Final Note...Final Class

When I entered into this class I had no idea what to expect. Yes, I had taken technology courses before, but never one that had hopes of inclusion in a classroom and emphasizing literacy. Throughout our time together we all grew to see what we could do to engage our students, to develop lessons that are well rounded, create units that give our students opportunities to create and so much more.

Most of all I learned how quickly we can learn as a cooperative group. It was wonderful to share these past 3 months of learning opportunities with you all. Each person in this class challenged me to work even harder than I already was. What everyone created was so amazing and beautiful in its own unique way. I wish that as we went on our own separate paths that we would have a place to reunite and continue to inspire one another. Imagine what we could do it we were together for more than 3 months.

I wish all of you good luck in whatever your future holds. It was a wonderful experience sharing this class with you.

xoxo
Monica

Last Few Weeks in Review

Participating in this class has been very interesting. It brings new ideas to light and helps us to help provoke thoughts from one another.

Last weeks class was even more interesting to me than other. Usually when talking about technology the reference to how it can help others who are presented with life-long challenges does not often come up. I though the videos were very informative and touching. The people who are courageous enough to take on the challenges of creating the tools to help others are almost as amazing as those who are able to meet their challenge head on.

This week was a fun class that was a bit anxiety producing. Creating items for peer review are not always easy. you feel the pressure to create and do it in a way that will be well liked. I have to say that after watching what the other groups had produced, it did not ease my fears! They did such a wonderful job. When it was our turn I was so nervous. However, after finally being able to get the video to work, and showing the film I felt a great sense of relief. I am also so happy that this was a topic that the whole class could discuss.

Thank you all for being so kind.

Virtual Educational Networking

Today we are inundated with stimuli - constantly reachable, accessible and in touch. We are always connected to one piece of technology or another and have become more virtually than physically active. With this revolution of technological access over the past 15 years, how are we revolutionizing our classrooms? Like it or not, we need to create changes that mirror the realities of the real world. This includes constant access to materials, out of classroom communications and integration of social programs into the classroom.

Firstly, schools are making changes to create students, teacher and parent access. Including resources such as classroom websites. One of the advantages is that it allows students to work on their own schedule, which we know can be very different than that of an adult. It also allows parents to monitor, review and access their child's work. It keeps the parents engaged and in the loop. This will limit confusion for all parties and create opportunities parents and teachers to remain informed of individual situations. Lastly, this can also allow teachers to teach students interactively. This can incorporate wikis, blogs and virtual lessons/notes.

Secondly, we can create new relationships outside of the classroom that further learning in previously non-accessible ways. One example of would be to establish connections with various educational institutions. This could be through something as simple as emails and virtual tours and as elaborate as skyping with museum curators and college professors.

Most importantly, I found the Strategies for Incorporating Reading Responses very helpful and important for a respect filled and responsible online teaching forum. These guidelines are not only for the teachers, but also for the students. It guides educators on proper responses, appropriate discussions, clear rules to include, how to engage active participation and ensure relevance for your students. By preparing discussions in this way we create a forum for intellectualizing ideas in a way that incorporates all learners. Students can also inspire other students to think in new and interesting ways, leading to learnings that even the educator may not have intended.

Questions:

1. How do we as teachers establish websites that will provide enough information/interaction for students and parents, while not overwhelming them?
2. By creating a forum that can be utilized at home, are we overwhelming our students, and predesignating them for business type futures?
3. In designing and maintaining online websites, will teachers be forced to take time away from classroom lesson design and thus create mediocre lessons?

Project WebQuest - ArtStory - AKA Mission (Almost) Impossible

WebQuest. How can I explain it? I can start by saying "challenging." While I started to create my quest I began to ramble in my head about all the ways that I could create my lessons. Once I started I couldn't stop. By the end of my personal lesson brainstorming session, I practically had the students creating a scale model of planet Earth. Well, maybe it wasn't that bad. The ideas needed some adjustment for feasibility/age appropriateness, but I was very happy with my ideas.

Then I opened my web browser and entered into the site - Digication. There I was looking at a blank white page, literally, and all the ideas that I had created in my head rushed out. I tried to bring them to fruition, but struggled to do them any justice. So I decided to create a low-stakes page for myself where I could play with the pages and options so that I could to learn how to create in this new forum. Once I began looking at the different ways I could use the modules, import data and develop design, I started to feel more confident. Now it was time to return to my WebQuest. As I started to bring my ideas to life, I became more comfortable with this new venue. One idea inspired design for another and everything started to fall into place. Although, I must say I believe that an entire course could be taught on how to effectively create a WebQuest using Digication, as design is a bit challenging.

After a long, exciting, emotion-filled and anxious process I am happy to say that I am completely happy with my creation (almost.) After this initial process, I believe that I will be able to create many more resources to help educate my students. With each one, I will learn new things, bring new ideas to fruition and develop new ways to engage my students.


