Digital Badge #F- Chapter 8

Photo Credits to: infocux Technologies on Flickr

It was hard writing about this chapter because I just wanted to write about everything. I feel like I knew it all and it felt awesome. But here are a few concepts that I thought it would be cool for me to mention on my blog of this week:

Electronic Communication Between Teachers and Students- This section talks about multiple social media technologies that we are able to use in teaching. Out of the five that were included I have used experienced using all of them. I can say using every single one of these social media such as Email, Teacher or classroom websites,Blogs,Online discussions, or wikis have been either helpful as a student to communicate with my teachers or fun to use to communicate with both teachers and my fellow classmates. I have recently started using blogs even though I have heard of blogs before. Another one I am starting to get familiar with is the wiki. I think writing blogs are so much fun to create. We are able to write just as if we were writing and creating a journal. Thanks to this class and my last two years attending FSW I have learned of all of these social media technologies I will be able to use later on as well.

Hold Online Office Hours- I have only experienced this one semester my first year of college. My professor for biology had online office hours before an exam. We were able to ask her questions regarding anything we were still confused about the chapter . Through this we were all able to see each others questions and her responses, so if we had the same question we didn't have to ask again, it was already there. I do not think why this would be a problem for any teachers, it is actually very helpful for your students and by doing this your setting them up for success as well. At least an hour would be great, that is what my biology teacher did with our class and I found it to be very helpful. Although not all students will take advantage of this great opportunity, other students will appreciate it.

Communicating with Skype- I had never used Skype for anything else other than to speak to my family in Bolivia. I thought it was pretty neat when it first came out, then I started using Oovoo, another form of video chatting. I would of never thought you could use this in a classroom. Reading this made me think of how cool it would actually be talking to other students in class from a different country. Being able to communicate with students from your same grade about a certain subject and sharing ideas. I wonder if any teachers have actually done this and if so how did it turn out and if students enjoyed it. I would do it with my students if I had the chance to do so, what a cool experience. 

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References:

Maloy, R. W., Verock-O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2011).Transforming learning with new technologies. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

Digital Badge #E- Chapter 7

     Chapter 7 reminds me of the evaluation of a children educational website we did for our class project. This chapter provides an overview of how educational software and apps can help problem solving and learning for k-12.

Photo Credits to: Wayan Vota on Flickr

     Reading the story of Rosie Rediscovers Math gave me the goosebumps. I have been a little disappointed lately about not knowing what type of technology and educational websites I will be using with my elementary kids in the future. After reading this story I felt a little relieved because now I know that there are actually games for math that would work to make students eager about learning that certain subject. Most of the websites and and tools we have been learning about for the past weeks are more likely to be used with older crowd of kids than elementary. This story made me realize that if we see kids not being interested about a certain subject in class, maybe we should ask for help from another co-worker what we can do to change that.Sometimes teachers, like the one Rosie had do not know how to approach the situation or are satisfied by most kids understanding what they are teaching. But in this story, Rosie was definitely lucky for the people who visited her class and gave her the opportunity of trying something new that she ended up using to enjoy and learn something she once was disinterested in.

    Kid Pix- This was my first time hearing about Kid Pix. I think this sounds like a great program I can use with my future students. I will be able to engage them by doing something out of the ordinary plus making it fun for them, I mean who doesn't like fun ! It also grabbed my attention because not only can you draw, but you can also do many different things with it like solve math problems or even create your own slide shows to present or show other classmates. The different things this program has to offer seems like it is worth having. This is a must have when I become a teacher since I will be working with a younger crowd. I won't know how fascinating something is until I try it.

      Evaluation Criteria- This part of the book relates a lot to what we did about a week ago in class. Evaluating a website is really important before using it with your students. An evaluation criteria  is needed so that you know exactly what the software or app your using has to offer. Although its a bit challenging its important to understand what happens when your students use the program. The good thing is that there is an iPad educational technology magazine, that offers evaluation rubrics. Therefor if you do not know what a fair website or app is this magazine gives you good examples. How good of a website or app your using with your students matters.

