Final Reflection

Wow!  I can not believe the semester is coming to a close. It has definitely been a crazy one but so beneficial. I feel like I've learned so much in such a short amount of time, even just in this class.
I came into this class feeling pretty intimidated. I knew the basics about computers and a few keyboard shortcuts, but that was basically it. I had never created a website, worked with Interactive White Boards, Inspiration, or really any software like that. I think I had used iMovie once or twice, but even that felt foreign. I felt so nervous that I was not going to do well in this class because I was pretty behind technologically. However, now looking back, I feel like I should not have ever felt that way because this class made learning new software so easy! It made seemingly daunting tasks, like making a lesson for an Interactive White Board, not so scary anymore. This class made it fun to use technology; it made it fun to explore unknown software and create new kinds of technology-packed lessons.
Now that this class is ending, I feel so much more confident in my ability to use technology in my classroom. I used to be so intimidated when I saw classrooms with IWBs because I didn't know how in the world I would ever use one. But now? Now, I feel like I can appropriately use one in my class! I can create fun lessons where my students can have hands on learning by actively participating with an IWB. I feel like I can make fun diagrams with Inspiration to better categorize lesson ideas. I feel like I can make lessons more accessible for my diverse learners. Honestly, I feel much better equipped as a teacher because I took this class!

Critique of U of Houston Digital Story Website

After perusing the U of Houston Digital Story Website, I am thoroughly impressed. The website is very easy to explore, with different tabs to differentiate between different resources and examples. Different tabs include: About Digital Storytelling, Example Stories, DS software, How to, Educational materials, DS projects, and More. All of the information for how to make a great, informational digital story is there!
I really loved that they had sample Digital Stories. One that I watched was a made by a woman that studied in Singapore as a child and did graduate work in the US. She compared teaching and discipline styles used in both societies. To my surprise, Singapore has an extremely strict educational system with harsh discipline. Competitiveness is extremely important in their society. BUT they produce extremely talented and intelligent individuals who are prepped and ready for the work world. It was a very interesting story.

I really enjoyed exploring the U of Houston Digital Story Website. It has shown me cool new ways to present information to my class! 

Blog from Chapter 1

Chapter one from Engaging Learner with Interactive Whiteboards was a really interesting introduction to IWBs. It begins by talking about what an IWB is and three popular companies that sell IWBs. It then goes on to describe the ways to effectively use an IWB in a classroom. It strongly emphasizes the importance that an IWB is MUCH more than a glorified projector and should be used as such. Then it discusses the instructional benefits to using IWBs and how important it is for teachers to understand this new technology.
The next section in the book focuses on how how IWBs can impact student achievement. There is inconclusive conclusions about how IWBs can be beneficial for students. However three aspects that are linked to student achievement are student response systems, graphics and videos, and reinforcer properties. (p.5) The next section is over the instructional challenges associated with IWBs. The biggest cause of these challenges is that many teachers do not know how or simply do not use the IWBs effectively. The last section focuses on the importance and implementation of teacher training so that IWBs can be used to their greatest extent. The chapter ends with a quiz to test how well the reader retained the information from the text.
Overall, this was a very informative text that provided interesting information about IWBs. I learned a lot!

Mid Term Reflection

Now that we are half way through this class (CRAZY), I'm feeling pretty good! I feel like I'm learning a lot about integrating technology! It's funny that I'm enjoying this class so much because I was really nervous when it began. I thought the material would be really complicated and difficult for me to catch on to. But the class is turning out to be really great! The way the material is presented makes it really easy to understand! I can only hope that the rest of the class goes as well as the first half has!

Wiki Walk Through

The Wiki Walk Through was really informative! It started explaining the basics of a wiki, what it is? who uses them? how is a wiki different then a blog. That information was kind of a review for me. However, on the next page, I found a whole host of really cool ways to use a wiki in my classroom.
It started with general ideas for all kinds of classrooms and then gave ideas for specific groups or subjects ('young learners', 'math', 'social studies',' science', 'language arts', 'other subjects' and even a 'teacher wiki' option).
Under the general ideas, I liked the suggestion of having the students create a Frequently (or Not) Asked Question Page. This is a really cool way to see how students understand certain topics. For the 'Younger Learners' portion, I thought the idea of having a student book review wiki was really great. One hidden perk to this is that it can provide a guide for teachers to see which books the students enjoy. Under the 'Math' portion, I really liked the idea of having students taking geometry have a wiki of different examples of proofs. In most problems, there are more than one way to get the correct answer so the students could show that. Under 'science' I thought the idea of having a taxonomy wiki would be really cool. You could have the students post animals they see over the semester that fit into each branch! Under Language Arts, I really liked the idea of the "travel brochure" for different literary eras. Under Other Subjects, I thought the of having an orientation wiki for students coming into a new school created by current students. This one might have to be closely monitored though.
The teacher wiki page was basically just encouragement for teachers to create wikis so they can share ideas for other teachers to use. This tab was followed by 'Your own ideas ','Take a wiki walk', and 'Good Reasons?'.
On the next page, there was a section on why use a wiki. The subjects under this were Connections, Creativity, Engagement, Interpersonal, Writing, Metacognition, which are all perks of using wikis. Wikis have students engage higher order thinking skills. Win!
The next parts explain how to do a wiki and the responsibilities that go along with having them. Overall, I think the Wiki Walk Through had great ideas of how to use wikis in a new and cool way!

Starfall Evaluation

For this activity, I evaluated the website Starfall. From what I can see and what I've heard from several educators, Starfall looks like a great tool for supporting early literacy.

This activity was really fun for me. I really enjoyed looking at all the different games and activities presented on this website. I feel like I genuinely learned how to evaluate a website through this activity. I also think it's really important to be able to look at a website and do some investigating before trying to present it as good material to students. So I now feel like that is something I can do.

Blogging about other blogger's blogs.

I've read many articles and blogs about the current education system. A lot of people have opinions about our it, some positive, most negative. But I’ve seen that many people who write about public education have never experienced public education by any other way than that they attended a public school growing up. However, there is so much more that goes on. So it was really refreshing to read a blog that has many opinions and ideas about education, and it was written by someone who taught for 22 years and who also has children! Will Richardson has great ideas for teachers and parents and interesting opinions about the current state of the education system.

His blog "Schools at a Crossroads" was really interesting. He begins the blog with a quote about how the US has done so much work to "expand potential" that we've actually created barriers for what we want to become. "It’s not schools themselves, obviously, that stand in the way of progress. It’s our nostalgia for what schools are supposed to be. It’s our lack of a modern context for developing a vision for what schools might become." His big point is that to make relevant decisions about 21st century learners, you need to have learned in this century. Basically, we can't expect children in this day and age to learn based on old teaching models that are outdated and ineffective.

Overall, this blog is such a great resource. It is a great way to refocus on the big picture of education and how to correctly make that ideal a reality. I could definitely use this blog as a way to stay current on events going on in education worldwide. I really appreciate Will Richardson's opinions on education and look forward to reading his blogs in the future.