Final: Reflective Post

I will begin this blog by thanking Professor Coleman.  Thank you Professor Coleman.  My experiences in EME2040 were great because I felt listened to and guided throughout the whole course.  I thought I was pretty familiar with most technology but soon learned that there is so many more tools out there that can be used to enhance technology even further.  I learned about and got a chance to use many great new programs such as ToonDoo, Prezi, FlipQuiz, StoryBird, Kahoot, and Wordle.  I learned how to properly hyperlink in Blogger, embed images, embed videos, add creative commons, but most importantly how to give credits to those who created a website, image or video that I am using on my own creation.  Here is an article describing a couple of educational technology tools.

I enjoyed reading the chapters in the textbook which was very informational.  Because this was an online class the textbook helped a great deal when I was confused about something.  I loved having to create a blog in which I would write about what I had learned after reading the chapter or further research certain topics that I found interesting.

Photo credits to Bryan Alexander from Flickr

I have taken many classes online because of my personal schedule and it is hard to get to meet other people this way.  Discussions are my favorite part of any online class.  This activity gives everyone enrolled a chance to read other responses and get a little insight of who everyone is.  I am glad we are required to respond to at least two other classmates because you can discover new ways of doing things, see things from another point of view, or even just get a chance to read a funny little story, to then find myself reading way more than just two posts.

Promoting success for all students was the most eye opening discussion for me.  To be honest, I hardly ever remember to think about the hardships in the classroom.  I used to always picture a perfect classroom and now see it more in perspective that this can only be if the teacher is dedicated to adjust to each student's needs.  There will be students who will need more help than others and as a teacher, I must be there, along with making sure that the other students are not neglected.

Although I have to say my favorite assignment of this particular course was the "Instructional Strategy Wiki", for the most part my experience was great.  There was some confusion here or then but I believe this helped everyone because in a classroom it will not be perfect and we must make arrangements to meet deadlines.  I believe another collaborative activity added to the course will be awesome because it gives more real life situations to learn from.  Everyone has his or her own life and sometimes this causes problems, having practice with unanticipated issues builds character and builds problem solving skills.  Here is a video of the benefits of collaborative learning.

Resources

Corrigan, P. (2014). The benefits of collaborative learning. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRtQUKSdxrM

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O'Loughlin, Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Digital Blog Post #L

Chapter 12 is about integrating technology and creating change as teacher leaders.  As I further my education, I hope to find better ways to incorporate technology throughout the school years and not just for 30 minutes one day a week.  As I began this course I realized that I was a person who followed the pattern of inclusion.  I depended on technology for about only 30 minutes a day for a particular assignment and moved on, of course this still works but does not necessarily involve technology as effectively as it could be.  I have grown and hope to continue to grow to efficiently infuse technology into the school year.  An ongoing lesson plan throughout the year as the two mentioned in the book are a part of my future goal as a teacher.  It will excite students and get them into the habit of using technology to achieve success.  Today's jobs all revolve around using some sort of electronic or technology and children must be prepared properly for the world they will be entering.

Photo credit to Duke Ellington DNG 343 from Flickr

Every job in current society requires the use of computers and/or more advanced technology.  Teaching children how to use computers, which can be thought as the foundation of technology, can create successful students who are technology savvy.  As mentioned in the chapter, significant technology use contributes to other positive learning developments such as being more confident, aware, self starter, communicate more effectively, and share knowledge spontaneously.  Here is an amazing video on how much the world is changing everyday because of technology and as educators must do our best to attempt to prepare students.

Hendry county is where I hope and am planning to teach in the future.  Hendry county is a lower income county in which public education sometimes suffers in lack of supplies.  Although, I did learn that recently many classrooms have been able to receive laptops for each student to assist in learning.  When students have access to computers in the classroom, it helps the teacher to be able to create more exciting lessons in which students can access the internet for research projects, assessments, and classwork.  The laptops are not the most up to date, newest, or best quality computer but get the job done.  Teachers must make sure laptops are taken care of, its software is updated often and are used appropriately.  I found a really great blog on how it has been found that one-to-one laptop computing in the classroom has great benefits.


Resources

Herold, Benjamin. One-To-One Laptop Initiatives Boosts Student Scores, Research Find. (11 May 2016). Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2016/05/one-to-one_laptop_test_scores.html

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O'Loughlin, Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Pkhz. Education and The Future of Technology. (2009). Retreived on 13 April 2017 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPO_HGafBsE

Digital Blog Post #K

Chapter 6 is titled "Fostering Online Learning with Educational Websites and Apps", and includes information about how we can use the web to assist us in teaching.  We have all been instructed to create a WebQuest this week.  I had never heard of a WebQuest and found it quite interesting, fun, and an easy way to create sort of lesson plan.  It really helps that WebQuest's are broken up into pieces to be filled in by the teacher and guides the students thoroughly to complete the lesson.  I found  this very informational website which helps break down what a WebQuest is and how it helps in the classroom.

