My experience with technology is very extensive. There wasn’t a time in my life when I don’t remember using computers. My father is a Technology Consultant at an Accounting firm, and always had the latest technology in our home when I was growing up. We were the first one on the block to have cable TV, a CD player, High speed internet, and DVDs. Not only is this his job, but he enjoys technology in his spare time, such as editing digital home movies.
This is probably the main reason I have the career I do today. I decided I wanted to teach Business and Technology about halfway through college. I got my undergraduate degree in business, and shortly after began teaching at Mercy Academy. After I started teaching I went back to school to get my MAT. This is the last class that I have to take to complete my degree.
This is my 4th year teaching a Computer and Technology Applications class at Mercy. It is a required course for all freshmen. Since the class’s inception, it has been a course on Keyboarding and Microsoft Office programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Publisher.) This however is quickly becoming unnecessary as many of the grade schools are teaching these programs. This year, I have shortened the length of each unit and added a unit on Digital Storytelling.
When I did the unit on Digital Storytelling, the students loved the idea of recording their narration to the movie. It was difficult to get them to understand that this wasn’t a slide show, but a movie. Before Christmas Break they all completed a 2-3 minute story with narration and background music.
In the past couple of months I have learned about many new online resources to use with my students. Here are a few:
o I hope to use flikr.com with my students to find photos that are legal to use in their presentations. I want to continue to reinforce the importance of obeying copyright laws.
o I experimented with creating a podcast with my students. They enjoyed recording their own voice, but since I feel the program Audacity is difficult for me to understand, I am not ready to set them loose on editing themselves. I hope in our new school, this fall, we will have a couple of Mac’s with Garage Band, which I find much more user friendly.
o I learned about how to determine if a website is a good resource for my students to use, and to teach my students how to determine it for themselves. I will be teaching a lesson on this very topic in the next few weeks.
o I learned that most students don’t know how to search the Internet beyond the first few links that come up on Google.
I still want to keep up to date with the latest technology resources available. Once I graduate, there will be opportunities for workshops, seminars and Professional Development to learn about the latest and greatest technology.
As a Computer teacher, I feel it is very important to have computers in the classrooms. It allows us to be more efficient in the way we teach, and exposes the students to some technologies that they will see in the workplace. I think it promotes organization and neatness in their work. Technology makes it impossible for students to use the excuse, “my printer was broken” because they can always email an assignment or print it out at school. Students use technology to demonstrate knowledge in a variety of ways. They can also make teaching aids to help their classmates learn in fun and exciting ways.
Students today are “Digital Natives” and have had technology around for their entire lifetime. They are very comfortable doing several things at once while using technology, and as a teacher, I should be taking advantage of that to get more and more accomplished in my class. If they function better doing multiple things at once, why shouldn’t I design my class that way, instead of focusing on one topic or assignment at a time.
I hope students learn in my class that technology is in the workplace, and it is necessary to be familiar with how to use computers and technology of all sorts. Employers expect a new hire to be proficient. If we did not include technology in our curriculum, we would be doing a disservice to our graduates.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Wikipedia editor hoax
Did you see the article on the front page of today's Courier-Journal about Wikipedia? It says that a volunteer editor for Wikipedia lied about his background and education. He resigned from his position after it was discovered.
I personally don't see why his credentials matter at all. If he is an editor that has been trusted to correct and maintain the validity of the entries, why does he need a degree? Thats the beauty of the internet, so what if he is only 24? The internet doesn't care about your age, only how well you communicate and get the job done.
My only problem is that he misled people as to his identity and background. I don't like people who lie, but he was apparently good at what he did.
I personally don't see why his credentials matter at all. If he is an editor that has been trusted to correct and maintain the validity of the entries, why does he need a degree? Thats the beauty of the internet, so what if he is only 24? The internet doesn't care about your age, only how well you communicate and get the job done.
My only problem is that he misled people as to his identity and background. I don't like people who lie, but he was apparently good at what he did.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Web Quest Memo to Principal
An activity that we should be including in our curriculum is Web Quests. These are activities where students are given links by the teacher to various websites which are used to answer questions the teacher supplies. The advantage of this activity is that the students are guided to the website, so there is no worry that they are looking at questionable content, and they do not waste time "searching" the entire World Wide Web for the information.
The web quest will require the student to read. High school students are "digital natives", meaning they grew up entirely in an age of technology, and are much more comfortable reading information from a computer screen than from a book. By reading from the Internet (as opposed to a textbook) the time-on-task is greatly increased.
