Pull It Together Now

Reading over my first blog, I said that I would talk about all the technology I used in my 486 class. I have completed all my projects and want to write an overview of what I think would be a wonderful idea in the classroom, and what may not be worth your time. Here is the list:

Using Inspiration Software:
Recommend to teachers: yes! I would recommend some one showing you a few basic steps at first. It would be hard to learn if you know nothing about the program. Once you know a few simple moves, you will get addicted! This software can do so much. I only have experience making one web, and I already love inspiration. It is fabulous for making webs to help organize confusing information for your students. It can be used to teach to all ages. If you would like to learn more about Inspirations software, here is the site.

iMovie:
Recommend to teachers: no. iMovie is amazing for creating videos. For those interesting in the film making business, it is the tool from heaven. From my personal experience, it takes way too long to make what you want, when you can already find educational videos all over the internet. There could be beneficial reasons to use iMovie, but I have not found any yet. Again, the actually application is wonderful, but I do not think it is necessary as a teacher to make your own movie.

Web Quest:
Recommend to teachers: maybe. Creating a Web Quest can be a wonderful tool for students. The only thing that makes me hesitate is that they are extremely time consuming to make. Thanks to technology, there so numerous great Web Quest that can be found online. I would encourage every teacher to try it at least one a year. I would use a few on the internet to see exactly what they entail before I would make one myself.

Google Presentation:
Recommend to teachers: Yes. I strongly recommend anything by google. If you want to make a presentation for your class, this is a great way to go. Another huge plus to using anything by Google is that you can access whatever you make online. You do not have to email yourself any attachment remember a flash drive. Everything is saved online for you!

Google Sites:
Recommend to teachers: Yes, Yes, and Yes. Not only is using Google sites extremely easy, as a teacher, having a website is a fabulous way to communicate with parents. You can have your educational background on it, schedules, link to your blog, etc... The trick with keeping up with a website is making sure it stays up to date. One of the best things about Google sites is that is makes it really easy to change your information. It does not take long to learn, and it can be a wonderful way to communicate with parents!

Interactive Excel Spreadsheet:
Recommend to teachers: Yes, if has prior experience with excel. The interactive worksheet itself is a wonderful tool for students to use. The trick is being able to make one correctly. If you know how to enter the correct equations into the cells, than you will be able to make an interactive spread sheet. When I made one, it took a long time and seemed tedious. Now that I have it, I am looking forward to using it in class.

Google Resumé Format:
Recommend to teachers looking for a job: Yes. Again, anything with Google is convenient and easy to learn how to use.
If you are looking for a teaching job, Google provides great formats to help make your resumé look professional. It is so convent to have your documents online. You do not have to worry about loosing your flash drive or loosing your hard copies. When ever you need to access your resumé, just go online, and there it is!

Keeping a Blog:
Recommend to teachers: Yes. I have heard many teacher say how great it is to have a blog to communicate with parents. Teachers can post homework, announcements, etc... to keep parents informed. Keeping an up to date blog is an easy way to keep busy parents involved in their children's lives. Having a blog can also lessen phone calls and emails. It is an easy way to communicate, and it looks very professional!

Teachers, Don't Try This at School

There are many ideas found online for integrating technology into today's classrooms. I found an article that talked about the most "stupid" things teachers do involving technology. The title of the article is "Seven Stupid Mistakes Teachers Make with Technology," and it is by Doug Johnson. You can view the article here
The first few ideas were not very interesting to me, but it was the second half of the list that I think teachers should know not to do these things. Here is what I found interesting:

1. "Believing that one's teaching style need not change to take full advantage of technology. Using technology to simply add sounds and pictures to lectures is stupid. Smart technology use is about changing the roles of both teacher and student. The computer-using student can now be the content expert; the teacher becomes the process expert asking such questions as “Where did you get that information? How do you know it's accurate? Why is it important? How can you let others know what you discovered? And how can you tell if you did a good job?” The world has changed and it is rank stupidity not to recognize it and change as well."

2. "Ignoring the intrinsic interest of tech use in today's kids. Kids like technology. Not using it as a hook to motivate and interest them in their education is stupid."

3. "Thinking technology in schools will go away. The expectation that "This too shall pass" has worked for a lot of educational practices and theories. Madeline Hunter, Outcomes-Based Education, whole language, and (soon) NCLB all had their day in the sun before being pushed aside by the next silver bullet. (I think that metaphor was a bit confused. Sorry.) But it is stupid to think technology in education will go away. It isn't going away in banking, medicine, business, science, and agriculture - anywhere else in society. Anticipating that "this too shall pass" about technology is pretty stupid."

I completely agree that these are misconceptions teachers make, though they absolutely should not. Technology is changing our classrooms, and this can not be pushed aside or ignored. My favorite comment in the article is number three above. Technology is not a phase, it is the present. It is ridiculous to expect our students to go out in the the world of technology and be successful, but not allow them to use this very same technology as students. Technology should no longer be supplementary, but it should be expected. It is understandable if a teacher cannot use technology because of a lack of school funds. If a teacher does have technology at his or her use, it should be expected that the teacher applies it in the classroom.

