Reflective essay

 Reflective essay

As any child starts their first day of class all over again each year they have the same reaction. Who will be in my class? What will I wear? Is my teacher cool? But the one that gets us the most is the excitement of walking in through those doors and wondering where we will be sitting in the classroom. There is nothing like the first day of school, I would have never thought that I would have learned everything I have from this class. Before intro to technology for educators, I would have never thought of using technology in the classroom. My thoughts were students will take advantage and the reason I say this is because I once was a young kid who never went directly to do their homework. One thing to realize is that you have to introduce technology to the students slowly and in a productive one which can grasp their attention. One website that helped me understand more about integrating technology in the classroom was EduTopia which the describes the many different ways to use technology. I thought that the one of the best ways to use technology in a classroom is in a way they would never expect it, for instance when you have a field trip planned but you can't go because of the weather you can always surprise them by taking a virtual field trip where they can do the same things but within the classroom. I enjoyed this class because of the many ways I learned how to use technology; for instance we used GPS devices to find clues throughout the school about questions we had to answer in the classroom for extra credit or a grade.We also learned about teaching with educational websites, like DIIGO you can use to highlight websites and bookmark them, as well sticky note important parts that you find interesting. I thought it was a very interesting website because it allows you to share with others different things you find interesting like Educational websites like PBS or if you found a video that was captivating and you wanted to share it with others.

Resources

Edutopia | K-12 Education & Learning Innovations with Proven Strategies that Work." Edutopia | K-12 Education & Learning Innovations with Proven Strategies that Work. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2013. <http://www.edutopia.org/>.  

PBS: Public Broadcasting Service." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2013. 
 <http://www.pbs.org/>.

Maloy, Robert W.. Transforming learning with new technologies. 2nd ed. Boston: Pearson, 2014. Print. 

Journal post 11: Engaging Teachers and Students in Learning and Self-Reflection

How can teachers and students use digital portfolios as tools for learning?

Though this maybe something difficult to use in a classroom it would be much useful towards both teachers and students; my theory is based on the fact that teachers could track how affective everything the kids learned throughout the school year. Like what our Professor Cole is doing she is giving us a project that is to make a website and put it together using all the tools that she has given us throughout the semester. Remembering all of the difficulties that I had throughout high school with keeping up with all of the material I had learned in class I find that this performance based web portfolio would be very helpful towards students, especially those who are in high school that aren’t doing that great in a subject; it helps them focus on the material they aren’t doing so great in. I also believe that giving students the opportunity to have their own portfolio not only gives them the opportunity to better themselves but it also helps them learn a new way of organizing themselves, that way in the future they are able to track their own progress.

Tech Tool: Task Stream

Task Stream is a popular digital archiving tool used for web design and portfolio building.  Task Stream provides users with a variety of design options including presentation portfolios, learning or work portfolios tailored to document one’s learning process, and resource portfolios that can be accessed by both the world and a specified closed community. Other features include a standards manager, lesson plan and unit builders, and customizable measurement tools. The below link gives a further explanation on how to use e-portfolios in the classroom.

Summary:

I enjoyed reading this chapter because it has so many different choices in order to introduce ways you can use technology to track your students as well as have them track their own performance. It explains how to use the performance web based portfolio for your students and your own convenience. But it is not just about helping the students keep track of their performance but also about finding new ways for the students to improve themselves as well as the teachers come up with new ways to help the students further their education.

Journal Post 9: Creating and Sharing Information with Multimedia Technologies

How can teachers use video resources in their teaching?

As technology progresses in our everyday lives, it does as well in the classroom. Teachers not only have to learn new ways to teach students but they also have to learn ways to captivate their students attention in the classroom. With technology playing such a big role in the classroom; whether it be using videos, podcasts, or movies we have to use all of these many new yet old resources. I remember when I was in fifth grade my teacher Ms. Youngberg would always make us watch these videos from the magic school bus in order for our class to learn about science, social studies, math etc. This cartoon show helped us in so many ways to learn about our bodies immune system. I learned that using different types of technologies in the classrooms can be so productive such as YouTube can teach you how to fix your computer or change the oil in your car. A lot of people have the suggestion that YouTube should be the replacement of teachers, although we know that will not happen. I taught a class how to make a solar system from home, what I did was made a video putting together the planets and coloring them. I would like to use A type of video blog in my classroom with the students where they can make a video blog teaching their classmates different types of subjects based on projects that they had to make within the class.

Tech Tool: Annenberg media learner.org

Annenberg's media website provides access to streaming video educational materials in math, science, history, literature, the arts, and foreign languages.




