Well; sixteen weeks of Literacy and Technology online class are officially over. I have completed quite a bit of work in this course; eight assignments (including ICP Project) and six high achiever assignments; that is not including the group assignments and meetings. Yes, I some how found time to do all of the high achiever assignments. I liked the challenge and learned a lot more than I expected. To be honest, I did not expect to learn much more about technology. I knew a lot before this course well; so I thought.Although making a video and a podcast were challenging, tedious, and even at times frustrating, they were my favorite assignments. Why? Well; I never made a video or a podcast before. I did not even know what podcasting was! I assumed it had something to do with an iPod. I have owned a video iPod for almost 2 and a half years now; but I did not know how podcasting related to my slick black music/video player. Now thanks to Dr. S I not only know what a podcast is, I know how to make one. I made one for a friend right after completing one for the class assignment; because I have not seen or spoken to this person (outside of AIM and Myspace) in quite a long time. This is a great technology that one can use in the classroom with their students as well as for personal use at home. I spent a lot of time making my video and had fun playing with all the options I could include. This is another great activity to use in the classroom as well as at home. The other activites; crossword puzzles, mind maps -Inspiration and gliffy, power points, lesson plans, webquest, wiki, personal web site, etc... were also great activites that furthered my learning of the many uses of technology that can be incorporated in the classroom. I was really surprised as I stated in an earlier blog, that one could make a crossword puzzle in Excel. It is a long and tedious process; but once you learn it, it becomes much easier. It is just another thing I have taken away from this course that I will incorporate not only for personal use; but in my future classroom.
As I stated in my last blog entry, there were two days of presentations. I was on the second day, May 4th, 2009. My Internet Curriculum Project was on The Future of Mobile Learning and the Use of PDAs in Developing Literacy Skills. Above is a snapshot of my lesson plan which can be located under the 'Course Assignments' tab on my personal web site. I also did a PowerPoint presentation which I posted on SlideBoom. After these assignments we're completed I presented my power point topic. I integrated the class in the beginning, middle, and end of my presentation which went rather smoothly. I did have one "hiccup" though; the Elluminate Live! Session kept disconnecting me from the class and did so once during my presentation!This was a bit nerve racking; but I was able to continue with my power point and was glad to receive student participation each time I asked a question or wanted a comment/perspective on the topic I was presenting. Although this required a lot of work, the assignments were informative and I am proud of my accomplishments. Everyone's topic was interesting, informative, and showed how much we learned in the course.
I know it has been some time since my last blog; well since my last blog about class work. The previous blog was part of another student's presentation who incorporated a great hook to her lesson plan. Now onward to week 12 till now. Week 12 and 13 my group and I met for the last time on WizIQ to take parts of the TDC E-Book Chapter 5 which; was at first tedious because my part was quite lengthy in research; but we completed our parts and put it together into a power point thanks to Jennifer, one of the members. The picture on top is a snapshot of the first slide and more of this can be seen under "Course Assignments" of my personal web site. We put a lot of time and effort into the project and our presentation was successful!It was great ending everything on a good note. From then I have been researching my Internet Curriculum Project- "The Future of Mobile Learning and the Use of PDA'S in Developing Literacy Skills" and looking at the websites/articles Dr. S has been posting. I have to say I have enjoyed all the links she has posted especially the videos, they are quite educational and at times entertaining! Especially the video on Second Life, that was very interesting. It reminds me of Sims except it has more technology integrated. The presentations on the 29th and the 4th were excellent! I learned a lot about the topics and loved how the presenters integrated the class and used the Elluminate Live! features. I also liked how a few people chose to do a wiki instead of a powerpoint. I think both meetings were very successful.
3 Facts:Can make a video instead of a power point.Can include sounds and music in the video.Very useful way for students to present information.My first video dealt with information literacy and the second, high achiever assignment, dealt with information literacy; but the focus was more on mathematics.
