When I become an elementary school teacher, I can see myself using data collection in many ways as a helpful tool to manage my classroom and my grades. Excel is a helpful resource to collect and present date from students' grades, especially major test grades. Being able to see students' grades all next to each other will help me as I decide what material to cover less or more throughout the years. Data collection, such as a survey, will help me get feedback from students and parents on ways to improve my teaching and management strategies in the classroom. Being able to conduct anonymous surveys may help my students feel more comfortable in presenting their feedback, so that I can better tailor my classroom and teaching to fit the needs of my students.
In reviewing my classmates' blogs, I found it interesting how my classmates were able to gain different skills from the different assignments done in class. I was also interested in the amount of different resources my classmates accessed that will be useful when we become educators in the future.
In terms of technology-related skills, I would most like to learn how to use new technologies to present to a classroom. For example, I would be interested in learning how to develop a supplemental activity to share with a class using a Smart or Promethean board. I could potentially accomplish this goal by attending webinars and viewing tutorials online of teachers using these technologies, and I could visit the Tech Sandbox again to get a more in-depth look at how these technologies are used.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Blog Post 9
The Flipped Classroom is a new way for teachers to present material to students. The Flipped Classroom allows students to better grasp the material, allowing the different needs of each student to be better addressed. In a flipped classroom, students watch videos of the lesson on their own time at home, allowing some students to pause and rewind to review material as needed, while other students who have a better understanding of the material can go through a lesson quickly. Then, during the school day, students are able to receive feedback and help students wherever they need it.
"Open Education" allows learners from all areas of the world and all socioeconomic statuses to be able to attend courses and learn from an educational institution at their own pace and on their own time. There are a number of open courses available from websites like OER Commons. "Open Content" allows teachers to make changes to certain pieces of available material in their classroom. A popular example of open content is Teachers Pay Teachers, a website where teachers can share their classroom ideas and materials with other teachers, who can then purchase and modify these materials to best suit their classroom. "Open Source" is software that is available for anyone to access, so that a software can be improved by a community of users seeking the function that a specific software serves. An example of an open source software includes the educational platform Moodle.
I enjoyed the two PowerPoint assignments. I learned how to link to different slides within a presentation, to make the PowerPoint more engaging and flexible for every student to use. I especially liked PowerPoint assignment 2, because I enjoyed being able to create a presentation that felt more like a fun game than a traditional PowerPoint slideshow. I will definitely be using the skills learned from these assignments throughout college and in my own classrooms when I am a teacher.
"Open Education" allows learners from all areas of the world and all socioeconomic statuses to be able to attend courses and learn from an educational institution at their own pace and on their own time. There are a number of open courses available from websites like OER Commons. "Open Content" allows teachers to make changes to certain pieces of available material in their classroom. A popular example of open content is Teachers Pay Teachers, a website where teachers can share their classroom ideas and materials with other teachers, who can then purchase and modify these materials to best suit their classroom. "Open Source" is software that is available for anyone to access, so that a software can be improved by a community of users seeking the function that a specific software serves. An example of an open source software includes the educational platform Moodle.
I enjoyed the two PowerPoint assignments. I learned how to link to different slides within a presentation, to make the PowerPoint more engaging and flexible for every student to use. I especially liked PowerPoint assignment 2, because I enjoyed being able to create a presentation that felt more like a fun game than a traditional PowerPoint slideshow. I will definitely be using the skills learned from these assignments throughout college and in my own classrooms when I am a teacher.
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| PowerPoint 1: Information Dissemination (The Water Cycle) |
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| PowerPoint 2: Interaction (Jeopardy Game) |
ILP #2 Design: Prezi
For Independent Learning Project 2, I chose to design a presentation on World War I using Prezi. The presentation is available here.
I found Prezi to be very helpful at creating presentations that need just quick facts presented to a class. This is a good tool that I can definitely envision myself using in my future classes and in my own classroom when I become a teacher.
I found Prezi to be very helpful at creating presentations that need just quick facts presented to a class. This is a good tool that I can definitely envision myself using in my future classes and in my own classroom when I become a teacher.
