Blog Reflection 5

What were your "Aha!" moments this semester? Try to tie together what you've learned and where you go from here. Also, think back to the philosophy you developed at the start of the semester. In what ways has it guided you in the development of your projects? How will it continue to do so and how has it changed or remained the same?

            Aha moments in education are always great, but taking time to reflect on them is critical in order to move something from an Aha moment to a true change in how you teach. For me this course provided some Aha moments that changed my thinking about how I teach and also provided some wonderful practical insights that I might not had had without the little “push” that this course did.  One concept that this class helped me to understand about myself as a teacher is the idea of the Net Generation. The article, “Is it age or IT” helped me to understand how my perspective is vastly different from my students perspective when it comes to technology and education. Since I am a “digital immigrant” and my students are “digital natives” I must work extra hard to speak their language, to provide learning situations that will reach them in the manner they are use to. I also realize that I have much to learn from them. I loved the idea in one article that discussed including students in technology training. How could I have not thought of this before? What do I do at home when I can’t get something to work on my I phone, Computer, TV etc… I call for my thirteen year old son to come help. He does and it usually gets figured out. The same could be true for my students. They will help me speak their technology language and I think my efforts in this area will show my students that I desire to engage them in learning that meets their needs. Another practical moment for me was learning to work with Jing, Camtasia and Screencast.  I LOVE these tools and I am so excited about using them in my classroom next year. So often I feel overwhelmed with a new technology introduced during the school year that I set it aside because of lack of time. I am so glad I figured out how to do use these presentation tools.

As I re-read my educational technology philosophy that I developed I stated that:

Sometimes I feel like teachers have their feet in two worlds: the old way which is pen and paper and textbooks and the new world of web 2.0 tools, internet access to major amounts of instantaneous information and other technologies as well. Change is difficult, but I believe I am teaching at an exciting time in the history of how we teach our children.

I still agree with this statement, but now I feel that I am getting my feet more and more in the world of technology. Change is difficult, but this course, along with other courses, continues to show me how critical it is for us to integrate technology. The projects I created for this class were out of a motivation to move towards a deeper understanding of the world my students are experiencing. Ultimately, I desire this because at the core of my teaching philosophy I want my students to be lifelong learners and problem solvers. Because I value and respect students, I should always be willing to look at my methods and approaches for teaching and ask:

 Am I teaching this way because it works for me or because it is what’s best for them?

That question is what I will be taking forward from this class.

Blog Reflection 4

Several questions are posed in relation to technology not just being an age related phenomenon. Ask yourself and answer the following - you may be surprised at your answers.

Are you more comfortable composing documents online than longhand?

I have definitely become more comfortable composing documents online. When I use paper and pen method I actually find it frustratingly slow and uncomfortable.

Have you turned your "remembering" (phone numbers, meetings, and so on) over to a technology device?

Yes, I realized the other day that I have NO idea what my son or daughters telephone number is since it’s just programmed on my phone. One thing though that I can’t seem to give up doing long hand is calendaring. I like a real paper calendar to write in appointments and meetings. I have tried to use my I phone for this, but have trouble sticking with it and usually default to the traditional method.

Do you go to meetings with your laptop or PDA?

Most of my meetings are school staff meetings. I still bring a notepad and pen with me. I like to doodle.

Are you constantly connected? Is the Internet always on whether you are at home or work? Is your cell phone always with you?

YES! My phone is with me constantly at all times. It’s my trusty companion. It’s my alarm clock so it even sleeps next to me. I can check email and face book in just a few clicks.

How many different activities can you effectively engage in at one time?

I would say approximately 3 activities at one time.

Do you play video or computer games?

No, I am not really into computer games or video games, although I did have one summer that I was obsessed with Wii Tennis.

What generational category do you fall in or are you a mixture
 of a few?

According to the chart I am Generation X.  It seemed to be fairly accurate in it's description.

This article focused on implications primarily for higher education; however, the characteristics for the Net Gen remain true for students in K12. What and how do we need to change?

