Reflective Post

Reflective Post

During my Introduction to Technology class at Florida SouthWestern State College, I learned more than I though I was going to. When I first heard the about the class, I was thinking it was going to be a basic "how-to" type thing. There is to much more to technology than I really ever thought about before. The extent of my technology usage included emails, Google, and my phone. There are also a few other common things on the computer that i knew how to do. However, this class really did help a lot! Most of the stuff, I never would have even though of. I did not know there was such thing as digital bookmarking and social bookmarking. I did not know how to even start a blog, but as we can see, I have figured that part out.
In the beginning of class, i tried to hold off on getting the textbook and that was the complete wrong thing to do for this class! It was extremely helpful using it for the other blog posts and being able to use that as a reference whenever I needed while I was writing. There were times that I had read sections over and over and over just to make sure I had the full understanding of it. There were also times when I was adding to the discussion posts but I was not sure where to start. When that happened, I would skim through some of the others that were already posted and after looking at a few, I understood the assignment a little better. The discussion posts are a great for classmates to interact with each other.
I also really lied the activities that were part of this class. I really liked the group projects and actually having group members that were interested in the same general thing that I am. That made it a lot easier and cut out the extra time it would have taken to come up with something for the lesson plan if we had different teaching ideas or styles.

Photo Credit to tom_veatch on Flickr

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.

tom_veatch [Image]. (April 2016). Retrieved on May 3, 2016 website: Flickr.com

Digital Blog Post #F

Digital Blog Post #F

With the way technology is growing today, there are so many different things that we, as technology users, should know and start getting the hang of. One thing is to start managing information electronically. This can be done using several different techniques. There are bookmarks and cloud computing for teachers, social bookmarking, information alerts, e-Newsletters, along with many more. Using bookmarks is good if you are just on one computer. However, bookmarks only stay on that one given computer. If you are looking for something that would keep your bookmarks for anything that you may need but are also jumping from computer to computer, it would be better to use a cloud-based storage. There are plenty of websites that offer this such as LiveBinders and URList, most of which just need an account set up which consists of a username and password. There are also types of social bookmarking. this gives people the opportunity to work together and still get to the same information.  An example of this would be Google Docs or Delicious which are both free to join. It gives you the ability to work privately but also share what you are working on with others or share resources. The person that created it is the one that has to give permission for others to see the work, edit anything, and/or share it with others.

Online learning and virtual schooling is becoming more common now. In most high schools, it has become a requirement that you have to take at least one online class in order to graduate. A lot of these classes do all of their work online with students and the students do not actually have to step on a campus at all. Other forms of online classes and schooling have mixed curriculum and are both in class for face-to-face interactions as well as online for the classwork. Sometimes it is just easier for people to take online classes because of their scheduling either with kids or work. However, there are some people that debate the topic. They say that the students taking on-line classes have limited social interaction and less collaborative opportunities. Less full-time teachers is also brought up as a con of on-line classes.

Technology is a great thing! That is, if you know how to use it. Using the technology that you have successfully is a continuous learning process for all teachers. That learning process will vary from teacher to teacher and school to school because the technology that is actually available may not always be the same. Sometimes there will be a teacher with a room full of computers and software while the teacher across the hall has just one computer with a projector. There are four different types of classrooms that can be technology-equipped. There are the computers, hardware, software, and computer lab. Computers can range from none, one, multiple, and one-to-one computing. Hardware ranges from non, few, to many. Software can have few updated, many updated, or all updated. There are also computer labs. These can have no access, some access, frequent access, or daily access. Not all schools have new computers either. Some can only get refurbished computers if any at all. 

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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.

Digital Blog Post #E

Digital Blog Post #E

There are several distinct concepts that are discussed in the chapters four, nine, and eleven. They vary from enhancing lesson plans with technology to meeting educational standards. There are also different forms off how to assess and evaluate the children. some things involve the creativity that can be incorporated in lesson plans and how that creativity can be expressed. then it skips to what the role of assessment in teaching and learning is and what reflective learning is.

