Final Blog

I believe. It is very important to incorporate technology in the classroom because the students have technology all around them. Everyone uses technology every day. Technology had changed the way of life for the new generation. Students are learning to use technology at younger and younger ages. School would be boring to them if we do not incorporate technology.

The benefits of technology for me as a teacher is it will be easy to adapt/change lessons depending on the class of students that you are given. Technology can also save you wall space by having all different windows open and you are able to change them.  The benefits for the students are they will not be bored they will be engaged in learning. Students will know how to use the basics of technology before getting out into the work force or higher education.

One challenge is adapting a lesson plan if the technology you wanted to use does not work. The other challenge is knowing how to use the technology a little better then the students, so you are able to use the technology with confidence and be able to answer any questions that are raised.  Another challenge is having technology that you can use and how accessible it is. Not all technology can be stored in the classroom and some schools may not own licenses to use certain programs and software that you would like to use.

The important lessons I will take from this class is to use technology when you can, but do not force it. The smartboard does not have to be used for a whole lesson; it can just be used for an activity.  Keep your website updated because some parents will rely on it. Try and use all kinds of technology not just one type because students learn all different ways.

Final Blog

I believe. It is very important to incorporate technology in the classroom because the students have technology all around them. Everyone uses technology every day. Technology had changed the way of life for the new generation. Students are learning to use technology at younger and younger ages. School would be boring to them if we do not incorporate technology.

The benefits of technology for me as a teacher is it will be easy to adapt/change lessons depending on the class of students that you are given. Technology can also save you wall space by having all different windows open and you are able to change them.  The benefits for the students are they will not be bored they will be engaged in learning. Students will know how to use the basics of technology before getting out into the work force or higher education.

One challenge is adapting a lesson plan if the technology you wanted to use does not work. The other challenge is knowing how to use the technology a little better then the students, so you are able to use the technology with confidence and be able to answer any questions that are raised.  Another challenge is having technology that you can use and how accessible it is. Not all technology can be stored in the classroom and some schools may not own licenses to use certain programs and software that you would like to use.

The important lessons I will take from this class is to use technology when you can, but do not force it. The smartboard does not have to be used for a whole lesson; it can just be used for an activity.  Keep your website updated because some parents will rely on it. Try and use all kinds of technology not just one type because students learn all different ways.

Good and Bad Electronic Portfolio

Good
http://www.cesa8.k12.wi.us/teares/math/it/samplePort/SARAH%20B/Index.htm

I think this one is a good electronic portfolio because it is very colorful and attractive to me.  The pictures used were good pictures to use for where they are located.  The use of color and pictures show that this is an elementary school teacher because students love color.  The portfolio is very easy to use and I like how organized it is.

http://www.cesa8.k12.wi.us/teares/math/it/samplePort/LAURIE/Laurie's%20index.htm

I think this one is a good one too.  I wish that her home page was a little more inviting, because in the beginning I was not going to continue, but I did just to see what the rest of it looked like and I am glad I did or I would have missed out.  I guess I almost judged a book by its cover because I almost did not go on.  The pages after the homepage are very colorful and very inviting.  The use of pictures was also great.  Things are very well organized and easy to navigate through the portfolio.
Bad

http://www.cesa8.k12.wi.us/teares/math/it/samplePort/MARLENE/index.htm

I think this portfolio is very plain and not very inviting like the others.  The homepage is very simple.  The type is all the same for every page of the portfolio and the layout is the same.  I do not like the colors this portfolio uses as well.  When I think of an education portfolio I think of fun bright colors not calm and subdued colors.  I feel that this teacher would be very monotone as well as her teaching.  She seems like her teaching would not change with the times.

 

Copyrights

The thing that surprised me was that teachers have to ask the technology person in the school to film/record something, the teacher wants to use in the classroom he/she cannot do it themselves.  With technology today, I would think that teachers would be able to get the film or record something on their own.

The ways I have observed copyright laws being violated in schools are teachers making copies of worksheets for the students to use for extra practice, so they do not have to buy workbooks or all the students.  Another way I have observed copyright laws being violated in schools is when teachers show students a film before break or after a major exam. 

The ways I have observed copyright laws being violated outside of school is the downloading of music and videos without buying them. There are different web sites that actually promote downloading music and videos illegally.  Even on city streets people sell bootlegged DVD's.

I believe it is my job to teach copyright respect to my students by just letting them know the very basic copyright laws.  I can do his when the students are working on a video project and they decide to use music they downloaded to itunes that they did not buy.