One of my favorite subject when I was in grade school was social studies.  When it was time to learn about past times, wars, battles, victories, etc, I was ecstatic.  I plan to involve fun activities to this part of the school day with one being a field trip to a nearby exhibit or place that is full of interesting facts from our history.  History is endless and there are countless places to see and visit, unfortunately it is impossible to visit some of the most fascinating places on earth.  I plan to take a day out of the year and plan a virtual field trip for my students.  I know I will enjoy creating an unforgettable experience for my students in which we can visit a historic place together and learn.

Photo credits to Iqbal Osman from Flickr

At the rate technology is taking over, I will definitely be using educational websites as teaching resources in my future.  I will have to learn by experience and tips from other teachers on which websites to trust and use for successful teaching.  Lesson plan websites (from what I have heard) can be day saving resources.  Teachers come together to create lesson plans for themselves and others to edit and use in their own classroom.  This is an awesome use of technology because why not share what has worked great for you to benefit others as well?  Here is a video to watch about a teacher who involves technology into her classroom.  Technology is an amazing tool and I plan to use it wisely in the classroom.

Resources

Learning Futures. How can we use technology to enhance learning? (LEARNING FUTURES - NITA'S STORY). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv02p3i2YP0

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O'Loughlin, Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Using a WebQuest in Your Classroom. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.internet4classrooms.com/using_quest.htm

Digital Blog Post #J

Chapter 11 is about how technology is used to evaluate and assess the learning happening in the classroom.  Reflection is described as a process of self-assessment in which a learner examines past actions to identify what to maintain or change to continue to grow.  I am personally a person who needs to see my strengths, weaknesses, skills, etc on a graph or document, this is where a portfolio can come in.  A digital teaching portfolio is a collection of educational and professional materials stored in an electronic format.  This is a very clever way to use technology to document and graph the growths of a teacher's work.  It can also include pictures, videos, audios, PowerPoints, and other types of multimedia to enhance strengths and experiences.

Photo credit to Jerry Swiatek from Flickr

Democratic schools and classrooms is a very intriguing movement.  Democratic schools and classrooms are places where students and teachers together make substantive decisions about important aspects of educational operations, from the academic curriculum to school climate and rules.  This can be confused to where the students are in control of what happens in the classroom.  On the contrary, teachers and adults are always in control.  This is a good idea to implement in schools.  Just like a business, feedback and opinions from consumers help the business grow.  Students are the ones learning and if they have a chance to come up with an idea or mention a method in which they learn the best, this can be of great help to the effectiveness of the school.  Here is a video on democracy in a classroom.  In my future classroom, I plan to have short discussions quarterly to get the students opinion of how they feel about certain teaching methods I am using or by passing out short surveys to anonymously receive feedback.

So far in my education, I have not had the ability to use a student participation system such as the clicker.  Teachers have mentioned it and how they have PowerPoints ready to be used for such a system but the school does not have the funds to provide it.  It attracted my attention to want to use it to learn so I can only assume my future students would love it.  These "clickers" which are like a smaller sized television remote allow students to be actively involved in the lesson.  Instead of the teacher standing at the front of the classroom, reading off the projector and pointing to the board, students will be answering questions such as true or false within the PowerPoint.  It can also give immediate results so the students and teacher knows how much they are learning during the lesson.  Here is a link to an article about how current research supports the use of clickers to enhance learning in students.


References

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O'Loughlin, Ruth-Ellen, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MS: Pearson Education, Inc.

Martyn, Margaret. Clickers in the Classroom: An Active Learning Approach. 1 January 2007. Retrieved from http://er.educause.edu/articles/2007/1/clickers-in-the-classroom-an-active-learning-approach

Sprouts. Democratic School Education. 23 March 2016. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhUx1pArrO4

Digital Blog Post #I

Chapter 4 is about designing lessons and developing curriculum with technology.  Learning assessments that can occur before, during and after teaching a lesson is a tool I will be using in my future classrooms.  I plan to look deeper into how or which technology method will work best to give me, as a teacher, the best evaluation on the student's knowledge, understanding, and performance.  I have been given online surveys before a starting a college course and then after to see my growth in that particular course.  I do not get to see the results, although I know personally how much I have grown through my own evaluation.  I assume teachers are advised how much growth is being seen in the students to help them redo or keep the lesson plans they are using.  Using technology for these assessments makes it so much easier on teachers to receive a percentage or graph to show the results.  Here is a video that supports learning assessments before, during, and after assignments.

Another thing I can definitely see myself using in my future lesson planning, is using technology in lesson planning.  A teacher I recently observed talked to me about a website he and many other teachers at that school trusted and used in their classrooms.  They would review lesson plans provided and personalize it to their liking and use it in there classroom.  Lesson plan templates can also be found on the web to give an outline or guide to educators.  Here is a link to a website that can get teachers started on lesson plans.

