Thursday, February 24, 2011

Technology Self Assessment: School 2 .0

Using the School 2.0 website, I assessed my ability and use of technology, demonstrating the use of NETS IV. I then picked a Nets-T assessment to analyze by summarizing an article. The Nets-T assessment that I investigated is: Nets-T 2- Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments. I chose to research this Nets T because it is very important and it is something that I need help with.

         The Nets T 2 standard addresses that all teachers should have the ability to design and develop teaching lessons/experiences with technology. The resource that stood out to me was EduScapes, as it is a website that teachers can use to gain new ideas and gain new resources.
         EduScapes (http://eduscapes.com/index.htm) is a website that allows for teachers to be educated in the realm of technology. This website offers project ideas and many resources that teachers can use to better their own technological abilities. They also offer their own technology courses as well. One thing that I learned is that there is a new National Educational Technology Plan 2010 to improve the learning of students in the education systems under 5 essential components: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. The three common things to do with technology to help reach this plan is to simply rediscover content, rediscover context, and to rediscover computing. Content and context practically go together, being that content for a job requirement (professional tasks) holds a real-world context. Computing ties along with the idea that learning is not determined from a certain gadget, it is determined from how you use that gadget. Understanding this information can be crucial for the correct usage of technology with students. An example for doing this could be:
     A Law/ Government Class(http://www.eduscapes.com/sessions/context/, 2010):
  • Content. Use of online resources such as infographics for learning such as How Laws are Made.
  • Context. Use the Battlefront: Campaigners on a Mission website as a place to find real-world needs and consider where laws need to be made.
  • Computing. Use the Thomas website to make contacts, track real bills, and share findings.
       EduScapes is a website that can greatly help teachers and future educators. This website provides useful resources for educators and current technological guidelines that need to be followed. Teachers using this website can stay up to date with technology and constantly gain new ideas and knowledge.




Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Journal # 4- It's Time to Trust Teachers With the Internet: A Conversation With Meg Ormiston (Nets I, II, IV, V)

Schaffhauser, D. (2010, December 1). It's time to trust teachers with the internet: a conversation with meg ormiston. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/Articles/2010/12/01/Its-Time-To-Trust-Teachers-with-the-Internet-A-Conversation-with-Meg-Ormiston.aspx?sc_lang=en&Page=1

              Teachers want to educate their students to the best of their abilities. Technology is a growing tool that is starting to take over much of society and the world around us. While technology can be intimidating, it is a great learning tool that can be very useful in education. Teachers are now instructed to implement technology in the classrooms, and this would be easy if teachers were allowed to access proper websites. Meg Ormison, a fellow educator, argues that teachers need the most access that they can get as they have been instructed to teach to the best of their abilities. Most schools issue blocks on internet access that teachers can't even work around. As much as teachers want to implement technology into the class, they have very limited resources to use.
              School computers are configured by technologists and websites that get blocked are getting blocked by people who don't even work in education. It is not fair to teachers that they do not have the proper resources they feel would be best to use in their classrooms. It is kind of hypocritical to not trust teachers with their classrooms when they were chosen to lead and be in charge of their classrooms. While it is not the best to completely unblock everything at once, eventually teachers should be able to control what they can access in classrooms. Security issues are constantly of concern which is why so many blocks are implemented in the first place. Teachers should be able to go to educational workshops to be aware of what can be a great learning tool for students and what actually needs to be blocked. People think that blocking everything altogether is the solution so that students don't have any chance at all in finding anything inappropriate. The problem with that is students and teachers are restricted to great learning opportunities. Students nowadays have smart phones and computers that don't have any blocked websites. Students also know how to work around the blocks, and teachers are left clueless. Technically, students have access to everything 24/7 that schools are trying to block. Teachers give up trying to format technology in their classrooms because everything they want to use is often blocked. It is of no use going to administration to get permission for the website because it can take up to two weeks and the answer is most often times a no. Teachers have been trusted to lead their students in their own fashion, so why not let them do it? Workshops can train teachers to implement security policies for the internet. Teachers should be allowed to do what they are instructed to do, implement technology into their classrooms.
              Technology is a vast scope of information that can be detrimental to students, but on the flip side it can provide great learning tools. Teachers who are constantly blocked from the wide range of learning tools give up because they can't access what they need to. With proper training, teachers can effectively implement technology into their classrooms with proper security measures. Teachers have been instructed to teach the class, so why hinder that?

