Journal 9 NETS-T 1

I read an analyzed an article relating to technology in education, and I provided a summary/response to it, along with proposed questions and answers.

Ferrell, K. (2010). A book report your students will love. Learning & Leading with Technology, Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-december-january-2010.aspx

Summary:  Book reports are a common assignment in school, and I think we can all agree that they were usually a pretty mundane task.  Keith Ferrell, a teacher, proposes a more creative way of completing these reports.  His inspiration was from when he was in school, and his teacher allowed the students to deliver their book reports in any way they like.  He and his partner decided to do a puppet show.  He has always remembered how fun this was, and has now brought it into his classroom.  To get his students interested in the book report, he has them create trailers for them.  Through Microsoft Word they first create a table, making a story board that lists the different aspects of the book they find interesting and key topics.  They then add flickr photos that match the key elements to the book.  Lastly, they use Windows MovieMaker to create the trailers. They upload their photos and create transitions, along with adding music.  Through this project they not only learn about their book, but also learn skills on Word, Flickr, Windowns MovieMaker, and SoundzAbound.  On viewing day the students eat popcorn while watching all of their trailers.  They have the opportunity to reflect on each others work and have some fun.

Q1:  Is this project solely useful for book reports?

A1:  No!  This style of project could be incorporated into many different fields of education.  History classes could create trailers on different historical events, or people.  Chemistry students could create a trailer about an experiment they conducted, or on some of the different elements.  Also, art students could make a trailer on a specific artist, type of art, or style.  The possibilities are endless.

Q2:  Would it be expensive to create these types of projects?

A2:  Although this assignment does require computer usage, most teachers can allocate class time for library use,  Students also have access to the school computers throughout school hours.  The programs used like Flickr and Windows Movie Maker are free, but students must be cautious to cite their sources.  This is always a good habit to practice.

Journal 8 NETS-T 1

I read an analyzed an article relating to technology in education, and I provided a summary/response to it, along with proposed questions and answers.

Newkirk-Smith, M. (2010-2011). Cross-continental collaboration. Learning and Leading, Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-december-january-2010.aspx

Summary:  Mishele Newkirk-Smith is a professor who developed a yearlong international project for her environmental science students.  The project was called Fire and Ice, and allowed her students to discuss environmental issues with students from England, Canada, Brazil, and Burkina Faso.  The online project allowed her students to get to know people in these areas, share information, and try to find a solution to environmental issues.  After quickly learning how to use the computers, the students learned about the people they were connecting with.  Through this project, they got to see that, although they come from very different places, they have similar environmental issues.  At the end of their project they proposed solutions to each other, and gave feed back.  The students were very engaged in this creative project.

Q1:  What are other ways in which this project can benefit the students?

A1:  Through this project the students learned about environmental factors in different regions.  Having contact with people around the world can benefit the students in many other ways.  One, for example, is that they are learning about geography, seeing on the map where their new friends are from, and being able to relate information to that area.  They are also learning computer skills, practicing basic navigation skills as well as different tools.

Q2:  What other topics could students learn about through this type of communication?

A2:  This project was specifically focusing on environmental factors in different parts of the world, but the possibilities are endless.  Students could inform each other about current events that are happening, celebrations, the economy, politics, language, culture, or rites-of-passages to name a few.  The lesson can be specific to the course, and can be manipulated in any fashion.

Journal 6 NETS-T 2

I read an analyzed an article relating to technology in education, and I provided a summary/response to it, along with proposed questions and answers.

Rebora, A. (2010). Change agent. Education Week, 4(1), Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01richardson.h04.html?cmp=clp-edweek&intc=bs&sms_ss=delicious&at_xt=4cb7dc75d0303b73,0

Summary/reflection:  I found this interview with Will Richardson very interesting, and found myself agreeing with many of his statements.  I see him as a professional who is embracing the fact that technology is becoming more and more prevalent  and can be highly beneficial if used properly in the education world.

He first discusses the importance of being "Googleable".  This means that you have put yourself out into the web and are now findable.  He says that people are going to Google your name, so you should have a positive web based profile online.  I thought this was very interesting, so I decided to Google my name, Christine Turner, and see what comes up.  I am not the highly decorated Brigadier General  of the United States Air Force that first comes up, nor am I the department chair at Portland State University.  She is actually in the department of art therapy and counseling department, which is a field of interest to me.  My boyfriend and I have also been talking about moving to Portland.  I think it would be hilarious if we did move there and I was a student in her program.  I'd have to get a good grade having the same exact name as the director right?  There was also a Christine M Turner in Carlsbad, which is the same middle initial as me.  As these results show, I am currently not "Googleable" according to Richardson.

