Final Thoughts about technology in the classroom

Technology can be integrated in the classroom in a variety of ways. A few I have personally experienced and have enjoyed, such as discussion boards, blogging and several educational websites to name a few. I had not considered the safety aspects that come with integrating technology in the classroom. As a teacher you must be sure that your students follow the guidelines set forth by the school and the district. Planning and strategy come into play when incorporating technology into your lesson plans. You must research to assure that the technology you include enhances the lesson and can offer a method of success.
My little experience I have had in the classroom has shown me that technology can be very exciting for student learning. The Smartboard is a fun way to "include" students in participating in classroom learning. There are a variety of educational softwares that enable students to practice and gain a better perspective and understanding of the lesson being tought. As a future teacher I plan on continuing further technology education in this ever evolving field.

"If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow."- John Dewey

Emerging Technology Issues

Today's classroom is filled with a variety of technology options, but with those can come some issues. Some of these would be technical difficulties with hardware or software, social issues such as cyber bullying or inappropriate behavior on blog sites, and acedemic dishonesty to name a few.
To overcome these issues a teacher must always have a strategic plan, for long term or short term objectives. Implementing filtering software and educating my students on the privacy, fair use and responsibilities that come with using technology is a key role. Students must know the expectations set by the school system, their teachers and their parents. With the help of technology support system and always have a "back up plan" if the technology fails, will help overcome any issues that may slow the learning in the classroom.



"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal"- Albert Einstein

Google Docs

I found this a great way to add to a shared activity. It was very easy to use and would be a great asset to do a collaborative project on. I have learned that middle school students do a lot of collaborative projects. This document will allow them to share and document their ideas as they evolve and keep everyone involved "in the loop". As a room mom and personal note, this is a great way to plan those parties and field day while keeping parents envolved but still contribute.

Education is...

One of the few things a person is willing to pay for and not get.

William Lowe Bryan

Is social networking the future of our kids?

Browsing at some of the social networks I came accross a couple of "honorable mentions". Quite frankly, the social networks are lacking in the education department, unless the site was built specifically to support education. Among these networks, I discovered Ning.com. This website allows you to create your own website and publish it under headings they view to be "spotlight topics". For example, you can create a website supported by this network that allows one to have a "voice" to express to the social community their thought and ideas on a certain topic. Your site would then be found under the non-profit tab in their menu. The site also allows you to raise money or volunteers for your cause as well.
Another website I came accross is Kidsedwebsites.com. This is a very interactive educational website that posts many hyperlinks to other websites for educational lessons using technology. It also allows one to create a website on their link as well. Before you get escorted from their website, their is a brief description of the website you will be linked to along with the age approriateness of the content. There are no threads or blogs to follow, but gives you a way to connect with others through your own website.

As with all of these social network websites come guidelines and safety issues. As a teacher, you must be aware of the advertisers that are supporting these websites. They can cross the line and require users to divuldge personal information. You must also be aware of the topics that are typically blogged about and if they have an "on site" monitor. Pop-ups and software downloads can be another issue you may encounter. The intial site may be fine for your standards, but they may have links that could take a student to unmonitored websites and enable them to view inappropriate material.

With all this said, socail websites can be a fun way to interact and share ideas with students from other schools all around the world!

“If Facebook were a country, it would now be the 6th most populous in the world.” -- from InsideFacebook.com

Beam Me Up Scotty!

Or rather, beam me down. Very cool tool. Googleearth.com allows students to explore areas all over the world at any time of the day. They are able to view the climates and terrain of the area without leaving their desk. It is also helpful with geography. It enables the student to see how close or far a location is and can give you a bird's eye view or satellite view of a location. It offers "real-time" viewing along with archived views of historical events. A great tool for the student to grasp a better understanding of areas that they would not be able to visit. I found it very easy to learn and to use. It offers tutorials for more understanding and help tools on every page. You can zoom in or out with a click of the mouse. Great for that visual learner!

“We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started... and know the place for the first time.” - T.S. Eliot

What a great concept!

