Technology Inquiry Wiki Reflection

My Wiki Page...

While creating this Technology Inquiry Page I feel that I put a lot of effort into this assignment.  I believe that I spent more time on this task than any other task that we had in Educ 331.  This took a lot of time because you had to find information about this specific question and answer it.  I have never created a wiki page before so it was something new.  The screencast was also another task that we had to fulfill in the assignment.  That was also difficult because I believe that they are difficult to do.  I am not the most technological person and for this assignment I used about four different computers to make it work. 

The value of completing this course task I believe is pretty high.  I am now familiar with many different ways that I can use podcasts to facilitate learning in my subject area and in my future career as an educator.  I have learned from this class and other classes that it is great to have many different educational tools in your teacher tool box and I feel that podcasting now can be one of mine.  I found many great ideas and ways to use podcasts in my classroom.  I presented this information also in a very different way by creating a wiki site and making a screencast to go along with it.  There were many parts to this assignment and I feel it will help me in my future career. 

This course task impacts my future career because it allows me to have new ways of presenting information to my students.  Technology can be a very useful thing to use when you are teaching if you use it write.  That is why I want to learn the best ways to use certain technology so that I use it write in my future classroom.  I believe that students will want to learn from me if I am changing things up and using different ways of teaching.  As long as I can keep students engaged I believe that teaching and helping students learn will be a lot easier.

PSA Reflection

This is a link to Kyle Homan's Blog which has our PSA on it.

PSA

I Thought that our group put a very good amount of effort into it.  There was definitely no slackers in this group.  We have all created a video before but I have never edited it in a video editor before.  Thankfully Kyle new what he was doing but I watched and gave suggestions.  This helped me learn a lit about video editing.  Plus we used a mac to edit it which was a lot different for me because I have had a PC all my life.  This was something new that I have never done before.  We also had to think about what we were going to do it on and what issue we were going to talk about.

I think creating this PSA will help me in the future because I can do it for my students.  If I wanted to touch on classroom management I could create a video and show it to the class which I think would help the students remember it a lot more.  I could also have my own students create a video and edit it for an assessment on the knowledge that they gain on a subject that I thought.  You can do so much with video and now that I know how to edit a little after doing this assignment it will help me in the future.  I think that one of the best ways to engage students and help them learn is with videos that capture their attention because they can hear it and they can see it.

IRLO Reflection

This project called for a lot of effort from me which it was designed to to by Dr. Boyer.  He wanted to test us and put us in a situation where we had to struggle a little before we could succeed which I feel was a great thing to do.  I want my students to have to work hard because I think challenging is good.  I felt that I was a hard assignment because first I had to come up with an idea that I could use to create an interactive reusable learning objective.  I also wanted to do something that dealt with things I might be teaching someday.  That was difficult but then it got even more difficult when I had to start designing it in scratch.  It got easier as I went because once I figured out how to do what I wanted I could just keep redoing it. 

I think that creating one of these IRLO is a good project because it challenges a student to do something different.  Never have I ever thought about programing my own game.  This program allowed me to do that.  I especially enjoyed being able to create something that dealt with my subject that I could be teaching someday.  I think that one day my students could use this in my classroom and get a lot out of it.  This game is really simple but I feel that it gets students to know their elements.  Plus I can always add to it and make changes.

Exit slip 12/9

My thinking about using technology in the classroom has changed over the semester.  Before I took this class I felt that it wold be very difficult to do but this class has shown me that using technology doesn't have to be that difficult.  Dr. Boyer showed us many different way in which we can incorporate technology in the classroom.  There are many different tools that we can use to help students learn.  I had know idea that there was this many resources you could use to accomplish it.  I think that if you just experiment and use these resources more often you will be able to use these a lot easier and efficiently.

Three Ways of Intergrating Technology in My Classroom

One way that I would integrate technology in my tenth grade science classroom is to have a discussion blog where I will give my students a question of two a week that they have to go to their blogs and answer it with their point of view.  This way they can respond to other students blogs.  Another way that I will use technology in my classroom is to have a video uploaded on to a classroom site that students can get to of the labs that we do in class so that students can remember what happened and have a visual of how to do it.  A third way that I will integrate technology in my classroom is have a course website that will have assignments and dates of when things are due so they are not surprised.  This way students can access it.  We can also update the site and put what we did in class on certain days so students can remember and they can use it as a tool to study.  This will also help students who are sick because they can access it anywhere they want to.

Reflection on Interactive Whiteboard Lesson

While doing this lesson I felt that I put a good amount of effort into it.  Prior to this class I have never used the smart technologies to create anything.  It takes a while to get used to how everything works and how youy change or add things.  It is different then creating things on powerpoint because everything can move on it.  I also had to look up a few things to create this lesson so the information was correct.

Designing and sharing this IWB will definitly affect my future as a teacher because many classrooms now have these IWB's.  It would be a great skill to have to know how to create and share things with this technology.  This lesson was a good start up to something that I very well could use in my future.  It was pretty fun creating something like this and making it interactive for the students to use.  The more interaction they have, the more interested they will be, and that will help them learn a lot easier.

what I took from class week 13

Today we talked a lot about integrating technology in the classroom.  We focused a lot on a video of a classroom in Canada and how that teacher integrated technology in the classroom.  One main idea is that you can have your students learn outside of the classroom by using technology.  We then talked about what we could do before technology, what we can do now, and how technology made it better.  There are ways to do some things without technology, but there a lot of things that we can do now.  Technology has also made things easier and more improved.  As teachers we have to see that we should use technology that can make our classrooms better.  After that we went over things that teachers do well and things that teachers do bad with technology.  This is very useful information because as future teachers we want to do the right things with technology and not make mistakes with it.  Technology can be a very useful and helpful thing in the classroom.  We as teachers have to take the good uses of technology and integrate them into our classrooms. 

What I took from class week 12

I leanred that when you do a set strategy like the "jigsaw" grouping you should let the class know what it is called so that students can remember what it is and know exactly what they are doing because it is named.  After giving directions on what to do, it is always good to ask the class if they understand your directions so that everyone is on the same page.  I also learned that there is a barrier between the way students use technology outside of school and they way they use it in school.  We could break these barriers and help students learn with technology they are already using.  I also learned that it is very easy to find media on the web and we should use it and share it with others.  That is one way that we can help education by working together.

