Reflection Post

REFLECTION POST

      It has been a pleasure to be a part of this class this semester! This class has been very informational and has truly put to work my technology skills. Throughout the semester, there has been topics that have honestly molded the concepts and ideas I would like to bring forth in my future classroom.

      One of the topics I enjoyed the most was the one that talked about websites and blogs for teachers and students in chapter 8! This topic was very helpful and showed just the immense amounts of references and tools that could be used in a classroom setting. I did an observation for one of my classes and in that observation, the teacher showed me this incredibly helpful website called TeachersPayTeachers.com Below is a YouTube Video by Kayse Morris talking about the basics of this website

This topic led me to search for many more resources that can one day come in handy when I have a class of my own which is why I like the topic so much. It has opened my mind to all the things technology an offer and how many times it as such an easy reach and will only benefit the teacher and the student.

      There are so many things I can talk about in this class that has molded me into a future educator more open to the use of technology. Just like how our book would often talk about, technology is becoming a big part of everyday life and as future educators, people who have been given the responsibility of instructing future generations, we should make sure to offer the best of the best to our students.

      To end this reflection essay, I want to attach this YouTube Video from Adam Lindstrom on how education has changed because of technology and how it has become a vessel of consistency and effectiveness throughout everything that is done in a classroom.

Thank you For everything, Professor Coleman!
Resources:
Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Educational Technologies in Classrooms, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9kdIBlM424

Teachers Pay Teachers- beginners, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CCjaSlDndo

BLOG POST #F

CHAPTERS 6 AND 12

TYPE OF EDUCATIONAL WEBSITES

There are so many resources that a teacher can use for a classroom that are just a click of a button away. These resources can be of great help and can assure the best education of the students in every aspect. This section of chapter 6 was definitely one of my favorites because it gave so man great resources that I can even use in my fture teaching career. From lesson plan websites to archival and primary source websites, the tools to successfully building your class technologywise was all in this section.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF TECHNOLOGY-EQUIPPED CLASSROOMS

In this section of chapter 12, I was shown many different ways of involving technology in a classroom. Through the use of computers, many students are able to learn visually and audibly which provides the student much advantage because they receive more practice in those areas. Another on of my favorite types of technology equipped classrooms is computer labs. It joins the whole class together and makes learning more interactive with both teachers and students. Below is a infograph about the 4 types of technology-equipped classrooms made with PicToChart.com

INVOLVING STUDENTS IN TECHNOLOGY AND CHANGE

In today's culture, techhnology has seemed to have taken center stage in everyones lives. It is crucial that as educators we be well informed of everything that we can possible do with this growing technology in the efforts to offer that knowledge to our students. There are so many possibilities when it comes to utilizing technology in the education setting and this topic brought up just that. There's no stopping when it comes to technology education because that would only limit our student's knowledge.

Resources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

DIGITAL BLOG POST #E

CHAPTERS 4, 9, AND 11

ASSESSING AND EVALUATING STUDENTS
In this section, I found interesting the fact that teachers teach how they were taught. If a teacher was taught through lecture as a student, they will most likely teach in a lecture style. If a teacher received many multiple choice assessments, then t is most likely they will give them more frequently. This concept is interesting because it show that how teachers teach will not only affect the current students they're teaching, but it'll affectother students tht theyre current students will teach.

STRATEGIES FOR USING POWERPOINT WITH STUDENTS
I enjoyed reading this section because it brings up great ideas to involve a PowerPoint in instructions. This has become really common in today's classroom. PowerPoint is a great tool that brings both Auditor, Visual, and Involved work from the classroom. There are so many uses that can be put to work in PowerPoint but the one that intrigues me is the fact that it can be so useful when teaching a classroom of any level and an size.

USING STUDENT PARTICIPATION SYSTEMS
I graduated High School in 2015 and personally experienced the activity with the clickers. This participation system is a great way to involve students who are both extroverted nd introverted. It's idividual work that is put together to create a collabrative assignment and it's an excellent way to present a new lesson and topic.

