To all of my fellow future educators, hang in there we are almost done. I enjoyed having this class with you guys, so bye for now and I will see you all next year. Have a happy Christmas and a happy new year. Thank you Dr. Strange for making me technologically literate.
From Dr Strange's class I have learned a lot. Before coming into this class, I thought I was technologically literate, but now i know that I was not. Now that I have taken this class, I have learned many new and innovative things. The most favorite things that I learned, and would like to take in to the teaching field are the use of blogs and PLN's. When I started my blog, I thought that it would just be for a grade, but I found a part of myself that I never knew existed. I found the technologically literate Margaret. Blogging was a great start for me, and after blogging, I learned how to use skype. Skypeing is totally amazing, I never thought that you could do something like that for free. Now that I know, I will be using it in the future. This class excited me because I wanted to learn more about technology, and in the past I have not had good teachers. One of the most treasured part of the course is when as a class we commented on kids blogs from all across the world. This was very amazing because the kids actually blogged us back. The use of iTunes was also a great experience. You can create pod casts and listen to other pod casts that people made. How AMAZING. The use of google docs is also something that I want to take with me into the teaching field. You can create documents for free, and you can save them to the site. With this use of technology, kids can be free of junk drives and floppy disks, which are a hassle. One of the most creative things i did in this class was use google earth. You can type in any part of the world, and go there right then. I used this with my family to show them how to navigate through it. They loved it and i did too. Personally the only thing that I did not like about this class was the use of foliotek. I believe that foliotek is not worth our hard earned money. Many teachers I know also despise the system, we may never use the portfolio in our professional teaching life. All of the things i used in this class will be helpful to me in the future. Many of them are things I have never heard of and now that I have taken this course I know of. i am thankful for having a technologically literate teacher to show me the way to being technologically literate. I was never bored at any point in this class. Although the work was sort of lenghty, I did it and am proud of myself, because for a long time I wanted to drop the course because of the work load. The only thing about this class I would change is the workload. I believe the workload was unreasonable for college students with many other classes. Nothing about this class challenged me intellectually. Now after taking this class, I consider myself a technologically literate future teacher. I would rate myself as being great. In the future, I will be building up on what I have learned so far in this class, and I will be doing things to show my students how to become technologically literate. I will continue to pursue the many new technologies that will be introduced in the future.
My personal learning network has been acquired through many years of school. My personal Learning network consists of myself, my computer, my cell phone, and mentors. Using my computer, i am able to navigate through countless pages to find the information that I want. I know that computers are an important tool to use when you are a college student. I have to write on average 4 papers a week to atay ahead, and that is one of the reasons that I am thankful for having a computer. In the future, I plan on using computers even more. As time goes by, technology will only get better and better, and i want my students to know that their teacher is tech literate. My mother has been the best advocate for success in my life. She pushes me harder than I push myself. My mother is part of my PLN because she knows things that I do not know. If I need help with anything, my mother will try her best to accomodate me. In the years to come, I will be building up on my PLN to include more people.
Me, Erica, and Stephen did a instructional video. The video was on how to navigate through classroom 2.0. The first thing you have to do is sigh up for the site. Once you have done this, you will receive a email that gives you a link to open. You open the link to verify that you have an accurate e mail address. When a teacher first gets out in to the field of teaching, they should have already been building their PLN. This website classroom 2.0 is a wonderful site for beginning teachers who need a little help. On this site, you can actively participate in discussions with other educators. You can post questions on this site, and the comments start coming in. I believe that all teachers should use this website to gain insightful suggestions from people all across the world. You can chat on this site with other professionals. The site is not hard to navigate, but it is rather easy. At the top of your page, you have a navigation bar, so it will be easy to run through. I believe that when I first start teaching, i will use this website to futher my own learning, because as a teacher, you must keep on learniing new things. Overall, this website would be great for teachers who are tech literate.
I truly believe that as a professional teacher you should always back up data for your classroom. It is a very stupid mistake to nit back it up. You can possibly lose all that you have worked so hard to accomplish. I also agree that teachers should not surf the net while occupying a school building. If a teacher wanted to surf the internet while teaching, then they should bring their own personal laptop. It is not fair for a teacher to surf the net, while students are in attendance; some students may need help.
Of the brilliant things teachers can do with technology, the most important to me would be to empower kids with technology. By doing this, a teacher can set their students up for success. Technology can open many doors for students in the future. As students progress through their school years, the use of technology increases, so this is why it is good to start using technology with kids at a early age. The last brilliant thing a teacher could do is make conferencing real time. Teachers can send emails to parents via online. . Many teachers now a days send a letter home to parents everyday, if things were done online, this will help our planet by cutting back on the use of paper.