Analysis Questions:
1. What can be done to make unblocking websites easier for teachers?
             I believe that schools have a right to block students from innapropriate websites, however there should be a system that allows teachers to configure websites to their learning activities. Teachers should be able to unblock websites for their own convenience, and monitor the students. While student computers should be blocked, teachers should be able to permit or block a website from their own computer. With technology constantly upgrading, I know it is a possible solution.
2.  Students are coming into school knowing how to configure and work around website blocks. How do we fix that?
             It is obvious that computer systems in schools need an updated security measure. It is unfortunate that no matter what we do to block innapropriate websites, students are getting information on how to work around configurations by people who input the configurations, or a third party. People need to be more aware of the information they share with students. The only way to fix this problem is to completely design a new blocking or configuration system, but some way or another the students are going to figure it out. The best thing we can do is monitor them when they are in our classrooms to the best of our abilities.
3. What are some great technology tools for teachers to use?
             Many popular websites can be useful for teachers. Youtube and Skype are two websites for example that are becomming more useful for educators. Skype is a great tool that allows students and teachers to reach out to fellow students/teachers of other countries. Youtube is starting to gain popularity from educational videos that can be watched. Blogging is also popular now, as students can gain more interaction with their fellow students and teachers. There are endless posibilities. The most important thing is that you monitor students to avoid them finding anything that may be innapropriate.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Journal # 3- 100 Things in Life that Make Me Happy ( Nets II, V)

 100 Forms of Happiness
1. My family
2. My boyfriend
3. My boyfriend's family
4. My friends
5. My cats (my obsession!)
6. Teaching/tutoring
7. My new job as a Teacher Assistant
8. Love/ weddings
9. Dancing
10. Gymnastics
11. The Desert
12. Riding my quad
13. Getting good grades in school of course!
14. Music
15. Making new friends
16. Traveling
17. Flying in my boyfriend's airplane!
18. Reading a good book
19. Rollercoasters!
20. Scary/action/romance/ comedy movies
21. Panera Bread (My latest food obsession)
22. Playing my flute
23. The Beach
24. Swimming
25. Going on long walks
26. Composing music/ music in general!
27. Vacations!
28. Math
29. Shopping
30. The color purple
31. San Diego
32. Estes Park, Co
33. Hawaii
34. Going somewhere new
35. On The Border (Mexican Grill)
36. Margaritas
37. Drawing
38. Writing poetry
39. Learning new things/ school/ education
40. Purple Orchids
41. Sleeping
42. Relaxing
43. Foot massages
44. Laughing/ humor
45. Cruises
46. Children/babies
47. Lazy days at home
48. Being productive
49. My room after it is cleaned.
50. snowboarding/ The snow
51. The beauty in nature and our environment
52. Rainbows
53. Being accepted
54. Technology
55. Food (in general- however NOT seafood...)/ candy
56. Being adventurous
57. Playing tag or hide-and-go-seek (acting like a kid every once in a while...)
58. Developing/ Fixing photography (I am a Kodak certified photo technician!)
59. Taking pictures
60. New experiences
61. The weekend! ( Now that I don't work on the weekends!)
62. My middle name Munro (The only tradition in my family that has been carried down from my Scottish Ancestors)
63. Dresses!
64. Getting all dolled up!
65. Being spontaneous
66. Burts Bee's Chapstick (I use it religiously...)
67. Cold weather
68. Waterparks!
69. Slides
70. Swings
71. Getting my homework done ahead of time instead of last minute
72. Summer
73. Christmas
74. My birthday!
75. Getting gifts for other people
76. Making other people happy
77. Hand Sanitizer (I use that religiously also....)
78. Helping people
79. Getting my nails done
80. Dying my hair
81. Reality shows on TV(The Bachelor, Jersey Shore, etc....)
82. Animals (in general)
83. Driving
84. Mini-golfing
85. Theme Parks
86. Sewing
87. Knitting
88. Scratchboard art
89. Zip-lining
90. Boat rides
91. snorkeling
92. honesty
93. Playing sports and being active (Everything except soccer....)
94. Family reunions/ trips/ celebrations
95. Sunglasses (I am blind in the sun...)
96. rings
97. pedicures
98. kindness/ consideration
99. optimism and smiles
100. Most importantly my life in general! (Everything that I have been given and will be given in the future!) I absolutely love my life and I am so thankful to be here today as after having massive brain sugery when I was younger, the doctors said I wouldn't be!