These Web Quests can be done in every class and in every subject area. All it takes is a teacher who is willing to search for some reliable and content specific websites and create some questions based on those sites. With the availability technology in the form of the library computers and the mobile labs, there should be no problem having access to the technology at any period of the day.
I hope you consider endorsing the use of web quests in the classroom. If you would like, I can develop a PD on the topic to explain the advantages to all of the teachers in the building.
The web quest will require the student to read. High school students are "digital natives", meaning they grew up entirely in an age of technology, and are much more comfortable reading information from a computer screen than from a book. By reading from the Internet (as opposed to a textbook) the time-on-task is greatly increased.
These Web Quests can be done in every class and in every subject area. All it takes is a teacher who is willing to search for some reliable and content specific websites and create some questions based on those sites. With the availability technology in the form of the library computers and the mobile labs, there should be no problem having access to the technology at any period of the day.
I hope you consider endorsing the use of web quests in the classroom. If you would like, I can develop a PD on the topic to explain the advantages to all of the teachers in the building.
Web Quests and Web Inquiries
A web Quest is using a guide to find information on the internet. It guides students to particular websites and asks them to find information. Rather than turning them loose on the Internet, this saves time by guiding them to the source.
On one of the sample webquests I found this site which may help me with a lesson plan that I am designing:
http://www.quick.org.uk/menu.htm - quality internet information
http://mciu.org/~spjvweb/evalwebteach.html - another webquest for searching for good sources.
On one of the sample webquests I found this site which may help me with a lesson plan that I am designing:
http://www.quick.org.uk/menu.htm - quality internet information
http://mciu.org/~spjvweb/evalwebteach.html - another webquest for searching for good sources.
What it all Means...
I am so excited by all of the technology we have discussed in class and read in the book. However, I see lots of opposition from my administration to using such resources. The administration doesn't like for the students to have free reign of the Internet. They don't like not having control about what RSS feeds the students are subscribing to. Are the sites they are saving in Furl educational (because we wouldn't want them to have a site that's just "fun" saved)? Are the Podcasts they are listening to on iTunes appropriate? Is an Internet predator going to start commenting on their blogs?
There are so many questions, and I don't know if the answer is that we need to keep a close eye on everything that every student is doing, or if the answer is to RELAX and trust the students a little more. If there are expectations set, they should be doing exactly what we ask of them and nothing else. If they are challenged everyday in the classroom, and feel engaged in the content while using technology, why would it be so bad if they had a link to a silly video on YouTube?
There are so many questions, and I don't know if the answer is that we need to keep a close eye on everything that every student is doing, or if the answer is to RELAX and trust the students a little more. If there are expectations set, they should be doing exactly what we ask of them and nothing else. If they are challenged everyday in the classroom, and feel engaged in the content while using technology, why would it be so bad if they had a link to a silly video on YouTube?
Richardson Chapter 6
I can't quite get my head wrapped around how to use furl.com or del.icio.us. I don't think I would use these yet. I need to see someone using it in person before I understand. I like the idea that Furl can save previous versions of websites for later use (even if the site no longer exists). That makes me so mad when I go to my bookmarks to find a website I used last year, only to find it's no longer active! This would make my life easier for those times.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Richardson Ch 8 - Podcasting
I have been wanting to use podcasting in my class, but I didn't know where to start. I have recorded a discussion using an iPod with a microphone, edited it using audacity, and added music. But this chapter gave me a new idea on what podcasting actually is. I didn't ever make the connection about how it shouldn't be read from a script because it is more like a radio broadcast and should be somewhat spontaneous.
I am going to a workshop in Lexington on Feb 22 that is put on by Apple about blogging, podcasting and web publishing for teachers. I hope it will be interesting and I will learn more about how I can use podcasting in my class.
I will write more about how the workshop goes later.
I am going to a workshop in Lexington on Feb 22 that is put on by Apple about blogging, podcasting and web publishing for teachers. I hope it will be interesting and I will learn more about how I can use podcasting in my class.
I will write more about how the workshop goes later.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Wikis
I decided to try my hand at editing our digitalstorytelling Wiki. I added a page and some information on that page. I can't picture in my head how the structure of this will work, so I will just see what happens to the content that I have added. I think the chapter in the Richardson book has great information about Wikipedia, some of which I am going to share with my students. I don't think they understand where that information comes from. I think that the facts about the Tsunami information arriving on Wikipedia so quickly is very interesting! I also would like to browse and see if I have anything to add to Wikipedia!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
The Digital Story Brainstorm
The last digital story I made was last summer when I took Sara Kajder's class. I was pregnant at the time and was going to be on maternity leave for the first quarter of the school year. I made a digital story to introduce myself to my students. My substitute showed it to them on the first day of school.