One thing I thing is really important to elaborate on is teachers meeting educational standards.There are so many things that help teachers make their decisions on what they should and should not include in lesson plans. Not only does it help make he lesson plan but it can also make it difficult for the teachers. How old the students are, how much time you have with them, and what materials are there all relate back to what can be included in the lesson plan. These standards help to give the teachers a guide to follow. They help the teachers to know what the students need to know and understand by the end of a specific class. These standards have become different variations of "teaching to the test". The FCAT uses standards that should have been taught through the year. It gets turned into a standardized test and is an overall assessment of what should have been learned. That is how the teachers are "graded" on how they worked that year.

PowerPoint and next-generation presentation tools is pretty broad. Today, kids have so many digital tools that are so easily accessible! PowerPoint is one of the most well known presentation software programs. It has been updated some and changes have been made to it but it is slowly being "outdated". There are  different things that are available now. There is Prezi, Acrobat, Google Docs, and many more. These programs are all used by teachers to give presentations. The more experience you have with each program, the more you are able to do and the more sophisticated you can get with a specific presentation. You can have videos and images embedded and links to sites. teachers can get a greater response by using a visual to start a class discussion rather then just a lecture. These presentations can be used to contain a list of questions for assessments or simple assignments. It is even possible for teachers to create games using the PowerPoint software.

It is also quite common for teachers to use a "digital teaching portfolio". Teachers often get evaluated on their performance throughout their career and this makes it easier to keep track of a the things they have done with lesson plans, things that worked really well, and things that the students did not connect with to much. This is a great way to keep previous work saved gives us a way to get back to it at a later time. this can show how a teacher has grown over the years and how their teaching strategies have changed. Portfolios can contain paper copies that have been digitized (copied to the computer), videos, photographs, and a variety or anything else that was used in a given class. These portfolios can be used to show employers and colleges as well as parents. Sometimes it is just easier to show the portfolio rather then trying to explain everything that has taken place over their career. there are some things that just about every teachers portfolio should include but are not limited to just these. There may be:

• the teacher's resume- which would include personal talents and accomplishments,
• the teachers specific Philosophy of Education,
• Lesson Plans and the Reflections that correspond,
• Teaching experiences.

 

Photo Credit to Daniel Villar Onrubia on Flickr.

Over the years, teachers have used technology in the classroom, but as time goes on, there are more things available for both teachers and students. As the generations go on, the amount of technology is going to increase because that will be all students are going to relate to.

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Resources:

Drake, S. M., & Burns, R. C. (2004). Meeting standards through integrated curriculum. ASCD.

Hernandez, Rebecca. (2016, April 3). Welcome to Class. Created with Piktochart.

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.

Digital Blog Post #D

Digital Blog Post #D

After reading chapters eight and ten, I have chosen three different concepts that I really liked and would like to expand on. I believe there are some concepts that ever student not only needs to do, but to do well.

Electronic communication between teachers and students is becoming a more and more useful thing as technology gets further and further in advances.  One thing that teacher and students both frequently use are emails and text messaging. With using emails, student tend to be more structured by using things like correct punctuation and grammar. An email that is going to a teacher or student should also have a subject line that is relevant to what the email is actually about. The message itself should be focused and not all over the place. You should also show respect in every message. these all go for both emails and text messages.

Photo Credit to Xraijs_ on Flickr

Another great concept for teachers that use technology is to make sure that is it for diverse students. Not every students will understand things the same way nor will they learn the same way. We know this because we know there is a difference between visual learners, auditory learners, and kinesthetic learners. Sometimes it is helpful to use things that will benefit more then one type of learning style though. This could be done by having a powerpoint in the background while the teacher is giving a lecture.

Photo Credit to Todd Lappin on Flickr

There are so many things that can help transform our writing with the use of technology. One thing that just about everyone uses, is auto-correct. We could go from not having the slightest clue of how to spell a word and thanks to auto-correct, it is right in front if us. All we really have to do is give a little bit or guess of how the word is spelled. One thing that is not to great about auto-correct is that t does not always work.

