Final Blog

I was shocked over Thanksgiving weekend when my 16 month old nephew had his Dad's iPhone and was watching YouTube ( Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star).  He even knew how to pause it and start it.  Younger students are coming into our classroom knowing how to use technology.,  We need to incorporate technology to enhance our student's learning.
The benefits to my students and I are it gives me another way to teach a concept and it gives students a hands on approach of learning a concept.  Technology makes learning interesting and it is a great way to motivate students.
The challenges to using technology are costs and having proper electrical outlets.  With all the budgets cuts, it is hard to find the money to update computer labs or put new technology into classrooms. Another challenge is making sure you always have a back-up plan in case the technology doesn't work.
An important lesson that I learned from this class is to have patience and take time to explore technology.  I was so excited to learn how to use a smart board. We have some smart boards in our building and I always wanted to learn how to use them.  I enjoyed taking this class and learned so many activities that I can not wait to use in a classroom!

Online Presentations

1. Jenn- She used glogster poster to present her article.  I liked how the poster was a quick snapshot of the what was important in the article.  I liked how the poster flowed from one concept to the other.  I learned what a TIM observation is and it is a tool that determine where a lesson falls within each characteristic on the matrix.
2. Matt- He used his iphone to present his article.  I enjoyed how he used what was around him to present his article.  His findings of the article showed that technology hits on three different learning styles and that students would rather use technology to learn.
3. Maria- She also used a glogster poster to present her article.  Her poster explained how students in higher education can use podcast.  Podcast can help students relax.  The benefits of a podcast are that it is easy and convenient.

Good and bad Electronic Portfolios

Good: http://durak.org/Kathy/portfolio/teaching.html
This electronic portfolio was good because she had brief, but explicit examples of what she did in the classroom.  She covered the areas that I think are important for a portfolio (home, environment, instruction, teaching, cognitive, and resume).  Her resume was right on the first page and you didn't have to search for it.

Bad: https://www.taskstream.com/TS/rodack1/TaraRodack/SocialStudies.html
This electronic portfolio was OK.  It had a lot of words and had not many examples of technology that she used in her classroom.

Presentation for Technology Article Notebook Project

http://misskohl.edu.glogster.com/using-technology-and-writing-process-in-a-first-grade-classroom-/

CopyRight

I was surprised how the simplest thing can be copyrighted.  I had no clue that you could be sued for copy right violation for showing a movie in your classroom.  Several times a year, we watch movies that have no education value ( it is reward for good behavior).
Yes, it is our job to teach our students about copyright laws.  You have to explain it in simple terms to children and explain that you give credit where credit is due. 

Video Editing

I really enjoyed learning about video editing and all the tools that are available.  From start to finish, our group video project flowed nicely.  We (Lisa and I) easily came up with a topic.  We chose online dating and how people lie in their profile.  What worked? We mapped out our whole project and a part of the video outside of class.  We had a clear picture of what we wanted and we stuck to that picture.  We both said that we would have taking more video of the "date scene". We only took two video clips and luckily, we had what we needed.  It surprised me how easily it come together. 

Video in the classroom
I think video has value in the classroom because it connects students to pictures and sounds that they would not be exposed to.  It teaches children by giving them a visual element to learn from.  It gives meaning to the words you are teaching.  I am teaching a fourth grade reading comprehension and fluency group.  We are reading a story about Giant Squids in Japan.  The outcome I would like to see from showing the video, are the my students have a visual picture of the story that I have read.  We will be about to talk about the characteristics of a giant squid in it's habitat.  The challenges may be finding the right video for this story and making sure it is appropriate for the students.

PSA