For my final reflection I started off by reading what I wrote at the beginning of the semester.  After this 16 week course, I can honestly say that I have learned a great deal on how to use technology in the classroom.  What I wrote down was the basics about incorporating technology into the classroom but now there are so many possibilities.  After the first day, I thought that there are a lot tools that I will be learning this semester and how will they all work in the classroom.  Well after 16 weeks, I can say that all the tools have some place in the classroom.

Reflecting on what I have learned about technology and its use in the classroom; the number one thing that I learned was that technology creates differentiated learning.  Differentiated learning is a great way to cater to all the different learning styles.  Some students might be visual learners while others might be auditory.  No matter what tool is used it will be beneficial to all learners.  To go in hand with differentiated learning I would say that technology is important because it actually gives the students more responsibility in their own learning.  In our last class meeting it was said that the blog is for the teacher and the wiki is for the students.  This really does go with the idea of responsibility.  Educators can post lessons on Wikis and it gives the students the opportunity to learn at their own pace. 

With the countless tools that I learned over this semester, I would have to say that my favorite tool would have to be tie between GOOGLE Docs and Diigo.  I love GOOGLE Docs because it gives students the opportunity to collaborate on a variety of document types.  Diigo is another great tool because educators can create groups for different classes and it gives them a opportunity to bookmark webpages.  Also I love that teachers and students can use sticky notes and put questions that can be answered directly from the text.  Both teachers and students can use the tool to highlight text so the main parts can be remembered.

In conclusion, I want to say that I'm really glad that I took this course.  Also I want to thank my blog buddy for great semester.  I know that the technology that I have learned this semester will only enhance my abilities as a teacher.  Finally, I want to thank Garth for a great semester. 
 
Picture
 Clink here for my Wikispace and my lesson plan.

For the pass couple of weeks in the ED Tech class everyone was to create a wiki that included a lesson plan in our content area.  There were certain requirements that every student had to meet.  These requirements were both content specific and the incorporation of technology into the lesson.  I'm currently doing my student teaching at the MCCTC in a American Government class.  I wish I would have done this in class but there was not enough time during the past 16 weeks.  But in this case I wanted to create a wiki and lesson plan that I could use about the U.S. Constitution and the system of Checks and Balances.  A lot of work goes into make a wiki but I can see the benefits of them.  There are countless possibilities of present content with all the widgets that wikis offer.  These range from a picture to a survey. 

Here is the technology I used in the wiki:
  • AnswerGarden:  This was used to determine prior knowledge about the Constitution
  • Quizlet:  The was the U.S Constitution vocabulary words the students has to learn
  • Wordle:  Visual learner will loves this because I took the Article I of the Constitution to see what words appear the most. 
  • ThingLink:  I used a checks and balances chart for visual learners again to help explain each branch and what they do in this system.
  • Microsoft Word
  • GOOGLE DOCS

Benefits of a wiki:
  • Students both visual, auditory and kinetic will benefit greatly because every way of learning content can be combined into a wiki.  Which demonstrates differentiated learning.
  •  Students are able to collaborate and work together on projects or assignments.
  • It displays the best possible work by each student.
  • Students have the ability to work at their own pace.
  • The widget tool allows teachers and students to have multiple way of completing or creating assignments.

Here are two pictures from the student and teacher page from my wiki:

 

Topic One:  Who Owns the learning?

After watching Alan November’s video on 3 skills students need to succeed, I have concluded that the students own the learning because in the first skill which is students have to process large amounts of information it is the job of the students to sift through and pick out the most important ideas.  It is our job as educators to guide students in weeding through all the information out there.  I totally agree with Alan about his second skill in to work globally.  This is very important because jobs are being outsourced which makes it difficult to actually find jobs in the United States.  If we teach the younger generation the skills need to work in the global community then maybe they will have a better time finding employment.  Alan’s third and final skill need for students is to be self-directed.  There is no need for bosses or management.  This really takes the middle man out and cuts the cost.  No need for discipline or someone to tell them what to do.  In the YouTube video by Alan November he gives three study skills that students needs to succeed.  The first was being  able to process the information which includes organization, being able to sift through the information then lastly add value to information and move on.  Number two was being able to work globally.  Acquiring the skills to communicate with the world to organize, communicate and being able to solve world problems. Lastly, was being able to be self-directed, which requires discipline skills that you don't need managing. After viewing and assessing the video(notes). reading my blog partners blog and Google doc we both agree that the student owns the learning experience. we as educators are to guide and assist  the students in the sifting or weeding process of the mass information that is available.