I agree with is statement that technology is a "huge culture shift" and that you should share your information with others.  Information should especially be shared during this time of newly incorporating technology into the classroom.  I look to my peers in my classes for advice, so why shouldn't teachers?  Richardson states that in order to make the transition into the classroom, it shouldn't be seen as a 1 unit class, but instead of making it a shift in the way we do things.  I think the easy way out would be to make it a class, as opposed to a way of education.

The topic in the interview that I couldn't have agreed more with is when Richardson is discussing how we should focus more on developing the learning process, as opposed to spitting out the right answer.  In the work place I've found and heard that it's not about knowing how to do everything, but knowing how to work with others, use critical thinking, and use means to find the answer.  Through my schooling I have learned the art of memorization.  It sounds silly, but I really do have a few different techniques to pass this style of test.  Unfortunately, as Richardson states, most people are totally focused on test scores, instead of how you use different skills.  I agree with Alfie Kohn's views on teaching, and think Richardson would too.

Q1: Do we really need to promote web-based learning when children are tech-savvy already?

A1:  Yes, I believe so.  As Richardson pointed out, although children are more comfortable with computers, it's largely based on social networking.  It's great that children are growing up to be comfortable with technology, now we have to teach them how to use it to their advantage.  Why only learn from your handful of teachers when you can learn from people all over the world?  Teaching how to use technology to our advantage will help students create their PLN.

Q2:  How can we incorporate technology into the classroom?

A2:  I think it will be difficult to use technology to our full advantage when education is stuck in the same testing routine.  I think that if schools wanted to start off slow, they could have the staff start building their PLN, and then all be a part of each others networks.  Then they could share information, helpful tools, and tips for what they found works and doesn't.

Inspiration NETS-T 3

Using the program Inspiration9, I created a graphic organizer showing what class assignments or programs used relate to the NETS-T standards. To make it visually pleasing, I changed background color, font colors, and added fun graphics. Using different colors not only added to the visual effects of the diagram, but also helped make it easy to follow.

Journal 7: My Personal Learning Network NETS-T 5

I added to my personal learning network (PLN) through the use of Twitter, Delicious, and the Educators PLN.  I added people to my Twitter and Delicious networks who I felt had similar professional interests as me, and who I felt I could learn from.  Through Twitter, I followed an educational chat for kindergarten teachers.  I also tagged useful sites through Delicious which I can access on any computer.  A digital discussion forum I joined was the Educators PLN, which is a great source for videos, articles and blogs.

1. My PLN: My personal learning network is a way for me to connect with individuals all over the world who have similar interests as me such as education, speech and language pathology, creative tools for learning, and technology in the classroom. By using many different sites such as Twitter, Delicious, Wikis, and Blogs, I can learn from others as well as contribute to discussions. Once I am a teacher, I will be able to use the resources I have through my PLN to learn teaching strategies, correspond with other teachers, and keep up-to-date on current events in the teaching world.

2. How I Use Twitter: I have been using Twitter as a way to 'follow' people with common interests who I think I could learn from. Twitter is a good tool for learning from others, as well as passing on information you find helpful. The more I follow, re-tweet, and tweet the larger my PLN will grow.

Inside My Network: So far I have six people in my network who I feel I could learn from. The people in my network include teachers/principals, people in the speech and language pathology (SLP) field, as well as special education professionals.

A teacher, Jeffery Heil, and a principal, Gino Bondi, are two professionals I am following because they are both interested in how to incorporate technology into the classroom. I see the importance of keeping up-to-date on current technology, and feel that I could find useful information on this through these two instructors.

To learn more about SLP, I followed Stuart Russell and a site called Kidslanguage. Russell created a site named Speech-Language, which is an online community for speech language pathologists around the world. Kidslanguage was created by a SLP who provides language resources for parents and professionals. These are both great sources of information regarding my field, and exploring their sites will help me learn about the profession.

Dennise Goldberg and Autism Classroom are two people I'm following on Twitter to learn about special education, specifically autism. Goldberg offers special ed advise, and the classroom gives free teaching materials, training, and information for parents and educators. This can help me as a speech therapist be more understanding of students in the autism spectrum.