Monday, April 3, 2017
Blog Post 8
Of all the technologies seen in the lab tour, I think that the text-to-speech software would be some of the most useful in a school. There are many students who have learning or physical disabilities that prevent them from being able to read and comprehend words on a computer screen, so this type of software would be very helpful in a wide variety of circumstances.
PowerPoint can be used to help students throughout the entirety of Bloom's Taxonomy. Students can create PowerPoint presentations to create a project and evaluate what materials to include in their project. Students can then analyze the information to deem what is most appropriate to include in their presentation, and they can apply this knowledge by thinking of practical, real-life applications for the information that they are reading and presenting. Finally, understanding and remembering the information will be a key component of using PowerPoint because students who present a lesson will need to understand and remember the information in order to effectively help their peers understand and remember the information.
Using sources such as scholarly journals that research trends in technology would be useful for teachers to stay up-to-date on technologies. These journals do comprehensive research of what technologies will be trending in the future, so teachers and schools know where to best invest their time and resources on the most effective, long-lasting technologies.
PowerPoint can be used to help students throughout the entirety of Bloom's Taxonomy. Students can create PowerPoint presentations to create a project and evaluate what materials to include in their project. Students can then analyze the information to deem what is most appropriate to include in their presentation, and they can apply this knowledge by thinking of practical, real-life applications for the information that they are reading and presenting. Finally, understanding and remembering the information will be a key component of using PowerPoint because students who present a lesson will need to understand and remember the information in order to effectively help their peers understand and remember the information.
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Blog Post 7
Although I am not aware that I know anyone who has used adaptive technologies, I understand that they are a key part of helping students achieve in the classroom. Adaptive technologies such as speech-to-text software and screen reader software are helpful for students with physical and learning disabilities. Although these and other technologies are extremely advantageous for the student using them, they may pose a distraction to other students in the class, they may experience technical difficulties and not work properly, or the teacher may not be familiar with how they work and can't help the student use the technology.
Working on the web page assignment has helped me learn how to critically view websites, to ensure that I am finding high-quality material to present to my students in the future. Through this assignment, I have learned that there are certain things that I need to look for in websites, such as the institution that published it, the relevancy of the content, and the currency of the content. This assignment was fairly easy to complete, but certain questions within the evaluation form seemed redundant.
Screenshot from our website
Working with Diigo has helped me learn how to critically view different web resources, to determine whether or not they will be an effective research tool. I also like the collaborative aspect of Diigo, and can see myself using this source in future research projects in school, especially in research-heavy graduate programs. In my own future classrooms, I would like to see my students use this resource to complete better research and to collaborate with one another on different projects.
Working on the web page assignment has helped me learn how to critically view websites, to ensure that I am finding high-quality material to present to my students in the future. Through this assignment, I have learned that there are certain things that I need to look for in websites, such as the institution that published it, the relevancy of the content, and the currency of the content. This assignment was fairly easy to complete, but certain questions within the evaluation form seemed redundant.
Working with Diigo has helped me learn how to critically view different web resources, to determine whether or not they will be an effective research tool. I also like the collaborative aspect of Diigo, and can see myself using this source in future research projects in school, especially in research-heavy graduate programs. In my own future classrooms, I would like to see my students use this resource to complete better research and to collaborate with one another on different projects.
Monday, March 6, 2017
Blog Post 6
I visited a website for Ms. Molly Britton's high school English classes, from Mountain Ridge High School in Arizona. On her website, and the webpages of several other teachers from the school, there were links to a district calendar, the class syllabus, a brief teacher biography, and class times and descriptions.
When I am teaching classes of my own, I plan on using many different technology tools to improve my productivity. I envision myself using Microsoft Excel as a way to track progress and grades of my students, and I will definitely use Microsoft PowerPoint and Word to present lessons and create activities for my students to complete. Bookmarking tools such as Diigo will allow me to find many different websites and sources that I can tag and take notes on, so I can make sure that I have the right web resources easily accessible to present in class, such as specific videos or websites that I think might be useful for my students. I also can definitely see myself using a calendar application such as Google Calendar. Using this application will allow me to combine my professional and personal calendars to avoid overbooking myself, and I can easily plan out an entire quarter or year's-worth of assignments and lesson plans so I can stay on track with the topics that I cover in class.
