Journal Post #6

Teaching with Educational Websites and Other Online Resources

Focus Question: How are information management technologies such as bookmarking, social bookmarking, and information alerts useful to teachers.

     Information management technologies such as bookmarking are very useful to teachers (and everyone) because, although I like to believe teachers are informational sources themselves, we can't always remember where we've found useful information. I have just been introduced to "Delicious" which is a bookmarking website where I can store a website I found, by labeling it with words that I would use to describe it later if I had forgotten the title. Also on this site, you can become "Friends" with one another and network informational sites, view each others profile, and access many other sites we may not have known about. By bookmarking our sites online, with the use of our computer, we can effectively store our information in one place, becoming organized, and easily accessible.  

Tech Tool: An Interactive Online Field Trip: The Cave of Chauvet-Point-D'Arc.

     The World Wide Web is in fact endless, it holds many opportunities, and awaits what we can create next. By utilizing the internet, we can connect with numerous people and organizations, we can become interactive and broaden our "Group work." For example, in a science class we can do dissections, and take a virtual tour around the inside of our specimen. The best part of being interactive, is the long distant learning. We can communicate with people and other scholars across the world.       

Summary:

     To conclude, teaching with educational websites, and other online resources, are very useful in today's fast paced modern world. With so many useful websites to interact with, by bookmarking them, using "Tags" to label them with words to better describe, so you could find anything with ease at your finger tips. The use of technology has tremendously impacted our world, and with the use of it, we can navigate ourselves to every corner of it.     

Resources:
Textbook - Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2011). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN:10 0-13-159611-X, ISBN:13 978-0-13-159611-5    
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Flickr.com

Photo credit to Howie Weiner from Flickr

Journal post #5

Researching and Evaluating Internet Information.

Focus Question: What are search engines and how do they work?

     It's almost as I've been using technology "blindly," without actually knowing what a "search engine" was, I've been using them all along. A search engine is anything that you would type a topic of interest into, and it'll find an abundance of information for you automatically. From my text book it says it's a "Software program that uses networks of computers to access from it's database." We type in the "Keywords" an it searches instantaneously.

Tech Tool: Photo and Audio Resources on the Web.

     We all like to associate words with visuals, and sometimes maybe that's the only part someone can take away. By adding photos and audio we can better explain thing by having them pronounced to us, maybe we're reading something above our level and if it's not pronounced right, we can misinterpret the whole concept. One resource I'd like to focus on is "Flickr." I've become very familiar with this site, one that I've never known before. It's a great place to find images, that are appropriate, and also be able to share with one another. (But also remembering to give proper credit to the owner of the image.)

Summary:

     All in all, search engines are like rummaging through an entire library, in the matter of seconds and photo and audio resources are very useful as well. In fact, if you don't know the URL for a specific site, you would use a search engine using the keywords until you found it. Flickr, for example, I had used Google, (a search engine) to find the website, and on that site, to find the image I wanted, I would search for it using their search engine.

 Resources:

Textbook - Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2011). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN:10 0-13-159611-X, ISBN:13 978-0-13-159611-5    
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 Flickr.com

Photo credit to Karl Foxley from Flickr

    

Journal Post #4

Chapter 4 : Integrating Technology and Creating change.

 Focus Question: How can teachers integrate technology into their work as educators?

     This question excites me, I almost feel as though every person in the education field should take a second and ponder about this question; this doesn't just apply to teachers, this could apply to everyone. I'm going to focus on the teachers roll, (For the sake of this blog).
     As an educator, we should be at least one (1) step ahead of our students. Yes there is nothing more enjoyable than seeing our students teach us, but to really embrace integrating technology teachers need to approach it from and educational aspect. I do feel as though  we need to make sure the technological advances we're achieving are still within the students grade window, (assuming they haven't surpassed us).
     Encouraging the use of power point, and more citations from websites, (Allowing us to recognize they understand the five (5) major criteria). I grew up during the "Birth" of technology, some of my teachers were eager to explore the endless world of the internet, and any new programs they could download, and there were others who opposed the internet, and require us to do things the "Old school" way. Granted people have graduated, and become very successful by spending hours on end in a library, but, if we could find the exact same resources in a fraction of the time, wouldn't that mare room for more successes?

Tech Tool: Online resources for lesson planning: Thinkfinity, PBS Teachers, and Gliffy.