Photo Credit to Esther Dyson on Flickr

Digital Blog Post #C

DIGITAL BLOG POST #C

Electronic note-taking is a very useful tool for students to include in their schooling. I believe it is more useful for students in higher grade levels and college, not so much for elementary grade levels. Using technology to take notes has several different positive aspects to it. For one thing, students can go back and add in small details that they may have forgot to mention can quickly be added in without the notes looking all sloppy and writing all over the place. There are also different websites that can be used to take notes, and using these websites, a student will only need access to a computer and to the internet. that means students would be able to use it everywhere. Students do not have to worry about where they placed the papers or where a notebook got put so there is less room for the students to loose their notes.

Cyber-Bullying is a form of bullying that is done through a form electronic technology.  Cyber-bullying is getting to be a more and more serious concept as the years go on because there is not definite way of telling us who it it that is actually sending the message. with different studies, there has been information recorded that deals with the number of who is cyber-bullied more than someone else. Going through these numbers, the Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students have had the most difficulty with bullying in general and cyber-bullying just makes it worse. Most teaches have a zero tolerance policy that they try to demonstrate in their classrooms. Teachers use several different strategies that they can use to create safe and supportive school environments and cultures. Depending on the school, there are peer mentoring programs and "Teen Tech Week".

There are multiple games that teaches use in school within lesson plans. These games range from entertainment, edutainment, and educational games. Entertainment games are exactly that, games for entertainment. These games are usually played for fun and usually do not have an intended learning goal. Edutainment games use the fun of games to get and maintain the students as they are playing. The entertainment of the game helps to hide the fact that students are actually learning something. They are used to teach children without them realizing. Educational games are games that are short, sweet, and to the point. They have clear learning objectives and students know what they are supposed to be learning.

There are multiple strategies for teachers using games with their students that are available and can easily be added to a lesson plan. Teachers can minimize the use of games that teach isolated skills. These kinds of games focus on the answer itself but does not explain or elaborate to the student on how they got to the answer.  They do not teach the process. Another strategy that is used is for teachers to scrutinize games that function solely on points win or lost. There are two major reasons that teachers do not like games like this. One is the face that these games can take up a large amount of time and attention so teaches cannot do much of anything else during this time. the other reason is students are often put into situation where they have to work in order to gain progress of even maintain their status in the game. These games are also usually on-line games and are open to just about anyone. A third strategy for teachers is discussing games and their content. This strategy is simple. Teachers give students information about the games and actually talk to them about it. This gives students a better understanding of why a game should or should not be played and it gives them the reasons for either scenario. The fourth and last strategy focused on for teacher is simply playing games together. These games are used mostly in after school programs and are used to help students open up to their creativity and helps drive them to become more effective students overall.

Resources

 Hernandez, R (2016, February 18). Barriers to Technology in Education. Created with Prezi

 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.

Post #B Part 2

There are multiple different ways for us to use technology and those ways have evolved over the years very much.

Digital Blog Post #B

Digital Blog Post #B

Chapters two and three contain multiple concepts. One of which are standards. Standards are the general topic of what students should be learning and work as a guide for teachers when they are making lesson plans.  The standards vary from grade to grade as well as the difference of the class itself, there are hundreds of thousands of standards that can be found on several websites.

Resources

Digital Blog Post #A

Chapter 1: Post #A

Photo credit to Mr. Jay Yohe on Flickr

Chapter one talks a lot about how technology is used and what some of the benefits using technology in the classroom are. Some examples came from a video I watched along with similar ones. There are three concepts I saw in this chapter that I want to focus on.

The first included technology helping to improve teachers teaching skills and ability. This can be seen in ways where the teacher does not have to redo everything from year to year but maybe just update information. With the use of technology, teachers can get class started faster by just pressing a few buttons. Teachers will also be able to quickly look something up on the internet if they do not know how to answer a student’s question, or they can just have the student look for the answer on their own.

Another concept I noticed involved the achievement increased on a student level. This is because students are more likely to give their full attention to something that is interesting to them. Technology gives student different ways to study and review material from class.

The third concept in chapter one was intertwined with the teachers’ individual teaching philosophy. One way that this can be involved with technology is for teachers to go back and look at their philosophy and think about how they can bring technology into the classroom. I believe this is one way to make life-long learners out of students.