            This article helped define several key issues for me as an educator to the Net Generation. I feel there are many areas where we could change and improve our methods of teaching these students. We must begin to shift our own thinking to become more in tune with the way this generation learns. It seems that all this amazing technology has created students that learn differently from the way we learned growing up. First we must believe that “different” is not wrong, just because textbooks, paper and pencil worked fine for us does not mean that is the only “right” way. I believe educators must determine to have an open mind about how they teach and be willing to change to meet the needs of students.  I really focused in on the part of the article that discussed the different ways that students deal with information. Areas such as their visual spatial ability, inductive reasoning skills, attentional deployment and fast response time were mentioned. I believe these are the key areas we, as teachers, need to be aware when we are working with students. We need to be capable of incorporating technology into our lessons that help students use their visual spatial skills, allow for inductive reasoning and to remember that their attention span has the potential to be shorter than we expect.

            I honestly had not considered the social side of this generation and that they use the technology to be social creatures. They desire this interaction, and not to just hide behind some computer screen. An educator should capitalize on this in the classroom as well, realizing that blogs, wikis, and working in groups would all be engaging forms of learning for the Net Generation.

            I firmly believe that I am a better educator when I get to know my students, what they are passionate about and how they learn. The ideas and suggestions in this article will help me in the coming years as I continue to strive to meet the needs of my students in ways that work best for them.

Reflection 3

The article, Electronic Portfolios as Digital Stories of Deep Learning, was a very interesting read, that opened my mind to looking at how I assess my own students in the classroom and different methods I could apply. The article listed 10 principles of assessment for learning. The principle that resonated with me the most was: AFL should be regarded as a key professional skill for teachers. This one jumped out at me because as I read through the article, I realized how little I am involved in the assessment of my students. I am handed district benchmarks and told to give them to the students, then scan the answer sheets that go off to be analyzed by someone else. I follow a set of guidelines to prepare them for the high stakes testing and I assign numerical grades to papers. If AFL is going occur at the deep levels the article discussed, then districts are going to have to train teachers and require teachers to assess students for learning and not just of learning.  Before this article I had not spent much time thinking about how I assess, and usually just defer to whatever the district requires.

            I can see quite a few positive advantages of using portfolios for assessment. The main word that comes to mind is ownership. Students would have more ownership over the creation of their portfolios which may lead to more engaged students which in turn leads to lifelong learners. Portfolios could provide a way for students to use multiple learning styles to reflect their past learning and prepare them for future learning. The traditional assessment of testing alone stifles creativity and I have seen many students that have no motivation to be assessed by this method. I definitely appreciated the author’s idea of creating interconnected portfolios that archive past learning, assess learning and allows for authoring as well. This type of portfolio has the potential to engage students at a new, deeper level of learning.

            I believe the creation of my own portfolio will serve many purposes in my learning. One way that it will be advantageous is because it will serve as a place to store past learning to work with new learning. We are often bombarded with many new ideas and concepts, being able to refer back to my portfolio will help me to reflect on past learning and assimilate new learning. Another way that my own portfolio would be beneficial is in the area of collaboration. Being able to share portfolios with other professionals would only assist in my growth as a teacher. I am sure there are many other ways that I am not yet aware of that this portfolio will be helpful and I excited to watch that unfold. I believe that it will be a positive push as I strive to become a better educator for my students. The best way to be a better educator is to always to be a learner.

Reflection 2

After completing the MAPping information activity, what are your reactions to your findings? What will you do differently while searching on the Internet for information now? How confident are you with the information you've used in the past (as part of your college career and/or in your profession)?