Educational Chat:  I participated in an education chat list through Twitter named #kinderchat.  This is a chat room for kindergarten teacher to share ideas and information on a given topic.  I was excited to hear what the topic was, expecting it to be informative or useful.  I was a bit disappointed with the evening's topic because it was: "Teacher Gifts: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly! Will the Real Best Teacher in the World Please Stand Up!".  This whole discussion was literally about what presents the teachers had received from students, and how they feel about getting presents.  I didn't find this discussion very rewarding.  Before they dove into the topic, however, they did ask for people to make introductions including what projects they were working on in their classrooms.  One teacher said they are working on a cross-grade project with grade 11's.  The kindergarten students drew superhero's and the grade 11's are writing stories about them.  They are then going to Skype in the story.  I thought this was a great way to use technology in the classroom while making it fun.

3. Delicious Use: I used delicious as a way to bookmark useful online pages. The great thing about using delicious is that I can access my bookmarks on any computer, so this is very helpful for when I have a home computer, lap top, and a work or school computer.

My Network: I looked for people to put in my network who had common tags of 'education,' 'speech,' 'language,' 'research' etc. I can use my Delicious network throughout my schooling and teaching career to keep track of useful sites and people. Two professors I added to my network are Jeffery Heil and JBrown, both interested in introducing technology into the classroom. Brown focuses on introducing it into special education classrooms, which is an area of interest to me. A user who had the name tls161 was also added to my network because they had tags like web 2.0 along with interesting posts. One post by them which I thought would be helpful as a teacher is a post on ClickSpecialED, which is a great site giving tools and information on 7 "rooms", including news room, approaches to learning room, therapists and specialists room etc. I also added two people who had top tags such as 'speech,' 'language,' 'reading,' and 'research'. These were Erin Narwell and Tom Lawrence. Naswell had an interesting post on a computer based program designed to help students with phonetics. SLP often focus a lot on this to help students with their reading along with pronunciation of sounds. With all of these people added to my Delicious network, I can look to them for information to better my career.

What I tagged PLN: Through Delicious I tagged five different sites that I thought would help build my PLN. I wanted to focus on areas such as education, speech therapy, creativity. I first tagged a site called "Click Special ED", which is a site that gives tools and information on news, approaches to learning, and specialists to name a few. I then tagged the site "This Week in Education Blog", where I could learn about the latest news in education. It has a wide range of posts and comments regarding the world of education. I think it's important for an educator to stay up-to-date with education current events, and this is a good way that I could do that. Third, I tagged "The Writings of Lee Kraus", which is an educational blog focusing on creativity, innovation, collaboration, technology, and elearning. This is right up my alley because it brings fun and creative learning tools into the classroom. One post I found interesting was on the history of visual thinking where it shows a video that shows how to improve learning through visual thinking. Lastly, to focus specifically on SLP, I tagged "Mommy Speech Therapy" and "Speech-Language Pathology Sharing". These are both blogs where useful information is shared.

4. Digital Discussion: I read a blog post on Educators PLN titled "How does a teacher's attitude towards creativity affect student creativity?" by Cynthia Brandt. She was reaching out to others for advice on her situation. She is a first grade teacher and has a hard time with perfection issues. She explained that growing up her parents demanded perfection from her, and now expects that from herself. She sees how this view on herself is hindering her ability to allow her students to be fully creative. She got a large amount of responses, which drew me to this post. She got advice from a lady named Marisa Constantinedes, who suggested she read her artice "The Art of Being Creative. This article includes topics such as: What is involved in the graphic process, Why are we unable to think creatively, and Activities promoting fluency, to name a few. Seeing how many helpful responses she received, many including links, showed me the benefit of blogging and how it can help me as a future educator.

Cybersafety Site NETS-T 4

This informative website on cyber safety was created through Google Sites. It discusses 6 major topics in cyber safety: cyber bullying, cyber predators, identity safety, inappropriate content, piracy and plagiarism, and social networks. Each topic includes a video, and tips for both students and teachers.

Link to site

Web 2.0 Tools for educators Wiki "Mindomo" NETS-T 3

I created a wiki website that explained a new educational tool I learned about. I found the tool Mindomo on a website named 'Cool Tools for Schools'. This cool tool allowed me to create a colorful and creative mind map, which could be used by both teachers and students in school.

Live link to my wiki: Mindomo