videos this could be a fun way to get their attention and learn in the process. Another great way to incorporate power points in a classroom is make them into games for the kids to enjoy and learn.

YouTube is also on of my favorites; I don’t think I would be comfortable letting my elementary students use this without supervision, so I found this site to be more so directed as a teacher tool. There are educational channels that teacher can connect through and get ideas from, for their classroom.

It’s a great site to share different videos of what the class might be learning that week. For older students, it’s a great site to go and find information and insight on subjects.

         I often look back and remember a middle school teacher I had, who shared videos with us weekly sometimes daily. Her strategy was something like what I read from the book this week. The book gives great examples on how to teach and help the students retain the information viewed from the videos. The first step is to rewind when there’s something important the students need to know, or pause often when you have extra information you want to share with the students. Pausing the video will also give them time to take the notes they need. Second step is to ask the students to write the responses, if the video is asking questions. Pausing then again will come in handy so they have time to think about the question being asked and can come up with a intelligent response. The last thing I found to be very interesting is; turning off the volume or the picture, this allows the student to think critically either way. If the picture is gone the student can then imagine what the visual is that is not being shown, or vice versa, the student can then use their imagination as to what the visuals is portraying.

Resources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Blog Post G Chapter 10.

Early on in this chapter there were three questions that we were asked to focus on. These questions really caught my attention, and while reading through the chapter I reflected on them. First is how can technology engage and inspire learning for diverse students? With all the different types of learning styles there are in the classroom, technology can be an easier approach to interact and connect diverse students. Technology can give students varieties of learning techniques for the different styles of learning that a teacher could experience in a classroom. Second question asked is, how can assistive technologies be incorporated into instruction to support teaching all learners? After reading, I found so many great assistive technologies that can help direct students with disabilities. One technology that can be used in a classroom, a student could be provided with an E-reader, this will allow the student to be able to answer the questions asked by a voice adaptive software, this keeps the child with a learning disability caught up with the rest of the class. I've often heard that technology skills come easier to children with learning disadvantages, and that they are drawn to computers and gadgets. A good thing about assistive technology is it doesn’t only have to be used with students with a learning disability but also students, who just need a little motivation, academic skills, and social development. Last question is, how does technology promote learning success for young writers? With technology there are tons of ways to help with such as, “Prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and publishing stages of the writing process. Technology openers for prewriting/brainstorming include: interactive electronic storybooks, storybook apps, web materials, or audio and videotapes.” (Maloy, 2013) This not only helps the students with the work, but also the teacher’s benefit from it as well, because they cant be at three places at once, these technology devices help them out. 

Resources:  

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Blog Post F. Chapter 8

Communication is so important, there needs to be communication influences how we learn and how we teach. Being a teacher I would feel a huge responsibility in keeping a good communication with my students, and with technology communicating is made so much easier. Chapter eight gives great ways to communicate with the students outside of the classroom. One way is through email, easily can send long amounts of information at once There are also teacher classroom websites, for me this one of my favorite concepts along with the wiki page, which was interesting to read about, the word wiki is from Hawaii and means quick or rapidly. The teacher classroom and wiki websites I like because of the organization, I find it to be very handy to have most if not all the information on one site. Making it fairly easy to locate. Blogs are used to create journals, I found it interesting to read about the microblogging, twitter, being under the same category. With these technologies it makes the communication between teachers and students so much more simpler.

Continuing on the topic of communication, as a college student I look forward to my professors feedback on my work done, it helps me know what I have done right and wrong then find out what I need to work on to make the next time one-hundred percent. So as a soon to be teacher I find it very important to provide quick feedback to the students. "When feedback happens rapidly and thoughtfully, writers and readers both benefit." (Maloy, 2013) I feel like giving feedback to other benefits not only them but the person who's giving feedback as well. It helps you critically think about the assignment and you will also learn from the mistakes made.

I find it so amazing how with technology it is made possible to teach beyond the classroom. With the limited time a teacher has in the day to actually teach, this asset is great to have. Reading in the book it talks about how you can keep up the communication through a blog or a teacher website, where you would be able to post homework, question, writing ideas, web links for more research, and suggestions for further reading.

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Blog Post E. Chapter 7.

Early on in the chapter, it discusses problem solving and inquiry learning with technology. From my reading I thought it made valid points when it talked about how we can use those things in the real world, day to day lives that will engage the students. The book gives an example of how in a history class you would have your students, look up government documents, census data, and news stories to classify the cause and reaction to the event in History. I think when a teacher creates activities that ties into the real-world it makes it a lot easier for the students to relate and be motivated to continue in the work required for them. For example, in Algebra, I never saw the point in it, why would we waste our time on something we will never use? Even though I still see little need for it, during the time I took algebra, I had a fantastic teacher, she always gave us problems that related to the things we might do, such as shopping, and with the connection of real life things it made it a lot easier and less dreadful to do the work.

There are a considerable amount of softwares out there, one I found to be interesting is called Kidspiration which is made just for elementary school students, there are other grade software for this subject but I chose to look further into this one. "This software includes graphs, symbols, charts, voice, and other organizing devices that are catalysts for creative self-expression by students" (Maloy, 2013). Sometimes its harder for a student to come up with something out of nowhere, for me it is easiest to start on a computer, and that is the hope for this program.  Kidspiration has a liner writing mode, a chart- and graph-making mode, and a money-counting mode, with these tools it is supposedly making it easier for the student to brainstorm, and think creatively.

I found it interesting, when reading on the strategies for using games with students. As a soon to be teacher I am excited to incorporate technology games in my classroom, but with my excitement I also have concern. I often worry about if I can control my classroom and trust my elementary aged students, with this task, I found this information to be very helpful.

Reference: 
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.