Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Final Blog! #10

Anyoung!

The last blog for the semester and I have mixed feelings about it. I was just getting used to weekly blogs and this semester has really flown by. We are rapidly approaching finals and assignment deadlines are getting closer and larger. But that is not what I'm here to talk about in this last blog, but rather data collection. We have been learning all about It, and even getting practice with creating online surveys using Qualtrics. Data collection is very helpful in terms of so many things. Teachers can use it for their students and about how well they are doing in the classroom with certain teaching methods. Businesses can use it to determine the effectiveness of their products. As well as a large sum of other uses. Relating to teaching, I know that this type of data collection using surveys and converting numbers in excel can be helpful in more mature classroom atmospheres, like high school or college. Especially with larger classes like Math or English in grades 9-12 where teachers can ask their students if they feel they are learning efficiently and what the teacher could do to improve. I have had a couple of professors in the past who have used anonymous surveys that the student could fill out for certain lessons, saying what they learned, or wished they could learn. It's very helpful and generally a better way to access individual student progress than just asking them in front of the class during teaching time.

In EME2040, we have all had to create a blog where we answer to the weekly prompts, and comment on our fellow classmates blog posts. I think the most interesting thing for me in terms of looking at everyone else's blog, was how they made it so unique to their  characteristics, from layout design to the words they spoke. The names of the blogs were even different in the best ways. The dynamic of each persons blog was clear and well thought out. I appreciated being able to see that though the words they wrote. I especially liked viewing the different ILP's on each persons site, because just like their blog page, it was so different from each person to the next. The Projects where we had to design are especially interesting. Because the project was up for our own interpretation, I got to see resources I had grown familiar with over the years used in new ways. And those I had never heard of before. That parallel was very cool to say the least.

In terms of what I learn next, seeming as I want to be an elementary school teacher,  I think it would be beneficial for me to learn about computer related storage devices. That means the realm of hard drives, usb's, disks, zip storage etc. Saving my lesson plans will be essential to an organized classroom, and I can't rely on my personal laptop to keep all the information. My best bet is to learn how to store my information so that I have a backup in case connection goes down, or I lose the location of my work online. I think the best way to go about achieving this goal is to start with the basics like USB storage and work my way up, learning how to save certain pieces of information, and retrieving them when necessary. Thank goodness for the advancement in technology, I can look up different informative websites, and videos that can help me get started on my computer storage journey, and prevent me from ever having a "loss of material horror story"!

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Saturday, November 2, 2019

Blog #9

What is up!

This week we are talking about the concept of a flipped classroom and all that entails. A flipped classroom is essentially having the kids learn in a different way. The learning method of choice: videos! They can watch these videos at home as another method of instruction and take what they've learned and apply it by taking notes or asking questions the next time they have class. The use of online tools is rapidly increasing. Giving students the opportunity to have these tools at their disposal can prove beneficial for growth in learning. From interactive stimulations to instructional videos, the students are sure to learn something if they can spend individual time on it and work at their own pace. Then when they come to class they are ready for the lesson and they can ask questions and work through any quick fix issues before its too late.

Switching gears lets talk about open educational resources. They are these really cool pieces of information that are usually accessible to educators far and wide. They can use these resources without worry of a having a license and work on lesson materials, take different pieces of text or media to use in the classroom. They can also evaluate the resources for future research proposals. A very helpful website I found allows teachers from all over to access OER's. It was called: "OER Commons." Not only can teachers pick whatever grade level and topic they like, but they can also sort through different class standards and find the best resource for their class in particular. Its an online public library where they can create, collaborate, and share what they find. Teachers can also build certain lesson plans and publish them for other teachers to use. The website is very helpful, and could be beneficial to any teacher who came across it.

