Chapter 8 Reflection

This reading just reinforces the fact that technology should be used a lot in my future class room.  Working with podcasts, screencasts, and video in the class room can potentially be the new way that students complete certain assignments in class.  I believe that Skype or another program similar to that that may come out in the future will be the new way that students help each other with their home work.  It would even be possible for the teacher to set aside a specific time that students will be able to Skype with them so that they can get questions answered or just ask the teacher to briefly review something with them.  Parents could also use Skype to ask questions if they do not have time to stop in the classroom before or after school.

I would like to encourage my students to all set up Skype accounts and use that as a way to get homework help.  Making a FAQ podcast for a big project and having it available on the school website would allow students and/or parents to go there first to possibly get immediate help with their project instead of having to wait to the next day.  I also would like to incorporate short videos as part of my student’s homework assignment for whatever subject I would find if most beneficial at the time.  Chapter 8 once again points out how much of a variety of technology that I have access to and will be able to use in my classroom someday.

Exit Slip 9/24/12

I took away from class today that there are many options that you can use in your lessons with an interactive white board.  I thought it was really cool that the students can play various games on the white board.  So it would be really easy to make the white board part of rotating stations.

I would like to learn  more about how to link the tablet with the white board.  It gives the teacher the opportunity to do so much more in the class.  So it would be nice to this demonstrated.

Chapter 4 & 5 Reflection

        After reading about wikis I now understand what they are.  Technology plays a big role in easily providing sources for students who are writing papers.  Now within seconds of typing their topic into Google, thousands of websites come up offering all sorts of information about their topic.  Wikipedia is one of the first sources that come up for students and a lot of times students usually end up using Wikipedia. 

Wikis are just another way that I can have students participate in the classroom that will hopefully engage them more since it would be an assignment that uses the computer to complete it.  Working with wikis in class will help my students learn to collaborate together on assignments and to understand that they can always make their assignments better if they continue to work on them.

One thing that I will do differently as a future teacher is allow my students to use Wikipedia as a starting point for their assignments that cause them to do research.  If you look at the bottom of a Wikipedia page there are small numbers with links after them that correspond to items in the text above, saying that this is the website where this information came from.  I would ask that my students use the credible links by the numbers for the sources for their assignment.  I will also start using a RSS feed to help filter things.  I have heard the term RSS feed used before but never really understood it till I read chapter 5.  Using the RSS feed would make it really easy for me to pull up current articles for class time when we talk about current events.

"Growing up Online" video reflection

The video made me realize how plugged-in today’s young people really are.  Watching the video also made me aware of how much young people are looking for acceptance and will do anything to get it.  The influence that technology has on young learners worries me, but at the same time I know that it allows a lot of good things to come of it that will be good for my students, so it just comes down to me educating them about the right way to use the internet. 

As a future teacher I will definitely include technology into my lessons somehow because it will keep the students focus better than if I were to just lecture to them.  I will also try to find activities that don’t take that long to complete since children lose focus easily.  I think that one of the best things I can do for my students is to have them complete projects with different computer programs instead of making a poster to go along with their report.  As I stated above I will also make sure I educate my students about the dangers of the internet and how to protect themselves on there. 

Exit Slip 9/17/12

One new thing that I will take away from this class is that students will write better things when they are done online in a blog form where it is possible for other people to see it.  It was also suggested to do away with paper and pencil and to do a lot of things on the computer.  I had never thought of that before, but understand it quite well.  Last week I was answering questions for another class and was hand writing my responses.  While writing my responses I was thinking to my self how much faster I could be completing my responses had I been typing them.  So it makes sense to do a lot of classroom things on the computer as it is not only faster, but it is also what my future students will be custom to.  I also understand the A, B, and C contracts better.  I am going to do my best to get an A in this class.

Digital Autobiography Reflection

My link to my digital autobiography: http://www.vuvox.com/collage/detail/05db3d6489

I exerted a lot of effort into this project. This is my first time using Vuvox so it took me a little bit to figure everything out. I then went through the pictures on my computer and made a separate folder for my ten pictures to be saved into. I spent about 20 minutes going through the pictures because it was hard to decide on only ten pictures. After uploading the pictures into Vuvox I put them in chronological order and added text to explain each picture. I then struggled for a little bit trying to figure out how to upload music into Vuvox. I did figure it out eventually and previewed my presentation before publishing it.

One thing of value in completing my autobiography using Vuvox is that I learned how to do something new. I have only worked with power point before this. I actually found it easier to use Vuvox than power point. Another thing of value from doing this assignment is that I am keeping myself up to date with the newest forms of technology out there that are for creating presentations like this.

Completing this course task impacts my future teaching by helping me to realize that there are many different programs out there that my students can use for when they need to make some kind of presentation. As I mentioned above, I had some trouble with some aspects of Vuvox, knowing that I can give my students a brief overview of how the program works before they use it, or I could also send home a sheet of FAQs for students to consult when they are completing their projects.

Reflection on Ch. 1-3 & 6 of Blogs, Wiki, Podcasts

The readings about technologies role in the classroom has opened my eyes as to what kind of technology can really be used in the classroom. Before this reading I thought that using technology in the classroom meant that computers or laptops would be used and for schools that had enough funding those students might be able to have the use of iPads and Smart boards in their classrooms. In no way had I thought before that blogs would be used as the journal time in today’s classroom. I was also surprised that parents were using twitter along with the teacher and the students in order to keep up to date as to what was happening in the classroom. After reading this I think that using blogs in the classroom is going to be the norm someday soon. It has proven to be a great thing as it is actually getting the students to want to do their homework and go into more depth with their responses to each other’s blogs posts. One thing that I will do differently as a future teacher, after reading, is to set up some kind of assignment that involves blogs for my students. After reading how successful it is in classrooms, this should be used in every classroom across America. I would also like to split the assignments up for the year by having half of them be completed online in one way or another and then having the half of assignments be traditionally done in class. So it would end up being a hybrid class. However, if my students were doing better with the assignments online, I would find a way to make most of the assignments that way then.

What role will technology play for you and your students in your future classroom? I think that technology will play a big role in the classroom. First of all its going to be a big distraction for students as most of them will have cell phones or iPods. Technology will also be good though as it will allow the students do learn in ways that I wasn’t able to as a student. If there is a smart board in the classroom, I can just pull the maps up on their for the geography lesson, instead of having to use a map that pulls down from the board. Technology may also allow for assignments to be posted on a web page so that students can access them at home if they forget to write them down.