Questions:

1. Is this a shared experience? What challenges did you face?
2. What suggestions would you provide to a new user now that you have completed a WebQuest using Digication?
3. What other sites would you recommend to bring your WebQuests to life?

Inquiry through Technology.

Becoming an educator is a large undertaking and at times presents overwhelming challenges. However, it is nothing compared to what we will face in the classroom. One of the largest challenges educators face is keeping students engaged in the material while completing lessons. It is important to note that the classroom environment is no longer confined by the walls around it. With technological access there is much potential, but also a great deal of struggle. If utilized properly we can create opportunities that are exciting for students, but if we do not, we can easily lose students to the their own personal access to technology - Smart Phones.

In an attempt to create lessons that excite students, educators can find the resources listed in Chapter 7 very useful. I found the unique ways to utilize commonly used sites, such as Google Earth particularly useful. As a Social Studies teacher, I could utilize a tool such as this to create an interdisciplinary lesson, partnered with either a science (Earth Science) or mathematics (Scaling and Geometry) courses. Presenting information to students in this matter allows them to become involved.

In addition, the strategies for utilizing gaming in the classroom was of interest to me.While I am familiar with using gaming as a way to encourage student engagement and practice, I struggled to see the ways in which an educator could include them in a non homework/practice capacity. The idea of discussing the content of gaming was particularly interesting. This changed the purpose of gaming from practice to active learning. Students discussing their accomplishments, what they have done, how they have done it and even questioning its accuracy allows them to consider their learning. Unfortunately, this is not something that I have experienced in a live classroom, but am interested to create opportunities like these for my future students.

Lastly, utilizing the technology available in the classroom in these new and interesting ways will be a great way to engage students in and of itself. Introducing new ideas, even if only visually, creates interest for students. If the same resources are continually utilized, no matter how interesting students will lose interest. By using sites like these, and continuing through our careers with this same drive to find new resources, we can keep our students interested in the material.

Questions:
1. Through utilization of the best gaming programs designed specifically for the classroom are we losing the need for quality educators?
2. What are some effective ways that you have observed the utilization of gaming technology in the classroom, without it being for the purpose of practice or homework?
3. Are their ways that we can include students easily accessed technology - Smart Phones - in the classroom so that we can further their engagement in lessons? Could that be through the use of tasks such as polling, multiple choice questions and gaming?

Today's Take Away (And Happy Almost Easter)

While we went through all of the WebQuests today I became a bit intimidated by the creativity of previous students. But after going through the various requirements and ways to create I thought about all of the posibiilities for my own Quest.

I want to wish you all good luck on your WebQuests and I am so excited to explore all that you have created. I am sure that you will be brought to the table will be amazing and beautiful.

Lastly, Happy Easter and enjoy your well deserved break.

Take-aways for Today

While we all sit in class together, I am constantly amazed in the way that we make one another think. To be able to intellectualize our thoughts is exciting. However the contradictory/developed ideas that other students have bring on provocative thinking for one another. I just want to thank all of you for helping me to learn more from this class than i can simply learn out of a book.

I guess that brings me to my next point. For as much as I love the integration of technology into the classrooms (appropriately of course,) there is something lost when courses are solely offered online. Students lose the chance to interact and make one another think.

I am just so happy that we are all able to help one another and create a unique classroom experience.

I look forward to seeing all of your projects in the coming weeks. (I am also a bit intimidated because you are all so capable.)

Reflecting on Using Online Organizational Tools to Create a WebQuest

Bringing what we have practiced into fruition allows us the unique opportunity to organize online lessons in a way that we sit fit to teach our students. However, when embarking on such a journey, information can become overwhelming. The Internet is such a vast and interesting place, filled with ideas from around the world. I have come to the crossroads of having so much information that I have trouble deciding which items will be most useful for my students.

This is where I found the textbook, specifically the beginning of chapter 6, to be especially useful. In my experience, when you find something to be too cumbersome, it is best to organize it. However, I was naive to what resources are available to teachers to organize online information, resources and tools.

Looking through these organizational resources, both in print and online,  I became more comfortable with how I would begin my WebQuest Journey. Utilizing resources such as Delicious allowed me to see ways that I could organize my ideas for my students through the lens of the Internet.

Now that I am able to do so, I am much more confident about organizing my WebQuest in a way that is efficient and useful for my students.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Questions:

1. What did you find to be most useful in Chapters 4 and 6?

2. How can we utilize this new information in a way that is beneficial for ourselves and our students?

3. How can we continue this pursuit of new knowledge after we move on from our graduate coursework?

Final Thoughts

How to know what are good resources?

When we got together we decide to find topics that might be controversial and those that are not. The ones that are not controversial are usually more factually based and are less debatable. While hot topics will allow for less accuracy in a larger population of sites.

