#6 - Class Pages, Technology Sandbox, and Technology/Professional Responsibilities

I visited the website for the Walker School.  It seems to be a charter school that includes preschool, lower school, middle school, and upper school.  The public view of the website contains information about each course, teacher, events going on, activities involved, the curriculum, and the goal of the class. It contains a positive view of the school and presents the academia as prestigious.  Below is a screenshot of one of the class pages.

Productivity tools are important to grade students' work, plan and document lessons, and communicate with students and colleagues.  According to the podcast, productivity tools are those that "help you complete every day tasks a little better."  I will use the productivity tool Microsoft Office to help me in the future of teaching.  I will also use diigo and Evernote to help plan and document lessons.  Google calendar could be beneficial as well. Online rubrics and spreadsheets will be utilized to assist in the grading process. I will use SMART boards and 3D printers if accessible in the school I choose to enhance the learning experience for my students. There is so much technology available it excites me! I can't wait to use all of these awesome tools and programs to help me teach!

At the Sandbox field trip I discovered a ton of cool and helpful pieces of technology.  One in particular that stood out to me was the goggles and computer screen that presented a 3D, lifelike experience.  I can't remember what it was called but I googled it and a brand called Oculus popped up. I guess what I used was pretty similar to the Oculus. This could allow virtual field trips anywhere around the world! It eliminates the financial and time constraint that holds students back from visiting educational places like the Vatican and the Colosseum in Rome. The opportunities are endless! I also loved the SMART board.  It is so much more efficient and convenient than the white board. I do service learning for another class at FSUS and they use the SMART boards there so I get to see it in action. The students seem to love it as well. The teacher used it for math lessons, writing lessons, and many others. The SMART board is definitely useful for every day teaching. 

ILP Design - Prezi: Timeline of Educational Technology

I created a prezi to present the timeline of major technological advancements made in the classroom. This stresses the importance of technology and shows the progress we have already made thus far. This prezi excites me for the future technology yet to come!
Here is a link to the prezi:
http://prezi.com/1snokda2ngk0/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
Here is a screenshot of the prezi:

#5 - Web 2.0 and Technology Advancement

Web 2.0 allow users to interact and share with each other.  According to the podcast, teachers use YouTube to show students relevant videos and enhance their learning, blogs to post updates and announcements.  Blogs can also be used for student publishing and teachers can controls to monitor use. Wikis are also used to collaborate work.  Twitter can be used to follow political and public figures and learn from them.  Diigo can be used to share resources and take notes from them.  All of these are interactive and great for the learning experience.  Other social media websites may prove less beneficial.  Instagram and Facebook may not be as useful in the classroom.  YouTube, Twitter, Blogs, and Wikis are only helpful if used appropriately and monitored by the teacher.

When I am a teacher I will probably use TED to assist me with my lessons.  They are talks by important figures that discuss technology, design, and other things going on in the world.  It contains many videos and links on all kind of important topics.  The use of video would enhance the learning experience.  The link to this is: https://www.ted.com/

Personally, I think that Open content holds the most promise,  All of the technological advancements bring hope for the future but this one intrigues me the most.  According to the book, Open content is "content that is developed through collaboration and interaction through social media rather than by a few knowledgeable authorities."  If monitored and integrated appropriately, it could greatly enhance the learning experience! The book states that open content has already "[significantly impacted]...the classroom."  I think MOOCS are also super useful and exciting.  MOOCS are massive open online courses that provide learning opportunities.  Just reading about all of these technological advancements gets me so pumped to be a teacher some day! I hope that I can use these effectively in my classroom in the future.

#4 - Digital Divide, Active Learning Software, and Web Evaluations

I am not entirely sure what the question means by "early course experiences."  I'm assuming that it means my use through the class since that is what we have been using for experience.  If this is the case then I would say that I have been interacting with classmates and Re-tweeting a lot of information about technology and interesting topics that arise.  If this question is referring to my use prior to the class then my response differs.  My personal twitter has been used to interact with peers on a more personal basis and to stay in the loop about upcoming events inside of school and outside of school.  These are important in the future as well.  Twitter can be used to inform and interact with students and colleagues in reference to upcoming school events, politics, technology advancement, and basically anything.  It is a fantastic source of communication.

The digital divide, according to the podcast, is used to describe "the gap of people who do and do not have access to technology."  Not everyone has access to a computer or the internet.  The students that do have access to computers and internet are believed to have a greater chance for educational achievement than those who do not.  This is because the students with computers have access to academic software.  According to Teaching and Learning with Technology, a few types of academic software are desktop publishing, graphics, reference, tutorials, drill-and-practice, educational games, simulations, authoring systems, special needs, and integrated learning systems.  The active learning software helps the teachers teach and the students learn effectively.

It is important to check the author's credentials (contactability), whether is is neutral or bias, content (accurate, current, appropriate for audience), design (pleasing to the eye and clear), and technical elements (level of difficulty to navigate and speed of loading) when evaluating a website.  It is also important to check the stability, URLs, and advertising when using a website for teaching.  Personally, I look at the domain of a website, the year it was publlished, the author, and the content when evaluating how good a website it.  I also try to find a website that has condensed and organized information so I'm not spending hours reading it.  Pictures, diagrams and other visuals are also very attractive during an evaluation.  Web evaluations are important so that you can be sure that you are receiving accurate, clear, and credible information for the right audience and purpose.

