Week 11 - Blog - Final Reflection

Final Blog Reflection, wow! This class flew by, and I feel like I have learned so much. 

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Part 1:

At the beginning of the course I realized that I had very little K in the KWL, and an awful lot of W. Now, I utilize Gmail to its fullest, complete with Google Docs. I have also learned about so many different Web 2.0 Tools, some that I didn't even know existed, such as:

Wordle
Scratch
Glogster
Blogger!
Voki 
Animoto
Audiboo 

Most of these I have even used on here! 

Another large chunk of what I have learned is the ability to conduct research using the internet. I had a fairly good idea of how to do this beforehand when I was working towards my Bachelor's Degree, however I did not know how to utilize the internet specifically for teaching. There is a plethora of information out there, but this class taught me how how to filter out legitimate sites, and also listed a lot of websites to use. This is all made easier by using a program called Diigo, because it keeps all of these websites and information together in one place where it can be sorted into specific categories.

 

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While I covered a lot of the Course Objectives in my Midterm Reflection, I did not reflect upon these two Objectives:

7. Demonstrate an understanding of the use of adaptive technologies and other digital resources to personalize and differentiate learning activities for every student

I feel that we demonstrated an understanding of the use of adaptive technologies to personalize and differentiate learning activities for every student by discussing the adjustments that can be made for each lesson to accommodate each student. Such as having a student make a Voki, but only have them list 3 facts rather than 5. We also demonstrated this objective by discussing the use of digital resources to help teach students who may not have been able to participate before because of limitations. An example of this is the iPad, which can be utilized with just one finger.

 8. Evaluate, adapt and reflect on emerging tools and trends by participating in local and global learning communities and by reviewing current research and professional literature

I think this Objective was accomplished throughout the entire term. We reviewed a lot of research (which was current, thanks to the internet!). A key example of participation would be when we joined in on a live Global Education Conference as a class. That was really neat to be connected to professionals from all over the country (and a few other countries!), and they were very pleased to have us there to learn.

All of this will help me as a future educator because I'm prepared for the direction Education is taking. I am equipped with the knowledge to use technology in the classroom, and use it successfully. 

Part 2:

It is important for all teachers to integrate technology into the lessons they teach, regardless the age of the students or the genre taught because that is the direction the entire world is headed. Technology touches almost every aspect of our lives, so we should also use it as a tool.

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This class has emphasized that the lesson plan is bottom line the most important part, and that if technology can be integrated then great, but make it about technology. Technology should enhance the lesson plan and the learning for the students. We have covered so many examples (listed at the top of the post with links) that the options are endless really. It can be easy to make technology integration seamless. This is helpful because it will keep today's Digital Native's engaged and interested in what they are learning.

Of course there will be barriers to technology integration, such as funding, and the sad truth that some teachers don't want to change. As a future teacher, I think I can overcome these barriers by first being extremely fortunate to be part of the future teacher generation that is being taught all of this before they are even in the field. I also will try to overcome the funding barrier by utilizing whatever I am given to the best of its ability.


I am very happy that this was my first class in my Master's program, I feel that I will use so much of the information I learned!!
 

Week 10 - Teacher Interview - "Hi My Name is.."

I conducted my Teacher Interview with Ms. B from GH Hood Middle School. She is a Reading Strategies Specialist there, and I was able to observe two classes before sitting down to talk with her. My experience was unique in the fact that I actually got to have conversations with about 4 other professionals as well. My interview was pretty informal, but witnessing/participating in classes and being immersed in stimulating conversations, I feel I walked away with a lot of information.

Going into GH Hood Middle School I was prepared with the following questions:

1. What technology is available to to the students?
2. How many computers per classroom are there?
3. Do you think technology is a good tool for assessing students?
4. Is there better communication within the school?
5. Are parents more involved?

After I arrived at the school and acquired my Visitor's Pass, I made my way to Ms. B's classroom. Since she teaches Reading Lab, she is in the one of the two lab classrooms. The classroom is equipped with 10 Mac computers along one wall, and then desks and tables fill the rest of the room. In her first class she is more of an assistant to another teacher. This teacher is just three weeks shy of her internship being finished so it was really great to talk to her on her perspective because she had to log in Field Experience hours at a few different schools before her 16 week internship. From what I gathered from her, and from a wonderful woman who is a paraprofessional, GH Hood Middle School is fairly advanced with technology.