My thoughts on Chapter 10

I like this chapter because it brought everything that this book discussed previously all together.  This chapter calls for us to rethink many ideas that we have about our current education system and how technology is affecting them and causing them to change.  I think that it is very important to consider new ways to teach our future students and to help them learn with the help of technology.  Technology can be very useful.  It can change the way teachers teach, where students can learn, and what they are learning to help them in the future.  This entire book has talked about the effect new technologies are having on our students and why we should change some of our practices as teachers to better benefit our students.  With the help of technology we can better prepare our students for the future because when they get out of school they will be using a lot of technology in their every day jobs.  This will better prepare them to succeed in their own job.  Students are also more likely to be motivated if they are not doing the same boring lecture type structure everyday.  Students are constantly getting bombarded with technology all the time so they will be more motivated to learn with this new technology because they are so used to it and they won't feel like they are learning new things.  With the help of technology we can get students motivate to learn because they are going new things in different ways.  I think that as a future teacher they will be many changes in the future that will affect education and what we teach.  We have to think about how things will change and what we will do to adapt these new ideas to they way we teach.  This was a very interesting book and it filled me with different ideas that I never thought about before I read this.  Education is very likely to change because the world is changing.  It is our jobs as educators to adapt to the changes and help out our students the best way we can.

Podcast Reflection

For this podcast I used a Mac computer which I am not very familiar with.  It took me a pretty good amount of time to figure out how to use grarageband and make it sound professional.  It is difficult to get the timing down and make it all come together.  I also searched the Internet a Little while to find an article that would be interesting and that applied to what we are talking about in class.  I liked this article because we have been talking about how distance learning can help students learn from far away.  I thought that it was very relevant to what we were discussing in class.  I have also never made a podcast before so it was new to me.  I think that this will be beneficial for me as a future teacher because it is another tool that I can put in my toolbox to facilitate learning in my future classroom.  Being a science teacher I can use podcasts to give directions for labs.  This is one way for audio learners to learn.  It is great for students who are sick because they can just download a podcast at home and hear what I personally have to say to them about class.  It is great for distance learning because with many students having mp3 players they can download podcasts very easily.  I think that it a a very useful tool and it is a great thing that I know how to create one now.

Here is the link to article that I used for information:

https://email.uwsp.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=b6f49cc7418448de9233484ee6dab24a&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.eschoolnews.com%2f2010%2f11%2f11%2fnew-report-highlights-barriers-to-online-learning%2f

What I took from class week 11

It is always good to have a back up plan when you are teaching, especially if you are using technology.  There are advantages of using different tools in a classroom setting because it helps different learners understand.  Plus if they have to use that tool somewhere else it will help them in the future to practice now.  It is good to have students summarize their main answer so that in a discussion you can get right to the main point and understand what other students should learn.  As future educators we should consider whether we want to fit inside the current mold or change the way things are being done right now.  It is a pretty interesting time to become a teacher because of the current economy and the scrutiny teachers are constantly under.  I also learned it is also nice to have a breather day where students can catch up. 

My thoughts on Chapter 9

In this chapter of the book it shows the age gap between different thoughts on technology.  Kids are learning from knew technology whether we notice it or not.  Even when they are playing their video games they are learning many different things in ways that we may not notice.  One game can have kids learning about math, writing, science, and problem solving.  This just shows that technology can help us as future teachers help students learn in different ways that we wouldn't have previously thought of.  This chapter calls for parents to try to bridge this age gap by using this technology themselves to understand how kids can learn and to help them learn with this new technology.  I think with the assistance of parents helping kids with this new technology will help facilitate learning even greater.  If parents are there to question their kids on what is going on and give it deeper thought it will help them learn even more.  It will also help the parents understand where the student is coming from and see for themselves how these technologies can help in their own different way.  This section also talked about how parents don't see how being online can help because they are not reading a book.  Just because students are not reading a book doesn't mean that they are not learning anything.  Students can constantly be reading new information when they are online which helps them with their literacy and writing.  It also can be beneficial because they are probably more motivated to do it because they are reading and writing about things that they are actually interested in which then creates motivation to do it.  I don't see how that is too bad of a thing because at least they are learning.  Students can also learn from pop culture because they are using technology to watch TV shows that have complicated plot lines which help in reasoning and comprehension.  Just because something looks fun doesn't mean that a student isn't learning from it.  This chapter shows us that technology is having students learn in different ways.  As a future educator I have to adapt with changing social lives and where students get their information from.  Noticing major fads that are going on with students can help me reach out to them and connect with them to help them want to learn.  If I can relate with students and see what they are interested in it will allow me to teach them better.  I can use this new technology that students are using and like to help them learn in ways that they might not even think they are learning because it is fun and they do it on a daily basis.  This can be very useful and beneficial to my future students.

Cool Tool Screencast

My Screencast

Throughout creating this screen cast I felt that I put a pretty good amount of effort into it.  This is something that I have never done before and it was very new to me.  I am not very great with new technology but I felt that I did a pretty good job.  I went on my specific cool tool website and experimented on it for a while before I attempted the create my screencast.  I also created a SWOT analysis and a script on what I was going to say.  I felt that it helped me know the direction I was going in.  I also had to start the podcast over probably five or six times so I didn't screw up too many times on the finished product.

I think that this will impact my future teaching because if I ever want to create a screencast for my students I will have the knowledge to do so.  If I am teaching students how to do labs a screencast can be useful because students will be able to hear and see what I am doing which is very helpful.  I also did like this cite because I could use it to create a time line for a visual for my class.  I could create an evolutionary time scale to help students remember when major things in life history happened.  That, if feel, will be very useful in my future teaching.

My thoughts on Chapter 10 and Epilogue

I really liked this chapter because it put everything into context on what we are supposed to do with this new read/write web to best help our students.  It gave us ten big shifts that this new Internet is going to cause and as teachers we should help push for these big shifts and use them to help our students learn for the future.  I feel that his section had many good points to look at.  With technology the way it is today, students are not going to be learning the same ways that they have been for hundreds of years.  One difference that this book says is happening is that the curriculum and content is going to change to things that students want to learn.  This is a great idea but it can be scary to think about as a future teacher.  As you go though school people are always talking about standard based curriculum and what you need to know before you pass this grade.  It will be a lot different if students are able to learn what the want.  As a future teacher I will have to be there to make sure they learn the right things to help them in the future.  Another thing to consider is with new technology students are able to not only write in words.  They can also express what they are thinking in visual and in audio ways.  This is a great thing because it helps out all different types of learners.  Technology makes this possible for students to do.  I think this makes it easier on the teachers because it gives them more options for assignments and you don't have to make students who hate writing all the time write all the time.  I liked that we are now able to do that and technology makes it possible. Another shift that I liked and I hope happens more often is that teaching is not just lecture it is a conversation.  I feel that students can learn a lot better if they are just not only listening to the teacher but adding to the conversation as well.  This also gets them involved and helps them stay focused.  This can stop classroom management problems as well because they will be motivated to learn.  I liked many of these shifts and I am excited to see how this new technology will effect the mold of teaching as it is today.  As a future educator I will have to work with these shifts and use them to help it learning.  This will not happen over night but I think that it is already starting now.  I know that I am learning in many different ways because of technology now, then I did when I was in grade school.  We have to embrace this read/write web because this is how people are learning and communicating today. The story of the future classroom in the epilogue is a lot different then the visions that I had as being a teacher before I took this class.  I can see how it is possible but I think it will take me a little bit to get to that point.  These shifts are not going to be night and day but I feel that they are happening and it is exciting.

