Final Reflection

As our last class draws to a close, and I finished my final reflection, I sat back and thumbed through our textbook once more.  My field is Early Childhood Education and I have now completed 18 credits toward my degree.  Although this class was not a "core" requirement, I found the textbook to be the most helpful of all I have used so far.  The resources within its pages will surely help me create interesting lesson plans for years to come.  I am glad I have taken this course, it has taught me how to utilize technology in new and innovative ways.

Chapter Ten Reflection

For my group assignment, we are looking at the ways technology has changed in the classroom.  We are specifically looking at the difference between using a Smartboard vs. the older Whiteboard (blackboard) methods.  Some educators are resistant to the technological advances in the classroom for various reasons.  Some feel that technology makes students "lazy" in their reading and writing skills because it is becoming harder to focus on the written word.  Therefore I was interested to see the "Child's Story Dictation Using Speech Recognition Software" on page 288.  The student dictated their story to the computer which used voice recognition software to translate it into written word.  The student was shocked to see that the computer's output was totally incorrect.  The student then had to go back over the printout, reread the story and add proper punctuation, capitalization and fix word confusion.  In my opinion, this is a MORE effective way to teach a student to edit their work.  I know that personally, if I spell a word incorrectly a million times, I  might not notice, but if I see it printed wrong in the form of written text, I will notice it immediately. 

I also was interested in the section on pages 290-291 about the advantages and disadvantages of digital storybooks.  Many teachers with Smartboard technologies in the classroom are relying more and more on the digital storybook.  One thing mentioned in the book that teachers may overlook is that students understanding about what is taking place may be hindered by the moving pictures.  If the words are printed alongside an animation, students are hardly likely to follow the written word, instead focusing on the animation.

Ahh...Technology

This week was a good lesson on technology for me.  During the storm, I was sitting in my parents den, watching TV and feeding my daughter.  When the flood waters started to creep up the grass in my backyard, I figured we were safe because my parents bought a generator...we would never lose power.  At 10:15, my fiancee was complaining because the television kept interrupting his DVR version of Dexter and my mom was mad the Internet kept kicking her offline.  Forty-five minutes later, that same room, TV and computer were submerged in water that took over two floors of their house.  With no lights, no TV, no computer, dying cellphones with no way to charge we were at a loss for what to do.  We have no coping skills, no survival skills, no way of communicating to other family members.

Thankfully, my favorite TV show is called Revolution.  It is the first season it is on and the premise of the show begins with a "Blackout".  All over the world, electronic devices shut off, no cars, planes, tv, lights...nothing technology based works.  The show then follows the different characters as they have to learn how to survive as colonists once did.  Since I started watching this show, it really made me realize how much we rely on technology and what I would do if that ever happened to us.

Apparently my thinking came in handy.  After the lights went out that Monday, I filled up whatever I could find with clean water, collected candles and matches and tried to keep everyone calm. 

Technology maybe important in my life, but I won't let it take over my WHOLE life.

Games in Class

The first game I tried was FreeRice.  I loved this game because I am very competitive and I love words. It sound's silly but I have by BA in Linguistics and I love to read, so this game was a great way for me to test my knowledge on vocabulary.  I think this game is great for older students who are studying for their SAT's because vocabulary knowledge is essential.  I also liked the fact that rice is donated to needy countries.  I could find myself being addicted to this game if it had an app for the iPhone. :)

The second game was Get the Glass but I only got to play for a few minutes before time ran out.  I spent too much time getting FreeRice.

Reflection on Class Seven

I found today's class very helpful when discussing the ideas for webquest!  I started working on mine during free time we had in class.  Watching the video about the Dino Dig involving the elementary students was particularly helpful.  I am glad June showed us the webquests in action so I could see how to better model my own.  I am hoping that the interviewed teacher was right, she said that her first webquest took her three days to create and now she can come up with them in a matter of hours.  It seems to be an engaging way to get students to focus and organize their research and I would like to put it into play in my future classrooms. 

I am finding the textbook to be very useful in my everyday life as well as in preparing lesson plans.  Table 7.1- Open Source Alternatives to Popular Commercial Software Applications is extremely helpful to me.  In my house, my laptop is an older model PC with a dead battery and it needs to stay plugged into the wall until I get a new battery.  My fiancees computer is a lightweight MAC which I use on occasion to do schoolwork from the couch or the bedroom so I can be closer to the baby.  I am not a MAC user and I know his computer does not have Microsoft Office or Word, therefore I cannot type papers from it. Now that I see other word processing programs that are available, I may be able to download those to make my schoolwork easier to complete.

I was also surprised to see that I remember the program KidPix in the back of my brain.  I had used this program back in my elementary school days in the MAC lab in my school.  We had about 25 of the old square MACs and we used KidPix and played games like Number Munchers.  It's good to see the oldie computer games that I learned on 20 years ago are still being updated today.