Here is a quiz I created with questions regarding my blog & what you have also read  in chapter 7. Try it, you'll do great !
Kahoot 

References:
Maloy, R. W., Verock-O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2011).Transforming learning with new technologies. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

Digital Badge #D-Chapter 4

     Chapter 5 reminds me of what we went over in class on Thursday. A lot of good and helpful information as well as statistics that did not surprise me what so ever ! I enjoyed reading this chapter as I learned a few extra things I was not aware of before.
                                                       




     Information Literacy As a Learning Goal : Looking at the chart 5.1 I was not surprised by the percentage increase throughout the years. I remember when I was in middle school I would always get home straight to the computer but not for school work. I would instead use it for entertainment. Never had I imagined that I would become so adapted to the internet now. I use the internet for everything, including homework, projects of school, and also to communicate with my family out of the country, which is pretty cool. Throughout my high school years I remember being taught how to  asses online information and learned tricks to look for the right information. Everything I learned from the libarians and teachers have helped me out a lot in college, since now is when I use it the most.  I think as a college student is important to begin developing literacy skills in early grades because it will be so useful for the rest of your life .

     e-Books and e-Readers : Having the ability to have access to a book online is marvelous. When I first started college and I first found out about e-Books being available i thought to myself how awesome ! Not only are the a-Books in school are cheaper than a regular hard cover textbook, but its a lot of weight lifted off your shoulders, Literally. But another side of me agrees with with Historian David McCullough. Although we all learn differently, I feel like when I have the textbook right in front of me, and I can highlight information that I think is the most important, I learn so much better. I tried using an e-book the first year of college, it did not go well for me. I thought it was because in high school all we use are textbooks than maybe it was a little odd change for me, but ever since then I continued to get my books as textbooks. Don't get me wrong I love the idea of how easy an e-book can make things for you, but again, my learning preferances are different than others. On the other hand, reading the news online rather than listen to it on television is so fun, I can just keep scrolling down and read for days.

Photo Credits to: Gene Wilbum on Flickr

      Electronic Note-Taking : Taking notes is something I have been doing forever. As I grew older the amount of notes I took in class increased. Electronic note-taking has made it a lot easier for me now that I am in college. Since I started college it was always so frustrating for me to sit in class and not being able to write everything down that was up on the board.  Some of my teachers gave us enough time to be able to copy all of it down or at least be able to summarize what we read, but others I didn't even have time to think about what I had just read. I always though that by writing something down made me remember things a lot better. But ever since I started having professors that did not give me enough time to write things down I started bringing in my Mac to school because i can type faster than I can write.  I currently use Pages to write down my notes, but after reading this section of the book I learned of a new app I just downloaded, OneNote which is a lot like Microsoft and its free !




References:
Maloy, R. W., Verock-O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2011).Transforming learning with new technologies. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

Digital Badge #C-Chapter 3

Chapter 3 is all about transforming learning with unique. powerful technology !

     A Parent-Teacher Conference : the conversation that happened between these two, I would most likely be the parent. But after finishing reading this chapter I changed my side to the teachers. I did this so because at first, I also agreed with the question this parent asked but little did I know that after reading I learned so much new information that changed the way I thought. Some parens still do not understand why most teachers use technology teach, my mother is one of them. Even though she uses her iPad everyday for everything, including paying bills, watching soap operas, or looking for new houses that are on sale around our neighborhood. She still thinks that we would learn so much better without technology, because she says that we trust the internet so much and so we do not bother to check our books for the right answer. She just doesn't understand that the computer or iPad can also be used to make teaching more exciting and interactive than just reading our books, and taking notes in class.

