Missing Blog

I just posted “The End Has Come”, my reflection on the EDTS course. I realized after posting the blog that I still had one more blog to go, required for this class. I know I am required to write blogs about technology but I would like to instead write about what a great class this was. Not only did this class provide me with tools in which I can draw upon throughout my new career but also provided an atmosphere with many talented people I had the pleasure to be seated next to and surrounded by who added energy and support to a very unfamiliar, sometimes intimidating, environment. Technology, for me at least, is a subject matter that still seems foreign to me. Although this class was designed to include students with little or no backgound in technology, it still worried me at times when I felt lost and confused. But due to the different personalities, the different levels of knowledge and genuine peer/teacher outreach I felt entering class each week, I feel very fortunate with the experience as a whole. Good luck to all.

The End Has Come

A major goal for all pre-service teachers is to develop a base understanding surrounding many types of pedagogical information. Information which can be built upon, not only to help create a productive learning environment but help pre-service educators to become more successful in the education environment. The EDTS course has helped build upon this information by providing a better outline of the many advancements technology has provided .  Although, core courses such as EDTS can only scrape the bottom of the many levels at which a pre-service teacher can draw upon in order to develop a better learning process, it has taught me that computer technology is a significant part of today’s classroom. Technology has afforded teachers the ability to retrieve, post, and create a more inducive learning environment.

     EDTS has had a major impact on the way that I think concerning modern classroom education. I will now be able to draw upon tools such as Inspiration, which will help me to provide concept mapping such a graphical ways to show relationships within the lessons I provide, organizational mapping in which the students will be able to clarify their thought process and to also help them to prioritize assignments. Along with this I can utilize my knowledge of free web space/page design. This will help me create an online environment where the students will be able to interact with lessons I post, homework assignments they can refer to, questions they can ask either myself or their fellow classmates beyond the classroom environment. Also, a site where parents can freely roam and do the same in order to keep in close proximity to what their child is doing and learning. PowerPoint will also become a tool I will utilize for it will help create a more visual learning tool and also a creative learning tool when applying its use to a lesson or activity. Lastly, the future use of Pod Casts within the classroom environment, tickles my fancy the most. I not only can see the use of using Pod Casting for classroom use when it comes to creating ideas, lesson reviews, interest and classroom interaction. It can also be utilized in conjunction with any subject matter. Since students will feel it is a fun learning tool it can become a major asset within any educational environment for just that one reason alone.

     In conclusion, I feel I have been empowered by this class and I will continue to build upon the information and tools provided to me throughout this semester. This course has helped me not only to build confidence within myself to utilize and appreciate technological tools but to appreciate how privied pre-service teachers are in today’s modern society. With the help of technology, teachers now have the  advantage of researching, evaluating and implementing instructional materials and information with just the click of a finger. This course has definitely been worth “its weight in gold”.

 

My Blog

In two weeks tech class will come to an end. I have been reflecting lately about what I have been taught and what I have learned. In whole, I am very excited about the wonderful tools I have learned about in this class and will continue to upgrade my skills so that I can utilize them more proficiently. The only tool  I am not sure  whether or not I will continue to use is blogging. Although I have enjoyed at times, sharing my thoughts and reading those of others, I am not completely convinced that blogging is a tool that I have found myself to be comfortable with yet. I am not sure if it is because it was a requirement as part of this class and therefore it became more of a chore than a source of outlet? Yet, then I think about the times, while doing research and writing papers for other classes that I utilized blogs posted on the Internet. Not only have they been a source of inspiration but have been a great help with the many themes I have had to write about. Well at this  point only time will tell for me.

Many Great Lessons

Hi People: I have to say we have had many wonderful lessons on the latest technology available for teachers use. Every time we learn something new I keep thinking this one is my favorite. At first I have to admit, working with PowerPoint I wanted to pull my hair out on several occasions but when I saw the end product it was so worth the hours and work put forth. I was proud of the project my partners and I collaborated on and even more the experience I had working with such great minds. Learning about Pod Cast was also a wonderful experience. I can see many ways to incorporate it in the world of mathematics when I begin teaching. I also have some ideas of how I will want to incorporate Inspiration into my lesson plans if given the opportunity to do so. I will definitely be working on a wiki page of my own over the summer to see what I can remember and do then if possible carry it on into my own classroom setting again if at all feasible. I think many of us have had a wonderful experience with this class and feel the same way. I have read through some of your blogs and have enjoyed hearing about your own experiences with this class. Well I believe next week will be our last blogging for this class and I personally can not wait to skim through every ones ending notes.

Winding Down

Hi Everyone, I am getting so excited about everything that we have learned this past semester. I am glad though that things are beginning to wind down. Learning all these technological tools are going to make life sweet in the long run. I will definitely continue practicing with the tools we have thus far over the summer. I think Pod Cast has ended up to be my favorite learning experience. The fact that Pod Cast is being used in some classrooms as a learning tool and has so many favorable functions blows my mind. Watching the video of the children who ride the bus for over 3 hrs a day and were given their own Pods to use as a tool to study with during their ride was actually heartwarming. I am glad to be a potential teacher in this day and age. Any further comments would love to hear from you.

