Blog Post #10

Blog Post #10

During the PowerPoint 2 assignment I really learned a lot. I never knew how to create hyperlinks to other slides to create games and stories with it before. This is definitely a very useful tool, and I know I will use it in the future. These new skills with PowerPoint will allow me to create better presentations as a teacher, and will help to better engage my students when teaching a lesson.

What I found interesting throughout the semester in other students’ blogs was the different skill levels everyone had with computers. Some people were totally adept in many computer skills, while completely inept at others. It really helped showcase the wide array of uses a teacher can enable in the classroom. Seeing everyone’s computer background and literacy helped let me know that my future students may have never used a kind of technology, and reminded me I will need to be understanding to these issues as a teacher.

I would like to learn more about Microsoft Publisher. I think this is a useful program as a teacher when making templates and newsletters for students. It helps create a tangible piece of information for students and parents to refer to, and allows the quick creation of many things like brochures and permission slips.

I think to learn more about software and programs in the future; I will have to attentive to new technology trends. What will help me see this is by listening to my students, and see what they are using and what they know how to do. This, along with looking at teacher technology sites will be useful in seeing what new technologies I can use. I will also have to take the time to learn these technologies to find ways to incorporate them into my classes, but I think the key is to use technologies that your students will be interested in to enhance their learning and education.

Digital Textbooks and iPad Classrooms

A digital textbook is simply a book on an electronic device such as an iPad of Kindle. Florida already has allowed digital textbooks and online education for K-12 students, and I think that all states as well as the majority of Florida schools will move towards digital textbooks as it becomes more popular and the states allow better funding for it.

One way I might use an iPad in the classroom could be for research. Not only can students find books, but they can access the internet on these devices. This can allow students to quickly research material for projects and other assignments in class.

One example is through the app called Puppet Pals. This can work very well for younger kids and help teachers illustrate a lesson or story for the kids. This app allows you to incorporate characters, animations, narration, and pictures to convey a message to your students. Another example is an app called World Lens. This would be great for me as a high school social studies teacher. It allows you to translate word into other languages which can really help students gain a better understanding of the world and gain cultural perspective.

While I don’t personally have an iPad or a lot of iPad experience, I can start looking up different ways to use apps and devices on an iPad to use in lessons.  While I feel confident I can learn the uses for an iPad quickly, acquiring one would be a great first step in getting my own hands on knowledge of it.

Skills I already have for an iPad classroom are that I can search the internet well, use the iTunes library and book store, and I know how to use basic note taking and procedural apps. I could improve by learning more dynamic apps that will make learning interesting for the students. There are so many educational softwares available to us that we don’t always get a chance to use them. I think that by learning more dimensional apps, I can better engage the students in their learning and better motivate them to attend and enjoy class.

I think that the iPad offers a lot of unique advantages and would be happy using them in my classroom as a teacher. While I may not know a lot, I am open and ready to learn all about the advantages and accessories the iPad has to offer to both future students and educators alike.

Blog Post #9

Blog Post #9

Using peripheral technologies can be very useful and help offer a wider variety of teaching tools for a teacher. Some ideas of these devices I might use are CDs or and iPod with music, and use the music as a means of introducing a lesson. A teacher of mine in high school would often do this, and it was a really fun and interesting way to start a lesson. It was also a way to use a non-computer based technology to create ties to the lesson and material of the day.

An interesting resource I could use as a social studies teacher is the teacher’s page of National Geographic . This source can help provide basic lesson plans and assignments for students. Not only does the home site provide lots of information about different historical and geographic material that one could cover in class, but also assignments about the material.

This resource also provides maps and outlines for students. This can be very useful because they can be used as homework assignments or quizzes; as well as study materials. This site can also help create lesson plans that will help keep the teacher on track with what they are covering in class.

From being in another technology class that was based mostly in using Excel, I am familiar with many different uses of this software. Like the book says, Excel can help create charts on useful materials and create graphs to help students follow material. Excel can also help the teacher stay organized by making charts to use for grading, attendance, and project grouping.  For example, if I were teaching a lecture about US History elections, I could use Excel to make graphs showing poll responses and voter outcomes of the presidents in each election.

I have always been very familiar with PowerPoint. I have always found it useful for creating projects and reports as well as organizing other material and assignments. As a teacher, the tools I learned from PowerPoint can help convey lecture materials and other work for the students.

Power Point Practice! (Storytelling, Jeopardy, Multiple Choice)

Hey Diddle Diddle

Jeopardy

Multiple choice game!

Blog Post #8

Blog Post #8

Presentation software can offer a wide array of advantages in any classroom. They can help students with taking notes and following the information being lectured; they can posted online for students who were sick or missed class; they can even allow for a more interactive learning experience for the students. While this software can be really helpful, there are some disadvantages. Some downsides can be that students may not take notes or pay attention if they know they can access the notes online. Another disadvantage is that if used too often, it may not have the impact for learning that it needs to. It may become boring or routine to the students. Overall though, I really support the use of presentation software.

I definitely fall on the technology using side of the digital divide. I have always gone to schools with computers in the classrooms, and grew up using technology in class. I have also been lucky enough to have a variety of technology at home, and am very fluent with many different technologies. I think the digital divide will have an impact on my future classes. Depending on the school setting, it may be very behind in technology and that will affect how students can access assignments at home and at school. As a teacher, I will have to make sure that assignments and projects have a non-technology option for students without access to computers or certain technologies.

