Final Blog

                Before coming into this class I was still unsure of what other types of technology can be used for a classroom other than the norm.  I was never a part of the Twitter craze and I never blogged.  After seeing how they were incorporated into the curriculum I can now see how valuable they can be to classes.  If and when I get my teaching job I will see if I can use such sites to post assignments or to have classmates review each other’s work.  This whole class was very new to me including the websites such as edtechtalk and Google docs and the idea of creating assignments using a Webquest sounds like it would be fun for the students and get them engaged into what I would be teaching.  I have never even heard of them but after being assigned to use them I now see the many uses it could have for future classes.   Overall this class was the most beneficial to me since entering the Masters program at SNHU.  It showed me that there are other options out their besides just a computer or a Smart Board.  Overall a great class for me to refer back to when I get that teaching job!!  Thanks Dave 

Lit Review 2

John Cunliffe

Literature Review #2

June 7, 2011

Enabling Secondary Level Teachers to integrate Technology through ICT integrated Instructional System

 Author: Dr. Sutapa Bose

Publication Date: 5th September 2010

            This article was a good one for me to do a review on since I just had an interview to become a computer teacher.  This opportunity will be my first encounter as a classroom teacher with my own classroom.  The thought of becoming a “teacher trainee” is scaring me to death to be honest with you but having the use of technology in your classroom takes a lot of stress off of your shoulders.  Being able to have the use of technology for a classroom is a huge advantage.  You, as a teacher, have the world at your fingertips.  You can basically create any type of lesson, incorporate it with technology, and what you will have is an activity that is fun, educational, and original.  In the classes that I have seen being in a middle school the most popular classes besides gym, was any class where they were able to incorporate technology with their work.  In the conclusion part of this article I read one sentence that caught my eye and that I have a few of my own thoughts about it, “ICT (Information and Communication Technology) integration will also help teacher trainees in developing abilities to become lifelong learners as they would be initiated in practices like using ICT for solving problems with the help of solutions emerging from information that has been accessed, processed and shared using ICT.”  I feel that to become a new teacher you must have some type of computer knowledge.  Being a teacher in the 21^st century is something that will be exciting and challenging due to technology constantly changing and becoming better.  Communication technology is one type of media that is changing most rapidly.  Cell phones with a camera in them, an MP3 player that fits in your pocket that can hold thousands of songs, and now iPods that can start a car from anywhere in the world.  These communication devices are the future of teaching.  Once students understand that there is more to these devices than to text someone and see if so and so likes them or not than schools will be open to such technology in the future.  Being able to implement handhelds, besides what they have now, teaching the student will be more interactive from all students and much more beneficial to the student and the teacher.  Much like our class, EDU 533, using such sites as Twitter and Blogger I would have never imagined those to be used for educational purposes.  It works great because it gives you the opportunity to view your classmate’s thoughts and ideas of an assignment or an article.  Technology is changing all the time and to become a great teacher you as well need to change with the technology!

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=123&sid=83aa477b-fdc0-4b0d-a8dc-21f8062b5c8d%40sessionmgr113&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWNvb2tpZSxpcCx1cmwsY3BpZCZjdXN0aWQ9c2hhcGlybyZzaXRlPWVob3N0LWxpdmU%3d#db=eric&AN=ED511722

Ed Tech Talk #3

Ed Tech Weekly #195

In this episode they talked about the use of tablets.  One of the hosts said that when it first came out it sounded better in words rather than in the use of it.  Meaning that it sounded like a great piece of technology but not so much if you just bought one and kept it around the house instead of a desk top or lap top.  It is great for a businessman or someone who is constantly on the go all the time.  They could use it on planes and anywhere you went with it being an easy carry along item.  The biggest downfall they said was that it was just a useless piece of machine if there was no service in the area, besides the fact that you can play Scrabble.  I feel that using a tablet in schools could be useful.  Students could stay connected and roam the school or other places in the area around school and still do research for a class.  I remember when I was in high school we had to do a project for our science where we needed to do some research on pond animals and plants.  Since our school lined a wooded park called Mine Falls we were able to go out into the park and check the river and pond for certain animals and plants.  A tablet would have been a great resource to have back then.  We could have taken pictures, typed in data, and really had a lot more fun than we did.  So in that sense a tablet would be a great tool to have access in the schools.  It would be a tool that would engage student’s interests and could help improve their grades by them working with the research right away instead of waiting for them to get to some sort of computer or other multimedia source.  I personally have not used a Tablet so I am just going with what I have heard on Edtechtalk.   

Digital Nation

While watching this video I caught myself doing what a lot of the students from M.I.T and Stanford were doing and that was multitasking.  I looked over some homework, checked some email,  and started to type this blog all while listening to the video in the background.  An interesting fact that was mentioned in this video was that “kids are spending more than 50 hours a week with digital media.”  To me that seems to be a very low number.  I see kids on their phones everywhere I go or are playing with a PSP in a car or even out to eat with family.          

            Another thing mentioned was that they feel that some kids are addicted to video games.  Is that really so bad?  I don’t think so.  I like video games but I am not addicted.  Is it better to be addicted to video games or an illegal drug?  A fact that was just stated was that people have actually died after a 50 hour online gaming marathon due to little to no food or drink.  I do believe that kids are addicted because I know many students at my school that go home and pretty much lock themselves into their room to play video games all night and sometimes into the early morning.  I have asked a bunch of kids before what they plan on doing during the summer and I would usually get play video games!  I would ask what else and they would say nothing else really.  That right there is an addiction. 