Here is the link to the website! OER


In terms of the two recent assignments we as a class have been working to complete, we have been using Powerpoint and learning to master all it has to offer. This weekend has been very frustrating to say the least. Its one of those weekends that make me realize how much technology frustrates me. There have been a lot of things that are going wrong in terms of trying to use my Mac computer to turn in any assignment, mostly because I'm lazy and never updated my computer for fear of losing any haphazard work. I can't fathom why my computer won't cooperate. But good news is i'm learning as I scramble to figure this situation out. As of now Saturday, November 2nd, the odds are not looking so hot; But that's a sob story for another day. Lets talk about what I've learned. Ive learned so much in terms of creating a presentation. For starters, I had no clue that you could record audio over your powerpoint, I thought that was only on iMovie or something regarding a video editor. Being able to add speaker notes was really cool as well. I also like being able to add animations and make it pop with the topic of my choice. For my presentation I decided to do it on animals and classifying them, I had fun making each side unique. I learned that you could add your own idea to slide master which is so cool because sometimes the layout ideas that powerpoint suggest are a little questionable haha. As we are still working on these two powerpoint assignments, next time in terms of improvement I will just throw my whole mac computer away and do it on windows, because the amount of problems I have had to deal with in terms of saving my work a certain way is very troubling. I definitely learned the word "corrupted,"  and if  I had any confusion on the word, my computer made sure to crystalize it for me. Below is a picture from my Assignment 4 presentation. ;)
(Update I figured it out! Thank goodness for keynote)
November 5th: Today I turned in my interactive powerpoint. Let me just say, I have no complaints. This assignment was so fun to do. Being able to come up with a game and make it interesting was something I would happily spend time doing again in a classroom of my own. I always wondered how powerpoints had buttons that moved from one slide to the next when you clicked on it. Basically hyperlinks myth bust every technical question I have regarding powerpoint.
Below are screenshots from my powerpoints! :

A4:



A5:



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Sunday, October 27, 2019

Blog #8

Ahoy!

Todays topic is Diigo. Although we didn't have class last week, the week before we did a bunch of little tasks with the Google Chrome extension of Diigo. We learned how to annotate articles, and bookmark certain things in those articles. We also learned how to make sticky notes and comment on our fellow classmates post. The whole thing was very efficient and made the process of finding information and sharing it with others easy and attainable. Especially because there was a page where the whole class could go to see other people's work. I apprecate the attention to detail I could pay to other articles found by my classmates, and to be able to comment on them. Collaboration is something I continually hear when it comes to education. I love that in the future this is one of many ways to communicate ideas with fellow educators and share thoughts. Together we could create a group based on a certain topic we are exploring and share our findings in an accessible way.  In terms of my individual aspirations I could use Diigo to organize my specified research and keep it in a place where I can always go back to if I need it.

In other news, I have been learning about Blooms taxonomy in my other education class, and all that it entails. There are six distinct levels to build a solid foundation for "effective learning". In this class we are continually introduced to all the helpful technologies that we can use in our future career of teaching. A big one is Powerpoint. One of the few things I already knew about and had extensive practice with. From my many run Ins with powerpoint for various assignments, I have learned of so many ways that it provides useful. In terms of Bloom's Taxonomy, allow me to make a few connections. For starters using power points in a lesson can prove successful for all parts of the pyramid. Say this was a powerpoint for the first day of school. Starting at remembering, the kids could have to remember a list of directions in a powerpoint and do them at a certain point In the lesson, like following certain classroom rules. They would then need to understand what is expected of them for the next year. In the powerpoint slides, they could explain what the new year prepares the students for, and get them excited to learn. Another slide could talk about relationships in the classroom and how to solve problems, by including different scenarios, or issues in the classroom that could arise. Getting the students to recreate these scenarios and determining how they would handle it themselves. Another slide could include any article about classroom management that the class could analyze together. Before breaking into groups and determining the key points and coming back together as a class and sharing their findings.  The students could then evaluate each group and what main points they drew from the article. They could either argue or defend weighing in with their thoughts. Last but not least the powerpoint could include a slide with a first day craft that the students could complete and design themselves following basic guidelines! Powerpoint is like a blank slate, educators could use it in so many ways.


Now switching gears to talk about the topic of teachers and teacher professional development. Teachers have a big list of things they have to accomplish when it comes to educating the youth of tomorrow. One of the many requirements is that teachers are able to introduce different types of technologies to their students that are not only useful for the future... But also aid in future learning by being innovative and more efficient. A really helpful website I found that teachers could use to keep up to date with the best educative technology is called "ELearning". The website is continually updated with the newest technology trends, and teachers can subscribe to the newsletter to be aware of new things they could use in the classroom frequently. There are links to different tools and articles, and even a way to comment and share this material wth other educators. The website includes things from custom learning experiences, to the opposite end of technology with implementing virtual/ augmented reality into learning. Overall it's a very informative website and I think many teachers could benefit from using it. 


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Sunday, October 20, 2019

Blog #7

Konnichiwa!

