final class

From this class, I take away knowledge that I didn't have before. I have better understanding and respect for technology and its capabilities. Also, as much as I hated writing these blogs, I finally understand I guess the importance of them. I can see more of the effect technology has on a persons life because of this class. It was great>>>THANKS

Video day

       Today in class, I enjoyed watching all the videos that everyone created. It was very informative and I learned some interesting facts that I didn't know before. I think everyone did a splendid job.

learning while playing chapter 7

I believe using computer games as a learning resource is a great idea. In my own life, when in elementary school, I remember going to computer class and fiddling with the computer while my teacher was teaching us. I never really paid attention to anything he said. Once he instructed us, to go to different sites on the internet or click on something to open an application, I became all ears.

One thing I must agree with is that with the entire computer learning games that I have played, they all shared the six characteristics discussed in this chapter. These six characteristics are: rules, goals and objectives, outcomes and feedback, conflict / competition / challenge / opposition, interaction, representation or story.

With children, I see now when they enjoy doing something that is fun they pay attention, so if they can learn and have fun at the same time, that’s a plus. With the computer learning games, in order to advance to the next stage, you have to first do well enough on the previous tasks, that is the beauty of it.

One that I find very useful with children as I watch my daughter play them is math learning games. Maybe I’m a little biased towards other subjects because I love math so much.

webquest chapter 6

            If it wasn’t for this class, I don’t know when I would have learned about web quest nor how to make one. Having the opportunity to create a webquest in this class, I was able to develop a virtual lesson plan. When making my webquest, I kept the student in mind, wording the content as if I was standing in front of them teaching. For my webquest, I chose to teach algebra, after completion of the webquest, one is to be able to solve algebraic equations.

            I think webquest are an excellent learning tool ad captures the attention of the students. They are able to interact through technology and use the internet through links provided to help them to better understand the assignment.

            One day I will be able to create an even better webquest that will contain more graphics and more educational tools.

chapter 5

            With students accessing online resources to do homework assignments and write papers, comes the risk of plagiarism. To help to prevent plagiarism, I will show students how to properly quote information they find. I remember when I was in undergraduate school, my teacher failed someone in my English class for taking credit for something that wasn’t his. I asked her one day, how was she so sure that majority of the paper given to her was plagiarized. She told that since we were to upload our work onto the school based website, there is a program installed that automatically goes through papers submitted. This program which scans papers than highlights any words or paragraphs that match with one found online.

            This was an excellent tool for preventing plagiarism. But in order to help prevent the need to plagiarize, student will be aware of proper citing techniques.

blogging as a teacher chapter 8

            Having to keep a blog for this class, it gives me practice to develop another blog as a teacher. Using a teacher created blog allows for me to get the opportunity to attract my students outside of the classroom as well as informative to parents. Students can interact with me online and ask any questions they may have. Being as accessible as it is, I can easily respond to someone when something is posted versus a student having to wait till they come to school to ask the teacher. When this blog site is created, there will be a list of do’s and don’ts to prevent unwanted language, behavior and activity.

Intergration of Technology chapter 4

            To successfully integrate technology into classroom, the thinking of the instructor has to be in order. One must ask themselves how does technology introduced improve the educational goals of the students. Also one must to know which route they are going to take to get to these goals through the many pathways available.

            When I become an instructor, I plan to use technology In my classroom. This will enhance the attention given by the students and simultaneously enable me to get my lesson across. Before I use different resources available to teachers, I will decide which option works best for the students and what I am teaching. Inside  of the classroom, there will be power point presentations. Since I will be teaching math, power points will allow me to present graphs of different problems, such as a parabola.

chapter three

                I hope to one day be able to teach a class without having to spend hours writing lesson plan such as the veteran teacher discussed in chapter three. To do this, I know it will take many years of practice.

            Using the three elements of a lesson plan: academic content – what to teach, teaching goals methods and procedures – how to teach, and learning assessments – how to know what students have learned, it will enable me to produce an effective lesson allowing my students to have a clear understanding of the lesson taught.

            Way in which I can incorporate technology into my lesson, are through several different software’s available to teachers. Some of these software’s include presentation software, visual thinking software, web based diagram and flow chart making tools, and web quests.

            One thing I may not incorporate a lot of technology into is testing. I can myself maybe using it sometimes with multiple choice questions, but not too often. Since I intend to teach math, online quizzes and test wouldn’t be much use to me for I want to be able to see my students thought process on paper for how they came to the solution answer they did for a problem. This allows me to better understand how ,y students think and how I can better help them.

Assistive Technology

        Assistive Technology allows for students with a disability to stay on task with the rest of the class. For instance, students who have trouble hearing, there are microphones that the teacher has around there neck which allows the student to hear what is being taught through an ear piece.

        When looking at the definition of assistive technology, what seems to stick out to me is "improve functional capabilities of individuals", and also "modified, or customized".

        At technology levels go from no tech which is strategy to lo tech, example being pencil grips. At the mid tech levels are calculators to high tech, screen readers.

        Positioning is the best posture for a person to be in for a particular function. Mobility is the act of movement, facilitate movement in various environments. This applies to areas outside of the classroom. Using the positioning of a person to allow movement of the body, allows a boy who cannot move their legs, to experience how it feels to kick a soccer ball by using what he is capable to do.
      
