What I learned week 5 of EDLD 5364

“Perhaps the most obvious use of Web 2.0 tools for assessment would be for students to be able to show what they know in a wide variety of media." (Solomon and Schrum, pg 168). What we learned this week was that we need to pull in assessment of all types of media to assess our students. We need to see what all they know on all the types of techonology. Which would be great if and only if they all had access to computers and the world wide web. At my school I give students a chance to work on the internet at home for spelling but many come to me and say they have no access to computers or some to the internet. I tell them no problem, it isn’t a grade just something fun you could do at home to help you learn what we are working on. In a perfect world where kids have access to the internet it would be great to assess them with all types of media. My class loves it when they actually get to play on the computers with the different softwares and programs and websites I have set up for them. Web 2.0 new tools, new schools. 2007 Gwen Solomon and Lynne Schrum, International Society for Technology in Education

Week 5 Reflection

“Our students must learn not only how to use current technologies, but also how to evaluate which ones work best for particular tasks or projects.” (Pitzer, Hubbell and Kuhn, 2012). We have learned so many ways to incorporate technology into the classroom this semester, but found that not only do we need to teach our students how to use the technology of today but we need to learn how to use the technology of today. Technology is changing so quickly that we need to make sure we are just as up to date as our students. But by giving students so many choices when teaching a lesson to learn and to make it where it was a student centered lesson we have given the power of the learning to them. When planning this lesson, we tried to include as much technology as possible, in doing so we gave the students and the teachers teaching this lesson enough that they should be able to reach every child in the classroom with one or other of the technology tools. We pooled our knowledge of different schools, positions in the district as well as the number of years and type of experience we each possess and in turn made a great team. The lesson that we planned will be one that teachers could use now in 5th grade to teach the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

What I learned this week....

The videos this week were all very informational, in collaborative classroom, we have to remember that not only are we teaching kids academically, but also teaching them how to deal with the social, emotional and economical part of their lives that affect our teaching them to become a whole child. We practice this at our school so this video really hit home to us, we have a purpose to make sure we not only teach the child but also to empower them to be a successful lifelong learner and a responsible citizen of their community. As they discussed in the video about integrating students across social classes, they talked about how all kids know how to play video games and they are right all kids at least know how to use one type of technology, now we need to teach them the other kinds. In the project based learning video, I loved that they chose a project and worked on it all year, with research, etc. This teaches these kids responsibility and how to use all their knowledge to succeed and come up with ideas for a project. I also learned and really knew it but needed to be reminded that all children learn differently, not all are the pencil and paper kind of learner, I forget that sometimes but looking back I do think the kids learned more in my classroom when we were more hands on and not so much note taking. In the readings, I took the most from the Web 2.0 book, in regards to the professional development. That is one of our problems at my school is that the administrators are leary about some types of technology and websites and our school doesn’t have the money for some other kinds of technology and software. I had recently sat down with they technology administrator and asked about several types of software and websites I would like to use in my classroom and he loved the fact that a teacher wanted to use different kinds of software and websites and hated the fact that for some we couldn’t afford to purchase them for the school. I work for a charter school that has been around for 15 years but still money is always tight, since we don’t get property taxes like regular school districts. But he told me to prepare a list of things I might like to see at our school and he will research and hopefully be able to fulfill some of them. I was more surprised when I knew of sites he didn’t even know about. I hope to be able to use what all I have learned from the books and readings, in my class.

Web conference reflection week 4

I unfortunately was not able to attend a web conference again this week due to them being scheduled on the weekends and during church hours on the Sunday. I wish that she would schedule them on a weekday at least every once and a while, it is hard on a phone, because the webcast is dropped several times, and I have yet to find them on the announcement page of our class to actually view the web conference, I can read the text but can’t watch the conference and then this Saturday something mmust have happened during the conference because now we have no text to even be able to read, because it is not going to be posted and apparently we are to tune in tomorrow night at 6:00 but my husband is being ordained as a deacon at our church so I won’t be online during his ordination service. Obviously. So I am definatley not sure what this week will hold for me and apparently nobody else does either.