Since most things are done online now adays, i would want to sit at home and learn, than driving 20 miles to get to class in early morning traffic. Bringing you required items to class is a must. I must have my cell phone, lap top, and flash drive. I never know what the day brings so I bring all my technology along with me.
I learned that school is becoming a more successful institute for girls rather than boys. This is disturbing to learn, not only because I am a woman, because there was once a time when males were the dominant figures in the classroom. Twitter is a network that I am not quite fond of, But I can see how it helped out the teacher who was sitting in for a sick teacher. All networks have their advantages and all a person has to do is find them. It worked out well for the sit in teacher, she recieved many posts back about what the students should do after their test. As a future teacher, I will continue to learn and be technologically literate. I know that when I complete college, I will continue to focus on technology that will make my classroom run smoother. I believe that the banning of pencils and crayons is a crazy idea. Why exclude these two items that parents are required to purchase at the beginning of school? Students color and write outside of the school, and now they will not be able to be creative during their down time. As a student in Dr. Stranges class I have learned a lot about technology. I believe if I had not taken this course, I would be a technology illiterate teacher.
I think after watching the video it important to use technology in the classroom because by watching students need immediate stimulation. I believe society has come a long way from writing everything down. Technology has become widely used not only in the classroom, but also in other professions. Wesch kept me interested in the speech, with all of the clips and media that he used. I think after watching the video it important to use tech in the classroom because by watching this so many people use and students need immediate stimulation. Lets be honest, no student wants to be bored to death in class. Just as Dr. Wesch said, each generation seems harder and harder to impress.
It is important for students to post to their blogs because, it can lead to many new opporitunities for them. Posts can be seen by people all over the world. I post things in my blog because it will stay there forever. Everyone in the world who has access to the internet can access things that I have posted.
As a friend told me, we can learn about different cultures and geographical areas by reading these posts, and watching videos that may be posted.Lastly, I feel it is important for students to post their work because of the technology being used today. Introducing students at an early age to technology is only going to be beneficial to them.
The video of ps22 is wonderful and very moving. This is a great example of how blogging and posting can lead to new opporitunities. These students had to chance to sing at Madison Square Gardens. Technology is so amazing.
In my recent search of the alabama learning exchange or ALEX, I discovered it is a website to help teachers help their students succeed. It provides the teachers sample lesson plans and lessons plans from other teachers in the state. Teachers also can create a personal workspace to create their own lesson plans through the site. All teachers could use this site to plan for their classes. Whether it be drivers education, mathematics, or english. It has a very wide variety of courses that can be accessed. There are also links to access several Alabama Department of Education Program Websites. There is a distance learning option also. This takes you to the Alabama connecting classrooms educators and students statewide, or ACCESS. The site listed particular characteristics that successful ACCESS students usually possess: * are self-motivated and self-disciplined* stay on task without direct supervision* like to figure things out without direct assistance* prioritize workload effectively* can successfully work alone* are good at assessing their own progress* like working with computers and software programs* enjoy the challenge of working with new technology * are good at following instructions * use email and can create messages with attached files * can download and install programs from the Internet * can search the Web * can copy and paste from one program to another * rarely procrastinate * enjoy communicating in writing and reading the writing of others * work with others to complete projects * seek assistance when problems arise * take an active role in the learning processStudents take complete assignments, projects, collaborative work, and even tests online. Grades are reported to the students "home school" which is their high school and received with other subject grades on a report card.
This type of communication is breath taking. Using voice thread because Kaia can not read was a creative idea. It did not take her father long to connect to her classroom. This shows me how fast technology is becoming. At first her blog started out as a way to share pictures with family members but now it has kind of become a way to record her life events. Since kaia's dad is a teacher, he sees how technology has played a bg role in his childs life. Kaia lives in the desert and loves taking pictures. She also loves her daddy. Kaia created a photo essay that was very creative on her part.
Kaia's dad is a teacher and he states, "that kaia is still too young to grasp the connections she is making." I understand what he is saying but in the years down the road, kaia will be a master at communicating with people outside her hometown. Her father states that ," if we want our students to feel comfortable and be cautious online, we must be able to do the same with our own children." I feel like teaching technology begins at school, but should not stop once you get home. Technology is on going, and in the future it will be useful to everyone, especially teachers.
Parents need to grasp the fact that in their childrens future technology will play a major role in their learning. They should not just sit back and let their children do it on their own. Helping children explore technology will give them a head start in to learning.
Today I read the story about a dancing holiday. I wish we could have a day to just dance. It would be very funny and entertaining. But I know that holiday is far fetched in the U.S.