Scenario

Scenario: You decide to incorporate a digital video project in your classroom. What is the content area/project/age level? What are the preparations you will have to do prior to beginning this project? What are some of the challenges? Be specific – think like a teacher in the public school system and make a checklist and timeline of beginning to end, starting with prep work and ending with the final project. Write this up as an informal lesson plan and post to your blog.

The content area is holiday/traditions.  The project is the students have to act out a holiday or a tradition that their family participates in.  The grade level is 4^th. 

The preparations I will have to do before this project is see what software the school has to do something like this, and to see how easy it is to work with.  I will have to learn the software and make my own holiday or tradition video.  I will have to reserve the computer room so the students will be able to cut and edit their videos and add music or sound.  I will have to see if the school has video cameras for the students to use as well.

Some of the challenges would be the time to make a video.  I will have to show the students how to use the software and then teach the students how to use the camera.  The students will then have to cut and edit their film, and then add music or sound.  Then I would have to have time for the students to share their videos with the class.  I would also then have to grade all the videos.

Lesson  Plan.

Have to prepare

Have to teach the students software and how to use the camera

Students have to film

Students have to cut and edit film

Students add music or sound

Students present their movie to the class

Reflection on my Group's Video Project.

Reflect on your group video project. What worked well? Where could you have improved? How would you approach this differently next time? What skills will you take away with you from completing this project?

What worked well in my group’s video project was that we had everything planned out.  It was also nice that I had some video experience because I worked for the football team filming their practices and games.  Another thing that worked well was that I cut the film because it came into Windows Movie Maker as one big file.  As I was working on that, my partner, Sam was looking for music we could add to the film and wrote them down.  This made it very easy to do later on once the movie was completely cut.

I think we might have been able to improve our movie by adding voice to the video instead of having just music.  The other thing that could have improved the video and it would have taken us less time to do was to, write all the steps down to do certain things to the movie and adding the sound.  The cutting of the movie was fine, but once we got to the music we had to do some trail and error.  If we would have written the steps down it would have been easier to do and maybe faster. 

I would approach this differently next time by making the video a bit more comical.  Many people like comical things, so I believe that is the best way to make a movie enjoyable and informative.

The skills I will take with me from completing this project is how to cut and add music to the film.  I believe that students will love doing these themselves in the upper elementary and higher education because I had fun doing it.  If the teacher has fun and shows the students how much fun it could be, I think the students will think it is fun as well.

Smartboards

I love the interactive white boards I believe it helps the teacher to enhance the learning for the students as well as helping bring new activities and games for the students to do in the classroom.  I was in a third grade classroom for my students observations and the smart board was not attached to the wall and the projector was on a cart in the classroom.  This made it very difficult to use because the smartboard would move and the projector also moved do to the students moving in the classroom, so the orientation of the smartboard was always off.  The technology was not very hard to learn how to use.  I thought the procedure was very easy to use.  The pros to the smartboard are that you are using technology in the classroom and I believe the students love to use technology.  Another pro is that the students would be able to interact with it which helps them learn the material much better.  I know many students learn better when there is hands-on activities.  I mentioned one con to the smartboard earlier another con is that it takes up room on the classroom wall and sometimes it is too high for students to use, it would also be hard for a teacher my size (I am only 4’10”) to use the smartboard because it would be to high.  The smartboard can be incorporated into a lesson in so many ways.  I have developed.  You can show pictures in color, show clips of a movie, or use the games that are in the software for the smartboard, as well as making up games of your own. 

Reflection on Software

I believe it was beneficial to take the time and learn the software because I did not really know how to use Microsoft Publisher as well as Inspiration.  It would have been nice to know how to use both of these software packages earlier because I would have been able to use them for some of the methods classes I had to take.  It would have made my work a little easier.  I believe all of the software will be beneficial because as a teacher you have to keep lessons fun and exciting for the students or they will get board.  I believe some software packages are easier to use for certain projects that the students are doing as well as a project a teacher is working on.  The software will help me as a teacher to keep the students excited about learning.  The more the students are excited about learning the more they will learn as well as the more fun/easier my job as a teacher will be.  This will also help me communicate with parents/guardians because most of the people in the world now have a computer and it is easier for them to look things up on the computer.  For example instead of sending all things home I can update a website for the class as well as sending the information home.  Many parents are busy with work and it is easier for them on the go to check a website to see what their children are doing in school as well as what is coming up at school for their child.

