Reflective Blog #8

One Aha moment that I had was that if I would have taken this class first, Integrating Technology into the Curriculum would have been a breeze. LOL. On a more serious note I see that learning these different technological skills effectively has an enormous impact on how well our students can comprehend what we are teaching them. This is especially true for students who are in low economic areas where their only exposure to technology is what they get at school. I think we owe it to them to prepare them with as much as possible while they are at school. How can we prepare them them as much as possible while being at school? We can better prepare ourselves by getting as much out of training as possible and by taking courses such as this one and integrating the information we learn every chance we get. Thanks for the opportunity to being exposed to such valuable instruction.

Reflective Blog #4

The tenet that I focused on for assessing learning was Learners should receive constructive guidance about how to improve. I focused on this one because all to often we as educators are given one day of training on how to implement IFL strategies or new math programs and are expected to implement it perfectly to our students. This is nearly impossible if you still have questions about the subject that your teaching or if the person who is demostrating the new program has never taught with it themselves. This is something that is all to common in some districts and is a practice that needs to be changed.

The portfolio will allow me to examine where I started at to the point of where I am going. The development of the portfolio is a vehicle in which one can use to gain understanding about the progress one has made throughout an ordeal. It allows you to go back and look at what you initially accomplished as a result of instruction and analyze the improvements that can be made overtime. Also it will motivate me to be more creative with my use of technology with my students.

Reflective Blog #7

The learning objective that I developed pertained to students using Our Story to create a timeline using photos about some element of their lives. Once the students have added all the photos that they wanted to the timeline, they would then upload the timeline to their very own blog . Then they would need to comment specifically about some of the pictures featured in their timeline. My rationale for selecting the technologies that I did was because I felt that students need to be able to write daily. In order to accomplish this the writing has to be meaningful to them in order for them to be engaged in writing. The Blog assists with this task. Also the earlier that students become acquainted with writing the better they will be at doing it when they become our age. Furthermore, by them compiling their memories into a timeline the students can always have a record of their lives that can be shielded from lost, theft, or natural disasters.
My expectations for the learning outcome is that each student will take the knowledge from the activity and build on it. Use these sites to incorporate them into their lives daily not just to meet the course requirements.
I feel that the objective that I have created has the ability to span across all age groups and can change how some even view the use of technology.

Reflective Blog #6

I believe that we live in a society that is going to face implications in technology on a daily basis. Technology has changed so much since I was a little girl growing up to now it's just amazing just watching the changes that have taken place in this global society. I'm thirty one years old and I remember in elementary school being called up to the chalkboard to solve a math problem with chalk. Today, a student can walk up to an promethean board and they can use an interactive wand to answer their math problem interactively on the board. During my studies this week I discovered how teachers can create learning communities using distance learning. Twenty years ago I wasn't able to take such a course online, I had to attend class every day. I believe that technology has changed so much that some people are afraid to try new ways of presenting materials and distributing technology based curriculum over to faculty and students. I think that was preventing some people to change their habits of thinking it's because their having difficulty to change, they want to keep teaching the same way they did fifteen years ago and it's not going to work for our students. As teachers we are competing with nintendo, ds's, WII, and other game systems, we have to come up with creative ways for students to learn in the classroom. We need to face the facts we live in a microwave society and we want to retain the knowledge in our heads in fast pace way through creativity interactively through high technology. If I could wave a magic wand around I would make it mandatory that teachers receive twelve hours of technology instruction a year and that they would have to implement technology in their daily plans. We are faced every day with a variety of ways to enhance students learning on a daily basis daily. The decision is up to the teachers and administrators to make a choice to stand for implementing technology. The reason for implementing such a plan is to introduce the learner with vast variety of resources for learning so that it would keep the interest for learning alive and not make the learner bored about the information their retaining. In 2010 we have to stay abreast of the new methods of learning for our students.

Reflective Blog #5

When creating my wiki I wanted it to be beneficial to teachers that are trying to expose their students to technology. I decided to have a wiki that compiled websites for students and teachers to utilize for curriculum I feel this is essential because I know that I am always looking for new ways to incorporate the use technology into my students' learning. Also the students themselves look forward to seeing what new sites Ms. Jackson has found for them to explore this week.
The advantages of compiling a wiki for this purpose is that teachers don't have to go through and search through lists of sites that are not age appropriate or that my not be content specific enough to address their students needs. Another advantage is that if the location of the site has changed recently one can always update the information immediately. Furthermore with the wiki you can upload the site to the wiki so that those viewing the site are no more than a click away from access.