For the HA6 assignment I completed on Sunday April 12th, I created a quiz. It is a short, 5 question quiz on the material I have learned throughout the semester in Literacy and Technology. I created my quiz on ProProf.com and found the website relatively easy to use. The only negative quality about the site is that after creating my quiz I could not see it unless I took the quiz myself. I can understand this being applied when other people are looking at the quiz; but since I created it I would think one would be allowed to look at it without having to take the quiz them self. Its a good thing I double checked for any typing and formatting errors because one would not be allowed to go back into the site and fix anything after the quiz has been created. Other than that, I enjoyed making the quiz and thought the topic I chose was interesting and pertained to what I have been learning in this course thus far.
For today's assignment, A6 (snapshot is above), I had to evaluate Engrade Software for at least 45 minutes and then post my reflection on here. I found this assignment interesting because I am not a teacher yet and have not had to use a grade book of any kind being I have no student's. I found it very easy to setup a classroom and created a roster of made up students. I did find some difficulties with trying to weight assignment categories and after giving it a good effort decided to stick with the original settings to not weight assignment categories. The difficulties I found was the layout and the information the site wanted per assignment. I think this may have more to do with my lack of experience with the software; but since I found everything else easy it was some what disappointing when I experienced difficulties with that section.I liked the entire setup of the grade book and also liked that it not only gave the average per student; but also the class average per assignment/test. I really see how one student's poor score can affect the rest of the class as well as effect that student's overall average. The only suggestion I have for the software would be to have a notes section on each assignment/project/test so the student can understand what he or she did wrong and how they can improve this in the future. I feel grades whether excellent or poor need to be explained to the student so they have a better understanding of the course content and to also know how the grade was calculated. That is the only problem I see students and/or parents having with the software since; it is goes straight to the grades without further explanation.I would definitely use this in my classroom and also would recommend other teachers and future teachers to use it as well. It keeps the grades organized and if the teacher has made an error one can just click the grade under the assignment and edit it from there; instead of going through all the students grades to just correct one student's mark.
My latest assignment, A5, was to create a digital story on a topic pertaining to my field of education. I did a Unit Plan on the Native Americans last semester and always wanted to have a visual for it other than handouts and a power point. I will admit I was dreading it at first because I have never made a video before and was unsure if I could make one, let alone make a good video! I spent a long time creating the video and changed the pictures, sounds, texts constantly until I felt it fitted the mood and message I was delivering. I think the hardest part besides adding a title page (introduction) and credits, was recording my voice. I wanted to make sure I didn't sound the same in each slide and also am typically a quiet, soft toned speaker and tried talking as loud as I could. Other than working on the pitch of my voice, I think everything came out great and I had fun working with Photostory 3 for Windows. I initially was going to use Windows Movie Maker since it came with my computer however; I went with Dr.S recommendation for Photostory and I understand why she prefers it. It not only included music so I didn't have to go "hunting" for more material to add to my video; but it also made the video in barely 5 minutes. I showed it off to my family this past weekend (bragging rights ;-D) and they really enjoyed it and could see the amount of time I put into the video. I also made another video, more of a slide point to be exact, on Voice Thread for the HA5 assignment. I found it easier to record and my voice sounded louder. I also liked that it had a section to put comments underneath and to post links. This way one can automatically click the link instead of seeing it at the end of the credits and trying to type in each letter to go to the website. However; Photostory 3 made it into a video where as Voice Thread made it into more of a "power point 2.0" with the extra options included. I genuinely have learned a lot in this course about technology thus far and will be using my new knowledge to incorporate in my future classrooms.
*The link to my digital story on "The First Thanksgiving" is on my personal site.