     With these resources, (if teachers utilize them) will help sharpen or even develop the skills of many. Not every teacher out there is a veteran, and still even veterans could use a little advise from new teachers. We as a society are only going to advance by communicating. Communication can happen in may different ways, the internet just happens to be the most convenient; we can chat face to face, or check messages when available, my point is, if we explore these sites, display our inputs, and experiences, we as teachers can grow and better our kids. There's no use in teaching if you only know how to teach one way, not everyone learns the same way. So with Thinkfinity, there are an abundance of educational organizations we can embrace and learn from, or Gliffy, where I just discovered it gives tips and pointer on how to set up your class room.

Summery:

    Something as simple as that can be shared and applied, students can only learn what they can see, and what they see is determined by where they sit. I feel as though if they see teachers constantly learning and applying new technologies, it's going to influence them to work harder, and most importantly, together.

Resources:
     Flicker.com
    
Textbook - Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2011). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN:10 0-13-159611-X, ISBN:13 978-0-13-159611-5    
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Photo credit to Barry Joseph from Flicker 

 

 

 

 

Journal post #3

Chapter 3: Developing lessons with technology.

Focus question: How can teachers evaluate and assess their students?

Tech tool: Online rubrics and quizzes.

     In this chapter I've explored how teachers can evaluate their students; before I even read the chapter I had ideas flowing through my head. I strongly feel as though technology is the best way to track, evaluate and assess our students, because by the use of technology students will probably feel more comfortable using devices that they already know how to use, and feel more secure, knowing that the only eyes who are going to see what they write is the teachers.

     As teachers we can access all of our students windows and screens, see what sites they have visited, and by them doing work over the internet, submitting it to us, the computer is less likely to make a mistake, so grading won't take as long and we can focus more of our attention on our students in the specific areas they need it; instead of grading it our selves and wasting valuable time.

Photo credit to Paco Paco from Flickr

     Online rubrics are wonderful! I can't tell you how many times I lost the assignment paper or it got ruined in my back pack, where as if it's online, it can't get ripped, wet or lost,(unless the teacher deletes it). Quizzes online make it easier to do on your own time. Life is hectic, it's hard to attend class on time every time when there are so many other things we could be doing. Thus, making a rubric and quiz available online allows us as humans to fit more into our day.

     All in all, we live very busy lives, not every student is going to be at the same level, as I read in the section about "Standards-Based Assessments" it's a national test, so scores are compared all around the country. If we were to administer something like that, grade it by hand, and compare it by hand, we wouldn't know what the national average is until it's too late. So, what I'm trying to say is we need technology, to better our students in a timely manor, to progress in our very fast paced world.

Resources:
Textbook - Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2011). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN:10 0-13-159611-X, ISBN:13 978-0-13-159611-5    
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Journal post #2

Chapter 2. "Transforming Learning with Unique, Powerful Technology."

Focus Question: How does technology create student engagement and collaboration?

Tech tool: Web resources for engagement and collaboration.

          I just want to start out with saying that I had a hard time focusing on just one question. To me some of them actually work together, or happen because of one another.

        To begin with creating student engagement and collaboration I just want to break this apart and look at it small pieces at a time. Technology enables us to create almost anything we put our thoughts into, I came across the tech tool, web resources for engagement and collaboration and there's an abundance of them! There's a web site for everything, with that being said, that means a lot of people put time and effort into something that someone else is going to see, thus the collaborating part.

        Under the segment "Group work and collaboration in the classroom" it made me think of how after all the work was done for each specific group, I would look around the room and realize that I know a whole new chapter because we came together as a class, worked on sections, and basically taught it to each other.
Along with this segment is the use of incorporating new uses of technology, while reading is always going to be a necessity, if we gave each kid some sort of kindle with access to a library full of books, they wouldn't be wasting time walking back and forth from the library.

Photo credit IntelFreePress from Flickr

        When kids get together and collaborate their ideas for a project, not one of them is going to have the same exact idea, or may not even be able to decide. By the use of technology engaging them, first of all because they're automatically excited to use something that they are already familiar with, and second, I think by using technology it gives the kids a sense of something "Important." When combining these together I feel as though they're going to come up with something great, and what's even better about technology is as we are not all "Picasso's" by typing into a search engine what you're trying to design, create or express, it's going to come up with something they would have never imagined.

        To wrap this chapter up I feel as though technology creates student engagement by enabling them to express their creativity in unimaginable ways, due to the use of unlimited web based resources and being brought together by a common factor; technology.

Resources:
Textbook - Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2011). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN:10 0-13-159611-X, ISBN:13 978-0-13-159611-5    
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 Flickr.com