I would like to make another story that I could use with my students. When I have them do Digital Stories I also give them a broad topic (basically they can do any topic they wish) but I tell them it should be something important to them. I am thinking about doing another story to show as an example, but drastically different subject. I don't want it to be a personal story, because they all do stories about their grandparents, friends, etc. But I would like to have a different kind of example to show them. I may have to take pictures for this movie, instead of using photos I already have.
I could do a story about the procedures of the classroom, I could show them this at the beginning of the year, and that would help them to remember the procedures to follow. I definatly want the audience for my movie to be my students (freshmen).
Process:
Script
Storyboard
Import Images
Order Images
Add Transitions and Effects
Record Narration
Sync images and audio
I would like to make another story that I could use with my students. When I have them do Digital Stories I also give them a broad topic (basically they can do any topic they wish) but I tell them it should be something important to them. I am thinking about doing another story to show as an example, but drastically different subject. I don't want it to be a personal story, because they all do stories about their grandparents, friends, etc. But I would like to have a different kind of example to show them. I may have to take pictures for this movie, instead of using photos I already have.
I could do a story about the procedures of the classroom, I could show them this at the beginning of the year, and that would help them to remember the procedures to follow. I definatly want the audience for my movie to be my students (freshmen).
Process:
Script
Storyboard
Import Images
Order Images
Add Transitions and Effects
Record Narration
Sync images and audio
Week 4 Articles
In the first article, "Synching up with the Kid" by Josh McHugh, I thought what he said was very true, but discouraging at the same time. I believe we have been trying to lengthen the students attention spans, but what this article is saying is we should change our teaching style to accomodate them. I think the part that mentioned the LeapFrog company and how they design products that change every 7 seconds is interesting.
I went to a AECT Conference (Association for Educational Communications and Technology) in Fall 2005 and that was the topic of one of the sessions I attended. The presenter talked about the new generation's familiarity with technology and multi-tasking ability. The presenter included all children born in 1980 and after in this group, but I was born in 1980 and I don't think this generation was born until 1984 or 1985, based on experience with my younger siblings and the students that I have taught since 2003. He spoke that teachers shouldn't expect students to concentrate on one topic at a time. We should throw many things at them because that is what they are used to and comfortable with. It is going to take me a while to figure out exactly how to challenge the students in this way. I think having them do blogs and other technology applications will offer students a way to learn that they understand.
In the second article, "Adopt and Adapt" by Mark Prensky, he discusses how we are not using technology to the fullest extent. We are using technology to do things we normally did without technology such as organizing and filing lesson plans. We need to move beyond and see the full capacity of the uses of technology and not only how much time it can save us, but how we can be more effective teachers with technology.
I have always agreed that technology needs to be integrated into the curriculum, and I am trying to do that a little with my class website. Students can turn in assignments via email and check the webpage for information when they are absent. I hope to do more integration with blogs and RSS aggregators in my class next year.
I went to a AECT Conference (Association for Educational Communications and Technology) in Fall 2005 and that was the topic of one of the sessions I attended. The presenter talked about the new generation's familiarity with technology and multi-tasking ability. The presenter included all children born in 1980 and after in this group, but I was born in 1980 and I don't think this generation was born until 1984 or 1985, based on experience with my younger siblings and the students that I have taught since 2003. He spoke that teachers shouldn't expect students to concentrate on one topic at a time. We should throw many things at them because that is what they are used to and comfortable with. It is going to take me a while to figure out exactly how to challenge the students in this way. I think having them do blogs and other technology applications will offer students a way to learn that they understand.
In the second article, "Adopt and Adapt" by Mark Prensky, he discusses how we are not using technology to the fullest extent. We are using technology to do things we normally did without technology such as organizing and filing lesson plans. We need to move beyond and see the full capacity of the uses of technology and not only how much time it can save us, but how we can be more effective teachers with technology.
I have always agreed that technology needs to be integrated into the curriculum, and I am trying to do that a little with my class website. Students can turn in assignments via email and check the webpage for information when they are absent. I hope to do more integration with blogs and RSS aggregators in my class next year.
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