In addition to the College of Education Research study pools that I participated in, I decided to make a youtube video… enjoy.
Final Weeks Comments
Here are the links to the blogs that I commented on for Blog Post #11:
https://rachelsinclair4.wordpress.com/2015/04/03/last-blog/comment-page-1/#comment-47
Blog Post #11
Before this week I had little to no knowledge about how to use Excel. I was never taught in school how to use it, so this past module was very helpful to me. IT taught me everything I needed to know to complete the Excel assignment. I really like how you can add additional pages to an Excel worksheet. It’s useful when you have a lot of varying data. I will definitely be using this as a teacher to record grades, attendance, and other various events. It will make my teaching career a lot easier. Although I didn’t like how easy it was to make a mistake on Excel. A few times I accidentally wrote in the wrong cell and it messed me up for the rest of the assignment.
After reading my classmates blogs I think that I would like to learn more about Dropbox and Scholastic Daily Stater. They both seem like they could be very useful to a teacher. Dropbox seems especially useful to students as well. Its sort of like an online storage space were you can save assignments, pictures, etc. In the future I think I would like to learn how to use SmartBoard technologies. I think that SmartBoards will be integrated into most classrooms in the future and they are an extremely interactive way for students to learn material. If I could get a head start on learning how to use them, it will greatly help my future classrooms.
In the future when I become a teacher I plan on staying sharp with new technology by attending various technology functions and events that teach me new skills. There will always be classes that I can attend to further improve my skills. In addition, I can always ask IT at my future school to help me improve my skills with the various technology and systems that my school may have.
Here is a screenshot of my Excel worksheet!
Blogs I’ve commented on:
See ya next time!
Blog Post #10
Peripherals and non-computer audio-visual technologies can be integrated into the classroom in a number of ways. One way that I became used to peripherals in the classroom was through a projection screen. School projectors use a clear plastic sheet that you can write on and show to the class. They are helpful when school budget is low and you need to display information. The projector can also be connected to computers to display additional information.
An interesting website that I will without a doubt use as a teacher in the future is “BrainPOP.” BrainPOP has been around for 15 years and is a great tool in the classroom. It is an interesting website that has videos, articles, and games to engage students in learning. There are a few BrainPOP websites for specific target learners: BrainPOP Jr. (K-3), BrainPOP, BrainPOP Espanol, and BrainPOP Esl. These all can be used in the classroom to engage students in learning.
BrainPOP has many different subjects within each website. In the original BrainPOP there is science, social studies, english, math, engineering and technology, health, and arts and music. As you can imagine, there are many videos that belong in each category. I will definitely be using BrainPOP in the classroom to interest my students in learning; especially when I am teaching subjects that may not interest my students too much. I wish my teachers would have used BrainPOP to explain certain subjects to me when I was in primary school.
In the future I think that I will use excel sparingly. It is a great resource to use, but can be complicated for some people. Since I plan on teaching elementary aged students I don’t think that it will be necessary to implement Excel into my classroom. Although I can see how it is useful for older students. Excel is useful in statistic and upper level math classes. Excel can be used to make graphs and spreadsheets. It can be used to create formulas to solve problems like determining the monthly payment on loans using different repayment amounts and interest rates. It is a helpful tool when trying to solve difficult problems using formulas.
From the Powerpoint 1 assignment I learned a lot about non-linear presentations. I think that they can be very useful in teaching. It can really get a student involved and interested in a subject. It was a very time consuming project though. It was tedious to have to create action buttons on every page. I will definitely be using this skill in the future. I can see myself creating review games for my students. Heres a picture of my home page for my jeopardy game!
Also here are the blogs that I commented on,
Blog Post #9
I think that there are many advantages to using presentation software in the classroom. It is very beneficial to students when their teachers use different medias to present information to them. It is an advantage to students that have different learning styles. Since not everybody learns the same way it is very helpful when there are multiple ways that information is presented to a student t really helps with the learning process. I think that is the biggest advantage of presentation software. Although another advantage to presentation software is that it can be accessed anywhere since it is created on a computer. Instead of traditional lectures, this type of teaching can be saved and sent to students that miss class. In addition presentation software can be very engaging and interest students more so than other teaching methods. There are disadvantages to presentation software. At times it can be time consuming to create these presentations. In addition presentation software is often very expensive and not everyone has access to it.
The digital divide is a very interesting topic. It is often seen as a separating factor among different characteristics including age, demographic, gender, etc. It is what separates individuals in technology matters. Some individuals are more likely to participate in technological matters depending on their upbringing. Typically people who are from middle class and up are better with digital matters. I feel that since I am from a middle class family that I already have a decent amount of technological education that I will be able to teach my future students very well based off of my past experiences.
