Reflection on chapters 7 and 9

• How does this reading impact your thinking about technology's role in teaching and learning?
• Although I use the types of technology explored in the book, it always amazes me to think that I rarely think about them in terms of classroom uses. The way in which different technology and programs can be used for teaching purposes or communication with parents seems limitless, as I'm sure it is. I'm also always very surprised that most of the tools are absolutely free! Flickr, Blogger, Facebook, and many more are free of cost.  This is a big deal seeing as though teachers are given budgets that need to be spread across all aspects of the classroom. Another aspect of many of the tools we are introduced to, including Flickr, is the option to have everything private. When I have classes of my own, I would not want to make any child or parent feel uncomfortable because of any pictures, videos, or information posted that pertains to a family. Therefore, it is pertinent that I use the tools that allow for private settings that will ensure the safety and comfort of everyone involved. My final thoughts that occured while reading these chapters is that the use of technology will ensure that the information is saved in a safe place and also that it is well organized. The different folders and tags of Flickr create an organization/search system like no other.
• The chapter on social networking was interesting to say the least. It seems like ALL the time I hear about how teachers should not have facebook accounts or should have them completely blocked from people finding them. It was quite refreshing to hear that we SHOULD be using them because they are beneficial. Also, I think it is very important to understand facebook since most of the students have one nowadays. Even after reading this chapter, I still feel as though facebook should not be used in the classroom. The only way in which the book said facebook could be used was for discussion posts for the class. Since there are other technology driven disscussion areas (podcasts, wikis, and blogs), I do not think that using such a personal site is appropriate for the classroom.
• Another element that the book mentioned about Ning and Facebook was that it is ususally only accesible to people 13 and older. Since I am pursuing and Early Childhood degree, these sites will most likely not be useful or allowed in my classroom.
   
• What will you do differently as a future teacher as a direct result of this new thinking?
• In the future I will definitely be using Flickr with the parents of my future students. Capturing moments during class time, recess, field trips, and other activities would be the perfect way to create an interactive newsletter. Since I will be teaching Preschool to 3rd Grade, it would be a wonderful way to show the parents what is happening in the life of their young child. When parents can actually see what is happening, it gives them a way to start conversations with their child and feel as though they are truly a part of the classroom, even if they can't physically be there. I could even include video clips of concerts, play, or events of that nature.
• Another way I could use Flickr is to have older students find daily news. Although 2nd and 3rd graders shy away from reading the news because of the intimidating size and number of words associated with any news resource, looking at pictures of current news would be much less intimidating.
• Although Facebook and Ning are perhaps not the most useful tool for my young students, I can use them as a teacher. Since Ning is a social networking site based on a specific topic, I could find information, links, ideas, stories, and much more from ESL teachers for instance. Social networking sites are a place to connect with other teachers and professionals to share and create ideas.

exit slip 2/24

Today, we focused our time on the IWB lesson as well as the podcast.
For the IWB lesson I learned about the appropriate way to word and condense a lesson to only one focus. Also, that the wording of our learning outcomes is extremely important. I think I will probably use the tutorials to figure out how to navigate around the Smart software. I know that I will be using this software in the future and so exploring the capabilities of this will be very beneficial. I have already thought about the learning outcomes and general format that I want to use to create my lesson, so now my next task is to figure out how to create the lesson on the SMART software.
The other program we learned about today was Garageband. This tool seems like a great tool to use for creating podcasts because the software is very straightforward. There are many aspects that I need to consider when creating the podcast including fading the music in and out and making sure that the timing of everything(including the length of the music) is correct.