So in hopes of controversy we looked up Barack Obama. No figure can stir more controversy than American Presidents.

Here are our findings:

The Good:
This was a very reliable source that allows us to clearly see factual information about our current president. It eliminates much bias and garbage that we would normally have to sift through. Although, we did not see anything that viewed him in an analytic lens.
www.whitehouse.gov


The Ugly:
Although this illustrates many of the 5 W's we have discussed, it is extremely biased and potentially a harmful source for young readers.
http://evidencevault.blogspot.com/

Closing...

I enjoyed learning about the movie makers and all of the potential for our trailers. I cant wait to delve further into my project and to see all that my fellow classmates come up with!

Have  a great break!

Learning in a Digital World: Is It Learning at All?

Being a history person myself, I find the internet an amazing place. It allows me to journey into ages that I had never seen before: looking at artifacts, first hand accounts and finding new resources. However, as mentioned in Chapter 5, the notable historian David McCullough argues, " Learning is not to be found on a printout. It is not on call at the touch of the finger. Learning is acquired mainly from books, and mostly from great books."

Now I can see his point in that the internet is an extremely vast place, where there is a lot of virtual garbage to sift through. Sites such as wikipedia, although informative, at times can have great inaccuracies and blatant bias. (This is also true of many books that are in print - even some of the great books!) This can lead readers to believe false information and thus making misinformed or naive decisions. However, the answer to this problem is to become your own librarian - fact checking, thinking analytically and searching as an expert.

While McCullough chooses to devalue one of the greatest technological accomplishments human kind has ever seen, it is our responsibility as teachers to utilize it. (The internet is also unprecedented in the number of people that have worked together to accomplish one common goal - knowledge.) I have said it before and I will say it again - technology is not going away. It is just becoming more expansive and involved. And our students will be the first to be engaging in each new advance. We need to be speaking to our students and our communities in the language they speak - the language of technology. This is how our world functions. We are always connected and learning most of our news through it. We need to be technologically literate and be able to become archeologists digging for accurate information.

As a final note I feel that it is important to point out that knowledge is not always, in fact many times it has nothing to do with, reading something out of a book. In fact, that is why there are teachers in the first place. Knowledge is many times what can't be just put in a book, but discussed and questioned. Most of the valuable knowledge that we contain has not been placed there by the books we have read, but the conversations we have had.  Teachers question students with provocative questions and push them into new areas that open doors.

Questions:

1. Does the internet enhance or devalue knowledge?
2. As a teacher, how can we pre-sort data so that our students are reaching the valuable knowledge?
3. Is McCullough right that knowledge is best found in books?

Valentine's Day Lessons Learned

As we delve further into the role that technology plays in our lives and in the classroom, we learn about the ways in which psychology theory can be utilized while creating out lessons in technology. Through the recognition of cognitive, behavioral and constructivist theories we can create a classroom that produces successful learners. Keeping in mind how unique each one of our students are (or not if you employ behaviorist theories), it is even more important to utilize what we have learned here today.

Now onto my project...

I was hoping that I could create a lesson that allows students to understand important points in history through the art that remains in our world today. It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. More importantly paintings/drawings/etc. tell stories from a time without photographs. We can go all the way back into prehistoric times.

The Age of the Education Revolution

In the age of post- No Child Left Behind - and in anticipation of the Common Core State Standards, us grad students are left with a lot to think about. While our excitement builds for becoming teachers, there is also a feeling of impending doom. For myself, I can directly attribute this to the Educational Revolution that we are experiencing.

Many of us grew up, specifically during our teen years, under the guise of No Child Left Behind. This means that we are used to testing,evaluations, assessments and quantitative analysis - most of which were good old fashioned fill in the blanks on a scan-tron  and short essays. However, as we move into the age of CCSS and Race to the Top, we must learn as both teachers and students that our idea of testing, assessments and grading surely has change. We are already grading our students in a technological world - posting all grades on-line so that students and parents can get up to the minute reads on student progress. If we are already utilizing online grading, how far away is online assessment for K-12 on a national level?

As future teachers, how can we adequately prepare our students to succeed in a technological world? Well, if we create a technologically friendly environment for students to function in, our students will then be able to be comfortable in technological assessment. That is not to say that I think the shift that we are being forced to make is what I would choose for my students. However, technology in our classrooms is not a fleeting thought or passing idea. It is not going away!

The Common Core State Standards encourage our students to work in a technological world and to compete on an international level. However, just as No Child Left Behind and every other educationally revolutionary government crusade before, it will succumb to a new and improved version. So, as a teacher, what is the best way to adhere to the standards that we are given, while not allowing it to overhaul our practices? My plan for my classroom is to use technology inclusive and academically driven lessons (not assessment based) which encourage curiosity, discussion and success, regardless of the educational trend.