Concept Mapping gives students and teachers a better way to connect the learner to visually understand the material. Kidspiration.com is a website that offers the tools to help teachers utilize concept mapping. The students can then learn visually, then click on the "writing" button and see their map turn into writing- where they see their ideas in a reading form. Below I have created a Table to see ways a teacher may utilize this website to create a concept map to use in the classrooms.

Grade	Content Area	Activity Description	How would I utilize this activity?
1st grade	Addition & Pairing	Math- Adding It Up	Seeing can help understand. My students would work alone in their computer time.
3rd grade	Learning Fractions	Math- Almost Halves	Viewing & filling in graphs can help understand numerator & denominator relations. Would demo as a class to understand the concept.
3rd or 4th grade	Animal Grouping & Writing	Science- Animal Classifications	Students would work together to explore & group animal. Would then work alone to write about their findings.
3rd or 4th grade	Character Descriptions	Reading/Writing- Character Analysis	Students would gather full description of character and relations to other characters. Would map broad relationships and descriptive traits and then write about them.
4th grade	Mapping	Geography- Puzzle Map	Students would work together to learn about state shapes & abrev. Would then write about each states individual findings.

"A good plan is like a road map; it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there".
- H. Stanley Judd

"Survey Says......."

My Online Survey……………………by Jenifer Fitzgerald
http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=0o9mhd07mtiguf4822190

This was a pretty easy task to create. The website is very user friendly and the layouts are very self-explanatory. The results are easily viewed and compiled into simple graphs for you to compare. Overall, I feel this is a great way to measure opinions and experiences with just a few simple questions. My survey was to uncover how our future teachers saw technology use in their classroom as of today.
My results thus far: Of the 6 people who took the survey, 33% saw technology use in the classroom a distraction for the teacher. This could possibly be attributed to the fact that 66% felt they had "somewhat" received enough technology education to utilize it effectively in the classroom. Our future teachers definitely plan to use technology in their classrooms mostly in communication to parents, recording performance and administrative classroom tasks, and to create visual presentations. 66% have received no prior technology training prior to this class.
Of the applications listed in the survey, 66% were very comfortable and experienced with word processing, 50% felt somewhat comfortable with presentation software, while spreadsheets and internet software left lots of room for learning improvement.
The technology reported most valuable in the classroom was the Smartboard. Most felt it had the most flexibility and student/teacher interaction. Although computers will be ongoing and evolving tool, there are many obstacles that may limit its use, such as not enough computers or out of date computers and software were among the concerns of 66% along with insufficient technology support.
 

"Everyone takes surveys. Whoever makes a statement about human behavior has engaged in a survey of some sort." - Andres Greeley

Discovery Ed- A great tool!

Discoveryeducation.com is a great tool for both teachers and students. It is a website that offers teachers tons of resources on planning  and managing lessons. Among these tools are also builder tools. This helps the teacher create assignments with diversity of learning to a class as a whole and individual students. There is also a writing prompt and quiz builder. For example, as a teacher preparing to teach the solar system, I was able to click on the age of my student's, subject matter pertaining to the solar system, and explore several tools available to my students. I would be able to download video for the student's to watch to gain better visual understanding. I have access to Blackline Masters, which has creative and age appropriate classroom worksheets for enrichment and learning.
Under the teacher's guide you are able to utilize Unitedstreaming.com for inclass viewing which also offers a program summary, objectives, review questions, activities, and additional resources to take the learning further. A great website tool that will allow the "new teacher" as well as the "experienced teacher" plenty of resources without having to spend a lot of research time preparing for your class lessons.

The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate "aparently ordinary" people to unusual effort. The tough proplem is not in identifying winners: it is in making winners out of ordinary people.

K. Patricia Cross

Glog, glog, glog...

