Monday, November 16, 2015
Monday, November 9, 2015
10 The Grand Finale
This week I learned how to create a game for classroom use using only PowerPoint. I created mine using a template from the internet which made the process extremely simple. I only had to input my own questions based off my standard and change some of the elements to meet the assignment criteria. I want to teach kindergarten so I aligned my game with a kindergarten level standard. These games will be so fun to use in class because competition is great motivation for doing well.
To achieve my ed tech goals, I think it is important to stay on top of all the new technology coming out. We have the wonderful resource of the tech sandbox at FSU, so we have the unique opportunity to experience many of the new technologies in person while learning about them in classes like EME 2040. Taking advantages of every seminar, workshop, and exhibition will allow future educators and current educators to gain the knowledge needed to learn about new technology and how to apply them to class. EME 2040 has been especially beneficial for this process since every week I learn new things about new technology and even old technology I was not super familiar with.
After reading classmates blogs throughout the weeks of this course I found it the most interesting that we all have had such different experiences in school. Some of us went to private schools, some public. Some schools have had lots of access to resources, some have had access to very few resources. Simple differences like this shape our perspectives when we complete our assignments, specifically our blog posts. Many of these experiences have shaped how we view and use technology.
I would like to learn how to use the technology itself and the software associated with SmartBoards or things similar. My mom has one in her classroom now and I have seen them in every classroom in Leon County. I have seen teachers use them effectively by downloading games and interactive software for use in class and I have seen them be used ineffectively like a fancy chalkboard. I would like to learn all the uses for them and how to integrate them to the best of my ability in my future classroom. I feel like SmartBoards are the new white boards, which were the new chalkboards. Every classroom will have a SmartBoard, or something like it, and it will be used daily.
To achieve my ed tech goals, I think it is important to stay on top of all the new technology coming out. We have the wonderful resource of the tech sandbox at FSU, so we have the unique opportunity to experience many of the new technologies in person while learning about them in classes like EME 2040. Taking advantages of every seminar, workshop, and exhibition will allow future educators and current educators to gain the knowledge needed to learn about new technology and how to apply them to class. EME 2040 has been especially beneficial for this process since every week I learn new things about new technology and even old technology I was not super familiar with.
Sunday, November 8, 2015
9 Flipped Classrooms, Professional Development, and PowerPoint
According to page 238 of the textbook, a flipped classroom is a style of teaching where the lecture portion of classes happens at home through videos and other resources, and actual face to face class time is used to work on assignments. Assignments are sometimes individual and sometimes group projects. The teacher is present to help the students work through what they learned in their virtual lectures. Here is a link to an online resource for flipped classroom lectures.
PBS TeacherLine is an online resource for professional development for educators. On the page titled Why PBS TeacherLine, the website provides reasons they think their software is beneficial including that you can receive graduate credit, the courses are based on standards and can be customized to align with your district, experienced instructors, and their content is created through a partnership with educational leaders like ISTE. Reviews on their testimonial page were all positive and hit points of the website being high quality and easy to use.
Courses are offered in 1-5 hours, 15 hours, 30 hours, or 45 hour levels in grade levels pre-k, k-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. The categories of the course include instructional strategy, instructional technology, math, reading/language arts, science, social studies/history, and leadership. One of the courses offered is even about flipped classrooms! The courses offered are often work at your own pace which is wonderful for teachers who have to work during the normal school day hours and spend their evenings planning or grading tests. The courses vary in price for enrollment, and for an additional fee you can use the course to receive credit at some universities listed beneath the course descriptions.
This week through the powerpoint assignment I learned how to create a master slide, use a template from the internet, create smartart, and set a picture as the background of the slide. I personally prefer software like prezi as opposed to powerpoint because they are more interactive and interesting to look at. Many of my teachers use powerpoint to put up the schedule for the day or lecture notes, which is probably how I will use it in the future as well. I want to teach kindergarten and/or social studies in the future so I decided to align my powerpoint with a kindergarten social studies standard. I realized halfway through my work that this was kind of silly since kindergarteners cannot read well yet. I decided to finish the powerpoint with the standard I had previously chosen, but I do not see the merit of using powerpoint in primary classrooms.