CONCLUSION
Overall, in these topics I found information that will be beneficial to my future as an educator. From assessing teachers to assessing students I understand the importance of standardized testing, and how it helps determine the area that need to be worked on. I also learned about the usefulness of PowerPoint in a classroom setting. The ability that it has and how it can benefit a lesson is amazing and definitely worth while. Lastly, the use of participation systems and how it can be a handy tool for assessments are awesome. The clicker system is very interesting and can be used successfully in a classroom setting benefiting the introverted tudents as well as the extroverted students.

REFERENCES

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Blog Post #D

Chapters 8 and 10

WEBSITES AND BLOGS FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

Just like in this class, using blogs and websites are handy tools that can make learning more hands-on. Websites offer information and can link you to other websites that can be of much use. Blogs are a bit more personal and allow you to less informal, in a sense. This class is a great example of how blogs can be very interactive and useful in a classroom setting.

CREATING CULTURALLY RELEVANT CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION

When teaching, there will come a time where there will be a classroom mixed with many cultures and ethnicity. As an educator, is important to attempt to give a well balanced teaching that can be directed to many cultures and ethnicity. The book goes on to say that in order to make a teaching more culturally relevant, one must change what is taught and how it is taught. You don't want to exclude anyone and in order to do that, you must focus on different cultural views.

HANDHELD CALCULATORS

Handheld calculators are heaven sent! When taking my statistics class, I saw the ability that these little tools have. Many times we underestimate their ability but the have become so useful in a classroom setting and I do believe that will be more and more needed as technology advances. Many calculators nowadays have been given the ability to do much of the work for us and some of them could even teach us. Through calculators, many math discoveries have been made and will continue to be made.  

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the world has advanced so much in the last few years classroom tools have become so useful for many scenarios. Without these tools learning certain concepts would be much harder and tedious. Thankfully, through the help of the educator and the help of these amazing tools we are able to reach new technological experiences that will come in handy in our future careers.

RESOURCES:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
SecretlyKorean, Toondoo.com, Blog Post

BLOG POST #C

Chapters 5 and 7

E-BOOKS AND E-READERS

Technology has advanced throughout time and will continue to advance as time goes on. It's a fact that has been accepted in education. Which is why we are now starting to see more E-books and E-readers. regular books have started to become audio books and exams have gone from paper to electronic. The online world had become a great tool in classes bringing the e-book and e-reader. The E-book has allowed many student receive an online copy of a book than a hard copy. May people find this convenient! (I'm one of those people!) As time goes on, these tools will advance and become more and more proficient. Although there are still problems with these methods I honestly believe that they well improve with time.

ELECTRONIC NOTE TAKING

Since I spoke about e-books and e-readers, I felt like bring up the idea of electronic note taking. Electronic note taking is a convenient way of taking school notes. It gives the student the ability to find their notes anywhere at any time. Before, writing note by hand were much more tedious. With electronic note taking, note taking becomes easier to manage and makes it much easier to send to classmates. They can be easily used to compare with homework assignments which can be easier than written notes. It's a easy and convenient way of keeping your notes where they're suppose to be.

PLAGIARISM AND CHEATING

Since the creation of the internet, plagiarism has,sadly, been more evident. The convenience of looking online and finding something similar to what you need makes things much more convincing to doing. In the textbook, it shows the different strategies that can be used to enforce authenticity and 

emphasize the wrong in plagiarism. Overall, Plagiarism is wrong and isn't tolerated in a classroom setting and that should be clearly presented to students from a beginning.

Sources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Blog Post #B

Chapters 2 and 3

RESPONDING TO INNOVATION AND CHANGE

If my memory doesn't fail me, I touched this topic a bit in my last blog post. I speak of it again because I feel very strongly about it. As educators, we need to continue growing in every aspect possible. Technological advancements will never cease so our understanding in the subject shouldn't either. Not all technological advancements can be beneficial to the entirety of the education of the students but it is the job of the educator to learn of the advancements and determine their effectiveness. If there is any way of ever improving the learning of even just one student then we need to be aware of the option. In the textbook, the idea of the Rodger Innovation curve was presented as a way of determining the response to change in students. I believe that if proven to be effective in a classroom setting as it is in a business setting than it could be a great tool.