What I took from class week 10

Today I learned that it is possible to integrate the three ideas from the chapter together because of the school article that Dr. Boyer showed us in class which is really interesting because many people think that it is not possible.  I also leanred that you should give direction to your studented before they move to their group and start chatting.  After they move the students kind of tune out and not listen to your direction.  You should give instruction before the separation so everyone understands.  Group size is a major thing you have to consider to facilitate a good discussion so people can get in depth and discuss things they are talking about.  I also learned that technology is something that can reduce cognitive load which helps students learn.

Chapter 8 Rethinking education

This was an interesting chapter in the fact that it was bringing together three big ideas that technology is going to bring about in education.  Those three big ideas were performance-based assessment, New curriculum design, and new approaches to equity in the digital world.  These new aspects are going to bring about change in the way we think of education.  With performance-based assessment the whole idea is to assess the student in specific areas academic, generic, or technical.  They want to assess students and then give them certain credentials in each specific category.  This is a lot different then education now because we judge on an overall status with GPA and bringing all the areas of learning together.  With technology the way it is I think it would be easier to assess like this but I feel that students need to be well rounded.  The book also talked about how students are able to learn what they are interested in and want to learn.  I feel that this could be a good idea but what if students only want to learn about one thing like dinosaurs and not anything else.  All little kids love dinosaurs, does this mean that we will have a bunch of 1st graders only learning about dinosaurs.  I am all for specialization but for specialization to happen I think the students need to be well rounded.  I also think that it is a good idea for students to have many credentials that they can use which would be easier for jobs to find what they are looking for.  These credentials just have to be considered legitimate and I feel that it could be a good idea.  I do agree that the curriculum needs to be changed but maybe not too drastic.  I feel that students are expected to just scrape the surface because they are learning so much but nothing in depth.  This is where specialization would help because they students could learn very in depth aspects of what they are studying.  Like I said before though is you can't have so much specialization that the students arn't learning what they need to get through life.  The part about new approaches to equity in a digital world talks a lot about technology being used to help students learn in multiple ways.  The idea that students are able to learn when they are not even near a school is a great thing in my opinion.  Some students don't have the benefit of this.  With more and more technology coming I think it is great that more resources are going into helping students learn.  As a future teacher I have to be able to integrate these new ideas and be optimistic to help faciliate learning. 

Chapter 9: Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts

This chapter was interesting because it sort of talked about a the controversial discussion of whether social networks like Facebook and Ning should be used in the classroom to help facilitate learning.  This technology is huge among not only students but people of all ages now.  Facebook is a social network that is very popular for people to stay in touch and look at pictures of their friends and family.  I bet that most students check their facebook accounts more then any other website that they would go too.  This just shows that if students were able to use facebook to help them learn it would be a very powerful tool.  I think that this wouldn't be a bad idea if you could create a private group just for you class that they could work on going at their own pace and on their own time.  It would have to be something that all of your students would agree too becuase to them facebook might be a very private place for them even though it is a social network.  They might not want to have it deal with their school at all.  If students were excited and did like it then I feel that it could be a very powerful tool to help students learn.  I think Ning could be a very useful site because it seems like its design is more geered toward education.  I am not very familiar with this website at all so I would have to go on it to understand it more but from the reading it seems like it could be used to help education.  I think if facebook could work it would be a better site to use because it is more popular and common which would be easier for students to use because they know how to use it and they already have accounts.
As a future teacher I will maybe talk to the administration and see what they think about useing these social network sites.  It is kind of a controversial discussion because many people think that this technology should never be used in education.  It is an interesting thing to talk about.  I feel that it could work if the students are motivated and excited to do it.  I feel that this could be easy for them and since it is on facebook they may feel that they are not doing boring homework.  Plus many students do homework with facebook already on so this way they would have to multitask all the time.  It could be a great place to facilitate a discussion and help the students learn in a different and creative way.

what I took from class week 9

I learned that you can use google sites to have a survey for you class like we did for a mid semester review.  It seems like an easy way to see what your students think about how the class is going and have instant feedback.  I also learned that if a school doesn't have enough money there is plenty of money out there you just have to take the initiative to go get it.  We also looked at a synchronous tool called Elluminate which is a good way to facilitate learning outside the classroom.  I also learned today that we have to create a podcast that goes along with a contemporary issue that is related to technology and PK-12 leaners.  I also learned that there are a lot of things to keep up on and you should keep doing things a little at a time.

Rethinking education chapter 7

When things in the world change there is often good and bad consequences that go along with the change.  In this chapter they talk about what may be lost or what may be gained with this new revolution that is happening in education.  They first talk about what aspects could be lost by this change that is happening.  They talked about how you could lose being in touch with other students, parents taking control of their education, multiculturalism, and people buying up resources to give their children unfair opportunities for their children, just to name a few.  These are aspects that could happen if things go on the way they are because there are signs of this happening now.  Things that we could gain are students can learn what they want to, the web is very accessible and more attention to the students if the family is taking care of it.  These are just a few things that could happen if this revolution continues.  I feel that change is inevitable and we have to except that as future educators.  We have to embrace it and help the students get the gains more then the losses that could occur.  No matter what change happens there are negatives and positives in every situation.  What you need to do is try to have more of the gains then more of the losses and try to cancel out the losses by implementing things where you could minimize them.  As a future educator I am going to want to help the students use these new resources that can help them go farther and try not to lose things that could be valuable that came from the traditional way of education.  It is very important to stay positive and make the best out of change when it happens.