Topic Two:  What Tools are available?

Picture
One Laptop per child is a Non profit organization their mission is to able to supply laptops to children in the poorest populations. Each child between the ages of 6 and 12 will have their own laptop that they can take home .  The laptop mention in video was the XO that works under stuff conditions, are low power connect to the internet, and have free software.   Wow what a great idea, I will investigate this organization later and share information.
The One Laptop Per Child Program offers low cost, durable laptop for children in the poorest nations.  The "XO" allows the poorest children to use technology that they probably would have never received if this program did not exist.  It allows them to collaborate with other students around the world which is a awesome experience for anyone.  Here in the United States Maine is leading the way in providing laptops to every Middle School student.  I know this might sound expensive the but the benefits in the long run are tremendous.  Educators will be able to differentiate learning if every student has laptops.  For more information about the article I included a link:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25782209/#.ULfwkqzaKSp

Applications:  Cell Phones, Tablets and more...
No matter if students have laptops, tablets and cell phones there a many possible ways in using them in the classroom.  With the help from apps that students can download from the iTunes or Android app stores it provides a great way in using them in the classroom.  There are apps that are for specific subjects or just education in general.  Here is photo gallery of a few examples of apps for Social Studies and Education

Social Tools for Younger Children

blog_file.docx
File Size: 511 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

Social Learning:  With the grow of the social media over the last couple of years there has been a push to use it in education.  Social media websites like Facebook and Twitter allow educators to join of follow people in the education world.   This will allow educators to collaborate ideas over the social learning websites.  Educators are also able to create their own pages so students can join.  Edmodo is very similar to Facebook but it provides collaboration between students and teachers.  It is strictly for educational purposes because it allows you to post grades.  Along with grades it allows for homework to be submitted.  NING is another option to create social media websites.  These can be for education or for other subjects.  Wikis are another great place to have students collaborate and share ideas with class.  Teachers can make individual pages for each class period in they wish.  Wikis can be used as a final project for the class.  Diigo is a great tool for bookmarking websites and even using it for everyday classroom activities.  Educators can put sticky notes on webpages with questions that have to be answered.  This tool also allows for highlighting text to happen on the webpage.  Skype for educators allows teachers to connect their classroom to the world.  Being a Social Studies teachers this really is a awesome tool because I could a Skype session with someone in Europe that might be a expert in the field of Dark Ages.  Flipped teaching is another education technique that allows the teacher to interact more with the students instead of lecturing.  Teachers can create videos that can be viewed outside class.  

Fun Digital Content

The Future

 
Prezi is great web 2.0 tool for visual learners and it is a great way to differentiate instruction in the classroom.  However, it does take some practice getting used to how the program works.  With most teachers using PowerPoint or Smart Notebook for class presentation the transitions to Prezi will be easier then first time users to the two programs.  Prezi has the basic features as the two programs but instead information is put into shapes instead of slides with bullets.   This is a basic Prezi I created about Election Day in Ohio.
Wallwisher is another great tool to use in the classroom.  This tool is very easy to use because it has the same basic concept as Diigo with the idea of sticky notes.  Wallwisher allows teachers to collaborate with other teachers and students by sharing information on the board.  Notes can be taken on the wall and videos can be viewed or even shared.  Here is a wall that I created about lowering the voting age.  This was actually a activity I did with my students at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center.  The students read a Upfront article on lower the voting age.  Following this I wrote down words or phrases describing if they were "for" or "against" lowering the voting age.  This is what the four government classes came up with.
The last web 2.0 tool that I used was Thinglink.  This tool take a picture and embeds text, music, videos and links to websites that can be explored.  It is a great tool for visual learners because it involves a pictures with information attached.  In this case the picture is the central focus and the information comes second.  Here is Thinglink I created for election day to keep up with theme for my government classes.
 