Web Resources

My favorite Web Resources that we have covered in class is using the cell phone to answer questions the teacher gives the students, Google docs because the students can work on a project and might not have to meet as a group as much, and social bookmarking and blogs.  The things that I would use the most is the social networking and blogs because the students can work on a project and also go to their social bookmarking page and all of their websites that they need will be there and then they can access them on whatever computer they are working at.  I would also like use blogs a lot in the classroom because the students in the class can use it as a journal and in their spare time talk to other classmates about the journals they wrote.  Another way I would be able to have students use a blog is contact another school that is using the blogs and have the students use them at a pen pal and the students could write blogs back and forth to each other. 

Inspiration

Yes Inspiration is something I would invest in for my classroom.  The ten ideas that I could incorporate inspiration in for my classroom are: make content maps for my organization of a unit, make diagrams for worksheets as well as tests, the students can use it to help them brain storm ideas for a paper, help the students compare and contrast characters in a story, help students compare and contrast books that they have read, help students break down a poem and find its meaning of them, help students organize information for a project or paper, helps students organize their notes into a diagram format, students would be able to make their family tree and then be able to put their family member’s picture where they are in the tree, and the students will be able to make a life cycle of an animal.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking does have an application in my classroom.  The ways it could benefit me and my students is that I can give them a worksheet with questions and tell the students that they can only use the website that I have in a certain tag subject on my social bookmarking site.  Another way that it is a benefit in the classroom is if you show the students how to use it the teacher can go and look for the students social bookmarking site and she/he can see what websites the students book marked for a report or project they are working on.  This will allow the teacher to see if they are using creditable sources to find the information for their report or project.  If the students are not finding creditable websites then the teacher knows who she/he has to help on their project or report. 

Yes, this can help me now as a student because if I am working on a project in the computer lab I do not have to copy and paste the websites URL into a word document and then save it to my hard drive, so I can retrieve the websites in my room on my personal lap top.  This lets me not have to worry about having my hard drive to save the websites I have found.  Social bookmarking will allow me to get the websites I retrieved for a project on any computer.  Social bookmarking will also help me as a student by letting me tag the websites I found and organize the information I need for the project or report I am working on. 

advantages and disadvantages of GoogleApps compared to Office apps

The advantages of using GoogleApps over traditional Office applications are that students can work on there papers whenever they want to.  All the students have to have is the internet; they do not need a specific program.  If working on a group project everyone can work on the same document and make changes to it.  Another advantage is that if the student’s hard drive crashes on the computer there reports or projects are gone, but using GoogleApps there reports and projects are saved on the internet instead of the hard drive.  GoogleApps is also free compared to other programs that are out on the internet.  The disadvantages of using GoogleApps over traditional Office applications are that there are not as many choices to choose from.  For example, in power point you have many different layouts and animations to put in your presentations compared to the GoogleApps power point. 

Opinion of GoogleApps

My opinion of GoogleApps is that they are really cool.  I believe it is a great idea for students to be able to access there papers online.  I also think group papers will be easier to do with the Google Docs application.  This could be a very good tool to use in the classroom.  I think I would have a hard time using it because I have to print the information out because I do not like revising or reading papers on the computer.  I believe this is because I grew up with technology but not like the students of today.  I also think if something happens to Google I do not know what everyone that is comfortable using it going to do. 

Advantages and disadvantages using blogs in the classroom

Some of the advantages to using blogs in the classroom is that the students use technology all the time and they absolutely love use it.  Blogs are something new and are not of a traditional classroom style of teaching.  This gives the students a type of outlet because they know how to use a computer and they are comfortable using it whereas some of the students today are not comfortable using paper and pencil to do things.  Another advantage to blogs is that if the parent and guardians and or other family members can see what there student is doing in school they can look to see on the student’s blog.  Some of the disadvantages to using a blog in the classroom is that students can put information that they should not be put out on the internet.  The teachers have no way to read the student’s blog before being posted on the internet; this means there could be grammatical errors in the blog which would be published for all to see.  Teachers can have a hard time managing the blogs of all the students because the teacher may not have internet all the time, whereas before if they carried there papers around all the time with them they are able to read and comment on them. 

Incorporating blogs in the classroom

The way I would incorporate blogs in my classroom is having the students use the blogs for reflective writing on what they are learning in reading class.  The students would have to answer questions I would give them, just like I am doing now.  I would then go in and leave commons on them.  Another way I would use the blog in the classroom is for a student’s journal.  The students can go to their blog in there free time and use it as a journal.  The students would also have the option of commenting on there classmates blog and maybe if there classmate does not understand something they can try and explain it to them.