My thoughts on podcasts, video, screencasts, and live streaming

The technology discussed in this chapter really shows how easy it can be for teachers to post audio, video, and a mix of both on the web.  This technology allows you to give information to students over the web without being even close to your students.  This is a dun and easy way to assess your students learning of the material as well.  If you are teaching them something new you have them create a video or a podcast and assess them on their knowledge of it by listening or viewing it.  Many students learn in different ways.  As a teacher you can help students learn by using audio, video, and a mix of both.  This chapter made it seam very easy to use and add to the web what your or your students have created.  I took a geography class this summer and it was all online.  Our teacher used a lot of screencasts to help explain labs that we were supposed to do.  That is a very helpful resource because it is hard to understand what a teacher wants out of an assignment by just reading directions that can sometimes not make sense.  His screencasts allowed him to explain it to us like he was right there talking in person.  As a future teacher I could see myself using some of these different technologies because I think students can learn a lot easier if they see things visually.  I feel that it is a very helpful resource to get information to your students without you being by them.  They can also be used as great reminders before and after class to help students out.  If a student is sick or can't make it to school for a little while, this technology could be a great way to reach him and he would feel better because a teacher can explain homework expectations to a student better then a student that is bringing that homework home to him.  I am planning on teaching science and for labs screencasts, videos, or podcasts can be a great way to show students different things because labs are such a visual thing.  I feel that these technologies are very adaptable for education purposes and they seem pretty easy to use.

What I took from class 10/21

One thing that I took from class is as teachers we should try to think of different ways to facilitate discussion other then linguistically.  Some students are very good at talking and listening so a good verbal discussion is good for them.  Some students are better visually and maybe we should try to facilitate a discussion with something visually.  I learned that you can facilitate discussion with a jigsaw approach which is having an initial group which specialized in one thing and then they break up into other groups with one expert from each to share what they know with each other.  I also learned some good tools that could help me with the whiteboard like grouping, locking, and how you should make sure your colors contrast so everyone can see them.  I also learned that I can contact Dr. Boyer through skype because it can be faster then e-mail. 

Chapter 6: Rethinking Education

After reading this chapter I was able to understand how different aspects of education have changed throughout the three eras of education which are the apprenticeship era, the universal-schooling era, and the life-long learning era.  The reasons for education have changed throughout these eras because of the reason why people need to be educated and the new developments of technology that occurred in those three separate eras.  Technology affected these eras of learning immensely because the reasons why people were educated the way they were was because of the types of technology that were around during that time period.  During the apprenticeship era technology was very minimal and people had to create everything themselves by trades.  The people at this time were just educated for their trade.  They were taught what they needed to learn to succeed in life and that was pretty much it.  They had a little bit of reading and writing but it was mainly things that would help them make it though life and support a family.  Then during the industrial revolution there was large technology boom so trades were being relied on less and less.  Universal schooling was implemented because they wanted people to be educated so they could live in a democratic country.  The new technology allowed people to learn mass amounts of information and use it to do other jobs then just what they were apprenticed for.  Technology allowed for people to get more information because they didn’t have to just focus on being able to support a family because there were plenty of jobs.  Now the focus was just getting an education from a public school.  This allowed for students to be more social and reach out because they weren’t limited on learning little information from their master.  They were now able to learn lots of information from teachers and schools.  Technology was able to transform this trade type education to everyone getting educated because of the industrial revolution.  Now with the large advancement of technology all over the world it boosted us into the life-long learning because now people can learn anywhere and everywhere.  Computers allow us to constantly get information.  They also allow us to become more independent by not relying on just teachers and parents to learn.  Students can now learn new things on their own with search engines and videos at the tips of their fingers.  I think that this is a great thing to be able to constantly be learning and gaining information.  I think society as a whole can benefit from it by being more intelligent.  The problem with this is that people have to be motivated to learn.  They also need a good foundation to be able to read, write, and have comprehension skills so they can analyze what they are learning and adapt it to every day life.  It is very important for students to be engaged and like what they are learning because without that motivation nothing will stick and their will be no reason for learning new material.  As a future teacher I have to realize that there is so much information and technology out there that students can use to learn.  I want to direct them to this information and technology and give them the tools they can use to apply this for their future.  It is important to include and application of this education for a students future or they will not be motivated to learn.  I have to realize that I will be teaching in this new Life-long learning era and tell students to always want to continue learning and apply that learning to their future.

Chapter 7: blogs, Wikis, and podcasts

Flickr, I think, is a good example of an easy and fun technology that you can use in the classroom to get your students involved outside of the classroom.  This technology will help with teaching because you can post pictures and create slideshows of things that you did in the classroom.  I used Flickr in high school during football because a teammate’s parent posted pictures of the team on Flickr as a kind of way to look at the game and see you playing.  A teacher can use this to help in learning by putting picture on their Flickr account of things that they want the students to learn.  Maybe posting pictures or video on Flickr prior to class can give a little prelude to what you are going to be teaching your students that day.  This seems like a very simple and easy technology to use.  I think that it can engage the visual learners the best because the main think Flickr does is pictures and videos.

            As a future teacher I am going to want to help my students get interested by showing them pictures and help them get ideas of class visually.  It is also a great way to help students remember what they did in class.  If you could take pictures throughout class it would be a good way to remember what happened.  Also, if I am running a lab that has to grow or change during the week while the students are gone, I could take pictures and put them on my Flickr account so that students can stay involved and see their experiment develop.  This technology just shows that students like to learn visually because humans are visual learners.  I think this technology can help me with engaging students before and after the lesson in a quick and easy way.  In the future a good idea would be to have the students create their own slideshow like we did in class so they can get to know their other students and they can be fun to watch. 

What I took from class week 7

One thing I took from class today is that there are pros and cons to each side of these new seeds of technology.  It is also a good idea to show students the way to do something along with saying what to do so students can visualize it and understand.  We then started to learn some steps that will help us make an IRLO.  When we make our IRLO we want to design it for the students so it works for them and they understand it.  Dr. Boyer showed us many resources and and helpful hints on how to create an IRLO.  I learned that it will be frustrating at times but it can be an easy program to use.  It will be an interesting assignment but will be a good one.