            Even though it doesn’t sound very professional, I would like to start this answer with a simple, WOW! That is what I kept saying to myself as I worked through this exercise. I would have told you that I was “tech savvy”, but the quiz certainly humbled me and showed me that when it comes to the web, I am anything but! I was completely floored by the example that was given regarding the Martin Luther King Jr. website that was posted by a white supremacist group. I was reminded how “easy” it is to find information using the web, but finding the “correct” information takes a little more work. I was not aware until this assignment how search engines work and return answers to your questions. I almost feel guilty about the number of times I myself just searched and accepted answers because “Google said so,” much less how I let my students do the same. One thing I will do differently in my own research is utilizing www.easywhois.com website to gather more information about who is behind the sites I am looking at. I will also continue to rely on databases such as EBSCO in teaching my students how to find reliable sources when researching. Thankfully, many of my professors at Texas A&M Commerce, have required scholarly sources through databases that I feel fairly confident in much of my past research work. I know have a better understanding as to why this is required.

What are some implications for the future of our students if we fail to teach them these skills in school? After all, the schools may block access to sites, but students still have access at home.

     This exercise showed me the importance of teaching our students not only how to find information in our very technological society, but more importantly teaching them how to process the information found. Asking questions, thinking critically and not just taking something at face value are lifelong skills necessary for our students’ success. If we fail to teach skills such as MAPping to our students we run the risk of creating a society that is unable to think for themselves, or unable to process the large amount of information available to them. This would be detrimental to society and would start a terrible cycle of students that simply want to be told what the answer is to their problem and the first answer will suffice.

Do you see any advantages for organizing your information via Delicious and/or Google Reader? What are some ways you think you could use these tools in the future?

       Time is hot commodity in our fast paced society. I feel that organizing information using Google Reader and Delicious are both ways that people can save time. Google Reader allows for quick one click access to the sites we deem important, this helps a person gather information quickly and from sources they feel are quality and worthy of their time. It also helps a person from being distracted by the many ads that often send us on mindless chases when we browse the web. I think that Delicious’ ability to be accessed from any computer is helpful for professionals that need timely access to sites and it protects important sites from computer crashes as well.  The networking feature of Delicious is extremely beneficial and helps professionals collaborate in their work.  I think both of these tools could be used in the classroom as well. Teachers could set up Google readers for their students with sites they have checked and feel are appropriate to the classrooms’ studies. Many students waste a lot of time once they log in to a computer and this would help guide and direct students. Delicious accounts would be wonderful way for a school to collaborate on different subject matters and topics by networking and sharing the information found on the web.

This week, you also explored the concept of wikis and created a wiki for a specific purpose. What purpose did you have in mind when developing your wiki and have you started to implement your ideas yet?

     
I created the wiki to potentially use as an avenue for increasing parental involvement for my 4^th grade students. I believe this wiki could be used as a place of communication between parents and teachers. I set up a core set of pages with information that will remain the same over the year, but also set up teacher pages where parents could communicate with their child’s teacher. I think this Wiki has the potential for future collaboration between teachers and parents with everyone contributing ideas and resources to help our children be successful.

What advantages do you see in utilizing wikis? What disadvantages do you see? Think back to the digital natives reading. How do wikis have the potential for engaging them?

I see several advantages in utilizing wikis, first I believe it has the potential to be a powerful tool for assisting with collaboration between educators, the ability to share new knowledge is priceless. Another advantage to the use of wikis would also be to provide a safe monitored place for students to share their work with each other as set up by a teacher. I specifically thought that a wiki would be a great place for students to share their writing with the teacher, other students and even parents. It would allow for ongoing dialogue and feedback to encourage students. Assignments become more engaging when the student knows they have an audience for their work and a wiki would be beneficial in engaging students in this. I know that as a student I benefit when I can see what others are doing with their assignments, it helps me to be more creative, I believe that my own students would as well and a wiki would be a wonderful avenue for this.

       The main disadvantage I could see from the use of wikis in the classroom would be that on my campus technology falls at two extremes, it can be bliss or the biggest headache. Technology issues abound from access issues, to having enough computers available for students as well as the varying degrees of technology literacy in my students. We move at such a fast paced that the time to teach “how” to use a wiki may not be there without us falling behind in the core curriculum. I believe it would be worth the time though in the end because I do feel that it would be engaging to the students.