Let's just hop right in to blog number seven and talk about the big elephant in the room which is Twitter. Something I never was able to be a part of. I just lacked interest, unless it was to look at AP testing memes because those are gold. When I first learned that I would have to make a twitter for EME2040, I was majorly confused. What the heck does a twitter have to do with education based technology? Boy was I mistaken. Not only have I looked forward to tweeting something new often, but, it's actually a great source of information, sometimes controversial. But that's what makes it interesting. The influx of educational accounts that I follow range from being interactive with their following in different challenges and links. I also really like how these accounts act as a source of news. They provide the educational news and they offer their views and opinions. It's a way to see how others perceive education and all it encompasses. I recently completed a Edutopia twitter challenge and got a large amount of notice from other people following the account, it was interesting to see how they felt about the things I was saying. I have learned so much about how to make social media informative from using twitter, and how to connect with other educators who may/may not share the same views as me; basically building a network. So far I have not experienced any problems with twitter. Smooth sailing!

A recent assignment we had to complete was designing a website. Let me tell you, this was actually so fun. Getting to pick my template, import pictures, and create under the persona of a kindergarten teacher was a hub for innovation. I liked getting to play with different fonts, and the freedom we had to create our own content. Putting in the Google calendar was a nice touch. It made things seem more legit, although I wish it would only stay on the week I made instead of being so legit and changing with the days, but that is just me being nit-picky. There were not many things that I didn't like about this assignment. The only thing that I would change for next time is how the website input some of my photos. It would be nice if they were more proportionate and matched the text more. But I realize that this is something I would have to manually do. Basically I'm lazy and I wanted the website creator to do it for me haha. In my future career, I now know a free website I can use, and how to use it, I definitely want an extensive classroom website. So the things I learned making this website will be helpful for the future when it's the real deal!

My website: http://msrayana.weebly.com


This week we are learning about Assistive, and Adaptive Technology. Which are the beautiful advanced creations that aid people with impairments or disabilities to make the tasks they are trying to complete easier, or just more attainable. These pieces of technology in classroom settings not only make learning easier...  But by accommodating students who need it, they then can feel more comfortable knowing that they will be able to complete the work they are given just like the other students. It creates a sense of equity in the classroom which is so important for individual growth. I have never personally used any assistive or adaptive technologies, but I do know of students in the same classes as me who have needed longer time on standardized test, or a different color font for their essay prompts. Which was a setting in the computers that had to be adjusted, as well as text to speech processors. These things helped with issues as minor as headaches, or major inhibitors. Teachers usually tried to make the learning environment as nice as possible for all their students; which I really admired in Elementary/ High-school. Using adaptive technologies in a classroom of my own I think the hardest challenge will be explaining to students who don't need those technologies, why their fellow classmates do. Especially with how young I plan to teach, there will definitely need to be a conversation, so that the kiddos are aware and respectable!

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Saturday, October 12, 2019

ILP Participation- Lynda.com



Link to Voice Thread: https://voicethread.com/share/13120697/
Link to Lynda.com: https://www.lynda.com/in/linkedin-learning

Salve!

For my Second Independent learning project, I did a professional video participation. I decided to go with Lynda.com as my source. Not only were there enough topics to make your head spin, but it was all accessible if you made an account. Of course it was a subscription service, but you get the first month free which is very nice! I watched a video on assessment types and their effectiveness in a classroom setting. The different types and how to apply them for the best results from your students. It was very cool to have so many helpful videos at my fingertips. They not only could potentially help people to accomplish their personal career goals. But simply stated they are extremely helpful. I was able to take notes on the website that I could export and keep forever along with the pdf downloads the specific video provided for guidance in future teaching endeavors and strategies for assessment testing. This website is a diamond in the rough that i think anyone could benefit from using.

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Blog #6

Hallo!

This week we are looking at different class website pages, I decided to look at my old elementary school website. Roberts Elementary was my literal childhood. The schools usually have pages for their teachers and those teachers sometimes have websites for their class which is nice for the parents. to get to know the teacher and keep up with classroom updates. I specifically looked at the kindergarten pages. I noticed that kindergarten, and grades like fourth-where the curriculum gets tougher-were the most developed in terms of the teachers having websites. Majority of the kindergarten teachers had websites that included things like: meet the teacher, classroom resources, announcements, and class calendars. The younger the kids, the more involved the parents are, and they want to know what is going on with their child, that is why it is so helpful to have a place for them to go to indirectly check up on what is going on. There were pictures of them, as well as links to their email and website on the faculty/ staff page for easy navigation of curious parents. Some teachers even had links to the lesson plans like the Pre-K teachers. Many of the teachers also had links to educational websites so the students could go home and practice more online. Overall the class websites were very helpful and another way to reach parents, besides sending home hard copy information in the students Friday folders.