Chapter 5: Rethinking Education

This chapter was a very interesting chapter in the fact it dealt mostly with education outside of the k-12 age group.  This means that education really never does stop and it is very important to realize that.  The chapter began with the discussion of families having there children home schooled.  Personally I have no problem with the idea of children being home schooled.  I believe that people can learn anywhere because this has been going on for many years.  As a future teacher I think it is important for public schools to strive and try to make the schools as appealing as they can be so that there is really not a need for home schooling.  I would want to try and give parents no reason to home school their child because they would be getting a great education at school.  I realize that you can’t please everyone and that is why home schooling can be a great alternative.  Especially because of the increases in technology that will make it easier for students to be home schooled.  I felt that the section on workplace learning was a very interesting section because I think it is a great idea for businesses to put money into educating their workers.  They used technology to provide scenarios and real life situations that will help their employees in the work force which is beneficial to the employee and the employer.  Technology helped this a lot because it is very easy for them to use and they can do it in a quick and easy manner.  Distance education is also a very beneficial way for people to learn things that they are interested in but can’t really learn because it is not offered where they are or they have disabilities and can’t go to where it is offered.  You are constantly seeing ads on TV for the University of Phoenix and how you can get a degree there.  It is a good degree for a specialized job that you want to get but I personally don’t agree that it matches up to a college degree.  I do agree that it is great for specializing in a certain thing that you want a job in though.  Reading the section on adult educating was cool because it showed that just because you are in the workforce or you are retired doesn’t mean that you want to just stop learning and being educated.  That is a great thing to think about because I feel you should always want to learn new thing.  Technology is really able to advance this because it helps with distance learning by being able to learn in you own home.  That is great that adult education is growing so fast.  Technology is also helping learning centers flourish because it connects people who want to learn the same material a lot easier.  These centers are great for students that want to focus on a certain subject or test like the ACT.  It is a great opportunity for individuals to get together and focus on a certain area that they want to learn.  I feel that this is a good addition to going to a school but it should not be the main place that you learn at.  If you think about it schools are learning centers just at a larger scale then the way they talked about it in the book.  Educational television videos, and computer based software have been going on for a very long time so I don’t feel that this is too much of a new area.  Recent technology may have enhanced it but video games and videos have been used for a long time to facilitate learning.  I think educational television and videos are a great way for students to learn and it is easy for teachers to incorporate them into their lesson plans.  Students can learn a lot from these and it is a great alternative to lecturing all the time, especially for visual learners. 

            Looking at all of these new systems of education I am quite impressed as a future teacher.  I feel that I can use these to my advantage by telling students about these things and having them try it out.  I feel that they can be great additions to what and how I am teaching them in my future classroom.  Teachers may feel that these systems are hurting education, which they could be if students only learn by doing this right now, but I feel that they can help students learn in different ways.  Many of these systems apply to students outside of the k-12 age scheme which I cannot apply to my future classroom.  What I can do is let students know about these opportunities and let them decide for themselves what they want to do.  With the system now students feel that they have to graduate high school, go to college, and then apply for jobs and hope to get one.  With these new systems they don’t have to do it by these steps.  The goal for educators is to get students to learn.  Students don’t always learn in the same ways and in the same format.  I think that it is our job to cater to the students and help them succeed for the future.  These systems can help if utilized right and are not the only source of education.  I still feel that the main source should be schools but with these new systems and new technologies it can help them in different ways.

My Thoughts on Chapter 6: The Social Network: Learning together

This  new technology just shows that the Internet and technology is becoming a very social environment and you can't do to much in isolation any more.  Twitter is a technology where you can follow certain peoples posts and read what others are thinking.  You can also post short "tweets" and then people can read them and follow you.  I don't really know how I would use this type of technology in the classroom because I really don't know of any schools that allow phones in school.  You can still use twitter online but I feel that it is more of just a social network for fun then a learning tool.  One way you could use it though is you can share some knowledge between you and the people that you are following.  A problem though is that you can only use 140 characters in a "tweet."  I think that it is a good tool for sharing bits and pieces of knowledge but it would take a lot of work and creativity to bring it to the classroom.  Another technology that was shared in this chapter were social bookmarking services.  These are sites like Diigo and Delicious.  These can be used by educators a lot easier and I think are a lot more useful for the classroom then  twitter.  These sites allow you to share other useful sites and information that you can use in your classroom.  I could use this because I could be teaching a lesson on photosynthesis and I could go on these sites and get other teachers Internet sites about photosynthesis so help me get information and ideas.  This can then help my students because they could go to my site and see those helpful Internet resources.  This network just allows for easy sharing of websites and resources to help facilitate learning.  I think the more you use them and build them up the more beneficial they will be for you in the future.

What I took from class week 6

Today In the peer lead discussion part of the class I learned that there could be alternatives to the typical way that students are being taught today.  One example would be that instead of just giving them a test to assess what they learned, you could assess them in alternative ways such as journals or interviews.  A good quote at the end of the discussion was we change everyday so why can't our schooling.  Dr. Boyer also brought up the idea of seat time.  The quality of seat time is far more important than the quantity of seat time.  This is a great point because a student could sit in a classroom all day and not learn a single thing because they don't like to learn that way.  Every student learns differently and just having them sit in a classroom doesn't necessarily mean that they are learning.  I also learned that there is a big push to bring the size of schools down a little and hopefully this will make the amount of students who graduate high school increase because there is a more social aspect to it.  After the discussion we went on and learned what and IRLO is and how we are going to encounter it as a future teacher.  Dr. Boyer then showed us some examples of what and IRLO is and I have definitely seen them before.  I also learned what the program scratch is and some start up on what I have to do to use this and make and IRLO.

Chapter 4 Reflection on Rethinking Education

This chapter of the book was about the development of American schooling and mostly the main stages of development came about through technology.  The development of the printing press was one of the first main technologies that helped in the spread of knowledge throughout people.  Since the printing press was able to create many pages in a short period of time they were able to create documents and spread them to people around the world.  The Reformation and American Revolution didn't have a lot of technology that laid the foundation for education like the printing press and the Industrial Revolution but, the goal was to get educate people for religious reasons, in the Reformation, and for political reasons, in the American Revolution.  Then came the Industrial Revolution where the technology of the world really laid down the foundation for education for the next couple of centuries.  This is when Universal schooling started to come about because they realized that all classes of people need to be educated.  It was pretty interesting to find out that a lot of the format that we have today such as, K-8-4 setup and the 50 or 55 minute class periods, has been around since the late 1800's.  It is amazing that this kind of a system was adopted and has been the same for such a long time.  Now that there is new technology being developed in the world many people think that this system needs to change because what students are learning is becoming irrelevant with the changing of the world around us.  The author tries to make that point because the system of education that we are in now was developed because the world around them at that time was changing due to the Industrial Revolution.  The enthusiasts therefore believe that education should change again because they believe that we are now in a knowledge revolution.  This may very well be but I don't think we need too drastic of changes that wipe the system we are in now clear.  I think there needs to be some changes but it will take time because of funding and people have to be persuaded to change, especially teachers.
As a new teacher I will have to be prepared to deal with the change of the education system and to adapt to change.  This is a very difficult thing to adapt to because my ideals of education have been traditional because that is the type of education that I received from K-12.  With the demand of technologies in the world today I will have to adapt to this change and help my students learn in whatever way is possible.  It will be very interesting if there is a drastic change in the system of education because I will be teaching right in the midst of change.  I don't expect it to be drastic because large systems like this take a long time to change and develop.  I just will have to be prepared if American schooling develops in a different way.