Now each person I spoke with would quickly correct me and say that they still have a long way to go. Diane, a Spanish teacher at the Middle School, is so advanced that every single lesson she has is accessible to her students online. She spent the summer converted absolutely all of her information, and all of her videos to youtube so that there is one single spot the students can access the information. I was amazed at how much out of her personal time she put into doing this, and it's all to make learning easier and more interesting for her students. She added that there is no excuse if they were absent one day because all the information is available to them, which I thought was funny.

I think what is really helpful for this school is that they have a Laptop User Group. It is a group of teachers who are willing to embrace technology. What I find most admirable of this is that some teachers, like Ms. B, may not be particularly tech-savvy, but are willing and brave enough to attempt to integrate it into their teaching. This group works hard to make cases for why technology is important in the classroom, and how it can be easy to use.

The Laptop User Group was influential in making sure all of the teachers have school issued laptops. It's really cool because they are all using Google as their main program. I asked if Gmail (and email in general) made it easier to communicate with everyone and Ms. B said it perfectly: "Well, it's great because you are always connected, and it's not so great because you are always connected". I can definitely see how that statement applies to life. She explained further that it makes a lot of things go smoother, but that you also have to carve out extra time for catching up on emails. Another positive note is that all of this communication helped start breaking down some barriers in the school. It's not so much the classroom as a separate planet from another, instead they are corroborating, and I think that is great.

Ms. B explained that she loves using their technology for assessing students. They have a program called the Power Teacher Grading Program, and I got to take a peek at how it all works. It's unreal! There is everything and more available for a teacher to use. Aside from the grades and roster, I thought it was particularly great that each child had their entire schedule in the program. All the information is so thorough. Looking at that program, I asked if the parents could also see the grades. The parents can be involved and see grades, but through another program. I thought this was very innovative because it really brings the parents in to participate firsthand. I do understand the downfall would be that not all parents utilize it, but I hope they would.

Overall, this was an amazing experience for my first Field Experience requirement. I really enjoyed introducing myself to, and interacting with the students. I am very appreciative for the time I spent at GH Hood Middle school, and I'm appreciative of the wonderful staff who let me into their world!

Week 8 - Podcast - "Can you hear me now? Good"

This was an interesting experience! I only wish I had more than 3 minutes. It took me a few times to try and fit all of my jumbled thoughts into the allotted time frame :)

listen to ‘Podcast #2’ on Audioboo

This was an interesting experience! I only wish I had more than 3 minutes. It took me a few times to try and fit all of my jumbled thoughts into the allotted time frame :)

Week 8 - Animoto - Domo Arigato, Animoto

Week 5 - Blog- Nom de plume

After visiting three different blogs, I answered the following questions for each:

1.  Discuss the author of the blog, who are they?  What do they tend to write about in their blog postings? Who is the blog audience? Do they have a lot of followers based upon comments left? 

2.  How does the blog help with your learning in this class as well as prepare you for a future in education?  Why should you read this blog or why should others read it?  Would you add this to your google reader to follow for the future as professional development? Why or Why not?

3.  What was one of your favorite posts by the blog author that you found interesting? Explain why you were interested in the post in a short paragraph.  Link to that post please.

Blog # 1 - The Organized Classroom

 (Sourced from the OC blog)

The author of this blog is a woman named Charity Preston. She is a teacher (having taught grades K-8 in one form or another) and has her Masters degree in curriculum and instruction. True to the title of the blog, a lot of her posts concern organization in many ways. Whether it is the physical classroom itself or binders full of lesson plans. Charity seems to have a steady following, ranging from just 10 comments to 35 comments depending on the post. Her blog is definitely geared towards helping educators by sharing ideas.

This blog would help with my learning in this class because the author tackles numerous topics. She even mentions apps that could be used in the classroom.  I think it's a great blog for someone like me who is brand new and will be essentially starting from scratch, so I think I would continue to read it. The only problem is that my certification will be grades 5-12, and this blog is mostly K-8. Although, that small overlap will still be there.

My favorite post was Curriculum Mapping Your Content. I thought it was very informative about time management. It's interesting to me to see how there is such structure for each week of teaching to make sure that school/state/us standards are met. The post made me feel like it was attainable to make a proper curriculum without it feeling as overwhelming.

Blog # 2- ProfHacker

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There are many people who contribute to ProfHacker, however, the two main editors are George H. Williams and Jason B. Jones. George is a is an assistant professor of English at the University of South Carolina Upstate and Jason is an associate professor of English at Central Connecticut State University. The focus of the blog is tips on teaching, technology, and productivity and the audience is primarily for educators. There seems to be quite a large following based on the comments. Even short posts have at least 25 comments.