Link to Roberts Kindergarten Webpage: https://www.leonschools.net/domain/5754


When it comes to using technology in the classroom to promote efficiency and effectiveness in terms of my professional responsibility, I will definitely make use of a class website. I imagine myself with a website that not only covers the basics namely, about me, resources, etc. But I want to have a website that has a different page for each student where the parents can go for weekly updates on their child and know what they personally need to work on in terms of skills and behavior. Similar to that of what they get on paper each week but more updated. An easier way to reach out to the parents; which helps with the process of learning in their children. I know that the website will be very high maintenance especially with the vision I have. However, the time I waste rightly so in that area will hopefully be made up by the lack of phone calls form parents because they will have all the information they need right at their fingertips. For the most part. If I can make sure that the students learning doesn't stop just because they left the classroom for the day, then I will be able to successfully fill the role of a teacher who not only teaches, but encourages the students to apply what they learned no matter where they are and no matter how young they are!

Switching topics up a bit, this past week the class went on a field trip to Tech Sandbox.  I'll admit, even with my very public decree of how much I hate technology, everything there was out of this world amazing. From the virtual reality sets, to the 3d printers, and pens. Lots of the things were not only fun to play with, but they could prove very useful in a classroom setting. There was a whole corner devoted to Coding of all types. At first I was intimidated, but then our very helpful guide broke it down and explained the basics. These different sets could range from using apps and physical pieces for making music, and connecting different things that formulated commands over the various mini robots. Coding is something that encourages the students to think about what they are learning and apply critical skills in the process, reaping some really rad results. If I was teaching the kids about science, the Merge cubes-which turned into completely different 2d things on the phone-could be helpful in teaching students basic facts in a new way. Not only would the kids be blown away, but they would want to learn more. There was also the Smart board, that was essentially a big monitor screen that could be placed flat, similar to the look of a table, where the kids could gather around and try different things and learn new lessons. The whole thing could situate an entire group of kids and facilitate group lessons and small projects or just occupy fun in some cases. I think everything in the Tech Sandbox could be used in someway to enhance a classroom atmosphere. I'm so glad I got to go see it all! Below I included some of the pictures I took...







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Sunday, October 6, 2019

Blog #5

Ciao!

 Another day another marvelous blog. I'll admit I'm getting used to doing this every week to the point where it will be weird when I'm not using it next semester. But that is a sob story for another time. I can't reiterate enough how much I'm enjoying this Education tech class. I guess it's because the class is based on the career I want to pursue. Whatever the case, I'm not complaining haha. So last week the class was introduced to Diigo. I never even knew it existed. But let me tell you, this website is so useful for teachers. Not only is it a great way to communicate and share ideas with other teachers, but it is also very easy to navigate and branch off to other websites of choice for further development. When I first made my Diigo account I was a tad confused about what it did, until the whole class started including our specific sources and commenting on each others post. That was when I realized how effective it was. The entirety of the set up is that of an annotation website. A direct way to find sources and cite them accordingly. Getting to mess around with the different components like highlight, and page markers was very interesting. But there was one thing I really didn't like about the website, and that was the difficultly to add on to my previous post without it refreshing my comments to the top of the list. I know there was a way to keep all my thoughts in one place, but it was hard for me in particular to pick that out. So I kind of gave up and just let my posts be sprinkled throughout the rest of the page. There were so many comments to the point where it was hard to pick out certain things I wanted to look at. To that extent I feel like a little more organization would help the layout of the site more. Other than that I loved getting to use Diigo for the first time.

As for the concept with blogging, as I kind of grazed over the topic earlier. I love it! I like being able to talk about things in an informal way and share my opinions on the different educational resources we are learning in class. There are so many perks to blogging. It helps me to find the words to my thoughts. I don't like that I can't seem to indent my paragraphs, but I don't want to bash the whole concept of blogging based of my insistent need to be punctually correct. I shall let that slide... Back on the topic of how much I love blogging. First of all I have tried to blog In the past and I thought you had to pay for a fancy website and get a subscription for all the perks. But Blogger lets us have it all. There is so much to decided between, from layout, to the style of my blog and I think that is so cool. I like how simple it is because of course I'm not technologically inclined. I prefer to have my hand held during the process and this website does that. So far though blogging, I have learned how to embed links into my blogs, as well as the creative licenses. Doing these blogs weekly means having a chance to learn about different educational tools and share my feelings on them. In short, blogging is awesome.