My Thoughts on RSS

After reading this chapter it sounds like RSS could be a very useful tool for yourself and there are many ways you could use it to help yourself as a teacher.  RSS seems like a great organizational tool for you to use online.  The internet has so much information and there is not way that you are able to visit all of the sites that you want to every day and look for useful information.  RSS seems like a website that can help me organize many different sites with lots of information into one neat and organized place.  As a future educator I am going to want to be as organized as I can and I think this is a site that could help me organize things that I find on the web a lot easier.  It seems like this tool can be utilized the best by incorporating it with blogging.  It would allow me to find useful information that other people have published on the web in certain areas that I want to read and learn about myself.  Having this tool would allow me to save time so I don’t have to be constantly searching different sites and sorting through information that is most likely not important.  With RSS the information can come to me and I can sort through things that I have pin pointed myself and that will save me a lot of time. 

            As a future educator I can show students this type of tool which then can help them constantly find resources that they could use to learn about subject areas that I am teaching.  Also if I am blogging about information that I am teaching in my classroom it can go to their RSS feed and they can read information that I have posted.  Another useful way I could use RSS is if I have the students blogging themselves I can have their blogs go into my RSS feed so I don’t have to visit each one of their sites individually.  All of that information can come to me and that will allow me to save a lot of time and energy to do other things to help them.  I think that I will have to start using it and get familiar with it to truly understand how it can help me as a teacher.  I think that it can be a very useful resource for me personally but, I think that I will have to learn more about it to fully understand how I can use it as a main tool in the future as an educator. 

My thoughts on Wikis

Chapter four was all about the use of Wikis and how a teacher can apply them to his or her classroom.  The chapter described how Wikipedia is one of the most used resources for kids to get information because it is usually one of the top ten sites that pops up when a person searches something in Google or another search site.  I like the idea of Wikis because it puts a lot of power into the person’s hands who wants to write about a particular topic.  That is also a bed side to Wikis because maybe a person would want to put falsified information on there for no reason which can easily happen and does.  Wikis can be another great tool that teachers can use and integrate into their classroom.  There are many versatile things that can be done with Wikis to facilitate learning and keep students interested and involved.  Students can gain much responsibility by posting their on information on Wikis for others to see.  Just to power to edit is a huge thing that can be given to students by the use of Wikis.  A teacher could have a constant discussion forum going with her students that could be easily accessible and easy to use.  Another good thing about Wikis is that they can be used for any subject because you can put pretty much anything on a Wiki like charts, pictures, and links.  These can all be placed on a Wiki for resources for students to use and help them to learn.

            As a future teacher I think that I will be able to use this tool effectively in my classroom.  One way that I could use it would be similar to the way we use it in class by having a student fill out what we did in class so all of the other students can look back and remember.  I would also like to use Wikis as a constant posting and feedback type tool.  I think that I would have the students post a response to a question that I would want the students to debate.  The students can then post their sides of the discussion on the Wiki and that way then can all view and edit their posts.  This would be a great interactive way to get the students to discuss maybe environmental issues or issues dealing with modern science.  I would definitely have to monitor the Wiki to make sure everything is educational and decent for discussion.  As a teacher I would also have to address the issue of using Wikis as sources of information.  Hopefully in this class I can get more insight on whether it is a good idea or not to allow students to use maybe Wikipedia for a source.  I think when it comes down to it the educator should monitor what is being used because sometimes it can be a good source.  The students will just have to cross-reference it with other sources.  This would most likely be the best way to go about that I believe.  I do believe Wikis can be used as a good technological tool in the classroom to get students involved and facilitate learning in a more creative way.  I will just have to be creative and come up with ways to integrate it into my teaching.

What I took from class week 5

One thing that I took from class today is that teachers should should decide what way they are going to teach.  They may lecture or facilitate but either way we have to decide as teachers of what way they are going to help the students learn.  I also learned as teachers that we should not generalize as teachers because it can be offensive to students.  I also learned today that it is ok to give your opinion on a discussion but you should do it towards the end of the discussion so your students don't get swayed in their ideas for the discussion.  You should also give reasons why and let them know that there are different ways to aproach this discussion.  In discusion we should also try to get student to student interaction instead of student to teacher to student discussion because students can learn from each other and add their ideas to the discussion. 

Chapter 3: reflection on rethinking education

The format of traditional education is something that has been very slow at changing because it is a very difficult and complex thing to change.  When you have been doing something the same type of way for so long it is hard to rethink and reform the way it is done.  I think that after reading this chapter reform is something that is needed in education because the world is not the same as it used to be.  The format for education has been the same for such a long time because there haven’t been that many great changes in the world that would cause the way we educate children to change.  One reason that would make this push for reform to halt would be the cost of having technology prevalent in classrooms.  To get accomplished what technological enthusiasts want would cost a lot and would almost call for the ratio of computers to students to be one to one.  With the tight budgets that school districts are under right now it seems like it would be very difficult to cut more teachers just for more technology in the classroom.  It would be very hard to suggest that to a school board.  The idea that technology would be undermining educators and that they wouldn’t seem as important is pretty far fetched in my mind.  Computers and technology are tools and people are needed to use those tools.  You still need educators to show students how to use these tools effectively and by doing this you can educate children by using these tools.  Educators should still be able to manage their students if they are using computers no different then if the students were in a lab using a device to get measurements.  Educators have to find ways to manage their classrooms and I don’t believe that just because students are on computers it means that it would be that much more difficult.  I strongly believe that it is true that computers cannot teach everything.  Why would I be going in to education if I thought students could just learn everything by just booting up a computer?   Like I said a computer is a tool that can be used to educate students in a different way.  A classroom and teacher is still needed to teach students what they need to know. In my mind technology is there to help.

            As a future teacher I will have to make sure that I am following the curriculum that has been laid out before me but I can do this in many ways.  I do believe that the laid out curriculum in education is getting larger and larger.  It has to be getting larger because we are learning new things everyday and they are important.  Plus we want them to learn things from the past because we don’t just want to throw things out that we think are still important.  That is why I think technology can be used to cover a wide range of things and help them learn.  It can be a lot faster with technology to learn things and if you forget you can look them up.  When students get out into the real world it isn’t like they are just shoved into a job and they have to remember everything that they learned in school and if they forget it well then their job will suffer.  They are able to look things up and use technology to their advantage.  They will also have co-workers to help them out if they forget something.  That is why I think group work can be effective because they can learn from each other.  Also using computers can be helpful because they can look up information they may have forgotten that may help them on an assignment.  I don’t think that is cheating I think that is being resourceful because they are still learning in that is the main goal of education.  I don’t think they should rely on other things or people all of the time that is why there still needs to be assessment but I feel that students can learn better with the help of others and technology. 

