407

There were so many tools that we used in my 407 class at the University of La Verne. We were taught how to use Picasa and Blogger to show the parents what the class is doing. We learned about Jing and how to make screen casts to teach how to do something on the computer or even make a video. Google voice was another tool we learned about how it can be used for students to transcribe what they or saying or that you can have a separate phone number specifically for your students or their parents. Twitter was never really my thing, but when we were shown how much you can interact with other educations I was amazed. One of my favorite things was working with QR codes, which are the barcode typing things; we made a quiz using those. We also learned about copyright and how we can use creative commons and it would not be copyrighting. I really learned a lot in this class and enjoyed.

Side Trip

Okay, so our assignment was to check out a few different blogs that are on the net. I chose to look at:

http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/

http://anne.teachesme.com/

http://www.thethinkingstick.com/who-chooses-the-communication-tool

I really enjoyed reading entries at all of these sites. They were all informative and made me think. Cool Cat Teacher covered different areas of education. The most interesting thing about this blog is how Vicki Davis, the blog owner, provides links that are related to her post. Anne Teachesme is the EduBlog Insights page, which is written by Anne Davis. Anne focuses her blog primarily on ways to introduce blogging to students and different ways to integrate the internet in the classroom. She gives some good ideas to use in the classroom. The Thinking Stick, written by Jeff Utecht, is true to its name, this blog really makes you think. I found his posts really interesting and intriguing. Jeff’s blog was the one I liked the most out of all of them.

Blogs are a wonderful tool for teachers new and old. For the new teacher’s they can look at the blog’s of veteran teachers for ideas and to know they are not alone. If a new teacher thinks that they are the only one going through something in the classroom and they come across a blog with the same story they can relate and see how that teacher dealt with things. For the veteran teachers, well, really all teachers, blogs are a place to share ideas and new insights with each other. Blogging can even be considered a new source of communication. This is just one way for teachers to use blogging, it is even more interesting to use blogging in the classroom. The way technology works is by opening up more resources and it’s up to the teacher to take advantage of them.

Lecture, Textbook, or YouTube?

Have you ever had a teacher who, instead of lecturing or making you read a boring textbook, let you watch YouTube videos instead? Well, I just did and it was pretty a pretty awesome experience. I’m a pretty visual person, so being able to watch a video while I retained information worked well for me. Then, using the graphic organizer that was provided helped me take better notes. I didn’t take useless notes, but rather took notes the main information that my professor wanted me to know. The assignment was not left at just watching a video and taking notes, we had to show what we learned from the video. To show our understanding we wrote an article and posted the article in a group wiki to share with our classmates and exchange what we each took out of the video.

I would definitely use YouTube watching in my own teaching. If I was teaching a lower grade I would watch the video as a whole class and give the students a simple graphic organizer, probably with fill in the blank sentences. Then as a class we could discuss what we learned from the video. After the discussion the students would write down a couple main ideas that they really liked and we could use these to create a mini book about the subject we were watching in the video and it would be put in the class library, to be used as a resource for the students. If I had some of the higher grades I would ask my students to watch the YouTube videos on their own time. I would give them a graphic organizer to make sure that they take notes on what I think are the main points. We would also have a class discussion, but instead of writing down the main ideas and making a mini book I would have the students write more. I would have them write their reflection in a wiki, that way they can have the wiki and information easily available to them.

A lot of students are visual learners and even if they aren’t students still get tired of lectures and reading chapter after chapter of textbooks. I am not saying that lectures and reading textbooks should not be done, but that they should not be the only source of conveying information to students. Students are going to use the internet and probably watch YouTube anyway, so as a teacher why not use that to your advantage. One enormous attribute to video watching, is the ability to pause the video when needed and rewind what was just said or shown. Being able to pause the video and write down the notes is awesome because you are able to take a complete note without missing the next point. Taking the notes is also easier with the graphic organizer because the students will know what to focus on and when notes need to be written down. Students are being given more and more information, but only need to retain certain things, so it helps to be told what the main ideas are.

Although using YouTube seems like a great idea, it might not be as easy as it looks. You have to trust that your students will actually watch the videos and take the notes. With the graphic organizers it could be easier for the students to cheat off of each other, but a way to nix that would be to have pop quizzes after the videos to make sure that they really learned from it. Then there are also parents to deal with. Not everyone is going to agree that students should be using YouTube to do homework. So to get the parents to understand how useful YouTube can be as a teaching tool, have the first assignment be done with a parent or other adult so they can see how it actually works. There will be parents who complain about not having a computer or internet, but those things are needed to do research and to write a paper. Think public libraries.

Things change, people change, and the ways students learn change. So, why shouldn’t the way students are being taught change also?

Shift Happens...

Convergence.

Karl Fisch and Scott MeLeod have put together this amazing video in which the viewer is shown the shift that is occurring in our world today and how it affects the people. The shift they are focusing on is due to the technological advances of the 21^st century. Have you ever actually sat down and thought about how much technology has advanced in just the past 10 years? I didn’t, until I watched this video. About 10 years ago I received my first sell phone, and oh boy was I excited!

(<- This was my first phone!)

But if I were to be given this same phone today I would definitely be disappointed. These days it’s all about having “smart phones” which are actually mini computers that make phone calls. Most people either want to be on the android network or want to an iPhone. I prefer android. =)

Technology is growing and from the looks of this video, it is not going to stop growing any time soon. In fact, it is going to be growing faster and will be more capable than the human mind sooner than I would have ever thought. It is even expanding into the younger youth, children in elementary school have cell phones nowadays.

 Sometimes people from the older generations do not understand why the younger folks are caught up in all of this techy garb and think that no good comes of it, but most don’t know how to use laptops, computers, the internet, nor do they want to learn it. There is so much good that can come out of the change that is taking place with technology. More and more people are being connected to each other every day, through sites such as: myspace, facebook, twitter, and dating sites.

As long as technology is used for good reasons, it can be a great contribution to society. Because people are so “connected” it is much easier to reach out to a large group of people. Being able to reach so many people at one time can be a really positive aspect in the growth of technology. Technology is being used everywhere from political elections, to keeping in touch to friends, to finding love. If you can use technology for those uses then why not use it in education. Students are always connected to technology in some way and that is not going to change any time soon, so why not use it to “really connect” with students. Teachers can use technology in really positive ways with their students, if they figure out the best way to do so and how to do it. Like with my blog assignment tonight, I almost forgot about it, until I got the text from my teacher! 

                I was blown away by all the stats in the video, but they really made me think about the changes going on in the world and how we need to keep up with this change. We need to use technology in our favor and we need to find the ways to do it.

My First Post

YAY!!!

This is my first BLOG!!!!