 Web 2.0 tools include the resources I just talked about, as well as things like PBworks, and Twitter. All the things we've been introduced to in class. But there are mountains more of 2.0 resources that I find are very useful. For example a website called Edmodo. A website that I majorly used in high school to keep up to date on what my teachers wanted us to know. Edmodo is similar to Canvas but without the grading. It's a way for teachers and students to contact each other, and for teachers to include links to further information that they may be teaching that week. There is even an app. Teachers can send pictures of worksheets, and students can comment, or like the "posts". Within the app students can have different sections like a planner, a place for notifications, and even a discovery tab where they can search endless educational games, and created content. The website online has the same components and more, aiming to help teachers manage the classroom and engage with their students. Even parents can have an Edmodo and use it to stay up to date on what their students are learning!

Edmodo.com


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Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Blog #4


Yasou!

Blog number four is all about Twitter, and online resources. I never thought of it, but Twitter does count as an online resource, and is used for more than just memes. I've never used twitter before this class unless you count googling AP test jokes. But it actually has some cool people on it with a lot to say, like the influx of educational accounts that I follow. They not only include open discussion, but they also are a great source for information. So far I have been interacting with my fellow classmates, and enjoying their tweets. I have retweeted a couple of educational articles that I have found to be interesting, and twitter really is an outlet to hear different opinions and formulate your own. Having a page where I can spread what I believe about education in the form of simply liking a comment, or even linking different articles are all unique ways to learn something new or reach my intended audience. In the future as a teacher, I could use twitter not only for opinions, but to spread facts and if I ever got a large enough following, a place where fellow educators can come together to help comment on things going on in the teaching world. A place for "collaboration" as we learned in class today.

The digital divide on another note is something that affects the ability for some students to learn. Its the large separation between those who have access to technology and those who do not. It as simple as a teacher who may assign online homework, and the inability for five of her students to get it done.  If these kids cannot complete the assignment, then they cannot learn and develop in their ways of thinking. Some causes can include, geographical diversity, low income households, or even social problems. Either way to ensure the best results, and give every child the equal opportunity to learn; starts with making sure they can all access the material, rather that be at home, or in school. In the classroom it is certainly not uncommon to have students that may not have access to technology, and because I will be teaching at the elementary level, they may not have technology at all, especially not arbitrary things like phones. To ensure that my student still get optimal education, I will make sure to implement procedures for completing online assignments, In class only. If it needs to be done at home, maybe hard copies for those who need it.

In my class room I will definitely implement smart boards, not everyone can be on the classroom set of computers, and because technology is becoming so advanced... I will make sure the students get at least a little bit of experience In the technology field, whenever there is free time, and monitor them to make sure they understand the importance of technology and use it for things like reading and math practice online. Kids need to be exposed earlier now, because technology is taking over, and we want our future leaders to be prepared. I will also try to implement a class website that will be interactive and available for the parents to have open discussion to talk about any questions they may have, and to keep them updated on what skills their students may need to be learning for that day/ week. Overall I will focus on making things more efficient.



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Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Blog #3

Hola!

This week we've been reviewing the ELA Technology standards. There are too many standards to count. And when it comes to teaching, all teachers need a certain set of skills depending on the grade level they wish to teach. I know I want to do k-5 education, either kindergarten, first or second. That being said, I've been reading up on the skills and the most notable ones that I think will be easily replicated, are programs like, paint, word, and animated storyteller websites, because usually those things guide you through the creation process. But, using the Promethean board, and smart boards in general will be more of a challenge.  Tasks like online textbooks, and identifying key educational resources online are also standards that I think I will be okay at. On the other hand. Online graphic may be a little more difficult. As well as audio device usage mostly because these are things I've never used before. I can never seem to get the audio right with anything bigger than a smartphone. Being able to guide my class through an online source to define, characters, plot, setting, etc can be something I easily adapt to. Everything is within my boundaries, but it will definitely take a little practice. More skills are needed the higher up teaching education is even in elementary i'm learning.