USING TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE TEACHING

We use this on a daily basis nowadays. Before, everything was written on overheads, chalkboards, and paper, now, we can receive PDF files, emails, and PowerPoints that produce similar, if not better results than the previous tools. The new tools being introduced into the learning environment has helped both students and teachers. The students are able to receive feedback in better time than before, many tools are found online and are often easier to access than previous tools. PowerPoint has taken the idea of notes to another level. Teachers are allowed to reach both student and parents easier through email. Administration of a course is a lot made simpler through the web tools.

below is a cute cartoon that shows the use of a PowerPoint in a classroom setting:

STUDENT-CENTERED TEACHING

In the textbook, student-centered teaching is described as the approach of teaching the student in a way that he or she can use the lesson in a real-life situation. It is used to bring the student to a point where he is questioning things he or she never took the time to question. I, personally, fell like I would like this approach the most. The point of teaching a student is not only for an exam, you teach with the goal of the student learning and retaining the material taught. As a student, the only way I honestly remembered anything was applying it to a similar day-to-day experience. I don't feel like i'm the only one. Material is retained through two things: repetition and how relateable it is to the one learning. This approach of teaching is leaning more towards the students future an his or her's ability of using the given information in the future.

CONCLUSION

Overall, these two chapters bring out the options that technology give teachers when it comes to teaching. Teaching tools have become more flexible and individualized to the individual learning the material. It makes things easier to both the student and the teacher and that is something that can not be taken for granted. As technology advances, so should our knowledge on it.


Resources:

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Digital Blog Post A- Chapter 1

Chapter One

In Chapter One, the concept of Web 2.0 tools caught my attention. Overall, curriculum that use to be taught by hand has slowly evolved into Web 2.0 tools. When I was younger, teaching tools were always on paper. Whether it was worksheets, projects, etc. it was always expect on paper. Nowadays, teaching tools have expanded into the dozens with social media, Wiki, and blogs just like this one. The internet has been an amazing tool to expression for both teachers and students! We all have a different style of learning and the fact that Web 2.0 tools offer different medias help those who probably didn't prefer the paper method.  Below is a animation that brings up the topic of Web 2.0 tools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cyVt92UfT8

This chapter also went into "must have technologies for teaching" and the topic caught my eye, as well. In today's society Social Media has become a great resource for teaching (when used correctly, of course.) The book goes into Ebooks, tablets, etc. and all of these are definitely great resources whose integration into our education system is necessary due to the rapid growth of technology in our society. But, have we forgotten the paper- method? I personally prefer the paper method over the technology method and feel that in our attempt to reach technological advancement, we have opaqued the usefulness of the paper method. As future educators, we should strive to provide the best education to all of our students and i feel like that includes bringing back more of the paper methods back and finding a unique way to merge both the modern with the traditional.

Photo Credit to IvanWalsh.com on Flickr

 Another topic that interested me in this chapter is the idea of digital identity. Students will almost always be up to date with the newest type of technology. Knowing this as educators striving to provide them the best curriculum, we should definitely be as up to date as possible with the technology so that we can learn of new was of integrating new technology in our teachings. That seems to be the only way of keeping up our digital identity. Students usually pay more attention when they are presented something they can relate to, keeping up to date our digital identity helps that.

In Conclusion, I enjoyed reading this chapter. This chapter opened my eyes to the different forms of teaching and the importance of maintaining a healthy amount of technology in our schools. As time goes by, students are exposed to newer technology and it is in our best interest to keep up with them.

Resources

Maloy, R., O'Loughlin, R., Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Editon. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Rohem, R., (2013, Janurary 25). Web 2.0 and Education, retrieved Janurary 31, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cyVt92UfT8