In this weeks class we were to do a search on visual learners. Visual learners are students who learn best from seeing information in pictures, diagrams, cartoons and demonstrations.  This means they learn by sight.  The fact is that 65 percent of the population are visual learners.  This can make it difficult and frustrating for student that that oral instruction.  Personally, I can remember countless high school and college classes where the teacher lectures the entire time with no visuals.  With that being the case, students tend to get distracted and lose interest in the topic.  If 65 percent of the population are visual learners and teachers are lecturing the entire class time then they are teaching to less then half the students in the class.  In the field of education there seems to be tendency or fall back plan to just lecture the entire class period.  Maybe because that is what seems natural teachers.  However teachers need to cater to everyone's needs in some way.  In Social Studies, the textbooks especially are becoming more for visual learners.  There are more graphs, timelines, pictures and political cartoons in these books.   Some of the strategies for teaching visual learners are:
1. Provide general outlines of the material going to be covered in class.
2.Directions should be written on white boards or SmartBoards. 
3. Hand out copies of notes if the volume of material being covered is a lot.
4. Use more visuals in class.
5. Use technology in school to have the students create their own visuals like webmaps and graphic organizers.

In class there were a variety of programs talked about like Wordle, Tagxedo, Bubbl US and xtimeline.  World and Tagxedo are the same program with a few difference here and there.  These programs let educators create visual of certain articles or information where the words that appear the most stand out because they are bigger font compared to the other words.  Bubbl US is a program to create concept maps and great part of this program is that it is free. Xtimeline lets educators create timelines with visuals like picture and videos.  Here is a example a Wordle that could be used in a government class and Bubbl US concept map.  
Picture
Bubbl US on Ohio Technology Standards
 
Picture
Instead of meeting at the university this week, there was a online class where students had to explore on their own teaching standards, ethics and copyright laws.
Topic One:  ISTE (International Society of Technology in Education
The ISTE website offers educator a lot content when it comes to technology in the classroom.  Most the content on the website can be accessed but membership can be bought if you so choose.  Books, journals and podcast are the many materials that can be purchased from this website to help educators.   This website offers standards that educator need to follow like educational skills have to grow as new technology becomes present in the classroom.  The growing technology field not only applies to face to face interaction between the teacher and students but also in the virtual world.  These "NETS" apply not only to the teacher but the students and administrators as well.  The awesome feature of this is that there is a social network:  NING which offers educators the opportunity to discuss technology in the classroom and to bounce ideas off each other.

Topic Two:  Ohio Technology Standard
Unfortunately the ODE is updated their standards but here are the standards from 2003.  The Ohio Academic Standards for Technology are the standards that teachers use when applying technology to their classroom or even lesson.  Ohio's standards are very similar to the ISTE standards because for the most parts educators want to promote students learning through some means of technology.  Collaboration is another similarity that I discovered in my research.  Reflection on my own teaching skills I feel that society and technology interaction is a standard  that I see myself easily accomplishing in my Social Studies classroom.  Incorporating technology is one the most difficult concept to grasp because there is a fine line when the technology can or cannot be used in the classroom.  Lets face it not every classroom has the resources to provide each student with a computer.  Here is the seven standards from the state of Ohio:
  1. Nature of Technology:  Students develop a understanding of technology, its characteristics, scope, core concepts and relationships between technologies and other fields.
  2. Technology and Society Interaction:  students recognize interactions among society, the environment and technology, and understand technology's relationship with history.
  3. Technology for Productivity Applications:  Students learn the operations of technology through the usage of technology and productivity tools.  Students use computers and multimedia to support their learning along with using technology to collaborate to enhance their learning.
  4. Technology and Communication Applications:  Students use an array of technologies and apply design concepts to communicate with multiple audiences, acquire and disseminate information and enhance learning.  Students use a variety of media formats.  Collaboration in done in real time with individuals.
  5. Technology and Information Literacy:  Students engage in information and literacy strategies, use the Internet, technology tools and resources and apply information-management skills to answer questions and expand knowledge.
  6. Design:  Students apply a number of problem solving strategies demonstrating the nature of design, the role of engineering and role of assessment.  Students explain critical design factors.  They critically evaluate a design.
  7. Designed World:  Students understand how the physical, informational and bio-related technological systems of the designed world are brought about by the design process. Critical to this will be students' understanding of their role in the designed world: its processes, products, standards, services, history, future, impact, issues and career connections.
Topic Three:  Ohio ETech Office and Programs
Ohio educators have the opportunity to participate in the annual ETech conference in Columbus February 11-12, 2013.   For every educator in the state of Ohio this conference gives them a opportunity to learn about educational technology that can be implement in their classroom.  Being nations third largest ed tech conference it makes it a big deal for educators.  Some of the programs offered by this conference are internet safety training and Speak UP 2012.  With more than 250 vendors that will be present this will give educators hands-on experience to view technology that can be used in the classroom.  Me personal, I've never attended this conference but if I had the opportunity to go I would not waste this great learning experience on new technology.