PBS TeacherLine is an online resource for professional development for educators. On the page titled Why PBS TeacherLine, the website provides reasons they think their software is beneficial including that you can receive graduate credit, the courses are based on standards and can be customized to align with your district, experienced instructors, and their content is created through a partnership with educational leaders like ISTE. Reviews on their testimonial page were all positive and hit points of the website being high quality and easy to use.
Courses are offered in 1-5 hours, 15 hours, 30 hours, or 45 hour levels in grade levels pre-k, k-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. The categories of the course include instructional strategy, instructional technology, math, reading/language arts, science, social studies/history, and leadership. One of the courses offered is even about flipped classrooms! The courses offered are often work at your own pace which is wonderful for teachers who have to work during the normal school day hours and spend their evenings planning or grading tests. The courses vary in price for enrollment, and for an additional fee you can use the course to receive credit at some universities listed beneath the course descriptions.
This week through the powerpoint assignment I learned how to create a master slide, use a template from the internet, create smartart, and set a picture as the background of the slide. I personally prefer software like prezi as opposed to powerpoint because they are more interactive and interesting to look at. Many of my teachers use powerpoint to put up the schedule for the day or lecture notes, which is probably how I will use it in the future as well. I want to teach kindergarten and/or social studies in the future so I decided to align my powerpoint with a kindergarten social studies standard. I realized halfway through my work that this was kind of silly since kindergarteners cannot read well yet. I decided to finish the powerpoint with the standard I had previously chosen, but I do not see the merit of using powerpoint in primary classrooms.
Thursday, October 29, 2015
8 Advancements in Technology
After reading chapter 12, the technology with the most promise for classroom teachers is the 3D printer. Many students are visual learners who will excel by seeing and feeling diagrams or models of things they are being taught about. A quote from page 291 of chapter 12 says, "Three-dimensional printers open new possibilities for educators who want to use models of otherwise inaccessible objects such as historical artifacts, dinosaur bones, math manipulatives, and even molecules for their students to touch, examine, and manipulate." I believe the best type of technology for a classroom is technology that will allow students to experience things they otherwise would not be able to see, feel, or experience.
I noticed that the chapter had similar things to virtual reality, but not specifically things like the Oculus Rift virtual reality helmet that we interacted with at the Tech Sandbox. This product revolutionizes how students can learn in a classroom. Since field trips are expensive and sometimes a hassle to coordinate, having virtual reality software can allow teachers and students to "travel" to the place they are discussing in the lesson without actually leaving the room. This software also will allow students to travel to places that would be unrealistic or impossible. Students in a classroom in Kansas would be able to travel to a jungle in Africa. Students in a classroom in Arizona can travel to the deepest parts of the ocean. Students in South America could travel to the inside of the human body. While these field trips would be impossible to achieve in a normal classroom, they can be done with the help of virtual reality.
As outlined in the podcast, the digital divide is defined as the gap between those who have or do not have access to technology. I am, and always have been, part of the side that has had access to technology. My house has always had at least one computer and internet access. As technology has developed, I have accessed laptops, tablets, smart phones, etc. Every school I have attended has had an open computer lab for use as well. Since I have never been on the other side of the gap, I will never know first hand what it is like to not have technology. As a future educator, I need to prepare to teach to those who do have technology at home and those who are inexperienced with technology and do not have access at home. This means my assignments will need to be able to be completed without technology, so as to not favor those who do. It is also important to allow students to access and experience technology during the school day so they are being prepared to enter the world using technology to their advantage.