Questions:

As a teacher, whatis your plan for assessing your students in a technological world?

What can we as teachers do to make students more comforatble with technological assessmesments?

Do you think that the Common Core State Standards will exist for an extended period of time? Why or why not?

Are We All Foreigners?

Techonology is an ever changing world. It is always growing, expanding and evolving. There is always a new addition, faster speeds and enhanced graphics. So aren't we all immigrants?

As is discussed in Chapter 1, technology is explained through the lens of digital natives and digital immigrants. While many of us have grown up in the age of technological/computer advances, there are always new advances being made. We are constantly receiving, processing, synthesizing and learning new programs. So, whether you are a tech geek or just a social networker you can always make new and exciting advances in a different realm of technology.

As I have thought more about this topic I begin to realize that it is easy for any one person to become outdated/lose touch with technology. However, our society does not allow its' citizens to function without a basic understanding of modern technology. We are all working within a native friendly world and that has led others outside of the native age parameters to function as natives.

At the end of the day we want to be able to teach our students in a way that is understandable and memorable to them. Through the use of computers, the internet and web-based lessons we have the unique opportunity to teach our students with enhancements that were never available before. I like to think of it like this. When I was a student, I vividly remember asking questions about how something worked, what the purpose was and how we would use it; to which the response was, "Well, how do you think it does...?" At times this may have been a way to evoke cognitive thinking and ultimately expository writing, but at other times I felt that it was a way for the teacher to buy time. Now, with the inclusion of technology (not reliance on technology) we can take a more wholistic approach to topics and allow for visual, auditory, kinesthetic and tactile learners to equaly enjoy and engage in a lesson.

The possibilities with the employment of technological integration in the classroom, partnered with the growing population of technologically savvy users, further solidifies the argument for technological involvement in our classrooms.  What do you think?


Follow Up Questions:
1. Is technology the answer?

2. By implying that age determines one's technological/computer literacy, does that mean that we can go from existing as a native and become an immigrant?

3. In which ways can we maintain our status as a digital native?

Today's Final Thought

who are you designing for?
Designing for the future, our students.

what are you designing?
 How the lessons will be taught, your classroom, the way ideas will be approached, the general attitude in the classroom and the plans for how the information will be transmitted and understood.

what is the final product of what you are doing?
engaged learner

Final thought...

Throughout the discussions today I had episodes of excitement and fear alternating in my mind. While I prepare myself to become an educator of adolescent students, I am becoming more aware of the responsibility involved, but also the amazing things that we will be able to accomplish together. Usually that is how things are that you are passionate about. You feel empowered by the potential for  success, but fearful of failure. However, through discussions like the one we have shared tonight we are able to become more empowered and let go of our fears.

Here Goes Nothing...

The year is 2013. I am 25 years old. I have lived in New York City (THE GREATEST CITY IN THE WORLD) my entire life and yet, I am living in the dark ages. I have to admit, as the title of my blog would suggest, that I have never posted on a blog before. I have followed some design blogs, stumbled across a few interesting fashion and beauty posters, but have never been the one sharing my ideas, thoughts or  opinion. I am sad to say that I was always a follower, which it deeply pains me to even admit. So, I guess it is my turn to be the sharer. Here goes nothing...

As I prepare to become an educator, I can't help but think of all of the experiences I have had as a student. Who was my favorite/least favorite teachers? And why? What did they do that made them stick out so vividly in my mind? Well, I can tell you with absolute certainty that the teachers that I most enjoyed and therefor learned the most from, were the ones that were relatable, understandable, challenging and interesting. My least favorite took the enjoyment out of learning. They somehow took material that could have been exciting, mashed it up, and regurgitated the words printed in the textbook. This was usually followed by an assessment that asked the students to do the same. Here is where my biggest fear comes in - becoming one of the latter teachers. And each of you, I am sure, can in one way or another share in my experience.  

So this is the question that I pose. How can we as educators become those relatable, understandable, challenging and interesting teachers? I think that we are all taking the first step together right now. Students, now more than ever are deeply interested in technology. And they know a lot more about it than many adults. When you walk through a school almost every student has an iPhone, an iPod, a laptop or some combination of the three. They are constantly hooked up and waiting for the latest and greatest to come through. As teachers we can capitalize on this intense obsession with technology. Through my active participation in internet publishing, and I am referring to the non twitter/Facebook/LinkdIn world, we are evolving. We can also use this tool to learn more about lessons that our students will be responsive to and if we can create similar lessons, we can help other teachers who have the same desire to guide their students through the learning experience. And this is just the first step.We have many resources, literally at our fingertips, which can reinvigorate a student's excitement for learning. And when all else fails you can always catch their attention by making them laugh...then start the lesson.

Dog Eats Popcorn, Baby Girl Laughs Uncontrollably

Thanks for reading my first entry : -)