Wow, what a mess. At first I thought this would be totally cool, however once I got started it seemed I needed to be a little more techie than I thought. If I used glogster.com's preset graphics or video all was well. Once I tried to import my own stuff not so easy. I was consistantly given a "not a compatable website" error message. I did however manage to provide one link, one video, and clip art. That said, even with few bells and whistles, my glog provides students with all the criteria set forth in the video evaluation rubric. My glog shares all of the information needed to understand "How to Properly Write a Friendly Letter".
A glog can be a great asset for students. Like a Webinar, it can be a great central place to go to learn about one subject matter. It allows the teacher to do some of the researching for the student and focus on what the teacher feels should be pertinent information related to the subject.
 Please, check it out at the following link...
http://momfitz.glogster.com/Glog-2030/
 http://momfitz.glogster.com/glogofabill/ (this one just for fun)

~ Blogging is an art, same as any other method of self-expression. Some are better at it than others. ~
 Hugh Macleod

There's an App for that!

www.apple.com/education is a great website offering technology tools and uses in the classroom. At first I thought, how is an elementary student going to utilize computer applications at home and at school? After exploring the website further, apple offers a tool called the iPod Touch. I know all about this great piece of technology because I own one and my 2 kids play on it all the time. I had no idea that they offered applications for learning from elementary all the way up through college. Things such as flashcards, math games, vocabulary, etc. Schools are starting to utilize these in the classrooms as well. It seems kids are aquiring phones accessible to the internet at an earlier age too. The website also offers podcasts, itunes-U and other creative software supported by their systems. Good place to start if you have Apple technology in your classroom.


Computers have lots of memory but no imagination.  ~Author Unknown

Put this one in your binder!

http://www.ibinder.wwf.edu/ is a website that offers great links and tools for the unexperienced teacher as well as the novice. It offers great weblinks that house a search engine for specific grade level, subject and keyword search. This is very helpful in planning out particular assignments and don't want to spend your time researching what all the different websites have to offer. For instance, when I searched K-2, Language Arts I received a vast amount of weblinks, each detailing what in particular their website has to offer. Huge saver on time for that busy teacher.
It also has a Best Practices link with the same search style to offer the teacher little words of wisdom and went wells...Why reinvent the wheel, right?
Finally, there is a Standards database search. You can still select grade and subject and it gives detailed tools and guidelines to help incorporate standards into your lesson. A great tool that I feel helps break it down for the newby such as myself.  (These standards are according to Florida)
Overall, a great site to put in my favorites!


"If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow"- John Dewey

Storytime help from technology

Harcourt offers a great website http://www.harcourtschool.com/storytown/teacher_resources_menu/menu.htmle

for parents, students and also teachers. It offers many ideas such as poster lessons, Word Wall- lists for primary and intermediate students in addition to how to's, set ups, and vocabulary lessons. There is a resource to help get a writer started, unit home letters, and a long list of other teacher resource links- they give more links, explanations of assessments and training sessions.


Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve.  ~Roger Lewin

Reading with Technology

Raz-kids.com is an awesome website for teachers and students to learn and reinforce their reading skills. Student's can log on in their classroom as well as at home to practice their reading at their own level and pace. The teacher can also track the student's progress through the website's software as well. It also builds confidence within the reader and a great motivator to continue to read.

"Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or the same way."- George Evans

The New Education World

Upon surfing the net this week I discovered a great website for teachers, especially those that may need technology support or help. Educationworld.com/a_tech/ offers several technology tutorials focusing on a different subject each month. This month they are listing 7 tips for using Microsoft Word for classroom management and student instruction. It also offers technology lessons for teachers to gain additional technology support and information.

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn"- John Cotton Dana

My first blog- Day One

Well, here we are, week two of Educational Technology class. Needless to say being away from the classroom for more than 10 years, I am very anxious but also quite excited. You see, I have life experiences I didn't have my 1st go-round of college. Hopefully those experiences will help, not hinder my success in this class. As a mom of 2, and the only real technology I've experienced throughout my recent years is how to operate Tivo; so you see my apprehension in diving in! But here we go, enjoy the ride for what it's worth!

Upon my first 2 days of class I have experienced more of Youtube.com. A resource that is not just for showing my kids those silly pet bloopers or music videos, but experiences in the classroom, good or bad. How I can explore technology in the classroom and show examples of what's yet to come. Learn what others have encompassed through their experiences as well as show the result of the differences in technology devices; photos, video, smartboards, etc.

Life is amazing: and the teacher had better prepare himself to be a medium for that amazement!
-Edward Blishen