I noticed that the chapter had similar things to virtual reality, but not specifically things like the Oculus Rift virtual reality helmet that we interacted with at the Tech Sandbox. This product revolutionizes how students can learn in a classroom. Since field trips are expensive and sometimes a hassle to coordinate, having virtual reality software can allow teachers and students to "travel" to the place they are discussing in the lesson without actually leaving the room. This software also will allow students to travel to places that would be unrealistic or impossible. Students in a classroom in Kansas would be able to travel to a jungle in Africa. Students in a classroom in Arizona can travel to the deepest parts of the ocean. Students in South America could travel to the inside of the human body. While these field trips would be impossible to achieve in a normal classroom, they can be done with the help of virtual reality.
As outlined in the podcast, the digital divide is defined as the gap between those who have or do not have access to technology. I am, and always have been, part of the side that has had access to technology. My house has always had at least one computer and internet access. As technology has developed, I have accessed laptops, tablets, smart phones, etc. Every school I have attended has had an open computer lab for use as well. Since I have never been on the other side of the gap, I will never know first hand what it is like to not have technology. As a future educator, I need to prepare to teach to those who do have technology at home and those who are inexperienced with technology and do not have access at home. This means my assignments will need to be able to be completed without technology, so as to not favor those who do. It is also important to allow students to access and experience technology during the school day so they are being prepared to enter the world using technology to their advantage.
Monday, October 26, 2015
Because We All Want To Be A Ninja
Most people are guilty of using really distracting transitions in PowerPoint at one point or another, especially as a child. This Slide Share gives some basic rules and outlines how to properly use transitions in a PowerPoint.
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
7 PowerPoint, Adaptive Technology, and Web Design
The levels of Bloom's Taxonomy are evaluation, synthesis, analysis, application, comprehension, and knowledge. A person could use the Microsoft Office application PowerPoint to support student learning at each level. For every level, PowerPoint is a great platform to display information. By displaying information you find, you can show what theories you have assessed, compose information in creative way, organize your ideas, apply your knowledge, summarize information, and recall information in a PowerPoint presentation. Powerpoint covers all the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.
Assistive, or adaptive, technology is outlined on page 70 of the textbook as "hardware and software that is designed or can be used to support the needs of exceptional students". These technologies can be reading tools, like recorded books or text-to-speech software. The book and the podcast outline several tools. For computer use there are alternative mouse and keyboard devices, keyboard labels, and screen readers. For composing papers, there are word prediction softwares and talking spell checkers. One of my middle schooler teachers had a daughter who was blind. She had a very large braille typewriter to take notes during class. She wrote her papers on speech to text software as well. The typewriter was very loud when she pressed the keys and many students expressed that it was a distraction. I think it is so important to incorporate ESE students into the classes they can mainstream into. I also think at a certain point the assistive technologies that come along with that can be distracting to "regular" students, like the braille typewriter. Some of the other assistive technologies involve speaking or listening to someone speaking. This could also be distracting. Instead of not mainstreaming the students, I would like to find assistive technologies that do the same job without distracting the "regular" students.
At first I was very confused on how to use Weebly. In the classroom setting the website was not reacting to my commands and it was quite frustrating. At home, the website worked well and I finished the project easily. I learned how to organize a class website and also design websites using the Weebly platform. I will be able to make aesthetically pleasing, easy to navigate, and informational class websites for my future students and their guardians.
Assistive, or adaptive, technology is outlined on page 70 of the textbook as "hardware and software that is designed or can be used to support the needs of exceptional students". These technologies can be reading tools, like recorded books or text-to-speech software. The book and the podcast outline several tools. For computer use there are alternative mouse and keyboard devices, keyboard labels, and screen readers. For composing papers, there are word prediction softwares and talking spell checkers. One of my middle schooler teachers had a daughter who was blind. She had a very large braille typewriter to take notes during class. She wrote her papers on speech to text software as well. The typewriter was very loud when she pressed the keys and many students expressed that it was a distraction. I think it is so important to incorporate ESE students into the classes they can mainstream into. I also think at a certain point the assistive technologies that come along with that can be distracting to "regular" students, like the braille typewriter. Some of the other assistive technologies involve speaking or listening to someone speaking. This could also be distracting. Instead of not mainstreaming the students, I would like to find assistive technologies that do the same job without distracting the "regular" students.