     The Role of Feedback : we use that a lot in college. Not so much in middle school did I see feedback from my teachers, but now is when I've noticed it the most and I love it. I think giving your students feedback for things they have done and turned in for a grade is awesome. You have not just showed that you have taken your time to read something and replied to, but it also helps students see where they can improve and what they are doing good on. Students giving their teacher feedback is also very important. It allows the teachers to concentrate more on whats not being understood, and who in the class needs more help on certain things. That to me is a huge advantage because you can choose the ones that understand faster to help you help the others student too. Out of all the choices they described that teachers can also use technology for feedback, I currently have used 7 out of 9, throughout  these 3 years in college, and it has been a great advantage as a student .

     Groupwork and Collaboration: To begging talking about this topic I'd like to start of with, in order for group work to be successful , it needs to be taught from the start. Group work has been used since I was in first grade until now. It doesn't only let us share our thoughts and special skills with other students but one thing it wasn't mentioned in the book is that it also lets students to know each other a little more. Working in groups where students with different skills and knowledge gives them the availability of sharing that with each other. Although that is least used in College because the amount of time we have in classes, group presentations lets us work together and gives us the opportunity to get to know different kinds of people we may see later on the year in a different class. Technology comes in handy for students to be able to exchange their ideas they came up with independently while   working together to come up with something better.

Photo credits to UBC Learning Commons on Flickr

References:
Maloy, R. W., Verock-O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2011).Transforming learning with new technologies. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. 

Digital Badge #B-Chapter 2

After reading chapter two of our book, I learned a lot  interesting things but especially how technology changes teaching and learning in enriching and productive ways.

     The first thing I would like to discuss that grabbed my attention while reading the book was the statement that said : because of years of experience as students, beginning educators often teach as they were taught. I would like to say I do agree with this statement but I'd also like to share what I think of it. It is okay to begin teaching that way, especially for beginning educators. They are nervous, and think that if they do what their teachers did in the past they will be successful. Yes, they can have a successful career but whats better than that is knowing that you made your students reach their goal of that year. By that I mean that you have taught your students something they will never forget. Your class was for the most part interesting, and your class was one that they enjoyed the most. To achieve this, teaching your students how you were taught will not quite get you there. Now a days there is so much being invented, so much new technology, that can help us achieve a fun learning environment and so we have to be opened to new things. We can't get enclosed, even if we don't know of how to work these new inventions. We need to care to learn, it will only benefit both the educators and students  as well !

     The second concept Developing Lessons and Engaging Students : wow ! for many students the main reason of dropping out was that classes were simply not engaging or stimulating enough to stay.  This relates to the first thing I discussed. If the teachers aren't making it fun for the students than who will. Students find that going to class gets repetitive and teachers are failing at connecting their academic material to real world issues in the lives of these students. When this happens students tend to get frustrated and start to miss school because they stop caring and when they start seeing bad grades they decide the school role is not for them anymore. This is why it is so important for beginning educators as well as old to change things up ones in a while. Do activities in class that everyone's different learning types can be used. Technology can help so much achieving this goal as well.  From past experience, I have had a class that I did not enjoy because the teacher would do the same thing everyday, and only spoke about the subject without no visuals or anything. Than, I've had those classes where I really enjoyed going to because I felt like the teacher just had every quality of a good teacher and everything she used in her classroom to teach helped her get her point across.

    Lastly, the critics of technology in schools : There will always be critics against technology and I do agree with some but I also do relate to both sides. Like using technology all the time with students is not always a good idea. Students need to do work for themselves and can't depend on technology to do all the work and thinking. Also when you give the freedom of using technology such as computers or cell phones in classrooms some students take advantage of that and do not end up doing what they are assigned that day. But on the other hand technology can be used to make learning enjoyable for students. Like if your planning to do a puzzle that day, why not do it on the computer. If your are planning to talk about a new book, why not show a short introduction of the book on youtube, as we know youtube has tons of cool videos. With that being said, is the teachers decision when and how to use of technology in the classroom, but we need to think how can we relate it to that days topic. I know that when i become a teacher I will certainly use technology in my curriculum but I will also make the students think for themselves to challenge their knowledge as well.

 

References : Maloy, R. W., Verock-O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2011).Transforming learning with new technologies. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.