In the tech sandbox, I thought that the use of the Smart Board was especially interesting, and I can see these as being some of the more practical technologies I could use when I teach an elementary class in the future. I liked that the Smart Board was interactive and could be accessible to students of different ability levels. I remember using the Smart Board when I was a student, and I always appreciated being able to learn using both the visual and kinesthetic styles using this technology, because it is so interactive. For example, I remember using the Smart Board technology to play Jeopardy-style games to review concepts and facts before a test or quiz. This helped me and my fellow students both enjoy learning and also get a very thorough review of the topic, and I can see myself implementing this method with my own students in the future.
When I am teaching classes of my own, I plan on using many different technology tools to improve my productivity. I envision myself using Microsoft Excel as a way to track progress and grades of my students, and I will definitely use Microsoft PowerPoint and Word to present lessons and create activities for my students to complete. Bookmarking tools such as Diigo will allow me to find many different websites and sources that I can tag and take notes on, so I can make sure that I have the right web resources easily accessible to present in class, such as specific videos or websites that I think might be useful for my students. I also can definitely see myself using a calendar application such as Google Calendar. Using this application will allow me to combine my professional and personal calendars to avoid overbooking myself, and I can easily plan out an entire quarter or year's-worth of assignments and lesson plans so I can stay on track with the topics that I cover in class.
In the tech sandbox, I thought that the use of the Smart Board was especially interesting, and I can see these as being some of the more practical technologies I could use when I teach an elementary class in the future. I liked that the Smart Board was interactive and could be accessible to students of different ability levels. I remember using the Smart Board when I was a student, and I always appreciated being able to learn using both the visual and kinesthetic styles using this technology, because it is so interactive. For example, I remember using the Smart Board technology to play Jeopardy-style games to review concepts and facts before a test or quiz. This helped me and my fellow students both enjoy learning and also get a very thorough review of the topic, and I can see myself implementing this method with my own students in the future.
Monday, February 27, 2017
Blog Post 5
Of all the different Web 2.0 Tools available, I think that the community tools such as Google Docs and Edmodo, would be the most useful. I have already used these tools in previous classes, and have found them to be very useful. Google Docs and other similar collaboration tools make it easy for students to do group projects and work together to learn; these tools have been especially helpful in the ever-growing field of online courses and distance learning. I don't know how useful many of the presentation tools available through Web 2.0 would be, because even when presented with these new options for presentations, I have found that students still tend to gravitate to the familiarity of PowerPoint. I have only ever used Web 2.0 presentation tools when I was required to by my teacher, and I was never very excited about having to learn how to use these new programs instead of just using PowerPoint as usual.
When I am a teacher, Web 2.0 tools such as PollEverywhere would be fun, easy to use, and very helpful. Mobile polling programs seem to be extremely helpful in allowing teachers to receive quick feedback on how much students are understanding about a particular lesson or concept, while eliminating the possibility of a student being embarrassed by answering a question incorrectly in front of all of his or her peers.
In the future, the implementation of Virtual Reality programs into more classrooms would be a very interesting new use of the technology. Through VR applications, students are able to be virtually transported to different eras in history, can view various parts of the Earth up close, and can see new things that students would otherwise not have access to. This allows students to have a better understanding of different concepts and facts presented to them in the classroom; instead of just reading out of a textbook, students can be a part of whatever they are learning about, making learning a much more personalized, engaging experience.
When I am a teacher, Web 2.0 tools such as PollEverywhere would be fun, easy to use, and very helpful. Mobile polling programs seem to be extremely helpful in allowing teachers to receive quick feedback on how much students are understanding about a particular lesson or concept, while eliminating the possibility of a student being embarrassed by answering a question incorrectly in front of all of his or her peers.
In the future, the implementation of Virtual Reality programs into more classrooms would be a very interesting new use of the technology. Through VR applications, students are able to be virtually transported to different eras in history, can view various parts of the Earth up close, and can see new things that students would otherwise not have access to. This allows students to have a better understanding of different concepts and facts presented to them in the classroom; instead of just reading out of a textbook, students can be a part of whatever they are learning about, making learning a much more personalized, engaging experience.
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