Monday, April 17, 2017
ILP 2: Design
As a future educator, it is important to understand how to correctly use digital video editing tools, such as iMovie. iMovie, along with other video editing softwares, allows information and graphics to be displayed in such a way that keeps the audience entertained. When my family decided to travel to San Francisco this winter, I made sure to capture videos on our GoPro, knowing that I would eventually put these clips together and make a short video showcasing our trip - this video can be seen below.
Although this video would not necessarily be considered "educational", it utilizes many aspects offered in the iMovie software and could be used as a future example for students on how to create iMovie videos properly.
Sunday, April 9, 2017
Blog Post #10
If my plan to become a teacher actually follows through, then I will be using both data collection and reporting tools to better enhance my classroom experience. The data collection tool, also known as a survey, will be used to gain better insight into how my students are feeling about different assignments, tests, or just the class in general. The best part about many of these surveys is that they have the option of being anonymous, thus allowing students to share their feelings without being intimidated or worried about any possible consequences. The reporting tool, also known as Excel, will be used to record my student's grades and attendance records. Growing up, many of my teachers kept a grade book full of this information, but with the resources now present in today's society, I believe that creating an Excel spreadsheet with this information would be beneficial to both myself as a teacher and my students.
To be honest, the best part about reviewing my classmates' blogs would have to be learning about the topics from different perspectives. Although we all were given the same journal prompts, everyone has a different past experience and a different mindset, thus allowing each blog post to be unique in its own way. I also enjoyed looking at the images posted on the blog posts regarding the different assignments we had to complete - my favorite was seeing how everyone designed their interactive PowerPoints differently!
If I were to pick one technological tool to perfectly master, then I would have to pick Excel, mainly because it is one of the trickier softwares developed and is crucial to understanding as a teacher. However, as society grows and more technologies are created, I believe that it would be more beneficial to be aware of all of the tools available in the classroom rather than just mastering one - if you know enough information about every tool available to you as a teacher, then you will be quick to learn the quirks of said tool and master as many of the tools as possible.
To be honest, the best part about reviewing my classmates' blogs would have to be learning about the topics from different perspectives. Although we all were given the same journal prompts, everyone has a different past experience and a different mindset, thus allowing each blog post to be unique in its own way. I also enjoyed looking at the images posted on the blog posts regarding the different assignments we had to complete - my favorite was seeing how everyone designed their interactive PowerPoints differently!
If I were to pick one technological tool to perfectly master, then I would have to pick Excel, mainly because it is one of the trickier softwares developed and is crucial to understanding as a teacher. However, as society grows and more technologies are created, I believe that it would be more beneficial to be aware of all of the tools available in the classroom rather than just mastering one - if you know enough information about every tool available to you as a teacher, then you will be quick to learn the quirks of said tool and master as many of the tools as possible.
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Blog Post #9
The "Flipped Classroom" is an innovative blended delivery model structured through the use of online lectures. Teachers are using a wide range of technologies to record and share their instructions for purposes outside of the classroom. The "Flipped Class Network" website offers examples of different models utilized by teachers, along with tutorials for uploading certain material, and can be found here: http://flippedlearning.org.
According to the podcast, "open education" is all about making educational experiences available to a wide audience. Historically, learners are bound by geography - the "open education" movement has changed this. Similarly, "open source" is a term that refers to software specifically made available for anyone to access. To find more information on this topic, beyond the given podcast, click here: https://opensource.com/resources/what-open-education.
From the previous PowerPoint assignments, I have discovered the importance of making presentations aesthetically pleasing and how to properly utilize the animation features. The only change I would make to my first assignment, however, would have been to spend more time on the actual content of the presentation. Besides that, I think I did a pretty good job. The screenshots of both assignments can be found below.
According to the podcast, "open education" is all about making educational experiences available to a wide audience. Historically, learners are bound by geography - the "open education" movement has changed this. Similarly, "open source" is a term that refers to software specifically made available for anyone to access. To find more information on this topic, beyond the given podcast, click here: https://opensource.com/resources/what-open-education.
From the previous PowerPoint assignments, I have discovered the importance of making presentations aesthetically pleasing and how to properly utilize the animation features. The only change I would make to my first assignment, however, would have been to spend more time on the actual content of the presentation. Besides that, I think I did a pretty good job. The screenshots of both assignments can be found below.
Monday, March 20, 2017
Blog Post #8
During our field trip to the Assistive Technology Lab, we got to witness and experience many different types of technology that could be useful to students with disabilities - these technologies ranged from braille typewriters to speak-to-text computer programs. One of the smaller, but still essential, tools that we got to see was the different colored keyboards used by colorblind students. A picture of one of these keyboards can be seen below.
Bloom's Taxonomy, as understood by Google, is a set of models used to classify educational learning objectives - knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. You might use PowerPoint to support student knowledge by providing basic details and definitions on each slide, to support comprehension by providing explicit examples for said definitions, to support application by asking "what if" scenarios, to support analysis by asking specific discussion questions, to support synthesis by comparing the topic to another relevant issue that the audience may better understand, and to support evaluation by providing valid feedback at the end of the PowerPoint and/or discussion.
Chapter twelve pushes teachers to be the "driving force" of technology innovation in education, and the only way to be this "force" is for teachers to be aware of the educational tools that surround them. Honestly, when asked to provide a website that allows users to stay updated with technology trends, the first website that comes to mind is Twitter. Since Twitter is utilized in this course, we all understand the communication aspects it gives its audience. However, if you follow the right users, Twitter can open a world full of technology updates and upcoming educational tools. A picture from my educational Twitter page can be seen below.