Questions:
1. How can writing what we are happy about help us in school?
            When we are in school, we tend to stress a lot over tests, homework, and the overall workload. When you feel like giving up, it is great to remember what keeps you going in life. It is a great list to motivate you to continute to do your best.
2. Why is happiness important?
             Being happy is very important in life. When you are upset or mad you are not motivated to do your best. When you are happy, you have motivation in yourself to try your hardest and do your best. Happiness motivates everyone.
3. How can other people benefit from seeing the things that make me happy?
            Other people can greatly benefit from seeing my list because as much as they may have 100 things in life that make them happy, seeing my list can remind them of other things that may also make them happy. The more things you have in life that make you happy, the happier the person you generally are. It is also great to gain awareness of new things in life that could bring you happiness. A great life is a happy life.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Journal # 2-Join the Flock!/ Enhance Your Twitter Experience (Nets I, III, V)

Miller, S. (2010). Enhance your twitter experience. Learning & Leading With Technology, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100607#pg16

Ferguson, H. (2010). Join the flock!. Learning & Leading With Technology, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Join_the_Flock.aspx

                Hadley Ferguson and Shannon Miller have developed two articles to allow everyone to gain insight to the positive usage of Twitter. Most people see Twitter as a way to keep up with their friends and the latest celebrities, but Hadley and Shannon have demonstrated how useful Twitter can be to teachers as well. Everyone can find a positive use with Twitter which is depicted in these two articles.
                 Both Hadley and Shannon express the importance of building a PLN. This is otherwise known as a Personal Learning Network. This is what makes Twitter so useful. In building a pln, you are able to gain new information from people who share the same interests in learning as you do. To build a PLN, you must register for Twitter and build your own profile with designated interests and preferably a picture to show who you are. The next step is to choose who you want to follow. With twitter, you can look up people with the same interests as you, such as a fellow teacher, and follow their profile. It is also advised to make a list of what you are interested in as well because your fellow twitter community members can look up your list and gain interest as well. When you follow their profile, everything they post shows up on your twitter stream. Shannon suggests helpful ways to manage all of your followers and people you follow by creating a Twitter organizer. This allows you to better keep track of everyone and everything on your twitter profile. Both Hadley and Shannon express how important it is to make yourself visible by contributing to postings as well. Posting on your twitter page allows you to share educational ideas, and information that all of your followers may be interested in. If any information posted is of interest, you are able to tag the post to spread it along on your profile. This gives people credit and great confidence to continue to share more of their expertise. Everyone can learn something from someone, and twitter allows you to gain access to an infinite amount of people or educators that you may not have the chance to meet in real life.
                  Twitter is a great tool to spread and share ideas with fellow teachers or people who share the same interests as you. Many twitter members make a personal account to share personal interests, and they also make a business account to gain new information and insight with their work. Both Shannon and Hadley greatly express the importance of twitter as a Web 2.0 activity for teachers and students to gain new insight and share ideas with the world. You may not be given the opportunity to meet or gain information from a mentor or role model in real life, but with twitter anything is possible.

Analysis Questions:
1. What makes Twitter better than myspace or facebook?
                   After learning about everything that twitter can do, I feel that it is more of a learning tool than myspace or facebook. Most people use their myspace or facebook to stay in contact with friends or family. It is also a lot harder to find people with the same interests as you on facebook and myspace because of all of the security measures. Twitter is just a site to share ideas and follow people that you are interested in. It is mainly a website to share your ideas with the world, not to solely keep in contact with family or friends.
2. How do you get people to follow your profile on Twitter?
                    As it is very easy on Twitter to look people up and click on their profile to follow, that does not mean that you will gain followers. Generally in order to get followed you have to put yourself out there. The more ideas and knowledge you share with the twitter community, the more interest you will gain from them. This will result in more people following your profile. If you don't put yourself out there, there is nothing to follow. When you generally select a person to follow because you share their same interests, most of the time that will give them interest to look at or even follow your profile. It is all about putting yourself out there.
3. What if you reach out to someone on Twitter and they do not share the same interest back?
                     The beauty of the internet is that you never have to confront anybody face to face or even see them in real life. If somebody is not interested in you, their is no harm done and you can simply find someone else. Because they are online, you will never have to run into them again or face them and be embarrassed. There is always no harm done in trying. It is not like a person-to-person reaction in which you have more risk of getting embarrassed. On the internet, it is alot easier to protect yourself from being put into that type of situation. You won't be liked by everyone, but there is certainly people out there that will find interest in your thoughts and ideas. As mentioned before, it is all about putting yourself out there and giving some type of effort.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Journal #1- Do Web 2.0 Right (Nets I, IV, V)

