Journal #4

Summary:

Chapter Four; Integrating Technology and Creating Change

Integrating technology into our classrooms is something that we can either fight or embrace. Once you decide how to you feel about it you need to realize, that it doesn't really matter. All joking aside its something that regardless of a teachers thoughts on the matter has to be integrated into our teaching methods and even classroom organization. Personally I look forward to implementing some of the exciting technological tools that this chapter, as well as this entire coarse has shared with me

Tech Tool:

Edutopia

After exploring this most recent tech tool I was pleasantly surprised to have found yet another useful tool to use in my future classrooms. This site organized great articles, links, photographs, and blogs by grade level and subject matter. It is neat to think that if you are a third grade math teacher you can connect and learn along with other 3^rd grade math teachers that are posting and sharing their thoughts on activities and articles that pertain to your specific age group and subject matter. The About Us portion of the site helped for a good picture of the minds behind this site. It is said that the goal of the site is to “transform the learning process by helping educators implement the strategies such as: empowering students to think critically, access and analyze information, creatively problem solve, work collaboratively, and communicate with clarity and impact”. One of the most interesting things I came across was this video on collaborative learning.

Focus Question:

How does technology promote educational change?

Photo credit:http://importanceoftechnology.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Impact-of-technology-on-Communication-2.jpg

Since change is happening all around the world, every second, of every day, the most direct impact that technology has that promote educational change is the enabling of communication. Educational social networking sites allow teachers from the entire world to communicate with one another and share thoughts and ideas that innovate other teachers’ approaches. Educational publications that are posted via the internet spread faster than they ever would have without the technology we have access to and the touch of a button. We can use our cell phones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers to access up to date information on any curriculum we’d like to look at. In my opinion the impact technology has on communication is its biggest factor in influencing change not only education but in nearly everything. People are the facilitators or change and when people can share the changes they see around them and access the information others share about their changing worlds the possibilities are endless.

Journal #3

Summary:

Chapter 3; Developing Lessons with Technology

photo credit

This chapter had a lot of interesting points to it. The overall conclusion that I came to is technology is the educational innovation of our time. It is something that cannot be ignored. We have to embrace the use of technology in our classrooms in whatever manner we see fit. But, however we decide to integrate it into our teaching style; we need to make sure to balance it with the tried and true analog methods as well. Whether it’s using technology to discover what to teach, how to teach it, or to track the students’ progress we really have an obligation to our students to embrace what technology offers and share its benefits with them. We live in an increasingly digitalized world and not taking technology and all the tools it offers into the classroom would be a detriment to not only our students but also ourselves and efficient educators.

Tech Tool:

Verizon Thinkfinity

Verizon Thinkfinity is a really amazing tool. Although it doesn’t publish much of its’ own educational tools or articles it is a great place to start. It is basically a place you can go if you are interested in educational programs and websites to use in your classroom. Their resources link gives you all sorts of different portals to full websites like National Geographic Education, EconEdLink, EDSITEment, and many other credible and useful sights. They also give you more specific links that lead you to articles and activities within the websites listed above. For example under the EDSITEment link they have a hyperlink to an article titled, “It Came from Greek Mythology”. Regardless of what you use this site to access it is hard to deny its usefulness to any educator or student.

Focus Question:

What is meant by “lesson development using technology”?

Lesson development is something that by the name alone is very obviously a necessary part of a successful classroom. The book describes it as the center to the work that every teacher does. It describes three parts to lesson development; what to teach, how to teach, and how to know what your students have learned. When I think about it broken down like this its importance becomes even more prominent. If a teacher doesn’t grasp how to successfully develop a lesson; or at the very least acknowledge the importance of doing so they are sure to fail in some facet of their duties. When thinking of lesson development I can think of no tool that could be more useful that technology Technologies such as websites, applications, portable computers, tablets, cell phones, or portable music players can be utilized to develop each of the three parts of lesson planning. You can use search engines to determine what you would like to accomplish with the lesson. You can also use online social networking with other teachers to figure out multiple ways in which you could teach the lesson. And finally, you can design quizzes that the students can take on laptops or their cell phones to assess what the students have learned at the end of the lesson.

photo credit

Journal #2

Tech Tools

In the chapter two of our text I found several very interesting tech tool sections. But I decided to look over Tech Tool 2.1; Web resources for visual learning. Although many of the hyperlinks had been deactivated, the few I was able to access were a lot of fun. Molecular workbench is one website that I accessed that I found really intriguing. It is a scientific resource that has a great number of simulations at the students’ disposal. It has everything from biology to physics shown in a way that even someone that isn’t interested in science, like me, can enjoy and learn something from. I hope that I am able to find some of these great web resources for my students to utilize. I know that when teachers introduce new web sites to me I was always very excited to learn how to use the tools given and find new and fun ways to incorporate them in my educational and sometimes even home life. For example, the Wordle sight that was shown to us in our last class gave me a great idea for a humanities presentation I am working on. I have already incorporated it into my power point.