As you can see with my title I had no clue I could make a crossword puzzle in Excel. I was a bit hesitant due to the fact I never use Excel and was not sure how it would turn out. However; the directions Dr. S gave from the Microsoft Website were great and it was quite easy once I figured out where all the tools were to make a puzzle. I made mine on Thanksgiving because last semester I did a 70 pg unit plan on "The First Americans" and had to have a vocabulary list included in my plan; but I did not have a crossword puzzle with it. I actually wanted to do one; but had no idea how to. For me this was not only useful to add to my unit plan; but also because I never use Excel and had no idea what features it had. I do think this is the best way to have students learn a program and its uses instead of having a teacher or a book tell them what to click and how to enter in numbers and words. I had to do that for Experimental Psychology and as you can tell from reading this I didn't remember a thing.The students do not realize that they are learning about a program/software because they are concentrating on the activity and once they do learn it, they will have fun adding colors and pictures to the assignment. As well as being able to use the tools in the future. I also think this is the best way to have students increase their vocabulary knowledge and learn how to use Excel. I didn't know how to do it so how could I help a future student of mine or incorporate the software in my lesson plan if I am unsure myself? I feel that educators need to open themselves up to all technology has to offer because our students will be the ones hurting in the end.The only thing about the Excel program I didn't like was that it was tedious and time consuming. One also has to really think about the placement of the letters in the words of a crossword puzzle and how many boxes one will need. I think the crossword puzzle I made using Variety Games was much easier because all I had to do was type in the answers and the clues and it did everything else. However; it lacks the creativity and the knowledge of using a program like Excel and students need to increase their knowledge of what is available and compare and contrast the positives and negatives so they have more options to choose from.
It has been quite awhile since my last post. I'm sorry for being tardy; but I was busy with Mid-terms, assignments, sickness and moving the past few weeks! To start my group, the Teachnologists, met February 25th from 8:06 - 10:06 p.m. to start working on our group Constructivism project and continued our work on March 2nd from 7:30 - 9:30p.m. and finished it on March 8th from 8:30 to 11:51p.m. As you can see the times we met we spent a lot of time on it and I think it came out excellent. I have to say it is always a pleasure to meet with my group and we do not come across any problems unless it is technical and we always find a way to fix it or work around it. To answer Dr. S questions; The 5E Lesson Plan is aligned with the inquiry process by how it has the students investigate the situation they are given. For example; my group decided on having students look outside and draw what they saw and then try to identify it. Afterward students would look at four house plants and see the difference and similarities, students were teaching and learning on their own. The teacher was merely a guide. If; I were a principal I would encourage teachers to use the 5E Lesson Plan - Constructivism format; but I would not have them do it daily. It is quite time consuming and takes a lot of preparation. Also the teacher has to be prepared to let the students teach themselves and stand on the side observing them; but also making sure they are not getting side tracked and are focused on the topic. The teacher also would need good classroom management techniques and make sure the class is not getting too loud, there should be some existence of order in the classroom. My group addressed these concerns by making a graph of the advantages and disadvantages of Constructivism by using Gliffy. Unfortunately; because some teachers lack the classroom management skills and lack the time or desire to make an inquiry lesson, they tend to fall back to the traditional Behavioral Model/Direct Instruction which; is boring for the students to have the same type of format daily. I believe this is another reason why Information-Processing/Inquiry and Social Interactive (Cooperative) methods are pushed aside because incorporating these newer, creative forms of learning takes patience, time and a desire to teach it. These are Web 2.0 features because of today's technology is about accessing and publishing information on the internet as well as working together in groups online or offline in in the classroom.
For week 6's assignment (A2) I completed a graphic organizer with the Inspiration Software about my educational journey and what I am presently doing now. I spent hours on it because I had a lot of fun being creative with the numerous symbols the program provides as well as inserting pictures, links and hyperlinks. I love when an assignment calls for creativity! I think this would be a great assignment for younger students to introduce themselves to a class or to post information for a research project.
I posted two links to my graphic organizer on my personal website. The one is a jpg image and the other can only be seen if one has the Inspiration Software. I also posted a snapshot of it at the beginning of this blog. This was a great assignment and have not enjoyed doing an assignment as much as this one! I thought the links on Instructional System Design(ISD) was interesting especially the one by Kevin Kruse. His article gave me a better definition of what ISD is and I liked the comparison he made to cruise control in an automobile.
I made a a couple of comments on other student's blogs and thought what they wrote were interesting and both addressed internet safety. I discussed this in an earlier blog about how student's need to be careful about what they post on the internet as well as teachers who post pictures of their students online. My group, Teachnologists, met Wed from 8:06p.m. to 10:06p.m and started our Constructivism project. We have worked well since day 1 and everyone is always willing to stay on as long as possible to finish assignments and discussions about the current week. We finished the 1st part of our power point and I think it came out excellent! Although I do find week 7's assignment long and some what difficult, I know that with my group it will be a much easier task than if I was on my own or working with members who did not want to put the extra effort in.