Summary:

This chapter focused on how to integrate different types of technologies to be able to teach better in the classroom such as with YouTube or podcasts. It really wants to combine technology into the classroom so students can learn different ways to be able to communicate through multimedia tools.

Journal Entry 8: Communicating and networking with websites, Blogs, Wikis and more

How can teachers use a website or a blog to improve teaching and learning?

In our technology class we use blogger so others in our class can see what we have learned and/or our thoughts. I love to use this in the classroom because it gives me a different perspective on what everyone is thinking on that chapter we have recently read. My thoughts are this would have the students very engaged in the classroom specially if they can share and discuss with other class members. For instance, about 99% of students in a classroom have a facebook account and only use it to post about what they have been doing during the day so their friends know what cool things they have done. What if we use facebook to have students share about what they have been working on throughout the class, it would be easier then having seperate blogs although having a seperate blog gives it a much more personal touch to it, I think it's easier to use one single facebook page so that students can post updates on their projects or within the class.

Tech tool:

Wordpress is the techtool I would use because it lets students/teachers. This is a free blogging website where people can follow each other and their blogs would pop on each others profiles. For a better explanation, click on the link below.


Summary:

This chapter was about using websites and it blogs as learning tools for the classroom. To use technology to hate ideas and information in the classroom and outside as well. The number one thing that everyone has to learn is how to use these tools properly and this chapter helps you learn how to properly use them.

Journal Entry 7: Problem Solving and Inquiry Learning with Software and Web Tools

How can teachers use computer Games and simulations as learning resources?

To captivate a student’s attention is one of the biggest challenges a teacher has, in a classroom you want students who are eager to learn. There are many students who are willing to learn but there are those few who will make it hard on you to grasp their attention.  In my perspective I thought that using computer games and simulations as learning resources is the perfect way to teach in a classroom. I’m not saying it should over power the overall lesson but you can use computer games for some parts of the class, for instance when you’re doing math students can use websites like abcya it helps students understand the math problems more, they are more involved and it’s a fun way to learn different subjects. I really enjoyed this website called the mighty book, I used it for a low level reading student, my thoughts on this website are how much attention it grabs from students, it not only helps the students read better but it provides them with a fun way of doing it. The students also get to follow along as the narrator sings or reads the book to them. When I was in middle school I remember my class used to do the read 180 program and it was really cool because we used to be able to use tapes and follow along on the computers we would fill in the words to a story and to see if our annunciation was correct we would be read a sentence and we would have to read it back to the computer into a microphone. So there are many different ways to use technology to help students learn more that lets them be more productive.
 

Tech Tool:

For my tech tool I chose Zoombinis Logical Journey, this a game that helps teach critical thinking, problem solving, and mathematical learning to elementary school students. This game has multiple levels of mathematical thinking, where the kids are asked to used their critical thinking skills to solve puzzles and make their way on their journey. The video below gives you more of an insight of what the game is like and how kids should play it.

 

Summary:

This chapter consisted of how we can introduce games into the classroom to help students learn and better themselves in certain subjects. The chapter also discusses the many different types of software's that we can use to teach in the classrooms, as well as prepare students for whats next to come in their journey in life. 

Journal Entry 6: Teaching with Educational Websites and other Online Resources

What are Web Quests and Virtual field trips?

Web Quests and Virtual field trips are resources used in the classroom to help students and teachers learn by using the three learning styles: Visual, kinesthetic, and Auditory. WebQuest helps students learn in a more efficient way that lets them work with a group of websites. Teaching a student the proper websites where they should be looking up information for a project, homework, and classwork. There are so many websites where students can look up information and use it as they please but our jobs as teachers is to show them the proper way. As a kid I found it very hard to find websites that would help me on projects or any kind of homework. In middle school we were given projects but were only allowed to use text books or books from the library which the teacher had to approve. We weren't open to a lot of options in the school I was attending that at times it was hard to do our projects. 

Tech Tool:

Diigo, short for digest of internet information groups and other stuff, allows you to bookmark sites, highlight portions of web pages, add sticky notes that you create, tag the sites, and easily share resources. Once you embedded highlights or bookmarks, your notations appear every time you open the page.

Summary:This chapter has a very interesting look at how teachers should show their students how to properly look up information and use it in the classroom there are specific websites that students can use. As I read this chapter I decided to look up some websites of my own and I came across Fact Monster which helps students do homework and provides information based on any subject they need.

Journal Entry 5: Researching and Evaluating Internet Information

How can students respond to problems of plagiarism when students use online sources?

