IWB reflection

IWB Reflection

Completing the Interactive White Board activity was another first for me. Although using the SMART software is similar to creating a PowerPoint, it has its differences too. PowerPoint does not really have anything that sparks active user involvement. Having PowerPoint experience defiantly helped me to complete the IWB and now this new experience with creating an IWB will help me when I create an IWB for my actual classroom.

I can save this presentation for when I do teach about erosion and deposition to an 7-8^th grade class. Depending on the background knowledge and abilities of the students in my class I may need to tweek it a little bit but not too much.

I can have my students do an activity similar to what I was required to do for this class. My students can create their own activities and then peer review each other’s smart board presentations. From what I have observed, I think that many teachers who are new to using SMART board find it very foreign and are using them as expensive non-interactive traditional projectors. They are not grabbing on to the true usefulness that the IWBs are built for. As we have evaluated many other tools in Edu331, it is important to continue to evaluate the tech tools we choose to use for instruction. If the IWB lesson can be done just as well in PowerPoint, then it is being wasted. The key is to make it meaningful.

In order to make an IWB meaningful, I think that it should require the student to use it. Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime. By requiring the student to actually use the IWB I will be helping the student become more actively involved in their learning.

Normally here is where I reflect on the experience and tell what its future applications will be once I am a teacher. True I will need to know how to use it in my own classroom, but I have found out that both of my co-operating teachers nest semester have SMART Boards, and they are expecting me to utilize them! So this new tool will be affecting my teaching even before I have my own classroom. I cannot imagine trying to wing it and begin learning about SMART during student teaching. I am glad that I got some exposure during this class.

Technology Inquiry Wiki Reflection.

The Tech Wiki requirement was not easy for me. My research question was "Which innovative technologies can best capture the attention of secondary science students with ADHD?"
The project is designed well to assess teacher education students for what they are able to do with wikis. I had a difficult time because, as I stated in my wiki, I have trouble composing papers. I especially have a difficult time when I have to read multiple papers, draw conclusions, and then create a new whole from what I learned.
The learning experience as a whole was really useful. This class was the first time I had ever used a wiki and before then i thought that wikipedia was a curse word for drawing information from to do schoolwork and papers. I understand now just how useful it can be and that it is more credible than I had once viewed it.
I want to help students who have the same problems in school that i did and sometimes still do. Technology can be a great way to go about helping them. my recomendations were to use blogs and wikis, online timers and planners, and to use concept maps. Learning about how to help these students has helped me to prepare for teaching, expand my resource library, and use more tools that will benefit me in my own personal learning. 
I might use wikis in my classroom, but i know that i will make screencasts. I enjoyed using screencasts as a way to create tutorials. They are very useful and fun to do. Although i like them, i dont agree with doing one as long as 4-5 minutes in one screencast. I think that i would have done better by doing 3 of them 1.5 minutes long. and having three different links to them.

All the links to the Spring Ed331 class wikis

Syllabus https://docs.google.com/View?id=dfhnjdwv_120csjpkndb
What we did in class wiki https://sites.google.com/site/fall2010wwdicwiki/home
Class organization wiki https://sites.google.com/site/educ331fa10cowiki/
               This includes PSA's, Cool tool's, Tech inquiry etc...

WOW

WOW I took everything that I have typed on this blog for class this semester up until now and put it into M-word 12pt font. It comes out to 35 pages, single spaced! and im not even done, i still need to add a couple reflections!

Citation for the books we read in class.

These are the two books that we read in EDU 331, Education Technology.

Collins, Allan, & Halverson, Richard. (2009). Rethinking education in the age of technology: the digital revolution and schooling in america.. New York, NY, USA.: Teachers college press.


Richardson, Will. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms- 3rd ed.. Thousand Oaks, CA, USA.: Corwin Press.

EXIT SLIP and class notes

EXIT
How has my thinking about technology in the classroom changed over the semester. My first blog post highlighted the different electronic tools that can be useful for science. now i feel that ED TECH is more than that. It is about using things tools that utilize how students think and use information.
Creation is key!


Make sure that I use Jeff Boyer as a resource in my own personal learning network in the future. He is really knowledgeable, wants to help the k-12 system with technology, and he can help me in my first years of teaching.


How will I integrate technology in Ella Boyer's science classroom?
Three ways...

I want to have Ella create a podcast of the three most important things she can do during lab to keep safe! After she and her classmates create their podcasts, i will have groups of four share their podcasts in a gallery type presentation style. This will allow students share the most neccessary ways to keep safe in the classroom lab setting.

I will create a wiki page that my students will be incharge of for updating it with thier lab writeups. It will be a central place where the students can share their lab work. with my help they will add pages and links to keeep it organized.

I want to teach Ella new ways to present scientific information and research. As a first step from getting her away from powerpoint i will teach her how to use prezi. Symbaloo can be another good presentation tool that can also be used as a collaborative resource.