I cannot believe we are almost finished with week 5 and will be starting week 6, time really does fly! Since; my group met twice (once on February 11, 2009 and again on February 15, 2009) I am going to reflect on it in one blog. To start with February 11th's meeting, we met from 9:15p.m. to 11:45p.m. due to not only the missed class; but also because we had a lot to accomplish. We first discussed the links and the ISTE/NETS Standard # 4 and how we can incorporate technology in the classroom. We went over the rest of the links and I created accounts with del.icio.us, Diigo and Ning which I am still getting used to. It is helpful to have del.icio.us and Diigo on my Mozilla FireFox tool bar. I do like how Diigo highlights websites to make the information easier to obtain and not have to consistently go back to the site or try and copy/paste the information into a Word Document. As a group we then made our letterpop which was time consuming especially because only one person can work on it. However; the end result came out great and we did have fun working on it. We decided to meet again on Sunday, February 15th from 7:30p.m. to 10:10p.m. to discuss any left over questions from week 4 and to also discuss the assignments which were initially due in week 4; but was moved to week 5 thanks to the teacher. Dr.S joined the session for at least 20 minutes which; was very helpful since she answered questions we had and told us we were doing a great job and are on track with everything. We spent a lot of the session making our group wiki project site look nice and professional, as well as creating our own sites to connect to the group site. After Dr.S added week 5 that night, I then uploaded the video: "What I Want for My Children" in the WizIQ session which; I found touching and although some what somber, it displayed an important message of how important children are to their parents and then showed a teachers point of view to the parents and the community. I thought it was nice to see a parents point of view since most of the videos have been about teachers and students point of views. We ended with looking at the link "Classroom 2.0" which we thought was interesting however; a group member raised a good point and said one must be careful in loading pictures of children since; not only does the person need permission from the school and the parents, one also has to be careful who is viewing the content of the site. Unfortunately, we are in a time when some people will use that content in ways we wish they would not; but it is something one, especially a teacher, must always keep in mind.
I thought it was really interesting how the sites I chose measured up according to the evaluation surveys. The surveys asked a lot of questions and it was pertinent to the information I learned when I read the two articles. Some of the questions I would not have even thought to have asked or consider in my research for information online. One site did not measure up and I decided not to include it in my favorites due to the answers I gave in the survey. The two other sites I did and I particularly liked looking up a virtual tour. I did not want to do the same survey for each website and also wanted to find something different. I thought the questions for the virtual tour survey were interesting and also think the tour site I picked is great for students of any age particularly students in middle school.
I completed the Educational Philosophies Self-Assessment a few days ago and am reporting my top 3 philosophies according to the test. The number one philosophy scoring a 19 was Humanism. This did not surprise me at all because I have always believed that one can control their destiny and that most people are inherently good. I also agree with the statement that "There is a natural tendency for people to learn, which will flourish if nourishing, encouraging environments are provided" (Scoring Guide) and believe this can be achieved. The second philosophy was Perennialism which did not surprise me either because I do believe it is important for students to learn about western culture and the many great works of past contributors to the arts, literature and other subject areas. Thirdly, was Information Processing which surprised me some what because although I do like to analyze how the mind works and one of my favorite subjects is psychology, I did not know that I compared the mind to a computer. I know the results vary and the description may not apply to everyone however; I can see why I fell into this category. I do believe the mind uses symbols to process information; for example we all know or should be familar with these symbols: $ @ # . $ - money, @- symbol we put between our made up name and or hosting email address site, and #- pound sign on the telephone and also is typically used when we write a phone number down (i.e. # 555-5555).
