Journal #4

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 #5

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    

Journal #9

Journal Post #9

Creating and sharing information with multimedia technologies.

Focus question: What is multimedia technology and how can teachers use it to effectively create and share visual information dynamically in their teaching?

     From reading the text, I've learned that "Multimedia" means "the presentation of material using both words and pictures." This also goes to include, videos, voice, sounds and animation. Also in the book they assume the student's learning will enhance by use several different sources to teach, I happen to agree with this. As we advance into our "Digital world" our students are not going to enjoy caring around large text books with tons of print, they're going to prefer watching a video, or a brief power point. By forcing our students to read lots of text is just going to confuse them if they can't grasp the concepts to begin with; whereas if there's a video with a demonstration, or some other picture or illustration, the student's will actually comprehend the information.

After watching this video I thought about what it would have been like to only have a text book describe this to me. I don't think I would have understood this concept at all if it weren't for a video. On top of that, I didn't even have to leave the comfort of my own home.  

Tech Tool: Digital Projectors.

     Digital projectors are a wonderful invention. Instead of rolling in the giant television hooking that up every time, along with that, not everyone could see, so we would have to move our seats, and get situated, all that takes too long. To have a projector it allows our students to sit where ever they're assigned, and still see the board with ease. I enjoy the digital projectors, especially the newer ones, that don't require the over head lamp that blinds us. I prefer today's smart boards. We can show any kind of document on there, edit it, take extra notes on the board and save it to the file. I've actually has a math teacher who would write all his problems on the board, print them out and give them to us as study notes.

Photo credit to Rebecca Morrison from Flickr

Summary:

     To conclude, I enjoy and encourage using multimedia technology in the class room. With each passing day there seems to be something new coming out in our digital world. With us being so busy, and too many places to commute, having the internet and being able to stay connected by the web, to watch videos, tutorials, gather information, all while saving time, money and different expenses. If our kids today are more capable with using technology I think we should embrace it; who really want's to lug around a ton of books when we can down load them all? Who want's to spend countless hours in the library flipping through pages, or having to find a baby sitter because you have to meet at a specific location. By using multimedia we can use different web casts, and still chat face to face.


      
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    

Journal # 8

Journal Post #8

Chapter 8 communicating and networking with websites, blogs, wikis, and more.

Focus Question: How can teachers use communications technologies as teaching and learning tools.

     With the world toady being so far advanced in just a short while, we now have access to almost everything at our fingertips, why not embrace it? As an everyday person might use e-mail to relay information, blogs, online discussions or identify a website, they're still using and portraying information. With the use of the web and the internet we can reach out to so many more resources, with the internet we as educators are not limited. Also, most of our students already used these tools for recreational use, so if teachers could mandate a separate account for educational purposes, the students will already know how to navigate their way about the pages, and will be connected to not only just their friends, but their classmates and the teacher as well, even after school hours. As we have just explored in our class, in Google documents we can collaboratively work on an assignment at once without clustering around at a desk, or being loud from verbal discussion. Or we could implement the use of Google Blogger to use as a journal, and instead of passing around a notebook we as a class could access any page all at once.

Tech Tool: Teacher website and blog-building resources.

     I am going to focus on the second approach. Staying connected is a be deal in today's society, not only with personal friends, but in the classroom with your peers as well. At the same time we as educators need to be cautious of how we use the internet, and be cautious of what information may be out there. By using the second approach (Commercially Available Template) this allows us to create many different functions that also happen to be password protected. With this approach we can invite our students to create their own blogs, and instead of using the internet in a toxic way, by the teacher monitoring what is talked about in the posts, maybe the students will steer away from a negative influence and learn to be proactive with the opportunities the internet presents.

Summary:

     All in all I feel as though the internet is a very powerful tool, that can be used to our advantage. We as educators just need to have an open mind, be more educated and explore the different tools we can use. As teachers we should be looking for more ways to communicate with our students, and technology is a wonderful gateway to a better communication path. Instead of our students posting their discussions on other recreational sites such as "Facebook" and the "Twitter" we can open a new door to some proactive sites, such as Google Blogger. It's almost like having an online journal, where if you have a question you can always reach someone or some resource. 

Resources:

Youtube video credit is given to: ahstechteacher

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