Completing this task actually did not take as much effort as I expected, especially because I didn't wait until the last minute to complete it. Since this task was given midway through the semester, I was given enough time to complete it without rushing. There was a lot of information needed to complete the task but as long as an interesting topic was chosen, it wasn't that bad. The topic I decided to choose was interesting to me and related to my future career which is why I didn't mind all of the research and actually found much of the information interesting and fun to look at. The hardest part about doing this task was completing the screencast, simply because I hate recording my voice. The one part of this task that took the longest was the annotated bibliography and finding sources.
The value in completing this task was to pick a topic that was interesting to us and research it and decide the best practices. I also think that this task was based on having to create and update our own wiki. Doing this assignment gave me experience needed to create a wiki. The knowledge I gained from this experience is what I will use in my future teaching in my classroom. Now that I understand how to maintain a wiki I will be more comfortable using it in my future.
This task will impact my future teaching because I now know how to use a wiki. I will use the knowledge from this assignment and use it in my future teaching. Through this task I have also learned new ways of using technology with students with autism. Each of the three best practices I used for my wiki will be incorporated into my future classroom.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Final Post
Today we started off our day by wrapping up the ideas we have learned throughout the year and implicate them into an activity Dr. Boyer presented us with: We are now a teacher and have his daughter in our class, what are three ways I would use technology in the classroom?
1. I would create a wiki. I would maintain this wiki daily and update it with information about what we have covered in class throughout the day. I would have my students decide what the "big ideas" of the day were and record those on the wiki. I would also include pictures and videos of my students. I would also use the wiki to keep in contact with parents, keeping the line of communication open. I would also post assignments and notes for students who are absent.
2. I would use a SMARTBoard. In my class I would create interactive lessons using the SMARTBoard so the students would be able to have a hand-on learning experience.
3. I would have my students keep a blog. By creating a blog and maintaining it throughout the year students are able to record ideas they have learned throughout the year and look back on what they have learned and reflect upon their experiences in my class. Students would also be able to blog about their feelings and keep it as a journal.
After this Dr. Boyer wrapped up the class, talked about a few final homework items, asked for questions, and gave us his final ideas for our futures as teachers.
My ideas about using technology in the classroom has changed a bit over the semester. Prior to this class I felt as if technology was "taking over" our students minds and that they were relying on it for everything. After this class, I feel as if many different technologies are a good way of getting students involoved in their own learning. Students are now able to take their education into their own hands and take control. There are tools that gives students the ability to expand of their current knowledge. Technology gives students the option to learn everyday, outside of school, and even after they are done with traditional schooling. I now view technology as a life-long learning tool.
1. I would create a wiki. I would maintain this wiki daily and update it with information about what we have covered in class throughout the day. I would have my students decide what the "big ideas" of the day were and record those on the wiki. I would also include pictures and videos of my students. I would also use the wiki to keep in contact with parents, keeping the line of communication open. I would also post assignments and notes for students who are absent.
2. I would use a SMARTBoard. In my class I would create interactive lessons using the SMARTBoard so the students would be able to have a hand-on learning experience.
3. I would have my students keep a blog. By creating a blog and maintaining it throughout the year students are able to record ideas they have learned throughout the year and look back on what they have learned and reflect upon their experiences in my class. Students would also be able to blog about their feelings and keep it as a journal.
After this Dr. Boyer wrapped up the class, talked about a few final homework items, asked for questions, and gave us his final ideas for our futures as teachers.
My ideas about using technology in the classroom has changed a bit over the semester. Prior to this class I felt as if technology was "taking over" our students minds and that they were relying on it for everything. After this class, I feel as if many different technologies are a good way of getting students involoved in their own learning. Students are now able to take their education into their own hands and take control. There are tools that gives students the ability to expand of their current knowledge. Technology gives students the option to learn everyday, outside of school, and even after they are done with traditional schooling. I now view technology as a life-long learning tool.
iRLO Relfection
Creating my iRLO was very time consuming. The process of figuring out how to construct my iRLO took the longest. It was very difficult to figure out how to put all of the pieces together. This took a while to figure out and when I finally thought I had it figured out, there seemed to be a glitch. What seemed to have helped me a lot was watching tutorials on YouTube about iRLO's. I also met with Dr. Boyer for some help and after that it soon came together quickly. This assignment seemed to take over my life, I was soon overtaken by this assignment and I became a perfectionist. When this assignment was completed I felt really good about my final product.