book builder - wonder

http://bookbuilder.cast.org/view.php?op=view&book=81338&page=1

What I learned week 3 edld 5364

This week I have learned a lot to say the least this has been a very busy week with all the readings and videos and then the massive assignment that is due along with being a teacher with a classroom, but I must say that I enjoyed creating the book builder and will definitely use that in my classrooms in the future.  I enjoyed listening to the kids and parents abuot how technology has influenced and enhanced their childs life. I think technology is the way teaching is headed  one of my favorite quotes was

Technology is more than a tool. It is an essential component of everyday life, that frames thier world view." Found in Welcome to the Digital Generation, Citation: Edutopia.org (nd) Welcome to the Digital Generation. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/digital-generation-project-overview-video. I think this is so true, technology has become more than a tool to students today, it is thier way of life, with Facebook, twitter, Edmodo, texting, Google, internet, all these together have become the norm for kids in todays society. Without a smart phone or computer, they do thier homework and even submit all thier work over the internet. If they don't have a computer now a days they are considered the minority. I remember growing up we didn't have smart phones and computers, when my students ask when I received my first computer or phone and i tell them in my 20's they are like No really Ms. Gove when did you. Unfortunately, they don't know a world without all this technology, so not teaching them how to use it will be a disservice to these kids, technology is a part of their life now and we need to make sure we are helping them be successful in thier technology training and learn how to use it correctly and safely.  

I think I loved the part in the book “Using Technology With Classroom Instruction That Works,” pp. 41-58, 217-225 where they give you lotsof different web pages that so you different ways of putting it all together.

I also enjoyed reading about the blogs and wiki’s etc. that you can incorporate into your classroom. Unfortunatley, I can do that if my kids can get on my computers at school, because my group is economically disadvantaged that most have computers but hardly any have the wifi to be able to get on the internet to access the sites. 

web conference week 3

Unfortunately this week I was not able to log on to any of the web conferences. They are just at inopportune times for me this course, I know it is so the web conference doesn't crash and that so many people and professors are using it during the week but somehow I think there could be another way. Another problem is that my professor is posting the chat sessions online but not the video part of it. So I am not able to view the actual conference just read what people are posting about. I wish I could also listen to the conference but yet there is no conference to listen to.

Reflection on Book Builder and use in classroom

This week I felt was going to be a long week with all the assignments, I had heard one person had taken 11 hours to make the ebook, I was nervous. How was I going to fit all this in and do my lesson planning and grading for my own classroom. But when I got ontohttp://bookbuilder.cast.org website, and then finally figured out what I was going to make a book about it took no time at all. The most time was on actually finding pictures from the internet that would go along with my topic. Well, it went great, first one I pulled up had all the pictures I needed on one picture, so I just cropped the individual ones I needed and only had one reference that I needed to site.

I can’t wait to use this in my classroom or course after the year slows down and I can actually stop and make one but I think the kids would love it, I could teach them how to make one and especially in dealing with history they could make a biography on a famous person in history and do it like a book and do the presentation on the computer. I am going to use it making notes for them to take showing them how to set up their journals this way I can do it in a lesson.

The reason I wanted to get my Master’s in Technology is because I want kids to learn more and be exposed to all types of technology and software, etc. because that is the way our world is headed and I want them to be able to be right along with the technology and not behind because no one showed them how. 

Book builder

 Had fun making a book with book builder, it was a cool website where you create your own book or look for books you might want to see, you can have the books read to the person by creating a lttle man or woman that talks what you have written, it takes a while to get used to using the site and looking for pictures, etc. but once you get started you kind of get on a role, we only had to do 4 pages, so I chose characters from the book Wonder I am reading to my students.

http://bookbuilder.cast.org/view.php?op=share&book=c6f52b0e5530b98ca7b1548d76cf5671&sid=13749

 