What I took from Class 09/23

A new thinking that I learned from class today is that google advanced is a great way to search and narrow down your searches.  It can help you find what you are looking for in a fast and easy way that will filter out a lot of uneaded searches.  I also learned a few critiques about presentaions.  It is very importnat that you end with a conclusion because it doesn't leave people haning and you want to tell the students what you just told them.  I also learned that the SMARTexhange is a great website with a lot of usefull resources that I can use later on when I am teaching. 

Chapter 2 reflection on Rethinking Education

I felt that this article was very intense because it gave the one sided ideas of the technology enthusiasts.  They are very worried that the traditional education that is happening right now will leave the students that are in classrooms, left in the dust when they get into the real world.  I fell that these enthusiasts have a good point but, to a certain extent.  These enthusiasts believe that we are using teaching methods from the 20^th century when we should be preparing kids for the 21^st century.  I agree that jobs in today’s world have changed and technology has become a huge part of almost every job that is out there today.  I still think though that traditional education is still needed.  You don’t want a bunch of adults that can use a computer unlike anyone else but they can’t do long division.  There are certain things that everyone should know and that is why there are curriculums designated for each grade.  The enthusiasts do have a valid point that many adults forget common things that they learned in elementary school which is bound to happen.  That still doesn’t mean that we should only teach students relevant things that they need to know at that time.  They call this Just-In-Time learning.  Part of education is learning things so that down the road they can come back to you a lot faster and quicker.  Just because people can’t pull a certain fact out of their head at a certain moment doesn’t mean that they don’t know anything about it.  When they are able to look it up they can see that fact and remember that they learned it once.  Most of the time then, after they see that fact,  They are able to remember a wide array of things that go along with it because their brain remembers the connection to it.  Also if students aren’t using something right at that moment it doesn’t meant that they shouldn’t learn it because who knows that maybe down the road they might want to use it again.  When I was in high school I hated science class and never wanted to take it.  Now that I am in college I am double majoring in Biology and Natural Science.  We as teachers should try to make our students well rounded because you never know when you might have to break out of a certain box and use something that you may have learned.  It sort of goes back to whether you would want to know a little about a lot of things or a lot about a little amount of things.  Our society is becoming more and more specialized but you never know what students are going to need to learn because a lot of students don’t know exactly what they want to do when they get out of school.  It is very important to teach them technology because pretty much every job will have technology involved with it.  That is why as a teacher I will encourage my students to use technology and learn it.  I am not opposed to that.  I believe that when I become a teacher the students will most likely be more technologically inclined then me so that is why I have to stay up with the current times and incorporate it into my teaching style. 

Growing Up Online

This video showed in great detail how much technology is influencing the youth of this world.  I also know from my own personal experience and from my peers that technology plays a major role in the youths every day lives.  Some kids can go an entire day without seeing a single person but are still in contact with someone the whole day.  This may be done via texting or through a social network that is found on the internet.  The video showed how some children can live a life that is totally different from who they are in real life just by being on the internet.  In the movie some students even said that they never read books anymore.  Everything they read is on the internet or through a summary page like spark notes. This can be bad for a teacher that is trying to teach English because they of course want the students to read the book themselves.  They are missing out on many important details because a summary is just that.  It summarizes the book and doesn’t include detail and it is hard to analyze what is going on in the book.  Some students might just watch the movie online also. For math you could even go online and fine equations that will calculate the answers for you and all you have to do is type the numbers in.  This is not learning for the students.  It is just typing numbers into the computer just to get the answer.  Then when it comes time to take a test they have no idea how to do it.  This is a major problem for educators who are trying to teach students because they are constantly getting bombarded with information because of new improved technologies.

            As a future educator you cannot really fight technology because it makes up such a large part of the students life every day.  When they aren’t at school they are most likely on the computer or texting their friends.  Even when they are doing homework they might have a tab open for looking up information and another tab on facebook updating things or chatting with friends.  This can be very distracting and students might not be able to focus and learn.  As an educator I want to be creative and find ways to work with the internet and still have the kids learn.  Maybe in the future I can have to students find sources on the internet and still have them have to find two sources in actual books.  This way they can use technology but still have to learn how to get information from books and to read.  You have to find a happy medium between the uses of technology and having the students be resourceful in other ways then just clicking a mouse and having information that may or may not be credible.  It is a very difficult job because technology is covering every area of life.  When these students get out into the real world they will be using computers and getting information from them.  I have to be able to have them learn the material and still have the students be able stay interested and not rely just on that way of finding information.  Today computers are so accessible and they are everywhere.  It is very important for students to be able to use the internet and still learn concepts and use their brains to analyze things for themselves. 

Thoughts Chapters 1-3

Technologies role in education is something that is going to happen without any debate.  When most of our students can’t go through half the day without going online, it means we need to incorporate this into how we educate them.  As educators we need to prepare our students for life in the real world.  The life outside of school is using technology in an enormous amount of ways.  The jobs that our students will have are not even created yet today.  This is because technology is an ever changing and fast moving thing.  There are many helpful resources on the Web that can increase student’s ability to understand topics and to be able to look at things in a different way that maybe they can relate to better.  Students today are growing up in an age of technology that looks like it has no end in sight.  As an educator you also have to be cautious of what your students are using the technology for.  The Internet has many bad facets to it whether it is untrue information or distasteful material.  That is why teachers have to be careful on how their students are using this resource.  I feel that technology can help in many ways to educate our students and make it easier for them to relate and understand because they are using it at an alarming rate in their every day lives.

            As a future teacher I will have to stay updated with the new technologies of education.   This will be difficult because it is always changing.  I will also have to be creative in the ways I can incorporate it into my classroom.  Two of the chapters that I read had to deal with class blogs.  This is a unique and different way to get students information and have them give information back.  There are different levels of blogging that range from simple to complex.  A term that this book used a lot was the read/write Web.  This is referring to the part of the internet that you can blog or just post and comment on ideas.  This is a useful and powerful tool because students are able to create ideas and then share them to the world.  As a teacher I can utilize this tool and have the students learn in a different way then just lecturing.  This allows the students to come up with ideas themselves.  Students can then read to ideas of their other classmates and comment on them to have sort of a discussion.  One of the best ways for students to learn is to analyze something and reflect.  This allows the students to come up with their own realizations about the topics.  The students will then truly be thinking about it and putting their own thoughts down.  By doing this in a blog is allows them to be published throughout the entire world.  This shows that technology is making the world smaller with its advances.  Since schools and homes are becoming more and more computer friendly it will be easier as a teacher to incorporate this into my classes and allow me to use this educational resource.  There are many diverse ways I can use a blog in my classroom and by doing so I can keep many students informed and in a non-traditional way that can keep the students more interested and wanting to learn.