Summary

This chapter was all about utilizing technology for all of its benefits in a learning environment. As you will see in my response to the focus question below, Technology is a great tool to aid in the use of visual learning. But, although that is a wonderful was technology has helped with the educational system it does not begin to explain its immense impact. Whether you are a behaviorist, scientific cognitivist, or constructivist- technology can be an instrumental tool in taking your lessons and teachings to the next level. Teacher centered lesson plans can be devised using a number of different tech tools- whether it is something as simple as a power point made available online to help students study to something as complicated as organized online quiz where the teacher designs the questions and the student completes the exam. There are many ways to use technology to develop student centered lessons as well. You can assign children into groups and let them design their own blogs based on a book that they have read as a group- possibly having each student pose as a different character from that book. Although you set lose parameters it is up to the students to really take it to the next level. This is a great way to encourage collaborative learning for students to take part in outside of class from the comfort of their own home. The uses of technology are endless in a classroom, from online grade books to blogs for homework- it is something that can be constantly integrated into out educational world of the future.

Focus Question

How do students use technology for learning visually?

As we all know as future teachers and current students, everyone learns in different forms. Some are auditory learners that thrive best when listening to lectures and lessons read and explained aloud. Others need a much more hands on approach. And other still find that visualizing the objects of our lessons are the best way to absorb the knowledge. Technology is a great way to help those visual learning students you may have. I think we all know that teachers are almost always on a very limited budget. So, we can all safely assume that when a science teacher is doing a unit on the ocean- it is impossible for them to travel to the nearest ocean with their class and scuba dive down to the ocean depths to show them what creatures and plant systems lurk beneath the water. Technology makes this possible. You can use websites and or movies shot with high tech underwater camera equipment to show your students the real ocean life without taking them directly to it. All monetary costs aside there are some things that without technology even a very fortunate teacher with unlimited resources would find challenging to show her students. What if you were doing a lesson on outer space? Without the uses of telescopes and satellites and other high tech equipment the scientific community would know so little about the mysteries of our galaxies. Without those technologies we could not only visually show our students these marvels but we may not be able to explain them at all.

 

Same source as journal posting 1, "Transforming Learning with New Technologies"

Journal #1

Focus question:

What constitutes a highly interactive, inquiry based learning environment?

A highly interactive, inquiry based environment can be broken down into several different parts. Highly interactive is defined as “providing educational activities in which students and teachers are not just the consumers of what technology offers, but are active creators, shapers and evaluators of the information and experiences that technology presents. Inquiry –based is defined as something “that teachers prepare, deliver, and assess lessons differently while students think critically and creatively about the learning they do and the technology they use.” So when you look at the definition of each part of the whole it’s easier to understand what constitutes a highly interactive, inquiry-based learning environment. It is an environment in which the teacher not only helps the student to create and utilize new ways to use technology that they’ve been given access too, but they also design lessons in which these technologies are the center and the students are encouraged to think differently about each technology.

Tech Tools:

Ultraportable laptop computers

As a teacher in this day and age we need to come to grips with the fact that technology is something that we will need to utilize to be successful. In chapter one of our text book there is a very helpful tech tool portion about Ultraportable laptop computers. It discusses how useful and almost necessary it is to not only have a computer, but to have a lightweight and portable one at your disposal. This way you are able to have constant access to a digital “filing cabinet”, as they refer to it. I just invested in a new laptop this December and I am very happy with its portability and ability to run multiple programs at a quick pace. The book seemed to think that those two aspects were very important. Those, as well as battery life are said to be paramount. I think that little articles like this are incredibly helpful to future educators and should be appreciated for just what they are- helpful tips based n people who’ve been where we are planning to go.

Source:

Maloy, Robert W., et al. Transforming Learning with New Technologies. N.p.:
     Pearson Education, 2011. Print.