In the classroom, there is an abundance of resources that teachers would benefit off of putting into good use. On the CPALMS website, they have an educational toolkit for each grade level K-12. Not only do they have the standards, but they have lesson plans, learning materials that teachers can download, and links to interactive resources like games, worksheets, and stories. The files are highly accessible for the educators and they can benefit so much with so many different options. Depending on who they are and what they they plan on teaching their students that week. One tool I found that would be very helpful in my K-2 endeavors are Element Cards. Essentially these cards can be used to help teachers in planning for instruction of their students. The cards include different teaching strategies to meet the standards and resources that will help the children formulate a deeper understanding. Having these cards can help keep me on track with my teaching in the classroom while making it a fun learning experience, having these cards for future reference to make sure things are getting done according to plan. Organization is key and these cards can help with that.

In other news, we just completed our first bigger assignment, which was the newsletter design. I had so much fun creating this newsletter for my imaginary second grade class. Getting to mess around with graphics in Word helped me to be more familiar with the in's and outs of the program. I not only learned how to make columns in my articles, but I also learned that (simple enough) you could upload images and put the image behind the text or even wrap it around.  I learned that copy and paste doesn't even begin to explain how in depth you can go with making your word document unique and interesting. The only thing I didn't like about the newsletter was making columns. Because whenever I would add a bunch of text at once, it would jump to the top of the page, and irritate the layout of the rest of the newsletter. The hyperlink I had to be extra careful with as well. I put it in a location that could not be accessed at first and had to make sure I was saving it the right way. Once I did, it was easy to remember for the future. Next time I will keep in mind that the hyperlink needs to be of actual use and not just highlight the words I picked. The hyperlink can be a great tool for linking other resourceful articles, or websites/ learning tools. In my future career, creating word documents like worksheets for the kids will be a lot easier because I will have learned the skills that not only change the font and size of the text but also change the layout, and the very essence of the words I'm typing. Creating a way more interesting piece of art that I can reproduce for my students.




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Saturday, September 21, 2019

ILP “Design” – Render forest Animations

Link to Animated Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_V-fcRHnhk&feature=youtu.be



https://voicethread.com/share/12991732/

Bonjour!

For my first Independent learning project, I chose to do a design. I ended up finding a really cool website where you can make short animated videos, or logo's, or anything in that range. I formulated a small lesson plan meant to help elementary schoolers learn how to multiply with zeros. The whole process was really fun, I got to pick out different designs and make the whole thing my own. I then uploaded it on youtube where it can be accessed by anyone. I got to do a lot of designing during this process and I'm glad I got to learn about this website. I had no idea that it could be that easy to create something so unique.


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Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Blogging About the Basics

Greetings and Salutations, 

In today's blog, we are talking about a scope of things. The first being Microsoft Word and its use. I am a big fan of MS not only does it make writing my book run as smoothly as possible, but it also is so cool to mess around with. It is the homing beacon of my various assortment of essays. It also converts a lot of big documents or articles into a compressed readable version that is easier for me to manage. My teachers in the past have used Word to make and print off documents that we could complete in class, charts, graphs in math, word puzzles, etc. My teachers also used it as a means of assignments. Majority of things I had to turn in online had to firstly be formulated in word and turned to Turnitin to check for plagiarism. Regardless Word has always been the middle man.

Speaking of plagiarism another thing that is widely know is Copyright in the class room. I thought copyright was mostly just for products and the music in YouTube videos. But I now know that copyright matters in the classroom. There are laws that prohibit teachers and students from using certain programs. That means the scanning of certain items for classroom use. But at the same time fair use is seen as the ability for these teachers to use these materials if they are doing so for nonprofit. In the past my teachers have always used Turnitin to make sure the kids were not copying other people or each other. We were to always put our name on our work, and to provide the source of any outside information we gained. my teachers would scan worksheets for us, but only to turn right back in to them after they were complete and we claimed none of the work. The programs they used were primarily school provided as to avoid any copyright issues. As a teacher in the future, to prevent copyright I would make sure that my kids created their own work by providing credit for any source of information they received. I would also make sure to abide by the fair use rules, and make sure that  I tried to remain as creative as possible with the programs I used, namely try to use only school provided things, and my own, as well as Pinterest of course!