Bloom's Taxonomy, as understood by Google, is a set of models used to classify educational learning objectives - knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. You might use PowerPoint to support student knowledge by providing basic details and definitions on each slide, to support comprehension by providing explicit examples for said definitions, to support application by asking "what if" scenarios, to support analysis by asking specific discussion questions, to support synthesis by comparing the topic to another relevant issue that the audience may better understand, and to support evaluation by providing valid feedback at the end of the PowerPoint and/or discussion.
Chapter twelve pushes teachers to be the "driving force" of technology innovation in education, and the only way to be this "force" is for teachers to be aware of the educational tools that surround them. Honestly, when asked to provide a website that allows users to stay updated with technology trends, the first website that comes to mind is Twitter. Since Twitter is utilized in this course, we all understand the communication aspects it gives its audience. However, if you follow the right users, Twitter can open a world full of technology updates and upcoming educational tools. A picture from my educational Twitter page can be seen below.
Monday, March 6, 2017
Blog Post #7
For students with all manners of disabilities, technology can offer an important avenue to increased independence, participation, and success in classroom activities - these tools are referred to as adaptive technologies. Some examples include recorded books, which allow students to hear a story rather than having to read it, and talking word processing programs, which read aloud whatever a student has previously written. Although I have not known anyone that has used adaptive technology, it is important to be comfortable with these tools and be accepting of all students, especially as a future educator.
To be honest, the worst part about the web page design assignment was picking an appropriate layout for the website. After the layout had been chosen, it was easier to create the pages and assign each topic to a specific page. Although a website is certainly aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate, I do not think that it would be appropriate to use as a communication tool between teachers and students - it would, however, be much more appropriate as a school website rather than a website of just one specific teacher. The link to my web page design assignment is: https://annaswen.wixsite.com/sweneducation.
From working with Diigo, I have realized the benefits of annotating websites and utilizing the resources found by my classmates. Although I am not the biggest fan of Diigo and think that having to log into the account is a bit of a hassle, the application is useful and allows certain resources to be saved for future use. It also allows for better communication between students, which is always needed in a classroom environment.
To be honest, the worst part about the web page design assignment was picking an appropriate layout for the website. After the layout had been chosen, it was easier to create the pages and assign each topic to a specific page. Although a website is certainly aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate, I do not think that it would be appropriate to use as a communication tool between teachers and students - it would, however, be much more appropriate as a school website rather than a website of just one specific teacher. The link to my web page design assignment is: https://annaswen.wixsite.com/sweneducation.
From working with Diigo, I have realized the benefits of annotating websites and utilizing the resources found by my classmates. Although I am not the biggest fan of Diigo and think that having to log into the account is a bit of a hassle, the application is useful and allows certain resources to be saved for future use. It also allows for better communication between students, which is always needed in a classroom environment.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Blog Post #6
When I read the prompt for the sixth blog post in this course, the first school that came to my mind was my elementary school - Resurrection Catholic School. I visited the website that I used to call my home and, although I could not find any specific "class" pages, I did find a curriculum page. This page highlights what specific topics those in the elementary school will be covering, along with those in the middle school. The link for the website is: http://www.rcslakeland.org/academics/curriculum/. And the screenshot of the curriculum page can be seen below!
If my plan to become a high school teacher actually follows through, then I would envision myself using technology in the classroom to better enhance my communication with students, parents, and other teachers. I would hope that I would correctly and effectively utilize productivity tools, thus allowing me to complete every day tasks in a more organized manner.
Last week, we visited the COE Tech Sandbox, where we were able to experience new technologies that may be available to us in the classroom. One of these tools, and one that I often used in both middle school and high school, was a SmartBoard. The SmartBoard is, essentially, an interactive white board. Since I have past experience with this specific tool, I feel like I would be prepared to use a SmartBoard in my own future classroom and utilize the unique experiences that only a SmartBoard can provide.
Last week, we visited the COE Tech Sandbox, where we were able to experience new technologies that may be available to us in the classroom. One of these tools, and one that I often used in both middle school and high school, was a SmartBoard. The SmartBoard is, essentially, an interactive white board. Since I have past experience with this specific tool, I feel like I would be prepared to use a SmartBoard in my own future classroom and utilize the unique experiences that only a SmartBoard can provide.
ILP 1: Participation
Last week we traveled to the COE Tech Sandbox as a class field trip and I learned a lot about different types of technology that I didn't know existed! To be honest, I didn't even know where the Tech Sandbox was located in the Stone Building and that students had access to the technology there. One of the technological tools that we got to look at can be seen below - it's a learning tool that attaches to iPads; the electronic reader can sense when the letters are placed near the device and students can even race each other to see who can spell the words the fastest.
Another cool piece of technology that we got to play with was Google glasses. Although they were hard to use at first, the prototype has a lot of potential for the future, even though the instructors at the Sandbox said that the glasses seemed to be "dead" technology. These glasses can be seen below, in a selfie I took with my friend and classmate Hannah!
Another cool piece of technology that we got to play with was Google glasses. Although they were hard to use at first, the prototype has a lot of potential for the future, even though the instructors at the Sandbox said that the glasses seemed to be "dead" technology. These glasses can be seen below, in a selfie I took with my friend and classmate Hannah!
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