I found that the New Media Literacies project is a research initiative based within MIT'scomparitive media studies program, which explores how we as teachers might best equip young people with the social skills and cultural competencies required to become full participants in an emergent media landscape and raise public understanding about what it means to be literate in a globally interconnected, multicultural world. The goal of this program is not to replicate existing paradigms. We consult regularly with leaders in industry, the arts, public policy, journalism, education, and the nonprofit sector, trying to understand contemporary developments, identify job and internship opportunities, and pinpoint skills and knowledge which will help prepare our students for new opportunities. Students can better deal with our culture by possessing these skills. judgment, negotiation, appropriation, play, trans media navigation, simulation, collective intelligence, performance, distributed cognition, visualization, and multitasking. These are skills that involve creative expression.
I believe that they are all great skills to possess. Yes they are skills that all artists, citizens, and workers need to possess. For example employers want their workers to be able to multitask, and what good is a person who can not multitask. I possess 8 of these skills. Judgment, negotiation, play, appropriation, simulation, performance, visualization, and multitasking. I can acquire the other skills when I get more in depth with technology.
This video shows how and why students should be technologically literate. First students should build their PLN. Once they create a blog, they can start to comment on blogs from around the world. Although blogs reflect opinions rather than facts, a student should not be drawn away from it, but rather want to add their opinion. You never know who can benefit from your blog. I have done things this semester in class that I have never done before. Like using the websites delicious and wikispaces. I want to be able to give my students a head start in the technological world. If they are not introduced to it early in life, it will be harder to teach it to them later in life. I feel like I am very prepared to be a teacher of networked students. I can take everything I learned from this class and teach it to my students. It will be beneficial to everyone in the future. I really want to know how things will work out with Mrs Drexlers middle school class. I'm sure things will turn out great.
As Richard Miller stated, I also was brought up in a house full of books. I use to love to pull out books and read, until I first used a computer. After that first time, I was hooked to a point where I thought everything should be done on the computer. Today I have kind of strayed away from that theory, because I found out that computers crash. The internet is a place where things live forever. You can go online to see how our leaders vote. Computer scientists can put together a visual representation of whale hunts by Inuit Alaskans. Many people are shocked and pleased by the success of academic lectures according to Richard. Information on the internet should be shared with everyone. I believe I would be ready to write with multimedia. I do believe if things were more technologically centered in the schools, students will be more ready for the future, if they plan on attending college. My students will be able to use technology better by the time they leave my class. I am a teacher who would use technology to my advantage in the classroom.
An ipod is a device that can function These devices have several unique features for intriguing educational opportunities. Portability - can take to different sites and move around within a location, social interactivity - can exchange data and collaborate with other people, context sensitivity - can gather data unique to the current location, environment, and time, connectivity - can connect hand helds to personal computers to create a true shared environment, and individuality - can provide unique scaffolding that is customized to the individual's path of investigation. IPods are not replacements for learning, but are rather tools to aid in the learning process. Many teachers think this will become a distraction in the classroom, but in reality it will incease students awareness of technology and how to use it in the future. This is one site I found useful for this assignment. Here is the link http://www.knowledgejump.com/technology/ipod/ipod.html
The Internet is an important communication tool for teachers and administrators. Educators can take advantage of this tool by learning to create purposeful and well-designed Web sites targeted at their students, the parents of their students, other teachers, and community members. This will be very useful to me when I start teaching because I can post pictures of activities that my students did on the web. This way their parents can go online and actually see what their children did and actually learned. Web design can also be beneficial to parents as well, they can comment on the activities that their children participate in and see what goes on day by day in the classroom. This would also be a great way to keep in touch with the new technological generation. Students can leave out of my classroom and take information with them that will be beneficial to them for the rest of their lives.
Today I commented on a young girls love for star wars for my comments for kids. Sadly, I had to let her know that I was not a star wars fan, but i would talk to my sister about it because she is.
Mr. Clung talks about how to read a crowd. He says you should let your audience drive your instruction. You should also be flexible, do not dwell on lessons that did not work well for you, just strive to do better next time. Communication is the best medicine. Communication is the pathway to building that much desired rapport with fellow teachers. As a teacher we should try to be reasonable. Our job as teachers is to simply pick them up after they fail, dust them off, and encourage them to try again. As a teacher technology can make a big difference, we should not become overwhelmed by technology and simply give up before we start. We should use the valuable time we have to figure it out. It is important to take interest in the lives of our students. Lastly, a teacher should never stop learning. Use all the available resources to build up on your intelligence. After all we are teachers. Mr. Clung says soak up as much information as we can. This essay is amazing , and I can really relate to the topics. In order for me to be an effective teacher, I must listen to my students, use technology, be reasonable, and communicate with my students.
Wikipedia will never be a reliable source because everyone can change the content of articles. If one person adds wrong information, this misleading information affects many people, especially college students. College students are always hunting for information online for papers and etc. Wikipedia will only be a trusted source of information when one person who actually knows their material is the only one who can change information. There should be a way for people to e-mail the owner of wikipedia; if they want to add information or chgange it.