I could use iRLO's in my future teaching in many ways. Since I am planning on teaching in a special education classroom I would mostly use an iRLO I have created for my students to practice their skills in a fun, game-like way. I think I would try to have some of my students create their own iRLO's. Creating and playing iRLO's created by you or someone you know is a fun way of working on skills.
I could use iRLO's in my future teaching in many ways. Since I am planning on teaching in a special education classroom I would mostly use an iRLO I have created for my students to practice their skills in a fun, game-like way. I think I would try to have some of my students create their own iRLO's. Creating and playing iRLO's created by you or someone you know is a fun way of working on skills.
PSA Reflection
Making our PSA was a really fun assignment. I am glad we were able to choose our partners to make our PSA with. Making our PSA did not take as long as I expected. Overall planning and filming this assignment took only about 2-3 hours split up into 2 nights of work. I did not exert too much effort in this task. My group chose to do our PSA on cyber-bullying which is a very hot topic in today's society which is why we chose this subject. Cyber-bullying is a serious matter and can be prevented. My group's goal for our PSA was to spread the word about cyber-bullying and help prevent these occurrences from happening.
This PSA could be useful to me as a teacher because I can show my students a number of PSA's that have already been made by others and then have them make their own. A good idea would be to have students in the school make their own "anti-bullying" PSA's to share with the school. This would be a way to spread the world to all of the students that bullying is not right. Students would give facts as well as give prevention tips for students.
This PSA could be useful to me as a teacher because I can show my students a number of PSA's that have already been made by others and then have them make their own. A good idea would be to have students in the school make their own "anti-bullying" PSA's to share with the school. This would be a way to spread the world to all of the students that bullying is not right. Students would give facts as well as give prevention tips for students.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Exit Slip 12/02/10
To start off the day we watched a video clip about a teacher in Canada who uses technology in her classroom. I few ways she used it in her classroom were using a SMARTboard, laptops, online daily blogs, as well as online collaborative projects. Next, we collaborated as a group and discussed ways she used technology in her classroom and all of the advantages that come along with technology. Lastly, we put our list under 3 different categories: what we were able to do before technology, what we couldn't do before technology, and what was improved due to technology.
After that discussion, we numbered off into 7 groups and read about something "brilliant" that technology has to offer, and one "mistakes" teachers could make while using technology. We then got into a group of 4 with the others who read about the same thing and we brought our ideas together about the reading. After this we "lettered off" in groups of A,B,C, and D then got into those groups and shared with our groups about all of the readings.
Next, we came back together as a group and Dr. Boyer wrapped up the class period.
After that discussion, we numbered off into 7 groups and read about something "brilliant" that technology has to offer, and one "mistakes" teachers could make while using technology. We then got into a group of 4 with the others who read about the same thing and we brought our ideas together about the reading. After this we "lettered off" in groups of A,B,C, and D then got into those groups and shared with our groups about all of the readings.
Next, we came back together as a group and Dr. Boyer wrapped up the class period.
Monday, November 15, 2010
"Rethinking Education" Ch. 10 Reflection
In today's generation students rely on and use technology for almost everything, including education, personal interests, communication, and the list goes on. Chapter 10 of our text recaps the entire book in one chapter. This chapter pulls all of the main ideas and concludes the book by stating how technology impacts us as educations, as well as our future students. The chapter first recaps why technology is important in learning. Technology is being used in a way to help our students learn by using games, and we present our information using SMARTboards in the classroom. Distance education is also becoming more and more popular among students. Distance learning gives students the ability to interact with students from across the world on common interests. Technology gives people the ability to be lifelong learners, where education is not complete after the 12th grade making it possible to learn throughout your lifetime. Technology gives students the option for non-traditional schooling such as home schooling. People are able to be learners in the workplace learning where technology is used to train and educate employees throughout their career. Businesses are turning to virtual games where the employees are given different situations with virtual customers. Technology gives people the motivation to learn what they want and what they are interested in. Students are being encouraged to explore their interests for themselves and take control of their learning. By students taking control of their own learning, they are preparing themselves for their future careers. Students are able to focus on areas that will benefit them in the future as employees.