The main goal of this week/weekend for me will be exploring the software we are using to create our projects.

chapter 8 response

• How does this reading impact your thinking about technology's role in teaching and learning?
• To be completely honest, this reading completely changes my thinking about technology, in this case podcasts, considering I thought a podcast could only be downloaded for and viewed on an ipod. Clearly, my ideas are wrong since, according to the chapter, an ipod is not even necessary for podcasting! It's embarrassing to admit and almost scary to think that people from all over, including a 13 year old boy, are capable of using this technology for very useful purposes and I can not even define it correctly. Again, this emphasizes the fact that keeping up-to-date on technology is a must for teachers; especially since, chances are, students are already using them.  
• After reading through the chapter, I decided to download the Skype recorder to use as a resource for my Spanish project.  Obviously this technology will be useful to my students if it is useful for me as a student!
• Screencasting is a term that is surprisingly not as foreign to me as the others. This is because of the math program here at UWSP. A couple of my friends have been in a math class that requires you to take quizzes online. Some of the questions have a "Show Example" or like button that plays a screencast of someone working through the problem on what looks like an IWB.
• What will you do differently as a future teacher as a direct result of this new thinking?
• As a teacher, the possibilities of using podcasts seems pretty clear to me. Not only will I be able to share some of the useful podcasts already created with my class, but also have them create their own, especially since the process seems easy enough for even young children. Since I plan on working with the Early Childhood group of students, it could be very beneficial to use podcasts to help the children with speech difficulties. Not only would the students get the chance to talk and take pride in a "radio-like" showcase of their work, but also teachers, assistants, specialists, and parents could all listen to the podcast to determine the steps needed to improve the child's speech and language skills.  Another wonderful use for podcasts in the classroom would be to provide lessons and practice for ELL students. Since I am going to be licensed as an ESL teacher, it would be very beneficial for me, like the book mentioned, to create podcast stories or assignments in different languages that the children could listen to as many times as needed at home. 
• As far as screencasts go, I would like to use these to model projects for my students. Since I will be working with younger students, even an activity with very few steps requires me to explain, model, and repeat numerous times. Therefore, it would be very nice to have the process recorded once and it could be played as many times as necessary.

exit slip 2/17

I think it is extremely beneficial to have the chance to discover/learn about the tools we will be using in the future rather than having someone tell me about it. I have classes right now that I fall asleep in almost every time, which is impossible to do in this class.  I hope to remember this technique when I begin teaching my students.

 Today, I learned about a few new concepts and helpful hints. Here is a quick overview of my thoughts:

• One of these is triangulation. We defined triangulation as  checking multiple sources, or verifying information across various sources. 
• The author really does  matter when checking the credibility of a website. 
• Parents do not have filters on the internet at home, so the information that is, thankfully, filtered at school is not at home. This is a great reason to teach students and inform parents about checking the credibility of websites. 
• There are numerous IWB sites provide lessons that can be used for specific Wisconsin standards 
• Many of these are premade lessons that I can use for FREE
• 2 steps to designing any lesson
• What will students learn?
• How are you going to teach it?

Response to Suspicious Sites

Identify how you will teach young learners about evaluating websites for credibility? What process/procedure will your students follow to ensure that they will determine that the sites listed below are not credible?

There are a few major red flags that my students will need to recognize to determine the credibility of a site. I will demonstrate how to search for signs of a noncredible site.
These red flags include text such as:

• This site is not associated with any school or educational organization
• Note: content veracity not implied

Other red flags include elements such as:

• The site does not contain links to other sites: All links lead to different pages of the same website.
• A large amount of advertisements
• Incorrect grammar
• Check when the website was last updated
• Who is the creator of the website
• students should visit any hosts or organization listed at the bottom of the page. These links offer insight into who is creating the websites and what bias could be found in the information. (For example, the Martin Luther website is hosted by "Stormfront", a community of white nationalists)

Overall, students should be able to answer the 5 W's when evaluating websites:
Who: Who is the author? Is there information about the author provided?
What: What is the site about? What is it useful for? Are there any bias opinions included?
When: When was the site created? How often is it updated?
Where: Where does the information come from? Is there a bibliography? Are outside sources linked to the site?
Why: Why does this source seem credible? Why not?


The golden rule will be to read through or at least skim ALL the information, not just parts. It will be easier to find information that proves that the site is not credible. It will also be helpful for spotting incorrect grammar (another sign that the website is probably not credible!)

Response to Chapters 4 & 5

• How does this reading impact your thinking about technology's role in teaching and learning?

Again, reading these chapters was a great way to expand my knowledge bank of technology tools for teaching. As I was reading I couldn't help but think about how I was going to use Wikipedia and hopefully RSS (if I can figure it out!) for MY spanish homework. Clearly, if I am using these tools, they would also benefit my future students, especially since they are continually getting better.