The past 2 weeks of Moodle has been an "eye opening" experience. I was a bit intimidated and definitely overwhelmed at first by the amount of information posted on the class site and this was before even reading Week 1! I took a fellow student's advice who has taken online classes with Dr. S before and told me to go down the list and click each item one by one. This was really helpful and made it less overwhelming to complete the readings, test files, discussion forums and making the 3 personal sites. I find blogging an interesting; but not an unfamiliar process since I do have a Facebook. I have information filled out about me and in the past have written notes; which is similar to blogging. The one difference is blogger has so many features that it makes it fun and easy to blog!I liked the power point information on chapter one of the class textbook as well as the LoTi levels. As I posted in the discussion forum I had no idea what LoTi was and did not realize levels existed in teaching and comprehending technology. I thought the information was insightful as to how the college I am enrolled in as well as the school's I have visited, I ranked a low LoTi level. I was disappointed because I thought the college and the schools would have been at a much higher LoTi level. It took me awhile to understand the layout of FreeWebs where I have my personal website; but once I understood how to add, edit and delete pages it became much more enjoyable and I devoted a lot of time in creating the look and feel of the site. My Wiki is in the beginning stages; but I found PBWiki easy to navigate and post pictures and information.I also thought all the videos in week 1 and week 2 were not only interesting; but surprising as to the information revealed. I did not know that only 13% of teachers used technology in the classroom. This could have lasting negative consequences on the teachers as well as the students because many young students know how to access websites, download music for their iPods/MP3 players and talk to their friends via online chatting. The students are or will be above their teachers and will not be allowed to express their knowledge; if the teacher does not know or is not willing to learn about technology. I also did not know until this class that Web 2.0 meant chatting online, pod casts, posting blogs, wikis, personal websites, staying connected to the internet via cellular phones and having a class online. I was not sure what it meant initially; but after watching the video it makes sense why they are calling it Web 2.0.Overall I think the first class meeting went well and the most memorable moment of the class was when the entire class was on Elluminate Live and a student had a camera on her computer and we saw a video of her. I did not know one could post a live image of themself in the class sessions and think it is a wonderful tool to have in class! I also met with my group (group 4) twice; once on Monday from 7:30p.m. to 9:00p.m. and once today from 10:00a.m. to almost 12:00p.m. The first session was a bit "bumpy" due to we were trying to get used to the format of WizIQ as well trying not to interrupt or talk over each other. After a few minutes though we got the gist of it and had a succesful discussion about Moodle, course assignments and questions we had. We met again today to address any questions and/or concerns as well as discuss the following week assignments. This was particularly helpful because we posted each video from Week 3 into WizIQ to watch and make comments on together as a group instead of trying to do it on our own.
Technology as many know, has become a vital part to people's daily lives. I cannot imagine not having a cell phone. I do not talk a lot; but its the comfort of knowing that in case I do need to contact someone I can. I was not a fan of text messaging mainly because its a not a free feature at least not with my Verizon plan however; I added it to my plan and I have to say it makes my life much easier. Like I said I do not talk a lot; but I do like to remain in contact with my friends and colleagues and it is nice to have another way of doing that besides speaking on the phone. Obviously technology does not only include cell phones; but also connecting to the internet which is a vital part of my life.
It is vital not only due to how quickly and easily I can connect with friends; but also in my educational career. I have been doing essays, research articles, and reports since I was in middle school and as the times have changed, the dependency on technology has grown. I used the computer a lot in high school; but it was more to type up assignments then to go online for homework. Since; I have been in college I have seen teachers are requiring that assignments be done online or students are required to find articles online to critique for homework. It amazes me when a teacher actually requires that students use the library to physically look up books. I feel that although it is valuable to know how to use a card catalog and borrow a textbook, that this is an antiquated way of receiving knowledge.
I realize that young students, students even in kindergarten are required to know how to use a mouse and turn on a computer. Although I know a good deal about technology I know I can learn more and want to! I want to make sure my future elementary students not only know how to use computers and the internet; but also see in the day to day classroom the use of technology and how much fun this can be in learning.
Well; sixteen weeks of Literacy and Technology online class are officially over. I have completed quite a bit of work in this course; eight assignments (including ICP Project) and six high achiever assignments; that is not including the group assignments and meetings. Yes, I some how found time to do all of the high achiever assignments. I liked the challenge and learned a lot more than I expected. To be honest, I did not expect to learn much more about technology. I knew a lot before this course well; so I thought.