As a student myself I would say that the best way to deal with this is to sight your sources, most students at the 3^rd grade level will not know what this means and it will have to be explained to them in a way that they will understand. Students need to know the proper ways of collecting information and giving the proper the credits to whomever it may belong to. Plagiarism is one of the biggest problems teachers may have when it comes to students writing essay, doing projects etc. But the question is how do we as teachers control it. In my history class two years ago, the professor gave us all of the students in class the options of using different school based search engines to help us with our essays. Now before we started searching our papers we had to look up our topic find at least eight different resources and type them up in APA format and hand it in if at least five of the eight were not approved then we had to find the ones that we were missing. As this point passed we had to write the essay and within the essay we had to use foot notes for all of the cites that were citing, that way we would not be accused of plagiarism. Teaching a student not to plagiarize is really hard to do from my perspective because some may think they are sneaky and think they will not be caught. In a lot of ways I think that showing students within every project how to use citations and put quotes around sentences that they did not write is one of the ways to go, I do still think this is a very difficult topic. 

Tech tool

For my tech tool I chose LibriVox the reason I chose this tool was because I found interesting how you can go on this website and read books or listen to them, they have been pre-recorded for others by volunteers. This website also made me think of the discussion that we did based on deficiencies and I thought that this would be a great tool to use in a classroom for students who can’t use their hands and or bodies they can listen as they follow along online.

Summary:

This chapter is about teaching students and helping teachers understand how to better search the internet in a safer way where students do not have to put themselves at risk with false information. It is easy to get trapped into a website that may seem safe, but teaching the students how to better surf the internet will be better for them in the future. It also teaches the teachers how there are certain steps they have to take before they themselves could be propper educators of the internet in a classroom.

Journal Entry 4: Integrating technology and creating change

How can teachers create change in the classrooms using technology?

In a classroom what the teacher wants the most is to inspire creativity and sprout knowledge into their students minds. When I was in elementary school the third grade, my teacher would let us do this cool activity where we would use shaving cream and we would put it all over our desk. As we would spread the shaving cream she would ask us questions and we would have to write the answer within the shaving cream. Although my story has nothing to do with technology, she used something so small such as shaving cream to inspire our imaginations and help us remember what we learned. The new student generation of this era has so much knowledge with technology that we must incorporate such valuable assets as computers, ipads, and itouches. Instead of writing presentations on paper show them a new way they can develop their skills using a computer and or portable laptops.

The tech tool that caught my attention was Edutopia it provides with a lot of information having to do with helping teachers how to integrate technology into their classrooms.

Edutopia: information and inspiration for innovative teaching in K-12 schools, a website from the George Lucas Educational Foundation, features a fine collection of technology integration resources. You can find information under the priority topics menu.

Summary

This chapter was based on how teachers need to learn certain skills in order to be able to use technology in their classrooms. Teachers need to go through five steps, Entry, adoption, adaptation, appropriation, and invention. This chapter wants us to slowly incorporate technology to see what changes it can bring about within the students also it lets us know that we shouldn’t involve a lot of technology but only the necessary that way it does not over power the classroom.

Journal Entry 3: Developing Lessons with technology

Chapter 3 is very informative when it comes to using/incorporating technology into your lesson plan. I learned that it should only be used fir certain subjects or topics that would be presented within the classroom. I remember as a kid in the sixth grade I would look forward to my reading class because we were allowed to use a computer to read our books. Another thing that I liked that is probably outdated now is how we were allowed to use the big headphones and listen to our book tapes and follow along in the books as the tape played. A way to get students interested or excited to take a test would be to take an electronic test or quiz. Another interesting fact is to use proper ways like blogging so the students know as well as you how to use it properly.

PBS TEACHERS 

PBS teachers is an extensive learning resource for educators from the public broadcasting service, featuring thousands of lesson plans, proffessional development opportunities, videos, and blogs. there are on demand streaming videos from selected PBS programs plus a special blog entitled "media fusion"

PBS TEACHERS

I really liked this tool because it helps teachers learn in a more entertaining way that could encourage them even more on learning in a certain topic. 

Summary 

This chapter was about how to incorporate technology into your lesson plan and also how to use it properly with the students. It is very helpful for incoming teachers and for current teachers as well.

Journal Entry 2: Transforming, Learning, with unique powerful technology

How does technology create student engagement and collaboration?