When I was in high school, we were always told to never use wikipedia for anything because it was not a reliable source. I would love to have all of those teachers (who were so adamant that wikipedia was the devil's website) read the chapter describing the joys of wikipedia. If you really think about it, having more than one person share their knowledge, ideas, videos, pictures, is better than one person's possibly biased opinion. As Professor Boyer said today in lecture, "the wisdom of crowds" is a powerful thing. I couldn't agree more with the chapter; if wikipedia is used in conjunction with other books/sites/resources, it could prove to be a very useful tool.

As far as RSS goes, I'm not quite sure I understand it quite yet. I tried to navigate around the site and find some information for my spanish project with no success. Hopefully after discussing RSS in class I will have a better understanding of how and why to use it. The reading discussed it as a way to quickly read through a plethora of information based on certain topics. I feel as though this could be very useful once I figure out exactly how to do it!

Overall, I think one of the main ideas of all the chapters is encouraging students to collaborate, reflect, and explore the endless possibilities when using technology to make learning fun, interesting, up-to-date, and meaningful. The chapter discussed collaboration to determine what should be posted on a wiki page, for example. It also mentioned the idea of working with people who are oceans away. All of these possibilities are extremely exciting and easy, so they should be used in every classroom!

• What will you do differently as a future teacher as a direct result of this new thinking?

One way in which I plan on using wikis is to create study guides for tests and such. I can't help but apply what I am reading and learning about to my own studies, and I think it would be great to have a site that highlights the main ideas and provides links to helpful infromation for classes such as astronomy. Creating a place where students learn to collaborate to include all different takes on one subject is a wonderful tool. I hope that I will be able to teach the students to utilize the internet to find videos, explanations, information, etc. to compliment whatever lesson they might be learning about during class. I can honestly say that I use Wikipedia, or similar sites, on a daily basis to clarify information discussed in class and find more useful information about the topic. Clearly, when used appropriately, wikis can be extremely helpful.

Another result of this new thinking is to use sites created by other teachers and classes as a springboard for ideas for what I can do with my class. There were numerous examples mentioned in the text about wikis used by classes for many different reasons (evaluating books, creating study guides, etc.) Using these ideas and having my students refer to them to obtain different opinions will be a good way to encourage sharing ideas and providing constructive criticism to other people's work.

2/10 exit slip

what new thinking did I take away from class today?

After class today, I can't help but wonder why interactive whiteboards were not used if they were created almost 20 YEARS AGO! Could it be the cost of getting the boards? A lack of knowlege about them? I just don't understand how this technology, which seems like it could be such a helpful and energizing part of any classroom, was not used until now. Furthermore, if this is such "old" technology, does that mean it is outdated? Are their newer tools? It really makes me think about how time consuming and difficult staying on top of the new technology will really be.

After playing with the notebook software, it is obvious that this could be used for many different lessons. I plan on using smartboards for assessment purposes. This will be helpful because of the "checking" tools that provide immediate feedback. I can't wait to explore the different options that SMARTboards offer!

2/3 exit slip

What new thinking did I take away from class today?

Before class today, I did not know what a wiki or social bookmarking sites were. Discovering both of these tools was extremely valuable because they can and will be used in the future as well as now. I will definately be using the delicious site for websites I use now. I feel as though I am signing into D2L about 80 times a day in order to get to websites that I need to use for different classes. It is clear to me that technology is being used more often in classroom, as every single one of my classes uses certain websites to aid in my learning.
I like the idea of keeping the parents of my students informed with a wiki. I think this is especially helpful to me since I plan on teaching young students who will not necessarily be able to relay messages.  I really enjoyed the "harsh reality speech" that linked the relevance of what we are doing now with our future. I truly do believe it will be worth my time to learn how to implement these tools to our classroom. I am already working very hard to try to make myself stand out to hiring committees and it is extremely encouraging to be given tools, such as delicious, that will give me that extra boost. Furthermore, I like the idea that these tools are ones that will continuously grow, instead of creating something that in four years, when I am job searching, will become outdated.