#3- ELA and Newsletter Design

After reading the Tech Standards Handout, I have concluded that a good portion of the standards I could be prepared to teach but there are a lot that I would need more knowledge on.  I know a good bit about technology and have some experience with its usage but integrating it into a classroom setting will be a new experience and one that I don't think I am fully prepared for yet.  I feel confident about "multimedia literature," "informational text," "history/social studies," and "science/technical subjects" included in my lessons.  More challenging will be to teach my students how to use these types of technology.  I need more preparation in this area.

According to Teaching and Learning with Technology, Digital citizenship "requires productive and responsible participation."  My students must learn to use technology in a productive, effective, and positive manner.  Discussion groups, and chats will be used.  They will be taught how to use the World Wide Web responsibly and learn how to effectively navigate it.  Learning management systems will used to help with this.

I learned how to use columns, wrap text around pics, and many other things.  I haven't figured out how to change the two columns back to one column for the permission slip yet.  My rough draft one does not include the permission slip for this reason.  Through trial and error I figured out how to do a lot on Word.  It is an amazing program with so many possibilities.  I'm impressed with all of its capabilities and am eager to learn even more about it than I already have. It is great for making Newsletters.  I plan on utilizing Word a lot in the future.

#2- Word, Copy Right, PLNs

I used MS Word as a student quite frequently.  It was the primary place I wrote essays, reports, and took notes.  I was never really taught how to use Word to its full capability. Rather, I played around with it and figured out some of its cool and helpful features.  I was taught the basic fundamentals but not in depth about it.  I also sought advice from peers to learn more about Word and all that it has to offer.  My teachers utilized MS Word as well for similar reasons.  They also used it as a template for directions on an assignment and even assignments themselves.

I wasn't told much about Copyright except that it was illegal to copy direct information from text, video, media and graphics.  In school we were taught how to properly cite information and graphics taken from sources for educational purposes.  The Fair Use criteria was never fully explained to me. After reading chapter 11 and listening to the podcast I have a more complete understanding of why we are required to cite information.  The factors involved in determining Fair Use are the nature of the work, purpose, amount used, and how it affects the profit or market.  As a teacher, it will be important that the students understand not only how to cite their info but also why they are required to do so. Older students should be informed how to protect their own creative information.  As a teacher it will also be important to understand Fair Use, software piracy, and the Copyright law in order to legally share educational information to the students.

I had previously acquired knowledge on how to utilize Twitter by playing around with it but I did learn a few more things recently like hashtags and what they do.  PLNs are a great way to communicate efficiently and collaborate with others on a subject matter.  As a teacher, it is a great way to get connected and share information with both students and other colleagues.

#1 Chapter 1 and 2

Technology is an important part of the educational experience.  In a lot of ways, technology has helped and even improved the class room setting.  There is lesson planning software, lesson planning resources, and standards alignment software that assist in lesson preparation.  Grading software assists in teacher tasks.  Presentation software, multimedia hardware and software assist teachers in lecture and class presentations.  Also, social media, teleconferencing, email, and other online discussions have improved collaboration and communication.  There is a growing need to integrate technology into education to prepare students for contemporary life.  There are also critical concerns about how technology is used.  There are environmental factors, psychological factors, and personal filters that affect and can interfere with the communication process in education.  Students also have different cognitive and learning styles that influence how they learn.  It is important that the technology used compliments these needs and learning styles rather than complicate or interfere with them.  In my opinion, technology has been used effectively.  There are many standards and organizations like Common Core, ISTE, P21, TEAC, CAEP, and NCATE that help integrate technology into teaching and learning.  Controversy arises over finances and "allotting time for integrating technology" into the classrooms.  I am fairly optimistic about all the changes and improvements that have been made so far and hope that more are to come about the challenges that are still lingering.

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is a federally funded initiative to make standards for technology for students and teachers.  One of their projects is the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS.)  NETS "identifies definitive competencies for technology skills" that current and future educators should have for the educational experience of their students.  The NET-T are standards of knowledge and skills of teachers, which is outside my current skill set.  The NET-S "articulates basic technology competencies for students" and their application.  This gladdens my heart because of the benefits of the infusion of learning already created and is very exciting for future goals of supporting student learning.

Digital natives are people that have grown up knowing technology.  Digital immigrants learned about technology throughout their life and are less familiar with it.  I am considered a digital native but I still would not consider myself to be tech savvy.  I would agree that I am more familiar with technology than my elders, like my grandparents.  But I also believe that it has a lot to do with the individual's experience and interest.  My dad is much more tech savvy than I am because he uses technology frequently for work and must adapt as it changes.  I have had less of a need for such knowledge and adaptation.  My knowledge is somewhat limited to social media because that is what I use most frequently and am interested in.  My teaches taught me most of what I know about computers and technology.  They taught me how to use PowerPoint, Excel, and Word for assignments and projects.  I imagine I have a lot to learn so that I can be as beneficial to my students someday as mine were for me in regards to technology.