Students love to use technology; when it comes to video games, computers, ipads, iphones, and TV’s it will spark their creative attention. All of these electronics have so many uses in this day in age. Kids can play games that help them learn more about math strategies, like last class I said what is the use for kids to be playing video games for hours and hours in a day and one of the students said well you can learn strategies and how to measure how far you are from another player. Giving them and yourself an opportunity to see a different way of learning. With an ipad you can conduct a treasure hunt for your social studies class. For your reading part of the lesson students can use computers to read books and have spelling quizzes where they are being timed. My Biology teacher about two years ago created a Jeopardy game where we would go around the classroom trying to use our knowledge in what we had learned in class, now she would do this so we could remember what we had learned every class since we only had her twice a week. Using technology in creative ways can capture students attention and help them learn more.

One of the tools that I thought was very interesting was Visual Dictionary Online, the reason why is because students not only want to know what the definition of an airplane is they want to know what it looks like as well just because you have the description does not fully mean that you capture that picture in complete detail. The link Below takes you to the visual dictionary.

http://visual.merriam-webster.com/

 One of the most difficult steps that we have come upon in this time in age is how we incorporate Technology into our classrooms, how to take technology and use it as a learning tool. Using Technology in classrooms does not mean that the way schools are structured will change. This only means that the students and teachers will go on about learning new productive ways on how to use technology for a good class learning environment. Technology is very powerful, as I was reading I came across a paragraph that made a lot of sense, since using a lot of technology in a classroom makes me very hesitant, reading this part of the chapter made me very open minded. I read on page 33 fourth paragraph down that you can use technology to teach students what you yourself can’t physically show them. One of the examples was in a science class you are teaching students about how the earth revolves around the sun; now you do not have the equipment to show this physically, so what you can do is go on a search engine like Google and look up videos to show your students how solar system works. Since you are not able to provide that real life experience, why not show them the next best thing. This Chapter overall is about how to  not only use technology in a proper manner but also it gives you an insight of the many different learning styles that both teachers and students have.

The website I have posted below shows a neat way of how students can learn about the solar system in a more interactive way.

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/solar_system.htm

Journal Entry 1: Becoming an e-Teacher

How do new technologies create new opportunities for teaching and learning?As time progresses everything changes, when I was a third grade student; We did not have the opportunities of using any kind of technology in the classroom as oppose to now. Students in this generation are thrown at the world with a much greater advantage, most of the students that I have worked with in the passed like to do activities that are more hands on as oppose as to something that you have to read off, of a book. Technology opens the door to a new world of learning where both students and teachers cannot just only enjoy but also do it in a safe environment, for example a year ago during my sociology class instead of taking our professor giving our class an exam using paper and pencil, our sociology teacher gave us clickers so when every time a question came up we would click in our answer A,B,C, or D. As much as I would like to take a test on paper this was one of the most efficient ways to take an exam.

Encyclopedia of Educational Technologies

The encyclopedia of Educational technology is a collection of short multimedia essays written specifically for teachers and students by graduate and faculty members in the department of educational technology at San Diego State University under the editorship of of professor Bob Hoffman. the site functions like a dictionary similar reference tool with topics arranged alphabetically. you can look up most key terms and concepts related to both computer hardware and computer use in educational business, social settings. The link below leads you to the website where everything is shown and can be looked up on with more detail.

http://eet.sdsu.edu/eetwiki/index.php/Main_Page

The introductory chapter is based on incorporating technology into the new age students classroom, where they should know how big of an importance it is for them to learn to use these new tools because it plays such a big role in their lives. I am really excited to learn on the new ways I can use technology to teach in my future classroom.

Self Introduction

Hello everyone my name is Ana Rodriguez and I am 21 years old, I am an aspiring elementary school teacher. I was born and raised in Dominican Republic for eight years. I moved to Florida with my family when I was eight years old with my father, mother and brother. My parents wanted us to have better futures and more opportunity. I have always been the adventurous child in the family, I love to be outdoors doing things I would never do before, I love going hiking, kayaking, canoeing, fishing, bungee jumping anything that is fun. I am very family oriented; my family and friends are my everything. I am well know-ledged in technology based on the fact that we live in a society/world where we need to know how to use all technical devices. I grew up using computers and have knowledge of basic software, I think knowing how to use technology is a very big deal because it plays such a big role in our lives. We do not use paper and pencil anymore; we use ipads, iphones, or computers. I think being a teacher means being there for your students not just as a teacher but also as if you were their own parent, a lot of students want to have someone they can look up to and I want to be a great role model in the future for my students. I love helping people in general and teaching has presented me with a great opportunity to help students see that learning new things every day and making new friends is one of the best experiences they can have as kids. I also am looking forward to meeting all of you on Thursday have a good day everyone J