What I took from class today 9/16

One thing that I took from class today is that as a teacher you have to focus on teaching your students for the future and not the way you were tought in the past.  I think this is very important because as a new teacher you may think that you want to teach the way you were tought but, as a teacher you want to prepare your students for the future.  We have to prepare them for some jobs that arn't even created yet.  I also learned in class today that there are many differing views on the use of technolohy in the classroom.  The public school system will have to adapt to this new technology if we want to prepare the students we have. 

The Credibility of Websites

Everything in the World Wide Web is not as credible as some people thing, especially students.  I am pretty sure that in the past I probable took some information from some non-credible sources.  It is not like the past when you could only look at published books for information.  The internet is a lot different place because anyone can make a website and put things on there.  The first thing I would talk to my students about when beginning the discussion on whether a website is credible or not, is the meaning of credibility.  Or ask them what makes someone or something a credible source.  I would than tell them that there are a lot of websites that are not credible because non-credible people made them up.  One main step that I would tell them to watch out for that all of my teachers in the past mentioned to me is that .com or .net are not very credible sites.  .gov or .org are usually more credible sites but not all the time.  It can be a helpful hint to keep in mind because .gov is usually from the government and .org can be from a credible organization but, is could also be from a non-credible organization.  I would then tell them to look on the website and try to see if there is a get to know the author or a link that tells them who made this site and why.  Most credible websites have this link and you can see their credentials on there.  Usually websites where the government has made them are the most credible.  If a popular organization made the website and you have heard of them then they are most likely credible.  If the website doesn’t have any about us and they are giving important information than it is most likely not credible.  A quick way to see if a website is not good to use would be to look at the spelling and grammar of the website.  If the website is very poorly put together with a lot of words spelled wrong than it is not credible.  Another thing to look for is if you can edit the page yourself.  If anyone can edit the page it is definitely not a credible site.  I am not saying that what the people are putting down is 100% wrong, I am just saying that it is not a good site to get information from.  Anyone could just put whatever they want on that site and not care.  Also anything that has Wiki in it is not a credible site.  Again some of the information might be correct but you have to watch what you are looking at.  I would definitely check other sites and verify that information is repeated in other places.  The more sources from other sites make the credibility of the information more powerful and backed up.  You have to watch out and be careful when you are looking at websites on the internet.  There are a lot of non-credible websites out there. 

My thoughts on Chapter 1

This reading has made me kind of open my eyes that technology is really being fully integrated into pretty much every level of education and not just the upper levels.  One reason for this is the reading uses the word revolution.  It sort of compares this “Knowledge Revolution to the Industrial Revolution in America.  The Industrial Revolution was a massive change that happened in American society and really changed almost every facet of life.  This Knowledge Revolution has not just started, it has been going on for a while and it will continue to keep getting bigger and bigger.  It seems that technology keeps replacing the old form and improving.  That is why there really is no end insight because people just keep continuing to improve it.  This reading sort of scares me a little because technology is really changing the way teachers teach and the way students learn.  Just by all of the stories that they mentioned in the beginning of chapter one, it really made me think that education today is  not just about students listening to a teacher and learning.  People do not even have to go to an actual classroom to get degrees.  They can just go online and take classes.  I took a summer class this summer where everything was online.  I never even had to leave my house to get five credits towards my education.  The only time I saw my teacher is when he posted a pod cast explaining how to do something.  It really wasn’t a bad experience at all.  Some of the stories even talked about students dropping out of school and still becoming successful.  In know way do I agree that students should drop out of school but, it is still amazing that you can be successful by using the technologies in front of you without having a high school diploma. 

            With this new thinking of a “Knowledge Revolution” happening right now I will try to keep up with the latest technologies.  I will try to integrate what kids are doing today in my teaching.  I feel that if you can not relate to your students it is very difficult for them to learn and respect you as an educator.  I do not want to use technology as a crutch in any way, but I feel that it can be helpful to keep my future students interested because they think technology is interesting.  I want to be a secondary science teacher and in science technology is very important.  That is why it is very important that I know what is going on in the wide world of technology that is constantly changing.  I then have to be creative enough in my classroom to actually get the lesson across to them.  The most important thing is that the students learn and if using technology will make it so that goal is more achievable then that is what I will need to incorporate as a future teacher, especially in this new “Knowledge Revolution.”

Exit Slip: What I Learned In Class Today

In class today I learned how difficult smart boards can be to use.  It made me look like my handwriting was from a third grader.  Using is smart board is something that you most likely can not learn from a lecture.  You have to have hands on experience to master a task like that.  I also  learned what a Wiki is.  I had an idea that anyone can post or edit things on it.  The Class Wiki will be helpful to remember what we did in class and be a good reminder.  Another interesting thing that I learned from class was that Delicious can be a very useful site.  I had no idea that there were websites devoted totally to bookmarks and favorites.  This will be a very helpful and usefull resource in the future to keep websites organized and very accessible.  This class is helping me so far on introducing me to new technology that is very easy to use and easy to find. 

My Digital Autobiography

My Digital Autobiography

1. On this task of creating a digital autobiography I felt that I put a good amount of effort into it.  It took me a couple of hours to find the pictures that I wanted to put into this autobiography and really show my life.  It is pretty difficult to show your life in just ten pictures but I feel that these ten pictures are very informative because they are all very important and special things in my life.  It tried both the Vuvox and Animoto sites when working on this project and picked this Vuvox one because I liked it better and if flowed smoother. 

2. The value of creating this course task is to be able to create a slide show by using different technology that I have never tried.  Being able to take regular pictures and put them onto the computer to make a slide show with music is a valuable skill that can be used in many different ways.  Creating slide shows can be a useful tool in helping a person get points across to another person or group.  It was also very interesting looking at old pictures that I hadn't seen in years and picking pictures that are important to me.

3. By creating this course task it helps me in the long run for teaching because I would be able to create a slide show for m students with pictures to have them learn in a different an interesting way.  Also, students love to know a little bit about their teacher and having a digital autobiography gives me an opportunity to show this to them and tell them a little bit about me.  I could always add to this and it can help me break the ice with my students. 

What is Technology and Technology Integration?

1. Technology is a mechanical addition that allows a certain task or job to become easier and also makes it able for a person to understand it better.


2. Technology integration is applying technology to a certain area or job that previously did not have it. It could also be upgrading a previous form of technology with a new one. Students that are learning about a new form of technology or how to use that technology is what technology integration looks like. You can see the students learning a new technology and apply it to the classroom to help them learn easier or in a different way.