I think this blog could help some learning for this class, and I think it could also help prepare my future in education. I don't think it helps either of those two options in particularly obvious ways, but certain posts are helpful. I would not necessarily put it on my Google Reader, but my favorite post was Hacking the Academic Job Cover Letter. This was a short post, but it was very informative about part of the application process. Again, any tips I can pick up for my future career are fantastic. I want to look up all the posts they have that are constructive for applying to future jobs.

Blog # 3- Joanne Jacobs

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The author of this blog is Joanne Jacobs. Joanne is a graduate of Stanford University and has a degree in English and Creative Writing. She is currently a freelance writer and is author the author of Our School: The Inspiring Story of Two Teachers, One Big Idea and the Charter School That Beat the Odds. The blog audience is pretty general because she is not necessary gearing her posts toward anyone in particular. I think she is still somewhat like a reporter, letting everyone know what she finds out. She does not have many comments, some don't have one at all, so I would guess that she does not have a ton of followers.

I think this blog would help with learning in this class an beyond because Joanne provides a lot of links to other educational blogs and teacher blogs. It is a great base site to network off of to find information. I would continue to read this for that reason alone because it is helpful to have an arsenal of legitimate websites for research.

My favorite post was Parents' Choice: Diversity or the Suburbs. I picked this post because even in my life this is quite a controversy. My younger cousin from a small town in Massachusetts will often mention how they only have "3 black people in the school". Not only does it blow my mind that this is an actual comment she is making, but the fact that her school has no diversity. I think it has really affected her and her older brother. Without diversity, prejudices and racism can arise because they are unaware of other peoples ethnicity, religion, financial status, and so on. I think it is important that Joanne touched on this topic because I agree with her that a lot of people talk about diversity, but still end up in the suburbs.

Week 4 - Blog - Did you just Tweet the YouTube video from Facebook of the clip from XBox Live? Two words, Digital Nation

Two documentaries to compare and contrast: Growing Up Online Digital_Nation 1.  Compare and Contrast each documentary.  What has changed from the first one (Growing Up Online) made in 2008 to the newer one (Digital Nation) filmed in 2010?  How did what you watched in the two videos support your feelings about technology or how did it change your views?   There was definitely a shift in peoples perspectives of technology between the two documentaries, including my own. My feeling regarding technology changed several times because there was so much information to absorb that was both positive and negative. I'm not sure I still even have an answer.  I think a large change that took place between the two short films was that in Growing Up Online, it was more focused on the internet as this foreign being. Anne Collier even referred to it as the Wild Wild West, a new frontier that was just being explored. In Digital_Nation, it appeared that not only had the internet and technology been explored, but also its clear people had tried to harness it to engage children in learning. I also thought it was interesting to see how much has changed in such a short amount of time to the present. I even mean the little things, such as MySpace being a hot topic, or xanga. These are now dated social networking sites.  2.  Your thoughts on multitasking.  Do you agree?  Can you multitask?  Do you disagree with the video on the topic of multitasking?  I agree with the video that people can not multitask as well as they think they can, I know I can't. Students were insistent that they could do multiple, different things all at once. However, Clifford Nass illustrated in his study that it is clinically proven that we can not do two things at once, at least effectively. His results showed that the brain moved slower when switching around to different tasks as opposed to consistently working on something. Which is logical because how is a student supposed to know what a teacher has said if their mind is working on writing an email to someone else? They can't absorb both pieces of information, so one gets lost in translation. 3.  Is there an addiction happening in society today with technology or is it just a new way of living?   Should we be concerned?  I do think there is an addiction happening in society today with technology. In Growing Up Online, a student, Greg, confessed that he can't shut down. His parents even agreed that they have a better chance getting a response if they emailed him rather than going upstairs to ask him a question. He was a perfect example of how every student they spoke to seemed to constantly be checking their computer or phone. We should be concerned for numerous reasons. It's concerning that Greg confessed he doesn't have time to read so he (along with many other students) go on SparkNotes and have their assigned reading done in five minutes. What worries me about this is that students can't even finish one novel, and also that they feel that they don't have enough time. Being constantly connected and stimulated, they are left feeling that they do not have enough time for anything else, which is very sad and it needs to change.  4.  Do video games serve a purpose in education or are they a waste of time?  I do think video games serve a purpose in education, but in the right context. I don't think they should be a main tool in teaching. I think they could be used it a constructive way to use any 'free time' a student has if they are done all of their work. Something to occupy the student, while still providing some sort of learning, even in a game format. (Source)      5.  Do you believe that digital tools such as google tools can save schools that are struggling? I think any any digital tools can help save schools that are struggling. Mostly because if people feel so strongly about getting new technology into classrooms to help students learn, then its their passion that will help them succeed. As long as we are all trying to help schools and students flourish then that is half of the battle. An example is in Digital_Nation when they focused on a new principal, Jason Levy, who provided all the students with laptops. Even though this was a school in the Bronx that had problems with gangs and only 9 percent of students meeting state standards in math, the introduction of technology made a huge impact. Attendance went up 90 percent, and their state standards in math went up almost 40 percent (and 30 percent in reading). These figures support that digital tools can truly help.  6.  Do parents of today have any idea what their kids are doing online?  Whose job is it to teach them the safety and digital responsibility? Parents/Teachers/Community/Government? I think parents have a better idea of what their kids are doing online than in the past. Even if they aren't as technologically advanced, they can still turn on the news and watch a segment, open a magazine and read an article, or even go to the movies and see The Social Network to obtain some sort of information of what is going on currently. Which is a good start, but there needs to be a large effort by parents to understand safety and digital responsibility so they can, in turn, teach it to their children. That combined with the efforts of teachers while the children are at school, and they should become very responsible Digital Citizens. (Source)    7.  Are kids and adults today ruining their digital footprints by sharing too much information online without realizing that it may be detrimental to their future? Should they care?  I think that many are still ruining their digital footprints because they were not educated in Digital Citizenship. This is why it is crucial that kids (and adults) learn how to be responsible when it comes to the internet. A personal example would be when I got a Facebook page. When I signed up for it, I had to have a college email address because it was a network only for college students to interact. Since it was still relatively new, everyone posted whatever they wanted in regards to ridiculous status updates to embarrassing photos for everyone to see. Flash forward 7 years and most people who graduated in my undergraduate class have careers now. A large number of them have made their profiles private, deleted a lot of the content, or even have deleted their Facebook page altogether. Everyone should care what they post online because it truly is a footprint and will stay there.   8.“Stranger Danger” and predator fears are often overblown by the media on shows such as Datelines “To Catch a Predator”.  What are the real dangers of technology in this day and age?   (Source) I think the real dangers in this day and age are not the supposed billions of predators lurking the internet, it is the internet and technology itself. It all goes back to Digital Citizenship and gaining knowledge, but I admit, some of the studies in Digital_Nation concerned me. An example is when in the documentary, Gary Small is showing what brain activity looks like reading a book (left) versus doing a Google search (right). (Source)  While the Google search actually shows more brain activity, it is not necessarily a good thing. It's more instant gratification for the brain, rather than a slow linear thought. Another example is even while watching the two documentaries I checked my phone a few times for texts or emails, and then I would see that being discussed in the films. It was sort of an "Oh No" moment. Overall, watching both of these documentaries definitely had me reevaluating my own interactions with technology.