An issue that is related to educational technology that currently interests me is online schooling. I think that it is very fascinating that some grade school age children attend school strictly online using podcasts and online video tutorials. I don’t particularly agree with online schooling technology for grade school ages, but it might be the best option for some. It is interesting that young children use video tutorials to replace traditional schooling.
Blogs that I responded to:
Blog Post #8
I think that PowerPoint is a great tool to support student learning at each knowledge dimension in particular lessons. I cant remember a teacher of mine that hasn’t used PowerPoint to aide in instruction. It is such an easy tool to use and it really can help get certain points across in lessons, especially explanatory and informational lessons. For example. If you were going to use Powerpoint, you should consider using the entire Microsoft Office Suite. Office Suite includes all of their products, and they all work together flawlessly. They were made to be integrated within one another. You can easily switch from Microsoft Word, to Microsoft Publisher and then to Microsoft Excel and finish your presentation with Microsoft PowerPoint. You can link these all together using hot buttons and links. It is easy to switch between programs if you need to present something else like video, audio animation, graphic, or text.
Adaptive technologies are a great way to support learners. I have had teachers and students in the past use adaptive technologies such as hearing aides and translators. An adaptive technology is something that helps overcome a disability of some sort. Ive never used an adaptive technology, but I have had classmates that are exchange students and handicap students that have trouble with speaking that use a handheld translator. The translator really helped conversation move along easy. They were a great help. In addition I have had both teachers and classmates that wear hearing aides that helped them in the classroom. I think a big challenge that I would have as a teacher with adaptive technologies would be making sure that my students were receiving the right kind of help and to the right degree of help. I would want to make sure that despite their disability they were still being challenged and learning at an appropriate level. I would want them to feel just like every other student.
This past weeks web quest was a learning experience for me. It took a lot of time to create this assignment. I wasn’t a very big fan of it because I feel like as a teacher I shouldn’t provide my students with websites for their own research project. I think it is more of a learning experience for them if they research there own topic. I also thought that it was very time consuming to create the website. I could have just as easily gotten my point across if I were to create a document to handout on Word. To improve my Web Quest skills next time, I might want to consider watching more tutorials on how to create them. It would help me speed up the process of creating Web Quests. If I choose to use these in my teaching career I would create Web Quests for any subject, because they can be applied to almost every subject area that I can think of.
Here are some screenshots of my Web Quest!
And here are the blogs that I have responded to:
https://rachelsinclair4.wordpress.com/2015/02/27/blog-7/PA
Blog Post #7
As a future teacher I think that it would be beneficial to maintain a course web site for my students and their parents. I think that they are a very useful tool to remain in contact with your class. For instance, you may post all of the upcoming events, assignments, tests, and due dates for everything that will be going on in your class. It is helpful, especially at young ages, for parents to go online and check to see if their child has any homework to do. It serves as a great communication device for parents and teachers. It really helps the parents feel like they are more involved in class activities when they know what is going on. It is also beneficial for students that are absent; so they don’t fall behind they just have to go online and check to see what they missed. Even though a lot of time goes into creating a website and updating it regularly, I think that it is worth it. It can truly benefit students when their instruction and lectures are explained more and presented online so that they can access it from anywhere.
There are so many different Web 2.0 tools that are available for teachers to use. I have been fortunate enough to be exposed to many different ones during my educational history. One of the newest ones that I’ve recently been enjoying is Prezi. Its sort of like a powerpoint program but much more expansive. It is free for anyone that wants to set up a Prezi account. They can be used for any subject and can really help teach students different subjects in an interesting and fun way. I would definitely be using Prezi in my classroom.
I think that Web 2.0 tools are useful in K-12 education. Since every generation is more advanced than the last, it is important to stay relevant and on top of technology from an early age. Web 2.0 tools can really be applied to all subject areas, so it shouldn’t be too much of a concern for teachers to fit it into their lesson plans. There were so many listed in the podcast but one of interest to me was Edmodo. For example, I think that Edmodo is a useful website for students. I used Edmodo in High School in my Civil Engineering Academy. It was a social media site that allowed you to post questions or “statuses” to your friends. It is a great tool for students.
From the last assignment “Web Evaluation” I learned a few new schools. For instance, I learned how to create a web assignment, and evaluate web sites. Before this past week, I had no idea how to do either. They were both relatively simple. Although, I did have trouble choosing a topic and finding resources to include in the web evaluation. But overall I enjoyed the assignment. Next time I will work on using a different search engine, and different key words when looking for resources. I think that that simple tweak will improve my web evaluation immensely. I really enjoyed how when creating my web evaluation I could choose from so many different layouts for my table that I created. It really made the assignment more enjoyable when there was a pleasurable scheme of colors in the background. In the future I will perhaps use the web evaluation as an assignment for my students. It is a good tool for them when researching topics. I will definitely be using my new web site skills to create a site for my students and their parents.