Photo credit to Wm Chamberlain from Flickr

Lastly, is being able to meet educational standards in the lesson plans.  As we all know and the textbook highlights, there is so much more to teach than there is time to teach it and national curriculum standards narrow the "what to teach" question.  Even at that there is plenty of work for the teacher to get done.  Teachers have the freedom to decide on exactly how to teach the academic content along with choosing what to focus on in the lessons.



References

MsEmilyFlood.  Assessing Learning with Technology. 10 November 2015. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs-9qDR__sw

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O'Loughlin, Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013).  Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MS: Person Educaiton, Inc.

Trackstar. Retreived from http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/;jsessionid=B2588F1514F67A69308D0A28F51D35B2

Digital Blog Post #H

In chapter 9 we talk about how we can express creativity with multimedia technologies.  Multimedia means "the presentation of material using both words and pictures".  There are many great forms of technology being used in the classroom such as a smart board, laptops for students to work on, digital projectors and screens, etc.  In my educational experience, many of my teachers which I have greatly enjoyed have used Powerpoints to assist their teaching.  Then again there have been teachers who use this type of multimedia but fail to interest the students, along with teaching efficiently.  I definitely plan to implement Powerpoints in my future classrooms.  A teacher should take his or her time into making these presentation because they can make or break a lesson.  A Powerpoint can be short or long and can include text, pictures, charts, graphs, audio, video and animation.  This is really an all-in-one technology teaching resource.

Photo credit to AJ Cann from Flickr

Prezi is also another amazing tool to use for teaching.  Prezi's are more interactive and playful than Powerpoints.  In a Prezi key points can be emphasized by zooming into a particular part of the presentation, along with supporting details.  Teachers can allow students to make changes in a Prezi and add information that they may find interesting.  This is another technology tool that I will use in my future classroom to engage student in learning.  Here is a video of a teach whom has assigned students to create a Prezi on various subjects and the students are enjoying it.

YouTube has come to be the biggest video hosting and sharing website.  YouTube even offers a channel teachers and students can search titled "education" which locates appropriate classroom videos.  This channel through YouTube gives teachers a tool to further enhance the learning process through technology students are already familiar and comfortable with using.  There are millions of people whom have already uploaded videos onto YouTube about pretty much anything you can think of and if not, anybody has the liberty to upload their own YouTube video onto the site to share.  I can see myself using this resource in a project for students in the future.  Here is a link to a website which explains some benefits of using YouTube in the classroom.


References

Cann, AJ. (2017, March 3). The Flipped Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O'Loughlin, Ruth-Ellen, Eddwards, Sharon A., and Woold, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies, 2nd Edition. Boston, MA; Pearson Educaiton, Inc.

Olmeda, Gabriel. (2017, March 2). Using Prezi in the Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNMgjWSSFG8

Digital Blog Post #G

Chapter 10 is about promoting success for ALL students through technology.  Every individual is unique and therefore they all have different ways of learning successfully.  To be able to make sure that a teacher is meeting the needs of every single one, he or she can use differentiated instruction (DI) for teaching.  Differentiated instruction is an instructional approach in which teachers create different educational experiences as ways to meet the learning needs of individual students.  For example, if I was giving my students a book to read and then have them in return turn in an assignment to present their understanding of the book, I would give them the option of writing a book report, do a powerpoint presentation, act out a scene, or create a song.  This would give every student an option in which they can use a skill they succeed in.  Here is a link to a very informational website that defines DI an UDL and gives links to tools to help a teacher in a classroom.

Universal design for learning (UDL) is the application of universal design principles to educational settings.  Universal design for learning accommodates students with broader needs yet not reducing opportunities for other students in the classroom.  There are three principles to this method which are multiple means of representations, multiple means of expression, and multiple means of engagement.  A teachers goal is to have students successfully meet these principles because this means that they have successfully understood the lesson.  For example, in the classroom there may be a student who is suffers with severe dyslexia, instead of just writing out the math problems with numbers I could use physical objects or picture to help understand the lesson.

Assistive technology are amazing tools that enable great learning experiences to students that suffer from physical and/or mental disabilities.  There is a great diversity in the type of students with disabilities in school.  Some of these disabilities may include visual, hearing, mobility, cognitive, language, etc.  Technology assists teachers to help these students learn.  For example, when teaching reading/language arts to my student who suffers with severe dyslexia, I can use a computer software that reads out the words in large text to help him learn and cope with his disability.





References

Ally, Learning. Student with Dyslexia Blossoms with Assistive Technology. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKrgxeXDtjk

Differentiated Instruction & UDL. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.21things4teachers.net/21-things/di-and-udl/

Gomez, M. (2017, February 23). Dyslexic?. Created with Prezi. www.prezi.com

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O'Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies, 2nd Edition. Boston, MA; Pearson Education, Inc.