WOW

Now it is that time in the semester when all culminating projects and presentations are due. On Monday, we are going to present our final projects. I am looking forward to presenting mine, because the technology that I used is relatively new to me. I decided to do a webquest on using scrapblogs and glogster. A webquest is an online tool where students are given some sort of a problem to solve or are taken on an adventure. I decided to send students on a digital scavenger hunt by exploring scrapblogs and glogster. These are tools that students can use to create products. A scrapblog is similar to a scrapbook, but it is done online and contains both images and written text. Glogster is used to create posters or drawings. For my project, I focused on the topic of Emotional Literacy, since many people in our class are in the Literacy program. I selected a topic which many people in my class would have a background in. I chose the layout of a webquest, because this is something that I have ben wanting to tackle. I did one years ago, but was not given the proper tools on how to create one and incorporate it into a lesson. By using the tools that Dr. Smirnova provided, I gained a much better understanding of exactly what a webquest entails. It is a tool which is designed to take students on some sort of adventure. Although there were some technological glitches while the presentation was happening, I am still happy that I was able to conquer a technology that was new to me and share it with my classmates. This is the link to my project: http://zunal.com/process.php?w=92931 

So, the end of the semester has come. I feel as though it has been a whirlwind with a lot of new knowledge gained. I can't believe that it is over already. At the beginning of the semester, I felt a little bit overwhelmed, but it all came together. I was nervous as to how I would do with keeping a blog, because I've never done one before. I mean, I've never even kept a journal before and thought that it would be difficult. Instead, it's sort of therapeutic because it allows me to put my thoughts into writing. I feel as though I have learned so many new tools which I will definitely use with my future students. I have already begun to share my knowledge gained from this course with other teachers and friends. I greatly look forward to continuing to build my knowledge of classroom literacy and technology and I intend to add any new information to this blog.

Qwiki

Dr. Smirnova just presented us with a new website called Qwiki. This website is pretty cool. It is like an online powerpoint, but jazzed up quite a bit. Infact, although it uses slides, it reminds me more of a video type format to use. Dr. S. chose the topic Green Revolution. For myself, if I were to use this website, I think I would like to use it for Social Studies- maybe when teaching the American Revolution or even  topics such as the the journey along the Underground Railroad. I think this would be a GREAT tool to use for Social Studies. It gives students a visual and has the audio at the same time. I would then supplement this with a video about the particular subject. Maybe I would begin the lesson with a video and then use this website as a conclusion piece. I think it would work very well. I liked the website overall. The only thing that I wish was different would be if the teacher could record the audio. It seems as though the computerized woman's voice is all that is available. That is a minor adjustment that I think the website should consider.Other than that, I liked the website and would use it in a classroom.

Pogo Board

Our professor posted a video online which introduced us to a software called Pogo Board. I think that this would be a GREAT tool to use in the classroom with students. Many of today's classrooms are inclusion classrooms, meaning that there are students with specific special needs in the room (for at least part of the day). I think that this program would be good to use because it is both visual and auditory. There will be students in the classroom who definitely could benefit from using both styles to learn. In fact, many students do it everyday without even realizing it. The pogo board software would also be very useful in a special education classroom, especially one that has students who are on the Autistic Spectrum. I have worked with many students who are on the Spectrum. Most of them use a PECS system or dynavoxes to interact with the people around them. I think that this software would be a wonderful tool to use with the entire class. I think that it would give students more opportunities to speak and communicate with their peers; students whom may have otherwise been too shy or did not know how to communicate. I think that this will be a helpful tool to use. It is a software that helps students communicate with the people around them, and teaches Literacy at the same time. Students can use the words and phrases (found under each picture) to create their own sentences. From what I understand, the teacher also has control of what words and sentences are found in the software. I look forward to further exploring this software.
This is the link. Check out the video and let me know what you think about the software. http://www.pogoboards.com/VideoTutorials.aspx?name=helpvideos

Are we ready for the future classroom?