Reflection on Class Five

I feel that class five was very important because we learned how to distinguish a "good" website from a "bad" one.  There are many websites that do not have credible sources, or ones that seem to be factual but are not.  I feel that information like this should be taught to children from a young age so that they do not believe misleading information.  I was also happy that we looked at the good vs bad websites as a class, as I found some resourceful websites that I may use in the future, such as kidsknowit.com.  It seems so simple to evaluate a website, using something we have all learned from an early age, Who? What? Where? When? and Why?. 

Two questions I have for our guest speaker are:

1) If K-12 education can be done online, how will children build their social skills?

2) If children get accustomed to being in front of the computer for school, social functions (facebook, chats) and homework, when will they gain real life experiences?

Reflection on Class Four

This week we learned about the ASSURE model.  I was surprised to learn about such a method of teaching from a technology class rather than my curriculum classes.  It is really helpful and the perfect way for me to create lesson plans and make sure they are effective.  I look forward to putting the ASSURE model into practice when I get my own classroom.  

I really enjoyed reading Chapter Five.  There are some great resources in this chapter that I will use when I have my own classroom.  I was especially happy to see Table 5.2 Internet Search Tools for Students because it is so hard to use web searches in classrooms because they are either restricted by the school or may have inappropriate content.  The search engines listed there are age appropriate and great to use with students. 

One topic that arose in the chapter is the issue of censorship.  People read misinformation online and feel that it is real fact.  There is also a lot of information that WAS right and was proven wrong.  My question is Should there be an organization that patrols the internet taking down websites with false information?  Many people feel this is censorship and violates their right to free speech.

Page 117 also brings up the question of Is reading website content considered actually reading? I am curious to see my classmates viewpoints to this question.

Class Three

Although I missed class this week due to illness, I read chapter three and found many things important.  Firstly, I was happy to read about FairTest on page 72 of the text.  I am very against standardized testing in the way it is being used today.  I feel that students DO need aptitude tests to see how they stand in comparison to others, however, I feel standardized tests are misused by the school system.  Children are threatened that if they fail the tests they will be left back or not graduate.  Children, especially elementary age, do not need to be so frightened by school.  By putting so much emphasis on the tests, students and teachers lose sight of what is really important- learning.  FairTest claims to be an "assessment reform advocacy organization".  Their job is to evaluate standardized tests and make sure they are effective.  In regards to testing, I also agree with Popham's view stated on page 74-- We need better tests rather than no tests at all.  The tests we have in place today are scare tactics to scare children into studying harder and scare teachers into teaching by a school-appointed textbook.  Where is the fun? Creativity? Where are the tangents and spur of the moment conversations in the classroom?  Those things are lacking in todays elementary schools.

Two Questions I have for this week:
1) What are some ways we can incorporate non-computer technology into the classroom? Ex- Audio/video tape, Cameras/ camcorders, ect.

2) Are there any websites for teachers to share their lesson plans, if there is, do teachers use it or do they keep their ideas to themselves?

Reflection on Class Two

So far the class has been going great.  I like that it is more of a discussion based class where we share ideas, rather then a professor standing at the room and reading notes off of a screen.  I feel this is going to make me remember more information from the class.  I also enjoyed hearing the different answers when we were asked to define Technology and Educational Technology in our own words.  There were many different outlooks and we learned that there is no clear definition to the word "technology".  I also enjoyed the videos that we saw.  The one of the children made me think...  While technology and iPads are great, great teaching resources, it makes me wonder...has technology made us lazy as parents?  I know my two month old daughter likes to be pointed towards the tv.  The lights and colors entertain her.  While it may be harmless now, am I doing her a disjustice in the long run?  I grew up on books and more books.  I want my daughter to be a reader, not a TV watcher.  My parents used to turn off the TV and make us go out and play outside.  Living in an apartment, I don't have that luxury.  Will my daughter be a slave to the TV? I don't think so.  It makes me wonder about the children learning sight words on the iPad, reading with the iPad. Where is the teacher, the parents, why can't someone read the child an actual book?  The children in the video were not "reading along to a book" on the iPad, the iPad was reading it TO them. Will that really build their reading skills? I guess only the future will let us know...

Blog about Class One

Today was our first class.  There is a lot of information to process.  I rated myself a 7 out of 10 in terms of computer skills, however, I never created a blog before.  This should be a great learning experience for me.  I am studying to be an Early Childhood Educator and I feel that this class will be of importance since most children are exposed to iPods, iPhones and computers very early on.  It would be sad if a five year old has better technology skills than their teacher, so I am compelled to stay up-to-date on the latest technology.  I have ordered the textbook online and will update my blog with my response to the readings when it arrives.

Happy Blogging!

Helaina