Light, D. (2011). Do web 2.0 right. Learning and Leading, 38(5), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-february-march-2011.aspx

                 Daniel Light is an expert on Web 2.0 and has gone around the country to observe how teachers are using Web 2.0 in classrooms. Many classrooms have different experiences with Web 2.0 activities, but the general knowledge is that most teachers have found a way to appropriately incorporate Web 2.0 into their classrooms. Daniel has come to find three seperate topics that demonstrate how teachers use effective communication with Web 2.0.
                The first topic that Daniel has seperated is the daily practice of Web 2.0. Some classes only use blogging and other Web 2.0 as "special projects" while others have instituted blogging as a daily practice. Communication through these daily blogs are very effective because children are using them daily. Through these daily blogs, two seperate blogs have come about. Classroom blogs where children get to interact with their peers or their teacher, and individual blogs that are monitored and sometimes blocked from public view. The most successful form of blogging was the individual blog because it is only accessable between the student and the teacher. Without being in the public spotlight, students are more comfortable to express how they really feel.
                Carefully understanding the audience is another key aspect for Web 2.0 activities. Students are often nervous about posting on a public blog website. Athough it may be linked to the class, outsiders often have access to view and post if they want as well. Teachers need to be consciencous of this to monitor through unwanted postings or comments. This is needed to ensure student safety.
                The last important topic to use Web 2.0 effectively is to teach and enforce appropriate behavior. This is needed to ensure that students are not insulting eachother or web bullying. Students are taught to effectively give critical feedback to their peers through commenting on eachothers blogs. Web 2.0, if used correctly, offers a different type of community for classrooms and students. It is important in a community to behave properly in order to have it function accordingly.
                 Web 2.0 offers a virtual community as opposed to the typical classroom community. Web 2.0 allows students to get more engaged into a classroom through virtual attendance. Students are often more attracted to virtual assignments on blogging because they are able to use the same computer to look up pictures, data, etc. The computer provides a new fresh way of learning that allows for some differentiation in the classroom. Daniel Light supports and is an advocate for Web 2.0 as long as it is used correctly. Following the three guidelines, Web 2.0 can be a pleasureable learning tool for teachers and students.


Article Questions:
1. How do teachers properly monitor individual student blogs?
     Individual student blogs are in control of the student. As much as the teacher can obtain information and contact the student through their blog, they are completely in control of what is posted. In order to monitor the student blogs, teachers can actually make each student their blog and create the password needed to log in to the blog itself. This way, if a student is not posting proper comments, the teacher can access their account and delete the post. As much as this may cause some trust issues with the students, monitoring is needed.
2. What amount of time should be dedicated to blogging and how much time should be dedicated to regular class work?
      Many teachers may face this dilemna on how to prioritize time and make sure that state standards and schedules are adequately being followed. The truth is, in my opinion, there should not be a huge amount of stress on what time should be assigned to both aspects of class. Some classrooms have gone 100 percent virtual and even classroom homework assignments are submitted online. Classrooms can easily implement Web 2.0 into their classroom as children need to learn and understand technology. Using Web 2.0 allows for children to not only complete their required classwork assignments, but it allows them to learn more about technology.
3. How should we accomodate teachers who never had the experience to take a technology class or learn about technology? Should it be required?
       With technology booming and taking over much of everything, technology is needed to adequately survive and live in today's society. While many people have denied technology and tried to live without it, it is getting harder and harder to avoid. Teachers should be required to take a technology class to ensure that their students are being taught to the best of their ability. As money is sometimes an issue, schools should offer teachers technology classes. Some teachers who are older never got the chance or were required to take any technology class when they were in college, so they should be given a fair opportunity to learn as well.