This book has opened my mind has influences me to think outside of the box. Prior to learning this book I had thought that educating our future students should be done in the same manner as I was taught growing up. I have come to realize that although I feel as if there are some areas of education where technology should be drifted away from, many and most of the areas of education should use technology. In the next generation of workers, almost all of their careers will be focused on or around technology. Students should be comfortable with using technology and should be up to date with the current technology. As teachers we also need to stay updated. Since technology is always changing and improving, we as educators need to be educated as well. Although I now see many pros to using technology, I still stick by some of my feeling about technology. I believe that students need to know communication skills. This generation of students is depending on technology to communicate, using social networking sites such as facebook, myspace, and twitter. As educators, we need to stress the importance of face to face communication as well as make sure students master some of the "old school" ways of education, such as penmanship and reading out of a textbook. There are many opinions about using technology in education, and there is no correct answer to this issue, but whatever it is that makes you feel like you are doing the best possible job as an educator is the method you should stand by.
This book has opened my mind has influences me to think outside of the box. Prior to learning this book I had thought that educating our future students should be done in the same manner as I was taught growing up. I have come to realize that although I feel as if there are some areas of education where technology should be drifted away from, many and most of the areas of education should use technology. In the next generation of workers, almost all of their careers will be focused on or around technology. Students should be comfortable with using technology and should be up to date with the current technology. As teachers we also need to stay updated. Since technology is always changing and improving, we as educators need to be educated as well. Although I now see many pros to using technology, I still stick by some of my feeling about technology. I believe that students need to know communication skills. This generation of students is depending on technology to communicate, using social networking sites such as facebook, myspace, and twitter. As educators, we need to stress the importance of face to face communication as well as make sure students master some of the "old school" ways of education, such as penmanship and reading out of a textbook. There are many opinions about using technology in education, and there is no correct answer to this issue, but whatever it is that makes you feel like you are doing the best possible job as an educator is the method you should stand by.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Contemporary Issues Podcast Reflection
For my Podcast I used an article I found on CNN.com, click here for the article. I also used lead in and lead out music from http://www.incompetech.com/. Lastly, my sound effect came from the website Cartoon Sound Effects. My podcast was submitted to the Dropbox on D2L.
I spent a lot of time creating this podcast. Since I have never done a podcast before and have no prior experience working with Audacity, I had to spend a long time trying to figure out how to use the program. I also spend a bit of time searching for an interesting article. The easiest part of making this podcast was writing the script. The hardest part was recording myself because the audio was really scratchy and would cut in and out at random times. This was frustrating because I could never record a clip without the audio skipping slightly. I ended up just accepting that my computer was not the best for recording podcasts.
After finally completing this podcast I have realized that I would never really use this in my classroom for a recording of contemporary issues, but it might be useful as a tool to record class lessons, activities, or projects. Podcasts would be useful to post online for the students to recap what was done in class both that day and throughout the year. As a future elementary school teacher I could see podcasts being more beneficial for parents. It would be a cool tool to use for teachers to post a podcast online for students to listen to. Parents would listen to in class activities as well as being informed of what was accomplished throughout the day at school.
I spent a lot of time creating this podcast. Since I have never done a podcast before and have no prior experience working with Audacity, I had to spend a long time trying to figure out how to use the program. I also spend a bit of time searching for an interesting article. The easiest part of making this podcast was writing the script. The hardest part was recording myself because the audio was really scratchy and would cut in and out at random times. This was frustrating because I could never record a clip without the audio skipping slightly. I ended up just accepting that my computer was not the best for recording podcasts.
After finally completing this podcast I have realized that I would never really use this in my classroom for a recording of contemporary issues, but it might be useful as a tool to record class lessons, activities, or projects. Podcasts would be useful to post online for the students to recap what was done in class both that day and throughout the year. As a future elementary school teacher I could see podcasts being more beneficial for parents. It would be a cool tool to use for teachers to post a podcast online for students to listen to. Parents would listen to in class activities as well as being informed of what was accomplished throughout the day at school.
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