At first I was very confused on how to use Weebly. In the classroom setting the website was not reacting to my commands and it was quite frustrating. At home, the website worked well and I finished the project easily. I learned how to organize a class website and also design websites using the Weebly platform. I will be able to make aesthetically pleasing, easy to navigate, and informational class websites for my future students and their guardians.
Sunday, October 18, 2015
6 School Websites
I visited the school websites for two different schools. The first school I looked at was the high school I graduated from, Titusville High School (Grades 9-12) in Titusville, Florida. This site was posted through Edline as a host. I could not access any class pages since I did not have my own log in. I could only find basic teacher contact info, county wide information, and a calendar. The other school I looked at is called Astoria Park Elementary School in Tallahassee, Florida. I am a mentor at APES once a week for two hours in Ms. Sherman's kindergarten class. I could access more through this website than THS's website. I could see class schedules and a meet the teacher page. There were links to other sub sections, but they did not have any postings in them. It was still interesting to see a classroom website posted.
I really love learning about new tools for my future classrooms during this class. I have used class dojo for an ILP. Through that project I learned that I really like the tool and I hope to use it in the future. I will definitely use the Microsoft Office Suite, as outlined in the Podcast, on my computer very frequently in class and out of class to prepare lessons, rubrics, grades, worksheets, etc. I love the idea of having class blogs through a safe website like Kids Blog. I would love to incorporate Edmodo since it is a fun way to submit assignments and collaborate with other students. I will also need to use obvious other resources like e-mail to contact parents and colleagues. I want to create a class website independent from the school's, if allowed, using something like google sites so all of my resources can be easily accessed in one place. Through these tools I will be more organized in my classroom and more efficient as a teacher.
Through the Web Resource Evaluation assignment, I learned more in depth about how to use google sites. I used it as a platform to post media files and connect it to blogger in my last ILP. It was interesting to collaborate with two other people on the site. The only thing I did not like was that only one person could work on each page at a time, so we would have to take turns working on the front page introduction instead of all writing at once. I also learned about what criteria can help decide if a website is credible. It was interesting to see that the criteria can change slightly based on what age group and subject you are teaching. I hope to use this new knowledge as a base to design a classroom website in the future. I also will use this knowledge to create my own web resource evaluation cheat sheets for my future classes.
I really love learning about new tools for my future classrooms during this class. I have used class dojo for an ILP. Through that project I learned that I really like the tool and I hope to use it in the future. I will definitely use the Microsoft Office Suite, as outlined in the Podcast, on my computer very frequently in class and out of class to prepare lessons, rubrics, grades, worksheets, etc. I love the idea of having class blogs through a safe website like Kids Blog. I would love to incorporate Edmodo since it is a fun way to submit assignments and collaborate with other students. I will also need to use obvious other resources like e-mail to contact parents and colleagues. I want to create a class website independent from the school's, if allowed, using something like google sites so all of my resources can be easily accessed in one place. Through these tools I will be more organized in my classroom and more efficient as a teacher.
Through the Web Resource Evaluation assignment, I learned more in depth about how to use google sites. I used it as a platform to post media files and connect it to blogger in my last ILP. It was interesting to collaborate with two other people on the site. The only thing I did not like was that only one person could work on each page at a time, so we would have to take turns working on the front page introduction instead of all writing at once. I also learned about what criteria can help decide if a website is credible. It was interesting to see that the criteria can change slightly based on what age group and subject you are teaching. I hope to use this new knowledge as a base to design a classroom website in the future. I also will use this knowledge to create my own web resource evaluation cheat sheets for my future classes.
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