I just recently read an article titled 21 Things That Will Be Obsolete by 2020 by Tina Barseghian. It speaks about what she believes our classrooms will look like in the year 2020. There are a lot of things in this article that I agree with, but frankly there are many that I do not. I have chosen to share my views on what I think the top 5 pieces of this article are: 
1. Desks- Do I see us moving completely away from desks? No. I see us moving toward tables and desks that allow students to interact, but I do not foresee us completely doing away with desks. After all, where would we put our books or computers? Maybe by the year 2020 the tables and desks will have the computers built right into them. Who knows?
2. Computers- That is, large computers and computer screens. I see this disappearing by the year 2020. Even today there are not many left because much of what we use now is through smart phones or other smart technologies.
3. Schools- I do not see schools disappearing within the next ten years. However, I think the line between school and home is going to become fuzzy because students will do most of their work on the computer. I think that students will be expected to do a lot more independent learning from home and then come into school to teach the rest of the class.
4. Parent- Teacher Night- Unfortunately, this may be something that disappears within ten years. I say this because I have witnessed conference nights where parents are busy working and trying to make ends meet and do not make it to the conferences. I hope that in the next ten years, our economy improves but we still need to be prepared in case it doesn't. I also say this because we are expecting that by 2020 most schools will have advanced computer technology. Well, guess what? The parents of our students are going to be the taxpayers paying for these advances so that their children can receive a good education. Although I feel as though parent- teacher night may disappear, I think that it may become easier to communicate with parents. When we begin teaching, our students' parents will be from this generation. We grew up in a society that was technologically literate and know how to use many of the communication tools that the internet offers.
5. Paper- Yes, I do believe that paper will significantly decrease by 2020. Students will be used to learning on computers. However, I do not wish to completely eliminate the use pf paper. I want my students, for instance, to know how to write and not just know how to type. I think that writing is a fundamental part of learning. You remember what you write down. I think that it is important to find a balance between using pen and paper and using the computer to teach and to learn.


What do you think?

Using Tablets to Engage Students

This is something that I have been wondering and felt the urge to write a blog about. There is so much hyper right now surrounding the new ipads that Apple has introduced to the world. Incase you don't know, the ipad is a flat, fairly large tablet with a touch screen that allows access to the internet as well as other regular xomputer functions. So...I have been wondering for quite some time: How affective are the ipads? Are the ipads good to use in schools with students? Being that I am curious, I decided to type this question into my web browser. I cam across a video posted by ABC news that shows how using ipad tablets can help students with special needs. It seems to me that the ipad can be used as an updated/ upgraded PECS system, and possibly even serve as a communication device in the future- kind of like today's dynavoxes.


I do foresee many schools moving toward this in the future, because right now we are using smart boards. Smart boards are compatible with the ipad. However, economic growth will need to significantly increase before we see most of the school districts across the country being able to afford this new technology. It's an interesting concept and videos such as this one show me that the technology that we use with students will be affective. It just depends on how much access to and practice with the technology we have.

Parent Newsletter

So Here I am. I'm sitting at the computer, looking at all of the assignments that we have done this semester and all the new tools that I have learned about. With the exception of our final projects, the semester is almost done. I think that I have learned a great deal this semester and enhoyed sharing all that I have learned with professionals in the education world. Most o them have found these technologies to be interesting and innovative. But, I am still trying to figure out how I would write a letter home to parents, explaining all of these wonderful, new technologies. Writing a parent letter is something that I find to be somewhat difficult. Although I have already done so in the past, it is still tricky for me because I need to know the level of parents' understanding of what I am telling them. It is sometimes hard for me to use simpler language, but still get my point across and sound professional. Does anyone else feel the same way? I like that our challenge as a group this week is to write a parent letter, because I could use some extra practice. It gives us the chance to put our minds and thoughts together to colllaborate on what to write. When our group has finished the letter, I will post the link.

Mind Map

Mind Maps are very useful tools when it comes to students' learning. Mind maps are graphic organizersGraphic organizes help students to map out a specific theme or idea. In this case, I chose to do a mind map about The Water Cycle. I had trouble with some of the websites provided, so I tried the site Mindmeister. I liked some featured of this website but not other I liked that the text was easy to type in and that you could move the text boxes to anywhere on the page. However, I wanted to import pictures and make the mind map more visually appealing. I was only able to find two pictures! I think that for a topic such as the water cycle, the more pictures that you have, the easier it is for students to remember the process. I think that the website that I used was okay, but not great. There are much better websites out there to use for creating graphic organizers. Now I just need to find them......

My mind map: http://www.mindmeister.com/maps/show/91706232