      Assistive technology allows students who have difficulty moving their limbs to play instruments. Technology in education allows a student to be heard who cannot talk, through a voice trained instrument that allows translation of what one is trying to say.

Technology is very important in class and can be very beneficial.  I believe teaching the material first than incorperating the technology is better such as when teaching chemistry. In the video shown in class today about chemistry, I thought it was awesome to be able to experiment on the computer and be free to mix what you want.

webquest

        Webquest provides tools which allows you to achieve a goal. It is a tool that students can use without having the teacher present. It consist of one word made of two parts. Web refers to the internet allowing you to search information and quest can possibly mean to ask questions, explore and assessment. It also allows for an online lesson designed for your students.


       All the words written for web quest are designed as if you were speaking to the students allowing them to carry out instruction. You are to provide specific details, steps, and links. You need need have at least three steps in order to complete overall task.

Wikipedia: Stepping Stone or Main Source?

Wikipedia in my opinion should be used to obtain information that helps to produce highly credible information from other credible sources. The thing about wikipedia is that one is able to add additional information and post the sources of which they obtained this information. The part that adds comfort to users of wikipedia might be the idea that editors control the information. When something is posted that is false, the editors remove the content off the site.

When wikipedia was initiated, it was not catered to students. It was deemed as place of freedom to post information, a sense of utopia.

While in undergrad, I was told by professors not to use wikipedia. But I still skimmed for information on wikipedia to use to find other credible sources and build my paper from there. I was always under the impression due to teachers inputs that this site lets anyone write anything and most of it isn't true. I guess I never really thought about the idea of editors double checking what someone writes because I was already brainwashed with other people thoughts.

I found St. University website to contain to contain all necessary information of the five W's.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words.....chapter 2

       Constructivist teaching method helps to teach children based on what they already know using the knowledge they have to further more knowledge. In chapter two, in extending children’s knowledge of how the earth revolves around the sun, the teacher takes her students outside on a sunny day and has them trace the shadows of different objects. The shadows movements are than compared throughout the day, thus the children are eager to further their knowledge on what is causing the movements of the shadow. The active learning is an effective way of children to learn because they are involved in a process versus listening to someone lecture, reading out of a book or watching a video.

        I am in all support of this method of teaching. While growing up, my favorite part of my day in school was going to science class, biology lab, chemistry lab and most of math class. This is because in the science classes, the instructor allowed us to experiment and see different images under a microscope. We were also able to mix different chemicals and see how it would react. This helped to enforce what we learned through reading textbooks or lectures.

        Math class provided the opportunity to use numbers and find the solutions to various types of problems. Once the teacher taught you the process and steps to reaching the correct answer, we were able to use what we learned, input the numbers where ever they belonged and solve for an answer. When you checked your answer by inputting your answer back in the equation and it was the correct solution, the joy of being able to solve that problem you thought was hard at first was your reward. Also in math, the knowledge you obtained in one topic of a subject has to be used in the next stage. If you didn’t fully understand the previous, you wouldn’t be able to move forward. So working out problems and understanding what you are doing instead of memorization only helps your development.

         When a teacher is able to relate what they are teaching to on hands activities it is a great thing because of the effect it has on the learning process of a student.

Chapter 1 Thoughts

       I found it quite interesting that "adolescents spend an average of 6.5 hours a day with media.", and "Across the seven days of the week, this amounts to the equivalent of a full time job, with a few hours thrown in for overtime." Now lets think about this for a second, when you were an adolescent, do you remember spending this much time with media? If I did such a thing, I would have never imagined that's how much time I consumed. Through a seven day work week, the hours amount to a full time job with hours that can be added into overtime...it amazes me that a person can spend so much time indulged in those activities, but when it comes to waking up early and doing what you need to do, it seems impossible.

       To even further this interesting fact, "According to Prensky, an average college graduate has spent some 10,000 hours playing video games and 20,000 hours watching television compared to 5,000 hours engaged in reading.". I must say, I totally dislike playing video games but the watching my favorite shows on television, I am guilt of.

       This chapter discussed that teachers tend to teach the way they were taught. They use whole group instruction, arranging desks in rows. The students are usually taking listening, taking notes, or completing worksheets, causing the teacher to lose the students interest and fail to engage them. Teachers need to be aware that teaching methods that were effective for them, may not still be effective for the generation of which they are currently teaching.

Believe and Achieve

• Who am I designing for?
• What am I designing?
• What is my final product?

I would design for the students of which I am teaching for they are the ones who are moving forward and those to come in behind. Students would be able to carry the techniques learned onto the next course. Incoming students will take what was taught previous, absorb it and transform the knowledge.

Questions will be free to ask, no one will be scared or feel they will be charged a penalty for asking  question. Implementing "there is no such thing as a dumb question" is priority. "If you believe, you will achieve" will be proven true. "The sky is the limit", I was able to overcome some of the toughest obstacles through believing in myself and you can too. "Never give up", for you will never get to where you want and need to b.

Final product is a motivated student who isn't afraid to try!

                                                                                                                                                                    

From todays in class discussion, I have realized that a person can be an instructional designer but cannot be a teacher, while a teacher has the ability to be an instructional designer and a teacher.