Week 3 - Blog - Digital Citizenship

Digital Citizenship is a "concept which helps teachers, technology leaders and parents to understand what students/children/technology users should know to use technology appropriately." (Source) What I find most interesting about this concept, is that it even exists. As I mentioned in this post, I thought that John Palfrey made an excellent point when he mentioned that when technology is good, that's great, and when it is bad, let's work to try and curb it a bit so it isn't as negative. I feel that Digital Citizenship is the perfect example.

The internet is its own entity and with all the technology we have today, to access this vast 'place', our lives are now saturated in it. I touched on a few reasons why I think technology is important in this post, and I definitely still think it has created some very wonderful things for us. However, without knowledge of what to expect or how to act, people (of all ages) are likely to abuse and misuse the technology. I think it is crucial that Digital Citizenship is in place and that is is enforced.

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Which leads to the question: Who should be enforcing it? I think that responsibility is the hands of both parents and teachers. Both are huge influences in a child/students life, and they also spend the most time with that child/student. In order for teachers to educate students about Digital Citizenship, they have to engage in it themselves. Like in Suzie Nestico's post, she mentions that teachers still need to be "in the know". Educators can not teach about protecting oneself, if they are not actively participating in technology to understand how to protect oneself. I think this is perfectly logical, because that is the case for absolutely anything. You can not teach what you don't know (well, effectively anyways). 

As for parents, I think the same idea applies to them as well. The only difference is that I think since they are parents, they should be more involved on a personal level. As in, that they should use media together with their children. In Edutopia, they suggest that parents ask questions, share values, and be very open about everything together. They should be able to discuss the hard topics such as cyber-bullying, pornography, and online predators. 

A really great exercise that could be done by either teacher or parent, is to create a Digital Footprint.
 

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After I created one of these footprints, I was surprised to see how much of an imprint even I have. I think it would be a really great visual for anyone to understand the impact of what they do with technology, and could be a great starting point to connect with the students/chidren.