Even Further Inspiration

Back in March I wrote a blog called “Further Inspiration”. I mentioned that my daughter, age 9, was a good student but lacked organizational skills which will become very important as she enters into higher learning. After I completed the Inspiration/Kidspiration project I truly was inspired when I saw what a great tool it would make in and outside of the school environment. At that time I had been working with my daughter to to improve her organizational skills.so I decided to buy and install Inspiration/Kidspiration on our home computer as an extra tool for her to use for organizing things for her home and school life. She took to it like a fish in water and has used it for organizing book reports, school work and even created an organizational chart for her chores at home which she printed out and has taped to the back of her bedroom door. I again stay truly inspired!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Added Aid

I have to say that I have been enjoying the ”google alert” option we were taught about a few weeks back. My first entry was to see how much added information I could receive for our research project, the kick backs were amazing. Even though we are done with our project I am still enjoying sifting through the information I am still receiving. I have been adding more alerts for other classes which I have projects due in and I am thrilled with the added aid I am able to get. I feel we are so lucky to be in school during a digital age. I can’t help but wonder what learning will be like 100 years from now. I am just wondering is anyone else from this class utilizing “google alert”?

Digital Reflection

There are so many reasons that people decide to become teachers. Myself, I wanted to make a difference in the way children/teenagers thought of math. There are many reasons people become “mathephobics”. But math is also a way to communicate, communication through logic, patterns, stories. Math can be harmonious if it is taught well. I had many math teachers that were so rigorous and hard to understand that I can’t even say for sure why I was not scared off. With that said, I made a promise that if I were to realize my goal and become a teacher I would do anything in my power to make sure my students experienced math at its best and not at its worst. That includes learning what I can about the world that surrounds the present day children and teens. Technology is where it is at and it is moving along fast so I have to do all that I can to understand where it has been and where it is going. In doing so I will be able to effectively communicate with my students, incorporating their “lingo” to my own. It is my belief that the top ingredients that make a good/great teacher begin with communication, care and understanding.

I chose the research topic “Digital Immigrants” vs “Digital Natives” for this reason. I am glad I did since I learned many things. I learned that there are still many questions and styles of thought about the “natives” fast moving world of technology. I learned that incorporating technology and its many tools into the classroom is a very important motivator when used properly. I learned that “unless immigrant teachers do not adapt quickly we may be doing our new generation a disservice” (2001, Prensky) Yet incorporating these tools has to be done with thought and care for “the computer is a tool to learn with rather than something we should be learning from” (2000, Jonassen). The main concern here is that Digital Natives may be losing the skill to think critically since they have found a machine to do the work for them. This is probably the biggest concern of generation “immigrants” which include those now in their 20’s on up. In full view most of our next graduating class of teachers are included in the line referred to as Digital Immigrant. It is my belief that technology is a must in our classrooms. Humans are still smarter than the machine and if incorporated properly we will not only be communicating on a eye to eye level with our students but enriching and motivating their natural curiosity to their full benefit and our own.

Peer Tutoring

There has been many projects in grad school that have elevated my excitement in becoming a high school teacher. One such project is the development of a wikispace. It is not just the development of learning a new tool but the subject matter my group and I have been exploring, peer tutoring. For many decades ongoing research on peer tutoring has provided our academic community with astonishing information concerning its many benefits. The benefits associated with peer tutoring has been catching on quickly throughout the country. Schools have been dedicating spcialized in house centers geard toward this type of instructional method. Scholarly articles have been popping up throughout the web and many other local resource centers. Books have been dedicated to the training in this area. I myself have used this technique when substituting in my specialized field which is mathematics. Just last week while doing field study at MCC’s Damon City Campus, I was asked to take a group of students who were having trouble in math class. After doing several problems together with the group I paired off students that I felt had a grasp on the problems we just went over and paired students who were still weak with the understanding. I found that the students who I had picked to work along with the weaker students began to feel empowered. The students that seemed weak were feeling they were getting a better handle on the subject matter. I myself felt a great sense of accomplishment by the end of the class period. If anyone reading this has any similar stories to share please do so. I am very interested in hearing them.

Team Wiki

I don’t know about everyone else but I am looking forward to the Class Wiki assignment. I did not realize how many free social networking tools there are available for people to utalize. I am also amazed how less complicated these tools are to use than I thought before taking this class. I certainly am not implying by any stretch of the imagination that I could become an expert overnight with its capabilities but I certainly am very happy with how user friendly tools such as these are turning out to be. I remember the first day of class hearing the words blog and wiki, sending my head into a tail spin. I just completed surfing through the wiki pages attached to our classes resource page and I am alread starting to think about ways I would utilize a network such as this in the future. I know it would be a great tool to use once I am teaching out of school discussions with students, students discussions with their peers and communication for parents such as notes back and forth, assignment postings so they know what is due and when, etc.. The design is another thing I would look forward to doing. So, if anyone else feels the same way I do, drop me a line.