Reflective Blog #2

Eductional technology is defined as basically using technology in the classroom to advance/enhance a students method of learning. In a sense it is getting the learner off of his/her seat and on their feet to stimulate higher thinking processes. Technology forces the learner to be multi-faceted in how they are able to process the information that is presented to them at a given time. By exposing students to technology it enables them to begin receiving the training that they will need in order to operate and compute systems on a global level.
I feel that the YouTube video was synonomous with what I have been telling my students for the longest. They have to have a different mind set about their own education. We can want it for them and give them the tools that they need, but unless they make up in their mind that they want something different it doesn't really matter what we do. The other thought that came to me after watching the first YouTube video was relating to the whole digital divide debate. This is going to forever be a challenge to schools that are in low income areas. That's why I think that I should show this video to my students so that they can be better informed with what life's going to be like for them. This video needs to be shown to the parents as well. I don't think that non-educated parents sometimes realize the demand that will be placed upon their children in the near future and that if they don't begin to make sure that their children are well equipped with the skills to compete with the rest of the industrialized world, then they will find themselves worse off than the generations that were before them.
The second YouTube video "Pay Attention" presented various ways in which one could
incorporate the use of technology into their classroom. The problem I found with some of these are the mentality that the school board has towards the possession of such devices let alone the use of them on campus. In order for said devices to be used in the implementation of curricula the powers that be must change their perceptions about them first. I am all for using technology in classroom, but I must also comply with the laws of the school districts as well. If some if the manufacturers of this products would demonstrate the educational value that these products could/do have this would speed up the implimentation of the technologies that were mentioned in the video.

Reflection Blog #1

As an educator in 2010 it is important to stay abroad with the latest innovative changes in the field of education and technology. The field of education has just evolved in 2010 where students no longer have to depend on basic textbook learning. And,teachers no longer have to rely on settling on referring to textbook curriculum as their only means of the lesson delivery. We live in a microwave society were we want to expidite or complete things in a timely manner. Educational technology, has allowed teachers a new way of delivery of lessons and the students and interactive way of receiving and retaining the knowledge they need to be successful in classroom.

The purpose of education is to prepare a students from preschool to a senior in high school with the academics, life skills, and higher order thinking skills needed to develop successful productive members of our society. The role of the learner in education primary focus should be on retaining the information through various ways of interactive learning. The role of the teacher should be committed to continuing education and constantly using the philosophy of a reconstructivist. It is important to embrace change when you are teacher, you cannot teach the same way you taught ten years ago, because the students are not the same students you had ten years ago. Teachers, are now competing with various forms of technology that students use at home on a daily basis. Students have games like WII, Playstation 3, XBOX 360, MP3,IPODS, and Cell Phones. Students are immersed with such technology, so when they come to school teachers have to think of new and inventive ways to keep the students interest and attention when they are delivering their lessons.

My objective , as a teacher is to build relationships with all my students find out what interest them and build on that knowledge that I obtain from their interests. By obtaining, this information I can implement the delivery of my instruction through technology that will keep the interest of my learners. I expect, all my students, colleagues,and myself to be committed to enhancing our knowledge of technology as it advances through the years.

Educational technology is here to stay and as educators we should embrace it daily through implementing it in our daily activities in educating and motivating students to learn through incorporating instruction through technology.

One of the potential uses I see for blogging from the standpoint of a future media specialist is allowing the patrons to use it to comment on new features that are being offered in the media center as well as for reviewing new books that have been recently purchase for the center . As mentioned in "Educational Blogging" this will serve as a platform to encourage students to share their views about particular items that they have read and even comment on the views that others have about similar reads. Kind of like an informal book club.
In response to the question pertaining to have we met this potential, I would have to say no. My reasons for this is because there are some who have not had the privilege of being exposed to the use of such media resources because of lack of knowledge and familiarity with the process involved in blogging. Particularly speaking, those from low socioeconomic backgrounds and those who are still thinking that students learning technology is something that is not as important as taking/passing standardized test. The thing that is preventing some from doing this is the way in which we view technology and its importance in the role of the children of today being able to compete for the jobs of the future. Some people are threatened by technology because of a fear of the unknown. While others are preoccupied with just supplying students with knowledge that is required of them in the specific grade that they are in.

The area that stood out to me the most from November's article was the fifth one pertaining to Automating vs. Informating. Mr. November made some excellent points about "how education's new business is building a capacity for learning. This is important because in this economy it essential for the whole family to learn skills that will enable them to be marketable for them to earn a living. Also it is key that if the whole family is more technologically savy it will spark an on going interest for parents to make sure that their children get all that they need to be lifelong learners.