A piece of educational technology that I have learned about in class that I now really enjoy was the Weebly page. It was such a simple way to create a clean and personalized web page. It was very user friendly and helped changed my mind about using a class website. I am really excited to get to know this site better and learn more about it as I go into the teaching career.

Blog Post #7

Blog Post #7

PowerPoint is definitely a very useful program for teachers. It provides a visual for students to follow and helps students keep up with class notes. As the book says in chapter 5, presentations help students create relationships between facts or notes, and create ideas and blueprints for lessons at home. This is important because if a student doesn’t understand something at first when the teacher says it, they can reference the PowerPoint and get a better understanding of the material. This software is something I know I will use and have already seen its usefulness as a student through my teachers.

Adaptive technologies are especially important because they make classrooms a more inclusive place. While I have personally never had to use any of these technologies, I know that they can help students with a multitude of disabilities better learn and keep up with material in the classroom. Like the podcast says, it helps create notes in brail for students, have voice reading programs and much more to help kids. I think some initial challenges may be getting students understand that some people learn differently and need help learning some material, and also learning what technologies will best meet your students’ needs.

This week, I created a site using Weebly. I really liked creating and designing this web page a lot more than that wiki page we had to make. I felt like this site was easy to use, design, and publish. I could customize the backgrounds, fonts, and pictures and really make a unique website as a teacher. While I said in my last post that I wouldn’t create a wiki site as a teacher, I may use this program instead!

Web Design Blueprint

A basic setup of my teacher webpage!

Blog Post #6

Blog Post #6

While I think that a course site can be very useful, I don’t think I would use one as a teacher. I would use programs like Blackboard or other campus sites to give my students announcements and communicate with them, but I wouldn’t create a website exclusively for my class. I think that between other sites and technologies I will use, managing and maintaining a website on a day to day basis isn’t worth it for me. I will use other outlets like email, social networking, and maybe sites like twitter to communicate with students.

To further develop my professional skills, I would use social networking to follow and keep up with leaders in education, as well as education groups for teachers. I think it is important to continue learning as a teacher because one needs to keep up with their students’ level and understanding of technology to reach them properly. I think that listening to education podcasts, following blogs, and experimenting with Webinars can be very useful to further educator education.

For this week’s assignment, we had to create a wiki site for students. I had never done anything like this before, so it was all very new to me. I think it presented a lot of cool ideas like collaborating with other people to update and maintain the same site. While I don’t think this is a program I would continue using as a teacher, I think the skills I acquired from it are useful and applicable to many other sites.  

Blog Post #5

Blog Post #5

Web 2.0 certainly has a lot to offer students and teachers these days. In the classroom, I would personally use something like Prezi to create cool and interactive presentations with my students. This tool is similar to PowerPoint, but offers a wider variety of display and presentation options because it is online. It allows for real-time collaboration with others, high quality display and graphics, and can even be accessed through other social media like Facebook. This can provide a better hands-on experience with kids, as well as creating better and more interesting visual aids to use when teaching in the classroom. 

While it may take some learning and exploring before really mastering the program, in the long run, I think that Prezi proves itself it be a more involved and cleaner, faster, and more interesting way to convey lessons and such than PowerPoint can be. While I do use PowerPoint quite often and probably will as a teacher, Prezi can provide a break from the usual presentations by adding some extra flare and inspiration for the students through its unique designs and collaborating tools.

I think Web 2.0 is very useful in the classroom. Through our class and the podcast, we have already seen how Twitter and Diigo can enhance online learning, as well as build students to be more tech savvy. Other sources like PlanBoard and Evernote can really help keep a classroom organized and on track. These programs can really assist teachers in their everyday planning and will make the time with students more efficient and worthwhile through better organization. I think that the web 2.0 technologies have proven themselves to be a great benefit to the classroom, and the technology will only continue to grow and evolve into more adaptive technologies than it is now.

When doing the Web Hunt assignment, I found that many of the skills were things that I already knew. I have always been efficient in searching the internet and am very familiar with Google. While I did learn some new things like the quote and define features, I found that my usual search skills were more than enough to find what I needed to complete the assignment. I think that the skills on Google Guide were helpful and can definitely come in handy for future students, but I am proud to say that online searching is a skill that I was efficient at before this class, and I have only improved from there.

Disucssion on Open Courses

The course I looked at was CB22x, The Ancient Greek Hero. I looked at this course because I may be teaching World History one day and thought that taking a course like this would further my knowledge of ancient cultures and civilizations. I think that the idea of open courses will motivate some people to learn because it is a lot less pressure to constantly focus on that class because you can take it on your own time with no monetary cost. This can help people who cannot afford a regular class to continue their education, or help someone who is about to pay for a class do some extra, free, studying beforehand. 

Personally, I think that I would learn the same either way. The plus side of a free course is that it is a lot less time consuming and will allow me to move at my own pace without worrying about paying for it as well. At the same time, a class I am paying for is one that I will make sure to learn in and pay attention to because I don’t want to have wasted my money. Overall however, I do think that the open courses is a very beneficial idea. I think this implies to students that you don’t have to pay to learn, and it can be useful whether you are receiving credit for it or not. This tells professors that teaching is more about learning and experience, and less about a necessary step that a student needs to pay for.