Picture
Topic Four:  Ethics or Netiquette
For the most part every school has some for of AUP which stands for The Acceptable Use Policy for internet use.  It is one the most important documents a school will produce.  AUP consists of a preamble, a definition section, policy statement, an acceptable uses section, an unacceptable uses section and a violations/sanctions section.  Parents and student both sign this document.  With regards to online safety students should be aware of what is allowed on school web pages and school websites.  Pictures and student names will never appear on a  website unless a permission slips is signed by the parent or guardian.  Most school has these permission notes and they are handed out in the beginning of the year.  The big thing with technology now is cyber-bullying.   Cyber bullying is being cruel to others by sending or posting harmful material or engaging in other forms of social cruelty using the Internet or other digital technologies.  Students should be aware that if cyber-bullying occurs then the AUP the students have signed will be void.  Which entail no more computer use at the school.  When it comes to digital citizenship there are nine element that apply to technology.
  1. Digital access:  All people should have access to technology to have full participation in society.
  2. Digital Commerce:  Users need to be aware of the legitimate and illegal exchanges done on a market economy electronically.
  3. Digital Communication:  With technology changing this have given the ability to communicate in a variety of means with each other.
  4. Digital Literacy:  Parents and students are working to together to learn new technology while there is push for new technology in these schools.
  5. Digital Etiquette:  One of the biggest problem dealing with digital citizenship because people learn technology but not etiquette.
  6. Digital Law:  Having electronic responsibility and following the laws of society which means not damaging others work online.
  7. Digital Rights and Responsibilities:  A basic set of rule and regulations extended to every digital citizen.
  8. Digital Health and Wellness:  Physical and psychological well-being in a digital technology world.  Eye safety, repetitive stress syndrome, and sound ergonomic practices are issues that need to be addressed in a new technological world.  
  9. Digital Security (self protection):  Users have to be aware of constant thefts in the digital community and how to protect themselves through anti-virus protection, backups of data, and surge control of equipment.
When it comes to netiquette here are the five things that I would teach my students about technology:
  1. Remember the human being which is basic the "golden rule."
  2. Remind students that behavior in real life go hand in hand with the digital world.
  3. Lurk before your leap:  Know where you are in the cyberspace.
  4. Do NOT over abuse your cyber power.
  5. Respect other's privacy:  Failing to respect other people's privacy is not just bad Netiquette. It could also cost you your job.

Picture
Topic Five:  CopyrightCopyright laws are to protect the creator of the work from it being sold or used in a matter that only benefits the creator.  Fair use is a component of U.S. copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without obtaining written permission, purchasing the work, or paying the creator a royalty. Typically, fair use provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work, and applies when they are used for such applications as scholarship or review.  So in turn teachers have some precedent over material because it going to better society so not citations are needed.

 
Picture
Last Friday in class we discussed GOOGLE Docs and what it has to offer to educators.  Before class, I had heard of GOOGLE Docs but really have not explored it further than created word documents.   I have had classes here at the university where professors have used them before but not to the extent in this class.  After going over every single way to use GOOGLE Docs in class I was amazed with how easy it was to do.  Word and PowerPoint were easy because they  are very similar to Microsoft's program.  The only upgrade I see with using GOOGLE Docs is the form template.  With this template educators can create test or surveys that can embedded into blogs.  This is really awesome because most of the students are tech savy.  However, the only drawback to using this in the classroom is that school sometimes do not have classroom sets of computers.  In this case a computer lab is required for completion.  The best feature of this educational tool would be that it saves documents automatically and it allows for collaboration projects.  For instance and student can take notes on a certain topic, save it, then share it with their partners so that person can complete the rest of the notes.  If have not check out GOOGLE Docs please do and it only requires a GMAIL account.  It will change your mind about any other word processing suite.