Technology Adds Competition

In the teaching world today, there is both positive and negative views on adding competition to the classroom. Competition can be very motivating and be the drive for some students need to accomplish the grades they desire. Competition can also be over whelming to students and cause them to be discouraged. If students are competing against each other within the same classroom, it can make students less likely to help each other and become overly afraid of having wrong answers. Obviously, a classroom should be a place were students feel safe. A student should feel that he or she could ask a peer or the teacher any question. When used correctly, competition can motivate students and unite them. How is this? I was observing a teacher earlier this semester, and she was able to accomplish this through technology. After teaching a math lesson, the teacher rewarded the students by letting them go to the computer lab. Before the students were able to play the "fast math" game they enjoy, she required that they write in their classroom blog. On the school website, each class has their own page and has a chance to post answers to given problems on the class blog. After the students completed their blog, the teacher pulled up blogs from other schools in Knox county. She was able to show her students blogs from other schools in the area because the writers remain anonymous. Some blog entries were well written, but most of the blog entries shown were terrible. The teacher used this to say how proud she was of her class for having such good writing skills. The class as a whole felt they all did a good job on their blog. It was great seeing the whole class be excited about the work that they completed. Also, the teacher did not create competition among her students, but she promoted competition again children from others schools. Only through technology was her class able to complete an online blog, and compare their work to students' from other schools. See this, I would recommend for teachers to participate in classroom blogs, especially if it is a county wide activity. Comparing work among students across schools can be a power tool!

Technology Actually in the Classroom!

A few weeks ago, I had a very encouraging experience at an elementary school. I was introduced to the school computer lab teacher. She explained to me all the wonderful technology that school had incorporated into the classroom. First, this school has either a smart board or an active board in almost every elementary classroom! As of this year, every classroom has also received two new Mac computers. All the computers in the computer lab are new Macs. Yes, this is an example of a school that is actively keeping up with technology skills. After the computer teacher told me about the new computers, smart boards, and active boards, I noticed an iPod touch on her desk. I asked her if she was trying to use iPod touches in the classroom. I was so excited to hear that the newest technology the school was trying to incorporate into the classroom was the iPod touch. Though the plan is still in early stages, the idea is that every classroom will have a iPod touch. The teachers will have to be trained on how to use them in their classroom. The iPod touche offers interactive games that the students can play. Somehow, the iPod touch can be used along side with the classroom computers and the smart boards. This was the first time I had ever heard of a school investing their time and money into cutting edge technology. As a future teacher, I believe this is important to know, because I do not know which school I will be teaching at. I may be apart of a school that requires teachers to understand how to incorporate a computer, smart board, and iPod touch into the classroom. I need to be open to new ideas using technology, and I need to be willing to learn how to use the technology. The desire for technology in this school was refreshing to me. Schools like that make me appreciate my tech 486 class, because I will be able to apply my technology skills gained into my elementary classroom.

iMovie

Above is a video I made using iMovie of my first scuba trip. Though the steps are fairly easy to understand in making a slide show movie, it took me a lot longer than I thought. Every time I put transitions in my movie, it would mess up my slides. I decided to not use any transitions. Another issue I had was editing my music. My song lasted about a minute loner than my slide show, and I did not realize this until I exported my movie into a quicktime format. It was pretty easy to fix. All I did was search on Google "How to edit music on iMovie," and I found step by step instructions. The internet is a wonderful source. An issue I do not know how to resolve is the quality of my pictures. My instructions were to make sure all my pictures were 72 dpi and to export my movie into CD quality. I did these things, and my pictures turned out really blurry! I have not watched the video online yet, so maybe they pictures will look better there. We will see! Working on any computer program you have not used before will always have its ups and downs. I feel that once I have a better handle on using iMovie, making and editing movies will go by a lot faster.

Excelling at Microsoft Excel

Above is my Microsoft Excel spread sheet. By following step by step instructions, I was able to create an interactive worksheet for my future students. The students can write the answers in the blanks provided, yet they can not change anything else on the worksheet. This activity automatically calculates the students grade for that assignment. It took a little while to understand how to put equations into the cells, but I started to understand these equations the more I used them. Using Excel for students is great way to integrate technology into the classroom.

Inspirations

This web was created by a program called Inspiration. It allows for people to create maps and webs of any topic they like. For my assignment I created a web for the characters in the book Charlotte's Web. I came across a few difficulties. In the program, I added a footer, but the footer does not show up on the page. Also, I could not figure out how to change the name of the note.The program automatically named my note for me and would not let me change the name by clicking or left clicking on the note or the name of the note. I clicked edit note on the little note symbol, but it still would not let me change the name. Besides this, this program was pretty easy to use, and I would recommend it for teachers of all grades. The inspiration website has many great ideas for creating maps and webs.