In exploring the eLearning Tools Wiki, what other web 2.0 technologies did you uncover that you want to explore further?

       The eLearning Tools Wiki was very beneficial in defining several different web 2.0 technologies. The technology that I would like to explore further for my classroom is blogging. I believe that this is a wonderful place to begin with my elementary students. I see many different avenues that blogging could be utilized including sharing and commenting on students narrative writings, a teacher blog with embedded video reviews of different math concepts and procedures that a student (or parent) could refer to at home, and also an excellent place for students to share about books they have read and recommend to other students. This class will help me to be more comfortable working with blogs and ready to go for the school year.

Reflection One

Educational Technology Philosophy
Philosophical School of Thought

According to Albert Einstein, “Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death”. I feel strongly in the truth of this quote. As an educator I believe that teachers should create students that are able to not only complete day to day tasks but more importantly be thinkers and problem solvers. Education is more than training and should help create the whole child both intellectually and socially. Overall, I agree with the pragmatist philosophy in that methods should be flexible, relevant and practical to educate the whole child.

Role of Technology:
I believe that technology should play a central role in my classroom. In a perfect world all students would have equitable access to information and multiple ways to process their learning, including using various technological tools. In order to not just automate technology but to informate, I must integrate technology into everyday learning. This is definitely an area that I feel my school is lacking in at the moment, but through different programs such as “bring your own technology to school” and the purchase of interactive white boards,  I may be able to more thoroughly accomplish a more integrated technology approach in my classroom. I currently teach all subjects and believe that technology has a place in all subjects. Sometimes I feel like teachers have their feet in two worlds: the old way which is pen and paper and textbooks and the new world of web 2.0 tools, internet access to major amounts of instantaneous information and other technologies as well. Change is difficult, but I believe I am teaching at an exciting time in the history of how we teach our children.

Views of teaching and learning
As with the pragmatic philosophy states children are naturally motivated and teachers should capture that motivation. I do feel strongly that my job is to inspire my students to want to learn, to ask questions and seek out ways to find the answers. I believe very strongly that a teacher should always show respect and value students. Students will learn best when they feel they are in a safe and welcoming environment where it’s ok to be wrong. I tell my students that it’s ok to make a mistake, because that’s when the real learning begins. I believe that I have a responsibility to the whole child and educating them intellectually and socially as well. I desire for them to be able to solve a math problem as well as be able to solve a problem they have with a classmate, both have value in the real world.

Potential Uses for Blogging in the Classroom:

Blogging can be used in a multitude of ways in the classroom. Students can use a blog to review and recommend books for their peers. Teachers and students can communicate about assignments through blogs to help deepen understanding. Schools can use blogs to communicate information to the community. The ways that blogs can be used in an education setting are many, however it still seems to be an untapped resource. I believe that we have not seen blogs full potential in education simply because many teachers and administrators are fearful of change. Change takes work and being willing to learn something new and unfortunately teachers often feel overwhelmed in the day to day tasks that they don’t take the time or see the value in new methods such as blogging.

Creating a Culture for Teaching and Learning:

This article was very interesting and offered some new thinking for me in the six areas that are on the horizon. The one that stood out to me was number 6 regarding collegiality. It struck me when he said that teachers should not be trained on new technology without students being present. This had never occurred to me before but what a genius idea that should have been so obvious. It’s true, I may be trained on something new and then go back to my classroom, automate and go right back to what I was doing. However, if I have students at the training then, not only am I held accountable for using that technology, but I also have help when I can’t remember something from the training. Students would feel more ownership and teachers would not feel all alone in trying to implement new technology.

Concept Map:

When I think about defining educational technology I first thought about the word change and how a willingness to change the way we do things must come first.

                                              








Class Expectations:

My expectations for this class are to deepen my understanding of ways to implement technology into my classroom and eventually into a library. I enjoy learning about different technologies, but struggle to implement them into my curriculum. I often default to the day to day routine (automate). I want to learn to informate.