 
Picture
Twitter is somewhat a new technology that many might feel hesitant to switch to from Facebook or any other social media program.  After being on Twitter for about a week, I can conclude that it is great social media program for anyone.  One might be thinking how can Twitter be used in education?  Well for instance it can be used to follow other educators in the same content area or even educators that deal strictly with promoting technology in the classroom.  I think the awesome characteristic of Twitter is that when a hashtag (#) is used it goes to everyone in that group.  The only drawback I see with Twitter is that when tweeting it only allows up to 140 characters which really limits to what someone has to say.  One rule of thumb is when using Twitter it is best to used a third party program like TweetDeck because it provides a three column organization for groups that you have created.
Video conferencing might be another educational tool that could be useful in any classroom.  There are many free programs like meetings.io, skype, and google hangouts that provide video conferencing.  However with Google Hangouts it requires a GMAIL account to access the software.  You might be thinking cool students can have conferences with each other but the real advantage of using this software would be having a person in any field of education have a conference with the students.  For instance, a Social Studies teacher could have expert in the field of the French Revolution or any other topic teaching the class let say from Europe or half way across the world.  To me that it crazy because it can actually benefit everyone in the class.  Students will learn from the best expert in their field because sometimes teachers do not know everything about their field

 
Picture
All I can say is wow what a great tool that can be used for a secondary educator.  I know some early childhood educators might be a little hesitant about using new technology but Diigo is a tool that might changes educators minds.  This tools allows educators to actually go in a take websites and highlight certain paragraphs.  To compliment this one can add a sticky note with a questions that pertains to the certain topic of the paragraph.  Sticky notes will allow groups of students to have discussions right on the web page.  Another great feature of this tool is that educators can create groups.  Groups can be the content areas that are taught.  It makes everything well organized so students can go into their class periods  or groups to make comments. Being a  Social Studies teacher this is a tool that I will use in my student teaching and beyond.  If there is any confusion here is a video explaining how to use Diigo.

There are countless search engines out there for educators.  However, which ones are appropriate to use for the difference in cognitive abilities for students.  Take a look at instaGrok.  This search engine is great for visual learners because it creates a web diagram about a certain topic.  The great thing about this website is that facts, websites, videos, images and quizzes are all present on the right hand side of the website.  After taking a in depth look at instaGrok it can be a lot of  at first but after you sift through the huge amounts of information then everything seems understandable.  WolframAlpha is another search engine that was specifically made for math educators.  However, this should not deter other content areas away because being a Social Studies teacher this website provides great facts about certain topics like the U.S. Constitution.  Spezify is a decent but it does lack some things for a image search engine.  The results for a Social Studies image search really did not come up with great images that Google might have found.  However, for someone that is new too education technology it might be something to look at.  Sweet Search and ipl2 are two more search engines dedicated to the educator and the students.  Sweet Search should be used by students because every website is evaluated by their experts.  What is convenient for history educators is that there is a separate Sweet Search dedicated for all content related to Social Studies.  Just like Sweet Search ipl2 is a website dedicated to educators and their students however this website provides more options like newspapers and magazine articles.    Google is a great search engine but a lot of features are overlooked like the advanced search feature.  This feature allows any one to change the reading levels needed.  Basic, intermediate and advanced are the three reading levels that come up which helps to find specific reading content for all the grades.  For instance, a elementary teacher would look for content labeled "basic".  In the advanced feature it allows anyone to find any type of document needed as well.  For instance, here is search for a PowerPoint on the U.S. Constitution.  Below is a slideshow of all the search engines discussed and I hope every educator gives them a overviews to see if they are usable in your classroom.
 
Picture
Technology is important in the classroom because students learning capabilities are different.  New and current technology will make life easier to learn.  Because of this teachers need to be aware of changes in technology and imply them to pedagogy.  Most of the educators might feel hesitant by technology because it can be a difficult concept to grasp.  It should not be feared but embraced. 
This is a link to the blog:  http://learningfortoday.weebly.com/

    Author

    My name is Jonathan McClure and I'm a history buff who also loves sports.

    Archives

    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Categories

    All
    Pedagogy
    Philosophy