If I had to deal with (1)Cyberbullying, (2)Academic honesty, or (3)Privacy in the class room I would implement these methods:
(1) I would make sure my students understand the concept of; "treat others how you want to be treated". Anyone caught cyberbullying would be restricted on their internet access and implements would be in place. But to prevent that in the first place, monitoring the students would be a big deal for me. As well as drilling in the meaning of respect. I would also make sure the technological environment the students are in would be virtually impossible to insult others or be insulted. That means internet use only as a group. Limited individual use, unless it was working with myself. Really focusing on that safe environment!
(2) Simply put, I would make sure that the students take credit for no work but their own. I would make sure the students knew what was expected of them and the penalties if they decided to be academically dishonest. Signing an agreement at the beginning of the year is something that worked for my teachers and their students. I would implement that.
(3) I would ensure that my class is a safe space for the students to share their true selves without any information being exposed (unless harmful) complete disclosure. That means privacy In the things they turn in, as well as the activities they react to only for evaluation by myself, not their fellow peers. Keeping the classroom experience as authentic as possible.



Tuesday, September 10, 2019

My First Journal!

Hello my fellow bloggers,

This is the third week of the fall semester and so far so good in Education Tech. While its only been three weeks I've certainly leaned a lot that about the importance of technology in the classroom. For starters it actually is necessary. I've always disliked anything that had to do with online, and anything harder to work than a phone; but mostly that stems from my notion that technology is scary and that it it will ultimately take over humanity. But alas I am forced to also consider all the good that technology brings to the world. It makes life essentially easier. And if that remains the case then technology is not all that bad.

In the class room teachers use technology for many reasons. For starters common core for students is very involved. At every grade level, there are certain requirements and standardization's all of which are necessary for the growth of the child. So having online resources is notably helpful for teachers getting their point across but also to make sure that the progress of the students is recorded. Teachers use technology for presentations and for assignments, for interactive activities, and just about anything else to make the class run smoothly. All grading is computer based and websites that analyze students work or authenticity are necessary elements and help maintain a successful classroom atmosphere.

A big thing for educators are the ISTE Standards. Standards set by the International society for Technology use in Education they help encourage the future of integrated technology in all areas of education. There are set standards for students as well as teachers. One of the standards I resonate the strongest with is setting personal learning goals and applying approaches made possible by technology and reflecting on their effectiveness. I think it is so important to be able to identify the type of teacher you want to be, and setting goals that will lead you to a better understanding of your teaching methods with technology. As well as how well your intended audience perceives the points you are trying to make. One of the standards that will take some getting used to is: staying current with research that supports improved student learning outcomes and findings from the learning sciences. I have always been a stickler for the notion "if it isn't broken, don't fix it". Meaning if I see a method working it will be hard to resist just letting it run its course and not changing the way I get my point across. But obviously that's the whole point of being an educator, having the patience to do the research, and attempting to find the research that works best. Having to be constantly updated with the latest in technology will be admittedly harder than the other standards in my opinion but I know eventually I will learn how to interpret and administer the new information.

In a recent class we talked about today's youth and the concept of them them being digital natives, Mark Prensky stated: depending on your age, that dictates the technology you grew up around. The newer generations are more applicable to advanced tech. While the older generations have to adapt to this new technology after being so used to things as simple as a land phone. Being the age I am (18) and having professors old enough to be my grandparents who do have different skill sets when it comes to technology. There are many times when they might ask how to do something with technology and a student has to teach them because they just don't understand how to work it. When I have professors like that, they are still great teachers, but the whole teaching situation is just less efficient. Canvas is more tricky for the older professors and it takes longer to see my grade reflected on the site, but that's okay because eventually they figure it out, you just have to be patient with them. In the future I'm almost nervous for my students. They are going to be so advanced in all the ways of tech and ill have to ask them for help. But I will make sure that I try my hardest to do good by them and constantly try to learn the kinks of technology. Hence abiding by the ISTE Standards!

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Thursday, August 29, 2019

What I Hope to learn!

The class in itself is going to teach me so much more about technology in education and make it easier hopefully for me when I finally have a classroom of my own to make spreadsheets containing lesson plans. Or just activities for the students that require printouts like interactive games. I also am excited to learn how to use excel. Because I have no clue what that journey accommodates. Learning how to personalize online experiences beyond just basic Powerpoint transitions will be very helpful in the future. A large part of teaching is the paperwork, and as the years go by, the demand for technology increases. I inevitably have to keep up with the time and make sure I'm competent at computer skills. Hence the name.