Digital Citizenship PSA

http://skilltownusa.blogspot.com/

The digital citizenship PSA was another great assignment for this class. First off, I enjoyed doing it because it was fun to videotape ourselves. Only a handful of students in our class had any prior experience with video editing. I have never edited a video before so this was a new concept to me. Before completing the assignment I understood that it was important and could be valuable to me in the future for teaching.

 Although blogging is useful, I am excited to know more about video editing because i have a good number of great ideas of how it can be incorporate into my science classroom. Ironically, today I was observing at Ben Franklin Junior High and the earth science teachers introduce the big weather prediction project. It requires students to save and interpret data for 4 days from the national weather map, write a script as if they were a weatherperson, use flip cams to film, and then create a weather segment using animoto!

Wow! Good timing for our 331 project! It is important for me to understand the applications and mechanics of using film in the classroom because then I will be able to help my students with their projects. Also I will need to be able to examine a potential lesson plan and detemine if using technology would be efficient and productive.

This project is a great way to teach us how we can use film in our classroom. Other projects I may want to use film for would be to have the students make a Discovery channel like program for an ecosystem project. It would be entertaining to see how the students could make their own Bear Grylls program! The students could make a stop animation of an environmental process over the quarter or year depending on how long the class is.

I have a ton of great ideas for new projects and with my newly acquired knowledge I can think of a effective ways to revamp some of my own favorite science projects i did in school.

Chapter 10 Rethinking

Rethinking education Chapter 10

Currently technology is giving all countries in the world opportunities they never had before. Many countries which may not have had the privileges American are now rising up to this new even playing field. If America wants to keep up with these rapidly improving countries, we will have to rethink our education system.

Learning is happening more and more outside of the schoolroom walls. Learners are striving to become lifelong learners to better themselves and continue their formal and informal education. I believe that technology has the opportunity to excel this process in two main ways. Using technology educators are able to reach more people than before and they are able to connect with those people more effectively. Not all technology can magically do this. To do these things effectively it requires educators who are creative, forward thinking, and reflective to create environments where students and technology can best utilize each other.

One part of using technology to connect with learners better is through motivation. Students are extremely interested in using technology. The k-12 students in today’s classroom have grown up using most of these technologies and they have become second nature to them.  When teachers discourage students from using the tools which they have come to know and love, it conflicts with the student’s interests. Creating learning environments which are anti-interesting for students is not motivational at all. Even when traditional teachers do incorporate technology into the classroom, sometimes it is not enough. Students may not quite admit it, but deep down they are up for challenges. When a teacher is able to incorporate innovative technology, in a useful way, which is new to the students they will rise to the challenge. If it is useful to their future and they find it interesting, it can be very rewarding when they are finished with the project and they have learned something new. It is intrinsically motivational when they feel this reward. This motivation can be contagious to other learners. All in all it leads to connecting with more learners.

As an educator I want to prepare students for their lives once they leave my classroom and the k-12 system. Whether their post high school plans are formal higher education, the workforce, life skills, or informal lifelong learning I want to get them pumped for what I have to share with them because they understand why it will be relevant in their lives. I want to prepare them for their future, not my past. The way I plan to do this is by teaching them the process of how to learn, not to focus on the “knowledge” of knowing the facts that will help them do better on the Final Jeopardy question. Teaching processes will go great in my science classroom because I am already teaching them the process of science!

EXIT SLIP ,teachers using technology, class notes

EXIT SLIP
The idea of using many filters to evaluate a tech tool is a good thing to know.
 I need to remember...
***Using these 3 views is important because it allows us to evaluate the effectiveness of a specific tech tool.
      If it is something that we could do before technology and technology is not able to imporve how we do it,
         then dont waste the time and money to try to use it. And remember to use SWOT analysis on tools.

TEACHERS USING TECHNOLOGY
How she uses technology.
-SMART
-online collaborative progects
-classroom blog
-open online classroom to parents
-post homework assignments online.
-student blogging about current events
    -gives students a an authentic audience that consists of more than only the teacher.

Things we could do before technology, listed above.
   -send home planners, flyers, letters.
   -collaborate with other students
   -cooperative learning
   -engage students
   -students could keep current events journal.(paper form)
   -share perspectives
Things that we couldnt do before technology
   -active blogging
   -anything online
   -use laptops and smartboard
   -recognition of work online.
Things we can now do better with technology.
   -engagement and participation
   -open classroom, communication with parents.
   -current events are VERY current, to the minute!

***Using these 3 views is important because it allows us to evaluate the effectiveness of a specific tech tool.
      If it is something that we could do before technology and technology is not able to imporve how we do it,
         then dont waste the time and money to try to use it.

CLASS NOTES
#3 +good communication with parents
      - unsupervised computer use leads to inappropriate material and getting off task.
JIGSAW have the classroom of 28 count off by 1 to 7. so you get groups of 4. Then, after discussion, have the groups count off by A B C D and have them join the rest of their letter. so you get 4 groups of 7.