These are the blogs that I responded to:
https://dt12b.wordpress.com/2015/02/18/post-6/comment-page-1/#comment-19
https://rachelsinclair4.wordpress.com/2015/02/20/blog-6/comment-page-1/#comment-21
Also, here are some screenshots of my Web Evaluation!
Blog Post #6
As a current student, I feel like I know pretty well what does, and doesn’t work when it comes to using technology in the classroom. I will be able to carry what I know now into my future teaching career. I envision myself using plenty of technology in the classroom to teach my students and develop my own skills as a teacher. For instance, I will have a blog that illustrates and explains everything I will do in class. It will show future assignments that my students are to complete, and various learning objectives and activities that my students will participate in. My blog will be to help my students stay on track in class, and for the students their parent’s so that they will be able to stay in the know, as well. I also think that twitter is a great resource for students. Twitter enables anyone to create and maintain a PLN. In addition I will use technology such as podcasts, and videos so that not only my students can learn more, but so that I am always developing my skills as a teacher. There are so any resources available that one can always further their education.
Teachers and parents can both help young children identify good resources from the internet. Teachers will be able to instruct lessons in class that helps children know a bad website from a good website. They can also demonstrate many different ways that you can search for good internet resources. Parents can help young children just as well. When students have take home assignments, there parents can instruct them on how to identify good internet resources. This is an important skill because students need to know how to choose reputable internet sources for completing assignment and other various tasks outside of school.
By working on the last assignment, Web Hunt, I learned that it is very important to find reputable and current internet sources. Before this assignment, I had never really thought too much about finding current or objective resources. But now since completing it, I know better. I will definitely have my future students fill out evaluation forms when it comes to finding online sources. It is a very helpful way to determine if your internet source is accurate. In this assignment I enjoyed the freedom that came along with choosing the subject and websites for my project. I didn’t like how I had to arrange my evaluation into a table with checkboxes and such. I felt like I could have done it a different way that worked the same, if not easier to view. But overall, I enjoyed the assignment.
Blogs that I responded to:
Check it out!
Not much has changed on students attitude’s towards book reports!
Blog Post #4
The website that I chose to critique was www.barnesandnoble.com. Barnes and Noble is mainly a book store, but they do offer other services. This website followed the general design principles in chapter 6. For instance, it had a multimedia principle, it had both words and pictures on it. It also had good spatial contiguity, words and pictures were presented near each other on the page. Barnes and Noble followed most graphic and interface design principles. They limited their color usage, and had a good standardized use of colors. They kept to a green color, and a blend of neutral beiges and browns throughout the website. In addition everything was very user friendly and easy to navigate.
I think that visual tools can truly support student learning. Not everyone learns the same, so when a vast amount of multimedia can be used to teach students, I think that it is a great idea. So when visual tools are easy to navigate and pleasing to look at, it really helps the student.
In addition, I think that it is very important for educators to teach open content and open source. Before this class, I had no idea that there were differences between the two. Since I’ve been in school I have never learned about them. That being said, I think that it should be taught. Everyone should be aware oh how they can and can not use other peoples works. It is important to respect the owner of the work that you wish to replicate or use. As a teacher, I would use open content material and open source software. I want to open my students up to a variety of different medias, and I want them to correctly know how to use them. The more that a student knows about open content material, the more they are aware to the different ways that they can and cant use other peoples work. This really just adds on to the topic of plagiarism and source citing that we’ve learned in recent chapters.
There were many skills that I learned from word and graphics 2. For instance, I learned how to add WordArt and clip art. Before this week, I was never to clear on how to do that. I also added date/time stamp into my document, and that is my favorite new skill. I had no idea that was even possible! I liked being able to do that. Another interesting, but challenging, skill that ‘i learned was mail merge. It is a very useful way to merge other documents into a new one. In this assignment I really liked the freedom that I had in creating my newsletter. I thought it was a lot easier to come up any topic that i’d like to do, and be as creative as I’d like to with it. In the future I will most like use all of these skills so that I can create visually appealing documents and assignments for my students. I think that they will genuinely like documents with a vast amount of color and WordArt to them, rather than a plain written up document, I know that I would. I can improve a few of my new skills though, for instance I wish to navigate word a little faster, and I would like to be able to use mail merge a little better. I can easily improve those skills with practice over time, and by using the tutorials on the Microsoft Word webpage. Also, check out my Word and Graphics #2 assignment!
Here are the blogs that I responded to:
ach13b 