Web Conference on Saturday the 7th

This week I was able to catch the web conference on my phone, while I was at football games and driving around town, it was very interesting to say the least I kept dropping the call, at one point she even asked if I was still on my phone, I had to reply yes. But having active children it is hard with a weekend conference. But she explained why because so many other professors are doing it during the week the system is over loaded and dropping conferences or causing technical difficulties. Some questions came up this week about docs to go on ipads, some people actually didn’t know that it would work with speaking and other ways of using it for deaf and visually impaired students. This week we talked about google docs and how about the lesson for next week how we need to make sure we are putting everything on our wiki’s. then there were some questions about the wiki sites and what exactly we were supposed to be doing which still confused me a little bit for next week but I hope to catch tomorrows as well but will be at church and not so sure how that will work but I will definitely listen to it again. This seems to have been a longer  and much more indepth class project for just these 5 weeks and with it being the first weeks of school at the same time it has been a trying class, but I hope to just get it completed and not let my team down.  If I understand correctly this is a week of individual lesson plans, using the UDL way of doing it so I am definitely going to be learning something new this week. Have to remind myself it will be worth it in the end.

Week 2 Discussion Post

While watching the videos and reading the passages, there were several that stuck out to me, but I chose "increasing the technology available to students encourages, facilitates and supports student achievement........Technology use has similiar effects on self esteem." (pg. 391 of actual text but pg. 3 of the selection).

I totally think that some kids are more successful when being put around technology as a way to learn.  They spend so much time with technology now that sometimes they learn differently and need the technology to be successful. I use technology in my classroom as much as possible, even one of my literacy centers focuses on computer games and lessons that each child can spend at least 3 times a week on the computer doing language arts lessons. They fight to get on the computer and even hate it when we don't get computer specials each week because ours is on a Monday and we are off so many Mondays.

Kids can show how they are successful with video games, and we just have to show kids how they are just as successful when using technology to learn our lessons. I wish some kids could take all thier tests on computers, I wonder if they would be more successful than taking a paper based test. If they are successful then they have a higher self esteem, if we can take that success with the technology and move it into the classroom and be more successful in the classroom.

References:

Citation: Page, M. S. (2002). Technology-enriched classrooms: Effects on students of low socioeconomic status. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 34(4), 389–409. Retrieved from the International Society of Education at http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Number_4_Summer_20021&Template=/MembersOnly.cfm&ContentFileID=830

Universal Design for Learnng and Diversite

This week was an interesting week in the reading and quick little videos. I learned about the diversity of learners. And that “One size fits all” doesn’t apply to today’s classroom, we have ones with learning disabilities, dyslexia, ADHD, Language barriers, and physical disabilities just to name a few. Which I totally agree with, my classroom for example is definitely not a one size fits all, the students alone are from all different parts of town, including me. But they all have one thing in common they want to learn and are in our class to learn, so we are to find that way to teach them all.  

One way is UDL, which is universal design for learners, which might include closed captioning, speaker phones, computers, etc. for these students to be able to use. We need to be more flexible in teaching and using technology.

We learned that there are 3 main areas of the brain that are where we process the What, How and Why of learning, the recognition is the gathering of facts, the strategic is the planning and performing of the facts, and the affective is the why we did the learning. I found that interesting, I guess I never thought that our brains all process things differently.

I also found interesting that the more we expose the students to the more apt they are to have a higher self esteem and it also helps encourage and facilitates the support of the student achievement. They have higher self esteems, and are more likely to have higher test scores being exposed to the learning by technology. Which I totally agree with, it is amazing that some students pick up on technology when you are teaching the same exact thing but in a different way. All kids learn different we just need to tap into a way that we can teach all the kids because kids are not one size fits all.

References:

Citation: Lessonbuilder.cast.org (nd). Diversity of Learners. Retrieved from http://lessonbuilder.cast.org/window.php?src=videos

Citation: Lessonbuilder.cast.org (nd). The Brain Research. Retrieved from http://lessonbuilder.cast.org/window.php?src=videos

Citation: Lessonbuilder.cast.org (nd). The Principals of Universal Design. Retrieved from http://lessonbuilder.cast.org/window.php?src=videos

Citation: Lessonbuilder.cast.org. (nd). Universal Design and Universal Design for Learning. Retrieved from http://lessonbuilder.cast.org/window.php?src=videos

Citation: Page, M. S. (2002). Technology-enriched classrooms: Effects on students of low socioeconomic status. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 34(4), 389–409. Retrieved from the International Society of Education at http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Number_4_Summer_20021&Template=/MembersOnly.cfm&ContentFileID=830