            When some kids were sent to a camp to help them get over their addiction I found that pretty amusing.  They go to this camp for two weeks and their cell phones are taken away from them and are left with no technology at all.  That right there will make kids want what they can’t have even more.  One kid that they interviewed said that all he did was think about games and leaving the camp.  The idea of the camp was good to get kids their childhoods back.  I was amazed that one kid was so proud of himself after he set up a pop up tent…..that is pretty easy to do and I was just shocked that he was so happy that he was able to do something physical instead of something that dealt with digital media. 

            The swimming with whales experiment was also interesting.  They used virtual reality video equipment and an image of themselves and put them together to show the kids that they were swimming with whales.  Weeks later about 50% of the kids thought that they really swam with whales.  That’s where video games and addiction can be scary…where kids do not know the difference between real life and the fake life that is on the video game.  Games such as Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty are both rated M so that “adults” are the only ones who should play these types of games.  Most kids know that these games are not real and that life in the real world is so different than life in the video game.  In a video game you get extra lives and shooting guns and stealing cars is ok and have no consequences because you hid from the cops for a few minutes but in real life there is no extra life and if you do shoot guns and steal cars the cops will not stop looking until they find you.

            This video was actually very interesting.  I enjoyed watching it and I found out things that I never knew.  The whole section on video games was big for me because I work with kids in a school where video games is their life.  They look forward to playing these games and not having to deal with other people face to face.  That type of behavior is something that we need to work on with our future by somehow getting today’s kids more active and less consumed by video games.

Lit Review: Gen Y

Educational Horizons 2010
Gen Y: Who they are and how they learnBy: Alison Black

Teaching today’s students is a very daunting task to undertake as an educator. In order to engage the Gen Y student you need to incorporate technology into everything you do in your classroom. Students today are not the pen and paper type of learners. They are unable to sit and listen to a lecture in class and be able to take anything educational away from it. They need to be “entertained” using some sort of technology to gain their attention in class. Today’s students are very dependent on technology. They need to use it in all aspects of their lives using a cell phone, computer, or gaming system. Of the three I mentioned almost every student has at least two of them if not all of them. So since technology is such a huge factor in the Gen Y era than why is it so many teachers are not able to teach them? A majority of today’s teachers are know as “digital immigrants”, people who were not brought up using technology. They still tend to teach their classes today the same way they would 10 years ago. In order for you to be successful as an educator today you would need to insert technology into your lesson plans and into your classroom as a whole. To grab the students attention and to get them interested in what is being taught they need to learn using the tools that they are familiar with. Technology is today and is our future in teaching so in order for us to be able to educate our kids we need to educate the digital natives. They are the ones who educate our future and to be able to make progress towards our future, our past needs to be educated by Gen Y.http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ872487.pdf

Essential Question 1

                In order to provide all students with access to the digital world you need to be able to have many types of multimedia devices in your classroom.  For all students to be well educated they need to be properly trained with new and old technology.  Today’s students understand how to operate a lot of the technology that is in our world today.  They were born into this era where technology is at their finger tips and for them to learn how to work with it comes pretty naturally.  Not all students will be able to comprehend how to use certain devices due to their learning disabilities.  Students who do have disabilities such as blindness or being deaf there is technology out there for them to use to make their life a little bit easier.  Students that I work with are autistic or intellectually disabled (ID) have devices that talk for them or communicate for them when needed.  So all students do have the opportunity to learn using technology and right now in the 21^st century it would be pretty hard to go through a school day without using a computer or any type of technology.  Technology is everywhere and now we need to use it to our advantage.    

A virtual Classroom.....good or bad?

ETT21 #150:  Barbara Brueggemann, Head of School at the GWU Online High School

Few Notes:

Full online school aimed towards 9-12^th graders

16 students

Opportunity to create a dream high school

Almost no restrictions i.e. size of class and # of students who want to take that class

Launched first cohort in January

12^th grade will work with a professor at George Washington University

9^th and 10^th just started

Self paced

Virtual classroom

Meet weekly

                I enjoy the idea of a virtual classroom but I feel it is not as useful to the students or teacher as a class held in person in a classroom.  Some virtual classrooms do not have the use of Skype so how do you know if you really have that student present?  For all the teacher knows is that is a friend helping out or if it is the student how are you sure that they have their full attention and they are not playing video games online or doing house chores during class?  For me, not being able to interact with a live person, that being the teacher, and having that personal one-to-one greeting is harmful.  Right now in schools we preach to students to not be afraid of teachers and get to know them because they are there for you and that they care.   Not getting to know your teacher or student is not a “healthy” relationship.  I feel that meeting the teacher in person they can see that you are working hard, know if you are stuck on a certain issue in the chapter, or that there is something personal about you that they understand and then can grade based on that personal trait is a huge gain for the students and the teacher.  Being able to watch a student in your class and see how they respond to the work that is given to them can help both of you in the long run being teacher experience and the ability to understand and learn the material.  In the future a virtual classroom would be a great idea if all students had a visual of a teacher, their peers, and vice versa.  Right now with technology the virtual classroom is a good idea but with so many loop holes to cover and fill I feel that the original, old school type of learning in the classroom is the best route to travel….for now!